Time to check myself before I wreck myself.
One of my mentors picked me up on my US election fascination the other day.
And I realised that I’ve become a bit lost in the drama of it. I was getting obsessed with it. I was reading articles from here, there and everywhere at all hours of the night.
It became a puzzle I couldn’t crack. Because I read from both sides of the political fence, I was getting two incredibly different pictures of the election.
On Clinton’s side we had the righteous advance of history butting up against a buffoon who was willing to derail everything that is good just to fluff his own ego.
On Trump’s side we had the gun-slinger outsider on a charge to #draintheswamp.
Which picture of reality you got depended on which media channel you were tuned into. I think media used to be more generalist. Now, in the age of social media algorithms and internet publishing, people find the media that speaks to them.
You see the picture you want to see. The truth is what you expected it to be in the first place.
But if you’re interested in the game more than the result, like I am, then you just get mixed messages. And I was caught like a deer in the headlights.
I had these two, incredible, emotionally-charged and vivid pictures of reality. And they were totally different. They couldn’t be more different. So where was the truth?
My head started swimming trying to triangulate some granule of truth out of these bedazzled images. It felt so close, like at the end of my fingertips.
But I got nothing.
And now that I step back a bit, I realise that I bought into the game. Because while Trump and Clinton are presenting two totally different options, there is a single, common, foundational idea.
And that idea is that one leader will be better than another. One leader will be good for America and good for the world, and the other will not.
This is not the case. Fundamentally, I think it misrepresents how time and reality work.
(Ok, I’m going to mess with your head a bit now. If you have some crystals now is a good time to stick them down your pants and fill any holes in your aura.)
Elections sell us a story. Over and over again until we believe it. And this US election is one of the most energised examples of recent times.
The story goes that history is approaching a juncture – a pivotal turning point. After Tuesday US time, we will either find ourselves in the Trump future or the Clinton future.
In most people’s minds, one future is significantly better than another. The other is actually a disaster. (And arguments over Trump and Clinton are really about differing visions for the future.)
But this idea that there are two, and only two, futures available to us is wrong. Dead wrong.
In fact, it’s one of the most limiting beliefs I can imagine.
From any given point in time, there are infinite futures available to us. I could be rich/poor/happy/wise in either the Trump or the Clinton future. I could be in both. I could be in neither.
The swing factor is me. It’s not Trump, it’s not Clinton. It’s me. I choose my own future. I create it. My trajectory from this moment on is set by my own hand.
“But hang on Jon, stuff happens and you can’t change it.”
That’s true, but don’t worry about stuff. Don’t sweat the details. We get to choose our experiences, not the details.
(In fact, in my experience, focusing on the details really limits ourselves and/or the guiding hand of fate.)
Let’s say I want to be financially independent, and in my mind that means landing a particular job.
There an infinite number of ways to be financially independent. You don’t have to force it through the narrow channel of having this or that job.
(In my experience, the universe throws up solutions that are far more creative and intelligent than anything I could come up with. Why get in the way of that process?)
Likewise with Trump or Clinton. Maybe you believe that Clinton is the path to global peace and good times. But why are you getting all fussy with the details? Maybe what the world needs is one more megalomaniac to show us what not to do…
Maybe Trump loses and the 50% of Americans who voted for him get angry. And those Americans have the guns…
(This election is going to be so, so interesting.)
My point is, don’t kid yourself that you know the path to the future you want. Given your intelligence (and I say this knowing that you’re also human) it’s arrogant to the point of being funny.
If you want to live in a peaceful, harmonious world, where all the people of the earth join hands and sing lovely songs together, that’s what you focus on.
Focus on the felt experience and call it in. Put your energy and attention there, and that sets the trajectory of your own soul’s experience.
And if everyone focused on that, if we chose it collectively, then that would shape the collective experience.
The great sausage sizzle of human fellowship would be realised.
And it just wouldn’t matter who America chose as President.
So don’t buy into it. Don’t buy into the idea that elections create junctures in history. They don’t.
The future is always a choice.
How are you keeping your head above it all?
ron goddard says
but is hilary a space ;lizard ? i read years ago a book called ‘life is fair’. end of story
KiwiAl says
Reptilian-brained, Shape-Shifting Lizard, no less, right Ron?
