Same Song, Prettier Arrangement

The Subtle Trap of the Messianic Meme
~ from the EnlightenNext Editors' Blog
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This short post from EnlightenNext Editor Carter Phipps introduces a series of thoughtful, provocative articles on the insidious seductions of both apocalyptic and messianic beliefs, exploring why and how this way of thinking endures even in modern progressive cultures. 

Here's his take on the hype around 2012:

2012 is the progressive version of traditional eschatological thinking. It’s the idea that an event is going to occur that is dramatically outside the normal processes of history and change everything, lifting the majority of humanity to a higher level of consciousness and creating a more enlightened future. There are darker versions as well, where a sort of mini-apocalypse has to occur before we get to the better side of the future, but generally 2012 represents a positive version of eschatological thinking. It’s a more benign strain, we might say, but it’s still the same basic song, just a prettier arrangement.

"When our eyes open up to the reality of evolution in human nature and culture and we can look back and see not five thousand years of stasis but centuries and centuries of difficult and hard-won evolution in the interior of human lives and in the exterior of human society, we will stop hoping for messiahs. We will embrace a different vision of the future, one that requires the challenging but ultimately much more rewarding work of contributing to a process that transcends our own lives and that, miraculously, we can impact with our own actions."

Please check out the full article with links HERE. 

~ End Times thinking is one of those mind viruses that simply won't bow to the reality of failure. ~  C.P.


I also highly recommend reading Elizabeth Debold's companion piece entitled  In Search of True Scenius*: 5. Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris.  Here's a clip from that post:

Why is it ... that we so often romanticize the past, believing that there was a time when human life was so much better than now? Why do we create these ideas of a Golden Age where everything was more and better than the present?

Find that article, with more links, HERE.

*Scenius ... is the collective form of genius.  Coined by musical savant Brian Eno, it refers to his discovery that genius doesn’t simply arise in extraordinary individuals but geniuses emerge out of vibrant, cutting edge scenes or cultural niches where a group of people, often crossing disciplines and areas of expertise, are pushing into something new and rewarding each other for taking risks and challenging the status quo."

~ Scenius is the Golden Age of the evolutionary who wants to take responsibility for and create that which has not yet happened. ~ E.D.

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Thanks again to the folks at EnlightenNext for calling us to think beyond the concerns of our individual existence to the future of the very cosmos that created us and that is continuing to evolve.  For not only do we have a personal stake in what unfolds, every single thing we do or don't do affects the totality of that unfolding.  It's at once an awesome responsibility and a miraculous opportunity.  Bring it.
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