I am way too old to have delusions of or need for a father figure. My strongest concern is the that changing candidates now when Pres Biden, while showing signs of age, is fit for duty. I am not going to argue over his shocking debate performance. There have been many in my profession, music, as well as TV/video production who have strongly noted that the audio and video may well have been tampered with to make Biden look worse. I agree that he was not ready (prepared would be a misnomer) for that debate. Yet the Democrats demanding Biden step down have not done what is necessary to prevent Trump from implementing his & his dark money backers’ project 2025. Probably because the Democrats were also not ready OR prepared. Perhaps they are projecting their own underperformance onto Biden who has actually out preformed his predecessors. No, I’m still not fawning over him. Biden really screwed up big time many times, one being appointing Garland then not removing him.
A new candidate would not have time to bring things together even if plans are being or have been made.
So, it appears that a the successor to Biden, Harris, is VERY prepared to take on not just the candidacy but Trump and MAGA/authoritarians and the office of POTUS. Rave on Kamala and Tim.
What a wonderful letter Dr. Lee shares with us. If I were to illuminate our crumbling institutions, I'd point to our inability to comprehend how the corruption of our minds work. We become corrupted when our Egos determine our thoughts and actions. When we're young we wonder, "What am I if I am not my Ego?" As we mature, the answer to this question becomes clearer.
Throughout global civilization, over thousands of years, we have been bad at illuminating the corruption of our own minds because of the inadequate ways we comprehend our best philosophies and theologies, such as our Hindu/Buddhist inclination toward seeing what is around us in terms of the Samkhya philosophy that consciousness is fundamental reality and our Christian inclination that Trinity is three Divine Persons and YVWH is a Divine Being. Plato and Aristotle attempted to parse the fundamentals of nature and consciousness, but for the most part their work has not been well understood, which has culminated in the European Enlightenment's profound blindness about our experience and knowledge of the infinite value of everyone and thing around us.
In terms of biologic time, humanity is a tender, young species that may or may not survive coming decades, but has the potential to live vibrant, healthy, and fulfilling lives for billions of years providing safe, comfortable homes for all children everywhere. We have this potential, but how do we do it?
We start by helping our teenagers and young adults identify, sideline, see-through, tame, and participate in the total annihilation of their Ego so they may enter society as mature, unique, creative, energetic, and cooperative adults. All the major spiritualities start by teaching we must see and tame Ego, through the ethical guidelines set by such understandings as the Hindu Yamas, Buddhist Niyamas, Judaic Decalogue and Code of the Covenant, and the Christian Beatitudes--all of which are focused on taming Ego. In the hard sciences, scientists are trained to tame their Egos by attempting to ignore them as they examine everything with their instruments other than themselves, which compounds ignorance upon ignorance.
How is it our arbiters of truth are so badly contaminated by Ego? How is it our judicial, financial, academic, scientific, governmental, and spiritual systems are so badly contaminated by Ego?
As a practicing Christian, I'd make the suggestion that Christ is not a Person and God is not a Being. As an academic I'd make the suggestion that we can only observe and analyze the world around us as well as we can observe and analyze ourselves. We only see outwardly as well as we see inwardly. Our scientific institutions need excellent philosophy departments and our religious institutions need excellent hard science departments so we may better comprehend the place of a scientific method seeing both inwardly and outwardly before the ultimate unknown.
---------------------------------------
As a Democrat, I'm watching Biden closely and hope he observes his own changing body as closely as he observes governmental bodies. He's not much older than I am, so I identify somewhat with his physical struggles. I'm not as mentally or physically fast as I was 30 years ago and I tire sooner. I need to pay more attention to my body than I used to. Is he past his ability to govern or campaign well? Is he past a point where he is unable to discern and manage his growing weaknesses? It would be arrogant of me to suggest I know the answer.
What I do know is I am watching him and, in a two-party system, we must make decisions with clarity without fear. The viable, vetted, publicly voted-upon potential Democrat nominees are Biden/Harris. June's debate was heartbreaking and infuriating, yet it doesn't change how I'll fearlessly support Biden or Harris with everything I have because the alternative is untamed cruelty.
