Yo Amy. Mister Bruce has the premise correct in using words like "Sorathic evil, Lucifer and Ahriman" but he confuses the real issue. The war that's coming to a head in these days is the war that started when Satan seduced Eve and debauched Adam and stole the dominion that God had given them, i.e. the dominion of earth. That's it. The war started then, and has been raging ever since. No peace.
2,000 years ago, Christ-man Jesus lowered himself into the womb of a woman and began, in the instant of that Inception, to take back from Satan what has been taken from us. It's a nasty job that nobody but the Jesus-man can do. People right this minute can choose to confuse themselves with all sorts of attractive spiritual distractions but when the last second of the last hour arrives there won't be any doubt anywhere about Who Is In Charge. Jesus did not come down here to start any kind of new religion. God don't need no religion to be Himself. He came to earth as a man to reclaim and restore the genuine peace of the Eternal Kingdom, "...not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit says the LORD of hosts." These are the facts.
Satan uses counterfeit spirituality and religion (including a lot of so-called Christianity) as beguiling distractions.
LUKE 4:5-8 > > Again, Satan took him up into an exceeding high mountain and showed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And Satan said unto him, All this power and glory will I give to you, for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will, I give it. If you therefore will worship me, all shall be thine. And Jesus answered and said, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
If you go thru the dates and arithmetic of when Jesus' first-cousin (who became John the Baptist) was conceived in HIS mother's womb, it figures that the Inception moment of the Christ-man's infant body was around the middle of September. That's when the shepherd's in the field saw\heard the sky crack open for a minute and the announcement: "Glory to God in the highest and on earth! Peace! Goodwill toward men." It wasn't wintertime yet. That's why the shepherds were still out with their herds. So the instant, or moment of the Christ's Inception in his mother's womb aligns with the Great Herald witnessed by the shepherds. At Christmas, we celebrate his birth. The heavenly host were announcing God's Inception of His Salvation of His People: us.
Jesus is humanity's kinsman. He became our kinsman by strapping on the whole enchilada of the human condition, beginning with Inception. I try to imagine what it must have been like experiencing the atomic webwork of human flesh weaving itself around an eternally constituted body. Talk about claustrophobia! There is nothing, not one little thing, about the human condition that Christ-man Jesus has not experienced in its absolute fullness.
I've read Jesus' birthday is actually September 11. This is according to scriptures (Rev 12) about a particular arrangement of the stars that's apparently only happened on that day, Sept 11, 3AD. I was watching a video this morning about the significance of Sept 23, again according to end times scriptures and the way the constellations are right now. An asteroid called "Child" will move into Virgo's belly on Sept 23. I've been hearing a lot of rumblings about "something" is going to happen that day. Also, Hollywood seems to have an obsession with the number 9, 2 and 3 statically placed in a bunch of movies.
The way to figure when the baby Jesus was conceived is to go by the courses that were being kept at that time in the main temple at Jerusalem. John the Baptist's dad, Zechariah, was a temple official whose time to work at the temple took place at a certain time of year, every year. Zechariah was at his job in the temple when the angel appeared and told him that his long-barren wife, Elizabeth, would conceive and bear a son and that he was to name the boy, John. Six months after John's conception is when the infant Christ was conceived. When young Mary went to tell her aunt that she was with child, the six-month old fetus in Elizabeth's womb lept when Mary walked in the room. You can go thru the Jewish records and pinpoint when Zechariah was working at the temple and from that time figure out when Mother Mary was overshadowed by the Holy Spirit.
You're right, the month of September has been loaded for a long, long time. Buckle up. And thank you for that good link.
September may be true and I am in no way a Bible historian but interestingly enough I heard arguments made that Jesus birth was closer to the Spring Equinox, not the fall one. Now I think there would be records of this and being an investigative journalist type I should dig into it. I can tell you an odd thing though: my first husband Oh's birthday on paper was not true (april 10) and was rather the date of getting an administrative stamp so he could attend school. His true birthday (November 7) was known by his family. So we came to America and in early November of 2016 he made this weird comment about how his mother had told him that the stars in the sky were aligned this way when he was born. Thai natives are not Christian and not astrologers in the western sense of the word, but the comment indicated something about the human condition that had spanned through space and time...
Evil? Stupid? Do our leaders perceive themselves this way? Dr. Frank Yeomans a NYC psychoanalyst who treats narcissists states, "Please preserve me from your goodness." These are people who never have to think about the consequences of their actions because they are shielded from any liability. And they have the power to punish anyone who would try to get them to confront reality. Climate change? Most of us will be "quarantined" while our leaders fly around in their private jets. Eat plant based protein or bugs? They are eating steaks and artisanal ice cream. Mandate masks and lock downs? They can fly to the Caribbean or travel to Hawaiian resorts. They can rent the entire beauty parlor and get their own private hair cut. Inflation? Just print more or confiscate from their subjects with digital currency.
