A Crisis of Consciousness

[ origin ]

We have come a long way in our understanding of the physical world around us. But as far as our understanding of the worlds within are concerned, we have not progressed very far at all. We still know very little about how we think, about why we feel the way we do, or about how our attitudes and beliefs affect our perception and hence our reality.

Today we have reached a point where we can no longer afford to ignore this inner world. It is human actions and human decisions that lie behind so many of the world's problems. Likewise it is human failings that often lie behind our sluggish (or sometimes non-existent) attempts to remedy them.

The decisions we make are in turn guided by our values and our sense of what is important. If we believe that sustained material growth is the root to salvation, that money can buy us peace of mind, or that the survival of our egos is more important than the survival of the planet, then it is little surprise that our behaviour is so crazy.

Our global crisis is, at its root, a crisis of consciousness. Global warming, the destruction of the rainforests, the wide-scale extinction of species, acid rain, soil erosion, the depletion of the ozone layer, pollution, toxic waste, atomic waste, the energy crisis, the North-South crisis, the economic crisis, the food crisis, the water crisis, the housing crisis, the sanitation crisis, and the many other crises that humanity faces are all symptoms of a deeper psychological crisis.

The writing is on the wall. If we are to navigate our way safely through these critical times we have to mature inwardly. Why do we feel so insecure? Why do we want to feel we are in control of things? We must discover how to move beyond this egocentric phase in our development. And fast.

-- Peter Russell

[MissyO]

Hmm...... I dunno about this. I think we need to stop looking less into ourselves in an individualistic way. Seems to me people are too into themselves nowadays, which means that the planet is still up shlt creek without a paddle (wars, etc) but we don't have the community support we used to to overcome it on any level, thus leading to an endless cycle of individualism and corporations exploiting us thusly.

It's the egocentric bahaviour of one individual that makes it a collective problem. I believe this is what "crisis of consciousness" is trying to convey. We're too much into ourselves, we're not about "community" anymore. We're more focused on how much money we can make, if we can have the bigger car on the block.

The cycle is seems endless, but it can be changed if enough people care.

Evidentally, no one does.

[Captain Beefheart]

I believe as much as anyone that there's no real way for finite beings to make any true or universal sense out of the infinite. No pure and simple objectivity.

But I also think as finite beings, it's necessary to recognize our innate structures and commonalities. Human "truths" as opposed to the Big Truth in the sky that we can never know. There's a reason that people who see God turn blind.

The post structural has been the best thing ever for peeking behind the curtain and seeing the small little people where the Masters used to stand. It's a way of breaking out of fraudulent cages we didn't build.

The thing is, what now? With all that freedom, what now?

Peel the blanket off your head and decide that you should spend your time playing peekaboo?

There's not a perfect solution to this dichotomy, and I don't forsee one. EVER.

Anyway, the point is that reality will always shift according to environmental factors and the organisms perceiving it (really the distinction between organisms and their environment is another practical fallacy resulting from the limitations of symbolic language/perception).

The challenge as a person aware of these factors is to maintain that sense of subjectivity as a perpetual subtext (a subtext that outweighs the main), while still allowing themselves to use the floating truths that have been hammered into a loose shape by history. Jumping back between the two modes as quickly and efficiently as possible always hoping to increase the bit rate as time goes on.

It's like when people ask Chomsky about his plan to "fix everything". It's too complex. All you can do is learn by doing. Be informed and always ready to resituate yourself according to the changing circumstance. Work according to the shape of the world until the shape changes and then continue. Repeat forever.

Establishing commonalities is the hardest thing to do ever, and yet it's not rocket science(well, it is, ..but that's getting too literal).

I wish I had gotten a bit more conceptual here and also dropped some names for added authenticity but I get to embarrassed with myself whenever I linger too long on universal hermeneutics and the like. But I can linger on a message board all I like. Right Missy?