Hands to Ears (Voluntary Ignorance)

In 1932, Aldous Huxley wrote “Brave New World,” a gross portrayal of what the future might become. We are halfway there. Among his observations: “Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.” Some make an art form of ignoring. 

The other day, encountering an old friend who has become oddly, ideologically unrecognizable, I was first happy, then mildly confused, then shocked, then sad.

This old friend, somewhat my senior, was at first glad to see me, then suddenly angry that I did not see the world her way, would not vilify President Trump. I asked her why she felt the way she did. I wanted to know, sincerely.

That, of course, was the beginning of the end. She said he was an “autocrat,” a word that I was impressed to hear from her. Her mentor, turns out, was the media.

When I asked what she meant by “autocrat,” she was somehow unable to expound, so I offered help, genuinely hoping to find some common ground.

Thinking about how the left bludgeons malleable people with their Huxley-like or George Orwell-like definitions, I offered: “Do you mean he is a ruler with absolute power, and that he wishes to concentrate power?”

“Well, yes, exactly!” she responded. I asked what powers he had concentrated. She was at a loss. I helped again, recalling the left’s talkers. I asked: “Do you think his DOGE effort, downsizing by cutting waste across the federal government, is an effort to concentrate power?” “Yes, Bobby, that is part of it, yes!”

I paused and noted that the federal government employs three million people, that Trump laid off 300,000 for not complying with laws, pursuing political agendas, not coming to work, or being wasteful. She got upset. “No, no, no, that is not so, I am sorry, he is an autocrat.”

I parried with something simple. I noted autocrats increase federal power, concentrate it; they do not cut jobs, give power or money back to states or people. I asked how he had increased federal spending when he was cutting it.

This was a difficult one. I felt bad, so I pivoted. “Can you tell me a policy you do not like?” She stammered, gathered herself, and said, “The way he used laws, broke laws.” I asked which laws he had broken. This produced more silence.

Again, I tried to help. Was she talking about…deporting illegals who committed felonies, using the military to stop terror groups trafficking drugs, deployment of the National Guard? “Yes, that’s it, that’s part of it, Bobby!” She felt relieved.

I slowed the conversation down, unpacked each item for her, noting that even if she did not like him, he had broken no laws in helping to stabilize and protect the country. His deportations, while challenged, are lawful, the Supreme Court affirmed.

I noted the presidency of Bill Clinton used two aggressive techniques against the then-Colombian and Peruvian drug traffickers, affiliated with terror groups FARC, ELN, and Shining Path – shooting down drug planes and shooting drug boats from gun-slung U.S. Coast Guard helicopters. This seemed mystifying to her.

I then inadvertently tanked the conversation entirely by reciting the ten times presidents since Franklin Delano Roosevelt had deployed the National Guard under Title 10 to stabilize cities, including under Lyndon Johnson and Bill Clinton.

When I started to explain the exact laws, groups supported, dates, and reasons for deployments, she cut me off, grabbed my arm, put her hands to her ears, and said: “Bobby, Bobby, Bobby, stop, stop, stop, no, no, no…I always liked you, but no, no, you are wrong, wrong, wrong…and I have to go, so sorry, okay, goodbye.”

And with that, she was gone. I was surprised, and not surprised, aware of the symptoms, the “cannot bear to hear truth” syndrome, the “exasperated by everything” epidemic, and I was honestly sad. I expected more from an old friend.

What I did not get to tell her, but do now in case she dares read what I write, is that she is missing the forest for the trees, so filled with the leftists’ Kool-Aid she has lost herself – lost the ability to discern how things are, not how others say they are.

Then, I would have recited Martin Luther King: “Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” In truth, the “Brave New World” is hers, created by the left. The truth lies elsewhere. It hurts when people get reminded of that. Such is the grip of voluntary ignorance.

Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, Maine attorney, ten-year naval intelligence officer (USNR), and 25-year businessman. He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (North Country Press, 2018), and “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024). He is the National Spokesman for AMAC. Today, he is running to be Maine’s next Governor (please visit BobbyforMaine.com to learn more)!