Think This Election Is About the Economy?

This excerpt from the Huffington Post article linked at the bottom was the headline article in a newsletter I received this morning from the Asheville Jung Center. Murray Stein is a Jungian writer - one of my favorites. This article is really insightful concerning this election and people's reactions to what is happening.

Quote :

Think This Election Is About the Economy?

An Interview with Jungian psychoanalyst Murray Stein. Part of an ongoing series on the American Psyche.

In search of insight into the deeper forces shaping the presidential election, I turned to American Jungian psychoanalyst Murray Stein, Ph.D. Currently president of the International School of Analytical Psychology in Zurich, Stein lectures on analytical psychology and its applications in the contemporary world. He is the author of many books, including most recently The Principle of Individuation. The following is an edited version of our conversation, and the first of a two-part interview.

Pythia: In 2003 you left Chicago to live abroad in Switzerland. This vantage point must give you an interesting perspective on the upcoming presidential election.

Stein: Yes, I was just thinking about that. The Swiss Constitution was modeled on the American constitution. But they made some changes that, in light of the polarized American electorate, seem significant. Instead of a single president, the Swiss system has a council of seven leaders elected from their congress every four years. The presidency rotates among this council each year. They also have four strong parties -- two are extreme and two are in the middle -- as opposed to the two-party system in the United States. Everyone has to compromise; nobody gets everything they want.

Psychologically, this has a moderating effect that disperses the power, rather than focusing it on one leader. This also [b]prevents the severe splitting effect that we see in the states, where the parties are set so strongly against each otherWhenever you have two of anything running against each other you're going to have a splitting process: It's a psychological phenomenon. People side with one against the other, and then those differences become pushed to an extreme.

Pythia: A "tension of the opposites," or the ability to hold two opposing views at the same time, is considered psychologically healthy. Why isn't this working on the collective level of the American psyche?

Stein: Differences are necessary in order to have growth and dynamic movement. Out of the dialectic between two polarities, a new possibility emerges. But if the "opposites," or in this case the two parties, become completely unrelated, then the collective psyche is in danger of splitting: There's no forward movement, there's just mutual aggression, stalemate and stagnation. The system doesn't evolve, it devolves, and you don't want to see that happen.

Pythia: Why, what happens to a society that splits into unrelated, opposing factions?....
Click Here to Read More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/pythia-peay/american-psyche_b_1922820.html

It's a long interview, but seems to hit so much of what weve been discussing, like:

[quote]

Quote :

Pythia: So you're saying that as much as we want to believe that the election is about policy issues, it's really about who we are as a country, and our identity. Would you say America is in the midst of an identity crisis?

Stein: Yes, America is struggling with its sense of itself. And all Americans are a part of this process. If you grow up in America, and you participate in American culture, you're affected by this, because it's a part of your own personal identity.

Pythia: What would be an example of how this identity crisis in the American psyche is playing out for conservatives?

Stein: For many, the influx of foreign cultures threatens the roots of their American identity; there is the fear that we're losing our identity, this isn't who we are. As a result, there's a big push-back to recapture our previous and imagined pristine identity. At the edge of this movement are extremists who are ready to take all kinds of crazy action.

Pythia: How does the role of big money in this election play into America's identity crisis? Money seems to have become the very face of America itself.

Stein: The bottom line is that money has become a fundamental symbol of value: It's power, position and social status. So when a candidate raises a lot of money, people think, "Wow, he must really have something." This is not only true in America, but on the global stage. A rich country is seen as powerful, and if a country like Greece goes broke, it pays a terrible price. If America goes broke because it's borrowed too much money, it won't be as valuable. And that gets translated into people's personal lives.

10/12/2012

It is about the economy, there's no money, no jobs ( 14 Million)

un-employed , food skyrocketing , gasoline skyrocketing, we're

headed over the cliff, just like Europe...

Cheers..Joe...

That whole "headed over the cliff" phrase is something rather unintelligent that has been coined during this debate.

Europe is not a country, but a continent- so no comparision to the US.

Let me poke at this.... so... are they talking about a country in Europe? Well, than let me pick Albania... they cannot fall off the cliff because they have never been on the cliff to start with. HMMMMM....

OK, so if they are not talking about A CONTINENT or A COUNTRY, they must be talking about the EU- in which case they are not taking about Europe, but a coalition of countries.... and they are going down for other reasons than for what is going on in America.

Just thought I would share this. Not everything that the media pop out there is true, relevant or logical.

