🔼: [[The Modern World]] #### We live in a traumatized world [[💡 Trauma|Trauma]] is the water we swim in, we’re born into it. The remembered and forgotten traumas and tragedies our ancestors endured exist in the present in the form of [[🪨 Inherited Burdens]] and they abound and compound with time. With so many [[💡 Burdens 🪨|unhealed wounds]], with so much inner and outer [[💡 Polarization|polarization]] the state of the world makes perfect sense. [[🔑 Our parts influence other people]]. We brush against one another's [[💡 Exiles|Exiles]], our [[💡 Protector Parts|Protectors]] eventually [[💡 Polarization|polarize]], and the [[💡 Vicious Cycle|vicious cycle]] continues. Generations of unhealed trauma yield traumatizing societies grounded in a traumatized world view – [[💡 Parts|Parts]] see the world through the lens of their [[💡 Burdens 🪨|Burdens]] and those same burdens drive both day-to-day and world-altering decisions. [[💡 Protector Parts|Protectors]] are running the world. > “_In my view, this is a society that traumatizes people by its very nature. And to recognize the impact of trauma is to question the very essence of this particular culture_.” > — [[👤 Gabor Maté]] Our traumatized and traumatizing culture of hyperproductivity and rigid individualism: 1. conflates the value of our doings with the value of our being 2. treats us exclusively as individual mono-minds. 3. prioritizes competition over [[⭐️ Community]], denying our [[💡 Interdependence|interdependence]] This combination creates and perpetuates several problems, and our [[💡 Protector Parts|Protectors]] try to manage them in the only way they know how. ##### Traumatic by Nature To live in a society which requires a human being who never asked to be born to somehow earn their right to live is on its own traumatic. It creates a baseline level of [[🛡️ Dissociation|dissociation]] — a feeling of separateness from our [[⭐️ Emotions|emotions]], from our [[⭐️ Body|bodies]], from other people, from life, from the Earth. We are all so chronically stressed that the western world considers [[🧘 Mindfulness Meditation]] relaxing despite the fact that it is effortful. The constant struggle to have our basic needs met gives our [[💡 Protector Parts|Protectors]] a psychological hair-trigger. The sensory overload of information and provoking news stories bombards us constantly until our Protectors are forced to pull us inward and numb us against them. They work tirelessly to keep us safe, but a suit of armor isolates as much as it protects. When we tune out our inner and outer experience, we by extension tune out other people. This makes authentic [[☀️ Connection]] almost impossible, while forgetting (or never realizing) who we are beneath the armor is almost inevitable. With air and noise pollution, the constant bombardment of digital and real-world advertising in concrete jungles of identical homes arranged with tight efficiency and insulated from the rest of the world, it's easy to forget that we even share the Earth with other species, never mind that they outnumber us. Political, moral, and ethical binaries are fed to us constantly: - Are smartphones good or bad? - Is this politician good or evil? - Are they in it for themselves or really trying to help? - Man or woman? - Left or Right? - Yes or no? [[💡 Black-and-White Thinking|Black-and-White Thinking]] is a [[Symptoms of Unresolved Trauma|symptom of unresolved trauma]] and a sure sign of rigid [[💡 Protector Parts|Protectors]] who lack the [[☀️ Clarity]] and [[☀️ Creativity]] of [[💡 Presence|Presence]]. ###### The Medicalization of Trauma [[🔑 Protectors are dedicated to maintaining their idea of safety, balance and homeostasis]], so instead of addressing widespread distress and trauma, we compensate for it on a macro level. Problems are often ignored until our [[💡 Protector Parts|Protectors]] struggle to keep us afloat to the point that they disrupt our ability to work. At this point, we are medicalized and [[Medical Conditions and Diagnoses|diagnosed]] with dysfunctions, disorders, and mental illnesses or shamed or both. Our societies of rigid individualism largely ignore the impacts of our living and working conditions and trauma histories – we're just sick. If I can medicalize you, I can *treat you*, which means nothing needs to change except *you*. But [[🔑 there is nothing wrong with us]]. [[🔑 Most therapy modalities are Protector trainings]]. Our traumatized societies create health care systems and insurance companies which deprioritize healing and liberation in favor of using medications and therapy modalities to give our [[💡 Protector Parts|Protectors]] enough of a toolkit that we can function well enough to get back to work. The status quo continues as normal – because it feels safer and is less scary than the alternative. Our well-being has been commodified and packaged to us in ignorance (or negligence) of the fact that we live in a traumatized world. In the age of BetterHelp, our mental healthcare primarily exists to teach us to adjust to a human-made world that is psychologically, physically, and spiritually harmful to both humans and non-humans. Our world is both traumatized and traumatizing. Meanwhile Self-Help is a multi-billion dollar industry, and even resources for therapists are filled with nauseating exploitation and manipulative marketing. Employers routinely warp [[🕯️ Mindfulness|mindfulness]] into a self-numbing tool to "help" workers cope with their conditions and increase productivity. Popular therapy modalities and life philosophies teach us to accept things as they are when they *could* be better. Today many of our most profitable products and services (entertainment, food, drugs and alcohol) are made for and by [[💡 Protector Parts|Protectors]]. In turn many of our laws, policies, and political movements (ie “the War on Drugs”) are examples of external [[💡 Polarization|polarizations]] leading to the [[💡 Exiles|exiling]] of millions of people. This escalation only forces the other side to become more extreme. ##### Moving Forward The question is not "Who do we blame?" because [[🔑 we are all blameless]]. The question is "What are we, together, going to do now?" The Guide is my first imperfect attempt at an answer, and there are millions of others offering answers of their own. After spending close to 20 years blended with judgmental and misanthropic protectors, and thanks to the [[☀️ Clarity]] I attained through this ordeal, I can sincerely say that I believe in the future. I want fewer transactional relationships, less score-keeping, less competition; I want more solidarity, more [[⭐️ Community]], more [[☀️ Vulnerability|Vulnerability]], more looking after one another, more kindness for the sake of it. I am a long way from fully embodying this, but I also believe in the possibility – I've tasted it. For now, I believe that the most empowering way I can help build such a world is to take every available opportunity to behave as if I already live in it, while knowing full-well that I am taking major risks. [^1]: