Chapter One - Easier To Destroy Than To Build
Are you familiar with wise people who have a lot of life experience, and say that it is easier to destroy than to build?
I am sure that you have often come across cases where a reckless and thoughtless action has eliminated a long-term investment and destroyed infrastructure that had been built with much attention, thought, time, and resources.
This can happen in a personal relationship, in the workplace, while building a career, cultivating body and mind, and also in general cases like the development of human culture.
We know of many cases in our culture where a tremendous amount of work and effort has gone down the drain because of lack of attention and awareness, contempt, or because of a lack of ability to create change on a positive basis, thus unawarely going towards annihilation and destruction. Throughout history, we have often had to restore the ruins and start from scratch, with a large investment that wasted unnecessary time and resources.
Often people create deliberate destruction to generate a revolution and create change, for example:
A particular relationship is no good - so instead of taking all that is good and all the achievements, releasing all that is irrelevant and faulty, leaving behind prejudices and emotional residues, and grow together into the next step, many prefer to destroy the existing relationship, leave the breakage behind and build a new relationship.
Human society presently exists in an endless circle of consciousness stagnation and moral and value deterioration - instead of creating introspection, isolating all the positive supporting qualities that lie in traditions, and releasing all that is irrelevant and expresses conservatism and lack of regeneration, there is growing extremism that leads to overall destruction of infrastructures, (positive and negative), and the need to rebuild and rise from the ruins into the new step.
But, is this the only way? Does this path allow learning, draw conclusions, gain wisdom, and make the most of all that has been created with much effort? Or does such a path force us to begin each time from scratch without having learned the lessons nor reaching the conclusions that lead to consciousness growth, new ideas, and values, thus creating a harmonious transition from one level to the next?
It is much easier to run over and destroy existing infrastructures than create a patient sorting where we observe all that exists, choose what serves and is beneficial from all that was created so far, and release all that has finished its role.
When we want to create a harmonious transition from one chapter to another, we have to create a transition from the existing infrastructure, which is the basis for the next step. This is a proactive movement, created from the achievements already accomplished, which leads to innovation and change.
This is a movement that relies on the existing foundation, leveraging all the achievements, while choosing to proactively and in an aware manner to question all that exists, inspecting it in an objective and wise manner, setting goals using a clear vision and a desire to grow beyond that which is known and familiar, thus releasing all that is irrelevant without attachment, thus enabling transformation and regeneration.
This is relevant to both personal and collective processes of life as a human society found in the transition from one chapter to the next in its history.
Chapter Two - A Willingness To Regenerate As A Quality That Prevents Crisis And Struggle
One of the important principles that help to cope with these challenging times is the ability to continually regenerate and create renewal.
Reality has become very dynamic and is often shaky and unstable.
Plans get canceled.
Our ability to maneuver has decreased and many of the options that were available a moment ago are neutralized.
The different frameworks are being undermined in the face of the Covid challenges, encouraging us to examine their relativity and explore how may we improve on them and grow from them, embracing up-to-date frameworks that represent the next step of our evolution as individuals and as a society.
In many places around the world, the social and political reality is becoming more extreme, bringing to the surface the gaps and all that requires mending, powerfully reflecting the biased and distorted norms and manners of conduct that threaten the continuation of our civilization.
The process described is happening on a personal level where many are coping with gaps and dissonances that have been repressed until now, as well as on a collective level which is undermining the existing order, leading to a radicalization of social and political processes.
All this and more are pushing us all to transform, to observe ourselves and the world we live in, define priorities, and act in a proactive manner that leads to harmonious renewal that can enhance all that exists, release that which is irrelevant, and advance to the next level.
This is a process that holds a willingness to change our way of thinking, develop skills to help cope with the rising emotions that come to the surface, due to the world that is quickly changing before our eyes. This also holds a commitment to diligently move beyond our comfort zones and manifest a lifestyle that reflects essence, meaning, and values.
This is the time to reinvent ourselves by releasing and letting go of all that has lost its validity and be willing to expand our perception of the world, create mental and emotional flexibility and redefine our self-identity, thus creating a transformation that leads to a new level.
Chapter Three - A Modern Times “Middle Ages” And The Damage To Democratic Infrastructures
One of the byproducts of all I have described is that the radicalized reality damages the infrastructures of democracy that were constructed with great care over many years.
For a while now we are witnessing the contempt for democratic values, damage to the gatekeepers of democracy, abuse of the democratic process in order to empower populist regimes, using the freedom of expression and information to spread false news, incite, instigate, separate, and thus govern and control the public’s consciousness.
We are witnessing a disregard for the subtle standards designed to enable the existence of a democratic realm, and are seeing actions that rudely trample upon democratic principles, by cynically abusing democratic freedom to harm democracy.
I have often written that to live in a democracy - we have to be worthy of a democracy. To live in a free world - we have to be worthy of freedom and to be able to use free choice in an intelligent manner that can see beyond the selfish personal gain and the immediate satisfaction of personal needs. In order to be partners in designing a personal and collective reality using democracy - we have to be able to identify the connection between choice, results, and consequences and take responsibility accordingly.
