The human mind is a beautiful thing. It is also a dangerous thing, enough so to bring about our own extinction. People who put their faith in evolution do not understand the nature of human beings. We do not evolve beyond our fundamental nature, and it has not changed since we came into existence. They simultaneously want to believe that we are the same as other animals while being superior in our intelligence to other animals. It is oxymoronic or perhaps simply moronic. What makes human beings dangerous is not the potential for genius, of which we are, on an objective basis, incapable. Only God is truly capable of genius. What makes human beings dangerous is our infinite potential for stupidity, pride, jealousy, greed and all other manner of sin and evil, driven, in great part, by our egos.
Adam and Eve
In the story of Adam and Eve, the devil whispers in Eve’s ear, and she listens. The devil says, “‘You will not certainly die,’ the serpent said to the woman. ‘For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’” She trusts the devil and disobeys God. Adam and Eve’s demise is driven by their own hubris, and their fall from grace is humankind’s original sin. Some atheists might find the story irrelevant, even absurd. On the contrary, Adam and Eve’s sin is the same one that bedevils us today, not just in the United States, but in most of the world.
Much like the beautiful planet humans have been privileged to inhabit, God gave Adam and Eve everything, but they did not appreciate what he had given them. Instead, they wanted more. They wanted to be like God himself. However, they did not become like God. The devil also said that they would not die, but they did. He lied to them, and they believed him. God then evicts them from the Garden of Eden. In the story of their first two sons, Cain and Abel, we witness the first murder. What motivates Cain is similar to what motivated Adam and Eve: jealousy. Cain, a farmer, is jealous of Abel, a shepherd, whom God favors. So, Cain murders his own brother. God then punishes Cain to a nomadic life.
The Devil
Pandering to our narcissism, the devil whispers many things in our ears. All of them are deceitful. The Latin word for “I” is “ego.” “Ego” is defined as “the self especially as contrasted with another self or the world.” In psychological terms, “ego” is “one of the three divisions of the psyche in psychoanalytic theory that serves as the organized conscious mediator between the person and reality especially by functioning both in the perception of and adaptation to reality.” The ego, whose function has always had a double-edged nature, serving survival but often yielding destruction, has become terribly imbalanced. For many, its sole function now is as an agent for mutual or self-destruction.
Taking on various human forms, the devil whispers all over the world, in Russia, North Korea, China, India, the Middle East, South America, Africa, and yes, also in the west, and many listen. In the United States, the devil’s human form is an ugly, soulless, traitorous man called Trump who has not a single redeeming quality. His hate and lies have made derangement as common as drunkenness. His MAGA followers’ brains have become intoxicated with the double drugs of demagoguery and conspiracy.
The Authoritarian Whispers to MAGA
One of the great ironies of this historical moment is that this particular derangement of the self, of the “ego,” is facilitated, in part, through an abandonment of one’s own agency. The strongman, or authoritarian rule, more generally, has always had an appeal. It is an abdication of personal responsibility that seems to make life easier. In fact, it not only makes life harder but also requires a relinquishment of personal freedom and dignity, which would presumably also injure one’s ego. This exchange does not achieve the objective of making life easier, and it also surrenders our God-given attributes in the process, making slaves and fools of us all.
At this historical moment, one could point to a variety of problems: the immoral levels of inequality, the last financial crisis, the rich’s unwillingness to moderate their destructive greed, climate change, the pandemic, technology and its negative psychological effects as causes for an erosion in people’s confidence in democracy and in their willingness to do the hard work of self-governance. The people might believe that it is “all rigged,” and in some ways, it is. However, handing over the levers of government to the very scoundrels who rigged it is the kind of folly to which only those who heed the devil’s whispers would fall prey. The sane and responsible response is resistance.
Putin, Trump and the other authoritarian “leaders” do not care about the values they pretend to care about. All they care about is power and money, and like the devil himself, they lie, lie and lie to obtain and retain both. The rich scoundrels who support these demagogues also care only about power and money. These rich supporters have amplified the dangerous authoritarians’ lies to enrich themselves while impoverishing the feeble minds who have purchased the devil’s siren song. These immoral rich traitors have concocted conspiracy theories with escalating levels of absurdity. In believing them, MAGA has effectively gone insane and has even engaged in violence, which has, in several cases, resulted in injury and death.
What’s “New” Is Perennial
None of these “new” developments in the human drama should be surprising to anyone who has read the Bible. Despite their religious chest-thumping and their proclamation of “Christian nationalism,” which is, in reality, neither about God nor country, MAGA is also often entirely ignorant of Scripture. Our present condition is just the latest manifestation of the perennial sickness of the human soul. Are we our brother’s keeper? We are supposed to be, but we will not be if we listen to the dark voices who spew hate and lies to appeal to narcissism and ego.
Despite their seeming predilection to believe conspiracy theories, it is entirely possible, even likely, that at least some MAGA do not believe that Trump won the election. In other words, the problem for them is not a detachment from reality but an unwillingness to accept reality. They might know that he lost. However, accepting this fact might also mean accepting the fact that they are not superior simply because they are white. It might mean accepting a pluralistic society in which they are no worse than but also no better than others and in which they have to share power and wealth. It might also mean accepting that they have been lying to themselves their whole lives about their superiority and that their entire self-worth has been colored by this self-delusion.
No matter how rich, no matter how poor, humans are, one and all, susceptible to the devil’s ploys because he knows well how to stroke our egos and how to lie to us. Elon Musk, the present owner of Twitter, feel into this trap just recently. Ultimately, it is not the devil who is to blame, but the fallen humans who have chosen to listen to him and his lies. So, Happy Halloween, MAGA and others who have listened to the devil’s whispers. He tricked you into a Faustian bargain. You were convinced that you were saving your country, “America First,” or some other delusion. Instead, your egos were being seduced at the expense of your soul and your sanity.