In an era of government-sponsored corporatism and political correctness, it’s all about appearances. It’s all about proving a point. This is why so many of us are angry. It’s deeper than politics and government. It has to do with human nature. It’s our nature, as human beings (i.e., conceptual animals) to need and want to KNOW. We want facts, we want truth. We want to grasp, understand and master objective reality. It’s how we survive and how we thrive.
Corporatism and political correctness imply the opposite. Those attitudes imply, “You’ve got to LOOK a certain way. What’s real matters to a point — but not when optics or appearances are at stake.” Optics and appearances come first, in our era. That’s really sad, and really wrong. Millions of us sense it and, quite properly, recoil against it.
This is why Donald Trump got elected. Whatever else may be true about him, he is NOT an optics guy. He calls things as he sees them. He is raw and real — shockingly so, to many. He proceeds on the premise that there is an objective truth, and that it’s MORE important than what’s “correct” according to political correctness, or one’s peers, or the corporate-government-Establishment idea.
Ironically, Trump’s from the established corporate business world, but he could not be less corporate. He is NOT the CEO of Starbucks, NBC, Netflix, Apple or any of those other corporations. He is NOTHING like them, even though he understands that world amazingly well. He stands more for “middle America” than the elite Establishment. Nobody could have predicted such a thing.
Such a paradox could never have happened without something like political correctness to rebel against. Millions of us have simply HAD it. It’s deeper than politics. Although the current coronavirus has been politicized, just like everything is politicized by our Marxist-lite p.c. society, it’s not primarily a political issue. It’s a disgust with the rush to be SEEN as “caring” about coronavirus rather than trying to figure out WHAT ACTUALLY MAKES SENSE TO DO.
Optics first. Reality second. That’s not how human beings work, but it’s how our society now works.
President Trump is proceeding on the opposite premise. He is after truth and reality. He is attempting to engage the private sector and people’s need for self-interest and self-preservation to get through this, while not disregarding objective perspective. But the people rushing to make sure they are SEEN as cancelling literally all of the fun, productive enterprises — the entire American economy — right before our eyes, all for the sake of “not being the one seen as not caring” … THIS is what so many of us almost instinctively rebel against.
Coronavirus is not an insignificant concern. But it may actually pass quicker than we think. That will be to the grave disappointment of our p.c. rulers. But rest assured: If that happens, they will move on to the next crisis, making sure we all know that they “care”.
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