What has become of the generation who fomented the Soweto Uprising?
On this day in 1976, I was attending a (Whites-only) school in Rhodesia,as it was then. I barely heard about the trouble, when the rancid pus burst upon the streets of Soweto. I was 16 and in my final year of school- taking 'M'levels in Physics, Mathematics and Biology. I was completely unaware that elsewhere, children of my age had had a gutsful of the Apartheid bag of tricks, the latest issuing of which was a commandment that all Black pupils in South Africa would now be forced to have their education administered to them in Afrikaans.
I hope that, had I been in the same situation they were, I too would have rioted on the streets of Soweto. The person I am now certainly would have - I'm not so sure about the person I was then(with whom I unaccountably seem to share some memories).
I salute the spirit of those youth, even as I look around me today, and wonder where they've all gone.
For the survivors must be about my age- a little older, perhaps, or a little younger - and I wonder how they've grown, and why they're so invisible right now.
Maybe some are in the halls of government, or legislature, or the professions. Good for them - although in the case of many of our politicians, I have to ask if they've mislaid their sense of humanity in favour of overwhelming greed.
For the materialist paradigm seems to have enveloped this land, since 1994, when all was bright with hope and tender with compassion and unity.
The toxic waste land around the corner from where I live - a closed dump - has been slated to become a 'development golf course', of all ludicrous things. I'm so sorry, but I just don't see golf courses, development or otherwise, in anybody's future on this Earth.The reasons are left as an exercise for the reader.
In a similar way, I am less than hopeful for my countrymen and women when a huge ponzi scheme nets reactions ranging from "the investors deserved it" to "you're just jealous because you can't build your own empire". I'm sorry again, but empire building is hardly a calling which should be admired in this world.
Resting from an hours-long bout of programming yesterday, my eyes alighted on the edge of the monitor. And there I saw, chasing up and down the black frame, green and blue double helices of wondrous aspect. My soul connected to the worlds-between in that moment, and I was swept away with sorrow for our failing structures. Yes, sorrow.
We think we're not only the pinnacle of evolution so far, but in the process of further and better upward movement. We believe that somehow, someone will know what to do to make all this dismal failure of a culture come out all right. Somebody knows what's going on, and we will fix it with our superior ingenuity.
No, we won't.
Not least because- despite the conspiracy theorists desperately positing the existence of people-who-know, and therefore people-who-control, nobody knows what's going on, how we got here, and how we, let alone the rest of the living earth, will survive.
New Age sweetness and light be damned. We're falling, fast. Accelerating as we drag every other life form over the edge with us. Which is why some of us have come to the conclusion that the only solution is dissolution. Civilisation must be dismantled - this lethal combination of hubris-ridden humanity embedded in a culture which sees the earth as a vast resource pool has to be destroyed, before (and this is what I'm working towards) it destroys the very fabric of Life on this planet.
In my view, this is a very important, and still under-represented, Pagan Value. The realisation that we fucked up and the very best we can hope to do now, for the sake of the All, is to put on our Destoyers hats, call on Hecate and Kali, and in divine representation of them, Take The Bloody Machine Apart.
Will you give some thought to joining us? Together, indeed, we can do more. You are each and every one of you - collectively and singularly God - desperately needed.
Pic: Cosmogenesis2122012
Right on! Time to destroy this domestication/civilization/patriarchy that has been killing the planet and our Selves. Resist being tamed. Learn and live being Wild. Being Wild is Being Aware. Being Wild is Being Independent. Look for your path through the day every day instead of focusing on goals far away. That is being Wild. I am with you on this.
ReplyDeleteAs both an anti-civilizationist and Pagan, I was thrilled to come across your blog. I really love reading what you have to say!
ReplyDeleteWe need a massive culling. The Earth cannot sustain these numbers of mindless, souless consumers. Weed us all down to maybe one million hardy souls, then form a society based on rights dependent on responsibility, for we as a species cannot survive without both. I cannot abide living in a society with no rule of law, which is the only way to protect the weak from the predator. We ALL are weak at one time or another, and I for one would not accept a life spent looking over my shoulder. Love, trust, and accountability, or the planet is better off without us altogether.
ReplyDeleteAs ever well said. I do disagree on a major point though. Earth IS enough for even these huge numbers it currently finds.
ReplyDeleteEarth can supply us all with verything we need. The only thing that there is NOT enough of to go round is man made stuff, like money.
The people that stood up in 1976 are likely still where they were then ... none of the current "leaders" were there, they're just riding the suffering of others.
peace, and a LOT of love
The monkeys need to get off their bicycles, which is "life" for most which has become such an indirect series of depersonalized abstractions, it is not surprising the natural world of the paranormal is reinventing our myths, and reorienting the profane toward the sacredness and mystery of life and our potential of engagement in community rather than as pawns of William Blake's satanic mills.
ReplyDeletePatience these days is an exercise in hope against hope, but I sense this too shall pass as an inevitability. Animism, pantheism, and the sacred balance will return regards of bicycles and the monkeys, which are as passing and fleeting as the Cambrian Age, as we seek refuge in creation.
All the best and take heart you are not alone in this.
Bruce
I can't help but feel/think that we need to be very careful and not throw the baby out with the bathwater. I liked that The Michael used the word Cull. We need to cull the herd, separate the wheat from the chafe. Some of the things related to man are of great value. So we need to be careful in our wrath and despair and hurry that we are selective.
ReplyDeleteJust my two cents,
Cynthia