Cut off in the literal age. Owen Barfield & Carl Jung on alienation and political disillusionment

There is a link between rising levels of mental-ill health and political disillusionment. Feeling cut off is not just an economic and psychological problem, but is a symptom of a wider alienation arising from modern consciousness.
Owen Barfield argued that contemporary political problems are fundamentally due to estrangement not only from others but from ourselves, due to a loss of soul and spirit to materialism and literalism.
As Carl Jung put it, the gods have become diseases - diseases of the collective as well as individual psyche. The pre-political must address this crisis of anthropology if politics is to be restored.
This is the sixth thought in which I’ve turned to a guide to illuminate the overwhelming feeling of malaise in this democratic year.
Look at others on my KZbin channel: Plato on beauty, Aristotle on ethics, Jesus on being in the world but not of it, Dante and civilisational decline, and William Blake on the rise of abstraction.

[@Borsfrancis]

Julian Assange has just gained freedom! Surely this is a cause for celebrating the spirit within all of us (positively manifesting in activists) striving for the good the true and the beautiful.

[@cameddy4081]

Great to see the wonderful Owen Barfield being celebrated !! One of the inklings !! 🙏👏👏👏👏🙏🌏✌️

[@jamesblack8173]

This has really helped me make sense of where we're at what we need. Thank you.

[@flow963]

Very insightful. Very appreciated. Thank you Mark

[@margueritespringer3687]

Thank you. Personally most helpful

[@michaelmartinserafin2029]

Here in the US, as you are probably aware, politics here are downright nauseating! No one reads, no one reflects, everyone just knee-jerk reacts. I am reading "The Divine Comedy", for the first time, at age 64, the Mark Musa translation, and your companion book of Canto commentaries, and your companion podcast on Audible. Hoping Dante will help me make sense of my life and my country. Thank you for your good work, both in print and here on KZbin. BTW, are you a Jungian psychotherapist?

[@Jakelefleur]

Mark, I am loving these

[@PlatosPodcasts]

Thanks for saying

[@ElizabethMohr]

This is beautifully explained, thank you. Helpful to look at deeper layers of meaning and to consider scale when working toward wellness, toward creativity moving forward.

[@Matt.Hurley]

Would love to hear your thoughts on Jordan Peterson he was a big part of my introduction to Jung and Nitchze like 10 years ago I think he really played into that sense of disillusionment on his rise to fame. I dont listen to him anymore because he chose some weird hills to die on but I cant help but get the sense that there is something key in understanding how we are all disconnected in a time of technologic interconnectedness and how people in the past still faced the same issues despite different circumstances.

[@holgerjrgensen2166]

As We is Eternal, we have NO age in real sense, the body We see in mirror, is Not older than 1½ year.

[@thehypest6118]

We? Where's this "we" coming from, I don't feel any guilt at all, you've fallen for it by the labguage you use, Rand addresses this phenomenon in his book Anthem

[@mariecait]

Her*