Sunday, February 19, 2017

HISTORICAL TRENDS BEHIND THE PRESENT AMERICAN SOCIAL/POLITICAL CHAOS....February 19,2017

Astonishingly the new president in the first first month declares that the COURTS and FREEDOM OF THE PRESS are among his and the 'American people's enemies.' These are the two realities that most check America from ever coming under  some kind of autocratic rule. It might  be hard to imagine a more unconstitutional attitude.

My opinion is the present societal situation developed  over decades and longer does not have a 'one side is right' solution. It is much larger and we all , including our forebears, have had a hand in its historical development. I suspect it is the natural evolution of  the materialistic frame of mind which was necessarily at the heart of  the European Renaissance(Age Of Reason)and scientific mindset ( which gave us all the dazzling  advancements of science and technology.) The atmosphere of that Renaissance was America's strong  matetialistic beginning and , though once brilliant and essential,  has led over time to our present Consumer Capitalistic  materialistically possessed society.


Our first American powerful elites were mostly Deists, not church going Christians,  which set them free from literally taken traditional religious dogma. This freedom to explore the material world  was  necessary for science to flourish( But religious fundamentalism has now re-surged in many forms worldwide  and is a scientific step backward and something that inadvertently nurtures our dominant Rational Materialism world view.)

All of this , for good and ill, is our foundation, all of us. And we have finally run into the downside of what has become a one sided unworkable  approach to life and human meaning and development. Phrases that describe this situation are Consumer Capitalism and Rational Materialism  and are America's basic worldview in most aspects  in our post modern culture. The downside of these mindsets gone too far and outgrown for new times  include  the  consistent  physical  deterioration of the planet  and its complexities along with  wealth and power outrageously accumulated for a small percent of the population.
Isaac Newton- Renaissance Scientist


This has also driven Americans to, with clear and self righteous conscience, suck every material comfort and amusement from the earth that we can and given license to take far more from nature than we need simply because it's there. These attitudes have often been supported by formal education emphasis and much of  formal religion.

To control and manipulate everything we can for maximum short term pleasantness, amusement  and comfort is the unspoken and irresponsible goal of Rationalistic Consumer Materialism. This leads to a pernicious disrespect for the natural care of the planet,  diminished relationships built of mutual trust and honesty and  to a belief that 'more  for me and  mine is always better'. Success of  human life really has come to be  measured by material wealth and political power. This stands opposed to actual deepest human need and development. It ignores the demands of the human soul.


So we overtly, even if irrational, adore the wealthy and materially powerful  no matter the compromised ethics and character that often, with  exceptions, necessarily characterize the most 'achieving' humans  in a Consumer Capitalistic society. These materialistic values are still  strongly active across all economic and most education levels, even though they work against our having more safe, healthy and  less anxious  lives

Our point of view, our world view, at this point is not really religious  or ethics based  and it is  failing to give a serious damn about future generations or citizens who are in or on the edges of poverty,  or the health of the planet. And we , in much collective denial of this threatening situation, still claim to so greatly love our children and future generations. Our collective behavior  and materialistic values might give us pause.

Much of this is unconscious so most of us  have truly not let ourselves know better. Ignorance and lack of awareness is the key root of our worst sins  and  the demands and capacity to change from these destructive long developed norms are fully present and pressing at the door. We have soulful  learning to do that is more than what is in our typical history books. There is an urgent need to 'know our true selves' . This includes our darker unconscious motives that run unchecked as well as unknown potential good and neighborly compassion we can trust  are also in the depths of human hearts.


The present daily images  of ignoring common facts, creating ones own reality, material extravagancies and a self possessed President hold all these unsavory often unconscious factors up before us like a giant mirror .  It  says to us all, "This is who you are now or where you yearn to go. Is it time yet to change some of your ways and expectations for  successful  human living?  Is your way any longer effective or productive for  sustainable quality human life? It is up to you. "

This complex evolutionary  web is not just the fault of one or other side of the present political spectrum, and certainly not just the president. Because it is an evolutionary process there is no value in assigning blame. It is simply what it is. What is important is that individuals  'be aware' of  the situation, name and own it for what it is.  “Conservative” and “liberal” are equally important mindsets and practices , both essential for healthy personal and collective life. The continuous political fighting likely is only a distraction from the real threats we all face but remain the unaddressed  elephants in the room.


There is reason for a collective HOPE in this present complexity,  HOPE of a religious or archetypal  nature as all deeper human  hopes I think must be. That hope can  include that  the narcissistic irrational chaos  and over materialized self aggrandizing images  associated with our  white house symbolize  a last crazed seizure of an enshrined  crass materialism called Consumer Capitalism.

Humans have the capacity, and it must happen for our species to survive, to adapt to new evolutionary conditions as we pass through major eons or epochs of development.  (Presently the planet and other life would be safer without us being here.  This is a recent development  due to human technology and unchecked consumerism. A  more alert and responsible form of intelligent  consciosness may be required now by evolution. And evolution would do just that if human consciousness fails its immediate task.)

No world view- religious, scientific or other, in its most developed form is ever  eternal . Eventually, perhaps major shifts occurring every 2000 years, a long held effective world view becomes ineffective and obsolete  for pressing new times. The presently  weakening world view of America and the West  is the result of  global evolution reaching a one sided and unbalanced state where the planet is threatened with chaos. We seem to now be at the cusp of such  a necessary change in epochs.

A  deeply grounded HOPE which  seems  needed and reasonable to anticipate is for a major  rebalancing shift in American human consciousness; a newly evolved perspective that will lead to  truly higher ground where Sacred- Human love  may make a quantum leap. Such a posdible transition of eons is  never one that existing traditional moral codes, religions or political parties can take sole credit for. Instead a whole nation or  a large diverse culture can come to   realize they can  experience and participate in  nothing less than the natural movement of a frightening but redeeming God  factor in their midst.

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