Primal Circumstance Evokes Primal Reactions

Image by Petanos from Pixabay

There seems to be no coherence left in the current habit-patterns of normal life. 

I was thinking about the hard work of going on vacation. The easiest vacation is to stay up-to-date at home. 

But the thing is, the manifestations of chaos are just beginning to take over daily life. We are in a ‘stay at home’ mode, which for one, is not bad advice, but many are confused and disoriented as to what to do when they are home—Saturday Night Live doesn’t air daily.

At this point, in the viral episode of spring, all appears stressed by demands and worries of cash and provision in preparation for what is yet to come. It seems obvious in coming, but with little detail—for the majority it is uncertainty and anxiety. We simply seem unable to know, to visualize, imagine or predict, what is coming at us, even for the next day. 

The ‘stay at home’ edict is interesting, in-and-of-itself, as we now must wait until the dust cloud is lifted and we are no longer expected to shelter in place. There is a sense of uncertainty and unpredictability in the anxiety of this expectation.

How long will it last? What will people be doing after they are fatigued in passive boredom? What of those who have little to no access to distraction, media, don’t read, can’t afford to pay for basic needs, etc?

In my own circumstance I’ve had to meet a mix of challenges with the increase of my senior energy limitations. I struggle to do enough physical exercise, as well as keeping up with the work of maintaining my living space. My age also challenges my psyche—often getting derailed in my ability to stay focused. 

One of the fundamental threats to the survival of America is in our seeming lack of humility, in meeting the collective manifestation of an organic monster with something other than an incompetent, primitive, and ignorant leadership; one that seems to rise up to guide the social body, as a primal response, toward a genuine sense of danger and jeopardy to everyone’s survival. 

Donald Trump provides the primal circuitry of the reaction towards an organic core of feeling in sensing danger. It is not something clearly defined in its manifestation—though given time, CV-19 will. It is more like a cloud of denial not wanting to awaken to the reality of fear and anxiety. It is more like a smell, rather than a ‘thing’. 

This ‘mood cloud’ takes over where there is no cognitive form. When normal cognitive form is disrupted it produces cognitive emptiness and uncertainty. This then provides for the atmosphere of feeling ‘base-moodiness’ where the primal leader can step in with an emotional grip on the presumption of power and strength without the need of clarity in rational manifestation— displacing collective cognitive behavior with emotionally driven reactive actions.

This is the foundation of much of the reactive violence, rebellion, war, militant tyranny and invasion that we have witnessed throughout history.

There seems to be no way to control irrational emotional rebellion, other than physical domination with force. The cognitive brain is closed to consumption of fear, anger, hate and self defense.

This is a primal, neurologically driven, biological response pattern of behavior in circumstances of fear, real or imagined. In and of itself it governs response at a point of convergence regarding real and present danger—circumstances in the lives of all family, group, and tribal existence. As well, this applies to animals that live in groups, packs, etc.—they must know when to react to life and death in order to survive.

We, unfortunately, regard ourselves as having progressed beyond this arcane neural gene matrix as a ‘thinking’ human species. However, objective observation, study and data, on the actuality of this collective behavior is often triggered from the survival foundations of all group and tribal fighting. It extends into modern national behavior as well. This ‘fight or flight’ response has been with humanity since the beginning of evolution where group survival was felt to be at stake. This broiling can now be seen globally and threatens human life on the planet, perhaps even the planet itself.

This survival response is an embedded component of the neural pathway that drives animal behavior, including human animals. It has been with us since the beginning of organic life, as well as its eternal competition for existence, including, as we can so readily see, the world of viral biology as well. 

We can no longer delude ourselves into believing we are separate from organic nature. When families, groups, packs, herds, and tribes felt themselves to be threatened, and were called upon to defend themselves from invaders, all needed to respond with a will and means to defend their territory and their lives from invaders. Without this response, they could not have survived through life’s competitions, either between themselves or with others. 

Every living thing eats living things in order to exist.

Community is a dialogue of balance. When this balance is thrown off we find chaos, as we are now seeing in the present. 

Wealth and money provides distance from the organic struggle of existing. It is perhaps the most essential factor in humanity’s distancing from the practical reality of nature.