Tuesday, November 05, 2013
The psychic assault of human folly
On the way up town for a meeting this morning, I find myself following a link to a website expressing the dangers of a sudden and catastrophic acceleration of the effects of climate change http://lasthours.org/
And later, waiting for the bus on the way home, I’m being sent somewhere else to watch a film on the catastrophic effects of the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear reactors http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiBVBdM77s4
On every side the level of misinformation is now so extreme it’s impossible to reach an accurate assessment of the truth of all this.
What is abundantly clear is that the UK government is both promoting nuclear power and promoting fracking in a way that ignores all warnings about the dangers of both and is both negligent and criminal.
And so I suspect that my life, that all our lives, are in danger. And I feel completely helpless.
And then the bus comes.
I get on the bus; a man gets off and as I take my seat I watch him walk into the bus shelter I have just left, unzip his fly, take out his penis and piss. Into the bus shelter. In front of all the passengers on my side of the bus.
As if this was completely normal behaviour.
And then the bus goes. And I find myself reading an account of how “underhanding” has become a recognised pastime for young men at clubs. Where a boy stands behind a girl and tries to put his fingers inside her.
And I wonder if the extreme fear these reports are generating, that these very real possibilities are generating, may be operating at an unaware level of the collective unconscious.
And that the most elementary decencies of social behaviour may be breaking down as a result.
And I think: we need to find mechanisms of defending ourselves against these terrors. Without blinding ourselves to them.
And I go to take refuge in my home. Which isn’t really that much of a refuge.
And feel grateful that at least I can meditate.
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