Lost In, and Hidden By, the Election

[I first published the following in 2004, but I'm reminded of it every time we near an election. I think it's one of the most important things I've ever written. So I'm offering it again.]

What will be the deciding factor in the elections? So many people have been spending so much energy saying so many of the same old slogans to so many habitual "undecideds” that a lot of really important stuff has got to be getting lost in the rhetorical shuffle.

-The election will be decided on issues and substance (if "our" guy wins)
-The election will be decided on fear, anger or deception (if "their" guy wins)

Those are the two main schools of thought. I’d like to add one more, one that gets virtually no attention at all in the world of public policy hype. This election, as well as several if not all previous ones, might just be decided by - please! I beg for your brief indulgence - spirits.

That word is cumbersome because, like the words flu and religion, it has so many definitions that it is easily manipulated. It appears in front of liquor stores as in, "Wine and Spirits." It is heard at high school pep rallies, which are now called "spirit rallies." Or we hear that someone has a lot of "spirit," as in spunk or energy. Then of course, there are the TV preachers with their Holy and various unholy spirits. But what possible role do spirits play in politics? A very big one, I think.

There are some provocative common threads in the examples I just gave. The booze drinker becomes, in various combinations, looser, sillier or angrier, less bothered, more confident, and eventually, sleepy. Significantly, the condition is not simply physical, emotional or intellectual. The effect of drinking alcohol, and especially of drunkenness, is what we might call a holistic one. Alcohol gets to your essence, wherever that is. We might say that alcohol changes one's "spirit" - one’s indefinable center of gravity. That is why it is called a spirit. To drink it is to, let us say, invite in a new spirit, perhaps along with a new year.

Likewise with a pep rally; what is going on there? Through various chants, cheers, mildly ritualistic bodily movements, and inspirational speeches, students drum up a sort of group identity and group focus which motivates them toward some action, often defeating the other team (!). Much of the effect is conscious and planned, but as with alcohol, there is also a great deal going on beneath the surface. Though pep rallies are usually harmless, it is worth noting that, down through history, similar behaviors have created volatile mobs and irrational frenzies more than once.

In short , the effect is not unlike that produced by alcohol, except that the energies or forces are of a different kind, and there is more group reinforcement. Still, the general tone of the psyche is changed: semi-conscious thoughts are gathered and focused in a certain direction, strong feelings are stirred, and certain inhibitions are dispensed with.

With all this in mind, let me offer a possible contemporary definition for the word spirit, one that accounts for the whole range of nuanced meaning, whether referring to alcohol, pep rallies, energetic children, TV preachers or psychoanalysis.

Spirits are any of various powerful, largely subconscious impulses within people that, crossing ordinary physical, psychological or social boundaries, express themselves inevitably in one’s behavior.

What will decide the election? I want to suggest spirits as a possible subject for consideration. Honestly, I do not see an election as all that rational or conscious a process - for anyone. Do you? If it is so rational, why do most people say they hate negative campaigning when the professionals know negative campaigning “works”? Why would it be so important, as it clearly is, for media types to repeat the same talking points over and over again long after we can repeat them in our sleep? How could there be so many undecided voters when candidates seem so diametrically opposed? What makes otherwise normal people stand in the rain on freeway overpasses, waving and holding up signs, when all of us, no matter who we vote for, always end up disillusioned a year later? How can we get so excited about lawyers, who we despise and ridicule on a daily basis, just because they want to run for office and become even more unaccountable?

I suggest that, largely without our conscious participation, we are imbibing some mysterious booze; we are surrounding ourselves with some covert pep rally. Is there a better way to explain the most disturbing fact of every election season?: with almost no thought, most of us are certain that our own point of view is best, yet all we know of the other side are the usual over-simplifications, half-truths and bogeymen. Would we allow ourselves such blatant stupidity in any other area of our lives (not including sex)?

I don’t think it’s a conspiracy, not in the usual sense of the term, because I think everyone - everyone - is being fooled by it. Through our choice of television shows, films, magazines, websites, books, music, school and church, through our chosen friends and social environments and workplaces - we are spirited in a certain direction.

To me, it's the major reason why governments can never seem to solve one problem without creating another one.