Rumblings
Obama and The Palin Effect
Sep/13/2008 08:48
I thought I’d share this.....Andy
ON THE SHADOW RISING.... a strong statement.
Obama and The Palin Effect
From: Deepak Chopra | Posted: Friday, September 5th, 2008
--Ignorance of world affairs -- a repudiation of the need to repair America 's image abroad.
--Family values -- a code for walling out anybody who makes a claim for social justice. Such strangers, being outside the family, don't need to be heeded.
--Rigid stands on guns and abortion -- a scornful repudiation that these issues can be negotiated with those who disagree.
--Patriotism -- the usual fallback in a failed war.
--'Reform' -- an italicized term, since in addition to cleaning out corruption and excessive spending, one also throws out anyone who doesn't fit your ideology.
Palin reinforces the overall message of the reactionary right, which has been in play since 1980, that social justice is liberal-radical, that minorities and immigrants, being different from 'us' pure American types, can be ignored, that progressivism takes too much effort and globalism is a foreign threat. The radical right marches under the banners of 'I'm all right, Jack,' and 'Why change? Everything's OK as it is.' The irony, of course, is that Gov. Palin is a woman and a reactionary at the same time. She can add mom to apple pie on her resume, while blithely reversing forty years of feminist progress. The irony is superficial; there are millions of women who stand on the side of conservatism, however obviously they are voting against their own good. The Republicans have won multiple national elections by raising shadow issues based on fear, rejection, hostility to change, and narrow-mindedness.
Obama's call for higher ideals in politics can't be seen in a vacuum. The shadow is real; it was bound to respond. Not just conservatives possess a shadow -- we all do. So what comes next is a contest between the two forces of progress and inertia. Will the shadow win again, or has its furtive appeal become exhausted? No one can predict. The best thing about Gov. Palin is that she brought this conflict to light, which makes the upcoming debate honest. It would be a shame to elect another Reagan, whose smiling persona was a stalking horse for the reactionary forces that have brought us to the demoralized state we are in. We deserve to see what we are getting, without disguise.
ON THE SHADOW RISING.... a strong statement.
Obama and The Palin Effect
From: Deepak Chopra | Posted: Friday, September 5th, 2008
Sometimes
politics has the uncanny effect of mirroring the
national psyche even when nobody intended to do that.
This is perfectly illustrated by the rousing effect
that Gov. Sarah Palin had on the Republican
convention in Minneapolis . On the surface, she
outdoes former Vice President Dan Quayle as an
unlikely choice, given her negligent parochial
expertise in the complex affairs of governing. Her
state of Alaska has less than 700,000 residents,
which reduces the job of governor to the scale of
running one-tenth of New York City . By comparison,
Rudy Giuliani is a towering international figure.
Palin's pluck has been admired, and her
forthrightness, but her real appeal goes
deeper.
She is the reverse of Barack Obama, in essence his
shadow, deriding his idealism and exhorting people to
obey their worst impulses. In psychological terms the
shadow is that part of the psyche that hides out of
sight, countering our aspirations, virtue, and vision
with qualities we are ashamed to face: anger, fear,
revenge, violence, selfishness, and suspicion of 'the
other.' For millions of Americans, Obama triggers
those feelings, but they don't want to express them.
He is calling for us to reach for our higher selves,
and frankly, that stirs up hidden reactions of an
unsavory kind. (Just to be perfectly clear, I am not
making a verbal play out of the fact that Sen. Obama
is black. The shadow is a metaphor widely in use
befor e his arrival on the scene.)
I
recognize that psychological analysis of politics is
usually not welcome by the public, but I believe such
a perspective can be helpful here to understand
Palin’s message. In her acceptance speech Gov.
Palin sent a rousing call to those who want to
celebrate their resistance to change and a higher
vision.
--Ignorance of world affairs -- a repudiation of the need to repair America 's image abroad.
--Family values -- a code for walling out anybody who makes a claim for social justice. Such strangers, being outside the family, don't need to be heeded.
--Rigid stands on guns and abortion -- a scornful repudiation that these issues can be negotiated with those who disagree.
--Patriotism -- the usual fallback in a failed war.
--'Reform' -- an italicized term, since in addition to cleaning out corruption and excessive spending, one also throws out anyone who doesn't fit your ideology.
Palin reinforces the overall message of the reactionary right, which has been in play since 1980, that social justice is liberal-radical, that minorities and immigrants, being different from 'us' pure American types, can be ignored, that progressivism takes too much effort and globalism is a foreign threat. The radical right marches under the banners of 'I'm all right, Jack,' and 'Why change? Everything's OK as it is.' The irony, of course, is that Gov. Palin is a woman and a reactionary at the same time. She can add mom to apple pie on her resume, while blithely reversing forty years of feminist progress. The irony is superficial; there are millions of women who stand on the side of conservatism, however obviously they are voting against their own good. The Republicans have won multiple national elections by raising shadow issues based on fear, rejection, hostility to change, and narrow-mindedness.
Obama's call for higher ideals in politics can't be seen in a vacuum. The shadow is real; it was bound to respond. Not just conservatives possess a shadow -- we all do. So what comes next is a contest between the two forces of progress and inertia. Will the shadow win again, or has its furtive appeal become exhausted? No one can predict. The best thing about Gov. Palin is that she brought this conflict to light, which makes the upcoming debate honest. It would be a shame to elect another Reagan, whose smiling persona was a stalking horse for the reactionary forces that have brought us to the demoralized state we are in. We deserve to see what we are getting, without disguise.
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