In honor of TVUUC
SPIRITUAL
FREEDOM: William Ellery Channing Meets Christopher Bollas
Dr.
Wilson, minister of the UUCB in Melbourne, began by reading “The Free Mind”
which starts, “I call that mind free which masters the senses, and which
recognizes its own reality and greatness” by which we learn from William
Ellery Channing, a foundational thinker of our faith tradition, that a free mind
is essential for spiritual freedom. In the sermon he discussed the manipulative
process of moving from having a free mind in the direction of becoming
vulnerable to transforming our free mind to a fascist state of mind. Christopher
Bollas in his book Being a Character includes a chapter called the
“Fascist State of Mind.” In this essay he lists eight stages in the process
of facilitating this transition from free to fascist mind.
The
stages Bollas describes are:
1)
Distortion – distorting your opponents views (the first movement. toward a
fascist state-denial and numbing of the mind)
2)
Decontextualization – taking the opponents views out of context (taking truths
and thoughts from one experience and imposing them onto another in order to
manipulate the perception of others. . . an example is to say, "9-11 was
just like Pearl Harbor")
3)
Denigration – belittling the opponents views (belittling in an attempt to
shame and render silent, much as we
did to slaves)
4)
Caricature – belittling the opponent as an individual person (creating and
highlighting undesirable qualities of the other)
5)
Character assassination – Discrediting the personal character of the opponent
6)
Change of the name – Eliminating the person’s proper name, which is the
precursor to eliminating the person (also used in personal arguments to
objectify and shame the other)
7)
Categorization as aggregation – The loss of identity of the other
(generalizing an individual's voice as being part of a group which renders it
meaningless and gives others a way not to hear or understand the nuances of
what's being said. An example is, "There is just another liberal"
which robs you of your voice; i.e., "You are just one of those")
8)
Absence of reference – Making no reference to the other or his or her views
(e.g., politically proposing a bill and not communicating who the lobbyists were
opposed to it, or personally never referring to the hopes, dreams, and opinions
of the other)
Bollas
gives us this eight-perspective lens through which to identify those
powers-that-be which are attempting to move our democratic way of life toward a
more fascist way. The triangle of citizens, businesses (multinational
corporations) and government in our nation was designed to be organized with
corporations and government serving the needs of the people. Today it appears we
are moving rapidly toward the reverse, which is a primary feature of fascism. We
as a free people must be attentive to what William Ellery Channing calls
creating an environment in which we are spiritually free, and civil liberties
are a core value. We can use this method to evaluate all political parties and
businesses, to evaluate the influence they are attempting to have on the
citizenship of a free 'people. As Channing urges us to confront and address
these issues, we must be intentional and clear. Bollas gives us the tool;
Channing gives us the passion and reason to use the tool.
The Reverend Wilson concluded by saying that when we can eliminate these impediments to our spiritual freedom, then we are on the path to freeing our civil liberties.
Copyright 2003, Rev. Gregory Wilson, D.Min.
