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This one is for the lions out there. Not the sheep. If you are a sheep, please graze on through to the pasture of your slavery, fleecing, and eventual slaughter.
Lions have long represented man’s desire to be strong and brave in the face of threatening opposition. Though many of us relish the thought, few people in today’s society possess much of this virtue. By and large, we cower under pressure. We follow rules, no matter how unjust they are. We go along with the progressive stripping away of our rights and bodily autonomy for today’s convenience when it means tomorrow we will be in a cage. Like a tamed animal we are being broken into submission.
“Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.”
Andre Gide
There are many males out there but very few men. Thus, weak men create hard times. Look around you. The times are very hard. We are being tested and we are failing. Is this how the American experiment ends? Or will we rediscover our courage? Nothing in life worth doing is easy. We must do the hard thing. We must be brave.
Marie-Louis von Franz, a Swiss psychologist, noticed a disturbing trend in the mid-20th century – many men and women who were well into their adult years remained psychologically stunted in their maturation. She spoke of the Puer Aeternus, which is Latin for “eternal child”. This is especially prevalent in today’s men. We were never given rites of passage into adulthood and many of us were predominantly raised by our mothers. This situation creates the perfect storm whereby the mother becomes what Jungians call a “devouring mother”. She overprotects and smothers her child and becomes involved in every aspect of his life, causing her child to remain dependent on her well into adulthood.
When a child emerges into adulthood with a strong mother complex, he will not seek to develop his independence and evolve his consciousness but rather will be possessed by what Jung called
“…the spirit of regression, [which] threatens us with bondage to the mother and with dissolution and extinction in the unconscious.”
Carl Jung, Symbols of Transformation
In effect, the spirit of regression is the desire to crawl back into the womb, or mother’s care.
I’m speaking to my fellow lions today:
It’s time to disobey the tyrants and uphold your freedoms. There are far more of us than you think there are. They want us to feel small, isolated, and divided. They want to convince you that you are still a little cub, unable to roar. But that’s not the case. You were born to be free, and the’ve awakened the sleeping giant with mandates based on prejudice and discrimination that mean fuck all to a lion.
So get up. Do the hard thing and stand for what you know is right. Because if we lose the will to fight, we will lose everything that made this world as abundant as it is (or was). We are seeing the beginning of the end now. Through draconian mandates supply lines have been strained and basic survival is being threatened. If you’re not okay with this, then push back. The time is now.
Be not afraid of the backlash. It comes with the territory. But you will have peace within yourself knowing you did not back down. Even if you disagree with others in your family, you must protect the pride.
Leave your thoughts in the comments as I leave you with some quotes and links to my research on this topic:
“Civil disobedience becomes a sacred duty when the state becomes lawless or corrupt.” – Mahatma Ghandi
“Those who give up their freedom for safety deserve neither.” – Benjamin Franklin
“One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws” – MLK Jr.
Hard times create strong men,
Strong men create good times,
Good times create weak men,
Weak men create hard times.
https://academyofideas.com/2019/06/carl-jung-psychology-of-man-child/
https://frjohnpeck.com/of-mice-and-men-john-calhoun-and-the-paradise-of-mice/
https://stefanaarnio.com/2016/11/19/weak-men-create-hard-times-hard-times-create-strong-men/
https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/361839.Patrick_Henry
Inspired by:
Iteration 107: Lion/Bravery
36”x24”x1.5”
oil & acrylic on canvas
original *SOLD
“We were never given rites of passage into adulthood and many of us were predominantly raised by our mothers.”
I felt that.
Except not in the nature that it was written. In other words, I wasn’t spoiled, or often nurtured by my mom, there was more of a lack there of and a desire to have that feeling of safety.
None the less I have felt that my maturity over the years has to one extent or other been stunted.
I don’t, however, consider myself to be a sheep, because I still stand on my own and speak heavily on my opinions.
Very good read, and of course, as always, I enjoyed the art included!!
Dear LB,
Thank you for sharing your insight.
The rites of passage is something that is definitely missing from our society. The Native Americans would snatch a young boy in the middle of the night at a certain age and take him on man’s journey where he wouldn’t see his mother for at least a month. It was a way to detach the emotional umbilical cord and it was a definite age in every boy’s life.
I’ve been studying the dynamics of parents and children lately and one thing seems evident is that the presence of a father is equally important to girls as well. If a child is being raised by their mother and the father is absent, there will most likely be issues. If the mother is raising the kid and she is absent as well, then that’s an even bigger shitstorm. Considering this, you LB, managed to pull through and come out alright.
In this article I outlined how we need lions to speak up and why I think there’s so many kittens out there. Even though they may have a thick beard, they have no roar. You are definitely not one of them. When you stand up for the rights of every individual, and speak about what you believe, especially when it’s not the mainstream thing to say, possibly facing persecution for it, that makes you a lion.
Happy to know another fellow lion!
It is definitely time to push back! Thank you for the encouragement!
Thank you Kimberly for not being afraid to say so. And yes, it’s now or never… cause waiting, it will be too late.
A very powerful observation Vincent of these times we are in. Reminds me of the frog sitting in a pot on the stove and the heat is turned up very gradually so he doesn’t notice he is being cooked. I am not sure what is going on but i know little by little we are being groomed to become more and more DEpendent on government and less of who we are designed to be. We are becoming Group thinkers rather than independents.
So, are we at the boiling point? Are we passed the point of no return and now we have to ride out the storm? I’m starting to think so. I have a little hope we can reverse it, but I’m mostly seeing bad times getting worse and I’m in prep-mode. I hope you are preparing for more empty shelves and energy shortages. It’s all part of the plan to destabilize and then centralize society.
I will say, I’m encouraged by the amount of artists I’ve found recently who think like you and I. We are made to feel alone, but we are not!