Jack Torrance—Everyman? Or Just Every Democrat?—Soul#24

This is part 2 of our discussion of the Stephen King classic The Shining. In this post-election edition, we discuss all the crazy Democrats screaming murderous rants on social media. One woman killed her father with an ice ax. A father killed his wife, children, and ex-wife before killing himself. The Internet is filled with hours of distraught Democrats losing their minds over the 2024 election results.

Summary of Part 1

In today’s podcast, we revisit some of the questions we raised in part 1. Here they are.

How close does Stephen King get to orthodox Christian spiritual concepts in The Shining?
Is King pushing back against 70’s pop psychology? Is he suggesting that, in some way, perhaps, we are all Jack Torrance to some degree or other? Is King presenting the character of Jack as a counterexample to the culture-defining mantra of the 70s—

“I’m okay; you’re okay”?

Part 2: Post-Election Crazies.

On today’s show, we look at the epidemic of hatred and violence coming from Democrats. Why are so many Democrats seemingly losing their minds over this election? That’s a question that many conservatives have been curious about. Does their criminally insane behavior prove Stephen King’s point that, indeed, Jack Torrance from The Shining is really an everyman? I argue that it does.

And whether or not King intended to push back against the pop psychology of the 70s, his novel does just that. King’s novel anticipates a paradigm shift in psychology that doesn’t get rolling until the twenty-first century. That’s thirty years after The Shining was published. Long story short—King’s horror classic was decades ahead of its time.

Scripture Study

Here are some of the Bible passages discussed on today’s show.

“What causes wars, and what causes fightings among you? Is it not your passions that are at war in your members? 2 You desire and do not have; so you kill. And you covet[a] and cannot obtain; so you fight and wage war. . . .” —Jas. 4: 1–2, RSV

“Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking some one to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experience of suffering is required of your brotherhood throughout the world.” —1Pt.5: 8–9

“For our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens” (Eph. 6:12)

Book Review

Many of the themes in today’s show are covered in depth in my first book, The Immoral Landscape of the New Atheism. Here are some nice words from a book review: