It begins. The unraveling of human institutions, beliefs, and absolutes. All conceived and brought into existence in a steamy cauldron of fear and otherness and separation. There have been other earthly civilizations both discovered and undiscovered that have come and gone. How far back does this one —“ours”— go? A generation, a thousand generations, eons? Let’s say, 10,000 years.
Since the “dawn” of civilization when mankind learned farming and husbandry, alphabets and ciphering, architecture and city building. What were we before that? Hunter gatherers, half man half beast, fellow creatures living in synchrony (or disharmony) with the earth? What have we become since? What did we leave behind?
Let’s speculate that some time before the great shift to institutions, beliefs, and absolutes about who and what we are, we knew who we were. We came from Source and we lived in synchronous awareness of a oneness and a belonging. The oneness of “all” with no concept of “other” or division or categories or separateness. Who was it that picked up that first stone and thrust it at another in fear or anger or envy? From that moment we knew fear. Fear of scarcity, fear of the other, fear of the expectation of fear, fear of time and fear of aging and fear of death.
So, we began to congregate in groups of the like-minded. We walled ourselves off from the creatures of the earth and the ravages of earthly forces. We horded food and resources and built armies to protect them from invaders. We made laws and cultural mores to distinguish ourselves from others. We became increasingly separate from one another in terms of physical characteristics, religious beliefs, appropriate standards of behavior. We built a human earthly reality of dualities: good vs evil, white vs non-white, rich vs poor, worthy vs unworthy, dangerous vs safe, love vs hate, right vs wrong.
Over the decades, the centuries, the millennia, the dualities of our existence have exploded into finer and finer levels of division and separation to the point that the idea of “oneness” –that we are all from the same Source— seems utterly absurd. Our fundamental understanding of humanness is so entrenched in separateness that the reality and the truth of who and what we are has vanished.
Humanity has reached a crescendo of separateness steeped in ecological destruction, sustained and brutal warfare, hatred and disdain for one another, and self-righteous unbending beliefs and absolutes. All of the darkness of it is coming to light in social, national, political, and religious extremism fueled by hatred, divisiveness, and fear.
America: A Case in Point
There are those that say that things must get much worse before they get better. And here we are. The beginning of the “Unravelling.” America is a perfect case in point. We thought that our institutions, our cultural diversity, our values and our unflagging spirit of freedom, even our geographical separation would keep us safe. But the underlying current of fear that led our forefathers to construct the institutions that would protect us from enemies both outside and within is now visible for all the world to see.
The unraveling has begun. Our separateness can no longer be sustained. The fix will not be greater separation from our enemies or bolstering existing institutions. It will be an unraveling that will very likely bring generations of strife and diminished capacity until we find ourselves, not as one of many nations, but as one of many creatures of the earth and (perhaps ultimately) as energetic beings that will find their way back to knowing who and what we are. It will be a transformation of the idea and the experience of physicality and the return to the conscious energy of self and Source. But for now, the unraveling begins.
When Expectations Die
As human beings we strive for security, safety, certainty. Despite countless upheavals, American society has created just that, at least for many of its citizens, though certainly not all. Now, unprecedented change is happening at an accelerating rate. Who we thought we were as a nation and what we felt was guaranteed by our citizenship in a nation based on founding principals of equality, freedom, and balance of governing power is unraveling. Our individual and national expectations of a comfortable present and a boundless future are coming to a screeching halt. This is not a temporary political aberration, and with it comes a spiraling national angst and sense of disequilibrium.
Before retiring from mental health counseling in 2019, I saw numerous college age clients suffering from acute anxiety and depression. Many had been experiencing the symptoms for years. News organizations have been reporting on youth depression and anxiety for some time now. I don't know if anyone actually has used the term "epidemic," but I think this is what it was. An epidemic of fear, anxiety, and hopelessness among our youth as a result of school shootings, unrealistic demands of financial and academic success, shrinking opportunities for the American dream, loneliness and isolation. This was a fundamental social undercurrent that preceded our current situation. And now so much more is at stake.
Young and old alike are entering unfamiliar terrain. The mental and emotional cost is only beginning to surface. It may be time for new paradigms of mental health treatment. Not theories based in what was, but what is before us. Not the unconscious mind, but the conscious self. Not separation from all that is, but embracing our true selves as being an aspect of All that Is. Not living in fear but living in a world where fear does not exist as a word, as a concept, as a limitation.
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Society's Unraveling