Just let killers walk, millions billions to feed an unwinnable war, fires from hell burn everything but
Blue, cut down all the trees and block the sun, and it’s death if you ... ask where’s the justice, where’s the love? Where’s a decent man to say enough!
Where are you Lord in our tears and broken hearts?
Anniversary’s are hard!! Add 24/7 trauma. Best to honor life and know it’s most likely better on the other side. Pains cannot ought not be carried alone.
Thanks for sharing Amy, we are all touched by your
Ability to tell and show great emotion and intelligence. Yes evil is stupid. And yes evil eats it’s own... let us fight for Justice!! In this world and the next.
Judith Herman recently published a book about trauma:
View in browser
Our Collective Trauma is the Road to Tyranny
American society spawns trauma and this trauma expresses itself in a variety of self-destructive pathologies, including the erosion of democracy and rise of neo-fascism.
Chris Hedges
Sep 3
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Welcome In - by Mr. Fish
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Corporate capitalism, defined by the cult of the self and the ruthless exploitation of the natural world and all forms of life for profit, thrives on the fostering of chronic psychological and physical disorders. The diseases and pathologies of despair — alienation, high blood pressure, diabetes, anxiety, depression, morbid obesity, mass shootings (now almost two per day on average), domestic and sexual violence, drug overdoses (over 100,000 per year) and suicide (49,000 deaths in 2022) — are the consequences of a deeply traumatized society.
The core traits of psychopaths — superficial charm, grandiosity and self-importance, a need for constant stimulation, a penchant for lying, deception, manipulation and the inability to feel remorse or guilt — are celebrated. The virtues of empathy, compassion and self-sacrifice, are belittled, neglected and crushed. The professions that sustain community, such as teaching, manual labor, the arts, journalism and nursing, are underpaid and overworked. The professions that exploit, such as those in high finance, Big Pharma, Big Oil and information technology, are lavished with prestige, money and power.
“The fact that millions of people share the same vices does not make these vices virtues, the fact that they share so many errors does not make the errors to be truths, and the fact that millions of people share the same forms of mental pathology does not make these people sane,” Eric Fromm writes in The Sane Society.
The classic works on trauma by psychiatrists such as Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, Dr. Gabor Maté and Dr. Judith Herman state bluntly that what is accepted as normal behavior in a corporate society is at war with basic human needs and our psychological and physical health. Huge segments of the American public, especially the tens of millions of people who have been discarded and marginalized, endure chronic trauma. Barbara Ehrenreich in “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America” describes the life of the working poor as one long “emergency.” This trauma is as destructive to us personally as it is socially and politically. It leaves us in a state of dysphoria where confusion, agitation, emptiness and loneliness define our lives. Whole segments of American society, especially the poor, have been rendered superfluous and invisible. As Dr. van der Kolk writes, “trauma is when we are not seen and known.”
“Our culture teaches us to focus on our personal uniqueness, but at a deeper level we barely exist as individual organisms,” Dr. van der Kolk notes.
Trauma numbs our capacity to feel. It fractures our self. It disconnects us from our bodies. It keeps us in a state of hyperarousal. It makes us confuse our desires, often artificially implanted by the consumer society, with our needs. Traumatized people view the world around them as hostile and dangerous. They lack a positive image of themselves and lose the capacity to trust. Many replace intimacy and love with sexual sadism, which is how we became a pornified culture. Trauma creates what the psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton calls a “counterfeit” world defined by phantom enemies, lies and dark conspiracies. It negates a sense of purpose and a life of meaning.
Trauma, Dr. Herman writes, “impels people both to withdraw from close relationships and to seek them desperately.” It induces feelings of shame, guilt, and inferiority, she writes, “as well as the need to avoid reminders of the trauma that occurs in daily life. Trauma severely compromises the capacity for intimacy. Trauma can dramatically reduce focus to extremely limited goals, often a matter of hours or days.”
“If trauma entails a disconnection from the self, then it makes sense to say that we are being collectively flooded with influences that both exploit and reinforce trauma,” Dr. Maté writes. “Work pressures, multitasking, social media, news updates, multiplicities of entertainment sources — these all induce us to become lost in thoughts, frantic activities, gadgets, meaningless conversations. We are caught up in pursuits of all kinds that draw us on, not because they are necessary or inspiring or uplifting, or because they enrich or add meaning to our lives, but simply because they obliterate the present.”
Trauma also drives many to flee into the arms of those who are orchestrating the abuse.
