The Bitter Truth of Political Betrayal
This article does not attempt to provide a detailed analysis of our political diversity but rather a raw description of the rotten feeling we get when we find out that our life-long progressive idea friends are now Trump supporters.
At the end of the day, we only get a glimpse of who our friends are, their personalities, and their motivations. We mostly go from pleasurable events to sitting in the living room and discussing amenities and things that bring us pleasure because that is what makes us want to have friends. But life has other plans for us.
Life has no obligation to bring us pleasure or to keep us safe, and accidents will happen. Life is filled with rough patches, and we never know what curve of the road they will appear; we only know they will show up more often than we believe they will.
However, rough patches have one fine quality: They define and expose who we are because when confronted with danger, it is nearly impossible to hide where we truly stand. What's in our core, how brave we are, and our deep sense of integrity come to the surface, and we become naked for all to see. We are in such a moment in our world's political sphere and begin to know who our friends are.
I give the evil reign of our newly elected president some credit for exposing his sympathizers. I also give him credit for exposing my lifelong friends and revealing their personality flaws. We are facing clear and present danger in the world right now as the United States is fanning the winds of fascism around the planet.
Danger and self-preservation are responsible for creating the two groups of people we are beginning to see today: one group seems to believe in the collective and the power we share; everyone should be safe, or no one is safe; we sacrifice so our tribe is secure. The other group is narcissistic, and the only goal is to save themselves. Me and my family first. The larger collective is a liability, and I'll use it for personal benefit.
To me, the saddest part about the narcissistic group is that they will always utilize the stability and comfort of the collective when it favors them. But in times of danger and to save themselves, they will not only abandon the group but also put everyone in danger. But there is a big component of fear. And this is not new.
In our world political scene we see this great division everywhere. Racism, fear of immigrants, white supremacy, and hatred of gays all point in one direction - fear and the protection of the self. When danger strikes, as we see today with the lack of resources, climate change, poverty, and wealth disparity. Our reptilian brain emerges, and fear makes us band together in smaller tribes that increasingly become smaller.
In Nazi Germany, there were the Hitler sympathizers. Many of them supported Hitler not because they agreed with the insane, hateful agenda but becasue they were so afraid of what could happen to them if they opposed the agenda. They became sympathizers and acted to protect the regime. This attitude has been studied and is called Stockholm Syndrome. When the captive protects its captor.
And there is a sad realization that our community of friends has been compromised. And we find ourselves to be divided.
But now is the time to report on our anguish of finding the inevitable that some of our best friends have betrayed us. It is like finding out your friend has cancer; in that one moment, it becomes clear that something has died. It becomes clear that you can no longer relate to someone you have loved for many years.
There used to be a time when you could chuck for "the benefit of the doubt" as someone who was uninformed, and you waited to see how things would play out. This time is over. If today you are in any way supporting the cruel monstruosities in display pertaining to our government. If you are even a far sympathizer with the corruption and the cruelty of what the United States government is conducting, you will get this sinking feeling that you have lost a friend.
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