In America, the damage caused by institutionalized trumpism is perhaps more subtle but no less devastating to the social fabric.
Rich versus poor, black versus white, pro-life versus pro-choice , straight versus gay - are all social, political, and economic conflicts fought under the banner of some ideology or deeply held belief.
But given the divisive and destructive results , are these ideologies and beliefs rational, or mere rationalizations for otherwise unreasonable acts?
How often, in fact, do we stop to think about what we believe?
One of the major dilemmas we face both as individuals and as a society is simplistic thinking - or the failure to think at all.
It isn't just a problem, it is the problem.
Given the imperfection of our society and the apparent downward spiral of spiritual and moral values in recent years, thinking has become a grave issue.
It is more urgent now- perhaps more urgent than anything else - because it is the means by which we consider, decide, and act upon everything in our increasingly complex world.
If we don't begin to think well, its highly likely we may end up killing ourselves.
In one way or another, each trumpism simplistic thought processed symbolically and substantially have indeed warranted, a road less traveled crusades approach, in rebuke, of the simplistic thinking.
The Road Less Traveled begins with the assertion that "Life is difficult." In Further Along the Road Less Traveled, "Life is complex" is added. And from here, it can be further said that "there are no easy answers" and the route to finding answers is primarily through better thinking, even when its not as simple as it may seem.
Trump's career is built on finding shortcuts. Against the Virus, there are none. What does the proof is in the pudding mean? The proof of the pudding (is in the eating) saying (also the proof is in the pudding) said to mean that you can only judge the quality of something after you have tried, used, or experienced it For many painful weeks President Trump treated the coronavirus as he had so many adversaries through more than half a century in the public spotlight:“ ‘Just do what we need to do,’ he’d say. . . . Back then, the worst thing that could happen was a fine. Now, it’s people’s lives.” But, alas, Those high stakes, and the president’s inability to bend the coronavirus to his will, finally forced a course correction . Unlike at nearly every other turn in his singular American life, there would be no shortcut this time. Trump bowed to reality. The man who rose to the most powerful position in the world by ignoring rules and subverting norms seemed at last to have conceded that there can be no end run around this pathogen.
Thinking is difficult. Thinking is complex. And thinking is - more than anything else - a process, with a course and a direction, a lapse of time, and a series of steps or stages that lead to some result. To think well is laborious, often painstaking process until one becomes accustomed to being "thoughtful." Since it is a process, the course or direction may not be clear-cut. Not all steps or stages are linear, nor are they always in the same sequence . Some are circular and overlap with others. Not everyone archives the same result. Given all this, if we are to think well, we must be on guard against simplistic thinking in our approach to analyzing crucial issues and solving the problem of life.
Although people are different, an all-too-common flaw is that most tend to believe they somehow instinctively know how to think and communicate. In reality, they usually do neither well because they are either too self-satisfied to examine their assumptions about thinking or too self-absorbed to invest the time and energy to do so.
As a result, it is impossible to tell why they think as they do or how they make their decisions. And when challenged, they show very little awareness of - or become easily frustrated by - the dynamics involved in truly thinking and communicating well.
While most people think they already know how to think, the trump experience trends at the conclusion of each session, during feedback, the desired effect is for someone to say in sheer aspiration, "The subject is simply too large."
In conclusion:thinking isn't a topic that anyone can digest thoroughly in one sitting. Whole books can be (and have been) written about it.
It is no surprise that many people resist the arduous efforts involved in continually monitoring and revising their thinking. And no surprise that by the end of the sessions most of the participants felt so overwhelmed by all that is really involved in thinking that they either number or horrified.
Needless to say, these should not be among any's more popular engagements.
Yet if all the energy required to think seems troublesome, the lack of thinking causes far more trouble and conflict for ourselves as individuals and for the society in which we live.
Hamlet's often quoted "To be or not to be?"is one of life's essential questions. Paraphrased Shakespeare may ask, "To think or not to think?" is the ultimate question in combating simplism.
And at this point in human evolution, it may be the very equivalent of "To be or not to be?"
Practices that transform us.
