“Isn’t it better to be open to other people’s points of view?” —HSBC Ad campaign, A.D. 2008
What do you see when you look at these two images? A patriot? A traitor? Which one is which? Have you had arguments with friends or family members the past ten days since these images hit our social media accounts? Have you lost friends over which label you put on which image?
I thought so.
After all, we’ve been here before.
Do you remember how angry everyone got over Trump vs. Hillary? I know, it seems a lifetime ago. How about Romney vs. Obama? That was so far back in the Dark Ages of this blog I couldn’t even remember the title I gave to the post, I just remembered I did the label thing. (I found the post by searching for “My guy.” I remembered the photo captions.)
“Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the ugliest of them all?”
Isn’t it remarkable how I can write basically the exact same post about how our biases affect the way we see the main characters in our national play every time we have a Presidential election? “Oh, no,” you will say. “This time it’s different! This time They are going to STEAL THE ELECTION and put us all into RE-EDUCATION CAMPS!”*
Mmmhmm... And Mitt Romney was going to kill Big Bird.
You’d think we’d learn, but Americans never do. Our politicians have been slinging mud at each other since we had politicians, which probably says something about politicians, but it most certainly says something about us.
Americans love a good show.
Here’s the thing: why do we keep falling for the drama?
I asked my Facebook salon (yes, I am somehow still allowed on Facebook!) what they thought of my juxtaposed images. “They both look like differently-themed Batman villains to me,” said one friend. “Bitch, fool—fool, bitch,” said another. (The latter is a Marine—could you tell?) A third tells me: “Both are traitors. One is very rich and has had control of a major state for generations.”
My Telegram chat was even more colorful. “Tell me what you see,” I asked them. One commented: “Peloski is the puppeteer of Q-Shaman and is secretly in love with his façade of vital masculinity. She dreams of harvesting his adrenochrome one day.” Another put it more mythologically: “I see the evil witch Circe above the mischievous wily Ulysses.” A third said: “Twins.”
Mr. Trump gets it, instinctually if not consciously. People live to be part of a story, and stories are
driven by conflict. Owen Benjamin has been talking for months about how we are
living a script—he sees TrunQ as Zoolander. Vox Day talks about the importance of rhetoric and how the God Emperor knows how to use it (
and is). Milo dresses perfectly for every occasion because
who wouldn’t want to be perfectly dressed for the End of the World?**
The stories tell us—if we let them.
Whose side are you on? The witch’s or the warlock’s? The rich old lady’s or the vigorous young warrior’s? The leader of the elites’ or the champion of the people’s? The lady in the face diaper’s or the buffalo soldier’s? The career politician’s or the costumed activist’s? The Democrat’s or the Trump-voter’s? The woman’s or the man’s?
Do you see what I did there? I made you choose. I set you up with either/or choices—and emotionally charged each one.
Maybe you agree with my characterizations, maybe you don’t. But now you are caught up in thinking about the oppositions—which is the whole point.
Owen talks about these kinds of oppositions as fuel for psychic “batteries.” Think of the oppositions not as Right vs. Wrong, but as two-sides of the same coin, the polarities in a single fuel cell, driving each other in an endless spinning round, “real” only insofar as they exist as opposites—or, rather, only insofar as people accept them as opposites.
Think “alchemical” more so than “Manichaean,” although Manichaean dualities play the same driving role, each pole energized by the desire for Right over Wrong, but the system itself driven by the conflict between the invented poles.
Such batteries, when they are virtuous, drive civilizations.
The opposition between Country and City. The opposition between Nature (the world into which we are born) and Art (our making things in the world). The opposition between Thinking and Feeling. The oppositions between Mother and Father, the Old and the Young.
It is not the existence of yin and yang, masculine and feminine, hot and cold, life and death that is evil. God made both the day and the night, the sun and the moon, the animals and plants, the male and the female. What is evil is the construction of artificial polarities intended solely to put people at odds with each other—and off of which the demons feed.
“Reminds me of an episode of Star Trek (TOS). The Omega Glory,” another of my Telegram friends said. “Two brightly-colored costume-wearing actors, both hamming it up for the cameras,” yet another declared.
We are watching a play. As I write, I am seeing videos on Telegram of military operations around the nation’s state capitals and in Washington, D.C. Are these typical troop movements? What are the National Guard doing sleeping
on the floor of our Capitol building? Is our country about to erupt into civil war?
