Neo-Tribalism And The New Reality

In the sixties, many of us heard a song about the Age of Aquarius. It truly is the dawning of a new age, but what exactly are we talking about? To understand the ages, we first need to explain the procession of the equinoxes. Every 2150 years or so, the solstice moves through an age. The procession of the equinoxes slowly moves backward through the astrological signs. Each of these mega-time periods constitutes an age. The birth of Moses brought us into the age of Aries, that is why the ram's horn is still a part of jewish faith and rituals. The birth of "Christ" was the beginning of the current age, the age of Pices (that's what the fish is about). Now for those of us that are familiar with polychronic time, what I am about to say next makes perfect sense. Those less familiar with "native time", or "Indian time" may have a harder time following this. Just as the sun standstill (solstice) or the full moon energy lasts for several days, so too at the boundaries of these great ages, there are times of flux where the energies mix and match, ebb and flow, allowing the change to come and the old ways to fall away.

In our ordinary, mudane, world view, we get to the end of a (Julian calendar) year and throw away one calendar and then, just put up a new one. This year I felt out of sorts because I didn't see a single television show that had the theme, This Was The Year That Was...around the time that we change out the calendar, several things happen. Many of us make resolutions, we feel that there is a better us waiting out there somewhere and we resolve to go off in search of it. Some, reflect on the joys and sorrows that came and went in the passed year. Still, others look to family and friends for their annual infusion of cheer and cameradiere. Most of us do a combination of all of ther above. Likewise, in the hundred or so years around the end of one age and the beginning of the next, there are serious upheavals, new ways of reconing with our world view and new resolutions made that lead to better ways of living. Most of the strides that humanity has made in the past age have come with terrible costs. It is tuly now or never when it comes to trying to find new ways of behaving that will be sustainable if humanity is to make it through the next age.

I certainly will not be around to see the dawning of the next age, but seven generations down the line, my children's children's children will be looking at the world in the midst of another great upheaval wondering how they made it through the trials of hteir own day. With luck,and insight and great creativity, I think that we have a fighting chance at coming together under a new banner, that of world citizens and find our way into the new age with relatively little trauma and a minimum of growing pains.
anyone familiar with my writings knows of my utter dissapointment with the prevailing belief that humans are inherently greedy, self-centered and "brutish". Science has now proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that children are magnanamous, compassionate and giving, until they face hostility, neglect or abuse. Is it any wonder that we developed a whole philosophy on the concept of dog eat dog logic? Allowing ourselves to act terribly without fear of repraisal because, we say, we are "hard wired" to be brutish is something that I have had very little tolerance for my entire life. Abject poverty and lack of moral character are only correlated statistically because the higher classes just put on a better game face while they lie about their experiences and behaviors.

Another thing that many of us still hold on to from the past, that needs to find it's way to our cultural dust bin is the notion of Calvinists that bad people, making bad choices because of questionable morals is at the heart of why we have lower classes in ther first place. I grew up priveleged, and I know it. I was a poor white male and I was able to do far more than almost all of my friends who were either women or minorities. Now that the white male is becoming a threatened sub-group, they may soon find out the hard way what minorities have known for centuries. Much of what the old way of doing things led to was perpetration of lies, deciet and haterd that has flowed through generations like a blinding poison that cripples the majority for the beneift of a few.

Neo-tribalism is alive in the slow foods movement, foodies from all over the world are now concerned about where their food comes from and the quality of life that their farmers enjoy. It is alive in the environmental movement, where concerned individuals want to increase the quality of life for all people by saving resources and energy so that others can have a more sustainable life while they meet their own needs with less consumptive behavior. Tribes are forming around shared ideals, new ways of studying the world around us, new ways of thinking and the many new ways that we choose to communicate and interact. In these times it is not enough to weild a sword over some serf's head and tell them what part they are to play in the unfolding of your world. Mutual respect and cooperative action may be the difference between success and failure. I have always been curious about several religious sects who dissolve their affiliations with approximately half of their community whenever the community grows to about three hundred individuals. The new tribes will most surely organize along similar lines. It is hard to get away with anything in a community of 150-300. Anyone who has lived in a small town knows that. as we usher in The Age Of Aquarius, let us take time to consider well, both those things that make life, and living it, worthwhile and those that bring anguish and lack to the majority of our population. All things must pass, as George Harrison once said, let us choose which will be the first to go!