Hoping for A New History

By the Law of Periodical Repetition, everything which has happened once must happen again and again and again — and not capriciously, but a regular periods, and each thing in its own period, not another’s, and each obeying its own law. The eclipse of the sun, the occultation of Venus, the arrival and departure of the comets, the annual shower of stars — all these things hint to us that the same Nature which orders the affairs of the earth. Let us not underrate the value of that hint.

Mark Twain

   True, without falsehood, certain and most true, that which is above is the same as that which is below, and that which is below is the same as that which is above, for the performance of miracles of the One Thing.

Hermes

Okay, a little philosophy (sprinled with some mystical crap and some “science fiction!”)for a Monday morning (here on the left coast.)

Twain cites nature, Hermes tells us that we too, as much as we try to deny it, are a part of nature, a part of the cosmos…and that thus we follow the same laws. Patterns repeat, reality is circular, the earth, the planets and the stars wheel round and round in their set and well grooved tracks until… they don’t. Because evolution is linear.

We all know (or are) people who repeat the same patterns of behavior or thought in their lives, doing the same thing, making the same mistakes, again and again. Until finally, one day, they don’t. Until they learn the pattern that they are repeating well enough to see it clearly, and then and only then, have the power to change it, until due to some revelation or some sort of lifechanging shock, they learn and grow and evolve. As above, so below. Societies, history, the human race all follow the same pattern. We do the same thing until something changes, until we as a species learn and grow…and change. Until we evolve, pulling us out of the circle and putting us on a straight line to a new future, a new (though still circular)reality. A new, when we look back at the repetitive process and see the change from that perspective, history.

But while we are ‘stuck’ in the circular pattern, things are not static. We still progress within that circle. The world and the planet and the stars still turn…..  

(Mystical crap alert, with cheesy random google link!) 49. Seven CYCLES of seven years ago an exciting young vibrant soon-to-be President emerged on the scene. And though he met with much resistance due to his youth, untestedness and ‘Otherness,’ (the first non-Presbyterian President) in spite of all these obstacles, in spite of massive resistance to the change he represented, he was eventually elected.

It was a new and very scary time, The Cold War, the first time that mankind’s endless wars could truly destroy life as we know it for the whole planet. The first time humanity truly had the ability to destroy itself completely. We faced a truly existential threat. America was in a period of repression, a repression of thought and freedom due to McCarthyism. A period of rigidly enforced societal conformity (Eisenhowerism, the Leave it to Beaver years) and conservatism due to the existential threat, as well as the reaction to the recent devastating World War and the Great Depression that preceded it. Existence was thought to be threatened not just by the specter of nuclear war, but America’s capitalist system was under assault by a rival system, Communism. America’s religious foundation (still incredibly strong in the pre 1960’s explosion of free thought and the prevalence of science) was under assault by the Godless Commies too.

And yet in spite of…or perhaps because of….this VERY new and scary world, enough people, BARELY enough people, chose to strike out in a new direction, instead of retreating to the comforting past of conformity and Republican/Conservative rule.

Kennedy was elected over Nixon and Camelot was born. A new, fresh, unique and vibrant energy was unleashed. Represented most and most lastingly by the Apollo Program, the race for the moon…and by inescapable implication, the stars themselves. That piece of a new future was initiated by Kennedy himself. But at the same time this new vibrant creative energy was bursting out all over, in the prelude to the explosion of change in what we think of as ‘the 60’s.’

In art, in science, (the leaps made in science at that time COMPLETELY changed the world as we know it in fundamental ways, examples provided on request) in the quest for equality and freedom represented by the Civil Rights Movement, in the nascent emergence of women from societal and reproductive ‘bondage’ to the past. In the freedom and creativity of thought itself, a new era was being born. After an intense period of fear and repression, a truly creative energy emerged. Virtually exploded. Our new and modern world emerged…a new LINE of reality broke the old circular patterns. From those changes, from that explosion, the very different world we know today emerged.

And then…..Kennedy was shot. It is easy and facile….and in my opinion true…to say that he was killed as a reaction to this new world that was emerging. Out of fear of this new world and it’s ‘evolutionary’ leaps. Even though he was ‘just’ a symbol of it, his death was a huge shock to this new world, it changed it in ways we can never understand. Johnson carried on his work and created the Great Society. The freedom of thought and creativity of the era continued to explode. But it eventually turned ugly, in Vietnam, in race riots, in the quashing of the MOST vibrant expression of the energy of that time, The Peace and Love Movement of the Hippies and their imitators in the New Generation.

(Disclaimer/clarification) Kennedy did not create all of this, he did not DO all of this, he was ‘just’ a symbol. History did all of this, or fate, or whatever you want to call ‘it.’ Obama will not DO it either, he is also ‘just a symbol’

(Science Fiction Alert!) But what if Kennedy had lived? Would he have aborted the tragedy of Vietnam, as Johnson deeply regretted not doing? Would MLK have been killed, and the spark of race riots been damped by his continuing calming presence and the advancement of equality? Would the hippies NOT have fractured and become (some of them) political radicals?

Would the Conservative backlash that culminated in George Bush, and all that he has represented and wrought, have occurred?

The point to all this meandering being of course, that there are unignorable parallels to our current situation. It is almost as if a cycle of history is repeating itself. It is almost as if a new iteration of that cycle has revolved around to the same point. A period of repression followed by the emergence of a new leader…perhaps representing and symbolizing a new era of creativity that is desperately needed to overcome the existential threats we face both on the world and personal scale. (Climate Crisis, the destructive manifestations of religious fundamentalism, the denial of individualism and personal freedom, etc.)

Could it be possible that we are on the edge of some new age that will change our world as much as the creative and explosive wave of the sixties did?

And what happens if THIS time…….that new and vibrant and transformative leader and symbol of change is NOT snuffed out?

What if, instead of some shock propelling us back into the old patterns of conflict and conservation of the past (Conservatism/Republicanism) and Progress towards the future, propelling us back into a circular repeating cycle or pattern…what if that line can continue? Continue unabated and undisturbed into the future.

What if, this time, instead of repeating the cycle of history, we create a new history?

What are the possibilities for the future then? IS it possible that Obama represents and symbolizes (no pressure Barack, lol) a new world, a new phase, a new line to a new future?

Is that possible???

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Naaaaw, hahaha, I am just a dreamer….