SECRETS AND LIES

Privacy has become a huge issue in this day of domestic spying, the politicization of the FBI and government harassment of individuals and organizations opposed the fascist agenda of the Puppetmasters who regard it as their God-given right to rule over the masses in the United States and the world. Julian Assange would be crucified for the simple act of telling Americans what their government is doing in their name, if we let them have that power.

As a psychiatrist, I am very aware of the power of secrets and the lies by which they are hidden. Most families have secrets that their members take great pains to conceal, in the process destroying the integrity of the family unit, the members of whom it is comprised and the larger society of which it and they are a part. 

The same is true for governments that conceal the truth of the dirty secrets of their operations in their own nation and in the nations they have effectively colonized and those they intend to colonize. When the People accept that secrets are appropriate in a nominally democratic society, they surrender their liberty for a false sense of security. A society that depends on the enslavement of even one person cannot said to be free or democratic. Such a society has given up its national soul and no longer has the integrity to call itself a democracy.

In families, secrets are kept about things that are rightly or wrongly considered shameful, like incest, alcoholism, a gay child or a member with mental illness. Sometimes the secret is a dark one, like the fact that Mommy or Daddy pays for the nice house they live in and expensive vacations by working for the CIA, FBI or other government agencies that are stripping ordinary citizens of their rights for the benefit of an economic elite that has created a feudal society in the United States. What is worse, those who are complicit in the deliberate creation of the corporate states of America do it by creating a feudal mentality where soul-destroying inequality is seen as the natural result of capitalism and therefore a sacred thing.

When a nation tolerates the subjugation of the Peoples of other nations, they are ripe for being made slaves of the same international corporate terrorists who are Hell-bent on creating a fascist New World Order. There would be nowhere to run if we let these Puppetmasters of the United States government were to succeed. Like the Catholic bishop in Germany who regretted not standing up for gays, Jews, Gypsies and Communists when Germany turned fascist in the 1930s, there will be no one to help us when they come for us if we do not unite now to fight the common peril of fascism in the US and the world at large.

This is no time for Americans to try to hide themselves from their government or each other. Each of us must drop the masks that conceal our true natures if we want others to trust us. There was a time no so long ago when the average American was unafraid to respectfully state their honest opinion on political matters. This was how the American Revolution started, by town hall meetings, sharing of pamphlets, open debate in newspapers and by talking neighbor to neighbor. 

We must not be afraid to be judged for our opinions nor can we continue to condemn the opinions of others, however ignorant or self-serving they appear. We all come to the debate with different degrees of awareness of our history and the degree to which we have failed to live up to the principles on which our nation was founded. In our anger we must not shout down speakers with whom we disagree. Stifling debate only confirms the unchallenged ideas of the ignorant and makes them feel separate from those who would be their friends and allies in this time of crisis, if both came to the table without hidden agendas, unspoken prejudice and fundamental distrust of each other.

Each of us must become an integral part of our nation and the search for the solutions to the critical problems we all face that our current Congress will not.  The worst thing that we can do at this point in history is to reinforce the fears of fellow Americans that drives them to isolate themselves from society at large. In isolation, it is easy to forget that our collective fates depend on the success or failure of each of us. As economic conditions get worse, we must use the opportunity to make sure that our suffering is not in vain by reaching out to each other to find the solutions that all are looking for.

When we are anonymous, we lose our voice and our collective power to determine our individual and national destiny. The majority of people in the United States do want everyone to have access to affordable health care, for instance. All but the most partisan Democratic “realists” say that the “Affordable” Health Care Act does not provide this. 

What they cannot agree on without having an honest national dialogue is what should replace it. Instead of talking to people who disagree, too many of us are willing to accept the authoritarian pronouncements of leaders of both corporate parties who either knew that that the Act was designed to bail out a failing medical insurance industry or who bought into the conventional wisdom that “It is the best we can do.”

When Americans expect more of their leaders and themselves than half-hearted attempts at incremental “reforms” that do not address our fundamental  problems, we end up with the best government that money can buy. When our so-called leaders accept as a given that they cannot challenge the Puppetmasters who pay for their obscenely expensive campaigns, that government inevitably becomes fascist because it is a government of, by and for corporations. 

Leaders in a true democracy derive all of their just right to govern only through the consent of the People who created that government. If we cannot agree on what we want, then we cannot consent to do what must be done to save democracy in America, restore economic justice the United States and spread these blessings of freedom, justice and peace throughout the world.

It is not too late to change the course of human history, as events in the Muslim world have demonstrated. There is no power that can withstand the will of a People united in the firm determination to resist fascism. We do not have to have another world war to free us all from the prison that we have let the international corporate terrorists build around us at our own expense. 

This struggle is already global. It is up to Americans to remember that we came together twice to fight against the imposition of fascist Empire, in 1775 and in 1941 and realize that it is time to step to the plate again. The worldwide battle against fascism cannot be won by force of arms, which only breeds more violence and repression.  A modern Revolution can only be won and victory made permanent by the power of our innate love for each other that is the commonality that makes us human, no matter how often we forget the principle. 

We must find it in ourselves  as individuals and as nations to forget our differences now and fight together for liberty and justice in the United States and in all the world. Finger-pointing plays into the hands of the fascists who have divided us to the point that they now believe that they can conquer us all. If we want, we can free ourselves from the illusion that we are separate and tear down the walls between us that have until now kept us from achieving the ancient dream of ending war forever.

We will prove them wrong when we stop lying to ourselves to cover our shame and fear for the sins of omission and commission of which all of us are guilty. When we lie to ourselves to avoid painful emotions, we have destroyed our personal integrity.  Each of us is the sum of our individual and collective histories. We cannot change the past so must live with what is and work together to create a better world for our children, because we can change the future.

Our integrity is the one thing that we must be unwilling to surrender. for the sake of convenience or comfort. We cannot assume but must earn  the trust of those who have fundamental disagreements with us. That is the only way that we can work together to stop the creation of a fascist New World Order and replace it with a democratic world based on the principles of equality, justice, mercy, and love for all Mankind. This is the Tectonic Paradigm Shift in the human collective consciousness that must occur to save human civilization from the consequences of allowing the selfish to rule us.