By Judith Gayle | Political Waves
My Dad — bless him — used to talk about the silent majority as if he were a part of it, which seemed to me a kind of psychic rewriting of his past. Back when the nation was experiencing a cultural meltdown prompted by the draft and the Vietnam war, Tricky Dick Nixon won his reelection by identifying youthful protesters as a “vocal minority,” splitting them away from what he called the “silent majority.” It was a clever political ploy, creating a division between those critical of the war and those offended by criticism of American nationalism. The boundaries of authority were already precariously stretched and Dick kicked the can over, spilling it for political purpose. Part of the infamous Southern Strategy, these divisions became a civil war, splitting families, institutions and regions of the country.
These were the social changes necessitated by the Pluto/Uranus opposition, starting with the bright promise of psychedelics, love-ins and peace marches, and ending with Charlie Manson, a series of shocking, disheartening assassinations, and the Symbionese Liberation Army. It was a period of transition for all of us, surely, and some of it was scary, but I don’t remember my father being a stuffed-shirt conservative back in those days. He was always the guy you could go to to talk things out, judgments put aside. For reasons of his own that I don’t understand, he recreated history in his later years to side with fear and repression.
As a member of the Greatest Generation, Dad was marked by the self-protective, traditional bent that so many of the Pluto in Cancer folks brought to the table, but he had an innate sense of cool about him that attracted kids. That’s probably why he became a high school teacher, a mentor and a philosopher, in that order; the last two were avocations when he finally left education, which was largely a political decision. In the late ’60s, education sustained some changes that my father thought undercut his ability to teach. It’s probably no coincidence that right about then education began a downward spiral it’s still struggling to reverse. So Dad gave up classrooms and summers off to join the business community, but even then he always seemed to have a youngster around, teaching them his craft. There was little in his psychological makeup to mark him as a radical. In fact, a lot of people identified my father as their hero over the years. I even heard it a time or two after his passing this July. Dad would have liked that.
My parents were married fifty years; my mother died unexpectedly soon after their anniversary. Everything changed for Dad, who simply couldn’t cope alone. When he remarried, he selected another strong woman, but where my mother was both liberal and tolerant, the new mate was hyper-critical, her life-experience much narrower. Dad’s view seemed to get smaller as moderation went out the window. Although opinionated, he wasn’t overtly political, but that began to change.
As any two-person relationship is represented to the world by the third entity created by their combined energies, the negativity of that merged personality mix began to spill over. The shift in my father’s personality grew stronger by the day. He became one of those pain-in-the-inbox Republicans forwarding dire (and anonymously written) warnings about liberal media, flag pins and real Americans. He ignored Bush and Cheney, grousing instead about the Congress and all its wrinkles. Later, Obama was, at minimum, a Kenyan and perhaps more, while the UN was the font of all world evils. At the end of his life, he had come full circle: back to the state of his birth, back to the racial and cultural bias that he had stepped away from, back to childhood patterns of victimization he had escaped for decades. As some of you may know, I struggled with this, publicly and personally, but made every attempt to gently ignore it.
Dad’s plunge into radical rhetoric kept me on my toes. For him, the silent majority was comprised of people just like him, wary of diversity and fearful of a future no longer reflecting American dominance. He was threatened by the undocumented alien issues of the Southwest and the Homeland Security issues of the Mid-east. He was heartbroken when Lou Dobbs left CNN. Still, FOX News told him he was right about the things that went bump and assured him that the majority of the public was with him. I checked out the Hannity show the other night and that’s still the message, of course: Hannity holding forth on how Obama is responsible for the social unrest of the Arab Spring and how all those newly freed countries are going straight to hell in the Arab Brotherhoods hand basket, soon to war against “free” countries everywhere. Starting with us, I presume.
It’s virtually impossible for FOX to allow Obama a win on Qaddafi’s fall from grace, nor can they affirm the international success without undercutting their message of national doom and gloom. To make up for lack of substance, they wallow in name-calling that would not be tolerated by any reputable channel, although CNN, under new management, is beginning to take on a similar tone, I fear. Obama’s announcement that troops would be out of Iraq by Christmas was met with crosstalk by doubtful pundits. Every time this president does what he promised he would do there is a dull roar of disbelief. I’m never going to be convinced that’s anything but racism.
On the brighter side, the protests of these last weeks seem to be lifting all liberal boats, including Obama’s. Perhaps even our older generation is beginning to wake up, now that the conversation has turned away from taxes and deficits and toward unfair apportionment of wealth. Even if the right insists it’s only hippie kids and unemployed loafers occupying financial districts around the country, they can’t deny that we are suffering a fiscal crisis not born of necessity but engineered and micromanaged by greedy elitists.
