The Great Divorce
The divide in our society is a reflection of the dissonance within each of us. Our civil conflict is a macrocosm of our own fractured souls, an esoteric suffering that eludes perception in all but its effects. What makes this so much harder to express is the deeply personal nature of it, the meanings to which we ascribe our experience of reality on which books have been written but still failed to convey. We seek truth in different ways, but what binds us in common is the need to share understanding before the reality of truth can be approximated.
What is truth? We are imprisoned by our subjective experiences, only able to communicate the ineffable chaos within our consciousness by carefully encrypting it into language. Language is itself an imperfect vehicle of meaning, but it is all we have. Is truth, then, simply the device of accord? Is it real; Or a communal illusion we share, fated to schism when that illusion diffracts? Is there something within us, elemental to experience which all consciousness shares? How can we differentiate the transcendent from the hallucinations to which our feeble biology is prey?
The truth of that is yet beyond our understanding. We have only evidence, shreds of vision we painstakingly glean from either rigorous study or deep introspection. That is, itself, a kind of evidence. For those who are keen on understanding through logic often lack the passion of feeling within them, perhaps a hindrance in the exercise of reason yet in ways a fundamental component without which the truth they seek will always be elusive. Albert Einstein once said;
"The finest emotion of which we are capable is the mystic emotion. Herein lies the germ of all art and all true science. … To know that what is impenetrable for us really exists and manifests itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, whose gross forms alone are intelligible to our poor faculties – this knowledge, this feeling … that is the core of the true religious sentiment. In this sense, and in this sense alone, I rank myself among profoundly religious men."
Mortality is our greatest fear. The uncertainty of suffering speaks to both the high minded and the heartstrong. We are becoming pathologically obsessed with that aspect of our essence to which we feel most strongly, and in so doing forgetting the monumental importance of our differences. Differences are imperative to deduction, for we can only be sure of what is true by how sure we are of what is not. Without contrast to our understanding we are but fools, a circus of self aggrandization that worships fact as an idol and not the ultimate pursuit of reason.
This divorce in our society is a reflection of the schism within our own souls. Humans exist with many juxtaposed dualities, chiral incarnations of our many aspects. Just as we have a strong and an off hand, each aspect has its dominance and weakness; We protect our weakness with aggression, lashing out in defense like a frightened animal alone in the wood. We fear what others would do to thrive in the self consuming ecosystem of violence from which we were born.
We are no longer beasts. We have methods and tools, we have been given insight and drive that has compelled us to jump as high as the moon. We create systems and powers, such power that there is nothing left on this Earth for us to fear but one another. We continue to act as though we are still in the woods, surrounded by monsters and terrified to reach out lest the real monsters within others exploit our vulnerabilities to hurt and kill and take. Reason is our power, and when we share it our strengths protect the vulnerability in others, and their strengths protect our weaknesses in kind. Unity has made us unstoppable, when we coordinate our industry and thought we create titans so powerful they could stand against the evil seeking to enslave us even if it engulfed the entire world. We have lost control of these titans, that evil has eroded our control of the power structures that protect and provide for us, has driven us apart with fear once again and is on a path to destroy everything. The power to stop it is unity, allowing ourselves to be vulnerable long enough to see who does us harm; To find those people who do not and bring us back together once again.