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Published in the Concord Monitor, August 2, 2017
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| My son Ian, cc 1983, pondering the Winter Solstice |
Wanting versus Being in the Age of the Celebrity (769 words)
I know I’m older than dirt but when I was growing
up in the aftermath of WWII, 7 decades ago, good character and honesty were
important. Someone could be a person of modest means, holding a humble station
in life, yet be looked up to by the entire community because of her or his
exemplary values. We praised such people knowing their word was as good as
their bond.
This respect was a fundamental element in what it
meant to be an American. We looked up to those role models who had high moral
values, like the legendary account of Abraham Lincoln walking six miles to
return a three-cent overcharge to a customer.
But sadly, over time we have lost sight of those
perennial virtues, and forgotten the people who represented them.
We’ve regressed from a state of being where we were able to rest on our own
laurels, feeling worthwhile and secure, knowing we were honest and capable of
doing the right thing, to a state of wanting: wanting to be slim,
beautiful, and have a trophy mate; wanting a big house, three cars, two boats
and an ATV; wanting to have an advanced degree, fine clothes, and collect
expensive wine; wanting to win the lottery and be the envy of all our friends.
We’ve slid from an authentic state of being based
on timeless values to a pathological state of wanting without end. Buddhists
would call these insatiable cravings the realm of hungry ghosts.
The more secular, materialistic, and instrumental
we have become, the more our cravings have increased until we now worship a
different kind of god: those favored few who satisfy their larger-than-life
cravings by any means necessary, walking rough-shod over all who cross their
path. We call them celebrities.
In the long run, what we wish for, we were bound to
get. It was only a matter of time before one of these celebrities would claw
himself to the top, eviscerating all rivals with taunts, threats, and bald-faced
lies, to become our president.
Congratulations Donald Trump! You are the first
celebrity ruthless enough and immoral enough to successfully render our
democratic traditions null and void.
Funny thing, though… Now Trump has become
president, rather than fulfilling his campaign promises, he is acting like an
escaped balloon pumped too full of air, chaotically spinning out of control,
without purpose or direction, losing air and altitude as he goes.
How could it be otherwise. He has no inner compass
to guide him, no empathy, values, or spirituality to help him distinguish right
from wrong. He isn’t governing a spreadsheet of widgets to maximize profits but
real, flesh-and-blood human beings who need his help.
He is an addict to his cravings like a heroin
addict willing to steal from his mother. But don’t think we are all that
different.
We are all addicts to our cravings and that is why
we can’t muster the gumption to reform ourselves or our government. That’s not
just my opinion.
It coincides with the view of Gabor Mate, Canadian
physician, writing in the current issue of Psychotherapy Networker. [1] He takes
issue with the widespread view that an addition is either an individual choice
or an inherited disease.
I
think Mate makes a legitimate argument. Rather than government being the enemy,
it is time for government to step up, as it did with the New Deal during the
1930s, to nurture the connections between members of every family, especially
those in need, understanding that family and community are the glue which holds
our society together.
I’m
not advocating the overthrow of capitalism. That would be impossible right now.
But I am advocating a return to civility and honoring the values that did make us great, along with a larger
role for government in reducing the historically high, yet still rising, level
of income inequality between the rich and the rest of us.
We
can start work to begin leveling the playing field by providing all Americans
with universal health care, a livable wage, a dignified retirement, and
affordable but excellent education for all.
If
we don’t nurture the connective tissue that unites us, our remarkable American
experiment in democracy and self-government will slip away and we will find
ourselves hostages in a living, collective nightmare, eaten alive by hungry
ghosts.
xxx
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