"Symbolic Poverty"

by Mats Winther

Abstract: The article tries to pinpoint a collective complex
unconsciously affecting all people belonging to the Western cultural
sphere. The capacity to relate symbolically with life has become lost.
Symbolic poverty implicates a serious deficiency of spiritual
relatedness. The lack thereof is being compensated with many strange
preconceptions, partly deriving from everyday indoctrination. Most
conspicuous is the inability to accept suffering, and the reluctance
of enduring it. Western man is losing his capacity of relating
symbolically to the dark side of existence, by way of ritual
conceptions. Against this, a new attitude toward evil and the
destructive forces is proposed. The article hopes to challenge the
reader's preconceptions, many of which have been drunk in with the
mother's milk.

Keywords: suffering, evil, symbol, ritual, welfare state,
Earth-Mother, Chuang-tzu.

Read the full article here:
http://home7.swipnet.se/~w-73784/symbolic1.htm

Mats