59 online
 
Most Popular Choices
Share on Facebook 9 Printer Friendly Page More Sharing
OpEdNews Op Eds   

Scapegoating and Our Sick, Evil & Satanic Society

By       (Page 1 of 2 pages)   3 comments
Follow Me on Twitter     Message Paul Evans
Become a Fan
  (4 fans)

Posted on Evans Liberal Politics , by Paul Evans

This is a warning to anyone who might be just, who might be pure in heart, who might still try to believe in God and Jesus and live a caring life:

Our society is evil. I'm not sure which, but (if one were to judge by how life is for ordinary people), one of the two following alternatives must be true: Either Satan has essentially won and no good and decent person gets a chance in this world, or else perhaps society has set itself up as some kind of tin "God" and is fully unjust and has become increasingly evil. All that most people, at least middle class and rich people, care about is "getting ahead" and getting more. For most of those, stepping on people is either the price that has to be paid or is something that is like a game, that is actively fun. Charity is something for tax breaks.

This is a corrupt society, this is Rome in the third century A.D. For the rest of us, for the little man, the poor and the disadvantaged, we have kept trying, kept fighting, but we never really had a chance, and it's just getting worse. If Paul Ryan and the House Republicans achieve any measure of success in their austerity measures (which include gutting and privatizing Medicare, for starters), life will just get that much more hellish for people like me.

In any case, I am 54 years old now. I have seen a lot in my life. And I know that whoever controls this world, it has actually become a sick, evil place where goodness, meekness, weakness and vulnerability, and yes, kindness and decency are actively punished.

If you are too good , or offend the wrong person, then you are actively scapegoated. Look in any introductory textbook on anthropology. It will tell you that ritual scapegoating is a feature of every society that has ever existed: how evil is that?

I have tried to live a good, decent and caring life. I never really hurt anyone at all. I was stupid in college and had a drinking problem and smoked too much marijuana back then, in the late seventies, but since then I have cleaned up my act and have tried hard all my life. I've received nothing but heartache, pain, rejection and grief. I was bewildered by this most of my adult life because my experience of life seemed to me to be that of a normal and in fact an educated and cultured person. I never understood why I could not succeed in life.

My problem is that, in particular, I am the variety of scapegoat known as the "mentally ill." You know us: the ones you avoid even speaking to, the ones you would never consider hiring for your business, the ones you make jokes about with your friends. The mentally ill are one of the particular targets of scapegoating in Western society. I've had it. It doesn't really matter what "they" do to me now. I put out poverty appeals on Evans Liberal Politics for a year and, in that time, I received two helpful gifts from kind and decent individuals, but nothing in the mail via the donation request here except one bogus check for $1,500 and tons of email scams.

Oh I will still keep trying and I am actively comforted by my own spiritual life and the love that Christ and the Holy Spirit and the Father show me all the time. But my material and defacto existence on this earth is not pleasant at all. More than just a rant, I wanted to give a few readers a heads up so that they might avoid this or at least understand it.

Right now 400 people in the United States control over 50 percent of the wealth. The lower 80 percent of us now have a measly 17 percent of the wealth. And we call ourselves a Christian nation? If we were, the tax structure would be progressive and the fortunate in this land would see to it that the less fortunate were provided for. But these well off people don't care and I'll bet you they are some of the most (officially, I mean) Christian people there are. Well I have news for you fat cats: you're about as Christian as any one of these Wall Street criminals is and it doesn't matter how much you go to church. You people would cross your own mother for the right amount of money. You're buying a stairway to heaven, only when you die, you CAN expect justice. Do you care about that? Apparently not much and that makes you evil in my book. And the whole nation is going that way.

It's like John Mellencamp says: "those who cannot connect the dots, hey, look the other way." Well I knew all this for the last six years in particular and my life was in a downward spiral. It in no way was my fault and there was nothing I could do to rescue myself. I can come to no other conclusion but that we live in an evil society.

Where is "do unto others as you would have them do unto you?" Where is "judge not, lest ye be judged?" Where is the caring society of a truly Christian people? No, either Satan has won on this earth or there is no God and there is no Satan and there are just too many people, too few resources, you would think. This is a society which has grown actively evil in a whole lot of different ways.

Personally, I am a Christian and I believe this world is THAT sort of evil and I also think that part of the reason I have had such grief in the last few years is that I have tried to live as much as possible for me with the caring of Christ. (Apparently that is a worse "sin" than being mentally ill.) I don't want to believe that these are the end times. I don't want to believe that God must destroy the world in order to save it, but I'm really thinking about that. I know there is little justice now.

So LOOK OUT. Never allow yourself to get pigeonholed as mentally ill. Look, some people need treatment all their lives, but that is no reason to shun us and scapegoat us. Look for some help on my page of mental health resources . I am in no way advocating avoiding treatment.... I'm just saying that the way society treats the mentally ill, as well as society's less fortunate (the poor, the drug users, the alcoholics, etc.) in general, is an active evil.

But what do I know, I'm just a news and politics website owner, right? There's a Gordon Lightfoot song called "Don Quixote" with the lyrics: "I have come oe'r moor and mountain.... I have seen the strong survive and I have seen the lean grow weak."

I'm 54, they've got me on really strong mental illness medicines, I have diabetes and COPD, my sister died, my mother died, I never found a woman to love and don't have any kids and my father, a Yale Ph.D., now has to live by a judge's order in a local nursing home. I took in two homeless people from a nearby homeless shelter and, frankly, they have made my life an additional hell. At this point, powers that be, I don't really care all that much exactly how you accomplish my final destruction. I am $15,000 in debt and I will never climb out of that hole; after my father dies, they will take our house away from me.

Next Page  1  |  2

(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).

Must Read 2   Well Said 2   Inspiring 2  
Rate It | View Ratings

Paul Evans Social Media Pages: Facebook page url on login Profile not filled in       Twitter page url on login Profile not filled in       Linkedin page url on login Profile not filled in       Instagram page url on login Profile not filled in

Paul Evans is a 54 year old website designer and book editor who lives in Wooster, Ohio. He owns and runs Evans Politics, a non-comprehensive news aggregation and commentary website with a lot of features including original content, streaming rock (more...)
 
Go To Commenting
The views expressed herein are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
Follow Me on Twitter     Writers Guidelines

 
Contact AuthorContact Author Contact EditorContact Editor Author PageView Authors' Articles
Support OpEdNews

OpEdNews depends upon can't survive without your help.

If you value this article and the work of OpEdNews, please either Donate or Purchase a premium membership.

STAY IN THE KNOW
If you've enjoyed this, sign up for our daily or weekly newsletter to get lots of great progressive content.
Daily Weekly     OpEd News Newsletter
Name
Email
   (Opens new browser window)
 

Most Popular Articles by this Author:     (View All Most Popular Articles by this Author)

Ron Paul from a Liberal Perspective and As a Republican Candidate for 2012

Supply Side Economics, The Bush Tax Cuts & John Boehner Completely Discredited

Rethinking the Abortion Debate from a Liberal Christian Perspective

National Political Campaign News Headlines and Commentary

Mental Health Resources & Advice from someone who has been there

What It's Like to Be Down and Out In America

To View Comments or Join the Conversation:

Tell A Friend