By Michael P. Riccards

Increasingly people of all stripes and guises are feeling in the USA … well, disoriented.

To be oriented in contemporary life, one needs to be attached or moored to some guideposts. That does not mean that all their lives are governed by absolutes, but we must have some places — social, intellectual, emotional, spiritual reference points — that give us direction and even attachments.

The clinical definition of disorientation is people not knowing their location, stability and even time and dates. In the United States, we have entered a social period of disorientation that leaves one in a state of genuine confusion and disarray.

Central to purpose in life, to our orientations, is a sense of who we are. When a candidate for high office denies another’s self-identity, he is creating a warp in which the electorate gets confused. When he denies a person’s citizenship when the legal evidence is so clear, then the diabolic racist intent is obvious. When a candidate says a Black candidate, self-identified and by others, is not Black, he is trying to really dispute that person’s message. It is beyond cynicism.

A good many Americans define themselves as Christian, especially in newer intense evangelical groups. In some areas such as the South, Catholics are not permitted to say they are Christian despite the historic fact that the Catholic Church is older than the beloved Gospels. As Fulton Sheen has said, the Church in fact help create the Bible not vice versa.

When the Orthodox Christians seek to set a higher test for true believers, it sets one so high they are disabusing themselves. Franklin Graham follows his father in being a lapdog for the GOP. The Catholic bishops are the Republican Party at prayer. Why do people contribute to those charlatans?

Protestants are so divided that there are factions of good people who are awaiting the Last Judgment, which allows them to ignore decadence at home, wars begun in far way places, and children who are neglected.

The Catholic Church, once one of the most structured of Christan faiths, embraced modernity in the 1960s, and it led to the chaos called Vatican II. The result was the opening up, which led to bats in the belfry. In the 1950s, about 70 % of Catholic adults went to Sunday Mass. Now in many dioceses, according to the Pew Research Center, about 20% go.  Once eating meat on Friday was a mortal sin (you could go to hell!). Then the Massachusetts bishops voted to allow fans at Fenway Park to eat hot dogs on opening day, which was Good Friday. Yastrzemski trumped the Council of Trent. 

When large elements of the self-righteous Christian community supported Donald Trump, the churches, preoccupied with homosexuality and abortion, simply told the faithful that this thrice married, conman from Queens superseded its traditional tenets of faith.

Christian identity is supposed to be based on love of God and one’s neighbor, but large elements of the white male segment have fallen victim to the outlines of violence, especially on race. Its frustration and resulting disorientation undergird violence and patriotism. Blacks have re asserted their identity, especially after police brutalities became so apparent. Maybe their real restoration should be in Black colleges and advanced trade schools. In terms of sexual identities and confusion, and because an Olympic contender was thought to be a man-turned-woman who clobbered a woman in a brutal  45 seconds, this confusion has led to an international debate on unfairness and gender changes.

No wonder we are suffering as a society and individually from disorientation, for our road signs are built on shifting sands.

So, what can we do?

1. Have a clear sense about where we came from, both individually and in the past, and what these older people experienced in their diasporas.
2. Read intelligent newspapers and magazines to get a more balanced sense of other people’s viewpoints and avoid the partisan or overly aggressive money-making media machines that exploit our ignorance, especially avoiding anything which contributes to the Fox empire. Remember also the New York Times is no longer the paper of record. It is run by a family more interested in computer based the news than reporting at honest length what is going on. Why did they not tell us Biden’s state before the debates?
3. In figuring out your own compass, help others so we can contribute to our continuing understanding about the need to hold fast to the good in the past and plan for change.
4. Lastly, to engage — disengage. Join some noteworthy associations that are not money-oriented and try to help the poor and disabled among us. To disengage, we must engage.

Michael P. Riccards, a former college president, is the author of 30 books, including “A Republic If You Can Keep it.”

Categories: Jandoli Institute, Michael Riccards, Politics