(note: this entry is part 7 of ongoing series starting with the post “Plato’s Seven Caves”)
Having escaped the grasp of shameless competitiveness and self-assertion (Cave 4), mankind finally attained some level of warmth and inner peace. No more caves. No more hiding. No more survival games. No more hateful manipulation or competition. Just love-warm-love for everyone, regardless of race, gender, or creed. ahhhh…relaxing, isn’t it?
Gone are the days of war and bloodless profit-seeking. Gone are the days of authoritarian religious dogma and hypocrisy–a utopian salvation is right around the corner. And we’re all singing Kumbaya, waiting… waiting… waiting….
And nothing changes. Rent checks are still due. Credit cards still compound interest. Corporations still rape and pillage. Pollution escalates unabated. Religious fanatics still plant pipe bombs in the name of ‘truth.’ Is this soaring humanistic philosophy just a naive poem for the feel-good misfits? Romanticism falls upon the cold rocks of reality. Doubt poisons the love-fest.
Faced with the fact that nice guys finish last in a world of competitive global imperialism, many at this stage attempt to revert back to the earlier cave of self-indulgence. They become cynical, hardened, resigned. Others choose to bury their heads in the sand by diving headlong into the indulgences of spiritual excess. New age aphorisms and seminars keep their minds ever-charged with lofty notions not fit for the masses.
But beyond the regression to a soul-squelching past and hedonistic indulgence in an otherworldly now lies a third option. The individual can surrender to the futility of all seeking and truly renounce the game of survival.
For those with the gumption to surrender, a grand future awaits. The years spent looking inward have provided great training for the development of compassion. But the problems of existence weren’t solved. These folks see that the problems of existence are not merely caused by a lack of compassion, they are deeper and more systemic in nature. The problems of existence come from the very structures that mankind has created in order to attain safety and prosperity, and from his hidden delusions about his own nature. In order to solve these problems and give birth to a more prosperous humanity, this human now seeks to rethink all existing social structures and conventions, redesigning them so that they simultaneously serve mankind’s physical, mental, and spiritual needs….sustainablly.
Imagine that? It turns out that humanism was just another cave, after all–a cave in which feeling good and connecting with others took precedence over solving problems.
Enough of that stuff. Let’s roll up our sleeves. There’s work to be done, and our crumbling world is calling out for real-world answers. Service to life is the only way to stay above the fray, thriving with joy instead of scraping for answers. Feeling good is an inevitable byproduct of using one’s talents in the service of our world’s growing problems. Nothing more. Nothing less.
Gone are the days of ‘live and let live’. The ‘thrive and help thrive’ ethic has arrived.
(stay tuned)
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The Seventh Scarlet Door is the never ending door to the world, the great fire of humanity, that we issue with every act and thought.