The Need of Public Enlightenment

 I have learned to be careful about what I say, because the shadow of "PC" looms.  "Politically Correct" was coined a long time ago; ask Bill Maher.  He has made a career of this cryptic reason for social caution.  After the Trump presidency easily you could get killed saying the wrong thing to the wrong person.  This evil man with a sheepish grin, suave demeanor, and unassuming energy could be the poster child for passive aggressive.  In reality he is just a Southern televangelist, a smooth talking, money raising, snake oil salesman who turned America on her ear.  "PC" has been around for a long time, but now unhinged extreme survivalists are willing to go to bat for their own words, even if they don't understand them.  These offenders are a cult rallied by a great malcontent leader, Donald Trump.  After four years of his national "leadership" dissent to their cause results in violence.  We have graduated beyond "PC" to "Woke," and now people are getting killed.  I have learned to be careful about what I say, and part of that is understanding and respecting the freedoms America offers.  When I think back to more substantial times in American history, times which set examples, created civil standards, and defended the United States Constitution, the nature of American freedom was on display.  It was not easy.  For America to be free, it meant you may not agree with your neighbor, but you had the choice not to listen or pay attention.  Since Donald radicalized factions have become more vocal and even violent in their calls for recognition.  LGBT, "Pay attention to me!"  Once homosexuality was a personal choice, and most found it wise to keep it to themselves.  The internet changed this.  The immediacy of the internet has changed America for the worse along with the lock down of Covid 19.  Call it closet communism.  Staying at home and living in a computer is a communist dream.  It castrates the volatility of the human spirit and mechanism to react and become active.  Shouting through a computer terminal or iPhone is pointless, although we think it matters.  It satisfies our need for immediate gratification, but ultimately it will do nothing for our own preservation.  Doing something in person can effect change, because revolution is in the muscles.  Mother Earth's problems will not be solved in or by a database of information.  It would be wise to become reengaged in the physical world, but our physical world has been neglected.  When we became accustomed to living in cyberville, we began to ignore nature.  Now nature has been sacrificed to the god's of corporate America.  It has been happening for a long time this shift back to ugly strip malls and convenience stores.  When I travel in North Carolina, this is all I see.  Then I remember people are living in cyberville.  I pine for earlier decades, when I could go outside and feel good.  I have learned to be careful about what I say, because I have a new found respect for the freedoms of America.  For me it was a simple as understanding the way people choose to dress.  As a professional I developed a sense of personal code neutralizing the effect of wanting personal recognition.  While adolescents in their quest for maturity should seek personal understanding and identity, in the professional workplace anonymity is effective.  It removes scrutiny.  There are appropriate venues for both personal expression and professional behavior.  Dress in "Fayettenam" is far from standard.  Diversity is the operative concept in the dress of Fayetteville, and this diversity hinges on aggression.  It often does not embrace passivity.  Instead it wreaks with attitude.  It plays offense as its major strategy, and perhaps that is the most appropriate for a military town.  When we speak about a military town, rarely is it qualified as training for war.  It would be prudent to exemplify this, and it occurs on a subliminal level.  People know it, and they feel it, but it is unspoken in the mainstream.  Dress consequently is a subliminal reaction to the aggression of preparation for war.  We are all fighting for a living.  Ouch!  That is not pleasant.  Freely I will admit throughout my life I have been intimidated by peoples' dress, because it requires your accommodation.  It seeks you acknowledgement, and that takes energy.  The recognition of one's uniform perhaps is a core element of our identity.  Subsequently I make a concerted effort to acknowledge these uniforms and what they may represent perhaps making me a more open, friendly, and inquisitive person.  Often in Fayettenam the perceived message is offensive, and that requires even more energy to understand.  I remind myself we prepare for war, and it is disheartening.  It is disheartening living in a place where war is the focus.  War mongering is a shallow ideal, and businesses, companies, and corporations who capitalize on war are not virtuous.  They are opportunistic.  The overt conclusion of this reality is we are under attack, and it has become the accepted lifestyle.  The preparation for war at Fort Bragg effects every aspect of life in Fayettenam, and since Covid the boundaries and demarcation between war and peace have blurred.  Violence has become a way of life.  Without bolstered public education, there is little hope for enlightenment.