"What I’m hopeful for, and what I actually see happening—I mean, I think we’re on the right track—the birth of a new kind of humanity is going to take place. But there are still a lot of decisions to be made. How violent shall this birth be, what toll shall it take upon our mother the earth, what shape shall the baby be in when it is finally delivered… these are the decisions that artists can mediate and control. Most people are afraid of the unconscious. This is why you can have a psychedelic compound like DMT, which is very much like ordinary brain chemistry, appears completely physiologically harmless, only lasts ten minutes, extremely powerful, and generally in this society you have no takers. This is because there has been a failure of moral courage. And the failure of moral courage is perhaps most evident in our own community: the community of the artist. In a way, it’s the poets who have failed us. Because they have not provided a song or sung a vision that we could all move in concert to. So now we are in the absurd position of being able to do anything, and what we are doing is fouling our own nest and pushing ourselves toward planetary toxification and extinction. This is because the poets, the artists have not articulated a moral vision. The moral vision must come from the unconscious. It doesn’t have to do, I believe, with, you know, these post-meaning movements in art: deconstructionism, and this sort of thing. But that art’s task is to save the soul of mankind. And that anything less is a dithering while Rome burns. Because if the artists, who are self-selected for being able to journey into the other… if the artists cannot find the way, then the way cannot be found." ~Terence McKenna
Posted on: Sun, 11 Aug 2013 12:32:23 +0000