cracks in the cultural trance

In the prologue of David Kortens' new book he writes:

...the power of the institutions of economic and political domination depends on their ability to perpetuate a falsified and inauthentic cultural trance based on beliefs and values at odds with reality. Break the trance, replace the values of an inauthentic culture with values of an authentic culture grounded in a love of life rather than a love of money, and the people will realign their life energy and bring forth the life-serving institutions of a new era. The key is to change the stories by which we define ourselves.

This is the same trance that Richard Moore so eloquently detailed in his "Escaping the Matrix" that I reviewed back in February.

This week's NZ Herald World section offered a headline: "Coming Next: Fake news from the USA" - a wonderful expose of the Video News Clips being produced by government and big business which is being passed off as official news. See Orwell Rolls in His Grave for George Orwell's insight into this process.

In the same paper was a funny-if-it-wasn't-so-sad description of a new marketing tool being used to sell homes in America. The vendors employ actors to play out the perfect suburban husband wife and two kids scenario that some prospective buyers, while knowing it is an illusion, are so moved they want to buy the home - buy the illusion!

The illusion is delicious, consoling, comforting, and beguiling, but it keeps us in a trance. Let's learn the truth and then we can tell each other a different story - one about a culture with a different set of values. Values of love, nurturing, support, the arts, creativity, sharing, partnership. This is a culture that existed before, and which we must surely return to if we are to enjoy a future on this fragile planet we call earth.