Kundalini Splendor

I dream often, but almost never remember these later.  But last night I had a dream just before I woke up that I did recall, and, to my surprise, it was about politics.  As far as I know, this is the only such dream I have ever had, though I frequently think about such matters.

In the dream, some sort of meeting was being held in an auditorium.  It was sponsored by some kind of progressive group, and I was clearly part of them.  There was also a repressive faction that was trying to stop the presentation, even literally tackling a person who was setting up a screen or something.  However, ultimately the good guys won, and at the end I announced, "We have just achieved another victory for democratic values."  But by now the audience was leaving, and most were uninterested in what I had said, for they were apathetic about it all.

Clearly, this dream is allegorical, representing on the one hand the authoritarian, regressive takeover we are now experiencing on every hand.   Yet in the midst of this attack on democracy (which many support), many of us are well aware of what is happening and seek to oppose it.  And of course others simply are tuning our and refusing to get involved.

Socrates said the democracy can succeed only with an educated populace.  Seemingly a large segment of voters today are incapable of using their own intelligence to see the destructive pattern we are engaged in, as if they were blind to the facts in front of them.

My analysis of the current situation is as follows:

We are witnessing the pathology of greed as a prime factor motivating those who lust for ever more material goods and possessions.  What do they want with their increased wealth?  More private planes, bigger mansions, more expensive autos and wardrobes?They are like beasts with a hunger that cannot be assuaged, ever, and they are constantly seeking more material items to satisfy their lust for things.

In addition, others are afflicted by the pathology of power.  They want more and more control over others, to satisfy their own inflated egos.  We see this trait in many dictators and tyrants (think of Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini as well as many CEO's as well as those in the political realm who seek to obtain positions of power and authority to show their own innate superiority over others.)

I think that the psychologist Adler even saw the lust for power as the primary motive of human behavior, a greater force than sex or other desires.

We seem to be in the grasp of those who are victims of such pathologies and whose ruthless methods are such that they are destroying all that we think of as democratic or even Christian and the basic spiritual values of many faiths.

I follow the news carefully and watch with amazement each new and disturbing development.  I think that we should each be informed and, though we acknowledge the severity of the present crisis, keep ourselves composed and steady, without succumbing to either overwhelming anger or grief.  We are witnessing a huge turning point in history, the destruction of one era and the birth of another.  I am convinced that even as the outer institutions of society are collapsing, the inner, spiritual structures are being rebuilt in an ever increasing rate, and we are witnessing and participating in this phenomenon as beings who came here to be part of this critical time in human history.

(photo from internet)