Obama and the Palin Effect
Sometimes politics has the uncanny effect of mirroring the national psyche even when nobody intended to do that. This is perfectly illustrated by the rousing effect that Gov. Sarah Palin had on the Republican convention in Minneapolis this week. On the surface, she outdoes former Vice President Dan Quayle as an unlikely choice, given her negligent parochial expertise in the complex affairs of governing. Her state of Alaska has less than 700,000 residents, which reduces the job of governor to the scale of running one-tenth of New York City. By comparison, Rudy Giuliani is a towering international figure. Palin's pluck has been admired, and her forthrightness, but her real appeal goes deeper.
She is the reverse of Barack Obama, in essence his shadow, deriding his idealism and exhorting people to obey their worst impulses. In psychological terms the shadow is that part of the psyche that hides out of sight, countering our aspirations, virtue, and vision with qualities we are ashamed to face: anger, fear, revenge, violence, selfishness, and suspicion of "the other." For millions of Americans, Obama triggers those feelings, but they don't want to express them. He is calling for us to reach for our higher selves, and frankly, that stirs up hidden reactions of an unsavory kind. (Just to be perfectly clear, I am not making a verbal play out of the fact that Sen. Obama is black. The shadow is a metaphor widely in use before his arrival on the scene.) I recognize that psychological analysis of politics is usually not welcome by the public, but I believe such a perspective can be helpful here to understand Palin's message. In her acceptance speech Gov. Palin sent a rousing call to those who want to celebrate their resistance to change and a higher vision.
Look at what she stands for:
--Small town values -- a denial of America's global role, a return to petty, small-minded parochialism.
--Ignorance of world affairs -- a repudiation of the need to repair America's image abroad.
--Family values -- a code for walling out anybody who makes a claim for social justice. Such strangers, being outside the family, don't need to be heeded.
--Rigid stands on guns and abortion -- a scornful repudiation that these issues can be negotiated with those who disagree.
--Patriotism -- the usual fallback in a failed war.
--"Reform" -- an italicized term, since in addition to cleaning out corruption and excessive spending, one also throws out anyone who doesn't fit your ideology.
Palin reinforces the overall message of the reactionary right, which has been in play since 1980, that social justice is liberal-radical, that minorities and immigrants, being different from "us" pure American types, can be ignored, that progressivism takes too much effort and globalism is a foreign threat. The radical right marches under the banners of "I'm all right, Jack," and "Why change? Everything's OK as it is." The irony, of course, is that Gov. Palin is a woman and a reactionary at the same time. She can add mom to apple pie on her resume, while blithely reversing forty years of feminist progress. The irony is superficial; there are millions of women who stand on the side of conservatism, however obviously they are voting against their own good. The Republicans have won multiple national elections by raising shadow issues based on fear, rejection, hostility to change, and narrow-mindedness.
Obama's call for higher ideals in politics can't be seen in a vacuum. The shadow is real; it was bound to respond. Not just conservatives possess a shadow -- we all do. So what comes next is a contest between the two forces of progress and inertia. Will the shadow win again, or has its furtive appeal become exhausted? No one can predict. The best thing about Gov. Palin is that she brought this conflict to light, which makes the upcoming debate honest. It would be a shame to elect another Reagan, whose smiling persona was a stalking horse for the reactionary forces that have brought us to the demoralized state we are in. We deserve to see what we are getting, without disguise.
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As a psychotherapist, I know the truth of what Deepak Chopra says above: “ I recognize that psychological analysis of politics is usually not welcome by the public.”
I also recognize that understanding the political through the psychological is crucial to the well being of our country and our world.
Governments are made up of human beings, just like us. The childhood wounds and ancient feelings of those in power affect how they govern. We need to address abuse of power in all arenas of life, including the political, by working with people’s childhood wounds to expose and heal the roots of our relationships with power.
What we see in our leaders and how they use their power is a mirror of our selves. For example, if we elect a leader who abuses his/her power, we can’t just focus on our leader. We campaigned for him; we elected her. We need to look at and heal our own misuse of power.
If we use this mirror well, we evolve as individuals, communities, countries, as a world. If we fail to understand what this mirror offers us and fail to use it well . . . we, ourselves, stagnate, and we continue to be haunted and driven by those aspects of ourselves we need to see in the mirror – but without awareness of what we are doing.
We cannot create lasting change in our world without using this mirror of our individual and communal psyche for healing!
Judith
www.PowerAbusedPowerHealed.com
I'm a young, female, white Republican who twice voted for Bush (43). In my humble opinion, Palin is evil. She and those who support her terrify me at the direction in which they want to take my beloved country. I am loudly and proudly supporting Senators Obama and Biden this fall. Thank you Mr. Chopra for articulating my feelings concerning Palin.
