FROM MY CORNER

Donald Trump is not the core problem in America today. Rather, it is the depth of ignorance our corporatized society has infused in so many people as it has marketed its mindless pursuit of consuming as our basic way of life.

Trump’s supporters have been identified. They are to a great extent those whom America’s economy has not favored with good jobs and adequate income, those left in physical pockets of disadvantage.

But more, it appears they are literally ignorant. They are lacking in depth of knowledge beyond whatever idealized vision they have personally developed of life from their limited experiences with real knowledge.

What would a modern day Nazi do if he were confronted with DNA evidence that he had a few drops of Black blood in him? What would a KKK Clan member do with the same knowledge of himself? Would they not be rocked to the core of their racism?

These people have little wonder about the marvelous diversity that biological life produces as it step-by-step evolves in the human race. A biologist, whose name I have forgotten, once wrote that if one strips the skin off of anyone, regardless of color, there is no way of discerning what color they are.

There is no meaningful biological racial difference in people is the message. We are all of one race. Those who do not understand this fact depart of their own volition the human race. They define themselves out-of-existence, at least as the rest of us perceive ourselves to be.

When such a group so fervently embraces this kind of thinking they huddle together around a leader they feel will recognize them as being special. It is only then that they begin to feel personal self worth.

Trump is not exactly like them. But he understands them and their need. He uses it to augment his own deep psychological needs, to solidify his own self-created sense of worth.

The rest of us, the Americans who at least attempt to embrace all people, who try to transcend our own shallow consumerism, we have an obligation. Our challenge is how to deepen the future education of those who ignorant of their own ignorance.

Being human requires a depth of commitment few of us possess. But, it is vitally important. This social mindset that the corporate world has implanted in us, this shallow concept of consumerism, is a feeble foundation for our lives.

Religion has proven to be a precarious counter balance to corporate consumerism. Indeed, the corporate monolith has forged close political alliances with the belief systems of religion.

Corporate politics is today nurtured through corporate consumerism and religion. It is the rare politician who does not have several thousands of dollars of corporate money in his election chest.

It is the rare politician who does not profess religious belief as key to his qualification for leadership. Although Tom Jefferson first wrote that American religious freedom embraces the option of politicians being free to profess no religion whatsoever.

What has all this to do with the concept of ignorance? Everything. Political power as practiced today in America is founded on the double idea of profitable consumption and belief in a common religious concept.

The two concepts are strangely wed. Trump claims allegiance to both. His followers conceptually bunch the two together. And all of this, mired with racial ambiguous intolerance, creates intense social aggression.

Aggression threatens the more rational concept of non-violence by fanning the flames of intolerance. Intolerance is what turns eventually to violence. Violence is the result of ignorance.

We have a job on our hands to create a better-educated future America. The job will not allow us to think of ourselves as uninvolved consumers. Or uninvolved believers. Those of us dissatisfied with today must carefully reconsider things.

Today’s ignorance impacts all of us. It demands we all, in some way, become political activists of the future. Is that an easy concept to grasp? Is that to be given us by some politician?

Or is it an intrinsic capacity for self-worth inside ourselves that we must individually compel ourselves to develop? It is not an easy question to answer. It may require some disturbingly deep thinking.

Sorry about that.