Wednesday, October 22, 2008

To Live by Life...

Another Essay. Enjoy.

“A vita Habitare”: The System
Let me begin my monologue with a few postulates.

Life is a chemical reaction. Humans, as with all other forms of life on this planet, are not isolationist creatures. We are, through our existence, part of a most awe-striking larger existence. Our purposes in this short tenure of reactions that we deem “Life” is not to indulge ourselves outrageously, nor serve a “higher manifestation” of life. They are not to control others, or to be controlled ourselves. On the contrary, our chief purpose in life is to create or further a society that holds these four goals.

First, to assure the individuals right to contribute to the whole, and to himself. Second, to use the profits of the whole Society’s labor to further each individual’s, and equally the Society as a whole, well-being and even more importantly: their knowledge. It’s comprehension of the Universe as a whole through Mathematics and the Sciences, to the Arts’ and the Society’s Culture, to Human History and what we may learn from it, and finally intertwining all of these above into an unshakable fabric of human intelligence, are all topics of furtherment. Third, the entire entity must strive to be sustainable, as indefinitely as possible. Fourth, to ensure that peoples' liberty to do as they please, so long as it does not infringe upon others' health or liberties, is not infringed.

Now, following these four indispensable goals, you can begin to see that no Society currently holds this tenets, and any Society that follows this would be infinitely superior than any current one. Being inquisitive Humans, we are inclined to ask why such an unfortunate state of affairs would exist, as our first question. The reason for this is that Societies are inherently flawed. A spiderweb of institutions that are built by and for an established few are rarely overthrown; and when they are, another established elite will take over in the previous’ stead, or the “Revolutionaries” will merely become superficially changed versions of the previous oppressors. Thus, we begin to see the process of the Free Market, and its results; this shall be explained and discussed later.

One of these institutions of oppression is Religion. Many are blind enough to support what amounts to eleven millenniums of slavery, so evidence must be presented as clearly as possible as to what the truth is. Thus, I will do my best to do justice to the truth, and present it in the purest, most honest form I may manage.

Religion, in the clearest, “Western” sense of it, is the idea that an all-powerful force, personified usually in a form that can be easily comprehended by the average person, rules over and is dominant over a specific part or the whole of Humanity’s involvement in the world. These Deities are appealed to by their believers to aid them in whatever personal needs they wish fulfilled. This part is key, as it forms the core of the appeal, and what is “bad”, not to be ironic, about Religion and to a lesser but still significant point, Organize (or Enforced) Morality as a whole: It provides comfort in an uncertain, changing, terrifying world where Humanity feel powerless.

Religion is a negative influence on Humanity because it asks us to surrender all of our belief in the self to Society and a hypothetical figure(s). The mere belief in a God is a neutral thing. If it had to be defined, it would be only drifting towards a positive effect, as it provokes them and other who hold differing beliefs to prove their ideas with facts and evidence as per the Scientific method. However, the belief in the power of God, the fact that there is a higher plan, and that we should submit to this hypothetical, theorized concept (Often personified/simplified to an identifiable physical figure for the masses) is negative, because when they are held onto and become institutionalized, they become means to disarm the average person and unbalance the very state of society, in that the balance between individual liberties and the whole of Society is thrown drastically towards Society. This is done in the simplest, most efficient, and yet most difficult way: Every person willingly gives away part of their liberties and intelligence to whatever opportunistic or deluded leaders establish an institution of this kind. This is because ancient many were intimidated by our comparative initial ignorance of the Universe to its obvious vastness, and so not knowing any better, early man tried to explain it through metaphors that remained in cave-man simplified format to this day, more or less. All knowledge poured in through these types of institutions, and they naturally and quickly had merged with the Government. Religion was thus controlling Commerce, Government, and Information; the trifecta of points that make up any nation’s livelihood. What are important to realize is two things. One, that this elite which keeps the population powerless is also the elite that benefits from this process. Two, that this system has perpetuated itself for years.

What is also very important to note is that because of the latter aforementioned point, the only people who know the truth are almost always those who are working to subvert the system. Those who work for this spiderweb, even the elite that controls it, is inevitably blind in some respect as to what they are doing, because the tale has gone on for so long, with so many different spiderwebs competing and overlapping with each other, that any notion of the truth is generally small and confined to a smaller part of a bigger picture for everyone who takes part in it, if that much. It is just natural process that over time, as the institutions are passed on for generations, they become diluted as to what their purpose truly is. And that’s not to say that the initial founders of these movements even knew themselves fully; it is all a process, not a conspiracy. It is people working from a set of detrimental and self-propagating circumstances, largely for what they perceive, lacking any other input of priorities, is what they are told is right and is in their and their families’ interest. They tend to be wrong, but this is hardly their own fault.

