OH SUFFERING BROTHERS AND SISTERS, WHERE ART THOU?

Nothing to See Here

One of the surest ways in which the hegemonic ideology of neoliberalism ensures that its toxic impacts go unrecognized and thus unchallenged is by rendering the immense suffering it causes invisible. This is achieved by means of mystification. Mystification is the way in which the world-view of the ruling class permeates the consciousness of every member of society. What is actually a set of beliefs and values that advantage the elite and oppress everyone else is presented as natural, universal and inevitable. In other words, ideology becomes what Antonio Gramsci called “common sense” or a world-view that is accepted completely and uncritically by members of society and provides the rationale and means for how to conduct their lives and deal with day-to-day problems. Hegemony stifles dissent and resistance by portraying the status quo as incapable of change, by convincing the oppressed that their interests are aligned with those of the elite, by inhibiting independent and reflective thought using direct and indirect threats, and by making individuals question the very basis of their sense of identity and reality, their experience.

One of the surest ways of breaking through the many destructive illusions manufactured by ideology is to come to a clear realization of the ways in which those illusions are causing oneself or others to suffer. Fortunate for those who benefit from hegemony, human beings have an inherent tendency to want to avoid encountering pain and suffering — even to the extent of engaging in exquisite forms of self-deception. This proclivity toward self-deception facilitates the process of mystification which employs various social institutions and social means to foster and maintain the very illusions that give rise to incredible amounts of suffering.

There are various ways in which the suffering caused by oppression generated by neoliberalism is rendered invisible. The most straightforward is outright denial, to essentially say it does not exist and to label anyone who dares to challenge this and speak truth as liars, traitors, malcontents, or enemies of the state. Another is to make suffering disappear by drowning it out with lies designed to foster fear, anger and loathing. Such powerful distractions draw attention away from genuine suffering. The lies are also utilized to lead individuals to misplace the cause of their troubles on manufactured dangers and enemies that suit the agenda of the ruling elite. A third is to trivialize or minimize the genuine suffering of others using various interpretations and frames provided by the hegemonic ideology. For example, “people bring their troubles upon themselves,” or “don’t they know how good they really have it,” or “they are just blowing things out of proportion in order to stir up trouble.” Finally, neoliberalism has essentially inured the ruling class to the suffering of the marginalized and oppressed so that it is easier for them to feel nothing for the afflicted. This is blatantly apparent time and time again in the arrogance, disdain and outright contempt that they show toward the very individuals upon whom they are actually inflicting suffering. This is a display of evil and moral depravity truly worthy of utter condemnation.

In his book, American, the Farewell Tour, Chris Hedges describes this process as a manifestation of the “permanent lie,” citing the work of Gramsci. The widespread devastation and rampant oppression caused by neoliberalism and perpetrated by the ruling elite is essentially justified by this permanent lie. This lie, resistant to the impact of any facts or any intrusions by reality, is utterly irrational and essentially amounts to a kind of collective psychosis. By undermining the capacity of persons to exercise critical reflection and independent thought, hegemony attacks individuals’ ability to distinguish between what is true and what is false. This rupture of individuals’ confidence in their experience paves the way for totalitarianism and makes them vulnerable to enslavement. It transforms them into passive spectators and creates a sense of futility. As Hedges notes, it is the great lie that is sending our country down a path that leads to the death of our democracy, the destruction of our planet, and a dismal and depressing future.

The Unveiling of a Great Lie

In recent weeks there has been a definitive and decisive unmasking of a great lie — the conspiracy theory that has been foisted on us for the past two-and-a-half years that alleged a collusion between Russia and the Trump administration. The Mueller report has now been released and there the dismantling of this conspiracy theory is spelled out clearly in black-and-white. There can be no further justification or validation given to what has been a shameless pretense. Any who assert otherwise are stubbornly oblivious to facts and irrationally wedded to a delusion that they cling to out of their own selfish interests. The great lie that was manufactured by Hillary Clinton and members of her campaign staff, that was pushed non-stop by corrupt corporate Democrats, and that was given full-throated support by mainstream media (MSNBC, CNN, NY Times, Washington Post, etc.) has been exposed as the product of a collective psychosis foisted on the American people to mislead and manipulate them. And those who dared to question this great lie, just as Hedges describes, were vilified, silenced, labeled liars, called traitors and Russian sympathizers, and marginalized using all the power available to the real liars and propagandists.

Have those who advanced this delusion in order to further their own interests, to assuage their bruised egos and to keep the crimes they have committed and continue to commit against the American people as agents of corrupt neoliberal ideology hidden owned up to their offense and apologized? Not a one of them. Like those suffering from psychosis, they cling even more desperately to their delusions and strike out angrily at anyone daring to challenge them. Have those people who should not be dignified by the label “journalists”, but who instead are stenographers for the powerful and hysterical peddlers as the worst kind of nonsense and scare tactics admitted their error? No, they have merely moved the goal posts, pompously evaded their complicity and continue to dump on the American people for failing to see the threats and catastrophes they fabricated as still posing a palpable danger.

