Category: Politics

COVID-19: Rite of Passage

I’ve been receiving regular emails from Michael Meade for years. They are invariably timely and relevant topics full of the wisdom of Interbeing.

Today (#166) he spoke of consciously descending into the inner world, walking into the dark with our eyes open, as it were.

We are being taken down, not by choice but by necessity, and in yet another new way, to realize our true condition. As we look around us in every direction, we are witnessing decisions being made (or avoided) about how to prepare for, interact with, prevent or deal with a global pandemic. At the same time we are directly experiencing our consciousness undergoing an accelerating transformation by this phenomenon.

We cannot help but notice and examine this phenomenon as a global encounter with the biological plane of existence, a natural response of the living planet reminding us of our direct and integral connection with the biological world, the biosphere undergoing change in response to human actions. There’s no escape: this is us. Yes, we will have to think and feel our way through, but the way through also requires we discern and consider carefully the message of the crisis.

The virus promises to be (if not already) a profound response to our hubris, already arresting Business As Usual and laying bare the degree to which we take for granted the structures and comforts of modernity. All those systems, from the stock markets to commerce to transportation to the systems of mutual care are all derivatives masking our relationship with the natural world. As the mask of modernity is stripped away, we see our own true face.

The unceasing progress of the virus permeating the population is already testing the health care system and governance. It is already laying bare the income disparities, the vulnerability of large sections of our population to unanticipated costs, the marginal financial safety of millions, the degree to which the social safety net has been shredded, the lact of back-up systems for caring for ourselves in the most basic of ways. And, as well, the deeply damaging selfish and self-absorbed womb of illusion in which so many, most notably more than half the US Senate, live.

There, the denial of a pandemic follows and conforms to the spinning of falsehoods into War, the denial of the financial catastrophe of 2008, the denial of racism and the denial of climate change. Today, all we see from them is desperate bargaining to avoid both economic and psychological depression and to prop up their precious allegiance to exclusion, dominance and scarcity.

The effects of this rolling emergency are already impacting our collective imagination–the deep imagery of what America believes it is and what our relationship is to others beyond our borders, the unseen intimacy of our relations with distant strangers and the basic equality expressed as our vulnerability to disturbances in the biosphere. The dream of separation is dissolving. America as a gated community, as an impregnable suburban sanctuary is disappearing.

We are being dragged to wake up from the mythology of exceptionalism, the mythology that we are not in each other’s care at all times; the mythology of being able to construct  a fortress of uniformity in which we can continue endless bargain-shopping, safe from foreign influence; the mythology of continuous expansion. Reactionary forces are tightening their grip on their fantasy that continuing to dance will keep the music playing, that appearance is reality, that saying it’s true will make it true.

Nope. In the immortal words of Guy McPherson, Nature Bats Last. And we are not prepared because we haven’t learned that lesson. This phenomenon has arisen from the depressed immune system of the planet. It is about to expose our deepest flaws, our tenacious grip on the surreality of separation, invulnerability, of superiority, of our belief in false characterizations of Nature, of some assumed mastery in the world. Continued denial of who and what we are will now take us deeper into the Deep Self to wander and sow untold pain until we either die or are transformed.

This is the choice commonly faced by the addict who descends further into darkness until an opportunity for light to enter becomes possible. The virus is an opportunity for us to meet our addictions. But it is so often a near death experience and there’s no guarantee we will emerge any closer to wholeness. Will this be our bottom? Will this be the moment we realize caring for each other and caring for the earth are our only collective imperatives? And that they are the same thing? Will we see any new light at the end of this tunnel?

The Toxic Masculine Empire Strikes Back

There are many ways to describe the human drama at this moment. We can talk about psychology or brain function, economic ideologies or politics, philosophy and religion. All of them have a kernel of truth. Here is another way to say it:

Deeper than ideology and psychology, perhaps even deeper than brain function, we can speak in energetic and spiritual terms about the human disease. Masculine energy is a rising force in the body/mind, an energetic evolution toward material accomplishment, a commanding view and a spiritual search for enlightenment. The feminine is an earth-bound force, rooting in the soil of life, a generative force driven by an erotic principle, connecting and interpreting spiritual awareness in the earthbound terms of community, equality and mutual nourishment. In the most basic terms, the masculine is in profound polarity to the feminine.

In a healthy culture, those energies would be circulating freely without restriction or corruption, nourished universally and manifested in tangible and humane social structures, institutions affirming our rightful place in equal status with other living beings and the living earth itself.

In terms of the chakra system of understanding human yearnings, flaws and behaviors, the wounded male energy of the current world denies the erotic, lives in and for the upper chakras sourcing his power in vision, setting the terms of existence and progress and defining the longing of his fellow humans in base and selfish ways, separating his friends from his enemies, those who deserve his attention and those who do not. Yes, the wounded male also operates in and from the second chakra, but those energies are corrupted, manifesting as toxic domination and objectification, out of touch with the nature or practice of healing  and unifying forces. In the worst case, he is ignorant of and resistant to any complementarity

This domination and subjugation extends to the feminine as misogyny, Other-ising fellow humans in the form of racism, colonialism and exclusion; to the earth as the ecocide based on the myth of separation and the myth of extraction without consequence. The wounded female is separated from her power and influence by the subjugation of men, by the loss, denial or imprisonment of her generative, erotic force and thus the connection between her creative energies and her personal power. The true nature of her spiritual powers and vision are blocked or stunted

The wounded masculine is extremely threatened by the rise of intact feminine power and energy. The very foundation of his vision and control are under siege. Thus we see throughout the world the backlash, the retrenchment and embattled mentality of the wounded masculine in the form of legislative initiatives to depress and control the manifestations of feminine expression of her essential erotic powers; the resistance to codifying equality and reversing institutionalized oppression and increasing outright violence.  Media giants under the operation and control of men subtly propagate this agenda, conveying, among other ways, their ongoing (and increasingly blatant) bias against the possibility of a female being elected as America’s President.

