John
F Schumaker, writing in April 2016's issue of New
Internationalist,
reckons 'our' minds are demoralised and that it is 'our' culture, and
not 'us' that is sick.
Western
consumer culture is creating a psycho-spiritual crisis that leaves us
disoriented and bereft of purpose.
John
F Schumaker means those of 'us' who live within a version of 'western
consumer culture'. He reckons the reported increase in depression is
actually a rise in demoralisation, which used to be
limited to
specific extreme situations, such as debilitating physical injury,
terminal illness, prisoner-of-war camps, or anti-morale military
tactics.
He
reckons 'we' are suffering from an existential disorder, because 'we'
haven't a clue who 'we' are, where 'we' are, where 'we're' going and
what 'we're' going to do when 'we' get there. 'We' are disoriented,
bereft of a map.
'Our'
personality structures are undermined by
individualism,
materialism, hyper-competition, greed, over-complication, overwork,
hurriedness and debt.
Sticking
with the journey metaphor, John reckons 'we' have no compass either,
and are easy prey for a consumerism that is brittle and dispiriting.
He invokes Noam Chomsky's 'philosophy of futility', saying that's
about all 'we've' got if 'we've' got any philosophy at all.
'We're'
all wankers, basically.
Resilience traits
such as patience, restraint and fortitude have given way to short
attention spans, over-indulgence and a masturbatory approach to life.
'We'
are living in an existential
vacuum and
are
quickly engulfed
by boredom, as well as jadedness, ennui and discontent. This steadily
graduates to ‘existential boredom’ wherein the person finds all
of life uninteresting and unrewarding.
He
refers 'us' to Raoul Naroll (The
Moral Order)
and Erich Fromm (The
Sane Society)
for guidance as to how 'we' might give attention to 'our' needs for
belonging,
rootedness, identity, transcendence and intellectual stimulation.
He
asserts that 'our' culture is dominated by economic priorities and
manipulates 'us' by sophisticated industries that trade in illusory
consumer satisfaction and unsatisfiable consumer needs, to the point,
John F Schumaker reckons, where
Being normal is
no longer a healthy ambition.
All
grandly analytical, true and feistily written, but from about five
paragraphs to the end John F Schumacher starts down a road of
prescription that is downbeat, itself demoralised, while crying out
for
credible cause,
or credible leadership.
The
tone of the essay shifts from description to prescription and then it
finishes with cataclysm. It becomes the siren cry of a
retired
psychology academic
bereft of any hope
or meaningful sense of options other than
global
catastrophe.
What's
striking about the essay's turn of tone, change of discourse and
finale of despair is that it appears in the magazine New
Internationalist
which, in its own words, has been
putting
the world to rights since 1973.
It's
as if John F Schumaker didn't read the rest of the April, or any
other, issue of the magazine, where he might find
credibility,
meaning and purposeful action
at
forestpeoples.org, wrm.or.uy and among other activists on forests and
related issues. Or perhaps he could seek a conversation with Caterina
Martins in Portugal and others across Europe firmly opposing the
austerity agenda being promulgated by the EU, the IMF and the
European Central Bank. Or even have a read of George Monbiot's new
book “How did we get into this mess?”, reviewed on page 37.
Then
ask
himself, his friends, colleagues and neighbours how 'we' might get
out of it and when 'we' might make a start?
Resilience traits
such as patience, restraint and fortitude
are everywhere in
the world.
Read
the magazine, John. Get active. Connect. Remoralise.
This writer doesn't
know John, but guesses he's probably doing that.
Write about it,
John. Push back, even in a small way.
'We'll'
all feel better for it.
http://newint.org/columns/essays/2016/04/01/psycho-spiritual-crisis/
www.facebook.com/DaveDugganWriter
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