While Biden has Ego, I don't see his Ego crippling or limiting his judgement, but he may suffer from our society's general ignorance about how we care for ourselves as the decades grow on our shoulders and our limitations grow. My personal feeling is that similar to how the Republicans held on to Reagan too long, I don't want Democrats to hold onto Biden too long, but that said I don't know his condition, nor do I know if it's possible to know. We have to think hard so we don't react out of fear in a perilous situation.
I am defensive about Biden because I haven't seen anyone else successfully stand up to Trump in a world of clamoring Ego. I will not allow the danger of Trumpism to overwhelm clarity. Trump's superpower is his ability to use the media to overwhelm our minds with rage and fear. As I see it, Biden/Harris' superpower is their yearning ability to identify, sideline, see-through, and tame Ego. No matter how well they may, or may not, do this, I trust their efforts more than the alternative and in the reality of the American electoral process I see going with someone other than Biden or Harris as being illegal and foolhardy.
Thank you, Dr. Lee, for the sample of a range of opinions in regard to central figures on the political landscape of the USA and psychological and psychiatric factors relating to them. Have a blessed Zoom Session with undivided attention among all involved and I look forward to the recording!
I'd like to expand with some comments from this one:
"Trump supporters have a pathological need for an omniscient and omnipotent father-figure who will protect them from all harm, and nurture them like babes-in-arms"
I'm reminded of Dr Michael Bader regarding the collective minds of the Tea Party Movement which I believe is no different than the vulnerably credulous supporting Trump. Bader said that
“People can't tolerate feeling helpless and self-hating for very long. It's too painful. It's too demoralizing, too frightening. They have to find an antidote. They have to make sense of it all in a way that restores their sense of meaning, their feeling of agency, their self-esteem, and their belief in the possibility of redemption. They have to. They have no choice. That's just the way the mind works. The paranoid strategy is to generate a narrative that finally "explains it all." A narrative-a set of beliefs about the way the world is and is supposed to be--helps make sense of chaos. It reduces guilt and self-blame by projecting it onto someone else. And it restores a sense of agency by offering up an enemy to fight. Finally, it offers hope that if "they"-the enemy, the conspirators--can be avoided or destroyed, the paranoid person's core feelings of helplessness and devaluation will go away”
While Bader describes the angst and despair afflicting many Trump supporters, Dietrich Bonhoeffer looks at the potential danger it poses to the vast majority of people who are not taken by all manner of propaganda. When Bonhoeffer was in prison, he wrote a paper titled "On Stupidity". While I have some misgivings calling Trump supporters stupid, the manner in which Trump supporters behave clearly shows that they have severely compromised their capacity to think for themselves, to see Trump for who he really is and not the delusional idealized image they created of who they believe Trump is.
Bonhoeffer says
"Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice. One may protest against evil: it can be exposed and, if need be, prevented by use of force. Evil always carries within itself the germ of its own subversion in that it leaves behind in human beings at least a sense of unease. Against stupidity we are defenseless. Neither protests nor the use of force accomplish anything here: reasons fall on deaf ears; facts that contradict one's prejudgment simply need not be believed in such moments the stupid person even becomes critical and when facts are irrefutable they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental. In all this the stupid person, in contrast to the malicious one, is utterly self-satisfied and, being easily irritated, becomes dangerous by going on the attack. For that reason, greater caution is called for when dealing with a stupid person than with a malicious one. Never again will we try to persuade the stupid person with reasons, for it is senseless and dangerous"
So if we cannot dispel the contagion of stupidity among Trump supporters with reason, in what other way can we free them from it? Then again, we should forget about them because there is no antidote for this contagion. We ought to focus on the millions of people who are sitting on the proverbial fence and those who never voted. We need to make them aware -like never before- that this time around voting for Biden must be a supreme concern because the danger Trump poses is real and dire.
