Czars for SARS: not a true story but…

Czars for SARS: not a true story but…

Yesterday afternoon, after a Guinness but before Trump’s speech, the following image came to my mind even as I watched CNN. This is **NOT** what Quakers would view as “a message from God.’ They would say it is a classic example of why we need DISCERNMENT, the trained skill to give different levels of attention to different messages which may come to mind. Jungians often talk about the “Loki” archetype (aka the Trickster or Hahnuman) which plays a useful role as PART of our noosphere, and deserves a voice and a certain kind of respect, but should be treated as recounting the truth.

So here is the story I saw, before Trump’s speech. D for Doc, T for Trump.

D:”Mr. Trump, we need for you to appoint a Car and give us lots more money, to fight coronavirus. The public and even the Congress are frantic, the financial folks are frantic so you must do it. By the way, I would look good in a toga.”

T: “Czar? Czar? Are you crazy? I am already in enough trouble with people thinking I am too close to the Russians.”

D: “But we HAVE to have a czar. No one will believe anyone can do anything without a CZAR.”

T: “Tell that to Putin. What would HE say if I called myself a czar?”

D: “I didn’t say it should be YOU. Of course it should not be you. It should be a prominent member of the medical profession, you know, like me.”

T:”Are you crazy? Did Nancy or Chuck tell you to insult me this way? **I* am the chief law enforcemeng agent of this country, and if anyone gets to be czar, it would have to be me. It has to be the White House; get real.”

D:”I’m sorry to say this sir, but we have heard from leaders of both parties in Congress, and none of them would be willing to put their own lives in your hands that way. They look at what you have been saying, on this and other issues. They know what you think about science, and this is a case where we need science. Theysimply wouldn’t accept that.”

T: “Mumble, grumbles curses and spite. But OK. You can have Pence, no less than that, and you get money only if you play ball 100% with that. White House fully in control. And yes you can have your money.”

T to Melania: “Don’t worry. Of course I hatre their stupid request formore money than they know to handle. But don’t worry. I can use that money to build a wall. After all, the money can be used as part of the quarantine budget. Quarantine is a big part of this. Now how to we quarantine Nancy? We do have information about her neighborhood we will begin to let out and spin..”

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Minor clarification for those who might not know: the toga reflects how "Czar" or "Tsar" are Romanized versions of the Russian word, which is itself a reflection of Russia's view of itself as "the Third Rome". It basically is their word for Caesar. Just the other day, in the car we discussed :"WHICH Caesar is Trump reflecting? Augustus or Nero or Trajan?"
Of course, Julius is the one who rode a white horse, got rid of democracy, and exploited support from plutocrats who made the mistake of thinking he represented their values. But I often think of a place we visited in Spain, Caesarea, where Augustus used a maor stadium to glorify his version of "Let's make Rome great again" and even provided an outlet for his daughter. I wondered whether Ivanka has ever visited that place, full of such powerful ancient memories. And of course, Augustus is the one who ordained the hiring of the guy who ordered the execution of Jesus Christ; I appreciated the movie Master and Margarita (actually, many episodes with English subtitles) much better on my second watch of it a few weeks ago. Still, it was Trajan who expanded the borders and ruined the economy, and the gay Emperor Hadrian who actually built the famous wall.