Ron Erickson from Lakeside, in the Sept. 27 Daily Inter Lake, has proudly defended in painful, dictionary-definition, dog-comparison detail his deplorably misogynistic “Trump That B---h” sign, which is defiantly displayed alongside a public highway, crowded twice a day with women rushing back and forth to work, many juggling careers while transporting young and impressionable daughters and sons to and from a school where, theoretically, they are supposed to learn how to fit into society by developing critical people skills.

I-RON-ically, Mr. Erickson, who is apparently exercising selective outrage by taking great umbrage to a perceived insult, has subconsciously assumed in a classic Freudian slip that he must fit squarely into Hillary Clinton’s impolitic “basket of deplorables.” I would have to agree. Not Ron the person, of course, but certainly his deplorable train of thought. If there is ever an appropriate time to quote Shakespeare, this would be it: “The lady [Ron] doth protest too much, methinks.”

 At least this type of basket-case mentality has conveniently distilled a key component of the current election cycle — indeed, of most elections — down to a succinct, three-word slogan. That key is hate. There’s nowhere to hide; it’s on TV, on the radio, on the Internet, in the newspaper, everywhere, all the time, from all directions, even along the roads! We are a society marinated in fear, anger, and hate. That is what we are taught; that is what we teach our children. From where in our collective soul does all this animosity arise?

Obviously, no one can honestly answer such a question for anyone else — certainly not I — but we simply must as a species make a serious attempt to understand this terrible and universal phenomenon of human nature before we utterly destroy ourselves and our environment. False religion (theirs and ours), phony patriotism (theirs and ours), and the unparalleled greed and wealth inequality that is rampant across the planet might be a good place to start the inquiry.

Ideological nonsense, which is based on the psychological fear innate to selfish, ego-driven thought patterns, invariably divides us from one another. And this division of thought, it seems to me, is the likely underlying cause of war and all the other ills that beset human beings and the “tiny blue dot” upon which we live and depend. That is our long, sad history.

Perhaps the very realization of our fragmented and conflicted ideation at the deepest level of our mind, both individually and collectively, is the ending of it.

This is Ireland’s 100-year anniversary of the 1916 Uprising, so being half Irish-American I have been brushing up on their rather fascinating history. Seven-hundred years of absolutely ruthless English occupation renders our own politics almost tame in comparison. Exact historical parallels don’t exist, of course, since outward circumstances are always unique; however, one book in particular stands out as quite relevant to modern-day notions and attitudes, exemplified by certain political leaders and business tycoons lurking around the world, including right here in the good ol’ USA.

In “The Famine Plot,” renowned journalist and historian Tim Pat Coogan fleshes out an old Irish saying that “God brought the blight, but the British brought the famine.” The worst atrocity in Irish history (which is saying a lot!) can be boiled down to the juncture of three prominent dynamics of human thought: religious fundamentalism; ethnic hatred; laissez-faire economics. Sound familiar? Economic law is God’s law, so why interfere with Providence?

Meanwhile, over a million people evicted from their homes were literally dying in the ditches from starvation and disease — sunken eyes silently watching Irish-produced food being transported under armed guard to England to fetch a better price. No welfare or subsidies here! Uncompromising Protestant ideology taken to the extreme...with the added benefit of cleansing valuable land of Catholic heathens who practice “Popery and priest-craft.”

Perhaps Ron Erickson should consider displaying this three-word slogan along his ditch: “Love Trumps Hate.”

Lawlor is a resident of Kalispell.