The Tower and the Swamp

November 8, 2021 Health & Healing, Sociocultural Issues No Comments

Regular medicine is like an unassailable tower. Alternative medicines are like a swamp nearby that continually shifts and is therefore ungraspable.

OF COURSE, THIS TEXT IS NOT ABOUT THE TOTALITY OF REGULAR MEDICINE, BUT THE PART WHERE HUMAN DEPTH IS INVOLVED.

I didn’t find a picture of swamp + ivory tower. Please use your imagination, as do most dwellers on both sides when in reality, human depth is seriously involved.

Both sides crave rationality

The conceptually discernible is one part of reality; the subconceptually discernible is another. Seen from the tower, the swamp is conceptually irrational. Seen from the swamp, the tower is subconceptually irrational.

Mind-related, both are correct. One can get confused in any direction and thus get stuck in either the swamp or the tower.

Both sides crave wholeness.

Both are not merely lacking the other side ― no summation to be made. Contrary to this, both lack much rationality as well as wholeness.

This makes the whole domain of mind-related healthcare vulnerable for those who intend to manipulate the bunch without any moral integrity. Even more, the less moral integrity, the more the manipulation can be outspoken without anyone noticing it. Who feels free to go beyond morality is free to do so ― bad situation!

Especially with little intelligence standing in the way, as is the case, unfortunately, in many places of the swamp. Let’s not be coy about this.

The cause of the mayhem: mere-ego

Mere-ego doesn’t like wholeness. It sees wholeness as the enemy. That is understandable since it thrives in an illusion. Wholeness would dissolve the illusion. I see such dissolution as an important result of Compassion.

Therefore, those who naively fill a vacuum of seriousness are less to blame than those who create the vacuum or who let it thrive, out of unwillingness to risk status or money. Frequently, these are, paradoxically, the loudest voices against the swamp ― at the same time also against whoever wants to change the status-quo fundamentally.

The tower’s responsibility

With open eyes, the tower can learn from the swamp that substantial parts of the tower itself are made up of non-integrated swamp material. [see: “Placebo Based Medicine”]

Also, the tower can learn to rationally integrate other parts (mainly subconceptual) that really belong in the tower but are thrown out of the window, feeding the swamp. Through this learning, the tower can become less ivory, more humane, and more rational.

Yes, I am talking about regular medicine, and huge responsibilities not taken. In any case, having the swamp being taught at universities is entirely irrational. If the tower doesn’t look critically at itself, we are bound to get this situation prevalent all over the globe. That is not the swamp’s responsibility. It is the tower’s responsibility. In my view, even most of those who earn from the swamp would welcome the tower to do so.

It requires courage. [see: “Turtle Vagaries“]

The third way: neither swamp nor tower

This may be a new construct near the tower and opposite the swamp. I think that earnest people from swamp and tower can agree with this setting.

My question: How is it possible that this has not yet been realized a long time ago? How is it possible even that there is a lot of obstruction to this from many sides? Eventually, I’m starting to ask myself, where is decency?

There is no magic involved, but science, art, courage, and a lot of work.

Make it so.