There was a time when we lived in the suburbs in a big house with a huge backyard. Because of its elevation, you could see the backyard from the street, which was a bit of a problem. We had no inclination to tend to the yard, it stood perennially overgrown, and so it amounted to an eyesore. And, to an enterprising garden maintenance team, an opportunity.
One late morning the doorbell rang and I opened the door to see quite a spectacle. In front of me were a dozen or so folks armed with machetes and garden tools and decked out in what I took to be the traditional dress of the Andes. Fronting them was a middle-aged fellow who was two heads taller and a hundred pounds heavier than the others.
“We’ll take care of your yard,” he said. “One thousand dollars.”
Facing all those machetes, it was a little hard to say no. Plus, the yard needed it.
“Three hundred dollars,” I said.
“Five hundred dollars,” he said.
I nodded.
“Open the gate,” he said.
I opened the gate and the Andean army rushed on through. Wild chopping commenced. It struck me that many things that didn’t really need to be destroyed were going to get the ax (or the machete) in this frenzy of maintenance. But it felt too hard to confront this Big Man. Because, while he was anything but menacing, he was nevertheless somehow too imposing to contradict. He had nothing in particular going for him except his size: but that was enough.
Does that remind you of anyone? Maybe of a certain President of the United States?
It was already hot and the boss reclined in the shade, either taking no notice of the proceedings or else barking orders. What struck me was how archetypal this felt. This felt exactly like an encounter with the archetype of the “Big Man,” that ever-so-male boss man from every culture, every time period, and every corner of the globe. The Viking of every culture!
Do we all possess this archetype of the Big Man? Is a large part of Donald Trump’s appeal, to those who find him appealing, and a large part of his success, due to the fact that he a living embodiment of the Big Man archetype? That seems likely. Tall political candidates win at a statistically much higher rather than do their shorter opponents. Their height is almost all they need. It is as if we have built into us a readiness to bow before bigness. It is quite likely that we are innately intimidated by size.
In kirism we talk about absurd rebellion, about our fundamental need to stand up for what we believe in even in the face not only of impossible odds but in the face of our own make-up. Maybe we are built with this “Big Man” archetype embedded in us. That seems likely. If that’s indeed the case, then we must rebel against our own attraction to size and opt for quality, not for bigness.
And so, let us hope that our neighbors who are enraptured by this current version of the Big Man archetype will wake up on Tuesday morning and come, not to their senses (since their senses will want him) but rather to their ethics. Let us hope so.
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