If you have to ignore world events in order to maintain a positive attitude, you’re in trouble on two fronts.
1. As technology has given unprecedented access, for good and for evil, to nations, communities and people worldwide, isolationism has become obsolete. There has never been a time when personal involvement in political and economic affairs has been more important. Right now it may look hopeless because things have gotten out of hand, but that is an illusion. The Divine Creative Spirit flows through us all and through the entirety of our world. We are affected by it and we affect it. Our thoughts, our words our deeds, all these things create ripples thoughout our world. We are either acting consciously or unconsciously. It’s time we take back the creative processes of our world to thoughtfully form the world we want for ourselves and our loved ones. Even the thoughts we hold make a difference.
2. If internally you are overly vulnerable to the spiritual content of the individuals and groups who are engaging in hurtful, destructive, and maliciously manipulative actions, you are out of touch with your own, personal, source of strength and renewal. It’s time to get back in touch with the spiritual reality you are a valuable part of. The Divine Creative Spirit, God, is ever present, the strength and resilience of this Great Spirit, is available to all who seek it. There are many books, articles and videos made by others who are seeking and have found various valuable spiritual realities which they are sharing for the benefit of all. I have found “The Life and Teaching of the Masters of the Far East”, by Baird Spalding to be a source of strength. I’ve been told “A Course in Miracles” is also a valuable source. There are many, many more. And, there are men and women, ministers, priests, rabbis, imams, shamans, not all, but many, who also are personally in touch with the Divine Creative Spirit and can be valuable in offering information, suggestions and support to us on our path to a greater understanding and more enlightened participation in our own lives and in the world at large. Beware of any who claim to be a necessary intermediary between yourself and the Divine Creative Spirit! Embrace those who encourage and aid you in the development of your own personal awareness and connection.
We are living in a world sickened, diseased by greed, war, poverty, lies, people turned against their neighbors, their brothers and sisters. We have become a splintered, fractured, fearful population inhabiting what is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful planets in the galaxy…and gradually killing it. Through human greed and thoughtlessness humanity has been imparting to the planet itself the diseased reality which has taken over the lives of many, many humans.
Why is this going on? Too many lies, too much greed, too little recognition of one of the central truths of our existence. What truth? The truth that we are all part of the same living reality. The truth that we are all interconnected, interdependent. That just as disease can wreck and kill the corporeal body of a single human being, just as cells not cooperating with each other, not working together to sustain the health and wellbeing of the whole body can result in the demise of the body, people not cooperating, not working together to sustain the wellbeing of the interconnected body of life upon our planet is working toward the destruction of us all. Just as wounds and sores inflicted upon our personal body open the path to insidious infections and further disease, the cultural wounds and sores of violence, war, poverty, lies, a lack of survival-oriented regard for the consequences of our actions, these things open pathways to insidious infections and disease within our human cultures.
If humanity is ever going to find a solid footing on this planet from which to build a future, we must abandon the prioritization of personal acquisition of wealth and align our values and our actions with the promotion and sustenance of healthy individuals within a larger, healthy community. We need to realize that we are all only as cells within the larger body of our human community. It’s time we own our reality and begin to make it the wondrous reality it has the potential to be. We can build communities, a human culture, which strive to create and sustain conditions conducive to human wellbeing for the totality of humanity. When, as the body of humanity, we begin working together, recognizing our commonality, our mutuality, we can begin fully realizing the wondrous potentials of health, creativity and enjoyment which we are capable of.
The past only defines or confines us if we lose sight of our inherent ability to improve our lives as individuals and as a community.
What we are seeing, experiencing, taking place in the world at this time is a concerted effort to tear the human race apart at the seams. For over two years now we have been told repeatedly, continually, by corporatized, monopolized, mainstream media to fear each other, to stay apart from each other. Through limiting interaction to video calls, we are being conditioned to regard each other as abstract concepts. We aren’t. We are living, feeling human beings. We need contact with one another. We need the touch, the fine cues we use in our person to person communications, the vibrations of each other’s speech, of each other’s presence. Those aspects of our lives, our being, are not fully conveyed through video chats, if at all.
