I am not in the habit of getting political. I may not be too happy about what’s happening in the world right now (ok, admittedly that is a bit of an understatement), but I have also never felt called to comment on it directly, mostly because I do feel rather discouraged by it, by the way how people at the top seem to manage to rather consistently ignore the fact that the world is moving towards crisis…
I have no answers (which is why I do not tend to write about this). But this morning, Cernnunnos asked me to share this message with you. Let me echo its first lines: I am not intending to preach. I honestly do not care about whether you agree with me or not, or whether you believe me when I claim Cernunnos as the source of this message. I simply ask you to take a moment for introspection. How does all of this make you feel? What would the implication be if we all did just that: stop the cognitive dissonance, and start becoming truly aware of the state of the world we live in? What if we would be brave enough to accept that the future starts here and now?
This message comes from Cernunnos. I encourage anyone who reads this to make up their own mind. I do not care whether or not you believe I exist, or what the real source of this message is. I don’t even care whether you agree with it or not. What I care about is that you stop being complacent and at least make sure you actually have an opinion.
I am not going to argue about whether or not climate change is real. You are living in this world. You can make up your own mind about that. I do not need to do that for you.
I want this post to be about something else. About the way politicians are using this threat in ways that suit them best. That may mean denying there is a problem at all. That may mean accepting there is a problem, but framing it in such a way that it becomes not their concern, instead pointing towards others as the ones who will have to deal with it. Or they use it as an excuse to win elections, knowing full well that they will not be able to do anything afterwards and hence not truly caring about an actual solution.
Do I sound too cynical to you? Am I making it seem as if the situation is hopeless anyway and the whole political system is a fraud? Perhaps I am. Perhaps I am wrong. But I am scared by what I see. I see a lot of ordinary people genuinely caring about the problems in the world, and I see a lot of world leaders who are frankly doing all they can to avoid listening to them, claiming that business as usual is far more important than trying to bring about the change the world so badly needs right now.
I am not saying they are bad people. I am not saying they do not care. I know many do, on a personal level. But there seems to be a strange mechanism going on that ensures that, as soon as they gain actual power, they are bound by ‘common sense’, an illness that ensures that trying to actually think about the future gets drowned out by concerns about the here and now, and all too often by concerns that are manufactured and are only there because that is what people want to see.
People are afraid of change, and so we will protect them from change. That is what seems to be the general consensus amongst politicians now. We will try to make sure that the world remains predictable and looks exactly like the one your grandparents lived in. For if the future looks exactly like the past, then at least we know how to deal with it, at least then we know which recipes to apply when problems arise.
Yet I have to disappoint you and them. The world is not a static place. The world of your grandparents is not the world of today, nor will it be the world of the future. The world is not a place that is static and clear and obeys economical theories that were invented centuries ago. Thinking that it is like that is as if you are lemmings jumping of a cliff, assuming that it will probably be safe to do so because the person running in front of you does not seem to show any hesitation in jumping.
Think. Take a moment to take a step back from the cliff edge. This is the challenge that is presented to your kind today. The fact that the future will have to be different from the past. That there is simply no other way. That the only truly progressive thing to do is to accept that fundamental necessity for change, and then begin to think how you can ride that wave in a way that brings you to a better future rather than a one that is worse.
Think about how opening up to the possibility of a radically different way of living can actually serve to free you from the obsessions of the past rather than make the future impossible.
A lot of things are sliding right now. And that is scary. But allow them to give you hope, in the realization that they will make some radical changes unavoidable. In the realization that they will force you to open your eyes and look truth in the eye. In the realization that sometimes being forced to face our fears and growing into adults is the biggest gift we will ever receive.
So see this as a time of initiation. A time of renewal. A time of hope. Learn to love your enemies, and thank them for the way that they are actually bringing the future forward without recognizing it.
Whatever you do, be present. This is not a good time to sleepwalk through life.
Wandering the woods 