The End of the World... Or the Beginning?

Without a doubt looking forward to those future episodes

This Tsuyoku Naritai concept is new to me. After sitting with it for a couple days it's made me realize that the story of Moses and the Exodus from Egypt was an ending story just as much as it was an origin story....a phase change of it's own. Execute or die trying, indeed. Maybe Tsuyoku Naritai was the necessary precursor for Moses to get his direct from God transmission in the first place. I'm sure Jonathan Seagull could attest.

Greetings, Jackie!

Appreciated the episode, and in particular the comment that every generation thinks the world is going to end. I also hold the belief that we, as a species will figure this out together like we have before, and that we are in the process of evolving towards a greater purpose.

Like you said, we always seem to find a way out, time and time again. I hope that the era we're in now is no exception, and so when I think of "solutions" most of the questions that come to mind are around how we stop ourselves from repeating this same cycle again once we reach another period of stability. It really feels as if we've been here before, doesn't it? I came across an interesting passage while writing a paper for school on Fritz Perls and Gestalt Therapy. This is from his book "Gestalt Therapy Verbatim" published in 1969: "As you know there is a rebellion going on in the United States. We discover that producing things, and living for things, and the exchange of things is not the ultimate meaning of life. We discover that the meaning of life is that it is to be lived, and it is not to be traded and conceptualized and squeezed into a pattern of systems. We realize that manipulation and control are not the ultimate joy of life.

But we must also realize that so far we only have a rebellion. We don't have a revolution yet. There is still much of substance missing. There is a race on between fascism and humanism. At this moment it seems to me like the race is just about lost to the fascists. And the wild, hedonistic, unrealistic, jazz-it-up, turner onners have nothing to do with humanism. It is protest, its a rebelliousness, which is fine as such but its not an end. I've got plenty of contact with the youngsters of our generation who are in despair. They see all the militarism and the atomic bomb in the background. They want to get something out of life. They want to become real and exist. If there is any chance of interrupting the rise and fall of the United States, its up to our youth and its up to you in supporting this youth. To be able to do this, there is only one way through: to become real, to learn to take a stand, to develop one's center, to understand the basis of existentialism: a rose is a rose is a rose"

Here we are in 2024, and from where I'm sitting this passage seems just as relevant today as when it was written. In another recent read, "Near Enemies of the Truth", by Christopher Wallis, he describes the damage done when Joseph Campbell's phrase "Follow your Bliss" turned into a platitude in the era of modern capitalism: "Many hyper-capitalist Boomers of today were the long-haired idealists of yesteryear, and most of their children and grandchildren still believe that success consists of fame (e.g., social media followers) and money, and that they're entitled to those things while doing whatever they most like." I wasn't born until the 90s. So I don't fully comprehend what the factors at play were that caused so many from the Woodstock generation to abandon their rebellion before the momentum swelled into a full blown revolution. But when I think of potential solutions that will allow for us to break this cycle and truly evolve, this is where I'm starting to ask questions. If Gaia as the cornerstone of our sacred is the rebellious cry of my generation, what can be done to keep our awareness with her when things become comfortable again? What can we do differently when passing the torch of ideals and values to the next generation so that our own self-important and self-indulgent tendencies aren't covertly hidden within the framework waiting to take control when we least expect it.

These sneaky traps of self-indulgence seem to continuously show up in my own life, even with continuous practice. For example, this is an awfully long post where I've definitely enjoyed sharing how much reading I've been doing. And while I'm sure that I'm writing it out of a genuine desire to add to the dialogue in hope of an evolved future, and curiosity about your ideas and questions in relation to my own, I am also sure I'll fantasize later about someone stumbling across my comment and really taking note of just how clever "I" am and how great "my" ideas are. Even with my full awareness on it right now, it's hard to say with 100% certainty what really is tipping the old motivation scale.

Point is, this dance is constantly happening in my mind. It seems to be part of my nature by birthright. My prefrontal cortex didn't grow in an environment where the elders were guiding me on how to navigate it. And I don't blame them...their elders didn't do it for them either. But i do think the solution in breaking this cycle has something to do with how we teach the next generation to navigate this particular quirk of the human experience.

Hope all is well!