Systematic and repetitive trauma, whether by a single abuser or a political system, destroys personal autonomy. The perpetrator becomes omnipotent. Resistance is accepted as futile. “The goal of the perpetrator is to instill in his victim not only fear of death but also gratitude for being allowed to live,” Dr. Herman writes. This trauma lays the foundation for the most insidious characteristic of all tyrannies, large and small. Total control. Prolonged trauma reduces its victims to a state of psychological infantilism. It conditions them to plead for their own enslavement.
“We are not content with negative obedience, not even with the most abject submission,” George Orwell wrote of the ruling “Inner Party” in his novel “1984.” “When finally you surrender to us, it must be of your own free will. We do not destroy the heretic because he resists us; so long as he resists us we never destroy him. We convert him, we capture his inner mind, we reshape him. We burn all evil and all illusion out of him; we bring him over to our side, not in appearance, but genuinely, heart and soul.”
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Christian fascism, the subject of my book “American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America,” preys on this trauma. It replicates systems of control common to all tyrannies, including cults. Christian fascists skillfully break down adherents, severing them from their families and communities. They manipulate their shame, despair, feelings of worthlessness and guilt - the byproducts of their trauma - to demand total obedience to the church leadership, who are almost always white and male. These leaders, supposedly spokespeople for God, cannot be questioned or criticized. The connecting tissue among the disparate militia groups, QAnon conspiracy theorists, anti-abortion activists, right-wing patriot organizations, Second Amendment advocates, neo-Confederates and Trump supporters that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 is not only this Christian fascism but trauma.
“Totalitarian governments demand confession and political conversion of their victims,” Dr. Herman writes. “Slaveholders demand gratitude from their slaves. Religious cults demand ritualized sacrifices as a sign of submission to the divine will of the leader. Perpetrators of domestic battery demand that their victims prove complete obedience and loyalty by sacrificing all other relationships. Sex offenders demand that their victims find sexual fulfillment in submission. Total control over another person is the power dynamic at the heart of pornography. The erotic appeal of this fantasy to millions of terrifyingly normal men fosters an immense industry in which women and children are abused, not in fantasy but in reality.”
Donald Trump is a perpetrator and savior. He personifies the callous indifference of patriarchy, wealth, privilege and power towards the vulnerable, as well as the promise that once his cultish followers surrender to him they will be protected. He inspires in equal measure fear and solace.
“People who embrace the small tyrannies are much more susceptible to embracing the large ones,” Dr. Herman told me. “When you have a political party that embraces the subordination of women, the subordination of people of color, the subordination of gender non-conforming people, and the subordination of non-Christians, then it’s not a party that embraces democracy. It’s a party that is looking for a fascist leader and is going to find one.”
In van der Kolk’s “The Body Keeps Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma,” he opens with stark statistics compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showing that “one in five Americans was sexually molested as a child; one in four was beaten by a parent to the point of a mark being left on their body; and one in three couples engages in physical violence. A quarter of us grew up with alcoholic relatives, and one out of eight witnessed their mother being beaten or hit.”
The endemic trauma in American society, which is getting worse under the onslaught of the gig economy, pronounced social inequality, indiscriminate police violence, the climate crisis and the seizure of the political process and most institutions by corporations and the ruling oligarchs, is our most serious public health crisis. It has grave individual, social and political consequences.
“If trauma is truly a social problem,” Dr. Herman in “Truth and Repair: How Trauma Survivors Envision Justice” writes, “then recovery cannot simply be a private individual matter. The wounds of trauma are not merely those caused by the perception of violence and exploitation. The actions or inactions of bystanders, all those who are complicit in or who prefer not to know about the abuse or who blame the victims, often cause deeper wounds.” “Full healing,” she adds, “because it originates in a fundamental injustice, requires a full hearing within the community to repair through some measure of justice the trauma survivors have endured.”
I tend to alternate between pessimism and optimism, whereas S can be a bit more despairing. You're not the first person on my substack to mention it! Sometimes you have to take a deep breath and be grateful for what you do have. I sometimes zone out and was listening to this Solfeggio frequency earlier: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-a00nxDoOg Some is just forgiving yourself as I think we often our our own worst critic. The Maui thing has really dragged me in perhaps because I was physically there on the ground. I can see it in the interviews I've even considered going back there though I'm not sure what little old me could do on the ground specifically. Perhaps I could say a prayer.
