I came up with this concept while
contemplating a passage in Katharine Kerr’s
Deverry
series
novel “Darkspell”. The passage, on
pp. *
103 – 104 of my copy (Grafton [Harper],
1989, ISBN 0 586 20079 7; Amazon),
describes, in essence, the existence of a group-mind / soul for each group in
physical reality. **
(That
has been part of my thinking on how to change the world magickally – see here
and here,
for instance.)
That led me to thinking on one of the major
problems I have on my list:
why are so many bad aspects of humanity showing,
at the moment?
It is easy to focus on the selfish,
mean-spirited, immature, aggressive 45th President of the USA as an
example of this, but I’m more concerned about the person who, in their everyday
life, does things that result in harm for others.
A perfect example of that is the TV
character Sam
Seaborn, in the series “The
West Wing”, who, in a flashback in the second
season two-part episode “In the
Shadow of Two Gunmen”, is arranging an “insurance shield” for a company
that is knowingly buying an oil tanker (ship)
that is in poor condition.
As another example, some where I recently
read of advice on a jury selection to a lawyer which was along the lines of “since this is about standing up for
principles, don’t select middle aged men, as they will have sacrificed their
principles along the way as part of their career” (this was possibly something I read about the trial of Daniel
Ellsberg after he leaked the
Pentagon Papers).
My ultimate example, of course, is Edward
Bernays, who, when he wasn’t helping
the CIA overthrow democratically elected governments, twisted the work of Sigmund
Freud to invent the emotionally-aligned “commercial / business propaganda”
***,
which is better known as “advertising” (previously,
this had largely been either factually based, or of limited effectiveness [although,
as with the modern version, those less able to think clearly and objectively
were more susceptible] – see here),
and has caused such massive problems as consumerism, commodification, materialism,
greed, a change in the nature of society that has cost us our soul and heart,
and the environmental destruction of this planet in the course of feeding said
consumerism etc.
(Economic
wellbeing and prosperity are completely
separate – as is exemplified by the fact that such topics have been
considered, written about, and have played a key role in governance for millennia.)
In my words, these people haven’t thought
about the consequences of their actions. As an example of this, the decision to
create fashion trends in cars has led to mining of iron and other resources,
the generation of greenhouse gases in the manufacture of cars (and recycling of steel also consumers
considerable amounts of energy in the melting down of steel [although less than
mining and refining]), the creation of mass manufacturing which has subsequently been twisted away from
its original form (where the skills of
workers was respected) to something which reduces workers to disposable (replaceable) cogs, and, of greatest
concern to me, a change in social attitudes away from gratitude for possessions
to rampant consumerism/ commodification and viewing things (including, ultimately, people) as disposable(replaceable).
Why?
Well, the answer to that is multifaceted (it’s not necessarily what I would term
complex, but there are lots of aspects), but the one facet I wish to
consider is the person who is asked “how do we make more money?”, and comes up
with an approach – like the example of the fictitious character Sam Seaborn.
Why is it that no-one challenges that idea
because of the harm it will cause either down the track (i.e., in the future), or to people’s wellbeing (I am particularly thinking of the tobacco
and gambling industries at this point), or to the environment (e.g., the wars over conflict minerals, as
well as massive environmental damage, in third world nations which are curse
with resources that consumerism in the West seeks)?
Fear of losing their job, perhaps, and
other issues (facets).
One of those other issues is the difficulty
that so many people seem to have of getting beyond what is directly in front of
them.
As examples, consider the person who is struggling
to make ends meet and criticises foreign aid, not realising (or perhaps not able to realise) that
there are people in desperate poverty. I sometimes wonder if what is described
as “compassion fatigue” is actually either a lack of imagination on the part of
the potential donor, or a lack of effective
communication on the part of governments and aid agencies.
This issue is not the same as evil. I’ve
written about that recently (see here,
here,
here,
and for a spiritual opinion of mine, here),
and that largely comes down to lack of empathy. If someone is in suffering
right in front of someone who can be descried as “evil”, it is quite possible
that they either will not recognise the pain, or they will take pleasure in it (i.e., be sadistic, as was the case with one
of the bullies I had to put with in primary school, which is why I think some
approaches to managing bullying in schools, until recently, have been
dangerously and stupidly naïve).
This issue is about people not being able
to get beyond what is obvious and right in front of them. They are unable to
consider (comprehend?) aspects that
are at some sort of distance – whether that distance is time (what will this do in the future?), emotional
(“they’re not related to me, so why
should I care?”, or physical distance (“why
should I care happens in X?”).
I don’t have a solution (yet :) ) , but at least I now have this
tool to add to all the other tools I can use when analysing problems.
* pp. is an abbreviation for “pages”
** I am always a bit wary of quoting directly
(in this instance, I can’t say that quote would be for be review or study), but
I also know Katharine Kerr is seeking financial help through sales as a result
of a family illness, so I’ll suggest you buy the book if you want to read the
passage.
By the way, Katharine Kerr has done an extraordinary amount of research, and the magick in this novel series is well founded – see here for my review on magickal aspects of the series.
By the way, Katharine Kerr has done an extraordinary amount of research, and the magick in this novel series is well founded – see here for my review on magickal aspects of the series.
*** From the linked article, which is about a
documentary series examining this: "This series is about how those in
power have used Freud's theories to try and control the dangerous crowd in an
age of mass democracy"
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Remember: we generally need to be more human being rather than human doing, to mind our Mӕgan, and to acknowledge that all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk & accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptor to prevent “othering” (just as binary gendered [men’s and women’s] sporting teams are either both given the gender descriptor, or neither).Copyright © Kayleen White 2007-2024 NO AI
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