Early this week we witnessed the first of the 2024 Presidential Debates in the United States. It was seen by many of the for-profit media conglamorates and their talking heads as an absolute disaster for Presidential incumbent Biden. He appeared incoherent and in a mental fog. His ‘opponent’ was the more openly fascist Donald Trump. He was, as always, good for his entertainment value as a huckster. Besides his dangerous political ideology he is the living embodiment of the ‘amusing ourselves to death’ reality spoken about many years ago by Neil Postman. In recovery they have a ‘joke’ that goes something like;
“How can you tell if an active addict is lying?” “How”, “His lips are moving”.
In a sense that is how Trumpian reality is best explained. Rather than talk about how often he lies, it is best to see how often he tells the truth. I actually believe some of his appeal is precisely that he is able, for whatever reason, to say ‘truths’ that others in the ruling class are disallowed from articulating. Before Trump supporters get too ‘happy’ about my support for Brother Trump, please go back and read my comment. “others in the ruling class”. Please make no mistake…Donald Trump is a member of the ruling class. If you think he gives a shit about you because of the color of your skin or your ‘flag decal’ you are too stupid to really get it. By the way, don’t be mad at me, he of course famously said “I love the poorly educated people”. By the way, note that he is intelligent (to some extent), he didn’t say ‘uneducated’ You can have a very strong steady diet of shitty ideas fed to you, and be ‘well educated’ and stupid as a wooden post. Many middle-class U.S. citizens fit in this category. Remember what I said above, it is very important to take seriously when he speaks truthfully, especially because it is so insightful and rare.
The second thing to note about the debate was how evident it was that it simply illuminated the decay and rot of a system whose entire existence was predicated on lies, mendacity and delusional assertations. If you read my piece on Neoliberalism it does begin to express my understanding of the way the system has essentially bullshitted the vast majority of people in the United States. The lies of Neoliberalsim, probably did not effect the majority of the world, but certainly much of the global North and some elements of the rest of the world. There are too many assumptions that were/are treated as assertations by anyone trying to defend this system to create a complete list but here are a few:
- Capitalist are ‘job creators’. This is a super powerful lie precisely because, in fact, Reality is diamtrically oppossed to this assertion. During the pandemic it was astounding how quickly the whole of society was able to ‘pivot’ and see who are true ‘essential’ workers! Then of course, after the crisis, we are told to ‘forget about it’ (to paraphrase a folk song “I was taken again, my friend”…ugh!)
- Rich people are individually gifted in some special way. This also was packaged for exploited (and marginalized) people as a lie. Somehow my individual success was suppose to help other people without there being any need to change the actual social conditions under which people lived. I sometimes call this the ‘representation’ myth. Examples abound in the way the culture views Oprah Winfrey, and Beyonce or any individual who comes to represent success for ‘the group’ (exactly how this occurs is never explained very well? :P)
- All reality is really a product of natural forces. This is actually somewhat accurate but only operates in a salutory fashion if we take seriously the Marxist quote which goes something like this;
- The “ruling ideas” of a given epoch are, however, those of the ruling class: “The ruling ideas are nothing more than the ideal expression of the dominant material relationships, the dominant material relationships grasped as ideas; hence of the relationships which make the one class the ruling one, therefore, the ideas ..
The reason that the ‘natural fallacy’ position holds such sway, as I mentioned in a previous post was, in part, (no, not totally, but a helluva lot!) because the minute you bring up how the common sense ideas sure seem to echo the necessary ideas to continue the status quo you are accused of relativism and/or worse Marxist Ideology! (OH NO!) or worse of all, you are accused of being A Marxist (Gasp, holding my pearl necklace). We don’t see how our current political, economic, cultural, technological existence is predicated on some very concrete historical events. Can it all be explained in perfect ‘scientific’ terms? No of course not, but to treat something as obviously historical as our current houselessness issue as a ‘disaster’ or ‘tragic’ as something which we can do nothing about is beyond stupid. I remember a series of pieces which speak to this reality. This was a headline found in the wonderful satirical source The Onion.
