…and things that go bump in the night. Well, sometimes they go bump, but only when
they’re not watching where they walk. Not like they’re the only ones who don’t
watch where they walk and bump into things, including each other. Perhaps more
on that later. I’m speaking, of course, about those who seek mystical council delivered
via the internet.
Why would that subject come to the front at this point in
time? Because I’m currently watching a crew of mystically attired councilors
work, watching them work the same way I used to watch a crew of quite nude erotic models
work trying to teach the emotional components of sex-ed to the lonely hearts.
Amazing, really, how much their tactics (the mystics and the models) really do
have in common. Not so surprising though, really, when you consider that the
first and largest thing they have in common is an attribute, an attitude,
shared at deep levels by their clientele.
The thing their respective clientele share in common involves
a deformation of a thought I’ve been spinning around for several months now. Which
thought? The role of the self having authority within the life.
It is a fact that rank, one’s position within the machine of
society, is a thing awarded by those above while authority, the genuine
authority that allows one to meet the demands and responsibilities of rank, is
a thing granted by those of lesser station (within the machine) as reward for proven
competence at providing the common good. This fact, seldom mentioned, is the
point of my focus. Sadly, I’m ever more of a mind to believe there were those
who not only internalized this thought but also exploited it for ignoble
motive.
I’m rapidly coming to the conclusion perhaps the single most
devastating attack on the American way of life involved an external force operating
pan-social to degrade individual’s ability to be their own authority… in
matters regarding where authority is granted for good and rational cause.
Consider the conundrum of those who’ve been deprived of
enough internal authority-of-self to make a decision concerning granting
authority externally. Think about how that lacking inflicts perpetual doubt and
perpetual vulnerability to being manipulated by a totally undefinable fear of unnamed
and unnameable consequences residing where the missing authority-of-self should
be.
Think about that, but do it carefully. The entire subject is
one giant psychological minefield to compare with the north end of South Korea.
But, on the other hand, in such a context the efforts of the counselors in
mystic garb make total sense. Of course it does, they’re the only ones who can
operate in such an environment.
Why? Because when authority-of-self is short circuited any
and every other form of mortal authority is transformed from a choice into an
inflicted force of external compulsion sure to be resented, secretly denied, secretly
resisted even at the price of personal well being. When the mortal has been
rendered impotent what is left?
The immortal, of course: the Gods and Goddesses, the myths
and mythos’ mankind preserves to counterbalance the power of the society. The
authority of Grandmother Earth, as one of my favorite of these counselors calls
her, is an authority which can granted without fear of repercussion from the
mortal realms. After all, She is
undeniably bigger than they are no matter who they claim to be. With her
blessing the process of reclaiming enough internal authority to actually decide
who should be an authority isn’t nearly so terrifying.
Except, of course, to those who need that terror to be
maintained for political reasons, but that’s a subject for another ramble at a
later date.
