A Solution for Post-Election Blues And Celebrants: A Satire in Need of Reading

by Anthony J. Marsella

The world is in shock!  The anticipated outcome of the USA election did not occur. How is that possible? Everything had been set in place for a continuation of the existing Global Order, and the plans to continue to alter the Global Order in favor of those few privileged with wealth, power, position, and person. Now uncertainty! The possibility of an unsavory future for all!

The divisions became clear, hyped by a failed, flawed, and sinister media. Consider: (1) White, Black, Brown;(2) Male, Female, LGBT; (3) Young, Middle-Aged, Old, Very Old, and Unborn; (4) Refugees, Internally Displaced Humans, Immigrants, Homeless, Hopeless;(5) Humans, Animals, Insects, Flora; Urban, Suburban, Rural, Village, Survivalists. All were caught in contention, conflict, clash, and contradiction!

What could be done?  I thought about this for a few moments and came to this conclusion:  Everyone must learn to Tango not tangle! Yes, Tango! Inherent in the Tango are the very solutions the world urgently needs.

Consider the nature of the Tango:

Alchemy! Two as one!

Artistry in every movement!

Compelled and compulsory sensuality, sexuality!

Controlled passion!

Disciplined emotions!

Distant intercourse! (Better than distant learning)

Healing intensity!

Immediacy prayers!

Intimacy contact!

Ordered expression!

Tolerated yearning!

Enough, you get the idea! The Tango does things to dancers and viewers that need to be done to comfort, assuage, mollify, placate, and to enrage, arouse, provoke.

And then I got carried away with the possibilities.  World leaders and major players must dance the Tango with each other. Imagine Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton (Yes, yes, who is my partner?), Vladimir Putin, Netanyahu, Xin Jing Ping, President Rodrigo Duerte, Presidents of European nations (whoever is in office at this time or next week), corporate presidents, military officers,billionaires, Federal Reserve System members and leaders. The list is sizeable, but finite!

Please, before you proceed with this tale, click on this link and enter the moment.

Now, can you just imagine what would happen when Obama strides on to the floor, leaning slightly forward, arms at his side, to meet Putin, who is much in smaller height, but bigger in chest and ego. Obama asks courteously: “Who is dancing lead!”  Putin, more knowledgeable in tangles of all sorts, replies:  “Comrade, there is no lead in Tango! It is ecology!” “Oh yeah, of course! Just like climate change, and oil pipelines stuff,” Obama replies.

At this point, the music begins, the lights dim, and the world waits! A single violinist offers the first bars!  The dancers stare at each other, and say: “Do not step on my shoes!” They were made in Bangladesh! Then in an intimate whisper to each other, they both say:  “It is easier to make war than to dance this stuff.” In a poignant moment, both twist and snap their heads, as is required. “Ouch!” “Yy!” Drones circle overhead!

Politicians in Iceland decide the entire country will learn to Tango! “It will become our national dance!”And in Argentina, residents take to the streets dancing the Tango, restoring their soul, lost for years because of dictators. In Italy, people cry: “The Tango is like eating a stuffed artichoke.” The Greeks yell: “Oopla!” The Poles say the Tango is nice, but you can’t beat the Mazurka! Ghetto gangs in Chicago say: “Who needs order! We like the Krump! Everything moves at the same time.”

The Viennese, holding their coffee cups, say: “Nice but too passionate!  We prefer the Waltz.” Finns, slightly hesitant about proximity, clothes, and Russia, say: “Maybe it would be better if everyone sat in a sauna.”  And Whirling Dervishes in Turkey say: “If you added a few more spins, the Tango has possibilities.” And Strip Teasers in exotic girl bars say: I Tango with my pole! And in the Vatican, the Pope, does the Tango in the solitude of the Sistine Chapel; he recalls what he has missed with regret! And India tries to remind the others of their ancient Dancing Goddess, Shiva (Nataraja), and her cosmic dance of creation.  And in Silicon Valley, in the silence of the night, robots dance: “The Robot.”

And so it goes! Efforts after a common solution reveal, no matter how good the intention and the solution, it is hard for people to escape their conditioned preferences, habits, and comfort zones.  It is easier to keep the status quo.

A satire! Yes, of course! But hasn’t the world been forced to endure a satire at the hands of the world leader dance? Is it possible dancing the Tango could heal and bring reform?

And if you did not click on the link above, get into the spirit now and see what you missed.

Anthony J. Marsella, Ph.D., a  member of the TRANSCEND Network, is a past president of Psychologists for Social Responsibility, emeritus professor of psychology at the University of Hawaii, and past director of the World Health Organization Psychiatric Research Center in Honolulu. He is known nationally and internationally as a pioneer figure in the study of culture and psychopathology who challenged the ethnocentrism and racial biases of many assumptions, theories, and practices in psychology and psychiatry. In more recent years, he has been writing and lecturing on peace and social justice. He has published 15 edited books, and more than 250 articles, chapters, book reviews, and popular pieces. He can be reached at marsella@hawaii.edu.

11/9/2016