Civilisation consists of a gradual revelation: a development of the “will” and the revelation that no one has a “will of his own.”
Like all development, at first it seems to go in the opposite direction to the result: the development of a person is characterised by an increasing impulse to exercise his will and “impose it” on what surrounds him – and the growth in quantity and quality of the ways in which he seeks to impose what he “wants”. He considers the concessions he receives from the environment as “achievements” and “growth.”
We know that a person appears in the world as something totally dependent on what surrounds him and practically without “his own” will. This being one of the “allure” that makes those around him feel “pleasure” when taking care of him – a mandate from nature that thus ensures the survival of the species – however, one of the characteristics of the “growth” process is the search for one’s own “will” and “identity” – the ability to be able to “influence” what surrounds us with something that arises from “oneself” and is “different”. This is also expressed in a negative way – as the “ability” to say “no” or “deny” something that only “one” can contribute to- can be plastic toys at 5 years old or “toys” in the form of “recognitions” and “income” or titles or even acceptance within the “market” and basic survival a few decades later, even showing off the same gestures.
We could list or describe in detail how this development process is present in each and every person and how this type of process – it can be described in various terms and languages - is at the root of all “forms of life.” Including the “non-material” development of people – the highest to which we have access. Since a person at all stages of his life continues to play the same “game” in the form of games of “accumulation” or “power” – saying “no” is almost all the pleasure of those who base their delight in life on games of influence or status…etc. How when a person encounters another type of “game” or “authority” different from what they are used to or the circle in which they grew up, they tend to “challenge it” and say “no” in the way they are used to doing it – or not doing it at all- and upon finding a different answer, he “modifies” his tactics and discovers inside himself another “game” – influencing with “slander” or acting in a certain position “behind his back” like a “courtier”… etc. – this being an “advance” , as if he were living another type of “life” to which he was not destined – although still “unconsciously” until he could compare it with a next “grade”…etc.
But it is more important to mention that this is a “universal” pattern and that it also includes the development of societies and countries and regions. There are regions and countries that, like individuals, look to other regions as an example and seek validation. The exchange of resources and products between countries and regions follows the same “pattern” of “power” games – and denying and granting…etc. “Physical” provocations become threats of invasion and war – it is not surprising that the region destined to consciously propose development is constantly surrounded by the most “basic” form of threats and attacks and is always threatened with “denial” of resources and even denial of their very “existence” – and the most “sophisticated” games of this type are what we essentially call “diplomacy” – “protests”, “vetoes”, sanctions…-…etc.
We see how global development is exactly equivalent to the development of a person on the same terms – concession and denial, give and take, acceptance and rejection…etc. And more importantly: the objective towards which this development directs us also seems to be equivalent or “parallel”: it does not happen with everyone, but there are people in whom towards the “end”, the feeling arises that their life simply “flowed” without realising it and that they “decided”… nothing, and weresimply “flowed” without realising it and that they “decided”… nothing, and were only led like a puppet by various circumstances. Just as when a civilisation and its forms are about to “die” and “transform”, all kinds of “omens” and “symptoms” and “apathy” and “degradation” arise in what used to be the characteristics that “distinguished” it – like the fall of the “classical” world and its gradual transformation into what we today call “global village.”
But what will happen to a “global” village – “closed” in itself, like each person – when it goes through this process? It can’t be like the decline of “Rome” – unless the “barbarians” this time is an “alien invasion”, but the latter is mere “fantasy”.
In reality, after millennia of history and much blood shed and “populating” the earth with “frustration” and “pain” – in exchange for fleeting “moments” of “triumph” – the conclusion for the species seems to lean towards another type of “advance”. In essence another type of “discovery”: when a person or society “imposes” his “will,” he is not “triumphing”—in essence it is not even his “own will.”
An authentic “triumph” – individually and as a society – would be having “your own will” – or being “above” the “puppet” strings of the “automatic” calculation that moves us.
The “alien” factor will be an “alien” conscience inside everyone:
Above the calculation of receiving satisfaction “for oneself”. In essence a “negative” or placing a “screen” or “covering” over the desires – like placing ourselves under a “shadow” to be able to “see”, realising that the sun “blinds” us. To be able to see our true motivations and the need to change them – or transform them or use them in another way.
A revelation.
One of a very special kind: a revelation that clarifies that individual and global development and satisfaction are not only interdependent – as we can already begin to “see” today – but are one and the same thing. Discovering that each person, without exception, contains “everything” – even if we still cannot “see” and it seems otherwise to us.
What we can all see and know is that if we go of our own free will to where we are going anyway, the path will be faster – and “pleasant”.
Snakeeskin 