It’s becoming increasingly evident that if you are not one of the top 1%, you are considered hostile by the right, which has taken on a completely pro-corporate identity. It’s so stunning that we should probably wonder if they’re consulting Magic 8 Ball for 2012 campaign advice. As the Pubs stand against job creation, against banking reform and entitlements, and for austerity measures that will create a bleak and painful future for us all, they are backing a dead horse. It’s increasingly difficult for their own to defend them. Here are the newest numbers, showing the economy as the great equalizer in public opinion:
65% of protesters and 64% of (all) voters think government should guarantee public health care.
77% of protesters and 68% of (all) voters want to raise taxes on the wealthy.
65% of protesters and 70% of (all) voters believe government should guarantee secure retirement.
And last but hardly least, a recent CNN poll recorded 53% of Americans disapproving of the Tea Party, while a mere 28% approve, the lowest numbers tracked in the brief history of the movement. The radical-right no longer owns the silent majority in this nation.
There can be no question that the 99% are the silent majority now, and silent for so long that we forgot we had the power of numbers and the moral imperative. We are only just now finding our voice and our feet — yes, we. It’s not only kids that comprise the 99%; it’s parents and grands and greats as well. It isn’t just the progressives occupying the streets, it’s the independent voters and the conservatives and those who refuse to be labeled, demanding accountability from those who wield the power. It isn’t just the unemployed doing the demanding, it’s all those who believe this country must find its balance if it is to survive.
This protest is a cry for ethical government that can’t be bought by the highest bidder. It’s a demand for fair distribution, for rule of law, for common sense solutions. It’s a plea for an end to victimization and institutional lies. And as we listen to the newly-energized voices of this growing movement, we get the sense that at long last lies told to the American people will no longer be tolerated. At one of the Occupy events, an ex-Marine carried a sign that said, “2nd time I’ve fought for my country, 1st time I’ve known my enemy.”
The enemy is obvious now. It is the result of deeply polarized power, and the bad actors perpetrating it are the enemy that we must stand against, not government, itself. The right may tell us that government is capable of doing nothing, but we’re finally realizing that it is, instead, unfunded and obstructed government that has nothing to offer. Back in the 1960s, those of us who marched and picketed knew that the enemy was the consciousness that allowed war and profiteering to trump peace and prosperity. How is it that we forgot something so critical? How is it that we looked away? Why did we let greed get the upper hand?
We were preoccupied, of course. We turned our backs on a military industrial complex so ego-oriented and intent on privatization that it is twice as powerful today as it was when it was defined by the lyrics of The Big Muddy. We stopped fighting the corporations that were so shockingly inhuman that they never hesitated to incinerate jungles and Vietnamese civilians with white phosphorous and napalm, oblivious to destruction, pain and suffering. Were we just so self-involved that when the draft was canceled, our interest was as well? And how is it that some of us, like my Dad, allowed fears of migrant workers and jihadists and environmentalists/ecoterrorists to warp our democratic ideals?
The last e-mail Dad sent that didn’t reflect his flagging health was a sharply-worded rant about the silent majority coming together to take a stand, against what I don’t recall. I like to think that where he is now, he’s got a larger perspective, perhaps even THE larger perspective. I suspect we could agree that our differences are as nothing compared to our commonalities and our prayers for one another. And I’m pretty sure that he and I would be on the same page, finally, regarding the silent majority, the 99% who will no longer be silenced.
We, the people, ready for a sociopolitical revolution and the end of inequality. We, the human family, ready to end the separation that divides us. We, who must finally learn to love one another and our neighbor as our selves. We, a majority ready to start again.
Be, oh my yes; thank you for the summary, too. Your “lessions” are of the very best kind; it is in the way I take them, not the way you present them that your posts are “lessons”. I learn so much from you! Finding the astrology on my own is still way outside of my skills; while I piddle along trying to tune my one violin, hearing you speak is like listening to a well-practiced orchestra.
🙂
aword, please don’t fret over the ‘lesson’; I can get too carried away in describing the details of something fairly simple. It’s just all this anticipation about the ‘new’ end date for the Mayan calendar being moved up to October 28, 2011, and the big blast of solar energy expected on 11-11-11, that I’m looking for answers and clues to problems just to get a leg up on the time frame. Looking back, the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction chart of 2000 had remarkable ‘signals’ I thought, especially the location of the Moon in early Aries (near the Aries point before I even knew there was such a thing!) and now that’s where Uranus is.
