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Thursday, October 09, 2008

Seductress or Smalltown girl?

Masks, like the hero or martyr, the seductress or good woman, can fool us. It takes being aware they exist to effectively recognize them, assessing who the people really are behind those masks. The following came in my email and fit well into something, on which I have been thinking-- archetypes.

Debbie Ford wrote this explaining the Seductress. I think it's worth reading. From Debbie Ford's Shadow Blog her email newsletter:

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Is she a Smalltown girl or a Seductress?

After my first and only political Shadow Blog, I received more mail from my readers than I've received in my entire career. Thank you for your overwhelming response. Obviously, my message gave voice to what many of you were already feeling. I apologize once again to those of you I've offended. (If you were offended by the last one, don't be a masochist. Close this one now as you're certainly going to be offended by this one as well.) Even at the risk of losing more of my readers, I feel compelled to continue to share my views on the upcoming election because we've got one of the best shadow figures -- literally -- that we've seen in a long time. And being a shadow lover, I just can't pass it up. We're all very lucky that this election gives us an unprecedented opportunity to see the shadow in all its disguises and all its glory. I would be remiss to ignore it.

This week, like most of you, I sat glued to my TV watching the Vice Presidential debate. Within three minutes and after the first wink, I became fascinated once again with Sarah Palin. I asked myself, "What is the deal with this woman? Why is she winking at me? Is she flirting with me?" I had to take a deep breath because I noticed this queasy feeling growing in the pit of my stomach.

Then it flashed before me. I recognized her. I had met her before, in many forms, and here she was again. All of the sudden, it dawned on me that the reason I was having this reaction is because Sarah Palin is the living expression of The Seductress, one of the 20 masks, the faces of the wounded ego, that I outline in my latest book. Of course I felt disturbed -- she was working me right through my HDTV!

In Why Good People Do Bad Things, I suggest that those who don the mask of The Seductress are after one thing and one thing only: to make themselves feel better about who they are by getting whatever they might be after. Birthed out of the fear that they are not good enough, loved enough, or smart enough, they search until they find suitable targets to trap in their energetic webs -- in the case of Sarah Palin, first the citizens of the great state of Alaska and now the entire country.

I consider The Seductress a predator because her main goal is to feed on the self-esteem of others in order to soothe her own emotional wounds. The Seductress literally throws out an energetic hook by being kind, loving, interested, sexual and, in this case, folksy -- luring her victims closer, all the while planning her next move. She spends her time thinking about how she looks, how others will perceive her, how she can win, and how she can get more of what she's after. The Seductress' "catch" enhances her inner perception of herself and covers, at least for the moment, the enormous pain and self-loathing that are stored in her psyche.

In my book, "dangerous, poisonous, and venomous" are the qualities I use to describe The Seductress because her main attack is disguised in love and, in this instance, service. Her signal broadcasts in all directions, sometimes loudly and at other times as a soft whisper: "I will give you some love and take care of you if you give me your power. I am going to make you feel better about yourself if you give me some control. I am going to tell you everything you ever wanted to hear if you just make me the next Vice President of the United States of America."

Can we as a nation afford to fall under the spell of Sarah Palin and give her what she wants? I would suggest that the cost is too high for all of us. No amount of twisting ("Oh Joe you're going backwards again," she croons) will be able to distract us from who she is, what she believes, what she's really after, and what it would cost us if she and McCain are elected. This is not a beauty or a personality contest. This is not a time to pick someone because of their smile, their style, their charisma, their down-home cloak, or their biting tongue. Instead, this is a time to dissect who Sarah Palin is -- her views, her experience (or in this case her inexperience), and how she lives her life. She will, if elected the next Vice President, be a role model for our daughters, sons and future generations. We must look at her carefully, behind her smiling, cute, winking persona. We must take off her very hip glasses (not her clothes, gentlemen!) to see what's hidden there. We must ask ourselves, "Does this woman have the ability to govern the greatest nation in the world?"

