Written by Michael Clark
Why Did Trump Win – A Different Perspective, Part 1
Prologue
The system that Yeats proposes in A VISION is not a dualism because the ultimate reality is one, represented in the Sphere; however all manifestations of the system that human consciousness can apprehend are dualistic because of this “fall,” and a form of duality or multiplicity is essential to consciousness, because “things that are of one kind are unconscious” (AVB 82).
Note: This series was written before the election and deliberately not posted until after.
The most fundamental antinomy (antagonism) is that which embodies the dualism itself, the One and the Many, and the most important manifestation of these two poles is that of God and humanity, while within individual human consciousness the polarity is also that of the objective and the subjective. Yet Yeats is less concerned with the poles themselves than with the forces pulling in either direction: towards the One and towards the Many – the unifying and the dispersing, the centripetal and the centrifugal, the homogenizing and the differentiating, the objectifying and the subjectifying.
The dynamic essences are the primary and the antithetical Tinctures: the primary named because it comes first and “brings us back to the mass where we begin”, the antithetical “because it is achieved and defended by continual conflict with its opposite” (AVB 71-72).
Introduction
My point in this essay is to delineate a different perspective of the 2016 Presidential race, a perspective that is unusual for 20th-century Western culture. Let me begin by saying that I am not affiliated with either political party. I have voted for candidates from both parties. I have not decided how to vote this year. I am considering my options.
I begin by saying that most people view the world is dualistic terms: right versus wrong. The moral position against the immoral position. The smart side against the stupid side.
I believe this is an illusion; that we cannot really know what is the right side morally; we believe in our duality because we see only part of the picture and believe it is the entire picture. Over time our view changes; and many of us spend time on both sides of this political spectrum if we consider the entire terms of our lives. Because we tend to view the world objectively — we are instructed to view the world objectively, or as a world of objects — we tend to see the world as objects arranged in some kind of polar fashion. The pole we are drawn to is the Virtuous Pole; the opposite pole is the Evil pole. This is the way we tend to view the world.
The Democrats are traditionally the Left side of the world, figuratively. There is also a literal application to this. Democrats tend to emphasize the importance of human, humane issues: equality, justice, decency, peace, the whole. Democrats are traditionally the defenders of the poor. The Democrats believe traditionally that the wealthy members of the society need to share their wealth with the poor. Democrats tend to view Big Business as the primary evil of modern society.
Republicans are traditionally the Right side of the world. As Democrats tend to be humanists (emphasizing human worth, human rights, human responsibilities), Republicans tend to be deists, religious, putting God’s intentions and directives over man’s intentions and rights. They also tend to be individualists, with regard to social progress and political developments. Democrats tend to view this Republican focus as selfishness; Republicans defend it as independence, rugged individualism. If everyone were to stand on his own two feet, rely on himself, do his job, them the society would progress nicely.
Republicans tend to believe in Individual Will, as Democrats tend to believe in Collective (tribal) Conventions and the Collective Good. Republicans tend to view Big Government as the greatest evil in modern society, the seed-bed of their enemy, socialism. Big Government tends to limit the rights of individuals to exercise dominion over the group. They use the tax mechanism to steal money from those who have worked hard for their money. Republicans tend to view this role of Government mediation as an intrusion on the rights of the individual, on the rights of commerce, the right for a man to get rich; Democrats tend to view this same function as protection of the Many against the Few. Democrats tend to use government to pass laws to limit the power of the Few, regulations on business, which Republicans tend to consider unnecessary restrictions on progress. Democrats argue that without laws business becomes organized crime.
Republicans tend to ascribe poverty to a lack of virtue, a lack of effort, a lack of intelligence, on the part of the Many. Republicans often take this further, into the Old Testament religious realm, by claiming the wealth of the few is a sign of God’s support of a good life. Democrats tend to ascribe poverty to social, racial and educational corruptions, inequalities that unsettle the social structure and allow the Few to manipulate the law for their own gain. Government’s role, in this view, is to insist on a level playing field, the role of a kind of an impartial social referee.
Depending upon one’s own perspective at any given time — and we can talk at length about how perspectives are established, and how they change over time — one tends to align with one political pole more than another. If one believes that Big Government, excessive taxation, social spending, expanding restraints on religion and the military, are the greatest problems in the country, one will generally vote Republican. If one believes that Big Business is the source of social corruption, and more a force that needs regulation through laws — that Big Business is a kind of mafia that needs to be restrained or it will take over the world — this view casts Government as the force of such restraint — then one probably views the Democrats as the party of choice.
If I may further simplify, and I realize this is a different perspective, at least the beginnings of a different perspective, Republicans tend to view the ideal government as the Ideal Father, strict, disciplined, austere, quiet, enabling domestic expansion and resisting foreign encroachment, careful when spending and a strong supporter of saving. Democrats tend to view the ideal government as the Ideal Mother, enforcing social ideals as the Mother runs a family: equality, justice for all, peace, domestic tranquility through …there is that word again Equality. Democrats believe in Equality. Republicans believe in Freedom, and in freedom to Grow (to grow mostly their power and wealth, but also their freedom).
Freedom and Equality are not necessarily friends. Freedom suggests the lack of restraints that make it possible for one man to surpass his neighbor, and to create inequality (at least in material resources). Equality can mean simply equality of opportunity; in the extreme Equality can also mean equality of result, which becomes the dreaded socialism in the realm of politics.
The dichotomies:
Will on the Father’s side; Love on the Mother’s side. Love which binds everything together into a familial whole; Will which separates the human species into winners and losers, a hierarchy of results.
Old Testament Social Darwinism on one side; New Testament Social Christianism on the other.
The Republicans are the Old Testament monotheism; the Democrats are the New Testament (though they have forgotten this, and will argue vehemently against this, having become atheists) polytheism, under the DIVERSITY label.
The Right Brain, the Culture God, makes life Beautiful, makes life Meaningful, makes life Harmonious, in the sense of proportion — that is what justice, liberty, and equality are about.
The Left Brain, the God of Life, makes life rich and rewarding, and efficient. Both sides of the brain are necessary; and it is our DUTY (I say this in a religious sense) to develop both sides of the brain, as individuals, and as societies of individuals.
In a sense, the Left Brain is the Cowboy; the Right Brain is the Indian. Both world views are necessary to our survival — because we pass through (in History) Cowboy Day-Cycles and Indian Night-Cycles. It is the Wisdom of the Indian that allows the Cowboy to pilot the ark through the Eastern Quadrant of the Night-Cycle and across the dividing line, through the Womb of the World, through Jerusalem, that city sacred to Venus, the Great Mother, and receive the gift of Life when the Night-Cycle of destruction of form finally ends and the new cycles of Life (such as in 1983, and 2019) when the New Earth is born.
Many will disagree with my characterization. Clearly, there are other ways to define these two parties. But I am offering a different perspective. Republicans are the Male Principle, and even more, or as much, the Left Brain. Democrats are the Female Principle, the Right Brain. Not only that, History flows back and forth, into the Left Brain, then back into the Right Brain, like the ocean flows. Periods of Left Brain dominance, I call Day-Cycles — metaphorically and symbolically, Day-Cycles are governed by the Sun — metaphorically, Night-Cycles are governed by the Moon. The Moon is connected to Water, the Female element. Remember the Bible’s description of the world being destroyed alternately by Water and by Fire? Keep that in mind, because that fits in with all of this. Yes, Day-Cycles are composed of Fire, ruled by the Sun.
This is Part 1 of a ten-part series.
