In yesterday’s DM, we meditated on Rabbi Heschel’s observation that “man’s worship of power has resurrected the demon of power.”
To look into the face of the “demons of power,” one need look no further than the swamp land of Florida where a place called Alligator Alcatraz was built recently with our tax dollars.
This infamous $450 million Dachau-like detention camp now awaits the upcoming peak hurricane season. (Its floor was already under water on its first night of existence due to an ordinary rainstorm.)
It has been called a “moral disaster zone—an environmental time bomb, a human abomination and a golden goose for Republican donors.” A “death trap waiting for a storm surge.” Detainees are living in “flimsy tents” surrounded by chain-link fencing. What could possibly go wrong?
We are informed that the food is maggot-infested, there is no access to bathing, 24-hour lighting and Bibles are forbidden. “They took the Bible I had and they said here there is no right to religion,” one detainee said.
It seems that cruelty and sadism are at its core and the message Steve Miller and others want to project to the nation. Apparently, our tax dollars are in the hands of sadists with unlimited cash to spend now that the latest budget bill includes billions of dollars for such institutions.
Greed is also in the mix. The place has been built by private contractors, CDRR Maguire, Doodie Calls and Garda World, who contributed over $2 million to PAC’s supporting governor Ron de Santis. The rest of the Florida MAGA cult is cashing in as well by selling ghoulish merchandise branded “Alligator Alcatraz.” Reports are they are “selling like hotcakes” and donations to the state Republican party have surged.
Meanwhile, environmental laws are being ignored—no environmental impact study was made before it was hastily erected and environmental groups are suing based on the National Environmental Policy Act. The endangered Florida panther is also jeopardized.
Says one commentator: “This is not America. This is a grotesque perversion of justice, governance and basic human decency.”
It may not be America, but it is MAGA and last time I looked MAGA won an American election. So maybe we should look harder: Maybe hatred and sadism do lie in the heart of (at least some) Americans including the Republican senators and congresspeople who voted for the latest budget that assures that sadism and institutional violence flourish in our country.
I would hope that the 90 million Americans who sat out the last election might wake up a bit (oh,that’s right. MAGA and Florida have banished the word “woke” from our vocabulary, haven’t they?). Ninety million Americans sat out the last election and 76 million voted for a felon 34 times over for president and Alligator Alcatraz is what we all got. And SCOTUS in its infinite wisdom says the president cannot be prosecuted for crimes. So I am sorry to say that I think this is America. For now.
But it doesn’t have to be if people choose to interfere. Which is, as Rabbi Heschel instructs us, the work of the prophet. Which ought to be everyone with a conscience.
And let us not forget that the same people who brought us Alligator Alcatraz are also aspiring to bring about the end of National Public Radio and PBS television.
Why? Because they dare to report factual news–news which is not always flattering to the dear leader. Will America plummet even deeper into ignorance as a result? Did voters vote for that? I hope not. Stay tuned. Resist. Protest. Interfere.
Laurie Woodward Garcia, “Swamp of Corruption: How Republican Donors Cashed In on Florida’s ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ While Detainees Face Inhumane Conditions.” People Power United, July 12, 2025.
See Matthew Fox, Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Prophet for Our Times, pp. 7f.
See Fox, Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election.
And Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul & Society.
And Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice.
And Fox, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth.
And Fox, Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality.
Banner Image: The White House occupant views the interior of “Alligator Alcatraz”: chain-link cages in canvas tents supported by aluminum poles. Official White House photo, Wikimedia Commons.
Queries for Contemplation
How are you choosing to interfere with the demons of power that have given us Alligator Alcatraz and are fatly funded in the new budget passed by Congress? And with the effort to shut down NPR and PBS?
Related Readings by Matthew Fox
Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior For Our Time
While Matthew Fox recognizes that Meister Eckhart has influenced thinkers throughout history, he also wants to introduce Eckhart to today’s activists addressing contemporary crises. Toward that end, Fox creates dialogues between Eckhart and Carl Jung, Thich Nhat Hanh, Rabbi Heschel, Black Elk, Karl Marx, Rumi, Adrienne Rich, Dorothee Soelle, David Korten, Anita Roddick, Lily Yeh, M.C. Richards, and many others.
