A Son's Doubts

Society ... what society?

Our identification with our society … draws itself from the common identity of the mother. I grew up in the Indic community … and related in that way with an identification in the passions … that seemed to point at a one common personality … that we shared as universal. By all accounts … it nurtured me in all the right tenets … and cultivated a love for life … viewed in relation to our oneness of common ancestry.

 

And yet when I encountered small frays … in the tight manner of beliefs held to be true … there was none to offer an explanation … or to account for it. What I encountered was denials … and where I pursued the issues … became an object of dismissal and avoidance. It began with the family … and then the workplace … and soon became a reflection of the attitude of the community I was identified with. I was soon starting to feel the dark glare of paranoia.

 

I came to quite a state of consternation. I couldn't figure why … a tradition that's supposed to be handed down for generations … should suddenly be wrong in some way. And why hasn't anyone in my community made any effort to rationalize and harmonize … the past teachings with our new world experience? As a young man growing up … I was simply exercising my curiosity about the beliefs … my family brought me into. What's wrong with that?

 

The fact  that I was in college … and came into an intensity about learning … diminished my past reliance on a little … dreaming … in my disposition. That had served not only to support my identity in the Indic community … but also to discourage too severe … a focus on its details. As the mind grew into focus … the questions simply multiplied … and soon I was in a distracted state of youthful rebelliousness … that couldn't be hidden anymore.

 

My biggest problem in getting along with my friends … was in the way … everyone seemed to close ranks in a collusion of purpose … and shared in a common disdain of anything else … that was outside of the boundaries of Indic beliefs. As I contested these self-serving positions … I was starting to feel … the decay of my little provincial sanctuary of being … and in its place … the rise of a greater universal oneness. That was no doubt fantastic … but it didn't serve my friendships … my livelihood … or my comfort of being in my home.

 

I kept telling myself … I was going to blow it. Slow down … take it easy … be practical … for the family's sake … and so forth. But it didn't hold. My notorious idealism … had pursued me from my youth … and like a best friend who relied on me … made it impossible for me to clamp down … and make excuses to myself. When my daughter was born … I came to the realization that it was too late for me to crawl back into the hole. I had to stand up … and make a difference.

 

It was then that I realized how big the world was. And I was simply one individual. But in my haste to bring a condemnation to the Indic beliefs … I had overlooked the fact that the condition of young people … everywhere in the world was the same. Each had come to the point where the mind of inquiry meets with the passion of belief … and everywhere young men were voicing the same concerns. I found it being expressed in many ways … and figured that it wasn't just me … it was the age.

 

I used to think that the elders in society were simply dismissing the issues … and substituting it with what sells. But when I came to the same age category … I started to run out of excuses. I dug in for the long haul. I used to think it must be easier for an older man to take on the Gods … the institutions of society … the policies of government … and social norms and values. I was wrong about that … but it did denote taking the responsibility for it … and certainly the risks.

 

I came to find at the end of my inquiries … that the scientific and physical view of life … is not in contradiction to the symbols and signs … of the beliefs … that the passions had cultivated over the ages. But it is new and creates a manner of denying the past views. But how long before society gets a chance to view it the same way? And before we get into more bloodshed … over the mere appearances of contradictions?

 

So after two books and about 800 articles and poems on different aspects of the inquiries … I decided that the issue needed an institutionalized support. So off I went to make a list of the growing number of ' humanity ' organizations on the web … and to present a note on how the issue needs to be tackled. So far … not too much luck. Each brings a concern to an area of inquiry … but will not go into areas … that question the basic issues of faith and the application of reason.

 

I've come to the conclusion … that my approach may be in a niche area … and would require … my own initiatives for a contribution to the cause. So I'm making a new list … this time of philanthropic organizations … that may have the interest to support … the formation of a society … that's organized to deal with specific areas … of the transformation of society from a belief-based position to that of reason and knowledge.

 

It certainly is a very big world … with interests that criss-cross at many points … but I figure I'm bound to find someone … who shares my concerns … about society's advancement in thought. Robert Frost in his poem … ' The road not taken ' … referred to the choices we all make. It reminds us that the source of our future is here in us.