The Missing Point: November 2020

Wednesday, November 25, 2020

EAT THE RICH AND OTHER ORWELLIAN MAXIMS

When asked what she thought of the suggestions and guidelines from state governors concerning holiday family gatherings, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said, “yeah, I think a lot of the guidelines you’re seeing are Orwellian.” Is she actually unclear on proper use of the term, or is this deliberate dissemblance from an administration more doublethink dependent than any other in U.S. history? I’m giving them too much credit you say?

snake oil salesman made a rare appearance this week to pardon the turkey, an actual turkey, not Michael Flynn. A strangely prescient viral video from last year surfaced on social media. In the video, emperor golden commode waxes poetic about how that particular turkey was forced to concede his defeat after a disputed election recount.

I doubt anyone within the outgoing administration has researched the reductionist operations of Newspeak as outlined in Nineteen Eighty-Four, but they certainly seem to stumble into them more often than any previous Republican cabal I can recall. “Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.” Despite widespread voting irregularities, both Gore and Kerry conceded to bush & co. Clinton conceded in 2016 despite winning 3 million more votes. This tantrum prone boy king refuses to recognize his six million+ vote loss.

Given the chance to redress her characterization, McEnany doubled down, specifically citing Oregon governor Kate Brown’s executive order guidelines. Allowing state troopers enforcement oversight that can potentially result in 30 day jail terms certainly sounds problematic, but it’s not “by definition Orwellian.” The Press Secretary’s freedom loving spectacle, however, when held up to her full throated defense of federal law enforcement deployed to quell Black Lives Matter protests in Portland last summer – yeah, that there is the very definition of doublethink.

Miles long lines at food banks, a staggering 54 million facing food scarcity across the U.S. while fearless leader hides out on his golf course, his Press Secretary desperately defending the freedom to gather and share a meal. Doubleplusungood.

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What is The Missing Point?

Living in a society that values independence, competition, & the work ethic among its most cherished principles; it can be a challenge to step outside our cultural comfort zone and consider alternatives to these powerful and pervasive ideas. A familiar dualistic pattern plays out day to day across our country, each of us scrambling to take sides in some new improved venture of us against them. We find a welcome comfort participating in this endless argument, reframing our point again and again to persuade our adversary that we are right. But what do we win when we “win” the argument? And what do we lose when we choose to argue rather than to share in dialogue? Our adversary may be “missing the point,” but perhaps we are too. Perhaps if we took the time to reflect and let go of this conditioned impulse to defend our position, if we can even claim ownership of the position we so ardently defend, then we could actually start to consider and create the alternatives we might want.