Power, Rights, Freedoms, Responsibilities of the People: Communicate

(Mike DePung — Post II.153–17)

I have been impressed anew with the colonial emphasis on full, open communications about the issues and considerations of the time leading up to the Revolutionary War. They did not have video equipment of any kind, satellites, internet, or social media, yet they accomplished their purpose.

The documents I have written of and many, many more provided clear discussions, considerations, and opposing viewpoints on the issues of the day. They didn’t use deceit to purposefully subvert citizens, to get them to believe half-truths.

I find it incredibly duplicitous and hypocritical for all of the politicians who are screaming “fake news.” They are the biggest producers of such in history, spending who knows how much money on telling half-truths about their opponents. Every little election has degraded into these thirty-second spots, and the unbelievable thing to me is that people believe them.

This says to me that we don’t know how to communicate as well as the folks in the colonies in 1776, because communication is a two-way deal with a crucial additional component: understand others, make ourselves understood, and then make meaning of it all.

Why all this talk of fake news? You mean we can’t distinguish, can’t respond to and revolt against idiots who seek to manipulate, deceive, and sell us a bill of goods. We can’t put them out of business?

You know why? It’s because we have gradually been conditioned to accept and depend on authorities and government to “tell the truth.” I have said it before and will say it again: facts are those things that exist, that are there, and truth is about how we interpret facts. That can be manipulated. And this current administration, including the president and his cabinet picks and advisers, is using this to great advantage, playing on fears and creating paranoia so that no one trusts anyone else. This leaves an opening for him and his associates to be the truth-bearers — of bullshit, of nothingness except skewed perceptions meant to further alienate us, the common people, of the ability to think, discern, and respond. These politicians can’t even handle town hall meetings because they don’t know how to communicate with people who don’t just buy their bullshit on a wholesale level.

The danger lies in this: We, the People, are being divested of our authority. The documents I have shared from our founding make it clear that authority derives from us, and even when decisions need to be made, we should know every last single consideration of every bill or issue being debated. I know lines of communication could be established that let our representatives know how they will vote. They have zero authority unless we give it, and we have given them far too much. It’s time to take it back.

In the Declaration of Rights, Section 2, we find “That all power is vested in, and consequently derived from, the people; that magistrates are their trustees and servants and at all times amenable to them” (124). The fact that this was a major theme clearly communicated at the time is seen in the Declaration of Independence, penned about a month later. In reference to our freedom to live our rights, it says “That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of thees ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and institute new Government” (143). And the Constitution begins with “We the People.” We do it. Our elected officials are to answer to us, not only during elections when they shovel the shit our way, but also “at all times” they are to be open to us, to communicate by listening and responding to us.

Many complex factors have brought us to this juncture in which we find ourselves, one where we unwittingly have accepted that we just don’t and can’t know everything, that evil lurks around every corner, that we bear little responsibility and we vote for people to do this work. It’s their job. They get paid for it. A quality life is not bound up in who gets paid for what. If we reclaimed our responsibility, we would become more aware, which would make things much safer. We would become more innovative, have more specific ideas to give our representatives. So many things are implied here.

And I didn’t even get to the whole idea of voting rights and this ridiculous voter fraud commission. Or giving away other freedoms, freedoms envisioned, promoted, communicated, and won by Heart-energy. The current situation in America is an Ego-produced morass, and we are hurtling towards increasing stupidity of greed, lack of compassion, apathy or inflated mania (a bipolar state on a societal level), and willing slavery. And an elitist, oligarchical power base — democrat or republican — will willingly take advantage of that. We need to grab hold of the power, rights, and freedoms that are ours. Court decisions and laws that have helped to shove us to this point can be reversed.

We need to be working individually and corporately to “…secure the blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity.” We need to learn the basic aspects of communicating in giving, receiving, and making meaning.

Blessings!