Waking Up WOKE: Gaslighting

Gaslighting evolved from a 1936 play “The Gas Light” which was made into a 1944 film which won for Ingrid Bergman the award for Best Actress. In these artworks, the villain would resort to making the gas light of victim’s home to be dimmed when she was alone so that the concepts that can make her guilty such as being a kleptomaniac can sink into her consciousness and make her actually guilty for things she has never done.

Only recently I came upon a WOKE propaganda which focused on forgiveness. It said:

“The first ones to apologize are the bravest. The first ones to forgive are the strongest. The first ones to forget are the happiest!” Quite convincing, right? In fact, you are right away attracted to the seemingly logical wisdom of the premises.

But I would like to take the challenge as a philosopher of instruction. Let us take the first premise and consider its grain of truth. Yes, in a simple situation when the offender asks for an apology upon realizing his mistake, that’s truly being courageous. But if the offender’s apology is contingent or conditional and says a different spirit like “I’m sorry if I have offended you.” then the spirit is right away changed because it is based on a condition or contingency evidenced by the word if. Moreover, some people are considered the bravest but they have never been recorded as to have apologized. Consider the Vandals, the Huns and the Visigoths! So, I wonder what the WOKE people mean when they say the bravest.

The second premise focused on those who are first to forgive. Now, does this mean that people will have outdo each other in being first to forgive? Does this mean also that you can already send your forgiveness to the offender even if he has not yet apologized? Now, that is very WOKE! Woky and wacky! Now, we hear of people showing forgiveness right away because they say they do not have the right to judge others! Wow! Imagine even outdoing the Christ Who as a Man called the Pharisees a pit of vipers! But let us say, it is His Divine nature which operated then. Now, let us therefore emulate Pope Francis who do not want to judge against others even those who are homosexuals performing sodomy! That would place him among the strongest according to the premise and therefore, let us enjoy the church right now which is wracked in scandals and indecision. For the first time in the history of the Catholic Church, we have now a pope which, like the Russian Orthodox Church, has to resort in the synod, and which if you investigate closely Russian history is just a ploy of the Tsar and is not therefore divinely-inspired. Forgiveness is only deserved by one who had sought forgiveness. But I don’t see the sincere effort to seek forgiveness of one who claimed that he had even prayed the novena to “survive the night” or one who thinks that she “thought that it would even last some months more before she would be out of an uncomfortable situation”. Now, are these people trying to make us feel guilty?

The third premise focused on forgetting the transgressions of the offender. The propaganda made those who are first to forget the “happiest” of the lot. Are we to believe then that the inhabitants of heaven are all suffering from amnesia? But Yahweh is a just God and if we are to exclude the Divine, St. Joseph is called a just man. A just man does not forget transgressions made against his person and therefore he had to ask the question even if it’s just in his mind why the Virgin Mary is with child? “Great is the power of memory.” said St. Augustine and therefore, one should not consider the oblivious ones in the mental hospital as the happiest ones. One should even pity the elderly who is afflicted by the Alzheimer’s disease as pitiful as it pains them to try recognizing people and recalling events retold them.

Now, please, do not force into us your idea of forgiveness when we have in fact, continually just remained silent as you tried to experiment on your ideals despite our obvious concerns and reminders. Do not ram into our throats your indignation about the expose made concerning the things you have done. You can’t gaslight us into feeling guilty about how we made you uncomfortable because it was your own actions that brought this upon yourselves. Be courageous enough to admit your mistakes for once. Be strong enough to forgive each other in encouraging each other to continue doing wrong. And if such WOKE propaganda does not impress us, be happy that we will forget any grain of truth laced in arsenic as part of our daily bread.

Ricardo B. de los Santos
Propaganda Spoiler