History, invaluable in understanding how we got here, is easier to digest than current events because we already know the outcome in advance and aren't living through it personally. As horrid as things were — endless war and human suffering — there's a certain comfort and sense of safety in being separated by time, relaxed in a cozy chai…
History, invaluable in understanding how we got here, is easier to digest than current events because we already know the outcome in advance and aren't living through it personally. As horrid as things were — endless war and human suffering — there's a certain comfort and sense of safety in being separated by time, relaxed in a cozy chair by a warm fireplace, reading about historical events, relegating past realities to the intellectual realm of the mind.
Yet, here we are: living through history in the making in a world still torn apart by endless war and human suffering — and now, by imminent climate destruction on a biblical scale.
Focusing on present realities poses a more significant psychological challenge despite our understanding of how we arrived here. Experiencing the daily nightmare of evil surrounding us is quite frightening when we don't yet know our ultimate fate but suspect the future is a dark and foreboding place, threatening our lives and our children.
The sad fact is that we don't always win when we fight. Defeated, we feel naked in a cold, cruel world, casting around desperately for some security when there is none, some solution that will make the bad disappear when it's here to stay, at least for the foreseeable future. No hero will save us; no cavalry will come to the rescue. We are alone and afraid.
Maybe that's how true revolutions begin: When enough people feel the sting of defeat and have nothing left to lose, when they feel the real pain of life firsthand at the gut level, not as a sterile intellectual exercise but as their reality, affecting the deepest part of the mind, fundamentally changing how they think about the world and their place in it.
Then, perhaps, a groundswell of good people will come together despite their differences, act urgently, and change the outward world for the better — the hourglass is running out.
"True revolutions." If you mean 1776, ours wasn't.
I have lived through the civil rights struggles, the sexual revolution, etc. I was conscriped and survived a year in southeast Asia, where a "real" revolution was happening. We were on the losing side.
History, invaluable in understanding how we got here, is easier to digest than current events because we already know the outcome in advance and aren't living through it personally. As horrid as things were — endless war and human suffering — there's a certain comfort and sense of safety in being separated by time, relaxed in a cozy chair by a warm fireplace, reading about historical events, relegating past realities to the intellectual realm of the mind.
Yet, here we are: living through history in the making in a world still torn apart by endless war and human suffering — and now, by imminent climate destruction on a biblical scale.
Focusing on present realities poses a more significant psychological challenge despite our understanding of how we arrived here. Experiencing the daily nightmare of evil surrounding us is quite frightening when we don't yet know our ultimate fate but suspect the future is a dark and foreboding place, threatening our lives and our children.
The sad fact is that we don't always win when we fight. Defeated, we feel naked in a cold, cruel world, casting around desperately for some security when there is none, some solution that will make the bad disappear when it's here to stay, at least for the foreseeable future. No hero will save us; no cavalry will come to the rescue. We are alone and afraid.
Maybe that's how true revolutions begin: When enough people feel the sting of defeat and have nothing left to lose, when they feel the real pain of life firsthand at the gut level, not as a sterile intellectual exercise but as their reality, affecting the deepest part of the mind, fundamentally changing how they think about the world and their place in it.
Then, perhaps, a groundswell of good people will come together despite their differences, act urgently, and change the outward world for the better — the hourglass is running out.
"True revolutions." If you mean 1776, ours wasn't.
I have lived through the civil rights struggles, the sexual revolution, etc. I was conscriped and survived a year in southeast Asia, where a "real" revolution was happening. We were on the losing side.
I don't mean a physically violent revolution but rather a more profound revolution of thought and mind.
(I posted the rest of this reply on Thursday's blog, 12-19-24.)