We are now in the “post truth” society.
Mark Whitwell | Heart of Yoga
We are now in a post truth society. Yet a general consensus is required for human gatherings to function cooperatively.
The religious consensus of the old world has been thrown out. Even the age of reason & modern science has failed us. Many horrendous mistakes were made on the people with methods that were at the time deemed to be the “truth” in the priesthoods of science & medicine. Even the priests of the economy & public institution that we believed in, that we thought were delivering, like magical temples of religion, have failed us.
Having thrown out the consensus mechanisms that held previous societies together we entered post modernism, in which all subjective expressions of “my truth” are valid. Or equally so, nothing is true and there is no truth that you can depend upon.
At best the present social ideal is that everyone gets heard with respect. We take into account all points of view and we some how stumble along to some kind of consensus & bumbling improvement.
However that is not happening. Fueled by social media, each person’s subjective point of view of the “all is true, nothing is true” world is used as aggressive power struggles of individuals over each other, or groups over individuals & other groups.
This mind of humanity wants to know, control, own & therefore kills everything in its path. It is a culture of scapegoating, of blaming “the other” for our woes. We destroy & even kill “the other.” We have reached the point at actually killing our own ecosystems, our selves & taking down other species as we go. In 1999 David Bowie described the internet as an alien invasion that would cause extreme fragmentation of humanity. Apple and google will either save us or destroy us.
Urgently we offer another logic and consensus view of truth that will save us. The internet can deliver it. It’s this: we are alive as Life. We exist. Existence itself is a perfect wonder, vast harmonies of beauty and interdependence. That IS you. You exist. You belong here. You are utterly valid here… the only truth we need. Such an obvious fact that it is over looked. May this be the consensus upon which we gather, the integrating factor for humanity, the obvious reality in which everything is happening. The power of the cosmos they brought you here in the first place and presently sustains you. That beauty. That intrinsic harmony. May that be the obvious principle that we build our politics on from now on. The politics of non-difference. The politics of harmony in what is really happening.
And we have a cultural treasure: the Yogas of participation in the beauty, this existingness that you ARE. Let this truth be sufficient, consensus for human gathering. This embrace of our wonder will correct all that has gone wrong. It’s a promise.
Authors Bio:
Mark Whitwell has taught yoga for over three decades across the globe and is the founder of the Heart of Yoga foundation and the Heart of Yoga Peace Project. Mark Whitwell is interested in developing an authentic yoga practice for the individual, based on the teachings of T. Krishnamacharya (1888–1989) and his son TKV Desikachar (1938–2016), with whom he enjoyed a relationship for more than twenty years. Mark Whitwell is the author of four books: ‘Yoga of Heart,’ ‘The Promise,’ ‘The Hridayasutra,’ and, ‘God and Sex: now we get both.’ He also edited and contributed to his TKV Desikachar’s classic yoga text, ‘The Heart of Yoga.’ Mark Whitwell is a father of three and a grandfather. He now resides between New Zealand and Fiji, from where he teaches and writes.
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