Thursday, September 10, 2020

HIDE, REPRESS, DENY

I learned long ago that it is those things we hide, repress and deny that cause us the most harm. At the intimate, personal level, they lie buried in our bodies and our minds, still active, still festering, without our even knowing. It takes bringing them back to consciousness to heal them. Old childhood wounds are the prime example. We all carry them. The happiest among us, those best adjusted to adulthood, are those who have learned in some way to expose them to the light and air they need to heal. Those who fail to do so often end up racked by physical or emotional illness or addiction. 

These thoughts come to mind this morning as I reflect on the damage wrought by what the leader of our country has sought to hide, repress, and deny--in part, we may suspect, in his personal life. We don't need to be armchair psychotherapists to guess that there is something amiss in the emotional makeup of a man who is so addicted to lies that his presidency has been marked by more than 20,000 of them, by the count of those who watch his words more closely than do I; who swings wildly between rage at others and self-aggrandizement; who, having acquired a position of the greatest responsibility, rejects it outright when faced with the consequences of his actions.

The evidence of the audiotapes published yesterday show the far-reaching, national, international consequences of this man's propensity to hide, repress, deny. They make it abundantly clear that he knew facts that were vital to the health and well-being of the people he was elected to serve, and that he hid them; that he knowingly repressed the information that was needed to save countless lives--many thousands of them, that could have otherwise been spared; that he denied the indisputable public health facts, the medical expertise, and the science that could have curtailed, if not halted the spread of the pandemic.

I am no Christian, but I recall that it was Jesus of Nazareth, the founder of the Christian faith, who told his followers: "you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." We live under the spell of a man to whom the truth is alien, perhaps fearful, to be avoided at all costs. Something to hide, repress, and deny. And we see the catastrophic consequences of this man's words and actions. 

The dreadful question we now face is this: with such immeasurable damage done to the truth and trust in it so severely undermined among multitudes of our people, what will it take for us to restore sufficient trust in truth, facts, science to address the challenges that we face and set a good path forward? A renewal of consciousness, an acknowledgment and exposure of past wounds is the most fundamental, and perhaps the most formidable of tasks.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Formidable because multitudes who are tied to their allegiances,to their tribe, faith, family, associates and even their image.
Those willing to question, learn, and stand up for fairness and values, who are willing to consider change or even suffered under their own group, often feel a traitor if they don't cleave to their base. In doing so, they rise against their own soul and values.

Anonymous said...

I am not even certain that he can distinguish between truth and lies. I think he operates on an entirely different rhythm, one that is solely committed to his sense of power. He will say whatever words are necessary. The quality and value of facts and truth are not on his spectrum. His followers will follow him anywhere as long as they feel that they have reaped the benefits of whatever words spill from his mouth.

Dr Mad Fish said...

Some of us are closely watching this trainwreck from Australia. I haven't read her book but I think the basis of Trump's dysfunction has been outlined pretty accurately by his niece Mary. Trump's relationship with truth is completely distorted by his desperate need to be accepted by a destructive patriarchal grandfather. What concerns me more is that so many Americans remain loyal to him. They are complicit in the lie because they are similarly dysfunctional. They simply can't face the truth.

But this is not confined to the US. We are witnessing the catastrophic implosion of a model of democracy that privileges the individual, the 'ego' and personal 'rights', without the expectation of self responsibility that goes with it.

Marie Smith said...

No matter what the latest news relates about Trump, his base it unaffected. Whatever about him, what about them? Who are they? And there are so many of them. It is all scary.