Sex, Security and Society…Your Instincts Gone Awry.
In alcoholism as in everyday life, our basic instincts are usually unbalanced, inappropriate and unhelpful. Buddhism helped me.
Carl Jung
“We cannot change anything if we don’t first accept it”, Carl Jung said — and “Anyone who takes the safe road is dead”
To me, it seems Carl had a wonderful way to state simply the commonly ignored obviousness of human character.
It seems Jung was on about the tendency of ‘we mortals’, to avoid looking inward — but instead, ‘acting out’. (‘Acting Out’ is commonly used in Recovery circles to describe behaviours that are associated with our addiction.)
Of course Carl Jung, Adler and Freud were significantly influenced by Nietzsche, and Carl, in turn, had a huge impact on the formations of Alcoholics Anonymous.
The Beast Within
When Nietzsche talks about the “Beast Within”, I hear him.
When trying to articulate to my learned Doctor friend, Gerome last week, I said ‘the guy with the peanut allergy doesn’t think about eating nuts all day, does he?’
But the recovering addict wants to have a hit every time his shopping cart gets bumped. He’s MAD! (well, neurotic at least)
Similarly, human beings who are addicted to self-soothing behaviour like shopping, sex, money-making, fitness, eating etc., are usually using their addiction to avoid the inward journey.
Friedrich Nietzsche imagines the ‘Divine Animal’ as the destination for our self development, but most of us are avoiding the ‘Divine’ like it was this years Avian Influenza.
He wrote in Ecce Homo, “Relying solely on his consciousness, his “weakest and most fallible organ”, he stumbles blindly through life, oblivious that in the recesses of his mind are archaic helpers”.
Later Nietzsche introduces his concept of the bottom of our search for meaning as the ‘Organising idea’.
Most of us choose ignorantly or lazily to ignore this quest for the ‘Organising idea’, and instead follow Jung’s, ‘Safe Road’.
“Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not”. Thomas Huxley
Basic Instincts
Whether you personally believe that our instincts are God given, or come upon via natural selection, or both, it is compelling that the normal drives that make us human are often misemployed.
We do have needs to find and build shelter plus save enough resources for a rainy day.
If we didn’t reproduce the species would not survive.
The need for society has been evident since Jack said to Martha, “Get behind that tree and club the first animal I chase your way”.
There would be no Horse Racing if it weren’t for Turf Clubs and Jockey Associations!!!
Where would scone making be today if not for the Christian Women’s Associations?
Don’t even start me on the NRA!
So these instincts, ‘so necessary for survival, often far exceed their proper functions’. (AA, Big Book)
Furthermore, when we act upon these desires inappropriately and somebody objects (as you do!), all hell breaks out.
The one thing a perpetrator hates is HYPOCRISY!
Addiction
“Powerfully, blindly, many times subtly, they drive us, dominate us, and insist upon ruling our lives.” AA Big Book
Not only can we not see in ourselves that we are imperfectly using our moral compasses, our basic instincts, but we also ceremoniously castigate those around us that do not live up to OUR EXPECTATIONS!
AND, we certainly get instantaneously sanctimonious when we are caught out and called out by another!
Let me get this straight.
I call out YOUR impropriety,
whilst ignoring MY OWN inadequacies,
but object vehemently to YOU saying something about MY manner,
and yet,at the same time…
I get indignant about ‘THEM’ behaving completely unacceptably!
Just as well we have Churches and Governments to keep us straight.
Meditation and Action
“Accept your feelings, know your purpose, do what needs to be done” . Morita Therapy
So.
We have instincts — Sex, Security and Society.
They get fucked up…a lot.
We act out and others react, we all swear and then it’s time for a drink, pill, a trip to the mall or something more drastic.
Depression, anxiety, addictions click in and there goes the Health Care Budget again.
It’s society fucking itself and running away from the consequences.
When (on the rare occasion) one of us tries to get well, oh I don’t know, because he’s dying, maybe — drastic measures are implemented.
Step Four
We make a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
The Steps in a 12 Step program were designed to alleviate a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body. (Aren’t we all?)
Step four is the time that a really serious recovering addict has to make a choice. (And don’t we all have to)
It’s time to have a look inward and see if all is well in Camelot.
If our values are something like, Peace, Love and Tolerance — and we have been behaving like War, Hate and Discrimination, weeeeelll?
Time to Make Some Changes
No one can tell you what to do next.
Reflection and meditation on the ‘Divine Animal’ is a way to come to peace with our values.
Action is the secret sauce!
We didn’t becoome the way we are today overnight and it will take a concerted Action Plan and some discipline to make lasting significant changes.
That’s why going to AA meetings and Buddhist Meditation classes worked for me. I have many friends who are happier today and sober today through different means.
But the situation seems clear.
The world is addicted to ‘stuff’ and reliant upon ‘things’, that serve to make avoiding the inward journey possible…but
The ‘Safe Road’ leads to death. (CJ)
love alwaz
mike
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