Written by Caitlin Johnstone

The struggle of humankind is a struggle to become more conscious. This is true whether you’re talking about humanity as a species, human society as an individual nation or community, the interpersonal relationships in a specific family or social structure, or the inner processes of an individual human being.

Like a fractal, you see this same struggle to expand consciousness happening on every level of humanity no matter how far out or how far in you zoom the camera.

  • On the largest scale humanity is struggling to expand consciousness beyond the distortions of ignorance and propaganda to the point where a critical mass of people understand what’s really happening in their world and use the power of their numbers to force an end to the oppression, exploitation, violence and ecocide of the immense global power structures which rule our planet.
  • On the smallest scale we’re struggling to expand our inner consciousness of the egoic structures and subconscious mental habits which dictate our attention, thinking and behavior and cause us to suffer and create suffering for others.
  • Between these two extremes you have struggles like expanding consciousness of abusive and unhealthy dynamics in families and relationships, expanding consciousness in cultures and societies of abusive and unhealthy dynamics in wealth distribution, policing, race relations, sex and sexuality, and expanding consciousness in individual nations and communities of abusive and unhealthy dynamics in politics and government.

This expansion of consciousness is not some feel-good hippie dippy stroll through the park–it has enemies. Within every possible recursion of the fractal, you’ve got forces opposing that expansion of consciousness. On every level there are forces which have a vested interest in keeping things hidden in unconsciousness, whether it’s global power structures hiding their malfeasance behind propaganda and government opacity, corporations hiding their misdeeds behind PR spin and secrecy, cult leaders and religious exploiters hiding their depravity behind doctrine and domination, abusive partners and parents hiding their abusiveness behind manipulation, or subconscious habitual coping mechanisms hiding the discomfort their discovery would create behind compartmentalization and dissociation.

On every recursion of the fractal, humanity is trying to awaken from the matrix of untruth by moving further into a conscious recognition of what’s true. And every recursion has its own Agent Smith trying to prevent that movement from happening.

When you do deep inner work the Agent Smith you find yourself up against might look like inertia, cowardice, tightly guarded self narratives, or the habitualized movement of attention away from memories of trauma; whatever the unconscious identity structures within you need to do to remain unconscious and keep pulling the strings of your life from behind the scenes. When we fight establishment power structures the Agent Smiths we end up fighting might look like propagandists and deceitful politicians. For every push toward consciousness there’s a push in the opposite direction coming from the darkness, no matter how big or how small.

The good news is that any expansion of consciousness on one level of the fractal helps expand consciousness on all the others. Individuals who have expanded their consciousness inwardly are more adept at helping to expand it their society, because the manipulation of an Agent Smith internally is very similar to the manipulations of Agents Smiths on a mass scale. A society expanding its consciousness frees individuals up to become more inwardly conscious, and helps make humanity as a whole that more more conscious. Any expansion of consciousness for humanity as a whole–such as increased awareness of the importance of personal freedom, equality and justice–benefits every other level of the fractal.

We’re just turning on the lights, so that all which is unseen can become seen. Any new little bit of light makes the whole room that much brighter, and makes it that much easier for people to find new light switches. Soon we’ll have this whole thing lit up, and from there, a movement toward health and harmony for our species will be inevitable.

You can’t change something you’re not aware of, but once a sufficient amount of awareness has come to it, change is inevitable. The puppet show can never be mistaken for reality once you’ve had a good look at the puppeteers.

The lights are coming on; what they reveal isn’t often pretty, but they’re coming on. If I had to pick a narrative to describe what’s been happening in 2020, that would be it. The most distinctive feature of the last four years has been expanding consciousness–expanding consciousness of media corruption, of DNC corruption, of government corruption, of the abuse of immigrants, of police militarization, of unhealed racial wounds etc–and the story of 2020 has been the story of the rapid acceleration of that trend.

I don’t see this trend slowing down any time soon. I see it speeding up faster and faster.

Everything which was once hidden is now roaring into consciousness with greater and greater urgency. The lights are coming on, and the more light there is the weaker the Agent Smiths become on every recursion of the fractal.

As the lights come on we’re seeing more and more creepy crawlies that had been previously hiding in the darkness, but that’s just it: we are seeing them, and when they are seen they lose their power to pull the puppet strings from the shadows. I am seeing more reasons than ever to feel hopeful today. May all continue to be revealed.

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