I Written the morning Trump won the election .
I woke up this morning to snow! If the snow had been sun I could have easily mistakes to the month as June! The same feeling of disparity and disappointment hung in the air just as it did as we woke up at the Glastonbury festival to find us leaving Europe in June.
But as always I got thinking….When I was at university studying psychotherapy, I was very interested in Freudian theory. Most of all the writing of Totem and Taboo. I got to thinking how it is SOOOO relevant in the world right now as we battle racism and purism… stay with me….
Don’t worry I’m not gonna get all clever and start quoting Freud and expecting you to know what I’m on about.. so here is the theory in a nut shell ….
There was a story about a brother who was cross with his dad, so cross he wanted to kill him! ( extreme I know) but knew it was wrong to kill your own dad! ( dur… you don’t say) HE WAS MAD but he didn’t and had no intention of killing his dad… cos it was wrong!
But over time his brothers also fell out with their dad and after numerous chats where they moaned together about their dad, it turned out that they all wanted to kill him ! Cripes! They talked it through and they agreed that if they all wanted to kill him it can’t have been wrong!
Anyway …the point was that as soon as the group all wanted to kill him it became ok, their moral code kind of changed and they could justify killing their dad! after all everyone else wanted to do it too!!! So they couldn’t be wrong and it wasn’t their fault!
So they killed the dad!
The point of the theory is that on their own they’d never have done it! They’d never have found the self justification to allow them to go ahead and Killed daddy!
But as a group, where they all felt the same , it gave them strength, not just physically but emotionally and morally ! Their feelings of hate towards him were validated by the others and it gave them permission to join in the dirty deed! Without guilt!
.
So why is this relevant now? Well Angry , frightened and upset people are very unpredictable as we know, so as soon as they are blessed with the realisation that they are not alone in their powerful feelings and they are not wrong , they are able to feel strengthened by the knowledge they are not alone and MUST BE RIGHT!
This realisation gives people permission to openly show their anger and behave in ways that alone the couldn’t have done so easily and safely. We don’t need to look so far to see many examples of this!
Think about bullies? Never so strong when they are without their gang , football hooligans rarely fight alone, kids at school rarely misbehave without others playing along with them….
I think about Brexit and now with Trump… as soon as folks with such angry and passionate thoughts and feelings ‘win’ a voice they start to behave openly in a way they never did before.
All of a sudden those with racist and sexist or whatever other ‘ists are relevant have been told that they are not alone! In fact they are in a majority! They are safe to speak out.. they have strength as a group to act in a way they could never do on their own!
We have seen a huge rise in openly racist attacks in the uk since the Brexit victory gave them a voice and now with Trump taking the wheel, we are seeing the same and more.. racism, sexism, body shaming, greed and aggression to ‘outsiders’ has be given the green light! There is a certain giddiness to express something which was previously frowned upon.
People have been told ( indirectly) they are in their right to hate and abuse! And it is only going to spread across the globe… all those who realise they have a band of like minded brothers will draw strength from them and act!
As half of the country here and across the pond furiously feel the ‘opposite’ of these ‘winners’ and totally mourn the loss of humanity and as our anger and fear will grow, together too we will too come together to fight. Will we ( the anti Trump and pro Europe and free movement) join our brothers (and sisters) and act in a way we could never do on our own?
What permission will we give ourselves as a group to protect our beliefs? Just like them? Just like the Freudian brothers? How far will our fear and numbers take us?
Splitting countries and nations into two camps of such very opposite sides of the coin is a very dangerous thing, we have created two strong groups of now powerful opposite voices…
So what , where and when will they agree to kill ?
Who or what will be the father?
Which group will decide to act first?
Maybe the now openly expressed hatred towards muslims, Mexicans, Jewish, polish, refugees, inegrants…( oh the list goes on….)that is now freely acted upon by the Trupexit brotherhood will create the justification for these oppressed communities to join together in a mutual brotherhood too?
Will the oppressed join the fight within their group strength based on anger and fear? Ironically becoming more dangerous that they were ever accused of being in the first place!!!!!
Their joint strength allowing and justifying attack?
What about gay men and women? Will they find their collective inner Freudian brotherhood too?
Will they find strength and justification to loose their moral code and attack too?
What about women?
We’ve seen women joining together already.
Will they find their inner Freudian brotherhood too?
Will they justifying attack as a group ?
Will they behave in a way as a group they would never behave in alone?
As recent shows of democracy has stood in the form of two sides of the coin… polar opposites to each other.
Right or left
In or out
Controlled or free
Catholic or Protestant
United or City
Yorkshire or Lancashire
Rich or poor
Girl or boy
Black or white
Trump or Clinton
Etc
Etc
Etc
So are two groups of angry frightened Freudian botherhoods forming?
How many other brotherhoods are within them?
As anger grows and the brotherhoods strengthen through fear and despair, it is only a matter of time before our actions spill over into the streets and we all kill our fathers.
As we fight against our own community, brothers and sisters, families and friends we will believe it’s ok, because we are not alone.. we have strength to do what alone we could never carry out. After all There is no I in team!
This year has divided the world..
I have no answers or crystal ball but as Freud illustrated, a group of people with likeminded anger have a voice and it’s not just a voice… it’s a desperate wail ! … they will be heard and seen and it won’t be pretty !
Round Peg festival Mama 