Allan G. Hunter's Blog, page 51

Happy 950th Anniversary

Today is the 950th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings. I don’t usually like to commemorate events of slaughter, so you’ll have to bear with me on this. When the invading William The Conqueror defeated the Saxons in 1066 he imposed Norman-French rule on every citizen in his new realm; new language, new laws, new officials, new systems of government at every possible level. It was the most complete power take-over the country had ever known, and the last time the British Isles was successfully invaded. It was, to be plain, brutal.

What happened was that over the next few centuries the local cultures began to push back, slowly. English eventually became the language of rulers and ruled alike. Powerbrokers and peasants could actually communicate once again. A new country arose from the bloodbath. It wasn’t a miraculous rebirth; it was painful and hard and often it must have felt counterproductive much of the time. Yet gradually the people curtailed the power of the gentry and moved towards something that might look a bit more like democracy.

So today I’d like to recognize the battle, but also to show gratitude to those uncounted generations who pushed back against tyranny, inch by inch. To paraphrase Gandhi: remember, whatever you do may seem inconsequential, but it is important that you keep doing it.

Trump – and the Shadow self

Trump’s success has confounded many analysts, but I think it’s worth stating the obvious: Trump’s appeal exists because he expresses his unfiltered Shadow self.

As many of you know, the Shadow Self is all those parts of the psyche that never got resolved. And so it’s chock full of free-floating hate, fear, anxiety, and phobias of all kinds. If an individual never takes a good long look at this Shadow Self, and never comes to terms with it, it has a tendency to take over later in life. Think mid-life crisis and you’ll see the stereotype of balding men chasing much younger women and buying sports cars, etc etc. Left to its own devices this version of the self becomes desperate and destructive. It seeks to blame others for almost everything.

This part of himself is what Trump has clearly never confronted.

Because of that failure he appeals to those people who have never done this personal work, either. And that appears to be a pretty large crowd.

Don’t vote for the Shadow or its representative. It’s like voting for a dinosaur because it’s big and not considering that you’ll be its next meal.

Aging

Thinking about aging, and the problems it brings, might be (as Groucho Marx famously said) a luxury you only get if you’re lucky.

Then, the other day I came across this statement by Samuel Beckett (to Lawrence Shainberg)

“I always thought old age would be a writer’s best chance…

Now my memory’s gone, all the old fluency’s disappeared.

I don’t write a single sentence without saying to myself,

‘It’s a lie!’ So I know I was right.

It’s the best chance I’ve ever had.”

Perhaps, without those cumbersome memories, without the glib fluency of youth, without those easy certainties, it really is a kind of freedom. At last.

Harry Potter and Democracy

One of the things J.K. Rowling gets so very right is that democracy is often untidy and always imperfect. For example, in Volume 5 of the Harry Potter series we see the Order of the Phoenix assemble to deal with Voldemort. And the Order is a bit chaotic, impractical, emotional, and confused a lot of the time. But they work together fairly well. Still, they are annoying since they seem so clueless.

And that’s the whole point. These are the Good Guys. But in order to confront evil they have to discuss, decide, squabble… and so on. Voldemort doesn’t do that. He just issues orders and acts without consideration.

The insight Rowling gives us is that democracy, where people actually care for each other and seek to do the best thing for everyone, is a scruffy, full-time job that can be tedious and is definitely slow. Dictatorship might look good for a few moments (they get things done, after all) but it is pretty repulsive if viewed for any length of time. It looks easy, decisive and business-like. Actually it’s horrifically destructive of the human soul.

Think about that when Trump makes his sweeping statements about what he’s going to do “so fast it’ll make your head spin”, and when he makes unilateral declarations of any kind.

Say What?

Today I was driving along when I heard Dylan’s “Tangled Up in Blue” on the radio. Naturally I sang along (don’t worry, I was alone in the car so no actual human beings were harmed by this activity). What I noticed was that I, an enthusiastic singer, wanted to smooth out the melody and make it nicer, gentler, than Dylan does.

And that’s when I realized, again, what is going on. I wanted it to sound “nice” — Dylan didn’t care if it sounded nice or not. Why? Because he had something to say that was far more important than a smooth tune. It was rough, it was vital, and it grabbed you in the guts. His voice was compelling.

