I often wonder about the way we live. I would imagine that if we were to label it, we’d call it “civilised”. We live in houses. Drive cars. Go to work. Marry. Raise families. Worship at one or other alter. Call ourselves citizens of the country of our birth. Stick to our culture.
I like Robert Frost’s interpretation of “civilisation”. He saw it as a small clearing in a great forest – “We have hewn our space at no small cost, and the dark “out there” seems ever ready to close in again – a collapse into chaos should our ideation fail.” (From Joseph Pearce’s book, The Crack in the Cosmic Egg: New Constructs of Mind and Reality).
I believe that we’ve constructed a “civilised” world around us to protect us from the dark “out there”. We don’t want anything to disrupt this construct.
Of course, it’s doubtful that the great dark “out there” is the bogeyman it’s made out to be.
We play the story in our heads that “out there” should not be allowed in here because it’ll change the status quo. One that we’ve hewn out with blood, sweat, toil and tears. Some of us would rather die to keep the status quo than allow something to interrupt it.
We’ve built our civilisation to protect us. But it turns out that it offers little protection and we in fact end up protecting it. We spend endless amounts of energy defending our viewpoint. We’ll kill each other just to protect an ideation we’ve constructed or have been born into rather than expose ourselves to something new. Because in our heads this could collapse our world into chaos.
As a result we’re loathe to entertain other viewpoints, other religions, other cultures and other philosophies other than our own because they may interrupt this “civilised” world we’ve built for ourselves. We don’t want to be inconvenienced in any way. New ideas, thoughts and philosophies do just that … they disrupt. We’ve become good at protecting and justifying the life we’ve crafted for ourselves so that we can stop the darkness. We’ll even go so far as to kill each other even if our “civilised” world isn’t based on reality and just on an ideation.
But, the more we protect ourselves from the great dark “out there” the more we’re cutting ourselves off from truly experiencing life fully. It’s like being brought up with a black and white television and never knowing that there’s a world full of colour. I think our lives are duller for it. Also, it takes a lot of energy to keep on defending one’s viewpoint. Surely, letting life’s experiences in all its forms wash through you (and God forbid, influence you) has to be less tiring and more invigorating than standing sentinel at your walls of perception every day?
The Great Wall of China, for instance, was built to keep the great dark “out there” from invading the country (more like influencing the country). But the very wall that was built to protect it led to its downfall. It stunted Chinese growth by quashing its creativity and inventiveness. It shut China off from the world. It was only when China opened herself up to the world again that she started flourishing.
So, don’t cut yourself off from the barbarians to defend your “civilised” construct. Break down those walls because they’re not serving you. Rather, they’re isolating you from having a full human experience. You see, the dark “out there” actually carries the illumination we need so that we can have a full, magnificent human journey in the short time we’ve been allocated to play on this planet.
“The darkness that surrounds us cannot hurt us. It is the darkness in your own heart you should fear.” – Silvertris