Enemies

Daily Kos: Why it's okay to hate union workers

It's always easier to unite or control when there's a good enemy around. As I look back through my life (born in the US in 1960), I see there have been a lot of enemies.

My early days saw the communists, the godless rock and rollers, the dope-smokin', dirty, long-haired hippies, and the various civil rights groups as the enemy. Eventually, as those groups gained power, new villains emerged, the Cops, the hippie-hating, union thug, the Nixonian government, and though still mostly in power, the middle-aged, Archie-Bunker-like, white male were seen as the bad guys.

My adult years have seen an explosion of villains. The religious right, the godless atheists, unions, Asians, Hispanics, brown people, white people, Muslims, Reagan, the Clintons, welfare mothers, bankers, big government, big business, the liberal media, conservative talk radio, conservative Fox News, big-oil, the EPA, science, our education system, abortionists, anti-abortionists, terrorists, war-mongers, teachers, public workers and more have all been seen as villains by someone over the last thirty years.

There are a lot of enemies out there today. Maybe there always have been but I think our bi-polar political system and multi-faceted media environment make it very easy to create bad-guys today. Every group has a reason and an outlet to create their own bad guy. For every Tea-bagger being exploited by the conservative elites, there is some Anti-Tea-Bagger being exploited by the liberal elites. We all are haters and the hated to some degree.

I don't really think this is a good thing. In good economic times, its' probably not too big of a deal, we argue around the edges and life goes on with maybe a little isolated violence. In bad economic times, who knows, it could get away from us.

tnb