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Historians are going to look back at the early 2020’s with profound amazement, wondering how and why the people living in that time didn’t recognize the rise of new authoritarian, and if things are left unchecked, totalitarian rules and systems. There is historical precedent for these things, to be sure, and as I was driving into work today, my mind connected to the Spanish Inquisition.
Of course, the Spanish Inquisition didn’t just begin spontaneously. There were precipitating events that laid the groundwork for it, the struggle against the Moors, the unification of Spain through the Reconquista, the consolidation of the Catholic church, and the suspicion of the Jewish population, particularly that of the Marranos (Jewish converts who continued their Jewish practices in secret). These events led to centuries of persecution for those who did not “adhere to the faith” of Catholicism, which had at that time, been synonymous with the state. This lead to the expulsion of an estimated 500,000 people, the forced conversions of millions, and the executions of around 1500. The legacy of the Spanish Inquisition spanned over three centuries, leaving an indelible mark upon the world.
Hopefully you are seeing the rhyme. Today, a new ideology has swept into power, and is becoming incorporated into the government. This new ideology follows many of the same tenants of old ideologies, but with new masters at the core. For all of the professed progress that humans have made, we really haven’t changed all that much. We just use different tools. At our core, we are still people with the capacity for great good, and great evil, and the distinction between the two sometimes is just the perception.
People in positions of great power are using their power to expel their enemies from the common space. I am glad that I pulled back my time spent on social media. I firmly believe that anyone with a dissenting opinion from the new woke orthodoxy will in time, find themselves similarly expelled. But it isn’t enough for those who have gained this bloodlust. They won’t merely be satisfied in removing opposition from the common spaces. That is just the starting point. No, once the public spaces are purged of dissenting voices, then it will move through the institutions that have already been captured, spreading through society like wildfire. Those who stand will be silenced, quashed, or, as these things usually trend, eliminated. Any deviation from the new cultural norms will be looked upon as heresy. And no law, nor principle, nor standard, will get in the way of people intent upon committing such violence. Like the Inquisitors in Spain, they will become the law.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are in for dark times ahead. A new order has arisen, proclaiming to be angels, but using the same human tactics that have spanned this species’ history since time immemorial. All I can do is point and say “pay attention.”
A Place 4Politics 