I think in the end good wins but we are in dark times where it can be hard to find the highest center. A few days ago I was crying my eyes out about something my half brother's long term girlfriend posted on facebook: it was the anniversary of her son's death. He was killed at five years old by her ex husband while they were in a custody dispute over the boy. The ex only got two years for it and it was the anniversary of his death. I don't believe death is the end. This is what she posted:
"So here it is again, the anniversary of the worst day of my life. The day I found out my Josh, my heart and soul, my everything, was gone from this earth. 💔😢😔💔. I never know quite what to do… Do I try to ignore it and not give it any weight? Do I focus all of my attention on it? Do I go through all the memories of that day and the days and week proceeding? Do I try to keep it all blocked out? Do I isolate and curl up in a ball in his room? Do I try to spend it with people I love and people he loved? Do I write something? What do I write? What can I possibly say? How can I not say anything? Do I avoid? Do I engage? Do I go to work? Do I stay home? How can I best honor Josh? Do I have the strength to do that? Every year at this time of the year I go through the same struggle. On his birthday too.
But I have to say something, to honor him and his precious little life, cut too short by the most heinous act imaginable… that I am still in shock is going without true justice. Which in itself has truly been a struggle this whole past year. Another loss in the face of the greatest loss. The loss of hope for justice for this beautiful, innocent, loving, amazing little boy. The loss of hope in, well, anything. With the added weight of the tragedies and challenges my family experienced before and after the trial. It’s been rough for sure.
But, I spent the last few days doing fun things. Things I know Josh would’ve loved. And yes, having very sad moments and breakdowns, but also, especially today, feeling a strange sense of peace and being OK. I can only believe that it’s because of thoughts and prayers being sent my way. Which I thank those of you who have reached out for 🙏🏻❤️.
I never shared the fact that his dad only got 2 years…2…for the most heinous act imaginable that any human can commit. And he had already served more than that in jail waiting for trial, so he walked free. A year ago this month. Truly mind boggling.
I also didn’t ever share the video that was played after my victims impact statement to the judge, and I’m going to try to attach that here. It represents only a few of the thousands and thousands of pictures I have of Josh, and of all the amazing things we got to do, and all the people he loved, and who loved him, and who his life and loss impacted… but I think it’s really beautiful. Thank you again to everyone who reached out, and for remembering my Josh with me, and loving him whether you knew him or not. It means everything to me💔🙏🏻❤️
❤️❤️❤️My Joshie J, my angel baby boy, I love you to the moon and back a zillion trillion times, with all the love in my heart, forever and for always…xoxo mommy"
I immediately thought of King Solomon who was testing two mothers who disputed who should be allowed custody of the child. He proposed killing the child and giving each mother one half of the deceased infant. One mother was fine with this decision. The other cried and cried. Please do not kill him. I renounce my claim. She was the real mother. She was willing to give up her claim for the sake of her son. To me we must all shoulder the grief of mothers who have lost their children.
Such grief cannot should not be born alone. My mother told me once that she could never die as long as I was alive. Because she would live in my memories. When my husband died I thought: He will not die. He will be alive in my dreams. And I dream of him often. Am I fine with it? I thought I was. But I now realize I need to be more present to the world and to others. I need to be part of a community and not try to bear all my pains alone.
My heart goes out to your brother's girl friend. Josh now lives in our minds. You have reached us with your story. The world needs to honor your loss and share our strength to help you bear this burden.
Why don't I care? What is true with me is I generally don't even know what the reference point is to even try to judge the conflict (presuming I could). I often see spats and have for decades. Often at first I have absolutely no idea what they began arguing about or who said what which led to it being a back and forth escalation of conflict. Most of the time I stay out of it: on substack I don't try to find the original posts or weigh in on it. Maybe that's sad because I think I'm a good mediator: when I do see both sides I try to boil down what the conflict is actually about. In this case as is true with the SH deflectors, I have no idea what the reference point is. Feel free to share if you would like...
It reminds me of something that happened a few decades ago in the Internet space. I was part of a group devoted to the Detroit Red Wings NHL team called redwingsworld.com. I became known as the therapist in the anyting but hockey chatrooms. Needless to say there was a big physical meetup in 2002 after the Red Wings won the Stanley Cup. I ended up hooking up with a guy from there though a little later. There were some catfights and it was a mess. But it led to me being in LA, so I figure it was on my path...
I'm sorry to hear you say that. I need an uplifting post, but I have to come together with it. It's about the adoption of one of the puppies. I believe most people are good, but the system is designed for all of us to fight amongst ourselves for the meager spoils they offer...
I have to say it Elizabeth but third time is the charm for me. I do not delve as deep as I used to into the comments section there for this exact reason....
Yo Amy. Mister Bruce has the premise correct in using words like "Sorathic evil, Lucifer and Ahriman" but he confuses the real issue. The war that's coming to a head in these days is the war that started when Satan seduced Eve and debauched Adam and stole the dominion that God had given them, i.e. the dominion of earth. That's it. The war started then, and has been raging ever since. No peace.
