Various types of bombardment are a feature of war. The worst kind is, of course, being directly in the line of fire, unprepared and innocent. “What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?” observed Mahatma Gandhi: accurate, grim, right.
But there is another kind of bombardment to the kinetic: the mental type, which also feels alarming, not least under a mercurial war-leader like Trump.
Continents may lie between you are the theatres of combat, but the effects of this barrage are still powerfully felt. The narrative whiplash of the jumpy news cycle; the collapses and confusions of a politics on fire; the fog of war thickened by the desperate quest for a narrative: any narrative. The flurry may not physically threaten you, but it can fully knock you about.
So what is the best way to deal with this rhetorical and imagistic blitzkrieg? How to survive the psychological onslaught? An unexpected clue comes from religious and wisdom traditions. For they commonly advise on the arts of war, too.
New essay at my Substack, A Golden String. Continue reading…