But a disclaimer must be made. If everyone “woke up” unanimously to the truth, I cannot guarantee that no one would want to keep perpetuating the system; after all, it is working quite well for a large minority of people. (These people are the upper to middle classes of the industrialized countries of the world; the elite shares it’s power with the middle class to use them as a buffer. The People’s History of the United States has further insights on this point) Not everyone would want it to end.

But the vast majority would, and due to that a movement to cease this system would manifest itself in at least moderate success. An example of this is Russia’s 1917 revolution. However, as long as the present Society exists, this corruption and these institutions will continue to exist unless there is a unanimous awakening to the truth and the embracing of a new Human Conscious, no matter the scale of this cleansing from any partial-awakening. Our Russian Revolution metaphor seems to be working, so let us continue to use it. When the Bolsheviks took power, things immediately went downhill, and within 20 years the Iron Curtain was being drawn up, and the exact circumstances which lead to the revolution in 1917 were in place, only made worse and so the People could not take drastic action. This is because of the fact that although a reaction was made to mismanagement by the system, it did not oppose the actual system itself necessarily. Thus, it was prone to re-manifest itself.

This is why I write this; to begin the awakening of which I speak, and to do so in the right way. Articles, Films, and other media that proclaim "the truth of the matter", such as “Zeitgeist”, for instance, are heading in the ballpark. However, what is evident from them is this: Though they aim for noble goals, they are manipulating the populace into achieving them. This is evident through many hypocrisies throughout the movie. It claims to speak of a "New Human Consciousness", but dangerously manipulates people into supporting it through typical nationalist fervor in Part 3. Throughout the film, there are intentionally deceitful conclusions made, and little evidence cited to back them up as such. This allows people who are still controlled by the system, to fall back on something concrete that justifies their disbelief (In this case, the manipulation in the film), making it that much harder to get them to see the big picture; the real "truth". This is similar to 1917, and we should not ignore the parallels.

Through our realization of the system’s inherent evil nature, as Human Beings we should be compelled to act. Anything to the contrary is various aspects of the System’s psychological influencing on us. In the end, the logic is inescapable: The System must be fought, and ended. There is no alternative. In it’s place should be a society where first the whole of Humanity, and eventually all of life, is embraced as having value in their separate individuals. There shall be no more slaves, nor more killing of thinking beings. In other words, Sustainable Humanity.

Thank you for reading.

A Short Essay

My first post on the blog. This should get interesting. I guess I'll promote this...somehow. Too tired to think properly right now.

Here's a short essay I wrote awhile back. Not perfect, but I don't feel like altering it at present. I may come back and touch it up, I'll let you know when I update it. Honesty is a good thing. Anyways, Hope you enjoy it, and that it makes you ponder.

Let's think logically about a single question. It should answer some questions you may have about this Blog. Bear with me, this will be a long ride.

What is Normal? This is perhaps the most important question you can ask in your life. As a fact, Normalcy is relative to our own experience. Knowing this, we can move on to ask further questions, from which the importance of asking this initial question stems.

What is our experience? Our experience is a collective interpretation of events that have occurred in our life. This leads, logically, to another question.

What are these events? These events vary from person to person, but more important than asking what, is how. These events happen not in a random matter, as in a completely anarchistic, non-structured universe. However, the do not happen in a controlled, predetermined manner either, as in a theistic idealization of our universe. The truth is somewhere in between either of these two undesirable extremes. However, it is even more undesirable than the aforementioned.

The Universe is chaotic, as advanced theoretical science has shown us. However, the events we all experience as human beings, inhabitants of this earth, are largely governed, for all purposes of history, by rules. These rules are parts of larger systems, and these systems are part of an overarching effect stemming from synergistic effects of these systems. These control everyone from the poorest people on the globe, to the middle class, to the hyper-rich. However, since these systems are the very reason why we have wealth in our society, the rich are privileged to have the systems work for them, whereas everyone else is favored increasingly less so, generally indicated by their wealth. Thought it may seem that this small group of hyper-rich people control the globe, it is important to note that they actually do not; the systems do. And these systems, though comprised of people, are a far different entity. Killing all the rich people will never solve any long term problems; getting rid of the idea of rich will. Let me elaborate further. Though not alive in our tradition biological sense of the word, and have no physical presence, they are "alive" in that they, by merely existing and imposing it's existence on the oblivious, will do things that preserve itself. If anything is a hallmark of life, it is that it contains within it the machinery for sustaining, if not growing, itself. So in reality, we should focus our attention in this arena twofold; to the Elite, who are given a position of privilege by the SystemWeb, but also to the systems themselves, though unlike the elite they do not have any physical presence. The latter is of course the most dominant, and least discussed by far; we should accordingly discuss them.

