Muslim Ban: Shock Event?

A family member passed this on through a Facebook 'Copy & Share' message from Heather Richardson, professor of History at Boston College. I felt like sharing it with you, because it does ring true for many reason. The main thing to remember is not to be frozen in our shock, anger, fear, or confusion. Now is the time for all of us to come together and find commonality. We must not let the current Trump regime divide us.

Heather Richardson writes; "I don't like to talk about politics on Facebook-- political history is my job, after all, and you are my friends-- but there is an important non-partisan point to make today. What [Steve] Bannon is doing, most dramatically with last night's ban on immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries-- is creating what is known as a "shock event."

Such an event is unexpected and confusing and throws a society into chaos. People scramble to react to the event, usually along some fault line that those responsible for the event can widen by claiming that they alone know how to restore order.

When opponents speak out, the authors of the shock event call them enemies. As society reels and tempers run high, those responsible for the shock event perform a sleight of hand to achieve their real goal, a goal they know to be hugely unpopular, but from which everyone has been distracted as they fight over the initial event. There is no longer concerted opposition to the real goal; opposition divides along the partisan lines established by the shock event.

Last night's Executive Order has all the hallmarks of a shock event. It was not reviewed by any governmental agencies or lawyers before it was released, and counter-terrorism experts insist they did not ask for it. People charged with enforcing it got no instructions about how to do so. Courts immediately have declared parts of it unconstitutional, but border police in some airports are refusing to stop enforcing it. Predictably, chaos has followed and tempers are hot.

My point today is this: unless you are the person setting it up, it is in no one's interest to play the shock event game. It is designed explicitly to divide people who might otherwise come together so they cannot stand against something its authors think they won't like.

I don't know what Bannon is up to-- although I have some guesses-- but because I know Bannon's ideas well, I am positive that there is not a single person whom I consider a friend on either side of the aisle-- and my friends range pretty widely-- who will benefit from whatever it is.

If the shock event strategy works, though, many of you will blame each other, rather than Bannon, for the fallout. And the country will have been tricked into accepting their real goal. But because shock events destabilize a society, they can also be used positively. We do not have to respond along old fault lines. We could just as easily reorganize into a different pattern that threatens the people who sparked the event.

A successful shock event depends on speed and chaos because it requires knee-jerk reactions so that people divide along established lines. This, for example, is how Confederate leaders railroaded the initial southern states out of the Union.

If people realize they are being played, though, they can reach across old lines and reorganize to challenge the leaders who are pulling the strings. This was Lincoln's strategy when he joined together Whigs, Democrats, Free-Soilers, anti-Nebraska voters, and nativists into the new Republican Party to stand against the Slave Power.

Five years before, such a coalition would have been unimaginable. Members of those groups agreed on very little other than that they wanted all Americans to have equal economic opportunity. Once they began to work together to promote a fair economic system, though, they found much common ground. They ended up rededicating the nation to a "government of the people, by the people, and for the people."

Confederate leaders and Lincoln both knew about the political potential of a shock event. As we are in the midst of one, it seems worth noting that Lincoln seemed to have the better idea about how to use it."

My Thoughts: Let's not take our eye off the ball. The bigger picture looms large, the current government is ready to ram through the Dakota Access Pipelines against all legal barriers. This is serious and will affect each and every human on this planet. We cannot forget about Standing Rock, North Dakota or any of the other pipeline projects currently underway.

We must not be distracted by the Supreme Court game that Trump is playing, he has chosen his candidate, that will proceed as expected not matter how much outrage or revenge the Democrats feign. It is not the most pressing issue we face.

The cabinet laments that Donald Trump continues to bitch and moan about on his Twitter feed are of his own making. He chose flawed candidates, and they did not submit correct or complete paperwork prior to his being sworn into office.  Many of them have been caught in egregious lies, but they will almost all be confirmed at some point. It is a matter of numbers, the so-called Democrats do not have those numbers anymore, through their own faults and failings, and now they must pay the piper as will we all.

The mainstream media is spinning out over terminology, how to suck and blow at the same time, and how to remain relevant in the Trump era. Indulging in more than a few minutes of Corporate News daily is highly toxic and fruitless in the end, you will come away more confused and less informed. Look for alternate sources that are clear about facts, numbers, and contacts. Remember to determine bias of any news media, and don't rely on any one source for all your information.

Trump is continuing drone strikes and bombings of private citizens, American Citizens, in Yemen and it is not being covered accurately or widely. The players might have changed in Washington, but the game is very much the same as it was under Barack Obama, the allied countries, those who claim a 'special relationship' continue to escalate regime change and oil wars across the middle east. There is so much more going on that we need to be vigilant about. 

Worse is yet to come, almost certainly, and that is why we must all do out level best to remain engaged, aware, and active. We know Trump despises crowds of protest, we must take them to his doorstep, bigger and louder and more impossible to ignore, and we must unite together in common purpose to ensure that the American people, and people across the free world, do likewise.