Upon examining the brief period when Jupiter and Saturn will oppose one another this January, but not quite exact, it startled me to see how, in a relatively brief amount of time, Venus would make major positive contact with the two above mentioned planets, along with Neptune and Chiron. The Moon would meet her in a trine 3 days after the start of Venus’ tryst with the 4 above (masculine energy) planets while at the same time she, the Moon, would be making similar contacts with Mars, Sun, Uranus, Neptune and Chiron. When the goddesses meet in a trine in early Pisces and Scorpio, they will have connected with all the major (yang) planets just as Jupiter and Saturn begin to separate from their closest contact, a 3 day event. It seemed a balancing of energies – yin to yang, at this half-way mark in the cycle, the ‘full-moon’ point where all is revealed and could possibly provide a way to move forward from our country’s deadlock opposition. The timing is perfect if only the puppets don’t get their strings tangled.
be
{xoLOVEox}
I AM “this” close. I can feel “it” expanding. Moments like your word-gifts help define and shape that expansion. THANK YOU for your shout-out to me and the Universe; and yes, the “it” is my voice. Mine. My Own. I think it might even have something useful to say. ‘) Thanks, Jude – with all my heart.
Be – I’m going to plow through your astro lesson here today; too much for yesterday. I suspect there are some fine clues to my personal-puzzle’n’path there as well. There always are!
Brendan, I enjoy reading your posts – you as my fellow moon/eris conjunct! Ya, my folks are “liberal” too. Interesting how these definitions have shifted. Mom’s Libra had a coldness against Dad’s Pisces desires. I’ve not studied their charts — only now I’m looking and see the moon conjunct that Libra sun of hers – and a Libra stellium that includes Merc retro and Mars — Sun exactly opposing Uranus. Hm. I’ll have to give more looky-lou to the parental natal charts.
XOs all.
My folks are not of the Greatest Generation: they were teenagers during the war and were thus bystanders. He recalls far too many WW2 vets as having “holier than thou” mindsets, meaning they felt they were the intended rulers. Others he recalls as being much more modest and only interested in having a normal life. One of his own uncles didn’t come back from the Pacific, and that pains him still.
Oddly, they are both fairly liberal, never watch Fox News, preferring MSNBC (they greatly miss KO). My mother has always been very liberal (a reaction to her mother’s mindless conservatism), my dad evolving over the years from moderate Repub.
He’s entered the curmudgeon stage of life, but instead of yelling “get off my lawn!” would rather say instead “get off my planet!” to the R’s. He’s Pisces, mom’s a Cancer.
I’m not sure where they stand in regards to OWS; I think they sympathize but doubt the efficacy of the movement. They were the Quiet Generation, too busy with kids and life during the 50’s and 60’s to do much more than wish the Vietnam War would go away and my brothers not have to go (they didn’t).
They know already which way they’ll vote, given the incredible differences next year. They’re still silent, but they make small contributions to progressive candidates when they can, and will vote for the future, not some dubious ‘past.’
Be, you startled me with that moniker — I had a Carnac the Magnificent moment! LOL! As well, I’ve marked that date on my calendar. I love fireworks!
And word, you are partly right: it was political. But I never write politics except as a direct reflection of current consciousness, my dampened finger to the emotional winds. And this essay was as much about my Dad and his generation — all our dad’s was what I had in mind when I wrote it — as it was about the machinations we face politically.
Late in my Dad’s life, when I came to his emotional aide, he told me that if he couldn’t have had a son, he was grateful that he had me. I just laughed. He hadn’t acknowledged — and probably didn’t realize — that I spent my first twenty or so years trying to BE that son. As a result, I learned so much more than my peers, and then went on to be a terrific daughter. Dad always told me that I could be whatever I wanted to be, although — a product of his generation — I’m not sure he believed it. And that didn’t matter, because I DID believe.
I know you’ve had a hard time this go-round, Linda, with male energy. As you describe your father, and his preoccupation with (small-s) self, it occurs to me that you listened to the wrong opinion. You should have only listened to your own. And if that voice fails to rise above a whisper from time to time, then listen to mine: you’re FABULOUS! AMAZING! You are God/dess, godding! You are Light!
Once you accept that about yourself, truly and humbly and with absolute clarity (which is Self with a capital-S,) you will stop “battling with rage and struggling with love.” You will simply find yourself filled with compassion for these male beings, so confused and ego-bound that they must try to steal your considerable power in order to compensate for the lack of their own. Take that to the bank … I can feel how CLOSE you are to breakthrough on this … and love ya back, Ms. word.
To the others of you, thanks for playing this week — it is such a joy to share your thoughts and wisdom and process. We’re all so blessed to have found one another!
