Imbalance as collective pathology (Yurugu series #5)

The Yurugu blog series attempts to uncover some of the myths the dominant culture is based upon. As we have a hard time seeing the things we take for granted the view from outside, through the eyes of a different culture, may help with discovering our biases and enable us to act more consciously.
Marimba Ani, the author of the book “Yurugu. An African-centered critique of European cultural thought and behavior,“is not involved in putting up the series and does not necessarily agree to its contents. The series is also not meant to present the book’s central thesis, or to agree one-hundred percent with it; rather the blogs are inspired by the deep thoughts Marimba Ani has put forward, and offer some of them for consideration.

[previous article]

The other day, in a discussion on the derangement of our World, and how to go about changing its ways, my dialogue partner mentioned Ase,

“a West African philosophical concept through which the Yoruba of Nigeria conceive the power to make things happen and produce change […] The recognition of the uniqueness and autonomy of the aseof persons and gods is what structures society and its relationship with the other-world” [Wikipedia]

Ase seems to relate to Jung’s Daimonic, or Paul Levy‘s Wetiko, or Rüdiger Lenz‘ Aggression (a concept which Lenz might have adapted from Fritz Perls, or from the word’s Latin original meaning, i.e., to address, to approach), all of which are names for a driving force with both positive and negative, constructive and destructive potentiality. Which side of the force expresses itself in each of us, or in our communities and societies, depends on our emphasis, which in turn depends on how we tend to see the world. In terms of Ase, our culture and its members overemphasize autonomy and individuality, from which we derive our perceived separation. From a Yin-Yang perspective, we are tremendously out of balance; from Marimba Ani’s view, we represent Yurugu, the immature male being that has interrupted its own gestation and is forever in search of its missing female aspects. Marimba Ani writes,

What are the characteristics euphemistically associated with this utamaroho[collective personality]? “Spirit of adventure”; “the love of challenge and exploration”; “the conquering mood”; “a certain inventiveness, ingenuity and restlessness”; “ambition”; “love of freedom.” These phrases signify the misinterpretation of an intensely devastating spiritual disease.

Twisted by the ideological demands of the culture into valued characteristics, they are made to seem positive, superior, even healthy. They are, instead, manifestations of a cultural ego in disequilibrium. Created in a spiritless context, the European utamaroho lacks the balance that comes from an informed experience of the whole self. The self that then emerges – defined in disharmony – seeks further to despiritualize its surroundings […] Europe is a cultural statement of Yurugu, the male being, arrogant and immature, who caused his own incompleteness, and so is locked into a perpetually unfulfilled search for the female twin-soul that would make him whole, the part of himself he has denied. (Yurugu., p561)

So I would say, it is not just change that we are looking for, for permanent change is also what our civilization is obsessed with. The change we are talking about is not mechanistic, not utilitarian, not egoistic, all of which represent just one side; it is J. Krishnamurti’s ‘Real Revolution‘, and the place it comes from is not the rational mind (alone).

Photo by Fancycrave.com from Pexels

The founders of Extinction Rebellion perhaps do understand what I mean by that; at least it’s what I get from their founding documents and some of the talks. As they don’t push it to the foreground the question remains whether the majority of fellow campaigners are sporting a similar understanding… but one can hope – hope that we’ll be able to change our ways; hope that when we are stopping the raping of Gaia she may unfold her self-healing capacities; hope that there is still opportunity to wind up business in a controlled manner before time is over and the end of civilization is upon us.

Happy Puthandu(14 April, Tamil New Year) to everyone, and happy International Rebellion Day on Monday!

[next article in the series]

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