We are spiritual beings endeavoring to co-create a manifested world to enjoy living within. We are here to experience and appreciate the Earth, the air, the water, the living things both plant and animal that share this creation with us. It is ours, as a group, to enjoy and to care for. We do not own it. No matter how many deeds or other pieces of paper, or software productions, a person may have which state that they “own” a piece of the Earth or anything that has been manifested upon it, those things are merely representations of agreements among people within communities. Agreements to abide by certain rules in order to establish and maintain more complex, civilized societies. Humans make them and humans can break them. They are only as real as we, as a society, choose to make them, as we choose to honor them. As with every other social rule and convention that exists, they are devices intended to serve us, as a whole.
We exist as components within a great system of energetic life. We do not own the system, however, with our minds, our wills, both individually and combined, we can manipulate aspects of it. We can build, and we can destroy. AND, what we need to keep in the forefront of our minds when we are engaging in our activities upon this beautiful planet we occupy, is that whatever we do, whatever actions, energy, we put in motion are going to effect us with the same nature, the same intent, that we give them. Do we want love, caring, joy, friendship to be manifest? Then those are the activities we need to engage in. Do we want to see pain, suffering, deprivation in our own lives? When we are engaging in activities that manifest those things, we need to realize that sooner or later, no matter how far we try to distance ourselves from those actions, they will find us and we will know them.
The energy field we live within and are a part of, flows around and within us. We have a great deal to do with whether or not the manifestations within this energy field are beneficial or detrimental to our lives and the lives of those around us. Now replace the word “energy” with the word “spirit”. Because we know that this reality we live within is not just some kind of ethereal jello that we get to play with as we see fit. No, there is an inherent consciousness, intelligence, within the field itself. We think of spirit instead of energy, we know that. We, along with the rest of creation, are the offspring of this great spirit. In that this spirit is loving, nurturing, forgiving, this is a reality to be celebrated. When we reflect the loving, nurturing, forgiving aspects of the creative spirit we are a part of, we will flourish. We will know joy, kinship, love and great possibilities.
But when we engage in, or allow ourselves to be ruled by, thoughts and desires of fear, greed, hatred, jealousy, when we turn upon each other in service to these things, when we forget our interconnectedness, we pollute our own spirits and our world. We become as diseased cells within the body of creation.
That is why, if we want to realize the full measure of the beauty, the joy, the wonders which this creation, of which are a part, has to offer us, we must always keep in mind the kinship, the mutuality, the interconnectedness which is inescapably ours. We can celebrate that reality and realize it’s blessings, or we can engage in self-centered, egocentric, pettiness. When we stop, be still, and realize that as wonderful, utilitarian and enjoyable, or as terrible and destructive, as they may be, nothing which we can create using the material of the manifest world around us, can come close to the wonders, or the power, of the spiritual reality we are freely given as our legacy as children of the Great Spirit which has birthed us.
One of the biggest problems facing humanity is the problem of electrical energy. As shown in the documentary “Planet of the Humans”, the much touted solutions of solar and wind energy, in the final analysis, require the expenditure of as much fossil fuel to create the equipment and subsidize them when they cannot adequately produce due to weather conditions, as if fossil fuel were just in place without them. And as for the so-called “Green Energy”, it is just a horribly misguided idea which involves massive deforestation. However, it must be noted that the only solutions big energy evidently wants to look at are the solutions which include keeping massive energy grids in place. The big energy corporations do not want solutions which would change the system to smaller grids, local companies, and/or house by house production.
Our current reality seems to be that big corporations, including energy companies, have become intoxicated with and addicted to wealth and control We cannot look to them for leadership in eco-friendly, human-friendly solutions to the world’s problems. Two solutions I know of, and I am not at all the most knowledgeable person about the myriad possible solutions that actually exist, are the (extensively documented) machine developed by Joseph Newman, and an invention by K.R. Sridhar I read about years ago which involved no moving parts but uses a chemical action to produce a significant amount energy. This system uses a unit the size of a microwave, or smaller, to produce enough continual energy to power a house. And there are other options which I’ have heard or read bits and pieces of here and there.
The thing is, these solutions would take much of the business away from the big energy producers we’ve grown accustomed to and place it right in the home being powered. These solutions hold the promise of being ecologically friendly and freeing people from exorbitant energy bills. So of course big energy doesn’t want us to adopt such solutions. And, interestingly, we don’t hear much about them unless we go digging.
The issue of energy production is just one arena in which a problem which is pervasive across many industries is coming to the fore. How do we manage an economy in which technological advances are continually decreasing the workforce needed for factory production and other jobs previously occupied by humans? People still need homes, food, education, etc. And, we need to feel that we are contributing to our communities, our collective wellbeing. It’s part of our reality as social beings.
