What do we know?

"We do not err because truth is difficult to see. It is visible at a glance. We err because this is more comfortable." - Alexander Solzhenitsyn

What do we know?  It can be a difficult question to ask, and a painful question to answer honestly, because  our comfortable lives depend so much on not knowing, or rather on not paying attention to our existing knowledge.  The Ogham few "Phagos" and its associated tree, the Beech, speak to this question:

Phagos - a few of learning and guidance

Work put off, things left unsaid and unexamined personal issues are things we usual ignore or avoid, rather than being simply unknown to us.  Like repressed memories, they wait, sometimes quietly, sometimes not, for the moment when we are ready to say "I know this", and to take appropriate action. In some instances the avoided knowledge carries perilous consequences, and not always only for the individual.

Fagus - the Beech Tree

We know, for example, that climate chaos (or "global weirding", to suggest another interesting label) is being caused by the burning of fossil fuels.  The obvious course of action for people concerned about the suffering caused by this phenomenon is to stop the burning of fossil fuels.  And yet nearly without exception we focus not on what we know, but on any scheme or theory that can serve as a distraction or a barrier to truth.  Lies such as the usefulness of clean coal, carbon trading and household recycling as serious responses to increasing climate chaos serve this purpose.  Derrick Jensen explains:

"In order for us to maintain our way of living, we must tell lies to each other, and especially to ourselves. It’s not necessary that the lies be particularly believable, but merely that they be erected as barriers to truth. These barriers to truth are necessary because without them many deplorable acts acts would become impossibilities. Truth must at all costs be avoided."  (A Language Older Than Words)

Knowledge of our benefitting from environmental destruction and of our failure to stop it needs to be owned up to urgently.  Sometimes, though, we can reasonably avoid some of our knowledge for at least part of our lives.  We know that we all have to experience death.  The fact that our society largely avoids addressing this knowledge in meaningful ways does nothing to change it.  The horror felt by many individuals at the thought of ceasing to exist does not constitute a constructive response to mortality; quite the opposite in fact.  The industrial technologies and practices designed to insulate us from the reality of death turn it into an isolating and unwholesome process.  Embalming fluids poison those who would come after our end to make further life of our remains.  Some coffins are even buried sealed in concrete bunkers, cutting the dead off from the community of life altogether, at least for a time, and causing a lot of damage to it in the process.


So much of our alternative culture and spirituality is aimed at seeking new ideas, new sources of guidance and wisdom, or rediscovering old sources.  But we do not need a new voice, or an old one, to tell us what we already know.  Perhaps, just as conservation and efficiency should come before installing renewable energy sources, we should look to what we already know for guidance before seeking additional information.  

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Follow this link for another beautiful photo of a Beech tree, which I wasn't able to include in this post.

For more on the political implications of this post, see "Expect Resistance"