Archetypcal Choice in the 2016 Election: Which form of Daddy?

My local newspaper, The Columbian, is full today of Bernie Sanders' visit to Vancouver. It's good of him to come to this small town across the Columbia. Most national politicians want to spend their time in Portland or Seattle to get more bang for their buck. But here Bernie is, talking about stemming the national slide toward oligarchy.

Oligarchy--now there's a term. I wasn't there so I don't know if he defined it for his (mostly younger) cheering audience. Personally, I'm not sure whether we aren't becoming a plutocracy in this country. Since an oligarchy is government by an elite, and a plutocracy is government by the wealthy, I find it hard to tell the difference.  Still Bernie is focused on oligarchy and as such, I think he's the direct heir of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

As someone who drove to downtown Denver to press $5 into the hands of the Wall Street protestors camped out at the capitol, I have to admit an affinity for anyone who opposes those who use superior knowledge of the financial markets to manipulate and cheat. That's why I am rather intrigued by what I see as an emerging choice between blue collar rage and younger generation outrage.

It's always been interesting to me to wonder about the relations between a father and son. We know  about the Trumps and the family history of real estate dealings. We also know that Bernie's father's family were wiped out in the holocaust. I suppose a psychologist could make much of this.

But the end result is that Hillary Clinton is emerging as a sort of middle-aged mother figure trying to negotiate a family conflict between an aging patriarchal husband figure angry at becoming irrelevant and a restless, mutinous son who wants to lock horns with him. The huge irony with Bernie, of course, is that he is 74. But then he lost his family and can only imagine how they would have been. Trump had his and used his father's money to essentially compete with him.

Ah, the archetypes fly.

Since the rest of us are all angry about something, it will be interesting to see which side of this family drama the American populace will choose in the coming election. 

Advice for Politcal Wannabees in the Age of Trump

Well, there's no doubt about the new political winds blowing in this country. Even the Republican Party is acknowledging (reluctantly) that the times are not just changing but they have already done so. The pendulum has swung from moral probity (hypocritical or not) to hucksterism (what have you done for me lately?"). The confused losers in all this are the "establishment" whose self-congratulatory, moral superiority (definitely hypocritical) now looks old-fashioned.

And it's not just the Republicans riding this roller coaster. Every one in politics regardless of party is feelings these winds.

And what of the low that that the winds rotate around? I have very mixed feelings. On the one hand Mr. Trump has said a lot of things that needed to be and I actually found myself agreeing with him from time to time. But then he followed them up with things so over the top that I found myself asking, "Is this for real?" or are we one day going to hear him say "Gotcha, April Fool!" Is he the party clean-up crew sent in to allow the party to move back toward the middle? Is he supposed to be a parody of some kind? This is a position I may need to review since Mr. Trump is increasingly giving every indication of taking himself seriously.

Whatever his purposes, I have to say that he has changed current politics. I hesitate to say forever because American politics is strewn with outrageous exchanges, including when
Preston Smith Brooks  hit Senator Charles Sumner on the head with a cane on May 22, 1856. And this was on the floor of Congress.  Given that exchange in passion, perhaps it might even be said that Mr. Trump has returned America to its roots.

Whatever the purposes and history, however, it is clear that anyone wanting to enter politics must deal with an altered reality. In this light, I'd like to offer some advice to those daring enough to want to run for office. I call these the Diana rules, named after me, of course, and I would advise political neophytes to keep them or some version of them in mind.

Please note: I have not prioritized them. I'd love to hear how anyone reading this blog would number them,

 