Although many will argue that we must stop focusing on Palin, it's vital that we take a closer look because she is a microcosm of the narrow, outdated views of the Republican Party. I'm not even going to talk about her choice to drag her four-month-old special needs child around the country to big events to prove that she's a good mother except to ask if she had a healthy baby, would she be dragging it around all night? You do have to wonder since most of us mothers know that their child shouldn't be in big public places with tens of thousands of people at 10:00 at night.

Instead, let's look at her choice to use her sexuality to lure innocent voters and hearts into her web. Rather than choosing to reflect the brilliance, the smarts, the power, or the merit she must obviously possess (even if hidden from view from some of us), she winks and flirts, reinforcing all the things for which women are mocked and not taken seriously in the political arena. Can you even imagine powerful female leaders like Indira Gandhi, Golda Meir, or Margaret Thatcher winking at an audience? Here's what I'd like to say to Sarah Palin right now, from one pretty woman to another: Stop it! I know you want to take away our right to choose but do you really have to minimize our equality just to get votes? (And for those who of you who are now mad at me and projecting on me, for the record, I have never winked at an audience, although maybe I should try it since she's getting 15,000 people at her events.)

The choice of Sarah Palin as a running mate tells us loud and clear what kind of man "the maverick" John McCain is. Is he someone who diligently seeks to find the best person to take his place in the unfortunate circumstance of his death? Is he the kind of man that surrounds himself with brilliant thinkers of tomorrow who promise to take us out of the dark age of war, hate, and economic disaster? Or is he the kind of hungry politician who would sell his and his nation's soul just to win? We should all take a big exhale because John McCain's shadow has been exposed. He has proven not to be the hero of our time but instead an egocentric opportunist in search of the ultimate power. In one of the most important decisions of his political career, he picked an inexperienced woman because he believed that she could help him win over the Hillary Clinton voters. We all know this. Does he really think American women are that stupid? That we can't see the motives behind this irresponsible choice?

And on a final note, if you're not convinced that she would not be the best choice, Sarah Palin told us all loud and clear Thursday night, looking straight into the camera, that the only thing that matters is that we win this war. Not that we bring our troops home safely. Not that we heal the hatred that permeates our world. She didn't speak of justice, fairness or the good of all people. Because she is a good Seductress, all she wants is to win.

My friends, we must join together to pull off the blinders for those who are sucked into the trance of this now very famous and potentially very dangerous Seductress. If you're not registered to vote, register today and make it your duty to find just one unregistered person to invite into this most important election.

20 comments:

Sylvia K said...

A really great post! True and scary as hell! I just keep asking myself, what do people see in this woman when she is so obvious -- at least to me and undoubtedly many others. Lets just hope there are enough people that see through her winks and down home giberish to make certain she does not end up anywhere near the White House let along in it!

Darlene said...

I never thought about that aspect of Sarah's personality before, but Debbie Ford has her pegged.

She is Circe luring the naive fools in.

Joy Des Jardins said...

Amen, Amen, Amen. How could it be so obvious to so many of us....and not to everyone. I can only hope it becomes obvious to more and more Americans before they make their final decision in November.

Fran aka Redondowriter said...

Absolutely fascinating post with symbolism and archetypes right down my alley. As I was reading the words of Debbie Ford I immediately visualized the sirens in mythology. I went to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siren

How incredibly revealing about seeing the shadow up close and personal. She's dressed like a business woman, but her body language and her words are directly manipulative--a spider luring the fly into the trap. I think I'll do a SoulCollage card about Debbie's insights.

Incidentally, a very conservative male friend of mine (who is funny as hell and the stereotype of a Sicilian mafioso) was watching Palin with other men friends--including my ex. B. said they said, "Whoa; that is one good looking and sexy woman." And she is that; I should look so good. Men stereotypically are lured by the siren, but don't women usually see reality behind the smoke and mirrors? I guess not.

Anonymous said...