Huggles,
Katja

Misguided “Fiscal Cliff” Fears Pose Challenges to Productive Budget Negotiations
Failure to Extend Tax Cuts Before January Will Not Plunge Economy into Immediate Recession
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3788

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The federal budget is expected to shrink dramatically between 2012 and 2013 if the laws governing revenues and spending remain largely unchanged. With no action from policymakers, that sharp reduction in the deficit would slow the economy dramatically, likely creating a mild recession in 2013.
Even under that scenario, however, the economy will not go over a cliff and immediately plunge into another Great Recession in the first week of January. Rather, most households will begin to receive somewhat smaller paychecks due to higher income tax rates and the expiration of the payroll tax cut, but the impact on their cash flow would play out over the year rather than being concentrated in January. More important, there is bipartisan support for extending most of the middle-income tax cuts through 2013, so the impact of a temporary expiration of the tax cuts on consumer spending is likely to be modest, given the very high likelihood that lawmakers will end up extending them retroactively to January 1, 2013 if they haven't acted by New Year's Day.
The greater danger is that misguided fears about the economy going over a "fiscal cliff" into another Great Recession will lead policymakers to believe they have to take some action, no matter how ill-conceived and damaging to long-term deficit reduction, before the end of the year, rather than craft a balanced plan that supports the economic recovery in the short term and promotes fiscal stabilization in the intermediate and longer run.

10/12/2012

I meant like Greece and Spain...Total disasters and

we're headed there very fast.....

Cheers..Joe...

It's only partly about economy. For the most part it's about religious pastors in churches all over the country telling their congregations that President Obama is a Muslim and that all of them want to kill Americans. They also tell the people that the Democrats are Godless and will allow millions of abortions and will spend trillions of dollars and tax the middle class into the grave. None of which is true.

And the sad fact is that many Republicans are simply against a black man being the President, and they are bound and determined to defeat him if they can, even if they have to cheat, lie, and act against the majority of the American people.

Those attitudes are addressed in the article, E. Don:

Quote :

Stein: The American president is a big, big figurehead who has to make the voters feel proud that they're a part of this people that call themselves Americans. Because the president represents the whole people, a lot of psychological material gets loaded up on the two candidates. There's a lot of fear that somebody will get elected who will make us look bad. And if the individual voter doesn't feel good about the person representing them, they don't feel good about their country; they could even feel ashamed of themselves as an American.

So when an election takes place, what the American people are really deciding is what identity they're going to present to the world as "The American." Do they want the world to see us as a Mitt Romney, or as a Barak Obama? In a sense, the president is a kind of "self-representative" in the world -- an archetypal, larger-than-life "American" whose qualities go beyond the capacities of an ordinary human.
-----------------------------------------

Pythia: What's going on in the American psyche to cause this recurring phenomenon?

Stein: The huge wave of consternation generated by this incident is yet another symptom of the in-between state America is in. Things are in a lot of flux. So there's tremendous fear on both sides that the country is losing its identity, and in that climate so-called little things can get blown up out of proportion. As a result you get this tug of war over what we stand for: Who are we? What kind of people are we going to be? And because an election is a turning point when anything can happen, this mood of anxiety is heightened even further.
------------------------------------
Pythia: So you're saying that as much as we want to believe that the election is about policy issues, it's really about who we are as a country, and our identity. Would you say America is in the midst of an identity crisis?

Stein: Yes, America is struggling with its sense of itself. And all Americans are a part of this process. If you grow up in America, and you participate in American culture, you're affected by this, because it's a part of your own personal identity.

Pythia: What would be an example of how this identity crisis in the American psyche is playing out for conservatives?

Stein: For many, the influx of foreign cultures threatens the roots of their American identity; there is the fear that we're losing our identity, this isn't who we are. As a result, there's a big push-back to recapture our previous and imagined pristine identity. At the edge of this movement are extremists who are ready to take all kinds of crazy action.

Ann, you have the philosophical and intellectual explanation in your article and Don has expressed how the symptoms are expressed. You are saying the same thing; one through philosophy and the other through its expression in the real world.

I have said the same as Don and then been called a "racist." If I see race in the bias against President Obama, then that makes me a racist. People just hate him because he is a "muslim traitor who is destroying the country." Really? And where is that documented? Of course it is a lie, a product of hate spin to get votes, a mind Fxxx on the vulnerable.

If you want to be concerned about a religion taking over the country, one might look carefully into the dogma of the Mormon religion. Now, there's a lesson is prejudice, bias, demeaning of women and elevating men. It's also a lesson in capitalism, greed, secrecy, and political aims and goals. But Romney and his wife are such pretty white people - that no one cares - a wolf in sheep's clothing. Now, do I care? No. I believe if the U.S. citizens will get their heads on straight, they will vote for President Obama and leave the empty suit, placeholder Romney to find a new gift for his wife and no anti-abortion legislation this year.