I can see both Mrs. Pelosi and Mr. Chansley as character actors. I can see them both as performing on a sacred stage (—as the guard in the Senate Chamber told Mr. Chansley as he walked up to the desk for a photo op: “This is like the sacredest place”). Both are acutely aware of the cameras and of the visuals they are creating, Mrs. Pelosi in her embroidered mask, Mr. Chansley in his face paint and furry hat.
Makes you wonder what the fuss is all about, eh? Over a couple of cosplayers?
Except, of course, it isn’t—or so the Story needs us to believe. One is a Patriot, and the other is a Traitor. One is a danger to the existence of our entire country; the other is speaking to the real concerns of the People. One is performing nonsensical rituals according to arcane rules in order to seize power over the nation; the other is chanting to heal.
The one invokes God’s blessing on our country; the other is serving Satan and all his works.
I know, I know. I have a hard time seeing the Patriot you do.
Ever wonder who wants us to have such a hard time telling the difference?
*Or force us all to have children and enjoy growing our own food. YMMV.
**I started a little Telegram poll the other day. To date, Owen (“Trunq is Zoolander”) is winning at 57%, but we haven’t gotten to January 20th yet, and Milo (“Trump’s a cuck,” 19%) has said Vox (“Trump is God Emperor,” 24%) is always right. Mind you, Milo has also said that holding out hope that Trump will do anything is a fool’s errand, so, again, YMMV. Rock, paper, scissors, anyone?
Bette Midler performed a song ages called "Distance". The refrain goes, "From a distance there is harmony and it echoes through the land. It's the song of peace. It's the song of hope. It's the song of every man. And God is watching us, God is watching us, God is watching us from a distance."
ReplyDeleteIt's a little hippy but, it reminds me of Julian of Norwich's, "All shall be well and all manner of things shall be well" and how she distinguished between the things "above" from the things "below".
I think you and Owen are reaching for the same vein here: The perspective of God and heaven. Spiritually/mystically, you are looking down upon the great drama unfolding on the earth from the vantage point of Joy, Peace, Resolution, Reconciliation, Redemption, ect.
So the worldly categories of right/left ect. don't fit except as characters.
Your observations are sound. The entire past year in particular has shown the Kabuki Theater “esque” nature of politics (complete with masks) so blatantly that no one can miss it. January 6th seemed like a script, complete with characters out of central casting. The only question remaining for me is which one of the actors is Keyser Soze and when is he or she going to reveal their self.
ReplyDeleteThat is the question now isn't it? Love it!
DeleteNow that's the real question... On point!
DeleteOnly the mob and the elite can be attracted by the momentum of totalitarianism itself. The masses have to be won by propaganda. --Hannah Arendt
ReplyDeleteAnd even with the media slavishly parroting the dictates of their masters, the string pullers cannot manage a convincing story. I'm not entirely sure who those people are, but the people out in front, the Pelosi's and the Biden's are surely not them. So unless I attribute these mustache twirlers some Moriarty-esque plan no mortal can hope to predict, they have been rather clumsy in their claim to power, more the poleaxe than the rapier. But they have only begun, so perhaps their technique will improve. In fact, I am confident they will develop a certain finesse...especially in national election management. Next time, there really won't be anything to see here, folks.
And yet, clumsy as they were, they managed to convince, or at least confuse, a significant portion of the population...somewhere near to half, I would posit. I think a generation was born for this moment; born, not stupid, but privileged, comfortable and moved through life untested, uneducated and unsatisfied. And so, bereft of purpose, or facts, or fortitude, they are given 'facts' and 'purpose' and aimed at the old order. Rather a one shot affair, since it has to be over and done before nap-time and between selfies...revolution is so darned hard.
But now the adults will take over and we see just what the FBI can do when they are motivated: election rigging? Nah. BLM burning cities and murdering your Grandmother? Nope. But when the stage was set and the lens of the media and the nation and the world were all fastened exactly where they should, a trap sprung? a narrative given life with a shabby, thin wisp of a pretense, but shouted loud, and ignoring the objections of more thoughtful analysis. And just like that, the leash is released and the hounds chase and feed. Click, clack, click, the clockwork of a new political monster stirs. I suspect it will knock that pretender and colonizer and privileged white man, Lincoln off his throne and sit there instead. For all time.
"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!" the wizard yells in vain. We just need Toto to reveal those lurking behind the distractions. Then, maybe order will be restored. I know, I'm daydreaming, but it's better than the current events.
ReplyDeletei love this post, this is the kind of smart, insightful Rachel i like
ReplyDeleteI see a young, triggered man who should have "fucked his feelings."
ReplyDelete