The Flashpoint we are now entering begins the transition from juvenile ego paradigm to human maturity: our initiation into adulthood. Like all adolescence, it is messy, confusing and unpredictable. We have entered so deeply into the make-believe ego-mind that it
The Flashpoint we are now entering begins the transition from juvenile ego paradigm to human maturity: our initiation into adulthood.
Like all adolescence, it is messy, confusing and unpredictable. We have entered so deeply into the make-believe ego-mind that it is now hard to extricate ourselves; but to save ourselves and our species, we must.
The indulgent ego is clearly unsustainable and unsustainable will, by definition, not last. Malthus talked about this climax of events hundreds of years ago. Basically we need to liberate our attention, trapped in our minds, and come to our senses (Part 8).
The ‘60s were rebellious times for good reason. We could see the unsustainability of the ego empire: the military-industrial-media-corporatocracy. The counterculture yearned for autonomy/authenticity and personal sovereignty from authoritarian domination.
We were young (“don’t trust anybody over 30”) and indulgent (“turn on, tune in, drop out”). With unrealistic hopes for a peaceful revolution a la Gandhi, we imagined the establishment collapsing from its own inner conflicts, excesses and corruption. They were terrified of the new freedoms and expanded consciousness of the counterculture and reacted with ultra conservatism, fundamentalism and the Reagan era.
The slogans changed: “evolution, not revolution” and “onward through the fog”. The counterculture was forced underground just as the early Scientific Revolution had been under the decaying Church Empire, as was the Christian movement under the fall of Rome.
What was unsustainable in the ‘60s is now even more so, as we witness the pathology of the new conservatives/Tea Party.
Movements mature slowly. Vitality, vision, creative risk and originality are always present in the spark of each new movement. The ‘60s movement was more comprehensive than others: it went global.
There is now also more at stake: we are experiencing dozens of “peaks” of imbalance that must rebalance in a “cascade of crises” (every peak cascades down to balance/sustainability).
We’re witnessing the start of this flashpoint: the money, power, military and media control are stuck at the top, as is greed, corruption, dysfunction and extravagance. Vitality/creativity expand upwards.
The graph shows the transition from juvenile ego to maturity over 50 to 100 years or less. The Flashpoint is our self-induced initiation into adulthood resulting from our excessive exploitation of nature, overpopulation, extravagant lifestyles, pollution of every kind including genetic.
We have worn the ego like a cocoon (incubation) and must now fly free. Just as we seen no impasse to our destructive trends, we find an unexpected opening in a new dimension: a return to our true essence, to be discussed.
The Hopi Indians say this time is like a great flood and suggests not to hang on to the shore, but go with the flow.
A H Almaas observes that the entire ego personality is based on attachment. Attachment: desire for or against leads to suffering. Letting go is a creative risk that leads to freedom and inner strength. We will need all of it we can get to navigate through the rapids ahead.
• Arius Hopman lives in Hanapepe. This column was adapted from his manuscript ‘The Ego Empire Exposed.’
