Becoming aware of our shadow side.

I have been a fan of Naomi Klein since I read The Shock Doctrine and then No Is Not Enough, and On Fire. So I was interested in Naomi’s new book, Doppelganger.

From the introduction I am getting the sense that by Doppelganger what Klein is referring to is our shadow side. We all have one and so do societies. The shadow side is usually unconscious or barely conscious although it manifests from time to time in ways that fill us with shame and guilt. If you ask yourself, "What am I ashamed of about myself and society?" you will come into awareness of your shadow. Ken Wilber teaches that if we are to enhance our functioning, we have to become aware of our shadow parts and clean them up.

Naomi Klein who is a liberal has met her shadow side in the person of Naomi Wolf who is a conservative. Examining Wolff's beliefs and values has helped Klein become more aware of her shadow. Klein writes:

Yet what drove me to write this book, sticking with it against all good judgment, is that the more I looked at her—her disastrous choices and the cruel ways she was often treated by others—the more I came to feel as if I were seeing not only undesirable parts of myself but a magnification of many undesirable aspects of our shared culture as well. The ambient and all-pervasive hunger for ever-more-fleeting relevance; the disposability with which we treat people who mess up; the trivialization of words and displacements of responsibility, and much else. In the end, looking at her helped me see myself more clearly, but it also, oddly, helped me better see the dangerous systems and dynamics we are all trapped inside.

Klein, Naomi. Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World (pp. 10-11). Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Kindle Edition. 

Human beings project their beliefs onto others. As Jesus said in Matthew 7:3 And why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank that is in your own eye?

In our current times, the pundits complain about the high levels of polarization in our country. We have regressed as a society to identity groups and you are either with us or you're against us. The MAGA thought system fuels this kind of ethnocentric thinking. There is me and the other. There is no us.

Naomi Klein and Naomi Wolf are the yin and yang, the opposites, but together they make a whole. Naomi Klein calls Naomi Wolf her doppelganger and comes to realize that Wolf exemplifies her shadow side, and Klein, to her credit, wants to understand the characteristics of this shadow better so she can resolve the conflicts and contradictions.

We all have a shadow side which we project on others whom we dislike and attack in numerous ways. This month we will explore Klein’s exploration of her shadow side as a way of learning more about the shadow and how we, too, might learn about the shadow and how we might manage it to enhance our level of functioning.

During April, 2024, Naomi Klein’s book, Doppelganger, is being discussed by the Allnonfiction book discussion group. People are welcome to join.