The Hamster Wheel

Recently, Dionne and I returned to Bosnia for a two week visit. We realized how much we miss the country of Bosnia and, specifically, the city of Sarajevo. Over the next few weeks we are going to post a few of our thoughts from our return trip.

Osteria Ai Pioppi

Our 5 children and their spouses joined us in Northern Italy; a nearby yet forbidden land (mission travel rules) that beckoned us while on the mission with all manner of exotic adventures. Our first stop was Osteria Ai Pioppi.

The group (sans our photographer, Britni) gathers after a day of play at the park.

What is Osteria Ai Pioppi? If you are like me and older than dirt, remember the wonderfully dangerous playgrounds of your youth. And then multiple the crazy factor by about 10. And you have Osteria Ai Pioppi. In the 60's the owner of a small restaurant began to build playground "equipment" on his property (kind of like a McDonald's playland). Forty years later, he has assembled 40 unique pieces of playground equipment that is as fun for adults as it is for kids.

Brennen and Amy play on the Tarzan swings.

I had to stop this thing because I was really worried that I was going to fall out and hit that solid green metal railing you see in the background.

Some of the contraptions are quite elaborate. He has built four devices which officially count as "roller coasters" (hence my discovery of the place). There are slides which tower over 100 ft. There is one device which you strap into and try to use cycling power to propel yourself and a partner upside down. And then there is this spinning human wheel which is completely made of metal (apparently the guy has never heard of "padding").

This device is so sketchy that only three of us were willing to give it a try. Brayden was willing to spin me but had no interest in hopping in.

And then there is the HAMSTER WHEEL. A fascinating contraption that stands at least 30 feet tall. You need a partner to ride this thing. Both of you climb up a ladder and take a position on opposite sides of the device. The device remains in balance as long as neither side moves (or there is not a huge weight inbalance).

Dionne and I are in the wheel, perfectly balanced so that the device is not swaying.

Working together, the riders can make the device sway back and forth. They do so by walking in their own hamster wheels in the opposite direction.

Erica has hamster blood.

If the two riders work in tandem (but in opposite directions), then they can get the wheel to flip over. And it keeps flipping over until they get tired and elect to stop.

Mitch working the wheel in his Waldo shirt. 

The wheel will not work if one of the parties elects to not "play." If one party stops, the wheel will stop. But it will go faster and faster "out of control" if they two riders want it to.

Bosnia's Hamster Wheel

Permit me to use Osteria Ai Pioppi's hamster wheel as an analogy for Bosnia. Maybe it is self-deception. But the picture most Bosnians paint of their country prior to 1991 was one of peaceful balance between Catholics, Orthodox, and Muslims. Intermarriage was high. Most villages were mixed. Neighbors were friendly. Most Bosnians had good friends who were of other faiths.

Iftar time in Bašćaršia.

And then all hell broke loose. Why? I know that there is no simple answer to that question but I am going to offer one anyway using the hamster wheel analogy. The three religious groups chose to purposely antagonize each other until their actions made the wheel spin completely out of control. With the exception of Srebrenica, the worst of the atrocities occurred during the first year of the war. A massacre would be followed by a revenge killing. Village by village.

This quote is from Balkan Insights...a useful source that reports on all things Balkan. Note that the author is implying that the three ethnic communities remain on the hamster wheel. "Twenty-two years after the start of the fighting, this is still a highly disputed issue in the country, and is often used by politicians to stir up ethnic instability." Basically, each side accuses the other of guilt while attempting to claim victim status for their own people.

So why, in my opinion, did the war happen? Were the tensions always there waiting to explode? Maybe. But most Bosnians tell me that there was not hatred ingrained in their hearts. And I believe them. So what happened? Propaganda. That is what happened. Propaganda. A war of propaganda broke out. Fueled by insiders and outsiders; Serbs were told of the evils of Islam, Croats were reminded of the horrors inflicted by Serbs in WWII, etc. Each group was taught to fear the "others" despite years of peaceful coexistence. They got the hamster wheel spinning and it was soon it was spiraling of control.