If Obama wins, we will IMPEACH as quickly as possible.
Should be easy with his relationships with radicals.

clairz said...

I saw a woman on the news who said she believed that Sarah would be the best choice because "she's so pretty!"

Seductress or small town girl? Dangerous inciter, I'd say--someone who should remind her foaming-at-the-mouth crowds that it's not okay to threaten death to the opposition.

But, then, maybe that's okay with her. Can you imagine her as a head of state, whipping up crowds and winking?

Anonymous said...

This was a very thought-provoking post. Thank you for it. I have said a time or two that I am grateful for McCain choosing Palin as his running mate. Not because of wanting either of them to lead our land, but because it has added spice to the election and endlessly boring details. I still think Barack Obama has the intelligence and class to do the job well and a wife that would help him. They are both class acts.

Rain Trueax said...

Just out of curiosity, Liz, are you getting all your information from fox or talk radio?

Anonymous said...

Both.
As I said IF he gets elected, we will move to IMPEACH.
ACORN, Ayers, Wright, name your fav terrorist, he's cavorted with 'em.

Anonymous said...

Why do some Americans, in particular "Liz" feel so threatened by Barack Obama? I wonder which aspect of his being and politics stimulated such enormous fear?

Rain Trueax said...

Good question, Ainelivia. I don't know but it's been unleashed by the right wing talk radio and media like fox but some newspapers, who have one set of talking points that wherever you hear these people, it's what they say. Who is pulling those strings? Is it someone behind the scenes that we don't even see. It has worked with a certain group though.

There is a video out which likely I will put on the blog at some point showing these people at a Palin/McCain rally and they all think the same way, like they have been trained in their responses but not knowing why. Obama is a terrorist to them. Logic doesn't work because they think what they want. Is it bigotry, fear of a black man as a president from people who don't know a lot of blacks or those they did know weren't nice to them? I don't know.

Recently McCain ran up against it himself when he said that Obama was a decent man, that he admired what he had accomplished, and nobody to fear as president. His own crowd booed him. He wasn't saying what they wanted to hear.

Palin doesn't know much of anything; so she spouts out what she is told to say but she comes from a militia, secessionist thinking background in Alaska, and maybe she's more one of them than her more cultured way of speaking, which she can use, would indicate. Maybe she is only using it as her way to power.

Liz, they won't impeach him because none of those stories you are talking about are impeachable offenses. Sitting in a church and listening to a weird pastor is something that Palin has also done. Did you hear that pastor up there, when she was in church, saying that banks should be taken from the Israelis by Christians. Money is in the hands of the wrong people. That was very close to bigoted talk if not out and out. Her husband being in a group who wants to secede from the US, that's not exactly patriotism as we would see it generally at least not to anything but Alaska. You won't mind her abuse of power but you might if it's turned against you someday and people who abuse power will turn it to their own advantage, not yours unless you are to their advantage.

Oh yeah, and unless you are in the Congress, your desire to see Obama impeached won't happen. I know about this because a LOT of us have wanted to see Bush impeached for what would be impeachable offenses like getting us into a war that we had no business fighting, like lying to the American people, like spying on Americans and not related to terrorism, like torture, secret prisons, appointing inept people to offices simply to pay off political debts, and the list can go on but Congress wouldn't do it. Even a lot of Democrats had had enough of distractions from dealing with the real problem which was a building al Qaeda.

If they had not impeached Clinton in the 90s for a blow job maybe both the Houses and the president would have bee concentrating on our real threat. To me they should have impeached Bush for abuse of power that mattered but Congress didn't have the stomach for it...

And when we see the new government in January, the Democrats are likely to control both houses and maybe by veto proof majorities, which means if McCain wins (and never underestimate the power of fear of the 'other'); he will really have to work with the Congress to do anything.

To me, I'd turn over both houses regularly and not give power to one party of the other; so if Obama wins, he will have maybe 2 years to show he is different than the others and really get things down. If he abuses that power (and I don't mean by impeachable offenses, the man is a constitutional scholar, he knows what that would be), he won't have that majority in 2010. People are sick of what they see around them and there is blame to go around to both parties.