We need to be actively involved in developing solutions to these challenges. I submit one aspect of the solutions will necessarily involve wealth being less concentrated in the hands of a few and more equitably spread across the whole of the population. I believe such system will incorporate some aspects of most, if not all, economic systems attempted in the past. Primarily, we need to be looking for answers that work for us as a species, as a whole and which take the entirety of our being, our make-up into consideration. Abraham Maslow gives us a solid foundation from which to expand our thinking.
Why do I use Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs so often in my articles? Because it informs us of a concept key to a successful life as a person or for a culture.
We are all energy beings. We are manifested in a manner which presents as material and solid, however, when physicists take a closer look, that appearance begins to be revealed as a manifestation apparently constructed out of nothingness. We’re all energy beings. As such we live within, and are a part of, an energy field. We’re all, at our most basic level, all made of the same stuff. That same stuff is all around us and extends into the infinite universe we live within. We are, quite literally, inseparable from the universe we live within. One universe, many planets, many stars, many galaxies, many dimensions. All within the one, the all. And we have the privilege, the blessing, of being conscious, alive, to experience it.
Beyond a doubt, the experience of consciousness within such a stellar and magnificent reality can cause some aberrations to take place in our minds. We love it, some want to own it, some want to somehow grasp onto the very small piece of it closest to us and control it. As if that were possible in the crude, brutal ways it is usually attempted. We are in a dance, a dance of energy, light, motion, love. To do anything other than try to flow with it, to appreciate it, and to care for aspects of it we have the ability to work with, is hubris. It is the lack of humility, the overestimation of, or presumptuousness as to our place within our reality that creates a lot of problems for us.
Some look around and think because of the color of my skin, or hair, or eyes, or my height, or my physical strength, or my keenness of intellect, I am wholly superior to others. Or that because they happened to be the first human to begin living in a particular valley, or on a particular hill, they therefore own the whole of it. Our desire to own, to somehow freeze the ongoing flow of time and life, and make it our own, has led us to form collectives, cabals, with agreements to abide by certain rules and documents and to live as if those rules and documents truly represent some kind of divine right. Again, such hubris.
Innate within us, within us from the moment of our creation, is a connection to the Universal Creative Spirit, which is, in fact, the universe, the all. Within that connection is guidance. When we still our minds, access that guidance, we know what we should do, and we know what we should not do. We know that each and every one of us, each individual, is ultimately no greater, nor lesser, than any other. In a move that has shown itself to have the potential to be both a blessing and a curse, in all of this wondrous creation, for reasons we may not (cannot?) fully understand, we have been given free will. I guess the Creative Spirit, which flows within and around us, and of which we are all an integral part, didn’t want a bunch of puppets.
We know there have been other civilizations before this one. Civilizations lost in time, we occasionally find artifacts which testify to their existence. One of these prior civilizations, Atlantis, from the stories which have been passed down to us, brought it’s destruction upon itself through it’s hubris. Too much knowledge in too specific a focus. Not enough appreciation of the whole of the system they (we) exist within. In their manipulations of the material world, they lost sight of, lost appreciation of, the spiritual. In their ability to play with aspects of the stuff of creation, they lost humility. They went out of synch with the universal dance they were a part of, and were washed away as the will within universe didn’t see fit to alter the greater in deference to the lesser.
What more obvious way to love, to honor the Universal Creative Spirit, call it God, or not, than to love and honor the creation? After all, the creator and creation are one. We are, in fact, of God. When we forget that we are only parts of a whole, and that none of us has any greater claim to the whole than any other of us, then, again, we get into trouble. In the past that trouble was always, relative to the totality of human existence and the planet, relatively local stuff. We fought with stones, axes, swords, guns and relatively localized explosives. As time has gone on we have become increasingly capable in our ability to wreak destruction upon the materialized reality we are a part of. However, to want to do so is symptomatic of mental and spiritual illness, always. It is symptomatic of people cut off from, in denial of, the foundational spiritual reality which we all live within and are all a part of. To engage in the deception of, the destruction of others, is to engage in self-deception and self-destruction. To engage in cooperating with, nurturing, building, healing, appreciating others, is to manifest those things in our world, to manifest them as resources for, aspects of, ourselves.