It is important to understand that democracies around the globe have established an infrastructure intended to be a springboard for humanity as it moves towards its next step in history, which expresses a new level of evolution.
These infrastructures came to provide the foundation for growth, create personal and collective maturity, as well as a commitment to values, mutual responsibility, and the ability to prioritize progress, which holds the ability to release traditions that block development.
The democratic infrastructure was meant to establish a reality where diversity of representations exist, all realizing that they are part of the same whole, maintaining reciprocal relations that strive to unite around a common truth and create a dialog between the different and diverse, formulating joint agreements that create a common realm where we can conduct ourselves in harmony, mutual respect, with equal opportunities, mutual enrichment, and a harmonious channeling of resources to all parts of society, with freedom of expression and self-realization.
The present damage to the democratic infrastructures that we are witnessing here in Israel, in the United States, and other places around the world, might sabotage the development of human civilization because it sabotages the infrastructure intended to be the basis for the next step in evolution.
We are in a modern time “Middle Ages”.
At this present time, we are required to redefine our path as individuals and as a society.
If we learn to cherish and maintain the human achievements that represent vision, inspiration, values, knowledge, and the transcendence of spirit over matter, and protect the infrastructures to create an advanced and enlightened human society - we are to expect a renaissance period that will announce a new step in human evolution down the road.
However, if we do not do this, the present “Middle Ages” will lead to an endless downwards spiral of evolutionary decline that leads to self-annihilation.
Chapter Four - Emanating From All That Is And Exists In Order To Create Renewal
As mentioned, it is easier to destroy, despise, disqualify, and demolish in order to create a movement that holds change.
However, when we want to generate change and renewal it is important that we emanate from what is and exists.
What does this mean?
It is very easy to rebuild something after an extreme move that delegitimizes and destroys that which existed thus far.
However, it is much more balanced and harmonious to emanate from the infrastructure we have already created and grow from it to the next level, taking with us all that is relevant and compatible with the next step of development, while releasing all that will not continue with us as we move forward.
This is a process of honest and objective self-examination, that holds a patient and intelligent examination that helps us to define what we want to take with us on our journey forward and what we will leave behind.
Only after creating a wise and discerning inspection, and having defined our vision for our path forward, we may begin to gently dismantle the existing infrastructure, disrupt the stagnation, and move to the next level, while holding a willingness to transform and regenerate.
When there is a willingness to proactively undermine an existing situation and create renewal, a harmonious move is created that is not a result of a war between the old and the new, destruction and annihilation. This harmonious move stems from proactivity that enables one to advance from one level to the next without being attached to the previous level, thus taking the best out of it, while removing and sifting through that which is damaging or faulty.
When undermining an existing situation, it is important to appreciate the pure infrastructures that were built along the way, protect them, and treat them as the basis from which we grow to the next level.
It is important to remember that the nature of the pure infrastructures is that they are delicate and vulnerable because they represent our higher potential that is not to be taken for granted.
Try to imagine putting a lot of thought, contemplation, and profound processes into establishing a mental-emotional infrastructure that will allow you to express an improved version of yourself. This is a gentle, balanced, version of yourself that is connected to values and essence, holding clear thought and emotion, with habits that support and serve you.
Now try to imagine how fast and easy it is to “fall back” to an old version of yourself that does not optimally conduct itself.
And here we have a question - who do you choose to empower:
The “dictator”, “populist” manipulative ego, that lacks responsibility and is rude and selfish?
Or the pure “democrat” self, the honest, moral, gentle, and responsible self?
We live in a corporeal, material world. This is a world that has gravity, which constantly adds “weight” making it difficult for consciousness to expand and transcend beyond the limitations of the body and psyche.
The ability to grow and develop towards the best version of the self stems from an ability to cope with gravity and physical matter in a manner that enhances the spirit, vision, and values so that these are found at the center of our being and begin to influence the material and corporeal world, our body, psyche, and our manifestation in practice.
For spirit to influence matter, an infrastructure based on consciousness, values and vision needs to be established and translated into modes of conduct that enable spirit to transcend in a world of matter. These values are to guide the individual in life and allow them to maintain an aware free choice that serves the optimal potential for enhanced fulfillment, both on a personal and collective level, in which the individual exists.
We are required to vigilantly guard this infrastructure because it is the anchor to a meaningful existence.
As mentioned in this article, this applies both to the personal process and to the collective processes.
Chapter Five - Evolutionary Development Towards The Next Step - Destroy Or Build, Fall Or Rise Above?
In human society, the collective vision represents the higher potential. This vision is what allows us to transcend above the limitations of matter and the human psyche, and create social structures that encourage dialog, agreements based on a common truth, mutual enrichment, freedom, equal opportunities, open-mindedness, flexibility, creativity, growth, and prosperity that are void of power struggles, destruction or war over resources, but rather focus on growth from that which exists and is continually regenerating.