I hope you vote and stay informed, Liz. Try reading some newspapers that aren't right leaning, turn on CNN or MSNBC sometimes to hear the other side of what you are getting from fox. And Ed Schultz, from Fargo North Dakota, is good for radio. He'll skewer either side and there are no talking points on his radio show.

What I fear is the anger that has been aroused by Palin/McCain and what that might lead to. When McCain tried to stop it, it wasn't under his control. He has to say what the mob wants to hear or they will turn on him too (and I give him full credit that he spoke the truth at that rally because that did take courage when you so clearly had that bunch not wanting to hear it).

This country truly is divided and in a more ugly way after these 8 years of Bush with one set of people, like me, not understanding at all the other set, like Liz. I don't know if it can ever come together. :(

As Obama said, it's easy to stir up anger but that isn't going to fix the problems we face today.

Diane Widler Wenzel said...

Again I am thinking about a book, A NATION BETRAYED written by a missionary to China, Charles Shepard. I speculate that Liz and right wing Conservatives are being propagandized by purposeful professional agitatores from this and other countries. They are weak and unlikely to win so they have only the mostsneaky options. I don't know who they are because they are hidden. The Democratic candiates must not delve into this area because once they make accusations they will further polarize the nation. But the people who do not like Democracy use religious and governmental puppets who may not be aware that they are being used. The enemies of Democracy want to distroy Democracy. That is my speculation that history repeats itself and we are experiencing what Germany and China went through in the early 20th century.

Ingineer66 said...

It sounds like she is a female Bill Clinton except she does not sleep with every man she meets.

Rain Trueax said...

I think there is a difference, ingineer. I don't defend people like Clinton or JFK who want sex with women without caring for them BUT what this woman is doing is using her sexuality to attract people to her when she has no intention of fulfilling what she is promising. My father called that a tease when it's on the personal level and when it's someone like her, who has a hidden agenda (the militia movement across this country), she's worse than a tease. She is manipulative and hiding her real self. Clinton was out front that he was a sexual predator and he wasn't kidding around. It wasn't to get the votes. It was to get the sex. Don't you see a difference in what Palin is doing? She is at best a fraud. (there is btw a story out that she has had at least one affair; so I might be wrong and maybe she comes through. I wouldn't care about that. I care more about what the hidden agenda of this woman and group is. Some say she's an Esther (from her religious movement). I say she's more of a Jezebel.

Ingineer66 said...

I was referring to Clinton playing the sax on Arsenio and his talking about boxers or briefs on MTV. He seduced the American people into voting for him. It is what many politicians do. But because Governor Palin is a Republican you think she is the Anti-
Christ. I find it funny that many of the talking heads on TV that are attacking Mrs. Palin are the same ones that think that any criticism of Obama is racism.

Rain Trueax said...

So you think she is competent to be president just because she's a Republican? I think Bush seduced Americans into thinking he was as cowboy when he was anything but. There is a difference though and if you can't see it, I suspect you don't want to see it. Fox loves her; so don't know who you think is calling her the antichrist. but what the other stations do is show her speaking, her actual comments. Guess that's unfair?

Here's what her own people think of her-- Break the Back. Try watching that video and tell me this woman is who you want to see be the next president? If their god is taking her this far, as these people believe, he'll get rid of McCain sooner than later.

Personally I don't see anybody as the antichrist but worry a lot more about a militia loving, christianist, who sees herself as god's chosen one, than I guess you do. You might just get what you want if you vote for McCain. It is kind of amazing, you people who still support the right wing after what they have done to this country. A lot of people who think they have government pensions just might find those gone with the ones the rest of us used to think we had. And you still support that son of a ----- or someone who will follow his path into destruction or worse.