Msg to Deepak
I am not a Republican and I have not decided how to vote yet. I was surprised and a bit distressed by the thoughts you expressed Deepak expressed about Obama and Palin. He certainly have a right to express such thoughts, but having heard him in person on several occasions and having read several of his books, I am a bit disappointed … expecially in that he used The Chopra Center for Wellbeing as the vehicle for expressing his “political” views. I found the following purposes stated on his site -:
"Fulfilling a lifelong dream of creating a center which focuses on enhancing health and nourishing the human spirit, Deepak Chopra, M.D. and David Simon M.D. opened The Chopra Center For Wellbeing in 1996 in San Diego. Since that time Deepak Chopra, David Simon, and the Chopra Center Staff call the San Diego Chopra Center home. Located in the midst of the world famous La Costa Resort & Spa, the Chopra Center is an ideal place to heal, recharge and re-connect with your soul."
The emphasis at the Center is on providing guidance to help individuals promote their own longevity, human potential and success, while increasing personal balance, happiness, and fulfillment."
With all due respect, I think his remarks about Palin and Obama missed the mark (his purposes) by a wide margin.
Jim Burnett Sr.
I think it is quite all right to place the current situation in spiritual terms. I don't see a conflict with this man's philosophy and what he has written in this article. I think Dr. Chopra lives on a much deeper level than most of us, and I respect his point of view.
I am in total agreement again, WAKE UP AMERICA!!!!!! Peace and Lots of Love
I wonder if this article seems unusually dichotomous for Deepak because Sarah embodies his shadow as much as she embodies Obama's. Note that I am agreeing with him here. Note also that shadow is a Jungian term and doesn't mean dark side; it means a side that is hidden or unacknowledged or even actively suppressed.
From his writings, Deepak 's spiritual and intellectual trajectories are about openness and evolution, avoiding judgment, some would say to a fault. It is an approach which assumes that knowledge and identity must be fluid to match change around us. Paradoxically, Sarah's trajectory is about stasis: embracing the answers reached by our spritual ancestors and the lifeways that worked for our genetic ancestors, and then defending them against change. Where Deepak is attracted to synthesis and complexity and the future, Sarah is attracted to simplicity and certitude and the past. Where Deepak insists on seeking wisdom in many traditions Sarah insists on the primacy of one.
What is tangentially fascinating to me is that Palin's Republican handlers have cloaked her in words like "maverick " and "change" and "reform," when she in fact is a fierce patron of the past, a she-wolf determined to protect herself and her children and us all from too-rapid change by constructing a psychological world in which the answers of the past can be the answers of the future.
Valerie Tarico
Very well said. I have been increasingly worried about " the shadow" and hope the American people can see "the light".
@Tigony: Please try to get more information about Palin, her beliefs, and her positions on animal and environmental protection as well as women's reproductive and equal opportunity rights. If you still don't think she is one-sided, then you are probably more like her than you are willing to admit. Do you agree with hunting and killing wolves "just because"? With denying women the right to an abortion even in the case of rape or incest? Then by all means, vote for Palin and McCain.
Great article!!!!
Well written article; simple but right on point.
Dear Deepak Chopra, I admire your thinking as expressed in several books I have read and lectures I have attended, but today I must respectfully disagree with you regarding Sarah Palin. I think you were too hasty in your judgments of her. She isn't as one-sided as you claim she is, nor is Barack Obama an idealist. That Obama should be *promoted* by savvy campaign managers as an idealist is one thing, but I seriously question him for a multitude of good, fact-based reasons. Just take the way he treated Reverend Wright over the course of just a few days.
But I am not here to make a case against Obama. I just want to remark that I would have expected a more nuanced appraisal from someone of your caliber, whom I genuinely admired until now. Today you have given me reason to take you with a grain of salt, and that is a great teaching, one that I wish I didn't have to undergo but which is necessary for my own spiritual growth. No one has the ultimate grasp on reality, especially not during a heated political season. I must now think more for myself, relying less on people I trusted, and strive to reach my own conclusions based on what evidence there is.
Tigony, I wholeheartedly concur with Reginatbu's response to your comment; "Please try to get more information about Palin, her beliefs, and her positions on animal and environmental protection as well as women's reproductive and equal opportunity rights. If you still don't think she is one-sided, then you are probably more like her than you are willing to admit. Do you agree with hunting and killing wolves "just because"? With denying women the right to an abortion even in the case of rape or incest? Then by all means, vote for Palin and McCain."
