Donald T***p recently named himself a king. His cult followers rejoiced and his Republican sycophants kept their usual silence. What if he were not just a king but a MAD king?
We know he is mad in the sense of angry and filled with rage and resentment, and it is his rage and resentment that appeals to many voters who feel ignored and badly treated over the last decades. And many have been by a capitalist rip-off that has consistently destroyed unions and kept working wages down while rewarding CEO’s and hedge managers and others thousands of times over.
But what if his madness is not just about revenge and resentment but also MAD in the sense of psychotic and out of his mind and narcissistic and patriarchal to the point of “fatalistic self-hatred.” (The phrase of Adrienne Rich which she applies to patriarchy itself.) Does America now have not just a king but a MAD king?
Such a Mad king would, for example, declare that Ukraine started the war with Russia (even though Russia invaded Ukraine). And he would side with Putin and Russia against Ukraine and Europe and against NATO which has helped keep the peace in Europe for 80 years.
Such a king would buddy up with dictators envious of democratic Europe, such as Putin and Viktor Orbán, whom he honors and emulates. And even though 82% of Americans (including a majority of Republicans and others who elected him) do not trust Putin.
Such a king would end all environmental protections and raise taxes on all regular citizens in order to lower taxes for all those who sit and desire to sit on gold toilets. He would commit to killing the Earth by ever more drilling of fossil fuels while taking billions of dollars from fossil fuel companies for his political purposes. In this way he could spread his “fatalistic self-hatred” as far as the eyes can see around the Earth. Such a Mad king would turn a major political party into a bastion for necrophilia.
How to respond to such a Mad king? First, organize and protest, especially with all Republican congress people. Phone them. Demand town halls. Keep phoning them. Tell them bluntly what the Mad King’s decisions are doing to you and your community.
Look at summaries of Project 2025, such as mine in my book, Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ. That way you know what is going on in all this confusion and shock and awe, blitzkrieg, strategy to create chaos, confusion and conflict. And what his goal is.
Stay grounded spiritually. Read the news but not overly much. Also take care of yourself. Live and breathe and pray and meditate and practice kindness and laughter and get outdoors and read the mystics and continue to develop the mystic in you.
Also, find allies. Find a community online or in person or both. Fill up on the Via Positiva like a camel fills up at its watering hole before crossing the desert and Via Negativa. Remember: Biophilia trumps necrophilia.
See Matthew Fox, Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ.
And Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society.
And Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion.
And Fox, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifs for the Peoples of the Earth.
And Fox, Original Blessing.
See Matthew Fox, Skylar Wilson, Jen Lustig, Order of the Sacred Earth: An Intergenerational Vision of Love and Action.
Banner image: Crazy Trump. Image by IoSonoUnaFotoCamera on Flickr.
Queries for Contemplation
So what about it? Do you feel you are living in a land of a Mad king? What are you and your allies and community doing about it?
Recommended Reading
Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election
Matthew Fox tells us that he had always shied away from using the term “Anti-Christ” because it was so often used to spread control and fear. However, given today’s rise of authoritarianism and forces of democracide, ecocide, and christofascism, he turns the tables in this book employing the archetype for the cause of justice, democracy, and a renewed Earth and humanity.
From the Foreword: If there was ever a time, a moment, for examining the archetype of the Antichrist, it is now…Read this book with an open mind. Good and evil are real forces in our world. ~~ Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit and Conversations with the Divine.
For immediate access to Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election, order the e-book with 10 full-color prints from Amazon HERE.
To get a print-on-demand paperback copy with black & white images, order from Amazon HERE or IUniverse HERE.
To receive a limited-edition, full-color paperback copy, order from MatthewFox.org HERE.
Order the audiobook HERE for immediate download.
Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society
Visionary theologian and best-selling author Matthew Fox offers a new theology of evil that fundamentally changes the traditional perception of good and evil and points the way to a more enlightened treatment of ourselves, one another, and all of nature. In comparing the Eastern tradition of the 7 chakras to the Western tradition of the 7 capital sins, Fox allows us to think creatively about our capacity for personal and institutional evil and what we can do about them.
“A scholarly masterpiece embodying a better vision and depth of perception far beyond the grasp of any one single science. A breath-taking analysis.” — Diarmuid O’Murchu, author of Quantum Theology: Spiritual Implications of the New Physics
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice
In A Spirituality Named Compassion, Matthew Fox delivers a profound exploration of the meaning and practice of compassion. Establishing a spirituality for the future that promises personal, social, and global healing, Fox marries mysticism with social justice, leading the way toward a gentler and more ecological spirituality and an acceptance of our interdependence which is the substratum of all compassionate activity.
“Well worth our deepest consideration…Puts compassion into its proper focus after centuries of neglect.” –The Catholic Register
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth
Fox’s spirituality weds the healing and liberation found in North American Creation Spirituality and in South American Liberation Theology. Creation Spirituality challenges readers of every religious and political persuasion to unite in a new vision through which we learn to honor the earth and the people who inhabit it as the gift of a good and just Creator.
“A watershed theological work that offers a common ground for religious seekers and activists of all stripes.” — Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice.
“I am reading Liberating Gifts for the People of the Earth by Matt Fox. He is one that fills my heart and mind for new life in spite of so much that is violent in our world.” ~ Sister Dorothy Stang.
