Objects in the Mirror may be Closer than they Appear

Now, I may be even dumber than I’ve been led to believe, but it seems to me that there is good cause to believe that killing of people on a massive scale and the obsessive control of the minutiae of other people’s daily lives is not in any way necessary to survival, especially not for the elites. That ethos is probably more pertinent to gang life in the inner city ghetto, or in certain war-torn parts of the third world. And, the scale on which the wanton global destruction is currently being conducted may actually lead to economic disadvantage and the real risk of self-destruction for much of the elite and their preferred habitat, not to mention general chaos for everyone.

Surely the elite could maintain their positions of wealth and power, and even enjoy the fealty of much of the gullible masses if they were simply even marginally more just and equitable in the conduct of business between and within nations. Certain benevolent despots in eras gone by used to conduct themselves this way, and civilization actually seems to have advanced at those times as a result.

But that m.o. doesn’t suit the current crop at the tippy top. They seem hell-bent on spreading destruction all over the planet. Just look at the predations in Iraq. Just look at the shit that passes for info-tainment or entertainment on the tube. It’s a shit swamp in flames, and these guys are all carrying flame throwers. I mean, what the fuck?

No, it’s not so simple. Their minds are tainted, infected, corrupted beyond recognition by average mortals such as we. Even Genghis Khan and his heirs did more to promote the sustenance and development of the human race in the wake of their massive destruction and predation than the current crew. These guys are traveling down a different hole, a very dark passageway that others have traveled before them, like Caligula or Hitler, only worse.

Look at the way the Western nations and the UN sat on their thumbs while Lebanon burned last summer for two months, as just one small example. It’s not even the first time that has happened. No, there’s more to the story than simple lust for power. The gratification of blood lust itself as become an end as much as a means to these guys.

Sorry, no popcorn and candy this time.

She Said Her Name Was Peaches

Of course. It had to be. Either that or Pickles.

But she was sweet. Definitely a peach.

And the fat man's name?

Tiny. Of course. Had to be

At least that's what everyone in the place called him, except for the waitress.

Now, as for the waitress, Peaches, well... some of the names she called him I can't repeat here. I think I heard her call him Big Al once or twice. But she said it with such derision that it fell off her tongue like a bad piece of meat she was trying to spit out. To me he was just a geezer, a hash slinger. I'll just call him the Fat Man.

Turks Bearing Gifts

The other night I was on my way from Chi-town back to L.A., driving my old '75 Falcon beater when I started to nod off at the wheel. Since I preferred to stay alive rather then meet my maker in the form of a face to face with an International Harvester semi hauling a double box, I pulled off the road into some little Podunk and found my way to the only greasy spoon open at that hour.

The waitress had some pair of long sweet legs and a silk scarf around her neck. She served me the hottest cup of joe this side of a McDonald's tort claim. While I was stirring an ice cube into it I overheard her and the cook arguing about something to do with religion. I can't really tell you what it was about completely 'cause I couldn't hear everything.

And this geezer cook, well I say geezer because with his greasy fat belly overhanging his stained belt, he looked like 102 in the shade. But when I stared him in the peepers he seemed as young as a child, almost like a baby. He had the gaze of a dumb puppy. Hardly a shadow of awareness in it. I've seen lampposts with more of a glint in their eye.

But here's the thing. He gave me some kind of look like he thought we were in cahoots. Like I knew exactly what he was trying to say to the strange bird with the nice gams. Like he thought I must have agreed with him completely.

Go figure. I concluded he must be drunk.

I happened to have a piece of paper in my wallet with a poem on it that I'd gotten from a Turkish tailor I'd just paid a visit to in Chicago. I've been trying to track down his brother's ex-wife to give her some bad news. He had his daughter bring us some Turkish coffee while we talked. When I left he gave me this poem. He said I'd know what it was for when the time came.

So I left the coffee waitress a sawbuck wrapped up in the middle of it as a tip.

Seemed like the thing to do at the time.

Can't imagine what she made of it.

This was the Turk's poem:


NECESSARY LESSONS

Do not advise those who are not in love.
The unloving, like the insentient, cannot understand.

Do not distance yourself from the wise,
But avoid the shallow instead.

The ungiving disappoint God.
They cannot see his face.

Do not waste time on drab pigeons,
Who consort with moles,
Who avoid the deep diving loon.

Falcon and King, each praises the other.
Even a small falcon is a falcon still.

And if you wash some dark stone for fifty years,
You won't really transform it.

The hidden sun changes appearance.
Some say it ceases to be.
It never does.

Yunus, don't be stupid.
Mix with the mature.

