Deepak Chopra
Obama and the Palin Effect
Sometimes politics has the uncanny effect of mirroring the national
psyche even when nobody intended to do that. This is perfectly
illustrated by the rousing effect that Gov. Sarah Palin had on the
Republican convention in Minneapolis this week. On the surface, she
outdoes former Vice President Dan Quayle as an unlikely choice, given
her negligent parochial expertise in the complex affairs of governing. Her
state ofAlaska has less than 700,000 residents, which reduces the job of
governor to the scale of running one-tenth of New York City. By
comparison, Rudy Giuliani is a towering international figure. Palin's pluck
has been admired, and her forthrightness, but her real appeal goes
deeper.
She is the reverse of Barack Obama, in essence his shadow, deriding
his idealism and exhorting people to obey their worst impulses. In
psychological terms the shadow is that part of the psyche that hides out
of sight, countering our aspirations, virtue, and vision with qualities we
are ashamed to face: anger, fear, revenge, violence, selfishness, and
suspicion of "the other." For millions of Americans, Obama triggers those
feelings, but they don't want to express them. He is calling for us to reach
for our higher selves, and frankly, that stirs up hidden reactions of an
unsavory kind. (Just to be perfectly clear, I am not making a verbal play
out of the fact that Sen. Obama is black. The shadow is a metaphor
widely in use before his arrival on the scene.) I recognize that
psychological analysis of politics is usually not welcome by the public,
but I believe such a perspective can be helpful here to understand
Palin's message. In her acceptance speech Gov. Palin sent a rousing
call to those who want to celebrate their resistance to change and a
higher vision.
Look at what she stands for:
--Small town values -- a denial of America's global role, a return to petty,
small-minded parochialism.
--Ignorance of world affairs -- a repudiation of the need to repair
America's image abroad.
--Family values -- a code for walling out anybody who makes a claim for
social justice. Such strangers, being outside the family, don't need to be
heeded.
--Rigid stands on guns and abortion -- a scornful repudiation that these
issues can be negotiated with those who disagree.
--Patriotism -- the usual fallback in a failed war.
--"Reform" -- an italicized term, since in addition to cleaning out corruption
and excessive spending, one also throws out anyone who doesn't fit your
ideology.
Palin reinforces the overall message of the reactionary right, which has
been in play since 1980, that social justice is liberal-radical, that
minorities and immigrants, being different from "us" pure American types,
can be ignored, that progressivism takes too much effort and globalism is
a foreign threat. The radical right marches under the banners of "I'm all
right, Jack," and "Why change? Everything's OK as it is." The irony, of
course, is that Gov. Palin is a woman and a reactionary at the same time.
She can add mom to apple pie on her resume, while blithely reversing
forty years of feminist progress. The irony is superficial; there are
millions of women who stand on the side of conservatism, however
obviously they are voting against their own good. The Republicans have
won multiple national elections by raising shadow issues based on fear,
rejection, hostility to change, and narrow-mindedness.
Obama's call for higher ideals in politics can't be seen in a vacuum. The
shadow is real; it was bound to respond. Not just conservatives possess
a shadow -- we all do. So what comes next is a contest between the two
forces of progress and inertia. Will the shadow win again, or has its furtive
appeal become exhausted? No one can predict. The best thing about Gov.
Palin is that she brought this conflict to light, which makes the upcoming
debate honest. It would be a shame to elect another Reagan, whose
smiling persona was a stalking horse for the reactionary forces that have
brought us to the demoralized state we are in. We deserve to see what
we are getting, without disguise.
And for a few words of my own. We truly must learn to listen to our
hearts; to go within, discover our own, true core values and live
from this stance. It takes a level of self-awareness that many of us
don't yet possess and it takes courage to stray from the societal
standard we've been enculturated with.
I don't mean our social "values", the norms we use to measure our
"success" in this materialist society we inhabit--the size of our home,
or bank accounts, the sleekness of our car or the label on our clothes
and shoes. I mean our "core" values--the ones our conscience nags
at us about.....the ones that Heartmath tools help us identify:>)
I was linked to a video by David Icke this week-end by friends and this
is how he finished his talk (I couldn't have said it better:>)........
"If we stopped making decisions about our actions based on what is
right for us in the moment and started doing what we know to be
right by conscience and justice, this would transform the world.
This world is being created as we experience it by billions of people
deciding every day--what do I do in the interests of me? Once we
start saying, "what do I do in the interest of justice, fairness, and my
own conscience", actions change. The world changes. And we are
in control of that. (The secret of "the Secret"--it's about us not me!)
We are at a fork in the road now, we have one last chance to open
our eyes and open our minds and start getting involved in doing
something about this.
There's going to come a time and it's not too long from now, when
we're going to have to look our children in the eyes and we're going
to have to answer the question without blinking and without averting,
"What were you doing?"
They are going to have to live their entire lives with the results of our
actions."
Come by:
http:www.macarthurparknaturalmedicine.com
and watch some videos and learn more about Heartmath. Call for
a "free" introductory session #800-331-9547 or e-mail me at:
sandi@macarthurparknaturalmedicine.com