At the time of my writing this DM we don’t know if the “Big Immoral Bill” — as Matthew called it — received a passing vote in the Senate of the United States. In any case, it is immoral for many reasons, including the attempt to sneak in provisions that would shelter the federal government from the consequences of not following court orders. In the meantime, the National Guard has been deployed in California against the wishes of its governor, which I understand to be against the law. Looking at the whole situation from my vantage point in Europe, it looks not that you are reaching a constitutional crisis, but that you are living through it.
I must refrain from gloating over other people’s misery, but I cannot fail to remind my American friends of the many CIA-backed coups which plaugued the world in the 20th century, precipitating countries into violence, chaos, and often destroying for decades the reciprocal trust among opponents which makes for the core of a healthy society.
The 2024 movie Ainda estou aqui (I am still here), set in the context of the Brazilian military rule in the early 1970s, recounts the story of a family whose father – Rubens Paiva, an ex-member of parliament – is kidnapped by the military and disappears. The resilience of his wife Eunice, splendidly interpreted by actress Fernanda Torres, is remarkable. Two choices made by the director Walter Salles make of this movie a masterpiece: the depiction in great detail of the fullness of life experienced by the family before the kidnapping, and how the family must isolate itself after the kidnapping, not being able to talk about it or to mourn their father. It is not known to this day if Rubens Pavia was left in the Amazon forest to die, or was thrown in the ocean from a helicopter, or something else of the kind.
Such cruelty, multiplied by thousands, was abetted by the U.S. government at that time. It must be known, I think, that there are many — especially in the South of the world — who think that Americans are now getting back what they deserve. They are getting back the chaos they have sown for decades, under the pretense of exporting democracy.
A student of mine, being very ill in 2006 because of his handling of depleted uranium ammunitions in Iraq, reported to me that the Abu Ghraib scandal was “nothing” compared to the cruelty that his battalion committed there. After taking one of my classes, he also added: “If I had read these Ancient Greeks who talked philosophy with each other while they had sex with each other (he meant Plato) I would have never gone to war.”
This memory comes back to me now while I am searching for something positive to say, something hopeful. We need lights in the dark night of democracy that we are experiencing, which is indeed the dark night of one of the major dreams of humanity, born in Ancient Greece: that chaos and violence could be tamed by means of democratic institutions.
The memory of my student makes me shed a tear. I don’t know if he lives or not, I could never find him again. He was himself a victim, of course, and — as he recognized — a perpetrator. He found the light by reading Plato’s Symposium and Republic and because he found a teacher — which happened to be me — who believed in him, did not judge him for his past in the military, and challenged him every day.
One of the best things about America is the system of higher education, its academic freedom, its insistence on developing critical thinking. It is not by chance that it is now under attack. We need to celebrate it, support it, defend it. If you are/have been a teacher, please recognize the enormous value of your contribution to society. And, as we all have been students, please remember and appreciate those who shed light for you on your path.
Resisting chaos and cruelty is no small feat, but it can be done step by step and day by day, together.
See Matthew Fox: Trump and the MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election
And Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society
And Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox, Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation
Banner image: A sign at a Woman’s March in Los Angeles in 2017 is sadly prescient of what is happening now. Image by Samantha Sophia. Wikimedia Commons
Queries for Contemplation
How are you discharging your duty as a teacher? How are you honoring your teachers?
Recommended Reading
Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election
Matthew Fox tells us that he had always shied away from using the term “Anti-Christ” because it was so often used to spread control and fear. However, given today’s rise of authoritarianism and forces of democracide, ecocide, and christofascism, he turns the tables in this book employing the archetype for the cause of justice, democracy, and a renewed Earth and humanity.
From the Foreword: If there was ever a time, a moment, for examining the archetype of the Antichrist, it is now…Read this book with an open mind. Good and evil are real forces in our world. ~~ Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit and Conversations with the Divine.
For immediate access to Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election, order the e-book with 10 full-color prints from Amazon HERE.
To get a print-on-demand paperback copy with black & white images, order from Amazon HERE or IUniverse HERE.
To receive a limited-edition, full-color paperback copy, order from MatthewFox.org HERE.
Order the audiobook HERE for immediate download.
Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society
Visionary theologian and best-selling author Matthew Fox offers a new theology of evil that fundamentally changes the traditional perception of good and evil and points the way to a more enlightened treatment of ourselves, one another, and all of nature. In comparing the Eastern tradition of the 7 chakras to the Western tradition of the 7 capital sins, Fox allows us to think creatively about our capacity for personal and institutional evil and what we can do about them.
“A scholarly masterpiece embodying a better vision and depth of perception far beyond the grasp of any one single science. A breath-taking analysis.” — Diarmuid O’Murchu, author of Quantum Theology: Spiritual Implications of the New Physics
Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation
Authors Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox encourage us to use our talents in service of compassion and justice and to move beyond our broken systems–economic, political, educational, and religious–discovering a spirituality that not only helps us to get along, but also encourages us to reevaluate our traditions, transforming them and in the process building a more sacred and just world. Incorporating the words of young activist leaders culled from interviews and surveys, the book provides a framework that is deliberately interfaith and speaks to our profound yearning for a life with spiritual purpose and for a better world.
“Occupy Spirituality is a powerful, inspiring, and vital call to embodied awareness and enlightened actions.”
~~ Julia Butterfly Hill, environmental activist and author of The Legacy of Luna: The Story of a Tree, a Woman, and the Struggle to Save the Redwoods
