Slip, sliding away

I sit here feeling like I committed a mortal sin.  Even though I am a lifelong Democrat, I chose not to listen to the speakers last night.  Why?  Because quite frankly, I am tired of drinking Kool-aid.  I am tired of listening to the exaltation of those who have an agenda and are trying to get me to believe in something I no longer believe in.  The party is broken, the country is broken.  

I pondered my fall from grace (so to speak).  Why was I so dismissive of the First Lady, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, and even my choice Bernie?  Because this quadrennial farce is getting old.  I thought about the power of the spoken word.  I didn’t think of pulling the lever (a relative easy and non thing to do).  I thought of a suicide bomber going into a crowd and detonating a bomb.  Isn't that person motivated by what someone said?  The point is I am easily confused and oftentimes spirited to action by other’s words and encouragement.  When I act following that disposition, I may well act not from reason but emotions.  Good writers know this.  This is the hook.  This is what makes a speech effective.

Last night speakers to the one are motivational.  They can wrap a message in rhetoric, pull on your heartstrings, stimulate your thinking, and move you.  Riding in on the tide of prose, there lies a virus that once ingested begins the downward spiral into non thinking.  It is when we are in a fever and chanting and acting like some “Holy Roller” that we lose our individuality and huddle with the masses.

We are victims of our biases.  As inane and factually incorrect Trump’s speech was, his ardent supporters felt they were being transported by the rhetoric of their candidate.  They like the Democrats were moved.  We humans are like that, aren’t we?  It is our nature to coalesce behind one thing or another and to follow the lead of those who are enshrined on some pedestal.  In the end, we are like the lemmings who in the heat of the moment get behind the one who is out in front and rush head on.  Unfortunately, all that remains at the end of our efforts and troubles is a cliff.