“Si de hypocrites dem a galang deh!
Sy de hypocrites dem a galang deh!
See di hypocrites dem a-galang deh! Man, go!”
— Robert Nesta Marley
There are a lot of things about the society and about the opportunities that are good about the United States. If that was not the case, then I would not be living in this country. But since the aftermath of the election of Tuesday, November 5, 2024, I have become highly disillusioned with this country, more than ever before.
This disaffection of mine has nothing to do with having just lost an election, thus not getting my own way. I have been on this side of the electoral divide before. I have and I will continue to accept bonafide election results because it is part and parcel of the constitutional framework, one which I had signed up for. And, although who was voted in this time around has a lot to do with my angst and with my frustration, I am, more so disillusioned with the American electorate.
As has been said by others, so many times before, the people chosen for public office are but reflections of the majority of the electorate who elevated them to those positions. Granted, though such choices which were made were legal under the US Constitution, they were not always based on what was moral, what was well informed, what was wise, and what was selfless. Those constitute the downside of the principles and of the practice of liberal democracy, a noble ideology, though fallible like all the rest. But when the philosophical bent of the majority is geared towards the dehumanization and to the disenfranchisement of the minority, with an attitude of gloating, that is just too much for me to bear.
The elevation of one political party to the pinnacle of power should never present an aura of fear for anyone, especially if those individuals who are made to experience that discomfort are all law-abiding citizens and are all still patriots as far as the Constitution is concerned. What has helped to fuel the flames of my discontent, perhaps more than anything else, is the hypocrisy of people who have long touted themselves as the moral pillars of society and as stalwarts of political correctness.
Their hypocrisy is most glaring when they either suspend the precepts which form the basis of their morality, or when they, on a whim, twist them in order to sanitize what is patently evil, and then try to make others who chastise them for their hypocrisy feel guilty and unpatriotic. One can wash off the mud, one can do a manicure and a pedicure, and one can apply perfume, powder, rouge and lipstick to a pig, but none of that can ever or will ever turn that animal into anything more than what it is — a pig.
It is such hypocrites who now find themselves in the current majority within the electorate, even more than the people to whom they have given the reins of power, who draw my ire. They are accurately described by the Good Book in the following words, although such words do not act as a balm for my current state of disconsolation:
“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!”
And, also, there is another quotation from the Good Book which describes their seeming inability to embrace the huge mountain of untoward facts which have flooded the senses of practically everyone in society over the past few years, about people and about policies, which preceded the election. In fact, they have done so in the absence of anything which, remotely, looks like policy. Again, the words, for the moment, are not proving to constitute an effective salve for the wounds which their hypocrisy has inflicted upon my heart and upon my mind:
“The god of this world [Speaking of Satan] hath blinded the minds.”
And, again, another reference describes such people as those:
“who hold the truth in unrighteousness.”
If the choices which were made by those hypocrites who are in the majority are tantamount to choosing Barabbas over Jesus, thus threatening us all in so many different ways, that is one thing, but to seek to justify such choices in the name of The Almighty only serves to profane His holy name in the eyes and ears of the world, which contains those individuals who are seriously considering making a commitment to Christ. This angers me greatly. If I did not know God for myself, I would never be a Christian on the basis of their flagrant hypocrisy. I have, however, found solace in the following words, remembering that God, who is well able to take care of Himself and of His affairs without any assistance from mankind, will deal with such people in His good time:
“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”
Many there be, oh Lord, who flout and who squander their time, but they shall be appalled at themselves in The Day of Judgement. They proclaim to the world that we are a nation of law and of order, but, while in the middle of their sanctimonious pronouncements, they wink at those who have violated those very tenets when it is convenient for them to do so. They have manipulated Holy Scripture and the Constitution, thus threatening the continued existence of the country. Again, a passage of scripture from the Good Book, which has been oft quoted, is appropriate for such a time as this:
“If the foundations be destroyed, What can the righteous do?”
The irony of it all, in respect to the behaviour of those sanctimonious people of which I speak, is that the groups of people who they oft criticize and oft condemn as morally bankrupt appear more above board and more upright about their lives than those moralists who shroud their pharisaical self-righteousness in glorified cloak and dagger garments.
Go ahead and pick your political tribe. Go ahead and devise your political strategy. Go ahead and then play your political games, but leave The Good Book and leave the God of the Good Book out of all of your hypocritical schemes. Enough! Enough! Enough already!
