According to most respected scientists, and philosophers throughout history, we all have an animal nature in one form or another. It is common knowledge that we are creatures of our world. Yet, because of our cognitive superiority (or spiritual superiority, as some would say) to the rest of the beasts of the world, we have developed a set of societal norms that allow us to function towards a higher calling. In a sense, what is good for most is good for one. Those societal norms change through time and the balance of "most" and "one" is in a constant state of flux.
Of course, there have been many examples or experiments by various cultures along the way. Cultures and countries come and go based on many factors. Some of those factors may be natural disasters or climate change, economic ruin, systemic superiority, pure evil, and the triumph of good over evil, to name a few. Human history, in terms of culture, rarely, if ever, stays stagnant. It is always changing. It either progresses or regresses, the definition of those two terms being subjective, and relative to who decides what is and is not progress.
The natural, animalistic side of human beings serves us well on a daily basis. We flinch for a reason, our stomachs growl for a reason, we get angry for a reason, and we love our children for a reason. The reasons are often debated, but survival is the generally accepted reason. As a result of this natural tendency to survive, we feel fear. Many times that fear can overwhelm us. And that brings us to our current situation. The anger and the hatred coming from Republican rallies, as seen here, here, and here, and as I walk door to door in my canvassing efforts for Obama, is very real. I am not making excuses for their regressive behavior, but their fear is genuine.
Each and every one of us has a way that we look at the world. We hear it expressed often as our "world-view." And for one reason or another, certain things scare us and threaten us. They threaten our physical safety as well as our world-view. You would think the latter was insignificant, but when a person's brain has been conditioned to believe a certain way, either through nature or nurture, many times they will shift in to a survival mode sparked by their fear. What results, in many cases, is anger and hatred.
I, as do many readers of this Huffington Post, have family members, friends, and neighbors who have outright told me that they will not vote for Barack Obama because he is black. they do not arrive at that position lightly. They genuinely are afraid of what it means to have a black man as their leader. Many of them, who feel superior to the black race for one misguided reason or another, are having their very purpose and role in life called in to question. A man with the name of Barack Obama, with a skin color such as his, is a threat to their very existence, or so they believe.
While canvassing for Obama, I knocked on a man's door who I have known for years. He was in utter shock that I would be out working for an "Arab." Yes. He said, "Arab." From what I gather, he heard that from Rush Limbaugh, and that is what makes this all the worse. In a grab for power, there are leaders and celebrities in this country, who know better, who allow this behavior to take place, and some gleefully stoke the fire. I don't know if Rush Limbaugh really knows any better, but I can tell you with relative confidence that John McCain does, and that is despicable. John McCain is a better man; at least I used to believe so, than to let such baseless accusations of Obama's links to terrorists, and the conclusions drawn from them, go unanswered.
World-renowned psychologist, Philip Zimbardo, mentions in one of his latest books, The Lucifer Effect, that there are many types of evil. He says that there is natural evil; there is systemic evil; there is the "doing" of evil; and there is the evil of doing nothing. I believe the latter to maybe be the worse evil of all, the evil of inaction. While those who do not know any better hunker down in to their animalistic nature of survival when no real threat is apparent or at the very least, exaggerated, those who do know better need to stand up and say so. Power at the expense of good and righteousness is vile and despicable and contrary to everything this country stands for.
Rupert Murdoch, Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, and company have done more to bring America down and hold this country back than any one person on Wall Street can ever dream of doing, and John McCain's deference to it is appalling. Senator McCain's base is erupting into nasty pot of hatred which, if we are not careful, could be very dangerous, not to mention, criminal. A real culture war is not one that we want to fight. The people at the Republican rallies are totally out of their minds and have become slaves to their fears.
It is time for John McCain to call it to a halt before it gets out of hand. It is time to invoke the spirit of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who stood up at a podium in 1941 and let the American people know that the world has four basic freedoms. Those freedoms are the freedom of speech, the freedom of religion, the freedom of want, and freedom from fear. The regressives of the Republican Party have not only refused to free us from fear, they have purposely invoked it.
I know that Barack Obama carries the spirit of FDR, but it is time for John McCain to step up to the plate and be the leader that he portends to be. It is time to remind John McCain of what he was fighting for when his jet crashed in Vietnam, so he can then remind his followers of what makes America, America. Or, he can continue on his current path as a guilty participant in the greatest evil of all, the evil of inaction.