Perhaps your resistance to Deepak Chopra's comparative analysis of Obama and Palin arises more out of your need to defend your own hidden fears, anger, selfishness & suspicions than a need to support McCain/Palin who reinforce the hidden thoughts and feelings you are ashamed to face.
The challenge for you and others who, like you, are afraid of an Obama presidency, is to acknowledge your fears and your anger and then to consciously choose not to give in to them.
The wolves are thinned to keep them from killing too many of the other wildlife, not "just because." Just as we have to thin deer herds here to keep them from getting too numerous and starving. She has NOT said one word about denying anyone an abortion, yet, just that SHE chooses life. Once again, give this poor woman a chance to make her case to the public before spreading lies and innuendo. In less than two weeks this woman has been tarred and feathered without benefit of trial. She has been a reformist in Alaska and is beloved by many Democrats and Republicans. Surely she can't be as red-necked and clueless as she is being painted by many on this board. She does have a college degree, you know.
I agree with Tigony. I notice that the words "truth" and "freedom" are not in the article. Maybe someday when I am enlightened I will no longer care about truth and freedom. Maybe they are part of the "shadow". But today I believe that even gurus can be hoodwinked by scam artists.
HuffPo and those who inhabit this service are not understanding why millions of people LOVE Sarah Palin.
No, these Sarah Palin fans aren't the stupid, snaggletoothed people you fly over who studied auto mechanics at the local community college because they weren't Harvard Material.
They are the people who grow your food, drill for the oil that keeps your car running, work in the factories to make the things you use....in short, the people who actually do the work in this country. And they are ecstatic to finally have someone who thinks the way they do.
They are tired of lawyers and politicians telling them how to live their lives. Until the constitution is overturned, they have the right to own guns. They believe it isn't right to kill a human being -- they just don't share your belief about when someone becomes a human being. They are tired of paying taxes to support a whole bunch of people who don't pay taxes.
They believe in small town values. Being true to your word, helping others without regard for your own benefit and watching out for your neighbors -- those are the things people in large cities seem to have lost. And yes, they believe in religion and try to put it in practice throughout their daily lives.
This isn't a shadow, this is reality. You can psychoanalyze this all you want, but this is the way "these people" think. And they are about to decide this election.
Small town values may work at the local level, but at the national level cynicism and skepticism are the more appropriate response. The masters of deception at Faux News and Dittohead Land are just taking advantage of people's unwillingness to question authority. They are tricked into voting against their own self-interest by lies, fear and psychological manipulation.
So, right on Deepak for speaking truth to power.
Agree Fiberoptimist.. And thank you Deepak Chopra for helping to elevate the national political discourse above the banal, well-worn, superficial topics we've been focusing on since Palin was added to the Republican ticket.
I am a big fan of Deepak Chopra but am very disappointed in this article. I have always found Chopra to be the one suggesting a higher road. It seems to me that if you want the best in people you will not get it by the type of labeling in this article. We would do better in dealing with Republicans to find the places we agree and encourage all to work on those things. We would be better served if we also kept our own high watch and stop trying to tell other people how they should live their lives. This article does the same things to them, we accuse them of trying to do to us. If you keep telling Republicans that they are small minded, God and gun loving bigots who wave the flag too much you are never going to find a way forward together. You will also find that they will be joined by many independents and people in our party that come from communities who have already felt the sting of what they believe is elitism expressed in Obama's San Francisco speech. You can't argue people's deepest beliefs and feelings....they just are. Chopra knows that all enlightenment comes on its own path and in its own time. . If you chose to beat a bee hive with a stick you are just going to get the Obama campaign stung with a defeat..
Beautiful, succinct article. May truth and light prevail. Blessings to all.
Perhaps the best article I've read explaining why people are falling for Palin.
Thank You---I really hope this article gets out into the mainstream.
I agree. We need to get it out in the media before the Rep taint the media and stop them from reproting the facts... MSNBC is pulling Chris and Keith who tell up the facts and don't fall for the Rep lies.
Very insightful post! The shadow forces, indeed!
Palin's rigidity on avoiding the press is quite in lockstep with the teachings of her Radical Right Wasilla Bible Church pastor Larry Kroon. Anything that's going to happen to the world is based on the hand of god striking. He also believes, like a past nut Kevin Thibedeau that every tongue will be forced to profess that jesus christ is lord.
She believes, I would venture a sound guess, that she is destined by god to be queen. I mean vice president. I mean, she lost Miss Alaska 1984 to a black woman for heaven's sake. Isn't this gig so much cooler?
What keeping all the earmarks has to do with it probably even blends into the logic that god meant for her to have all those earmarks, so she might as well get as much as she can and keep them.
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