There are so many reasons for anyone willing to see the situation in a clear-eyed manner, to exercise critical thinking and not submit to fear, and to actually give heed to their actual lived experience to regard all of these true enemies of the people with contempt they so richly deserve. However, the one thing on which I feel compelled most to indict them is on how they were instrumental in using this great lie to commit what is for me the most grievous injustice of all. To blot out, silence and stigmatize the millions of people that suffer at the hands of oppression due to neoliberal hegemony. For we have wasted two-and-a-half years awash in a craven and cynical bogus conspiracy theory which has rendered the many forms of genuine suffering inflicted on millions of our fellow Americans invisible through forms of mystification employed by elite in the interests of power and greed.

During all this time, by design those who advanced the great lie hid their complicity for the real and serious problems faced by our country.

— in the millions of lives lost in wars conducted by our country to benefit the military-industrial complex and American empire.

— in the expenditure of trillions of dollars in an industry devoted to death and destruction that contributed to corporate profit and ensured the maintenance of the power possessed by the Washington elite rather than use this wealth to provide a just, decent, dignified and healthy standard of living to millions of Americans.

— in maintaining an economic system that fosters an ever-widening chasm of egregious income inequality.

— in depriving health care as a right to all Americans, thus contributing to thousands of deaths due to lack of access to health care and giving rise to billions of dollars of debt incurred Americans to pay for care — all while allowing the health care industry and its CE0s to make millions of dollars in profit.

— in preventing people from having access to healthy water and air, sufficient quantity of food, safe neighborhoods, and affordable housing.

— in engaging in dishonest means that prevent people from exercising their right to vote and to participate meaningfully in democratic decision-making.

— in creating dispiriting and agonizing conditions of living that are so miserable and painful that many are dying at higher rates from addictions and suicides.

Make no mistake. Russia-gate — the great lie of recent times — was a mystification of massive proportions intentionally implemented and advocated by powerful elites that are just as morally condemnable as the man they sought so hard to utterly vilify — Donald Trump. If you think you can look to the Democratic leadership (Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Steny Hoyer), to most members of the Democratic Party, or to the Democratic National Committee in order to make things right and to mount an attack on the true cause of what is ailing our nation, you are buying into a delusion as dangerous as the one they foisted on you. Their actions show them to be utterly beholden to their corporate donors and thoroughly ensconced in maintaining their wealth, power and privilege. They show little if any compassion to the plight of the oppressed and their statements of their commitment to social justice ring hollow in light of their inaction to do anything to end oppression. The same can, of course, be said of Trump and his disastrous administration and of the Republican Party who have a long and sordid record of caring little for anyone but the wealthy the powerful.

Also do not look to mass media. They too are just as callous and contemptuous to the plight of the oppressed. They willingly turn a blind eye to suffering. They dutifully played their role in this shameful pretense and will continue to do so. They have happily assumed their role as stenographers and propagandists while collecting their large paychecks and rubbing elbows with the elite.

This Must Be Out Teachable Moment

The time has come to look to ourselves as we emerge from this dark time and learn to see through ideological lies and the use of mystfication devoted to making us question our experience. Those who have be seduced by the great lie for these past two-and-a-half years must accept the pain and suffering that comes with having their illusions shattered. They must sit with the discomfort and learn from it. One lesson is to see how the all-consuming and blind hatred toward Donald Trump that was fueled by the great lie tapped into something destructive and self-defeating. Anger with its roots in disgust and contempt is poisonous. It hardens us so that we pay little heed to our own suffering or the suffering of others. It is obsessed with revenge and obscures how easy it is to project what we find distasteful and shameful about ourselves onto someone else.

The disasters that our country faces did not begin on the day of Donald Trump’s inauguration. They are a part of a long, sad and repugnant legacy that has afflicted our country for decades. They have been created by elites across the political spectrum and by corporate heads who have placed profit over people. There is plenty of blame to go around and all of us on some level bear responsibility for creating these problems and thus for solving them.

It is a well-established fact that extremism, rigidity and dogmatism eventually prove to be self-defeating. Unfortunately, such is the stuff out of which great lies are formed. Those who fought so fiercely to insist on the truth of conspiracy must now face the fact that the collapse of Russia-gate has actually benefitted Donald Trump. His approval rating has gone up and a recent survey has found that 50% of Americans believe he was the victim of a witch hunt. As recently observed by Noam Chomsky, Glen Greenwald, Jimmy Dore and Aaron Maté have sagely observed that rather than doing damage to Trump, this useless conspiracy has helped him and may increase his chances of re-election.

Are these destructive consequences of the demolishing of Russia-gate really worth all the energy that was placed in it? Will we go on to some new ill-conceived and selfish scheme to try once more to unleash our fury on Donald Trump. This will only serve to push us even further into a self-defeating spiral? I fear there are signs of this already in the rhetoric of neoliberal Democrats and in the sensationalizing nonsense emanating from the media. And so my plea once again is to abandon hate and reach deeper within for a positive solution to our dilemma. If you want to be angry, then let your anger be a righteous one born out of moral indignation. Because then and only then will you finally open a space to attend to the one and only thing that matters — the suffering of your invisible and silenced brothers and sisters. This is what must move us because it alone can propel us to do what actually needs to be done. In sharing with their suffering, we will experience the awakening of a deep compassion that is committed to the one truth that really matters — that we must do all in our power to put an end to the oppression caused by neoliberalism and its lies and deceptions.