What precisely is the SystemWeb? Though it can be difficult to fully encompass all parts of the system, and distinguish them from the people under their thumb, as shown above, they fall roughly into 5 categories: Politics, Religion, Economy, Government, and by extension the Military.The former two are the primary (But by no means only) means of distributing out distraction. The systems that govern Politics and Religion have developed so that they now deal with irrelevant and ridiculous phenomena and/or issues, that are merely self-generated ways of distracting people from the key elements of the system. They're very good at their collective job, as well. Economy is the centerpiece of the system; Money indeed makes the world go 'round. The only problem with this is that at this point, the money we use daily is a representation of a representation of a representation for arbitrary value; in other words, all money is only worth anything, because a lot of people are willing to use it. It's a very inefficient system. But let's not get sidetracked. Into this category, I lump everything dealing with Corporations, Economics, and the Monetary System, as being issues that definitely belong in this category. Government and the Military go hand in hand; the latter is only necessary because of the SystemWeb, and the former is so corrupted at this point by the categories of Religion and Politics it merits it's own category, as massive change is needed in the basic structure of most Governments. So, though I loathe categorization, we can use this analogy because that which we describe is itself made up of categories, so it does not affect our scope too badly, as long as we remember that these categories are fluid, and that a single issue could, in theory, occupy parts of itself in all 5 categories; in fact, an example of this would be the SystemWeb itself. But onto a matter of great importance.

How were these systems created, how was this web composed? Was it God who made them? No, even assuming such a being(s) exist. Is it God? In an ironic sense of the word, I suppose so, but in reality it is as far from any God that is at all worthy of praise if it is God. What they are, are ways of controlling things. This is the definition of a system, that it sets down guidelines to be followed by certain input and output. And we created them. Not us, personally; we merely sustain them. But our ancestors, long ago, from the Sea of Japan, to the Aztec Plain, to the Mesopotamian Rivers. They created them, because they knew no better; and since then, through state-organized indoctrination, disguised in the form of familial upbringing, there are few who would be able to rise up to begin to contemplate "what if..." scenarios in which the now unnecessary systems, created so long ago, are discarded as useless. When they do, they fail to spread their message adequately, or their society rejects them either with methods from mere marginalization to execution. And so, these systems manage to propagate themselves, by maintaining a monopoly of absolutely malignant proportions, a stranglehold on Humanity.

This is not to say that Society is one entity; the elite squabble as they have since the beginning of time, using the common man as their pawns, Technology as their rooks, the middle class as their knights, and Religion as their bishops (Though Consumerism is gradually stripping Religion of it's purpose and title by surpassing it as a means of controlling people), and the military as their Queen. It's a chess game, on a global scale. And you're merely an expendable pawn. However, Humanity's enemy is not any one society; it is the collective concept that is past and present Society. That is, our enemy is not "Black", or "White"; rather, the players themselves. Those whom we do not see or hear of normally, and who really call the shots. And thus we see that...

Society, seeking self-preservation, has done a magnificent job of controlling humanity. It has kept us in awe of imaginary things, from religion to nationalism to consumerism. Through this, Society not only makes us conform to it's own arbitrary, and often useless standards, but more importantly makes us want to do so; through this, humanity is divided up by race, nationality, and other imaginary and superficial divisions; because of this, we are consistently kept unaware of our true unity as one humanity, and our true self-worth. Societies as we know them cannot have us knowing our own goodness individually, and our power unified. If that were to happen, the world would look very different. We would not be divided by borders or bigotry; we would be one humanity, thinking of our own differences not with hate or fear, but with understanding and positive recognition.

Clearly, change is needed. We need to shift from our current concept of Society towards one of Community, as one Humanity. Fortunately, all Societies have one great weakness. Society is a machine; but it is made up of everyday people. These systems cannot perpetuate their system without the ignorant obedience of a great many people. If Humanity as a whole refuses to accept having a few of it's members dominate all of it, the machine is stopped. What is needed is a new organization of peoples, a new movement, separate and antagonistic towards the present concept of Society. One which will educate and actively work against the obsolete parts of our culture, these chains of iron and men which bind us to our fate. An Underground Network is necessary. And you're on it right now. The Internet.
Updated October 24th, 2008.