Abstract: In the present wide-ranging and, at times, deeply personal 12,000-word “Probe: Stanley McChrystal’s 2025 Book On Character: Choices That Define a Life, and Walter J. Ong’s Thought,” I succinctly highlight retired U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal’s new 297-page 2025 autobiographical book (Portfolio Penguin). But General McChrystal does not mention media ecology. So, in addition to succinctly highlighting his autobiographical book, I extensively succinctly highlight the thought of the American Jesuit Renaissance specialist and cultural historian and pioneering media ecology theorist Walter Jackson Ong, Jr. (1912-2003; Ph.D. in English, Harvard University, 1955) of Saint Louis University, the Jesuit university on the City of St. Louis, Missouri (USA) – where, over the years, I took five courses from Father Ong. About the time of Father Ong’s big breakthrough insight about media ecology in the early 1950s, he also started championing personal decision making in his publications – and McChrystal emphasizes how our personal choices define our lives. After Ong’s big breakthrough insight about medial ecology in the early 1950s, he devoted the rest of his long and productive life to writing about media ecology. But he never abandoned his stress of personal decision making. Thus, Ong’s decision to devote his life to writing about his big breakthrough insight about media ecology in the early 1950s became a decision that defined his life – just as my personal decision to write about Ong’s media ecology work became a decision that has defined my life. As you will see, I have also included certain choices that I have made over my lifetime that have defined my life. Now, as you will also see, I have put the words “In conclusion” in boldface because they do not appear close to the end of the present “Probe” essay, and I am using them there to signal the shift in my thought. In any event, in the present “Probe” essay, I mention Ong by name 83 times, and I mention McChrystal by name 37 times.
Thomas J. Farrell
University of Minnesota Duluth
As I write the present wide-ranging and, at times, deeply personal “Probe” essay, this morning, June 22, 2025, the headline news this morning is that President Donald Trump has gone to war against Iran. Just yesterday, I was talking with my neighbor across the street, Keith, about the possibility that Trump might go to war against Iran – and now he has done so.
Over the years since I started writing op-ed articles at OpEdNews (https://www.opednews.com), I have often discussed Trump in my various OEN articles. For example, when the American psychiatrist and Kleinian psychoanalyst Justin A. Frank published the book Trump on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President (2018), I published my OEN article “His Majesty, Baby Donald!” (dated October 1, 2018) about it. In other OEN articles that I have published since then, I have regularly criticized Trump for his misogyny. For example, because of the misogyny of Trump and his male MAGA supporters, I have argued that Trump and his male MAGA supporters are not yet ready to experience the liberation of endogamous kinship libido that is “married within” their psyches to their early childhood image of their moms (or mother-figures) in their psyches.
In the present “Probe” essay, I discuss the experience of the liberation of endogamous kinship libido that is “married within” our psyches to our early childhood images of our moms (or mother-figures) and our dad (or our father-figures) in our psyches, but with not particular reference to Trump and his male MAGA supporters.
Now, in other recent news that is of interest to me, the Roman Catholic Church has a new pope, Pope Leo XIV, who appears to me to be as doctrinally conservative as the doctrinally conservative late Pope Francis (1936-2025) was, and this morning’s news reports that former President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer. I contributed to the aging President Joe Biden’s 2024 re-election campaign — and like many other Americans, I have been shocked and disillusioned by recent revelations of his declining health in 2024. In addition, I was sadly disappointed that so many of my fellow Americans voted on November 5, 2024, to re-elect former President Donald Trump to a second term as president of the United States. Clearly, my fellow Americans who voted on November 5, 2024, to elect former President Trump to a second term made personal choices to vote for him – just as I and my fellow Americans who voted from Biden on November 5, 2024, made personal choices to vote for him.
Now, I profiled the doctrinally conservative Pope Francis in my OEN article titled “Pope Francis on Evil and Satan” (dated March 24, 2019; viewed 3,140 times as of June 21, 2025).
I said farewell to the doctrinally conservative Pope Francis in my OEN article “Pope Francis (1936-2025): In Memoriam” (dated April 22, 2025; viewed 1,080 times as of June 21, 2025).
However, I have not yet formulated any views of Pope Leo XIV worth writing up in an OEN article. Nevertheless, in according with my view of the doctrinally conservative Pope Francis in my OEN article “Pope Francis on Evil and Satan” (dated March 24, 2019), I would expect that Pope Leo XIV is also doctrinally conservative – because I see no way that the cardinal-electors would ever elect a new pope who is not doctrinally conservative. Of course, like everybody else, I recognize that Pope Leo XIV is the first American pope – and I never expected to see an American elected to be pope. Once again, his election highlights the personal choices that the cardinal electors who elected him made – and personal choices are one theme that I want to stress in the present “Probe” essay.
Now, several weeks ago, I read retired U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal’s guest op-ed titled “Be Not Afraid” in The New York Times (dated April 13, 2025).
I was impressed with his discussion of character in it, so I pre-ordered his new 2025 book titled On Character: Choices That Define a Life at Amazon.com. I have now received Stanley McChrystal’s new 2025 book (released on May 13, 2025). Over 68 short autobiographical chapters, the retired Army general is an admirably lucid writer.
Now, when I describe the 68 short chapters in this new 2025 book as autobiographical, I do not mean that this book is an autobiography or memoir. It is not an autobiography or memoir. Rather, it is a cogently argued book. In it, McChrystal argues cogently that we make choices that define our lives — and our character. As to McChrystal’s own life, I have no doubt that he has made many significant choices in his long life that have defined his character as an outstanding leader of men and women in the U.S. Army. In short, McChrystal’s life has been one of distinguished service to his country and his fellow Americans.
Because McChrystal incorporates autobiographical information in his 68 short chapters, I have incorporated a certain amount of autobiographical information in the present “Probe” essay, Because McChrystal often reflects on events in American history and world history in his 68 short chapters, I have also incorporated certain reflections on our Western cultural history in the present “Probe” essay.
Now, according to the Wikipedia entry on “Stanley A. McChrystal,” he was born on August 14, 1954, in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
Now, I grew up in Kansas City, Kansas, my mother’s hometown. But I was born on March 17, 1944, in Ossining, New York, my father’s hometown. However, at the time of my birth, my father was serving in the U.S. Army in Dover, England; he was part of the build-up of troops there for the D-Day landing at Normandy, France. My father returned from the war as a decorated hero and entered my young life when I was eighteen months old.
Now, have I made big choices myself in my life that define my life? Yes, I certainly have. For example, when I was twenty years old, I made the choice to transfer in the fall semester of 1964 as a junior English major to Saint Louis University, the Jesuit university if the City of St. Louis, Missouri (USA). With 20/20 hindsight today, this was the biggest decision of my life. Because I planned to major in English, I reported to the head of the English department for academic counseling, Father Maurice B. McNamee, S.J. Father McNamee advised me to take Father Walter Ong’s course Practical Criticism: Poetry, which I did.
In that course, I fell in love with Father Ong and his media-ecology thought. Over my lifetime (I am now 81 years old), I have written extensively about Ong’s media-ecology work.
In addition, in the fall semester of 1964, I decided to attend the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King’s lecture on campus on Monday afternoon, October 12, 1964. Subsequently, I took a bus to Montgomery, Alabama, to join Dr. King’s march on Montgomery on March 25, 1965. Subsequently, I taught about one thousand black inner-city youth in the context of open admissions over a period of ten years (1969-1979) at Forest Park Community College (1969-1975; and 1976-1979) and at the City College of the City University of New York (in 1975-1976). And I published articles about open admissions’ students.
