Less than a week into the Trump Administration, I find myself incapable of remaining silent as I move through the blogesphere and social media where individuals aware of catabolic collapse, that is to say, the collapse of industrial civilization and abrupt climate change, insist that the ascendancy of Donald Trump to the American Presidency is essentially no different than the ascendancy of any other political candidate, thereby minimizing the severity of the 2016 election’s outcome. In a recent article, “Donald Trump Is Not The Problem, He’s The Symptom,” Nafeez Ahmed argues that “… it is a mistake to believe that Trump is the problem who must be resisted. Trump is not the problem. Trump is merely one symptom of a deeper systemic crisis. His emergence signals a fundamental and accelerating shift within a global geopolitical and domestic American political order which is breaking down.”
I consider Nafeez a solid ally in grasping the reality of catabolic collapse, yet I believe that his assertion is only partially correct. Resonating with Nafeez’s assertion, I devoted a great deal of energy in my recent book Dark Gold: The Human Shadow And The Global Crisis to illumining the personal and collective shadows that succeeded in electing Trump. His Presidential victory is testimony to the pernicious core of the American shadow. I have stated repeatedly that Trump is among other things, a classic shadow magnet, drawing from American culture its ghastly toxicity in the form of racism, misogyny, xenophobia, entitlement, and much more in the same way that a well-crafted poultice might extract pus from a wound. Clearly, Trump is a symptom, and, from my perspective, he is also a problem.
Indeed I recognize the existence of a deep state and the neoliberal agenda that has dominated the politics of this nation and the Western world for decades. I was well schooled in it by Mike Ruppert and many others, and I have been writing about catabolic collapse for more than a decade and more recently, catastrophic climate change. Yet as in the healing arts, to ignore the symptom in favor of only addressing the syndrome is to engage in a form of malpractice. A significant portion of my body of work has been devoted to addressing the syndrome and preparing for it logistically as well as existentially. We now find ourselves in a situation where both syndrome and symptom must be confronted.
Those collapse-aware individuals who have been following my work and that of a host of others writing about the demise of industrial civilization and the ecosystems, are well aware that as societies unravel, they will not be governed by kind, benevolent, ethical leaders who have the best interests of their citizens at heart. Rather, collapse will produce and is producing the most corrupt, vicious, despicable leaders imaginable who promise the masses that they alone can ward off collapse, but will only exacerbate it. As the unraveling accelerates, we can expect to see many more Donald Trumps—in fact, they are waiting in the wings of a host of countries following a similar right-wing trajectory as Trump and his accomplices. They are all symptoms of the collapse syndrome, but I am not willing to shrug and callously comfort myself with, “It would have been just as bad with a liberal.” Trust me, if Hillary were the current new President, I would be ranting as vociferously as I am ranting against Trump.
So how do we respond to the madness of King Donald as well as the madness that has produced him?
First, I believe that we must recognize that King Donald is profoundly mentally ill. While you may argue that previous Presidents had to be mentally ill to commit war crimes, ignore torture, offer countless blank checks to Wall Street, and carry out the US military’s drone program, on one level, that is so, yet on another level, they could be reigned in by political forces greater than themselves because at least they recognized that there were political forces great than themselves. Moreover, the “formers” were not as intractably committed to a Goldman Sachs agenda marinated in oil pumped by a petroleum industry that is fraught with epidemic bankruptcies. The malevolently crafted program for eviscerating the economy, shredding the Constitution as well as what is left of the social fabric of the nation, and greenhouse gassing the planet into oblivion was far less blatant.
What is mental illness? What is mental health?
I will not attempt to lay out my own psychological diagnosis of Trump. That has been accomplished by some of the most insightful luminaries in the mental health field such as Robert Klitzman, Dan McAdams, Psychiatry Professors Asking For Neuropsychiatric Evaluation of Trump, and Citizen Therapists Against Trump. But what does any of that matter? The man won the election and is now President. Case closed?
