Are we basically unaware of what we are and so in order to ward off the emptiness within ourselves, we hold on to political ideologies? If our relationships are based on jealousy, competition, desire, envy, hatred, and conformation to systems, then how any external political ideology is going to provide us with a cooperative way of life among people?
It is the sub-conscious that is involved in the cause & effect action most of the time, if not always. So if it’s the unconscious or subconscious that is deciding the effects and determining the causes then conscious actions are a mere pretense or escape from the actual.
Even if one brings an egalitarian society into existence externally, people’s conflicts wouldn’t be solved because all our actions and reactions are based on unconscious psychological survival instincts.
If that is the case, trying to bring a change outside without trying to understand the workings of the mind would be useless. So addressing the external divisions within a society is same as addressing the divisions and contradictions within our own mind and vice-versa. The real crux of the issue is, have we ever looked at our subconscious?
Or are we just drifting along like a leaflet upon the violent currents of the massive ocean, which is unconscious, creating a false sense of freedom out of escapes, pretenses, and masks? If we look at the unconscious movement of ourselves in our relationships it is filled with expectations, grievances, conjectures, endless desires, yearnings, predispositions, etc. And how can one call this love if one always wants something rewarding to happen out of his/her relationships?
If there is no possibility of unconditional love among the people of society, then how can one think that conformation to utopian theories can bring a unification ? Why does a propagandist of a political ideology endorse and advocate for external abstractions or concepts?
Is it because the propagandist is afraid and dejected to look at the society as it is and so he wants to invent all those unrealistic theories of “isms”, and “cracies” ? And the follower who is equally afraid to see and question the reality of violence among societies, blindly falls into the false sense of freedom thinking that an abstraction of the mind is going to solve the conflict among humans. Some believe that only far-right & far-left ideas in the political spectrum are radical or extreme and if one rearranges one’s abstractions in terms of “moderate” or “neutral” points of view, then one can bring about a fruitful changeover.
But the fact is any idea that deviates from “what is” is definitely extreme. In that case, all “cracies” including democracy, and all “isms” including nationalism are false narratives while the actuality is friction between each and every human.
When there is friction between family members and neighbours themselves, caused by likes, dislikes, hate, jealousy, and envy how can any “ism” make us understand the situation and delve deeper ? Having unconscious abstractions according to one’s likes, dislikes, desires, experiences and memories about the persons with whom one has relationship and having such abstractions about society, is making him/her create another abstraction like marriage in families or a political theory in societies which is actually a conscious escape from oneself in the process of solving the problem of lack of co-operation.
If I have images and abstractions about myself, and consider myself this or that according to societal standards, according to various conformations, according to my beliefs derived from my false sense of freedom or illusory free-will which is always the emerging product of past experiences and memories that I have gained, then can I ever understand myself or see myself and so can I ever understand my neighbour and the society?
What is really a conscious action in response to all these contradictions and divisions within oneself and within the society in which we live?
Unconditional selfless love from moment to moment in which there is no movement of the unconscious mind as images or abstractions can only free one and the whole from all inhibitions and all shackles of constructs of the mind and psychological time creating a new space of being to live with passion, vigor, and vitality.
About the author
Deepak is a philosophy enthusiast who aims to study the subject academically. In his daily life, he writes down his thoughts as a form of inquiry into the self. A lot of his writings are a form of meditation.