The Iraq War was the biggest issue for people of my generation in the West. It was also the clearest case, in my living memory, of media manipulation and the creation of a war through ignorance. Julian Assange
Meditation: Chaos describes the current state of our federal government, and chaos and manipulative distraction is also what it tries to create. We learned that Russia used our social media to manipulate and set up an internal American culture war by creating culture divides during the pre-election season. Those divides are now being further reinforced by the president as he appeals to the masses’ lowest instincts of fear, hate and projected enemy thinking. War language and hate themes are being used frequently. First they are projected out onto certain internal minorities and then also projected out onto other nations. As a country we find ourselves in a new disorienting era. An increasing nationalist propaganda and a divisive and covert media manipulation like this never existed in the US before. Both internal and external wars are being taken lightly and are even glorified. Through ignorance and through the hyping of the masses the president tries to gain support for his violent “destruction” appeals of the projected enemies. Even as many of us know that the most dangerous enemies to our democracy are those who undermine it within our own government, the masses are being distracted and manipulated. They see the created enemy only as it is being projected out onto external groups and nations. In this way people have the illusion of safety, as they believe their collective enemy to be identifiable and as external. However this illusion proves as false in the face of senseless mass murder and insane and random amok violence. It is time to realize that we are less threatened by any external enemies, but more so by the instinctually driven hate and the propaganda induced divisions that threaten the dismantling of our democratic values from within.
Prayer: God, how do we respond and not just react to an atmosphere of hate, violence and culture divide that is being created? How do we uphold and protect our basic democratic values? How will we know what kind of wolves we are dealing with? Make us “wise as serpents and innocent as doves” so that our souls remain intact in the midst of this chaos. Let all of us who are Jesus’s followers become spiritual leaders in this time of deep social and political need. You are sending us. And as we feel helpless, frightened and overwhelmed at times, we are also comforted by Your presence. Amen
Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Matthew 10: 16
Watchwords 