EXAMEN
Throughout the Centuries Prayerful People have found directions for their lives through the practice of the Examen ( also known as the "examination of consciousness").The Examen provides a way of noticing where god shows up in our day. It is a practice that attends to what we may otherwise miss in the press of duties and business. The questions of the Examen open our attention to how God's inernal movement is present in our external comings and goings. They lead us to listen deeply to the data of our lives. These questions help us pay attention to our mental state, our body response, and our emotional baggage. Our insomnia, nervous stomach, difficult interaction and headache can all take their place as a possible way of more deeply leaning into God. The examen helps us recognize the things that bring us death and life. Once these things are known , they become part of the ongoing interaction with God in prayer. The Examen can open us to both the difficult and beautiful in our lives, relationships and profession. The examen is also a useful way of reflecting alone or with others on what God is saying to us through a meeting, a class, a meal, a service project, a relationship or a conflict. Spiritual Exercise: Look back over the past year. list the things that brought you life and the times you were able to truly give and receive love. Make another list of the life-thwarting moments. * What do you discover about yourself ? * How can this self-awareness help you choose a healthier , God - directed life?
"Everything in the world is about to be wrapped up, so take nothing for granted. Stay wide-awake in prayer." (1 Peter 4:7 The Message)
Trump’s choice: A tragedy in three acts
Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.
The American Dream
Willy believes wholeheartedly in what he considers the promise of the American Dream—that a “well liked” and “personally attractive” man in business will indubitably and deservedly acquire the material comforts offered by modern American life. Oddly, his fixation with the superficial qualities of attractiveness and likeability is at odds with a more gritty, more rewarding understanding of the American Dream that identifies hard work without complaint as the key to success. Willy’s interpretation of likeability is superficial—he childishly dislikes Bernard because he considers Bernard a nerd. Willy’s blind faith in his stunted version of the American Dream leads to his rapid psychological decline when he is unable to accept the disparity between the Dream and his own life.
The diminishing magic of Donald Trump
We’ve all been watching this play unfold before us. The protagonist, President Donald Trump, has had many more bad days than good days, but throughout the first two acts, he has remained at center stage. He is listening to his public health advisors, but the delay has been deadly.
There are many occupations that require people to keep going in the face of tiredness.
That’s where discipline comes in.
In those moments where fatigue sets in, you can keep pushing, persevering with whatever task you are doing. It may not be easy, and you may not enjoy it, but it can be done until you reach the point of utter, genuine exhaustion.
What Sets Discipline Apart?firstly discipline removes the action from the domain of the mind and places it firmly in the real world. Motivation, planning, enjoyment, energy, and habits are all based in the mind (or body), whereas discipline is something altogether different.
Willy’s life charts a course from one abandonment to the next, leaving him in greater despair each time. Willy’s father leaves him and Ben when Willy is very young, leaving Willy neither a tangible (money) nor an intangible (history) legacy. Ben eventually departs for Alaska, leaving Willy to lose himself in a warped vision of the American Dream. Likely a result of these early experiences, Willy develops a fear of abandonment, which makes him want his family to conform to the American Dream. His efforts to raise perfect sons, however, reflect his inability to understand reality. The young Biff, whom Willy considers the embodiment of promise, drops Willy and Willy’s zealous ambitions for him when he finds out about Willy’s adultery. Biff’s ongoing inability to succeed in business furthers his estrangement from Willy. When, at Frank’s Chop House, Willy finally believes that Biff is on the cusp of greatness, Biff shatters Willy’s illusions and, along with Happy, abandons the deluded, babbling Willy in the washroom.
Discipline is a path that takes a conscious, mind-based desire or choice and turns it into a physical, real-world end result through action.
Secondly, while all of the aforementioned aspects of work are temporary, discipline is permanent. It does not get used up, spent, or lost. If you wish to tap into it, it is always there.This is important because it means that whatever else is happening to you and around you, if you can utilize your discipline, then a desired action can be achieved.
Trump's Complete Denial Of The Pandemic
Throughout Act I, he was in complete denial that a deadlypandemicwas silently spreading through his realm, while making ill-informed pronouncements of the dangers it posed for his subjects.
January 23rd: We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It’s going to be just fine.
February 14th: There’s a theory that, in April, when it gets warm – historically, that has been able to kill the virus.
February 26th: We’re going very substantially down, not up. (He’s referring here to the number of new cases.)
