Enantiodroma: (The tendency for one pole to seek its opposite)
In psychology we learn that everything has its opposite. Up and down, life and death, good and evil, and so on.
We also learn that maintaining a preference to one side leaves the other dammed up or blocked in its influence. This is a biased affair occurring most of the time unconsciously in the human psyche due to frustration of archetypal intent.
As a rule, though, we also learn that everything will eventually seek its polar opposite in an enantiodromian attempt to counter a one-sided differentiation. What goes up must come down.
Since the dawn of human existence, man has followed this unconscious dance to a ‘T’, in an attempt to embrace all aspects of our psyche. The things we produce from this glow in our own aura reflect the particular influence which one side had in its ultimate creation.
All creations, large and small, which humans give rise to, owe their existence to a one-sided unconscious differentiation or a conscious differentiation, to counter a current imbalance or archetypal frustration.
Governments and their overall perceptions of the people are no exception to this rule. For the longest of time, our country has been managed under the influence of the Founding Fathers, since their emigration from the lands of Europe and reign of King George.
We brought with us to this great country, a patriarchal core, instilled within us from our kith. Our Founding Fathers established a government that fit this structure, unconsciously satisfying a tendency to this pole.
Patrism and matrism stem from where we place God. Cultures within a father-based religion also have social structures imbued with the father archetype, as does the female-oriented religions, which possess their structures carved around the archetypal feminine ideal.
Where culture is driven by patrist social structures, they tend to have a political core with authoritarian principles. Patrism is a combination of discipline and rank. We tend to have organized it so that he or she who produces work, can establish for themselves a place in society that reflects their contribution.
In contrast, the nurturing matrist sees the individual as free, and not having any social distinction, due to work produced or privileges earned. This holds true in anthropology throughout the world.
In spite of the fact that we, in this country, have sought to uphold a patrist structure, the enantiodromia is inevitable. We can see clearly, an increase of the egalitarian attitude, the lack of reserve in sex; the leveling of class distinction; the dumbing down of speech and behavior; the tearing down of institutions with hierarchal-framed supports; the disposing of patriotism and the military forces protecting them; sex, drugs, intemperance, instant gratification and external validation; welfare abuse with the idea that no one should go without, even though they don’t contribute. Work or not, you will receive the nourishment of the collective mother.
I rest contentedly in knowing that this rocking to and fro from order to chaos has been going on since the remotest beginnings. This unconscious tendency of a collective psyche to embrace an opposite lying latently in us, is nothing but biology.
Every one of us has left the comfort of our nests to see what lies on the other side. This enantiodromia isn’t an isolated event. Each end of the pole doesn’t seek its opposite once, and then be satisfied. No, the pendulum has swung from side to side forever. There is no stasis or rest, where consciousness comes into play. We can, though, lean in one direction or the other to try and keep the vessel guided to the direction that has proven most beneficial in a world where 1+2=3.
Just as a glass is almost spilled of its contents and once realized, pulled back so to prevent a mess, so too, will our current cultural psychology realize its impending doom. When the tide ebbs, as it will do, we must use our minds so that the ball stays in our court for as long as possible.
Rest assured, my fellow patriots, their day in the shade is limited. The sun will soon pierce through the leaves of their protective nurturing tree, leaving them exposed and burnt. Yet again, they will find themselves underdeveloped and lacking the virtues needed to maintain in a nation like our own.
D. Davis, Cleveland, Texas