No Pill Required

A recent article in The Wall Street Journal was titled 'There's No Pill for This Kind of Depression'; in this article the author noted a rising pandemic of fear within the minds of ordinary people. Yet it was not only about the economy. It was something more:

the economy isn't the only reason for our unease. There's more to it. People sense something slipping away, a world receding, not only an economic one but a world of old structures, old ways and assumptions. People don't talk about this much because it's too big...

...So where does that leave us? The writer and philosopher Laurens van der Post, in his memoir of his friendship with Carl Jung, said, "We live not only our own lives but, whether we know it or not, also the life of our time." We are actors in a moment of history, taking part in it, moving it this way or that as we move forward or back. The moment we are living now is a strange one, a disquieting one, a time that seems full of endings.

Too bad there's no pill for that.

Perceptive comments for a mainstream media. Yes, we are living a time now that is full of endings... yet we don't need a pill: what is required is for new facilities of perception to emerge. We need a 'new mind for a new world'. The glasses we used to wear are out of focus; we need to return them to the case, and lock the lid. They won't serve us any more...

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