You know… So very much of our daily lives is “controlled” (or at least heavily influenced) by the media, politicians, and various industries–for example, the music industry, hollywood, mining, pharma, retail, etc., social media algorithms etc. etc., religious and academic organizations etc. etc. etc. Figureheads, in other words. Conglomerates of ideologies. Those entities who set the stage in which our waking lives play out.
And yet… we spend so much time and energy bickering amongst ourselves, and mad at the common person for his or her or their ignorant views. You’d think it were a civil war coming, any day now.
But, I wonder, do we even truly know each other’s views? Like, is this a conversation, or are we just trying to put a face to the propaganda so that we can figuratively (or literally as the case may be) punch it (*BAM* !!!) and relieve our pent-up frustrations?
Maybe people who aren’t on the front lines of art or culture don’t perceive these dynamics because they haven’t witnessed first-hand the spiritual work of their peers be co-opted, stolen, and turned for a profit or agenda by corporate/political interests…over and over and over, and dare I say over again. I am not speaking from one specific ethnicity, gender, religion, movement, or tribe, but rather all of us. So many of us. Be we atheist or monk, or anywhere in between, we all have a sacred spirit that goes into our work and words as we co-exist on this planet. Sharing our Earth, our environments, our atmosphere. In fact, the word spirit can loosely be translated as “breath” as in…respiration.
It’s a pattern, though: that something real exists (for example natural resources in the Earth’s ecosystems), and certain interested parties come along to mine/extract, capitalize, and commodify “it” until there’s little to nothing left of the original spirit. It’s hard to ignore, once you’ve been directly affected by a hijacking of spirit (source). Because when you see that pattern of robbery you begin to understand the difference between genuine art/culture, and appropriated propaganda or groupthink. Especially when it comes to the subliminals in advertising, or: how to make you feel loved and comforted and nourished as if it were real and true…only to find out later you were taken advantage of and left destitute. A familiar human story?
Most of us have experienced betrayal in one way or another, and we have trust issues as a result. And sure, sociopaths don’t just exist in business or politics, but also in person-to-person interaction. Ignorance is real…identity politics are real…and identity is important. In fact, ego is often quite determined to make itself as R.E.A.L. as can be, no matter the cost, and thus social strife comes with the territory of any society. For better and for worse.
But why are we so blindly angry at each other, when prejudice and selfishness are already pre-programmed by our society’s best marketing teams? To make an analogy, that would be like seeing a 3-year-old child wearing a Nazi tee-shirt, a big old bright red swastika emblem; and wanting to harm that child…when you know full well that somebody else (parents, guardians, whomever) is responsible for choosing the symbolism, and dressing the child. And what of when that child grows up, what then? Did he or she or they have a “choice” whether or not to embrace prejudice? Probably. Is it also a biased and highly peer-pressured choice, subconsciously enforced from the day they were born? Certainly.
One of the most interesting aspects of “hate” is that it can be hard to pin-point quite where it began, or when it will ever end. If I wrong you, and you wrong me…what comes next? And for that matter, what came before? And… If our families and friends are dragged into the process, how long before it begins to get murky who’s to blame for what? And when does resolution come? This generation? Next? The one after that, or the one after that?
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes
(Who will take custody of the custodians?)
(Who guards the guardians?)
(Who watches over the watchers?)