“In a society at war with man and nature, a religion of peace and love might be fantasized into creed, rituals & otherworlds while it’s professed adherent continue to live [in a way that doesn’t support it]. ~ Jim Corbett (Goatwalking)
“Everything is Love” is a mantra that’s been around a loooong time and has recently begun to irk my nerves. It’s achieved a cult-like status with millions of people, variations shared ad nauseum with pretty pictures via Facebook and Twitter. It’s surpassed ‘group think’ guided by a guru (or two) and segued into a something resembling mass hypnosis & contagious complacency.
Second-hand thought (Check out Ayn Rand’s Fountainhead for a good definition & description. Henry Roarke is brilliant.), is, essentially “thought based not on direct sensory experience but on assumptions, teachings passed down by others.” It’s a lot like sensory deprivation. Intentionally–albeit not necessarily consciously–stunting our vision and growth. We lose creativity, the knowing of real connection, openness, access to all that surrounds us–like a lobotomy.
To me, the notion that “Everything is Love” is nothing more than a panacea–a proverbial pill–that inhibits real exploration of self and the world, an experience of the interconnectedness of things within and without us. Especially in this New Age/transmodern melange of metaphysics, self-help and spiritualit-y & -isms framed loosely by interconnectedness, by being One.
I mean, we all (those of us who know the world in that way, anyway) want to acknowledge being connected to things that feel and appear loving, loveable, lovely. However, the notion of being connected to infanticide, hate, fear, rage, paraphilias, betrayals, massacres, greed, jealousy, torture, other forms of cruelty (never mind recognizing our responsibility for and in response to those things) or perceived negative behaviors & actions with which the world turns isn’t our cup of tea.
To me, the over-simplistic notion that every thing (think about it: there are somewhere between 3 and 100 millions species–the specific is certainly arguable amongst most scientists–but there are about 4000 species of aphids alone) is any one thing is what contributes to what I call contagious complacency.
All of life and the myriad of systems that create and move it are intricate, inter-related and so complex that most cannot grasp it. I don’t understand the continued need or desire to create avoidance and lack of engagement with the world and with one’s self.
There is no shortcut. Despite our accustomed nature that indicates otherwise, the nature of life cannot be described in a sound bite. I don’t know why it is that all of those who know otherwise—those who have experience and the courage to have ‘stepped of the path of the civilized mystical experience’ keep wearing this freakin’ rut down so far that it creates tunnel vision (borrowed language from Linda Kohanov in the Tao of Equus).
We wacky humans have always looked for ways to understand the universe for ourselves and explain it to others. How we devolved from great mythic creations of Homer and his contemporaries, poetry of Rumi and others to the escapism of a single phrase is, really, not much of a mystery. We want it quick, now, sanitized, and, in a way that keeps us isolated from all the nasty, funky, gunky, that we’re connected to.
Not that we don’t create some stories, mind you, but more on that later. There may be the potential of love in everything but there are endless potentialities, possibilities and realities that have nothing to do with love that exist everywhere—within us & around us. And, they are each interdependent.
Give yourself another kind of psychosurgery or stimulate your frontal lobe another way. Broaden the mind, open the eyes, and begin seeing, not hiding or avoiding. Look for the funky, nasty, and change it. In you. In the world. That’s love. Lovely. Loving. And loveable!