"When we cannot fend off, undo, or escape from [a condition of inescapable humiliation]... when we cannot protect ourselves from them, whether by violent or nonviolent means, something gets killed within us - our souls are [in effect] murdered. All this is implicit in the double meaning of the word that most directly and literally refers both to the death of the self, and to what causes the death of the self - 'mortification,' which means both humiliation and causing death."
It is well known that the devastating emotion of shame called "being mortified" can lead to suicide. Feelings of shame are often accompanied by thoughts that one is a failure, inferior, worthless, incompetent, or defective in some fashion. Other ingredients of the shame experience include self-perceptions of weakness, inadequacy, vulnerability, loss of control, helplessness, passivity, despair, disgrace, and unlovability.
I know, from having worked in a few prisons in years past, that for many (but not all) correctional officers, their job provides plenty of opportunity to express cruelty. One example is provoking female inmates on the mental-health unit and then remanding them to solitary confinement, where, in many cases they will be clothed only in a flimsy paper johnny, and kept on "eye-ball watch" - that is, with a correctional officer posted 24/7 outside the window in their door.
A 2008 article in the New York Times states: "Criminologists and legal scholars in other industrialized nations say they are mystified and appalled by the number and length of American prison sentences."
If the prison functions as a container for those who embody society's shadow - inmates and prison staff - what can we learn about our society itself?
While these repugnant dramas are playing out behind prison walls - where humans are seen as objects, rather than sacred subjects - our greed and indifference have now brought civilization to the edge of destruction.
To put it simply, we are running out of time to unite and deal with problems that will devastate the planet. The reality appears to be that humanity is about to hit an "ecological wall" and an "evolutionary wall." The first emerges when we run into the physical limits of nature to sustain humanity; the second is when we run into ourselves - the limits of our adolescent behavior - and are pushed to turn toward more mature, adult ways of being vis-a-vis living on the planet. This process may take decades - or end in unspeakable tragedy.
We have reached a time of historic transition, which, in the coming years, will be unprecedented in its urgency, scale, and severity. What can be predicted is that we will confront a series of accelerating crises, including increasing climate disruption, spreading regions of water scarcity, declining agricultural productivity, growing inequality of wealth and well-being, rising numbers of climate refugees, spreading extinction of plant and animal species, overbearing impersonal bureaucratic systems, nuclear weapons, radioactive waste, and mendacious government agendas. These and more make up the "shadow" we refuse to think about, not to mention, take responsibility for.
In addition, there are inter-retroactions between the different problems, crises, and threats, such that we can accurately name the situation in its totality as "a poly-crisis." Beyond this, is the issue of runaway positive feedback. As Edgar Morin states,
"The question now becomes whether we have crossed a critical threshold in the process of acceleration/amplification that could lead to an explosion or implosion involving any number of deadly global threats."
Our way of life is unsustainable. And many, many human beings are stuck in denial.
We will soon no longer be able to deny our shadow, as it will surround us and threaten all of us with extinction.
We are now, and will continue to be, relentlessly challenged to work on ourselves and transform our very being. We need to find alchemical ways to move from the darkness of ignorance into to the light of awareness, and in the process engage in beneficial action for the world. The consequences of not doing so will be severe.
Through programs like the Prison-Ashram Project, discussed in the last four articles, many prisoners are involved in self-transformation. The question is, will we - in the world at large - become willing to follow suit?
(Article changed on Apr 29, 2021 at 12:25 PM EDT)
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