By Amanda Moreno
Well, my friends, I’ve begun to tune back into the world stage — specifically in terms of politics — for the first time in a while, in preparation for some good old caucusing fun on March 26. I’ve kept my exposure limited to specific candidates I might potentially be caucusing for, and have experienced some pleasant surprises. For example, I was heartened to learn that Mr. Sanders voted against the Patriot Act both times.
Photo by graywacke/A Landing a Day
Imagine that: a leader who believes and acts in the interests of our constitutional rights. At least twice.
I have, at the same time, felt my curiosity rise as to how my conservative family members are faring — would they really go so far as to vote for Trump? I don’t know why I’d be surprised, really, as they’ve never ceased to amaze me before, but I went ahead and asked my liberal mom how the fam seems to be doing. She said that one of them (the one I purposely and explicitly don’t talk to for reasons related to the 2008 election) says that he’s pissed off that he “might be forced to vote for Trump.”
Wow. What a way to compound all of the hate, fear and violent rage already being constellated within that sector of the American public. He’s going to come up with reasons why it’s liberal America’s fault that he has to vote for someone like Trump, and use it to fuel his anger. Of course, my interpretation could be wrong, but what a sobering display of stubborn hatred. Also? What a sobering display of the ways our political system is undeniably akin to a football game.
For reasons not directly related to American politics, I’ve been studying the archetype of ‘Evil’ lately, predominantly in terms of the asteroid Lucifer. It’s something I’ve been called to do for several years, but have been avoiding and putting off. Alas, the universe can be tricky, and its efforts to force the issue finally paid off (just as transiting Lucifer comes in for a nice conjunction with my North Node). Here I’ve been for the past two nights, learning about Evil right before bedtime.
Something that has been at the front of my mind today is the idea that Evil hides behind God. Bin Laden hid behind Islam. Dubya hid behind Christianity. Look at how much evil has been enacted in the name of religion throughout history. Evil tends to hide behind causes that many get behind; it manifests through seduction; it preys on feelings of victimization in those who allow their fears and insecurities to be anesthetized by a charismatic figure who takes control.
Now, how anyone can see Trump as charismatic is something I’ll never be able to understand, but as I walked around the city today I kept thinking about this notion of Evil hiding behind God and wondered how that made sense in terms of Trump. I mean, I’m pretty sure he proclaims to be some form of Christian, but is that a cornerstone of his platform? I don’t think I’ve seen him proclaiming to be doing God’s work — although that might be a byproduct of the fact that I’ve watched zero live-action shots of the man in recent years and tend to only buzz by his headlines.
He is, however, strongly associated with the main God of our culture: money. Is that it? As we’ve stripped our culture of ancient systems of belief, we’ve put all of our drive to discover, seek and make meaning into the pursuit of making money, worshipping goods and status. Is that in effect what Evil is now hiding behind? Doesn’t seem too much of a long shot. Then again, perhaps I’m stretching it. These thoughts are just coming out onto the page here, without a lot of dissection.
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Once again, however, I’m compelled to reflect on our culture’s death wish, which seems to be exponentially increasing as of late. I link that to a lack of coherent spiritual systems that connect us with each other and our hearts.
Just before I began working on this piece, I came across the following quote by Sogyal Rinpoche, from The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying:
I have come to realize that the disastrous effects of the denial of death go far beyond the individual: They affect the whole planet. Believing fundamentally that this life is the only one, modern people have no sense of long-term vision. So there is nothing restraining them from plundering the planet for their own immediate ends and from living in a selfish way that could prove fatal for the future.
It called to mind for me the relativity of a concept like ‘Evil’. Certainly it exists and can be pointed out in its most explicit forms — the Holocaust comes to mind. But isn’t there a quality of evil to the long-term plundering of the planet, which can also be linked to that inability to tap into a long-term vision? Is it Evil that stripped us of our ways of relating to the afterlife and vital meaning-making skills, or just our own ignorance? Is it evil that we have chosen to move forward in a godless society? How are these things connected?
What I’m learning about the asteroid Lucifer is similar to what I’ve learned about any tense aspect of an astrological signature: the challenge is to recognize and bring awareness to how it works in your life, to recognize your emotional weak links and understand when they are becoming distorted and magnified, so that you can respond accordingly. That’s something I can work on at the same time as I grapple with the many layers of my own hesitance to use a term like ‘Evil’ to describe a man like Donald Trump, or to announce its presence in general — or to spend time studying it for that matter.
