Rallying Redux
I attended the Syracuse Sister Rally held on January 21 at the James M. Hanley Federal Building. I always vote but rarely attend rallies, and, two or three times, considered and reconsidered before I attended this one. Still, Saturday morning the sun was out; I needed a daily walk; and I figured the distance to and from where I parked my car would do. While people often gather together with people of like mind, the placards at the rally reflected diversity. The rally was not ideologically monolithic.
My experience is that even amid people of like minds, I often feel like an outsider. My participation in health care discussions usually results in my delivering a compare-and-contrast presentation of what medical insurance was like in the USA, Canada, England and France just prior to when the first HMO models were being introduced here. I like to start with terms and definitions so discussions don’t go off into the weeds, which, I myself often seem to do with my comparing and contrasting and my need for common understanding of terms and definitions used in the discussion. Right now, I know that I’m thinking out loud on paper about how I think. Let me try to get out of the weeds.
At the rally, I stood behind a sign that read “Love.” I like love. Yet, history shows that love of family, love of country and love of self don’t always manifest as ”Love,” as in compassion and understanding. Our positive human inclination to make things better leads to our seeking to problem-solve. Many if not most problems are deep rooted and systemic and sadly, it’s easier to see who manifests a problem than what the problem is.
I want to go into a discussion of how culture plays out in brain function but I won’t. I will share this observation: one of the Women’s Rally speakers forcefully characterized as authoritarian and disgusting the behavior of some local authorities, mentioning by name one such authority no longer in authority. Her forceful expressions of disgust triggered some clapping at the points in her talk when clapping seemed called for, but my perception was that most of the people I saw seemed to quiet down, seemingly resistant to the rage. Not all rallies are like that. Anger and rage can be catchy, feels powerful in the moment, and usually clouds rational thought. Happily, the gathering at Syracuse’s Sister Rally reflected positive engagement, reason and love.
Systems matter.
Authoritarian ideation stands on and depends on emotional reactions to instilled fear while authoritative/permissive thinking follows information and discussion. History proves that authoritarians exist on the right and on the left. Nonetheless, the term liberal wouldn’t apply to an authoritarian. Authoritarians, left and right, right and wrong, believe in their right to force their will on others.
Frequently, individuals schooled and disciplined with threats and anger grow up to become angry themselves, or too accommodating to aggressors, or both. Learned helplessness in the face of oppression can result in passive aggressive sarcasm, backhand remarks and other manipulative behavior. Femininity is too often associated with these indirect methods of communication. Gender bias manifests in most systems. Bullies use slang for women’s private parts to put down women and men alike. The pink cats’ ears pussy hats worn by many Women’s Rally participants grabbed back the objectifying power of that one slur. Good.
As the rally wound down, organizers asked attendees to tell the person next to them why we were there. For a couple seconds, I couldn’t come up with an answer. Then, both of us laughing, the man next to me and I both said to each other, almost in unison, lots of reasons!
The new president and some media suggested that those who attended the rallies should have voted as if we had not. Over two and one half million people voted for the new president’s opposition; this fact says something that needs to be remembered and repeated. The demographics of who voted for whom tell a story; and, who didn’t vote? Clearly, calls to make America great again were more effective rallying voters this election than were discussions about income inequality, a term developed by Italian sociologist and statistician Corrado Gini, that refers to the range continuum between the highest and lowest paid workers in a nation, and, not to situations involving street poets not earning the same income as heart surgeons. I know – boring – but factual! However, in a never-ending election cycle, I am certain there is someone rallying somewhere an alternate fact. Knowledge is still power. Where love is, there are answers.
