If you had a friend and he came to you and told you that he had been talking with God and that God told him to run for president, how would you react? If you were a normal person you would probably think that your friend was losing it. I think most people would pat their poor friend on the head and suggest that he find professional help or at least a spiritually oriented retreat where he could explore the conversation further.
"I feel like God wants me to run for President. I can't explain it, but I sense my country is going to need me. Something is going to happen... I know it won't be easy on me or my family, but God wants me to do it."
- George W. Bush to James Robinson
..."God told me to strike at al Qaida and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East. If you help me I will act, and if not, the elections will come and I will have to focus on them."
- George W. Bush - Ha'aretz, 06.25.03
"...the archetype of the Self is also capable of triggering possession, the effect of which is that an individual identifies himself or herself with the inner "great man" or "wise woman" and as a result becomes hopelessly inflated. Every madhouse has a few Jesus Christs, Napoleons, presidents of the United States, and Virgin Mary's. When people are outright mad, the danger ends there. However, there are many people who only in secret overestimate themselves through identification with a Self figure. In such cases they just feel a little too much in the right, and this is one of the worst things that can happen. They become secretly inhuman as a result of some fanatical conviction or self-righteous attitude. Exactly this lies behind many of the massacres of our time, far more than the emotional outbreaks of single individuals that we are familiar with as the cause of murder and manslaughter. Most of those who set off bombs in public places have some 'righteous' conviction in their heads, which in their eyes justifies what they do.
All ideological fanaticism and every overwhelming affect arise from the constellation of an archetype. The archtype of the Self is no exception to this. It too can produce these sorts of effects. Thus we must have great respect for the old Eskimo shamans, who in relating to the world of the spirits were able just to be healers and not let themselves be possessed by its powers. Those who became possessed by the spirits were sick in their eyes. They caused schisms in the community rather than helping it."
- Marie-Louise Von Franz - Archetypal Dimensions of the Psyche
"George sees this as a religious war. He doesn't have a p.c. view of this war. His view of this is that they are trying to kill the Christians. And we as the Christians will strike back with more force and more ferocity than they will ever know."
"The Bushes: Portrait of a Dynasty," authors Peter and Rochelle Schweizer
Where we find ourselves is in the situation where each side is projecting it's evil on the other. In Iran we are called the great satan. We have fanatics of every stripe willing to die in order to inflict some damage on the other side. We have each side claiming direct inspiration from God and casting themselves in the light of rightousness. It's like a rather fabulous mirror in which each sees himself transformed into something evil and each declares that he will not cease until all evil is destroyed. When all evil is destroyed, all good will have been destroyed as well as the minds that created good and evil.
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