“Matthew Fox is perhaps the greatest writer on Meister Eckhart that has ever existed. (He) has successfully bridged a gap between Eckhart as a shamanistic personality and Eckhart as a post-modern mentor to the Inter-faith movement, to reveal just how cosmic Eckhart really is, and how remarkably relevant to today’s religious crisis! ” — Steven Herrmann, Author of Spiritual Democracy: The Wisdom of Early American Visionaries for the Journey Forward
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
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7 thoughts on “Demons of Power & MAGA: Alligator Alcatraz”
As long as we have the “we and they” ideology, I am not sure we will ever have peace and justice in America, and we will be making “good trouble “ in infinity. How do we meet this every single minute chaos and remain grounded, open and joyful? Evil is the worst degree of separation. Does anything in creation shun evil, or is this a human creation?
The way of the prophet is not complicated. Humanity has simply lost its way, forgetting almost entirely that we are, in the words of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, “not human beings having an occasional spiritual experience but spiritual beings having an occasional human experience.” Christianity, with its wrongful claim that it is the only way, has not helped our Western understanding. One consequence of such ignorance is the rise of the MAGA movement which, by no means, is contained to America. In answer to the question, I have dedicated the last 40 years of my daily life to a greater cosmic understanding of our spiritual journey that embraces the recognition of life beyond death and beyond this world. Like many prophets, for the most part it has been a voice in the wilderness but it doesn’t stop me crying: it can’t; it’s far too real, important, profound and needed.
I share your DMs of disturbing truths and facts about the dehumanizing and illegal treatments of our innocent human immigrants, many of whom have lived and worked for many years with their families in the US, with my list of internet spiritual friends.
I also pray daily and open my heart with compassion that God’s Spirit of DIVINE LOVE~WISDOM — Truth, Peace, Justice, Healing, Forgiveness, Strength, Transformation, Creativity, Joy, Beauty, Compassion, LOVING DIVERSE ONENESS… — continue growing with-in the ETERNAL HEART PRESENCE of All Our sisters and brothers around the world suffering injustices and death, even for the souls of Our enemies… We must maintain Our FAITH that humanity is still evolving, and that Our personal and communal spiritual responsibility to become more conscious in our inner and outer daily lives with one another is important and essential towards this evolution of COMPASSIONATE COSMIC CHRIST CONSCIOUSNESS….
I am so saddened with the atrocities that are happening in our country. I do feel hopeful reading the daily med. and am encouraged by actively participating in our small group of resistance yet this huge “ thing” continues to grow bigger and stronger, what more can an 85 yr. Old do beside pray?
Thank you for being a prophet when we really need more.
I am 82, and I agree that we begin with prayer. And then, even for us old folks, there are things we can do. Call or write senators and representatives, if they have voted for the terrible bill. Support organizations that work for human rights like the ACLU and Southern Poverty Law Center, which have many lawsuits opposing the worst of MAGA actions; Amnesty International Urgent Actions; Common Cause; Sierra Club; American Friends Service Committee — and many more. If you can afford to donate money, they all need it. But, even more importantly to me, they all provide model language for e-mails to appropriate government authorities which you can send as is or add to or modify. There are also suggested language for phone calls. I have no expectation of immediate results or positive results, but it is something that I can do, and I see it as planting seeds. I am sure you will discern what is yours to do. Growing in love to those around us is really the most important “action” of all.
I am being as active as I can be–participating in protests, calling and writing my elected officials, working on off-year elections for local candidates (city and school board), boycotting businesses that have backed away from their DEI policies, donating to food programs serving people vulnerable to ICE harassment, and participating with Indivisible groups. As long as I draw breath, I will do something every day to push back against this regime.
Amen.