East & West, North & South: Collapse & Rebirth

“When East meets West, sparks will fly.”
– Chogyam Trungpa

Sparks are flying now, in the meeting of East and West, and North and South, and in the emerging renaissance, which is its fruit and result.

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“Religion is not so much a revelation to be attained by us through faith as an effort to unveil the deepest layers of man’s being and get into enduring contact with them.”

– S. Radhakrishnan, Eastern Religions & Western Thought

That statement, above, by the Oxford Chair of Eastern Religions & Ethics, gives a good summary of the difference in emphasis and approach between East and West. The West emphasizes ideology, doctrine, the written word, and faith and belief in the holy creed – be it secular or religious; while the East, at least traditionally, and for millennia, emphasizes direct experience and radical empiricism. This Western obsession with ideology, along with the doctrine of original sin, is where East and West parted ways.

The statement by the Buddha puts it directly: “Don’t take anyone’s word on anything. Examine things for yourself.” Meanwhile, in the West, we are deeply indoctrinated to simply believe what we are told – whether by neoliberal or techno-feudal economists, pundits, media mouthpieces and business and political elites, or by scholastic, “educational” or religious authorities – despite our pretenses of being a scientific society, based in reason, freedom and empiricism, which has always been a highly dubious claim, and is now, quite simply, wild self-deceit.

But it should be added that while the East emphasizes experience and empiricism, while the West emphasizes doctrine, creed, ideology, revelation and faith, naturally, faith exists in the East, while experience is not entirely forgotten in the West. The issue is a matter of balance. And we in the West, ain’t gots none.

The central problem with the West, however, along side the corporate take-over, the nihilism, materialism, consumerism, hedonism, narcissism, addiction to entertainment, voyeurism, compulsive busyness, mad frenetic chronic compulsive rushing, the mistaking of data and information for knowledge, understanding or wisdom, the obsession with quantity over quality and surfaces over depth, and alongside the pervasive, rampant and pandemic escapism, capitalist-Puritanism, neo-Maoism, and transhumanism, technology fetish, profound and growing multi-variant forms of alienation, stratospheric and growing inequality, supreme cultural arrogance and hubris, insular inward-looking parochialism, the echo chamber of surrounding ourselves always with people who agree with us, group-think, scholasticism, obedience to authority, conformity and herd mentality, vast over-complication, devaluation of the feminine, the natural, the bodily and physical, the simple (in a foolish preference for the complex), and the right brain mode of perception, along with a number, quantification and data fetish (though in reality the map is not the terrain), and the neo-feudal technocratic globalist imperialist elitist coporate-communist-fascist empire itself, which is now in the early stages of collapse, along with Western “civilization” itself, is the idolatry of ideology, and the inextricably intertwined fear and mistrust of ourselves, one another, nature, life, and our own thoughts, feelings, intuition, senses, experience, and inner life.

A little more balance is clearly needed. Fortunately, a renaissance, an awakening and a paradigm shift, are now underway, to correct just that problem – thankfully for the Earth, and all beings on it, including ourselves.

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Collapse & Rebirth

As my great Swiss aunt Heddie liked to say, “Complicated works too.” That is, until it doesn’t. Read Tainter, When Technology Fails, and A Short History Of Progress. If we insist on over-centralization, hyper-concentration of power, vast inequality and the over-complication of just about everything, our civilization will assuredly and inevitably collapse, as Tainter, Aristotle, and others have pointed out. In fact, Western civilization is collapsing now, for these and other reasons.

The question now, for those not lost in a frankly psychotic dissociation from reality, based in a stupor of cowardly willful ignorance and the fog of denial, is what do do in response?

My advice would be to study history, philosophy, mythology, world literature, cultures and religions, as well as political-economy and sociology, and learn to have a great deal more humility and open-mindedness, along with a reaffirmed confidence, and an unconditional, unshakable self-dignity, as the children of God that we truly are. However, in a more immediate sense, what is needed, or at least, most sensible, all things considered, is to disconnect and decouple from the dying system, and the dying empire, of the techno-feudal North-West corner of the globe, which is now a sinking ship on fire, on which, the captain, crew, and the great majority of the passengers, have all gone insane.

Disconnect, decouple, move to strong ground, simplify, slow down, read, discuss and reflect; then, reconnect, renew, reawaken and rebuild. The game is over for the (North)-West – at least for the time being, and for an as yet undetermined period into the future, perhaps lasting centuries, or perhaps only decades or years. In any case, it’s time for the intelligent and the brave to abandon ship, and move on. And the exodus has already begun.

The new renaissance has also begun. But it is not centred in the North-West, in Europe and its favoured colonies of Canada and the United States. Its primary centres now, are in the Global South and East. Relocation is now a good idea, if not a matter of basic sanity, or sheer survival. If you’re not going to leave that sinking ship of El Norte, as I have been calling it, then I pray you good luck. You’re going to need it.

Whatever you do, hold onto your hats. We are in for a wild ride ahead.

Keep a sense of humour and good cheer, as much as you can, along with an arial perspective, and a long term view. We’re going to need these things as well.

Grim, or beatific? It depends on where you locate yourself, and of course, on the attitude you take. This is a global rebirth, while one part of the world collapses and enters a dystopian dark age, and other parts of the globe experience liberation, a renaissance and rebirth. Where do you want to be?

Whatever you choose to do, remember, everything is impermanent, and all things are transmutable – it ain’t over ’till it’s over; and there is more day yet to dawn.

JTR,
November 8th, 2023
Villa Samadhi, Uruguay