Jude,
My dad (yep, Pluto in Cancer) has fallen into the hole dug by his father; all about Self and nothing more. I experienced much of this my entire life although as a young adult I grew to understand that many people had been given an opportunity to view him differently – as an activist and advocate for the civil rights movement. I wanted him for my Hero, but in a child’s eyes, he failed me in every way imaginable.
What I managed to do as an adult then, of course, was to re-create an overtly abusive life-style for myself, with a man who more than resembled grandpa, dad and brother. I had learned well the role of subservient, stupid “nothing”. A woman; one for whom there was no value. Intellectually, I am still incredulous that this mind-set “still exists”.
Dad has just completed his first book; to me it is a self-involved gathering of jibberish (all the sermons he longed to preach as a failed minister); to him – a victory. I battle with rage and struggle with love. (Is there Karma at work here? Both GPa and dad are fellow Pisces. lol.)
Thank you for sharing once again the depth of your person. I know this article was about politics. For me then, it was deeply personal and about the man called “Dad”.
8 ball says, “Without a doubt”, “yes- definitely”, “you may rely on it.”
Linda says, “Thank you – and much Love”.
xo
Thank you oh wise one. We often read about the rise of the suppressed feminine, not to overpower but to balance and re-distribute the dichotomy in our present level of evolution. Even old traditional practices like astrology are accommodating this phenomonen, making it a joy to study and (re)learn the meanings of the symbols.
I am especially awed by the strength of the feminine archtype, both in men and women, during these difficult times as well as in the astrology. Both writers and readers at PW seem so balanced and in harmony, even through their personal trials challenge them. It is a refreshing and welcome change from the past. Please keep bringing us your view of the metamorphosis as it constantly progresses.
I remarked earlier on the ‘almost’ opposition between Saturn and Jupiter and the subtle influence the goddesses (Moon and Venus) were having at that moment. Upon further examination, a specific time during the near-opposition, 1/13/12, 4:15 AM EST, also added the deeper element of spirituality and evolution by placing the transiting Moon (13 Virgo 34) at the midpoint between the north node (13 Sag 34) and south node (13 Gemini 34) as it approached transiting Mars (on the MH of a Washington, DC chart)
This would place the Moon at the south bending, an inward expression as well as a giving-away of the energy of (in this case) the Moon, much like the influence of the south node. In a period of 3 days and 3 hours both the Moon and Venus will lend their special receptivity to the major masculine planets; Mars, Sun, Saturn, Neptune, Jupiter, Chiron, Pluto and Uranus. Mercury, who is considered both masculine and feminine will also be conjunct Pluto. It is a harmonious blending of inner planet and outer planet energy; the personal and the political and the global; the masculine and the feminine energy, all of which should really reflect some intense and profound experiences for all who are conscious enough to do so.
be
This era is folding. It has been centuries of experience exploring the myriad wrinkles of authority and control and it is — with fits and starts — finally giving way. What we see with the frightened seniors and the belligerent conservatives is, I think, an inability to wrap their minds around what has happened to [actual, as opposed to their version of] reality and what is going to happen next. We were all, at the end of the last decade, working at peak, top of the food chain; we knew the 3D game, we knew how to make it work for us, how to abide by its rules and find its loopholes.
When Bush came along to preside over the necessary dissolution of that “gimme” consciousness, marked by the Greed Is Good mantra, those who saw that as the ultimate sign of human success and power had his back. Those of us who knew there was something else coming, that knew blowing everything out of proportion was a necessary step in the shift, made a valiant attempt at mop up and crowd control. We were … and are … ahead of the group consciousness that has yet to let go of what is no longer working; the “new way” is being created BY US as we speak.
We’re creating a new blueprint. I don’t expect many of the Greatest Generation will find it a comfortable fit. They WERE the very best 3D had to offer but now we’re going somewhere new and ultimately, many seem unable, or perhaps simply unwilling, to make the shift. We were warned that would happen; and there will be many leaving the planet, unable to accept or embrace the truths that must inevitably surface in the coming years about government, religion, science. Unless we can do the inner work that allows us to redefine OURSELVES, we won’t be flexible enough. The brittle-boned will not endure to help make the changes on this plane.
Thanks, be, for connecting our planetary dots! Thanks, Jann, for the gentle energy and thanks to fluidity for an entertaining and interesting link.
Wonderful, Jude, thanks for another poignant and always-timely essay. My folks were part of the Greatest Generation too, and I like you and so many others, have seen the change over time in a parent from hero/heroine to just a typical member of society, a person with narrow and guarded viewpoints. It probably happens to us all in some fashion to some degree as we ‘evolve’; aspects of the whole person, once buried and unconscious gradually come to the surface, and the aging process can put one in a position of seeming powerlessness. Fear of course breeds contempt.