We have free will. History shows us the Universal Creative Spirit, because love is it’s essential nature, also will wipe the slate and start again if necessary. When the hubris of the creation has led to a denial of love. Humankind has reached a level of functioning that allows individual men and women, and groups, to engage in activities which affect all human life, all life itself, upon the entire planet. We have free will. We can engage in constructive, loving, nurturing activities, or we can engage in activities which are designed along narrowly perceived avenues of immediate benefit to a few, but which ignore the effects of such behaviors upon the conditions affecting well-being of the larger whole. Conditions which will, ultimately, bear upon all.
Will it take another extinction event, another re-boot of humankind, for us as spiritual beings to realize the folly of ignoring our own interconnected, spiritual reality?
The twentieth century was rocked by devastation stemming from the arrogance shown by Adolph Hitler and the Nazis, along with the Japanese Empire of the day. It would be easy to believe, and I think many do, that a nation which played such an important part in defeating these two arrogant, abusive, murderous regimes would have an innate immunity from taking such an attitude itself. Yet somehow, it has happened. The behaviors of many American industries and the United States Government in relation to the people of many other countries, and, in many cases, to the citizens of the U.S. itself, demonstrate at least an equal amount of arrogance as that shown by the leaders of Germany and Japan prior to WWII.
As of this writing, within the U.S.:
There is a higher percentage of citizens imprisoned than within any other country.
Many of the prisons are being privately run for profit (slave labor).
The attention and the energies of the Government are being inordinately spent in the service of the wealthiest small minority of citizens.
Poverty, homelessness, and hunger are widespread and on the rise.
For decades the U.S. has been spending trillions of dollars not on infrastructure and well-being here in the U.S., but on destroying lives and infrastructure around the world. Often further enriching the already economic elite in the process.
There is a nationwide infatuation with stock prices and “profits” rather than genuine well-being.
Millions cannot afford routine healthcare.
Citizens are routinely and grievously fed information which is an outright lie, and if it is not an outright lie, often it is partial information presented in such a way as to mislead those exposed to it. This is done by the elected officials within the Federal Government, the CEO’s of many major industries, and too often by spokespeople for various governmental agencies.
The press, the “fourth estate” has too often become little more than parrots of the misinformation put forward.
For an elected official or other prominent business or entertainment personality to be linked in an incriminating manner to people engaged in human trafficking has become so routine it hardly raises an eyebrow.
The pursuit of money has come to be apparently accepted as an excuse in and of itself for grievous abuses of people and our environment.
“United we stand, divided we fall” has come to be replaced by “fuck you, I got mine”.
When faced with the abuses and the increasing cries of outrage, millions of Americans apparently accept it all with a complacent “it can’t happen here” attitude. Today, too often, being a proud American has come to mean being an arrogant American. To say this trend doesn’t bode well for the well-being of the U.S. is a horrible understatement. If the U.S. stays on this trajectory, the U.S. has nowhere to go but down.
I was born in the U.S., raised in the U.S., and live in the U.S. I have traveled a lot around the country. I have witnessed and experienced love, stimulating intelligence, positive human thoughts and attitudes and just plain human decency everywhere I have been. I cannot believe the greed, the callousness toward human life, the short-sightedness toward our environment and well-being, which are too often embodied and grievously displayed by those in prominent positions within government and various industries, and which are prominent within many of the ongoing policies and practices within the country, truly represent the heart and soul of the American people.
America desperately needs a reorganization of it’s operating principles. We can no longer sustain a country organized around what is good for mega-corporations and the wealthiest 1%. We need to prioritize the nation around what is good for human life, all human life. This includes fair wages, fair prices, affordable health care, affordable education, secure housing, clean water, nutritious food and a healthful environment.
We, the people of the world, are facing two crises at this time. First, there are the cases of illness from the novel coronavirus. Secondly, there are the cases of extreme financial/material hardship taking place. If we just watch or listen to mainstream media one might think that in many cases the second is a direct result of the first. But it isn’t, not at all. Whether or not there was human involvement in the appearance of the novel coronavirus on the world stage is too big, and too obfuscated, an issue to get into in this article. However, the financial/material hardships that millions are facing around the world is entirely within the control of the human population of our planet. And it has been for some time.
