One of the earliest concepts I learnt was: If you focus on something, whether through desire or fear, you will begin trying to reach that goal, purely subconsciously. This concept has stuck with me, it’s so primal, it’s a narrative that we’re all forced to follow, the rails we’re all locked to, why fear and desire can motivate and control, and the basis, as I understand it, for OCD itself.
Now, tying this into religion, I learnt to “speak in tongues” and what that entails mentally, it’s not something I take seriously, but, since I learnt about it, about how some churches will have people appearing to have seizures while they talk in tongues, it’s fascinated me. After realizing how it works enough to replicate it, I’ve come to the conclusion that it works on the same principle: you desire/fear that it means something, and within the context of the church, you are then able to do it.
This of course logically leads to a larger issue… I remember years ago seeing those “A storm is coming!” commercials, political in nature, about how LGBTQ+ rights will cause society to collapse, the reality of course is far more complex, however, I believe the same principle could cause the feared result.
In-fact, the principle at work is a form of gaslighting, and can easily lead to a phenomenon known as reactive abuse. They are accusing a whole group of people, using irrelevant to result parameters, of being the reason something horrible is coming. So understandably people will be upset with those who are pushing these narratives.
What I fear however, and am trying to push against, is that these narratives will continue to cause fear in those who are receptive to them. As we’ve seen with January 6th, with Truckers for Freedom, and with many other things coming out of the right wing. Pure hatred, with both sides becoming volatile, as a result of someone lighting the gas they’ve poured over the other side. I understand, as I’ve seen, that both sides can start these issues.
However the reason I side with the left wing, the reason I consider myself a progressive, the reason I can sometimes back some conservative arguments, is because I will always personally try to see the line for what it is. Emotion should play a role in some scenarios, but not all. And it’s understanding the extents to which parameters affect an overall topic, the “lines” that need to be drawn in the sand, that allow us to understand things better, and remove our heads from muddling within the sand itself.