The Oedipus complex in society

"Our city—look around you, see with your own eyes—our ship pitches wildly, cannot lift her head from the depths, the red waves of death . . . Thebes is dying."---Oedipus the King

I didn't watch the presidential debate, as I was prepping for my son's graduation party. I heard about it, though, and that was enough. The overwhelming feeling I've had about our political system is that it's unnatural. It's unnatural that a free country allows only two "assigned" candidates to have a platform in the mainstream media. It's unnatural that these two men competing for our nation's top leadership position are not very intelligent, creative, exciting, imaginative, inspiring, interesting, or impressive on the world stage. All they know how to do is print money out of nothing to accomplish anything. I can think of a myriad of people in my life who would make better presidents than these two.

From an entertainment perspective, it's like watching the same show over and over again. America is mesmerized by being disgusted about this show, even though there are other new shows like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. airing at the same time. RFK answered all the same questions as the two stars, but since he wasn't given the spotlight of the mainstream media, the vast majority of people chose to ignore him and watch the other two reruns, as usual. I have never liked watching a show more than once...I don't like knowing what happens next. Certainly there is the question of why the same people and same families continue to run America, which is supposed to be a free country. If our country were really free, shouldn't anyone who qualifies have equal opportunity to compete for the role?

In professional sports, or the Olympics, we wouldn't see a subpar athlete rise to the top for any reason. You have to be tall to play basketball in the big leagues and you must be good at the game! The best! Where is the LeBron James of politics? I know that politics is not basketball, but there should be some sense of rising competition in the field, especially on the way to the nation's top post. We wouldn't see someone with dementia on a debate or chess team, and we wouldn't hire a loud-mouthed bully for a job that requires strong skills in diplomacy, so why are these two men being given platforms on the world stage? Is it not important to the American people, or to the world, to have a leader who knows how to think, debate, and communicate?

I had the same feeling about how unnatural things seemed when Sara Milliken won the Miss Alabama beauty pageant over the other contestants who worked hard on their bodies and minds, spending significant time and money to compete. I wondered how the other contestants must have felt...like maybe they had wasted their time and money on a political game they had no chances of winning. It is hard to eat right, to get fit, to hone one's intelligence and social skills, to cultivate admirable talents, and serve as an inspiration to others. I've never been in a beauty pageant, but my mother won Miss Seaway in Muskegon, and she competed in the Michigan beauty pageant. It was political back then, and now all the more.

A few questions come to mind...What is politics? What is beauty? And what the heck is going on? If I were to define the word "politics" purely on what I've seen, I'd say politics is the art of using credit to dumb down society and change the definition and meaning of culture and natural phenomenon, like beauty or gender. It's to censor and control what people think through captured media. The president of a country should be a stellar citizen, a great leader, a superior cross-cultural diplomat, a top orator; he or she should be courageous, intelligent, strong, ethical, astute, creative, and more. A beauty pageant winner should exemplify all the traits of beauty in modeling, personality, grooming, fashion sense, inner and outer appearance, personality, and talent.

Stocks, bonds, gender, beauty, education, and health care are all being driven by politics. Perhaps Americans are drawn to professional sports because it is one of the only areas of society that politics doesn't have an iron grip. Lebron James is 6' 9" and he knows how to play basketball---there's no getting around this on the basketball court. If someone put Donald Trump or Joe Biden on the Los Angeles Lakers, people would be outraged. Sports is a religion in America, and fans are extremely protective of their teams and players. They only want the best! None of this agenda-driven switcharooing. Why is it not the same in politics? Why are people letting an antiquated corrupt two-party old-money system drive America into an abyss?

My son, who just graduated from high school told me that he doesn't understand why we have a two-party system and why representatives of only those two parties consistently dominate the political landscape like a king and queen taking turns. I don't know, but I'm convinced this dualistic system is a big part of the problem. Personally, I find myself distraught with politics, wanting to withdraw. According to Dr. Odelya Gertel Kraybill (an international expert in trauma response and therapy), withdrawal is a natural response to trauma. It is a "stress reaction that exists between fight, flight, and freeze...a predictable instinct to overwhelming encounters with danger and stress."

I started thinking about how the Republican party (the king) and the Democratic party (the queen) have gone through various stages together in relationship with each other and society (the children). Perhaps the trauma they created has caused society to withdraw in many ways. Withdrawal can last a long time, but when awareness creeps back into society's conscious mind, it will be followed by action and integration, according to Dr. Kraybill's therapeutic approach. The question is when will awareness creep back in? My son doesn't understand why his father still supports Joe Biden, and neither do I, especially after the debate. It appears though that more people are waking up to something “fishy” and creepy going on.

Carl Jung's psychological archetype of the Devouring Mother describes our current relationship with the queen, who is controlling, manipulative, and overbearing towards her children. The Democratic party shelters her children from the realities of the world and doesn't allow them to grow up. Even more descriptive of the current political situation is Sigmund Freud's Oedipus complex. Freud describes this complex as a stage of psychosexual development, when a young boy unconsciously becomes attached to his mother, and hostile towards his father, similar to the way that political society has lashed out against White men. The father is subdued or absent during this period of hatred, dominated by an overprotective and sheltering mother.

When boys aren't permitted to grow up, they become overgrown man-children. The Oedipus complex is named after Oedipus, king of Thebes in Greek mythology, who killed his father and married his mother. His mother then hanged herself when the truth of their relationship came out. The Oedipus complex is only resolved when the manchild begins to identify with his father again, as an indirect way of growing out of the smothering destructive relationship he has with his narcissistic mother. When the American people wake up and realize they are being devoured by their Democratic mother, the pathology and society will change. 

I leave you with one final thought. If the Democratic party is a devouring mother, and almost all left-wing democrats are sick with Trump Derangement Syndrome, is it not because they see Trump as the rebellious manchild who is working against them? Biden is their obedient doting son, their puppet, but Trump is a threat to their archetype, he is the grown-up Captain Hook in the room. It isn't about geopolitics, or the global economy, or China, or Russia, or the financial system, or the national debt, or international relations for the Democrat party; it's about psychology and the rebellious manchild who threatens their existence. Trump is the end of everything they've worked so hard to build. He'll bust up the party: the devouring mother as the ouroboros of the world.

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