For example, see my articles “Open Admissions, Orality, and Literacy” in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence (1974) and “The Lessons of Open Admissions” in the Journal of General Education (1981). Incidentally, Ong was instrumental in getting my article “Open Admissions, Orality, and Literacy” published in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence in 1974. That article was read by Mina Shaughnessy of the City College of the city University of New York. As a result, she arranged for me to be invited to teach at the City College/CUNY in 1975-1976 – which in many respects turned out to be the most memorable year of my life.
Now, I taught about one thousand black inner-city youth and about one thousand white city youth over ten years (1969-1979) in the context of open admissions. I subsequently made the decision to join the Jesuits in 1979, but I also subsequently made the decision to leave the Jesuits early in 1987.
Yes, these and certain other decisions that I have made over the years have defined my adult life – as have certain other more recent decisions that I have made in writing my various OEN articles that I mention in the present “Probe” essay.
Now, on a considerably smaller scale, each time that I have written one of the 678 OEN articles that I have published since October 2009, I have decided to write up my relevant thoughts for publication (o spell out the obvious). By publishing my 678 OEN articles, I have further defined the character of my adult life, especially the public dimension of my adult life. Occasionally, in certain wide-ranging and, at times, deeply personal OEN articles, I have further defined my character by discussing certain personal matters publicly – most notably in my wide-ranging and, at times, deeply personal 28,800-word 665th OEN article titled “Fareed Zakaria and Ezra Klein on President Trump’s Foreign Policy” (dated March 24, 2025; viewed 1,885 times as of June 21, 2025).
Even though I am grateful that my wide-ranging and, at times, deeply personal 28,800-word OEN article dated March 24, 2024, has been viewed 1,885 times as of June 21, 2025, I also have to note here that 1,811 views would not put it in the “Top 20” of my OEN articles over the years. See my OEN article titled “Thomas J. Farrell ‘Top 20’ OEN Articles, and Walter J. Ong’s Thought” (dated April 22, 2025; viewed 616 times of June 21, 2025).
So, I would sum up my adult life as one of teaching, research, and publishing in service to my country and fellow Americans. Yes, as a young high school student in Kansas City, Kansas, I wrote my first op-ed commentary in support of President John F. Kennedy’s challenge to us not to ask what my country can do for me but what I can do for my country in his inaugural address in January 1961. Yes, subsequently, in my adult life, I thought of myself as asking what I can do for my country when I taught about one thousand black inner-city youth in the City of St. Louis (1969-1975; 1976-1979) and in New York City (in 1975-1976) in the context of open admissions, and I also thought of myself as asking what I can do for my country when I began publishing article about open-admissions students and Ong’s media-ecology thought.
Now, Ong’s first major book in media-ecology studies was his massively researched 1958 book Ramus, Method, and the Decay of Dialogue: From the Art of Discourse to the Art of Reason (as in the Age of Reason). In it, Ong delineates what he refers to as the aural-to-visual shift in cognitive processing over the centuries in our Western cultural history from Aristotle’s formal studies of the verbal art of logic (also known as dialectic) down to the French Renaissance logician and educational reformer and Protestant martyr Peter Ramus (1515-1572) (for specific page references to the aural-to-visual shift in Ong’s 1958 book, see the “Index,” p. 396).
But Ong’s massively researched 1958 book Ramus, Method, and the Decay of Dialogue was written for specialists. It was not the kind of book that would ever be widely read by ordinary college-educated people in the English-speaking world.
But Ong’s second major book in media-ecology studies was more accessible to ordinary college-educated people in the English-speaking world: The Presence of the Word: Some Prolegomena for Cultural and Religious History (1967), the expanded version of Ong’s 1964 Terry Lectures at Yale University.
Ong’s third major book in media-ecology studies was Rhetoric, Romance, and Technology: Studies in the Interaction of Expression and Culture (1971).
Ong’s fourth major book in media-ecology studies was Interfaces of the Word: Studies in the Evolution of Consciousness and Culture (1977).
Ong’s 1982 book titled Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word is his most accessible book in media-ecology studies, and his most widely read and his most widely translated book.
Now, in the 1960s, the Canadian Renaissance specialist and cultural historian and pioneering media-ecology theorist Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980; Ph.D. in English, Cambridge University, 1943) of the University of Toronto published two important books in media-ecology studies:
(1) The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man (sic) (1962; for McLuhan’s references to Ong’s various publications about Ramus and Ramist logic, see the “Bibliographic Index,” pp. 286-287);
(2) Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (sic) (1964).
These two books in media-ecology studies catapulted McLuhan to unprecedented fame for an academic – and to extraordinary controversy for an academic. I characterize the controversies involving McLuhan as extraordinary because the various criticisms of McLuhan’s thought and expression were often unusually personal for academic discourse at the time.
Now, in 2000, I published my award-winning book Walter Ong’s Contributions to Cultural Studies: The Phenomenology of the Word and I-Thou Communication. In it, I surveyed Ong’s life and eleven of his books and selected articles.
My book received the Marshall McLuhan Award for Outstanding Book in the Field of Media-ecology, conferred by the Media-ecology Association on June 15, 2001.
I have discussed Ong’s media-ecology thought in my somewhat lengthy OEN article “Walter J. Ong’s Philosophical Thought” (dated September 20, 2020; viewed 3,160 times as of June 21, 2025).
Oh my God, did I ever make a life-defining choice when I was twenty years old and decided to transfer to Saint Louis University as a junior English major! I understand the import of the subtitle of McChrystal’s new 2025 book On Character.
Now, in 2025, Tom Cooper published his survey of Marshall McLuhan’s life and work in his 660-page book titled Wisdom Weavers: The Lives and Thought of Harold Innis and Marshall McLuhan (Connected Editions) – the revised and updated version of Cooper’s 1979 doctoral thesis at the University of Toronto, where both Innis and McLuhan taught for years.
Cooper credits both Innis and McLuhan with being the co-founders of the so-called Toronto School of Media-ecology. Even though Ong never taught at the University of Toronto, Ong is often regarded as being part of the Toronto School of Media-Ecology. (As Cooper notes, there is also a so-called New York School of Media-Ecology involving Neil Postman of New York University. For further information about Neil Postman, see Lance Strate’s book titled Media Ecology: An Approach to Understanding the Human Condition [2017]; Strate also discusses McLuhan and Ong.)
For further discussion of Cooper’s new 2025 book Wisdom Weavers, see my OEN article titled “Tom Cooper on Harold Innis (1894-1952) and Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980)” (dated May 24, 2025; viewed 1,008 times as of June 21, 2025).
Now, you see, young Marshall McLuhan taught English at Saint Louis University, the Jesuit university in the City of St. Louis, Missouri (USA), from 1937 to 1944. As part of young Walter Ong’s long Jesuit formation, he was sent to Saint Louis University for graduate studies in philosophy and English. Young Ong took at least one course in English from young McLuhan, and young McLuhan served as the director of young Ong’s Master’s thesis on sprung rhythm in the recently posthumously published poetry of the Victorian Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889). Ong’s 1941 Master’s thesis was published, slightly revised in 1949 in a collection of essays about Hopkins’ poetry by Jesuits. Ong’s slightly revised 1941 Master’s thesis is reprinted in An Ong Reader: Challenges for Further Inquiry, edited by Thomas J. Farrell and Paul A. Soukup (2002, pp. 111-174).
