McKee was a remarkable friend of mine from long ago who still lives in my heart and head.
McKee had been a music producer who tired of the grind and went on a spiritual pilgrimage that eventually led him to a Hopi shaman. I believe the medicine man’s name was “Running Bear” but I may be wrong. McKee received many profound insights from Running Bear, one of which I want to share with you today.
The elderly shaman told McKee that when his people went to war they put on war paint for a very important reason. War is not the natural state of a human being and requires a kind of induced insanity. War paint was a reminder to the warriors that they were in a temporary state of madness. Before they went to battle, warriors would ritually apply the war paint. Just as importantly, after the battle was over, warriors (who were all male) would ritually remove the war paint and return to their natural state as fathers, brothers and sons.
Running Bear told McKee that when the U.S. returned from WW2 they did not remove their war paint, but instead applied the same aggressive energies to business. Decades ago, Running Bear prophesied that not taking off the warpaint would lead the U.S. to madness and destruction.
I believe the violence hidden in our political and economic structures did not begin with WW2. I believe they have been here all along hidden in our political structures, disguised in our property based economic systems, and, most shamefully, masked in our imperial forms of sectarian Christianity.
The office of President, as the word implies, was intended to fairly “preside” over the democratic process. The role of “Commander in Chief” was reserved for a time of war. To apply the kind of leadership needed in a time of war to times of peace will almost surely destroy the relationships that hold our republic together.
In my religious tradition we use the literature of Jewish apocalyptic tradition to remember previous times where nations and cultures collapsed and people had to let go of all that was familiar and to prepare themselves for a new way of living.
We are living through the implosion of many systems we falsely hoped would save us: unregulated capitalism, narcissistic nationalism and sectarian superstitions are tearing our world apart. The death throes of these systems may seem invincible in our day, but their seeds are completely barren. These systems are dying.
Apocalyptic literature is simply a warning to let go of the structures that are dying and to find our hope in the tender blossoms of newer and more noble virtues being born. Apocalyptic prophets were not preachers of doom, nor were they fortune tellers. They were just warning the people that they could not save themselves by clinging on to the structures of oppression and hoarding. These prophets were merely stating the obvious truths people did not want to hear.
In the words of Running Bear, the future belongs to those who know how to put on the war paint in times of struggle, and how to remove the war paint when it is time to build a peaceable home for our entire human family.
Let those who have ears hear.