Capitalism
make the consequences any less harmful. Nor does it make it a conscious choice. In Watts’ words, ‘we feel isolated because we are split within the self, divided from our feelings and sensations.’ 35 I t is difficult to remove the division because it means travelling through experience with your entire self – with the mental parts of you that disagree and the physical part that must comply. It means no longer being able to cut yourself off from feeling with the logic of the brain. Removing this schism is a painful process, as unlike Watts’ metaphor, I believe this process is not about reconciliation of two halves but in fact the death of the created identity. Capitalism has ensured compliance by making one think that the ‘created identity’ is in fact oneself. Negative habitual thought cycles are perceived as in separable from oneself, but thoughts are simply a biological process, an evolved mechanism for consciousness to function optimally; they are something to be heard and learned from, just as experience is, not to necessarily be identified with, especially when the thoughts are that of an identity moulded by capitalism. In conclusion, to alleviate ourselves from the current conditions propagated by capitalism, we must begin by creating and discovering unity within ourselves, and subsequently helping others to do the same. This is done through education – education that aims to openly present knowledge without bias to increase our awareness on each way capitalism maintains itself, societally and individually. Because by increasing our awareness, we increase our consciousness in all aspects, becoming closer to reaching internal unity and peace. The process may be painful, as creating new structures means interrogating and abolishing the current ones that oppress us. But pain means healing, and afterward there will no longer be a state of tension between separate internal entities – tension that is the very root of the ‘psychological conflict’ that Szasz understands as the reason for symptoms of poor mental health that have broken so many. After that, there will no longer be a war inside of us, and we will be able to focus on addressing and organizing against the war that is being waged against us physically.
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35 Watts 1951.
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