Narcissism and Consumerism
The dominator paradigm has a significant cost, not only for those who are dominated, but also for the dominators themselves.345 It is at the origin of what psychologists have called the narcissism of Western culture.
Psychologist Ondine Norman describes the key components of this narcissism:
One of the most relevant and important diagnostic characteristics of narcissism is the lack of empathy for others. This is a key feature of the dominator paradigm. One cannot even imagine partnership or the capacity for mutual relationships if one is not able to experience some level of empathy for another’s experience.346
Such a lack of empathy leads directly to a sense of meaninglessness. Meaning always arises out of relationship, whether with loved ones, God, nature, or one’s country. The inability to connect with others, therefore, predictably accentuates a sense of meaninglessness, creating what has been referred to as the feeling of an “empty self.”
Psychologist Christopher Lasch points out that narcissism does have some features that are useful in our society: “The management of personal impressions comes naturally to [the narcissist], and the mastery of its intricacies serves him well in political and business organizations.”347 The same narcissist, however, also demonstrates traits that are at the origin of many of society’s difficulties, from the incapacity to establish long-term partner relationships to the adoption of what Jungian analyst Mario Jacoby describes as “super materialistic and environmentally unsustainable consumerist lifestyles.”348
The empty self is also the hook by which consumer advertising works. As B. Earl Puckett, president of Allied Stores Corporation, a large U.S. department store chain, explained, “It is our job to make women unhappy with what they have.”349 A key aim of advertising is to make people feel empty, incomplete, and dissatisfied. The ad’s message to our subconscious is: if only you were to wear this brand of sneakers, drive this car, have the next updated technology, or use this perfume, you would finally be whole and no longer feel your emptiness.
Fundamentalism
Another phenomenon linked to the dominator paradigm is fundamentalism, which is not about what one believes in, but rather about how one holds those beliefs. Fundamentalism arises when someone regards his or her own beliefs as the absolute Truth and, therefore, considers all other opinions or faiths to be illegitimate.
Fundamentalism is another way that people deal with the fear of meaninglessness and the empty self. Jacoby writes:
Whenever archaic rage combines with the search for high ideals and the necessity to find meaning in one’s life, rage with all its consequences may flare up in the name of whatever the ideal. Any horror, rage, and vengefulness can then be justified on the basis of the ‘ideal’ one is apparently serving.350
One extreme manifestation of fundamentalism is terrorism.
AND THE WINNER IS?
Who truly benefits in a society that is skewed toward patriarchy and lacks archetypal balance? Who wins with a monetary system that promotes this imbalance, which imposes scarcity on the many, and concentrates wealth in the hands of a very few? Clearly the majority of the billions of poor in our world suffer disproportionately. But though it might seem that men and the wealthy are the likely beneficiaries of such a paradigm, the reality is somewhat more complex.
Effects on Men
If we understand Western culture as a patriarchy, we might logically tend to place men at its helm. This was the assumption of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and feminist Susan Faludi, as she began research for her book Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man. Her findings, however, surprised even her.
Faludi reports that in our patriarchal society, men are asked to need nothing and no one, and to support their families with total confidence. They are told to go out into the world, into the market, to win, and win big. They should know what they want out of life and how to get it. And throughout, they are to remain unstressed, detached, and ready to do whatever is necessary to protect their families and country.
While the term patriarchy implies that men are in control of everything, they are in actual fact often denied the ability to determine their own lives. They are not given the space or tools to express and work with their full range of emotion or to better know themselves. Some men, particularly in light of today’s increasing unemployment, feel so lost and out of touch that they lash out.
Faludi began her research by attending a men’s domestic violence group. She reported:
The men I got to know in the group had without exception lost their compass in the world. They had lost or were losing jobs, homes, cars, families. They had been labeled outlaws but felt like castoffs. Their strongest desire was to be dutiful and to belong, to adhere with precision to the roles society had set out for them as men.351
Faludi’s research reveals something important about the patriarchy in which we live. “Men feel the contours of a box…but they are told that box is of their own manufacture, designed to their specifications.”352 That box—the patriarchy—gives the illusion of power but instead causes immense suffering for men as well as women.
The wealthy—the other supposed class of winners in our society—like men in general, have their own issues.
The Wounds of Wealth
The psychological issues resulting from this imbalanced monetary situation can be understood as “wounds” because they run deep and touch our most vulnerable nerves, and they are almost impossible to avoid. These wounds can undermine our relationships and make us doubt our own self-worth. Most of us have empathy for the plight of those who suffer from the scarcity that arises from living with insufficient money. The wounds created by poverty are indeed pervasive, devastating, and easily understood. But the monopoly of yang money affects all economic classes—the rich as well as the poor. Less appreciated are the formidable issues of having too much money.
