Despite hysterical hyperbole designed to generate a mob mentality in support of a coup against the Trump presidency, either soft or hard (the promoters don’t care so long as they get back into power), there are verifiable realities for those who care for cognitive decisions rather than emotional reactions.

The facts are concurrently not nearly as negative as portrayed and at the same time, much, much worse. But facts exist and form a basis for realistic evaluation and for corrective planning and then action. The deliberately orchestrated campaign to create a non-thinking herd mentality based on fear and anger obfuscating reality is the greater danger. It may wind up trampling us all and when the dust clears, we’ll be just where the real villains want us to be: a placebo-policy-fed-mob taking orders that benefit only the tiniest percentage among us, voting against our own interest in favor of illusory programs (think Obamacare and the Paris Environmental Acord) and justifying killing in the name of peace (think Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, etc.).

George Orwell’s Oceania and Air Strip One attained.

Of course, we could elect to wake up. Some of us are trying to but find ourselves in a state analogous to that of Sleep Paralysis (see, e.g., https://www.wired.com/2009/08/sleep_paralysis/) and anyway, in a societal setting, it is not enough that a few of us are awake since it would take a working majority to cast off the chains that bind us and we humans seem to prefer delusion to enlightenment, manipulation to thinking. Kind of reminds me of the “Matrix” (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Matrix).

A very useful article in the Guardian by Zachary Karabell, “Pay attention to Donald Trump’s actions, not his words” (June 3, 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jun/04/pay-more-attention-to-donald-trumps-actions-not-his-words) considers the disassociation between political actions and political words with very relevant examples but falls short in not considering the fact that what we hear is a translation of what was said, all too frequently distorted by a mainstream media with an agenda all its own, a very major factor we all need to take into account, even if the distortions we are hearing bring us delusional comfort. After all, all too soon it may be our perspectives that will be distorted. Still, it’s definitely worth reading and then reflecting on its premises in light of the undeniable facts presented.

Wish I’d written it.
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© Guillermo Calvo Mahé; Manizales, 2017; all rights reserved

Guillermo Calvo Mahé is a writer, political commentator and academic currently residing in the Republic of Colombia. Until recently he chaired the Political Science, Government and International Relations programs at the Universidad Autónoma de Manizales. He has academic degrees in political science, law, international legal studies and translation studies and can be contacted at wacalvo3@autonoma.edu.co. Much of his writing is available through his blog at http://www.guillermocalvo.com.