Simone Weil on Political Parties

Andrew Nikiforuk writes in The Tyee about Simone Weil's conclusion that political parties are dedicated to “killing in all souls the sense of truth and justice.” This is not a call for the end of democracy, but a re-engagement in democratic expression and activity on behalf of the common people. It's not democracy's fault - it's politics.

Failed democracies are dangerous because of the implication that it's citizens have failed and need to be told what to do.

Nikiforuk writes that we are aware of broken promises no matter what party is in power. Hearing that Justin Trudeau won the election in 2015 with his promises of writing wrongs towards women, the indigenous people and making environmental concerns a priority - I was relieved because Trudeau's platform promise was based on compassion and social justice.

Then when Trump was "elected" I felt deflated. It was clear to me that the next few years would be built on hate, misogyny and scapegoating, and that any movement towards fairness and social health would be scrapped.

What hit home most was the thought our future would be governed by anger, spite and a lust for revenge. This is because I know there are many in Canada who long for the mythical sense of might makes right.

Suddenly our PM seemed to change direction. Buying an oil company to build pipelines for tankers on a fragile narrow coast with our pensions, screams of a totalitarian state's contempt for life.

In Europe, between the first and second world war, Weil "watched one party after another betray the best interests of working people, and saw "that political parties seem designed to destroy any vestige of democracy as well as any opportunity for free thought."

Might will do everything it can to convince the people they are powerless and worthless. We have come to an age where it is very difficult to believe otherwise.

I fear the long slow spiral down to the bottom will find new ways to return to barbaric rule. Public hangings, torture, hunger and fear will be on display. It will be painful and grievous. It will hurt physically, psychologically and spiritually. All while its leaders will preach of saving the most vulnerable, saving the economy, evening out the access to opportunity, and the long march toward progress.

In Orwell's "1984" there comes an end where the protagonist is praying to die, screaming for his life to end. The thinking sensitive being commits suicide allowing the hollow men to march on.

Voting for fascist parties is a kind of suicide. It's the temper exploding when the heart has been broken too many times.

I am thinking about how to create conversations on being human. Circles where artists, poets and musicians can gather with economists, engineers, and labourers to share their thoughts and the feelings they cannot share in public. Circles where those who did not have the opportunity to attend higher learning are heard and have the opportunity to hear others without feeling judged or put down.

Using terms like civic education or consciousness raising implies a need for "self improvement" - terms that are very threatening to those who have been rejected in so many ways, who can only feel powerful when they beat up someone who has less power than they.

Humanity with its many faults feels hope and despair, but politics is ruled by the notion of control, of rising above the fragile human ego. However a political party soon descends into strategies to win. Politicians focus on winning, and this requires a different game plan, losing sight of its original goal.

This is why we must pay attention and let them know what we think is best for our world. It's a matter of endless care and investment of energy.

The Real Crisis

"No, the real crisis is an upsurge in hatred — unreasoning hatred that bears no relationship to anything the victims have done. And anyone making excuses for that hatred — who tries, for example, to turn it into a “both sides” story — is, in effect, an apologist for crimes against humanity." (Paul Krugman, Return of the Blood Libel, New York Times.         https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/21/opinion/blood-libel-trump-immigrants.html)

Paul Krugman writes about how Hitler's hatred of Jews became a "cause" for his campaign to find glory in killing as many people as possible.

The fact that hate drives wars is a sordid economic boon, while the lives of decent people are disrupted and destroyed. This is true for any system of government.

In the early part of the last century there was a theory, probably created by Russian secret police, that Jews were planning to take over the world, writes Krugman. As Russia was about to begin the communist revolution through fascist means they embarked on spreading fear through the charge and imprisonment of writers and artists who expressed "anti-Soviet ideas". Krugman writes the steps and causes of the rise of hate across Europe in a clear way. His article is worth reading.

In my less detailed way of finding patterns I propose that a system rules people until the people see the errors of it, then as movements to resist grow, up pops another scapegoat and theories are manufactured to point the blame to a small powerless group. 

This is achieved by billionaires and the ruling elite who fear being sacked by the masses. Media helps to spread this hate as people begin to feel more trapped by a system that punishes them for being poor and powerless.

