LIKE it or not, in times of uncertainty one has to step up to the plate. Nobody else will help you and certainly not those who have conspired to put you in this position in the first place. The Establishment may have been spoon-feeding its subjects for much of their lives, but relying on the nanny-state comes with a price and if the spoon disappears then people will simply have to set about feeding themselves.

When I was carrying out some research for my book on Jewish mysticism I came across Martin Buber’s 1950 work, The Way of Man According to the Teaching of Hasidism, and it certainly contains the odd nugget of wisdom. One chapter deals with the story in Genesis when Adam hides in the Garden of Eden after committing his act of disobedience. Although God calls out “Where art thou?” he knows exactly where Adam is hiding. As Buber explains:

“This question is designed to awaken man and destroy his system of hideouts; it is to show man to what pass he has come and to awake in him the great will to get out of it […] Whatever success and enjoyment he may attain, and whatever deeds he may do, his life will remain way-less, so long as he does not face the Voice.”

Clearly one does not have to be Jewish or Christian to appreciate the message behind this parable. The ‘Voice’ of which Buber speaks need not relate to the God of the Old Testament, it may just as easily be the sound of your own inner voice and it is this which can provide the catalyst that may transform you from a consumer into a survivor. The time for hiding may be coming to an end.