17 Aug Lady Macbeth and The Buffoon: Politics and Spirituality, Part Two

Part 1 – Politics

The first thing I took away from your emails regarding my previous post was a recognition of how visceral our responses can be to public figures, as much or more about gut feeling than analysis. Many of those who shared were vehemently anti-Hillary, certain that she’s a lying, power-hungry manipulator. In other words, Lady MacBeth.

Others were equally convinced that electing Trump is the only way to bring real change about, whether purposeful or inadvertent on his part, and regardless of how disturbed he may be as a person. In other words, he may be a buffoon, but nothing will breakthrough our current morass short of such outrageousness.

For me, this brings up two questions.

For Hillary opponents, is there anything she could ever do, at this point, to earn even a degree more of your trust and respect?

For Trump supporters, is there anything he could ever do that would lead you to decide that the risks he presents have come to outweigh the benefits?

Apparently, for some previous Trump voters, the recent controversy surrounding the Khan family may have finally tipped those scales against him.

Interestingly, this turn of events brings us back to core values, and how both politics and spirituality are linked to them. Trump’s picking a fight with the mourning family of a fallen muslim soldier seemed to have crossed a line for people in terms of the core values of patriotism, sacrifice, and compassion.

On the other hand, from your responses, Trump’s support stems in large part from people’s core values of spontaneity and freedom.

Supporters respond powerfully to the fact that Trump is off-the-cuff, and unbounded by the power structures of big business and big government. In that sense he represents an additional core value—disruption of the status quo.

Sticking with this focus on values, it’s always worthwhile to ask people on the other side why their candidate’s positions strike a chord. What underlying values do they represent? In this way it may be possible to find common ground at the core, even if there’s still a huge disagreement about how best to express those values in actual policy.

Special Note: Even though I was focused on Trump lovers and Hillary haters, I actually heard more from heartbroken Bernie supporters than anyone else. For these people, Bernie represents very similar values to his supporters as Trump does to his, but in a way they perceive as more wise, consistent and reassuring.

In order to become electable in the future, however, Bernie or a candidate in his wake will need to address the core value of practicality. Though Bernie never drew the same type of ire from his detractors as Trump has from his, not enough initial naysayers could be convinced that he actually knew how, and had the capacity to achieve his vision.

(It didn’t help, of course, that the Democratic National Committee conspired against him.)

Part 2—Spirituality

If Trump supporters can see the possibility of him going too far, then that topic is another great conversation starter for finding common ground. The same is true for Hillary haters who could see her somehow as becoming more trustworthy.

But even those who will never be swayed, and who don’t share any of your core values, cannot and should not be written off as crazy idiots.

With these people, you may need to stand against them, to campaign vigorously for their defeat in order to maintain your own integrity. That’s okay. It’s not at all unspiritual to exert your power and influence for the greater good as you see it.

What would be unspiritual us to demonize your opponents in the struggle, and to disparage their own values and interests as less valid to them as yours are to you.

This is true even if your opponent isn’t even being sincere.

Let me give you an example. Say that you are aligned with the rights of all people against those of the elite few. And say that there’s an opposing group of elites that is using deceptive and illegal practices to maintain its own interests.

This group, heinous as it is, still operates from its own set of values. These values may include entitlement, self-preservation, exclusion, and even discrimination.

In such a case, it’s so easy to forget that those, too, are values. Our reflex is to make the members of such a group the “enemy,” and to to see them as an “evil” force, devoid of values, and to perceive them as less worthy of rights and care than those who they oppress.

But this is the greatest trap. Because in the process of this diminishment we become just like them in our superiority, even if unwittingly.

This is why so many revolutions, in spite of all their best intentions, end up repeating the sins of those they vanquish.

And this is why, even though he has frustrated me in so many ways, Barack Obama is a great spiritual teacher.

Obama’s core values include steadfastness, calm, and especially dignity in the face of the greatest possible indignity. He shows us daily how to live these values.

So no matter who you support in this election, no matter how disgusted you are by the opposing side, I encourage you to fight your battles with dignity.

I challenge you to campaign the way you want to be governed, and to treat those who repulse you with the same respect you offer your heroes.

Doing so is precisely the way to “be the change.”

To lead us all forward.

And to demonstrate true Spiritual Power.