View source for Moving from Pre-Tragic to Post-Tragic Forms of Consciousness

=Discussion=

David J. Temple:

"We speak with some depth in CosmoErotic Humanism about '''the distinction between three stations of consciousness, which we identify as the pre-tragic, tragic, and post-tragic'''. These three stations apply to both the personal and the collective. Briefly, in the pre-tragic station
we have either not experienced tragedy or have managed to deny it. In
the tragic station, we acknowledge and face the tragedy of suffering but
often cannot find our way beyond it, so it destroys our capacity to respond, to innovate, or to creatively engage reality. In the post-tragic we
have fully faced the tragic and live within it, but are able to transcend
and transform it.

The move from pre-tragic to tragic is simply the movement in
which we—to borrow Robert Jay Lifton’s phrase—“face the apocalypse.” We step out of the potentially fatal illusion that things will just continue on as they are, or that we will soon “return back to normal.”
We must face the genuine possibilities of catastrophic and existential
risk.

Tragic awareness often results in a “doomer” stance of hopelessness or resignation. But there is a way through: a post-tragic view can
emerge. We begin by understanding that crisis is and always has been
an evolutionary driver, and that our current meta-crisis is a birth. In
the post-tragic, we allow the second shock of existence to awaken us
to new possibility.


From the pre-tragic view, awareness of the meta-crisis and the
possibility of self-induced species extinction does not occur, or is ignored. The obvious beauty and self-sufficiency of nature, as well as the
simple givenness of the world, appear to override any possible bad
news about the end of all things. The pre-tragic view of life is a specific
and necessary phase to pass through, ideally during early childhood
and adolescence, when the young human is brought into the fold of
life.

But tragedies occur. And so, the pre-tragic view either gives way or
becomes a defense. The emotional immaturity of a defensive pre-tragic
view is often what becomes associated with the worst of new-age culture, where reality is “all good” and “all love.” The tragic view of life
will have nothing of the idea that it is “all good.” In fact, the tragic view
holds that there is perhaps almost nothing truly good in this world.
It sees through the pre-tragic justifications of social, economic, and
military atrocities, looking at human nature as red in tooth and claw.
Of course, the worst thing for humanity to do would be to end all life
for humans. And so the awareness of existential and catastrophic risks
appears to be the final nail in the coffin of the pre-tragic view—from
the tragic perspective, there can be no redemption at all for humanity
or the world.

The tragic view eventually gives way, as tragedies open up from
within and gradually yield to their unresolvability. Crises call forth
transformation into new identities. Tragedies are not solved, but lived
through. Burning in the pain of tragedy long enough, one becomes
increasingly self-aware, able to endure despite defeat. Recognizing
the incessant push of life—of Eros—enables the recognition that even
within the depths of the tragic, in the darkness and terror, there is the
possibility of redemption. Here is the return of laughter and stillness,
the return of love and hope. The post-tragic also entails the clarification and complexification of the pre-tragic view of a good and loving
Cosmos, or God.

There is no future for human culture if it remains struck in the
pre-tragic or tragic view of the meta-crisis. The second shock of existence must be metabolized by human culture, and especially by those
in the wisdom lineages of religious and philosophical thought. The
meta-crisis is a demand for a mature and wise world philosophy that
can help shift human culture into a post-tragic view on essential existential questions.
In the clarity of post-tragic awareness, it often becomes clear how
the tragedy arose. Careful analysis suggests that most tragedies can be
cut off at their root, before they blossom into suffering." 

Source: [[CosmoErotic Humanism]]

=More information=

* '''Article: FROM PRE-TRAGIC TO TRAGIC TO POST-TRAGIC CONSCIOUSNESS. By Dr. Marc Gafni & Dr. Kristina Kincaid.'''

URL = /https://centerforintegralwisdom.org/activist-think-tank/wp-content/uploads/sites/21/2018/10/FROM-PRE-TRAGIC-TO-TRAGIC-TO-POST-TRAGIC-CONSCIOUSNESS.pdf

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