I was inspired by a colleague, a really nice and humble guy the other day. We had a deep conversation and he got me thinking about deeper layers in life. I am not a philosopher, sometimes this kind of thoughts occur after a yoga class or a meditation… or after an inspiring discussion with someone who has so much interesting to say…
In every era and every part of the world there are people who adjust well to given circumstances:
they find a way to play along with any regime, regardless of its moral compass, they collaborate with the ones in power or take power, their principle is to survive and make the best of the time and place they happen to be in. Such people were also prevalent in all occupied territories of the Soviet Union – there were many local collaborators who turned into living tools used by the communist party because the benefits outweighed the risks. Just threaten one’s existence and most of us stop resisting, lay down our arms and turn a blind eye on oppression and mobbing. Especially when this is a gradual piece-by-piece process offered with a high dose of propaganda, brainwash and psychological terror. Like a slowly cooked frog which does not even notice being boiled.
Living in autocratic societies is harsh for the ones who want to retain personal integrity and oppose the main theme. Unless those smart and bold individuals learn to cooperate with the likeminded and organise themselves into a united front, the chances that this oppressive bubble that they are forced to live in will burst, are slim. Although, the likelihood does exist, even in Putin-led Russia.
Evolution has shaped us into adaptable beings. We often marvel this skill but quoting Shakespeare in the famous Hamlet monologue “aye, there’s the rub”: with such beneficial evolutional trait we can easily transform into members of a dysfunctional society where there is no rule of law, no regard of individual rights and freedoms, the purpose to exist is to grab, consume, concentrate more power into the hands of a few or just survive. When nonchalance towards humanistic values is displayed openly by the ruling minority, most people simply follow the lead. They adapt. Like in the Soviet Union before it collapsed, like in China, Cuba, North Korea, Syria, Venezuela, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Saudi Arabia, Iran as we speak. And the list of despotic countries where lives do not matter as much as ideologies, goes on and on and unfortunately it seems to grow longer, not shorter. Dictatorships are invariably led by men. Women are in the backseat, willingly or unwillingly, depending on how long they have been subjected to male dominance and brainwash. And as a rule, culture eats democracy and diversity for breakfast.
It is striking that the majority, living in a country where only a few profit and control the rest, allow the cannibalisation of their lives and let a small group of hypocrites deliver hollow promises about the heydays that will never come. And invariably the ones in power manipulate with a narrative about common enemies that will bring death or decadence (like evil aliens in science fiction stories willing to destroy Earth, this arguably being their ultimate purpose so “we must attack and kill them first”). The behaviour of those power-hungry people is similar everywhere – they are excellent liars and manipulators: they often resort to the means and aims similar to religious fanatism and apply those ideological techniques equally well both in sectarian and secular context. Again, recalling the ills of the Soviet Union where I was born and raised – communism was treated like a religion, a monotheism with one God, the supreme head of the Communist Party, and worshiping this holy being is still the case in all the communist countries which are not yet extinct. Kim Jong-un, Xi Jinping, etc, etc.
Why is it possible to control and lure masses so easily and deploy them for purposes which do not benefit them?
I tend to agree with thinkers who proclaim that even though humankind has made huge technological progress, our spiritual progress has not advanced with a similar speed (or not at all) since we became homo sapiens. When some exceptional people have reached a higher level of enlightenment in the past, they have encouraged their fellow beings to THINK, to THINK more, not less. Naturally, they have a wider array of messages and often, such people get misunderstood and misinterpreted, become martyrs, get executed, and/or are turned into legends and feed human imagination for many generations to come. Regardless of the era, it always seems to be difficult for a barbarian to understand that one does not need to beat up, murder or assault another person in order to be respected.
Another negative effect of being too flexible is that we end up preoccupied with trivia, easily side-tracked, easily distracted (social media, fake news, rumour mills) at times when we should dig deeper, ask why-oh-why-oh-why and look in the mirror. We are often so scared of answers that we sell our souls willingly to the Devil in order not to know. Diving spiritually, not physically into unknown waters seems to freak many people, including myself, out so we prefer the easy, adaptive way.
Judging by what are measured as the signs of progress in our societies across the world, we seem to be extremely preoccupied with numbers: GDP growth, consumer sentiment, manufacturing, stock market indexes, material wellbeing, interest rates, currencies, prices. Less about corruption and very little about spiritual maturity, the condition and strength of our minds. We seem to disproportionally prioritize material wellbeing compared to tracking our spiritual progress. And yet we know that feelings such as love, happiness, empathy cannot be bought for money. How do we measure whether someone is an idiot, a genius or just simple-minded? How to we assess the level of wickedness or the impact of misdeeds? Regardless of what the Catholic church claimed, it has never been possible to be pardoned for one’s sins by buying an indulgence. And we sin oh so willingly.
Mark Carney who has served as the Governor of Bank of Canada and Bank of England said a few years ago that we are not able to measure the value of Amazon rainforest and put a price tag on it, but we can measure the company called Amazon. Maybe the world would be more sustainable if we could do both. Or if we would stop adding up numbers which do not add up.
Yes, we adapt so well and become particles of dust in a universe where we could have made a positive difference. But no life can be repeated – what was wasted, was wasted without a second chance.
Quoting Desmond Morris, an author of an intriguing book “The Naked Ape” which encourages human beings to come to terms with their biological origin: “/../ we are, despite all our great technological advances, still very much a simple biological phenomenon.”
And history does repeat itself, we have been here before – at the crossroads where humankind had the opportunity to start moving in the right direction. Yet initially we have always chosen the simpler but wrong way. We keep rediscovering with a surprise and a shock that adaptation is like a double-edged sword – it cuts both ways. And at times like this it seems that the blessing of being adaptive is outweighed with its curse. I hope that I am wrong…