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Voting in peace

Voting in peace

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Row of people at voting boothsThe media is full of stories about people in distress anticipating the results of today’s elections. Some can’t sleep or can’t get out of bed. Others are upping their meds. One doctor’s post I read said he had never seen so many patients with anxiety over this year’s election. Some act out in their driving or with other antisocial behavior.

Of course, our political rhetoric promotes this. Opposing candidates are demonized so that we are encouraged to imagine the worst possible outcomes if they are elected. Calamities of all sorts are feared if the candidate we support doesn’t win. And then there are fears about the electoral process itself—technical breakdowns, violence, endless recounts, lawsuits.

From anticipation and imagination come anxiety and fear. And so, the blessing and curse of the human mind appears again. One of the great advantages of our brains is that it allows us to predict the future with some degree of accuracy. This allows us to make plans to take advantage of good circumstances (rain and sun means plant crops) and prepare for difficult ones (cold and snow means grow enough crops to store for the winter).

But our ability to predict the future is actually very limited, often much more so than we realize. We can never anticipate all that the natural world will send us, including weather, disease, earthquakes, and the stray comet collision every few hundred million years. For a variety of personal reasons, including past experience, our imaginations can conjure of wildly unrealistic expectations about the future.

The primary factor in our distress about the unpredictable and uncontrollable future is, of course, our ego. This is the self we imagine our self to be. It lives somewhere inside of us, peering out through our eyes and registering neural inputs through our other senses. It talks to itself incessantly in our minds with our thoughts. A popular and simple definition of this self is our body-mind. It comes into existence at our birth, evolves and changes over time, and comes to an end at our death.

But let me just drop here a very different understanding of all this. It’s from the Anglo-American, 20th century philosopher, teacher, and entertainer (his word), Alan Watts.

You don’t really exist. That is, as an ego, a soul, a separate will. When you realize this, you’re liberated. Ego is an abstraction…. So is one’s self. There’s a happening, but that’s not you. By dying to yourself, finding you don’t exist, you’re reborn. Forgetting yourself, the universe flows on.

Watts is usually thought of as a Western interpreter of East Asian philosophy and religion. But he grew up an Anglican and was ordained in the US as an Episcopal priest. While what he says here may sound Hindu or Buddhist, in fact, it also reflects one of the most profound but usually forgotten (or ignored) teaching of Jesus. In all four gospels, Jesus tells his disciples enigmatically that they must lose their life in order to find it. He says in Luke, for instance:

For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it.

Watts also echoes the famous dialog between Jesus and Nicodemus in John.

Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born anew.

By implication, in order to be born again, whatever was born the first time must come to an end. It’s in Paul, however, where this notion is expressed most explicitly. For Paul, this is the meaning of the cross, as he says in Galatians.

I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.

Paul’s experience of the risen Christ meant the death of his “I”, his ego, so that now Christ, the Spirit of God incarnate, was recognized as his true self.

But wait—didn’t we start all this talking about election anxiety? How did we get sidetracked by Bible and theology? It’s a sign of the sad state of religion today that this is seen as taking a sidetrack. For at their core, all of the great religions are concerned with this question: Who am I, really? And they all seek to expose the imposter in this quest, the ego.

There may be no other place where egos are more on display than in an election campaign. Modern campaigns promote the person of the candidate far more than their position on issues, and denigrate the person of their opponent. And this clash of egos then drags in the egos of the candidate’s supporters.

Our egos are inherently insecure because they really don’t exist! One consequence is that we easily attach ourselves to other egos we admire, seeking to somehow claim their attributes as our own. This is the force behind the celebrity culture that has exploded in modern times. And politicians are now, essentially, celebrities, along with TV and movie stars, musicians, athletes, social media personalities, influencers, the “royals”, and anyone media outlets think can be used to attract “eyeballs” to their productions.

It’s not today’s political egos that concern us, however, but our own. Our anxiety over the results of today’s elections needs to be seen for what it is: fearing the defeat of our candidate as our own personal “defeat.” Because our ego is a product of our imagination, it easily spins fantasy worlds in which to exist, 99% of which are in the past or in the future (living in a fantasy present is usually called psychosis).

Our increasing dependence on the media with its inevitably artificial view of reality, and our growing frustration with our circumstances and fears about the world in which we think we live, leave us increasingly susceptible to manipulation by leaders of all sorts. They play sometimes upon our hopes but mostly upon our fears, to draw us into a worldview in which they will protect us and deliver us from disaster.

The ego loves the past and future. It has great difficulty living in the present. Tomorrow and each day that follows, and whenever the election results are known, we will wake up and go about living our lives. Much of it will go “according to plan” but often it will not, as has always been the case. We may rejoice over or bewail the election results, but their consequences for our lives will also be largely unpredictable and almost certainly not what we have imagined.

These days I keep coming back to Jesus’ simple teaching in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6.

Which of you by worrying can add a single hour to your span of life? … Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.

Our anxious ego spins out countless fantasies of doom and disaster in our minds, which keep us unendingly entangled. Living in these fantasies, however, blinds us to the reality of the here and now, including the beauty of the lilies and countless other attributes of the world around us.

The world isn’t all lilies, of course. But as Jesus goes on to say, by ignoring the “troubles” of our fantasies, we will be able to handle much better the problems we actually encounter in the here and now. Because then we can respond out of “the peace that surpasses all understanding” of our true self, which only exists in the present moment, rather than out of the obsessions and anxieties of our imaginary ego.

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The end of heroes

The end of heroes

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Artist Louise Giovanelli with her paintingEven though I’m still an atheist, I’ve come back to religion, in the sense that I think it’s very important. I’m very interested in the aesthetic of it, and the stories and meaning behind it. I realize now that I’m very steeped in it. It has affected all of my art.

