Rubin Carter, Eye of the Hurricane
Rubin "Hurricane" Carter (1937-2014); Viktor
Frankl (1905-1997); C. G. Jung (1875-1961); Friedrich Nietzsche
(1875-1900); Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)
Rubin Carter was an African American prize fighter from New
Jersey who was wrongfully convicted of a double-homicide, went to prison
for 19 years, much of it in solitary confinement, and whose conviction was
overturned in 1985. During his imprisonment, he underwent a transformation
of his whole being and became spiritual.
- Carter undertook, in turns, resistance against his
imprisonment: physical, legal, and spiritual (101).
- He came to transform his understanding of
imprisonment from outer to inner, even coming to view his physical
imprisonment as necessary for him to break out of his inner
imprisonment (57, 68, 102).
- He drew on many sources for insight and inspiration:
the Bible, Viktor Frankl, the Daoist Zhuangzi, as well as the mystical
writings of the Russian spiritualist and philosopher Gurjieff and his
follower P. D. Ouspensky (128-129).
- Drawing on Gurdieff, he came to see himself and much
of humanity as imprisoned in a state of 'sleep' and needing to
'awaken' to reality (61-62).
- For Carter, the true nature of the self and of
reality is oneness (235, 256) - that all people are brothers and
sisters, and that racism, tribalism, nationalism, and all forms of
prejudice create artificial walls that obstruct the realization of the
true self (138).
- Carter at times refers to God and to Christ, but his
views are not traditionally Christian in the sense of regarding Christ
as the sole and transcendent example of the Divine Spirit incarnated
as a human being.
- There are key turning points in the development of
Carter's story including: Encounter with Muhammad Ali, Bob Dylan and
other celebrities who took up his cause; Lesra Martin and the
Canadians led by Lisa Peters, who continually fought for him through
the legal system when others had given up; moment of awakening when he
'sees the light' piercing through the prison wall (126-128), dying to
his sleeping self and being spiritual reborn to his awakened self
(255-9)(309).
- In this course, Carter is the first figure who does
not adhere to one clear religion or ideology but comes to form his
worldview through drawing on multiple sources, ultimately melding them
together to create his own religious or philosophical outlook.
Themes of the Dark Side
- Racism, tribalism, nationalism (105, 114)
- The U.S. prison and legal system (105)
- Issues of women and gender, by way of omission
- Social consciousness and individual awakening
Comparisons
Kierkegaard: faith and doubt; sin and redemption; good and
evil
Krishna, Arjuna, and the Bhagavad Gita: karma and liberation
(moksa); delusion and knowledge (jnana; gnosis)
Jung: conscious and unconscious; the shadow, complexes, and archetypes;
the healing power of the Self (vs ego-consciousness)
Frankl: meaning and meaninglessness
Carter: being asleep to the truth and awakening to oneness of the true
Self