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Abstract
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The SchwartzReport tracks emerging trends that will affect the world, particularly the United States. For EXPLORE it focuses on matters of health in the broadest sense of that term, including medical issues, changes in the biosphere, technology, and policy considerations, all of which will shape our culture and our lives.
Day after day as one watches their television or computer screen or reads most fact-based media, one sees an endless series of stories of Trump followers being called to commit acts of political violence, while social media apps fill the minds of Americans with weaponized disinformation specifically designed to enrage them, make them feel victimized and resentful, and encourage them to violence.1 This confluence of modern technology and long-established psychological manipulation techniques has produced something never before seen in the United States, and it has been going on for several years now. Judges are under threat. Their children are under threat; prosecutors have to have security protection. Since Trump began these calls for violence election workers by the score have been quitting their posts making conducting a safe and fair election in some districts increasingly problematic.2
Civil political violence particularly since the January 6th insurrection, has become one of the most notable features of the American political landscape, and two things stand out about this. First, how many Americans think such violence is justified. A year ago nearly one in four Americans believed political violence was justified to 'save' the US.3 Second, nearly all of these people define themselves as evangelical Christians. As the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) describes it: "Support for political violence jumps to even higher levels among Americans who believe that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump (46%); Americans who hold a favourable view of Trump (41%); Americans who believe in the so-called 'replacement theory' (41%); Americans who affirm the core tenet of white Christian nationalism, that God intended America to be a new promised land for European Christians (39%)."4
How is it possible that people who profess their deep faith in Jesus and claim to shape their lives to his teachings, reconcile the proclivity for violence recorded by the PRRI with his Sermon on the Mount as found in Matthew? Jesus could hardly be clearer, "You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth… But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also…. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles…. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.."5
Most commentary on the alliance evangelicals feel with Trump and the Republican Party he now controls, center principally on that cohort's sense of victimization, feelings about gender and racial issues. However, I want to suggest there is a deeper psychological mental health issue: the charismatic power of authoritarianism, a manifestation of what I call beingness. Beingness cannot be quantified exactly, yet everyone who encounters it knows exactly what is meant, whether it is a religious leader, a politician, or a movie star. But when it goes beyond just charisma beingness can have an authority that crosses from the individual to the social generality. A psychological linkage develops between the charismatic individual and a cohort that expresses subordination because they see the leader as the personification of their psychological profiles. ...
Language: en |