The misguided bigotry of privilege and self-entitlement.

When we view a series such as Madam Secretary or Designated Survivor, we begin to see the bigger picture that exists beyond the provincial scope of your own uninformed community. Regardless of the mythical idealism presented in such shows, they stem from an amalgamation of real-life scenarios that exist around us daily, the influence of which finds its way into a script writer's creative development of plotlines and characters. As such, we begin to understand how that bigger picture, nationally and internationally, directly affects our not-so-isolated neighborhood. We also begin to realize just how much relentless, mind-numbing, puerile, misinformed, and monumental crap a government representative has to go through to find the golden mean of compromise and the middle way of cooperation in diverse and impossible situations.

People like Hillary Rodham Clinton, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, Madeleine Albright, Warren Christopher, James Baker, and George Shultz — all pivotal Secretaries of State over the past forty years — should come to mind as you read this, for they represent the movers and shakers of U.S. policy, representation, and public service in action. I, for one, do not envy their former positions as Secretary of State in the least; I would be in a padded room right now if I had to take on all the petty, selfish, primadonna interests of self-entitled, misinformed American citizens, privileged foreign diplomats, or rapacious bad actors who constantly look to create unnecessary self-centered drama both domestically and abroad.

On this note, I am using the position of U.S. Secretary of State in this article as both a prime and symbolic example because it is just that kind of high government office where all the action takes place, where you are right in the middle of everything and anything that could potentially happen — and probably will happen — at any given moment. However, feel free to fill in the blank with anyone’s name at the local, state, or federal level; you will end up with the same scenario in varying degrees of drama, conflict, and stark, misguided, judgemental protests on what is perceived at the moment as right or wrong, good or bad, nature versus nurture, or the infamous arguments centered around what is ethical versus what is legal.

With this in mind, I think it is fair to say that those of us who go through life lacking a more worldly understanding of our global human family should keep their uninformed opinions, misinformed assumptions, judgemental prattle, and ‘carrot leading the jackass’ convictions to themselves. Seriously, folks, would you want the job? Do we even have an inkling of what it takes to run a county, state, or nation? I hear a resounding ‘Hell To The Fuckin’ No!’ coming on. Instead, what do we do? We sit back, watch some schmuck spew disinformation on Fox News, and pass the buck to some schlep who has the guts to step up to the home plate and take a swing during an election. If he or she hits a home run with bases loaded, we love them. On the one-in-a-million chance that this ever happens, we would be better off playing the lottery that day. However, as soon as said representative is perceived as striking out or getting nailed at first base for even daring to make a mad dash after bunting the ball, we suddenly feel the need to shit all over them — as if we were ever fully informed on what actually happened in the first place. Like idiots, we base our assumptive, kneejerk criticisms on the symptom or end result of the marketed optics instead of logically and reasonably looking at the cause of the situation or the path that was walked leading up to the final result.

Let’s be honest, folks. We are constantly creating our own infantile, cannibalistic edition of Mad Libs, filling in imaginary blanks with inflammatory disinformation and skewed criticism for the sole purpose of ingratiating our own self-fulfilling prophecies of hatred and fear, resentment, and small-minded megalomania. Some of us are quite obtuse about this and need to be knocked down a few pegs with a sobering reality check. I recommend a more universal form of diplomacy — a good old-fashioned foot in the ass! This brings us to the next point, the small-minded protest. In truth, the act of protesting economic, social, communal, or political issues comes down to two basic types:

1. The authentic protest is founded on one’s genuine, firsthand, or frontline experience on the issue at hand. The living knowledge of what is taking place is authentic for the people directly affected. The issue can be a direct affront to one’s humanity, community, region, country, or planet. It can be an injustice to their health and well-being, their economic equity and communal stability, their legal or political representation, or an ecological issue that affects the future standing of many neighborhoods and nations.
2. The small-minded protest is founded on one’s sense of misguided self-entitlement, preconceived notions of societal privilege, misinformation, disinformation, zealous egomania, selfish elitism, and the white picket fence mentality known as NIMBY. It is also based on the distorted, abstract notion that we already know all the facts of a given scenario and have already made up our minds about the missing facts we never had — or didn’t care about. This is usually regarding our sorely myopic assumptions about the ‘right and wrong’ of conflicts elsewhere that remain far removed from our direct line of sight. An example of this would be someone else’s culture, society, or country — one that we have never witnessed firsthand and have no intention of ever visiting, absorbing, or understanding in the genuine, firsthand, or frontline manner mentioned above.

This is where both the authentic and the small-minded protest begin to intersect with elected representatives and government officials — and where we begin to see the bifurcated difference between the two. It is the authentic protest that tends to be aligned with genuine civil rights issues facing women, people of color, poverty, unemployment, LDCs, and the LGBTQIA+ and ASD communities. However, the small-minded protest is usually guided by the bloated, assuming, spoiled brat expectations of the ‘members-only club’ mentality, self-centered privilege, self-entitled agendas, political and religious zealotry, the preservation of systemic and aversive racism, elitist power grabs, conspiracy propaganda, sociopathic fearmongering, homophobic and xenophobic rhetoric, character assassination (e.g., slander, libel, rumors, gossip, backbiting), and our glorious culture of rape designed to denigrate and disempower everyone and anyone with breasts and a vagina.

As mentioned above, those of us who go through life lacking a more worldly understanding of our global human family should simply be quiet — as in ‘shut your piehole’ quiet — and let the intelligent people do their jobs. Let go of your self-centered, small-minded protests of imagined privilege and fabricated sovereignty. Read books, watch documentaries, ride a bike, join a gym, grow a brain, or just get a life. Stop acting like you know what’s going on when you have never walked in the other person’s shoes. Better yet, take a trip to the last place on Earth you would ever imagine yourself in; I suggest a location that is at least in a different timezone, country, or latitude to gain some real perspective on your life. You could even do what my wife and I did — hitch a ride on a spaceship to parts unknown. That will surely give anyone a new perspective on life. You might even learn how to rub two brain cells together to produce an original thought. Only then will we finally understand the inane rigors and gonzo shenanigans that come with being in public service as a representative of the people. As the Star Nations might say, “vnth” (pronounced ven-TAH), which translates as “strength against greater odds.” Grow up, embrace the bigger picture, and be the solution you were always meant to be against all greater odds. VNTH!

About the author

Richard is the CEO of The Human Origins Foundation. As the author of a thought-provoking book series, he has a passion for the lost knowledge of our human origins throughout the cosmos, including extraterrestrial life, ancient astronauts, current affairs, and the human being’s place in the scheme of things. Stay up to date and be the first to know about his articles.

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Small-Minded Protests was originally published in New Writers Welcome on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.