If I could only find words…

“Can science be so sure that there is no such thing as a religious instinct?” Carl Jung

We have a saying in my family—if it can’t be written on the back of a cigarette packet it probably doesn’t make sense. So here goes…

There is something odd happening in the world today, and a few believe it is possibly even nefarious. Some would even go so far as to say there is an ongoing war rampaging against the people, and not the traditional kind that involves uniforms, bullets and bombs. What makes it impossible for the great majority of good people to even contemplate the possibility of this being true is that none of us saw it arriving. How could we possibly contemplate that we are simply targets that need to be monitored, marked and controlled because there are just too many of us. And this could be explained by the fact that the vast majority of us had no idea how advanced our technology has become. And it would be true to say that we still don’t get it, although we are learning fast.

But at the same time there are other changes becoming apparent too. There is reason to believe that a great other shift is happening across the globe. An upward advancement in the conscious awareness of humanity, and maybe even more of the planet too. I leave you to work out what I mean. Perhaps we are becoming less predictable, harder to coerce and more difficult to keep in our boxes. We have no context for what is currently taking place around the planet, so how could we begin to comprehend the enormity of what is happening. All we are really sure of is that we don’t want to die. We don’t know who has us in their sights, although there are some useful clues, and nor can we fathom why we might be unloveable, although I hear say that we are responsible for the sad plight of our resources and the condition of our planet. Maybe that is enough of a reason for why a few of scared of the many. We believe that we are here to live out our lives intermingled with others who are trying to do the same, some with more advantages than others, but ultimately that all are welcome by the very fact that we survived our birth. Almost all of us obey the laws that keep on fattening up the statute books, look out for our loved ones and others, pay our taxes and more. And for the most part, we are satisfied with our lot in life. Rather too many privileged people believe there may be too many of us on the planet today, or are we ‘waking up’ and rejecting more of what they would like us to be, good consumerists/workers who do as they are told? I think it is more likely an inhospitable combination of both.

I do not see the size of the world’s population as the biggest problem but rather that the planet has become too small to hold the complexity that is every aspect of life today, and this instability in our systems is causing implosions to happen at an increasing rate, be they financial, economic, logistics, communications, health or be they simply evolutionary in nature. We are rapidly becoming a risk to everyone else’s quality of life, and particularly threatening to the Elite (sorry, a little cruel I know) of the world. But they are probably more of an important contributing cause than victims of the effect. They have developed a sense of entitlement to the world as their playground, and worse still they believe they are uniquely placed to take charge over how much of everything is for them and how much is left over for us. This would naturally lead to aberrations in their temperaments and perhaps even to a tendency to become narcissists through isolation from the beauty of the natural world, and society for reasons of fear and threats to their health, of scarcity, and fears for their safety. It would not be unreasonable to surmise that they might suffer from a difficulty in finding meaning in their lives of unbridled privilege, often purely through the accident of birth, or through lack of contribution to the bulk of society and a scant knowledge of ordinary people at large while trying to appease their guilt through a multitude of charity balls. It is believed that they encompass over 90% of the world’s wealth, and the rest is divided unequally amongst the remaining 7.753 billion (2020) minus 0.001% of us. It is no wonder that they would fear us. What would happen if we did decide to start and revolution or chose to turn our backs on their commodities? The hard question in any discussion these days is ‘But who are the ‘they’?’ These families have always been around abeit mostly out of sight, with a few ups and downs and new families added or lost now and again. And from behind well fortified facades, they have slowly been taking over all the institutions, corporations, media, etc and now even run most governments quite openly, as illustrated by the World Economic Forum, the UN and the WHO. Theirs is an audacious belief that they are in charge of The Future. Through the urgency of now they have become more brazen, which could be helpful to us all because it is bringing them out into the light. Perhaps they too will not be able to avoid the enlightening process of the coming Age of Aquarius and its uptick of consciousness happening across the world as I write. After all, we hope they are as human as the rest of us. Just a little lost.

Why we may lose this war, at least in the short term, is because we are disadvantaged by being too agreeable, too comfortable, too marginalised and too trusting, sometimes for reasons of ease and convenience. The result of losing this war is going to be catastrophic for many of us, the most obvious being by medical interventions of one sort or another, or the lack of treatment for real health issues, or by food shortages, from freak weather events, from skirmishes to full civil war, isolation and desolation, to name just a few. The opportunity to have children has also been decreasing quite alarmingly over the past four decades and not just because of the increasing costs of life but more importantly as fertility drops. We do nothing at our own peril. We need to refuse to comply altogether no matter whether our beef or someone else’s, shout loudly and get together in groups that can begin to make their presence felt and heard.

