The Shadow

My yoga teacher emailed me a "posting" by Deepak Chopra dated Sept. 5, 2008 that had been forwarded to her. This is a portion of that posting:

Obama and The Palin Effect

"Sometimes politics has the uncanny effect of mirroring the national psyche even when nobody intended to do that. This is perfectly illustrated by the rousing effect that Gov. Sarah Palin had on the Republican convention in Minneapolis this week. . . .

"She is the reverse of Barack Obama, in essence his shadow, deriding his idealism and exhorting people to obey their worst impulses. In psychological terms the shadow is that part of the psyche that hides out of sight, countering our aspirations, virtue, and vision with qualities we are ashamed to face: anger, fear, revenge, violence, selfishness, and suspicion of 'the other.'. . . "

My reaction:

The woman and what she represents, along with the 'positive' reaction she's had from a large segment of this country is frightening as hell. She embodies the counter to Obama. Chopra named it perfectly--'the shadow.' All the elements are there, twisted and misused, even her frequent references to 'God's will.' How can anyone believe that it is God's will that McCain and 'the shadow' are in the White House. HOW can the American populace at large not see through the transparency of Palin in particular. The woman embodies some kind of manufactured entity--the result of a marketing focus group--made to appeal to 'the masses'. She uses her own Down's Syndrome child as a prop for "pro-choice." Same thing with the 17-year old pregnant daughter, who--because she is now getting married--is being embraced by that same populace and Palin is congratulated once again for her 'pro-choice' support of her daughter. And then of course--the beautifully timed 'going off to iraq'--of her 19-year-old son.

I've found myself wondering if she is even real--as in is she really made of flesh and blood. Or if we were to scratch away at her skin, would we perhaps find a wireframe and would we gradually come to realize that she is not human at all--but a fabrication of metal and rubber and an assortment of other materials--all in the guise of a human female.

We're at a crossroads and it is a very dangerous one, because the wrong choice is so wrong it can spell disaster for this country and the world. We have a reseponsibiity here. We need to understand the concerns/beliefs of the 'other side' in order to try to convince them. We need to vote for Obama. We need to try to get every single person we know to vote for Obama and to get others to vote for Obama. I've urged my daughter to vote, to tell her boyfriend to vote, to tell their friends at work, at school. . . and we need to visualize what we want, not what we don't want. We need to make it happen.