When we first heard this term, several past experiences came to mind. If you have had a barbeque grill, one that is started with propane, maybe you can relate to what can happen. You turn the bottle knob on, open one of the burner elements to the pilot light position and strike your match. If you are fortunate enough to have one of those long-nosed clicker things, powered by lighter fluid, and if you can get the little flame to stay on, you then bring your fire to the escaping gas in the burner element. If it is a breezy day, the flame never stays lit, so you light another match, or play with the trigger finger until a new fire is ignited at the tip of your magic wand. Finally, maybe after several tries, your flame finally makes contact with the burner element in question. This whole process may have taken several minutes. If you are like most people, the last thing you realize is that the gas has been flowing freely for the entire time of your fire demonstration failures. Reading the grill lighting instructions occurred 5 years ago, and you have forgotten the part about letting gas dissipate before attempting a re-light. Besides, everyone is waiting for the grill to be lit so that the food can begin cooking. Well, what has happened in the meantime is that a tremendous amount of gas has now built up in the well of the grill. When the match now gets close, KBOOM! Now, if you are lucky enough, only the hair on your arms is slightly singed. However, if you are one of the unfortunate ones, you might find yourself in the next county with second degree burns. Lighting gas, or GASLIGHTING, can be hazardous to one’s health!
We can remember a few years ago we heard about a new way of igniting your briquettes. One simply uses an old milk carton, like the half-gallon size, cut out the top and bottom, and fill it with your briquettes. If you have the kind that needs lighter fluid, (or if you have the kind that supposedly has the fluid already in the briquettes, it doesn’t really matter, because you don’t believe they contain any fluid since they don’t look wet), you simply pour lighter fluid down the top of the wax chimney, making sure you pour in enough to reach all the way to the bottom. What a great idea! This ought to work great! Once again, the remote flame is brought into close proximity to the wax chimney, now full of lighter fluid and a few briquettes. When this happened, you thought you were going to light the whole cabana on fire! The flames must have been six feet tall. Never mind rushing to get a bucket of water. Never mind reaching for the fire extinguisher. You never thought having any fire suppression devices or similar methods to save Smokey the Bear would be necessary. Fortunately, the flames eventually died down, and no one was injured in the melee. We bet you never used that method again! Once again, lighting gas, or GASLIGHTING, can be hazardous to your health.
Lighting gas is a dangerous thing! Ever hear of a motorhome being pulled into a gas station with the refrigerator gas still turned on, and then having gas pumped into the gas tank. When the refrigerator tells the element it is time to re-cool the wonderful foods inside, when the burner lights, so do all the fumes from the gas filler tube now drifting toward the refrigerator! Oh yes, it has happened. Sure, the new recovery rubber shields now recycle some of those fumes or spilled gas, but the hazard remains. That is why motorhome instruction manuals dictate turning off of the refrigerator when fueling the vehicle. But whoever reads those manuals anyway. Your used motorhome didn’t even come with one, and it wouldn’t help now anyway because all that is left is a metal smoldering frame, and some really upset service station attendants! Once again, lighting gas, or GASLIGHTING, can be hazardous to your health.
Lighting gas, or GASLIGHTING, can’t always be that dangerous, can it? Well, you tell us. Why do they tell you to turn off your exterior gas meter valve if there has been an earthquake? Sometimes things shake loose, like the connections bringing gas into your house. Some careless jerk walking around your house smoking a cigarette just might smell some gas, just before your whole house becomes a giant smoking hole in the ground, and your neighbors begin to wonder where your house went! Ever noticed those “NO SMOKING” signs at the gas station, or on the ramp at any airport? There are reasons for posting those signs. Lighting gas, or GASLIGHTING, can be dangerous to your health. We dare not mention serving a bean dinner at a candle-lit dinner! It could lead to some explosive conversations!