A fool who talks of spiritual things is still a fool.


~Yunus Emre, Turkish poet, circa 1300

Could It Be?

I recently came across this assertion: "It is our construct that is wrong. We do not understand the system and the goals of the system."

Now these statments could apply to a whole lot of things, but the matter in question was the very political/economic edifice that dominates the world today, and the apparent contradiction between the values it proselytises of freedom and democracy and God-fearing JudeoChristianity with the real world effects of the system, which are undeniably endless war, environmental destruction, and economic exploitation of the mass of humanity.

COGNITIVE DISSONANCE, ANYONE?

So let me recapituate the statement of the problem with regard to Whither? and Whence? the current, dominant socio-religious, political, and economic power structure in the world today:

"It is our construct that is wrong. We do not understand the system and the goals of the system."

Precisely.

I suggest that the key to answering this knotty problem may readily be found in the writings of one Major General J.F.C. Fuller.

Now besides being a very modern British Major General, Fuller is a widely published analyst and historian of war, with several books to his credit on topics such as the American Civil War, World War II, and the tactics and strategy of modern tank warfare. Indeed, even though his theories of tank warfare were too advanced for the British to accept, the Panzer tank divisions under Germany's General Rommel put them to use in the Afrika Korps, wreaking havoc.

Besides being advisor to England's Edward VIII, Major General JFC Fuller was also the artist behind some rather strikingly psychedelic, occult mandalic paintings (see right), and was a card-carrying Crowleyite.

Of particular interest in answering the question at hand, is Fuller's 92 page book Secret Wisdom of the Qabalah. In this book a clear answer to the question may be had.

From Fuller's occult treatise Secret Wisdom of the Qabalah, this excerpt is from Chapter II, entitled Free Will, p. 44-5:

"Satan, as we call this power, is in fact the Tree of Life of our world, that free will which for its very existence depends on the clash of the positive and negative forces which in the moral sphere we call good and evil. Satan is therefore the Shekinah..."*

*[Note: for those who may not know, the Shekinah is the name Cabalists give the 'spirit of God', that which resides in the Holy of Holies, the Tabernacle on the Temple Mount. Some authors also claim that the attack on Iraq named "Shock 'n Awe", was a Qabalist military insider's pun on Shekinah.]

Back up a minute. Fuller continued:

"Satan is therefore the Shekinah of Assiah, the World of Action, the perpetual activity of the Divine Essence, the Light which was created on the first day and which in the form of consciousness and intelligence can produce an overpowering brilliance equal to the intensest darkness. Satan is also the Flaming Sword which brought light from heaven."



"The understanding of this power, whether in the physical, moral, or intellectual planes, is called science, and the misunderstanding of it is frequently called magic."

Um,well that's sort of Promethean and all. But wait, there's more.

From Fuller's Qabalah, Chapter IV, The Fall of Tetragrammaton, p. 51:

"In the account of the creation in Genesis the Androgenic Man appears on the sixth day, that is at the end of the creation, because he symbolizes its totality and completion and six is the number of the Great Work; 666 being also its number in the vital, intellectual, and spiritual planes, the Vau extended from Malkuth to Kether."

Now, hold on just a minute! Say what?

More from Fuller's Qabalah, Chapter IV, The Fall of Tetragrammaton, p. 54:

"In order to understand this we will repeat it again: good is a means of balancing out evil, and evil a means of balancing out good. Neither is desirable in itself except in the Material World, which cannot exist without them; equally, the Spiritual World cannot be entered as long as they exist; consequently their adverseness is purely relative to the Spiritual World. Further on in this book we will show that the power of using either is drawn from the same source - Shin, Shekinah, Astral Light, Ether, Electricity, whatever name it may be called by - and to understand the use of this force, yet never to be obsessed by it, is to trample on the head of the Serpent and so re-establish the Shin in the body of Tetragrammaton and formulate the Messiah, the Incarnate Word which when disincarnated caused the Assiatic World to be."


"In brief, this is the central doctrine of the Qabalistic Redemption; yet so dangerous did this doctrine appear, should it be divulged to the uninitiated, that to safeguard it it was locked away in a jumble of symbols, names, figures, and cryptograms which are frequently contradictory. The danger was that this philosophy not only harmonized good and evil, but maintained that all goodness proceeds from evil. Mystically this means a return of man to God, but by the ignorant it might easily be interpreted as meaning the doing of evil for the sake of spiritual gain."

He said it.

Fuller, that is.

Well, I guess you can count me among the ignorant, but to me this seems pretty freakin' crystal clear.

And it seems to explain why our (sic) politicians can smile and utter platitudes, all the while causing death and chaos throughout the world. They actually believe they are doing “God’s” work.

