Rebellion without direction and a foreseeable conclusive yet purposeful objective is just a tantrum.
Anarchy without reins to organise and give it a semblance of order is just an effort to disrupt pre-existing systems.
As the frontman of Stigmata; the pioneering extreme heavy metal music ensemble in Sri Lanka I can attest that I am familiar with rebellion as I am with anarchy.
With 22 years of experience waging sonic war on the conventions of the entertainment industry, leaving no proverbial creative stones unturned and having obliterated stereotypes, comfort zones and boundaries… I can also concur that our arc of self-growth and artistic growth are intrinsically and intimately linked and correlated.
I am all too familiar with teen angst and young adult anger. I am no stranger to embittered bedlam evoked to provoke and stir reactions and responses wielding music, lyrics and the performance arts as a source to express the clandestine truths of the burning soul as it is a conduit of conveying emotions and thoughts, ideologies and sentiments that cannot otherwise be easily expressed.
There is a certain power when anger, bitterness, frustration, grief, deep sorrow, pain and suffering is channelled and rendered an outlet. A gateway to expunge the inherent constituents that make us vulnerable, gullible, finite and human.
Yet with age comes maturity, and with maturity comes the realised proclivity to grow. To shed our shells. To shed our older membranous skin. To embrace the unknown and see it entwined with experience, acuity, skill and self-growth.
And while humans are most certainly creatures of entropic existential being – one thing is certain. Organised chaos garners more positivity, productivity and promulgation achieving results than mere unhinged carnage.
And a modicum of order and principle to anarchy lends itself credence and value as it becomes a steadfast fist trained within a leather glove as opposed to a bloody and bare knuckled hand ready to brawl.
It’s calculated, concentrated force versus vehement, ruthless brutality purely for the sake of disruption and NOT a strategy of disruption to achieve an objective or favourable outcome.
The archetype
“In all chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order.”
– Carl Gustav Jung, Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious
Psychiatrist Carl Jung believed that everything that works is somehow grounded on its opposite.
He was a forthright thinker that challenged the status quo of thoughts and ideology that we can engineer situations into chaos to achieve certain results.
In Jung’s Concept of the Collective Unconscious, he analysed the dreams of some of his clients, and discovered that individuals of varied ethnicities and different belief systems and creeds all dreamed or produced in their dreams the same or similar symbols.
He theorised that all life has an order and structure to it that becomes evident and apparent to it when observed over time.
Science divulges that our lives comprise or consist of simple cycles/patterns that repeat ad infinitum to conceive more complex patterns.
For example a human embryo is subject to all stages of evolution during its 10 lunar months of gestation.
In Prof. Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos the Doctor states that “we require rules, standards, values – alone and together. We are pack animals. Beasts of burden. We must bear a load to justify our miserable existence. We require routine and tradition. That’s order”.
The Greek philosopher Aristotle argued that virtues always aim for balance and avoid the extremes of vices.
Balance.
This word I feel is key especially today in our national context of the common people rising up in peaceful protest against a corrupt administration.
For over two weeks, we have now seen protests erupt islandwide. People of all colour, ethnicity, language, religion, rituals, vocations and beliefs rallying in multitudes to voice their displeasure and united angst against the government.
I bump into folk of different walks of life. Recently those of either spectrum of the social hierarchy in terms of lifestyle and livelihoods have both questioned me and asked if I think the protests have really achieved anything? If any viable and visible change is apparent.
And my answer after quiet contemplation has been that Yes, it certainly has!
For one thing it has given the public a constitutional and humanitarian right to exercise their need and desire to protest collectively. A right that had for generations been tainted and painted as some underhand political propaganda devised ploy by certain parties causing unrest and revolt in the underbellies of Sri Lankan society among certain strata. That it is a violent and senseless parade of undergraduates, religious instigators and unions taking to the roads for political disputes, claiming pay raises or merely to disrupt things for the sake of tilting the natural order of societal configuration.
For the first time in our history and memory we are seeing thousands upon thousands of people; all disgruntled, all fed up of the misuse, misconduct and mismanagement of power, influence and our nation’s resources by a handful.
