The "long-suppressed psyche" Ventura speaks of is the subconscious desires that shape our actions. The desires of the psyche that are present in our dreams are now present in the world because of technology, which we created in order to bring our dreams into reality. We spend our lives dealing with the responsibilities of the car, house, appliances, all things that are actually nothing more than physical manifestations of our own psyches, living proof that the "human psyche is one of the great forces of Nature."
We created this society because we wanted it, and now that we have the technology to make all our dreams come true, we cling to it and watch others scramble to gain the affluence we take for granted. The "westernization" of the world is often bemoaned as the sacrifice of unique, indigenous culture to the cheap pleasures of Coca-Cola and denim jeans, but in order for a culture to be such a powerful influence on foreign societies the way ours has, people must want it. Ventura writes that
..As individuals, we feel that our contemporary anti-environment has been forced upon us. But...we made this world. And, both individually and collectively, we've eagerly welcomed each separate manifestation of this collective change. The radio, television, telephone, fax machine, VCR, computer, light bulb, airplane, car--all the building blocks of contemporary life, which manifest in reality what had only been dreams and myths--have been seized upon everywhere in the world. It is not enough to blame this on capitalism or consumerism. The very eagerness of the world's embrace of this hallucinogenic technology by the most different sorts of peoples is evidence of the deepest longing.
So we long to bring our psyches into the world, and go to extremes to accomplish our dreams. But we still need boundaries. Humans cannot live in limitless freedom; boundaries are needed so that we know our limits and can act accordingly. Since the world we've created is increasingly boundless, we try to find limits in religion, politics, love, and often work tirelessly for the "principles" we believe in. Liberals and conservatives quarrel over whose morality should be made law, but they all use the same technology to further their cause. Groups which would otherwise find themselves frequently engaged in opposition or defense of principle(s) are fundamentally alike if only in their participation in the collective American dream we have created. This is because the content of the subconscious is basically the same, notwithstanding cultural differences. Technology is universal because it draws from the same human subconscious that creates all universal phenomenon, such as religion, sex and politics.
"We are standing in a storm of our own being," Ventura writes. We all live in our heads, and thus wherever we go we create an environment to match. Could the entire meaning of human life simply be to manifest the human psyche? then our society is nothing more than a vehicle of fantasy, and the term "reality" no longer has a separate meaning. The insanities of American society (senseless violence, materialism, greed, abuse along with every other "social problem") have to be there, for they are facets of the dream fleshed out in reality. For our fantasies have become our reality, our reality nothing more than our fantasies--the previously unattainable dreams of the human psyche manifested for the first time in the outer world.
Andrea Strnad wrote about New Zealand in Lies #14. She can be reached at: hw179@cleveland.freenet.edu
Quotes from Letters at 3AM: Reports on Endarkenment
by Michael Ventura
©1993 Spring Publications
http://www.neca.com/~spring
spring@neca.com
return to the subbasement.