Alienation

To me, alienation is both interesting as a word, as well as an interesting concept.

Perhaps more so since talk about ‘Aliens’ in the sense of extra-terrestrials has become more commonplace. In that particular sense, it raises all kinds of interesting questions which at some point or other all seem to come down to the realization that the universe is a pretty big place, making it unlikely our planet is the only inhabited one…

However, it does show how ‘Aliens’ are not of this world. They are separate from our world and separate from us humans.
Being alienated means to become separated from a group, a culture, a way of thinking or believing, a country even. “You are not one of us because you are not like us, and therefore you are alien to us.”

In this point in time with all of its polarities, it seems that alienation has become the polarity of connectedness, or commonality. Where common interests and the desire to share are getting stronger ~ feeling connected with others ~ also a certain alienation is taking place. Sometimes because we are extremely focused on ourselves and our own lives; other times perhaps out of fear for the differences between us. Differences in language, culture, religion, and on and on, can keep us from feeling connected to that other person. And as soon as we would start pushing those that are different from us away from us, alienation has begun.

And the more we are out to defend our own ‘Kingdom’, the more ‘alien nations’ are brought into this world…

From a broader perspective it seems that we are not seeing the whole picture and not understanding what we are seeing.
It is something that can drive us away ~ alienate us ~ or intrigue us…

When it intrigues us, chances are that it awakens our curiosity and imagination. We want to know more about it ~ and while it may never become something we truly resonate with, we can on some level still feel connected to it.

In art it is called the alienation effect, when what has been depicted has become so abstract that it needs the imagination of the spectator in order to be interpreted. That in itself has a certain beauty to it, as each individual interpretation is a correct interpretation ~ for that person ~ and when all those individual interpretations are taken together, chances are that they are all connected to one another. That they together describe an experience that creates wholeness.

A wholeness that may well be the new point of balance between those polarities: alienation and commonality.
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