I am way too old to have delusions of or need for a father figure. My strongest concern is the that changing candidates now when Pres Biden, while showing signs of age, is fit for duty. I am not going to argue over his shocking debate performance. There have been many in my profession, music, as well as TV/video production who have strongly noted that the audio and video may well have been tampered with to make Biden look worse. I agree that he was not ready (prepared would be a misnomer) for that debate. Yet the Democrats demanding Biden step down have not done what is necessary to prevent Trump from implementing his & his dark money backers’ project 2025. Probably because the Democrats were also not ready OR prepared. Perhaps they are projecting their own underperformance onto Biden who has actually out preformed his predecessors. No, I’m still not fawning over him. Biden really screwed up big time many times, one being appointing Garland then not removing him.
A new candidate would not have time to bring things together even if plans are being or have been made.
So, it appears that a the successor to Biden, Harris, is VERY prepared to take on not just the candidacy but Trump and MAGA/authoritarians and the office of POTUS. Rave on Kamala and Tim.
What a wonderful letter Dr. Lee shares with us. If I were to illuminate our crumbling institutions, I'd point to our inability to comprehend how the corruption of our minds work. We become corrupted when our Egos determine our thoughts and actions. When we're young we wonder, "What am I if I am not my Ego?" As we mature, the answer to this question becomes clearer.
Throughout global civilization, over thousands of years, we have been bad at illuminating the corruption of our own minds because of the inadequate ways we comprehend our best philosophies and theologies, such as our Hindu/Buddhist inclination toward seeing what is around us in terms of the Samkhya philosophy that consciousness is fundamental reality and our Christian inclination that Trinity is three Divine Persons and YVWH is a Divine Being. Plato and Aristotle attempted to parse the fundamentals of nature and consciousness, but for the most part their work has not been well understood, which has culminated in the European Enlightenment's profound blindness about our experience and knowledge of the infinite value of everyone and thing around us.
In terms of biologic time, humanity is a tender, young species that may or may not survive coming decades, but has the potential to live vibrant, healthy, and fulfilling lives for billions of years providing safe, comfortable homes for all children everywhere. We have this potential, but how do we do it?
We start by helping our teenagers and young adults identify, sideline, see-through, tame, and participate in the total annihilation of their Ego so they may enter society as mature, unique, creative, energetic, and cooperative adults. All the major spiritualities start by teaching we must see and tame Ego, through the ethical guidelines set by such understandings as the Hindu Yamas, Buddhist Niyamas, Judaic Decalogue and Code of the Covenant, and the Christian Beatitudes--all of which are focused on taming Ego. In the hard sciences, scientists are trained to tame their Egos by attempting to ignore them as they examine everything with their instruments other than themselves, which compounds ignorance upon ignorance.
How is it our arbiters of truth are so badly contaminated by Ego? How is it our judicial, financial, academic, scientific, governmental, and spiritual systems are so badly contaminated by Ego?
As a practicing Christian, I'd make the suggestion that Christ is not a Person and God is not a Being. As an academic I'd make the suggestion that we can only observe and analyze the world around us as well as we can observe and analyze ourselves. We only see outwardly as well as we see inwardly. Our scientific institutions need excellent philosophy departments and our religious institutions need excellent hard science departments so we may better comprehend the place of a scientific method seeing both inwardly and outwardly before the ultimate unknown.
---------------------------------------
As a Democrat, I'm watching Biden closely and hope he observes his own changing body as closely as he observes governmental bodies. He's not much older than I am, so I identify somewhat with his physical struggles. I'm not as mentally or physically fast as I was 30 years ago and I tire sooner. I need to pay more attention to my body than I used to. Is he past his ability to govern or campaign well? Is he past a point where he is unable to discern and manage his growing weaknesses? It would be arrogant of me to suggest I know the answer.
What I do know is I am watching him and, in a two-party system, we must make decisions with clarity without fear. The viable, vetted, publicly voted-upon potential Democrat nominees are Biden/Harris. June's debate was heartbreaking and infuriating, yet it doesn't change how I'll fearlessly support Biden or Harris with everything I have because the alternative is untamed cruelty.
