|
|
It must be remembered that this social text is interactive; the practices, habits, rituals, and performances are the backdrop of an exhibition, played by the participating actors, with their bodies and their minds, creating a kind of theatrical reality. Belief in the display is absolutely necessary, otherwise “reality” itself would no longer exist. We believe in this game, in this performance, because it gives us a sense of sociohistorical belonging, thus we avoid the worry of alienation and displacement, especially if we do not look too closely at the contradictions inherent in any social system based on violence, inequality, and domination. Such a system reproduces itself relatively easily, and the status quo is maintained, each one in his / her place, each one playing his / her part. Lessing, however, encourages us to abandon our loyalty to a predefined universe, to ask critical questions (of ourselves and others) regarding the foundation of this network of power, and to resist the quasi-obligation to participate in a society which assigns us our place all the while threatening our very existence. To improve our condition, we must resist these ideologies of fracture, and become infidels toward the logic of predatory groups which have defined our position, and ultimately we must adhere to a philosophy of “us” in a truly universal sense.
Throughout her work, Lessing exposes the strategies employed by the dominants to divide a society into competitive and predatory groups, with the seemingly willing mutual collaboration of those who become the victims of such division. In Doris Lessing’s Briefing for a Descent into Hell, for example, even a messenger from the gods will not be taken seriously if he gets too far away from accepted social norms; his difference will earn him the label of “insane.” The medical-legal institution of psychiatry is used to isolate and reorient marginal voices like Charles’s, who criticize the dominant regime, ultimately reducing him to silence. His “identity,” his proper place in society, will be imposed on him, from the simple starting point of some papers found in his wallet and a handful of testimonies from his family and colleagues.