You know I would have thought by now you would have seen the way the right has been going is totally wrong and be voting for the left to give it a chance. It can't do worse than Bush and his buddies have done with Paulson in there protecting his cohorts and letting others go bankrupt. You still trust them though and that's amazing.

Ingineer66 said...

Come on Rain don't start with the attacks. I am not happy with many of the things the Bush Administration has done. But the Republicans tried to reign in the financial crisis a few years ago and the Dems killed the increased regulation and clearly wanted to keep things just the way they were which led to the Mortgage Meltdown.
And I am getting my information on attacks on Palin from leftwing talk TV. As for who I would like to see in the Whitehouse I wanted Mitt Romney, having been a business and government leader he could have lead us through the current financial crisis.

Rain Trueax said...

I don't even know who the left wing radio would be. Ed Schultz? He's the only one I listen to and he will nail both sides.

You didn't answer the question. Do you think Sarah Palin would be up to being president? Did you watch that video and if you did, unless you are right wing religious fringe, doesn't it worry you? You cannot vote for McCain if you think Palin would be the disaster she has so far shown herself to be by over half the country.

I think that McCain got a bump from her and a lot blame his current slump on the economic mess, but I think it's a recognition that he picked someone totally incapable of being president and without enough smarts to know it.

On the democrats stopping this crash earlier. You are getting those points from right wing. They are not the total truth. Both parties had problems with what they did but what McCain wanted was to put fannie mae and freddie mac under a regulatory board... who do you think that would have been given the others Bush has appointed? Can you possibly see why Democrats wouldn't trust bush or the right wing with doing that. And they are not the whole reason for this crash. If they were, then the homes are there, government can buy them, reloan to buy them at a reasonable (not usury) rate of interest and will come out just fine. But if, as I believe, that money was sucked up like the billions in Iraq and nobody knows where it went, then there aren't enough assets to reclaim all that they will now take. The same ones who failed in this will now get new funds and what do you think that will lead to?

I am trying to be a nice person about this but it's not easy. Bush led us into this and all you on the right can do is blame democrats. Don't you ever see that it's as much or more republicans? When will you get it that they are not helping you? That rebate in the spring, it won't do anything for the economy except suck more money from the treasury, money the treasury is borrowing to do. This has been the worst run government we have ever seen and it's not over if McCain gets in as he is clueless about economics and war.

I won't say Obama might not be a disappointment. I believe in him but they get in and often we find out they don't do what they say. If he does what he says, a lot of people won't like him, but he will pull us out of this. He does see the long range which is more than McCain does.

Rain Trueax said...

I think Romney was as big a front as any of the others. He is supported by an economic group who would make a lot of people look good if they had them behind him-- the Mormons. They are wise about money but I don't think he was any expert. He just dealt with one big problem, the Olympics which is no test of his great economic sense. He also was someone who would say whatever it took to get elected-- ie what he said while governor of Mass. He wasn't your savior either. The one with the sense and organization to fix this is the democrat. Look at how he has run his campaign and tell me he has no sense of purpose and ability to make it happen. All of those people he has known on the way up have more wanted to use him than him them. He knows both sides but if all they can throw against him is a nutty pastor (who he doesn't espouse his nutty views) and a couple of unsavory types like Rezko and Ayers but with no real sign that they impacted his judgment. Unlike McCain...

And when McCain does favors like he did for Davis by going on the yacht of a well known conman, he is showing who he helps. He didn't need the money for himself which kept him from his own shady deals for money but he pals with them and enjoys being around such as part of his gambler personality. Some of that could rub off one way or another. It sure has on his inner circle like Gramm's wife who made so much from Enron and got it out before it collapsed and left the little guy holding a bag.

Anonymous said...

Don't waste your time, Ingineer...Rain is just an old hippie trying to adjust.
She probably has hairy legs and pits...and stenchy too.
She feels threatened with Sarah Palin's beauty...a girly-girl...the old leftists like Rain want a woman in the White House alright, as long as she is a stoopid LEFTIST woman!