I and Thou

Somewhere in Martin Buber's book "I and Thou" I remember the phrase - not necessarily in these words, but meaning "those who choose hate as a way out because they don't know what to do with their lives."

Now I confess I cannot find this quote although there are many by Buber or from people who write about his ideas.

I keep thinking of this phrase now that Donald Trump clearly directed his campaign through support from white supremacist, misogynist and an anti-immigrant demographic.

But what should "they" do with their lives when there are not enough jobs that will pay a living wage and will treat them with dignity?

The only thing that will come out of hate is a world of mute strangers competing with and afraid of the other.

Buber's main proposition is that we live in a dialogue with the world.  Either as I-and-It or I-and-Thou and that we find meaning through our relationships. I-and-Thou means I stand in relation to you as the meaning of  our lives unfold, giving me direction through inspiration in what to do with my life. The I-and-It is currently how our economic system is organized. People are workers, immigrants, criminals, customers and constituents. They are "Its" to be managed for the most profit.

I feel a burning rage inside that life has been reduced to this. I understand the rage coming from those made redundant by the ideology of neoliberalism. And I fear that hate will engulf the schools, the libraries, the clinics and malls just as it has in Syria.

It's not naivety to begin to live in relation to life - it is the reason for it.

Fantasy Industrial Complex and the Anthro-Hyena

"Here’s a hypothesis, ugly, uncharitable, but given our recent history it begs inquiry: most of the time most Americans don’t know what’s real any more. How else to explain Trump, a billionaire on an ego trip capturing a major party’s nomination for president?" Ben Fountain, The Guardian.

America is not alone in this.  Fantasies or lies have built great civilizations.  Take for example the Doctrine of Discovery where Europeans came to America, killed off the people living here by various means, stuck their flags in the earth and claimed it available for their use. And what about the belief that man was chosen by God to rule over the earth? Centuries keep spinning stories of superiority to disguise the brutality of our greed. All of the problems are caused by the notion that the very best of us rise to the top to rule over the rest, be they kings, emperors, presidents or CEO's.

Which brings me to Trump "the ultimate creature, and indisputable maestro, of the Fantasy Industrial Complex" writes Ben Fountain in The Guardian. Trump was mostly known for "The Apprentice", a reality show based on the fantasy of success, wealth and power.  These being the trinity of ultimate purpose in life, which has been, well interrogated by Eleanor Roosevelt, Mark Twain, and George Carlin.

But most of the oppressed shy away from any news or information about the cause of their oppression. According to one Trump supporter interviewed, there is absolutely no need to read articles or be curious. Now the "proof" of a leader's ability to rule the world is the Nielsen ratings.  The more viewers you attract the better person you are.

Some might point out the lack of intelligence, integrity, good policy, or respect for others, but now none of this matters because the Anthro-Hyena, has succeeded in silencing the human voice of vulnerability for the doctrine that power is the only thing that counts.  And those of us who have come to believe there is no such thing as personal power will unwittingly vote for guns, big mouths and cars, in order to survive.

The sad thing is we won't survive a Trump presidency, and if we do we may wish we hadn't. Then we will know in a very painful way that no matter what poetry, science and our mother's love has taught us, no matter what complex ways we have of fixing problems, no matter how often good people advise us not to support sociopaths - it will be too late to defend our world against the next level of slaughter. The slaughter of any knowledge or memory of truth, compassion or peace, so that we forget who we are. Forever.

If I Can't Rule the World I Shall Destroy It

This is the cry of the authoritarian narcissist, and those who support him or her. It's a cry of despair from the minds of those who believed that reason and justice ruled the world and now realizing it's the opposite, feel betrayed but cannot see their part in it. In denial and without humility they sink into the dark hole of revenge. 

The trouble is we confuse ideology or the power of ideology with right and wrong. "Ideologies may be viewed as societally defined ideational structures that exist in order to permit latent dimensions of the psyche to become manifest in the external world." says, Richard Koenigsberg in his essay "Why do Ideologies exist".

When someone says "the real world" what they mean is the "ideational structures" that we have taken for granted as "truth". What we often call human nature is the "psychic functions" that permit certain desires and fantasies to be projected onto "reality".

The ideational structure I am most affected by is the notion of control. Raised in a nation who preached progress and who embarked on racist, colonial brutality, we argued about how to rule the world but not how to care for it. 

The male head of the household made decisions for members of his family whom he viewed as weak and childlike, who needed his strength and protection.  When things didn't go as planned the ones who failed were those who could not live "up to" the patriarch's laws.  

In authoritarian cultures, the sons learned to shut down their emotions and daughters learned how to keep silent.  Love became duty. Empathy and compassion died. 

We are born into a set of beliefs that our parents and teachers assume are right, and since we need approval from our society to survive, we learn how to adjust ourselves to an external view. It works to oppress and make obedient the people who live under its power.

I grew up believing I was good and those who behaved and thought like me were also good, and if we all thought the same there would be peace. Prejudiced and privileged, I must now swallow how wrong I was. Thanks to the Republican party in the US, I see how corrupted the white colonialist is capable of becoming. I see the harm I have caused by believing I must be in control, by holding on to control and blinding myself to the effect it has on those who have less.

The more I age, the more I lack confidence in talking about big issues. How to create or be part of an inclusive and just society is beyond my control. Things are changing. There is so much I cannot know - even on my own street. I am a stakeholder in this thing called humanity but not its ruler.

When despotic opportunists threaten what little bit of civil society remains, I feel absolutely lost. Outraged that we vote for hate rather than deal with our own discomfort because we are not in control.  You and I can't rule the world. Yet we commit endless acts of violence to support the delusion that we can. Nations are not great. And we are destroying the world because we can't rule it.

Fascist and communist movements in Europe in the 1930's, according to Hannah Arendt, recruited support from the masses dismissed as being too stupid for the other parties.

Chris Hedges, in his article The Revenge of the Lower Classes and the Rise of American Fascism. writes there is only "one way left to blunt the yearning for fascism coalescing around (Donald) Trump. It is to build, as fast as possible, movements or parties that declare war on corporate power, engage in sustained acts of civil disobedience and seek to reintegrate the disenfranchised—the “losers”—back into the economy and political life of the country." 

In short,  we must declare war on our addiction to power-over and use our power to care for and heal our world in any way we can.  

Power Stupidized

The issue of Barack Obama's birth certificate is not about the truth of his birth or about getting silliness out of the way so that US leaders can get on with the important things - it is, I believe, aimed at destroying civil society, democracy, justice and the future of America.

It creates suspicion and fear among Americans - not just whether their President is legally their President or not, but that a poll somewhere indicates 40% believe he might not be. It's another one of those media loops that make people look stupid, another device of division and alienation just like bad television sitcoms. It's an extension of shared shame witnessing the behaviour of dupes in 'reality' shows, video footage of men parading in white hoods burning down the homes of frightened black families, or the fall of adored celebrities going out without underwear, getting drunk and drugged. 

There is nothing redeeming or intelligent in the video of Donald Trump congratulating himself on his anti-Obama campaign; it is the basest form of racism, as Baratunde Thurston points out, which puts all African Americans back in the defensive position of having to prove they are American.

A nation divided by whipped up rage deposes its leader, and eventually. as dehumanizing rhetoric becomes more inflamed, the war of words becomes war - the ultimate in disaster capitalism.  It worked in Europe, in South and Central America, in Africa, in the Middle-East and now its coming to North America. But the only winners will be the arms industry.