A Meaningless Election?

I try to bite my tongue when I hear the conversation going to politics. It seems we have lost our ability to debate and discuss, and I see more tweets from twits than actual ideological exchange.
Indeed, the prevailing emotion surrounding this election is fear. (I am siding with those in emotion theory that say anger is only an expression of fear.) Emotion is the post-modern language of sincerity. To be intellectual and logical is under suspicion. To speak passionately carries more weight than speaking logically and fear motivates movement, more so than sadness or joy. If I decided to not vote for any candidate that used fear as a ploy to get my vote, I could stay home on Election Day.

There are some reasons why the post-modern political fear-mongering works:
First, no one knows how the government works anymore anyway. Civics classes and serious government classes are now moving aside to allow for more science, math, and technology. Ethics classes are no longer core curriculum. Philosophy classes are electives if they exist at all. The goal of education is only to get a good job defined as making a lot of money. The humanities – a radical segment of academia that has been vilified in that they often ask the question “What if?” – has to fight to keep on par with sports programs. Actually, I show my age there. Sports won that game a long time ago.
More importantly, the closer we get to actually voting, we as a culture realize we have no idea what is really going on in government or what is hidden within the party platforms and our fear rises. The spin doctors then gather this fear and shape it into campaign slogans, one-liners, and visual images hoping to herd us with these political cattle prods into the voting shoots, booths.

Second, have you ever tried to read a congressional bill? Don’t worry if you haven’t. It seems many of our legislators don’t read them either. (At least their aids got a few civics courses.) But if you did, it seems that none of the authors ever had an English class with any of my English teachers who constantly demanded clarity. (I’m on a rant now so I am excused from clarity in that I’m being sincere.) I hate to say this but if either party wants to develop a learned citizenry to maximize the benefits of a true representative democracy, you are going to have to dumb down your plans. We don’t read well enough or long enough to understand. Then when you add on some last minute, self-serving item that has nothing to do with the intent or focus of the original bill we just slogged through, well, forget it all. We’ll just wait for someone to tell us what it says and how we are supposed to feel about it.

Third, and most frightful of all, words used in a political race no longer have meaning. They are only intended to create a mood. Hints: Socialism and communism are not the same thing, neither do capitalism and democracy mean the same thing; patriotism is not owned by any political party no matter what historical event they pretend to emulate by co-opting the name; saying the other party has no program doesn't mean you do; no presidential candidate can promise anything without a majority of congress.
If you plan to watch the conventions in order to decide who to vote for in the upcoming election, I've read that folks already have their minds made up. If this is true for you, don't watch the conventions. All they will do is add to the meaningless list of slogans, put-downs, and sly innuendo. It might be more fun to watch the WWF. At least there we all know its mostly for show, the emotions, and the money. And people get to hit each other!!!

I've also been told that this situation has always been true. What do you think?
Also, do you think that even if one party proposes a plan that the other party realizes would be good for the country, the responding party will still sabotage the plan because it might weaken their political party's power?

The Rug Tells All

I'm back from the 2012 International Conference of the Jungian Society for Scholarly Studies in New Orleans. Glad they shortened it to JSSS or we would have been smacking each other with plastic name tags all week. Many good presentations and a chance to see old friends and make new. One of my new friends, however, made a comment that I was "obsessed with the carpet" in the Bourbon Orleans Hotel, and she was right.

I have been to many conferences where vital issues of cultural and personal concern were passionately and intelligently expressed only to have the attendees return home, fill up a file folder with the collected "freebies," write the title of the conference on the tab, and then file it next to last year's conference notes. Brilliant and impotent.

Now comes the rug part. There are two identical carpets that cover the lounge within the hotel (a beautiful hotel, I might add - say hello to Janelle in the restaurant). My new friend heard me comment more than once about the carpet. There was a curious lack of an image. The carpet center was a circle with rays flowing out from the center, something like a dart board. Not far from the center and at the top and bottom of the carpet design were two quivers filled with arrows. The one image missing was a bow.

A quiver filled with items honed to a cutting edge, sharpened to pierce the target of their trajectory. Arrows whose very purpose is only fulfilled if shot from a bow to a target. And a target, like a mandala, drawing sight to its center, helping clarify and focus the very spot where the arrow must pierce. But no bow, no bridge to get point A to target B. And it did bother me, this image, for it spoke to all those earlier conferences I mentioned. All those sharp, insightful arrows tucked away in file folders while the world keeps throwing up blood and tear soaked targets crying out to be seen.

It was then that I realized that no matter how many bows (techniques) any conference presents (and this conference offered several), it still takes someone to notch the arrow (psyche/wisdom), draw back the string (soma/sinew), and take aim at the center, the soul of the human cry. I am, we are all, the needed bow.