In an industrialized pro-capitalist society alienation and depression should come as no surprise.
We are driven by two forces, two opposing forces, which is battling an internal eternal battle within our body and mind: The drive to work, feed our families, and keep up with the incoming bills and taxes; The other is the drive for "truth". We are reminded of both each day on our way to work.
The latter is inherently, and with good reason (as supported by the state), diffuse and vague in concept. In particular we are told that truth or freedom are concepts that are different for everyone and by definition individual. Thus we are alone in our search through book stores, magazines, movies, and information, spending whatever amount of "free" time we have for this quest. It is the best interest of the power that be what we are sent on a wild goose chase.
Within the framework of the ordinary indoctrinated mind we are in fact searching for solutions, a permanent cure, an alleviation of all pain.
It's not hard to think of examples of people who have found such solutions, be it a new house, a better job, love, or a family, only to discover it has brought with it new and perhaps even more concerning problems, sending you off to new solutions and answers.
This is typical of both capitalism and any theological religion. If physical problems have final solutions, surely mental and spiritual ones must have as well.
If we consider the studied fact that all human emotions have a life span of no more than twenty seconds (happiness, sadness, etc will only stay in your mind for this time, before either altering radically or converting to some similar or altered version), no solution seems worthwhile. This leads to another capitalist goal, apathy. We return to our job, assured that there are no solutions, and therefore no hope. Similarly, atheist may think there is no god; therefore there is no reason, nothing matters. Nothing could be further from the truth. Everything matters, all the time. Our search for truth is for most part within the framework of the industrialized society, which implies it's within in having not being 1
Our deepest, most urgent need to understand life tentatively reaches out to find truth and finds mazes of incoherence, distortion, lies and damned lies, false friends and answers that are deliberate deceptions. And what happens in this situation? Our deepest concern for understanding – like a psychic plant reaching for sunlight . strives, falters, fails and falls back, or is lost in some useless intellectual cul-de-sac. Our attempts at understanding collapses before the lies, especially the lies that insist that:
- all truth is relative
- all views are equally valid
- there are no answers anyway
- no one has ever found any answers
- we must not go “too deep”
- we should not take life sp seriously
- we should not think so much
- we should make the most of our lives in the short time we are alive by enjoying ourselves
- we should relax and have fun because
- what we need is to go out and find ourselves a nice girlfriend or boyfriend and leave all that “thinking stuff” to hundred year-old professors (the experts)
- David Edwards, "Free to Be Human", 1995
This leads to the nature of mans inability to find any truth. You can't pick up you sword before you've removed your shackles.
