Forum: It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature or American people

Published 1:30 am Saturday, August 26, 2023

By Ron Friesen / Herald Forum

“It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature.” Some of us oldsters remember this from a ‘70s era margarine commercial which claimed the margarine tasted just like butter. Well! Mother Nature was not amused by being fooled. A scowl with lightening and thunder followed.

We have been fooling ourselves about many things, and I wonder what the reaction will be when those having been fooled realize they have been taken for a ride. Here are just two.

Climate change: How long have we been fooled into believing that it is just flucuations in the normal weather? How long have we been fooled into believing that as a country, a state or as individuals what we do does not matter? It does not matter what we eat, how much we throw away, or how much gas we burn, right? I mean, everyone else is doing it so Any effort on my part is meaningless and useless, so why even bother?

And so we go, like lemmings over the cliff. And all those hostile voices during covid restrictions who said, “Don’t be sheep!” are now bleating in conformity to the fossil fuel and coal industries. Meanwhile, Mother Nature is barking back at us, giving us a preview of what will happen if we continue to be fooled.

MAGA: “Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth.” Guess where this came from? It is a law of propaganda from the Nazi offical Joseph Goebbels. Psychologists often refer to this as the “illusion of truth.” Those convinced the lies are truth cannot be dissuaded by any logical arguments, because they “know” it is the truth. Belief always trumps logic (no pun intended). Even worse, those believing the lies insist it is everyone else who believes in lies.

Adolf Hitler employed these classic tactics, and today we see these same tactics being very successfully employed by Donald Trump and the MAGA propoonents.

Germany was facing huge economic problems following WWI. Hitler declared with a combination if promises and lies that only he could return Germany to its previous glory. Germans bought the deception, got rid of its parliament and Hitler became ruler. He used unheard-of at the time deficit spending on war materials and infrastructure to bring Germany’s economy back from the brink. But then the only course of action to pay back the deficit was to wage war and pillage Europe.

If we look at our economic history, the last 40 years are very revealing. Republican presidents are elected after telling us how bad the economy is and only they can fix it. And sure enough, they fix it all right, by huge deficit spending which they always denounce but vote for during a Republican presidency. The economy roars to life which pleases investors. But there is always a hidden price in the form of stagnant wages and inflation.

Then a Democratic president follows and has to clean up the mess, during which time, Republicans moan about the state of the economy under the Democratic president. What we are seeing today is just more of this same cycle. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

During our present run up to the 2024 elections, what term of derision has been getting the most use? It is “woke.” If the lies are beyond dispute, the last refuge of the liars is to ridicule those calling them out. These are desperate people. And desperate people do desperate things.

And that is what has me on edge and in guard.

Just as it’s not nice to fool Mother Nature, it’s not nice to fool the American people. I have great sympathy for those who have been fooled, but as desperation mounts with more and more lying, those who have fooled can be dangerous.

Neither our planet nor our country needs to be destroyed in order to correct the lying. But that also means the “woke” cannot be dismissive or apathetic. We must be ready to confront the lies, and at the same time be understanding of all who have been fooled.

There but for the grace of God go I.

Ron Friesen is a longtime Marysville resident, a retired music teacher and community and church musician and is committed to community improvement.