As a child, I loved to listen when my mother told stories. They tended to be scary.
She had the power to bring spirits through keyholes.
Many of her stories were about her siblings. There were twelve children in her family, reared on a sharecropper’s farm in Isle of Wight County, Virginia.
She loved her father, John Wesley Beale, held him in high esteem, and his death on Christmas Day, 1945, was the saddest day of her life. Her devastating grief pierces through my awareness even as I write.
I remember a story about her quiet, taciturn father and John A., her belligerent brother.
After all other methods failed to curtail John A.’s disobedience, he was locked in a small, dark closet in a stairwell.
Defiant, recalcitrant, and courageous, John A. was as silent as a saint at prayer for a long time. Suddenly, he screamed so fearfully that the door was quickly unlocked, and John A. ran out, pale and terrified.
John A. had seen a ghost whose effect was so severe that he never again disobeyed his father.
I loved stories as a child. I still love stories as an adult.
As a psychiatrist, it was a privilege to listen with the “third ear” as each patient told his or her stories. Together, we learned how their stories were causally connected to their struggles and their resolutions.
Betty’s husband, Bill, is the team leader of research for his company. Soon, his company will decide whether to expand. A potentially costly mistake could be made.
Bill is conscientious and well-trained in his profession, but he is very anxious, fearing the worst outcome. He simply cannot relax. He has insomnia and wakes with his job on his mind.
Betty wants to help Bill and turns to a cognitively trained psychiatrist.
Quoting Aaron T. Beck, she learns that anxiety is a misperception. Anxiety occurs when we overestimate the danger and underestimate our capacity to deal with it.
She was encouraged to remind her husband of the qualifications he has in his profession, how his record is one of past successes, and she respects him as a competent, honest man of integrity.
The story of Betty’s husband and her love for him, making the effort to seek help on his behalf, is a beautiful story.
Stories are profoundly important. Among its numerous attributes, stories teach us logical, rational thinking. From the infancy/very early childhood phase of psychological development, stories are our first lessons in logical thinking.
Every story has three parts: beginning, middle, and end. Scholars tell us that every story is a journey.
Our story of Betty and Bill begins with Bill’s anxiety. The middle is Betty’s effort to help Bill calm down, but we don’t have an end yet because the firm’s decision will soon be made.
Logical thinking arranges information clearly to support step-by-step analysis and pinpoint cause-and-effect relationships.
“Goldilocks and the Three Bears” is a favorite story told sequentially with a beginning, middle, and end. It is rational in that what comes to be expected is observed.
Cognitive dissonance is the mental discomfort caused by holding conflicting beliefs or when actions contradict beliefs. This tension drives people to adjust their thoughts or behaviors for consistency. It can occur when expectations are unmet.
Common sense is the ability to use good judgment in making decisions and to live in a reasonable and safe way.
A reasonable person senses that common sense has been under attack. What we expect to occur, thinking logically and rationally, has not been occurring.
“Rent a Riot” is a flourishing business.
Several years ago, a normal appearing reporter, appropriately adorned in a suit and microphone in hand, announced on national TV, “things here are calm.”
In the background, a blazing fire started by “rent an arsonist,” was “deconstructing” a Police station.
From 2021 to 2024, those responsible for the security of our southern border assured us that our southern border was secure. We watched 20 million people pour through our southern border.
Neither of the above examples makes sense logically.
They might be labeled as “political,” also known as lies, but they were too important to be dismissed so simply.
What about the part played by postmodern deconstructionism?
Most of us have heard of postmodernism and postmodern deconstruction, but its purposes and methods are cleverly camouflaged by the language they specify.
For example, we are told by postmodernists that “deconstruct” does not mean “destroy,” but “reconstruct.”
As one navigates through the weeds of words, postmodern deconstruction rejects truth, logic, tradition, authority, and other deeply held beliefs as we know and have known them.
Anti-Americans, those who hate America, the anti-colonists, in my opinion, provide the leadership for the systematic replacement of American idealism.
Unfettered evil thinking, feeling, and behavior took America to the brink of despair.
The stories told on TV and their calamitous effects made two fatal miscalculations.
They underestimated the level of intelligence inherent in the common sense of Americans, and they denied that America is a Christian nation.
Washington, D.C.’s violent crime rate in 2023 was 1,200 per 100,000 residents—207.4% above the national average and the highest in the country.
In 2024, Washington, D.C. reported a homicide rate of 27.3 per 100,000 residents. This figure surpasses that of any U.S. state, should D.C. be classified as a state.
Continuation of the unimproved D.C. law enforcement would baffle even the career criminal. But it would favorably impress the postmodernists, the anti-Americanists, and the evil-minded.
Recent reinforcement of law enforcement personnel in D.C. assures that crime is treated as crime. Citizens may now live with less realistic fear.
It is logical, rational, and good old common sense to reduce crime.
Indians would smoke peace pipes, ministers would lead congregations in thanksgiving, and justice would return the Capital.
BUT those who tolerate the obliteration of both law and common sense are dialing “Rent a Riot,” “Rent an Arsonist,” and retaining “Call Saul.”
Evil knows no limits, but evil can be defeated by strong, courageous, and righteous men and women. “Righteousness” means trying to get straight with God.
“For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” 1 Peter 3:12.
Robert S. Brown, MD, PHD a retired Psychiatrist, Col (Ret) U.S. Army Medical Corps devoted the last decade of his career to treating soldiers at Fort Lee redeploying from combat. He was a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Professor of Education at UVA. His renowned Mental Health course taught the value of exercise for a sound mind.
