The
Wasteland-Part I
“There wasn't any limit, no boundary at all, to the future, and it would be so a man wouldn't have room to store his happiness.”
John Steinbeck (East Of Eden)
We
are living in a time of autoimmune self- consumption, that epitomizes
the fall of civilizations, it is a time of hubris, of unrestrained
indulgence, exploitation, density, and separation into “convenient,”
compartmentalized fragmentation. Diseases such as AIDS, chronic
fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, cancer, lupus, arthritis, etc. are
diseases in which the body's own protective system turns on itself.
Autoimmune diseases are
among the number one leading causes of death among women in all age
groups up to 65 years, these are one of many symptoms related to the degradation of Feminine values.
The
correlate of autoimmune disease on a psychosocial level, is our
addiction to information, stimulation, and technology. We are
consuming ourselves with information overload, mindless/meaningless
communication, and technologic systems, gadgets, fields, and storage
that we have become enslaved to that must be fed, not unlike
sacrifices to ancient Gods. We see the apocalyptic fears and visions played out constantly in art and film; Zombies, climate catastrophe, and last survivors at end of civilization scenarios are erupting from the collective
consciousness screaming for our attention and care.
This
is a state of culture and a state of mind Neil Postman calls
Technopoly, and it can be seen as a breakdown in normal cultural
defenses, which like the body's immunity, are in place to provide
balance and protection, but when they become pathologic, actually
attack what they are supposed to protect. Postman writes; “Technopoly
flourishes when the defenses against information breakdown.”
Technology
always increases information, which strains existing control
mechanisms to cope with new information, the inability to control the
supply, dissemination, storage and consumption of information results
in a lose of meaning, beliefs, values, and all other social norms
that constitute social order and culture in general. This is cancer
on a psychosocial level, and what we are doing is throwing more and
more information and technologic “solutions” to try and deal with
the problems created by techno-info glut.
Everyone
has had the experience of TMI, too many emails, texts, facebook
posts, instagrams, etc. We've all said at some point; “I need a
break from news, social media, technology, cell phones, etc!!” But
what we're not realizing on a broader sociologic level, is that no
one needs the
level of contact, communication, information, entertainment,
socializing, and stimulation that
we consume and transmit daily.
All of this supposed “need” has been manufactured, engineered and
induced into our individual and collective psyche by those
whose job it is to keep us addicted. Just like our food, we are
consuming empty calories of psychic salt, sugar, and fat that only
keeps us wanting MORE!!
Just
as consuming empty calories leaves us feeling empty and malnourished
physically, so too are we feeling spiritually, soulfully, and
psychologically empty, without meaning and purpose, wandering
aimlessly to the next sound bite or facebook post, looking for
something that will fill the void.
As
T.S. Elliot prophesized in his post WWI work The Wasteland, which
follows The Grail legend and the wounded Fisher King, modern and
post-modern man has become a wandering, homeless nomad in search of
meaning, healing, and balance. We will not cure our dis-eases by the
same means which created them!
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