Just as the curtain begins to descend, the sky darkens. The president, who had been all smiley-faced, has begun to frown. Clearly, something was amiss.
Invoking the Defense Production Act
But enough talk! It was time to act. We needed test kits, which, because of the lack of preparedness of his predecessor, President Obama, they were in extremely short supply. Still, he added magnanimously, anyone who requested a coronavirus test could get one.
Oh, and there was also a great shortage of facemasks and ventilators. No problem! The president would simply invoke the Defense Production Act, which he could use to basically order large manufacturers to produce the needed supplies and equipment.
Somehow, more than a week later, the governors of many states were complaining that they still faced severe shortages. The president smiled, knowing how some people are always trying to shift the blame for their own shortcomings on to other people.
He marveled at how far he had come. Once a draft-dodging young man during the Vietnam War, here he was, a septuagenarian self-proclaimed war-time president.
One more thing about enjoyment is this: what we enjoy can change from one moment to the next. We might enjoy something to begin with, and then see our enthusiasm fade the longer we do it.
Imagine a never-ending ice cream sundae with all your favorite toppings; aside from being a one-way ticket to diabetes, it nicely demonstrates the fickle nature of enjoyment. The first few mouthfuls are like heaven on a plate, the next 10 are immensely satisfying, and the 10 after that are still pretty good. But then something happens; you enjoy each spoonful a little less than the last, until, eventually, you do not enjoy it at all.
So don’t rely on your enjoyment of a task to get it done.
Stock market vs public health advisors
“So, here’s the plan. We loosen the regulations first in all the red states – the ones which have the lowest number of Chinese virus cases. Then, wait another two weeks and get rid of the regulations in the blue states. Let ‘em suffer a little longer.”
These kinds of comments are like a magician’s manipulations, designed to concentrate the eye and attention away from the things Trump doesn’t want you to see. What Trump wants to obscure with this trick, of course, is that many on his senior staff think he is incompetent and ill-suited to hold the office. This, of course, is the exhausting pattern of Trump’s behavior as president.
“Mr. President, if I may? How do we handle the press?”
“We just hand ‘em a short memo: ‘Watch the stock market tomorrow.’ Trust me, when peoples’ stocks finally start goin’ up again, and when all those rules and regulations are removed, everybody will be happy.”
“What about the virus, sir?”
“Let all those doctors over at the CDC worry about that. That’s their job, isn’t it?”
There are signs, however, that more members of the audience are on to Trump’s magic. A number of recent polls have his approval ratings dropping beneath what seemed to be a solid floor of support.
More people are starting to see how Trump distracts and deceives.
The first time most people in the audience followed his hands and missed the drop. The second time, however, they watched more intently, and this time they clearly saw the deception.
As the curtain rises, President Trump is seated behind the Resolute desk in the oval office with a group seated before him. None is connected with public health.
That kind of attentiveness could ruin Trump’s act.
As Act II ended, there were once again dark clouds visible on the horizon. The economy was sinking into a severe recession, the stock market had lost one third of its value, the virus was continuing to spread, and the nation’s death toll was mounting.
Discipline is at the heart of most great achievements.Even our armed forces would fail to function without their trademark discipline – after all, when you’re on the battlefield, no amount of planning, motivation, enjoyment, energy, or routine will be enough without the discipline to follow through and do what needs to be done.
From off-stage right come the words of the veteran Congresswoman Liz Cheney of Wyoming:
There will be no normally functioning economy if our hospitals are overwhelmed and thousands of Americans of all ages, including our doctors and nurses, lay dying because we have failed to do what’s necessary to stop the virus.
Then, from stage left, Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, says that it’s tough to tell people to “keep going to restaurants, go to buy new houses, ignore that pile of bodies in the corner.”
FINAL CURTAIN
Betrayal
Willy’s primary obsession throughout the play is what he considers to be Biff’s betrayal of his ambitions for him.
