The Battle Between Good And Evil

I guess it was during the days where I started paying attention to the Bible and reading books that I became aware of some future war. Someday, there was going to be a war between the people on Earth. It was framed as a war between Christians and non-Christians, and of course the Christians were the righteous ones. This was going to happen. It sounded like weird stuff to me. I’m into figuring out life – and, of course, death. I have put a lot of time into thinking about God, too, but I want to make it clear that I just don’t know. I don’t believe in fairy tales, but I do believe that what I’ve experienced in my life has some kind of meaning. I don’t doubt there is a higher power, but I know it’s the people on Earth that are either building or destroying. It’s the people that are giving or taking. It’s not a God making someone do something or not. We are destroying our planet and we know it, but not enough people want to stick their neck out.

We have the ability as a species to make this planet so great, yet the force and the power of greed is keeping us down. Countries should be working together – it is clear that countries can really help themselves by working with other countries – but the thirst of power keeps that from happening. Instead of building weapons to use against each other, we should be working together to create a weapon to deflect a meteor. A meteor wiped out life here once, it will happen again. There are a lot of brilliant people all over the world, and if we could all work together I can’t even imagine the possibilities. Now the ones that are greedy are allowing our planet to get cooked. The storms will get bigger; the fires will get even hotter. It’s science: when you increase the temperature just a little bit things are going to happen. And yet it’s acceptable to many that we keep turning up the heat.

Our country is in political trouble too. This isn’t just conservative versus liberal. I believe in some conservative principles myself, I get where they are coming from on many issues. I can compromise with these people. I understand not wanting to make the people who work pay for those who don’t want to. I understand the philosophy of teaching a man to fish rather than giving him one. I don’t like taxes either. I can relate to that, but I can also show them that most people getting assistance actually work, and that the pay is so low in many places that it isn’t enough to live off. When conservatives complain now about lowlifes taking advantage of the system, I say, “true, that goes on, but that after studying these things for a while I realize it’s the ones at the top doing the real taking.” You see, when they take it, they don’t spend it among us. When the people down here get some money, at least that money gets spent and circulated and helps people like you and me. Those extra millions funnelled into a billionaire’s account don’t often get spent around here. History has shown that lower taxes for the middle class and higher taxes on the upper class are great for the economy. Yet here we are, doing the opposite. The forces have been at work at convincing large chunks of the population that cutting taxes on the rich is a good thing. Stats and history show that is not true.

We have forces that just want more money, and they will do whatever it takes. Obviously buying politicians and laws and good press is one of their methods. Brainwashing vulnerable people is another one. A lot of money has been spent over the years on misinformation around specific topics, from the dangers of cigarettes to climate change. Exxon knew about the dangers of carbon dioxide being released in the atmosphere at these levels in the 1980s, but spent millions of dollars trying to confuse the public about these facts.

But it runs a lot deeper than that. It is a concerted effort to withhold information and education, and to confuse people using scare tactics. Every election conservatives tell their gun lovers that the democratic candidate is coming for their guns. They tell their supporters, who are afraid of people that look different, that Mexicans are coming for their jobs, or their lives. That side has tried to show that Barack Obama is the devil, and when that didn’t work they pointed to Hillary Clinton and told their people that she was the enemy. I can’t tell you how many people I have met that said they voted for Trump because anyone is better than Hillary. Hillary is still a big target today for Fox viewers – she is what they can point at when Trump does his next horrible thing. That psychology has worked on an awful lot of people. I hear all the time on Fox News how liberals hate America and want to see it fail, how they want open borders and no guns and to give all our money away. It is just nonsensical fear mongering that works on a lot of people.

The controlling powers have a base of warriors to fight their fight: to fight for the rich to get richer and more powerful at the expense of everybody else. This battle between the two sides isn’t a typical rivalry like the Red Sox versus the Yankees. This is a battle between the people that care about others, and the Earth, against the powers that want it all. And the ones that want it all are pretty powerful; they have used religion, money, and dirty tricks to build their army. The ones fighting for them are victims, plain and simple. They have been convinced to not even look at what the other side is saying. While these enlisted soldiers in the cause are, in fact, victims, they still are responsible for their actions. If they refuse to look up the facts, or hear what others are saying, shame on them. To not recognize the crazy actions of their president, shame on them.

