THE OTHER PANDEMIC [R, 4-16-20]

Christ In Winter-Reflections on Faith & Life for the Days of Winter

THE OTHER PANDEMIC   [R, 4-16-20]

The Covid19 pandemic understandably gets all our attention right now, but there is another pandemic that will have longer lasting and more disastrous results if we don’t control it. It is the domination system.

The dominators see the chaos and distraction of the corona virus not as an opportunity to be helpful, or to pull us together, to “get us through,” but as an even greater opportunity to extend their domination.

At one end are the super dominators, the economic and government power brokers who want to corrupt permanently the political and economic structures so that they are always in power and the only ones who profit from politics and the economy.

At the other end are the domination wannabes and the domination enablers. The wannabes want so badly to be on the winning side, the power side, that they consistently go against their own interests to be able to think of themselves as dominators. They are dominators by proxy.

In between are the smalltime dominators, the domestic abusers and the clergy abusers and officious administrators.

The wannabes and small-time dominators—those in family and congregation and school--are the willing servants of the super dominators, because they believe in the same system of domination. They must be on the “winning” side. It’s the only way they feel their lives have meaning.

Those are the ones who willingly pushed little children into the gas chambers in Nazi Germany. Or the ones who willingly snatch little children out of the arms of their mothers at the American border and push them into wire cages. Yes, there are plenty of small-time dominators among our neighbors who would gladly respond to a chance to expand their domination circle, all in the name of religion and patriotism.

Dominators don’t always use violence. As the ballad of Pretty Boy Floyd notes, “Some will rob you with a six-gun, some with a fountain pen.” The result is the same.

What predators at all levels—economy, government, community, church, family—have in common is that they not only want to have everything—all the power, all the money—but they want you to have none. It’s not about the winning, it’s about the dominating.

The easiest example of this to see is when a football coach or player is being interviewed. Often, he says, “We don’t just want to beat the other team, we want to dominate them.” That’s it, in one convenient sentence. [1]

The more chaotic the time, the more our attention is diverted away from them, the more the predators can get away with, not just for the moment, but in changing the whole system to give them more, lasting power. Changing the system so that it can’t be changed back from a domination system to a cooperation system.

Right now, every minute of the day, the dominators are using the chaos and confusion and secrecy of the Covid19 virus to extend their power, their domination--from subverting the constitution to hitting a wife--while we are all distracted with just trying to stay alive.

We were already in a pandemic—a pandemic of arrogance and selfishness and hate and greed and stupidity and Trumped-up fears, when the Covid19 pandemic hit. That is the pandemic “we” need to get through. Unfortunately, there is no vaccine against hatred and bigotry and greed and stupidity.

Christ does not save us from being dominated. Christ himself was put to death because he threatened the domination system. But Christ does save us from being part of the domination system. We can’t get by with some “Everything will be okay” bumper sticker approach. We have to be realistic, not naïve. Yes, we are to be as gentle as doves, but also as wise as serpents. [Mt. 10:16.] But, in the words of the church membership vows, we are to “Accept the freedom and power God gives you to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves.” The salvation of Christ does not save us from the domination system, but it saves us from acquiescence to its evil, saves us for resistance to its evil.

John Robert McFarland

1] I have written before of what I call the NFLization of society, the NFL lauding the mantra of Vince Lombardi, “Winning isn’t the most important thing; it’s the only thing.”