Archive for October, 2009
Holidays
Halloween is for Mourning
When Christianity replaced the secular humanism world view of the Greco-Roman world, and Europe became a theocracy, “witch” burning became popular sport. For six hundred years, Catholic priests, struggling with celibacy, tortured upward of one million women until they “confessed” to
witchcraft and were burned alive in village squares.
Witch burning could be viewed as a historical curiosity, except a society repeats its history – until it learns from it. To quote Martin Amis from his book about Joseph Stalin: “Before humanity can move forward, all crimes against itself must be given their day in the sun, their victims mourned, and proper conclusions drawn.” We have not yet properly mourned these women, instead, we demean them, make them old and ugly—figures of fun.
Anxious because we are living in a time of rapid social change with an uncertain future, many people look to the past for solutions, which won’t work, because our past actions have created our present dilemma. When the Christian right gained political power, it is no coincidence that they started another “crusade” in the Middle East and brought back torture, including water boarding, an Inquisition favorite.
If Hispanic advocacy groups can object to an “alien” Halloween costume, perhaps the AARP can object to portraying elderly women as scary, ugly, old crones. Or, when you see a child wearing a witch’s costume, or hear a conservative talk show host demonizing feminists for wanting equal rights, you might remember a time when “bitches,” my mistake, I must have meant “witches,” were for burning.
Quantum Psychology
Forget Your Troubles Get Happy
During our recession, like the depression of the thirties, Hollywood is thriving. At that time, when nearly 25% of the workforce was jobless and wages fell almost 43%, escapist films were the most popular: The Wizard of Oz (1939), Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Gone with the Wind (1939). So also, today, we like escapist films. So far, the top three films this year are: a science fiction film, Transformers Revenge of the Fallen, another Harry Potter and UP, an animated film. As the lyrics of a song, popular in the thirties explains: “Forget your troubles, common get happy, chase all your blues away,” at least for a while.
Although we are presently not as bad off as the thirties, our problems are more complex. America’s failing schools, imploding financial system, growing poverty, environmental destruction and the takeover of government b
y big corporations requires fundamental change. Gearing up to fight the Second World War ended the Great Depression. The two wars we are fighting today are driving us deeper in debt.
The fundamental problem is that we are living at a time when our technology has created an environment on this planet that has never before existed; our former solutions to problems no longer work – they are what created our present dilemma. This is a period of transition between the end of the Industrial Age and the beginning of the new age of… who knows? The fundamental question for our times is: can we get smart enough, fast enough, to progress to another Age of Enlightenment – or will we regress to another Dark Age? › Continue reading
