DISSIDENCE AND RESTART

“It's not the men in my life that count, it's the life in my men. (Mae West)

Versione italiana al link Dissidenza e ripartenza

It has been almost four years now that world events have taken such a turn that it is virtually impossible not to notice the bad faith of those who aspire to govern us and the evil repetitive pattern with which they obscure our minds and hearts every day. 

Just last night, while having dinner with friends whom I consider excellent exemplars of a humanity that is now rare and precious, we were reflecting on how it is possible that the masses are still blind to the now predictable dynamics by which the mass media blandish us, divide us into supporters, sow well-calculated hatred and mortify our intelligence and hearts.

On the other hand, even in the so-called 'dissidence,' in which I can say I have participated, I have observed phenomena that have their roots in human weakness, in its not yet being ready to make a real evolutionary leap. It struck me especially how it is easier to adhere, once again, to the destructive mode of reality, rather than the creative and fruitful one.

Many people I know were quickly activated in the 'pars destruens,' that is, when there was a need to get angry and indignant, but not as much in the 'pars costruendo,' when there was a need to cultivate the seeds of change that had been sown. In all likelihood, the impulse to protest found their otherwise unexpressed anger and frustration as a reservoir, and was good fuel for action. 

When the waters apparently calmed, however, the same people lacked the inner balance to allow the positive, that is, the building of the new, the beautiful, the true. They sagged, folded in on themselves, and, after the wave of protest, were not even able to pursue a decent romance or make any different choices for their lives.

As long as there was hatred to motivate them, these men and women defied restrictions and prohibitions: when this drive no longer found external targets, it introjected itself and made them apathetic, inert, inconclusive. They have been unable or unwilling to seize the opportunity to bring a modicum of renewal to their minds and lives; they have remained in the known, cuddling their old emotional wounds and finding new opportunities to become indignant or depressed. 

This leads me to think that the tribulations they have endured, for a good part of even dissident humanity, have perhaps passed in vain. They have not found fertile ground to produce a real change in consciousness--and the results, unfortunately, are there for all to see.