Veritas!
“Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn’t there? Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression.”[1]
The world has gone astray, as individuals we can feel it in a crisis of purpose, and as a society we feel it in a crisis of consumption. There is not enough to sustain our hunger for material goods, for many it would take multiple planet Earths to sustain their lifestyles. Petroleum is running out, and it is the fuel for our way of life. Religion no longer provides meaningful answers, although some cling tenaciously to it as their last vestige of truth. It all seems so much bigger than us, too much to take on. We are too busy trying to build lives for ourselves, trying to carve a niche and take some of the pie before it runs out. The individual is so concerned with his own needs and desires, the big picture becomes confusing and frightening.
Individualism, as defined by current capitalist standards, is the ability of each person to traverse social classes and gain wealth and power solely through determination. This kind of individualism is a myth which keeps the poor from begrudging the wealthy their dominance. The intention of this mental construct is to create the illusion of possibility within what is actually a rigid system. This particular system, capitalism, is just one of many social systems that denies the individual and confounds her ambitions. Where one believes she is getting ahead, doing better, and making a difference, she is really just conforming to conditioning which supports the current authoritarian regime.
Who or what is to blame? Where did we lose our freewill and ability to create lives that were balanced and in accordance with liberty, justice, reverence and sustainability? Historically, when one systems runs us too far off course, we have a reactionary response. For example, the humanitarian crimes of the capitalist industrial revolution spawned the socialist union movement in order to protect the exploited. Is this the solution, or is this merely a short term fix — treating the symptoms rather than the disease itself? What are the larger forces, what is the disease and who are we as individual humans within these systems?
[1] V for Vendetta, DVD, directed by James McTeigue (2006; Burbank, CA: Warner Home Video, 2006).