While We Wait — Facing My Own Leftist Shadow
It is easy to identify President Trump’s shadow.
He calls others liars because he lies.
He blames violent behavior on others because he instigates it.
He talks about about “law and order,” because he is circumventing the law.
He blames others for corruption… go ahead — you can continue and just fill in the blanks.
Projecting one’s own shadow onto others and blaming them for it, has been a main tactic in Trump’s playbook.
But it is not just President Trump who does this.
No matter who wins, we are facing a nation that, in Jungian terms, projects its shadow. We deny what we are afraid of. We hide from what we despise in ourselves. Instead we project our inner demons and and our own denied darkness onto others.
And we have turned on ourselves. Our enemies are no longer foreign adversaries — but rather fellow citizens of the opposite political persuasion.
We cannot force others to face their shadow. But while we wait for the election outcome, we can face our own. And so currently, this is my question to myself:
How does my shadow manifest? What is it?