The Real Political Enemy is the Shadow We Refuse to Face

—And grow monsters in the hearts of those we love.

Was the Monster in them born in you?

If you find yourself looking out across the political divide, enraged by what you see, there may in fact be a kernel of truth that you ignored but which your enemies now dramatize.

The shadow is the unconscious part of the personality that contains everything we refuse to see in ourselves — the instincts, emotions, and traits we judge, fear, or repress. It is not only "evil," but also includes vital, creative energies we have disowned.

All across the Western world, society feels like it is splintering. Capitalized by politics, everyone is seeing enemies everywhere they turn. How you choose fruit is becoming political, lest the wrong choice support the wrong trade-war rival. How you plan your vacation, the same. And so too your university, your entertainment, and even your social media followers. The age-old adage “everything is politics” seems to be seeping into everything, and indeed, coloring our views of each other.

If you are a conservative, everything in politics is bonkers.
Identities are becoming more important than friendships.
Preachy judgments are becoming more important than practicalities.
Language is becoming more important than communication.

If you are liberal, everything in politics is deplorable.
Profits have become more important than communities.
Coercion has become more important than autonomy.
And free speech has ironically become more important than hypocrisy.

The more this goes on, the harder it is becoming to recognize our neighbors of a different political leaning.

Haven’t you found that?

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Chat, Chat GPT? What would Carl Jung say?

Jung would say that society is caught in a massive collective shadow projection.

As individuals and groups refuse to acknowledge the darker parts of themselves — their selfishness, fear, rage, and hypocrisy — they unconsciously project these traits onto political "others."

What enrages you about your enemies is often an unrecognized truth about yourself.

Politics has become a mirror maze of mutual projection, where people no longer see reality — only distorted reflections of their own denied fears.

That every small choice (what fruit you buy, where you vacation) has become political is a symptom of inner collapse. The ego, unable to tolerate complexity, splits the world into “good self” and “evil other” to protect its fragile self-image.

Conservatives project their fear of chaos onto liberals.
Liberals project their fear of domination onto conservatives.

Neither side is entirely wrong — but both sides are blind to how deeply their own shadows shape what they see.

As polarization deepens, society slips into shadow possession:

-Reason gives way to irrationality.

-Communication breaks down.

-Neighbors become enemies.

Jung would warn: The only way out is not political victory, but personal and collective shadow work.

Unless individuals confront their own inner darkness, the splintering will intensify,
risking societal collapse or a regression into authoritarianism.

Indeed, this is literally what Carl Jung actually said:

"It is becoming ever more obvious that it is not famine, not earthquakes, not microbes, not cancer, but man himself who is man's greatest danger to man, for the simple reason that there is no adequate protection against psychic epidemics, which are infinitely more devastating than the worst of natural catastrophes."

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So,

If you find yourself looking across the aisle with anger, rage, or disgust, please remember this:

What you are seeing might actually be a monster.
But if it is a monster, then it is a monster we have all contributed in making.

If you are concerned about young working-class men shifting en masse to the right, then you could probably benefit by learning how the much-needed 1990s feminist movement self-admittedly went a little too far, and de-masculated public education teaching styles and content.

If you are concerned about how regulation holds up resource extraction and stymies industry investment, then you should probably take a hard, honest look at the ongoing history of industrial shirking and environmental damage — like the Mount Polley Mine disaster or the many Albertan abandoned open wells.

Graciously or not, we share in contributing to the thought of an entire society, as if, in some way, we are all small parts of one big vast mind.

It seems to me that the things that often bother us about other political parties — or, if you will, other parts of our universal mind — are things that we are in a better position to understand, but choose not to.

Choosing not to, as Jung puts it, is the birth of evil which seeds deep within us.
But while it might seed within us, we can never know who it will flower for.

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Enemies Are Our Teachers

Let’s learn from them this election, and become better versions of ourselves. Now Chat, help me mic drop this like Jung was a 1990s pant-dropping, belt-whipping, sic-mic, cap-flipped rapper:

The monster you fear is the shadow you deny.
Fight it out there, or ignore it — and your enemies will decide.