The Lessons of Rona. Part 2: Uniqueness

Originally published via email to my community on 3rd April 2020.

One of the most precious things is life is that we are all different. Imagine how boring it would be if we were all the same.

Do you remember the internet craze about The Dress a few years ago? You know, what colour is the dress in the picture? Some people thought it was black and blue, others thought it white and gold. Why the disagreement? Because people are different.

Take another example. However much you and your friend, partner or sibling get on with each other and seem to share a common outlook on the world you are in fact very different. You might believe that you are the same, sharing experiences and drawing the same lessons from life but if you talk for long enough (and sometimes for not very long!) you will find something to disagree about. At this point you can argue about who is right and wrong, or you can exchange views and celebrate the fact that people are different.

In fact, it’s not just that people are different. Every single person on the planet is unique. No two people’s fingerprints are the same, everyone’s hair is slightly different, their eyes are different and their faces are different. Our DNA is different, even our blood is different. You might be Blood Group O but that does not mean that you are walking around with the same liquid inside you as everyone else with Blood Group O. The clue is in the word Group, similar, but not the same.

I am a big fan of ethnic and cultural diversity and lived a multi-cultural life before the word was even invented. In the late 80’s I had a Hindu girlfriend, followed by a black French/African Muslim girlfriend. In the 90’s I worked for a US publisher where every day I sat opposite a Lebanese woman, worked in a team with French, Germans, Italians, Hungarians and Americans, while we liaised with overseas offices in Finland, Russia and Poland. My boss was Dutch, and our division boss was Australian. Fast forward to today and most of my clients are not English, and not even European, but international. Diversity of this kind adds richness to my world, increasing my potential for learning and growth. Everybody wins when differences are intelligently encountered.

But outside my multi-cultural bubble there’s a problem, because as cultural diversity has expanded, experienced by more and more people, diversity of thought and behaviour has been stifled. There is now a whole list of things you cannot say and, increasingly, cannot do. This was already happening, but the Corona Panic has put this on steroids. Some will say this is a political problem. I disagree. I think this is a spiritual problem, born of a fundamental misunderstanding of what spirituality actually is.

This is a problem in organised religions as well as in modern spirituality, for both, as they are now taught almost everywhere, value the collective over the individual on the basis that WE ARE ONE. And indeed, of course We Are One, all part of the Universal substance known as God/Source/Universe. In that perfected state of uncompromised BEING, we are one. But none of us live in that rarefied state! We live in the lower physical plane of BECOMING. In this flawed, imperfect work-in-progress world we inhabit separate bodies and have different perspectives - for a reason. ‘Up there’ we are very much One. But we don’t live ‘up there’. We live ‘down here’, in the physical, in order to perform unique tasks suited to our unique experience and unique skills. Rub out your uniqueness and you can’t perform your tasks! And if you can’t perform your tasks you can’t make it back ‘up there’! Contrary to how it might seem the We Are One mentality absolutely destroys your chance of spiritual growth, because the only enlightenment that will stick is the one found your way, through discovering and expressing your uniqueness.

Imagine a woman, about your age, from roughly the same background as you. Imagine that the both of you along with a few others get into a conversation about the environment and you seem to agree on what should be done. You are all going to increase your efforts at recycling, shop locally and reduce your carbon footprint. Then someone suggests going on a march, where Greta Thunberg will be speaking. Your imaginary friend has something to say about this. “Oh no, I can’t stand Greta Thunberg!” she exclaims. You think for moment at this shocking and bizarre statement, which seems to completely contradict everything this woman has just been saying, but before you can do anything the woman goes even further. “I can’t stand her screaming hysterics. God, she has done so much damage to the cause, for every person she has switched on she has switched two people off. You have to bring people together to solve this problem and she is so divisive. And so angry! And anyway, who’s pulling her strings, why does she get a platform while everyone else is shut out?” She breathes and then concludes, “Anyway, shall I go and make some more tea?”

Now, upon discovering that your friend is in fact a Greta-Thunberg-hater, what do you do? Is there, as some might suggest, no place for these kinds of views? Is your friend in fact a closet climate change denier? Is she displaying white privilege or perhaps latent misogyny, after all her boyfriend is, well you know, a bit of a bloke? Is this woman failing to act as an ally for another sister? Or worse? Is this hate speech coming from a friend who is secretly 'far-right’? Or is she just low-information and reads too much fake news? Consider carefully.

Of course, these accusations against your friend are almost certainly absurd. Most likely all that is happening is that your imaginary friend is using her own unique faculties to come to her own unique conclusions about life and the world. But unfortunately, we live in a time where less and less people are prepared to give her the benefit of the doubt.

Rather than being censored, shamed or ostracised, your imaginary friend should in fact be congratulated, not because she is right, but because she has the will and the courage to think for herself and speak her own opinions. If she cannot do that – and many people now believe that she should not be allowed to do that – then neither of you can grow. If she cannot speak then she cannot test her thoughts out in the open and you can neither adjust nor strengthen your response. If we really are unable to say that Greta Thunberg is not the messiah just a very naughty girl then we really are lost.

This is highly relevant to all those who consider themselves even slightly spiritual, because Corona has brought forward the imposition of a society run by people who utterly deny human uniqueness. But before we get this wrong, I repeat that this is not a political problem; it is much worse than that and if in the past week or so you have felt a grave sense of foreboding or unease then it’s not symptoms of Corona, but your soul screaming out as it is slowly throttled.

The uniqueness of every human being is a fundamental aspect of being alive. Uniqueness is the path to purpose, fulfillment, meaning and happiness, but in a matter of days we have meekly passed ourselves over into a surveillance superstate, where government decides what you can have, what you can do, what you can say and where you can go. If this state of affairs holds then history will record that the greatest period of human misery the world has ever known was installed without a murmur, ‘for our own safety’. Resist this, while you can.

But how? Well, there may in due course be an opportunity to do something big, but a lot of us are going need some practice, such is the extent to which the dignity of the individual soul has been undermined in recent times. So, everyone has to look at themselves and try to identify how and where they are different.

Where do you go against the grain?

Where do you disagree with the conventional wisdom?

Where does your view of life differ from that of your friends, family or wider society?

Wherever this difference can be found is where you will find your gold.

Contrary to what so many people believe, we are not one at least not at the human level and nor should we try to be. Neither enlightenment nor peace on earth will be found by everybody agreeing with each other. Disagreement is an essential part of life. Give up on disagreement and you give up on life. Dissent is good for the soul. Think differently. Come to your own conclusions. Question all experts (and all anti-experts). Doubt all authorities (and all anti-authorities). Believe nothing. Find the courage to be a pain. Kick against all systems that refuse to recognise individuality.

Disagree agreeably, but do it while you still can, for the sake of your own soul.