DIY History | Transcribe | Iowa Women’s Lives: Letters and Diaries | Eve Drewelowe's journals, volumes II-III, 1950s

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Eve Drewelowe's journals, volumes II-III, 1950s

Page 191

It is indeed difficult for an individual to be able to give himself any consideration, apart from a driven force, a machine manipulated by the levers of an inter gated society. It is not easy to know himself at any time. It is far less easy for him to know himself without the time and knowledge to think things through from beginning to end, or as is so often the case - to tread out by ruthless elements of a civilization that ride high and mighty over anything and everything that may come in its way or that has a possibility of exploitation. The termites that carry away your very soul and liberty. They even transport like particles of tissue and disintegrate you bit by bit.
Our barbaric ancestors, of a few generations back, were more fortunately situated than we are for they perhaps realized most of the dangers to self-preservation. At least they must have had a fairly good idea of the destructive forces which they were up against. Jesus also - it would seem - was lucky - for he was only crucified once. We are reared not only to take the insidious and sinister forces for granted, but are taught to respect them, and not as enemies; and according to the theories of a Psychologist became conditioned and to live in accord with them, no matter what they may do to us. We are supposed to fit ourselves to the standard mold, to modify ourselves by trimming down the edges of individualism and conform to what has gone before. Very few would think in terms of changing the environment to suit the requirements of the person, but many would believe that the individual should adapt himself to fit the conditions. For if he fails to "jell" people at large are all too ready, too agog with denunciation. All too ready without knowing the determining factors. It apparently is the fault of the individual according to them. Whereas if he had been enabled to create the mold for his own life and had been permitted to live in accordance with his own requirements, disaster might more easily have been withstood. As long as the organism was plastic enough to regulate itself to the world of dictation, elastic enough to stretch over

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It is indeed difficult for an individual to be able to give himself any consideration, apart from a driven force, a machine manipulated by the levers of an inter gated society. It is not easy to know himself at any time. It is far less easy for him to know himself without the time and knowledge to think things through from beginning to end, or as is so often the case - to tread out by ruthless elements of a civilization that ride high and mighty over anything and everything that may come in its way or that has a possibility of exploitation. The termites that carry away your very soul and liberty. They even transport like particles of tissue and disintegrate you bit by bit. Our barbaric ancestors, of a few generations back, were more fortunately situated than we are for they perhaps realized most of the dangers to self-preservation. At least they must have had a fairly good idea of the destructive forces which they were up against. Jesus also - it would seem - was lucky - for he was only crucified once. We are reared not only to take the insidious and sinister forces for granted, but are taught to respect them, and not as enemies; and according to the theories of a Psychologist became conditioned and to live in accord with them, no matter what they may do to us. We are supposed to fit ourselves to the standard mold, to modify ourselves by trimming down the edges of individualism and conform to what has gone before. Very few would think in terms of changing the environment to suit the requirements of the person, but many would believe that the individual should adapt himself to fit the conditions. For if he fails to "jell" people at large are all too ready, too agog with denunciation. All too ready without knowing the determining factors. It apparently is the fault of the individual according to them. Whereas if he had been enabled to create the mold for his own life and had been permitted to live in accordance with his own requirements, disaster might more easily have been withstood. As long as the organism was plastic enough to regulate itself to the world of dictation, elastic enough to stretch over