Janus,
An original acrylics painting,on stretched canvas
36" X 24" , unframed
( click on image to enlarge )
Janus was the Roman god of two faces. He had the ability to see into the
future as well as the ability to look back into the past. He was also the god of new
beginnings, and he is the god for whom the first month of our calendar is named.
Exactly three years ago, in January of 2021, I posted this painting of a carnival
attendee, fully costumed as Janus. That was a month when the human carnival was
never more clearly on view for all to see, even for those who still refused to see the
truth and act responsibly. The covid pandemic was in the process of killing millions
of people, and yet so many thoughtless dolts were partying on, endangering the lives of
of others besides themselves. And then, on January the sixth, Donald Trump attempted
to overthrow the democratic government of the United States, by having his organized
militias attack the capitol building, injuring and killing it's defenders, in an attempt to
remove or kill the vice president and stop the electoral process, so that he could
retain power.
How have we changed, in the three years since I last talked about Janus?
Unfortunately, the human carnival continues unabated, as so many of us remain blind
to the future and unwilling to admit the mistakes of our past. Donald Trump is still
front and center in the news headlines. He holds fascist political rallies, where he
spouts quotations from Adolf Hitler, while at the same time he is attending his many
trials for his criminal actions, trials he still continues to lose. He compares his trials to
the sufferings of Christ, as if he is being punished for the crimes of other people,
and as if he is fighting for the right of his followers to be as blindly indoctrinated as
they want to be.
Who are all of these MAGA idiots who have destroyed the Republican Party
and replaced it with the Trump Party? They are an odd coalition of right-wing
extremists. A major portion of them are the Evangelical Christians, who want to
turn our democracy into a theocracy, where they can take away our freedom of
choice in every aspect of our daily lives, from what we are allowed to see and read
to what control we have over our own bodies and relationships. They are willing to
blindly overlook Trump's criminal and immoral behavior, and give him their support,
because he packed the Supreme Court with religious conservatives who overturned
women's rights to determine their own futures.
The other major portion of the MAGA tribe, consists of all of those who hate
or fear everyone who they see as somehow too different from themselves to be
worthy of the full rights of citizenship in this country. These Trump fans are the
racists, the xenophobes, the homophobes, and every other kind of phobic based
personalities, who take comfort in Trump's promise that, with him, they will be
able to take control, and somehow eliminate all of these wrong "others",
who they see as the root of our national problems.
Oddly enough, in one of Trump's recent, fascist speeches, somewhere
between his favorite Hitler quotes, he attempted to reference some very
famous quotations, about remembering history, in order to avoid repeating it,
but he mangled the words, of course. He had three choices: Edmund Burke
said "Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it." ; George
Santayana said "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to
repeat it." ; and Winston Churchill said "Those who fail to learn from history
are doomed to repeat it." Although Trump didn't get the words out correctly,
hearing them spoken by him might have had caused a more thoughtful audience
to consider what a disaster Trump has been for the nation, and what a continuing
disaster he would be if he should regain a position of power. But Trump's
followers do not have have the wise vision of a Janus.
And so, the carnival continues.
Eugene P. McNerney