Trump enters office with the lowest popularity rating since popularity polling began in the United States. But more importantly, one can feel, as well as hear specific verbalizations daily, often several times daily, of the discomfort people feel, and not just American people, regarding Trump as President. His incessant pathological lying, his deplorable narcissism, and his flagrant disregard for ethical constraints and conflicts of interest transmit a kind of deranged emotional chaos that translates to the public a sense of being trapped in the passenger seat of a car being driven by a crack addict at one hundred miles per hour. Moreover, the blatant use of Orwellian language such as alternative facts or the very notion promoted during the Presidential campaign that facts no longer exist is inherently crazy-making. I have stated for years that I believe that on a collective unconscious level, “Everybody Knows,” as Leonard Cohen wrote and sang—a song which so appropriately describes the deeper sense of collapse and possible extinction that ceaselessly haunts all members of our species. That “knowing” was already in place before the unhinged reality TV superstar became President, and whatever internal chaos was simmering in the unconscious prior to that event now appears to be approaching a boiling point.
Secondly, we must resist. Yes, we must grow our gardens and learn the skills required for living in a post-industrial society, and it is crucial that we also resist, not only to protect ourselves and our loved ones, but because it is a moral imperative. In the Wages of Rebellion, Chris Hedges writes:
Rebels share much in common with religious mystics. They hold fast to a vision that often they alone can see. They view rebellion as a moral imperative, even as they concede that the hope of success is slim and at times impossible…The best of them are driven by a profound empathy, even love for the vulnerable, the persecuted, and the weak.
Hours after the Inauguration of Donald Trump, Occidental College Professor, Peter Drier penned his article “American Fascist,” in which he stated that:
The United States is not Weimar Germany. Our economic problems are nowhere as bad as those in Depression-era Germany. Nobody in the Trump administration (not even Steven Bannon) is calling for mass genocide (although saber-rattling with nuclear weapons could lead to global war if we’re not careful).
That said, it is useful for Americans to recognize that we are facing something entirely new and different in American history. Certainly none of us in our lifetimes have confronted an American government led by someone like Trump in terms of his sociopathic, demagogic, impulsive, and vindictive personality (not even Nixon came close). “We’ve never seen a president with so little familiarity with the truth; he is a pathological liar, on matters large and small.”
We are witnessing something new in terms of the uniformly right-wing inner circle with whom he’s surrounded himself and appointed to his cabinet. We must adjust our thinking and view with alarm his reactionary and dangerous policy agenda on foreign policy, the economy, the environment, health care, immigration, civil liberties; and poverty. We have to be willing to sweep aside past presidential precedents in order to understand Trump’s willingness to overtly invoke all the worst ethnic, religious, and racial hatreds in order to appeal to the most despicable elements of our society and unleash an upsurge of racism, anti-semitism, sexual assault, and nativism by the KKK and other hate groups. We need to suspend our textbook explanations about the American presidency in order to recognize Trump’s ignorance about our Constitutional principles and the rule of law; and his lack of experience with collaboration and compromise. We’ve never seen a president with so little familiarity with the truth; he is a pathological liar, on matters large and small.
Resistance appears to be reverberating globally, yet marches and jubilant moments of truth-telling must not be substituted for protracted struggle against all forms of fascism whether they be socio-economic-political fascisms directed at humans or a plethora of brutal fascisms against animals and land bases resulting in extinction. As my friend Andrew Harvey writes, look within and determine what most breaks your heart, then find a way to resist that form of fascism and work with every ounce of your being to alleviate the suffering of those oppressed by it. Currently, some form of protest is happening in the United States daily, sometimes hourly. We must continue the momentum of resistance as much as possible for as long as possible, understanding that escalating repression of resistance is almost certain.