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
Matthew Fox lays out a whole new direction for Christianity—a direction that is in fact very ancient and very grounded in Jewish thinking (the fact that Jesus was a Jew is often neglected by Christian theology): the Four Paths of Creation Spirituality, the Vias Positiva, Negativa, Creativa and Transformativa in an extended and deeply developed way.
“Original Blessing makes available to the Christian world and to the human community a radical cure for all dark and derogatory views of the natural world wherever these may have originated.” –Thomas Berry, author, The Dream of the Earth; The Great Work; co-author, The Universe Story
Order of the Sacred Earth: An Intergenerational Vision of Love and Action
By Matthew Fox, Skylar Wilson, and Jen Listug
In the midst of global fire, earthquake and flood – as species are going extinct every day and national and global economies totter – the planet doesn’t need another church or religion. What it needs is a new Order, grounded in the Wisdom traditions of both East and West, including science and indigenous. An Order of the Sacred Earth united in one sacred vow: “I promise to be the best lover and defender of the Earth that I can be.”
Co-authored by Matthew Fox, Skylar Wilson, and Jennifer Berit Listug, with a forward by David Korten, this collection of essays by 21 spiritual visionaries including Brian Swimme, Mirabai Starr, Theodore Richards, and Kristal Parks marks the founding of the diverse and inclusive Order of the Sacred Earth, a community now evolving around the world.
“The Order of the Sacred Earth not only calls us home to our true nature as Earth, but also offers us invaluable guidance and company on the way.” ~~ Joanna Macy, environmental activist and author of Active Hope.
9 thoughts on “What If We Had Not Just a King But a Mad King?”
Check it out…Yesterday, my governor, Janet Mills of Maine was confronted by President Trump at the national governors’ luncheon. She politely, but emphatically stood her ground and said Maine would obey Federal and State laws pertaining to transgender students participating in sports. He threatened her with taking away education funds from Maine. She said, “I’ll see you in court”.
Honestly, Matt Fox, you are absolutely The BEST!!
Thank you..
Your governor is sensational 🩷
In 2018 Howard Dean of Vermont also a Doctor said that he believed Trump
to be Mentally ill. I have believed it ever since.
How this not seen by more reveals the mass delusion taking place today.
Via Negativa in full display.
Also loved the calm voice of the Governor of Maine standing up to a Mad King. Inspiring.
Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Janet Trafton Mills, the 75th Governor of Maine dares to confront the mad king. Was she the only one of all the governors to do this?? Wow!!
A Spiritual Warrior in combat!!
I just can’t believe what I am hearing!!
Link:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/maine-governor-tells-trump-see-you-in-court-amid-faceoff-over-trans-athletes/ar-AA1zzFsN?ocid=BingNewsSerp
How grateful I am to find precious Truth in your daily meditations. Yes, he is a Mad King, separated from the light of his own soul. Famished for light, he devours it like a black hole… insatiable.
What would Jesus do? Forgive him, for he does not know what he is doing. And we, now in our mass metaphoric impending crucifixion, can see clearly through the eyes of Christ. We have but our light to shine, in this moment, in our time.
We find deep within our souls the energy of creation. We enter Her stream. To our consciousness we shed our particle states, to be the Wave, the only force powerful enough to stop the monster’s train.
In the power of spiritual fusion, in the omnipotent force of Love, the wave uplifts the maniacal force and hurls it from the Earth.
I join the wave, as a mom and Yaya (grandma) whose children and grandchildren are beautifully diverse. Professionally, I am a spiritual sensitive who helps others connect to their soul light. Since the impending doom of the election results last November, I have initiated a “Love in Action” team in my spiritual community to support those impacted by the wrecking force and a “soul empowerment circle” to nourish the soul and to create safety for the vulnerability necessary for community building. My husband and I are hosting karaoke parties, for the joy they conjure. I am a writer and a singer songwriter, forging the courage to write and sing out.
Trump is very close to completing his rage-driven American coup. He has decapitated the CIA, DOJ, FBI, and Armed Forces. He has crippled Congress by neutering Republicans. He is deleting critical medical, scientific, and educational departments of the government or putting power in hand-picked lackeys to complete the work. His attacks on the freedom of the press are ratcheting up. He is now the only source of power for all these agencies, departments and levers of government except the courts, assuming the Supreme Court cares about the constitution. He is also accessing our personal data from Social Security Administration and IRS computers to acquire information and control over all citizens. He no longer cares what his followers want or feel because they won’t matter once he takes full control of the country. In my bones, I feel that he is preparing to complete his coup in the coming weeks. I offer the following poem as protest (next post).
With a grateful heart I am writing to let you and your staff and this community know that your daily meditation are an anchor for me at this time. I have a few trusted friends that I can share with. I continue to listen and pray as we engage in this spiritual war. I did call my senator and reps I live in Ohio. Blessings Pat Ferrari
Thank you Matthew for again prophetically reporting Truthfully that we not only have an authoritarian president with his appointed Servient administration, and a cowardly Republican congress, but also a self crowned ‘Mad King’ trying to destroy Our Democracy.
More Americans and Christians need to Wake Up and resist in many ways, including the political involvements you recommended. More Americans should also read your short but prophetic book to help us understand spiritually as well socially Trump’s evil actions and destructive influence on American society/people — “Trump & the MAGA Movement As Anti-Christ.”