{BOOKS} {FREEDOM} {THE RAVEN} {INTERNATIONAL NEWS}
To join the FREEDOM PRESS INTERNATIONAL mailing list send a message to:
Freedom Press
'If I could turn you on, if I could drive you from your wretched mind, if I could tell you - I would let you know.' So said R. D. Laing in his book The Politics of Experience. What Laing is saying here is, there is no way in hell you are going to convince the so-called normal man that his world is extremely sick and if he doesn't wake up and change his ways soon, there won't be much left of the planet. According to Laing and other psychiatrists the normal man is alienated from others as well as from himself. This normal man has killed over 50 million of his fellow men in recent history. He has just had big parades celebrating the latest carnage in the Middle East War - probably 200,000 deaths, No remorse, no guilt - more like a Nintendo game. The terrible misery and suffering of so many people has no effect on that normal man.
Any half sane person is revolted by the fact that trillions of dollars have been wasted on building the most fiendish war machine the world has ever seen. So horrible that if ever used it may mean the end of life itself. And yet, the normal man still goes along with building more of these nightmarish weapons, with spending trillions of dollars on these nastly weapons while millions of people starve. A few years back the peace movement aroused some protest for a time but the inertia of the normal man would not allow for a healthy response.
Today responsible scientists are stating the planet is endangered from the vast over-kill of toxic poisons and carbon dioxide which is polluting the planet. Some have stated we may have passed the point of no return pointing to the green house effect which is rapidly warming the planet And still - normalcy prevails.
If everything stated above were all lies, only someone very ignorant or deliberately distorting the truth would deny the disintegration of the cities, where crime, rape, child abuse, drugs, homelessness, AIDS keep getting worse.
Hope? A way out of this madness? Ludicrous! What could possibly awaken and enlighten this normal man who spends six hours a day being entertained by television and votes into power Ronald Reagan and George Bush?
What is needed is an absolute miracle. And who in an influentil position has a viable plan to restructure this decrepit political system? How many people understand the nature of our problems? How are people have the wherewithal to confront this political structure to build a viable movement to reconstruct healthy institutions? Anyone who does not recognise the need for basic change in the power structure cannot effect healthy change. (Liberals, Democrats and Republicans take note). When change is needed and people are not ready for healthy change, they will accept what evil the sick leaders offer. (Nazi Germany, the development of nuclear weapons, the ecological breakdown of the planet, wars and more wars.)
The saddest fact of all is the normal man can't be any different from what he is right now, given his exposure to the sick conditions of modern life. A caring person with a conscience along with a keen awareness is the product of healthy experiences; conditions of growth which build those qualities from early infancy. These favourable conditions are lacking in this highly competitive, highly materialistic, deterioriating society.
Laing drew a lot of criticism by claiming that some schizophrenic patients were healthier than normal people because they didn't adjust to insane conditions. He claimed that adjusting to sick conditions leads to madness.
And so his final sentence, which I go along with - '. . . if I could drive your from your wretched mind, if I could tell you, [talking to the normal man who perpetuates the world's madness] I would let you know.', expresses the despair of the twentieth century. Incidently Laing was not singling out the so-called man on the street. The leaders of the world indeed reflect the insanity of the current conditions.
Therefore the danger for the non-normal person who still possesses some open qualities, who is still sensitive and has a conscience, is of succumbing to despair. There is very little if any hope that that which is needed will emerge without a miracle. And what is needed is the development of awareness and caring qualities in millions of people who would dedicate themselves to taking political power and establishing a democratic socialist government with the intent to bring about a socialist world government. A world government where victimisation and ex- ploitation of people would cease. Where love and understanding would prevail and wars would be no more; and the healthy balance would be restored to the ecology of the world.
Yes, that is the phantasy and instead of that dream we will continue to watch, in a relatively short time, the now over five billion people on the planet double to ten billion; bringing about more starvation, disease, riots, more sickening wars, the over-heating of the planet, millions of tons of toxic poisons continuing to pollute the air, land, and water. Without those necessary basic changes in our institutions we will be witnesses to the continuing destruction of this beautiful planet.
Unless the normal person is personally affected with a mugging or loss of job, all this world chaos does not affect him much, his defences see no evil, but the sensitive person with a conscience who loves life and the planet cannot readily adjust to what is obvious madness. And what to do in a dying civilisation is a big problem.
What might be redeeming, for any of us who are in despair about the world's plight, would be to reinforce our love of the planet and life. We can act as if we could save the planet, even though there is little hope we can do so. Our other options are not too great - compromise and go along with the existing system; join the normal sleep walkers build some inner defence system and deny the threats to the planet Or ignore the causes - work on one of the many sick symptoms and delude ourselves we are going to save the planet by saving the whales, recycling cans or electing nice liberals to Congress. Not very satisfying options. Acting as if we could save the planet is not easy. The sustaining power of great leaders such as Gandhi and Martin Luther King was a faith and belief in their cause. We would have to believe in the rightness of what we are doing, but some of us who realise how little readiness there is to make the necessary basic changes, have no illusions. Ignorance, apathy, a decrepit but entrenched political system and time, are working against healthy change. The number of aware, caring, knowledgeable people, willing and able to build some kind of a force for change is few indeed.
Just imagine creating a little miracle like pulling together the hundreds of environmental, women's, peace, labour, civil rights, etc. groups into a cohesive force; building a vast network of grass roots groups who would get out by the millions to make those necessary changes. Imagine taking the power away from the military industrial complex and using those billions to rebuild healthy institutions which would encourage a cooperative caring society! Imagine giving people authentic hope in the future and actually starting to save the planet! Now wouldn't that be something!
© Jim Brown The Raven 15 pp198-201
Do feel free to send comments and suggestions to
Freedom 
TAO
A-Infos