It is really a grim moment in the history of my country. We really live in a “stupor”, that a reference to a W.H. poem which I will quote from in a moment. The stupor lies in the fact that we are now divided between two mind sets, “I am right” and “I am right.” An alternative would be, “There is a bit of right on either perspective and the goal would be to see how we can reconciliate our differences.” But the hope of that reconciliation has a significant obstruction—the leader of one side of this argument is the President of the United States and he has absolutely no capacity to equivocate on his stance of being right. If you want to have some fun, delve into two notions on google, “solipsism” and “aseity” both of which are relevant to deity and they are both relevant to Trump. The problem is that when these two terms become relevant to a mere mortal, the “deity” is intrinsically a “dark” deity and the results can only be catastrophic for the body politic. If you are conservative, and happened to have stumbled into this domain, do not dare google these two google terms.
Here is the poetic quote from an astute, spiritually astute poet, W.H. Auden:
Defenseless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.
“Negation and despair” besets us. Hopelessness. Do we dare show an “affirming flame” in this dark moment? Trump and his minions are but an epiphenomena, a passing shadow that will pass away, the “passing away” which we might not live long enough to witness. We can only hope. That is called, “Faith.”