This won’t sit well with many, but I’m a tell-it-like-it-is person so here goes: the people that support Donald Trump are more dangerous than the people in Germany that supported Adolf Hitler and those in Russia that supported Joseph Stalin. Why would I say such a thing? Because we are in 2018 now and we have so much information available at our fingertips. This information tells a very clear story: Donald Trump and the Republicans are hurting not only our country, but our planet too. Back in the 1930s and 40s, the people in Germany and Russia were getting their information from state-run propaganda newspapers. That doesn’t excuse them from supporting their own monster in power, but at least it’s conceivable that they could be fooled. Today, no one has an excuse like that.

So why in the world do so many people get caught in the conservative web? It’s usually a weakness that is exploited. I’ll start first with the belief in Jesus. There are a large number of Christian Republicans. Yes, they hate abortions, who doesn’t really? These people who vote Republican to ban abortion are giving up quite a bit for something they really can’t stop anyway. I wish both sides would work together to reduce unwanted pregnancies, but when I hear people on that side say they are against sex education or birth control, I stop taking them seriously. They have been trained to put the blinders on and act if this is the most important thing out there, and that is something that is used to control them. I’m fine with people sticking up for unborn babies but if they aren’t sticking up for all the kids already here then I don’t have respect for them. See my abortion article for more.

Then you have your gun lovers, who have it drilled into their heads that we are coming for their beloved guns. Gun lovers, as well as racists, will listen to conservative TV and radio because it is more in line with their thinking. But when they hear over and over how Obama was dividing our country or every bad thing lately that has happened is Hillary’s fault, some will start to believe it. People with some kind of weakness get sucked into this political machine. If you are a man who thinks you are better than a woman, you will definitely be watching Fox News. If you don’t like blacks or Mexicans, Fox will be your go-to..

But its not really that cut and dried. There are reasons why people don’t like people that are different to them. The big one is that it is naturally built in us – to not trust anything that looks different. It was a survival method. Many of us can’t help how we feel, but we can help how we treat others. Just like the expression, “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all”: if you feel a certain way, you can intellectualize it, recognize where it is coming from and that it’s not founded in reason, and choose not to act on it in ways that hurt other people. Maybe you’re a little afraid or whatever, but to not recognize the horrors that black people, for example, have suffered in this country both in the past and today is really ignorant.

Many on the right actually think white people are the ones being screwed over in this country. It was all part of the division strategy: get them to hate the Black Lives Matter movement, the Me Too movement, all of that. The movers and shakers of this world have kept us fighting a lot between ourselves. As you see, the more division between the masses, the more the rich get away with. A lot of money gets spent to fool us, and many people buy right in to it. These people have been turned; whatever weakness they had was used against them. Of course, liberals have a lot of issues too, we all do. But it is clear as day to anyone with a heart and a pulse to see the good side from the bad side. Yes, good people are fighting for the wrong side and are so deaf and blind to it they are unwilling to even consider the other option.

So here we are, one side is following a mad man, not worried that our country is doing very little to keep Putin or China from hacking our next election. They don’t even seem very concerned that all signs point to Russia and the Trump team working together to get elected. They accept that over a trillion dollars was just given to the very rich, and that there is now more serious talk about cutting programs that we paid in to with our tax money, less money for other programs for the people, and less money available for infrastructure. Conservatives are apparently fine with absolutely nothing being done about climate change, and they seem to be okay with electing people that don’t care about health care.

We are there now. We are in that battle I used to hear about a lot, the one between good and evil. Does the good side fight? We have to. Is our world going to make it? I don’t know, but it isn’t looking good right now. Which side do you choose to be on? I always heard that God doesn’t tell you what to do, that you have a choice. And I think we are at the place where it is time to choose. I choose the good side. I choose love for everyone, love for the animals, love for the Earth, and love for you. Are you with me?