Wherever one looks one sees a creation of one form or another. Whether it be a finely-laced curtain, a plastic bottle of soda, a piece of paper, a house, a tree or even a lump of rock, one sees something at some stage of the creative process.

While a lot could be said of the natural creative processes that have formed soils, mountains and worlds, I would like to focus more upon the human creative process. As humans ourselves, we ought to be better placed to understand the processes involved in anything we do, including our creations. Yet, alas, we have an all too familiar tendency these days to interpret that which we do in an almost purely economic fashion. We create to satisfy our needs and to make ourselves wealthier and to afford ourselves a better life.

In ‘Wishing for another reality’ I had sought to explain the phenomenon of individuals seeking to escape the reality that we know. I spoke of the short-falls within reality that drives individuals to seek to escape it. It is now time to look at a slightly different question. Is escape the only avenue open to those who feel that they are unable to stomach reality?

This is where one brings one’s ideology to mind. One thing that is certain is that individuals who would seek to escape this reality have a significantly different ideology in mind. They would not seek to escape reality if reality were ideal.

It might seem funny but it is also somewhat sad really. Today there are factories, offices and homes that are full of bits of technology, machinery in particular, the purpose of which is to take one thing to turn it into something else. Machines make paper from blocks of wood. Printers turn paper into documents. Expresso machines mix coffee beans and hot water to make coffee. It seems that humanity has progressed greatly, and we have - and yet we still find that there is a distinctive divide between the generally wealthier northern countries and the generally imporished southern countries. Worse still, we still see a steady flow of resources from the south to the north. Within these northern countries themselves we still find that there exists a class impoverished or nearly so.