Just the word “GAS” connotates some dangerous elements. Yes, it is true that gas has made this country pretty much energy independent, but as it is with any good sword, there are two edges. With just about anything, there is always a plus or a minus, a good or a bad, a right or a wrong, and so it is with GAS. It has an insidious side to it. There is a very good reason why gas companies add a chemical to their gas that makes it smell like rotten eggs. The reason is if they don’t, and the gas leaks out into a confined area, it will put you to sleep, slowly but effectively, and it will eventually kill you! In today’s vernacular, GASLIGHTING has the same type of effect. If someone tells you their chosen agenda over and over again, after a while you begin to believe it, never bothering to consider if what is being said is actually true or false. It is always critical that individual brains stay engaged and alert. GASLIGHTING can, over time, lull the dis-engaged brain to sleep, and when that happens, it is easy to believe anything you are told. If this is done on a mass scale, a large number of individuals can be influenced, and fall asleep and die, believing the chosen agenda. When there is no “rotten egg smell” mixed in with “the gas”, or put more succinctly, when there is no “truth” mixed in with “the chosen agenda”, you can easily fall asleep and die in the process of GASLIGHTING.
Yes, lighting gas can be dangerous to your health. In the age of electronic ignition sources, and fool-proof products, some of the experiences mentioned before would seem old fashioned or even unknown to those in the newer generations. Let’s approach the word “GASLIGHTING” from another angle. Let’s see if we can ignite some form of illumination for you, without blowing anybody up.
Have you ever been told something by somebody so many times that eventually you begin to believe it? As a young child you were told “Santa is coming! You better watch out and be good!” You really believed in Santa, because he usually did bring some stuff. Not always exactly what you wanted, but how many children actually got a horse for Christmas at the age of six anyway? Over time, we wised up, unfortunately caving into reality. As an adult, can you think of people who got themselves into situations that you knew were felonious? Ever hear of any cults? Jim Jones comes to mind, who literally brainwashed his inner circle to commit mass suicide in a Guyana jungle in the late 1970’s. How about the Heaven’s Gate cult led by Marshall Applewhite? He led his followers to believe they could escape this corrupt world for the “Next Level” by escaping (through suicide) to a spacecraft trailing the Hale-Bopp comet. We don’t know if they were successful, but 38 of his followers left this earth through suicide. At some point in our lives, all of us have found ourselves believing some scheme or lie. We took the teller of the news at face value because we trusted them and wanted to believe what we were being told. If we are too gullible or naive or allow our brains to be overcome with insidious “gas”, it becomes easier for someone else to use GASLIGHTING on us.
There are those who speak eloquently who can influence our thinking, and subsequently our behaviors. Many go to church to hear sermons designed to influence the hearer to a better way of life and living. Many join clubs because we are told it is the place to be or the thing to do. Are you going to register as a Democrat, a Republican, or an Independent? The decision is often made by who surrounds you, like your family or friends or associates. The reality is that most of us are sheep and not shepherds, we like to call them SHEEPLE (“SHEEp + peoPLE). Most people prefer to be led rather than lead. It is often easier to be told what to think and do, rather than to think and do for yourself. We have encouraged parents to tell your kids, “Be the thermostat, not the thermometer!” Can you recognize the difference? One should control the environment, rather than letting the environment control you. If we fail to take control of our own thought processes, it is easy to succumb to the process of GASLIGHTING.
We guess the term goes back to a movie in the 1940’s called “Gaslight”, actually a stage play in the late 1930’s known as “Angel Street” in the United States. It is where a man influences his spouse to the point where she believes she is losing her mind. If a lie is told often enough, it can become true in the ears of the listener. Over time, you begin to question reality, you begin to wear down, it is the analogy of the proverbial frog in the pot on the stove. The heat is turned up slowly and eventually it is too late to escape. GASLIGHTING is a form of psychological manipulation; it is a form of abuse. The whole purpose of the one doing the GASLIGHTHING is to control the targeted individual. Real facts can be hidden or lied about. A concerted effort is made to alter the targeted person’s self-esteem and subsequently second guess their own decisions. Sociopaths and narcissists are often those who excel in GASLIGHTING others. How to define and identify those who fall into those two categories were covered in one of our previous blogs on June 13, 2021, titled “DANGERS OF SOCIOPATHS”. A careful study of those who exhibit such personalities need to be made in order to help prevent one from being a gullible recipient of GASLIGHTING.
Sometimes our FREEDOM and LIBERTY can be stolen if we allow others to perform GASLIGHTING on us! Now go out and have a nice barbeque. Please read the directions before lighting your grill!