It is 51.9 F and it is supposed to reach 70 today. Last year, on this date, we awoke to almost a foot of new snow, on top of five inches we already had. That was Mother Nature's April Fools joke. I guess that is why this part of the world is dubbed the Theater of Seasons. By all statistics we have had a fairly easy Winter; much nicer than last year. Yet, it came early and seemed to last and last, but, here it is April 1st and it seems to be over. The trees are budding, the birds are coming back, the Earth is awakening.
On Monday, I wrote about the Hegelian Dialectic. We might look how this has been used in a few more cases. Exploiting folks health concerns seems to be a major use of this tool. I don't know what Ansel Keys thought about, after he came out with his hypothesis about diet and cholesterol; but the flurry in which this untested hypothesis became 'truth' in the words of those who could make money on cholesterol lowering drugs, was phenomenal. There was a huge campaign to scare people into believing they were going to die young from a heart attack if they didn't get on drugs and change their diet. People forgot what their parents and grandparents ate. They didn't stop to notice that the heart disease, being talked about, was of fairly recent origin. Billions of dollars were made by the drug companies treating a phantom disease. It has, only, recently been shown that this hypothesis was not proven and there may be no relationship between eating saturated fats [butter, egg yolk etc.] and blood cholesterol. Once we believe something, it becomes like a religious truth, it is hard to give up. The health care and food industry are still making millions on this false claim.
The same thing occurred with blood pressure. Certainly high blood pressure can be a serious problem; but once drugs were found that may lower blood pressure, the standard, for what was an acceptable blood pressure, changed overnight. The same method for scaring people into a pharmaceutical solution was used. Millions of people spent a great deal of money on dubious drugs. The medical establishment largely ignored behavioral avenues which were known to reduce blood pressure.
There are many more examples in the health care industry. I am sure you can think of some. I think where the Hegelian Dialectic is used the most effectively is in politics. Folks running for office, all over the country, attempt to raise a concern, where none really exist, whether it be terrorism, crime, immigration etc. They get people riled up and of course the solution is their election. Once they are elected they generally forget the 'fear' they used so effectively; in fact, it may not come up again, until it is re-election time.
When this tool is used to get elected it is bad enough; when it used to cheat people of their Social Security, destroy the Postal Service, deprive us of our rights, wage war, imprison us for minor offenses, limit our freedom or rob us of privacy it is another thing. All this is being done, and more, using this method of manipulation.
Fortunately, we are waking up. We are realizing that fear, as a motivator for doing anything, is suspect. The war on terror is waning, despite all the hoopla in the media. We have learned to see who benefits by these so-called terror attacks. It is never the people who are accused of doing them. Who gains wealth and power by exploiting these events?
We are learning to recognize when fear is used to manipulate us. We are learning to reject all invitations to fear. As we give up fear, we make room for love. All of our decisions can be made with love. What will our world be like then?
Let us celebrate April Fools Day by promising ourselves we won't be fooled by being made, to be afraid, again.
Love and Peace, Gregg
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