Homer vs. The GOP - A Classic Encounter With Deception

The Backstory

Today's blog post comes to you courtesy of a long-time friend, Patrick Tucker Kelly, who lives in Israel and posts on Facebook as Kelly Michaels. This morning, or evening, depending on whose clock you want to believe, he posted the following:

So the Republicans are attempting to overturn the ACA again...for the 56th time. They continue to waste millions of dollars on a bill that President Obama is guaranteed to veto, if it ever gets passed. Furthermore, this is a veto they have no hope of ever overriding, so why would they do this again and again and again? 

The definition of insanity is "doing the same thing over and over again but expecting a different result." The GOP's obsession with overturning the ACA simply confirms the reality of this definition.

I've followed the GOP-controlled House of Representatives and the fifty-plus votes taken to overturn the ACA, but I reached a very different conclusion about their motives, so I replied:

Actually they're not expecting a different result for doing the same thing. They're simply expecting, and will probably achieve, a result different from the one you think they're after. 

They know they can't overturn the ACA, but they also know that this course of action will keep their "sheeple" happy and blindly voting against their own best interests in the next election.

Because they're not really expecting a different result for their anti-ACA votes, they're not insane as in "batshit crazy." It's more like being "crazy like a fox;" or; to put it bluntly, it shows clearly that a bunch of sociopaths are running the once-proud GOP.

His reply:

Sociopaths is the word, George. I can't believe anyone votes for these people.

My reply began as a simple affirmation but mid-way through it morphed into this post:

You can't believe it because you have decided that thinking and skepticism are better than the false reassurance offered by those who peddle the snake oil of blind obedience and "absolute truth."

Look for more on this in my next blog post.

And here it is...

I wrote that sentence promising "more on this" because a blast from the past had just exploded in my cranium, and I knew I had much more to say to my friend than I could express in the disjointed snippets which make up Facebook posts. It arrived fully-formed as a palpable, 3-D connection linking what's going on in America today with one of the famous adventures found in The Odyssey by Homer.

If you've read The Odyssey, you know that Odysseus is the eponymous hero of that classic work of Greek literature and mythology.

On one level, The Odyssey can be read as a simple adventure story about Odysseus and the many dangers he faced in his ten-year journey to return to Ithaca and the home, wife, and son he had left when summoned by his king to fight in The Trojan War.

It is important to know that in the mythology of any culture, the hero is an exemplar who represents what is best, good, and right in the ethos of his or her people - an authentic human being, a unique individual who faces and overcomes the forces in life which lure others into leading inauthentic and corrupt lives.

Examined on that level, the adventures of Odysseus address the struggle all human beings face as they search for meaning and authenticity in their lives. This is the central theme of all hero tales.

The adventure in which Odysseus listens to and survives the song of the Sirens was the palpable, 3-D connection that exploded in my cranium as I replied to my friend.

The Sirens of Greek mythology were female beings whose beautiful singing lured weary sailors to death on the rocks from which they sang. Their songs promised everlasting peace and rest, which, it is worth noting, the sailors would find in death. In other words, it's the story of an ancient deception.

In much the same way, today's Republicans sing a deceptive and dangerous song to the American electorate.

In the House of Representatives, and now in the Senate, they promise prosperity to all in the form of tax cuts for the wealthiest among us as they simultaneously hold votes to overturn the Affordable Care Act, legislation which helps those who are not so well-heeled.

In lockstep they rail against "entitlements" which help the middle and lower classes tread water. In the next breath they tell us that the wealthiest among us, by virtue of their wealth, are entitled to an ever increasing share of the wealth of our nation - wealth produced in large part by people working for a disgracefully insufficient, so-called "minimum wage."

At the state level, Republican governors, like Ohio's John Kasich, seek rate increases in the regressive sales tax, which negatively impacts the least well off. At the same time, he and his counterparts oppose any increase in the rate of the more progressive income tax. Why, you may wonder, would members of the party which claims to hate all taxes seek tax increases of any sort? Why they're needed to offset the bribes...er..."tax incentives" demanded by and granted to their corporate cronies, of course.

But, like Odysseus, I've been blown off course. He by the capricious gods; I by the ill winds coming from Congress and the Ohio statehouse.

In The Odyssey, we learn that Odysseus was a favorite of Athena, the goddess of wisdom. She liked him and helped him precisely because he was wary and skeptical. He wasn't the biggest or the baddest Greek, but he was the most clever. You may recall that it was he who designed the Trojan Horse and he who led the raiding party that hid within it.

In the adventure with the Sirens, Odysseus put wax in the ears of his crew so they could not hear the song of the Sirens. He had them lash him to the mast of his ship with orders to tie him more tightly if he tried to get loose. He heard the enchanting songs and strained mightily against the ropes. He cried out in anguish to his deafened crew to let him go to those who promised everlasting peace and rest. Then he collapsed, weeping in despair as his ship sailed out of range of the singing.

He had heard the song of the Sirens and had survived, but not without experiencing the pain that comes from learning that what has been taught to believe to be truth is in fact a lie.

Like Odysseus, we face forces in life which conspire to deceive us. And like him we can take steps to shield ourselves from the harm, but not the pain that comes from the struggle to find the truth.  

A major threat Americans face comes from the siren songs of today's Republicans and their "christian" fundamentalist allies. Both sing songs which promise escape from the struggles of life, and like the Sirens, they are not lying. They're just not telling us the whole story.

They sing,

You can be worry-free.
You can be happy.
You can enjoy economic prosperity.
Just follow us without question and agree to believe that whatever we tell you is the absolute truth.
Wealth will surely trickle down to you thanks to the munificence of the super rich; and if it doesn't, you will know that you will reap your reward in Heaven.

Their song is designed to rob us of our most precious birthright, the ability to think for ourselves. Like the Sirens in The Odyssey, they are not lying. They're just not telling us the whole story.

The crux of their message can be summed up as follows: Ignorance is bliss.

For protection against this deception we do not need to put wax in the ears of our friends and have them tie us to the mast of a ship. As I told my friend, we simply need to recognize and decide that thinking and skepticism are better than the false reassurance offered by those who peddle the snake oil of blind obedience and "absolute truth."

What's this? Another cranial explosion?

Yes!  And it's a doozy! It obliges me to conclude this post with a bit of outrageous irony.

Rereading my final paragraph above, I realized how much the advice I gave my friend sounds like a comment made by the "patron saint" of the duplicitous GOP. It was none other than Ronald "the Gipper" Reagan, who appropriated an old Russian proverb and used it when talking to Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev about an arms control treaty saying, "Trust but verify." - Доверяй, но проверяй