Monday, April 12, 2010

The Denial Trance


I used to have it. Once you snap out of it, though, you can't go back.
It’s the glazing over of the eyes when a person’s reality is challenged by facts. You know, whenever you mention the contrary information out there: that this so-called economic recovery is a chimera designed to attract more fools to fleece; or that the FDIC doesn’t have enough money to cover our deposits when enough banks go under; or that the grid won’t be upgraded to provide reliable power to households; or that essential local services, such as fire response and public schooling, are gradually being defunded due to the disappearance of capital. The desire to avoid noticing the new harsh reality is a powerful hypnotic. People literally would rather die than look. They’re still in the trance.
I get the same denial trance look from parents when I question the logic of putting our most precious possessions onto a yellow school bus with no seatbelts for a ride down the highway - or worse - onto a tour bus with no seatbelts and no real windows. This EVEN after we've been conditioned for years to use those car safety seats, and use them properly , [“oh wait perhaps we installed it wrong, let’s check with the fire department just in case; can’t be too careful, after all it's about our kids’ safety on the road”]. But when the kids enter kindergarten, all that thinking goes out the window, along with bodies of children, unfortunately for some families.

The default position is to trust authority, because, by definition, they must have all our best interests in mind.

Therefore no-one can imagine that a wealthy corporation could have got that way by cheating others; or that a politician would seek office in order to vote in favor of donors wishes and against voters needs; or that the bus safety regulation proposals were thwarted by the bus manufacturers; or that your parish priest has been raping your neighbors kids and the bishop knowingly enabled him to rape even more kids.

Reality is that authority is populated by sociopaths because the system rewards sociopathy. And nobody wants to even think that's how the world works. So they tune out and shut up the truth-tellers: that's the trance.

But I think more of us are waking up all the time.