{"id":11239,"date":"2020-11-12T23:38:07","date_gmt":"2020-11-13T04:38:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/?p=11239"},"modified":"2020-11-12T23:47:01","modified_gmt":"2020-11-13T04:47:01","slug":"i-am-become-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2020\/11\/12\/i-am-become-death\/","title":{"rendered":"“I am become Death…”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Trump’s parting electoral tantrum puts the exclamation mark on the fundamental flaw of democracy that his presidency has revealed: that a poorly informed electorate can willingly choose its own demise (even as it recites platitudes<\/a> to the contrary). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two institutions are most implicated in this flaw: public education and the mass media. In well functioning democracies, both of those institutions are supported, at least in part, by the state, which is in turn supported by people according to their abilities (through taxation).<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

In the United States, institutionalized greed<\/a> (private and corporate) wedded itself to reality-denial (of an evangelical, millenarian religious sort) back in the 1970s-1980s<\/a> in a marriage of convenience that set out to destroy the very notion of a shared public sphere, including public education, publicly accountable media, public lands, and all the rest. Trump’s entire domestic agenda<\/a> amounted to destroying<\/a> the last vestiges of what was left. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now he is trying to bring down even the semblance of democracy, in case anyone anywhere still believes in it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

His secret motto might be: I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds<\/a>. In Trump we see our own illusion of selfhood, ego, possessor of a reality we can’t possibly<\/a> take hold of, let alone control. When we look at the bumbling<\/a> Trump through the eyes of the Gita<\/a> (or the Dharma, or the Bible properly understood, or process-relational philosophy<\/a>), we realize a kinship between him and us, and the sadness that comes with that realization. A sorry sight, but passing. The only response, as always, is compassion towards those who are needlessly suffering, and joyful action to remedy it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(His own suffering is not needless, but karmic. It will resolve itself, but its effects<\/a> will be lived with by others.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Barbara Jones-Hogu: America<\/i>, from the folio Student Independent 8, 1969<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trump’s parting electoral tantrum puts the exclamation mark on the fundamental flaw of democracy that his presidency has revealed: that a poorly informed electorate can willingly choose its own demise (even as it recites platitudes to the contrary). Two institutions are most implicated in this flaw: public education and the mass media. In well functioning […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[691215],"tags":[659223,281,58955,8,401982,659222,25123,659205],"class_list":["post-11239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics_postpolitics","tag-bhagavad-gita","tag-democracy","tag-donald-trump","tag-media","tag-public-education","tag-public-media","tag-public-sphere","tag-trumpism"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4IC4a-2Vh","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1166,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2009\/12\/19\/two-democracies-planet-compost\/","url_meta":{"origin":11239,"position":0},"title":"two democracies… (& planet compost)","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"December 19, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The responses to the final COP-15 \"deal\" from the environmental and social justice communities seem, at this point, to be largely negative. It's a start, some acknowledge, but it's pretty late to be starting, and it's really pretty vacuous -- a lost opportunity. My last post tried to put a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Climate change"","block_context":{"text":"Climate change","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/climate-politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"tumblr_ktgfafCyYp1qzhl9eo1_500.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2009\/12\/tumblr_ktgfafCyYp1qzhl9eo1_500.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2908,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2011\/03\/15\/observations-politics-media-empathy\/","url_meta":{"origin":11239,"position":1},"title":"Observations: politics – media – empathy","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"March 15, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"A few observations from the events of the last week or so: (1) Tsunamis happen. When they do, in a globally media-connected world, they bring us all a little closer together. (Not all of us; those who don't wish to be brought closer may drift further apart. But, to risk\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Media ecology"","block_context":{"text":"Media ecology","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/media_ecology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7359,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2014\/02\/22\/ukraine-the-threat-of-direct-democracy\/","url_meta":{"origin":11239,"position":2},"title":"Ukraine & the threat of direct democracy","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"February 22, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Power to the millions, not to the millionaires\" (#Leftmaidan) \u00a0 Three forms of democracy vie with each other in Ukraine today. The first of these is what we might call authoritarian democracy. This is a hybrid of democracy and authoritarian rule, in which partially developed democratic institutions can be relatively\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/politics_postpolitics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"download (6)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2014\/02\/download-6-275x137.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1357,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2010\/10\/23\/letter-to-a-tea-party-sympathizer\/","url_meta":{"origin":11239,"position":3},"title":"letter to a Tea Party sympathizer","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"October 23, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"As another political season (leading to the midterm elections) winds down here in the US, people get wound up. Here's part of something I wrote to a friend who happens to be a Tea Party sympathizer - which surprised me when I found this out, but life is full of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/politics_postpolitics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5366,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2011\/10\/05\/reforest-wall-street\/","url_meta":{"origin":11239,"position":4},"title":"Reforest Wall Street","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"October 5, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"While I've been too busy to follow the Wall Street occupation very closely, let alone participate in any but the most vicarious ways, I'm encouraged by the persistence of its participants. Isn't it time Americans started saying basta! to government of the lobbyists, by the politicians, and for the corporations?\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/politics_postpolitics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2715,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2011\/02\/27\/revolutionary-democracy\/","url_meta":{"origin":11239,"position":5},"title":"Revolutionary democracy","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"February 27, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Here are a few thoughts after watching Frontline's Revolution in Cairo, which is a very good 24-minute summary of how this particular democratic moment occurred, and after reading Badiou's, Hardt & Negri's, Hallward's, Amit Rai's, and some other takes on the events. (1) The recipe: Tools + Techniques + Events\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Media ecology"","block_context":{"text":"Media ecology","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/media_ecology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11239"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11246,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11239\/revisions\/11246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}