Most Popular Choices
Share on Facebook 11 Printer Friendly Page More Sharing
Exclusive to OpEd News:
OpEdNews Op Eds    H4'ed 12/10/09

Obama, Manichaeism and the Shadow

By       (Page 1 of 1 pages)   No comments
Follow Me on Twitter     Message Mac McKinney
Become a Fan
  (31 fans)

(Image by Unknown Owner)   Details   DMCA

The problem for the Obama Administration was how Obama would stand straight-faced today, December 9, 2009 before both the royal house of Norway and the Norwegian Nobel Committee and accept the Nobel Peace Prize while simultaneously running wars in three countries (we are warring in Pakistan on various levels, minus an overt invasion force, as well as in Iraq and Afghanistan), not to mention all the nefarious black ops going on worldwide, which include torture, rendition and assassination. So what do you say to rationalize the killing, incarceration and often torture of other human beings on a massive scale throughout the planet without coming across like Adolf Hitler receiving the Peace Prize right after launching Operation Barbarossa, with Western Europe already conquered and occupied?

Well, first you have to pay considerable lip service to Gandhi and Martin Luther King, acknowledging their nobility and idealism, admitting they had a good idea about using nonviolence to resolve conflicts, but (one then has to say with a heavy heart) ultimately not a realistic idea because, sorrowfully, EVIL still exists in the world, which of course can only be dealt with by force, because it never would have worked with HITLER. (On cue, Hitler is dragged out of the bunker yet again for all to cringe at.)

Non-violent resistance couldn't stop Hitler you say (even though it worked at the Rosenstrasse protest in Berlin in February and March of 1943), and by golly, it won't stop al Qaeda either, or to quote Obama from his speech:

"evil does exist in the world. A non-violent movement could not have halted Hitler's armies. Negotiations cannot convince al Qaeda's leaders to lay down their arms. To say that force is sometimes necessary is not a call to cynicism " it is a recognition of history; the imperfections of man and the limits of reason.

Note Obama's disingenuous juxtaposition of the Nazi juggernaut with al Qaeda, conjuring up subconscious images of millions of goose-stepping Jihadists with steel helmets atop their turbans and headdresses, while the al Qaeda Luftwaffe flies overhead and hundreds of al Qaeda U-Boats scour the seas. But returning to his statement, Obama is only half-correct in his suppositions, because no, you can't negotiate with al Qaeda, not because they are "EVIL , but because you can't negotiate with a myth of your own making, and the mythic al Qaeda Obama conjures up is far-removed from the reality of a relative handful of splintered, ragtag Jihadists who may or may not be creatures, pawns or patsies of the CIA. ( ˜Damn I wish I hadn't let that guy in my administration admit that perhaps only a hundred al Qaeda players, maximum, remain in Afghanistan', Obama must be thinking.) And we all know now from listening to the testimonies of survivors that one of the prime goals of the CIA's secret torture prisons was to force "confessions from its victims that they were violent members of al Qaeda, quite the canard indeed to inflate the organization's size and drive the "War on Terror , which Obama has apparently swallowed hook, line and sinker.

To justify war philosophically and ideologically you have to basically be a Manichean dualist, dividing the universe and the world into good and evil, which is what Obama has done. This is also what Leo Strauss, the Godfather of the Neocon movement, did while indoctrinating his students into his mythical universe. And this all translates into the lexicon of the military, good guys and bad guys, and then we are off to the wars, killing EVIL, one human at a time, becoming jury, judge and executioner with the pull of a trigger or push of a button.

Never mind that, ultimately, whomever we designate as evil is only a subjective judgment, because we, also subjectively, believe that we are calibrated to detect evil. We don't even want to go into self-analysis about what Carl Jung called our Shadow, our dark side of hostile, perverse and cruel drives and emotions percolating in the subconscious that we project onto others so we can act them out, because we haven't the courage to really confront this Shadow. So we (Americans collectively that is) race around the world slaughtering thousands, if not millions of innocents, in a vain attempt to relieve ourselves of our Shadow, thereby compounding our Shadow. How is it, we must ask, after all our attacks on the evil-doers, that there seem to be more of them than ever? Is it perhaps because our psyches are projecting an endless looped film clip called "Our Shadow onto the world? Don't they lock up people in asylums, or worse, who project their Shadows onto humanity and act upon them?