One naïve mistake made by opponents of Trump and typically made by those who oppose an autocratic candidate is the assumption that when he/she comes to power, they will not carry out the threats they verbalized during their campaign. This naivety results from having been able to avoid life in an autocratic milieu. Those who were not so fortunate, such as Masha Gessen writing about growing up in the Soviet Union, tell us that Rule Number One is: Believe the autocrat. Believe that he or she will do exactly as they have promised, and just this week, CNN reported: “Donald Trump Is Doing Exactly What He Said He Would Do.”
Thirdly, commit to working on the part of yourself that colluded in the syndrome of which Nafeez Ahmed writes. As you resist the symptom, Donald Trump, reclaim and heal the shadow syndrome that has permitted his election. Become familiar with your own inner Donald Trump. Journal about it, draw, paint, sculpt it. Ask for dreams about it. Make a list of every odious quality in Trump and carefully examine how each one subtly or blatantly lives in you. Notice how those parts have quietly colluded to create a planet on the edge of extinction, poisoned and suffocated by greed, ego, revenge, privilege, narcissism, and entitlement. And, if you have a spiritual practice, look for the shadow there. Are there places in your practice where you might be using spirituality to bypass your deep grief, rage, and terror regarding our planetary predicament?
Fourthly, commit to learning and experiencing the deepest meaning of the word Reconnect. Every second of every minute of our lives is about relationship—with our bodies, with the air, with our loved ones, with our animals, with our work, with our creativity, with food, with water, with sexuality, with the sacred, with money, with time—please tell me what you are not in relationship with?
The bone marrow origin of our potentially pre-extinction predicament is that we have bought hook, line, and sinker into the delusion of separation, and it will take the rest of our lives to learn how to learn and experience reconnection. Nevertheless, even if we have only a few years, hours, or minutes to live, nothing could possibly be more important than palpable, cellular experiences of reconnection: With ourselves, with each other, and with Earth. Anything less than this deep psychological and spiritual work will perpetuate our own industrially civilized madness and keep us pre-occupied with maintaining business as usual as much as possible, leading to more discomfort, disconnection, and despair.
As we engage in reconnection with self, other, and Earth, we will quite naturally feel as if we have a foot in two different worlds because we do. On the one hand we know that infinite growth on a finite planet is over, and yet we are firmly rooted in the delusion of limitless progress and prosperity. Throughout the course of my work, I have created, and continue to create practices which assist us in navigating this foot-in-both-worlds experience without which it becomes virtually impossible not to return to business as usual or sink into mired anguish.
The three paramount questions we must daily contemplate are: 1) Who do I want to be in the throes of humankind’s unprecedented unraveling, 2) Who do I want to be alongside my allies and loved ones, 3) What do we want to do together to nurture and protect each other and Earth?
King Donald is the ultimate finished product of industrial civilization’s paradigm and the consummate mirror of our personal and collective shadows. It may be that before he completes his first term, he will be impeached or removed by some other means. Catabolic collapse and the climate catastrophe that he is presently exacerbating will continue unabated. Other madmen or madwomen will succeed him.
But more importantly, he isn’t just one politician who isn’t any worse than another. He has erupted at this precise juncture in the catabolic collapse process, offering us myriad opportunities not only to ponder how we arrived at the threshold of extinction, but why we are even alive at this moment in human history. He shatters all hope of returning to business as usual and compels us to preserve sanity and soul by recommitting to rigorous reconnection with ourselves, each other, and Earth.
Thank you for writing this, Carolyn. I think you come the closest to grasping and communicating the full picture of what’s going on in the West at this particular moment in history, and also feel as though many in the collapse community are giving Trump a free pass (particularly John Michael Greer, which disappoints me. As you touched on, I think a major part of the problem is American naïveté). I’m new to your writing and ideas, but I think you will help guide my personal compass in the years ahead.
Dynamic, powerful and highly motivating.
HELP!!!
Phenomenal writing, as usual, Carolyn.
You have captured the complex essence of this era & this moment.