At the time when young Ong wrote his Master’s thesis on sprung rhythm in Hopkins’ poetry, neither young Ong nor young McLuhan was thinking in terms of media-ecology studies. Their respective interest in media-ecology studies came years later in their respective lives as Renaissance specialists. Nevertheless, Ong’s study of sprung rhythm in Hopkins’ poetry in 1941 shows his early interest in sound. Remember that Ong’s big breakthrough media-ecology insight came in the early 1950s when he wrote about the aural-to-visual shift in cognitive processing in our Western cultural history.
Now, for a cogent critique of Ong’s account of Hopkins’ sprung rhythm, James I. Wimsatt’s book Hopkins’s Poetics of Speech Sound: Sprung Rhythm, Lettering, Inscape (2006).
Now, like Stanley McChrystal in his new 2025 book On Character: Choices That Define a Life, Father Ong valued choices and decision making. See Ong’s article “‘A.M.D.G.’ [“Ad majorem Dei gloriam” = “For the greater glory of God”]} Dedication or Directive?” in the now-defunct Jesuit-sponsored journal Review for Religious (September 15, 1952). Ong’s 1952 article is reprinted in volume three of Ong’s Faith and Contexts, edited by Thomas J. Farrell and Paul A. Soukup (1995, pp. 1-8).
Ong reprises his 1952 article “‘A.M.D.G.’: Dedication or Directive?” in his 1986 book Hopkins, the Self, and God (pp. 78-81 and 87), the published version of Ong’s 1981 Alexander Lectures at the University of Toronto.
Ah, and what about me – do I value choice and decision making as they define one’s character? Yes, I do. And I see my choices as defining my character.
For example, in my OEN article titled “Robert Moore on Optimal Human Psychological Development” (dated September 17, 2024; viewed 1,235 times as of June 21, 2025), I set forth an account of the late Jungian psychotherapist and psychological theorist Robert Moore’s thought about the eight masculine archetypes of maturity and their sixteen accompanying “shadow” forms in each human psyche. In addition, I used Moore’s thought as the basis for my criticisms of the Roman Catholic Church’s moral vision of individual personal moral development.
More recently, I have sharpened my criticism of what I first referred to as the tragic anti-body heritage of Christianity in my wide-ranging and, at times, deeply personal 28,800-word 665th OEN article titled “Fareed Zakaria and Ezra Klein on President Trump’s Foreign Policy” (dated March 24, 2025; viewed 1,808 times as of May 18, 2025), mentioned above.
But also see my three following subsequent OEN articles: (1) “Thomas J. Farrell’s Encore on the Tragic Anti-Body Heritage of Christianity” (dated April 29, 2025); (2) “Thomas J. Farrell’s Further Reflections on the Tragic anti-Body Heritage of Christianity” (dated June 14, 2025); and (3) “Thomas J. Farrell’s Postscript Reflections on His Life and Work” (dates June 16, 2025).
Now, after McChrystal’s “Introduction: The Last Full Measure” (pp. xiii-xv), he divides his new 2025 book of 68 short autobiographical essays into three parts: (1) “Part 1: Conviction” (pp. 1-91); (2) “Part 2: Discipline” (pp. 93-165); and (3) “Part 3: Character” (pp. 167-279), followed by “Epilogue: The Final Roll Call: Perhaps All We Can Leave Is the Impact of Our Character” (pp. 280-284).
In any event, the most efficient way for me to give you an overview of McChrystal’s admirably lucid book is to tell you the unnumbered 68 chapter titles in the three parts (I have provided the chapter numbers here, and I have added the subtitles of each chapter as it appears on the opening page of each respective chapter):
“Part 1: Conviction: Convictions Are the Mainsprings of Action, the Driving Powers of Life. What a Man Lives Are His Convictions – Bishop Francis Kelley, former military chaplain” (pp. 1-91).
Chapter 1: “A Time to Contemplate: Reaching Our Convictions Demands Deep Reflection” (pp. 3-8).
Chapter 2: “The Search for Conviction: We Must Be Willing to Leverage the Wisdom of Others” (pp. 9-11).
Chapter 3: “A Life of Conviction: Defining and Living Our Convictions Requires Deliberate focus” (pp. 12-15).
Chapter 4: “Faith: Blind Faith Is Seductive but Dangerous” (pp. 16-19).
Chapter 5: “‘They’: We Learn to Hate the Faceless People We Fear” (pp. 20-24).
Chapter 6: “The Matter of Perspective: We All Reflect the Life Journey We’ve Taken” (pp. 24-28).
Chapter 7: “Ditching the Rearview Mirror: Life Lies Ahead, Not Behind Us” (pp. 29-31).
Chapter 8: “Granddaughters: Knowing What Matters Is What Matters Most” (pp. 32-35).
Chapter 9: “Life in the Alley: Community Is Not a Place, It’s a Decision” (pp. 36-38).
Chapter 10: “Navigating Work and Life: Life Isn’t a et of Disconnected Pieces. It is the Joined Parts of All We do” (pp. 39-41).
Chapter 11: “Gettysburg: The Danger of War Lies in Its Genuine Glory” (pp. 42-46).
Chapter 12: “Digital Leadership: New Virtual Work Requires New Communication Skills to Accomplish Traditional Outcomes” (pp. 47-50).
Chapter 13: “Incentives: Money Is Rarely the Motivator We Believe It to Be” (pp. 51-55).
Chapter 14: “The ‘O’ Club: It’s a Mistake to Thrown the Baby Out with the Bathwater” (pp. 56-59).
Chapter 15: “On Civil Rights: More Than Theoretical Equality – Practical Sacrifice” (pp. 60-63).
Chapter 16: “The Great Divide: We Must Lead Each Other Across the Wide Chasms That Separate Us” (pp. 64-68).
Chapter 17: “Balancing Ends and Means: The Struggle to Justify Our Actions with the Objectives We Seek” (pp. 69-72).
Chapter 18: “Corruption: Corruption Takes Many Forms, But It’s Still Corruption” (pp. 73-76).
Chapter 19: “Taking a Side: We’re Often Forced to Take a Side, Even When We’d Rather Not” (pp. 77-80).
Chapter 20: “The Constitution: We Rarely Understand the Document That Designs Our Nation” (pp. 81-83).
Chapter 21: “The Costly Benefits of War: It Brings Out the Worst – and the Best – in Us” (pp. 84-87).
Chapter 22: “Fixing Politics: What You Don’t Fix Will Kill You” (pp. 88-91).
“Part 2: Discipline: The First and Best Victory Is to Conquer Self — Plato” (pp. 93-165).
Chapter 23: “A Call to Think: The Most Critical Discipline Is to Think for Ourselves” (pp. 95-98).
Chapter 24: “The Reading Habit: We Grow When We Learn. We Learn When We Read” (pp. 99-103).
Chapter 25: “Self-Discipline: Living Our Convictions Starts with Controlling Ourselves” (pp. 104-107).
Chapter 26: “Moving Forward: After the Fall: History Is a Great Place – Just Don’t Live There” (pp. 108-111).
Chapter 27: “Embrace the Suck: If It’s Going to Hurt Anyway, You Might as Well Enjoy it” (pp. 112-114).
Chapter 28: “One Meal a Day: Controlling What We Can Is Most of the Battle” (pp. 115-117).
