The Relief of Exile
Last October, walking through London's Hampstead Heath, Jasun Horsley and I discussed the strange sense of relief that one can feel after being ousted, exiled, or in modern terms, cancelled. My own personal experiences of this began during 2020, when so many social circles went through their own little 'Great Reset', and people lost old allies and found new ones.
In my case, the cords that were cut over my 'transphobia' or 'covid conspiracy theories' were already threadbare. But cords they were, and unlike those which hold valuable relationships in secure contact, they were – to be perfectly frank – stifling. I don't say this with any ill-feeling towards those who were once my friends, because their intolerance of dissent has ultimately been the cause of my liberation.
As Dion Fortune teaches, opposition is a thrust-block. Don't resist; respond. Negative emotions aren't actually bad; you just need to make use of them to propel yourself toward that which you love, and to give strength to that which you wish to support.
"Don't resist; respond" is such a fantastic motto
Each of us has to say goodbye to everyone we love, but even worse, to everyone we know, whether we like them or hate them. At the age of 79, now I miss even those I hated. Figure that! Even Forster said "Only connect." Easy for him in his comfortable sinecure at an ancient university, giving the odd lecture and wrting now and then. Most of us connect with those we share values with, and values imply a world view, and the world view of most people today is, for us, virtually insane. But as they are in the majority, we have to pretend that they are sane - last thing you want to do is embarrass your mates by telling them they are a couple of millimetres from being certifiable while not being able to persuade them that they need help. Or maybe there is a different path?