“Even the saints cast a shadow.” ~Carl Jung
Everyone including political candidates and the party they represent possess a “Shadow” which also includes many positive and creative elements.
It is worth noting that the “Shadow” also contains many positive attributes:
“If it has been believed hitherto that the human shadow was the source of all evil, it can now be ascertained on closer investigation that the unconscious man, that is, his shadow, does not consist only of morally reprehensible tendencies, but also displays a number of good qualities, such as normal instincts, appropriate reactions, realistic insights, creative impulses, etc.” ~Carl Jung, CW 9ii, Par 423.
One of the fundamental tenets of Depth Psychology is prior to pointing the faults of one’s opponent that one take a deep introspective look at themselves or in the case of politics at the “Shadow” of the political candidate and party of their own preference.
This would be the first step in seeking a “Transcendent Function” to reconcile opposing views.
The continued onslaught against President-Elect Trump including the “He’s not my President” which is so reminiscent of the cries after the 2008 Presidential Election is proof that the projection of fault onto the “other” is alive and well.
The back and forth demonization of political candidates is all too reminiscent of the story about the two lepers who would spend all day at the local bar arguing over who had the most fingers left.
Such a conversation is fruitless.
What would be fruitful is if persons would do an in depth analysis of their own respective party and/or candidate.
Utterances regarding President Trump’s “Shadow” have been repeated ad infinitum.
In confronting their own “Shadow,” opponents of President Elect Trump might also be well served in asking themselves:
• Why Democrats have lost 12 governors, 69 House seats, 13 Senate seats and 910 State Legislature seats since President Obama took office a trend which began years before a Trump candidacy.
• Why in spite of Mr. Trump’s offensive and egregious comments about and actions toward women did 42% of women reject the message and the candidate of the Democratic party and opt to vote for the Trump-Pence ticket. [Another 4% of women voted for a third party candidate]
• Why when facing a potential rolling back of progress in Civil Rights did so many African Americans simply choose not to vote in numbers equal to the previous Presidential elections costing the Clinton-Kane ticket victories in Michigan, Pennsylvania, etc.
• Why when faced with the prospect of mass deportations was Latino voter turnout down from the previous Presidential election.
It might be noted in this regard that President Obama deported more undocumented aliens during his Presidency than all of the Presidents of the 20th century …..combined.
• Does it not beggar the imagination that more African-Americans and Latinos voted for President Trump and Mitt Romney?
• Why did millions of blue collar workers and rural American’s turn their backs on the Democratic Party which they have traditionally supported for generations?
• An overwhelming majority of counties between New York and California voted for President Elect Trump. Overall Trump won approximately 2,600 counties to Clinton’s 500, or about 84% of the geographic United States.
• Why did the Clinton-Kane ticket only win 44% of the vote of those without a college education while President Obama enjoyed 51% of their vote in 2012.
• President Obama ran for President on a Platform of opposition to the War in Iraq. The United States remains embedded in Iraq.
• It might also be noted that prior to a Trump-Pence candidacy that a wave of “Populist Nationalism” had begun to sweep over Europe as sure sign that greater powers are at work.
Somewhere the Democratic Party cast a “Shadow” which motivated millions not to accept their message and/or candidate and either vote for the opposing candidate or not vote at all.
These are the questions opponents of President Elect Trump need to answer and provide pragmatic messages of hope and inspiration to those who chose not to vote for their candidate.
President Obama once famously said: “Yes, we can.”
It is now the responsibility of each Democrat to fulfill this promise.
This will only happen with the formulation and presentation of a pragmatic message of inspiration and hope to the American public including the millions who have rejected the Democratic message and or candidate in the last election.
Surprisingly, there is some commonality of belief between Republicans and Democrats which could serve as the basis of agreement and cooperation and be the basis of a “Transcendent Function” uniting the two points of view and forming a third unifying element.
Both President Trump and Bernie Sanders while on the far right and left of the political spectrum profess a belief in “change.”