Chapter 29: “Being Obsessed: Some Endeavors Warrant Obsessive Focus” (pp. 118-120).
Chapter 30: “Priorities: Knowing What to Leave Undone Is as Important as Knowing What Needs to be Done” (pp. 121-124).
Chapter 31: “The Ranger Effect: The Value of Unwavering Standards” (pp. 125-128).
Chapter 32: “Quitting: Abandoning Things We’ve Committed to Is a Dangerous Habit” (pp. 129-132).
Chapter 33: “Choosing to Lead: Leadership Is Not a Title or Position – It’s a Choice” (pp. 133-137).
Chapter 34: “In Patient Pursuit of Greatness: Great Comes More from Unwavering Effort Than from Brilliance” (pp. 138-141).
Chapter 35: “Just Fix the Bridge: Too Often We Make Things Harder Than They Need to Be” (pp. 142-145).
Chapter 36: “Handwritten Notes: The Power of Saying You Care” (pp. 146-148).
Chapter 37: “Leading Different Generations: Our Divides Are as Wide as We Tell Ourselves They Are” (pp. 149-152).
Chapter 38: “Being There: Where We Are Matters” (pp. 153-156).
Chapter 39: “The Dinosaur’s Tail: Remember Unintentional Consequences” (pp. 157-160).
Chapter 40: “The Question of Character: Easy to Spot, Elusive to Define, and What We Should Value Most” (pp. 161-165).
“Part 3: Character: Reputation Is What Men and Women Think of Us; Character Is What God and Angels Know of Us – Thomas Paine” (pp. 167-279).
Chapter 41: “The Challenge to Become: Becoming Who We Want to Be Starts with Deciding What That is” (pp. 169-173).
Chapter 42: “Living Up to Our Values: Am I Who I Think I Am?” (pp. 174-178).
Chapter 43: “Tattoos, Long Hair, and Fatherhood: What Really Matters?” (pp. 179-180).
Chapter 44: “On Marriage: The Greatest Gain Comes from Choosing to Surrender Part of Ourselves” (pp. 181-184).
Chapter 45: “Knowing Someone: Knowing someone Intimately Is a Unique Gift – and a Challenge” (pp. 185-188).
Chapter 46: “The I-495 Rule: Trust Is Sacred, but Not to Be Taken for Granted” (pp. 189-192).
Chapter 47: “Step Away from the Carousel: Seemingly Small Things Reveal Our Character” (pp. 193-196).
Chapter 48: “Does Character Still Matter? Character Is More Essential Than Ever to Our World” (pp. 197-201).
Chapter 49: “Gone Bad: How Should We Think About the People We Once Admired but Now No Longer Respect?” (pp. 202-204).
Chapter 50: “The Siren’s Call to Rationalize: Don’t Convince Yourself That What’s Wrong Is Right” (pp. 205-209).
Chapter 51: “Opportunity . . . or Opportunism? Ruthless Pursuit of Personal Gain Must Be Identified from What It Is” (pp. 210-214).
Chapter 52: “Say Anything: Our Tolerance for Poor Behavior Defines Our Values” (pp. 215-217).
Chapter 53: “The Courage to Do What’s Right: The Most Important Time to Do What’s Right Is When It Is Difficult” (pp. 218-221).
Chapter 54: “Is Silence Consent? The Pressure to Remain Quiet Should Not Override Our Values” (pp. 222-223).
Chapter 55: “On Patriotism: Real Support of a Nation Is More Than Flag pins” (pp. 226-229).
Chapter 56: “Heroes: People Truly Worthy of Our Emulating Are Rare – but Important” (pp. 230-232).
Chapter 57: “Who’ll Bell the Cat? We Must Guard Our Rights by Meeting Our Responsibilities” (pp. 233-235).
Chapter 58: “White Water Rafting: The Best Time to Become a Team Is at the Outset. The Next Best Time Is Now” (pp. 236-239).
Chapter 59: “Afghanistan: Failure Isn’t Measured Entirely by Outcome” (pp. 240-244).
Chapter 60: “Unreasonable Bosses: What Price Are We Willing to Pay for Success?” (pp. 245-249).
Chapter 61: “Aides and Assistants: Leaders Are Responsible to Set the Tone for Their Team” (pp. 250-253).
Chapter 62: “Anger and Frustration: Frustration Is Natural, Sometimes Useful, but Often costly” (pp. 254-258).
Chapter 63: “When There’s No Right Answer: Speaking from Your Heart and Values Is Always the Right Answer” (pp. 259-261).
Chapter 64: “The Arc of Irrelevance: Admitting to Ourselves That We Still Want to Matter” (pp. 262-265).
Chapter 65: “Getting Old: Don’t Worry, It Doesn’t Last Forever” (pp. 266-268).
Chapter 66: “Monuments: Celebrating What We Hope to Be” (pp. 269-271).
Chapter 67: “Saying Goodbye: Funerals Honor the Dead and Remind the Living” (pp. 272-275).
Chapter 68: “Thinking about the End: Considering How the Game Will Finish Reminds Us How to Play” (pp. 276-279).
“Epilogue: The Final Roll Call” (pp. 280-284).
McChrystal’s new 2025 book On Character does not come equipped with an “Index,” which is regrettable.
Now, how do thinking Americans today think about character today? We Americans today live in what Ong famously refers to as our contemporary secondary oral culture. By this term, Ong differentiates our contemporary secondary oral culture brought to us by the various communication media that accentuate sound (e.g., television, telephone, radio, movies with soundtracks, DVDs with soundtracks, internet videos with
soundtracks that are available free on the internet today, podcasts, and the like) from pre-literate primary oral cultures, including pre-historic pre-literate primary oral cultures. For all practical purposes, the communication media that accentuate sound reached a critical mass around 1960 – and this critical mass of communication media that accentuate sound has produced out contemporary secondary oral culture that has superseded the print culture that emerged in our Western cultural history after the Gutenberg printing press emerged in Europe in the mid-1450s.
So, around 1960, secondary oral culture versus print culture within American culture.
Remember that I accept the axiom that American politics is downstream from American culture.
In terms of American politics, secondary oral culture versus print culture translates into liberals and progressives such as OEN readers today versus conservatives such as Trump voters today.
Ah, but in our contemporary American culture today, would liberals and progressives such as the readers of my OEN articles be interested in retired U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal’s accessible new 2025 book On Character: Choices That Define a Life? That’s a good question. I am writing the present “Probe” essay on the assumption that liberal and progressive North American readers of New Explorations might be interested in reading McChrystal’s new 2025 book if I contextualize his book in the context of Ong’s account of media ecology.
You see, in media ecology terms, I see American conservatives today as longing for their idealized sense of the lost world of print culture in American culture up to the 1950s – but their idealized sense of the lost world of print culture in American culture in the 1950s is an imaginary idealization.
In media ecology terms, I see American liberals and progressives today as representing American people who are soundly orienting to our contemporary secondary oral culture.
I see the following five books as classic media ecology studies of the print culture that emerged in our Western cultural history after the Gutenberg printing press emerged in the mid-1450s in Europe:
(1) Richard D. Altick’s 1957 book The English Common Reader: A Social History of the Mass Reading Public, 1800-1900;
(2) Lucien Febvre and Henri-Jean Martin’s 1958 book in French titled The Coming of the Book: The Impact of Printing, 1450-1800, translated by David Gerard; edited by Geoffrey Nowell-Smith and David Wootton (1976);
(3) Walter J. Ong’s 1958 book Ramus, Method, and the Decay of Dialogue: From the Art of Discourse to the Art of Reason, mentioned above;
(4) Jurgen Habermas’ 1962 book in German titled The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society, translated by Thomas Burger with the assistance of Frederick Lawrence (1991);
(5) Marshall McLuhan’s 1962 book The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man (sic), mentioned above.
