The Loss of Man’s Innocence:

I’m struggling with our current societal definition of what innocence is. When I googled it:

So innocence is freedom from guilt, a lack of corruption or purity, and it’s used as a euphemism for a person’s virginity.

What does the first and second definition have to do with sex? Is it just me or do we really link innocence with sex in our current definition? What is that?

For a significant period of man’s history, man has told the story of the loss of innocence. Human beings seem to have a clear obsession with the concept of innocence. We want to see and feel this innocence in ourselves and others. Often people look at innocence as something to be revered. In innocence there is good, in goodness there is god. In God, as I have come to understand, there is: love, joy, connection, and equanimity.

Innocence is seen in most human cultures as something to be respected. We respect innocence because of it’s vulnerability: it’s fragility. This respect has been developed through 200k years of human existence. Without it our species would not have gone on.

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As young children we see the world in black and white, almost as though we are in a constant game of chess: black vs white pieces. Good guys vs Bad guys. We begin to identify and over identify with those simple understandings of a black and white world.

This dichotomized thinking doesn’t work as we mature we start to see the world with more context. We realize, if we are maturing emotionally, how things often don’t fit neatly into the mental boxes we have built for them. Often we see the imperfections in the people closest to us and decide those imperfections don’t make them unworthy of our love.

Humans beings put things in categories, it’s what we do. Often the categories are very wrong, because the categories where created by a different group of human beings. We see the world so differently, and often we are unwilling to let go of our tightly held beliefs. This is why there is a flawed understanding in our American culture, of what innocence and power are.

Our country is struggling to find it’s place going forward. One of the big reasons for our current national existential struggle, is how we as human beings put people into categories.

We as a species, have come to find the reverence of innocence and power essential to our survival. The innocent are often very vulnerable. The powerful are those who have the ability to protect the vulnerable for the good of the tribe.

Power and innocence are the first things we try to understand about each other. It’s essential still to our survival. We need to know who can hurt us and who won’t. So we label things: children=innocence vs adults=power

But then we don’t stop labeling and putting people into opposing categories. Good guys vs bad guys. Cops vs robbers. Us vs them

We all know, on some level, it isn’t this simple. And yet embedded into our societal norms are these very principles, in which to see each other. If you aren’t part of this category (we’ve arbitrarily assigned you to) then of course you are on the opposing side.

Differences for humans, throughout much of our past, has often led to death. Our ancestors had no choice but to think in over simplified ways. We needed to be quick to stop the threats to ourselves and our group. Different groups of people could kill the group of people you belonged to , so it was essential to always pay attention and judge what is right and what is wrong.

And here we are completely stuck, because the answers are not black and white to a complex question. Often complex questions and complex problems will have complex solutions. To move forward we need to pause, and bring more context, more understanding to how our societal norms impact our fellow human beings.

I’ve decided to work on a series of blog posts on these complex questions. I’d love to hear other’s meaningful thoughts on these ideas as well.

There are so many complex questions in our culture which need more context and understanding not shame and judgment, and so I hope to continue those important conversations…

love and light,

Aarika