"According to conspiracy theories, the world is divided into two camps: the manipulators and the manipulated, those who know (a secret minority) and those who do not (the vast majority). Conspiracy theories have a reassuring way of explaining world events in a simplistic fashion; they serve as a comfortable shortcut to justify the complexities of society. For many people who have suffered from recurrent crises–financial losses, lethal diseases, natural disasters–it is difficult not to understand the origins of such evil. The most terrifying explanation is preferable to uncertainty and mystery." My Jewish Learning. Conspiracy Theories and the Jews.
I see a different conspiracy. Between the head and the heart. When I went to school I learned (rightly or wrongly) that to be a success (that magic word) I had to compete with everyone else and rise to the top (of wherever I was). That vague sense of privilege (minority vs. majority, leaders vs. the followers, rich vs. poor, white vs. black, beautiful vs. plain, gifted vs. ordinary, strong vs. weak) ... is how societies have been ruled. When the common people (another invented group) were gaining privilege, a happier standard of living - the ruling class appeared and the theory of the 1% who ruled business and politics through money. Many quotes spouted by right wing thinkers suggested "we are isolated units competing for the most of what each of us wants".
So I kept learning how to be "a success" and found the "competing" was fraught and did not bring out the best in me. Eventually I learned that loving and being loved engaged the heart instead of the head and I felt more at home on this planet.
Then the head had to find words to explain this, living in a society divided by dreamers and leaders. Words and ideas kept inserting themselves on my body, in my mind, struggling to find "the truth".
What I could not see was my "brokenness", trying to fit in a world that valued things more than life. Reading a little bit of philosophy, writing a little bit of poetry. Naming the problem, finding the bad guys, isolating myself from others. Weeping over the gigantic mess we have left this planet in, reading endless articles on theories. Reading the plight of our first nations harmed by colonization, the violence against African Canadians and Americans, gender violence, domestic violence ... war, violence, cruelty, killing, torture, on and on and on.
When I blogged that love is the only way out I got persistent messages questioning what that is. How do we know love is not just another thing to make the ego feel better?
I have a strategic plan which I often fail to follow: Love everyone. Hate no-one. Move to the edge.
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