I refer to these five books as pioneering studies of the print culture that emerged in our Western cultural history after the Gutenberg printing press emerged in Europe in the mid-1450s, because today there are too many studies of print culture for anyone to undertake a thorough bibliographic listing of them.
However, for a classified bibliography of studies in various languages of ancient and medieval literacy, see Marco Mostert’s 2012 book titled A Bibliography of Works on Medieval Communication.
Now, in any event, my point here is that American conservatives today hearken back to their idealized imaginary sense of print culture in American culture in the 1950s.
Now, Ong published a generous review of McLuhan’s 1962 book The Gutenberg Galaxy in the Jesuit-sponsored magazine America (September 15, 1962).
Ong’s generous review of McLuhan’s 1962 book The Gutenberg Galaxy is reprinted in An Ong Reader: Challenges for Further Inquiry, edited by Thomas J. Farrell and Paul A. Soukup (2002, pp. 307-308; but also see Ong’s 1967 comment about McLuhan’s 1962 book on p. 343 [“McLuhan gives a racy survey, indifferent to some scholarly detail, but uniquely valuable in suggesting the sweep and depth of the cultural and psychological changes entailed in the passage from illiteracy to print and beyond,” Ong, 2002, p. 343]).
Thus, Ong in 1967 characterizes McLuhan’s 1962 book as “racy” and as “indifferent to some scholarly detail” but still “uniquely valuable in suggesting the sweep and depth of the cultural and psychological changes entailed in the passage from illiteracy to print” after the emergence of the Gutenberg printing press in Europe in the mid-1450s in our Western cultural history.
In any event, when I took Father Ong’s course Practical Criticism: Prose in the spring semester of 1966 at Saint Louis University, he put McLuhan’s 1962 book The Gutenberg Galaxy on the assigned reading list for one of our quizzes in the course. Ong told us to read it “with a grain of salt.” That’s good advice – if you have not read McLuhan’s 1962 book The Gutenberg Galaxy but are planning to read it to better understand the tendencies of American conservative today to hearken back to their idealized version of print culture in American culture in the 1950s.
Now, in Ong’s Chapter IV: “The Distant Background: Scholasticism and the Quantification of Thought” in his 1958 massively researched book Ramus, Method, and the Decay of Dialogue (pp. 53-91), he discusses the un-self-conscious quantification of thought in late medieval logic. Subsequently, Ong reflected further on the quantification of thought in late medieval logic in his article “System, Space, and Intellect in Renaissance Symbolism” in the journal Bibliotheque et Humanisme (Geneva), volume 18 (May 1956): pp. 222-239. Subsequently, Ong reprinted his 1956 article in his 1962 book The Barbarian Within: And Other Fugitive Essays and Studies (Macmillan, 1962, pp. 68-87).
In any event, in Ong’s essay “System, Space, and Intellect in Renaissance Symbolism,” he says the following:
“In this historical perspective, medieval scholastic logic appears as a kind of pre-mathematics, a subtle and unwitting preparation for the large-scale operations in quantitative modes of thinking which will characterize the modern world. In assessing the meaning of [medieval] scholasticism, one must keep in mind an important and astounding fact: in the whole history of the human mind, mathematics and mathematical physics come into their own, in a way which has changed the face of the earth and promises or threatens to change it even more, at only one place and time, that is, in Western Europe immediately after the [medieval] scholastic experience [in short, in print culture]. Elsewhere, no matter how advanced the culture on other scores, and even along mathematical lines, as in the case of the Babylonian, nothing like a real mathematical transformation of thinking takes place – not among the ancient Egyptians or Assyrians or Greeks or Romans, not among the peoples of India nor the Chinese nor the Japanese, not among the Aztecs or Mayas, not in Islam despite the promising beginnings there, any more than among the Tartars or the Avars or the Turks. These people can all now share the common scientific knowledge, but the scientific tradition itself which they share is not a merging of various parallel discoveries made by their various civilizations. It represents a new state of mind. However great contributions other civilizations may hereafter make to the tradition, our scientific world traces its origins back always to seventeenth and sixteenth century Europe [in short, to Copernicus and Galileo], to the place where for some three centuries and more the [medieval] arts course taught in universities and parauniversity schools had pounded into the heads of youth a study program consisting almost exclusively of a highly quantified logic and a companion physics, both taught on a scale and with an enthusiasm never approximated or even dreamt of in ancient academies” (boldface emphasis here added by me; quoted from Ong, The Barbarian Within: And Other Fugitive Essays and Studies [Macmillan, 1962, p.72]).
Now, in Ong’s “Preface” in his 1977 book Interfaces of the Word: Studies in the Evolution of Consciousness and Culture (pp. 9-13), mentioned above, Ong says the following:
“The present volume carries forward work in two earlier volumes by the same author, The Presence of the Word (1967) and Rhetoric Romance, and Technology (1971).” Ong then discusses these two earlier volumes.
Then he says, “The thesis of these two earlier works is sweeping, but it is not reductionist, as reviewers and commentators, so far as I know, have all generously recognized: the works do not maintain that the evolution from primary orality through writing and print to an electronic culture, which produces secondary orality, causes or explain everything in human culture and consciousness. Rather, the thesis is relationist: major developments, and very likely even all major developments, in culture and consciousness are related, often in unexpected intimacy, to the evolution of the word from primary orality to its present state. But the relationships are varied and complex, with cause and effect often difficult to distinguish” (pp. 9-10).
Thus, Father Ong himself claims (1) that his media-ecology thesis is “sweeping” but (2) that the shifts do not “cause or explain everything in human culture and consciousness” and (3) that the shifts are related to “major developments, and very likely even all major developments, in culture and consciousness.”
Major cultural developments include the rise of modern science, the rise of modern capitalism, the rise of representative democracy, the rise of the Industrial Revolution, and the rise of the Romantic Movement in philosophy, literature, and the arts.
In effect, Ong implicitly works with this media-ecology thesis in his massively researched book Ramus, Method, and the Decay of Dialogue: From the Art of Discourse to the Art of Reason (1958) – his major exploration of the influence of the Gutenberg printing press that emerged in the mid-1450s.
Now, taking various hints from Ong, I have written about our contemporary secondary oral culture in my essay “Secondary Orality and Consciousness Today” in the well-organized anthology titled Media, Consciousness, and Culture: Explorations of Walter Ong’s Thought, edited by Bruce E. Gronbeck, Thomas J. Farrell, and Paul A. Soukup (1991, pp. 194-209).
Now, each chapter in McChrystal’s new 2025 book On Character: Choices That Define a Life is a complete short and precise essay on its own. No chapter depends on another chapter to complete it. In principle, you could read these various chapters in whatever order you might like. But McChrystal did put the chapters in the order that I have listed them here.
The author is a retired U. S. Army general, and his experiences in the Army are featured in certain essays – as are his reflections of certain prominent events in American history and on certain prominent authors in our Western cultural history.
Now, there is a striking resemblance between the brevity of McChrystal’s 68 short essays in his new 2025 book On Character and the brevity of Marshall McLuhan’s short chapters in his 1962 book in media-ecology titled The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man (sic), mentioned above.