Russian Memes on Facebook

Which brings me to my final point. In May the Justice Department released 3,393 on-line ads and memes that Russian agents purchased on social media platforms to influence the election. While I saw this covered briefly by the news agencies, the story quickly disappeared. What a shame. Because the what Russia is trying to do in the U.S. is utterly fascinating. Most assumed that they were trying simply to promote Trump over Clinton. When they were released, Rashad Robinson of Color of Change issued a press release and claimed "these ads clearly show that the Russian government not only meddled in our election to sway the results in favor of Donald Trump but that they did so by promoting anti-Black hate speech, creating fake Black Lives Matter Facebook accounts, and stoking fears about Muslims, immigrants, and queer people." He could not be more wrong about what Russia is doing. Russia is encouraging hate speech of all types. Just like the speech from Mr. Robinson. Russia is encouraging ethnic tensions. They are stoking the fire from both sides. Many of the memes deal with race...some aimed at one audience arguing that we should "protect our officers" while others aimed at other audiences proclaiming that "cops are murderers." They are aggressively trying to promote dissension, distrust, and anger among Americans. In short, they are encouraging us to climb aboard the hamster wheel. And we have happily obliged.

An example of a Russian sponsored ad that ran a few months before the election. Targeted at the African-American community, the intention is to reinforce the belief that "blacks" in this country can never be safe. 

Conservatives where targeted with messages like this one. Fear for your job because of the invading hoards of illegal immigrants.

This is a more subtle post targeted to the African-American community. The point seems to that they should take pride simply because of their race. 

Lots of tea party and constitution language targeted to conservatives. Who does not want to be a patriot?

Back and forth the messages go. All major ethnic and political communities seemed to have been targeted. LBGT, tea party, Hispanic, white, etc. The primary goal seems to have been to stoke the fires of anger towards "another." You are fighting the good fight against the greatest of all evils (the proverbial "other"). It is propaganda 101 and its seems right out of the Bosnia playbook. It is effective because people like to believe that they are in the "right."

And it seems like we are swaying out of control. Too many of the people I know are convinced that they are right and everyone else who thinks otherwise are wrong. Social media and the internet has allowed us to self-select our knowledge reality. Today Kyrie Irving can believe that the earth is flat and limit his knowledge sphere to only those voices that support his. Too many of us do that. We listen to those who agree with us and make caricatures (or straw men) out of those who do not. I am not picking on anyone in particular but let me give some examples of some recent Facebook posts that some of my friends have shared.

This is a fun meme because it is so blatantly bigoted and it does not really seem to care. In fact, it truly believes that it is not small-minded at all. The meme identifies all of the "others" by name (including the favored class of Muslim...apparently the author of this meme did not get the memo). Catholics, Muslims, Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses...they are all bigots. What is really shocking is the group the baker in question represents is not even listed in this meme. Where are the Fundamentalist Protestants? The message of this meme is clear. Only the people who agree with the author believe in equality. Everyone else is just a small-minded religious zealot. 

Speaking of the "T" community, they have been routinely attacked. From bathrooms to sports, those who author memes like this are not interested in understanding what life is like for a transgendered youth. They simply want to find an effective way to attack this group. And make themselves look like the true victims (or their girls who just want a chance at fair competition). I am sorry; life is hard. Stop making life more difficult on people who are already going through a tough and confusing time.

Oh the abortion argument. Both sides have stooped so low. Both sides accuse the other of being murderers. But that does not seem to be that effective anymore. This is an argument which I have seen recently and it truly is hurtful because I know that there are so many parents who wish to adopt a baby. The waiting list is so long. The meme author is simply trying to argue that the "others" are a bunch of hypocrites because of his straw man argument that they are unwilling to adopt. Baloney. 

The point of this meme is to attack the mainstream media. To reinforce the notion that the media purposely deceives anyone that is not truly in the "know." To some extent, there is truth to that idea. The editorial process requires content editing, story selection, and prioritization. And many of our media sources suck at doing all of those things. But this meme is guilty of doing all of the things that it complains the mainstream media is doing. (By way of self-disclosure, I am guilty of doing all of these things as well during this blog post). So the message of this meme is quite subtle yet just as dangerous. It says "don't trust them, just trust us." Beware the "other."