“‘No Way to Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens” is the title of a series of articles perennially published by the American news satire organization The Onion satirizing the frequency of mass shootings in the United States and the lack of action taken in the wake of such incidents.
Given the constraints of this post, I can’t fully elaborate the way in which each of the ‘ideas’ mentioned abover were in display on the debate stage but I would like to just give one obvious example. I am certain everyone reading this blog is conscious that there are many, many political parties in the United States….or are there??? 😛 You see, the difference between a blind man, a man who has a blindfold, a man whose eyes are willfully closed is indistinguishable in terms of capacity to engage in reality. It is odd that we have multiplied by an astronomical amount the way in which the debate could be viewed (streaming, tv, computer, phone etc.) and yet we get the same two dumbshit idiots spewing out nonsensical ideas! Our conception of the possible hasn’t been thwarted at all, has it!? Rather it has been shaped in a very precise manner. It allows us to ‘develope’ options…or does it!? 😛
As I close this piece I am reminded of an important element in the title of this post. I want to give a least some lessons for the 21st century. I will only speak briefly of some of the things I have learned or been reminded of in recent times. When I say recent, I will say probably within the last 20 + years! I am sooooooooooooo old! Ugh! 😦
I realized that I have to let go of the idea (and feeling) that the representatives/leadership of the Democratic Party are on ‘my team’. I now realize that they are not on my team, nor do they want what I want. This may have always been the case, that is up for some discussion. What is clear is that anything that represents the vast majority of people’s experience, aspirations in the United States was not to be found on the debate stage that evening. We have to accept that those who have willfully disengaged of the current political process may have something to teach us. I don’t believe their word can be the last word in the discourse. I don’t think the solution is disengagement, but I do think their response is a key piece of the conversation that we need to hear. I remember the great Prophet George Carlin saying “They don’t care about you” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aiFp-XqV_M). By the way, I know some people will view this as cynicism. let me be very, very clear I am not only not cynical, I am profoundly hopeful. I know that those two men on the debate stage represent only an absolutely miniscule portion of our species. In many ways, they represent the worse elements of ourselves. They are also victims to a system that is far beyond their capacity to control or transcend. We are remarkably lovely creatures. One of the ‘big lies’ told by the system is to make us deeply suspicious of each other. For those of you that know that I subscibe to many not-for-profit news magazines know that one of the most obvious difference is how human experience is covered. Millions will march against a war and get no coverage, a tragic mentally ill brother goes on a killing rampage…guess which event the for-profit media is going to cover? You hear so many ‘educated’ people talk about the ‘if it bleeds it leads’ rule in journalism, but no one asks, why does that have to be the rule!? Remember this is not an arbitrary decision! “I love my poorly educated people”…indeed they do! 😛
The second idea/feeling that I have to begin to reconfigure is how to understand my identity. I have spoken to my dear brother (and Brother) Al about how he views the world. He speaks about inhabiting a world called ‘Turtle Island’. I find myself drawn towards other geographies, topographies, ways of inhabiting the world also. The creation of the Beloved Community. Kindom of God, (no not Kingdom!). No one term will ever fully capture this Grand Mystery of which we are only a small part. It is a place that is sovereign in a manner that demands that I surrender some very foundational elemens of my existence and identity. Here I am reminded of a lovely quote by the great Jesuit thinker Karl Rahner. I think here is where I find myself.
It is a floating island, and it might be more familiar to us than the sea, but ultimately it is borne by the sea and only because it is can we be borne by it. Hence the existentiell question for the knower is this: Which does he love more, the small island of his so-called knowledge or the sea of infinite mystery? (Karl Rahner S.J.)
From this new location, the debate stage that had Donald Trump and Joe Biden is not so despairing a location or even much of a place to stay ‘stuck’. I prayerfully move forward.
Prophetic Ruminations 