MAGA, MAGGOTS and MAGIC
Things are not always as they seem...
Last week I posted a picture of a red MAGA hat with white embroidered words which I photoshopped to say Make America Sane Again. A friend pointed out that even though I meant it as a pushback message, the symbol of the red hat is so strong now and the MAGA cult so disconnected from reality, that they could claim those words and use them to declare that their mission is to Make America Sane Again.
That would, of course, be even more insane than claiming that the MAGA movement will make America great again. But hey, clearly no-one who is part of this movement cares about being sane. So much of what is happening now in the Republican party is what I would politely call insane. It’s like the whole party has put on virtual reality headsets and are living in an alternate world. I don’t know what they are seeing, but judging by their behavior, it’s crazy-making.
Anyway, as I mentioned in my last post, sanity is in the eyes of the beholder. In my eyes sanity is a kind of humility—what I often call not-knowing, but which is really not-knowing yet… it’s an open mind and heart, a willingness to entertain new information, new syntheses, new understanding. Sanity is being present without a VR headset.
Make America Great Again? You’ve gotta be kidding…
How extraordinary that the word MAGA has become an actual word/name/symbol that represents a group of people who drink the Kool-Aid offered to them by the leader of a cult. Not the kind of Kool-Aid that kills your body; just your soul—the kind that makes you believe that a man who continuously demonstrates his character and motives as entirely self-serving is the man you want to be your leader, and the leader of the United States of America, a country which, if not always great, is certainly as powerful and influential as any nation on Earth.
What would a MAGA America look like?
I have no idea… would it be The Handmaid’s Tale? Would it be The Hunger Games? Would it be a dystopian hell like so many that have come and gone in this world? Would it be any fun? Would some people have fun, and others suffer, or would everybody, even those in power, be on constant red alert for disloyalty, betrayal, revolt—for the manifestation of Newton’s Third Law? Would we go to hell in a handbasket?
The idea that there is a great past we could return to is an insane delusion. If there was greatness in the past, it is the exact opposite of what the MAGA elite think they want. That’s what’s most insane about MAGA as their slogan. Every time America has come anywhere near greatness, it’s when we have been creative, brave, and generous; not when we are being conniving, vindictive, petty and stupid.
Greatness is as greatness does
The system of government the Founding Fathers set up (with almost as much wrangling as we see today in politics) was an amazing achievement in the context of its time and place.
The Constitution was the outcome of a desire to create something new, something different and better than a nation beholden to self-serving hereditary rulers. The FFs were done with unelected rulers. They made this clear in the Declaration of Independence, the middle finger they presented to the King of England.
Even if their definition of ‘the people’ was too narrow by our standards, their objective was to create a government of, by, and for the people—to give ‘power to the people’ through the use of elections. And whatever moral code or philosophical ideas they were working from, they were trying to create a more just and sustainable system than the one they were rejecting.
Now we have a sizable group of people led by a man who wants to undo the Great American Experiment and reinstate himself as King. Their is nothing more unAmerican than trying to steal an election.
He has the nerve to say Make America Great Again, when it is his intention to tear it apart, to disable its checks and balances. He has been trying. For reasons that are obscure to me, his people feel that it is in their best interest to ally themselves with this man, and help him get what he wants. Apparently, they think it will serve them.
Democracy! Off with her head!
A system of government that uses elections to decide winners and losers only works as long as everyone is playing the same game. No matter how fierce the competition, as long as everyone believes that, win or lose, it is a worthwhile game, the game endures.
When one group decides to ignore the rules of the game, and tries to ‘win’ by any means outside of those rules, then the game no longer has integrity. It is no longer a game being played; it is a war in which one side seeks to destroy its opponent. That appears to be the Republican plan these days. Kill Democracy. Off with her head.
That doesn’t mean that these uninspired grifters will succeed. The game, with all its flaws, has a lot going for it, and a lot of people who want to keep playing.
MAGA and MAGGOTS
Here’s an idea for you: How about the possibility that the MAGA phenomenon, led and embodied by he who shall be named as little as possible, might be functioning as maggots…
Although there is a general revulsion towards maggots as gross slimy little worms feeding on dead flesh, maggots, especially in this time of rising antibiotic resistance, continue to be greatly valued as a tool for healing wounds.
