The political circus is upon us. Donald Trump, doing his best improvisation of a pro wrestler in the political ring, is frolicking off-script every chance he gets. Like a good court jester he reveals the moral, spiritual and intellectual bankruptcy of what masquerades as civic discourse today. Political theater indeed!
The sad news is that the decisions before us are of lifetime significance. Our form of government, along with the integrity and wisdom of our elected leaders, will, in fact, create policies and postures, a spirituality if you will, that will impact our lives, the lives of our children, the earth and all its nations. And although we know that the buffoon won’t be elected, it is unnerving to think that millions of Americans are so sunk into despair and cynicism that one day, some day, someone with billions acting as someone who is successful and who will get things done, will carry the day into the presidency.
And that someone will be far more polished than Trump or Bush before him, but true to his or her spirituality, will enact a form of fascism never experienced before on American soil. Those who can read the signs of our decaying times know that that someone, someday is not far away.
I don’t really know what we can do about it. I don’t know how to change the consciousness of a consumer-induced citizen. Our institutions, whether they be market, media, military, government or religious, are all showing signs of irrelevancy. We are living in an era of in between, when all things die before they are reborn. There is hope to be had, but also real pain, agony and dislocation. Our task is to keep hope alive enough so that after the tribulations, we will have seeds to plant.
All of this is to say that while we live in between the times of the great unraveling, awaiting the great turning, there are small deeds to do. One of those deeds is to resist the attempt of corporations and the 1 percent (about 400 people really) to control and crush those opposing their domination. Along with all the political banter this autumn, you will see a faithful few who are attempting to get you to sign a legislative petition to amend our Constitution so that unlimited, undisclosed multiple millions of dollars become regulated and limited. This petition, called I-735, is an attempt to resist the oligarchy, that is, political rule by the 1 percent for the 1 percent. It is an attempt to keep democracy — itself, a shattered institution — alive enough so that small paths of freedom remain possible.
Today we can laugh at the buffoon. Tomorrow the buffoon will laugh at us, and then the cruelty will begin.