" injustice diminishes us, no matter where it takes place, where we are from, or where we reside." (from an interview with poet Laura M. Kaminski speaking of her life in Nigeria and theBoko Haram extremist violence there.)
In this “essay” I want to speak out as clearly as I know how about the <<real>> social issues on this world. I want to point out that many “up front” and “in your face” current popular issues, particularly the climate change hype, is deliberately blown out of all proportion to get people focused in one direction and unable to see what is really going on. It is, purely and simply, systematic misdirection. I don’t expect to actually prove anything, nor do I want to change anyone’s mind, or path. I just want to “let my fingers do the walking” as I think through my claims. What I have seen is disturbingly clear: that old patterned (paternal) social issues seldom, if ever, become front and center issues and the reasons are simple: there are only downsides in addressing those issues for the power mongers; those who hold the world in the vise grip of religious fundamentalism, capitalistic greed and fascist totalitarianism (that hides so well under the guise of democracy). This is just as true for the wonder boy geniuses of modern technocracy; the ones preparing to take over from British Petroleum and co. What matters is, how much money can I make with this?
So, if you are of those inclined to wonder about things in general, and if you feel that somehow you are being lied to: made to feel either utterly helpless, so no point trying to do anything – or being convinced that whatever is, is being taken care of so no need to get involved, then maybe you’ll stay with me here for a few minutes. Don’t worry, the TV can wait: it’s been waiting for 40 years for me and my lack of attention hasn’t caused its demise. I hear it’s still there and it’s still mesmerizing billions with its sub-standard fare of soaps, cheap sitcoms, yellow journalism, pointless religious and political debates, brain-dead sports and manufactured news, all of that passing itself off as necessary or entertaining, and charging a hefty montly fee for its existence, as if the commercials weren’t enough. Yes, all that can wait. In fact if it is made to wait long enough, it may become irrelevant and redundant and lead to another “one giant step for mankind.”
There are some serious problems on this world, particularly relating to man and the species’ relationship to each other and its living environment. How deep do these problems run? If we speak in terms of time, they exist from the “beginning” – wherever and whenever that resides in the past. As soon as the creature learned to write and to record itself, we see the typical patterns: war, conquest, totalitarian rule, misogyny, slavery, exploitation, oppression and genocide. While civilizations followed one another, presumably peaking with this one driven by a sudden burst of technological inovations, the same pattern holds. In fact, if one is to factor in current events world-wide, the old patterns are gaining momentum, aided and abetted by public education and that very same technology.
Now let me throw a monkey wrench in the gears here. The mentioned patterns are not the worst, nor the oldest. What began man’s downfall which no civilizing effort has been able to pull him out of wasn’t oppression of women and children, slavery or wars of conquest. These are but the results, not the cause. The cause of man’s downfall, and the planet’s – brace yourselves, no one wants to hear this – is the appearance of the predator and the establishment of the prey. That’s right, this is the ultimate sacred cow that all civilizations of man have worshipped, believing it was, and remains, absolutely essential to maintaining a “balance” in earth’s nature. Well, as much as I hate to burst all those Darwinian and Religious bubbles of certainty regarding this one aspect of life on earth, that so-called balance is a balance of terror and no balance at all. But it makes wonderful fodder for “the nature of things.”
Even in nature the predator/prey is far from a reliable or comfortable concept – it’s more like Murphy’s Law. The only reason it seems to work in nature is because it is never seriously tested or challenged. Observe that certain animals (the “prey”) remain in a state of inferiority to their predators; they seem to accept their fate, even though they certainly do not like it. But they are mentally blocked from developing the means to counteract their oppressors. Try as they might, they can’t go beyond the basic tricks of flight or hopeless fight, and members of their groups cannot get it into their heads that they should gang up on the oppressor; they seem only too happy to let the victim become the meal so they can go on living another day, and there are exceptions to this, the musk ox comes to mind. The prey is not evolving the means to fend off its predator. The predator/prey concept is horrid, evil, sick and disgusting. Those are my words for it.
I believe that “Life” is intelligent and I just know that this oppression of all aspects of earth life is neither natural nor normal. It’s a serious and gross anomaly. I’m going to leave it at that for now; I’m sure that the answers I seek for the cause of this anomaly will in all likelihood not be forthcoming in this lifetime. The lie is too well established and what sources of information could be available to me too well hidden. To another round!
So much for nature. Let’s speak about that artificial entity that calls itself man, and even human. Man thinks quite highly of himself. He’s civilized. He’s superior. He’s wiser and smarter, and he’s got all that “stuff” he’s made, and is making, that proves it. Therefore, in my way of thinking, the very first thing that a thinking, reasoning, intelligent and powerful being would do is sit down and consider the effect all of this is having on his domain. He’d look over everything and make notes, what works, what doesn’t; what needs to be accepted as necessary for the time being, and what definitely needs to be eliminated as archaic, useless and wasteful. Further, man would look at his historical track record and make more notes: what has never worked but continues to be part of his current life as pattern and tradition. Man would look at those things and he would remove them from the equation so he could go on evolving as a human being and not as a puppet driven by the need to indulge in mindless and bloody violence. As he runs out of cheap and easily accessed natural resources, he’d choose to change his collective focus from the accumulation of stuff to developing his mind.
Item one: Get rid of all those forces that have so impaired the race’s evolution. Having outlawed all religions and gods; demolished money-based corporate and banking empires and associated economic theories; done away with all wars, all exploitation and oppression; having re-distributed collective wealth beginning with the basics such as land, water and air; having ensured that all members of the collective, regardless of gender, race or age are now on a level playing field economically and socially, certain that no one is at risk from any human predator and having established a code of conduct and a universal law that any one caught preying on another is subject to capital punishment, then man would be able to heave a collective sigh of satisfaction.
The new WoMankind: I have brought peace to my world; I have brought justice; I have brought safety to all the members of my species. I have re-distributed the lands capable of growing food and I have decreed that what food is grown is to be equally shared among all the members of the human tribe. I have ensured that legally and effectively, no one is excluded from this new way. I have ensured that no single individual or group of individuals will ever again gain power over others: I have abolished all governments, leaving guidance and direction in the hands of grandmothers, mothers, and those who choose to use up their lives in the service of others. I have made sure there will no longer be any ruler, or rulers. I am now free from the shackles of the past that brought me to the edge of perdition. As the guiding mind on this world, I am going to nurture it and keep it from any and all harm, and I will henceforth ensure that all efforts shall be brought to bear to remove the last cause of injustice that diminishes all of life on planet earth: the predatory/prey concept.
A little something more to ponder, from a quite popular book:
Genesis 1:29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it.
They will be yours for food.
Genesis 1:30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground —
everything that has the breath of life in it — I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.
Genesis 1:31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.
And I would add, in closing, that it was upon getting insight into this passage that I became a vegetarian. The most devastating form of injustice is killing, i.e., bloodshed. It is no less so when done for food. The alternative is a healthier life, not only from not ingesting dead meat (or fish) but because the curse of shed blood for one’s benefit or pleasure is thus summarily removed. This is the first step in rediscovering our human sense of empathy. “Oh, the things that would make us cry out in horror and shame… if only we could sense them as a collective, a species.”
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