Jungian psychologist Bernice Hill has identified four wounds of wealth, which appear at successive levels of intimate interaction, including: burdens of expectation, isolation, unhealthy family dynamics, and crisis of identity (see insert).353
Four Wounds of Wealth
1. Burdens of Expectation. Those few who are considered wealthy are often the targets of the fears, needs, and expectations of the many who lack money. Societal expectations permeate many aspects of life, including that of supporting charities and generally “doing the right thing,” which often translates into writing check after check. When asked to attend an affair or participate in an event, social or otherwise, the affluent are left to ask themselves, “Am I or my checkbook being invited?”
2. Isolation. Similarly, the wealthy must question if their personal relationships are based on money or status, rather then genuine caring and true feelings of friendship. As a consequence, the rich tend to socialize only with those from similar financial and social backgrounds, and experience a deep sense of isolation. The painful question lingers, “If I didn’t have any money, how many of my friends would still be my friends, and how might I find out?” Love, popularity, and camaraderie can be as paper-thin as money itself.
This lack of trust is reflected in the security measures that are taken: the higher walls built around their homes, possessions, and lives, literally and psychologically. In the end, the affluent tend to seek refuge in “golden ghettos.”
3. Unhealthy Family Dynamics. How often do we hear of rich-family feuds, the nagging fears and general angst regarding inheritances, wills, and the pressures brought to bear on siblings regarding proper behavior? Even the most intimate relationships—choosing the “right” mate in marriage—are subject to all-important pre-nuptial agreements, becoming yet another business contract. Unhealthy family dynamics is another wound associated with wealth.
4. Crisis of Identity. Most importantly perhaps, particularly for those who have inherited wealth, are the questions of identity and self-worth. “Who am I?” can be a painful question when your main public identity is that you ha
ve money. Philosopher Jacob Needleman observes that “The only thing that money will not buy is meaning.”354 Often, wealthy people find that their money has brought them guilt, anxiety, and a sense of meaninglessness.
In an environment where so much is shaped by our financial worth, the scarce commodity is trust. Each of these four wounds has in common a loss of trust: in society, in friends, in family, and finally, in oneself. An all-too-common response to the issues faced by the wealthy is, “I wish I had that problem.” This denies, however, the depth of the pain experienced by some.
Clearly, rich and poor suffer within this current monetary paradigm. Individuals within each economic group face their own wounds associated with money. These wounds point to the fact that nobody wins with a one-size-fits-all monetary system, which encourages only some aspects of human nature and replicates greed and fear of scarcity.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
We live in a world that uses predominately one type of money, which came into being centuries ago and is embedded with industrial-age values. Few can escape the imbalances and struggles that result from the limitations imposed by this medium of exchange.
Yang shadows are the hidden roots of many of our most serious contemporary societal ailments. Rather than a simple cause-and-effect situation, there is instead what chemists refer to as a catalytic effect: an ingredient that does not appear to be involved in the reaction but, nevertheless, powerfully activates it. The social ailments listed are not necessarily mechanical results of the monetary system alone, but rather are the results of an axis in which our money is a decisive information replicator.
The modern monetary system provides rewards for those who accumulate money, with earned interest, prestige, and material comfort. This same system also ruthlessly punishes those who do not or cannot participate, by means of bankruptcy and poverty. The game continues without end, and the results are devastating: tens of thousands of people, the majority of them children, die from starvation each day. That is not a game. It is a holocaust.
To become individually and collectively “whole,” integration of all archetypal energies and both yin and yang coherences are required. Repression of the feminine cannot continue, not just because it is inherently wrong, but because it is destroying us.
Reintegrating Great Mother energy does not mean, however, switching from a patriarchal society to a matriarchal one. It cannot be emphasized enough that the sought-after outcome is to find a new balance between the masculine and feminine, an equilibrium that honors the specific contributions of each. But such a balance requires an integrated monetary system with both yin and yang currencies working alongside one another in complementary fashion to meet our many diverse and divergent needs and aspirations, and which allow for a full expression of our archetypal energies.
PART IV - MONEY, ARCHETYPES, AND PAST AGES
Money ranks as one of the primary materials with which
Mankind builds the architecture of civilization.
~LEWIS LAPHAM
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE - The Central Middle Ages Revisited
History is a guide to navigation in perilous times.
History is who we are and why we are the way we are.