The novel coronavirus has yet to touch one penny of anyone’s material security. Human kind has shown itself entirely capable of imposing hardships upon humans all by itself. There’s nothing obfuscated about this issue. And there isn’t anything obfuscated about how it can be solved. All it requires is for human culture to realize our interrelatedness, our interdependence. WE, who are whole and capable need to take responsibility for our lives and to do what we can (and if we’re working together, that is a lot) to assist those who are not whole and capable to develop greater capability. And to be housed, fed and cared for at all times.
We have the resources, we have the people, we have the knowledge, all we need is the will to make it so. It will require that everyone has the understanding that this is OUR world. WE decide what kind of culture we desire for humankind and WE are the only ones who can make it a reality. We must divest ourselves of competitive thinking and behavior, except in regard to recreational games. Cooperation is absolutely essential if humankind is to not only survive but fully realize the wondrous potential that is innate in every human being.
Competition results in stress and trauma and those things result in diminished human capability. Little by little those things do not nurture us, they cause us to gradually shut down and eventually kill us. Kindness, good nutrition, good information, exercise, work, play, art, contributing to a thriving human culture and enjoying the benefits of a thriving human culture, that is what elicits us to realize our fullest potential.
When we realize that the greater “profit” lies in a spiritually and physically healthy human culture (the two are interrelated) then we will be on the path to wholeness. Until then we’re just tripping over our own feet.
Deep within us all there is a connection. It is a connection with the infinite. When we are “in touch with” this inner reality which exists within and is a part of and available to all of us, it’s the most wonderful feeling. We want to stay there, we never want to leave, and, in reality, it must be true that we never do. But we are also alive here on the Earth, because we want to be. And the dynamics of our Earthly, sensual, reality can distract us from the reality of, the guidance of, our connection with our innermost selves. Our day to day “worldly” occupations and events can distract us from our connection with the Universal Creative Spirit. The spirit which we are all a part of and which ourselves, and everybody and everything else, exists within.
When we are in touch with, working with, our birthright connection to the infinite, to the Divine Universal Creative Spirit, we KNOW, we don’t merely think that, we KNOW that we are connected to, alive within, the infinite. We see it, we feel it, we KNOW it. When our motivation for action is coming from this part of ourselves, of our reality, a “miraculous” reality is working within us, with us. If called upon to do so, we can perform actions which place us in what seems, if we weren’t acting upon a motivation from this aspect of ourselves, certain harm, possibly death, and we will BE safe. Do you know the story of Daniel and the lions’ den? That IS the level of protection being in touch with, acting upon the pure motivation of, this innermost, most intimate yet shared with all, level of our being, extends to us. This I KNOW.
When our attention, our mind, is caught up with our Earthly reality, we are caught up with our senses; sight, sound, taste, smell, touch. I imagine, the sensual reality of Earth is a part, to a greater or lesser extent, of why any and all of us ever desire to be born here. The sensual reality of Earth can, at times, be overwhelming. The pleasures brought to us via our sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch can wholly capture our mind and carry our consciousness away on magic carpets of experience. And there is nothing wrong with that. In participating in the enjoyments possible with our Earthly body. We are just enjoying our Earthly birthright, our being. However, there is a catch. While we are here, in an Earthly body, we are also firstly beings of a spiritual, energetic body. And we were before we were born on Earth (and remain as such when incarnate upon Earth), When and if our Earthly body meets it’s demise, we will still BE as a spiritual, energetic being, within a spiritual, energetic reality. WE are spiritual, energy beings and, those who see auras tell us ,we can and do actually glow. Not figuratively but actually. And I have seen that sometimes, if our being is strong enough, if we are wholly enough in touch with our divine nature, we glow brightly enough to light the darkest room. When we are involved with our Earthly perceptions and desires, the task we all face is to experience and act within the “material” realm while still continually honoring our spiritual being. Honoring and maintaining what we need as spiritual beings to be whole, to be perfect.
There are those who proclaim themselves as messengers of God who might tell us that this is what other beings do, beings more special, more blessed, than any of us. Beings we are supposed to give ourselves over to by listening to what they, the self-proclaimed messengers of God tell us. If they are a true prophet, maybe we should…but only if. For one thing, a true prophet is not going to tell us there is any person, any being, who is more a child of God, of the Universal Creative Spirit, than any one of us. A true prophet is not going to tell us there are spiritual gifts or states of being available to some that are not available to all. However, just as there are beings who have learned more about reading, or writing or mathematics than others, there are beings who have practiced, studied, being in touch with the Universal Creative Spirit, within and around us, more than others. Having the wisdom to consider such a person’s counsel is very much a worthwhile thing. If such counsel is genuine, it will resonate within our own innermost being and our own innermost voice will echo such a message. Such a message will feel right, and, if we consider it’s nature, it will be based in love. Not a selfish love, but a love which encompasses all life. Which is not to say that such a love will never carry with it what sometimes seems a difficult message.
