The Need For Conservatives To Be Freed From Their Fear Based Conceptual Prisons

There are generally five categories of conservatives.  There are the intellectually thoughtful Buckley, Will, Brooks, Gerson and Krauthammer types.  Then, there is the Backmann “counseling will cure a gay person,” group. There are the script reading Coulters, Crowley’s and Kristol’s. We have the knee jerk windbags like Limbaugh and Beck.  Finally, we have the average conservative citizen whose intellectual understanding of issues is often clouded by emotional reactions to whatever it is that is perceived as a threat to them.

William F. Buckley had an intellect that defined his way of relating to the political issues of his times. Buckley’s integrity and willingness to acknowledge “had I known the facts that I now know, I would have counseled against the (Iraq) war” is sadly lacking in today’s conservative political world.

For the average conservative citizen, dogmas run their view of life.  “Dogmas arise out of the erroneous belief that thought can encapsulate reality or the truth.  Dogmas are collective conceptual prisons.  People love their prison cells because they give them a sense of security and a false sense of ‘I know.’  Every dogma crumbles sooner or later, because reality will eventually disclose it falseness.”*

For these citizens the creation of a dogma is based on a belief system that is predicated on insecurity, fear and a sense of vulnerability.  Their world needs to be the way that they need it to be or they become fearful, expecting the worse and poised to attack anything or anyone who rocks their boat. Even though the Second Amendment has recently been affirmed by the Supreme Court, their fear that Obama will take away their guns has spurred a gun buying frenzy throughout the country.

For today’s conservatives and the politicians who lead them, dogma trumps dialogue.  Compromise is a word that doesn’t exit in their vocabulary.  If you don’t agree with them, you become the “enemy.”  Facts do not change their positions.  And, their urgent need to prevail promotes a “take no prisoner” mentality.  These are hallmarks of a rigidity that is driven by fear. 

Through history, the need to maintain a psychological comfort level in the face of change has put conservatives on the wrong side of the women’s right to vote, child labor laws, Roosevelt’s creation of a social safety net, civil rights, women’s rights, gay rights, the need for corporate and banking regulations, the need for effective government and global warming. 

Conservatives’ believe that austerity is the way to stimulate job creation and the economy.  Their support of deregulation and “trickle down economics” is responsible for many of the ills that we face today. Their adherence to the mythical John Wayne belief in rugged individualism is out of touch with a world that has become more interdependent, where people need to work together for the good of all. For these folks, such an assertion smacks of socialism.   

Their insistence on eliminating government has cost us one million jobs over the past four years, including teachers, police and public safety services.  Their not funding of mandated programs, that they oppose, has gutted the effectiveness of essential programs for the poor. Their support of corporate donations like those of the Koch brothers and the role of special interest groups in the influencing of legislation are extensions of their effort to maintain a political comfort level for themselves. The black mailing of candidates by Grover Norquist, who oppose him about the need to cut taxes, are all part of their agenda of winning at any cost.

The difficulty with their approach is, that their insistence on things being the way they need them to be, has cut them off from reality.  They are held hostage in their own conceptual prisons. Their absolute belief in their reality was captured by Fox News on election eve by Karl Rove’s utter disbelief and outrage in finding out that Romney, instead of being the winner, was projected as having been defeated by Obama. 

* quote from Eckhart Tolle from Stillness Speaks…

 

Our Need to Feel Cared For, Worthwhile and Safe as an Antidote to Shooting Others

The recent Sandy Hook tragedy brings tears to my eyes each time I think about what happened.  The idea of little people being shot to death while attending school is difficult to fully comprehend and impossible to accept.

The death of school psychologist Mary Sherlach also really hit home for me.  I served as a school psychologist in East Oakland schools for 17 years. 8 of those years were spent working full time at Castlemont High School.  Before it became a closed campus, I might have routinely encountered an armed, parole violating, drug dealer walking the corridors of the school.  On any given day, I could have been Mary Sherlach

Now we are hearing about what should be done to prevent such an event from ever happening again. Gun regulation is a favorite and ready solution to the wanton killing of innocent victims.  California’s gun regulations have been in place for years and are the model for comprehensive regulating of gun sales, background checks, waiting periods, number of fire arms to be purchased at a time, gun handling safety and gun storage safety measures. If there was a uniform adoption of California’s regulations throughout the country, that part of what needs to be done would be in place. It should be pointed out, however, that research gives evidence that such efforts are inconclusive in having an impact on reducing fire arm deaths. The guns used at Sunny Hook were all legally purchased fire arms.

Mental health services are also referenced as a needed adjunct to preventing such a horrific event from ever taking place, again. The fact that funding for mental services is being cut compromises the effectiveness of this option. 

Still another essential approach to dealing with the causes of people killing people is often over looked. What am I talking about?  All of us need to feel loved, cared for, worthwhile and kept from harm.  As children, through the acknowledgement and support of those who guide us, we develop the ability to trust others, develop a sense of autonomy and initiative.  Without such support, we develop a sense of mistrust, shame, doubt, guilt and inferiority.  Our anxieties, anger, depression, sense of resentment and hopelessness result from when our needs to be cared for, cherished and kept from harm have not been met. 

 Every one of those individuals who resorted to killing others had basic needs that had not been met.  It would be my bet that those who resist the regulation of guns feel so strongly because their need for security that a gun provides them with is being threatened. Somehow their development of trust that comes from being kept from harm was not met in their formative years.

What if, beginning in preschool and continuing through high school, our public schools created and implemented a Life Issues Curriculum?  In this curriculum children learn how to acknowledge one another and how to cooperate and work with one another. Children learn about feelings, about how to nonviolently talk with one another and how to listen.  Children learn that we all have needs and develop story lines to make sense out of what we experience. They learn how to consciously problem solve life issues as well as, internal and external conflicts. They learn that there are others that they can turn to in times of difficulty and suffering.

How many lives do you suppose would have been saved if such a program was a part of our public school culture?

Thanks for stopping by…

Namaste,

Jim