Are the gods finally driving our leaders mad?
It is said: “Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.” Thinking about politics in the world today and the increasing hostile polarisation of societies, whether liberal democracies or the autocracies, those provocative words come ever more forcefully to mind.
How, we ask despairingly, in the face of the pressing global challenges to our future existence in this 21st century, do we still spend so much time and energy striving to harm each other? ? ??
In Latin those foreboding words are: "Quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat” - "Those whom God wishes to destroy, he first deprives of reason.” What is this reason?
An earlier version of this provocative phrase?'whom the gods would destroy'?appears in Sophocles'?play 'Antigone' (depicted in the illustration above). The Greek words are:??"τ? κακ?ν δοκε?ν ποτ? ?σθλ?ν τ?δ? ?μμεν' ?τ? φρ?να? θε?? ?γει πρ?? ?ταν;” - "Evil appears as good in the minds of those whom god leads to destruction.”
Taking names
It would be tempting, but inappropriate, to attach specific names to whom those warnings might apply in this era where evil and good seem ever more confused. It might be more useful to consider them as predicting a potentially fundamental disruption of the prevailing paradigm of thinking - one that is long overdue. We languish in a paradigm struggling to embrace the integrative unity of all things - a unity that embraces and celebrates diversity. ? ?
When we consider the heated political rhetoric in this polarised?‘post-truth’ era; the words about evil appearing as good, uttered by Antigone in Sophocles' play, do sound particularly portentous.?
Whilst we blunder forward in the false assumption that smart technology or brute force will resolve our issues, that false conviction only serves to distract us from making the long-overdue shift in consciousness - one from mechanistic reductionism to organismic holism.
Great saving unities
Jan Smuts, in his preface to the second edition of 'Holism and Evolution' (1927) wrote:
“It must be clear to those who look below the surface of things that far-reaching changes in our fundamental ideas and attitudes are setting in, and that the world of to-morrow will be a very different one?…? a grave duty arises also for our science and philosophy.
The higher thought of our day should not exhaust itself in fine-spun technicalities of speculation or research, but should regard itself as dedicated to service and should make its distinctive contribution towards the upbuilding of a new constructive world-view. We are passing through one of the great transition epochs of history; we are threatened with reaction on the one hand and with disintegration on the other. The old beacon lights are growing dimmer, and the torch of new ideas has to be kindled for our guidance. ...
If the soul of our civilisation is to be saved we shall have to find new and fuller expression for the great saving unities—the unity of reality in all its range, the unity of life in all its forms, the unity of ideas throughout human civilisation, and the unity of man's spirit with the mystery of the Cosmos in religious faith and aspiration. Holism is in its own way a groping towards the new light...”.
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Heroic conquest vs. reverend embrace
Decades later South African Jungian analyst, Roger Brooke wrote: "The shift now is from heroic conquest to reverend embrace." We'll return to this.
Meanwhile Belgian poet (poets do tend to think deeper) Henri Frederic Amiel wrote: "Any landscape is a condition of the soul".
And in those worlds 'condition of the soul' 'lies the rub'. That is not merely our prevailing state of conscious awareness, it includes Jan Smuts' notion of the unity of humankind's 'spirit with the mystery of the cosmos'. And essential to that mystery, an awareness demanding reverence, is the generative working together of the masculine (heroic) and the feminine (embracing) energies in each one of us.
Deprived of reason
Our linear and mechanist way of reasoning simply can no longer cope with this complexifying and increasingly interrelated world. Our siloed agendas, driven by the masculine impulse to heroic conquest, mitigate against the generative collaboration that accompanies the feminine impulse to reverend embrace. .
That is why in our study of Holistic Systems Practice, we will strive to further Smuts' invitation of 'groping towards the new light'. We will systemically re-examine the appropriate generative relationships between these two cosmic impulses in our complex individual and societal contexts - see: https://holos.earth/event/holistic-systems-practice/
Invitation
You are warmly invited to join our exploration this coming Thursday 15th August, on the Festival of the Assumption of Mary, see: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/sacred-feminine-intrinsic-holistic-systems-practice-van-wyk-tn4de/
In this free introductory on-line workshop we will elucidate how we will learn together to balance the creative masculine and feminine forces in our daily lives. And in so doing humbly strive to make some contribution to 'saving' our challenged civilisation.
Join us on Zoom Thursday 15th 19h00 - 20h30 CET
Topic: Holistic systems Practice - introductory workshop
Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 410 998 8963
Passcode: fM6mcX
Cranfield Trust, FRGS
1 个月Iain McGilchrist has spoken of the reality of evil, from his experience in psychiatry and other research finds high incidence of psychopathology amongst leaders.
Co-convenor - Holos-Earth Project
1 个月Someone has queried me on the notion of 'gods'. I suggest seeing this metaphorically. In physics there are various energetic fields of force, including those that are natural (Sheldrake's morphogenetic fields) and manmade (Smuts' 'values'?created by human consciousness). Nature, creative evolution, works with what ultimately works - and the 'whole' of nature, and the cosmic intelligence underlying that, will ultimately eliminate that which is parasitic - which detracts from coherent wholeness. So too it might be with our paradigm of consciousness - the way we think, feel and respond to the world. It has become increasingly detrimental to the macro-ecosystem - throwing dead material onto the living environment and actually poisoning it. That focus on material accumulation for security and esteem has been manipulated by an exploitative economic system that must ultimately give way to an ecological way of being in the world. This generation will make that transition, or life will make it for us - with or without us. Yet life will continue to regenerate itself - as Jan Smuts put it - in its ultimate quest for rational and spiritual self-realisation. The 'gods' are those natural self-corrective and creative evolutionary forces.?
Evolutionary ecologist, writer and artist, exploring the philosophy of natural inclusion
1 个月Claudius van Wyk https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/alan-rayner-258976a_leading-co-creatively-from-love-the-receptive-activity-7228678639247069184-0By3?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_android
Artivist, Musician, musical director, music producer, teacher, NPO project manager (Freelance)
1 个月You have hit the spot here I think Claudius van Wyk