A prophet most widely known by a translation of his name, whom we most widely call Jesus, gave us some insight to our spiritual reality in many of his teachings. One of these teachings gives us insight to staying in touch with our spiritual birthright: Matthew 11:30, “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” That is how it is. Our innermost voice, usually, speaks to us gently, as in whispers. Even in the most dire of situations, this voice maintains it’s gentle, loving nature, it may become more persistent, more insistent, there can be more energy, but we are always, ultimately, consciously left with the decision. And I venture most of us have experienced the sometimes immediate “oh no” that can result if we ignore the gentle counsel of our innermost selves.
Within the totality of our being, within our lives here on this wonderful planet called Earth, with all it’s beauty, all the sensuousness, we encounter, lies our task, our challenge: how do we live our lives in this wonderland in a way which satisfactorily honors both our essential spiritual nature and the physical realities of our Earthly life? As stated above, there is much in the way of sensuous enjoyment that goes along with being a human being on Earth. There is also work, and sometimes pain that goes along with it. It is only natural that we want to seek the pleasure and avoid the pain. And in the middle, at the crux of it all lies the work. Both the mental and the physical work needed to truly successfully navigate the layered, dimensional, reality of our lives here on Earth.
To begin with, we need to understand the absolutely interrelated nature of everybody and everything that is here, now. If we are involved with doing the right things, doing the things which most enhance life in general, we will be simultaneously enhancing our own life. And, conversely, we cannot do things which harm, or impede life in general, that pollute our environment, without simultaneously harming, impeding or polluting our own life. Some results, some consequences, wonderful or awful, show up right away after we have done the best or worst thing. We immediately receive the sweet taste of the honey we have just eaten, or we feel the prick of the needle we just poked our finger with. Some results/consequences take a little longer, some much longer. Yet, if we are in touch with our connection to the divine reality we are a part of, we always have guidance at hand to what is the right thing and what is not. However, as with all the decisions in our lives, the decision is ours to make.
If we keep in mind just as with our bodies, the world, the universe we live is organic, is an organism, and that we are organically inseparable from our environment; that realization can help guide us in how think and act in relation to others and the environment which sustains us.
Why do I use Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs so often in my articles? Because it informs us of a concept key to a successful life as a person or for a culture.
In many important, essential ways, people, by and large, aren’t all that complicated. Maslow knew this aspect of our reality and took the time to try to organize our needs by importance in relationship to our survival and well-being. Of course we don’t always find ourselves involved with filling each need in exactly the order Maslow arranged them, however, if our needs aren’t met at one level, the more desperate the need we feel, the more we’re stuck on that level.
We need to keep this reality in mind when we are working to understand and/or figure out how to respond to the demonstrations, protests and riots going on in the U.S. and elsewhere. What these events are, every one of them, are symptoms of unmet needs. They are populated by people who can no longer stand idly by while feeling their innate human needs go unmet. It might have worked for them at one time. A time when they were, for whatever reasons, able to suppress their internal urges because they felt hope that a pathway was going to open up for them to pursue fulfillment. But when that hope wanes, desperation comes in on it’s heels.
The “rugged individualists”, particularly the ones who have found themselves in comfortable positions, might say: well it’s their fault, they didn’t work hard enough to take care of themselves, they’re lazy. Maybe, to some extent, for some of the people, there is some degree of truth in that. But there is something obvious that really flies in the face of that logic: those “lazy” people are out marching in the streets. They are feeling a need and somebody, or something, provided them with a direction. When one is desperate, doing something, anything, even if it’s wrong can be preferable to doing nothing. If a direction offers some degree of even blind, hope, it is going to have an attraction. That’s how desperation works.
The fact people are out marching, protesting, even rioting, shows that, given a direction, they are willing to take action to do something, anything, to try to gain fulfillment for their unmet needs. It is clear that what most people need in such a situation is direction. What is being demonstrated in these events is raw, potential energy looking for a way to become kinetic, to provide what is needed to fulfill the unmet needs.
