Cognitive dissonance cuts both ways

Am I the one holding onto a ridiculous belief?

The fact that 77 million Americans voted for a proven liar, grifter, convicted felon and rapist, was a hard pill to swallow. What’s coming out now about Syria is more like being caught on Mount St. Helens when it erupted.

Of course, that’s not actually true, I’m not there; I’m here and it hasn’t happened … yet!

I worry that I still hold onto the belief that it can’t happen here.

In 1945, Syria was a founding member of the United Nations.

In population and area, Syria is about the size of Florida; however, for 5,000 years it has been home to ancient civilizations and empires with many culturally significant cities. It was a French Mandate (a hang over from WW I) until the end of World War II when it was declared independent and became the largest of the Arab states.

Politics in the young country was chaotic until 1970. It drafted four constitutions in it’s first ten years and changed cabinets like seasonal wardrobes. Stability came at a high price when a military coup took power and ended constitutional protections in 1963. Hafez al-Assad seized power in 1970 and implemented a hereditary dictatorship which passed to his son Bashar al-Assad in 2000.

In the past 24 years, Syria has experienced civil war, a devastating four-year drought, mass migration due to food insecurity while also maintaining a tumultuous relationship with Palestine, and dealing with constant manipulation by oil-hungry countries.

Those things, though, were the visible layers of turmoil. What is now coming out is a level of evil most of us can’t comprehend or stomach. It is depravity we don’t want to believe possible. But it did.

Natalie Karneef posts Lucifer is Better Than Him, a guest post about Syria, by Jasmine, a refugee from Syria in 2015, written the day after Assad fled. Read the whole article … the following points are just eye-openers:

“There were lots of prisons in Damascus. Hidden prisons. …

“Only 300 people have been released, but there were maybe 100,000 in this prison. …

“People underground are dying every minute—there’s no water, no electricity, no air. Civilians are going in with hammers. They’ve been trying to let them out for three days. They’re coming out without legs, without eyes. Some of them are children. Girls of 13 or 14 years old."

“They have a machine to press the bones, and a canal where the blood flowed. …

“The thing that’s affecting me the most are the prisoners we didn’t know about. We didn’t know their situation. This is killing me right now. We didn’t know what they suffered. We didn’t know how much and how awful it was. …

“They raped women in these prisons. The women had kids and raised them in the prisons. …

One story that needs to be read will be left to that post. Imagine though: a 5-year old child, born and raised in prison, having never seen the sky nor a tree. What story could you tell that child? One doctor tried.

There are many things we don’t know about the coming Trump administration. All we have are his words and seeing the people he is appointing to important posts. He appears to be building a power base of Billionaires and people determined to tear the system apart. He is threatening anyone who opposes him. He says he will use the military to achieve mass deportation and seems to have no problem including American citizen children in that plan.

This shocking CNN video from Syria shows the finding of a prisoner who had been left to die and tells a story we need to understand. We’ve seen it before … absolute power and money corrupts absolutely and depravity is a downward spiral with no apparent bottom.

“But he would never do that …

“That was over there; it couldn’t happen here …

The Constitution and our legal system was designed to protect us from the whims of a king or a dictatorship, but we have now elected someone who seems to want that kind of power and control. Perhaps he fancies himself a benevolent despot; perhaps the people he’s surrounding himself with also fancy themselves as benevolent rulers. Perhaps.

We’ve always had a system that provided some guardrails against the worst players in our government. The next few years are going to test our system and test our commitment to the principles we’ve long said we stand for … the idea that all people are created equal and have certain fundamental rights, such as liberty, free speech, freedom of religion, due process of law, and freedom of assembly.

I’ve searched for ways to be of service. The election, obviously, did not go the way I had hoped so I’m still hoping to find that sweet spot between my abilities and the great need. For now, I’ll just keep writing about what shows up

First, I believe, I … and all of us … need to stay awake and recognize that we are not immune to political trauma. It’s sort of a backward conspiracy theory to think it can’t happen here. It’s up to us to make sure it doesn’t.