America's Shadow
As US astronauts give us the first complete view of the far side of the moon, it's time America looks at its shadow.
In a spaceship they call Integrity, American astronauts have traveled farther away from Earth than ever before—giving humans the first complete view of the “dark side” of the moon.
Their spacecraft is officially called Orion but the astronauts dubbed it Integrity to honor "the foundation of trust, respect, candor, and humility" that the entire Artemis II crew (on land and in space) embodies.
Astronaut Christina Koch contemplating p. Earth from Integrity.
The far side of the moon is often misnamed the “dark side” only because humans on Earth never see it. In reality, the far side of the moon is illuminated whenever it passes between the sun and our planet, causing lunar shadows to sweep across the surface of the Earth.
A view of Earth from the moon.
The moon contains an iron core and due to a gravitational force called “tidal locking,” we always see its same “face” locked into place as it rotates around the Earth.
Illuminating the Dark Side
Earth-bound humans cannot see what’s on the other side of the moon just as we cannot see what’s locked in the shadow of the unconscious.
Carl Jung described the shadow as the disowned self—it’s whatever we refuse to admit, acknowledge or be accountable for in our lives.
“The shadow personifies everything that the subject refuses to acknowledge about himself.” ~Carl Jung
Today, we must reckon with a shadow that has fallen over the world: Trump appears to be nuclear saber rattling for the end of the Iranian civilization:
Even if the midnight deadline passes without the US launching a nuclear bomb to decimate Iran, we’ve already bombed universities and schools, hospitals and research centers.1 Hegseth is urging the military to “take no quarter,” threatening to bomb desalination plants and other necessary infrastructure, all of which would be war crimes.2
But by threatening the death of the Iranian civilization, itself, Trump has gone to the depths of depravity. His words are shocking and stomach turning.
Needless to say, to end Iran would not result in regime change—since there’d be nothing left. It would also not revenge the deaths of the thousands of protestors killed by the IRGC, nor compensate for the IRGC’s support of terror—it would no doubt increase it.
The murder of millions of Iranians wouldn’t make Israel more safe either but it would make America a pariah among civilized nations.
The President of the United States is imperiling civilization itself.
Trump's grotesque threat reveals his own deep shadow. He has broken promise after promise —not releasing the Epstein files, not lowering the cost of living, "no new wars"— failing to build alliances or negotiate the “best deals” for America. Now, rather than admit defeat, he’s willing to sacrifice an entire nation of 90 million souls. He will not escape defeat, however, as I hope and pray the American people will soundly deliver it to him in the midterms.
“Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is.” ~Carl Jung
The Doomsday clock has been minutes away from the end of the world for decades. By recently moving that time-line up, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists wrote:
A year ago, we warned that the world was perilously close to global disaster and that any delay in reversing course increased the probability of catastrophe. Rather than heed this warning, Russia, China, the United States, and other major countries have instead become increasingly aggressive, adversarial, and nationalistic. Hard-won global understandings are collapsing, accelerating a winner-takes-all great power competition and undermining the international cooperation critical to reducing the risks of nuclear war, climate change, the misuse of biotechnology, the potential threat of artificial intelligence, and other apocalyptic dangers.
The mutual annihilation that would ensue from the world’s nuclear Superpowers going to war is mind-boggling. Still, didn’t Trump claim we obliterated Iran’s nuclear capacity last summer?
It’s a blessing that we have haven’t seen the wartime use of atomic bombs since the US dropped two of them on Japan at the end of WWII. But WWIII has never felt so close at hand.
I’ve called my (absent) Senators and Congressmen (1-202-224-3121)—how in the world can they take a break at a time like now?! I’ve called the comments line of the White House (1-202-456-1111), urging the man who answered the phone to tell Trump that it’s unconscionable to punish 90 million Iranians with the destruction of their civilization. I’ve sent letters through Indivisible. I’m writing to you all now to try to ease my anxiety but the unease persists.
The shadow of America runs deep.
We have spread terror, toppled governments, stolen sovereign nations’ resources, and threatened their invasion (sorry, Greenland). We are currently blockading the people of Cuba, we have supported a genocide in Gaza, and we have helped arm the world— even with nuclear warheads.
Now that our president is possibly threatening to use them, we must not look away.
Trump is gravely undermining the “foundation of trust, respect, candor, and humility” that US foreign and domestic policy should embody.
Nevertheless, we can learn to hold the heartache this administration has wrought as an indicator of our humanity. Like the sun temporarily eclipsed by the moon, our pain points to a light that outshines all evil.
Perhaps it will be just another empty threat but as Trump’s horrific deadline casts a dark shadow over the world, the “Moon joy” the Integrity crew spoke of feels so very far away. Still, we must face this darkness and insist on continuing to shine the light of our shared humanity.
As astronaut Christina Koch said after losing contact with NASA for 40 minutes when Integrity passed behind the far side of the moon:
“It is so great to hear from Earth again! To Asia, Africa, and Oceania, we are looking back at you… We hear you can look up and see the moon right now. We see you too. When we turned this burn [unclear from live feed, see here] to the moon, I said that we do not leave Earth but we choose it. And that is true. We will explore. We will build. We will build ships. We will visit again…we will do radio astronomy. We will found companies. We will bolster industry. We will inspire. But ultimately we will always choose Earth, we will always choose each other.”
Houston replied:“Integrity, from Earth, our single system, fragile and interconnected, we copy. Those of us that can, are looking back.”
Thank you Jules. I stand with you. ❤️