The Buddha taught that there is ultimately no such thing as evil, only ignorance, and there are tales of Gautama turning the worst sinners into the greatest saints by lifting the scales of ignorance from their eyes and opening up their hearts. This has to, of course, begin with dialogue, not bayonets, the preferred American way, which is no way at all toward peace, only the way to massive suffering, on ALL SIDES! Peace can only be achieved when you recognize the humanity of your opponent and stop trying to kill him. If you simply attempt to subjugate him, there will always be resistance.

Highest spiritual truth as related by yogis, avatars, even true Huna priests from Hawaii, to name some of those enlightened, declares that all is God, God is all, and that any definition of God that falls short of this realization is no definition at all, but limitation and ignorance. To say someone is inherently, intrinsically evil ignores the indwelling divinity, let alone humanity of that individual. Consequently, if this is true, and I certainly believe it is, Obama has based his entire speech on error, the flawed principles of Manichean dualism, which however, is also the only way he can rationalize the wanton destruction of American militarism masquerading as humanitarianism. But is the egomania and sadism of militarism an end in itself? Not exactly, because this flawed philosophy also serves a crass, materialistic purpose, of fulfilling greed, of securing oil fields and pipe lines, of monopolizing resources and labor.


The only advanced countries tearing up the planet right now in the name of Manichaeism are the ringleader, the United States, and its ever-shifting, forced coalition of the "willing , all incapable of self-introspection that the deeper motives, such as the naked brutality of the Pentagon's "Full Spectrum Dominance , lie hidden in America's Shadow.

Fully expose this Shadow, President Obama, in yourself and our collective psyche with accountability and transparency, then work to dissolve it, and the world will begin to achieve greater peace. Others would be encouraged to reconcile their Shadows too, even, perhaps, radical Fundamentalists of all religions, Christian, Hindu, Moslem, to name several. Right now your way, essentially the Neocon way that you have inherited and embraced, will achieve only more and more suffering and make the merchants of death ever more gleeful, because of course they want endless war.


Rate It | View Ratings

Mac McKinney Social Media Pages: Facebook page url on login Profile not filled in       Twitter page url on login Profile not filled in       Linkedin page url on login Profile not filled in       Instagram page url on login Profile not filled in

I am a student of history, religion, exoteric and esoteric, the Humanities in general and a tempered advocate for the ultimate manifestation of peace, justice and the unity of humankind through self-realization and mutual respect, although I am not (more...)
 
Go To Commenting
The views expressed herein are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
Follow Me on Twitter     Writers Guidelines

 
Contact AuthorContact Author Contact EditorContact Editor Author PageView Authors' Articles
Support OpEdNews

OpEdNews depends upon can't survive without your help.

If you value this article and the work of OpEdNews, please either Donate or Purchase a premium membership.

STAY IN THE KNOW
If you've enjoyed this, sign up for our daily or weekly newsletter to get lots of great progressive content.
Daily Weekly     OpEd News Newsletter
Name
Email
   (Opens new browser window)
 

Most Popular Articles by this Author:     (View All Most Popular Articles by this Author)

Jesse Ventura Exposes the JFK Assassination Conspiracy Nationally

The Voice of the Wetlands Festival, Part 5: Brad Pitt and the Color Pink

JESSE VENTURA RAISES THE QUESTION: DID BP, TRANSOCEAN, HALLIBURTON KNOW THE DEEPWATER HORIZON WOULD BLOW?

Is Osama bin Laden Dead? Part 4: Deeper into the Confession Tape

Is Osama bin Laden Dead? Part 2: the First Tapes

A History of the FARC and Reviewing The FARC Revolutionist by Renate Vanegas

To View Comments or Join the Conversation:

Tell A Friend