Families, children, the senior citizens, denizens of every corporate and professional sphere, musicians, poets, thespians, students and every one across the nation’s sphere brave the elements: in scorching sun, in the biting winds and the pelting rains to protest as one unified pulse, one magnified voice.
No more can race, religion, culture and heritage be used as the sovereign narrative to divide, polarise, dehumanise and subjugate the masses.
On the other hand the protests have a snowball effect. A rapid and dynamic butterfly effect that’s shone a spotlight to the Sri Lankan plight and economic, civil and social crisis that’s rampant and asphyxiating the life out of our land.
A few ripples have turned into currents that have transformed into tsunami-sized waves spreading across the world now. Awareness has reached a penultimate peak and if one looks at Galle Face alone – it is evident that the people are not willing to relent or forget. No longer will the Sri Lankan citizen be bought for cheap bribes and temporary remuneration. The rice packet, alcohol bottle and Rs. 5,000 culture has been abolished by the tidal wave of a collective conscience and a collective voice that have no agendas, no ulterior motives – save for shared vision and unanimous conditions for the powers that be and their lackeys to step down – and the harmonious nation in up rise cannot and will not be manipulated, exploited or silenced anymore.
Many problems, no solutions
Now Prof. Peterson suggests that as the environment supporting a species transforms and changes, the features that make a given individual successful in surviving and reproducing also transform and change.
He declares that some things change quickly, but they are nested within other things that change less quickly. Leaves change more quickly than trees, and trees more quickly than forests. Weather changes faster than climate.
Prof. Peterson states that nature is chaos, within order, within chaos, within higher order.
But what does this mean to us?
I relate this to that earlier all important word: balance.
Posing questions upon questions will not give us answers. But if we learn to ask the right questions, filtering out the gibberish then we can perhaps work towards identifying and figuring out some of the answers if not all.
We currently have an endless array of problems as a nation.
Willing to no longer endure the hardships and do nothing about it we have interlaced and joined hands to find solutions to our problems.
In order to find solutions to the problems we need to not just have a means to object, project, challenge and brandish our sentiments, thoughts and experiences… we need to work towards finding tangible short and long-term solutions.
So right. We now have gotten the attention of the world upon us. We have made clear that changes need to happen for us to be able as a nation to survive, endure, sustain ourselves for a better tomorrow.
How will we fill up our reserves and get USD into the country? How will we get our bare essentials and utilities back on track?
How will we tackle the debt crisis? The pre-emptive negotiated default is a start. Yet we cannot use dwindling reserves or working capital forex. Do we negotiate with bond holders? Is it pragmatic to lower interest rates across the board?
Do we have a foreseeable strategy with a stipulated timeline for a bail out with the IMF?
How will the ever ensuing and prevailing issues with the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) and the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) be dealt with? Will we finally do away with the commission based mafias and inculcate renewable energy sources which are more sustainable?
What about the budget deficit? Will high income corporate segments be taxed?
What of all the pointless, unproductive state owned enterprises? Is privatisation the answer? If so, implementation will be difficult.
Where are all the big private sector conglomerate movers and shakers now? Why have they not come together formulating a strategy to funnel in medicines into the country?
You see, it’s one thing to scream for change. It’s another entire ball game working stringently towards economic recovery.
We cannot afford to fall into the same repeated cycles and ruts of the past. We need to strive for balance in proving that while we have demands, that we also have a base grasp and understanding of what changes need to occur in order for us to even begin to turn things around.
And without being organised, without order, a code of law abiding ethics, higher sense of morality and values, purposeful educated and systematic strategies we may find short-term solutions to a few issues, but have no long-term solutions to bigger problems that simply won’t go away.
Remember… Leaves change more quickly than trees, and trees more quickly than forests.
(The writer is the frontman and lyricist of Stigmata, a creative consultant and brand strategist by profession, a self-published author and poet, thespian, animal rescuer, podcaster, and fitness enthusiast)
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The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect those of this publication.
