After the fire – feed the lions

After the fire – feed the lions

We know the story of Emperor Nero.  Allegedly, he had a great deal of Rome burned down in order to build a new palace (supposedly 100-300 acres in size).  Whether that is true or not does not really matter.  What is true is that Nero needed to deflect blame from him and put it on someone else.  It is equally true that the masses needed an easily identifiable victim or victims of their wrath.  After all, they were wronged (they had lost their home) and someone had to pay.  And that someone had to be THEM (whoever THEM was).

Nero hit upon a perfect solution.  Small minority, easily identifiable, obviously different from others, and unwilling to “blend in” so you will have a ready source of fodder.  In other words, the Christians.  Burn, crucify, and, best of all, feed them to the lions at the games.  The las was perfect as it entertained the masses, reinforced the hate, and cut back on you lion feed bill.

Lesson Learned

I know that Nero did not start this technique but he seemed to have perfected it. In addition, this is a good example that everyone has some knowledge of.

Prior to Nero, it seems that the Roman Empire left different beliefs alone as long as they paid their taxes and did not try to overthrow the government.  Leaders and governments that followed Nero seemed to follow his example for centuries after that, up to this very day.  This was the creation of an internal enemy that you can demonize for society’s ills, whether or not there was an external enemy.

One of the ultimate ironies is that, when established as the state religion, the Catholic Church fostered the very same form of misdirecting the masses for centuries by blaming the Jews for damned near every ill that happened or could be invented throughout Europe.  If you doubt me, remember the Inquisition was sanctioned by the Catholic Church, and it did not officially end in Spain until the 19^th century.

The number of government-sanctioned abuses of Jews are probably to innumerable to count: from the aforementioned Inquisition in Spain to the Programs in Easter Europe to the Final Solution of Nazi Germany.

But That is Not All

If this was only about mistreatment of Jews in Europe, it would be tragic enough but that is only one example.  The fact that is spans so many centuries makes it the most obvious first example.

From the various society’s “untouchables”, to Western European treatment of Slavs, to Israelis treatment of Palestinians, to Muslims treatment of Christians, to English treatment of Irish, to American treatment of Blacks they all of them had one thing in common: Leaders blaming a group for the ills of society and the masses following their leaders.

Now we can discuss the reasons one-by-one for the causes for this but it really does not matter.  All of them are a method of creating a pseudo-enemy to misdirect the masses.  The less informed, the less educated, the less independent the masses are; the more likely they are to be manipulated.

Why is it Still with Us?

The answer to this is simple:

• Bad leaders have no solutions to the problems that they have created. Bad leaders are smarter, or better, than the masses:  they have the same vile biases as the bottom of the society.
• You have a large enough group at the bottom of society that is ignorant or uneducated enough that they can be manipulated to blame others for their problems (It’s not my fault). That or they are conditioned by their social structure to be predisposed to the bias in the first place.

This is the reason we see this kind of junk so prevalent in countries that have repressive governments, especially those governments that do not provide free press and universal access to education.

Even then there is no guarantee that it will not happen in an open society.  Think about it: it has been happening in the United States in the treatment of Blacks.  We have been treating Blacks as our enemy for far too long.  Only in recent years has it seemed that the majority of Americans finally made it politically incorrect to do this.

But not to worry, Mr. and Ms. Bigot!  We go a new low-life Bigot-in-Chief.  Trump has taken up the baton and set his sights on not one but two enemies.  They were both there before but they were second tier.  Now he wants to put them on the first team.  Specifically Mexicans and Muslims.  Lord help a Mexican Muslim is all I can say.

Once again: Ignorant Leader leading Ignorant Masses.