Culture and history is an accretion; A creeping accumulation of steps, moving away from the ‘well-spring’.
Set-answers and statements are the norm. All has been worked out before hand and any re-evaluation is perilous to the house of cards.
Going back to first principles is derided as backwards thinking. It is ‘dangerous’ because it by-passes ‘historical heritage’
Sophistication (complexity) and technology are our prizes, but at the cost of mental health and emotional wellbeing.
Our new world belongs to the politician, statistician and collector.
The successful are known for their ability to shoehorn ‘set answers’ seamlessly and without breaking into a sweat; Cool and perspiration-free is the key as well-rehearsed statements calmly issue forth.
No one would dare to think in public nowadays. Thought and enquiry are too messy and unpredictable.
This tension between ‘empire’ and the ‘free spirit’ is ‘the same as it ever was’. (How did I get here?)
‘Empire’ can be equated to a building-force and a ‘holding-on’ to what has been established. The ‘free-spirit’ is its opposite; A dissolving-force and a ‘letting-go’.
In the fourteenth century ‘The Heresy of the Free Spirit’ caused great unease amongst the church leaders of the time.
The christians who followed the free spirit believed that the perfected soul and God were indistinguishably one, undermining the churches necessary distinction between ‘fallen created being’ and creator.
They also believed that they could communicate directly with God and did not need the church for intercession.
Marguerite Porete, the author of ‘The Mirror of Simple Souls’ was burned at the stake for such ‘heresy’.
