IT'S NOT THE SHOES

It has  been observed by many that we tend to become like people with whom we are preoccupied. There is a normal positive aspect to this if we are thinking about those with traits we admire and which we want to emulate.

The mirror image of this is the negative one, i.e. when we are preoccupied not by those we love, but those we detest; therefore we tend to "fight fire with fire."  For example, when we accuse people of being paranoid, that is often "the best defense is a good offense."  (This happens more frequently when we ourselves do not have much to offer, or have lost love/s, or are depressed and anxious and insecure; or have little positive content to offer others or the world.  Defense mechanisms abound when one is not delighted with life itself; as one must logically expect among defensive people and others who become defined by what they are against. 

I would not question that such negativity sells well in the marketplace as well as in the arena. It is of course rampant currently because our culture is collapsing and our best days as a nation are also behind us. In other words, to misquote a formerly famous source, "We ain't much, baby, but we're all we got." 

One of the best expressions of this by one of the more impartial observers of humankind, Walt Kelly, is, "We have met the enemy and he is us." based on a now lesser known claim by some 19th century leader, who said, "We have met the enemy and he is ours."  Both may be cogent.  One of the problems with winning is that one side typically "ingests" the other--but often stops there, before digestion i.e. assimilation occurs.

One ancient example would be that the enemies of Israel may not have been able to resist their military incursions--the cultural norm to this day in the Middle East--but there was a "fatal attraction" to the women in their civilizations, and most of the defeated cultures were able to infiltrate their ideas and worship to the highest level--Solomon being a near-perfect example of this. And this "preacher-king" did exactly the opposite of what he tried to teach his son. He became an enemy of Israel because he was preoccupied not by God but the strange lure of the forbidden. Or maybe trapped not only by his essential hedonism, but by the desire to humiliate, which eventually came back on his own head and poisoned his ultimate reputation.  Power, esp unchallenged, does strange and contradictory things to the always-frail human mind.

One current example would be the misuse of the word, "fundamentalist."  This is the ace in the hole for those with no program but destruction of what has gone before.  It was popularized as a term of anti-endearment by such writers as H.L. Mencken and the "American Mercury" magazine which he edited. But as it turned out, this hater of many things was also a closet racist--based on personal taste and certain interpretations of Darwinism/atheism.  He hid these writings from the public obviously and I understand that this was not generally known until his letters were read by archivists. This is an example of a man who took the easy road of criticizing others--including anyone committing the sin of moderation--and accusing them of exactly what was inside of him--fundamentally the law of the jungle.

In Mencken's case, he managed to foul the nest of his reputation permanently after he had poisoned it already in private.  Who knows what these eagle's nests contain, esp. to those haters that are promoted by the public, which also eats up gossip, and its children.

But I do not want to be preoccupied with the enemies of my existence, my well being, or my soul. I write this to observe that I am a compulsive worrier. That sometimes helps in my job, to be very precise. But like so many professional "virtues" it does not help at home; or in more intimate settings, many  of which are precluded by my private pessimism and worries.  What I am observing, I observe in myself--as in Screwtape the author was using him to reveal what was often in his own soul.  I am way too much involved in my own culture, self-made and the public cultures of the USA today. In order to get free of such muddling, one has to expose them; even then I would be powerless to change, as has always been the case, without outside help. As Glinda the Good said  to Dorothy, you have always had the ability to go home again. It's "not the shoes." But that ability that Dorothy had was not brought out in her without the help of family and friends and, yes, witches!  (Ouch!)