Dear Freedom Rising Community
I’m watching humanity de-evolve. Humanity seems to have lost its capacity to think, reason, discern, weigh, and consider new ideas or perspectives. It appears that much of humanity has lost its mind.
There are likely many reasons for this – the COVID shot and its negative effects on the body, mind and soul. Then there
is the persistent and nefarious programming and algorithms that keeps us locked into an epistemic bubble where only our accepted thoughts and world view is reflected back to us. There is the intentional triggering of our emotions – anger, fear and outrage which impedes our ability to think rationally. And finally, the tendency to judge the other as wrong, stupid, dangerous, immoral, and even unhuman if they disagree with us.
The ICE protests in Minneapolis is one example. A
situation closer to home is the response of students and faculty at the University of British Columbia, Victoria, and the Fraser Valley to the invitation of Dr. Francis Widdowson, Dallas Brody and others to examine the claim of 215 bodies of children purportedly found at the Kamloops Residential School site.
It seems the response of an increasing number of people is outrage rather than reflection; attack rather than thoughtful debate; and censorship rather than the sharing of
information to enlighten another. The language almost immediately becomes extreme, emotionally charged, and polarizing. This emotional reactivity overrides all reasoning.
I suggest this reactivity has all the earmarks of psychological manipulation – much of which is invisible to us.
The value of free speech has been replaced by the introduction of Bill C-9 and an increasing call for censorship. The value of ‘my body, my choice’ has been replaced by ‘ the
greater good’, which is decided by the unseen and the unknown.
Now, more than ever, we need those who can engage in respectful and meaningful conversation. I suggest that what is needed now is more conversation, not less.
I believe that if we are to come through this time intact, what is needed are mentors who can be an example of the kind of person who can bring us out of this darkness.
I also believe that we need to thoughtfully
consider and articulate the kind of world we want to live in, rather than focus all of our attention on what we don’t want.
Our challenge for each of us is to be an example of the best humanity has to offer. To be a light in the darkness.
This requires humility, patience, curiosity, and for our willingness to learn to be greater than our need to be right.
We all need to rise to this
challenge.
Ted
