By Skot Ward
What I see is a system collapsing due to the course and evolution of an inexorable progress made within the dynamic nature of the human animal. What I see within the eyes of those who refuse to allow this process to happen, is a palpable fear and anger, an aggression seasoned so strongly with desperation that it is impossible to swallow any longer. They are clinging tightly, they are fighting so hard to remain relevant that their actions appear stupefying and ludicrous to anyone with a modicum of common sense. The vitriolic hatred being stirred incessantly by these contemporary influential poster children and demagogues, is fanning the flames of divisive intolerance, and the result is nothing more than that of a last-ditch effort to beat a few more miles out of a dying horse, and the death of a self-serving desire for narcissistic self-deification merely to secure a place in our collective history. And that's the irony right there now isn't it? Individuals, seeking to secure a place in collective history?
Everyone is looking for a superhero, a savior, but no one wishes to sport the cape themselves, or to help others put them on THEIR shoulders. The saddest thing that there is to conceive of is the knowledge that our potential as human beings outweighs any other thought we can think of, but we choose instead to scatter those squandered possibilities and probabilities across a vast wasteland of nothingness, hoping that one day someone or something will come along and put all the pieces back together again; giving us all something to believe in once more.
By wasting our collective potential, we are doing nothing for the good of mankind, we are merely trying to keep ourselves from waking up from a shared dream which is quickening into a nightmare. We deny the reality around us because we are comfortable with persisting in our illusions. Illusions are something we can control, they're not as scary as the results of the decisions we've made which we refuse to be accountable for. All of our little temporary dreams causing so much permanent damage. Are we ever going to acknowledge it? Or are we just going to let everything collapse into ruin?
We are the energy we prepare the spaces for within ourselves. We are whichever wave we choose to surf into the twilight of our horizons. It seems as though as of late upon this planet, we fear the burden of a struggle. We perceive the passage of time to create and formulate the solutions to our problems as a waste of our time, as if solutions are just supposed to magically appear before us whenever we make decisions. Or that a divine intervention will happen, just when we need it to, in order to steer the course of the planet so that it doesn't tumble over the edge of the falls. So, inevitably we give in don't we? We acquiesce to the flow of energy around us no matter what it consists of, and if it happens to run contrary to our values and belief structure, well, then just we hope that one day we may have the ability to reconcile its tenants against our own so we can justify all of our thoughts, actions, and inactions.
We don't need a superhero. We don't need a savior. What we need it's to subvert the dominant paradigm of thinking about who we are, and what we're capable of as human beings. We need to become familiar with the concept that “we” can become “I.” That the self can be plural. That we can be of one mind, with 7,000,000,000 vessels to work it's concepts and ideas through. We need to stop with our incessant, selfish, individualistic “me first” thinking, which has succeeded only in destroying our world and driving it insane. We are constantly looking for simple, yet comprehensive solutions, a better way outside of ourselves, the highest yield with the least amount of labor. We elect officials to deal with global problems so compounded that delving into them at length would be an impossible task for one person to handle, and then we rant and rave, cry foul, and spit vehement hatred at the very person we have made solemnly responsible for them when they cannot follow through with what we've expected of them.
When in the course of our history have we ever ever looked in the mirror to realize that the overall solution has been there all along? Have we ever once pointed our fingers back at ourselves in that reflection and simply just asked, “Can I do it?” Could it possibly all start with me? Yes, as a matter of fact that's the only way that it very well can succeed.
Do it. Come together. I dare you.
°8°
Skot Ward describes himself as such: I've had 41 trips around the sun to make sense of this little blue dot floating inside infinite space. I truly believe that if enough people care, we can all make sense of it together.
Brian McKay describes him as the coolest guy he has ever met at a wedding.
Image courtesy of Flickr, under a creative commons license.