2,000 years ago, Christ-man Jesus lowered himself into the womb of a woman and began, in the instant of that Inception, to take back from Satan what has been taken from us. It's a nasty job that nobody but the Jesus-man can do. People right this minute can choose to confuse themselves with all sorts of attractive spiritual distractions but when the last second of the last hour arrives there won't be any doubt anywhere about Who Is In Charge. Jesus did not come down here to start any kind of new religion. God don't need no religion to be Himself. He came to earth as a man to reclaim and restore the genuine peace of the Eternal Kingdom, "...not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit says the LORD of hosts." These are the facts.
Satan uses counterfeit spirituality and religion (including a lot of so-called Christianity) as beguiling distractions.
LUKE 4:5-8 > > Again, Satan took him up into an exceeding high mountain and showed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And Satan said unto him, All this power and glory will I give to you, for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will, I give it. If you therefore will worship me, all shall be thine. And Jesus answered and said, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
Amen regarding serving the Lord. Did Jesus really lower himself into the womb of women? Hmmm..
If you go thru the dates and arithmetic of when Jesus' first-cousin (who became John the Baptist) was conceived in HIS mother's womb, it figures that the Inception moment of the Christ-man's infant body was around the middle of September. That's when the shepherd's in the field saw\heard the sky crack open for a minute and the announcement: "Glory to God in the highest and on earth! Peace! Goodwill toward men." It wasn't wintertime yet. That's why the shepherds were still out with their herds. So the instant, or moment of the Christ's Inception in his mother's womb aligns with the Great Herald witnessed by the shepherds. At Christmas, we celebrate his birth. The heavenly host were announcing God's Inception of His Salvation of His People: us.
Jesus is humanity's kinsman. He became our kinsman by strapping on the whole enchilada of the human condition, beginning with Inception. I try to imagine what it must have been like experiencing the atomic webwork of human flesh weaving itself around an eternally constituted body. Talk about claustrophobia! There is nothing, not one little thing, about the human condition that Christ-man Jesus has not experienced in its absolute fullness.
I've read Jesus' birthday is actually September 11. This is according to scriptures (Rev 12) about a particular arrangement of the stars that's apparently only happened on that day, Sept 11, 3AD. I was watching a video this morning about the significance of Sept 23, again according to end times scriptures and the way the constellations are right now. An asteroid called "Child" will move into Virgo's belly on Sept 23. I've been hearing a lot of rumblings about "something" is going to happen that day. Also, Hollywood seems to have an obsession with the number 9, 2 and 3 statically placed in a bunch of movies.
https://ifapray.org/blog/september-11-the-true-date-of-jesus-birth/
The way to figure when the baby Jesus was conceived is to go by the courses that were being kept at that time in the main temple at Jerusalem. John the Baptist's dad, Zechariah, was a temple official whose time to work at the temple took place at a certain time of year, every year. Zechariah was at his job in the temple when the angel appeared and told him that his long-barren wife, Elizabeth, would conceive and bear a son and that he was to name the boy, John. Six months after John's conception is when the infant Christ was conceived. When young Mary went to tell her aunt that she was with child, the six-month old fetus in Elizabeth's womb lept when Mary walked in the room. You can go thru the Jewish records and pinpoint when Zechariah was working at the temple and from that time figure out when Mother Mary was overshadowed by the Holy Spirit.
You're right, the month of September has been loaded for a long, long time. Buckle up. And thank you for that good link.
September may be true and I am in no way a Bible historian but interestingly enough I heard arguments made that Jesus birth was closer to the Spring Equinox, not the fall one. Now I think there would be records of this and being an investigative journalist type I should dig into it. I can tell you an odd thing though: my first husband Oh's birthday on paper was not true (april 10) and was rather the date of getting an administrative stamp so he could attend school. His true birthday (November 7) was known by his family. So we came to America and in early November of 2016 he made this weird comment about how his mother had told him that the stars in the sky were aligned this way when he was born. Thai natives are not Christian and not astrologers in the western sense of the word, but the comment indicated something about the human condition that had spanned through space and time...
The Mind Craft one is gold
Also learn German...LOL agree!
Thank you for keeping me grinning. 🙏🏽
Great collection and awesome corollaries from the Lord of the Rings!
THANK YOU!
These are terrific, Amy!
Wishing you a good Sunday!
And to you as well!
Is it Stupid or Evil? It is stupid AND Evil.
Stupid for men to put themselves above GOD and think they can get away with it.
Evil for men to think that the love of GOD negates His justice and His holiness.
Evil? Stupid? Do our leaders perceive themselves this way? Dr. Frank Yeomans a NYC psychoanalyst who treats narcissists states, "Please preserve me from your goodness." These are people who never have to think about the consequences of their actions because they are shielded from any liability. And they have the power to punish anyone who would try to get them to confront reality. Climate change? Most of us will be "quarantined" while our leaders fly around in their private jets. Eat plant based protein or bugs? They are eating steaks and artisanal ice cream. Mandate masks and lock downs? They can fly to the Caribbean or travel to Hawaiian resorts. They can rent the entire beauty parlor and get their own private hair cut. Inflation? Just print more or confiscate from their subjects with digital currency.
