parable of conundrums and quagmires
Not solving a riddle can sometimes lead directly to a quagmire, but when a society is faced with a multiplicity of conundrums, the quagmire can only lead to the precipice, at which we fall headlong in the chasm. The dire situations facing the world today, are, for most people, and especially the so called best minds, overwhelming. This is revealed in the political world that is paralyzed by the left/right paradigm of ideological dogmatism and party loyalty that turns people into sycophants of the worse kind, to the degree common sense makes no sense, especially as per the consent of the governed whose cares and woes are most often irrelevant to the politically engaged.
It is the height of tragedy to see that people must suffer for the political expediency of parties, e.g., Democratic and/or Republican. Surely, it does not matter to people living in tents under overpasses whether they are relieved from their suffering by Democrats or Republicans. This only matters to, yes, Democrats and Republicans!
No matter how dire the situation, Democrats will not seek nor accept funds from the Republicans to assist the homeless simply because it is not politically correct. So there is no help for the man robbed and bleeding on the highway unless a neutral party comes along such as the good Samaritan. Since common sense has been long gone from this situation, is there any wonder the people are overwhelmed at their inability to solve the conundrums of their lives and thus endure the quagmire as they stand at the precipice preparing to leap headlong into the chasm!
Denial is pervasive with those trapped in conundrums, many have no idea how severe their situation is until the concrete wall hits them squarely on the head cracking their skull. Wow, they say, on the way to the emergency room, wow! Maybe they were texing in their car or texing while walking when they hit the wall, but hit it they did and now the doctors must try to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. Humpty tries to convince the doctors he was awoke when the wall hit him--of course he didn't hit the wall! When the good Samaritan who saw him hit the wall visited him at the hospital and tried to convince him what happened, the poor patient persisted in denial until the Samaritan departed in disgust.
Is there any wonder why we are consumed in the quagmire and stand at the precipice? In our arrogance, we dare not step back but leap forward flying through the air into the chasm until we hit rock bottom, breaking our bones and are no more.
But death itself is no reprieve for the Miller Lite life we lived and the response to freeing ourselves from the conundrums and quagmires, so even from the grave, we must apologize to our children for leaving them steeped in the madness of our making or not liberating ourselves from said madness but passing the toxic baton onto their generation for resolution that is all but impossible without the deep structure knowledge they sorely lack which is our ancestral wisdom, thus forcing them to sadly reinvent the wheel of misfortune.
Even when some are fortunate enough to connect with ancestral wisdom, denial appears and the youth refuse to admit that somewhere down the line our fathers and mothers went blind! Tradition is wonderful except the reactionary elements that persist into the present and linger into the future. This is precisely why we suffer such abominable conundrums and quagmires. We must examine the deep structure of our myth-rituals and delete the excesses that lead us into the world of make believe. The structure of our male/female relations based on domination and steeped in religiosity must be expelled from human consciousness or more precisely, human unconsciousness!
But few are willing to make such revolutionary changes often due to the privileges and perks in these power relationships. As per women, they often linger in abusive situations because they become addicted to the "golden handcuffs"! They will suffer verbal, mental and physical abuse of the worse kind to maintain a life-style of conspicuous consumption, and the children as well. One woman said, "I know I'm just a whore in the disguise of a wife!
Unless and until we are willing to make a great leap forward, not into the chasm but the upper room of human consciousness, things shall remain the same. I say the tide is turning because you are turning the tide! Al Qur'an says, "If you flee in the name of Allah, you shall find many places of escape and abundant resources."
--marvin x
10/21/17
Author of 30 books, internationally known poet, playwright, philosopher, freedom fighter Marvin X is known by many names throughout his half century of writing and activism. He is known as Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland (Ishmael Reed); the USAs Rumi, Saadi, Hafiz (Bob Holman); a master teacher in many fields of thought, one of America's great story tellers, I'd put him ahead of Mark Twain even! (Rudolph Lewis).
One of the founders of the Black Arts Movement and most recently of Oakland's Black Arts Movement Business District, Marvin X is noted in the African American Museum of History at the Smithsonian, Washington, DC. His archives were acquired by the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, where he once lectured and worked as a researcher. He's also taught at San Francisco State University, Fresno State University, University of California, San Diego, Mills College and the University of Nevada, Reno, Laney and Merritt Colleges.
Marvin X has received writings awards from Columbia University, National Endowment for the Arts and planning grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities. He speaks and colleges and universities coast to coast.
Marvin X with students at the University of California, Merced, Kim McMillan's class on theatre.
Instructor McMillan says her students love Marvin and his writings, especially his play Flowers for the Trashman, a BAM classic. See Black Fire and the BAM reader SOS.
Marvin X is now available for speaking and performance. See the video Marvin X in Concert: www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com Contact him at mxjackmon@gmail.com