I write as a common garden psychological therapist – I have learned to own my failures and successes but I find we are at a position in our society – #healthcare, #socio-economic, political organising #systems that have regressed to a black and white 20th century view of life. Perhaps there is a snippet of sepia in there…. but #life is #technicolour and that is the problem! We have built a society that is technically advanced but has lost sight of its#basic existential #values. We have ‘taught’ people lacking privilege that they are #entitled and we have built corporate and statutory systems that are #accountable. This is an existential falsehood at worst and a misnomer at best as it has led to the individual having sense of not being able to receive what they are supposedly entitled to and corporations, private and public, whose accountability is invisible and avoided. What do we know? Change is inevitable but until we accept the defining characteristics of change we will remain stymied and stagnated and in fear of change. Why? Because we have misconstrued what entitlement means….yes in a civilized world, we are #entitled to #basic #human #freedoms and yes in a civilised world our social, political and #healthcare #organising #systems are #accountable for delivering these. However, we need to recognise some clear notions what this idea of being entitled means and how we are bound to make the most of our short time here. We are accountable for being part of this system of accountability. We will #receive #more by# giving than #taking. If we acknowledge to ourselves that the basic tenet of existence proposes that change is inevitable, we need to recognise that the corollary of this is that we cannot make use of that change while we are wedded to this outdated view that is based on the fear of the unknown so we remain stuck. #Change, being #inevitable is the #handmaiden of #opportunity – it is not until we run towards the horizon that we see there is another horizon and that our #limits are actually #limitless. Until we recognise we are the #agents or our #response to the inevitability of change and construe #change #as #opportunity we will never know more than Copernicus discovered – the earth is round. But there is more to the earth than it just being round today. If we accept our responsibility by assuming agency in the processes of change, we can challenge any unfamiliar or uncertain positions and see them as opportunities for evolution not dissolution or avoidance. We know people fear the uncertain, the unfamiliar but all progress is built upon the courage to face change and with a sense of excitement that is the other side of the same coin that keeps us in fear and anxious of change. We must unstick ourselves of this delusion, reorganise and galvanise our will to power, that is the potential to be self-determining individuals in a collective endeavour that requires care and courage, not fear and avoidance. Human beings can and will find themselves if their #true #potential is handed back to them in an #open, #inclusive and #forward-thinking #society. The sun may have always risen in the east but no-one can tell you with absolute certainty this will occur ad infinitum as this is the false consensus philosophy of science that keeps us still waiting for something ‘inevitable’ to happen. If we hide from change, it will still occur but in our short time here we will also miss any opportunities for making the most of that change. I beseech you to ride with this #wave of #aspiration and allow each and #every# person to #embrace their# potential to #give and #receive which is their #fundamental (and recently abdicated) #right, #duty and #responsibility.

Please feel free to use my words anonymously or as your own or I am happy to deliver myself as a person who has been privileged but who has also fallen from grace, found himself the courage to be what I can and resilience to carry on. Yours. M®

Mark Rayner MA UKCP