Gandhiji, Modi, Trump, Clinton, and The Shadow

The circus is over; the big tent is being brought down. The jury is still out, and the question that lies unanswered is “has a snake oil salesman made it big?”. The reason for a large percentage of people feeling despondent is captured in this article. The author finds Trump a very good example of seven of them. The eighth is called “Trump Anxiety”: the despair and stress that individuals experience when they worry about what will happen to them, their families and community if Trump gets elected. Now that he has maybe this new category will burgeon? The reason is very simple: the shadow aspects of Trump are in full view. Many people feel that the prophecy by H.L.Mencken made decades ago (The Baltimore Evening Sun, July 26, 1920) has come true: “As democracy is perfected, the office of the President represents more closely the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be occupied by a downright fool and a complete narcissistic moron, ” i.e., the shadow side of the polity will show up to be counted! But we must also ask how are we responsible for the way the circus played out? After all the same circus pitches its big tent in all the democracies of the world, it certainly does in our country.

November 8th- India

On the day that the circus closed in the US of A, another one began in India: Demonetisation. The initial reactions were very positive, and the proudest moment for many people seems to have been the head line “New Lee Kuan Yew is born in India” that appeared in a Singaporean Newspaper. It went viral. There were also another set of messages that went viral that said: “now Modi has nailed the black marketers”. IMHO, the response of the cheering public reflected two kinds of envy that energise the Indian mind: an envy of the influential nationalist leader and an envy of the rich. I wonder to what extent the fact that for the first time our PM and many people in the echelons of power are not from Lutyens India triggers the middle-class person to identify with them. Our champion in the blue corner is drawing blood from the guys in the red corner who have been dishonest elite in a kind of rush of excitement.

The terms of the media discourse

The present media discourse, however, seems to suggest that we have mostly been ruled by people who are sensible, honest and serious about their commitment to the nation. Modi is the new kid on the block who is showing fascist tendencies. The Trump- Clinton slugfest has a similar undertone. 

IMHO, this assumption is false. If one looks back at history, we have been ruled by despots, rapists, plunderers and violent empire builders for the most part. Rama is the only king committed to monogamy in all of the ancient history of India, and I suspect of the world at that time. The most frequent description of courts and rulers of any time in history is replete with dancing girls and courtesans who provide relief from constant and often bloody court intrigue. The Genghis Khans of this world were probably not very nice people nor did they conquer territory by being kind. The history of colonisation and the continuing plunder of Africa has simply been taken a step further by Hillary Clinton and her Libyan adventure. Please see: https://www.siliconafrica.com/france-colonial-tax/

The continuing patterns of exploitation

 The US of A has gained wealth through its exploitation of the land that belonged to the First Nations through a horrific history of broken treaties and plunder, and its famous frontier spirit covers up a deep lack of integrity. A reading of black history and Native American genocide will reveal the hollowness of the claim that the US has been an exemplary nation.

https://www.alternet.org/books/americas-economy-was-built-slavery-not-white-ingenuity-historians-should-tell-it-it

https://www.vox.com/2016/9/9/12862958/dakota-access-pipeline-fight

If we look at the recent past, most of the leaders of the independence struggle of colonised nations have been exemplary people. They have not only liberated their countries through being role models of ethical behaviour; they have often overseen a transition to democracy and modernity that has been meaningful. I obviously have Gandhiji and Mandela in mind. Once democracy gets instituted, one is free of the tyranny of violent takeover of territory and foreign governance. The earlier autocratic systems and the incompetence of hereditary kingships (with their bloody sibling rivalries for accession to power) seem to have been relegated to history. But, we soon confront the spectre of a politics ruled by the ambitious and the self-centred! The ability of people ambitious for power who use means fair and foul to convince an electorate that they are worthy of the vote is on display. 

Evoking the shadow

Herein lies the rub since the true character and capability of the candidate cannot be known by the bulk of the population who rely on media reports, TV appearances and hearsay. The mask and its ability to evoke and provoke the hopes and fears of the polity becomes the basis of the choice. Both hopes and fears of people are mediated by the unconscious and therefore the shadow. Sooner rather than later, the place of great revolutionaries has been taken over by people not very different from the self-centered and exploitative leaders we see in history. South Africa is a case in point; the decay happened in Mandela’s life time. In our backyard, the decay has taken a little longer. Trump or Clinton are just people whose dark sides and self-centeredness and ambition have been laid bare. Trump speaks to the narrow parochial, nationalist and supremacist mind while Clinton is the ‘voice of Davos’. Both of them have a lot of personal fortunes to make and personal ambitions to fulfil. But neither of them seem to care for the earth or the global crisis that is around the corner. The supporters of Trump probably envy and hate the elite of America who manipulates the levers of power, while the supporters of Clinton shout hoarse about the crassness of Trump, probably a projection of their own shadow? This is why Gandhiji’s voice becomes relevant.

Waking up?

Let us ask: why this sudden upsurge in the “conscience keeping efforts” of people across the world. Charles Eisenstein has captured the phenomenon well in his paper: https://charleseisenstein.net/the-lid-is-off/. He argues that the shadow aspects of people, and particularly of people in power has now been brought into the discourse, thanks to the internet and a relatively free flow of uncensored information. What would have been buried under through repression and suppression is now being aired. The issues of sexuality, greed, political intrigue and so on are not things that are new. Their discussion in several forums is. We have come to expect people who are very different from despotic kings and emperors to be elected, we expect normal people like us to rule us with an understanding of our angst, we ousted Mary Antoinette because she thought that people could eat cakes if they did not have bread! Therefore, we now have to confront the idea that the shadow aspects being exposed, the masks we vote for and ones we hate are the stuff of all of us!