~DAVID C. McCULLOUGH
It is our contention that archetypal repression is linked to our monetary system and to the virtual monopoly of yang-type national currencies. Our monetary paradigm acts as a relentless information replicator of skewed patriarchal values, which include the two shadows of the Great Mother archetype: greed and fear of scarcity. It is therefore not with idle curiosity that we examine societies with dual-currency systems that honored feminine as well as masculine values.
We therefore turn our focus once again back to a more distant epoch in which dual-currency systems and a different archetypal framework were in operation.
The purpose of our exploration extends beyond obscure monetary issues in past civilizations. As we have seen, the current paradigm is linked to and may be triggering any number of negative consequences for society, including depletion of precious resources and long-term damage to our ecosystems. Insights from the past that could help point the way to a more balanced future are of vital importance to us today.
THE MEDIEVAL ARCHETYPAL FRAMEWORK
As noted previously back in Chapter Six, the Central Middle Ages distinguished itself from other periods of Western history by a unique form of prosperity that benefitted all classes of society. Unusual investment patterns in productive assets were commonplace as well. Evidence of the long-term thinking and superior craftsmenship of this age endure to this very day in the form of such public works as the cathedrals of Western Europe.
Another hallmark of this medieval epoch was their dual-currency monetary system. Long-distance currencies, similar in function to today’s national currencies, were complemented by local means of exhange, some of which were demurrage-charged and accessible to all social classes. These complementary currencies likely played a significant role in the accomplishments of this age. Moreover, the elimination of the local currencies coincides with the sudden and dramatic demise of this golden epoch in the waning years of the 1200s.
The distinctive elements thus far noted, however, tell only part of the story. Another dimension of this remarkable age is revealed to us through the lens of Archetypal Psychology.
We begin by examining the status of women during the period.
A Half-Renaissance for Women
It will be recalled that the study of bodily remains revealed that the women of Central medieval London were the tallest in all recorded history. These findings not only suggest the high standard of living enjoyed at that time, but may also reflect another important dimension of this age.
Historian Erika Uitz writes, “In the 12th century a window of freedom began to open for town-dwelling European women, only to close again before the end of the 15th century.”355 While conditions were not idyllic, women were unquestionably much freer than either before or after this period. The “official” Renaissance that came into being later, was comparitively speaking of far lesser equality or enlightenment for women, despite being full of progress in the arts and other domains.356 It is not until the last half of the 20th century that women began to reclaim many of the rights and opportunities that were the norm in the Central Middle Ages.
Work was broadly available for women. Of the 312 professions formally registered as métiers (occupations) in France at the end of the 13th century, women were officially employed in 108. The Parisian tax registers of 1292 paint an even rosier picture: women worked in 172 different occupations, including barrel making, soap boiling, candle making, bookbinding, and doll painting. Though rarely, women also worked as butchers and, according to Uitz, “were involved even in mining, sword and scythes making.”357
Women were typically more literate than men among the lay population. While boys and men of aristocratic lineage were trained primarily in the subjects of weapons and warfare, women were routinely trained in reading, writing, singing, and painting. This training was not limited to aristocratic women, but also included daughters of servants and artisans.358
Central medieval women also enjoyed an unusually high level of freedom concerning property. In England, “Only thirty wills survive today from that late Anglo-Saxon period [10th to 11th centuries] and ten of these are the wills of women, each of whom was a significant property owner, with the same rights of ownership…as any man.”359 Women also had control over large endowments as founders of monasteries and as general benefactors, making them notable figures in their communities.
Women played a surprising role as well in many religious institutions. Many monastic communities were “double houses,” having one monastery for nuns and another for monks, with both houses under the same jurisdiction. One study of 50 such double houses reports that all were under the direction of a woman. Everyone answered to an abbess, not an abbot!360
The arts blossomed during this age and many women played prominent ro
les. Among the famous mystics and authors, are included the likes of Hildegard von Bingen, Herade von Landsberg, Margery Kempe, Julian of Norwich, Catherine of Siena, and Catherine of Genoa.
Notable women of the period had significant influence on the intellectual life and politics of the age. This included the likes of Queen Anne, Countess Mathilde, and Eleanor of Aquitaine. As Duchess of Aquitaine, Eleanor was wealthy and powerful in her own right. But as queen consort first of France (1137–1152), then of England (1154–1189), following her annulment from King Louis VII and subsequent marriage to Henry II, she became one of the most powerful of all Central medieval figures. She also sired two of England’s future kings: Richard the Lionheart and King John. One of Eleanor’s lasting contributions was as a patron of “Courtly Love” literature (see insert).
Courtly Love
New Money for a New World Page 26