Happily, while the term “change” is mercurial and possesses many meaning there are two aspect of “change” which President Trump and Senator Sanders agree upon:
1. Both are opposed to U.S. involvement in Iraq.
2. Each supports the Blue Collar Worker and Rural America.
3. They agree upon the need to rebuild America’s infrastructure.
One can only hope that members of each Party can move beyond the political hyperbole and relentless demonization of one another and seek out the seeds of agreement wherein a fruitful future might blossom.
When you don’t acknowledge that you have such qualities [The Shadow], you are simply feeding the devils. ~Carl Jung, Dream Analysis, Page 53.
A profound piece and comforting to know that there are others who are also preparing for what is to come. Having worked in a national mental health service for the last decade, it is obvious our disconnection from each other and our earth is at the root of the personal, societal and global distress we are now seeing. As a mother, I often have thoughts of Sarah Conner, patiently building her strength and steadfastly preparing for what she knows will inevitably unfold. Worrying times but the answer lies within and between us, in our deep connection to each other and those who can hold fast to this truth when all around are falling.
This is the most sane thing I’ve yet read, thank you.
Brian Swimme and Thomas Keating have been writing on some of these matters for years! Cohen’s song is an old one. Why has no one listened? I am reading Amitav Ghosh’s “The Great Derangement” which also seems to say (I’ve only just started the book) that the extent of our implication in the world scenario is the extent of our blindness. It looks grim but I believe that redemption is always possible and there is always hope – though the outcome may not be what we hope for!
I feel so over whelmed! And, I can at least do my spiritual work – at 81.
Thanks so much for your suggestions. I’m already doing Tonglen.
The mad King, emperor with no clothes, you too can be the president of the United States etc a product of a narcissistic society, poorly educated, inward looking, ignorant and arrogant, hypnotised by the ‘we are the best in the world’ propaganda. Representing a tasteless, money talks, misogynistic racist culture.,A new look dictator, chosen by those just like him who love their country born of civil war, expert at creating the same abroad, Korea, Vietnam, while supporting
dictators elsewhere. With surveillance all over the world,mMasses of nuclear arms and the strong belief that God is on its side.,from the other side of the world I Shudder.
I am totally in alignment w what U said. I constantly talk about body & reconnect/balence. I love what Andrew Harvey said about determining what breakes the heart & working there.
Yes, we must awaken to a whole other possibility & consciousness.
You wrote:
“we must grow our gardens and learn the skills required for living in a post-industrial society…”
If we are headed to a post-industrial society then the probably most required skill will be digging graves. You strike me in your essay as a literate Luddite essentially hoping for climate change to destroy the modern world.
I think you pretend to be sad but I think in your heart you would be glad to see the modern world fall apart. In the words – as well as I remember them – of an early global warming advocate back in the 1970s who said in effect he wanted industrial society to collapse so he could go back to living in small primitive village, “free of guilt at last!”
The reason I frequently do grief workshops is because I am NOT glad to see the modern world fall apart. I agonize over it every day. I am hardly a Luddite. I maintain this website and spend much of my time online. I don’t hope for climate change to destroy the world, CLIMATE CHANGE IS doing that as we speak. Please read the book Guy McPherson and I wrote Extinction Dialogs. Available on this site.
A very thoughtful and important article. I am sharing this with my friends. Thank you.
Can I follow you on fb and/or twitter, Carolyn? This is the best article I have read in forever? Are you familiar with ‘the Leap Manifesto’ that has been presented in Canada by Naomi Klein and Ari Lewis. I believe it will come to a leap. We must look out for ourselves as well as our neighbours world wide. Thankyou.
Beautifully written. Thank you. 🙏
Thank you for articulating so well what has been formulating in the back of my mind for some time.
When a culture of comfort and security suddenly awake to the fact of a beastial presence in Trump, the tendency seems to be to hold ones breathe until SOMEONE ELSE solves the problem. Get off your entitled asses and solve it YOURSELVES!
