President Trump as a meme embodies the absurdity of the behavior of a shallow identity in a delusional narrative. A meme is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture. It acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas (beliefs, attitudes and values) symbols, or behavior that can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena with a mimicked theme (monkey see, monkey do). He is an ideal leader for those Americans who do not want to do their own thinking.
We all have an ego (a false delusional identity) that is both arrogant and paranoid at the same time. “The ego feels it can create its own strength, its own love, its own security—whatever it needs. However the compensations it uses only mimic [italics added] the essential qualities, and rather than originating from essence, they are rooted in defensive avoidance of pain.” (1) If we ever want to transcend our primitive primate behaviors we will need to shift our identity to that of our True self sometimes called our essence.
“Essence is the pure unconditioned nature of who we are—the purest fiber of our being. It is more fundamental and intrinsic than our personality. It is a permanent abiding presence. Essence is our true nature. It is being without the distortion of our personal history. When we lose contact with the experience of our essence and its essential qualities, we literally feel a hole or emptiness or deficiency in ourselves.” (1)
Ironically the chest-pounding apes in Washington are only “aping” power. We suspect and so we should, that many of our representatives in Washington have revealed by their behavior, that they are there for reasons other than altruistically serving their constituents. That behavior includes controlling people or situations, promoting one’s status, self-image, and influence. We can see that “trumpeting” one’s accomplishments, approval seeking as well as promoting others’ dependence on us is a sad elegy to an empty, powerless life.
Click on the link below to continue learning how to escape the zoo that is American culture.
Insight # 148: Understanding the distinction between who we are and who we are not empower us to transcend the illusion that is the foundation for all human suffering. – Roy Charles Henry
Link:
- “The Age of Anxiety,” in this blog and also in the print version, Who Am I? The Second Great Question Concerning the Nature of Reality (2013), by Roy Charles Henry, pages 49-52.
Reference:
- Malik, Karen, “Essence,” Shambhala Sun, Boulder, Colorado, May 2006, pages 32-33.
