People should not consider so much what they are to do, as what they are. –Meister Eckhart
Good morning, Gentle Reader. If you have been following my posts for some time (a few of you have been reading them since day one in February, 2012 and I thank you for doing so), you might remember that I write for and to myself (I learned this discipline from reading and savoring Marcus Aurelius’ ‘Meditations’); I write in order to help me ‘consider.’ This morning, Gentle Reader, I invite you to ‘Consider’ that we are living into and out of a ‘Grand Illusion.’ Our ‘Grand Illusion’ is rooted in a ‘Grand Promise.’ This ‘Grand Promise’ has failed for it was (and is) rooted in an illusion.
So, Gentle Reader, if you are still reading and considering you might be inquiring as to what I am referring to. Well, consider this: The Illusion is rooted in the Grand Promise of Unlimited Progress. This includes (but is not limited to) the promise of the domination of nature, of material abundance, of the greatest happiness for the greatest number and, of course, unimpeded personal freedom.
The ‘Grand Promise’ itself is rooted in our Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Age promised – and at times continues to promise – unlimited production and, hence, unlimited consumption. A by-product of this illusion is another illusion (we don’t openly affirm this one, however): the Illusion that ‘We Are Gods!’ We create a ‘new world’ using the natural world as one of our building blocks for our new creation.
As a by-product of the Industrial Revolution and the Industrial Age that followed humans emerged a new sense of freedom: humans became, they believed, masters of their own lives, masters of their own fate, and truly ‘free’ to do as they wished. Now this was only true for the upper class and for some in the middle class AND the ‘Grand Promise’ engendered ‘faith’ in the others that eventually they, too, could, and would, become ‘masters of their own fate.’
The ‘Grand Achievement’ of wealth and comfort for all was intended to result in unlimited happiness for all. A new trinity was created: the trinity of unlimited production, absolute personal freedom and unlimited personal happiness and this trinity formed the foundation of a new religion, the Religion of Progress. A new Earthly City of Progress replaced the City of God. This new religion provided its believers with hope, energy, and vitality while feeding the believers ‘Grand Illusion.’
The grandeur of the Grand Illusion, the Grand Promise, needs to be understood in order to comprehend the trauma that comes with the realization its failure continues to engender today. The industrial-technological-informational ages continue to fail us, continue to fail the Grand Promise. Ironically we are aware of this failure and at the same time deny it. Consider the following:
- We seek unrestricted satisfaction of our desires and yet we know that unrestricted satisfaction is not conducive to our well-being.
- We are becoming more and more ‘tribal’ and yet we know that Democracy must be rooted in ‘compromise’ if it is going to survive.
- We seek to be independent masters of our lives and we embrace and have integrated two Cultural Metaphors that negate our being ‘independent’ – the mechanical metaphor which transforms us into ‘cogs’ in the great machine and the banking metaphor which transforms us into commodities, assets and resources to be used and used up.
- Economic progress continues to widen the gap between the ‘haves’ and the ‘not-haves.’
- Technology continues to offer us the illusion that we will have more ‘time for self’ and yet has increased our addiction to technology so that our relationships with others and with ourselves continues to deteriorate.
Our two powerful Cultural Metaphors guarantee that we will continue to become less and less human and they will continue to support the failure of the Grand Promise. So, Gentle Reader, you might be asking: ‘Why did the Grand Promise fail and become the Grand Illusion?’ [Then again, you might have stopped reading a few paragraphs above.] Next time we will briefly explore the ‘Why.’
Few are guilty. All are responsible. –Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel