Some quotes, then commentary:
Aspects of spiritual bypassing include exaggerated detachment, emotional numbing and repression, overemphasis on the positive, anger-phobia, blind or overly tolerant compassion, weak or too porous boundaries, lopsided development (cognitive intelligence often being far ahead of emotional and moral intelligence), debilitating judgment about one’s negativity or shadow side, devaluation of the personal relative to the spiritual, and delusions of having arrived at a higher level of being. . .
Part of the reason for [spiritual bypassing] is that we tend not to have very much tolerance, either personally or collectively, for facing, entering, and working through our pain, strongly preferring pain-numbing “solutions,” regardless of how much suffering such “remedies” may catalyze. Because this preference has so deeply and thoroughly infiltrated our culture that it has become all but normalized, spiritual bypassing fits almost seamlessly into our collective habit of turning away from what is painful, as a kind of higher analgesic with seemingly minimal side effects. It is a spiritualized strategy not only for avoiding pain but also for legitimizing such avoidance, in ways ranging from the blatantly obvious to the extremely subtle. . .
Although the defense looks a lot prettier than other defenses, it serves the same purpose. Spiritual bypass shields us from truth, it disconnects us from our feelings, and helps us avoid the big picture. It is more about checking out than checking in — and the difference is so subtle that we usually don’t even know we are doing it.
Actually, I’m going to avoid extended commentary, other than to say that I think this basic mindset underlies what I call Sybaritic Leftism. And given that an equilibrium has been reached with such people in a very precarious position of self delusion coupled with vast waters of dark rage and fear, it tips easily, quickly, and naturally into violence of emotion, violence of thought, and grotesquely exaggerated defensiveness, tribalism, and radical intolerance.
These people were there. Trump set them off. Watch MSNBC to see the result.
Such people had made peace with a conception of the world where everything is perfect. Anything less than perfection–any REALITY, to be clear–turns them upside down. They pout, they shout, they try to muffle others, and in general they panic and vibrate at the level of frightened mice.
All of this is ugly. And there is nothing at all spiritual about it. Give me an honest asshole any day over someone who chants mantras obsessively. The asshole has nothing to hide. The inward-sucking introvert has everything to hide.