Maggots are efficient consumers of dead tissue. They munch on rotting flesh, leaving healthy tissue practically unscathed.
New Science Shows How Maggots Heal Wounds
One study published last year in the Archives of Dermatology showed that maggots placed on surgical incisions helped to clear more dead tissue from the sites than surgical debridement, the current standard of care in which doctors use a scalpel or scissors. “Maggot debridement takes out all the dead and infected tissue, which is necessary for the wound to close,” says lead author Anne Dompmartin-Blanchère, a dermatologist at the University Hospital Center of Caen in France.
I’m thinking of the MAGA movement as a MAGGOT movement. By taking every opportunity for the shameless misuse of power for personal gain, the Don of this crime family, with the help of his writhing coterie, is helping to show us where the wounds in our system of government, and in our national psyche, need to be cleaned and healed.
The wormlike people in positions of power and responsibility who appear to be seeking out whatever guardrails they can dismantle are the maggots. They eat away at any part of the system that is damaged enough to provide the kind of festering nourishment they crave.
The extent to which the Top Maggot and his wriggling little buddies are attempting to turn our system of government into a privately-held company is the extent to which we can see where its weaknesses and vulnerabilities lie. Where they succeed is where we see what needs to change, what needs to be strengthened and protected. Like maggots, they are not doing this for noble motives; they are doing it because they are hungry. They feed on what is rotten for that is what tastes good to them.
They have no power over what is healthy. The court system held up amazingly well against the convicted felon’s attempt to steal the last election. So did good ol’ Mike Pence. And other seawalls fulfilled their purpose. I understand that none of this is a given. Worst case scenario is no more elections after the Kingpin steals the next one.
As traumatizing as it is that a large political cult in this country is doing everything in its power to eliminate whatever stands in the way of total domination, they have not yet succeeded. And they won’t succeed in the long run, even if they have some success in the short term. There’s no real there there.
A group held together by fear and subservience has no coherence, no heart. What happens when the 78 year-old drops dead? Who then will step in to demand soul-sucking allegience, or will this gang of thieves dissolve without a golden hairdo to worship?
What I talk about when I talk about MAGIC
I’m not talking about black magic that seeks to disrupt the natural order. I’m talking about cause and effect beyond our understanding. Whether I express this as Natural Law, or the Way of Life, or a Host of Angels taking care of business, I am talking about patterns of energy so inherent and self-regulating than they not only withstand surface chaos, they absorb it. It seems like magic to us.
What I’m always trying to say, in one way or another, is that there is deep magic at work in this world that sooner or later thwarts all attempts to damage or control it. I admit that my vision of human craziness/immaturity working itself out includes the possibility of us working ourselves right out of the picture. How we are going to evolve is not yet written.
I would love to see a time on this planet in which our species lives up to its potential for intelligence, creativity and caring. For accepting our responsibility as stewards. Then we could start throwing the word ‘great’ around.
Advice to myself in 2024: Believe all of the above, and also do whatever you can in the effort to help people understand the clear stakes of the upcoming election, so that they will use their right to vote to protect that right, and to protect our imperfect union from grave injury, so that we can continue to make it into a more perfect union.
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Nothing is perfect. We are not perfect. The United States of America is not perfect. Challenges we hardly know how to face are everywhere. I’m a person who would much rather hide out in thoughts of cosmic everythingness and/or artmaking than pay attention to other people’s shenanigans. And I believe that real change, healing, evolution of our species requires individual self-awareness. That is what I want to support.
But this year I will try to speak out as I can to further the understanding that this election matters in a way that goes beyond party platforms, beyond the usual clash of worldviews and jockeying for personal advantage. This election is about who we are, and who we want to be.
Take heart, fellow travelers! Believe in magic.
The personal is political and all politics are local. I appreciate your thoughts!
Wonderful choices in your analogy! One can only hope the system will function through this election cycle. My fear is in those chief maggots who have made such inroads in their respective bailiwicks that the checks and balances will not preclude the hijacking of the rest of the process, resulting in that chief maggot making good on the bloodbath he has promised.
Enviable composition and summery. Best essay on this election cycle I have perused.
George Dillon