So where does Gandhiji come in?

In his book “My Experiments With Truth” Gandhiji does some thing no other leader has ever done. He examines his psyche, and shares with us the stuff of his shadow self! He speaks about his sexuality, his struggles with integrity and so on. During every phase of his life, he keeps up this self-exposure through his writing in the Harijan. Many of his self-reflective musings are the stuff one might share with one's psychiatrist, certainly not in a public forum. One hears that people like Nehru were not comfortable with this aspect of the Mahatma and were quite image conscious. They certainly did not share any of their inner struggles in public. Gandhiji’s satyagraha was not an ideology or a political strategy; it was not a brand building exercise. It was the core of his being and his life. When we read an Arundhati Roy ‘wax eloquent’ on Gandhiji’s negatives, it comes as no surprise to us. Any interested person can read Gandhiji and examine his actions and thoughts threadbare. Gandhiji has shared with us his struggles and confusions. This ability to look within and own up to his shadow sides is probably what allowed the Mahatma to not only confront the coloniser but to do so without creating hatred. By doing so, he came through as a common person with an uncommon integrity and commitment to Dharma. His actions during the partition showed the extraordinary courage of conviction and ability to embrace the other, embrace the violence in others and enable a conflagration to cool down. He continues to evoke in us an aspiration to walk his path. The leaders are reflections of the people who follow them; one can even look at them as the iconic representation of a particular kind of mind. So Gandhiji is the iconic form of the millions who have a deep respect and a wish to develop the polity in a dharmic way.

Looking into the mirror

There are therefore three mind-processes for us to examine: firstly the suppression and repression of the shadow; secondly, the discharge and the exposure of the shadow and thirdly the insightful enquiry into one's shadow. The first and the second modes are bound to generate the process of “othering”, projecting on to the other all that one disowns, and hate of the other since one is both ashamed of and afraid of one's shadow. The history of Colonization is replete with the horrors of such minds who thought nothing of exploiting the ‘other’, shaming them and glorifying genocide. In the recent US Election process, we saw the two sides articulate their hate of each other by hating the icons of the “other mind”. Many commentators described the choice as one where two of the most disliked contestants in the history of the US were being offered for people to choose between. This is a case of disowning one's shadows, projecting it on the other and hating the projection. Each party dug into the hidden “face behind the mask” and exposed it. The picture that was exposed was ugly, and undermined the integrity of both parties, and also fed the hate each camp felt for the other. Implicit in the hate of the other lies the hope that ones favourite icon is somehow trustworthy and virtuous! The shadow elements that have always been around among the power elite, but were kept hidden by a collective collusion are the elements in full display today. While the process of hiding the shadow creates an apparent hygiene, the exposure of the shadow processes will only generate an erosion of ethical standards all across, and legitimise the negative processes. 

Our election process was run on similar lines: the corruption of the Congress party was thoroughly exposed, and a clean governance was promised. The personal attacks were not blatant, but the “Chaiwala” was sought to be shamed for his origins, as well as his role in the Gujarat riots.

Light at the end of the tunnel?

The emergence of the shadow, however, is a hopeful sign if we can seize the moment and learn how to deal with the spill out of the dark elements. Many of the spiritual pursuits that we find proliferating across the world show that there are many who wish to find another way. The Yoga Sutras (chapter 1.20) define the way clearly: Step one is calledShraddha- the affection that a mother displays when relating to her child. Whatever behaviour the child displays, negative or positive, the mother embraces with love. She keeps investing in the child. One has to look at oneself in this way and embrace the positives and the shadow sides of oneself in the same way. The second step is called Veeryam- courage. One needs great courage to look at one's shadow without condemnation or escapist explanations. The third step is Samadhi-Pragnya- observing oneself from a silent, aware and compassionate part of ourselves. This insightful contemplation awakens a Transcendental Intelligence. Healing, transformation and integration take place. 

Without a great majority of us owning up to our dysfunctional ways of dealing with our shadow, democratic processes are bound to become the handmaiden of manipulative communication: provoking the hate of the ‘other’ while projecting oneself as a savior, a knight in ‘white’ armour who will clean up the mess and eliminate the dark ‘other’. People who are unconsciously acting out the shadow will elect their saviour! The saviour is safe as long as he/she keeps up the fa?ade and stokes the hope that made people vote for them in the first place. When this hope fades, the new saviour will appear and stoke the dissatisfactions and anger with new rhetoric, direct it against the opponent and gather new followers. The spiral is bound to lead downward until Mencken’s prediction comes true!

My invitation to you dear reader is very simple: learn the art of contemplative, compassionate enquiry into oneself. The more one does this, the more people who do this, the greater the hope that there will be an equitable and just process of governance, and that leaders who are integrated human beings will emerge.

Raghu Ananthanarayanan is the author of Leadership Dharma: Arjuna, the Timeless Metaphor. He has co-founded Sumedhas Academy for Human Context, The Barefoot Academy for Governance, Ritambhara, and FLAME TAO Knoware (Pvt. Ltd); He serves on the board of several companies. More information about Raghu can be found on his website.