While Biden has Ego, I don't see his Ego crippling or limiting his judgement, but he may suffer from our society's general ignorance about how we care for ourselves as the decades grow on our shoulders and our limitations grow. My personal feeling is that similar to how the Republicans held on to Reagan too long, I don't want Democrats to hold onto Biden too long, but that said I don't know his condition, nor do I know if it's possible to know. We have to think hard so we don't react out of fear in a perilous situation.
I am defensive about Biden because I haven't seen anyone else successfully stand up to Trump in a world of clamoring Ego. I will not allow the danger of Trumpism to overwhelm clarity. Trump's superpower is his ability to use the media to overwhelm our minds with rage and fear. As I see it, Biden/Harris' superpower is their yearning ability to identify, sideline, see-through, and tame Ego. No matter how well they may, or may not, do this, I trust their efforts more than the alternative and in the reality of the American electoral process I see going with someone other than Biden or Harris as being illegal and foolhardy.
Thank you for a wonderful session today. It was such an honour to have the opportunity to ask you a question.
Thank you, Dr. Lee, for the sample of a range of opinions in regard to central figures on the political landscape of the USA and psychological and psychiatric factors relating to them. Have a blessed Zoom Session with undivided attention among all involved and I look forward to the recording!
I'd like to expand with some comments from this one:
"Trump supporters have a pathological need for an omniscient and omnipotent father-figure who will protect them from all harm, and nurture them like babes-in-arms"
I'm reminded of Dr Michael Bader regarding the collective minds of the Tea Party Movement which I believe is no different than the vulnerably credulous supporting Trump. Bader said that
“People can't tolerate feeling helpless and self-hating for very long. It's too painful. It's too demoralizing, too frightening. They have to find an antidote. They have to make sense of it all in a way that restores their sense of meaning, their feeling of agency, their self-esteem, and their belief in the possibility of redemption. They have to. They have no choice. That's just the way the mind works. The paranoid strategy is to generate a narrative that finally "explains it all." A narrative-a set of beliefs about the way the world is and is supposed to be--helps make sense of chaos. It reduces guilt and self-blame by projecting it onto someone else. And it restores a sense of agency by offering up an enemy to fight. Finally, it offers hope that if "they"-the enemy, the conspirators--can be avoided or destroyed, the paranoid person's core feelings of helplessness and devaluation will go away”
While Bader describes the angst and despair afflicting many Trump supporters, Dietrich Bonhoeffer looks at the potential danger it poses to the vast majority of people who are not taken by all manner of propaganda. When Bonhoeffer was in prison, he wrote a paper titled "On Stupidity". While I have some misgivings calling Trump supporters stupid, the manner in which Trump supporters behave clearly shows that they have severely compromised their capacity to think for themselves, to see Trump for who he really is and not the delusional idealized image they created of who they believe Trump is.
Bonhoeffer says
"Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice. One may protest against evil: it can be exposed and, if need be, prevented by use of force. Evil always carries within itself the germ of its own subversion in that it leaves behind in human beings at least a sense of unease. Against stupidity we are defenseless. Neither protests nor the use of force accomplish anything here: reasons fall on deaf ears; facts that contradict one's prejudgment simply need not be believed in such moments the stupid person even becomes critical and when facts are irrefutable they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental. In all this the stupid person, in contrast to the malicious one, is utterly self-satisfied and, being easily irritated, becomes dangerous by going on the attack. For that reason, greater caution is called for when dealing with a stupid person than with a malicious one. Never again will we try to persuade the stupid person with reasons, for it is senseless and dangerous"
So if we cannot dispel the contagion of stupidity among Trump supporters with reason, in what other way can we free them from it? Then again, we should forget about them because there is no antidote for this contagion. We ought to focus on the millions of people who are sitting on the proverbial fence and those who never voted. We need to make them aware -like never before- that this time around voting for Biden must be a supreme concern because the danger Trump poses is real and dire.