All Slander All the Time

That is the title of an article in today’s JS written by John Ellis a former columnist for the Boston Globe. Ellis writes “the vast majority of those polled described the political advertising this year as “very negative” to “extremely negative”. My opponent on her mailer last week showed a dump truck dumping poisons, paint and oil into an open hole labeled “Landfill”. She picked up on the theme of the small crowd of extreme environmentalists who have poisoned the atmosphere in Peoria County with their half-truths and falsehoods. Mr. Ellis writes “In the midst of all these negative messages, one would expect to find a broad, thematic campaign that aspired to something bigger than ‘he voted for toxic waste dumps and against your unborn child’. Political parties are all tactics and no strategy. They spend millions of dollars micro targeting supposedly single-issue voters and bombarding them with negative messages about the opposite party or party’s candidate alleged disdain for those concerns. Ultimately, the reaction of this ceaseless negative barrage will be the rejection of both major political parties. Americans share two overriding beliefs: Tomorrow will be a better day and the idea of America is fundamentality important. That critical mass will eventually embrace a party of hope and mission. A new political party that speaks to those beliefs will emerge. All slander all the time eventually collapses of its own foul weight.”

During the hearings on the PDC Landfill Expansion, I received numerous e-mails and phone calls issuing threats to me about the next time I ran for election. I was the first “yes” voter to stand for election since the “no” vote and won despite the facts detailed in my preceding blog. The radical environmentalists allegedly threatened Peoria Park Board Trustee Stan Budinski who publicly announced support of the expansion, that they would work very hard to defeat him when he ran for reelection. Mr. Budinski recently announced he would not run for election.

During my reelection campaign, the radical environmentalists continued to spread their slander of my support of a “toxic dump” and my opponent picked up on the theme. These RE”s along with other groups and individuals with axes to grind very nearly defeated me on single issues.

They failed.

In 1931, Aldous Huxley wrote a book titled “Brave New World. Twenty seven years later, 1958, Huxley wrote “Brave New World Revisited”. I encourage all who vote to read these writings combined now in one book. Mr. Huxley has predicted that “groups” could be turned into “crowds” that often get ugly. During and after the Landfill hearings, some of these crowds got ugly with threats of dire consequences if the board did not deny the application. Huxley also predicted that we would become a soft nation seeking protection from fear and desiring to live in a perpetual state of happiness and security. This is a condition that makes any country ripe for the taking by demagogues such as Hitler, Stalin, Saddam, Osama and a large number of lesser demagogues here in the United States, some of them extreme environmentalists who do go as far as to commit arson and physical violence to those who do not agree with them.

In Brave New World, Huxley tells of people so wrapped up in their own attempts to feel good and to feel safe all the time that they do not realize what is going on around them. When they do, they react many times for all the wrong reasons. Hearing and reading screams that PDC and the County Board is putting “toxic in our water that will make Peoria a ghost city” caused many people to become very stressful and seek an outlet for their emotions. Reason gave way to fear. People in this state of fear for their safety and happiness eventually are soothed by what Huxley fictitiously calls “soma” which we today would today recognize as being in a safe happy state or a hypnotic state being soothed by falsehoods, circuses and game playing. Many resort to alcohol excesses and the excessive use of hundreds of drugs of all types. In this state of restrained responsibility they look for false leaders who play on their imagination and lead them to abandon reason.

Unfortunately, people have been led to believe that the safety of our community is threatened by a grave danger to our water and air by the expansion of a locally owned solid waste landfill. Some people are under severe stress and look for someone to blame and something that will guarantee their safety. Huxley tells us how even as early as 1931 how we can all be safe and happy. The results are predictable for those who can reason. Fortunately this Brave New World is fiction. Brave New World Revisted is not fiction. Neither are the half-truths and falsehoods being circulated by small groups about the long term safety of metallic waste legally accepted by our solid waste landfill and approved by the Illinois Environmental Agency.

Ellis writes “A general rule of politics is: It’s not the action, it’s the reaction. The reaction to the onslaught (of half-truths and falsehoods) is aversion; qualified, capable people avoid politics and the political process at all costs, thus diminishing the talent pool. You’d be crazy to get involved. It’s bad and it’s only going to get worse.”

John Ellis believes that this country in dire danger of becoming a socialist country thru repeated lies, threats and false promises made by our political parties and politicians. He believes that unless our two major parties change their methods of electing candidates that our only salvation will be an emergence of a party that speaks the truth and people can believe in. Both parties are trying to say they are doing just that but many do not believe them. In fact, so many distortions of facts are disseminated by the political parties and the press that many people do not know what to believe. Too large a portion of the populace appears to be losing its individual reasoning ability. The individualism that developed this country will become a victim of demagogues. Small radial groups will bring down the small and large entities that have given us the opportunity for prosperity and safety for most all of the populace of the United States.

As has been said many times; be careful what you ask for, (safety and happiness)you might just get it in the manner described in the writings of Aldous Huxley.