Humans Live and Die By Their Myths

Politicians are Jungian symbols, policies are facades

We think of power as something solid - bills signed into law, executive orders stamped with authority, concrete barriers erected at borders. We imagine change happens in marbled halls and wood-paneled rooms, through the shuffling of papers and the banging of gavels. But this is actually just theatre; a shadow play on the cave wall.

The true nature of political power is not solid; it flows like water, invisible yet pervasive, seeping into the crevices of our shared imagination. When a figure rises to prominence - whether through the ballot box or the burning barricade - their real impact isn't measured in legislation or policy. It’s their allegorical presence that sends ripples through the collective conscience, disturbing the carefully maintained artifice of "the way things are."

Think of how certain phrases enter our lexicon, sneakily spreading like spores on the wind. They nest in our psyche, sprouting new ways of seeing. "I have a dream" doesn't derive its power from any law King helped pass, but from how it reorganized our relationship with possibility.

The phrase became a symbol in and of itself; it transformed into an archetypal pattern, joining the ancient symbols of the prophet-voice that Jung identified throughout human mythology - Moses parting the seas, Cassandra crying out her visions, the Oracle of Delphi speaking truth to power. In this way, King's words weren't just politically effective; they activated something primordial in our shared unconscious, calling forth the universal human longing for liberation that lies dormant in what Jung termed our "psychic inheritance."

You could, of course, argue that it’s permanence in our lexicon is purely, rotely memetic; it has been inked in children’s history books and recited in schools and on televisions for decades. Still; how can any meme endure, if not through the successful articulation of untapped needs or desires present in our shared psychological framework?

When I close my eyes, and dive deep, deep down into the waters of what I truly consider to be the actual root of power for a figure-head like "The President”, I return to the surface only with metaphors - nothing tangible. Their ability to enact legitimate, imminent physical change seems naive at best, comical at worst. What seems more plausible is the change that springs forth from the cultural conversations surrounding them (and any ensuing actions that may occur organically through this group-reframe). The concepts they unlock through their very existence. The fragment of the universe they are representing, but on a large enough scale to catch all of our attention. Their purpose is directional: where is the Great Eye of Humanity gazing today? What is it dreaming of?

Figures like these distract us with promises of action and policy and change, but are actually living symbols, nothing more - A north star in the mutual sky by which to navigate our moral universe. They are mercury poured onto the mirror of our collective shadow, forcing us to face what we've hidden from ourselves. Their true legislation is written on the walls of our inner identities.

When a political figure trends on social media, when their face becomes a meme, when their catchphrases enter our daily speech - this is the real work of change happening. The hive mind is being rewired, synapse by synapse.

What we call "political change" is really the story we tell ourselves about who we are, and who we might become. If we are moved, angered, or incited in any way through the words or actions of “The President”, by the time any bill is signed or law is passed, the real change has already occurred - in the electric charge of millions of minds shifting in tandem, and in the subtle reorganization of our shared mythology.

This is why those who seek to maintain power focus so heavily on controlling narrative, and shaping the stories we tell. They understand intuitively what Jung articulated explicitly - that humans live and die by their myths, that we navigate reality through symbol and archetype. Which is why the most successful political figures aren't those who master parliamentary procedure, but those who successfully insert themselves into our collective dreamspace, who become main-characters in our shared story.

Still, the media, with all its narrative might, is not the true leader, either. And this is not to say that laws don’t produce physical effects - this is not a denial of the material levels of human operation - this is to say that the true rumblings of change begin on deeper levels. The true seat of power is not in Washington, but - to put it plainly - our minds. We each play a role. Laws follow consciousness, not the other way around.

This is both empowering and terrifying. It means change is always possible, but true abstinence is impossible. Even with careful removal from perceived responsibility (for example, choosing not to vote), we can never, actually, be mere observers. We are all legislators in the parliament of consciousness. Every thought, every word, every story we choose to believe or reject casts a vote in this invisible assembly.

Regardless of any affiliations or beliefs, completely agnostic of whether or not this President is good or bad (including whether you care or don’t care about them) - something profound about humanity’s current state is revealed through their inauguration.

This is what Jung meant when he spoke of individuation on a collective scale - the process by which a society comes to terms with its shadow, integrates its disparate parts, and emerges into a new level of being. Political figures are merely the visible symbols of this process, the hopes and fears our collective psyche uses to speak to itself about what it is becoming.

The future is continuously being dreamed into being.