Many wise people have warned that the rising gap between haves and have-nots will lead to fascism and violence.  It has been documented in the past.  But those most impressed by the anti-immigrant movements have been duped, manipulated by the emotions that men dare not speak of.

How can any self-respecting macho man admit that he is vulnerable to forces he cannot control no matter how strong he tries to be? Whatever the system is and whatever promises are made by well meaning leaders the pattern always ends up with the psychopath on top. Men love the apes that pound their chest and roar and feel contempt towards the poorest most bullied and abused.

This is called projection - projecting our fantasies onto others, in stories, songs and politics.

If you go to the article written by Krugman there is a picture of a white man with his distorted mouth open as though he is screaming some hateful epithet. This is the face of the human who has lost hope for the future while centralized power organizes humanity's expulsion from the commons. This is the face of the man who has been purchased, who is trapped and cannot find a way out.

Confronting Evil

by Russell McNeil

"Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me." ~ Martin Niemöller


While I appreciate that a few of my friends are supportive of the US President, I have reached the end of my own psychological rope on this. My own personal daily reaction to the outrages of this imbalanced man is visceral. I have tried to understand your points-of-view. But I can no longer tolerate your positions. For me this man is my daily nightmare. I wake every morning and go to the news feeds to see what new desecrations Donald Trump has committed. I am never disappointed.

I do not believe that people are inherently evil. I do believe that the actions that Donald Trump have taken are having evil consequences. I was raised in a religious environment. I was taught the differences between right and wrong. I was taught that bullying defenseless people is wrong. I was taught that words have consequences. I was taught that preying on the weak, the young, the voiceless and the powerless is wrong. These are things Donald Trump and his sycophants do daily. This is the definition of raw cowardice.

I am speechless that a few of you still support this man. I can only conclude that you - my friends - are living in a state of permanent delusion. This is the 21st century - not the 2nd when the Roman Emperor Commodus (a man with a frighteningly similar temperament to Trump) succeeded Marcus Aurelius and began a reign of terror that ended with the disintegration of Rome.

Donald Trump is a cancer on the human family (a cancer that is now metastasizing as seen clearly in Trump's immoral speech to 40,000 cheering boy scouts this week). If you are unable or unwilling to see this I can only feel sorry for you. But I will no longer tolerate your myopia. My friends also include many who are the daily targets of Donald Trump. I can no longer remain silent while my other friends - women, minorities, LGBTQ, scientists and academics (I am one of those), and journalists (I am proud to have been one too) - are assaulted daily by this Presidential demon. Enough! #TheResistence

The Post-Trump World

Roger Cohen's piece "The Trump Possibility" in The New York Times articulated a list of why it is possible for the world's most powerful nation to elect

a fascist. These included fear, anxiety-multipliers, the crash of 2008 which rigged the global system and granted impunity to an elite, growing inequality, abandonment of the working class, and the perennial folly of blaming those who have the least power.

But is it because we are so impressed with media we cannot see how we are being manipulated into believing that we have elected this man rather than the system presenting the "winner" before the elections?

"We are on the wrong track if we imagine that ideas put forth by political leaders contain, or are intended to contain, some form of “truth”; that ideas correspond to some aspect of “external reality.” The coin of the realm in politics is fantasy: the leader’s ability to express his own fantasies, and to induce or seduce others to share those fantasies. The leader presents ideas that resonate with his audience. His utterances allow followers to externalize inner states of being." writes Richard Koenigsberg in his post Ideology as Shared Fantasy.

I do not know enough about how this works but those in communications and advertising may be familiar with it.  I have mostly felt we are being manipulated by institutions and business who have learned how to work on the most cynical levels of human nature. 

George Orwell's 1984 is an allegory that takes place in the future but based on the horror of fascist societies in Europe, while its victims believed they were willingly driving the fight for freedom.  

Then the fifties and sixties flourished with consumer fashions and we thought we could express who we were with clothes, make-up and cars - the fantasy was about endless stuff.

Now that the economy is rigged to benefit only a few, most of us don't have that opportunity to spend our lives away. 

My current fantasy is that we shall find a way to preserve our water, the environment, and justice - so we won't need to carry placards on the streets forever. How to convince others? Many are already doing it.

The idea that our fantasy is wanting to find its way out is both intriguing and terrifying.