Confronting The Mindset Of The "Communion Mode" Authority Structure And Its Easy Manipulation By Charismatic Expressives

[Post Note: You can skip this preamble if you like (and go to the See Also section below). The preamble is here only to tell you why I'm going to reference an old post. A post that I think will allow us to think more on how we should confront those who would manipulate from any position of a Charismatic personality. The old post uses my ambiguity towards Christmas to delve into thoughts about both what is the "ideal" individual, as well as the need for the big idea, during what may well be a pivotal moment in human history. J.V.]


The opinion piece, linked below, by Derek Newton asks some very insightful, and troubling, questions. I read this and, at first blush, I just couldn't think of how to approach it. Because this really does need careful thought, and consideration.

Let's first be clear that, even if a particular charismatic might not resonate with one person, the fact that they still can with another, shouldn't surprise us at all. It must necessarily be, in fact, given how varied, and unique, the manipulations that can arise from its various manifestations. No more to say then that, where one person might see Gordon Gekko, or Nathan Bateman, or whatever other, most popular, disgraced televangelist, or disgraced politician, you ever want to mention, the fact remains that they have their own lexicon of charisma, and therefore their own ways of manipulation.

Then we need to be clear on something else. It's not only the idea, and feeling, of faith, but also the resultant trust that has to be involved, in understanding that, whether you call it a higher power (resonating from the divine font of meaning, and description), or a higher purpose (resonating from the divine font of the process itself, with us involved in the creation of meaning, but never the full masters of it), there is absolutely, something that is bigger than mere thought, or feeling, alone can ever fully comprehend. It is there because Cosmology demands it, because cosmology has to include meaning processors who absolutely need that sense of larger intent.

I would like to believe that higher power, and higher purpose, are simply two sides of the same coin, arrived at precisely because we all use such different frames of reference with which to do our ever ongoing translation of experience, into a reality that demands choices.

And we finally need to be clear on this: A society that aspired to the "balance" that I have proposed with my take on Cosmology, would, I think, use ever varying blends of all of the "Authority Structures" that Andrew Gray created, and at least mentioned in Mr. Newton's opinion piece, because I can't help but think, and feel, that they could all play a part (in the right measure, appropriate to the ever changing, contextual contingencies, of course). Life, in this context, it seems to me, is lhen finding a way to live the tension of continually negotiating what that balance is, arbitrary moment, to arbitrary moment.

Unfortunately, of course, these kinds of jargon filled preambles don't help much for folks who don't have a lot of patience for jargon (something on their side of things that has to change because you can't have knowledge without jargon). So you have to do a more emotional kind of an appeal.

Oddly enough, because I've been standing here, for several hours, trying to make sense of how to approach Mr. Newton's article, I was idly bouncing around, in the way back section of old posts, to one I did on 12/19/2014. It was meant as an attempt to express some nuance to the tired old idea of one's ambiguity over Christmas. Something that's always been difficult for me because Christmas was hardly ever a heartwarming time within the emotional, and financial chaos, that was the norm for the Vale family. So what I'm going to do here is represent that post, adding the cautionary that it will be edited from the original.

What I would like you to keep in mind, however, is that you shouldn't really see this as a discussion about a particular season, or whether gift giving is involved or not. It is rather, I think, a discussion about how we try to remember the need not only for the idealized individual, but also the ideal idea itself. And that we need to do that precisely because we never know just when that moment might come when it is pivotal for human survival in both a practical, as well as a moral, sense.

Trump's core supporters won't reject him. It would mean rejecting their own values.

See Also:
[Post Note: The following is a revised version the "Working To Consume Themselves to Death, Holly and Jolly are now divorced, as well as in and out of rehab, working harder to afford even more." post done on 12/19/2014. J.V.]

As we round the last corner of the final lap of the “We Should Take Stock Season”  I find myself caught up in another of my usual conundrums. A thing, or situation, that pulls me, simultaneously, in opposing directions. Something that's a good deal more visceral than a simple ambivalence.

There is, on the one hand, the celebration of the birth of an ideal man; where miracle, unquestioned love, forgiveness, and sacrifice, come together as a means to help us keep that one candle lit against the darkness. On the other hand, whether he was real or not, or who his father may have been, was never, in my mind, the most important aspect. That aspect resides in the fact that miracles, and love, and forgiveness, and sacrifice as well, for that matter, are all real. The mere fact that the last three items in that list occur at all proves the first. For each is, in its own way, a little miracle; especially as we grow ever more materialistic.

Most of the best popular culture surrounding any session of taking stock (few though they may be) serve to try and remind us of those few little miracles, for which, of course, we are provided an emotional foundation for continued giving. Keeping in mind that this kind of giving, is the sincere type, and done in the very personally direct manner; the very type that those previously mentioned qualities embody, and for which such giving still occurs, in spite of the increasing disconnect of commercial life.

With all of the advertising that occurs, as a matter of everyday life, saturating every part of our so called reality, ever earlier, the other side of the equation hardly needs much reiteration. Hyper consumption goes balls out for one last orgy of shopping that, even allowing for the locational, outsized spike up, or down, shoots an ever bigger wad of counters into the server streams. There are, after all, at the very least, ever more of us doing it every year.

With this do the masters of capital go to the next point of taking stock with a good deal more than tidings of good cheer. For not only has a significant portion of the material output been translated back into more than was used to create it, the wage slaves have created more debt, and with that, even more counters, for the masters, to count on for the future. The treadmill that turns by the running of those making more to consume more continues. Add in the sheer numbers of producers, and the competition thus inherent, and you get the constant acceleration of each cycle, with science and ingenuity as part of the fuel, and or, oxidizer. to make everything ever more dangerously competitive.

We witness the consequences of this process every day on the internet, and the various other media. More energy is pumped into social, and natural, systems alike; so much in fact it becomes more than they are able to adequately handle. The weakest links fly apart at every turn and there is less and less time to ponder much of anything, let alone rebuild stability, or renewing structure. We lay waste to not only previously existing stable systems, which were miracles of selection in themselves, but to the dwindling hope that more will occur.

In all of this, however, let us not forget that it is more than our need for a means of livelihood that keeps the pedal to the metal. A good portion of this outrageous make and break is there for that extra bit. That really extra bit that goes beyond reasonable return for a risk taken on. The kinds of return that make accumulations of counters to rival the numbers of stars.

I mention this because consumption is not going to go away no matter what we may do as an alternative to Capitalism. The best we can hope for is to look for ways to do it with as much moderation as we can manage. As well as to look for ways to do it thoughtfully, with generous portions of love, forgiveness, and sacrifice. Giving back as much as is possible to all of the systems, natural and otherwise, that sustain us; keeping a sense of wonder as we ponder each little miracle that a more connected life might provide. If we can find a way to do that we will truly create a gift that will truly keep on giving.