We are so lucky today to have such a wide choice of avenues to learn more about the world we live in, but greatly challenged to pick the truth from the non-truth. Too often our own weaknesses and those of our societies, will steer us in the wrong direction until something catastrophic forces us to face the truth. Thank goodness we are in such a time right now.
Sometimes overlooked in these momentous astrological times, the 20 year cycle of Jupiter and Saturn can reveal the specific social patterns we need to be conscious of and even to take part in. In 2000, Jupiter was conjunct Saturn in Taurus and Taurus is about money, comfort, excess, luxury, building and values, and this new cycle will be marking the end of an even bigger cycle where the two planets that represent society move from their 20 year meetings in earth signs and into air signs for many years.
In the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction chart of May 2000, Uranus squared that conjunction from Aquarius, and the south node was conjunct the U.S. Sibly Pluto. Ah hah you say, that IS revealing; A revolution in our future. Well, in that chart the Moon was at 2 Aries, where Uranus sits today, just waiting for the signal to lead the charge forward. Pluto and Chiron were conjunct too at that time in Sagittarius, very near the U.S. Sibly chart ascendant. How did we miss or forget that for Pete’s sake? It was announcing to us that it was time to let go of old financial structures (south node to natal Pluto in Cap in 2nd house) and transform the way we see ourselves (Chiron and Pluto on the ascendant).
We have completed the half-way mark of the cycle begun in 2000 and which will start anew in Aquarius in late 2020. The exact oppositions between transiting Jupiter and Saturn have shown us (and not just Americans of course, but the whole world) where we stand and what we need to do before that new cycle begins. However, around January 14th in 2012, less than 3 months from now, we might see some action that motivates us to move forward in the promised revolution.
At that time Jupiter in Taurus will be one degree past 29 Aries and Saturn will be arc minutes away from reaching 29 Libra, an opposition that isn’t quite exact but will be the closest they come to one until the next cycle. It’s now or never. . maybe. Venus will conjunct Neptune in the last degree of Aquarius just after she trines Saturn, then slide into Pisces where she will conjunct Chiron just after she sextiles Jupiter. She’s all about love and money, Venus is, and she’s talking one last time to the big boys; sweet-talking them if you will. The Moon will conjunct Mars in Virgo for some practical action then trine the Sun in Capricorn to carve it into stone. The goddesses will do it their way.
If not, then batten down the hatches for Uranus will surely make it happen the hard way, no sweet talk from him. Change will come be it through partnership and persuasion (Venus), or the emotionally charged (Moon) power (Sun-Mars) of concrete reality (earth signs), or finally the defiant and determined single-minded ‘mob’ force behind Uranus’, now direct (since Dec 10th), transformative energy. Man your stations ladies.
be
In addition to health care and retirement, we need to address education, infrastructure and basic public safety services. Permeating all of that is a healthy and clean environment, without which the rest don’t matter. Evironmental issues can be the launching point for all the rest. But there is so much to be undone, that it is easy to be discouraged.
How did our/my generation lose sight of those issues, lose sight of “war is not healthy for children and other living things”? Yes, self-absorbtion (fostered by a generation that idealistically wanted us to be safe, to have it better than they did) was a major factor. But, I also think that we may have been pushed to that by the carrot and stick of the politics and culture of the time. The carrot was the lure of endless consumerism (remember “he who dies with the most stuff wins”?) pitched to us as the “American dream.” The stick(s) were events such as Kent State and the Chicago Democratic Convention, sending the clear message that if you don’t conform you could be shot or dragged through the system until hell froze over. And, of course, there were the political assassinations of the era.
The carrot and the sticks don’t justify the ego-driven, self-absorbed decades that we allowed to happen. I’m not sure I know what we can do to atone, but a good start is to no longer be silent, and to go out to the streets and be a presence in protest to all of these issues. It also means to no longer be silent when confronted with superficial, twisted rhetoric. It means responding and not reacting, but gently trying to show that there is another perspective. None of this means that any what we say will be heard, but it certainly won’t be heard if it isn’t said.
We are going to have to dig deep – way, way, way deep – to get to the roots of the evil that has permeated everything. We have to remember that we aren’t powerless and the first step is consciousness of what is really happening.
Thanks, Judith, for the reminders and the wakeup call, along with the assurance that we are ready to start again. If we are ready, we can reclaim and restore and reinvent a life that is more humane and compassionate, and honestly acknowledge our connections with each other and the love that is that connection.
Occupy!
JannKinz
“the enemy is obvious now”: i like the way this guy puts it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9zkQcLi4Yo
‘as obvious as a 3-card monty setup’