When Your Sense of Injury Get's Hijacked

 September Eleventh Two Thousand and One. We all know what happened that day. And after, as the information about the people who had done those acts of terror came out, I made myself very unpopular in some circles.

For I began stating, "I understand those guys". Because I did. And still do.

When I was younger I had a very well developed sense of Injury. I had hurts. And they were legitimate. Not made up. However, the wrongness in them was that I held on to them long, long after the fact. I lived inside my hurts and never let them go.

As a friend of mine once said, "I took good care of them. Fed them. Burped them. Changed their diapers. Made sure they could grow good and strong".

And, for me, those hurts justified a lot of really bad behavior on my part.

Later on in life I began the ongoing process of becoming human. And one of the biggest things that I had/still have to do is check my sense of injury.

And I saw, and still see, how easy it would have been in that time to be manipulated by some person whom I would have considered an "Authority". And I could easily have been convinced to Blame others and Hate them to justify my sense of injury. And would have been very easy to convince me they were not really human. And once people are no longer human they can be destroyed.

As Hitler did to Jews, Liberals, Gays, Foreigners, People of Color, etc.

Fortunately (?), I already had a full list of people that I blamed. I think that is the only thing that saved me from becoming a cult member or a political extremist of some sort. Just a thought.

So when I looked at the people who had flown those planes into the Twin Towers I saw people who had been manipulated by hate. People who had their Sense of Injury Hijacked by "Authorities" for the authorities own purpose.

Because think about it, these people had grown up in a society where their Religion told them that people who did not believe like them were the Enemy, where their Government told them very specifically who these Unbelievers are, and continually Dehumanized these enemies so that Atrocities could be committed.

And thus, we end up with people strapping bombs onto themselves and detonating them in public places. A military force that is casually brutal in occupied places. Planes flown into public buildings. And Genocide in Gaza.

And so I do understand. I understand how holding on to a Sense of Injury, onto Grievance, or Resentment, however you want to phrase it, can leave a person open to manipulation of the worst order. And when I said those things people got really uncomfortable. Angry mostly.

And I think that it is because that understanding is probably close to universal. And no one, and I do mean no one, wants to admit that they understand Evil. Because if one understands Evil then one has to face ones own Capacity for Evil.

I am seeing that same sense of injury getting hijacked today. In the United States of America. And it has been going on throughout our history.

It began when the White Planter Class in Virginia put Racism in America on Steroids in order to separate White Working Class people from Black Slave people. They were afraid, and rightly so, that if the white working class realized that they had much more in common with the black slaves than they did with the white slave owners then the white slave owners would be in big trouble.

So White (Male) Superiority was born.

Later, as the Anti Slavery movement grew in America, White Male Grievance was added to that mix. Because these men, and the slave owning power structure, like the whole of the Western power structure, was predominantly White and Male, were being judged on the Content of their Character instead of the Color of their Skin.

After the Civil War the south recreated their "Militia", their oh so polite way of Labelling the Slave Patrols that were used to Terrorize the Black and Slave population before the war, as the Klu Klux Klan and various other White Supremacy organizations.

And the Northern States, who had also been infected with the virus of White Supremacy and White Grievance, were much too gentle on the rebelling states. I think that Lincoln's decision to "let them down gently" was a huge mistake. Which we are paying for down to this day.

And, I also believe that Lincoln, as forward thinking as he was for his day, did not see the formerly enslaved people as People either. He had been infected with the White Supremacy virus and saw them as less than Human and the White Male people who had rebelled as Human. So he "let them down gently" which preserved the pre war power structure pretty much intact.

Enter the Jim Crow era in this Country.

The end of slavery had not made much of a difference in Black lives. They were still being terrorized by the White Power structure. They were murdered and jailed with impunity by the White Power structure. They were still Not Human to the White Power structure.

And then the Civil Rights movement. This fight to just have the right to not be killed with no consequences, to have equal rights in the community that they live in, was another way that White Grievance was stoked. As if granting others equal rights somehow diminished your rights.

And the Woman's Liberation, Gay Rights, the Transgender Movement, all of these fed the Grievance of some, not all, White Men.

All of these things felt, and still feel like, a threat to the White Male Power structure. And they can feel the growing power of the formerly Minority groups. And when one is afraid one is then open to extremism of the worst sort.

And there are very Wealthy People for whom this is a good thing. Because they keep us divided. They keep us Angry and Hating instead of talking to each other. Why? Because they are stealing everything, accumulating massive amounts of Money, Power, Goods, from the rest of us and need to keep us distracted so that we do not see it.

So they manipulated the Government through their bought and paid for politicians, and Yes, I mean you Ronald Reagan and successors, to get rid of the Fairness Doctrine in Broadcasting, which very clearly stated that you can express a viewpoint and that you have to give equal time to the apposing viewpoint, and funded Right Wing Talk Radio and the Fox "News" which are the Propaganda arm of Hate and Resentment.

One of the many ways that we are divided is the Lie that if we grant this section of people rights it will diminish your rights. And it works really well because it stokes peoples fear. And then you are a Victim and they are the Enemy. And Blame and Hate are now running you.

And throughout American History Rich White People have been convincing Working White People that People of Color are their enemy. That they are becoming less than in society because those people are coming for them. And it has worked fantastically well.

I am hopeful though. In looking around me today I see the pool of people that are buying into this getting smaller. And I see the people who are trying to keep us divided are getting panicky. Because they are recognizing this.

They are getting more and more extreme with every passing moment. And more and more hateful and divisive. Because that is all they have. There is nothing else for them.

They have hijacked the sense of injury of their shrinking pool of believers so badly, and have had to go to such extremes to keep them, that they have nothing else. And young people especially are rejecting them.

So I have hope. Hope that our future as a nation, and as the world, will be a better place than the fearful mess that it is now. That we shall triumph over our fear and anger fueled hatred and become something greater than the whole of our parts.

That we shall become people who Embrace and Celebrate our Diversity instead of being afraid of it.

That We Shall Overcome and Truly Become One People.

That is my Hope.

What is your Hope?