I Lost It Last Week, Too, But...

Issue 119

thenib.com

If this is your first read, welcome to The Conscious Politics Op-Ed (formerly The Conscious Politics Sunday Newsletter), currently being published whenever possible.

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So about a hundred years ago — Thursday, June 27, 2024 to be exact — I got hit by a political tsunami. Of course, we are all being hit by political tsunamis all the time so, truly, nothing to see here, nothing even remotely exceptional about the one I experienced or that I experienced it. I had read this distillation of the rash of relentless lawsuits aimed at bringing an end to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs — in the public and private sectors — by radically right-wing interests, largely White and male, who claim…discrimination. I mean, I just couldn’t. For whatever reason, however the stars were aligned that morning, I experienced this story as particularly gobsmacking and astonishing. It kicked up in me all manner of frustration, disappointment, and sadness. I felt demoralized and deflated, dismayed and dissatisfied. I felt deeply embarrassed and a whole lot more. Then The Debate. Then the U.S. Supreme Court.

To be clear, there is nothing remotely wrong with any of us having whatever reactions we ever have to anything we see unfold on our political landscape. “It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society,” as Jiddu Krishnamurti once put it. And the fact that an anti-democratic, convicted felon facing three more criminal trials is the presumptive Republican nominee for president is evidence enough that we are living in a profoundly sick society. So let’s have a heart-to-heart today, conscious politics practitioner, starting metaphysically (because metaphysics are intrinsic to the new consciousness) by remembering that each of us came into the lives we’re now living on purpose for a purpose. Each of us knew the times would be tumultuous. Each of us expected to be challenged to embody and ground the new consciousness. And each of us is capable of meeting this moment.

This seems particularly important to say because of some comments I’ve fielded in the last few days like: “Nightmares,” one said she had all night, after The Debate. She supports Biden. “It’s our last Independence Day,” said another, who would very much like for America to celebrate its independence in perpetuity. “He [the presumptive Republican nominee] is going to win,” says another who absolutely doesn’t want him to win. “I’ll vote for the Democrat no matter who it is, but I’m scared shitless,” is a popular refrain. “I just don’t know what to do” said another as his head lowered into the political sand.

As we said, there’s nothing wrong with experiencing political nightmares or feeling all manner of frustration, dread, hopelessness and the rest. But it is dangerous to remain in them, to marinate in them, to commiserate with our friends and relations about them and, thereby, create more of exactly what we don’t want. The undergirding belief, “Biden can’t win,” is a death knell for small d American democrats.

It rattles me that anyone who wants a self-governing, democratic United States believes they can afford to invest one bit of their precious time and energy in anything other than fueling and making the case for resounding Democratic victories at every level of government this fall.

So on one side of the ledger is the realization that the old consciousness — in the forms of the presumptive Republican nominee for president, the current Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Republican party writ large, gerrymandered Republican dominance in many statehouses, the majority of the U.S. Supreme Court, significant numbers of American billionaires to say nothing of the right wing media juggernaut — will do literally anything, anything at all, to destroy what threatens its imminent demise. And nothing is more threatening to the old political consciousness than an entrenched, dynamic, thriving, multi-cultural, multi-racial, multi-generational society that literally works for everyone. The old consciousness is compassionless. It is irrational. It gorges on fear, hopelessness, despair and the like so it can flop a few more times like a caught fish on a dock, gasping for not-air. Chaos and confusion are delicacies. Stop feeding it.

On the other side of the ledger, we continue metaphysically. It is said that when a human seeks to heal its diseased body, the healing first occurs metaphysically, on a soul level, leaving the mind and physical body to invite the healing in and allow it take hold. Sometimes that happens, sometimes it doesn’t. So what if the new consciousness/political healing we desire has already occurred out there somewhere? Every metaphysical teaching I’ve ever experienced has said, consistently, over time, that that is very much the case. If true, then, for it to take hold on the ground, IRL, we must invite it. We must receive and allow it. We must live it. There is literally nothing else to do if healing is what we want and we simply cannot do it when we are scared, angry, hopeless and the rest.

Also on the other side of the ledger is evidence on the ground, IRL, of the ever-expanding awakening to the new consciousness. For one political example, did you know about The Great Peace Conference that occurred in Israel on the same day last week that the U.S. Supreme Court decided to change what our country is? Probably not. “The event brought together Jewish and Palestinian survivors, displaced persons, hostages, former prisoners, bereaved families, activists, security officials, religious and cultural figures, intellectuals, and current and former parliamentarians to echo a common commitment to justice, nonviolence, partnership, equality, democracy, self-determination, security, freedom, and peace for all who live between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.” But can you imagine what conversations we’d all be having right now if as many people knew about and watched 90 minutes’ worth of what that was all about as watched The Debate? And what that project would look like right now if we donated as much money to it as the debators raised at their event? It would look like bye-bye to anyone who depends on fear for its survival.

What President Biden and the Democratic Party decide to do with regard to completing the process of his going from presumptive presidential nominee to actual nominee or replacing him altogether — according to whatever rules and bylaws exist in their privately-run organization — is what they’ll decide to do. It rattles me that anyone who wants a self-governing, democratic United States believes they can afford to invest one bit of their precious time and energy in anything other than fueling and making the case for resounding Democratic victories at every level of government this fall. But you can be damn sure I’m not going to stay rattled. And…I’m back.

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