By Tim Wood
On the morning of January 7, 2021 I sat down, in extreme agitation, to write a short, one-line letter to our local Beaufort Gazette that I wanted published in their “letters to the editor” section. It simply said: “As of today, any person who is still flying a “Trump Banner” ought to be ashamed of themselves!”
Now, I knew that it would not be published; I wrote it and sent it in out of pure venting. After all, I had watched Trump on live TV the day before, egging on his mob to march and attack our capital building … didn’t he also say he had intended to march with them? (I believe he and his crew ended up watching the news and eating McDonald’s hamburgers at the White House).
I read there were even some from his inner circle encouraging him to help put a stop to the insurrection, but he didn’t listen to them; and here we are now, inside this disgrace of an election year, nearly brain dead from overdosing on our daily national news cycles; supporting our left and right networks that cannot hold back our daily supply of depressant, which in turn has now become Irving Janis’s modernized term of “groupthink.”
Groupthink was originally coined by W.H. Whyte Jr. and it was derived from Orwell’s “1984” book with his fictional “doublethink.” Orwell came up with the fictional terms of “Newspeak” and “doublethink” for his book. I’ll simplify what these terms are meant to impart to us: “Newspeak” was simply the accepted, constant barrage of nonsensical media within a dystopian, authoritarian future society. “Doublethink” was getting groups of people to think alike thus making a dominate “ingroup” which tends to override realistic appraisal of alternative courses of (social and political) actions. In my view this simply means the “ingroup” cannot make logical decisions nor political policy due to bias.
I was too young to remember the frightening McCarthy years but I do remember the impact of the “communist scare” … learning later the harm that came to a number of people that were black-balled due to their liberal leanings such as supporting civil rights, being environmentalists, or, heaven forbid, anti-war.
Unfortunately, our present day newspeak disables us from remembering our own recent history. When a logical person reviews recent U.S. history concerning, say, Lindbergh’s “America First” movement, or Selma’s “Bloody Sunday,” or Kent State’s student killings, I would imagine they should think the same as I do: How could we have been so stupid? How could we allow such senseless violence? How could anyone have supported such senseless ideologies? But look at us now.
In my idealistic youth I thought by living through the 60’s surely by 2024 we’d be living in some sort of American utopia. Instead, what I see is “America First” morphed into “MAGA,” Minneapolis instead of Selma and Afghanistan instead of Vietnam. I guess one cannot fix stupidity. If you do not learn from history you are domed to repeat it … some old phraseology.
During this coming Republican Convention in Minneapolis, (this, in my fantastical, Utopian world), Trump gets replaced by some moderate Republican like either Susan Collins or Phil Scott. Then, during the Democratic Convention in Chicago, Biden passes his mantle to some progressive like Jeffries or Warren to run.
Of course I have other tweaks already in place within my idealistic world: Every single politician in the entire country has some sort of term limit within their political service and this would include all federal (especially SCOTUS), state and local judges and sheriffs. I know there is a slim chance in November 2024 for our congress to be put back onto it’s liberal footing, but that is my hope. Within this real world of hypocritical leaders like Trump, Green, Jordon, Johnson, DeSantis, Gaetz, Scott, Graham, Boebert, Abbott … well, everyone knows the full list, I find myself becoming more disdainful of them.
After witnessing the disgraceful antics of June 14 with Trump and his loonie tune supporters, I can only hope and pray a great wave of change will overcome them. But I also know, full well, that when a person has no shame they will never feel ashamed, and that is particularly true within any and all cults.
Tim and Kristy Wood moved to Beaufort in 1974. He worked as a carpenter in both restoration and new home construction, as well as operating a shop specializing in custom woodwork, Wood on Wood Specs. He is semi-retired, involved with fine woodworking and formerly sat on the City of Beaufort Zoning Board of Appeals.
