Tag Archives: cultism

GOP’s “Hunkering-Down” is Tightening Up!

This phenomenon always brings to my mind the David Koresh cult of 1993 which “hunkered down” near Waco, Texas and self-immolated. Cultic experience always ends in tragedy if no “out let” is found, such as in ancient times a sacrifice. (See Rene Girard, “Sacred and Violence.”)

The cult leader of the GOP and his minions cannot accept reality, that being a “shared” experience, not one that is “ex”-clusive. Registered voters are fleeing from the Republican Party in droves, mega-donors are “pulling the plug” from him, some Republican Party members are critical to him, if not completely excoriating of him. And now he can’t find a lawyer with only two days before he needs them to present his case. The lawyers that argued his case a year ago would have nothing to do with him this time, then a team of lesser-light attorneys that took on his case this time suddenly backed off on Friday. And if that is not enough, he and the GOP has to deal with the stench of Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene.

But the mindset of Trump and his stalwarts is always galvanized with disapproval which permits them to voice their feelings of beleaguerment. It is not possible to reason with people whose mind is made up so rigidly. Giving up, giving in to beseeching of others, would evoke an anguish in their heart that is staved off only by the rigid belief system which often finds a figurehead, the “cult-leader.”

So how shall we respond? Well, with”faith” which is a subject I will soon explore given a blog responder this morning. But the “faith” I have in mind is not regurgitation of rhetoric but venturing into one’s own heart and finding the anguish that is lingering there. That will allow us to meet them on a more level playing field without the condescension that is always our first response. These “cultic” individuals have been forced into these rigid beliefs because they could not find solace anywhere else in our culture. This will force us to address the bankruptcy of our modern world and have a “come to Jesus” moment in our culture.







Republican Party Stymied by Its Own Self-Referentiality

Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, is not “playing fair.”  The House has impeached Trump, but she is refusing to formally passing the formal impeachment document to the Senate where it has already been determined, and announced, it will not go anywhere.  The Republican Senate is now crying “foul play” as according to them the protocol clearly calls for this impeachment referral to be simply passed on to them.  But Pelosi is refusing to do this until she has the reassurance that a “fair” trial will take place, including one with witnesses. It is very ironic that the GOP is now diligently calling for protocol and “the law” to be followed though they have systematically followed the bidding of Trump to over ride such niceties when it serves their own interest.

 This is very revealing about the heart of this matter, and all matters of any magnitude involve the heart.  Yes, the GOP is correct that the Democrats have an agenda here, an “ax to grind” if you please, but then who doesn’t?  The Republicans have hoisted themselves on their own petard, hypocritically accusing the Democrats of the very thing they have assiduously practiced throughout the Trump administration…and before.  The GOP does not see that it too, like all humans, has “intentionality” though they readily see it with others.  But to those who lack “self-awareness”, the gift of at least rudimentary meta-cognition, there is no “intentionality” with themselves there is only the proclamation of what “is true.”  They fail to see that what they see as “truth” is a self-serving perspective and subject to the review of the rest of the human race.  But if you are locked in your own narrow little view of the world it is frightening to loosen the lock a bit and come to find that there are other viewpoints that need to be considered.  The more rigid one’s “narrow little view of the world” is the more difficult it is to loosen this lock a bit; at times for some it is not possible.

 Poet Emily Dickenson has a little quip that is so relevant, “The mind too near itself cannot see distinctly.”  She realized that a mind that is knotted into a self-referential ball of yarn, pulled tightly, it cannot see clearly.  It can only see what it wants to see, even if it is harmful to themselves and to those around them.  This is clearly seen in a religious cult; it is very telling that many people are seeing the Republican Party as very “knotted,” comparing the predicament of that party to cultic behavior.