Spirituality and consciousness again - Part VI

This is a continuation of Part V, posted on 7 July - more than two months ago. I'll try and pick up the thread.

I should say that my experiences even during these past two months have strengthened my growing awareness of the near-universal nature of the unconsciousness I have been talking about. And remember, unconsciousness, as used here, implies a severe erosion of our humanity or humanness. Recall the earlier quote from Erich Fromm, where he predicted that, by the end of the twentieth century, most of us will have, indeed, lost our humanity. Now this sounds so judgmental that I can understand why you may not wish to read any more. But what if it's true? What if our "normal" reactions, even those within our own families, amongst those we love, or think we love, are no longer human in the real sense of the word? A couple of examples. It is now normal for young adults to put their aging parents into nursing homes, to live out their remaining years in long-term care. I ask only that you consider the possibility that this perfectly normal action is in fact inhuman. There are certainly cultures, such as amongst Aboriginal people, where this is unthinkable and considered to be inhuman. This is something I observed and discussed with Aboriginal elders at great length 17 years ago. It is also perfectly "normal" in our culture to put children as young as a few weeks old into institutional childcare - indeed, our governments fall over themselves backwards to outdo each other in supporting such a practice [To be continued]