Fear and Freedom
By Brian S. Germain
We have some
problems to solve as a society. I think this is something that we all can agree
with. The cumulative apex of all these problems leads us to the following
worry: "Will the current generation of children be able to care for the
previous, and leave the world a better place when they are finished?" This is
not a new question, however, but a business-as-usual aspect of any given
generation taking stock in the way things are going. Since we will never really
be done creating the perfect civilization, we need to lay off the alarms and
criticism, and focus on a constructive way of looking at things.
We always have two
aspects of any subject, the wanted and the unwanted. When we clarify the aspects of
the subject that are under the category of "unwanted", we learn
from this aspect of the situation and therefore expand our vision of the "wanted". We always learn what we do not like through
the experience of negative emotion when we think about the subject in a certain
way, which is the redeeming utility of all negative experience. If it feels lousy when we think about it, we need to find a different way of looking at this subject or draw our attention in another direction entirely. The trouble
with focusing too intently on telling the story of what we do not like is that it sort of sticks to us like glue. We are inadvertently constructing the solutions within the context of the problem, and can never really solve the problem because we can't get our eyes off of it. When we hold the problem as the center of our attention, we cannot get our mood into the new experience of having things solved, because we are still complaining about the problem, an seeking blame and punishment for the cause of the problem. This is never the
formula for a paradigm shift, which is the way in which each generation solves
the problems of the previous.
I have further discovered that
my angle of attack on a problem must involve only a briefest description of the
problem state, a modest glance at the worst case scenario, and then a conscious
effort to point the conversation in a decidedly positive direction. We do not discover solutions by remaining
within the context of the problem. We do that by exploring the best case scenario with our minds.
Rather than spending most of our
time restating the problems, if we can get ourselves into the most
optimistic mood we can conjure by talking about the "future world"
that will have all this stuff licked, we can then approach the world's problems
from that perspective; that emotional feeling. If you actually believe that we
as a society are not going to be able to get there from here anytime soon, you
might want to postpone the powerful responsibility of taking on heavy issues
until you can get in touch with the part of yourself that actually believes
that there is a way, and that it is inevitable that human wisdom and love will always
triumph.
This is the optimistic perspective that
the world craves right now, and the story that those in despair most need to hear. We do not need a more
elaborate description the problems, there is plenty of that going on already.
As a writer, if the process of telling a story leads me to feel bad because it
elaborates excessively on the aspects of a situation that I find to be
"unwanted", I always pause the project until I can do it in a way
that makes me feel good in the process. If it feels good to write, it feels
good to read, and I know I am on the right track.
One might then point out that
there are things in the world that require change, things that are terrible
about our current national and world reality. Although this will always be
true, we are never served by spending what could be positive visualization time
complaining about the way things are. The past is only renewed when we continue
talking about it. The revolution that the "Generation Z" people will peacefully
wage will not include a single drop of the negative past, and our legacy of
paradigm-baggage, what some have called the "memes" of our way of living and
thinking, will not be part of the new vision at all. They will simply look at
the situation with their "new eyes", and ask the question that humans
always eventually ask: "What would be the best?" We do not need
anyone to tell us to ask this question. It is inherent in the process of
living, and in the creative-genius that is at the very basis of human
consciousness.
If nobody ever writes another
article about the problems of the present or the past, I would be perfectly
happy in my knowing that humanity will get our stuff together in the very near
future. We are, in fact, in the process of getting our stuff together right
now. I know this because I am a human, and my thought process is not that
different from that of others. I desire for love, a feeling of abundance, and
something to shoot for in my life that lights my soul on fire. We all want
this. If our current lifestyle is not yielding this holistic feeling of
wellness, we will always strive for improvement. Without at least briefly
living the alternatives to a joyful life, we cannot find our way to knowing
what we want for ourselves in the future, and appreciating the positive aspects of what already is in motion.