The rise of nativism, the retrenchment of racism, the creeping autocracy and fascism, the reversal of environmental laws, the denial of climate change, the doubling down on extractive practices, white collar and government corruption and even the unchecked  dissemination of poisons into the atmosphere, waters and soil around the world can all be interpreted as reinforcing Other-ism and the backlash of toxic masculinity, as aggressive attempts to deny, control and sequester erotic, untamable dark forces; to deny and repress the human shadow; to damn (and dam) the ideologies of community, diversity, equality and inclusion; to re-assert autocratic control by deeply dysfunctional, wounded and now blatantly omnicidal (terminally wounded) men.

The earth-cult empire of the wounded masculine, including the billionaires and all their henchmen whose wealth depends on oppression, exclusion, domination and objectification is now demanding we all drink the kool-aid, as if that alone could wipe away the collapse already underway.

The healing of the feminine force, opening the essential creative and generative energies to manifest through the centers of personal power, vision and spiritual attainment offers an alternative clarity, an inspiring and infectious force rooted in connection, collective action, equality, inclusion and a celebration of diversity.

The upper centers of the subtle body manifesting empathy, compassion; the heart speaking with a thousand tongues; telepathy (giving voice to deep and common yearning), clairvoyance (the ability to, as Rumi said, “close both eyes to see with the other eye”) and the ability to interpret the elemental as divine nature is the promise of the awakened feminine, which is not to say these powers and reformulation of essential energies are only accessible to the female, just that men may have to struggle a little more to unlock them. This struggle is, fortunately, also expanding everywhere we look.

The awakened male will have his own interpretation of these energies. But in the end, they will be congruent, shared, mutually inspiring, fruitful in expression and igniting possibilities we have not seen. Unfortunately, that world remains beyond our grasp. Do we have enough time? Unless there is a virtual instantaneous and universal paradigm shift away from the wounded masculine and a corresponding rise of integral feminine presence co-creating with the healthy masculine, reversing the pervasive and common symptoms of the core disease, our demise as a species will likely continue to accelerate toward the abyss.

The GOP is Not a Cult of Fear. It’s Hero Worship.

When we think of a cult, we think of brainwashing. The members have been brainwashed to believe what the leader wants them to believe. Whatever it is, it’s the opposite of their personal self-interest. Dependency is critical to the success of the leader, reinforced and cultivated in all the messaging to sustain the leader’s power and control.

I won’t deny the current GOP has cult features, but it’s not so much an ideology as a theology. It’s a political philosophy rooted deeply in religious views. Its elected members certainly fear and are dependent on Donald Trump. And it’s also clear the non-elected members holding administration positions, including his children, must also mouth fealty or expect to be quickly shuffled to the curb. And fealty, in this case, includes being willing to break the law without reservation or complaint.

But brainwashed? I don’t think so. To repeat the favored explanation for falling into line no-matter-what due to abject fear of Trump is too simplistic. In fact, it lets the GOP off the hook. No, their allegiance is to something else. They may fear him, but they also admire him. Why? Because he’s doing what they have only dreamed of doing themselves.

Since he’s doing it for them, they’re only too happy to give him unlimited rein to overstep any boundary, test any convention and obstruct any interference. They are completely in his thrall, slack-jawed at his capacity to thumb his nose at anyone in his way.

They want more of that.

All of them, every last one (and barely excepting Mitt Romney in the Senate), including the ones in the House, Kevin McCarthy, Steve Scalise, Doug Collins, Devin Nunes, Jim Jordan, every one, is an authoritarian down to their shoes. Those who don’t have any qualms about expressing that preference either find themselves in leadership positions or becoming mouthpieces for the president.

They don’t have any reservations about lying or helping the president lie. Their deep desire to control everything and everyone, to undermine or destroy democratic institutions, silence the opposition or tolerate and participate in the rising wave  of fascism for the sake of retaining control is on display every day now, and has been for some time.

Is someone controlling Lindsey Graham? I don’t buy it. His true personality has been unleashed by Trump. And consider, anyone not willing to entertain this possibility is clinging to a fantasy, holding out hope for the hopeless.

The impeachment trial simply gave them all a bigger platform. Now that it’s passed, they will happily exercise the punitive inclinations of their collective personality disorder. They are the strict disciplinarians, vengeful gods, and the rest of us are the children to be silenced and led by the nose. Those who stray from the fold must be punished. Trump is sicker than even that, of course, but they are the most useful tools of his disorder he could ask for.

Joe Biden has repeated his belief that there are Republicans he can work with. Except that every day we are witnessing how delusional that position really is. Now the voters are having a chance to let Biden know, among other important reasons, how great is the folly of his clinging to this idea. The DNC also continues to clutch at the idea of a Biden nomination. Even greater folly.

Another Trump personality feature hammering the pleasure centers in the brains of his followers is his victimhood. He excels at being wronged, lost in the woes of enduring the slings and arrows fired upon him from all sides. I can imagine his allies secretly chuckling to themselves at how relentlessly he feigns the embattled saint, elevating the pedestrian victimhood of the Obama-era GOP to high art. Victimhood on steroids. They’re also thinking, “Why didn’t I think of that?”

Trump is such a shocking character in so many ways, the fact that he was always a caricature of himself, even more so now, has flown right over the heads of so many, particularly in the media. They just can’t bring themselves to take him seriously—I mean really seriously, treating him like the Wizard but never willing to draw the curtain.

In this CAT 5 hurricane of self-imposed blindness, the constitution barely stands a chance.