11-11-2009, 05:00 PM
Peter Presland Wrote:The only issue on which I depart from Pilger is in his apparent belief that an awakened population can succeed in changing things fundamentally for the better. Maybe he just feels he has to offer the possibility of genuine change to remain accessible to the masses. Personally I don't see it.
I couldn't agree more Peter. It is, imo, a repeated failing of those on the left to believe that all it will take is a political revolution or political awakening of the masses to cause rapid and permanent change to the way they are governed, whereas it will require a great deal more personal sacrifice and courage than that to change matters for the better.
Quote: Seems to me that unless and until humanity can arrange its affairs in such a way that leadership, wealth and power become inversely correlated with psychopathy, rather than the near 100% positive correlation of history and the present then, with the pace of military/surveillance/control/propaganda technology being what it is, we remain on a fast track to Armageddon. Pretty depressing view I guess, but I do still manage to enjoy life.
Psychologically speaking (and sorry to be a bloomin' bore et again) "power" is the shadow state of "love". Hence Jung's statement:
Quote:Where love rules, there is no will to power; and where power predominates, there love is lacking. The one is the shadow of the other.
Until we are willing to swallow the foul rottenness tucked away in the sack of shit we each carry on our backs - which we daily project on the outside world - then life will go on and on as it has until now, and power will accrue wealth and stamp its dominance over others. And gloat on these achievements.
In clear speak: we are each individually responsible for the way we are Collectively governed.
The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge.
Carl Jung - Aion (1951). CW 9, Part II: P.14