Some may find my thought in this blog disturbing. Please remember these posts are intended to promote reflection and discussion. They are not intended as dogmatic statements of belief.
We took our grandson to see the USS Constitution (Old Ironsides) in early August. He brought a model of the ship that he and and his mom made out of plastic soda bottles and duct tape, with thread for the rigging, wooden dowels for the masts and plastic for the sails. It was quite impressive. As we walked among crowds of tourists from all over the world, parents pointed out the wonderful model to their children. Some asked to take pictures. One little boy told us that he and his dad were going to make a model of Old Ironsides when he got older.
Tragically, that same weekend in Dayton Ohio and El Paso Texas, armed gunmen killed 31 people and wounded more than 50 in mass shootings. If those shooters had chosen the site of Old Ironsides, we could have been among those killed or wounded.
What is wrong with our nation? In one place people of all ages and races gather peacefully. Elsewhere, armed men kill and maim those who are not like themselves?
After the shootings, James Comey (director of the FBI from 2013-2017) spoke prophetically in an open letter to President Trump.iMr. Comey used the metaphor of a nuclear reactor.
In part his letter read:
“America has long had a radioactive racist soup in the center of our national life. Donald Trump thinks he is stirring it for political benefit. He’s actually doing something more dangerous. For much of our history, the soup was deadly and uncontained, spewing radiation that led to the enslavement, terrorization, murder and oppression of African-Americans.”
“Yet something good happened over the last 50 years. We erected a containment building made up of laws; we passed statutes making the abuse and mistreatment of people by virtue of their race a crime. More important, we began enforcing the laws we already had.”
“But the containment building of law was only part of the solution. Radioactivity lasts for centuries and it can still blow the lid off the building; true safety lies in control rods, pushed down into the soup to calm it, to cool it. Those control rods in America were cultural.”
“Today, the control rods are being lifted. With each racist assault — on a judge, an athlete, a country, a member of Congress, or a city ... our president allows the stew to boil and radiate more dangerously. Only fools believe they can ride the gamma rays of hate.”
James Comey's remarks have broad implications. They apply, not only to Donald Trump, but to all of us. Anyone - conservative, liberal, right, left, religious or none – anyone who uses fear and hatred to promote their cause is subject to Mr. Comey's criticism. If we sow hatred and violence we will reap the consequences in tragedies like the shootings in early August.
There is a deeper pattern in humanity that gives rise to this “radioactive soup.” It is related to the primitive fight-or flight response buried deep in the brain of all vertebrates.
We all have experienced it. I remember when a driver passed and cut in front of me on the freeway. In a burst of animal frenzy, I floored the accelerator in an attempt to race past him. Soon after, I was ashamed. Something other than my conscious self had dominated my reaction.
The fight-or-flight responseoccurs when we perceive a harmful event, attack, or threat to our survival.”iiIt is activated by the amygdala at the base of the brain stem. This triggers thesympathetic nervous system, that acts largely unconsciously and releases adrenaline into the blood stream. If the perceived threat persists, cortisol, a more potent stimulant is released. Chronic activation of the stress response can give rise to hyper-stimulation which is triggered more easily and often. This causes many body symptoms when triggered.iiiIt is like driving your car with the engine always revving. Eventually, the engine wears out.
When the threat is passed, the parasympathetic nervous systemactivates the "rest and digest" response and returns the body to equilibrium. This was when I “returned to my senses.” I felt remorse and embarrassment for my actions on the highway.
Early humanoids operated in small family units or tribes. Those who survived, learned that fear, triggering the fight-or-flight response, was a necessary adaptation. Like other animals,ivour ancient ancestors learned fear from personal experience, observing others and from tribal elders. They also learned to distrust members of other tribes.
This evolutionary advantage of distrusting other tribes has a down side. We humans have an innate distrust of those who are different from us. The fear response, at it's core, is learned from tribe mates. It is uninformed, illogical and can turn violent because tribal stories and ideologies do not engage the rational and empathetic abilities of our brains.v
One of the earliest civilizations with historical records, arose (2000-1600 BCE) among Sumerian and Babylonian tribes in Mesopotamia (the area between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers). Here, collective stories about how to survive danger took on mythic proportions in the story of Tiamat and Marduk which Walter Wink called the Myth of Redemptive Violence.viAccording to this myth, the god, Marduk killed his mother, the goddess Tiamat who represented chaos. He then created the world out of her bloody body..
Walter Wink claimed that this ancient myth, not Judaism, Christianity or Islam. is still the dominant myth or religion in our modern world.This myth is largely invisible because domination and killing seem to be “what works.” According to this myth, humankind didn't originate evil. Evil is a given in our world.
