During my lifetime there have been phenomenal changes in the world at all levels.We now use the ‘adage’ global village’ and this indicates the notion and indeed the reality that the world could be traversed with comparatively little difficulty, at least until the covid crisis, then people were being asked to ‘keep their distance and close their borders to people traversing without due thought from place to place.
With the development of the ‘global village’ notion many world cultures have converged and with this convergence cultures have impressed their norms and mores on each other.
Accompanying these developments have been some strong and sometimes subtle changes in the way individuals and groups give meaning to life but sadly the subtle or insidious changes have almost had ‘a seeping into our pores’ affect, in other words we have become something without due thought or asking why?It seems to me that the aforementioned developments have interfered with the process of integrating new experiences which have not been thought through and subsequently incorporated into our lifestyle and general’way of being.’ Its as though we have become bits of this and that and have no clear philosophy to underpin life’s journey we are travelling mindlessly ,and insidious behaviours have seeped into life some of which are ‘greed, selfishness, and arrogance to name just a few
Carl Jung the swiss analyst had an excellent take on this and I’m referring to it in a simple way as it makes a point and is right up to date with human growth and development.In his ‘analytical psychology’ we are travelling through the journey of life, and through a process of awareness on both conscious and unconscious levels we have an opportunity to integrate a knowledge of self which is knowledgeable and healthy and consequently we no longer operate as bits of this and that but think and act as a whole person an individual.
I apologise for the limited summary but you may, if interested read up on Jungian theory for yourself.
The journey to self awareness and development is not chosen for, or by everyone and when one undertakes this journey it often separates one from others who have not undertaken a similar journey.
Central to each of us is our’ego’ which has become a familiar word in the social domain , but in my view it is consistently misunderstood
aoibheann thoughtful reflections 