But what difference can any one of us truly make? It may feel hopeless but there is always a solution to every problem or issue on this planet. But this time it has to involve us all and united. We must not allow ourselves to be divided. It overrides our natural instinct to care for others and our ability to collaborate with those around us. We have to start talking to each other again and stop being afraid to reveal our fears. We need to stand up for our basic human rights, and equally to support others to be allowed to make choices when different to our own. As Albert Einstein said: Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labour in freedom.

Also, there is no doubt that we need to heal our beautiful Earth which means playing a role in protecting and cleaning up our environment. We must need less and learn to live more simply. I sense that this is something that is coming about perhaps as a result of the raising of consciousness that may be happening. We need to say no to any and all wars, which also means not interfering in other countries’ affairs but rather allowing them the dignity to develop/correct their ways and grow over time. We should make it our business to know what is going on in our own country and in others, and to share what we have learnt with those around us, and also to hear from others what they need us to know. There are always many among us with a multitude of talents, and together we can make the changes that will lead to a more sustainable, much kinder and a more intelligent way of living on this beautiful planet. Some things will lead to quick results while others may take time to show up. There will be disappointments and errors made, but with patience and time, I dream that things will improve such that all on this planet can live consciously, freely and with care and love for all and everything. Above all, there will be a diversity of lifestyles, some choosing to live with technology and others choosing to live with less of it. We will learn through the example set by the success or failure of how different communities develop around us. As small holdings flourish though the rolling back of much of the unnecessary bureaucracy that has stood in our way for so long, we will buy food grown locally. Through the diversification of health practices our innate immune systems will improve leading to better health outcomes for us all. Education will become more attuned to the individual and less controlled by central governments. Tolerance will be something that feels natural and less judgemental. And it is communities who always know best how to take care of their own, even if not quite to our liking.

It is time to make a move back in the direction of simple, natural and clean. We can change the path we have been travelling for five hundred years. It is not simply wishful thinking that this world could be a better place. If we can imagine it, it must be possible. We only need the will, and to look to those who have the knowledge to show us the way. Little changes made by many add up to a massive shift in the way we choose to live our lives. If every person chooses what they can sacrifice, big or small, it will make an enormous difference to our footprint on this planet. It is a time to throw out political parties (quite a recent invention) who impose their candidates after having to jump through many party hoops, and rarely from our communities. We must rather put people forward who have proved their worth to their communities, to represent their people in central governments for a fixed tenure. And most importantly—we need to streamline central governments back to basics. There is a saying that resonates with me: Government works by force, and the bigger the government the greater the force. We are burdened with onerous laws, most just not needed. We do know what theft, grievous bodily harm, rape, murder, fraud, negligence and libel look and sound like. Juries have always done well in administering justice. As long as we are waiting for others/other countries to do the right thing, we wait in vain for a better world. We have to lead and change from the bottom up, be patient and, in time, things will improve around the world. And yes, we do also need to accept diversity of lifestyles and opinions, and above all keep our sacred indigenous people around the world safe and thriving. They hold a font of knowledge that is irreplaceable and are yet to be appreciated for this wisdom. It will probably take a number of generations of people working collaboratively to bring about the necessary changes, but that is what building a better future could look like. It will never happen by only concerning ourselves with our families and close friends, and by allowing the few to work secretively to impose on the many.

I have tried my best to keep this succinct and it has required that I leave out facts and contexts. It may just be possible to fit this onto a cigarette packet but you will need a strong magnifying glass to read it. Will we come together in time to heal ourselves so that we can heal the planet, or will it be the planet that forces a healing on us? Either way I am holding onto hope. At this point I will break off before I break into Michael Jackson’s Heal the World. Bless him. Perhaps we got him terribly wrong. It won’t be the first time we have made a blunder in judgement. Who truly knows except those in the know, and then we are called upon to decide who is lying and who is telling the truth. Never easy. We would do well to see ourselves as all being different faces of the same coin. There are no opposites really, only degrees of the same.

If I could only find words…to say how amazing life is…that we were born to break the chains that bind…that there is an ideal world out there… that we all meet somewhere in dream time…how else could we imagine a kinder world if it is not possible…Suzanne and Leonard tell me so.

PS Have fun with the imbedded links. I found this blog from last year in my drafts folder, and while I would not write in this vein now, it was how I felt about six months ago. I thought I would get it off my chest and live to breathe another way, or is it another day?