Great Memes!!! When will this madness stop?
You think Justice might save the day? No Justice
Just let killers walk, millions billions to feed an unwinnable war, fires from hell burn everything but
Blue, cut down all the trees and block the sun, and it’s death if you ... ask where’s the justice, where’s the love? Where’s a decent man to say enough!
Where are you Lord in our tears and broken hearts?
Anniversary’s are hard!! Add 24/7 trauma. Best to honor life and know it’s most likely better on the other side. Pains cannot ought not be carried alone.
Thanks for sharing Amy, we are all touched by your
Ability to tell and show great emotion and intelligence. Yes evil is stupid. And yes evil eats it’s own... let us fight for Justice!! In this world and the next.
Judith Herman recently published a book about trauma:
View in browser
Our Collective Trauma is the Road to Tyranny
American society spawns trauma and this trauma expresses itself in a variety of self-destructive pathologies, including the erosion of democracy and rise of neo-fascism.
Chris Hedges
Sep 3
READ IN APP
Welcome In - by Mr. Fish
Subscribed
Corporate capitalism, defined by the cult of the self and the ruthless exploitation of the natural world and all forms of life for profit, thrives on the fostering of chronic psychological and physical disorders. The diseases and pathologies of despair — alienation, high blood pressure, diabetes, anxiety, depression, morbid obesity, mass shootings (now almost two per day on average), domestic and sexual violence, drug overdoses (over 100,000 per year) and suicide (49,000 deaths in 2022) — are the consequences of a deeply traumatized society.
The core traits of psychopaths — superficial charm, grandiosity and self-importance, a need for constant stimulation, a penchant for lying, deception, manipulation and the inability to feel remorse or guilt — are celebrated. The virtues of empathy, compassion and self-sacrifice, are belittled, neglected and crushed. The professions that sustain community, such as teaching, manual labor, the arts, journalism and nursing, are underpaid and overworked. The professions that exploit, such as those in high finance, Big Pharma, Big Oil and information technology, are lavished with prestige, money and power.
“The fact that millions of people share the same vices does not make these vices virtues, the fact that they share so many errors does not make the errors to be truths, and the fact that millions of people share the same forms of mental pathology does not make these people sane,” Eric Fromm writes in The Sane Society.
The classic works on trauma by psychiatrists such as Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, Dr. Gabor Maté and Dr. Judith Herman state bluntly that what is accepted as normal behavior in a corporate society is at war with basic human needs and our psychological and physical health. Huge segments of the American public, especially the tens of millions of people who have been discarded and marginalized, endure chronic trauma. Barbara Ehrenreich in “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America” describes the life of the working poor as one long “emergency.” This trauma is as destructive to us personally as it is socially and politically. It leaves us in a state of dysphoria where confusion, agitation, emptiness and loneliness define our lives. Whole segments of American society, especially the poor, have been rendered superfluous and invisible. As Dr. van der Kolk writes, “trauma is when we are not seen and known.”
“Our culture teaches us to focus on our personal uniqueness, but at a deeper level we barely exist as individual organisms,” Dr. van der Kolk notes.
Trauma numbs our capacity to feel. It fractures our self. It disconnects us from our bodies. It keeps us in a state of hyperarousal. It makes us confuse our desires, often artificially implanted by the consumer society, with our needs. Traumatized people view the world around them as hostile and dangerous. They lack a positive image of themselves and lose the capacity to trust. Many replace intimacy and love with sexual sadism, which is how we became a pornified culture. Trauma creates what the psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton calls a “counterfeit” world defined by phantom enemies, lies and dark conspiracies. It negates a sense of purpose and a life of meaning.
Trauma, Dr. Herman writes, “impels people both to withdraw from close relationships and to seek them desperately.” It induces feelings of shame, guilt, and inferiority, she writes, “as well as the need to avoid reminders of the trauma that occurs in daily life. Trauma severely compromises the capacity for intimacy. Trauma can dramatically reduce focus to extremely limited goals, often a matter of hours or days.”
“If trauma entails a disconnection from the self, then it makes sense to say that we are being collectively flooded with influences that both exploit and reinforce trauma,” Dr. Maté writes. “Work pressures, multitasking, social media, news updates, multiplicities of entertainment sources — these all induce us to become lost in thoughts, frantic activities, gadgets, meaningless conversations. We are caught up in pursuits of all kinds that draw us on, not because they are necessary or inspiring or uplifting, or because they enrich or add meaning to our lives, but simply because they obliterate the present.”
