Jung’s persona and modern hypocrisy

Millions of people around the world took to the streets to protest killing of a black man by a policeman. This reflects humanitarian vision and nobility of attitude, as every human being with conscience should not be apathetic towards this gruesome crime. But this attitude should not be confined to certain people and denied to rest of humanity because each person in this world has the right to live with dignity.

Nevertheless, when millions of Arabs were killed and expelled from their countries, not even a tenth of this magnanimous commotion erupted, as if all people are equal except some. In fact, Arabs have been living in tumultuous conditions for many years, but the world turns a blind eye to them, ignoring the proxy wars tearing them apart, occupying their lands, stealing their natural wealth, exploiting differences to fuel infight and protecting awkward regimes who do not sense the misery of their peoples and who are assigned to protect the interests of the super powers.

This raises doubts as to whether this global movement is based on humanitarianism or hypocrisy, or intended to show off and present themselves are defenders of justice. This attitude is what Carl Jung, the great Swiss Psychologist, called “persona”. The persona is the mask that a person wears to conform to the general social trends, for if these demonstrations do not reflect a social trend, then they should apply to all tortured nations all over the world without discrimination based on color, religion, race or gender.

It is true that western countries are wholeheartedly sympathetic with George Floyd and took to streets, but it is also the western countries which bombarded the third world countries and killed millions of them, and it is the western countries which planted Israel in the Arab world leaving the native Palestinians to suffer from all kinds of depravity embodied in stealing the land and natural resources, confronting protests with disproportionate force and leaving people to suffer from poverty and miserable living conditions.

Carl Jung’s genius lies in the fact that he separated “ego” from “persona” because the ego is the self while the persona is the fake face which a person wants other people to see and image him accordingly. The protestors are wearing personas; otherwise, the rage would be against all forms of bellicosity and theft, because ethics are general standards that apply to all people regardless of their categorizations.

Trump who finds himself helpless in the face of this rage does not deserve any sympathy because he cast his blessings to Israel’s expansion and devour of Palestinian land and resources, and bragged that he could humiliate Arab countries because they are weak. Today, he is humiliated like no other person and perhaps he should find himself a persona which is acceptable to protestors to save his face.