As I watched the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, I could not help but reflect on the important role that perception plays in the formulation of one’s worldview. I was also reminded of the fact that our perception is one of the avenues through which the enemy of our souls exerts his influence upon us. In my book, Not Just Any Old God Will Do (NJAOGWD), I discuss how the enemy has been using the culture war in our country to divide us as a people. To my dismay, what happened on January 6 at the Capitol was a shocking example of the culmination of his efforts. As I reflect on the events of that day, I can easily see two ways in which perception played key roles: 1) The invasion of the Capitol; 2) Law enforcement’s response to the invasion when juxtaposed with its response to protests conducted by Black Lives Matter.However, for this blog, I will only focus on the role of perception in the violent invasion. An examination of law enforcement’s response to the invasion may be provided in a subsequent blog.
While it would be easy to conclude that the people who stormed the Capitol are malevolent anarchists, subsequent reports indicate that these are merely ordinary people like those with whom we interact every day. They are teachers, firefighters, businessmen, grandmothers and grandfathers, etc. – ostensibly normal people. I believe that on some level, the vast majority of them were the victims of the enemy’s hi-jacking of their worldview through the gross distortion of their perception of themselves, of other people, and/or of God. The enemy has managed to accomplish this by the strategic manipulation of certain national leaders inside the government and people of influence outside of the government. He has convinced numerous people that the recent presidential election was stolen from the current president. But how could anyone be so gullible as to believe that in light of the fact that it has been widely reported that no credible evidence has been presented in court to substantiate this claim? After all, numerous lawsuits have been filed and rejected by judges in various states, some of whom were appointed by the current president.
I received some insight into the answer to this question while recently watching a video of a former speaker of the U. S. House of Representatives in which he rails against the evils of the Left. At the end of his diatribe, he offered several recommendations to his followers, one of which was to stop watching mainstream media. This was astounding to me as this suggestion alone, in my view, should have been a huge “red flag” to his audience. But assuming that many of his followers trust him enough to take his advice, how will their worldview be informed if they exclude the mainstream media as a valid and necessary source of information for their consideration?
This question leads me to my point that these mostly unwitting insurrectionists invaded the Capitol with the conviction that this path was absolutely necessary in order to “save” the Republic. They considered themselves patriots while in reality, they were insurrectionists. How is that even possible? Over the years, the enemy has used individuals like the former speaker of the House of Representatives to convince many on the Right that the mainstream media have a Left-leaning bias and therefore, should not be relied upon as sources of factual information. As a result, many Americans have excluded news outlets like CNN and MSNBC as reliable sources of information. They now rely mostly on conservative media outlets and even dark places on the internet that generate wild conspiracy theories.
In the final analysis, the way we see the world around us is informed in part by the information we entertain. As ridiculous as it may seem, the invaders of the Capitol perceived that their country was being taken from them through a fraudulent election and since they could not find redress in the courts, they had to take matters into their own hands. One individual said, “What are we supposed to do? Ok? The Supreme Court is not helping us. No one is helping us. Only us can help us!” What I heard in this man’s voice was genuine desperation. He actually perceived that this group’s actions were not just right, but also necessary. In fact, if I had read what he said without knowledge of its context, I might have thought it was a quote of a black leader during a civil rights march from the 1960s. I am sincerely sorrowful for this individual and others like him.
Before excoriating the gullibility of these Americans, consider that it was reported that over seventy percent of Republicans believed that the most recent election was marked by massive fraud. Why? Most likely because leaders they trust have stated this as fact despite the complete absence of evidence. I have observed that some national leaders seemingly even engaged in a form of circular logic to fortify the myth that massive fraud occurred in the recent election. Without any evidence, they started the myth by repeatedly stating that fraud occurred. And when a sufficiently large number of their constituents accepted the myth as fact, they announced that they would vote against certification of the president-elect on January 6 because their constituents no longer trusted the election process. In my view, even religious leaders have been ironically exploited by the enemy in his efforts to destroy our country. I believe this contention can be confirmed by recordings of their messages to their flocks as well as a review of the social media accounts of many Evangelical Christian bishops, pastors, and teachers that would likely reveal posts that promulgate the fallacy that the election was stolen. And they, of all people, should know better!
At the end of the day, I readily acknowledge that our perception of the facts does not alter them. However, on some level, that does not matter inasmuch as the facts do not determine our thoughts and actions. It is our perception of the facts that drives what we think and what we do (p. 170 of NJAOGWD) as evidenced by the events of January 6 at the Capitol.