From what little I know of Trump the man, I wouldn’t trust him as far as I could throw him. From what I’ve seen of the distance between the Trump myth and the reality it conceals, I wouldn’t put money on him “draining the swamp” any time soon – not if left to his own devices. He seems to me a creature of the establishment, albeit with a heavy slice of the jester or imp about him. What I’ve seen of Biden, man and myth, alarms me. The more I learn, the more alarmed I become.
But neither observation matters all that much, and that is one part of what this post is about. To put it succinctly, I’ve been wholly unengaged in left- and right-wing ideologies and politics for about 20 years. What matters to me is what makes most sense beyond ideology, if such is possible. For the record, I think such is possible, though to a somewhat limited degree. The attempt to remain free of ideology is itself partly ideological. Anything that patterns our approach to politics and societal governance is going to have a slice of ideology to it. As we confront the devilish details when applying that pattern in daily life, politics enters the scene, heavily, awkwardly, and won’t go away. When we deal with Other, compromise is the name of the game. Loving, creative compromise keeps the game healthy. That takes courageous transparency. And transparency is one thing we need a lot more of.
Trump’s myth attracts my attention regardless of how true it is. Not because I’m attracted to it per se – it’s too cartoonish for me –, but because “draining the swamp” is sorely needed. There is corruption aplenty in every nation on earth. How could it be otherwise; power corrupts. Power attracts those who hunger for power, a civilisational dynamic we must live with. So evidence of voter fraud, properly exposed, would flush out much corruption. So much so, in fact, that few of the horrifically partisan mass-media outlets, social and conventional, will escape unwounded, and many might perish.
The promising opportunity I see here lies in a Trump victory. His victory would necessarily be accompanied by exposure of massive voter fraud. Once out, this cat will not go back in the bag. The chance We, The People would then have to wrest narrative control from the globalists would be far larger than it is now. And the shock would wake many from the Stockholm Syndrome slumber cocooning them, blinding them.
I want neither the Old Normal, nor the New Normal so aggressively pushed by globalists. The latter seems appealing only because it’s shinier than the ugly chaos erupting all around us. But squeaky-clean totalitarianism isn’t the only alternative. We can do better than total surveillance, total servitude, total serfdom, in short total subjection to The Powers That Be. And we can also do better than the Old Normal that led inexorably to this mess. More on that “better” a little down the page.
Obviously, those selling snake oil of totalitarian flavour want total control. Those who want total control should not be in charge of anything, let alone the whole planet. It’s a soul sickness nothing can satisfy, not least the illusion of total control that must always remain out of reach, pulling its acolytes forwards to their destructive demise via some unknowable number of illusory victories along the way. The Book of Revelation is a mythical roadmap that describes this process. 666, the number of the beast, symbolises total control, six being the number of order, of mechanical perfection.
In other words, in Trump’s case it’s the myth that matters; a Trump victory combined with a sufficiently large shock would mean the direction of travel then chosen will be exposure of ever more corruption. If Biden wins, We, The People are far more likely to be sleep-walked to a nasty – though nice and tech-shiny – dystopian future very few of us actually want. Even if our fear tells us we do.
All that said, the ideological divide – a false dichotomy in my view – is not going to dissolve into peace and harmony this side of a painful cultural catharsis. Regardless of how the election aftermath shakes out, bad actors will remain in charge, bad blood will be boiling and vested interests will continue to push our buttons and pull our strings, shepherding us whither they will. The point here is the window of opportunity a Trump victory might afford us. We will make best use of that window by staying calm but firm, persistent but polite, open but skeptical. In short, by remaining loving.
Back to the promised “better”. An enormous improvement on all the above can be the only consequence if loving level headedness prevails. The path that improvement will be – the journey is the destination – opens when we commit to love. Those still lost to the dark spell cast so perniciously over humanity will need help and guidance. The route out will not be obvious and likely longer than we would like, possibly decades. Thus the more sobriety and joy we bring to this grave challenge the more rewarding it will be.
My next post will examine in detail the nature of that challenge.
