Isn’t it strange that our laws and statutes are enacted to allegedly protect the majority from the vastly less significant minority — primarily those of a criminal propensity or distorted character — who would engage in or profit from exploiting an otherwise open system of commerce, education and governance?
I guess the question really is, if the system is so open and beneficent, why is any person or entity ever interested in taking more, stealing from others, or otherwise throwing wrenches in the machinations of the modern world? Why have they ALWAYS wanted to do this (ever since anyone had anything or anyone worth selling, trading, or stealing)? Is it just about power, control and amassing more stuff? If that’s the case, then it really doesn’t compute, because nobody can take an earthly thing with them when they die — and pursuing illicit and dangerous means of stuff acquisition is dangerous to one’s life. What’s the point?
Today, we live in a world where corporations profit from putting people and keeping people in prison. What the hell is that about? OF COURSE, this will corrupt and distort any system of justice. OF COURSE, there will be somewhat legal and wholly illegal incentives to get more bodies into those cells. It follows that there is likely a significant percentage of people wrongly charged and excessively sentenced, improperly or inadequately defended, or racially and ethnically stereotyped. The other side of the coin is that with things always improving for inmates — regarding access to education, counselling, food, a decent bed and a roof — that aspects of our society would feel they’d be better off in prison. It speaks very clearly to the state of things in the culture of this era.
But these punitive system errors happen everywhere, especially in schools and corporate structures. Conformity is the safest way to keep minds in line, but it’s the most destructive thing to the human spirit. Any level of creative and emotional suppression leads inevitably to dysfunction, and will spill out into areas of life less resilient or capable of withstanding the pressures. It is evolving, albeit slowly. Today, we have a consciously aware generation moving into and uprooting all aspects of stagnant paradigms and exposing systemic failures. I believe we’ll get there, but we have to be increasingly mindful, aware and vigilant so as not to slide back into the drudgery of the old stories.
Our societies and cultures reflect as much of what is happening within us as it expresses in the world without. We should then consider employing this same philosophy to ourselves as individuals.
The spiritual essence of which we derive consciousness and our existential process has limitless capacity for all shades and colors of light. There is an inherent indestructibility that, once tapped, should embolden our presence, our audacity, and our greater sensemaking. Primarily, this would address our old friends wounding and trauma. We forget that seemingly insignificant events — or those that our guardians would have downplayed or dismissed as such — often find a sticking place in our subconscious minds, and implant an energetic anchor that dramatically alters and informs our life.
When it comes to emotional discernment, we may not be immediately aware of how we’re blinding ourselves to a greater meaning and truth. If we have devised or enacted a law, or rule, within our psychology — most often at a very young age; mom or dad said (or yelled) something that we took to heart — that law doesn’t get repealed or vetoed until we’re aware of its existence and its persistent inefficacy. We may have inadvertently imprisoned aspects of our personality or identity without due cause or thorough examination. Much later in life, these things invariably come to the surface — or have led us down some dark alleys into self-sabotage, self-destruction and violence.
It’s simple, but it’s not easy. There is an enormous amount of wounding and emotional and karmic trauma in our world today. For example, observe the utter madness that climate change is eliciting across the planet. We’ve found a collective scapegoat, and it’s where we’re funneling all of our mounting passion and unresolved trauma. Our planet will far outlive anything we ever do to it, or ourselves, yet we’re talking and acting like (once again) it’s the end times. Ridiculous, but not at all surprising.
Clearly, it is essential that we shift away from ecologically damaging practices. Obviously, the human industrial machine is in desperate need of taming, retraining, and restructuring — and the sooner, the better. We can’t appreciate how capable our Earth is in its own adaptivity and recovery, but in the short term — in our brief human capacity of a lifetime, or from a generational perspective — WE are the ones in danger, not the planet. Please stop, or let go of the notion that the planet is in any way truly in danger. She’s magnificent, and ancient, and patient, and loving beyond what our minds can conceive. I fear that in our efforts to rectify and repair the anthropogenic impact our sciences are saying we’re responsible for, we may do ourselves a lot more harm than good. It’s a vast topic that is blatantly oversimplified in mass media.
Ultimately, the one pointing the finger has the greatest and most important work to do. Our perceptions color our reality and define our world. The more we can shift and elevate and evolve away from victimhood, scarcity, fear, and lack, the more we can step into an empowered, inspired, innovative, unifying progress and collective evolution that benefits the all.
I think we’re ready, and more than capable, but right now, it’s difficult to say which way things will go.
Solvitur ambulando