Re: The meanest blues of all......

[Guest guest]

Hi Fire-Folks - I just want to add my 2 cents to the comments of Mike,

Toni and Rob, and others re the election and politics in general:

like others, I'm been aghast and amazed at the turn this election has

taken, and have had my fears, etc. When I was able to detach

sufficiently to analyze my reactions I began to feel that perhaps it is

not the disaster it seems, but some kind of wakeup call, a civics lesson

writ large for us and all the world to see.

I've never felt that Jung's message was more timely as an explanation

for human behavior than it is now, when we are starting a new millenium,

have so many problems that are so visible to us whereever we are on the

planet, and when the US is in the position of actualyzing its ideals

through the careful discrimination and differentiation of issues in time

and space, weighing procedures, valuing sensation and intuitive issues

(haven't heard so much talk of dimples since the Shirley Temple days of

my youth)

using judgment and perception, listening skills, recognizing spin (read

shadow) when one hears it, hearing the egocentric vs the altruistic -

it's all there. I came to realize during the OJ trial how much we like

drama and being caught up in something larger than ourselves, maybe it's

an antidote to humdrum lives, and certainly the television enlarges and

distorts and brings an urgency and competitiveness to what we see.

Everything is viewed as a contest and speed is what governs, even though

it may ride roughshod over our rights.

I, for one, am glad this thing is out of Fla. and into the Supreme

Court's lap. I think the SC will act as the 'transcendant function' -

the 'third thing' that will allow the situation to be resolved according

to the values we say the country is founded on, rather than as some kind

of backyard brawl with the winner braying his triumph and inciting the

mob.

I never liked pit bull politics and now that the whole country is

aware of what is going on, maybe we can grow up and learn our lessons,

do our homework, and learn how to be authentically political. Mob rule

is what scares me the most. The regression Jung talks about.

One of my favorite poets, Carolyn Forche, says everything is political.

If you have three people, you're going to have politics. Politics is

just a way of talking about and resolving differences. THe scale is

what gets confusing, but the same functions that we use all the time are

honed in politics: the four functions, sensation, intuition, feeling and

judging.

With so much information overload it's easy to turn away from politics

but that, in my opinion, is denial. The shadow's lessons are in our

face and the opportunity for growth are in our face as well.

I just wanted to share some feelings and let off a little steam. Thanks

for listening.

Hope everybody had a good Thanksgiving. Shirley

[Guest guest]

Rob wrote:

> Hi Fire-Folk,

> I think that answering this will answer Toni as well:

>

> This is exactly the problem with this whole chaotic mess, the process will

> not work as long as everybody is voting against someone and for no one. I

> have very little faith that the system will produce any one worth voting

> for, so I'll keep my apolitical blues, even though it is certainly not the

> " meanest blues of all " . During every election, both sides make every attempt

> to make people fear what the " other " will do to our individual way of life.

> So in conclusion I'd have to say that this is a great thing for Democracy in

> general, if only that it may forces some deep shadow stuff to the surface. I

> vote for chaos, rioting and looting, civil war(no such animal, but just to

> make a point) and prodound change if thats what it takes to shake us from

> our slumber.

> Rob...who believes hat the lesser of two evils is still evil, and I konw a

> thing or two about evil!

>

> Hi, Only one question. How will things ever improve? Short of the violence you

see

> coming, is there no way for those who care to turn the tide? As far as the

lesser of

> two evils, that is what maturity is all about. Not to chose is a choice.

Do you get a glimmer of how people like Hitler got control of their country? Or

is this

exactly what you want to happen ( you did mention deep shadow stuff)to shake

democracies

out of their negativity?

Toni