Wink continues:
“Our origins are divine, to be sure, since we are made from a god, but from the blood of an assassinated god. We are the outcome of deicide.... the Myth of Redemptive Violence is the story of the victory of order over chaos by means of violence. It is the ideology of conquest, the original religion of the status quo. The gods favour those who conquer... The common people exist to perpetuate the advantage that the gods have conferred upon the king, the aristocracy, and the priesthood. Religion exists to legitimate power and privilege. Life is combat.... Peace through war, security through strength: these are the core convictions that arise from this ancient historical religion, and they form the solid bedrock on which the Domination System is founded in every society.vii
Wink goes on to warn that we are programming our children through social media.Any story with “good guys” defeating “bad guys” promotes this myth. Eventually, redemptive violence becomes addictive. Violence is no longer a means to the higher good. It is the end.viii
This is what lies beneath the “radioactive racist soup in the center of our national life.” Donald Trump, as well as both political parties, are fueling fear and hate as a means of maintaining political control. These promote regressive trends through which each of us is governed, not by empathy and logic, but by the attitudes of our tribe which are uninformed, illogical and tend toward violence.Any religious belief system, political ideology, or personal ethic that demonizes the “other” is complicit in this process.
We fear and hate people who are different. We trust those like us. Our nation is incapacitated by divisions among its people which divert us from larger issues: depletion of plant and animal species; global warming and gross disparities among peoples of the world.
Happily, there is more to the story. The evolution of human consciousness took a giant step forward during the Axial Age (800 - 200 BCE).ixDuring this time, the world religions came into being. People began to turn away from merely appeasing tribal or civic deities. toward speculation about “The Good” and how human beings can be “good.” They contemplated the cosmos and the way it works rather than taking for granted that it works.
The primitive, fear driven Myth of Redemptive Violence was no longer the only force affecting human actions. It was directly challenged by the Biblical myth of Genesis.xThis myth depicted a good God who creates a good creation. Chaos does not resist order. Evil enters the picture later through the disobedience of Adam and Eve who are tempted by the serpent.xi
Humans were challenged to make moral decisions about good and evil. As part of this evolution, religious communities formed who were less fear driven, more motivated by empathy. For centuries the affects of the Axial Age established moral principles for humanity.
The affects of Christianity in Greece and Italy were obvious when Jean and I had the privilege of traveling to these countries. We were awed by the magnificent cathedrals filled with art like that of Michaelangelo on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. I was intrigued by little altars along the roads in Greece honoring people who had died.
Humanity benefitted from the advances in consciousness of the Axial Age (AAI) for nearly two millenia.
Beginning in the mid-18thcentury, traditionally Christian societies became more secularized. Secularization was influenced by the Renaissance, the Reformation, religious wars, geographic explorations, the development of natural sciences and rationalistic philosophy.xii
The vision of a person's role in the world changed.xiiiIn addition to preparing for the afterlife, people actively participated in organizing and shaping the social order based on the rational, objective, demystified ‘natural laws’ of the Universe. This transition was escalated after WWI when people questioned whether or not history had any direction and purpose.
Today, the affects of the original Axial Age continue to wane. The Christian Church as a major influence in stabilizing the moral standards of the western world is in decline, particularly among the young.xivThere is now no consistent ethical base for our societal norms.
Politicians, corporate leaders, and other powerful people are no longer limited by social attitudes that promote fair play, justice and compassion. They play on our fears and invent their own rules to enhance their wealth and power. The situation is further destabilized by the technology explosion that is leaving people feeling isolated, alone and fearful.xvAll the while, humankind is menaced by the triple threats of climate change, decimation of plant and animal species and global economic inequities.xvi
This coming epoch may indeed require a spiritual maturity and consciousness well beyond that of our present species. I am hopeful that the transition we are experiencing is a second-axial-awakening. The new axis for this awakening may well be “the human being-in-the-world.”
I catch glimpses of this possibility in friends who are no longer gripped by the Truths of the Judeo-Christian tradition. Still their hearts glow with a love for other human beings, and their lives are energized by a passion for justice.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran pastor who left the safety of America to return to Nazi Germany. He led the Confessing Church in opposition to the evils of the Third Reich. He was captured, imprisoned and eventually martyred. He presaged our coming age when he wrote about religionless Christianity in his “Letters and Papers From Prison.” I will close with three quotes from his writings.
“We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.”
“The same God who is with us is the God who forsakes us (Mark 15:34- “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me”). The same God who makes us to live in the world without the working hypothesis of God is the God before whom we stand continually. Before God, and with God, we live without God.”
“The world come of age is more god-less and perhaps, just because of that, closer to God than the world not yet come of age.”
We must carry on in these confusing times. We do make a difference.
iihttps://www.anxietycentre.com/anxiety/stress-response.shtml
iiihttps://www.anxietycentre.com/anxiety/hyperstimulation.shtml
ivhttps://www.marketwatch.com/story/a-neuroscientist-explains-how-politicians-and-the-media-use-fear-to-make-us-hate-without-thinking-2019-07-18
vihttp://www2.goshen.edu/~joannab/women/wink99.pdf
viiIbid.
viiiIbid.
ixThe Axial Age/ 5 Fast Facts | Britannica.com
xThere may be parallels in other great religious/spiritual/moral traditions. But I don't feel qualified to comment on these. Furthermore I am speaking primarily about changes in the Western world.
xihttp://www2.goshen.edu/~joannab/women/wink99.pdf
xiiiIbid.
xivhttps://news.gallup.com/poll/248837/church-membership-down-sharply-past-two-decades.aspx
xvhttps://www.pewinternet.org/2018/04/17/concerns-about-the-future-of-peoples-well-being/
xvihttp://theconversation.com/the-hypodermic-effect-how-propaganda-manipulates-our-emotions-94966
