Influencing an Agenda

In this time of peril I have to find myself surveying the times. I'm conflicted with trying to understand what appears to be the problems that we are in the midst of as a society and a people. What I have come to realize is that the problems that we are in the midst of that are being presented as the end result are a mere illusion or are indicative of a much greater problem. There is no denying that the social climate and the reality of the times are real. But the reality of the times is not the end all be all. I think these time are a byproduct of something far greater than the reality of the times themselves. I think our society has been victimized by something that is all around us but always remains unseen. Our times and perils within the times are the end result of social stereotypes and social agendas.

As I came across this reality, I had to ask myself how did I not realize this before? I feel bamboozled, hoodwinked and tricked by my own intelligence or lack there of. Everything that we have ever known as a society and might ever know is based off of these two things. My problem in realizing that fact was trying to piece together what makes these two agents of peril so overwhelmingly powerful. How have they been able to thrive for so long? Then I got it. I actually got it. Well, I think I got it. The beauty of a stereotype and an agenda based off of the idea of stereotypes is that they both attack our weakest link as a society. They both attack our lack of experience with each other and one another. Socially, racially, religiously, economically, the stereotype and the advertising of the stereotype which is the agenda, is the only experience or relationship that we might ever have with one another.

In this land of equal opportunity, that truth does not equate to equal experiences. I was convicted with this realization when I heard a particular subject matter about various faiths and the people behind the faiths. The details of the subject matter itself are not important. The issue that I had with the message trying to be conveyed was that it seemed to me that the message was depending on it being my only exposure to the subject matter itself. As if I could not have my own experience with the subject matter outside of the influence of the agenda. Or as if I didn't have my own outside experiences to compare the agenda to. That is what I realized a stereotype gains its strength from. It depends on a lack of experience or exposure. It excites a fear that allows for our vision of the world around us to be blurry and inconsistent. It is what allows us to fail each other. The irony of a stereotype and the agenda that follows is that it ends up being true by way of perception.

What makes them true? If you are a non black citizen and don't have a relationship with a black citizen, and your only exposure to a black citizen is the criminal that is headlining the ten o'clock news, then it is feasible for you to fall in line with the negative stereotype. That is the point and the power of the influence of an agenda. If all you know about a Muslim citizen is what you see in the local and national terror alert reports, your tolerance and understanding of Muslims being anything other than terrorists is what is real to you. Perception is reality. If your only relationship with a Hispanic citizen, or non citizen in this case is your local illegal immigrant report on the ten o'clock news, your perceived reality in seeing any passerby that could be Hispanic is that they just might be an illegal immigrant. This is what the stereotypes and social agendas have molded the times to consist of and conditioned our society to be. Why is what I do not know.

I don't know how in this melting pot culture, we still have such a separate but equal way about our society. We have the right to be influenced by so much around us, but still there are many that never leave there own kind socially, racially or religiously. We have the gift of our social and ethnic diversity and somehow we don't utilize it to its fullest degree. We are almost forty years removed from fighting for the right to be one society and yet, many still strive to find their niche within there own kind. I think the ability of stereotypes to run amuck is penalty for not utilizing what can make us special. It is reminiscent of the old bible tale of wisdom about the talents. If you take the gifts that have been granted to you and that you have been blessed with and bury them, you lose them all together when you don't use them. Our cultural diversity is the talent that can be buried and therefore lost. I think the stereotypes and their place within our society are slowly covering up and burying and not allowing us to see the beauty that our society is a product of.

As a society, we have to allow ourselves to gain our own experiences with each other. We have to find the room to experience each other to at the very least, find out if the stereotypes are true and how perception might differ from reality. Stereotypes prey on what we don't know about each other. They eliminate the desire to learn about one another and give us a false sense of security about the knowledge that is based on what we think we know about each other. If we don't learn about one another, then we can't learn from each other. That is the greatest peril of all.