Trauma also drives many to flee into the arms of those who are orchestrating the abuse.
Systematic and repetitive trauma, whether by a single abuser or a political system, destroys personal autonomy. The perpetrator becomes omnipotent. Resistance is accepted as futile. “The goal of the perpetrator is to instill in his victim not only fear of death but also gratitude for being allowed to live,” Dr. Herman writes. This trauma lays the foundation for the most insidious characteristic of all tyrannies, large and small. Total control. Prolonged trauma reduces its victims to a state of psychological infantilism. It conditions them to plead for their own enslavement.
“We are not content with negative obedience, not even with the most abject submission,” George Orwell wrote of the ruling “Inner Party” in his novel “1984.” “When finally you surrender to us, it must be of your own free will. We do not destroy the heretic because he resists us; so long as he resists us we never destroy him. We convert him, we capture his inner mind, we reshape him. We burn all evil and all illusion out of him; we bring him over to our side, not in appearance, but genuinely, heart and soul.”
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Christian fascism, the subject of my book “American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America,” preys on this trauma. It replicates systems of control common to all tyrannies, including cults. Christian fascists skillfully break down adherents, severing them from their families and communities. They manipulate their shame, despair, feelings of worthlessness and guilt - the byproducts of their trauma - to demand total obedience to the church leadership, who are almost always white and male. These leaders, supposedly spokespeople for God, cannot be questioned or criticized. The connecting tissue among the disparate militia groups, QAnon conspiracy theorists, anti-abortion activists, right-wing patriot organizations, Second Amendment advocates, neo-Confederates and Trump supporters that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 is not only this Christian fascism but trauma.
“Totalitarian governments demand confession and political conversion of their victims,” Dr. Herman writes. “Slaveholders demand gratitude from their slaves. Religious cults demand ritualized sacrifices as a sign of submission to the divine will of the leader. Perpetrators of domestic battery demand that their victims prove complete obedience and loyalty by sacrificing all other relationships. Sex offenders demand that their victims find sexual fulfillment in submission. Total control over another person is the power dynamic at the heart of pornography. The erotic appeal of this fantasy to millions of terrifyingly normal men fosters an immense industry in which women and children are abused, not in fantasy but in reality.”
Donald Trump is a perpetrator and savior. He personifies the callous indifference of patriarchy, wealth, privilege and power towards the vulnerable, as well as the promise that once his cultish followers surrender to him they will be protected. He inspires in equal measure fear and solace.
“People who embrace the small tyrannies are much more susceptible to embracing the large ones,” Dr. Herman told me. “When you have a political party that embraces the subordination of women, the subordination of people of color, the subordination of gender non-conforming people, and the subordination of non-Christians, then it’s not a party that embraces democracy. It’s a party that is looking for a fascist leader and is going to find one.”
In van der Kolk’s “The Body Keeps Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma,” he opens with stark statistics compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showing that “one in five Americans was sexually molested as a child; one in four was beaten by a parent to the point of a mark being left on their body; and one in three couples engages in physical violence. A quarter of us grew up with alcoholic relatives, and one out of eight witnessed their mother being beaten or hit.”
The endemic trauma in American society, which is getting worse under the onslaught of the gig economy, pronounced social inequality, indiscriminate police violence, the climate crisis and the seizure of the political process and most institutions by corporations and the ruling oligarchs, is our most serious public health crisis. It has grave individual, social and political consequences.
“If trauma is truly a social problem,” Dr. Herman in “Truth and Repair: How Trauma Survivors Envision Justice” writes, “then recovery cannot simply be a private individual matter. The wounds of trauma are not merely those caused by the perception of violence and exploitation. The actions or inactions of bystanders, all those who are complicit in or who prefer not to know about the abuse or who blame the victims, often cause deeper wounds.” “Full healing,” she adds, “because it originates in a fundamental injustice, requires a full hearing within the community to repair through some measure of justice the trauma survivors have endured.”
I tend to alternate between pessimism and optimism, whereas S can be a bit more despairing. You're not the first person on my substack to mention it! Sometimes you have to take a deep breath and be grateful for what you do have. I sometimes zone out and was listening to this Solfeggio frequency earlier: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-a00nxDoOg Some is just forgiving yourself as I think we often our our own worst critic. The Maui thing has really dragged me in perhaps because I was physically there on the ground. I can see it in the interviews I've even considered going back there though I'm not sure what little old me could do on the ground specifically. Perhaps I could say a prayer.