If Evil preys on the innocent in insidious and seductive ways, I take heart that I know so many people in the world are committed to kindness and love. I know a good number as well who are committed to doing the kind of work that involves looking within to identify where Evil might be at work inside. But sometimes I wonder: what about everyone else? Is there something more active to be done to help them? Do they need help? Do we just focus on changing ourselves and what we can change outside of ourselves, and hope for the best? Is that a form of denial in and of itself?
Once again, I’m leaving this space with questions that don’t have simple answers. Just some food for thought — and in closing, a heaping dose of love.
It’d be interesting to study Ixion, as well, in relationship to Trump. Ixion was the original mythical psychopath AFAIK. (I mean, there was the house of Atreus too, but that’s another tale.)
Trumps’s religion (although he says Presbyterian) is money, Amanda — and I would argue that for many, especially those who came up during the neo-liberal years — so is ours. Trump is successfully representing what we worship, which, ironically, is why Bernie is the anti-Trump: the Jew representing “love thy neighbor.”
Evil, seems to me, is all too human and much too mundane to get so much respect. And you’re spot on — no simple answers until we move it all into our hearts for a REAL analysis/synthesis. Thanks for an interesting read!
Thanks for your comment
Would you be willing to expand a bit more on this if/when you have the time?
“Evil, seems to me, is all too human and much too mundane to get so much respect.”
I’m with you on the “all too human” part, but I’m curious about what you mean when you say it’s mundane. Just…ordinary? Not worth much thought? This pings the part of me that I talked about a bit that is hesitant to give it too much air space — my reasons being more that it seems insidious and easy to amp up — while at the same time not wanting to *avoid* it per say if in fact it really does hide…
Sure, Amanda — I’m writing today, but I’ll jump back in some time this weekend.
Getting back to the topic of evil, Amanda — and please forgive my tardiness on this, got caught in a vortex of “have to’s” — what I mean by mundane is that the whole concept of what we call evil aggrandizes what Tolle calls unconsciousness, what ACIM calls ego. It’s that portion of us that has the capacity to isolate from others by being selfish, thoughtless, manipulative, blaming, self-protective and fearful — not to mention the spectrum from neurotic to psychotic, all of which must be factored in to a social structure gone so chemically toxic and emotionally stressed.
We project this (guilt) outside of ourselves because we like to think of ourselves as NOT that hurtful to others, but essentially that’s a learning curve and/or personal awakening issue. Some would even say that’s why we came. To keep from getting any of that on us, we make evil a kind of mystical/majikal thing, as if it were larger than life … but it IS life (live spelled backwards) at its most dense.
And you nailed it that it’s ordinary, Amanda — that kind of unconscious behavior is everywhere we look, what Socrates called the “unexamined life not worth living” — but it IS worthy of thought because (on soul level) each of us is attempting to burn through experience and take the lesson. Awareness that we can and probably should pay attention to these things is the first step.
Apologies if this is way more than ‘expanding just a bit,’ but you know how I am! Hugs!
Thanks for taking the time to expand — I get the need for delay, as I’m in a whirlwind of “have-tos” this week as well — and therefore don’t have much time to say anything other than…well, thank you for expanding
So…. I realize this article is not 100% germane to the conversation since it’s not about “evil” and was written before Trump entered the race and everything went into chaos, but I just read it recently and it has some *very* interesting things to say about how religion and politics is inherently intertwined in the US:
http://www.bu.edu/cas/magazine/fall15/america/
In fact, even though it describes some waxing and waning in how presidential candidates have expressed their religious faith over the decades, the main point the professors interviewed seem to make is that an American president actually *cannot* realistically get elected unless he has some form of “faith.”
I was having a hard time accounting for Trump’s wildfire campaign in that context, until I read the idea in your column, elaborated by Jude, that MONEY is his religion. The irony seems to be that most of his followers would seem to ascribe to some brand of fervent Christianity, yes? Or am I wrong about that? I guess they are equally the disciples of Grand American Consumerism and Exceptionalism.
As I read the article (which also was written before Bernie Sanders became a major contender), I got equally concerned about how a secular Jew could get elected if these professors’ theories are correct regarding the expectations the American public has (consciously or not) about the president’s faith. Does this mean Bernie’s battle is futile? Or is having Bernie representing “love thy neighbor” good enough?
The anger that’s driving populism is financial and nobody in the establishment is going to call that out, bite the hand that feeds it, which is why the populism found its home in the outliers.
