[PAA-Discuss] Deepak Chopra on the Palin Effect

Sun Sep 21 09:33:08 EDT 2008

Subj: [nowtexas] Fw: Fwd: Deepak Chopra on the Palin Effect

>From  a friend in New Mexico, former National Board member, of south central  
region.
-----  Forwarded Message ----
From: Geraldine Salazar  <gsalazar at prusantafegsal>
To:  geraldinesalazar at To:  ger
Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2008  9:37:08 PM
Subject: Fwd: Deepak Chopra on the Palin Effect

Hello Andrea, Gina, Dana, Diana, Diane, Esther, Elizabeth, Gina, Janet,  
Katherine, Margo, Rebecca, Rosemary, Rita, Robert, Vera, Lucille, Victoria,  
Valerie, Anita, Linda, Jane, Penny, Gilda, David, Leslie and  Diana,

I want to share what Rebecca sent me regarding Palin.

---------- Forwarded message ----------

Geraldine,
This is also interesting to read and a fresh perspective.  
See you in October!
Rebecca 

Subject:  Deepak Chopra on the Palin Effect

DEEPAK  CHOPRA

Obama and the Palin  Effect

Posted September 4, 2008 | 01:41 PM  (EST)

_http://www.huffingthttp://www.http://www.hufhttp://wwwhttp://wwwhttp://www.hu
ffhttp_ 
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/deepak-chopra/obama-and-the-palin-effec_b_123943.html)  
_<http://www.huffingthttp://www.http://www.hufhttp://wwwhttp://wwwhttp://www.huffhttp>_ (h
ttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/deepak-chopra/obama-and-the-palin-effec_b_123943.html)   

Sometimes politics has the uncanny effect of mirroring  the national psyche 
even when nobody intended to do that. This is perfectly  illustrated by the 
rousing effect that Gov. Sarah Palin had on the Republican  convention in 
Minneapolis this week. On the surface, she outdoes former Vice  President Dan Quayle 
as an unlikely choice, given her negligent parochial  expertise in the complex 
affairs of governing. Her state of Alaska has less  than 700,000 residents, 
which reduces the job of governor to the scale of  running one-tenth of New 
York City. By comparison, Rudy Giuliani is a towering  international figure. 
Palin's pluck has been admired, and her forthrightness,  but her real appeal goes 
deeper.

She is the reverse of Barack Obama, in  essence his shadow, deriding his 
idealism and exhorting people to obey their  worst impulses. In psychological 
terms the shadow is that part of the psyche  that hides out of sight, countering 
our aspirations, virtue, and vision with  qualities we are ashamed to face: 
anger, fear, revenge, violence, selfishness,  and suspicion of "the other." For 
millions of Americans, Obama triggers those  feelings, but they don't want to 
express them. He is calling for us to reach  for our higher selves, and 
frankly, that stirs up hidden reactions of an  unsavory kind. (Just to be perfectly 
clear, I am not making a verbal play out  of the fact that Sen. Obama is black. 
The shadow is a metaphor widely in use  before his arrival on the scene.) I 
recognize that psychological analysis of  politics is usually not welcome by 
the public, but I believe such a  perspective can be helpful here to understand 
Palin's message. In her  acceptance speech Gov. Palin sent a rousing call to 
those who want to  celebrate their resistance to change and a higher vision. 

Look at what  she stands for:
--Small town values -- a denial of America's global role, a  return to petty, 
small-minded parochialism.
--Ignorance of world affairs --  a repudiation of the need to repair 
America's image abroad.
--Family values  -- a code for walling out anybody who makes a claim for 
social justice. Such  strangers, being outside the family, don't need to be heeded.
--Rigid  stands on guns and abortion -- a scornful repudiation that these 
issues can be  negotiated with those who disagree.
--Patriotism -- the usual fallback in a  failed war.
--"Reform" -- an italicized term, since in addition to cleaning  out 
corruption and excessive spending, one also throws out anyone who doesn't  fit your 
ideology.

Palin reinforces the overall message of the  reactionary right, which has 
been in play since 1980, that social justice is  liberal-radical, that minorities 
and immigrants, being different from "us"  pure American types, can be 
ignored, that progressivism takes too much effort  and globalism is a foreign 
threat. The radical right marches under the banners  of "I'm all right, Jack," and 
"Why change? Everything's OK as it is." The  irony, of course, is that Gov. 
Palin is a woman and a reactionary at the same  time. She can add mom to apple 
pie on her resume, while blithely reversing  forty years of feminist progress. 
The irony is superficial; there are millions  of women who stand on the side of 
conservatism, however obviously they are  voting against their own good. The 
Republicans have won multiple national  elections by raising shadow issues 
based on fear, rejection, hostility to  change, and narrow-mindedness.

Obama's call for higher ideals in  politics can't be seen in a vacuum. The 
shadow is real; it was bound to  respond. Not just conservatives possess a 
shadow -- we all do. So what comes  next is a contest between the two forces of 
progress and inertia. Will the  shadow win again, or has its furtive appeal 
become exhausted? No one can  predict. The best thing about Gov. Palin is that she 
brought this conflict to  light, which makes the upcoming debate honest. It 
would be a shame to elect  another Reagan, whose smiling persona was a stalking 
horse for the reactionary  forces that have brought us to the demoralized 
state we are in. We deserve to  see what we are getting, without disguise.  

_www.deepakchopra.www_ (http://www.deepakchopra.com/)  
_<http://www.deepakchhttp://ww>_ (http://www.deepakchopra.com/)   

------ End of Forwarded  Message

--  
Geraldine Salazar, Associate Broker & Associates
Prudential Santa  Fe Real Estate
505-690-5133

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