I think in the end good wins but we are in dark times where it can be hard to find the highest center. A few days ago I was crying my eyes out about something my half brother's long term girlfriend posted on facebook: it was the anniversary of her son's death. He was killed at five years old by her ex husband while they were in a custody dispute over the boy. The ex only got two years for it and it was the anniversary of his death. I don't believe death is the end. This is what she posted:
"So here it is again, the anniversary of the worst day of my life. The day I found out my Josh, my heart and soul, my everything, was gone from this earth. 💔😢😔💔. I never know quite what to do… Do I try to ignore it and not give it any weight? Do I focus all of my attention on it? Do I go through all the memories of that day and the days and week proceeding? Do I try to keep it all blocked out? Do I isolate and curl up in a ball in his room? Do I try to spend it with people I love and people he loved? Do I write something? What do I write? What can I possibly say? How can I not say anything? Do I avoid? Do I engage? Do I go to work? Do I stay home? How can I best honor Josh? Do I have the strength to do that? Every year at this time of the year I go through the same struggle. On his birthday too.
But I have to say something, to honor him and his precious little life, cut too short by the most heinous act imaginable… that I am still in shock is going without true justice. Which in itself has truly been a struggle this whole past year. Another loss in the face of the greatest loss. The loss of hope for justice for this beautiful, innocent, loving, amazing little boy. The loss of hope in, well, anything. With the added weight of the tragedies and challenges my family experienced before and after the trial. It’s been rough for sure.
But, I spent the last few days doing fun things. Things I know Josh would’ve loved. And yes, having very sad moments and breakdowns, but also, especially today, feeling a strange sense of peace and being OK. I can only believe that it’s because of thoughts and prayers being sent my way. Which I thank those of you who have reached out for 🙏🏻❤️.
I never shared the fact that his dad only got 2 years…2…for the most heinous act imaginable that any human can commit. And he had already served more than that in jail waiting for trial, so he walked free. A year ago this month. Truly mind boggling.
I also didn’t ever share the video that was played after my victims impact statement to the judge, and I’m going to try to attach that here. It represents only a few of the thousands and thousands of pictures I have of Josh, and of all the amazing things we got to do, and all the people he loved, and who loved him, and who his life and loss impacted… but I think it’s really beautiful. Thank you again to everyone who reached out, and for remembering my Josh with me, and loving him whether you knew him or not. It means everything to me💔🙏🏻❤️
❤️❤️❤️My Joshie J, my angel baby boy, I love you to the moon and back a zillion trillion times, with all the love in my heart, forever and for always…xoxo mommy"
She posted this music video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNDEyxEMNp0
Through their evil, they defeat themselves...
I immediately thought of King Solomon who was testing two mothers who disputed who should be allowed custody of the child. He proposed killing the child and giving each mother one half of the deceased infant. One mother was fine with this decision. The other cried and cried. Please do not kill him. I renounce my claim. She was the real mother. She was willing to give up her claim for the sake of her son. To me we must all shoulder the grief of mothers who have lost their children.
Such grief cannot should not be born alone. My mother told me once that she could never die as long as I was alive. Because she would live in my memories. When my husband died I thought: He will not die. He will be alive in my dreams. And I dream of him often. Am I fine with it? I thought I was. But I now realize I need to be more present to the world and to others. I need to be part of a community and not try to bear all my pains alone.
My heart goes out to your brother's girl friend. Josh now lives in our minds. You have reached us with your story. The world needs to honor your loss and share our strength to help you bear this burden.
Elizabeth, looks like you took a smart pill ;)
MAA says we should be "apocaloptimists" and not let the crazymakers get the better of us
also - this might resonate with you https://rumble.com/v38m7bg-hang-on-tight-to-whats-real.html
Why don't I care? What is true with me is I generally don't even know what the reference point is to even try to judge the conflict (presuming I could). I often see spats and have for decades. Often at first I have absolutely no idea what they began arguing about or who said what which led to it being a back and forth escalation of conflict. Most of the time I stay out of it: on substack I don't try to find the original posts or weigh in on it. Maybe that's sad because I think I'm a good mediator: when I do see both sides I try to boil down what the conflict is actually about. In this case as is true with the SH deflectors, I have no idea what the reference point is. Feel free to share if you would like...
It reminds me of something that happened a few decades ago in the Internet space. I was part of a group devoted to the Detroit Red Wings NHL team called redwingsworld.com. I became known as the therapist in the anyting but hockey chatrooms. Needless to say there was a big physical meetup in 2002 after the Red Wings won the Stanley Cup. I ended up hooking up with a guy from there though a little later. There were some catfights and it was a mess. But it led to me being in LA, so I figure it was on my path...
I'm sorry to hear you say that. I need an uplifting post, but I have to come together with it. It's about the adoption of one of the puppies. I believe most people are good, but the system is designed for all of us to fight amongst ourselves for the meager spoils they offer...
I have to say it Elizabeth but third time is the charm for me. I do not delve as deep as I used to into the comments section there for this exact reason....
My point was that you are the third different person on my substack to bring up some issue over there...