The Media - and Faith - and how we ended up in the AGE OF CONSPIRACY.
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Man orients himself toward what he believes is true.
It has always been this way.
We have always needed a map of reality. Something we could trust. Something we could align ourselves with. Something that could tell us what was up and down, right and wrong. What worked - and what didn't.
For thousands of years that map came in the form of sacred texts of various kinds. They constituted man's best attempt to capture and record the Truth - not just about God, but about life itself.
About the rhythms of existence. About the patterns that again and again proved to be real, and which it was therefore wise to align oneself with.
They told us how we lived in accord with nature. When to sow, and when to reap. How we built a home, a society, a tribe. How we treated each other. How we balanced our drives, our anger, our longings. How one was man and how one was woman - and how one complemented the other, if one wished to survive nature's relentless pressure and oppressive force. How we found meaning - and avoided madness.
And it was not because people back then were stupid or naive. On the contrary.
They KNEW that a single human being was not wise enough to figure it all out alone.
They understood that they were a small part of a much larger cycle - and that survival required listening to the experiences that had been gathered and passed down through generations.
Therefore they also worshipped the Light from which this insight came.
Not necessarily the Sun or the God as physical object - but the Light that made it possible "to see".
To understand.
To live rightly.
In accord with nature's great and small patterns.
But today…
Today we have - at least momentarily - abandoned the idea of a creating God who delivers a usable map.
We have thrown away the compass and said.
"I am wiser. I'll find my own way."
And as replacement many have instead oriented themselves toward the media - as substitute.
Not consciously, of course - but because Man has a NEED for a guiding principle it orients, navigates and arranges its life according to.
Meaning toward TV, radio, news, podcasts, magazines, articles, feeds. This is where most people today attempt to understand the world and find direction. This is where they look to find out when to be afraid, when to be hopeful, when to invest, buy, sell, flee, share, speak up or shut up.
This especially applies to people without faith - meaning without a spiritual higher reference point. They have used the media as previous eras' people used scripture - as a marker for Truth.
And it actually looked as though this functioned for a long period in the postwar era.
Our collective challenge - and what many are sensing these years - is just that the map has increasingly become problematic. Inaccurate. Unstable.
Yes, increasingly directly unusable as an orientation and navigation tool for understanding.
Part of the explanation is perhaps that it no longer seems as though people enter the media to enlighten. To find and convey truth. To help people see clearly.
But instead that one increasingly chooses to become a journalist because one wants to change the world. Fight for a cause. An agenda. A mission. One does not merely want to reflect reality - one wants to shape it. Push on it. Twist the mood. Advance a particular development.
From describing what happens in the world.
To - WHAT YOU SHOULD FEEL AND THINK about what happens in the world.
And perhaps therefore many experience that the media to far too great a degree has transformed from watchdog to loudspeaker.
From being the fourth estate - critical, independent, investigative - to being a megaphone for power. A PR department for Authority. A defender of the system and its ideological premises.
That hammers away and talks down to - and about - people who ask perfectly ordinary questions.
And people sense this. They know it well, even when they cannot put words to it.
It leads to the unfortunate result.
Distrust.
A massive, creeping, all-consuming distrust. A feeling that there is no longer anything one can rely on. That all narratives are potentially false. That nothing longer feels secure.
We knew it well with politicians.
And partly with parts of the business world.
With the media - those who were supposed to work for the people?
And that is dangerous. Because without truth as reference point, people begin to drift. They float. They become nervous. They become angry. They become afraid. For where else should they go?
Where is the truth?
That is the question that lies smouldering under EVERYTHING in this time.
We live in the age of conspiracy.
And it is destroying us.
We must take it seriously.
Because people cannot live without something to align themselves with. Without something that is greater than themselves. Without something they can trust.
Therefore we must return.
As the most natural - in my understanding - to the insights of spiritual science and therefore the source of truth.
But equally as much to a reporting and description of reality in the media that reflects an image freed from ideological wishes and activist undercurrents.
Whatever this requires from the executive corridors and editor-in-chief's chair.
Back to the light that makes it possible to see.
❤️🔥🪽
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Good morning from today's regular morning exercise.
If I were to give personal advice - here in the middle of life - it would be to seek out the timeless wisdom that has been passed down to us. Attempt to understand its patterns - and how it bids us arrange ourselves - what leads to love, freedom, strength, beauty, health, suppleness and prosperity - inside and out.
You can take that, if you feel you need more of it. It has worked for me.
