Mandalas, Mandela, and Ugly Americans

Start here.

Some of us boomers who studied Psychology should easily recall a towering figure from this discipline, a German academic named Carl Gustav Jung. I always thought Jung's work was best understood in the context of his older contemporary, Sigmund Freud.  Where the more celebrated Freud is recognized as the foundational thinker in the area of psychoanalysis, Jung's legacy is somewhat broader, and in my opinion, more far-reaching than Freud's in that it has had substantial impact on other fields besides psychiatry, such as anthropology, archaeology, literature, and my major field of study, philosophy.

This is a MANDALA.

It's been six months since I've shared this internet space with -- well, nobody in particular and everybody in general -- and you -- out there in the inter-webs.  There's one question a writer should always be able to answer ... who is your audience?

Be patient. I'll get to "Mandela and the Ugly American in a second." 

Just to recap, since I posted "No Mercy" we have experienced, inter alia, a Congressional re-boot and the restoration of vertical Federalism under the Dobbs case. Your representatives in Washington D.C. have sent $65 BILLION to a TV comedian in the Ukraine (with potentially another $50B en route). We have seen interest rates continue to rise, and we watched the Houston Cheaters win the World Series.

And the world has not yet come to an end. 

Apocalypse Never. 

So much for history as we knew it. 

In this day and age, within the technological "woo," you are best served by relying on your own capacity for critical thought. Blindly following "the latest thing," is surely the road to ruin. 

As Bernie Mac prefaced his wisdom, "Listen, America." Matthew 7:14

Don't listen to corporate media bullshit. Buy Virtue. Buy Quality. Buy Truth.

Then sell, sell, sell.

***

Back to Carl Jung and Mandalas. 

Here is a crash course on the topic of Mandalas, if you can spare the Time. 

As retired boomers, the internet doesn't matter in our world. Speed kills. We nurture our Time.

To us, social media is "actually talking to someone -- in real life."

So what I have found most compelling about Jung's work was the particular importance he placed on the"mandalas" (see above image), those intricate spell-binding seals, sort of artistic runes containing subconscious expressions reflective of an inner, dare I say, autistic, reality. Jung did some profound research involving the role of mandalas, and, don't get me wrong, I'm no expert in psychoanalysis, but his writings reveal the huge importance of human symbology, and understanding mandalas has expanded my consciousness about how we humans need to express ourselves, somehow, anyhow, including that side of ourselves that everyone else sees, but we cannot.

Not Interested?

The interest rate chart picture above is a sort of mandala. According to Jung, mandalas are fundamental expressions of the human psyche, heavy-handed efforts to "square the circle."

Now here's the twist: This essay is actually about "Mandela."   

He is dead, isn't he?

Now, we boomers know a world without Wikipedia. Still, I should address the origins of the so-called "Mandela Effect." It purportedly began in 2009, when an enterprising writer named Fiona Broome had a specific recollection that Nelson Mandela's funeral took place in 1990.  It turned out that he was not yet dead, and would not die until 2013. 

 Broome defines this as modern phenomenon as follows:    

The Mandela Effect is when people clearly recall and event in history -- something very specific -- but historical records show that something else happened.

That's all it is.

Just a very clear memory a person has, but it doesn't match historical records.

She elaborates that there is no one-size-fits-all explanation for it, but there are widespread instances where people remember things that, if you delve further, records reveal they are false memories.

Here's my point, (because brevity is the soul of wit, I'll keep it short, so you can go back to decorating your cubicle, or selling stuff, or beta-testing software, or fixing your boss's spreadsheets, or whatever variant of data-mining it is that passes for corporate work nowadays):

    "THE UGLY AMERICAN" WAS ONE OF THE GOOD GUYS.

Yes, the pejorative stereotype, "Ugly American," mistakenly depicts us as exhibiting loud, arrogant, demeaning, thoughtless, ignorant, and ethnocentric behavior, mainly abroad, but also at home. 

Although the term is usually associated with or applied to travelers and tourists, it also applies to U.S. corporate businesses in the international arena. 

The term originated in popular culture from the 1958 novel by Eugene Burdick, a decorated Navy Lieutenant Commander, PhD., Social Scientist, and Southern California surfer

The book is about a U.S. diplomatic worker, a plain-spoken, humble man named Homer Atkins, who is sent to the fictional Southeast Asian country of Sarkhan, to assist and advise with engineering projects. Over the course of his experience, it is Homer, the ugly American, who is the heroic figure. He, along with Col. Edwin B. Hillandale are the lone forces for good. They are the fiew who try and expose America's misplaced priorities, her entrenched interests, as well as the incompetent arrogance and corruption of her diplomatic corps.

The only characters facing these challenges, the only ones perceived by the locals as truly working for the good of the Sarkhan (loosely analogous to Thai, Burmese, Vietnamese or Filipino) people are, in fact, Homer Atkins and Col. Hillandale. That unattractive American engineer was the only decent, effective, positive element of American foreign policy in Southeast Asia during those Cold War years, according to the novel. He built water pumps for the locals, he was kind, learned the language, and in general, was portrayed as a humble, serious person.

Perhaps it is a stretch to say usage of the term "ugly American" a Mandela Effect. 

Perhaps it is less a false memory, than a false agenda.

Still, prevailing usage of "the ugly American" is pejorative. I can say, having actually read the book, that the so-called "ugly" lead character, Homer Atkins, was seen by the (ahem) "Sarkhan" people as a decent, sincere, thoughtful American, who, despite his outward appearance, worked to expose and overcome the many corrupt institutions, bureaucratic obstacles and foreign policy blunders of the time.

Just to complete the picture, we should know the President Eisenhower, a Republican demi-god, is rumored to have labeled Burdick's book "sickening." JFK, on the other hand, was impressed enough to send a copy to each of his Senate colleagues. The Ugly American is a classic that needs review in these troubled times, as poignant and incisive a work about American culture as that of Harriet Beecher Stowe or Upton Sinclair. 

As we taxpayers recklessly support Khazarian thugs to further NATO's obsolete aspirations and cover-up Defense Department biological weapons laboratories (not a "debunked" assertion). As with Vietnam, or Iraq, Libya, and Afghanistan, we propagandize the masses to maintain control of resources and massive money laundering/human trafficking operations, to keep the world under the Central Banking (ergo, Vatican) enslavement rituals. Remember TRUE history, and be wary of the Mandela Effect.

And as for ugly (read: deplorable) Americans, know that the book is always better than the movie.

Endless LIES.

Endless WARS.

Endless INFLATION.

Endless 'PRINTING'.

Endless OPPRESSION.

Endless SUBJUGATION.

Endless SURVEILLANCE.

What will put an end to the endless?

Ugly Americans?

  

    © 2022 by Roy Santonil