Thank you for such a thorough, wise, and heart-felt commentary. I’m sharing it far and wide.
Thank you so much for this beautifully written description of what we are living through right now. Although the people are rising up against this tyrant, I remain convinced that he and his minions will continue to do what ever they can to further their obvious destructive agenda against the planet. His possible Supreme Court selections keep me awake at night! I am 75 years old and am living with a terminal illness. My days are numbered. I have all your books and am grateful for the sane wisdom contained in each. Please keep writing and know how much you are appreciated.
Your clear vision and ability to translate it into words is extraordinary. Your words give me hope and keep me on task. Thank you.
Terrifying but accurate. Hard to feel anything other than a profound despair. I am not in a position to do much but I will try to be present and alert and respect my fellow humans animals and the wider planet as much as I can.
Thank you Carolyn for again articulating so clearly what us happening and bringing our awareness to the work at hand
A well-considered analysis.
As with many other chronic, deep-seated infections, it’s only when the symptoms become glaring that the host starts to notice something is wrong. Apparently – for much of the public – Trump is the symptom that finally gets attention. Too bad it has taken so long to get off the bench, but such is the case. And yet fully awakening may take some time, as a lot of popular resistance rhetoric still pushes the implicit theme that everything would have been fine if only Hillary had prevailed. The encroaching ’symptoms’ generated by the failing biosphere will be even harder to deal with.
Finally, the truth
Thank you, thank you for putting words to ALL of it.
Thank you — these comments are the first, other than The Dark Mountain Project, which I have seen that speak to what is really happening. Thank you for the three paramount questions to contemplate daily — these questions give me focus, hope (even while knowing that things will continue to get worse, and strength.
I have felt very confident in my right to feel all these thoughts about trump when beloved friends that I thought would surely agree and they haven’t, which is heartbreaking .So thank you for reaffirming my beliefs that trump is a madman and we need to preserve ourselves!
Dear Democrats:
President Trump won the last Presidential Election a fact acknowledged by President Obama, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and all members of the Supreme Court.
Having voted for President Obama twice and Hillary Clinton once and leaving the Republican Party in protest of the nomination of then Candidate Trump I share your disappointment.
There are less than two years remaining until the next Congressional Elections wherein opponents to President Trump may once again hope to regain control of the Senate and seats in the House of Representatives.
So now is the time for an introspective look at the Democratic Party itself and determine wherein its message and/or candidate failed to not only to win the Presidency but also managed to lose the Senate and by extension the Supreme Court.
This self-examination will be painful but such is the nature of political Chemotherapy.
Questions:
• Why Democrats have lost 12 governors, 69 House seats, 13 Senate seats and 910 State Legislature seats since President Obama took office in 2008.
• Why in spite of Mr. Trump’s offensive and egregious comments about and actions toward women did 42% of women reject the message and the candidate of the Democratic party and opt to vote for the Trump-Pence ticket. [Another 4% of women voted for a third party candidate]
• Why when facing a potential rolling back of progress in Civil Rights did so many African Americans simply choose not to vote in numbers equal to the previous Presidential elections costing the Clinton-Kane ticket victories in Michigan, Pennsylvania, etc.
• Why when faced with the prospect of mass deportations was Latino voter turnout down from the previous Presidential election.
• It might be noted in this regard that President Obama deported more undocumented aliens during his Presidency than all of the Presidents of the 20th century …..combined.
• Why did 93% of African Americans vote for President Obama and only 88% for Hillary Clinton?
• Does it not beggar the imagination that more African-Americans and Latinos voted for President Trump and Mitt Romney?
• Why did millions of blue collar workers and rural American’s turn their backs on the Democratic Party which they have traditionally supported for generations?
o Why did 52% of Voters without a College Education vote for President Obama in 2012 but only 44% vote for Hillary Clinton.
