On Safety
Safety first? No freakin way thanks very much. Putting 'safety first' is, in my view, a seriously risky thing to do.
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Life is dangerous. We cannot mitigate all the risks. Modernity seeks to sanitise everything in our lives in the name of ‘safety’. But these protocols, processes and excessive regulatings do not keep us safe. In fact, the very mechanisms that are supposedly there to protect us have created separation, division, toxicity and distrust, along with hierarchical and unhealthy power dynamics. The grand irony to all this 'Safety First' nonsense is that we have statistically never been in more danger!
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They have gradually eroded our health and our wellbeing, and along the way we have been dumbed down from utilising our innate inner danger radar - our deep intuition, wisdom, discernment and knowing. We have been held back from maturing into wise and whole adults who are capable of making good decisions. We have had the beautiful and comprehensive safety net of tribe severed. We have had our personal autonomy for making healthy choices for ourselves and our children taken from us.
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Colonisation stole our rituals, our rites of passage, our knowledge of how to be in right relationship with nature. It stole our clean air and clean food and clean water. It introduced chemicals that hurt, and machines that have the capacity to catastrophically damage the human body. Toxins now dwell in our every breath of air, every bite of food, every sip of water. It made medicines that poison us and destroy our health thereby keeping us ever more dependent on the system.
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And so the gauntlet is thrown down in these times that if we want to return to less violence, to less suffering and less disease - less mental health problems and trauma - then we must reclaim this inner autonomy and authority. We must find a way to heal and mature into adults that can hold danger in a healthy manner without seeking to subjugate it through means to ends practices that have destroyed health and harmony on this planet.
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Doubling down on the problem by adding ever more safety rules, regulations and protocols will only create further suffering. Let it go now - enough is enough! We can clearly see that this approach has not worked. This sad experiment of Modernity is fortunately expiring, and it is now high time for something (old) new.
Surviving and being a part of this change will take discipline. It will take the guidance of wise elders - of which there are a precious few in our modern times. If you find one, then you are truly blessed. Listen to their wisdom. Dedicate yourself to practicing their suggestions. We must be brave enough to let go of the fake safety mirage that Modernity is offering us.
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This half-life of Modernity is one of chronic illness, kids with myriad mental health and learning disabilities, and it is the persistent pressure and fear just to have our basic needs met. Can we be brave enough to risk danger? Risk getting things wrong? Risk hardship and even death, in order to be the change, and to create a beautiful future for our children and grandchildren? A future where life is not struggle and illness and constant nagging stresses? A life where we return to reside in harmony with nature and all of her creatures. At this point I don't see we have much to lose by jumping into the swirling potential for transformation that is foaming and beckoning for us to either sink or swim in.
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Yes - this will take great courage! But if we don’t choose it consciously, then within our lifetime this return to the primal will be upon us regardless. That swirling foaming reckoning has a major undertow that's coming our way whether we like it or not. Because our society is at the pointy end of unsustainability. This way of living has a use-by-date and we are at it.
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So the only question is whether to seek our inner courage now to cultivate the healing, expanded consciousness and primal skills necessary for survival and thrival, or to wait until the rug of Modernity with all its little bandaids and safety crutches is pulled from beneath us?
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Victoria McKay