• A foolish consistency might be the mark of little minds, but that was before the internet. Inconsistency is not necessarily hypocrisy, but it does suggest it. Given that, the best policy is to insist that any contradiction is in the mind of the observer
•  Every head a vote, even if that mind inside that head believes the world is flat. Point out that scientific inquiry is always open to correction (that's actually the scientific method): use that to question all scientific conclusions. Be sure not to stand under an apple tree when doing so.
• Choose your endorsers wisely because you will be judged by them. Try to avoid narcissists who will promote themselves rather than you. If you choose and idiot, you will be thought one.
• Try to not to be laughed at too much on national television. Overwhelming Steven Colbert with too much material at one time is not a good idea. Besides it's not kind. He might hurt himself laughing.
• If you must quote the Bible, remember that Christians supposedly follow the New Testament. Getting all your thunder from the Old Testament is merely self indulgent.
• Understanding your voters does not necessarily  mean pandering to them. But that may help. Understand, though, that voters are fickle and just because they like you in the primary it does not follow that they will vote for you in the general. Be sure to craft a message in less than ten words and keep hammering on it. That's about the level of tolerance of the average listener or reader.
• Once something is said often enough, it becomes true whether or not it is. In politics word of mouth is more important than the dictionary. Shouting something does not make it more true. But on the other hand, sometimes it does. Remember that if you can give a name to something, it’s yours. (See Garden of Eden and spotting liberals under every rock.)
• Duck when asked to define the terms fascist and socialist. Your audience knows they’re bad without needing to know more. Since "I refuse to speculate" is the modern equivalent of taking the fifth you want to use this sparingly. Besides, why should you need to. Practice speaking extemporaneously for ten minutes without saying anything.
• Talk endlessly about dirty tricks when you think you are the victim. In that case become morally outraged, but do not fail to learn from them how they are done.

Please notice that I have used Republican examples for the most part,. This is not a political endorsement. It's only because the material to draw from is so rich. Indeed, I hope that all political wannabees will benefit from my words because I am quite sure that practising these principles will lead on to victory.

 

 

 

 

Politics and Betrayal: One Reason Why Older People Are Angry

I’ve recently joined a meditiation group of older men and women. Afterwards we sit around sharing about life in general, and for the first time I think I can now understand part of the current politics of anger, particularly among older men. The fact as I see it is that they have been lied to.

To put things more in context, they were raised to conform to a set of cultural expectations and assured that if they did so, they would be fulfilling themselves as men and would be happy.  Happy they definitely are not. In fact, they are bitter and feel cheated.

The reason is dismally obvious:  they conformed because they were assured that the world they were defending was the proper one and it would last forever. And then everything changed. They were no longer valued. No one applauded them anymore. No one came to them for advice.

In other words, they were cast adrift. The things that had given meaning to their lives were no longer viable. Women did not like pedestals and were serious competitors in the professional ranks. Their children adapted quickly to technologies that only left them confused and frustrated. America’s sense of special destiny to guide the rest of the world was turned on its ear when the rest of the world said no thank you and even accused the US of greed and self-interest.

Was this new America what they had given their lives to build and protect? Were these men to be the cast-off minority in a world that was rapidly passing them by?

Well, to some extent yes.  But so are we all over a certain age in a society mad about youth. Unfortunately, this is the way of the world and that the ancient Greek men were making some of the same complaints, particularly when the younger men did not feel as strongly about going to what they called old men’s wars.

 

It's tough when the old authorities fall away and no once considers anything you say to have any relevance. About the only thing you get recognition for is having reached your age--as if age were not also one of the enemies. "A dog's obeyed in office," Shakespeare said. And most of us over 65 are not in office unless we are hanging on grimly and defying anyone to say we are not doing our jobs. It's all so very tiring.

Which brings me back to the meditation group. I applaud the men who are coming to talk and to think. They are the ones who are still relevant, even though they don’t believe so.

I marvel at the conditioning, almost mind abuse, they have been subjected to:

Real men don’t cry and express emotion. If you cry people will think you a sissy or gay. When there is a war, you go because your father went and he says it will make a “man” of you. At the appropriate time, you will marry a suitable woman and have suitable children because that’s what’s expected. You are supposed to be all wise and the patriarch of your family. Your children’s troubles will be your failures. Pretty lonely. Only a control freak could love it. 

I could go on. Men reading this can do a better job than I of outlining what they were taught. But I do recognize the bitter betrayal of seeing a world that I thought I could control spinning away and evolving into something ugly like the pug-monkey-baby of the Super Bowl commercial.  What a temptation there is to want to destroy it.

Yet, here is the strange beauty, as Yeats put it, of men who are talking about finding peace inside themselves, of trying to move beyond judgment, and celebrating the aching beauty of a world that refuses to stay in place but still has given us all so much.