It’s with an almost desperately heavy heart that this essay, to follow, is being written — and it’s so soon between figurative “miles markers,” first suggested here less than three weeks ago.
This is all happening so quickly.
But it’s not like these times weren’t seen coming, well in advance. The specifics of them could have been more readily perceived … had one’s eyes merely been open to them. Mine weren’t.
What’s disheartening is these days have actually arrived. They’re real. Violence is silently and even casually being threatened, and it IS going to manifest, right here in America in Collapse.
With so-called conservatives (there’s nothing “conservative” about them!) and liberals at each others’ throats in online post-news-stories’ Comments sections every day (and that’s the core “split” that is widening, although it’s not the only one), the war of words is upon us. Ugly, ugly, ugly voiced disparagements are the order of the day:
I hate-you hate-you hate-you hate-you hate-you.
What’s being hated? It doesn’t matter. None of the “reasons” are very user-friendly.
And, so, we’re on the doorstep of becoming a “civilized” nation wholly out of control. The Age of Rational Thinking is over.
It’s not like there’s no one in charge amid all of this ballooning anarchy. That top authority is no longer being recognized: specifically, the Office of the President of these Ununited States.
Insanity has arrived — watch it preen. Listen to it belch.
The South Shall Rise Again!
No. No, it won’t. America, at its deepest core conceptualizations, however, is crumbling, right in front of our eyes.
We won’t even have to depend on CNN, or that other fake cable news network, to see it.
Hubris demanded to have its day. Now it’s right on the threshold of having it.
* * * * *
Here’s a quick peek at what probably awaits us at the other end of this mounting cataclysm:
Crying, crying, and more crying. And exhaustion, from the Atlantic to the Pacific; from Canada to Mexico.
Some of America’s fundamentalist Christian churches, which heavily supported all this unrest-leading-to-end-game-violence, will be in a shambles. Jesus’ teachings were overtly ignored.
"Recreational" guns ultimately will end up banned. They were rarely used in defense — only in offense, it will be realized.
Violence, depicted graphically on commercial television, will be recognized as pornography.
Out of such ashes — and there will be lots more of them to peruse — will come a Major Event:
Americans either will come together (which is far and away our best case scenario), or we will split up forever, and for good.
Such a Split, then, will no longer be about prejudices or vague ideological ties. It will be about either continuing to hang on to a past that’s evaporating; or, about just letting go, and allowing in The Unknown Good that’s been trying so hard, without success, to enter.
There’ll be absolutely nothing subtle about such a separation/transition, either, should it occur.
You’ll know where you stand. No formal lessons will need be applied.
We will all be numb, appropriately enough — but that won’t factor into in our final inclinations.
It mostly will be, Let In The New. Or, Hang On To The Past.
There will no longer be much middle ground left to escape to, nor fences left to straddle.
Yet there’s still an outside chance, even now, that we’ll decide we’re All In This Together.
Regardless, whatever we opt for individually, and/or as a society — all of that violence, whose rubber-band tautness by then will have snapped and fallen limp, will mostly be behind us.
It will have exploded and splattered our walls, in one terrible spent-spewing, at Mile Marker 3.
What damage resulted from that violence will remain with most of us awhile. How could it not?
* * * * *
I have a dream about the future I hope to be able to embrace. Please let me share it with you.
It’s less about specifics of behavior, activities and beliefs than it is about the nature of change.
It begins with this declaration I posted on my Myspace page, about three and a half years ago (www.myspace.com/donaldcroftbrickner):
“I’m a published writer/philosopher on the Internet, where I’ve been striving … to help induce meaningful and substantial social change, both in my home country, the United States, and globally. The core of my Internet writing focuses on the branch of metaphysics called ontology — the nature of consciousness as it applies to the nature of reality, both in the seen (the physical) and unseen (subspace, for lack of a better term) worlds. I strive to inspire in-depth discussion, not pat answers. I have my strong suspicions about what’s what, but I’m not stuck on those ideas. I believe, though, that once you agree on the fundamentals, the other issues pretty much take care of themselves. In the end, the way we live our lives comes down to two key factors: 1.) our world view (how we view the world, and our place in it) — the objective component; and 2.) our psychological health … which is to say, our emotional health — the subjective component. If we get our view of the nature of reality (and our place in it) correct, then we’ll begin to behave accordingly, and false or outmoded beliefs will begin to fall by the wayside. Still, if we’re angry, frightened, and feeling lost or alone, then our objective (world view) beliefs will mean very little — and we’ll embrace instead our emotional darknesses to the exclusion of all else … which is pretty much how things are now in the world. I’m absolutely convinced we can change that.”
I have never stopped embracing those ideals. They’re at the foundation of every essay I’ve published in the interim. And now, more than ever, my dream is to see them made manifest, in the here and now. I’m also convinced they’re not outlandish topics or goals, either. Far from it.
Are we about to have our noses bloodied enough for these considerations to finally surface? We’ll see.
All of the spokes of the contemporary Wheel of Life come together and join at such a center point. All of the ills of this planet can be reduced to those two simple ideas, expressed above.
And even if most readers don’t buy into that, it’s certainly a well-recommended starting place.
Great beauty and peace awaits us in an alternative physical reality to this one — this ugly and bitter one we see commonly (and intrusively) manifested today. We don’t need to keep living like this. We don’t. Why beat a dead horse?
There are a vast array of melodramas more intriguing and valid than this one. We can change now — ahead of those darker High Probabilities so insistently ready to pounce upon us all.
Think (substantive) world view. Think emotional health (and well-being).
But, first and foremost, we need to begin looking at ourselves in our very own mirrors. There will be no finger-pointing high ground in the days ahead. It always — always — starts there: In a genuine state of humility, with our deepest, most soul-wrenched spirit at long last engaged.
This essay will be far shorter than most. What’s needed to be said here is really pretty simple:
We don’t know ourselves very well.
It’s time for us to meet Us.
Honest to God — it’s time.
Dear God. It’s time.
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