Trump can be, rightly, considered a phenom but that was true before he tried to be a politician. He’s not the originator of the financial problem, although he contributes to it as a card–carrying member of the 1% and has, thus far, offered no actual fixes to the problem. As illustration, and just for fun, here’s John Oliver on “the wall.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vU8dCYocuyI
Trump represents unobstructed capitalism without the filters, and although he’s not truly Republican, he’s got their skill at opportunism down pat. Donald’s the one who stumbled into the village, discovered the potential of leading the charge against the straw man (outsiders, liberals, big government) and ‘branded’ it Trump so he could reap the rewards (deals. Look at his speech patterns, that’s all he thinks about.)
Donald is a promoter — anyone remember that other absurd loudmouth with the ridiculous hair, Don King, promoting prizefighters? Same thing, different level of success.
And perhaps this is Donald’s destiny, as goad for an awakening America — which is, again, one of those reasons why we have to be careful in demonizing him as the ‘evil’ guy. He may be the guru, eh? ACIM tells us we don’t have the skill (understanding, backstory, yadda) to judge one another.
Donald has no particular religious underpinnings, despite his claim that “nobody loves the Bible” more than he does. And this YouTube, sent out by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, pretty much exposes the Trump that the evangelicals would turn their back on if religion was their main objective. YouTube includes this disclaimer: “This video is unlisted. Be considerate and think twice about sharing.” So, I’ve thought twice and here’s the link — don’t open it if profanity upsets you. I suspect it may be more than the fundy’s can handle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDjSFRw4xwc
The evangelical votes are going to Cruz, anyway. Charles Pierce, over at Esquire, offers this explanation for why he’s the most unpopular among his co-workers, as well as informed mainstream voters:
“Because Tailgunner Ted Cruz is a messianic and friendless theocrat whose policies are a mix of the Book of Revelation and The Fountainhead, and anyone who looks at him thinks of the skeevy uncle whom they tell their kids to avoid at Thanksgiving, and anyone who listens to him who isn’t already lost in Jesus wouldn’t trust him to park their car.” (Good rant because it’s accurate.)
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a43198/republicans-wont-support-ted-cruz/
I think the issues that Sanders speaks to and his position on the common good outdistances his Jewish heritage. The ones who wouldn’t vote for a black person won’t vote for a Jew, so the calculations about who would or wouldn’t is about the same as with Obama. Bernie comes down as favorable on almost every issue the polls tell us Americans want dealt with and, if he’d been given a decent platform to get that message out, I doubt that there would be an issue with the rest of the wrinkles (the faux hysteria over socialism, for instance.) Here’s an illustration.
The AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) — the Israeli lobbying group that is attached to the ribs of the American establishment like a wart — had its yearly conference, and Bernie was the only one who didn’t show. He said his schedule prevented his attendance, and offered to speak to the group via video link (which they’d done in prior years) but was refused, so he sent a letter instead.
He’d been petitioned by the lefty’s NOT to attend, and ultimately, didn’t. He did, however, speak to the issues at a rally, on the stump. Huffy had this ledeline today:
Bernie Sanders Delivered A Killer AIPAC Speech … In Utah
The pro-Israel group wouldn’t have liked what he said.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bernie-sanders-aipac-israel_us_56f072eae4b09bf44a9e34a1
Polls show that the public is no longer marching in lock step behind Netanyahu’s Palestinian apartheid. So even within a community that demands his secular allegiance, he’s with the people rather than the politics. No so for all the rest:
“All the presidential candidates were invited, and Hillary Clinton was the first to confirm, with Donald Trump following closely behind her. Clinton has made her ardent support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a cornerstone of her campaign – and vowed in a letter to mega-donor media mogul Haim Saban to crush the grassroots BDS movement calling for the boycott, divestment and sanctioning of Israel.”
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/03/19/sanders-stands-alone-only-candidate-skipping-aipac
I think the mitzvah tradtion will go a long way with (especially younger) voters who have heard the words “Judeo-Christian” for so long they intuit it as a single entity (if not kissing cousins) and in this case, I think Bernie can rest on his legislative laurels as a man of principal, which IS a kind of religion for the 21st century, is it not?
By the way, one last comment. Let’s all remember that this is the PRIMARY we’re duking out, not the election. The primary plays to the political base, people like Michelle Bachmann and Rick Santorum wouldn’t have had a chance in a mainstream election but they won states in the primary.
And while Trump is worrisome in terms of opening the pipeline to the dregs of American racism, xenophobia and violence, he has a smaller percentage of mainstream support than the corporate media would like you to realize. In order for him to win in November (considering he’s demonized most of the voters he needs in order to do so) he’d have to be a first class shape-shifter and Jedi knight. He’s neither.
We need to stop and take a deep breath!
Whew — indeed, Jude. Breath taken!
Yes. Breath.
Jude, you’re amazing. Thank you.