Willy believes that he has every right to expect Biff to fulfill the promise inherent in him. When Biff walks out on Willy’s ambitions for him, Willy takes this rejection as a personal affront (he associates it with “insult” and “spite”). Willy, after all, is a salesman, and Biff’s ego-crushing rebuff ultimately reflects Willy’s inability to sell him on the American Dream—the product in which Willy himself believes most faithfully. Willy assumes that Biff’s betrayal stems from Biff’s discovery of Willy’s affair with The Woman—a betrayal of Linda’s love. Whereas Willy feels that Biff has betrayed him, Biff feels that Willy, a “phony little fake,” has betrayedhimwith his unending stream of ego-stroking lies.
What Trump wants to obscure with his trick, of course, is that in many ways he still remains incompetent and ill-suited to hold the office. This, of course, would explain why he must continue the many exhausting patterns of behavior he pursues as president to remain in power.
He's backed himself so far into his own corner of no escape that he has no choice other than to continue As he systematically done rolls back environmental protections, undermines the rule of law, diminishes our ability to have allies in the world or makes the situation in North Korea even more dangerous, we fail to see or fully appreciate their significance because he has distracted us.
In other words, the big questions of any day forward must remain in the science of magic and the only bulletproof method is that of discipline answers those daily questions posed by the Trump presidency as Americas goal toward eventually none will be able to question or say “How does he get away with it?” ever again.
Tired of Endless Wanderings in Deserts?
Deuteronomy2: 2-23. “You have made your way around this Hill Country Long Enough: Now Turn North. In the Road Less Traveled, Destinations have been made between Spiritual and political Power. Spiritual Power resides Not in the Position or in Money but is in the Being. Its capacity to ‘Influence’ is often by Example, Simply by ‘Virtue’ of the kind of person that one is.
POLITICAL POWER IS ALWAYS ‘TEMPORAL’ WHERE “POWER TENDS TO CORRUPT AND ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY. We the People ‘Statesmen’ are ones like Jesus by Acts demonstrate Exceptionally never asked to be “Self-Reflective” nor demanded to express Extraordinary Insight and Concern for others. These sufferers work deeply by necessity that ‘Webt’ with One Eye, but maintained their capacity for Vulnerability. The “Spirit of Dirty Tricks” Puppeteer Lord Actons Famous Maxim: ‘Temporal’ in which overestimated Political Power when righteously challenged under God – Flunk all Tests. Throughout the centuries, Theologians, in considering the ‘Dichotomy’ between being and doing, have invariably come down in favor of Being. In Other Words; Who you are – What kind of person you are – Is much more important than what you actually do. This is a hard concept to swallow let alone grasp within ‘Trickster’ Oriented Arenas. The Problem: Endless cycles that ‘Session’ back that Act is if Nothing Ever Happened! What generally lacked were the Statesmen Souls with enough courage in self to ‘Jesus’ Zap Cure in the context of Community as member in good standings of an Honest Organization. In conclusion Today’s Illinois session as Defined by a proven Master Puppeteer that system docked ‘Resistant’ against Reform followed a set Obsoleteness Quo, once passed into law such righteously births the right “Of The People” to demand recognition by “We The People” shall profess; “Were So Angry at those Damn ‘Charismatics’ that pretend to be “Pious” while Phony in and of Community preference’d party benefits associated in Big Government ahead of the America People.
Deuteronomy2: 24-37. The unbroken pulse continues today what shall end downcast reasoning’s in earthly realm tomorrows. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.
“There is no better Mirror in which to See Your Need than the Ten Commandments.” – Martin Luther. Karl Jung is accredited with translating for the masses and his reoccurred popularity has a great deal to do with needed publications being presented at just the right time when crucial tides must be turned. Under God and document those nine men in Washington are always talking about: life-care grass root movement commentary is based upon updated status in yesteryear that forensic back Evil presences shadowing on horizons have un-sustainable appetites. The Moral man, said Freud, “is not he who is never tempted” but he who can resist his temptations.” Movement is a grass root – not for profit senior community service effort that shares its experiences in which promote advanced educational awareness through effective communications may save another. Giving a name to something implies a degree of mastery over people of the Lie: The point is what the points are that matter where people become more important than subsidizing Satin’s earthly Lap Dogs. You do have a voice and a choice in which Life-care movement cares about maintaining according to God’s laws our inherent right to enjoy assuredness in continuums are rendered under God in the spirit of a power greater that all shall reflect proper compliance in accordance to those commandments and rules as intended extend acts of Love in all of our affairs in Jesus Name.
