So often, society’s ‘party line’ is completely backward, isn’t it?
And we kinda know it.
We sense the Orwellian quality of, let’s say, our food system. Or our money system. Or our military-industrial-complex-mess-of-a-system. Here’s a few examples of recent party lines we’ve lived by, vs the realities we’ve later discovered.
Party line: GMOs are good; we can feed more people. Truth: GMOs (& the pesticides used with them) increase soil toxicity and depletion, yielding less food & more disease.
Party Line: There was a real estate & financial boom (2006-2007). Truth: It was an inflated bubble, created by financial gamblers.
Party Line (a silly personal one here): Acne is caused by too much oil on the skin, so we should dry the skin out. Truth: Putting oil on the face cues the skin to make less oil (a revelation, in my 40s!)
Party Line: We need a ‘cure’ for cancer. Truth: We need a prevention for cancer. Poisoned land and water (and even cancer treatment itself) have been found to be direct contributors.
Party Line: We must fight terrorists (in Iraq, Libya, Syria). Truth: The U.S. has been the main terrorizer the last 50 years. The citizens in these countries did not want our intervention.
These are pretty dark examples. But, as we know, there have been much darker party lines throughout history. Horribly dark, painfully untrue storylines that had nothing to do with reality; party lines about whole human groups, drawn with no regard or understanding for those being labeled and completely dehumanized.
Party lines, tragically, can get to this very backward, very 1984 place: War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength.
And, from my list above: Killing is Growing. Money is Debt. Poisoning is Healing.
Why/how did Orwell predict this increasing backward-ness of what we see in our mainstream media? Where do these party lines come from? And how did they get SO off base from reality, so backward?
This has happened to almost all of us in our personal lives, hasn’t it? Some aspect of our life has gone ‘dystopian,’ at one point or another.
Because even a small distortion of reality, uncorrected, has the potential to go all the way to insanity. It can’t go anywhere else, really, over time. Imagine it’s literally a line. I’m driving from New York to San Francisco. If I stray from the true line (I follow my drunken uncle’s short cut), I don’t get to San Francisco. In fact, if I could drive across the globe, my trip to San Fran would eventually lead me in the opposite direction—back to New York.
Thus, bumpy skin in my 40s. GMOs & pesticides hurting more people than feeding them. And, right now, parts of the ‘antiracism’ trend …well, frankly, kinda racist (see a criticism from John McWhorter, a black linguist, here).
But there’s actually so much good that comes out of being backward. When things get truly backward, we start exploring the foundations we live by. For instance, the messiness of my marriage (based, in part, on the party line I believed: ’marry your best friend’) got me to explore my most fundamental beliefs about marriage and partnership, and about myself. It got me to clean out so much conditioning. I remember seeing my husband clearly one day. ‘Oh!’ ‘He’s just one of my best friends.’ No spin, no romantic/marriage storyline on top of the truth of that. It was so refreshing.
I remember watching a performance artist do a piece she attributed to Yoko Ono—she spent 15-20 minutes interacting with a bentwood chair. The artist flipped it, laid down with it, grabbed the legs and put it on top of her head. She eventually sat down on the chair and proclaimed “Yes. This is the best way.”
This exploration of a simple chair—discovering for one’s self what it is—well, it’s revolutionary.
It’s not accepting the party line.
And I’m seeing this. I’m seeing a deep exploration of health, including the health of the planet, with COVID 19. Some folks are talking basics again—Who are we? What do we really need in life? What is health? And what, exactly, is a virus?
We are in a deep exploration of our systems, as they have been upended. We are asking what we want our schools and neighborhoods to look like. Parents are seeing more of what their kids are learning. My clients and friends are asking, ‘Do we like this curriculum? Could it be more experiential? What actually works for my child?’
In the world of coaching, we call working with our crazy thoughts (in order to get sane) “inquiry.” Byron Katie has a very sharp tool for this. Kiran Trace has an adaptation of BK’s work. Both techniques involve taking the ‘party line’ in our mind that stresses us out (or lays us out flat), and turning it on its head, in order to explore what is really true.
Thus, when you are feeling the worst (or when the country is the most crazy), you can take that core belief, that most repetitive party line in your head—and really explore, really test it out—just like Yoko’s chair.
And you’ll know. You’ll know when your butt hits the chair and it feels easy—that you’ve found the truly revolutionary move for yourself. And you’ll know your fellow revolutionaries because their butts are in their own unique chairs—they are likely exploring and creating right now, versus repeating the party lines you’ve heard 10,000+ times, (whether in your own mind or on the news).
You, and your fellow brave-hearted people, are the connectors, the builders, and the (sometimes) quiet advocates for humane living—the ones who aren’t at war with anyone or anything—who aren’t ‘fighting’ the virus, the terrorists, the other political party, etc. Look for those who are discovering, and are happy to share. Currently, I am interested in happy farmers—farmers who are using biodiverse agricultural practices and loving their work. There are so many of them! (Farmers Footprint, Farming While Black, Biggest Little Farm)
Listen for the ones who might not even know the party lines—those who are taking aim at something juicy and alive, instead of following the tired old scripts.
Simply, find the people you wanna hang out with. People off-script, just like you.
xo
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P.S. We’ve got a whole community of sanity-explorers for you to hang with. You can join us in several ways…
Embodiment class starting Oct 5th, including scholarships & Sessions with myself or Kiran during class