Our modern world is, it can be said, full of uncertainty. One could also say that many of us are feeling overwhelmed, oscillating between confidence and fear. The observable wider effect of this is a culture that manifests and enables any number of authorities, experts, gurus, politicians, and cult leaders. It is a time of great change, so buckle up.
I am not an expert, rather I consider myself a generalist with a wide array of interests, intuitive and open-minded. I often fail at that ideal, and it sometimes destroys me to observe the sheer magnitude of unnecessary suffering happening in the world today. That said, I don’t have a bleeding heart issue. I know what could be, and that sometimes a swift kick in the ass is what we all need.
I haven’t healed all of my wounds, and may never do so. I’ve learned that it is a fool’s errand, and hardly the point of living a fulfilling life. It all moves too fast, and we can spiral down rabbit holes aplenty if we lose our perspective; life is fantastically dynamic and intense and unforgiving. I haven’t integrated all of my fragments nor my psychological, epistemological, spiritual or philosophical loose ends, as it were. But like many seekers of truth and substance, I’m a lifelong learner. I strive to read, research and glean useful information and wisdom from a broad range of sources. And I listen to what is stirring within me.
. . .
Right now in our history is a most critical time to remain fluid and flexible, resolute but resisting complacency, conformity, and uninformed consent. It is our responsibility to live into our deep truth, to shed adopted ideology and a dysfunctional rigidity of belief. We may just usher in the reality we’d prefer to play with. We want peace, harmony and all of those trite ideas, but we have never really committed to all that encompasses. Remedies abound if you’re keen to keep deferring responsibility to someone or something else. They are, however, doing you a disservice. You are your source of power. You are more capable than you know.
On the one hand, we can observe that our planet has become toxic — attributed largely to anthropogenic (human caused) influences. At the same time, we’ve never been in the position to effect broad, systemic changes and reparations simply by choosing to. In less than a decade, we could very likely reverse much that has been distorted, destroyed and damaged during the century leading up to it. This applies to virtually all aspects of our human experience, whatever your concern happens to be. Alternatively, we could simply extinct our species, or suffer a cataclysmic event. It’s happened before.
We have many important and profound concerns and existential questions, and because we’ve been conditioned to believe that what we seek is only to be found outside us — through toil, surrendering to authority, and personal suffering or sacrifice — it has developed into a world of control and envy, of evil vs. less evil, and of vampires and showmen. It doesn’t leave us a lot of room for curiosity and play.
As it stands, the collective gasp of the year 2020 is still making us lightheaded. Government authorities, including those elected, appointed, and those who merely have the privilege to serve (but have let their inherited power go to their heads) are responding in predictable ways, following calculated, yet utterly experimental, unscientific, irrational actions toward their assumptions and conclusions.
We’re adhering to an outdated playbook; all that has changed is the technology behind it. Humanity’s shadow is now bared, right out in the open, and it’s tempting us toward madness — even beyond the hysteria that found new levels of expression earlier this year. Also unsurprising, yet equally concerning, is how the initial shock of lockdown is softening into capitulation and unquestioned consent. It is unsettling to say the least. However, there is a growing rebellion that may just shudder the cocksure from their proud and controversial fortifications. This writer hopes their alarms will resound and reverberate, and continue to wake more of the masses from their cognitive, anxiety-induced slumber.
As expected, unintended or not, our children are ultimately the ones who will shoulder the brunt of this pandemonium. Will they question anything about all this procedure, paranoia, and sterilization? Probably. But they’ll likely adapt, make do, and carry on as children do, curious about this and that. And because adults all around them are serious, frightened, and conforming to the same ridiculousness, the kids will have little choice but to play along.
I am certainly curious to see how this will all play out. I wonder if enough of us will stand up. I know how things were in the fall and winter 2019. I know how they were in the summer of 2001 as well. There are uncanny parallels in all of these things, yet do you question any of it, or simply bow your head and move along?
Solvitur ambulando