Self-Help and the Pregnant Pause

I like to think I can sort myself out. I keep thinking that if there is a question there must be an answer. Why do I think this ? Is there any evidence that suggests that resolution of our problems is imminent ? Or is it an inbuilt sense of boundless optimism resonant with the promise of Micawberesque possibilities that something will turn up. It is not simply a choice of option between the glass being half-full or half-empty because in other areas of my existence I display a fairly healthy dose of outright scepticism (if not cynicism).

Therefore I ask myself why do I purchase diet books or exercise books. Books on Yoga or Runes or Native American Medicine. Why are there boxes of cards supposedly to encourage creativity or to find one's soul or to encounter the truths of buddhism or meditation. Could it be the frantic graspings of a control freak coming to terms with not being in control of anything, particularly of his own surroundings. Self- help has come a long way since Samuel Smiles in 1882 advocated fine old values such as hard work and moral improvement. Self-Help as a marketing and publishing style has entered the new age of the individual far from the needs of societal enhancement. Perhaps when the day dawns that shows these two elements need to be reconnected will be when the world starts to be a better place. In the days when Church and State mattered to individuals in the sense that Life and Death matter self-help could rather simplistically be viewed as the Bible as the instruction book for those generations who chose it. And equally so every other Religion had their equivalents (with equal certainty and the power to enforce it).

In a way the modern concept of self-help is definitely more peaceful but it sows in its individualism the seeds of its own ineffectuality. In terms both of a more fractured philosophy of existence and in the disparate attitudes shown to global problems. If only one factor should intrude upon an individualistic autonomy of life it must be that of ecological stewardship. Self-help in a post Mad-Max world will be about self-preservation if the environmentalists cannot get their messages across. In a pregnant pause between thinking of a possible disaster and that catastrophe being pushed upon our grandchildren we need to create and nurture an unself-help that can save the world. It may be as simple as recycling and composting to begin with but voices need to be raised. In that pregnant pause before the birth of the idea whilst people are thinking - that is the time for one's self to provide the answer.