A very Trumpian moment
Ah, the inevitable death and rebirth of the hero!
It is a motif which has run throughout the X Files and American film, for that matter. Remember Lone Wolf McQuade’s (1983) supercharged disinterment after being buried by David Carradine’s bad guy? Or, consider Arnold Schwartzenegger’s Terminator dying at the end of the first film to be reborn a new man(?) in the second. It’s a very old mythic form, one which lies at the very heart of Christianity, but it has become almost the founder’s myth of America. Maybe because it sees its revolutionary break from Britain as a death and rebirth experience.
It is, of course, the mythic centre of Jung’s psychology – the individuation process, in which we must constantly die to ourselves in order to be reborn as more authentic versions of who we are.
It is, to say the least, unfortunate, then, that the present political climate of the United States is so destructive of all that might make such a rebirth possible. Steve Bannon might call for the “deconstruction of the administrative state,” but, in fact, this is not his aim – whether he knows it or not.
As the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy explains its:
At this moment in time, we can see the death of the hero – America – just not its rebirth.
Maybe we should not be hugely surprised that the culture which created the consumer society is now preoccupied with consuming its own society. We should realise by now that all empires eventually self-destruct. The tragedy of America is not its demise but its relatively short life-span. But a consuming society was probably never destined to last very long.
Such a society is always going to be a selfish one. As the townspeople in ‘The Gift’ demonstrate very clearly, they are willing to kill to keep for themselves that which should, in fact, benefit all. They do not learn the lesson of the ‘sin eater’ itself – that true salvation, healing or rebirth comes through suffering. The corruption that lies at the very heart of American culture is depicted in that moment when Sheriff Frey, the very one who should uphold the morality of law and order, shoots Agent Doggett in the back to prevent him from taking the sin eater away from them. It is a very Trumpian moment.
It is a motif which has run throughout the X Files and American film, for that matter. Remember Lone Wolf McQuade’s (1983) supercharged disinterment after being buried by David Carradine’s bad guy? Or, consider Arnold Schwartzenegger’s Terminator dying at the end of the first film to be reborn a new man(?) in the second. It’s a very old mythic form, one which lies at the very heart of Christianity, but it has become almost the founder’s myth of America. Maybe because it sees its revolutionary break from Britain as a death and rebirth experience.
It is, of course, the mythic centre of Jung’s psychology – the individuation process, in which we must constantly die to ourselves in order to be reborn as more authentic versions of who we are.
It is, to say the least, unfortunate, then, that the present political climate of the United States is so destructive of all that might make such a rebirth possible. Steve Bannon might call for the “deconstruction of the administrative state,” but, in fact, this is not his aim – whether he knows it or not.
As the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy explains its:
To deconstruct is to take a text apart along the structural “fault lines” created by the ambiguities inherent in one or more of its key concepts or themes in order to reveal the equivocations or contradictions that make the text possible.
To deconstruct isn’t to negate, necessarily, only to understand more fully all that makes the text what it is. Maybe we are finding out more about just what America is as a consequence of the present administration, but not as they intend it.At this moment in time, we can see the death of the hero – America – just not its rebirth.
Maybe we should not be hugely surprised that the culture which created the consumer society is now preoccupied with consuming its own society. We should realise by now that all empires eventually self-destruct. The tragedy of America is not its demise but its relatively short life-span. But a consuming society was probably never destined to last very long.
Such a society is always going to be a selfish one. As the townspeople in ‘The Gift’ demonstrate very clearly, they are willing to kill to keep for themselves that which should, in fact, benefit all. They do not learn the lesson of the ‘sin eater’ itself – that true salvation, healing or rebirth comes through suffering. The corruption that lies at the very heart of American culture is depicted in that moment when Sheriff Frey, the very one who should uphold the morality of law and order, shoots Agent Doggett in the back to prevent him from taking the sin eater away from them. It is a very Trumpian moment.
Comments
Post a Comment