In the tumultuous 1960s, the younger generation raised on television could read McLuhan’s media-ecology account of the print culture that emerged in our western cultural history after the Gutenberg printing press emerged in Europe in the mid-1450s – the print culture in which the older generation in the 1960s had been groomed.
Now, in McChrystal’s Chapter 29: “Being Obsessed: Some Endeavors Warrant Obsessive Focus,” he focuses on the quality of “Being Obsessed” with something. No Doubt I have been obsessed with Ong’s media-ecology thought over my adult lifetime. More generally, whenever I am engaged in writing something, such as an OEN article, I am obsessive in working on it until I have completed it.
Now, in McChrystal’s Chapter 44: “In Patient Pursuit of Greatness: Great Comes More from Unwavering Effort Than from Brilliance” (pp. 138-141),” he embraces the idea of pursuing greatness (to state the obvious). But the pursuit of greatness is not a widely endorsed pursuit. See Robert Faulkner’s book The Case for Greatness: Honorable Ambition and Its Critics (2008).
But also see Maurice B. McNamee’s book Honor and the Epic Hero: A Study of the Shifting Concept of Magnanimity [Greatness] in Philosophy and Epic Poetry (1960).
Ah, but do I see myself in my life as being dedicated to the pursuit of greatness? Yes, I do – yes, even in my retirement years (after the end of May 2009) in writing 678 OEN articles (starting on October 2009), I have been dedicated to the pursuit of greatness. And in my own estimate, how am I doing in my pursuit of greatness? In my own estimate, I am doing just fine in my pursuit of greatness. For example, my wide-ranging and, at times, deeply personal 28,800-word 665th OEN article titled “Fareed Zakaria and Ezra Klien on President Trump’s Foreign Policy” (dated March 24, 2025), mentioned above, cogently exemplifies my pursuit of greatness in writing my various OEN articles over the years (starting in October 2009).
Now, in my own pursuit of greatness in my life, I have been helped in my pursuit of greatness by the great examples of two of my Jesuit teachers at Saint Louis University: Father Ong and Father McNamee (1909-2007; Ph.D. in English, Saint Louis University, 1945; dissertation on Francis Bacon and the verbal arts of grammar and rhetoric, directed by Marshall McLuhan). Also see McNamee’s book Recollections in Tranquility (2001).
In conclusion, Stanley McChrystal has lived a long and full life. In each of the 68 autobiographical chapters in his new 2025 book On Character: Choices That Define a Life, he recollects in tranquility certain events of his own life to set up the over-arching argument that he makes in the book. But when I ask myself who would profit the most from reading McChrystal’s over-arching argument, I cannot formulate an answer that I find convincing myself. Thus, prospective readers of his book are left with the book’s title and subtitle and its table of contents to determine if it is a book that they want to engage with as a possible catalyst for their own further reflections on their own lives.
Now, I am extraordinarily used to reflecting on my own life. But the fact that I found that the book prompted me to reflect further about certain things is my life is not really a reliable indication that you will find things in McChrystal’s new 2025 book that prompt you to reflect further about your own life – that is, things that he says may evoke images in your mind and prompt your associative thinking about similar things in your own life experience. In other words, as you read McChrystal’s words, you should allow his words to evoke images in your mind and prompt your associative thinking to think about similar things in your own life experiences.
In urging you to allow images to pop into your consciousness as you read McChrystal’s 68 autobiographical chapters and to allow yourself to use associative thinking as you read his 68 autobiographical chapters, I am here using terminology that I have learned from reading the Swiss psychiatrist and psychological theorist Carl Gustav Jung’s Chapter II in Part One of his 1952 extensively revised and re-titled book in German of his original 1912 book in German that has been translated into English as “Two Kinds of Thinking” in the revised 1967 edition of Symbols of Transformation, translated by R. F. C. Hull (1967, pp. 7-33).
In Jung’s chapter titled “Two Kinds of Thinking,” he refers to the two kinds of thinking as (1) directed thinking involving logic, and (2) fantasy thinking involving images and associative thinking.
No doubt McChrystal wrote his 68 autobiographical chapters using directed thinking involving logic, and no doubt McChrystal expects his readers to read his 68 autobiographical chapters using their directed thinking involving logic.
However, I am here urging you to use your fantasy thinking involving images and associative thinking if you read McChrystal’s 68 autobiographical chapters.
In the present wide-ranging and, at times, deeply personal “Probe” essay, I have used my fantasy thinking involving images and associative thinking.
I associate what Jung refers to as images with what the classicist Eric A. Havelock refers to as the imagistic thinking of the Homeric mind (i.e., what Ong refers to as the primary oral mind) in his 1963 landmark book Preface to Plato.
In my various other wide-ranging OEN articles, I have also used my associative thinking to introduce a wide range of ideas and thoughts.
In any event, there is more to my emphasis on images and imagistic thinking. You see, each of us carries within our psyches an early childhood image of our moms (or mother-figures) and an early childhood image of our dads (or father figures). Moreover, these early childhood images in our psyches are “married within” (i.e., intimately connected within) our psyches, figuratively speaking to libido in our psyches (i.e., sexually charged energy in our psyches). These early childhood images that are “married within” our psyches are referred to as endogamous kinship libido. At a certain stage late in life, we may experience the liberation of endogamous kinship libido “married within” in our psyches. That is, we may experience the liberation of the endogamous kinship libido “married within” our psyches to our early childhood image of our own mom (or mother-figure), and we may also experience the liberation of endogamous kinship libido “married within” our psyches to our early childhood image of our own dad (or father-figure).
Now, after heterosexual men of a certain age experience the liberation of endogamous kinship libido “married within” their psyches to their early childhood image of their own moms (or mother-figures) in their psyches, those heterosexual men of a certain age will then access the four optimal and position forms of the four feminine archetypes of maturity in the psyches: (1) the Queen archetype of maturity in their psyches; (2) the feminine Warrior/Knight archetype of maturity in their psyches; (3) the feminine Magician/Shaman archetype of maturity in their psyches; and (4) the feminine Lover archetype of maturity in their psyches.
Subsequently, heterosexual men of a certain age will also experience the liberation of endogamous kinship libido “married within” their psyches to their early childhood image of their own dads (or father-figures).
Subsequently, after heterosexual men of a certain age who have experienced the liberation of kinship libido “married within” their psyches to their early childhood image of their own dads (or father-figures) in their psyches, those heterosexual men will then access the four optimal and positive forms of the four masculine archetypes of maturity in their psyches: (1) the King archetype of maturity in their psyches; (2) the masculine Warrior/Knight archetype of maturity in their psyches; (3) the masculine Magician/Shaman archetype of maturity in their psyches; and (4) the masculine Lover archetype of maturity in their psyches.
With Douglas Gillette as his co-author, Robert Moore set for his theory of the four masculine archetypes of maturity in a series of five books in the early 1990s:
(1) King, Warrior, Magician, Lover: Rediscovering the Archetypes of the Mature Masculine (1990);
(2) The King within: Accessing the King [Archetype] in the Male Psyche (1992a);
(3) The Warrior Within: Accessing the Knight [Archetype] in the Male Psyche (1992b);
(4) The Magician Within: Accessing the Shaman [Archetype] in the Male Psyche (1993a);
(5) The Lover Within: Accessing the Lover [archetype] in the Male Psyche (1993b).
