With the U.S. presidential election now past us, this much is still clear: Politics, as currently constructed, is intended to divide us through fear. The recent election was a dramatic example of that.
If you tuned in to liberal news outlets, you may have come away feeling extremely frightened, believing that the U.S. population just re-elected a fascist dictator, and that American democracy is now doomed. And if you tuned in to the conservative news during the election, you may have felt frightened as well, believing that Kamala Harris was a closet communist who was determined to do away with traditional American values.
The severe paranoia that was expressed during this election is a testament to the fact that far too many Americans are consumed by fear. And sadly, this darkness of fear is the direct consequence of a people who have been subtly programmed to forget our most natural of identities.
Natural identity defined
By the phrase “natural identity,” I don’t mean anything that has to do with our external features, such as our race, ethnicity or gender. Rather, “natural identity,” to me, points to something that is altogether deeper and much more profound: that divine essence or spark of awareness that lives within us all.
As we grow to identify with this indwelling spiritual essence or self, we’ll come to know that who and what we truly are is THAT, the All in One. We are oneness. We are harmony. We are unity. We are, in the words of the late Ram Dass (one of America’s greatest spiritual teachers) nothing more than “loving awareness.”
Loving awareness isn’t afraid because it doesn’t get lost in the fear that breeds separateness. It recognizes that the prince of peace and the prince of darkness are just two sides of the same coin. Knowing ourselves as this, as seeds of love, how can we ever turn away from the light of truth and embrace the darkness of fear?
We can’t. For as long as we remain eternally identified with and rooted in our natural identities, our purest essence, we can’t harm ourselves or any other beings.
The programming of fear through duality
In Western culture, we’re all programmed to embrace duality. Duality, roughly defined, refers to the opposition or contrast between two concepts or two aspects of something. Another way to describe duality is polarization, or a division into two sharply distinct opposites.
For too long, duality has assumed centre stage in our politics. And the destructive real-world consequences of its presence upon the moral fabric of the United States should be obvious to us all. How can we create a harmonious nation if two sides are always locked in opposition?
Beyond just pitting Americans against one another, duality in our politics has even spurred threats and actual acts of violence against those we perceive as foes. We’ve all become so accustomed to dualism in our politics that many of us barely blink an eye when the now twice-elected president of the “land of the free” casually describes his political opponents as “enemies from within” and vows to carry out retribution against them. And hardly anyone acts surprised when certain sick individuals attempt to assassinate that same leader (with one of those attempts very nearly succeeding).
Let’s remember what unites us
From the outside looking in, it’s quite clear that this “us” versus “them” mentality is driven by none other than fear and vengeance. Long gone are the days when opposing parties merely looked upon each other with mild suspicion over a disagreement about policies. Today, that fear has grown into a radical paranoia in which each side perceives the other as an existential threat to their personal values and lifestyle choices. This fear is largely programmed into us by a culture that seeks to focus more on what divides us than what unites us.
So, as we prepare to civically engage in what is clearly going to be a highly tension-filled four years, let us remember that what truly unites us is our natural identity as spiritual beings who have taken birth to grow our love, compassion and understanding. When we each learn to identify with our natural identity, we’ll see that the people we once thought were our enemies are indeed our brothers and sisters.
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image: LAWJR