Formation, Fascism and Creativity

To some, a balanced formation has become more of an ideology than a guiding principle of formation. The idea of balance has altered the system of formation, shifting the weight from studies to eclectic activity: sports, music, cooking, etc. The ideology of balance has tipped away at the philosophical formation of students, turning them away from intellectual endeavors to pursue different activities than immersing themselves into the activity of thought.

Such has not changed the consciousness of students and formands and only retains the old consciousness of students as they despise their studies and brand their own intellectual pursuits as the reminder of an old fascist intellectual regime. In its own right, from concept to ideology, the ideology of balance which I shall brand it, has not transformed people as individuals but as artificial selves, exploring other areas where their heart does not want in order to satisfy the ideology of balance. This is not a reaction to an old fascism but a new form of religious fascism from within our institution for they have not chosen their paths but on the contrary it has been chosen for them

When formation becomes a tool to change the personality of an individual to a prescribed universal trait, formation ceases to be formation. The production of selves and personalities has become mainstay in some institution that the religious sector also has become prey into the temptation of transforming human beings into uniform clean cut individuals. Such is the result of over recording, over categorizing and overreaction to some individual issues. The human being has become a compartmentalized entity that must be put into a particular cabinet and whose desire must be channeled. Such practice sucks the creative powers of an individual and transforms people into a mass of religious zombies, trained to memorize and not to think, to repeat and not to create.

Religious Fascism starts with formation. When formation ceases to be formation it becomes a fascist mechanism of control and repression. The artificial production of subjects has become mainstay for the sake of objectivity. Objectivity becomes the universal principle and when personality becomes an object, the subject will cease to be a subject and becomes an object as rock is a rock. Such is not the end of formation; its end is to make sure that the individual utilizes his/her own creative powers. "Each according to his means, to each according to his needs," as the Anarchist saying goes. To end religious fascism means a grand transformation of ourselves with the formator and the formand equal in struggle void of authority.

In the past post, I may have left you wondering. What course of action shall we take? If to avoid religious fascism meant to change how we do formation and how we perceive human personalities, our concept of authority has to evolve from pyramidal to a circle where the formator and the formand are both under formation (which we actually do). That is the first step. However, at the second moment of authority seeps in and changes the view of the formator. He sees the formand as sheep that must be uniform and without blemish. He begins to change everyone, removing the ones with blemish sacrificing one for the sake of the uniformity of the many. He will instill herd mentality; hierarchical thinking that for the sake of order the formand sacrifices his own creative power. 

When creative power is repressed it is channeled into another form, a more destructive form where the dream is shifted into nightmare. And the only desire of the individual is to alleviate himself from a pain unknown. You might call this a form of schizophrenia, a psychosis. But for the sake of order and uniformity, neurosis becomes a virtue; their reality is reality with the opposite pole of the psychotic, the schizo. Obsessed with order, formation becomes a subtext for reform and correction. But formation is not correction or reform, the paradox of formation is that it forms not because of the formator but because of the formand. If the polarization of a mechanistic formation is bridged then, there is no psychotic or neurotic but all human, individuals, diverse and not uniform.

Let us return to the course of action we should take. Let me repeat the anarchist saying: "from each according to his means, to each according to his needs." Through this, formation becomes a creative force and channels the individual's power to creation and not destruction.