The personal and collective vision encourages processes of sublimation. This is a process of refining the human psyche, by redirecting the mental-emotional forces of the individual away from activities perceived as negative, violent, and destructive, and placing focus on positive and constructive activities.
Sublimation is a basic concept in Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis approach, which describes sublimation as a process where impulses and urges that are not socially acceptable originating in libido, are channeled towards actions and goals that are accepted and even desired from society’s perspective.
According to Freud, this is a type of positive defense mechanism that indicates a healthy, creative, and productive coping mechanism. This allows human beings to channel and express their natural urges in a legitimate way both psychologically and socially while encouraging the individual to creative and artistic expressions.
This is a process of refining impulses and survival urges, that allows channeling the mental-emotional energy without repressing or denying it.
The process of sublimation allows a transition to an evolutionary level where the individual learns to contain their mental-emotional world and create an inner conversion that transforms potentially destructive or violent energy into creative and constructive energy.
Naturally, this process is part of humanity’s transition into its next stage in history, one that exposes it to new dimensions of consciousness and experience, which exist in a more balanced and subtle realm than the one that existed thus far.
As a collective, human society is evolving as a civilization that goes through a process of sublimation, gradually moving from herd-mentality, and a survivalist, impulsive, instinctive state, which is selfish, aggressive, and violent, towards an intelligent state that restrains the urges that rely on survival instincts and operates with values holding a connection to vision and the power of the spirit.
Along its path of evolution, humanity has created a value-oriented spiritual infrastructure that established the ability of spirit to transcend beyond this animalistic instinct, above polarity, violence, and separation, establishing a worldview that is reconciled, constructive, and creative - focusing on aspects that connect rather than separate, using compassion and a holistic perspective.
Humanity has also created subtle structures that enable the varied and diverse individuals to conduct themselves side by side as a society that maintains common agreements - as mentioned these are the democracies that represent the infrastructure for the new evolutionary level that holds freedom, equality, open-mindedness, personal and mutual responsibility.
Democracies represent the sublimation process - a process of refinement that humanity is required to undergo on its journey towards the new era and the 21st century. But populist factors are trying to prevent this process from happening, and sweep the public away into an aggressive, and impulsive state of being, which destroys and suppresses - a state of being that is easier to control, manage, and maneuver in a manner that serves different interests.
Thus, we are witnessing a power struggle between the old world and the new one, while part of this is an attempt to destroy and delegitimize the infrastructures meant to pave the way to the next evolutionary level.
Destruction is often created by populist forces encouraging the public to support processes that lead to immediate satisfaction that is based on a short term perspective, which is superficial and selfish, focused on immediate results rather than seeing the long-term consequences.
A gradual evolutionary construction of systems and infrastructures is a process that requires restraint, a process of mentoring that leads to the evolution of the psyche and lifestyle, patience, long-term perspective that does not yearn for immediate gratification, but holds perseverance, diligence, introspection, and a willingness to break the stagnation and create regeneration in peaceful and gentle ways.
Throughout the history of the various civilizations that existed on planet Earth, infrastructures were often destroyed, and from the ruins, a new world was born.
But does this have to happen? Has this experience created wisdom and conclusions which protect humanity from itself and from repeating past failures time after time?
Is it necessary to run over the hard-earned democratic infrastructure that represents the high vision of human society, to grow to a new level?
Is anarchy necessary to undermine an existing situation and move to a new level of development?
Humanity often takes things for granted, appreciating and cherishing them only after they have been harshly trampled upon.
Values like freedom, equality, creativity, open-mindedness, compassion, mutual responsibility, love, and dialog are taken for granted until they no longer exist, and are replaced by limitations on our freedom, oppression, suffering, discrimination, injustice, lack of solidarity, hate, and violence.
We are seeing throughout the world an increase in forces that prefer to delegitimize and destroy the values and democratic infrastructures. This is occurring at the expense of a patient and objective process of filtering and sorting out all that has lost relevance, removing what has been corrupted, and cleansing all that has been tainted and undergone contempt.
Thus we are seeing contempt for the values of democracy, eradication of the gatekeepers, and delegitimization of the social infrastructures that were built throughout generations, all this at the altar of change and the creation of a new order.
In order to go through the darkness of this present “Middle Ages” and position ourselves upon the doorstep of a social renaissance that leads to the new step of human evolution, we must recognize that the goal does not justify the means. We need to be patient, let go of our desire for immediate gratifications, and learn to see things through a broader, long-term perspective that takes into account the results and consequences of each and every action.
We must appreciate all that has been painstakingly created over the years, and commit to uphold and prioritize values that will pave our way for a better future.
It is important that we vigorously and firmly defend the refined infrastructures created thus far - infrastructures that express enlightenment, humanism, progressive thinking, and vision.
We must understand that the values of democracy represent humanity at its best, and provide a vital infrastructure for our transition to the next evolutionary level as a heterogeneous society, where the different and diverse share a common realm based on a connection to a common truth, mutual respect, freedom, open-mindedness to the new, equality and mutual responsibility.
What we create shall become.
