To the editor:
Recently, I listened to an interview with Stella Morabito, a senior contributor at Washington Think Tank: The Federalist. Morabito has served as a CIA intelligence analyst and has focused on various aspects of Russian and Soviet politics, including communist media and propaganda. She has written a book entitled “The Weaponization of Loneliness: How Tyrants Stoke Our Fear of Isolation to Silence, Divide, and Conquer.”
Morabito states that “it doesn’t matter what your politics are. People want friends. People want strong family relationships. Nobody wants to be lonely and that is why what I call the “weaponization of loneliness” is so effective. It doesn’t even matter how fringy an idea is, if you keep injecting it in the public discourse, over and over and over again, it creates a cascade of public opinion and people will go along with it primarily for reputational reasons. It all depends on who speaks and who remains silent. People aren’t terrorized as easily if they have strong bonds with relationships. So that’s why the private sphere has always been such a target because that’s where our power lies. That’s where we get the strength to deal with so much of what comes out of life.”
All of us are victims of the human need to feel that we belong. We want others to approve of our beliefs and when they are challenged, we have a strong tendency to remain silent. This is most true of us when we believe that others might not hold the same belief as we do. That is true when it comes to religion, politics, and social mores.
It takes quite a bit of courage to state a sincerely-held belief when we fear being ostracized by those with whom we interact on a daily basis. That is where the “go along to get along” mentality exerts its strongest influence.
As most of my readers might know, I am strongly in support of life from conception to natural death, and I am sure that many others feel that way. Nevertheless, when an opposing opinion is expressed in a social conversation or in the media, I fear stating my firmly held convictions.
I fear rejection by others and so, too often, I remain silent. I want to belong and, to avoid the feeling of not belonging, I fold. I fear its loneliness. My fear of being left out keeps my sincere values silent and allows another’s political correctness to triumph.
Sadly, for many of us, that has become our modus operandi. We fold rather than speak freely — and there goes our First Amendment right to freedom. Ms. Morabito encourages us to be willing to risk rejection in order to be true to ourselves and overcome the social pressure to conform even when we disagree.
We are not alone. Courage will enable us to speak more freely about what we truly believe and value. That is the best way to hold firmly to our inalienable rights to live as free men and women.
Sincerely,
John J. Kwiatek
Beverly
