Catharsis

What just happened to us—to me—in the last 48 hours of the USA's political life?

The first word that came to me is ... catharsis.

Is that fair?

Looking in the Oxford English Dictionary (thanks to our public library's online services), I was reminded that Aristotle's Poetics, in defining dramatic tragedy, proposed a word often translated as "catharsis" or "purgation."

Tragedy, then, is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude; in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament, the several kinds being found in separate parts of the play; in the form of action, not of narrative; through pity and fear effecting the proper purgation [katharsis] of these emotions.

[Aristotle, around 335 BCE, via S.H. Butcher, 1895.]

The spectacle we've been presented this last decade has its share of tragedy, evoking an abundance of pity and fear. We saw the MAGA occupation of our federal system replacing long-standing norms with incompetence, corruption, and gleeful cruelty. Lives were lost.

After years of Act I, the USA's voters just presented Act II, arguably a massive catharsis. In fact, I feel as if much of the country looked back on this era of venomous indecency, and metaphorically vomited! At least at the moment, I feel like there's been some kind of a cleansing. Yes, it was fragmented, involving different personalities and local histories in different places, but cumulatively it was an astounding rejection of the toxicity and degradation of the last ten years.

Now we embark on Act III, yet to be written.

Two powerful dynamics compete for center stage. One is a misguided desire for retributive satisfaction. In some cases there's a temptation to rub losers' face into their losses. My fear is that this would simply prolong the "Malice in Wonderland" I've been writing about all along in the Trump era. I hope and believe that this stage will pass.

In this connection, the OED entry for "catharsis" included a quotation from D.H. Lawrence (Touch and Go): "It's a cleansing process—like Aristotle's Katharsis. We shall hate ourselves clean at last, I suppose." Hate has no place in Act III—not from us.

The second dynamic is very different but can be confused with, and compromised by, the first: a correct and necessary demand for accountability. We need wisdom to discern how broad a front of confrontation with waste, corruption, misappropriation, and constitutional violations we can mount, while not neglecting routine (but nevertheless vital) legislation and administration. In sorting out these questions, there will be lots of conflict, horse-trading, second-guessing; it's my hope that the strong personalities that have proven themselves worthy of their recent victory will also be capable of imaginative, ethically informed debate in full public view.

I liked Jennifer Rubin's observations in her Contrarian op-ed, "Margins Matter."

In sum, Democrats have received clear marching orders from the voters. Failure to move expeditiously and aggressively would be a gross error, risking loss of the faith temporarily entrusted to them.

Notice her use of the word "temporarily."

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William Barber II and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove on this past election and a moral agenda:

An anti-authoritarian movement cannot stop with a rebuke of those who abuse power. We must urgently call for a Third Reconstruction to address the underlying issues that brought us to this crisis.

Bill McKibben on the emergence of a different Christianity in USA politics.

Without comment: Kristin Du Mez's "Hot Democracy" post begins with a thread labeled "candidates for a 'Hot Guys of Democracy Calendar'." If you scroll far enough, there's "a bit of analysis."

Brian Drayton celebrates the (possibly) 560th birthday of Erasmus by looking at the Transfiguration and the human Christ.

In A Life Overseas, A TCK ("Third Culture Kid") talks about the mutuality of relocation and repatriation. It's not automatic.

Jeremy Morris (Postsocialism) on the actual, if unpredictable, fragility of today's Russian system: "Looking in the Crystal Ball, Shattering the Crystal State."

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Another delicious rerun from Steve Guyger: "Mighty Long Time," with Anson Funderburgh.