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debra goldman, 2021
"[Jung] comes to the realization that unless we come to terms
with the dead we simply cannot live, and that our life is dependent on finding
answers to their unanswered questions... Descending into his own depths
he finds images that, in a sense, have preceded him.
It is a descent into human ancestry."
- Sonu Shamdasani in conversation with James Hillman
"When we penetrate a little more deeply below the surface of the psyche, we
come upon historical layers which are not just dead dust, but alive and
continuously active in everyone—maybe to a degree that we
cannot imagine in the present state of our knowledge."
- C.G. Jung, CW 9i para. 712
Until we awaken the dead,
the unbearable weight of the
past sits upon the present,
cutting off circulation,
crushing the delicate buds
of the future.
What are the living to do?
The channeled red rage
of youth may smash at
the four olds, but the same
forms reassert themselves
in new costumes.
If the past cannot be
destroyed, perhaps it
can be outrun?
From Musk to Marinetti,
our age fantasizes
about blasting our way
to tabula rasa in the sky.
But the simple logic
that suggests the quick
are quicker
than the dead
is too simple.
This unbearable weight
of the past:
what is made of?
Is it stone and concrete?
Or is it an undigested
mass on the compost
heap of time?
If ever the past lived, then it is still
the stuff of life, waiting to be
transformed, to be
called back into
the great game.
We the living, the embodied,
are the only ones armed
to turn the pile.
the past: "The past is never dead. It's not even past." (William Faulkner, 1951, Requiem for a Nun)
channeled red rage: On June 1, 1966, an editorial in the Chinese Peoples Daily by Chen Boda called for the proletariat to "Sweep Away All Monsters and Demons" and destroy the "Four Olds", old ideas, habits, cultures, and customs. The charge was taken up by the Red Guard, leading to a particularly intense and destructive phase of the Chinese Cultural Revolution.
Musk to Marinetti: Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1876 - 1944), founder of the Futurist movement, and Elon Musk (b. 1971), founder and CEO of Tesla, Inc. and SpaceX.
tabula rasas in the sky: "Because there are no truly free places left in our world, I suspect that the mode for escape must involve some sort of new and hitherto untried process that leads us to some undisovered country; and for this reason I have focused my efforts on new technologies that may create a new space for freedom." (Peter Thiel, The Education of a Libertarian)
the simple logic: Our logos-dominated culture is under-appreciative of and thus frequently blindsided by eros, by the relational and irrational qualities of the cosmos.
The unbearable weight of the past, what is it made of?: This is the crux of the matter, and the crux of matter. Do we fundamentally perceive matter as organic and animated, or dead and mechanical? If the former, then the past is in dynamic relationship with both present and future. If the latter, the past is simply past, heavy and unchanging.
turn the pile: Turning a compost pile facilitates decomposition by increasing aeration and surface area, both of which encourage the proliferation of the aerobic bacteria primarily responsible for breaking down complex organic molecules into simpler, more stable forms easily absorbed by plants.
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