In a civilized society it should just be a given that we are working together to meet the needs of all. Whether we privately own things, communally own things or work with a model that embraces the best method for the immediate needs at hand, as long as we have the mind that it is a combined effort for the good of all, we will be fine.
Have you ever been poor? After two-thirds of the month has gone by have you ever found yourself wondering how you’re going to eat for the remaining third? When you are in that position, and you walk into a grocery store, you want EVERYTHING. It can seem that you couldn’t possibly buy enough to satisfy your hunger. However, if you’re not poor, if you’re well fed and you enter a grocery store, it’s not that hard to be totally satisfied picking up whatever it was you came for. People are like that, in more ways than simply regarding food. When we are feeling an acute shortage of something, a deep-down need for something, we can easily find ourselves thinking we want it all.
No matter how absurd or grandiose the participants’ expressed demands in the heat of desperation may be, when the people involved see and feel their needs are being genuinely fulfilled, they will, however tentatively at first, begin responding favorably to whatever is providing, and shows it can continue to provide, that fulfillment. To merely offer such a movement resistance is to stand squarely in the way of much needed hope and change.
A footnote: This is not to advocate for a program of ongoing free stuff for all dissatisfied people. In Maslow’s hierarchy, self esteem is a basic human need. Working at a fair rate in exchange for what one receives is a part of healthy self esteem. Sometimes a person’s being able to accept “free” stuff is needed in order to pull that person up when they are down, but it’s not a viable long term solution.
In our attempts, our efforts, at building a viable, vital society, we can learn much by observing and understanding the functioning of our own bodies. There is a saying attributed to Hermes Trismegistus: “That which is Below corresponds to that which is Above, and that which is Above corresponds to that which is Below, to accomplish the miracle of the One Thing.” This is often shortened to “As above, so below, as below, so above”. This concept, or the observation of the nature of our reality, provides us with an understanding, which, if applied to our efforts at creating and maintaining a human culture, can do much to guide us toward what will be in harmony with the natural world. The natural world which we are working with and within and therefore toward a more vibrant, stable and enduring culture.
Our bodies are miracles of design. They are self-repairing, self-renewing, and they offer us multiple senses, or avenues of interface, with our environment. They provide us with much enjoyment and pleasure. And provide us with discomfort and/or pain to let us know when we’re not supplying them with what they need, or too much of what they don’t need. Ultimately what makes the whole thing work is the the organs, the cells, within the body work together to keep the body, the whole, alive and well. One of the serious threats to the health of our bodies is the occasion when some cells become sickened and engage in a pattern of runaway duplication (growth) and a voracious appetite for energy. One could say they get greedy for resources and want to take over. They behave more competitively than cooperatively. Of course, as our ancestors knew centuries ago: Mark 3:25, Jesus states, “And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.”
Now really, just think about that last statement for a minute, it’s not rocket science. It’s something that immediately makes sense both intellectually and emotionally. I think this is one of those truths that people just innately know, that comes with birth. Yet it is one many people quickly turn their backs on when the world dangles some bling in front of them and says: Go now and compete. Within human cultures around the world that is the genesis of a cancer that is destroying our cultures with the same certainty that an untreated malignant cancer destroys a human body. I can imagine someone thinking, but isn’t that just exercising personal freedom? Yes it is. And freedom is an essential aspect of a healthy human culture. However, it is also just exercising personal freedom to take an automatic weapon to an elementary school and start shooting students. Freedom is a double edged sword and is only an asset to humanity when it is combined with wisdom. Such as the wisdom that if we aren’t all working together, cooperatively, for the good of the whole of humanity, the body of humanity, we are in the process of destroying that body. And just as the cells of a body cannot survive for long once the body as a whole becomes unviable, no matter how adept a survivalist one might think they are, human beings cannot survive indefinitely outside a viable human culture.
All my life I have heard Charles Darwin exalted as one of the, effectively, high priests of the natural world. I don’t think it’s possible to think of Charles Darwin and not think of the phrase survival of the fittest. That is the phrase those most industrially disseminating information within popular culture have locked onto regarding Darwin. But today those who are seriously researching Darwin’s ideas and adaptive strategies are saying friendliness and cooperation is the most successful strategy for survival. This is just one more example of how spirituality and science are converging in the world today.
If we are to survive as a species on this planet we must recognize our oneness, our interconnectedness and interdependence. Not merely within cities, or nations, but as global body of humanity.
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