Part 6:3 The threat of terminal levels of alienation

The depressingly exposing descriptions of our lost state of innocence given by Sir Laurens, Hesiod, Rousseau, Wordsworth and others provided a powerful illustration of the problem of the Abyss of Depression from unbearable exposure that existed on one side of our species’ seemingly stranded position. What now needs to be provided is evidence of the threat of terminal levels of alienation that lay in wait on the other side of that Abyss of Depression.

As explained in Parts 1 and 2 of this book, and in Section 1:6 of Freedom Expanded: Book 2, the real threat to the world was not from environmental destruction, as devastating as that was—it was from terminal levels of alienation, and that threat to humanity was approaching extremely rapidly. For instance, in Parts 4:10 to 4:14 it is described how in the world of science lying had become so entrenched that no one was seeing through it and calling its bluff—to the contrary, everyone was lauding it.

What happens when alienation, the practice of denial or lying, becomes extreme is that society becomes so dysfunctional it collapses. We can gain an excellent insight into the approaching terminal levels of dysfunctionality by looking at what happened when excessive egocentricity developed, most especially in men, but also in women.