Let’s not kid ourselves here. The origin of America, as much it began as a revolution for freedom, is also riddled and scarred with colonialism, oppression, censorship and appropriation. You’d think we’d have learned a lesson or two there, yeah? And yet, despite even countless subtle and overt atrocities since, to some of us, current events reveal what appears to be a good ol’ full circle, back-to-our roots cowboys and Indians (indigenous peoples) disaster: Us v. Them. Another Star Bellied Sneetch extravaganza. Jaysus. Really??
Currently, those who used to be Us (or so we thought), having stealthily laid the groundwork, inching spidery, dark, shadowy fingers underneath and seemingly into the fabric of our very existence, with their dark, shadowy agendas (let’s not continue to insult spiders here), seem to many of us now to have nightmarishly morphed, Rapunzel’s-imposter-mother-style, into Them*. Huh.
You want to leave your tower? Oh no dear, you can’t possibly handle being on your own—look at you! Overweight, unhealthy, immature—research?! Ha ha!…We’ll interpret, we’re protecting you, go back inside now, eat this snack, watch this show, listen to this story, go back to sleep.
How will we escape the tower? Who, exactly, in this most recent tired old reenactment of Us v. Them is who? And which way will it go this time for the American people? What role will we play? Cowboys? Or “Indians”? Slaves? Or masters? (Choose your own historical horror).
Hold up.
Let’s take a different tact here and stop the madness. Get off the ride, stop the car, take a break. Step out of the movie theater into the sunlight. Because in reality, this Us v. Them thing is a false dichotomy—a fiction. It’s just another profiteering war, another incarnation of the old B.S. Rather than who will enslave and who will be enslaved and who is the enemy and how do we win, let’s ask a different question:
How do we want this to turn out?
I see a way out that I think will arise, a way I’m dubbing Conscious Emancipation.
This is how we escape the tower. This is how we leave the theater, this is how we ascend. This is how we become truly free.
Conscious Emancipation hubs around coming together and divesting ourselves of controlling interests by becoming once again actually and functionally independent. Disentangling. Unenmeshing. It involves supporting each other, learning and teaching skills, offering courses, classes, meeting our own needs…simply helping ourselves and others to become self-sufficient, critical thinking, critical hearting and responsible communities/community. In short, we need to learn to fish rather than to be provided that fish and thus rendered dependent on the provider (this is just a metaphor, please leave the fish alone). The why is obvious: the provider may be benevolent or not, but in either case is your jailer and you are under their control and their agenda. In every arena.
By the same token, Conscious Emancipation involves diversification and decentralization in every arena. Captured or controlled communication systems will not work anymore. Censorship will not work anymore. Must not work anymore. Check-point power and permission systems will not work. Divesting from agenda-driven systems of connection and communication and investing in free, uncensored, independent systems is where our leading edge and our life raft is at this moment. Move off of captured, algorithmically-curated (read: censored), centralized platforms to uncensored, free-speech-supporting ones such as in-person communities, blockchain-based sites and uncensored hubs of all sorts. Whether it’s legal tender, your original content or anything else, if it can be shut off or deleted, back it up and run in the opposite direction.
Just a note: let’s remember that the actual provider of the fish (or the plant), our real mother, is the Earth, for whom, in reality, no one can claim ownership or control, who birthed us and who provides for all our needs. We have basic rights as expressions of Life, and responsibilities thereof to treat and be treated with respect. We must treat the Earth, each other and all Life with respect, work with Mother Earth rather than be complicit in her destruction. Un-learn corporate for-profit “health care” and “food-like-product” lies and rediscover the wisdom of the body, the wisdom of Nature. The middleman, the false mother, claiming, repackaging and profiting from selling the Earth’s freely given gifts can easily be decommissioned by simply not spending money, time or attention on them. Poof.
If there is a war, it is one waged in our own hearts and minds, and it is a war against convenience. Resist.
Here’s the down and dirty of it: The time has come to grow up. To stop letting down our hair for snake oil salesmen to climb up. To reclaim our sovereignty and power as Life itself. To realize that when we as adults think we need a parenting influence, that we are really just shirking responsibility and need to wake up and grow up. A good parent looks after a child and puts the child’s best interests first. We are not children. We do not need parents. And those we have elected to represent us are taking on and playing the role of evil narcissistic parents, putting their own interests over the peoples’. Where we have been dependent, it is now time to become independent. Who have we relied on and thus handed over our freedoms to? And when it is necessary to rely on others and other systems, who has held that responsibility with gratitude, love, respect and acknowledgment of the sovereignty of Life and who has not?
