According to Sigmund Freud, we all have three aspects of our personalities, the Ego, the Id and the Superego. The Id is our ugly, primitive side.
And I can see the Id on full display in American society today.
It’s as if people feel licensed to show their ugly side.
The rise of Trump is making the deplorables bolder. .After all, when the president of the United States can brag about sexually assaulting women, surely you and I don’t have to worry about saying or doing anything, however crass it might be.
But I fear there’s more to it than that. A societal tsunami seems to be developing.
You can see this sad phenomenon in the shameless way white-power groups and other clandestine organizations are flaunting their ugliness.
You can see it in the defiance of decency and utter disregard for the law that prevails throughout the Trump administration.
It’s evident everywhere – from Trump’s swaggering, bullying foreign-relations style to the sad display of pandering that Vice President Pence (who claims to converse with Jesus) put on with Arizona’s Sheriff Arpaio recently.
It is even more clearly evident in the pending appointment of an unrepentant torturer to head the CIA.
And it echoes in the shockingly insensitive remarks that Trump’s minions are making about John McCain as he faces death.
So, tell me, why is this raw and primitive behavior becoming so acceptable?
How is it that 40 percent of Americans approve of what’s going on?
How is it that Evangelical Christians remain devoted to Trump and Pence?
Could this be a nationwide – even global – revolt of the Id after centuries of suppression by civilization?
Or is it – as some Biblical scholars might suggest – the work of the Devil, who realizes his time is short?
Whatever you believe, you must surely be gravely concerned. For I fear civilization as we know it might be teetering on the brink of a catastrophic collapse.
Tell me it isn’t so. Tell me I am mistaken. Tell me this, too, shall pass.
