| The Amateur (I) |
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The perception settled between the lobes of my brain as if lowering itself into a soothing bath: the world isn't at all about democratisation, in the sense of the leading ideal that will see us through to better times. The very word, in all its complexity and with all its implicit good intentions, as the idealists once envisaged, is a natural contender for the masking merits of that other word, condoning. Over the past century the process entitled democratisation has declined into a meaningless phrase the advantage of which was, and continues to be, that virtually no-one dares protest whenever someone or other digs it up by way of a quasi-ideal. That's the fate that all unfeasible ideals share: it may be a shorter or longer while, but eventually only the advantages will be cherished. You shouldn't lose heart, however, for there is an alternative that's a better match for a process which has been steadily evolving for decades and which for want of a more sensational word I would refer to as that of gaining awareness. Awareness has countless levels, defies formulation as an ideal, yet keeps opening doors and bringing fresh insights, ad infinitum. In fact, helpful as it may be, awareness is not about good or bad, although I hasten to add that it's probably not for me to sit in judgement where these things are concerned. There's a drawback to awareness in that it's conditional upon an adequate level of spiritual development, which in turn is related to some extent to one's income, so that here too we have to acknowledge the pivotal role that money plays. Awareness only works in fits and starts below a certain base level, which can give rise to dangerous situations. And although things are not too bad in this polder-drilled country of ours, we too are finding it very hard to acknowledge the evolution of the process. You need look no further than to what has been happening politically in the Netherlands over the past year and how the establishment, the higher awareness elite if you like, has been managing. What's funny about all of this is that some stages of the process of gaining awareness need a less-than-perfect ideology or even, quite romantically, an ideological watershed. This inevitably comes with certain risks, even though one could think of more daunting scenarios. Here too things could be worse for us: just think of the multitude of columnists in all those daily, weekly and monthly publications and recognise their unstoppable participation in this splendid process, their indefatigable tweaking of your and my attitudes, and I'm sure you'll agree that it's perfectly alright for me to establish that it isn't the hope of a better future that's keeping us alive but rather, our craving to master the present. |