Fair Warning
“The Redcoats are coming!”
They’re actually here already. I don’t know if the “Reds”, the Russians, actually wear red coats like our British brothers in arms once did, but yes, they are here already, the Russians. Maybe not in our hearts, but definitely in our minds.
I had a history teacher in high school, Mr. Weinstein. He used to say to us, “It’s all mind over matter. If you have no mind, then it don’t matter.” I’m still not sure exactly what he meant, but thank goodness he wasn’t an English teacher.
The world must be asking these days about America, “Where is your mind?” Or better, “Are you out of your mind?!”
We are constantly being warned ...
“I have seen the enemy and it is us.”
“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.”
“Caution: Cigarette smoking may be hazardous to your health.”
“Red sky at night sailors’ delight, red sky in morning sailors take warning.”
Warnings. Why do most of us ignore them, or at best take them with a grain of salt?
“The sky is falling!” ...“Wolf!”
That’s why. The Chicken Little or Little Boy Who Cried Wolf syndrome is more rampant in our society and world now than ever before. I’m talkin’ Wolf here, as in Wold Blitzer and all his cable news colleagues. They cry “wolf” every single day 24 hours a day. And now with social media taking charge of our collective conscience and thoughts, shaping our opinions, we just don’t know which way to turn or who or what to believe.
Their job is to push ratings and collect advertising dollars. (Always follow the money ..always). Their mission is matched with with the journalist’s job to push the envelope and collect the truth. The happy medium therein keeps us all between a rock and a hard place on what or who to believe, as everybody wants to get into the act.
A continuous state of confusion. Psychological disarray. We Americans are an especially malleable, gullible audience, and this is exactly where our enemies want us. It’s a strategic battle technique old as time and used in every day life as well ...keep your opponent on his heels, confused, looking one way by distraction while you attack from another direction. Choke him, distract him with information.
Either unwittingly or by design this is what I’ve seen happening every day from as far back as I can remember and into history itself. And you can just see it coming into the future. Something’s got to give.
Apparently, nobody, or very few of us, wants a lasting peace. We humans are a warlike, competitive, predatory species. If freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose, then peace is just another word for satisfaction, and we can’t seem to ever be satisfied.
We always want more, and too much is never enough.
Our former U.S. presidents criticize president Trump, rightly so ...hey, we all do ...but it is mostly a criticism of his personality traits and operational behavior. Which stink, but that is beside the point and leads into a separate discussion on world and party politics, and power. Obama wasn’t as great a president as many think he was ..stimulus spending, Obamacare, foreign policy. The last two Bush presidents got us into two separate wars with the same country. Bill Clinton disgraced himself and the nation. So, really, “let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” ...another well stated and practical warning.
Trump may “stink” as a president, he may be a very unlikeable guy, but he’s a breath of fresh air from the stink of the swamp he is claiming to drain. He’s good TV. The problem is the new swamp he’s created seems to stink worse. But it’s like gasoline, isn’t it, or cow manure, some people love the smell. A cattle rancher I know once told me, “It’s the smell of money.”
Did the Russians help get Donald Trump elected in an effort to stack the cards in their favor to destroy America from within by using our social media agains us? Actually, by way of proxy, the American public (and Hillary Clinton) I think they did. Clever. Genius. Hillary sunk herself and the Democratic Party all in one shot. The shot heard around the world. Paul Manafort and friends should be shot ...as traitors, liars, cheats and con men ..and just their general creepiness.
Robert Muller’s investigation is slow moving, but seemingly has Trump cornered.
The 9/11 crews had their methodology, ISIS has theirs, and the Russians have theirs. But we are a society predestined to destroy ourselves from within. So, let’s not give the Russians or Paul Manafort or Donald Trump total credit. They had some help from Facebook, Twitter, Wolf Blitzer and We the American People.
The writing is on the wall. We’ve had fair warning.
John Kushma is a communication consultant and lives in Logan, Utah.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-george-kushma-379a5762
http://newsbout.com/a/John+Kushma
