Predators that Bite

One scene in the classic film THE AFRICAN QUEEN depicts two humans being swarmed by biting flies that make them desperate to escape. Animals such as deer or horses can suffer the same natural torture, some committing suicide to end the madness. Most of us who love the outdoors know what it is to feel overwhelmed by black flies targeting our eyes and ears or mosquitoes or big deer flies piercing any flesh they can locate to feast on our blood and create sores that remind us of our vulnerability for weeks thereafter. Unfortunately, insects aren’t our only maddening predators.

After leaving my IT department to enjoy independent living, I soon realized that I—like millions of others—was going to be perpetually targeted by nefarious geeks who use their cunning to victimize. No wonder people feel angry and resentful. Hackers come into our homes via our cells or our computers or even landline telephones. They pretend to want to help us protect our devices when what they want is our identities. They annoy our contacts and do their best to gain access to our financial information—whether or not there’s much there to raid. They have no scruples as to whom they victimize. The old, weak, and mentally infirm are juicy prizes. Apparently, there’s nothing as satisfying as seizing someone’s rent money. And an election year declares open season on grass roots citizens.

Only lately was I alerted to the fact that among the hundreds of daily political and nonprofit pleas for donations in my email lie bogus super pacs that look cunningly like the real things. So someone like me may sacrifice funds that had been earmarked for visiting distant ailing friends to donate to thieves. Even well-meaning candidates may have representatives who exaggerate, using melodramatic phrases to attract attention and guilt. One email bemoans impending disaster while the next celebrates a victory that’s temporary at best. Who’s right? We the busy citizens have no expedient way of sorting good from bad, which makes us so frustrated that the urge to hide becomes almost irresistible. Many people block all political and/or nonprofit emails in self-defense. Why not donate AGAIN? Because our funds must pay our bills, that’s why. My $5.00 will NOT save the day and I know it. You need far more than that far more often. Duh!

We yearn for simple honesty and compassion. Why is there so little truth in our society? Politics merely mirror the general society where we are directed from corral to corral with falsehoods and poisons that are veiled behind good words. In politics, how are our favored candidates really faring? Stop screaming at us. Fear wears out. We lose the ability to discern value or scope. Can anyone wonder how people are herded into voting pens by single issues they think they understand? Oddly, even when citizens are told that their donations are NOT buying them the power they crave, they donate regardless. They aren’t bad people, just overwhelmed with seductive information that’s so deeply colored it’s no longer transparent.

“You can’t handle the truth!” is an iconic quotation from the film A FEW GOOD MEN. And maybe we the people can’t. But try us.