Rudi K says
You nailed it – philosophically – but when you commented on Clinton’s victory being perhaps a path to global peace you did indeed get it very wrong. She is perhaps the worst war hawk that ever ran for presidency : https://youtu.be/0agBtEEYTaY America has been at war for 222 years out of 239 years and her worst may yet come.
KiwiAl says
Hey Rudi,
Haven’t watched it ALL yet, but although many clips are of a much younger Hillary, I can’t help thinking “This is not even the same person” in some of them. Looks like a number of doubles fronting up. Face shape seems to change. What’s your take on that? Has she had plastic surgery?
John says
Jon – philosophically a very good article – and we tend to get bogged down in our own values and beliefs and then allow the media to sway us – console us – or even convince us against our own values. Clinton – in my opinion, will drag the US so far to the left with bleeding heart do gooders wanting distribution of wealth – free everything and really motivate the entitlement mentality. Maybe the drag to the left will be so severe that if she won a second term the recovery would take decades. Trump – I can’t believe how stupid his campaign has been in him allowing Clinton to bate him etc. Clinton espousing that he can press the nuclear button and start a nuclear war is fanciful in the extreme. However, he has tapped into those who feel disenfranchised by their politicians and unrepresented. Maybe the world and the US needs a Trump who may break the paradigm of so called traditional politics – and he may even surprise everyone – including himself. But – like you – I create and I’m responsible for my own destiny and not reliant on politicians. Our own lot are a good example – you can’t really trust any of them and there is very little objective reality and true leadership.
Carlos says
Jon, even though I agree with your philosophy that we all need to create our own future by constantly analyzing our decisions and having a vision of what we want for ourselves without getting too caught up with politics and the media, I have to disagree with the fact that some people are not taking tomorrow’s decision too seriously. It is indeed a circus and an embarrassing one, but that doesn’t mean electing the president of the most powerful and influential country on this planet won’t affect our future whatsoever. That is indeed a very naive way of seeing things.
I have lived the effects of electing a very charismatic and “different” candidate for president only to find out he was indeed a self centrered demagogue with a hidden extremist agenda. He ran the country to the ground and 18 years later, there’s simply nothing left. For those that had the opportunity, we were forced to leave the country and all our life behind in search for a better future.
This may be seen as an extreme example and no one would believe the US congress would ever allow this to happen, but history tend to repeat itself in a very sinister way. To say that trump’s economical and foreign policy would not be any different that Hillary’s and this would not have a knock on effect to the world, the world economy and the markets is just silly.
Anyway, I do enjoy your column, so pleae keep up the good work…
Colin Glover says
Jon, so glad you’ve got a mentor sitting on the sideline gently coaxing you back from the edge of the parapet. I felt your last one was a rant of somebody whose mind was somewhat topsy-turvy.
It seems it doesn’t matter who is elected. Look at what happened here after Abbott was “trumped” by somebody, who a large percentage of the voters believed would get things done with some compassion. Well history shows that thought was totally out of wack. So nobody knows what the universal thinking has got lined up for us. Bring it on. In the meantime, as you elegantly say.
“Focus on the felt experience and call it in. Put your energy and attention there, and that sets the trajectory of your own soul’s experience.
And if everyone focused on that, if we chose it collectively, then that would shape the collective experience.”
ron goddard says
hi kiwial, i don’t know where you are really in this debate, but i know one thing : h.r.c. is a warmongering arsehole but jonno can’t quite see it. how he can class her in any way a peacemaker is beyond me. maybe he is on ice again and away with those fairies at the bottom of the garden. sorry jonno..you obviously are taken in with msm and deride the internet. there are so many emails declaring her monstrous, yes monstrous deeds. she is a proven addicted liar who believes anything she says. black is white and white is black…understand? you silly demo. voters!! (thats her take on her demo supporters..silly buggers she says) i repeat that if she is elected two things will happen :
.civil war
putin will emp america both coasts.
over 7,200,000 americans have left usa in the past decade and thousands more are handing their passports in at ticket offices at airports around usa. unbelievably…now wait for it ; russia has the highest intake of assylum seekers on the planet. why? because the russians will not allow those isis terrorists (syrian refugees) into their country.
but with all of that ..i just got back from picking strawberries a few kms from here; two huge boxes for $10. my lovely wife and two daughters were in la la land about it all. they picked all the big ones i got the smaller ones. happy days in the sun. i think i have got a bit going for me.