These are the words of Louise Giovanelli, a young, up-and-coming British painter, featured in a recent New York Times article. Raised in a church-going Irish and Italian Catholic family, Giovanelli says she abandoned her faith as an early teenager. When still required to worship with her family, Giovanelli asserted her disbelief by carrying with her into church a copy of The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins.

One of the most common subjects of Giovanelli’s paintings are movie and music stars. Her style, however, is influenced by the paintings of the Renaissance. So, too, is her subject matter. While Renaissance painters typically depicted saints and biblical characters, Giovanelli says her subjects are modern day icons.

What I’m trying to do is draw connections between the ancient and the contemporary…. I’m trying to show the viewer: You still need this type of worship. You don’t realize that you do, but these are the contemporary churches. Instagram and TikTok are a new type of shrine.

The pop stars and new icons in my paintings are the same as looking at icons in a church. I think this is why people like my work: I’ve tapped into that need, the same longing that humans have always had and will always have for the higher being, the perfect being, idol worship and light and glitz and glamour.

I think Giovanelli is on to something. First, we should remember that Renaissance painters were not interested in historical accuracy. Typically, their subjects were portrayed in contemporary Italian scenery and dress, rather than ancient biblical ones. Their characters were also attractive. The portrayal of a female figure (like Mary) could be a beautiful member of the artist’s community, or the wife (or mistress) of his patron. And millions still flock to ogle the amazing (and naked) physique of Michelangelo’s monumental sculpture in Florence of the young David preparing to slay Goliath.

For well over a century, fascination, and sometimes obsession, with secular celebrities of all types has been a hallmark of modern culture. While heroes have been celebrated throughout history, hero “worship” is a recent phenomenon.

Ancient heroes (often mythological) got their status through dramatic acts of courage and sacrifice. Modern heroes, however, usually have no such accomplishments. Instead, they are public figures of exceptional beauty or talent. Actors, musicians, and sports stars make of the vast majority. Recently lifestyle influencers have joined their ranks, usually because of their wealth or their ability to master the intricacies and mysteries of social media. They’re famous for being famous.

It’s no coincidence that celebrities began stealing our attention at the same time that religion was heading into a steep decline. This is what Giovanelli has picked up on. As she says above, “I’m trying to show the viewer: You still need this type of worship.” We have a “longing … for the higher … perfect being.”

Giovanelli here does not delve into why this is so, but perhaps it is obvious. Unlike animals guided primarily by instinct, we need some kind of outside direction for how we should live. Family and community are usually the primary sources of guidance but often this is not enough, or even a hindrance if it is too oppressive. The tales of heroes lift our sights, give us a higher calling to do and be something greater than we would otherwise imagine.

In the Christian era, saints served this function. As religion faded, political and military heroes became the first modern icons of inspiration but this was short lived. Democracy’s stars were too human and their accomplishments too mundane to generate the aura people wanted. Most, like politicians or generals, just faded away. Others rose high but then crashed and burned, like a Napoleon or Hitler. In general, the modern era’s unending cycle of warfare and economic upheaval make political leaders poor candidates for icon status.

Yet today’s pop icons, too, are strange successors in this ancient lineage. I still remember being shocked the first time I heard teenagers being asked about their aspirations and the most common answer was “to be famous.” Not famous for anything in particular—just being famous.

Celebrityhood, like ancient sainthood, has become a quality of its own. If we can’t be famous ourselves, we can attach ourselves to those who are and somehow share in their status. We can dress like them, follow the minutiae of their lives, see them in person, get their autograph, or even better get a selfie with them. Anything to somehow touch their glory.

Of course, celebrities can also crash and burn, sometimes quite spectacularly. Others just slowly disappear. In any case, few maintain their status for more than a generation or two (try to find a Rudolph Valentino or Greta Garbo fan club today). Fans mourn their loss but then move on to new celebrities or somehow enshrine their memory to keep them symbolically alive (Elvis!)

The saints and mythic heroes of the ancient world embodied culture’s deepest values. Do celebrities do that for us? If so, then it would seem our values are not very deep. One of the early TV shows to celebrate celebrities got its title just right: “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.” It was not their actual lives that mattered. It was the glitz and glamour of how they lived that attracted viewers’ attention and adulation.

Today’s cultural icons all have, like the book of Daniel’s vision of a great statue, feet of clay. They don’t, and can’t, live up to people’s expectations of them. Often, they are more anti-hero than hero, rebelling against social norms but without any clear purpose. And so, we shuffle through them with amazing rapidity. Everyone, it seems, gets their fifteen minutes of fame.

What all of this points to is that the time of saints and heroes is past. The icons of the ancient and medieval worlds, whatever their value, were nonetheless always imaginary. No one actually knew them. That worked in the small worlds in which most people then lived. But with modern travel and communication, our worlds have exploded. We can be anywhere and see everything. We know too much for any icon to survive for long.

And that’s okay because we really don’t need them. Today we are finally hearing an ancient teaching which at the time mostly fell on deaf ears. And that is, that we already have within us the wisdom and goodness we need to live our lives to the fullest. We don’t need to emulate someone else but learn to listen to and trust the voice inside us. This is our true self, found only in our inner silence. This is in contrast with the self constructed out of cultural expectations, which is in near constant turmoil and is the source of the cacophony of voices in our heads.

This is what Jesus means, in harmony with this tradition, when he says, “The kingdom of God is within you.” It is why he repeatedly tells people, “Your faith has saved you.” It is what Paul means when he says he has discovered that, “It is no longer I (the ego) who live but Christ (the divine) who lives within me.” We don’t need icons to imitate or oracles to obey. We need only to believe what it says in the very first chapter of the Bible, that we have all been created good, and that our life is, in fact, the eternal divine spirit within us.

 

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