Week of 3/9-14/2026: War, Propaganda, & Adultism

Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox

3/15/2026

This is a summary of the previous week’s daily meditations. Some are written by Matthew Fox (MF) and some are written by his colleague, Gianluigi Gugliermetto. (GG) You can click on any title to view the DM in its entirety.

March 9, 2026: Oligarchs & MAGA Minions Busy Emasculating American Media (MF)

Today we reflect on how the current regime and a wealthy right-wing few are buying out and co-opting the news media. Trump has cut federal funding for NPR and PBS, while one billionaire family has bought CBS and is preparing to buy CNN. Our media are fast becoming propaganda tools for the right.

The Washington Post, bought by Jeff Bezos, appears to be following suit. It is estimated that 82% of the media is owned by right wing forces. In six weeks, Stephen Colbert and the Late Night Show will also be off the air thanks to CBS selling its soul to MAGA oligarchs. Fascists, you see, have no sense of humor.

Vladimir Putin walks his muzzled media dog. Cartoon by Welleman, 2008. Wikimedia Commons.

March 10, 2026: “A Crime Against Humanity” – How Sacred is the Air We Take For Granted? (MF)

In the wake of Netanyahu bombing oil depots in Iran, The Guardian wrote: Thick black smoke was…rising in the sky, soot covered the streets and cars, balconies filled with black gunk and the toxic air…filled the lungs as Tehran woke up after a night of airstrikes on the city’s oil depots….*

One citizen of Tehran, an activist and former political prisoner, said, “This is truly a crime against humanity.” Says Matthew: “Air is sacred. Period. An original blessing. We cannot take it for granted.” There are things more evil than the doubling of oil prices being brought about by this Netanyahu/Trump/Hegseth War. There is the poisoning of holy air.

March 11, 2026: The Role of Crackpot Christianity in the Iran War & Defense Department (MF)

There is such a thing as Crackpot Christianity.
America currently has a dictator of the Defense Department, now called the War Department, who is very much immersed in Crackpot Christianity. Pete Hegseth has been called “a very dangerous person” who “revels in the carnage of Iran War.”

The Guardian described Hegseth at a recent Pentagon press conference as “brash, bellicose” and sounding “more like a cartoon bully than a sombre statesman” who “bragged about death and destruction from the sky all day long….”** Hegseth promised “to dispense with ‘stupid rules of engagement”—rules designed to restrict attacks on civilian populations. Clearly, Hegseth doesn’t understand true Christianity.

“No stupid rules of engagement’ for US when it comes to war in Iran.” The Washington Examiner.

March 12, 2026: Crackpot Christianity in MAGA Defense Department, continued (MF)

Crackpot Christianity is dangerous in the hands of Pete Hegseth. Says one Marine Corps veteran: “I can’t even muster the words to describe his self-adulation, matched only in scope by his apparent moral depravity.” He is “an embarrassment.”

Once, when drunk at a bar, he repeatedly shouted “Kill all Muslims!” No wonder he is getting high on this Iran war. When Trump tried to pass off this war as a means to bring on the apocalypse and the second coming of Christ, hundreds of service members complained to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation.

Chenu said that theology tends to imitate “an aristocratic old lady.” Matthew agrees, saying: It prefers to stay quiet when Evil looms, not unlike many churches in Germany in the 1930s.

March 13, 2026: Diary from the Italian Countryside, part 1 (GG)

GG recently moved to a remote Italian village, with a population of twelve residents. He concedes it feels fairly isolated. However, it is also a retreat. Unlike the war and chaos reigning in the larger world, his home is immersed in nature and peace. He said that it is so silent that he becomes attentive to the tiniest bodily sensation, to the faintest birth of a thought, to the smallest stirring of the soul.

Thomas Aquinas said that the human soul is capable of containing the whole universe. GG agrees. He feels connected to nature, to people whose books he has studied, and to their living thoughts. He feels connected to the people dying in Gaza, Iran and Israel, and to the people being born. From now on, says he: I will attempt to feel the universe from my tiny special spot where my soul has called and settled me.

Deep peace: view from Gianluigi’s window. Photo used with permission.

March 14, 2026: Diary from the Italian Countryside, part 2 (GG)

Serendipitously, a job became available for GG in a nearby city. It entails spending time with high school students who are “suspended” from their classes due to misbehaving. Instead of staying at home for two days, they will spend those days with GG.

He reports the pain the students are dealing with. One lives with two mentally ill parents. Another cannot sit still in class for 10 minutes. Another talks incessantly about his dead parents.

Many of GG’s colleagues believe that the suspension program should be understood as a punishment. They want from these students only obedience and adherence to the rules. Sadly, no effort is made to understand why they are breaking rules.

Adultism is rampant, as are cynicism and hypocrisy. Fortunately, there are good people trying to make a difference, though they don’t really know how.

* Deepa Parent, “‘Dark, like our future’: Iranians describe scenes of catastrophe after Tehran’s oil depots bombed,” The Guardian, March 8, 2026.

** David Smith, “‘A very dangerous person’: alarm as Pete Hegseth revels in carnage of Iran war.” The Guardian, March 8, 2026.

“No war.” Photo by Kevin Dooley on Flickr.