But also see Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette’s 2007 book The King Within: Accessing the King [Archetype of Maturity in the Male Psyche, revised and expanded second edition (original work published 1992a).
Now, I am here using the Jungian terminology about the liberation of endogamous kinship libido “married within” the psyche that Ong uses in his succinct summary of the eight stages of consciousness that the Jungian psychoanalyst Erich Neumann uses in his Jungian account of the eight stages of consciousness in his book titled The Origins and History of Consciousness, translated by R. F. C. Hull (Pantheon Books,1954; orig. German ed. 1949):
“The stages of psychic development as treated by Neumann are successively (1) the infantile undifferentiated self-contained whole symbolized by the uroboros (tail-eater), the serpent with its tail in its mouth, as well as by other circular or global mythological figures [including Nietzsche’s imagery about the eternal return?], (2) the Great Mother (the impersonal womb from which each human infant, male or female, comes, the impersonal femininity which may swallow him [or her] up again), (3) the separation of the world parents (the principle of opposites, differentiation, possibility of change, (4) the birth of the hero (rise of masculinity and of the personalized ego) with its sequels in (5) the slaying of the mother (fight with the dragon: victory over primal creative but consuming femininity, chthonic forces), and (6) the slaying of the father (symbol of thwarting obstruction of individual achievement, [thwarting] what is new), (7) the freeing of the captive (liberation of the ego from endogamous [i.e., “married” within one’s psyche] kinship libido and the emergence of the higher femininity, with woman now as person, anima-sister, related positively to ego consciousness), and finally (8) the transformation (new unity in self-conscious individualization, higher masculinity, expressed primordially in the Osiris myth but today entering new phases with heightened individualism [such as Nietzsche’s overman] – or, more properly, personalism – of modern man [sic])” (Ong, Rhetoric, Romance, and Technology: Studies in the Interaction of Expression and Culture [1971, pp. 10-11], mentioned above).
In any event, Ong characterized his work as phenomenological and personalist in cast. In the subtitle of my book Walter Ong’s Contributions to cultural Studies: The Phenomelogy of the Word and I-Thou Communication (2000), mentioned above, I have honored both of those aspects of Ong’s work.
Now, Ong also sums up Neumann’s Jungian account of the eight stages of consciousness in his (Ong’s) book Fighting for Life: Contest, Sexuality, and Consciousness (1981, pp. 18-19; but also see the “Index” for further references to Neumann [p. 228]), the published version of Ong’s 1979 Messenger Lectures at Cornell University.
Now, within the same time frame as my other reflections in my various other OEN articles in 2024 and 2025, I also reflected on the psychodynamic involved when we become infatuated with someone. In the present wide-ranging and, at times, deeply personal OEN article, I have mentioned that I was impressed with John F. Kennedy’s 1960s presidential campaign, and I was deeply impressed with his inaugural address in January 1961. I was infatuated with John F. Kennedy. My infatuation with JFK involved my projecting the optimal and positive form King archetype of maturity in my psyche onto him. As a result of my infatuation with JFK, I was deeply crushed when he was assassinated on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas – as were many other Americans. I mourned President Kennedy’s tragic death.
Because I had been infatuated with JFK, I had idolized him – and so had many other Americans. As a result, the revelations about his sexual promiscuity that came out after his tragic death were disturbing, to say the least. Subsequently, I and many other Americans who had idolized JFK were further disturbed by Robert Dallek’s detailed revelations about Kennedy’s medical history in his 2003 book An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy: 1917-1963. Many years later, the feminist journalist Maureen Callahan reviewed John F. Kennedy’s sexual promiscuity in great detail in her 2024 book about the Kennedy men titled Ask Not: The Kennedys and the [Thirteen] Women They Destroyed. I discussed Callahan’s 2024 book in my OEN article “John F. Kennedy Was a Compulsive Womanizer” (dated November 29, 2024).
Nevertheless, despite the various revelations about John F. Kennedy, I remain a JFK fan – and I still try to keep abreast of discussions about him. I have more than a shelf of books about him.
As everyone knows, my hero the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was also the subject of startling revelations after his tragic assassination in 1968 about his sexual promiscuity. Even though I projected the optimal and positive form of the masculine Warrior/Knight archetype in my psyche onto Dr. King in the early 1960s, I also still try to keep abreast of discussions about him, and I also have more than a shelf of books about him. I discussed Jonathan Eig’s 2023 book King: A Life in my OEN article “Jonathan Eig on the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.” (dated May 28, 2023).
Now, in the fall semester of 1964, I projected the optimal and positive form of the masculine Magician/Shaman archetype of maturity in my psyche onto Father Ong. Fortunately, in his case, no disillusioning revelations about sexual promiscuity have come out – nor have any disillusioning revelations about his medical history or anything else about him come out. Whew! I have not had to process any grief of disillusionment about Father Ong.
Now, starting in the early 1990s, I became infatuated with the Jungian psychotherapist and psychological theorist Robert Moore and his groundbreaking work about the four masculine archetype of maturity in the male psyche. As a result, I bought his five books in the 1990s that he co-authored with Douglas Gillette, and I also bought more than a thousand dollars’ worth of audio tapes of Robert Moore speaking about the four masculine archetypes of maturity at the C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago. In addition, I consulted him at his home office for psychotherapy. I projected the optimal and positive form of the masculine Lover archetype of maturity in my psyche onto Robert Moore.
When we become infatuated with someone, we always project the optimal and positive form of an archetype in our psyche onto that person.
Now, because I am here discussing the four masculine archetypes of maturity in my psyche, I should say something here as well about the four feminine archetypes of maturity in my psyche.
When I watched the DVD version of the 1970s Wonder Woman television series on the big-screen television in the living room of my home in Duluth, Minnesota, late last August into September 2024, I occasionally sent Lynda Carter a fan letter at the email address she maintain for fanmail@lyndacarter.com, and I occasionally received a replied from a staff person that Lynda Carter employs to reply to fan letters.
See my two OEN articles about young Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman: (1) “Young Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman” (dated September 3, 2024; viewed 1,697 times as of June 21, 2025); and (2) “Thomas J. Farrell’s Encore on Young Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman” (dated September 30, 2024; viewed 1,124 times as of June 21, 2025).
Now, over the years, I have often watched the DVD version of a television series that I liked on the big-screen television in the living room of my home in Duluth, Minnesota – where I had originally watched the broadcast version of the same television series – and I had previously been infatuated with certain attractive actresses in those various television series – for example, the busty Mariska Hargitay (born on January 23, 1964; with measurements of 40-21-35), who stars as Olivia Benson on the NBC television series Law & Order: Special Victims Units (since 1999). In that respect alone, my infatuation with the busty young Lynda Carter (born on July 24, 1951; with measurements of 37-25-36) in her Wonder Woman costume – I was not infatuated with young Lynda Carter as Diana Prince — in the DVD version of the 1970s Wonder Woman television series was not exactly unusual. However, my infatuation with the busty (37”) young Lynda Carter in her Wonder Woman costume in late August 2024 into September 2024 was accompanied by my feeling mildly euphoric for about ten weeks. I stopped feeling mildly euphoric a few days before the national election on November 5, 2024. In her Wonder Woman costume, the busty (37”) young Lynda Carter showed off her gloriously beautiful body as no other actress that I had been infatuated with in any other television series ever had. At first, I interpreted my infatuation with the busty (37”) young Lynda Carter as manifesting the masculine Lover archetype in my psyche.
