Locating the Axis

Understanding the Cycle of Political Dehumanization

For quite a while now, it seems that our two political parties have been participating in an argument of which side is “more American.” Each party has defined what they believe it means to be American and then positioned all other views as the root of all evil. Remember Groundhog Day? How Bill Murray continued to live out the same day over and over trying to get it right? Honestly, I could only watch it through the first two or three repeats of the day before I got bored. When Supernatural did their version of Groundhog Day I ate that up. That was some great TV. But back to the groundhog day idea. This is where we are in politics. They are one-trick ponies trying to convince us they are cheetahs with stripes. The truth is our political parties saw how citizens rallied during WWII. They remember how simple it was and how easy it was for our nation to position ourselves as the savior of the world. I don’t know if that was the actual sentiment of the citizens back in the mid 1940s through the 50s, mainly because it was before I was born. However, I do know that that is how our nation and collective consciousness remembers it. And that holds way more weight than any truths or facts. And so each political party keeps attempting to position themselves as the defenders of good while the opposing side (and all other differing opinions) must be inherently evil.

We must, as a community, recognize how damaging this ideology is. The simplicity and ego fortification of this ideology is dangerous because it is easy. But more importantly, it justifies all manner of actions. This is the epitome of the ends justify the means. This is the way rape, slavery, and genocide are accepted – because if all differing opinions are evil, then the people who think such things must be evil and if they are evil then they are not human and not worthy of humanity, justice, mercy or grace. When we allow ourselves to fall into this line of thinking, we unknowingly accept and believe that what we do to others, the way that we treat others, is in fact how we believe we should be treated. This manifests in a person’s, a community’s, and a nation’s inherent self-loathing which it turns upon the rest of the world. This is the path that our political parties walk upon, and the path that they want us to join them on.

Some people may say this sounds extreme. The only reason some people are thinking this is because they don’t see around the bend in the road yet. But let’s think back to when 9/11 happened. Remember the language that our then-President George W. Bush used to describe Iraq? Axis of Evil. Although all reports pointed to Afghanistan and Pakistan as the countries most likely to harbor Al Qaeda, then-President George W. Bush was adamant that we needed to invade Iraq. He claimed they were hiding members of the Al Qaeda along with chemical and nuclear weapons. We invaded and decimated a country all to find out that nothing was there. Nothing but oil that our oil companies were greedily eager to get their hands on. To this day, politicians continue to use the propaganda from WWII, continue to justify the actions that do not support US citizen desires or needs through the promise of America being able to believe in itself again. But they are feeding us lies and we grow more and more ashamed.