“Only when the individual and the collective realize their indebtedness to each other will we tear down the iron curtain that so divides our collective psyche. As the collective must put everything it possesses into the development of the individual, so must the individual give back to the collective all it has given him. Only then, will we truly be free.
“Only then, will we realize that our future lies not out there in our own self-centered materialism, but on the other side of the iron curtain within the collective unconsciousness of our beings. Only then, will we see the iron curtain as the veil of matter, which has so blurred our vision—our materialism as the wall, which has so divided us. Only then, will we take the next great step and cross the threshold to embrace our humanity, a life given to us for the sake of each other, as exemplified in simple living and the right use of the material goods of this world.“
“I see,“ I muttered as he paused for a moment to get some assurance from me that I understood what he had just shared with me.
“What we sorely need,“ he continued to preach from his soapbox up on the bridge, “is an amalgam of communism and capitalism around the issue of materialism, a single coin that combines the best of all three. But I’m afraid that what we’ll get is the appearance of a winner and a loser. In that case, we’ll all lose. And though communism may recede into the shadows of our collective imaginations, like a tyrannosaur, the truth of its ideals will rise again as the disparity between the haves ’n’ the have-nots worsens under capitalism, that other dinosaur which may not pass on until it has devoured everything and transformed this Eden into a living hell.
“So don’t be fooled into believing the real battle’s out there between one delusion and another, for the real war wages on within your body, even now as I speak. It’s there, the final outcome will be decided. The enemy’s not out there, he’s in here, for we are our own worst enemy.“
