So, I have recently watched Onward (its worth a watch, I enjoyed it) and it really got me thinking about our world and the state it is in today. Before I go on, here is a brief synopsis of the film;
The background setting is in the movie is a fantasy setting before it evolved into a more modern world with technology, etc. There is still fantastic races and creatures but everyone has forgotten about the magic. Gone are the days of adventures, magic, quests, and everything else under that umbrella."Teenage elf brothers Ian and Barley embark on a magical quest to spend one more day with their late father. Like any good adventure, their journey is filled with cryptic maps, impossible obstacles and unimaginable discoveries. But when dear Mom finds out her sons are missing, she teams up with the legendary Manticore to bring her beloved boys back home."
As I was watching the movie I really started to think how our world as a whole have forgotten the magic. Everyone is so preoccupied with with their jobs, hobbies, and the daily grind we have forgotten about the simple pleasures of quality time with family members and friends, becoming closer to nature, and the journey of a good book.
- be one with nature and not just dominate it
- enjoy the intimacy that comes with personal and joint ritual work
- work with the earth
- commune with the universe and its spirits
- transfer and mold energy
- commune with your ancestors
- walk with the Gods
Modern technology has been the biggest distraction since the industrial revolution. We have lost touch with ourselves, our food, our friends, our families, the earth, spirits, and Gods. Martin Felipe Castagnet once stated;
This is just the top of the iceberg. Our society has become so technological dependent that it constricts us like a living, breathing straitjacket. This straitjacket muffles, distorts, and at times completely disconnects us from the universe and those around us. There has been people in our recent history that have realized the negative effect technology has on our society and in 1995 Theodore Kaczynski understood this and talked about it in length in his writing of Industrial Society and its Future. This was before the rise of the smart everything and the popularity (and ease of access of the internet). Kaczynski observed that;"Technology isn't rational; with luck, it's a runaway horse, foaming at the mouth, ready to throw itself off a cliff in desperation. Our problem is that culture's tied to that horse."
"We attribute the social and psychological problems of modern society to the fact that that society requires people to live under conditions radically different from those under which the human race evolved and to behave in ways that conflict with the patterns of behavior that the human race developed while living under the earlier conditions...."
and he found the Matrix...
“Imagine a society that subjects people to conditions that make them terribly unhappy then gives them the drugs to take away their unhappiness. It is not Science fiction as it is already happening to some extent in our own society. Instead of removing the conditions that make people depressed modern society gives them antidepressant drugs. In effect antidepressants are a means of modifying an individual's internal state in such a way as to enable him to tolerate social conditions that he would otherwise find intolerable.”These ideas are intense but sit and meditate on them.
To be honest, I am not immune to our culture as I am guilty of it to. I have found myself lost in technology instead of paying attention to who and what was going on around me. It is important that I remind myself to stay on the path and not lose the magic I have found while finding more.
The whole point of this is and we well need to do is...
Put the phone down, put your life into O for onward, and go find some magic.