I also agree about the pulpit. While we have separation of church and state, the church wants it different and works diligently to make it their way. What never ceases to amaze me is that everything I know about various religions is that they all preach tolerance and loving thy neighbor and providing for the needy. That's the position of the Democrats. They are truly the spiritual party. The republicans are a party of intolerance, hate, greed and disrespect for those who struggle.

Quote :

Ann, you have the philosophical and intellectual explanation in your article and Don has expressed how the symptoms are expressed. You are saying the same thing; one through philosophy and the other through its expression in the real world.

That was my point, DK

10/12/2012

It's a god dam shame when democrats call other people

racist because they don't like one man's politics, I believe

they are racist ! I'm so dam sick and tired of this STUPID @!!!!

race thing being brought up, I wish the hell people woud grow up !!]

I can't wait for this stupidity to end before it turns this country into

another civil war. a country divided is a country that will fall..... So

everyone should grow up, it could be a woman in power, or a Jew in

power, A Muslem in power, A Catholic in power, Or a Hispanic in power

or a Protestant in power, doesn't matter who the hell is in power it's

not that you dislike the person you dislike their politics, so everyone get

over it !!!

Cheers..Joe...

The United States economy is huge. The country is young. Comparing us to other countries is always risky. Most other countries have a more singular cultural history; though some are changing like us.

Corporate/industrial greed for profits across the board have raped our country of its jobs and sent them overseas. Period. We could have sustained ourselves just based on production for our own needs much less the global economy. But no, we have to have cheaper, more profitable food, clothing, cars, electronics - you name it - and so the production went to the $1 a day countries. I don't know anyone in this country that works for $1 a day except for migrant children in the fields. The have nots hungered for the material goods afforded the super wealthy - and got themselves into a credit card mess. The whole system of values has shifted from relationships to money and a person's worth is according to their purse. It's pitiful. That's why teachers and public servants are so disrespected - their purse has been kept artificially low.

We sent our cheap labor back to Mexico. That was a big mistake.

I like what I read about Switzerland - and how they run their country. Ours started with 13 colonies - but is too big now for the system we have of money as power. We need to return to representative democracy and shared leadership (checks and balances were supposed to provide that - but they have been overturned by money interests).

To put a blind eye to the role race plays in U.S. politics is to put one's head in the sand. Same for gender. Religion too. They are all used as tools to shift the vote in a chosen direction.

It is the democratic party that is the most open to differences. It has been the republican party that made clear that they needed only the "white male vote" to succeed, specifically old, white males who want to return to the good ole days of the 1950's. That's not democrats using code for race - that's republicans.

It's republicans that send me black hate videos "proving" that President Obama plans to take over the United States for the black of Kenya as a legacy to his father."

So long as people are fearful of differences: gender, religion, sexual preference, race, country of origin, color, language - they will be political issues that color elections and cloud the real important things that should make a difference instead. This is life in this country today. Period.

10/12/2012

If anyone believes those video I consider them ignorant and

another thing if I ever catch anyone calling me a racist, I had

a step-father who was black , so don't anyone ever give a label,

I can tell you about racisim, what my step-father faced because

he married a white woman, the 1950's and 1960's were very

prejuidiced even in Bklyn NY



Cheers..Joe..

Dear Dk,

I know you are right.

It is not just politics, it is tabloid paper personalities who sensationalize lies about people in movies, politics, news ect. I wonder why people are so happy to believe trash with no proof, read it and sit there with their mouth agog and then blaspheme it to everyone they come across in person or on message board. Perpetuating lies that they have grabed up like little bits of desert on their tongues and spewed it forth as if it was their own personal discovery or thought and then proclaim it as truth to all the world. I wonder about people. I really think they have only their own little self to think of, it matters not that what they spew might contaminate some person who was seeking. They know in their hearts that they are blowing in the wind with no substance of thought, but it matters not. They just want to hear or read what they spewed forth and smile about what they think is their genius.

The trouble is that some people think they know what they are talking about.

Love,

Betty

10/12/2012

I guess that shoe should fit alot of people here !

Cheers..Joe..

Joe,

You are so overwrought. I am worried about your health. Look for some humor and if you can't find any, turn your TV off, skip the politics in your newspaper and do something you enjoy.

You are in charge of your time and well being.

10/12/2012

As of tonight I have given up on watching politics till

Nov. 6th , I have to concentrate on my art and photography.

Yesterday I went to an area outside of Santa Fe Called Chimayo,

I saw this scene and did it in a quick watercolors...It was just

before a rain storm, peaceful and tranquil...Here in the mountains

you never know when a major storm will hit...

Cheers..Joe..

Joe,

That is beautiful.

10/12/2012



Alice..

" THANKS !"

Cheers..Joe