The Earth Beneath Your Feet

Where can you go when the ground itself won’t hold still?
I know a young child, not yet school age but able to talk, after a fashion. That fashion frequently includes whining. The child is learning it from Mommy, who is also a big whiner. This nasty experience flowers most brightly in the presence of Mommy, and nearly disappears after just a few moments away from Mommy. All the more so does it disappear in the presence of sensible adults. You still see the frantic insecurity, but that can be handled by providing a sense of security, as reasonable adults do. It’s a lot of work, though.
For this child, the world is frightening, and the earth is not stable under her feet. That’s her perception. This child remains hideously vulnerable to all sorts of manipulation, a veritable walking victim with flashing lights to signal the fact, all screaming, “Please abuse me!” People will develop a fondness for cold prickles when they can’t get a regular supply of warm fuzzies. Warm fuzzies are critical to human development, particularly during childhood. Rare is the human capable from birth of asserting themselves.
Thus, the task of civilization is teaching that assertiveness, even while restraining the fully justified thrashing on everyone around you who refuses to be civil. When your expectations are realistic, hopping across the undulating and shaking earth isn’t quite the problem it is for most people. You realize the only real possible anchor and stability is inside you.
Our Western culture does have a space in it for those born assertive, but thrives on precious few having that inheritance. We don’t value adulthood at all, so we have no use for a valid manhood, and can’t possibly hold onto a valid femininity. We have serious but bogus problems for a foundation, and upon this we build a million invalid corrections. We are still in the fantasy world and now that it’s all coming apart, we can’t cope.
And we won’t ever cope because, as a whole, we have accepted our invalid government’s insistence it has to be this way. Virtually every major social issue goes back to that damnable dependence, which simply does not have to be. In case you didn’t notice, everything done by the powerful and wealthy has been aimed at fostering this dependence in us. We are utterly powerless to resist the raping hand of anyone with a belly full of victimization. These who’ve had enough have no idea what would solve their sorrow, but they are taking what action seems open to them. They can’t fix a broken world, but seek to fix what seems within reach. For most who seek the fix things, it’s only temporary because the fix is only externally oriented.
The biggest mistake is assuming the ground is supposed to be stable.