The Matrix Retold

[Occhidiangela]

They have just mutated a bit.

We have lost tribal sense, tradition, and right of passage to define what it means to grow... And live as human beings.

Who's "we," paleface? :D (Remember the old Lone Ranger and Tanto joke about being surrounded by Commanches?) Check out Rwanda and Former Yugoslavia. We are still dealing with tribalism at it finest and most barbaric. Check the Israel-Arab confrontation, and we see a fine display of tribalism. See the extreme attempts by the Latino/Hispanic community to redefine itself on a larger scale. Tribalism. See the white suburbanites hiding inside their encampments, their walled/gated mini-communities. Tribalism, a new form of Celtic hill forts.

I would also suggest that rites of passage still exist, but perhaps in different forms. However, I agree that the attempted pussification of society attempts to undermine rites of passage, for better or for worse.

There is almost nothing now that shocks us or awakes us into that awareness.

Really? I think you are overgeneralizing, but in truth, I will agree that it often takes quite a shake, quite a wake up call, to penetrate the tunnel vision of day to day life.

People go out and get body piercings and the like in an effort to recapture what little sense of tribal sense they might have.

They also join churches, clubs, and or social groups to hava a clan they can reach out and touch, something that a larger society does not afford. Piercing is just like long hair, love beads, spiked hair, tatoos, et al. "Hey, look at me, I am alive, I am here!"

The pain, the sweating, the tears, mostly the pain is a defining moment for them. In teenagers or even young adults, they look at it as some sort of right of passage or "taking it to the next level." This at one time used to be a vital part of the human experience.

Yes, and I guess that folks who play competitive sports, or who indulge in extremely challenging activities, such as rock climbing or extremely dangerous skiing or skateboarding stunts, have to dig deep. They still find what was found via traditional rites of passage.

However, modern day culture has labeled this as barbaric. We have so little to define or seperate us.

So "we" try to balkanize via ethnic groups, linguistic groups, musical preferences, religious groups, green-ness, what have you, in order to draw those very lines.

A lot of our emotional problems stem from this you know. A lot of us in modern society are repressed and sleeping, blissfully unaware, working away in some God awful factory or stuffed into a tiny little cubical. In a sense, we already live in a type of Matrix. And most of us are perfectly happy to be here. Some are not.

Some folks want to look deeper into life, and some are not interested in what they might find there, so yeah, I think you are on to something there. :D