Research shows that collective human Intellect is rising but collective human imagination is declining. This is being brought on by increased and continuing stress, anxiety, chaos, and trauma. While stress can be useful in very short term-threat situations, we live in a way such that we are essentially being forced into the debilitating fight or flight without the ability to fight or flee from it. This continual stress shuts down our reasoning minds and leaves us reacting instinctively to external events. Imagination is what gives us the ability to create anything new (see earlier post, Reframing and Visualizing a New Society 1 {March 2018}). As I have said in the last few posts, when we relax and start thinking again critically, we will realize that we must now be part of preparing for a potential centralized failure (Globalization) and be already setting up a parallel society, especially at the local level.
As I ponder what has been happening these past two years regarding the C19 pandemic, I see the problems that afflict global society as a whole – social media addiction, social media shaming, virtue signaling, academic censorship, political posturing on a global level, powerplays by the hierarchy creating economic crises, etc., it is easy to see why so many people are unable to do anything but react with fear. How much do we think deeply to reflect and cultivate self-knowledge, and think for ourselves rather than joining in a mob mentality around the myth of the social good that eliminates individualism? When did thinking for ourselves become a sin? We now have a ‘cancel culture’ with all of its intolerance that creates rifts and a push to old-style tribalism. When most people are so caught up in trying to get ‘back to normal,’ they are still reacting and not thinking about creating change for something better.
I’m all about tolerance and not giving up on people. But what do you do when after years of trying to accept people you reach a point when being in their judgmental presence, when being cancelled, when being verbally shut down has just become intolerable? When talking with family and old friends is just about past shared experiences and nothing about the present or potential futures, then perhaps letting go is required for your own inner peace. You are not required to put up with any kind of abuse, irresponsible unreasonable, or disrespectful behavior towards you. I find that many people in my social circles are just incapable of hearing what it is I am trying to express about creating a different and better world. And with the virtue signaling brought on by C19 has made them retreat into their internal shells of comfort. “Some people will not hear your regardless of how much, how loud, how truthful, how loving, or how profound you speak. Wish them well and let them go” Anon.
Our modern world is run by technocrats. What this means is that while scientists used to explore phenomena out of curiosity, technologists and engineers follow protocols that act as if science is fixed and unchanging. Don’t get me wrong, ‘things’ are improving and getting more efficient, but we have increased scientism where scientific dogma gets in the way of open creativity and imagination, and is actually being driven by corporate need and not human need.
Having individual purpose (and not just surviving) is one of the core needs for any individual and one that helps individuals achieve self-actualization (e.g., Maslow, Alderfer). According to Jung, one of the greatest problems faced in his day (early 1900s) and continues today is curiously a spiritual one where psychological suffering is experienced as we continue to pursue an ‘Age of Conformity.’ The rise of the industrial revolution, accompanied by the growing push to live in high density living situations with jobs that are more mundane in nature (industrial and dissociated from nature), causes people to feel debilitated with feelings of insignificance, inadequacy, and hopelessness. If this experience of unhealthy psychology is not channeled in a positive way, then the resulting psychological compensation tends to result in neuroses or psychoses that focus on the need for power and hedonism (seen as competition and materialism) as mental and emotional escapism. In such a society that we now live within, the resulting technocratic focus on science and mechanistic attitudes means people overall are seen merely as units to be measured. This results in uniformity within society and the decrease of the worth of the individual. A conclusion of this kind of living is the rise of mass movements where ‘lost’ individuals find solace in belonging anonymously to a movement that gives them purpose (e.g., Eric Hoffer – The Nature of Mass Movements) and consequentially obedience to authoritarian dictates.
I find that Carl Jung was a brilliant thinker, and along with authors of his time like Aldous Huxley and George Orwell, had a grasp of how authoritarianism and could be extremely constrictive to individual creativity. As Jung wrote eloquently: “Instead of the concrete individual, you have the names of organizations and, at the highest point, the abstract idea of the State as the principle of political reality. The moral responsibility of the individual is then inevitably replaced by the policy of the State (raison d’état). Instead of moral and mental differentiation of the individual, you have public welfare and the raising of the living standard. The goal and meaning of individual life (which is the only real life) no longer lie in the individual development but in the policy of the State, which is thrust upon the individual from outside and consists in the execution of an abstract idea which ultimately tends to attract all life to itself. The individual is increasingly deprived of the moral decision as to how he should live his own life, and instead is ruled, fed, clothed, and educated as a social unit, accommodated in the appropriate housing unit, and amused in accordance with the standards that give pleasure and satisfaction to the masses. The rulers, in their turn, are just as much social units as the ruled, and are distinguished only by the fact they are specialized mouthpieces of State doctrine. They do not need to be personalities capable of judgment, but thoroughgoing specialists who are unusable outside their line of business. State policy decides what shall be taught and studied.” ― C.G. Jung, The Undiscovered Self
So, what is the solution? Personal sovereignty and as important, ‘Authenticity’ (see earlier post Finding sustainability and a life path without the Labels: part 1 {September 2020}). We need to deprogram ourselves. Stop judging ourselves and other people by standards of conformity. No matter how central it is to our way of current thinking, strive to be an independent thinker. “Normal. Now, there’s a word. Healthy. A little better, but still stuck in the same conceptual morass. I prefer Authentic. Yes, that’s it. Because it’s subjectively defined. You know when you are being authentic. Authentic as the new normal. Authentic as the new healthy. If we start there, we have a chance of creating a healthy normal. Be real now.” Jeff Brown.
Work towards your highest ideals. Retain hope, for it is the primary focus that will bring us the changes we desire. Follow your own truths and don’t simply accept and believe what you are told simply because you find yourself agreeing with it. Confirmation bias might be your problem. Inquire, don’t simply accept: verify for yourself what you believe and why. Then decide who you want to truly be – that is self-actualization – finding meaning and purpose transforms you and hence positively influences those around you to be better as well. One consequence of being authentic is that you control any fear you might have. Being brave isn’t being fearless, it is having the mental or moral strength to face danger, fear, or difficulty regardless of what others are doing. Then letting imagination loose along with your desires of what you would like life and society to be gives you a platform to accept the challenges to be different and make a difference.
To Be Continued ……
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