By
Cognitive Dissonance
Speaking from painful experience, the deeper the conditioning the more difficult the awakening. When appraised with an open mind and a fearless self examination, there is little doubt “We the People” have been deeply conditioned……even those of us who now claim our own personal awakening. The depth of our collective conditioning is why there will be many abrupt and traumatic C-section awakenings when the world comes crashing down around us. When seen dispassionately and objectively the question is not if, but when, how fast and by how much.
When referring to a live birth, the concept of a C-section ‘birth’ has always fascinated me. Considering the act of birth has been repeated billions of times over millions of years in one form or another (and one species or another) if anything can be considered ‘natural’ this can. So to cut open a living breathing being, often while awake and fully conscious of the ongoing procedure, and then pluck one living being from another is simply mind boggling.
While some might argue not navigating the birth canal saves the newborn from physical distress, to be plucked from the comforting womb and delivered into the stark reality of ‘life’ must be its own special kind of hell. Then again, children are remarkably resilient with short memories and little conditioning and this is especially true for newborns. They were born for the travails of birth.
To be thrust into the world naked and naïve when we have not been properly readied, devoid of all the tempering trials and preparations needed to ready us, is extremely disorientating and the furthest thing from ‘natural’ one can get. Just imagine your entire world violently sliced open and you torn kicking and screaming from it. While that might be a bit of an exaggeration when speaking of ‘birth’, it is a considerable understatement when discussing the deeply conditioned mind violently ripped from the safe confines of its comforting delusions.
Consider all the difficulties many encounter while attempting to adjust to first light, that moment when it finally hits us that all is not as it seems. Since so much of the illusion is cemented into position via our perceived place within the illusion, to question the illusion means to question not just ourselves, but our ‘self’. What usually unfolds is an identity crisis quite similar to a mid-life crisis, only orders of magnitude worse because a sense of imminent danger and impending doom arises from both external and internal sources. Rarely do we experience an internally created existential crisis (i.e. a mid-life crisis) when our little corner of the world is falling down around us because the mind tends to focus on one disaster at a time. So we are inclined to naval gaze only when the mind is not preoccupied with survival.
However, when the externally imposed illusion begins to unravel our carefully integrated internal belief system (to be differentiated from an everyday ‘normal’ disaster such as job loss, divorce, car crash, illness etc which does not necessarily cause us to thoroughly question the overall illusion) not only do we discover we are our own worst enemy, but everything we believed in has also turned on us. There is no safe cognitive refuge to retreat to while we gather our thoughts and reorient ourselves within the now very unfamiliar universe.
Unfortunately the term ‘awakening’, at least in this context, is a tragic misnomer for it implies a new understanding and re-ordering of old information, all while gathering new inputs. A rigid mind, the proper definition and destination for the conditioned mind, does not value flexible and fluid thought, let alone critical thinking. So when order is destroyed, the vast majority will seek a new (world) order that most seamlessly fits prior conditioned prejudices and preconceived notions.
Throw the frightened feline a new prepackaged ball of yarn and the stricken mind instantly pounces, the soothing endorphins spreading calm to every synapse. If Cypher cannot be re-inserted back into the old Matrix, any new one will do just fine thank you very much. Tell me a lie so I can believe it is the truth. Tell me the Big Lie so I can mindlessly reject any truth. After all, ignorance is bliss for those who desperately wish not to know.
The fact remains the unspoken truth in the self described ‘awake and aware’ alternative community is that aside from a small core who genuinely work towards sustainable change, most of us who claim to be awake are secretly desperate to snooze once again. I suspect many furtively plead “I just want it to work again like it did before”, a preposterous wish considering it never actually did work……though I readily admit the illusion was persistent and convincing. Or we wish the system to be destroyed and rebuilt so we can be reinserted into a new and improved matrix in order for the good times to roll……again. There are, of course, several million variations of this self deception, comfortably allowing all of us to hide within our own uniquely constructed denial.
The proof of this conundrum is self evident, readily apparent and will be quickly refuted by those guilty of precisely what they deny exists within. Rare is the ‘aware’ individual who engages in little more than window dressing in re-ordering our lives in preparation for the inevitable……that which is not self sustaining will not continue. Yet the vast majority of those who claim to be awake and aware, therefore supposedly cognizant of the eventual demise of non sustainable systems, are still fully immersed within the collapsing socioeconomic system.
I suspect the C-section awakening will be just as violent, and possibly more debilitating, for the self declared ‘awake’ than those who are rightfully confirmed asleep at the wheel. The only thing worse than awakening is re-awakening after believing you are awake. The ego can only take so much before it shuts down the internal circuit breakers and we are left drooling in our lap zonked out on Thorazine. Then again, three hots and a cot don’t sound so bad while the world falls down around our ears.
This is not to say the path forward is to bunker down with a year’s supply of freeze dried food, three thousands rounds and our favorite equalizer(s). One man’s solution is not everyone’s salvation. Seen clearly and honestly, to bunker is just another dead end non-self sustaining system that will end when the ammo and food runs out……or are taken by force.
Either we make our own reality or we live in someone else’s. The key is not to make like Rambo, but rather to make community, to specialize as a generalist and contribute to the whole in order to survive as an individual. If the surrounding community values our contributions more than our ‘things’ (and we of them and their things) we will all gather together to protect ourselves and our things.
Unfortunately one will be hard pressed to build a viable and self sustaining community when the population density is measured in tens of thousands per square mile. With no hope to be self sustaining as individuals when packed in like sardines, no community can become what the individual cannot. Thus the need to move (aka relocate) to an existing community already in place who is willing to welcome additional members who bring value to the whole. This in situ community does not imply single minded preppers need only apply. It does imply those with a history of individualism, existing community bonds, a strong work ethic and the ability to work with their hands are always welcome.
But to make this change the person(s) claiming awareness, therefore the knowledge of certain severe decay if not outright collapse of empire, must walk the talk even if doing so means changing everything they presently value……or simply wish not to change. To assume one will recognize the death throes of Empire before just about everyone else, then sell your assets and slip away into the night is just about as delusional as thinking you can ride out the storm in place with nary a hair mussed or a meal missed.
Everything is about to change, is presently changing, with some effects imperceptible and some blatantly obvious. To think sheltering in place is the answer might be the correct answer; then again it might not. Ultimately each individual must arrive at an answer best suited to their needs and wants. But from what I can see and hear both from personal experience as well as from my readings online, many are doing nothing and hoping nothing is enough. The probability is it will not be, thereby assuring many C-section awakenings will be psychologically and physically shattering.
12-15-15
Cognitive Dissonance
