What follows is not a comprehensive treatment of this dynamic, just points for reflection and dialogue and also to start taking some concrete action. I also have to be very brief and focused.

The way people power is developing all over the world has a similar dynamic. Most of the time, people are comfortably numb, moving about in systems that oppress them to varying intensity. Then a crisis, an injustice, a small incident triggers a suppressed unconscious anger, frustration and helplessness and this in turn is galvanized into focused, very brave action. All fear is gone and individuals act to face oppressive systems.

People power in Malta −

the sleeping giant

To say that the Maltese are comfortably numb is relatively true. Going deeper into the Maltese psyche, one understands the fear and the confusion/helplessness, as the long-established systems of stability no longer have answers to the complex issues of the day. One comes in contact with a deep-seated anger that people are not in control and cannot take full responsibility for their lives; the fact is that these structures are fast dissolving.

The political system as we know it is no longer sustainable. No party can claim to have enough wisdom or political clout to solve the underlying confusion and chaos. Political parties today are an amalgamation of different ideas sitting very uncomfortably and precariously together, waiting for a crisis to topple the dysfunctional scales on which they stand. Today, no party can claim ‘party loyalty’ as a force of stability. A solution to this could be a coalition of the best brains, not necessarily the most intelligent, but those most open, intuitive and creative.

The religious structure is caught in a complex tension of letting go and opening up in a compassionate way to the concrete needs of people while keeping a rigid structure and inflexible attitudes in place.

This has resulted in a Church that has lost its way and may be seen by some to be moving towards irrelevance, self-pity and retreat, which most of the time is without strategy or vision. The Church seems lost in the quicksand of denial.

Yet I see that people are waking up and taking responsibility for their own lives, moving beyond the parameters set by politics and religion. They are finding power within themselves and this is leading some to take concrete action. The spark, which will ignite a wave of chaos, will inevitably hit Malta.

The reaction need not be violent and aggressive but can be experienced within a dynamic I will call the “spirituality of chaos”. I am speaking of an interfaith development of a spirituality of chaos.

I have lived in many chaotic situations, in war zones or in situations of extreme poverty. These bring out either the best or the worst in people, depending on the person’s inner disposition.

This would make people flow into what is essential and life enhancing, and slowly, a spirituality for a time of chaos will grow with the people’s experience of hope in helplessness. This is the beginning of a spirituality of chaos. It would include becoming acclimatized to the situation of harshness of the new reality and where the usual habitual coping skills are no longer useful. It would also discover the power of solidarity, understanding the power in numbers and in networking. Survival is always a powerful incentive. Starting to value the different gifts people bring and allowing these gifts to create a dynamic of ‘synthesis of resources’ so that the power generated is more focused and moving towards a cohesive strategy and goal. This would be the start of building a different society out of the emerging values needed for survival.

This spirituality has to do with the discovery of doing small things with great power. Through solidarity, top-heavy structures will topple and make way for simpler more ‘people-oriented ways of living’.

As a way of creating awareness and helping to shift the way we build society, I suggest an ongoing dialogue and a corresponding action plan to bring people power to the fore and to use it wisely and responsibly.

It is by doing small things with power that we are no longer a number within society but a face and a personality. In this way, all of us can create the rainbow after the storm.

Godwin Genovese

ATTARD

[email protected]