We all get tangled up in a gentle, smooth tune – and sometimes that means we forget to emphasize what needs to be said. What’s more important – a beautifully illuminated manuscript or the words it says?

Plenty of poets and MFA graduates can produce a well-turned phrase; but can they say what needs to be said?

Perhaps they get Tangled up in Blue.

When is Paper not Paper?

Every so often, of a hot evening, I like to fire up the charcoal grill. It makes for a pleasant outdoor experience and saves an already hot house getting hotter. People tend to be a tad different when they’re in a garden (even such a tangled one as mine) and that adds to the relaxed feel.

Now, I used to happily crumple a single sheet of newspaper into the chimney device, pour charcoal in the top, and with one match and that paper I could start the coals.

This is not possible now.

The same trick done today produces merely a charred outline of the paper, which then extinguishes itself and fails to light anything.

The reason is that paper is no longer what it was. Instead of wood pulp we now have some sort of clay material which does not burn, and – so my recycling friends tell me – is really hard to recycle.

We may want to let that thought sink in. We try to be recyclers, but the game has changed, and what we’re recycling isn’t now amenable to the process. Now, I like trees, and I want to save them. What I don’t like is the creation of yet another substitute material which seems to be every bit as noisome as plastic, and every bit as hard to deal with. This is not progress, my friends.

Archaeology

Recently I’ve been enjoying reading about archaeology. A couple of websites exist that I like – one simply called The History Blog.

This is not just idleness. By seeing what has been uncovered I’m reminded of just how long humans have been around, trying to figure out life, death, and everything in between. It also gives me a renewed awareness of how everything I do in my life will, most likely, fade and be forgotten within a very few years.

It reminds me to seize the day.

It nudges me to recognize that great cities and civilizations rise, and fall, and are forgotten, and that ours is no different.

It reminds me that creating more love and harmony is the only thing worth doing.

A Parable

There’s a moment in “The Secret” when someone (I forget who) tells the story about how we want things our way. This is roughly what it says:

A pilot was forced to crash land his plane in the Arctic and it seemed as if he was going to freeze to death. So he prayed to be rescued. After 4 days an Inuit happens by, drags him from the wreckage, and puts him on a sled. About a week later they get to a settlement with a hospital and he survives.

When he was feeling better he was asked about his experience. He said that he had prayed to be saved, but ultimately he gave up on God. “But – you were saved,” said the interviewer. “Yes, but by a damn eskimo!”

The point: if someone turns up to save your hide don’t worry about whether that person is what you expect, or has no language in common with you or smells of seal blubber. Be grateful.

My point: Hillary may not be perfect in some people’s eyes, but that doesn’t mean she can’t get the job done right.

Conventions

Listening to the speeches of the two rival candidates (yes, you know which ones) I was struck by several things. The first thing I listened for was motivation. Why were these people running for office? Knowing that would be important, I felt.

Hillary went out of her way to say that she was inspired by her mother to become someone who serves the needs of others, because it is the right thing to do. She also stressed that we all have to work together.

This is the language of the Monarch archetype – the person who seeks to enlist everyone in doing the best for the realm. This is one of the highest archetypes we can aspire to. This campaign is not about her; it’s about what we can all achieve if we elect her and get working.

Trump, by comparison, talks about making us “great” and that this is something he alone can achieve for us. He wants us to be passive and let him “lead”. He is, no doubt, motivated by a desire to be great, as great as his now deceased father. Yet this is the shallowest of motivations. It is the language and the thinking of the least developed of all the archetypes, the Orphan.

Motivation is pretty vital. Think about this.

Vote

I read, with sadness, so many comments from distressed Bernie supporters. They’re angry, they want to sue the DNC for the return of their contributions, they want to vote for the Green Party, or even for Trump.

I’d suggest we need a little self discipline, here. Defeat the fascist Trump FIRST and then overhaul the electoral system.

The house is on fire, people. Let’s not argue about whether or not we have the right to spray it with firehoses or if the hoses themselves were made with sustainable resources. Let’s put the fire out.