Duluth, Minnesota (OpEdNews) August 2, 2025: On Thursday, July 16, 2025, as I was working on the present wide-ranging and, at times, deeply personal OEN article about Robert Moore's grim 2003 book Facing the Dragon: Confronting Personal and Spiritual Grandiosity (Chiron Publications) and Walter J. Ong's thought, Rob Kall and Mike Rivage-Seul published their OEN article titled "Bold Invitation to OEN Writers to Change the World" (dated July 16, 2025). In their "Bold Invitation," they challenged OEN writers to contribute future OEN articles "to create a progressive infrastructure" of position papers whose progressive authors would then be known collectively as The Arc of Justice Alliance.
Ah, the term The Arc of Justice Alliance called to mind the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King's famous statement that "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." I Googled and found an audiotape of Dr. King's speech in which he says this online. However, the online clip did not provide any information as to where or when Dr. King gave that speech. Sorry about that.
Ah, but what does any of this have to do with the present wide-ranging and, at times, deeply personal OEN article? That's an excellent question. So let me now address this question. It's complicated.
You see, in Robert Moore's grim 2003 book Facing the Dragon, he works with the sharp contrast of premodern cultures and modern cultures.
As we Americans today prepare ourselves to celebrate the 250th anniversary on July 4, 2026, of our 1776 Declaration of Independence, we may understandably understand our 1776 Declaration of Independence as part of the American Enlightenment and therefore as part of the modern "arc of the moral universe . . . bend[ing] toward justice" - even though our 1776 Declaration of Independence did not bring an end to the tragic practice of slavery in the newly founded United States.
No doubt the tragic practice of slavery in the newly founded United States is a serious example of what Robert Moore means by grandiosity in his grim 2003 book Facing the Dragon.
Because I dwell in the present wide-ranging and, at times, deeply personal OEN article on Robert Moore's grim 2003 book Facing the Dragon, this would seem to rule out the possibility of me declaring that the present wide-ranging and, at times, deeply personal OEN article is a contribution to the newly announced "progressive infrastructure" of position papers to be known at OEN as The Arc of Justice Alliance.
Ah, but let's overlook Robert Moore's sharp contrast of premodern cultures and modern cultures in his grim 2003 book Facing the Dragon. Robert Moore uses the imagery of the Dragon to symbolize all the different ways in which we humans can become inflated with grandiosity. Granted, Robert Moore tends to think that the tendency to become inflated with grandiosity tends to be much greater in modern cultures than it was in premodern cultures. So, Robert Moore's grim 2003 book Facing the Dragon of our grandiosity is arguably essential reading for all progressives who today aspire to write position papers for the "progressive infrastructure" at OEN.
Now, in various OEN articles, I have discussed the late Robert Moore's theory of the eight archetypes of maturity in the human psyche, each of which is accompanied by two "shadow" forms of the archetype. All sixteen of the "shadow" forms of the eight archetypes of maturity in the human psyche are addictive - and addictions (think of alcoholism workaholism, sex addiction, drug addiction, and the like) are problems. Moreover, all sixteen of the "shadow" forms of the eight archetypes of maturity in the human psyche can cause us to experience a psychotic break. When a psychotic break occurs, it involves forces in the unconscious overpowering and overthrowing the person's ego-consciousness.
Each one of the sixteen "shadow" forms of the eight archetypes of maturity can be involved in inflation and grandiosity that does not produce a psychotic break. So, there are sixteen ways in which we can be inflated and grandiose. We can be inflated and grandiose without necessarily experiencing a mental breakdown. However, when can experience a mental breakdown as the result of being inflated and grandiose.
The good news is that we cannot become inflated and grandiose with any of the eight optimal and positive forms of the eight archetypes of maturity in the human psyche. Therefore, it is to our advantage to learn to access the eight optimal and positive forms of the eight archetypes of maturity in our psyches.
At the present time, the biggest problem that we face in the United States is the grandiosity of President Donald Trump and his male supports. Consequently, Robert Moore's 2003 book Facing the Dragon is the most relevant book that we could read to understand the biggest problem in the United States today.
President Trump recently fired the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (B.L.S.), Erika McEntarfer, after the B.L.S released recent jobs numbers. You see, President Trump did not like the new released jobs numbers, because those jobs numbers did not conform with his expectations about how his various economic measures were supposed to increase jobs in the American economy.
Now, later in the present wide-ranging OEN article, I discuss what I describe as the power of the spoken word in various incest-themed porn videos that are available free on the internet. In them, the power of the spoken word is sufficient to designate the exhibitionistic woman in the fantasy skit as the mom/sister/daughter and to designate the exhibitionistic man in the fantasy skit as the son/brother/dad, respectively.
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