Even when one considers the state of
life in this country right now, with the younger generation's obsession with
video games, text messaging and the low scores on standardized tests designed
by the previous generation, we have beautiful human commonalities underneath
the culture. We all desire for more: more understanding, more joy, more trust,
more loving vibes wherever we go. The way that the future generations will
unfold these basic desires may not be what we expect, nor what we agree with,
but striving for agreement at all costs is the big compromise that leads us to
strive for a bland center-line that deprives the human spirit of access to its
true essence. We must simply trust and allow this process to unfold; merely
being living reminders of one specific way to accomplish these goals. Happiness
comes in many forms, and without all of its colors and variations, the whole
spaceship earth experiment is a wash. We are not here to paint everything a
moderately agreeable grey. We are here to push back the boundaries of
possibility and enjoy the ride.
The problem is not the kids,
it is us. They are far closer to the life-inspiring energy of authenticity, and
are not tainted by the cultural memes that we are suffering from. We must trust
them and let them guide us, not the other way around. True, the very young sometimes
require gentle loving guidance, but the assertion that we always know best just because we
are older is not a healthy model if we are to create emotionally balanced,
self-trusting adults that will take care of this world better than we have.
What we most need to offer the
younger generation is our recognition of their own inner wisdom, which stems
from their emotional "holistic" mind that knows what is best for them. To
subject children to an over-controlling methodology by perpetually asserting
our perspective over theirs creates, at best, a generation of obedient drones
who still look to us for guidance (which only feels good from a power-desire
perspective), and at worst robs them of any hope of emotional buoyancy because
they are learning from adults who have no idea how to utilize their own
emotional wisdom.
We are born with all the clarity we
need, and if we are nurtured toward seeking experiences that lead us toward
positive emotion, we can access this innate inner genius. It is
only through the experience of emotion that we can connect with our
highest selves; otherwise we are just banging around in the old paradigm of:
"work hard, suffer, complain about your suffering, and worry incessantly
about what others think when choosing what to do in life". We have tried
that model, and it has not worked all that well for our generation, nor those
before us.
If we assume that the children
of today have no wisdom, and must be taught everything that they need to know,
the feeling we experience is awful, and the future looks very bleak.
Fortunately, that is not the way it is happening. It never has been that way.
The old farts have always complained about the young, disrespected them, trying
to hard to shape them into their model of right and wrong. In the end, all they
accomplished was to disenfranchise themselves from those with the fresh
perspective that solves all the impasses of the previous generation. They have
the answers, just as we had the answers for the generations before us. We simply
live the best we can, derive joy from the cultural and technological context in
which we live, and those who follow us will benefit from the strengths and
weaknesses of our way of living. It will always be this way, and it is
absolutely perfect.
We must do what makes sense to
us, and allow every other world citizen to do what makes sense to
them. This is a tall order, but striving to make everyone agree on the best way
to live is a battle that can never be won. I believe that we are better served
by focusing our attention toward how we personally are living our lives, and
make the most of that. We are all alive, but are we truly living? Are we
steeping so far back away from the edge that we are not squeezing life's lemon
enough to feel truly satisfied? This is where our attention must be focused, on
maximizing our own personal joy, well-being and universal acceptance of the way
that others achieve these things. Let the kids do what their hearts lead them
to do, and if we teach them well, they will do the same for us.
The "my way or the
highway" method has never worked out for any culture. The spirit of any truly
civilized nation is one of liberty: the freedom for all to pursue that which
makes them happy. This means that your inalienable rights end where my rights
begin, and therefore if I am not stepping on your toes, it behooves you to
allow me to live my life in the way that makes sense to me, even if it does not
make sense to you. That is a hard pill to swallow, isn't it? If we want to
avoid judgment from others, however, we must be as respectful toward them as we
desire for ourselves. Regardless of the religious, ideological or political
meme that you subscribe to, the one unifying tacit of being a truly free citizen is the allowance of the ways of others. If we each focus on
what makes us deeply happy, not worrying about what others think and say about
us, we will all be using our own inner wisdom to create the full-spectrum of
possibility that this country, this planet, and this Universe craves for us.
BSG