Shadow boxing is a technique boxers have utilized for decades to perfect their boxing style, form, stance and to perfect the art of throwing combinations of punches in rhythm and with speed. The best boxers learn to focus on their image in the mirror, or a shadow against a wall, as if it were a real opponent, literally shadowing their every move, but also as an internalized vision of themselves, a means to quickly obtain feedback and correct mistakes in their punching or defensive techniques. In essence they are fighting both an illusion and themselves, all with the purpose of improving their skill and knowledge as a boxer.
Political shadow boxing, however, is something different. Not a means to acheive self knowledge and betterment, but a technique employed by certain politicians, primarily conservatives at the moment, but not always, to manipulate the body politic (i.e., you and I and everyone else) into chasing after ghosts, into spinning and fighting amongst ourselves, into literally throwing punches at our own shadows, in order to obscure the truth and obtain a political advantage. In essence, it is employed to split the political “body” into many images of that one body, some good and some evil, some inclusive and some a threat, but all imagined and all delusions. The very delusions which work to divide us from ourselves, and foster the belief that our greatest enemies live both within and among us.
It’s an old technique, but one employed most effectively today by the Republican Party, and their array of official and unofficial mouthpieces, consultants and supporting organizations. A technique that will be in full bloom this Fall.