Current events have unveiled and unmasked malignant operators who have done their damndest to make themselves appear essential in our lives, rendering us dependent upon them, and importantly, also brought to light our personal misalignments and lack of integrity with ourselves, our Earth, local communities, government and world citizenship. Many of us are having perhaps a personal and definitely global-scale gasping, “How did we let this happen?” moment.
Because of our prior level of consciousness, this moment was destined to happen, there was no other path.
So here we are—with an incredible opportunity to lift our heads out of our hands and take a good, hard look at ourselves individually and as a country. Take a good, hard look at our choices and the deficits in maturity that underlie those choices like a giant hole in the ground covered by a sheet. We fell into the hole because there was a hole there, and the sheet merely disguised it. If we’re brave enough to look up, the sheet is off now, and it’s time to yes, grieve our experience, but also reconcile ourselves to the fact of the hole—the ways in which we didn’t adult, didn’t take responsibility, didn’t listen to or care for ourselves and instead handed over our power and kept dozing off while pressing snooze.
This isn’t about blame or shame. This is about healing and course corrections.
A great unveiling, after the grief and pain of seeing the dark corners of our beings, the gaping holes in our development, presents an unparalleled opportunity for choice. For aligned action. For growth. For enlightenment. To leave the tower. We simply cannot continue to think of ourselves as free or enjoy meaningful freedoms if we continue to choose from convenience, from immaturity and codependence. We are now required to wake up fully, or to be subsumed. A global opportunity for awakening is right here, right now. There will be those who wake up, and those who don’t. Those who heal and those who just continue to cower and blame. I think there will be enough awake to step forward into a new reality. Those who awaken will collect themselves, assess the damage and help others, while healing, educating, shoring up and emancipating themselves—and leave the tower. And these are the people who reclaim the power to co-create a life, a community and a world in harmony with the Earth and all beings, with all of Life.
In the end, I think instead of Us v. Them, it will all be Us, because that’s really all that’s here.
And what about Rapunzel? She grows up. She wakes up to the abuse previously hidden from her and repossesses her independence. She strains against her chains, grieves what she appears to have lost and is ultimately freed because she dares to love beyond herself. Her evil false mother, not unlike the Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz, simply turns to a pile of dust (the Them was only Us all along). Oh, and by the way, we also missed the hidden stairwell by which we could have escaped at any time had we realized it was there.
We see the way out now. She is Us. Cut the damned hair and exit the tower.
NOTE: Maturity, Respect and Integrity. When the dollar is worth just about zip, you can pimp those, my loves, all the way to the bank.
*Read (or better yet, listen to) these eerily world-stage-accurate words from Tangled.
You want to go outside
Oh
Why, Rapunzel?
Look at you, as fragile as a flower
Still a little sapling, just a sprout
You know why we stay up in this tower
(I know but)
That's right, to keep you safe and sound, dear
Guess I always knew this day was coming
Knew that soon you'd want to leave the nest
Soon, but not yet
(But)
Shh, trust me, pet
Mother knows best
Mother knows best
Listen to your mother
It's a scary world out there
Mother knows best
One way or another
Something will go wrong, I swear
Ruffians, thugs
Poison ivy, quicksand
Cannibals and snakes, the plague
(No)
Yes
(But )
Also large bugs
Men with pointy teeth and
Stop, no more, you'll just upset me
Mother's right here
Mother will protect you
Darling, here's what I suggest
Skip the drama
Stay with mama
Mother knows best
Go ahead, get trampled by a rhino
Go ahead, get mugged and left for dead
Me, I'm just your mother, what do I know?
I only bathed and changed and nursed you
Go ahead and leave me, I deserve it
Let me die alone here, be my guest
When it's too late, you'll see, just wait
Mother knows best
Mother knows best
Take it from your mumsy
On your own, you won't survive
Sloppy, under-dressed
Immature, clumsy
Please, they'll eat you up alive
Gullible, naive
Positively grubby
Ditzy and a bit, well, hmm, vague
Plus, I believe
Gettin' kinda chubby
I'm just saying 'cause I love you
Mother understands
Mother's here to help you
All I have is one request
Rapunzel?
(Yes?)
Don't ever ask to leave this tower again
(Yes, mother)
Oh, I love you very much, dear
(I love you more)
I love you most, hmm
Don't forget it
You'll regret it
Mother knows best
CHRISTY!! This was AMAZING. Yes, yes, and yes to all of this!