We should not be surprised by any of this

There is a lot going on right now. Enough to overwhelm people. I often wonder if that’s on purpose. Because if we are overwhelmed, then we can’t respond and do something about it. We’re too overstimulated, too exhausted, too confused, too uncertain, too alone feeling, too scared, too not sure of what comes next.

Two things are grabbing my attention right now in ways that I can’t avoid seeing. The first has to do with what I’ll call appearances. Appearances might not be the right word, but it’s what I’m using. It’s the appearance of Donald Trump with his orange dyed skin and his hair. It is his advisors and cronies who submit to wearing oversized shoes that he bought for them and insist they wear. It’s the high profile supporters and talking heads and influencers who have had plastic surgery that just doesn’t look right or normal. It’s the sycophants who wear eye liner and other make up that doesn’t look natural. It’s the base who goes out of their way to buy clothing items and paraphernalia that is loud and gaudy and over the top. It is the way the Oval Office has literally been transformed into a golden gilded room. It is the desire to change the columns of the White House from a simple style to ones with more flair. It is the desire to build large monuments.

It is absurd to the eye. All of it could be labeled ridiculous. But the deeper question is what is this about? I don’t have a full answer of course, but more of an observation. To me, this seems to be part of a projection. It is a projection of the distortion of reality that these people suffer from. It is a projection of what is going on inside of them. And they display openly. I suspect most of that projection happens because it is unacknowledged internally.

The US population has become a continuous therapy session for these people exception they aren’t interested in being healing or becoming whole. Instead they are insisting that everyone else become what they are – as if extending the misery and distortion will relieve the pain in themselves. Misery loves company after all. It doesn’t actually deal with the pain or distortion. It just expands the trauma.

The second thing striking me right now is that we should not be surprised by any of this or by the world events set in motion by these people. War doesn’t just happen. It’s the logical conclusion of what lead to it. It’s what insecure people lean into in order to avoid dealing with their own junk. It’s the result of what happens when you demonize someone or a group – when you decide that someone else is an enemy. When you dehumanize your enemy it becomes not only easy to strike them, but also to convince yourself of the obligation of attacking the monster you created. It becomes very easy to explain away the killing of innocents.

When you are constantly looking for threats and enemies, you will find them. It’s quite easy to project your sins onto others rather than deal with them yourself. You’ll find enemies whether they actually exist or not, just like any good conspiracy theory can produce the logic it needs in order to continue.

When you spend billion and billions for weapons and weapons manufacturers and sellers make unbelievable profits off of them death items, then you have every reason to move forward with using these weapons. It’s much easier to blow up an enemy and destroy an enemy rather than look internally and deal with your own mess – regardless of whether we are talking about individuals or countries.

When you have a series of national myths which always paint your nation as righteous and unable to do anything wrong, then every action is assumed to be right and explained away regardless of the evidence presented.

We don’t need to look at events in the world as so far away happening to others. These events are nothing more than a mirror being held up to ourselves. And what do we see? What is the mirror showing? What does it reflect about who this country is and how it deals with itself and others?

A mirror doesn’t change what it is projecting based on what we want it to show. It doesn’t offer a distortion to make the image look better either. It just shows a reflection of what is. And what is that reflection? What I see is a country that has refused to look directly at the wound(s) that it has had since the very beginning. A country that collectively refuses to look because looking at the wound is painful.

A war is just a bandaid with a flag on it, covering up a wound that is not healing or getting better. Instead the wound is getting worse, infected, and is wide open and wide and growing. We have chosen over and over again not to deal with it.

What is that wound?  It’s the answer to the question of who are we?  Who is included in “us?”  We have a long history of this.  Of some being included and others being excluded until we decided they could be us because we found someone else to “other” and blame.

This war is just the latest extension of averting our eyes from dealing with our wound.  Labeling and scapegoating, and declaring enemies just emphasize the us and them.  As if the people living in Iran are so very different from ourselves.  We have far more in common with them than not.  Families just trying to survive, pay their bills, raise their families, share memories, worship, learn, have fun, celebrate birthdays and anniversaries and weddings and births, mourning losses, getting food, preparing it and eating it together, taking care of homes and transportation, concerns about health and old age, the list goes on and on.  

And ultimately, the war shows itself to be ridiculous, just like the people perpetuating it. Just like our excuses for why we keep putting people like this in charge. Just like our washing our hands of our history. Just like our refusal to deal with our own junk.