Age of paranoia
It appears to me that we have entered an age of paranoia, of overzealous recrimination, of seeking to challenge authority even when that authority is righteous and correct.
I am frightened over where this might lead.
Let’s state the obvious off the top. It starts with The Big Lie. A president loses a re-election campaign, then refuses to concede to the winner, launches bogus legal efforts to overturn the results of a free and fair election and continues to whip up the cultists who follow his every lying word over the cliff.
President Biden pledged to restore our “national soul.” I hate to tell the POTUS, but he’s got a monumental task still awaiting him. The guy he defeated for the nation’s highest office continues to whip up his cultists’ frenzied belief that the so-called “deep state” is out to get him, them and everyone else who might be inclined to support their agenda.
We were stricken by a pandemic. POTUS 45 launched Operation Warp Drive to find a vaccine that would save us from the killer. The drug companies delivered. Three vaccines now are set for widespread distribution. POTUS 45’s successor accelerated the vaccination program. He issued mandates that ordered private business to require employees to be vaccinated. The vaccines are working, yet Americans continue to resist. The “why” on their resistance escapes me. Happily, the numbers of vaccine deniers appears to be diminishing as more of them are stricken and are finding a form of religion by declaring their profound regret at acting foolishly in the first place.
Politicians are being investigated for corruption on various levels and for various alleged misdeeds. Their response? To blame the “deep state.” To suggest that nefarious forces are at work behind the scenes. They are being targeted because of their ideology … they say.
All of this is to suggest that we are living in a perilous time. Not only are we fighting a pandemic that just refuses to succumb to our medical expertise, we are fighting those who resist government mandates issued for the sole purpose of protecting us.
And, of course, The Big Lie lives on and on.