message rejected

 

So, it's been a minute since I've written.  The main reason for this is that it's just too difficult to keep up with the pace of the news.  But one thing has really impressed me lately, and that is the absolutely massive depth of the cognitive dissonance that we are facing now.

There's just no end to it.  In ever increasing numbers, people are leaving the draconian authoritative state's mindset of constant divisiveness, and as they do the state doubles and triple downs on it's rhetoric.  In the last most obvious effort - this last weekend's "No King Day" - that saw the celebration of the US Army's 250th birthday attended by a crowd of screaming dozens - has left no mark on who the message was intended for.

I don't mean "seemingly" no mark.  I mean it had absolutely no effect at all.  None.  Zip.  Zippo.  Instead, Caesar Trump continues his stupidity at an even faster pace. With no regard to what just happened this last weekend, he decides that he won't call the governor of the state where one lawmaker was assassinated in their home and another was wounded because he didn't want to "waste his time" and then moves in to start taking partial credit for taking on Iran with Israel.  With no mention of Kristi Noem's statement that she and the American military deployed to Los Angeles to overthrow the lawfully elected establ;ished government of California because they are "socialist and burden-some" - a statement that saw another lawfully elected sitting US Senator thrown to the ground and arrested because he started to ask a question-and California's judiciary quietly returning the members of the California National Guard back to Governor Newsome's control - the man and his cronies are nothing short of unflappable.

Imagine that a wall has popped up, seemingly out of nowhere, and it now blocks your way to go much of anywhere.  You can't go around, and you can't go over it.  You get mad and you yell at the wall.  It's right there in front of you, but no matter how much you yell and scream, the wall doesn't move. You have all the right things on your side- the reasons why it shouldn't be there; the way it could possibly be moved- but the wall just stands there and stares back at you, mockingly- with a completely blank look on its "face" like it can't understand.  Oh, you've been clear as day with your rationale and you have all the reasonable reasons for it to move, maybe even a handful of court orders for it to move, but no matter what you do, nothing happens.  Some of your friends yell at it, too and start protests about it - and it just stands there and stares back at you, unwavering.

I don't mean to suggest that you've failed or that you're not right in your reasons for having this wall moved.  But I think you'll agree that the things that you are doing aren't gonna work without something else.  What you're going to need is some a way to change the configuration of this wall.  There's a bunch of ways that this can be done, but just words, protests and court papers aren't going to have an effect on the configuration of this wall. 

What's really needed is first to accept that the message you've been sending is being rejected.  The wall has no ears and no brain and cannot do anything about its configuration.  It is what it is, and the more you do nothing but yell at it, it will just sit there and mock you.  Accept that the message is rejected.  By all means, keep up the messages but not to affect the wall.  The messages affect others who are also stymied by this same wall.  The messages give us all comfort and a sense of belonging.  It helps us all feel a little less crazy and lessens our anxieties.  The messages are for us, not for the wall.

This is a pretty big mind shift, and I think it's much harder to do than you might realize.  Remember that there are people we commune with daily that think the wall is a good thing, and don't necessarily see it as quite the impasse you do.  What's more, those of us that see the impasse know full well that when the tables turn just a little (and they do) that these people are going to see the totality of the impasse just as you do, and we need to welcome those people into the fray with us.  

Understanding that the messages are not for the wall but are for each other is fundamental to changing the wall's configuration.  The change comes in the form of all of us beginning to see how weak and irrelevant the wall is.  This causes the wall to weaken fundamentally.  We can undermine that tensile strength of a structure by using a constantly strengthening of vibrations at the foot of the wall.  

Think of Joshua and the Israelites in Joshua 6:1- God commanded them to march but not to cry out or play the trumpets.  They marched for 7 days, and during that time, more and more people joined in the marching, giving each other strength and sending a constantly strengthening vibration to the base of that wall.  

But to bring down the wall, we'll need to sharply influence its strength.  According to the Mechanics of Materials, when a force is applied to a small area (a point or narrow edge), the stress (force per unit) becomes very large very quickly.  High stress in a localized area can exceed the material’s compressive or shear strength, initiating cracks or fractures.  This is why applying pressure to a small chisel point can break stone, but using your hand won’t.

In Joshua 6:20, it says that on the seventh day the trumpets sounded and the people shouted with one voice and the wall came down.  The Israelites took the city and won the day.  But note that the trumpets needed the voices and the voiced required the trumpets.

Now I firmly believe that this story from the Old Testament did not actually happen, but the physical law that it evidences is absolutely true.  It should be noted however that all the people shouted with ONE voice.  There's a parallel here, and there's a parallel that also applies to Rahab (someone who lived within the wall) that needs to be explored.

In our current scenario, we are far from one voice.  I maintain that as long as some people persist in creating violence when others are peaceful, our voice when we do shout will be dissipated.  The voice that breeds violence for change is the voice that strengthens the wall by divisiveness.  That violence has no place here at all, and should be stopped immediately.  We need to police this ourselves because if we leave it to the government, they will extend their efforts to non-violent voices.  (they have already done so)  

As for Rahab, we need to be aware that there really are innocents inside the wall.  We need to be ready to forgive, for to do otherwise is merely to trade this particular wall for another.  There should be no reprisals, and we should do what we can to move above and beyond that.

What we need to do now is insist that our leadership (the Democrats) start working on those solutions instead of more rhetoric.  It's nowhere near enough to "blow up the opposition" on TV or have mike drop after mike drop statements- that accomplishes nothing.  We need a LEADER who can be that voice that leads the shout for the people that finally knocks this wall down.