Yelling Stop!

“Orthodoxy is Unconsciousness”-George Orwell

...and Homogeneity is Boring!
Diversity...of opinion, of tradition, of culture, of religion, of philosophy... of Love...Diversity is what makes Humankind interesting.
Pluralism is the American Way.
Whether a salad bowl, or a melting pot, or some combination thereof...that is how We move forward, together.
Diversity entails ambiguity...all is always in flux...the most salient feature of Universe is Change. This ambiguity is often confusing, and sometimes hard to understand, and this confusion often engenders Fear.
That Fear is why there are so many who wish to Arrest Change...to, as William Buckley said, “Stand athwart history, yelling 'Stop!'”...indeed, this is the easiest definition of “conservatism”, to slow down the roiling, churning ocean of Humanity, so as to have a chance to understand, and (it is hoped by some) to modify, or even reverse, that Change.
That this arrest and/or reversal is Impossible, without bloodshed and oppression, is often forgotten by those who so fear the future that they would do anything to stave off it's inevitable arrival.
So we go through the ,motions...the automatic, knee-jerk, motions...accommodating the fearful among us—allowing them a de facto Veto.
It is instructive that such a Veto, temporary as it usually is, so often involves violence and political oppression...there is simply no dam that can be built by Human hands that can undo, that can arrest, the Progression of History.
That some people build their careers, whether in politics or in the pulpit, or in some media, old and new, on this Oppression and Violence, in service of these attempts to arrest change is itself a part of the process. Change is always accompanied by Fear of that Change, and the correlated violence and attempts at Repression, and of retrograde movement.
Swirling in an eddy, just off the main current, around and around...believing that the small line of stones that they have piled up against the current can...somehow...change the course of the broader river.
But the river finds it's own course...and we will one day look back at these sad,confused people, with their inundated attempts at a dam, and think: ”well...was all of that hatred and violence and attempted oppression really necessary?”
“what purpose did it serve?”