KiwiAl says
Hi Ron,
Just between you and me, I’m a conspiracy theorist! The believe the American Presidential Elections are “pure theatre”, to make the Americans think they live in a democracy, not the increasingly fascist regime it really is. It amazes me that virtually every election in recent times is so close to 50-50 that it’s scarcely believable. It just can’t be real. (I guess it could reflect how close the opposing PR Teams are in skill levels, but where else do you see that?) What it achieves is a country divided almost exactly down the middle, politically. Maybe maintaining that tight balance is the key to holding back civil unrest? Keeps both sides thinking they are both getting turns, so democracy is working… DUH! Someone’s not too sure about it. How many bullets does Homeland Security have stockpiled now?
As for which side, definitely anti-Clinton. Done enough research and had enough experience to believe that a lawyer is the last person you want in power. Lawyer = Hooker with a Black Heart and an Evil Mind. ‘Cept in Hill’s case, I think the mind is half gone, so she’s little more than a puppet to very dangerous a/hole masters.
ron goddard says
rudi…you are right too. h.r.c. is all over the place. mad as a hatter. and jonno wants her as pres.over trump? jonno writes a good story, full of wisdom but then drops over the edge into ..well i really don’t know.
Rick says
Too much jungle juice on your yacht in the Mediterranean has addled your brain Jon. Forgive the ridicule, but it is the only answer to absurdity. Calm down, take a deep breath and ask yourself whether you seriously believe that your prescription would help a person to “set the trajectory of his own souls’s experience” if they were:
a Jew under under Hitler; or
a peasant farmer slaughtered to achieve Stalin’s industrialization goals ; or
a Tootsie watching in agony as his intestines were being eaten by a Hutu soldier; or
a wife being burned alive on her dead husband’s funeral pyre; or
a terrified pre-pubescent girl being forced to marry a lustful older man
an innocent victim of an Islamic terrorist’s killing spree.
And that list is just a tiny fraction of the brutality that has plagued the lives of most people who have ever lived on this earth. Fanciful theories like yours can only exist in common law countries like Australia where we are so easily deluded into thinking that our justice, freedom and prosperity is normal. It is NOT normal. It is the product of centuries of Christian faith and values.
Most of the world’s precious people are bedeviled by REAL evil and corrupt leaders who exacerbate it. The corruption of the Clintons and many in the Washington elites of both parties is inexorably dragging the West down that same path. Trump, for all his bluster, may well be the Hercules that cleans the Augean stables.
Get real Jon and stop rabbiting on about what the impersonal “universe” can do for us.
Al says
Rick – Touche > any form of absolute power corrupts … absolutely(.) < FULL stop
Rosanne says
Very true, only in the West do we have the ability and opportunity to follow our ‘life’s mission’ to create our ‘own future’ the way we want it.
We should be very grateful that we find ourselves in such a great country that allows us to indulge our higher selves which people in many other countries & all the generations before us would have found difficult if not impossible to do.
Andrew says
Oh well, after tomorrow, there is only two and a half years until they start the whole process over again…. Makes me glad our elections only have a few weeks of politicking….
jessica says
This is on the money, thank you Jon. My friend, Tim, forwards your emails to me, the ones that he thinks I will align with. “I never saw anyone miss out on anything they truly wanted,” was a good one. This one is the key. Be the change you want to see. We are magnificent manifestors and creators. I believe that my perception of my reality is my focus. I am focusing on a world of peace and equality. I am wondering how to contribute to discourse around “Heart-Centered” Policies. Trump is here as our mirror. Each of us must have the courage to look within, and ask: where am I prejudice and discriminatory, where do I not love someone. Changing times, the crumbling before the rebuilding.
Jon Giaan says
Love to know what else makes it through the Tim filter! But thanks for tuning in.
jessica says
I bypassed the Tim filter and decided to go straight to the Source! It would seem that past blogs have been one’s that Tim and I had been discussing. I had said all year Trump would win, because he had to, to evoke change.