Summer of Insanity

"GET A ROPE!"

Over the course of this "Summer of Insanity," as I am now calling it thanks to this whole health care debacle, I've remained a relatively quiet observer. I've been listening to the arguments being made, watching the screaming mobs of protesters, and reading the many articles and blogs dedicated to the topic. While it's been difficult, I have tried in earnest to suppress my emotional gut reaction to all the madness (which falls somewhere between screaming in frustration and curling up in the corner in fetal position).

Well, I'm done being quiet and have a thing or two to say on the subject.

I've been trying to wrap my head around this seething hatred and vitriol that have been flowing through this debate. This is an understandably emotional topic, I won't discount that at all - but I have been absolutely mortified (and yet, sadly, not really surprised in the least) by this screaming, frothing-at-the-mouth fury we see in the debate. Seemingly normal, upstanding citizens are behaving like knuckle-dragging barbarians who are looking to knock some heads together and raise some serious hell.

And it's not that I have a problem with people rising up in protest - it's the glaring lack of logic and reasoning behind primarily one side of the argument that I find so mind-boggling. Even more than that, it's the scores of people who TOTALLY BUY INTO the many outlandish claims being made - without question, without pause. A flippant remark with no factual backing whatsoever can send the masses into a crazed frenzy. It's as if there's some idiot screaming that the ship is sinking, and people immediately start jumping overboard rather than taking a moment to realize the ship hasn't even set sail yet.

There was once a public relations guru named Edward Bernays, whose name came up frequently during my postgraduate studies in Public Communications and Public Relations. Edward Bernays was considered the "Father of Spin" and was a pinnacle figure in, among other things, rallying support from the American public for what was initially a very unpopular war (WWI). Bernays had an interesting (and disturbing) theory about how to gain control over the masses from a psychological standpoint (it's worth noting that he happened to also be the nephew of Sigmund Freud). He believed that a so-called "bewildered herd" was more easily managed (manipulated) in a scenario in which popular support was of particular importance or necessity.

Bernays's "herd instinct" theory was based on the assumption that the American citizen was irrational and incapable of intellectual reasoning (I'm beginning to think he wasn't so off base with this). He claimed that by invoking an emotional response from the herd (more specifically: fear), one could readily manufacture support for an idea. In other words, a frightened citizen made for a controlled citizen.



If there is one fundamental emotion that lies nestled at the heart of the current health care debate (beneath the layers of anger and hatred and venom), it's FEAR. As a human race, and I believe as Americans in particular, we are prone to be afraid of what we don't understand. And we all know that ignorance and fear tend to go hand in hand. Rather than approaching an issue intellectually and attempting to grasp another perspective, our core caveman instinct is to react emotionally and reject this foreign idea purely on the grounds of it being unfamiliar (and therefore, frightening) to us.

Many of those who are spewing such gross misinformation on this issue, including outright lies and disrespect towards the President and anyone in support of the reforming a fundamentally broken health care system, are actually terrified individuals. Sure, some of them truly are bat-shit crazy, but most of them are just plain scared. And, of course, there is also another sub-category of individuals possessing significant rank and profile who have their own self-serving agendas and have chosen to exploit the aforementioned fear to its fullest extent. I guarantee these same individuals are perfectly aware of the concept of "herd instinct" and what is capable of being accomplished by taking advantage of it.



For the record, I am wholly in support of questioning your government and keeping it in check. I support forming an individual opinion and vocalizing it. I support constructive discussion, in which the pros and cons are broken down and critically analyzed. I support thoughtful, rational input on an issue with the intent of ultimately working out a solution.

Over the course of this most recent debate, I can honestly say that, for the most part, none of what I just described even remotely resembles what I've actually witnessed. I look at my fellow Americans in these town halls and on the streets all across the country, and I see angry, torch-wielding mobs who will burn you at the stake and ask questions later. I see a stampede of bison following each other over a cliff to their demise because one of them got spooked. I see those people jumping overboard from that docked ship.

I also see a crazed mob of lunatics screaming for the government to keep its "government hands" off their Medicare and equating President Obama to Hitler (HITLER!). I have to defer to Barney Frank on this one, and ask: On what planet do these people spend most of their time?

And then, driving this whole madness with claims that the sky is falling, I see certain major media outlets and a very loud and influential group of extreme right-wing wackjobs.

Say what you will about President Obama, but regardless of whether or not I support everything he's done, I will sooner stand by him for acting as a voice of reason and exhibiting grace under intense pressure - while the Joe Wilsons of the country are reacting instead of acting, speaking without thinking, and seeking to immediately thwart every attempt at a solution rather than presenting a viable alternative.

Scary or not, we're to the point where drastic measures have to be taken and it seems we actually have a man in charge who is ready to initiate them, for better or worse. In the meantime, I'm just going to try to stay out of the path of the bewildered herd headed straight for that ledge.