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Dalton
Roberts |
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POLITICIANS
LISTEN TO OUR ARCHAIC SOULS Carl Jung made one of the most profound statements I have ever read when he said, “Hitler was not a man, he was a loudspeaker making audible all the inaudible murmurs of the archaic German soul.” Right there is the real problem with politics, from the level of dogcatcher to the presidency and all offices in between. It is not just the poor quality of the politicians. It is the barely audible messages the people send to them, transmitting their deepest fears, phobias, prejudices and selfishness. The problems of government are both the politicians and the people who elect them. There certainly are a lot of good voters who maintain some awareness of their archaic (old, old) souls. They know the future of society depends on the extent to which the citizenry can move beyond those old hangovers. So long as those ancient “inaudible murmurs” carry the day, we will all be carried away toward sociological perdition. I hate to attack our national pastime of blaming everything on the politicians and talking about how crooked they are. The truth is we are getting the politicians we order with our inaudible murmurs. Hitler seized upon a murmuring of historical anti-Semitism and saw the perfect scapegoat to distract the people from his seizures of power. Likewise Orval Faubus and George Wallace heard murmuring about the blacks getting so uppity they actually wanted to go to school with white kids. They stood in the schoolhouse doors to turn away those courageous black children because they knew that was what the people really wanted. All Orville and George were doing was heeding the murmurs of the people. Everyone could have had a higher vision of America. Instead, the people wallowed in the filth of ancient hates and the politicians used those emotions to gain more political power. Notice Jung refers to our “archaic souls.” That’s these old reptilian parts of us that we like to deny. Can you blame a politician for getting your vote by reading you like a book? The German people had been defeated in WW I and it hurt their pride. Hitler appealed to their desire to be #1 and their desire to win. He told them they were superior to the Jews and all other races and were destined to rule the world. Anyone who questioned any part of the program was considered unpatriotic and disappeared in the dark of night. They goose-stepped and seig-heiled their way right into a subterranean sewer pipe of history. Let us never think our fate will be any different if we follow the same low road. If we murmur about all taxes, don’t be surprised when politicians let the schools fall in and the good teachers move to more enlightened states. Wouldn’t it be better to decide what the schools really need to prepare tomorrow’s citizens and have the courage to pay for it? Freud and all religions agree on one thing: we all have our lower and higher natures. Freud called it the id and the superego. All religions have their own names for it but it amounts to the same thing -- a lower and a higher nature. I think our salvation depends on our ability to elect men and women who appeal to our higher nature rather than to our archaic old cesspool of biases and hates. I hope and pray for leaders who summon up my great higher American nature, the one that wants the good life for all human beings on the planet, the one that calls forth our traditional values of justice for all and love of our American and planetary neighbors. In every election at every level of government, let us ask, “Which candidate appeals to the highest and best of me? Which ones are merely reading the murmurings of my archaic soul and appealing to my darker side?” If we think and vote this way we will soon have a better town, a better state and a greater nation.
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