At first, this interpretation of my infatuation with the busty (37”) young Lynda Carter and with certain other busty actresses such as the busty (40”) Mariska Hargitay. Because my mom had big boobs, this strengthened my initial interpretation of my infatuation with the busty (37”) young Lynda Carter and certain other busty actresses such as the busty (40”) Mariska Hargitay.
However, this interpretation did not seem to me to account for why I felt mildly euphoric for about ten weeks in the fall of 2024 – after I had become infatuated with the busty (37”) young Lynda Carter in late August into September 2024. Consequently, I have more recently interpreted my feeling mildly euphoric for about ten weeks to the intervention of the Self archetype in my psyche.
In the revised and expanded 2007 second edition of Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette’s book The King Within: Accessing the King [Archetype] in the Male Psyche (original work published 1992a), Robert Moore discusses what he refers to as the Ego-Self axis in the human psyche. He says, “The envisioned relationship between the Ego and the [archetypal] Self supersedes the high performance personality’s [see pp. 241-244] capacity to become aware of, differentiate from, and respect, and achieve basic regulation and balance of the archetypal forces characteristic of the four archetypal quadrants” (p. 246). (I discuss the four masculine archetypes of maturity in the human psyche below.)
So, if I interpret my experience of feeling mildly euphoric for about ten weeks in the fall of 2024 as the intervention of the archetypal Self in my psyche, then the intervention of the archetypal Self in my psyche over those ten weeks in the fall of 2024 marks my development of what Rober Moore refers to as the Optimal Personality (pp. 244-249). Good for me!
For further information about Lynda Carter, see the Wikipedia entry on “Lynda Carter.”
For further information about Mariska Hargitay, see the Wikipedia entry on “Mariska Hargitay.”
For a recent article about Mariska Hargitay, see Melena Ryzik’s article “Mariska Hargitay Comes to Terms With a Lifetime of Family Secrets” in The New York Times (dated June 19, 2025). Mariska Hargitay’s mother was the actress and Playboy model Jayne Mansfield (1933-1967; with measurements of 40-21-35).
For further information about Jayne Mansfield, see the Wikipedia entry “Jayne Mansfield.”
Now, in February 1974, I projected the optimal and positive form of the feminine Lover archetype in my psyche onto a young woman who lived in the same apartment building that I lived in in adjacent to the north campus of Saint Louis University in the City of St. Louis. I did not know her name or anything about her. But as I happened to see her around from time to time, I was attracted to her body. One evening in late February 1974, I got up enough courage to ring her doorbell. She immediately understood that I wanted to have sex with her, and she invited me into her apartment. We had sex in her bed that night.
The next day, after I had left her apartment and returned to my apartment, I had a mental breakdown, and I was hospitalized for about a week to ten days in late February and early March 1974 at the psychiatric hospital at the Saint Louis University Medical Center – located on South Grand Boulevard a short walk south of my apartment building.
After I was released from the hospital in early March 1974, the young woman onto whom I had projected the optimal and positive form of the feminine Lover archetype in my psyche renewed our short but intense affair. However, before the end of March 1974, she ended our short but intense affair. No doubt I was not a pleasant person to be around after I got out of the hospital in March 1974.
In any event, over my long life (I turned 81 on March 17, 2025), I have not projected the optimal and positive forms of the Queen archetype in my psyche onto any woman in my life; I have not projected the optimal and positive form of the feminine Warrior/Knight archetype of maturity onto any woman; I have not projected the optimal and positive feminine Magician/Shaman archetype onto any woman; and I have not projected the feminine Lover archetype in my psyche onto any other woman than the young woman with whom I had a short but intense affair in late February into early March 1974.
For further discussion of my mental breakdown and hospitalization in 1974, see my OEN article titled “I Am a Hypomanic Personality Type Person” (dated May 26, 2025).
Now, I have discussed Robert Moore’s groundbreaking work about the eight archetypes of maturity in the human psyche, and their accompanying sixteen “shadow” forms, in my OEN article “Robert Moore on Optimal Human Psychological Development” (dated September 17, 2024), mentioned above – in which I first set forth my criticism of the Roman Catholic Church’s moral vision regarding individual personal moral development – which I subsequently expanded in my criticism of the tragic anti-body heritage of Christianity, starting with my wide-ranging and, at times, deeply personal 28,800-word 665th OEN article titled “Fareed Zakaria and Ezra Klein on President Trump’s Foreign Policy” (dated March 24, 2025), mentioned above.
Now, in Father Ong’s long and productive life, he did not publicly criticize the Roman Catholic Church’s moral teachings – and I cannot imagine that Father Ong would ever commend me for publicly criticizing the Roman Catholic Church’s moral teachings.
However, I can imagine the late Robert Moore commending me for using his work about the archetypes of maturity in the human psyche to publicly criticizing the Roman Catholic Church’s individual personal moral vision of human moral development in my OEN article dated September 17, 2024, and I can also imagine Robert Moore further commending me for expanding my criticism subsequently in my subsequent 28,800-word OEN article dated March 24, 2025, in my criticism of the tragic anti-body heritage of Christianity. The tragic anti-body heritage of Christianity is deeply and profoundly based on the Impotent Lover “shadow” forms of the masculine and the feminine Lover archetypes of maturity in the human psyche.
Now, when we sing the catchy lyrics of the song “Falling in Love with Love” (lyrics by Lorenz Hart; music by Richard Rodgers) from the 1938 Broadway musical The Boys from Syracuse, we sing the lyrics, “I fell in love with love/ With love everlasting.”
We also sing the catchy lyrics, “Falling in love with love/ Is falling for make believe.”
Well, I fell in love with Father Ong and his media-ecology ideas when I was a twenty-year-old junior majoring in English at Saint Louis University in the fall semester of 1964. But I did not fall in love with love.
Nor did I ever expect what has turned out to be my long-lasting love for Father Ong and his media-ecology ideas would ever be “love everlasting.”
Nor did I ever expect that my long-lasting love for Father Ong and his media-ecology ideas would somehow prevent me from criticizing the tragic anti-body heritage of Christianity.
Now, after I thematized my criticism of the anti-body heritage of Christianity in my wide-ranging and, at times, deeply personal 28,800-word 665th OEN article “Fareed Zakaria and Ezra Klein on President Trump’s Foreign Policy” (dated March 24, 2025), mentioned above, my fate as a possible candidate to be elected the new pope was sealed – I was as a result doomed not to be elected by the cardinal-electors to be the next pope to succeed Pope Francis.
Ah but this witty observation raises the serious question: Will Pope Leo XIV recognize that the tragic anti-body heritage of Christianity is the root cause of the priest sex abuse scandal?
Will Pope Leo XIV takes the steps necessary to bring the church’s official demand for priestly celibacy to an end? I hope that he does.
Now, for Ong’s thought-provoking book about gender, see his Fighting for Life: Contest, Sexuality [Gender], and Consciousness, mentioned above.
I have written about Ong’s provocative 1981 book about gender in my essay “Faulkner and Male Agonism” in the anthology Time, Memory, and the verbal arts: essays on the Thought of Walter Ong, edited by Dennis L. Weeks and Jane Hoogestraat (1998, pp. 203-221).
Now, in any event, I can assure you that you will find retired U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal’s 68 autobiographical chapters thought-provoking to read. However, for understandable reasons, I cannot predict the extent to which reading his thought-provoking autobiographical chapters will stimulate you to reflect afresh on certain aspects of your own life and your own convictions.
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