• Why did 43% of voters with a College Degree vote for President Trump?
• An overwhelming majority of counties between New York and California voted for President Elect Trump. Overall Trump won approximately 2,600 counties to Clinton’s 500, or about 84% of the geographic United States.
• President Obama ran for President on a Platform of opposition to the War in Iraq. The United States remains embedded in Iraq.
• It might also be noted that prior to a Trump-Pence candidacy that a wave of “Populist Nationalism” had begun to sweep over Europe as sure sign that greater powers are at work.
Somewhere the Democratic Party cast a “Shadow” which motivated millions not to accept their message and/or candidate and either vote for the opposing candidate or not vote at all.
These are the questions opponents of President Elect Trump need to answer and provide pragmatic messages of hope and inspiration to those who chose not to vote for their candidate.
President Obama once famously said: “Yes, we can.”
It is now the responsibility of each Democrat to fulfill this promise.
This will only happen with the formulation and presentation of a pragmatic message of inspiration and hope to the American public including the millions who have rejected the Democratic message and or candidate in the last election.
Surprisingly, there is some commonality of belief between Republicans and Democrats which could serve as the basis of agreement and cooperation and be the basis of a “Transcendent Function” uniting the two points of view and forming a third unifying element.
Both President Trump and Bernie Sanders while on the far right and left of the political spectrum profess a belief in “change.”
Happily, while the term “change” is mercurial and possesses many meaning there are two aspect of “change” which President Trump and Senator Sanders agree upon:
1. Both are opposed to U.S. involvement in Iraq.
2. Each supports the Blue Collar Worker and Rural America.
3. They agree upon the need to rebuild America’s infrastructure.
One can only hope that members of each Party can move beyond the political hyperbole and relentless demonization of one another and seek out the seeds of agreement wherein a fruitful future might blossom.
When you don’t acknowledge that you have such qualities [The Shadow], you are simply feeding the devils. ~Carl Jung, Dream Analysis, Page 53.
Thank you.
Thank you! This is the most apt analysis I’ve ever read and I must admit, I’m not really sorry I’m 70, since the species on this planet are indeed facing catabolic collapse. However, I have much work to do on who I want to be now, personally and socially.
I am British, live in Britain, but witness daily the disintegration of our shared world. Amazing piece with no over the top insults. Just pure truth. Thank you so much. We are all in this together. We in Britain have our trump-like politicians though your president takes the biscuit. Look at the deeper picture, don’t give up and know the world is with you. We are all in it together. Much Love.
Thank you,
I recognise so much in what you have written.
You confirm what I was already intuitively feeling and experiencing.
Mixing methaphors and using biological terms to describe political and social systems is annoying. Please use appropriate terms such as sytem collapse so that everyone who reads your writings can understand precisely what you mean.
That said, I agree with you description of the pickle we are in with the presidency of Donald Trump. He is mentally unfit for the job on many levels. What he is attempting to do is makeover the United States from a democracy/republic to America, Inc, a corporation, of which he is CEO. He is incapable of being a president; he is not a political person. He is just a wheeler-dealer with stars in his eyes and a lust for more and more power. He loves being the center of attention, hence the constant Tweeting and the headline-grabbing pronouncements. He was in his element on TV (Celebrity Apprentice). That is all there is to him. Yes, he is a self-absorbed, a power- and money-mad promoter who courts disaster with every action in the Oval Office.
Already, efforts are underway to impeach him, citing numerous counts of illegal actions he has made, not to mention possible treason (Putin), and mental unfitness for the office. I’m watching this carefully.
If he is impeached or otherwise is no longer president, that puts Mike Pence in the driver’s seat. He is a known quantity and we can expect nothing but far right actions from him, but with the help of Congress, all legal, if dispicable.
Which will bring us to the midterm elections. That will be interesting.
How will voters and legislators deal with the breakdown of our governmental and social systems? Will we fix problems or keep ignoring them? This is a challenge for both Reps and Dems. I hope they listen to us, the American voters.
