[Dialogue] Fwd: Left Hand vs Right Hand

[KroegerD at aol.com]

____________________________________
 From: Dick email
To: KroegerD
CC: RabbiLerner at tikkun.org
Sent:  9/10/2008 9:51:57 A.M. Central Daylight Time
Subj: Left Hand vs Right  Hand


Obama and The Palin Effect  
>>> 
>>> From: Deepak Chopra 
>>>  
>>> Posted: Friday, September 5th, 2008 
>>>  
>>> Sometimes politics has the uncanny effect of mirroring the  national 
>>> psyche even when nobody intended to do that. This is  perfectly 
>>> illustrated by the rousing effect that Gov. Sarah  Palin had on the 
>>> Republican convention in Minneapolis this  week. 
>>> 
>>> On the surface, she outdoes former  Vice President Dan Quayle as an 
>>> unlikely choice, given her  negligent parochial expertise in the 
>>> complex affairs of  governing. Her state of Alaska has less than 
>>> 700,000  residents, which reduces the job of governor to the scale of 
>>>  running one-tenth of New York City. By comparison, Rudy Giuliani is  
>>> a towering international figure. Palin's pluck has been  admired, and 
>>> her forthrightness, but her real appeal goes  deeper. 
>>> 
>>> She is the reverse of Barack Obama,  in essence his shadow, deriding 
>>> his idealism and exhorting  people to obey their worst impulses. In 
>>> psychological terms  the shadow is that part of the psyche that hides 
>>> out of  sight, countering our aspirations, virtue, and vision with 
>>>  qualities we are ashamed to face: anger, fear, revenge, violence,  
>>> selfishness, and suspicion of "the other." 
>>>  
>>> For millions of Americans, Obama triggers those feelings, but  they 
>>> don't want to express them. He is calling for us to  reach for our 
>>> higher selves, and frankly, that stirs up  hidden reactions of an 
>>> unsavory kind. (Just to be perfectly  clear, I am not making a verbal 
>>> play out of the fact that  Sen. Obama is black. The shadow is a 
>>> metaphor widely in use  before his arrival on the scene.) 
>>> I recognize that  psychological analysis of politics is usually not 
>>> welcome by  the public, but I believe such a perspective can be 
>>> helpful  here to understand Palin's message. In her acceptance speech 
>>>  Gov. Palin sent a rousing call to those who want to celebrate their  
>>> resistance to change and a higher vision. 
>>>  
>>> Look at what she stands for: 
>>> --Small town  values -- a denial of America's global role, a return 
>>> to  petty, small-minded parochialism. 
>>> --Ignorance of world  affairs -- a repudiation of the need to repair 
>>> America's  image abroad. 
>>> --Family values -- a code for walling out  anybody who makes a claim 
>>> for social justice. Such strangers,  being outside the family, don't 
>>> need to be heeded.  
>>> --Rigid stands on guns and abortion -- a scornful repudiation  that 
>>> these issues can be negotiated with those who disagree.  
>>> --Patriotism -- the usual fallback in a failed war.  
>>> --"Reform" -- an italicized term, since in addition to  cleaning out 
>>> corruption and excessive spending, one also  throws out anyone who 
>>> doesn't fit your ideology.  
>>> 
>>> Palin reinforces the overall message of the  reactionary right, which 
>>> has been in play since 1980, that  social justice is liberal-radical, 
>>> that minorities and  immigrants, being different from "us" pure 
>>> American types,  can be ignored, that progressivism takes too much 
>>> effort and  globalism is a foreign threat. The radical right marches 
>>>  under the banners of "I'm all right, Jack," and "Why change? 
>>>  Everything's OK as it is." The irony, of course, is that Gov. Palin  
>>> is a woman and a reactionary at the same time. She can add  mom to 
>>> apple pie on her resume, while blithely reversing  forty years of 
>>> feminist progress. 
>>>  
>>> The irony is superficial; there are millions of women who  stand on 
>>> the side of conservatism, however obviously they are  voting against 
>>> their own good. The Republicans have won  multiple national elections 
>>> by raising shadow issues based on  fear, rejection, hostility to 
>>> change, and narrow-mindedness.  
>>> 
>>> Obama's call for higher ideals in politics  can't be seen in a 
>>> vacuum. The shadow is real; it was bound  to respond. Not just 
>>> conservatives possess a shadow -- we all  do. So what comes next is a 
>>> contest between the two forces of  progress and inertia. Will the 
>>> shadow win again, or has its  furtive appeal become exhausted? No one 
>>> can predict. The best  thing about Gov. Palin is that she brought 
>>> this conflict to  light, which makes the upcoming debate honest. It 
>>> would be a  shame to elect another Reagan, whose smiling persona was 
>>> a  stalking horse for the reactionary forces that have brought us to  
>>> the demoralized state we are in. 
>>>  
>>> We deserve to see what we are getting, without disguise.  




 
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**************Psssst...Have you heard the news? There's a new fashion blog, 
plus the latest fall trends and hair styles at StyleList.com.      
(http://www.stylelist.com/trends?ncid=aolsty00050000000014)
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