When I have been in the middle of a very difficult situation that results from someone doing self-destructive acts to himself and also hurts those around him, I have often found myself stating what I believe is true that “most people don’t wake up in the morning and say to themselves that I am going to make life difficult for me and others.” Therein is the heart of one of St. Paul’s critical pieces of insight. “The good that I want to do, I don’t do. That which I don’t want to do, I do.” (Romans 7:19)
Who would have guessed that St. Paul was one of the first to look into the soul and psyche of people with this rather dire warning. He implies that this truth is at the heart of sin defined as alienation from self, others, and God. I believe that he and I share the same thought. No one seeks to do damage if they desire to do good.
When I am counseling people, I am looking for those unseen forces that have caused them to make their life and the lives of others difficult beyond the ordinary challenges. People don’t come for counseling because their actions are helpful to themselves or others. They know that it takes an objective party to see what they cannot see. We all have an emotional “blind spot” that is similar to the one that is in our eye. If you have ever had a visual field study at your eye doctor, you know that you can not see things in your blind spot no matter what you do. Only the eye doctor can point it out on the print out that comes from the test. A blind spot is not a judgement. As St. Paul would say, “Sorry folks, it’s there, but you can’t see it.”
Once we are able to get hold of the forces that cause us to do that which we don’t want to do, we do get a degree of power over them which allows us to live a more enabling purpose filled life.
I have often said that life is a two-edged sword. Everything cuts both ways. We need rain for our crops to flourish but too much rain can cause havoc in such moments as the flooding that recently has devastated the state of Kentucky.
If this existential nature of the “both sides of life is true,” what possible good could come out of our current political malaise with people winning the midterm elections by proclaiming Trump’s lie.
One of the things that I have been taught in training to be a card-carrying counselor is that you can see the everyday problems of people by seeing them in their extreme. This is why treating people in extreme difficulty can help us in assisting growth in people with the garden variety psychological issues that we all face.
We can take the MAGA movement to counseling and see if the extremes of this movement have a positive piece for learning what not to do to get along with others and not damage themselves or our nation.
The MAGA movement provides us with maganafication (magnification) of those parts of us that Saint Paul would suggest that we bring into our awareness, and do the good that we would want to do and not what we don’t want to do.
When MAGA wakes up in the morning, I do think that they know exactly what they are doing when considering how to bring chaos to our nation to deflect from their bullying and moral failings. Their motivation is straight out of the followers of Nietzsche that, “might makes right,” and “strength is the highest value.” In fact, these threats to the psyche and soul are so evident because they are MAGANAFIED (magnified) for all of us to see. MAGA can’t see them perhaps, but the rest of us can as we commit ourselves to be “better than that.”
MAGA has come to counseling for one purpose only. That purpose is to have the ability later to say, they have changed. It is what Trump accomplished when he attempted to talk with Merrick Garland. “Tell me what I can do to help lower the temperature.” He learned one thing from January 6. That was that he should do his part in looking like he is preventing violence. He can then say when the violence appears that “I told you I would help.” After that comment, off he went right back to his divisive and irresponsible accusations fueling the MAGA fire.
St. Paul’s statement is based in good intentions as a necessary quality. “The good that I want to do…” When I am with someone in trouble and say, I haven’t met anyone who wakes up in the morning trying to make their lives and others’ difficult, there must be an important ingredient. The ingredient of the truth of these two statements and their ability to work implies an INTENTIONALITY that the people want to change. St. Paul’s words and my words depend on that desire.
It is why things are so confusing in addressing Trump and MAGA and having them in counseling. Narcissists and other people who are not fazed by their actions are referred to as character disorders. They are tough to counsel because they don’t feel that choices have consequences. They are not insight driven. They only respond to consequences for their actions. They don’t experience guilt. That is why so many are in prison. The current problem is that it seems as though there are no consequences for Trump and his allies. Meanwhile those who were present for January 6 are seeing their consequences each day including loss of their jobs, discord in families, and jail time.
The best that we could hope for is consequences for Trump and his allies to show the MAGA people what occurs as a result of their belief and behavior. This MAGANAFIED (magnified) the truth of “the good the I want to do, I can’t do. That which I don’t want to do, I do.” It is only then that they will be able to see the issues that I look for that “I never met anyone who got up in the morning wanting to make their lives and the lives around them miserable. If MAGANAFICATION occurs then they can address that part of themselves that desires the good and is aware that the good that I want to do, I don’t do. That which I don’t want to do, I do!
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