Newspapers are great hunting grounds for those
interested in collective psychological phenomena. Whenever I am traveling, it
is part of my morning cafe & croissant ritual- to read local newpapers in
order to feel the pulse and
get a sense on
how evolution of the human spirit is progressing in that particular time &
space field.
Today, as I was reading El Pais -Spain’s principal
daily newpaper/ periodico –I hit upon
a poignant heading on the very last page (always the Piscian page of a paper,
ending the cylce).. It quoted a contempary French philosopher said the
following (of course in Spanish):
Podemos vivir mucho mechor con mucho menos
.
This would translate to:
We can live much better with much less.
Not that I want to start a dogmatisk muesli discussion
here, but:
that man has a really
good point. Not just ecologically speaking, but also in regard to the general
relationship of the material world and the psyche.
It was reminded about one of the major prevailing
collective misunderstanding that a reduction
of consumption and ”having” will in consequence entail a reduction of
qualitiy of Living, or quality of Life.
What a fatal
misconception. And somewhat typical of the unredeemed aspects of our
time-space, as people in general have a hard time differentiating between quantity
and quality, content and form. That is
why people cry ” oh, no ! I can’t do with LESS ! I always must have more. ”
That is the credo of consumerism. And credo
means: belief. Collective belief systems….
Most people live their lifes unconsciously out of
the assumption that more (=quantity) is
better (=quality). That’d really be like
mixing up organic apples from a wild tree with computers from Sicicon Valley. (Personally, I have eaten organic apples in
Silicon Valley, but that is a totally different story…)
In the type of
(trans-)personal psychology I have been developing over the years (or rather:
decade, if not: incarnations ), I find it more and more meaningful to help
people bring consciousness into the quality aspects of their Life. Even though
that may sound a bit pathetic, this work is really about making the shift from
quantity paradigm to quality. Simple examples: one glass of really good wine is
much better –on all levels- than four. Or: being really present with your child
for five minutes can be a lot more
meaningfull that five hours without really connecting. Etc.
I am relatively sure that is will be one of the major paradigm
shifts that will occur in the near future. In fact, it is already happening on many
levels. More and more people will realise how they can live with much less AND
at the same time have a better – i.e:
happier, more fullfilled, more sense-making- Life, overall.