It’s Just Not Possible

Since when have human beings developed this belief that no one in power could possibly be corrupt, or have ulterior motives to benevolent governance? It seems impossible for them to believe a politician could be a “bad guy”—only Donald Trump seems worthy of this sentiment. And why is that? What did he do so bad that he is looked upon as being practically inhuman in his ugliness? Grab pussies?

This is one of the greatest mysteries of our time, and I cannot even begin to get a handle on it. I grew up in the ‘60s and ‘70s, and back then there was probably not a single thing the government could do that people trusted. Sure, it was mostly the young people who couldn’t trust the government as far as they could throw them, but by the time the Watergate scandal reached its peak and Tricky Dick Nixon left the office of president in disgrace, nearly everyone, at least in the US, was questioning the legitimacy of our leaders.

Can you imagine many young people today even caring for a second what the government is up to? Yes, some do, but quite a few don’t. We were so idealistic in the ‘60s, ‘70s, and even the ‘80s. Antiestablishmentarianism was the big word of the day. What in the hell happened? I see a lot of young people in my practice, and I have to say nearly every one of them does not give a gnat’s ass about any of this sort of thing. That is pretty scary if you ask me.

(Now, I know this is my anecdotal experience and does not apply to all under ‘30s everywhere . . . considering the protests happening on college campuses these days at least there are some who are concerned about something.)

How about my adult clients?

I have many who have had very abusive upbringings. The stories they tell about their parents can be quite frightening. Some of them recognize their parents have serious issues—this is usually the case if the abuse was extreme. But many of them say they deserved whatever harsh punishment they received, or that their parents were “doing the best they could” at raising three defiant brats.

This sort of across-the-board forgiveness and tolerance of parental abuse is similar to how people view their government these days. It is as if they have handed over responsibilities to their government to take care of them and they have to “give them a break” if they mess up here and there.

“What other choices did they have?” people say, or “They are doing the best they can considering the circumstances.”

There seems to be no distinction between normal incompetence and evil, conscious, corruption. If a shortcoming is not conscious, it doesn’t matter what the consequences are, it is forgiven. I mean, Dad wasn’t an evil person, he just couldn’t handle all the pressures that were on him. If he felt compelled to beat his kids senseless once in a while, well, what can you say about that? Give him a break. It isn’t easy being a dad, it isn’t easy being a president, or a prime minister.

I actually had someone tell me once that he could forgive Biden for his shortcomings because he had a dog, whereas Trump did not, so he is an evil ass—Biden could not be evil because of his love for his dog. I have to admit there is some psychological validity in this assessment, but come on, Hitler was known to love his dog, Blondi, and that obviously did not mellow out, or excuse, his behaviour.

I do believe this parental acceptance concept is at work here. When we reach a certain level of maturity we develop an empathy for our parents’ evil acts—primarily because unless your parents were psychopaths, most of their shortcomings were not intentionally evil. Does that mean they should be forgiven for their actions? Maybe to a certain degree they can be, depending on the abuse. Should a politician be forgiven in the same manner? Absolutely not.

Primarily because they are not our parents. The soul connection between an elected official and those electing them should not be an influencing factor at all, in fact, there should be no heart/soul connection with an elected official. They are not our friends, family, lovers—or parents. They are objective custodians who we have put in place in order to do our bidding. If they fail, they should be treated as failures and as betrayers of the trust we bestowed upon them.

The other reason they should not be forgiven as parents might be forgiven is because most of the wrongdoing they do is conscious, intentional, and often downright evil. They can be psychopaths, and psychopaths should never be forgiven if they hurt you—they should be held responsible for their actions.

We have a bit of the Stockholm Syndrome happening here as well. Which can be largely explained in the same way I have just explained the parent/child, politician/child phenomenon. We are all captives of totalitarian factions. Those of us who are not psychologically manipulated by our captors fight against them. They are the enemy. We can see them as evil, or at the very least, not in support of our greater good as free human beings. Those who are psychologically manipulated may fall into the Stockholm Syndrome, which will suggest that they see their captors as friends, benevolent, and empathic. They develop compassionate feelings toward them and form a positive psychological bond.

The captors, however, at least in the context of this article, do not care at all about their captives. One reason is because there are typically millions of people they are holding as prisoners! They cannot form any sort of personal bond with them. The people who are enthralled with celebrities often think the celebrity sees them (their fans) the same way the fan sees the celebrity.

Obviously, they do not. Politicians see their constituents as the movie star and rock star see their fans, much like the rest of us would see ants. They see us as millions of useless bugs they have no connection with at all, certainly not as fellow human beings. Are all celebrities and politicians like this? Probably not. At one time I would say very few were, but I am not so sure anymore. Considering all that has happened in the world recently, I think it is safer to believe they pretty much are all like this, as frightening as that prospect is.

A regular person stepping on ants at a picnic is considered justified in doing so, the ants are invading their pleasure sitting in the grass having a picnic. Is that considered evil? By some, maybe, but not by most. They are ants, after all, why should we care about ants?

The politicians and those in power I am speaking of think of everyone they have power over as no more than ants. They have a goal they want to achieve, and in so doing they may kill a handful of ants, so what? The goal is what is important to them. We don’t go around with a flamethrower searching for ants minding their own business to incinerate. But if they get in our way, if they block us from achieving our goals (having a bugless picnic, or a clean kitchen) then we wipe them out without a thought in the world.

Same situation with these people and how they see us…

And why does the average person not believe this sort of thing is possible? Yes, it is pretty extreme to believe that the very people who have such control over our lives may see us as useless ants, but considering recent actions, it is about the only thing that makes any sense. This is not only true with politicians, but true with corporations that control our lives in some way—Big Pharma, hospitals, food, water, medicine, even doctors themselves. It is a nightmare.

And yes, it can happen—it is happening. And so few of us can even say it is possible. Evil and corruption among those who have power is not only possible but is clearly probable. It always has been, and always will be. We just used to be more savvy, more aware, and maybe a tad smarter in how we dealt with it.

Not anymore.

Todd Hayen PhD is a registered psychotherapist practicing in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He holds a PhD in depth psychotherapy and an MA in Consciousness Studies. He specializes in Jungian, archetypal, psychology. Todd also writes for his own substack, which you can read here

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