A Truer Evolution

I find myself once again using the analogy of Alice in Wonderland for what continues to unfold in our current reality.  I am by no means the only one calling on Alice’s adventures at this time.  In my book – my reality, my interpretation – Alice fell down a rabbit hole and popped into a histrionic version of future adulthood. Faced with the whole panoply of the human condition, from the ravings of a power-crazed Red Queen, to the wry observations of the creepy Cheshire cat, she witnessed a world of anomalies closer to reality than she might have imagined. Although it was Lewis Carroll’s (aka Rev Dodgson) commentary on Victorian society, it equally applies to any period in the history of societal man. If you want to observe the generic condition of humankind with a degree of detachment, what better way than through the eyes of a child, before the mores of the world have ruptured her innocence?

In truth Dodgson was a seer, a consummate philosopher. Why does Alice still hold such appeal? Because it strikes a chord! Today we literally do know what’s going on all over the world, gratis of the all-seeing eye of modern technology (a step forward or back?). At the click of a button we can enter Alice’s world from wherever we are on the planet. But we are not just observers; we are part of the collective surge moving towards growth and evolution, whether we like it or not. It’s just that now, it all seems to have taken a nasty turn… Surely we should be growing in stature, in wisdom, in deed? Shouldn’t that be the true objective of evolution?

Near the end of the book, when Alice is in court on trial for her life for daring to speak the “truth”, she suddenly feels a peculiar sensation and realises she is growing again. She could leave the courtroom but decides to stay where she is for the time being:

“I wish you wouldn’t squeeze so,” said the Dormouse, who was sitting next to her. “ I can hardly breathe.” “ I can’t help it,” said Alice very meekly : “I’m growing.” “ You ’ve no right to grow here,” said the Dormouse. “Don’t talk nonsense,” said Alice more boldly: “you know you’re growing too.” “Yes, but I grow at a reasonable pace,” said the Dormouse: “not in that ridiculous fashion.” 

I can’t help feeling that now is the time, like Alice, to grow in a ridiculous fashion. Then the next natural leap for mankind might be better than the chilling vision W. B. Yeats’ presents in the last two lines of his poem The Second Coming: 

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,   

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

We have no option but to grow too big for this nonsense. Then perhaps, when the hour has come, we can rise up and exclaim:

Who cares for you? You’re nothing but a pack of cards!”