We assume that impeachment will be an option after full-blown autocracy is in place. Bad assumption. Mike Pence is NOT unknown. He is a cold blooded theocrat and a worse fascist than Trump because he justifies his oppression in the name of Jesus.
As always, your thoughts are profound and relevant. Personally, I believe the current malaise and divisiveness reflect a cultural and spiritual loss of the capacity for dialogue. These times bear some similarity to the era of Sen. Joseph McCarthy. May we be blessed with the intelligence of an Edward R. Murrow, the courage of a Joseph Welch, and the steadiness of a Dorothy Day.
I agree…I too have become incapable of remaining silent, I agree recognizing Trumps mental illness is a first step to realistic understanding of the current state of affairs…he will indeed do everything he’s says he is going to or wants to regardless of the consequences, I agree we must resist with ever fibre of our being wherever it feels right for each individual, I also agree that some kind of collapse is imminent, necessary and real, however I believe in the ingenuity and creativity of mankind, particularly when the pressure is on, we must be willing speak out, resist, concrete, act and be fierce in our love for ourselves, our relations, our planet…we all must choose and do and believe in what is right…all noble causes succeed in the end even if at first they seem to fail…be courageous!
This really went deep into me. I have had the feeling that this is just the beginning of something none of us what to see. I myself have felt it but have put my head in the sand and have not wanted to see or hear what is coming. This has helped me to see how I can focus and help my family and others to change right now and turn to our hearts and find a way even one way to help others. We have all been so money minded that we have taken our eyes off what really matters. Thank you!
This is a fantastic post! Thank you for sharing your thoughts which make so much sense to me. Although different in some ways, your words resonate with a recent post I read by Deb Ozarko http://www.debozarko.com/awakening/. You both seem to be on the same wavelength. It is through Deb’s work that I found yours last year. So grateful that you are both out there speaking out about things that matter in these insane times.
Trump’s election certainly steered me toward owning my shadow, it was that or go hysterical. I certainly am becoming familiar with my inner Donald Trump. I see him as a necessary part of the movie, Then End of Industrial Civilization. Right now I am watching it with a sense of detachment. I seem also to be feeling a ‘trickster’ energy arising in me that asks me ‘why so serious?’ So I’m not rushing out to protest Trump. And I’m not rushing at the moment to learn any survival skills, it seems rather futile struggling. And maybe at some point I will regret that. It’s simply where I am at the moment.
Thank you! Your wisdom in this essay is just what I needed to read at this point. It validated much of what I have been feeling and thinking. The 4 points are critical…I had the first 2 down. The third has been eeeking into my mind when I found myself not practicing the “golden rule” in my thoughts and deeds. As you encouraged self examining, I know it will illuminate my own grief, rage, and terror. And finally the 4th – a great reminder to reconnect with life (and love)in every sense of the word. Bless you.
Thank you for articulating so eloquently what has been brewing in me for the past few weeks. I look forward to riding out this storm with the shadow appreciated.
Wonderful piece Carolyn, I needed to read this as I grow more depressed at the crisis as Earth, and all of her inhabitants, are facing total devastation. You mentioned the Trump is a symptom of systemic disorder and that we are trapped in the system that is destroying all living conditions on Earth. I would just like to add that industrial capitalism and the quest for endless growth on a finite planet is a major part of the disease. People can either reduce the commercialized consumption of finite resources or face oblivion. Until this realization hits in the hearts of the collective conscientious, out of the unconscientious, the disease will spread. I hope the collective will wake in time.
Excellent polemic. The average americans’ living standard has been declining since Truman. Now these impoverished, deprived, segregated and uneducated masses want Trump to restore their long lost affluence and self-respect. Is this the American Dream that everyone else in the world (except perhaps the british) finds so ridiculous?
The words “boat” and “harbour” come to mind.