I would like to propose that in these dystopian times, our biggest challenge is nihilism that I see creeping in to our society and even in the alternative media.
Devoid of hope, nihilism strips us of feeling and the creative spark; viewing life without passion we are numbed into a place of not caring, crushed into the acceptance of what is not acceptable.
It may be likened as too much emphasis on Logos as opposed to Eros. It not only effects the Collective but our everyday lives, including the male/female dynamic and Technocracy versus Nature, which is the stuff of another essay.
When the artist Damian Hurst produced his 'Shark' suspended in formaldehyde, I found it left me cold, I could not get past the fact that this once had been a beautiful living creature now gawped at by thousands and making millions. My thoughts drifted to the beauty created by the Figurative artists in history who often died in poverty along with their contemporary musical peers. They were inspired but in modern art, I just see a commentary of modern life. Having 'outgrown' the Figurative, this Conceptual Art has a long history, it provokes much thought, takes one deep and is the stuff of collective psychology. The contrast is relevant in that is reflects a societal attitude, beauty experienced versus objective thinking. I suggest now there is a dangerous imbalance with the emphasis on objectivity and logic (which usually arrives at the highest profit margin in these times), to the detriment of authentic feeling. We encounter it everywhere in the Collective. Human feeling is acknowledged today collectively but in what seems to me a manipulative way.
In the twentieth and twenty first century, we have experienced the gradual acceptance of horrendous violence graphically depicted in film and story which, once experienced, remains; preparing the way for its acceptance as normal. Throughout modern history this has been so with the monstrous darkness manifesting in the Collective while devastating the individual. No longer do we get introduced to the dark Shadow safely in story and fairytale, to be read over and over until assimilated in a safe psychic container, today it is inflicted overtly and repeatedly resulting in many conflicted and traumatised people who I may suggest dissociate with numbness to survive. One method of assimilating the Shadow above, is gentle, the other brutal.
2025 seems to have borne the fruit of these dark manifestations which for the last five years have been plain for any thinking person to see and for any feeling person to sense in their bones. On social media and the internet, humanity acts out the neurosis of powerlessness and loneliness which finds them ironically, isolated, seeking evermore dopamine hits; I call it the objectification of life which can cause a split, a rupture in our sense of Being. On the mass 'information' media platforms, which distract as the wall in Plato's cave, we are constantly reminded of how awful humanity is, we are the problem and so too Nature. No wonder nihilism prevails; humanity is numb with pain and shame and the danger of numbness is nihilism, not engaging and not caring; it is a retreat from life. Let us please not do that, but become the creative miracles we are, to embrace life.
I urge you to realise and to remember who you are. Collectivism without individualism becomes a monster (see Dark Procedurals poem); it represents the unconscious aspects and Shadow qualities of the unknown self which if acknowledged in the individual are the key to reconciling this madness. Note that unacknowledged, the Shadow will act out unconsciously leaving us and collective humanity like rabbits caught in the headlights of an oncoming vehicle. This is why all big organisations, especially Governments incline to being inhuman, they partake of 'systems' and by their very nature they are devoid of feelings.
Nature always seeks balance, and the human psyche likewise seeks to find that equilibrium.
There is one road that can help and lead to this reconciliation, by taking your dreams seriously and working with them. Start writing them down, for bad or good they are a gift from the Unconscious and truly unique to you. Be humble in the quest, remember the Alchemists not only had a laboratory; they had a place of prayer in the room to produce that gold. Jung termed this as the journey of Individuation. It represents reconciling the opposites in the psyche including the personal Shadow wherein lies much gold, we become more substantive and you just may observe more synchronicities. Just as this World is a world of duality so are we, seen and unseen. This work is not self indulgent navel gazing, it gives healing and a sense of meaning but most importantly, it is also of the greatest service to mankind as you shoulder the responsibility for who you are rather than projecting it externally. As a butterfly emerges from the chrysalis, the individualised person makes the World a more beautiful place and may even be a witness to miracles. (see Beauty poem).
If you are reading this, it seems you may be ready for the quest to discover your own innate beauty, your unique gift to the World.
Poems referenced
Dark Procedurals
Digging deep, digging down
Set your opinions in the ground.
Watch them grow and feed them well
Stir the pot of duality’s spell.
Divide ingredients in the jars
Sort the dates, rotate their use
Add a drop of vitriol juice.
Make the classifications gain a pace
So everybody knows their place.
Systems in situ to confirm beliefs
Lock your mind with bolt and key
Incant your opinions on bended knee.
Search for similar peers to clench
Whilst shored up in the media dis-information trench.
Look for an enemy to relieve your pain
Supplicate and bow to fear and dread.
Long forgotten heart…
Is almost dead.
Beauty
Sometimes a flower grows and nobody sees.
In the midst of the forest its beauty lies unknown never to be admired, named or commented on.
But does it cease to be a beautiful sight, is its beauty diminished because the forest is deserted?
Devoid of all projection, beauty remains as pure a thing as can ever be.
And if anyone were to see; if anyone were to take that path,
What a privilege that would be.
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Quote from a letter written by Carl Jung
12th July 1947
' Best thanks for your letter and your news about the Present Question Conference. The theme is indeed very interesting, What is the critical problem in human relationships today?
Human relationships today are threatened to collective systems, quite apart from the fact they are still, or always were, in a dubious and unsatisfactory condition. The collective systems, styled party or State, have a destructive effect on human relationships. And they can easily be destroyed, too, because individuals are still in a condition of unconsciousness which cannot cope with the tremendous growth and fusion of the masses. As you know, the main endeavour of all totalitarian States is to undermine personal relationships through fear and mistrust, the result being an atomised mass in which the human psyche is completely stifled. Even the relation between parents and children, the closest and most natural of all, is torn asunder by the State.
All big organisations that pursue elusively materialistic aims are the pacemakers of mass-mindedness. The sole possibility of stopping this is the development of consciousness in the single individual, who thereby is rendered immune to the lure of collective organisations. This alone keeps his soul alive, for its life depends on the human relationship. The accent must fall on conscious personalisation and not on State organisation. The latter inevitably leads to the blight of totalitarianism.'
(Published in The White Rose April 2025 edition)