PANDEMIC DIARY — Roaming with Roth

LEANING
December 4, 2021

All things lean. To complete the process of photosynthesis, trees and plants lean toward the sunlight.

Infants lean toward their mother’s breast to receive nourishment and bio-essential elements. Toddlers to teens lean into a parent’s embrace gaining a sense of belonging, trust, and autonomy.

Roots lean toward a source of water literally searching and sending far-reaching tentacles that absorb moisture necessary for growth. Above ground and beneath the surface, all things lean toward what feeds and sustains them - sustenance for the body, mind and spirit.

These are, what I call, “Essential Leanings” or “Biological Leanings”. However, there is another kind of leaning that derives from the tendency, of a very different and distinct sort, that appears at first glance as hunger. The leaning toward “EASY” based on a compulsion to ‘feed off of’ - an unconscious, irresistible need to ingest, take in, to saturate ones self with the satisfaction of fullness - and to have that available automatically and at all times. For it to be total and sating. This is the easy of the appropriately infantile experience where one’s sense of autonomy and power is aptly derived from a demand to be fed and that need met. However, at a rather early age in development that immediate need is no longer age appropriate. The denied adult no longer cries like a baby for its symbolic supper. This is the easy of entitlement or the sense that “I deserve” because I exist - “I want what I want when I want it”. This is the easy where the goal is not receiving nourishment rather receiving attention; of not being fed rather, the act of taking in and being glutted.

The manipulation of Easy is the basis upon which authoritarians derive their power. It is how politicians have historically won majorities. Autocrats give voters what they want to hear. They possess the “formula”, the pabulum for the masses of “True Believers”. They instinctively know what a vast public wants, giving voice and representation to their needs, then taking it away leaving you more wanting and more dependent. “Vote for me and I will ensure you get…ensure you have…promise you won’t have to…vow to provide you with…”. “I will be your daddy and/or mommy”. It is the linguistic soil from which political dependency, party reliance and popularity grow. I call these “Faith Leanings”. These latter inclinations are powerfully addictive. The ruler now has complete control and those begging to be fed are left to starve.

In the Twelve Step programs there is a saying, that “at the heart of every alcoholic/addict is the desire for it [life] to be easy.” (“We should all get a free pass and forego life’s pain and suffering.”; “Why is this happening to me.”; “No one is listening to me”) This explains a great deal. Yes, alcohol and drugs provide a very temporary sating or euphoric relief, but relief from what? Is it relief from the reality that life is hard work; that life commands us to be conscious; that life is uncertainty; that life, for all and for a time, demands we live with physical pain and emotional loss. The “masses” that believe there is a ‘way out’ hang on to their faith, on to promises not actions, on invisible deliverers, on elixirs and quick fixes. They are not any longer neurologically /psychologically inclined to long-term solutions preferring public performance not work “behind the scenes”, preferring simple statements not complex resolutions.

This vast sea of true believers want little or nothing to do with change and its implications for their living experiences. They would prefer to accept the promises not receiving the benefits of what they wish for, what is to their benefit. Anger and rebellion make them feel in control. Military gear excites and titillates their sense of power. Ironically, these folks who pride themselves on independence fall prey to leaders who gather the camaraderie of other like-minded people. Being part of a throng provides a sense of belonging and righteousness. They are part of a cause greater than themselves which provides justification of their beliefs. (Take a look at the thousands of people that traveled to and lined the streets in Dallas, Texas where John F. Kennedy was assassinated and stood for hours commiserating while waiting for poor, dead Robert Kennedy to appear as Donald Trump’s running mate) Does it get any crazier than that?

Our current political leaders are nothing more than drug lords. They hang out at corners of legislative and congressional halls and plot how they can remain in power. They come up with new arguments that foment their supporters like variants of a virus. They spawn new representatives who are brasher, louder, and infinitely more insane, to spew messages and conspiracy theories which are slightly more extreme each time. Extreme enough, irrational enough, unlikely enough, implausible enough, un-f__cking believable enough to keep the show on the road…and on TV and the media.

I often hearken back to the concept most clearly elucidated by Alan Watts in one of his greatest works, “The Wisdom of Insecurity”. Odd, that in a world of random forces acting in persistently unpredictable synchronicity, we have not yet, as a specie, overcome our fear of the unknown. So needy are we, so great our demand for answers that we have famously relied on “snake-oil salesmen”; “quick-acting” remedies; an endless array of “wellness” solutions, medications and ‘neutraseuticals’ that cure whatever ails you with “side effects” that can kill you. That is when easy is pathological.

I told this story before, but it is worth repeating. Met a gentleman in Berlin. His father lives in the portion of Berlin that was in East Germany, where Adele and I had an Airbnb. I asked him if his father had a choice, would he return to the way it was? Would he accept the old regime? The man said, “Absoutely”. “Why?, I asked, What does it offer that he does not now have?” His answer was chilling. “CERTAINTY”. He once knew what he had, what to expect…and what not to expect. He did not have to compete. (This is a huge factor in authoritarian regimes) He felt more equal not on merits of achievement, but because everyone was treated the same regardless of ability and achievement. Furthermore, to “get ahead” you worked for the autocratic State, the embodiment of control and rigidity. The fundamental source of nourishment. The place where you go for certainty. The people who are committed to no change. Those who see change as a threat: a threat to their stability; a threat to their jobs; a threat to what is otherwise falsely propagated and propaganda. This is the perceived safety behind Fascism and all forms of dictatorships and autocracies. Make it easy.