In that sense they are not hypocrites, just psychopathically deranged inhabitants of an enclosed delusional system.

Unless you happen to believe yourself that this doctrine accurately describes reality. In that case our fearless leaders are not delusional, but just plain folks.

Now I know there's beaucoup skepticism on this score to go around, but let's just use good ol' Wm. of Ockham's razor for a moment:

If this doctrine doesn't explain why the PTB are reveling in death and chaos the world over, and still smiling their Betty Crocker, Quaker Oats, and Uncle Ben's smiles every night on the tube, then what, pray tell, does?

A candy bar and a bottle of pop to the first person who can provide a more simple, straightforward explanation that covers the known facts.

Spelling won't be counted against you, but:

Ignorance, or incompetence will not be accepted as an answer.

That is way too facile. I got over that one a few years ago.

Had me fooled for decades.

The world as we know it is not as we know it.

Survival of the Fit

Why does the question of evil have to boil down to "either" "or"?

Why can't evil exist both "out there" as well as "in here"?

That is to say that we each have a shadowy aspect to our nature that we deny or ignore to our own extreme peril.

If we can not perceive the "evil that lurks within" then we can not do anything to wrangle it into submission.

And we also run the risk of falling into the pit of Pride, imagining ourselves to be somehow better or more pure than others. From such a falsely lofty perch, all manner of bad things fall and worse consequences flow.

Similarly, if we deny that evil can exist in the "other", and we blind ourselves with the mask of naïveté, then we become willing dupes to that which would do us harm.

So I don't think one need take a Manichean view of the universe to acknowledge that evil lurks in the hearts of men, and in other places where men or other beings may lurk, as well.

But what is the antidote?

I do not subscribe to the theory that "cosmic consciousness" is the best or only antidote to evil.

That is a falsely lofty perch from which all manner of bad consequences fall and flow. Nor would I say that human nature per se, is at the root of our current problems. Indeed, I will make the case that the best or only antidote to evil is not necessarily cosmic consciousness, but more simply common sense, that vaunted bastion of avowed fools such as myself.

How can common sense work quite well to counter evil?

While I wholeheartedly agree with the premise that a generally expanded consciousness would be a boon to mankind, and that the alleged scarcity of natural resources vis a vis the earth’s carrying capacities is a lie, I think we can be misled into terribly erroneous conclusions about the solution to the problem of human survival, and just what it will take for our species to flourish in a saner, and a more humane and just world at some point in the future. The Malthusian "solution" of population reduction can be dismissed out of hand as a moral abomination. But what about the thesis that we need to acquire some kind of “enlightenment” in order to make it as a species?

There is no argument that cosmic consciousness is a good thing. The experiential insights of the oneness of all and the inescapability of moral consequences either in the form of instant karma in the here and now, or in some other, subtle, less readily apparent forms, I take to be self-evident truths, based on a lifetime of experiences. These have come in many ways: spontaneously, by grace alone, while doing everyday things from walking to sweeping to driving; in mandala or portalling states while simply sitting or quietly laying on my side; in the form of unsought lucid dreams; as the result of strenuous ascetic disciplines; through repeated prayer: and, yes, also on occasion via the ingestion of psychedelic substances.

So I do not hesitate to endorse the value of the even higher insights offered to us by far better men and women than I, and such as Richard Bucke wrote about, or might have written about in his seminal volume Cosmic Consciousness, like Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King, Jalalu’ddin Rumi, Sister Niguma (Milarepa’s teacher), Buddha, Jesus, or Muhammad.

And although the teachings of people such as these represent some of the noblest achievements of our species, they are not, strictly speaking, necessary to our survival.

Integrating these essential truths that such people have helped to reveal, however, will make this a far more just, sane, and fruitful world in which to live, but, counter-intuitive as it may seem, the lack of the application of these timeless truths is NOT at the root of our current dilemma.

Here’s why I think so:

The only order of higher life forms on this planet which seem to organize themselves along some of the principles of cosmic consciousness, as least insofar as we can project our limited understanding onto them, is Order Cetacea: dolphins and whales.

Dolphins and whales have not been observed to kill one another to any regular extent. They compete peacefully and playfully in a sea, thus far at least, with natural resources abundant to their needs. They have not destroyed it. They are in ecological balance with their surroundings and they band together to fend off their natural predators.

Quite significantly, they exhibit altruism within their own species, and also across species, even to the point of their own individual deaths. Accounts of dolphins’ “lifting behavior” for distressed individuals are not limited to other dolphins. Tales of drowning sailors having been carried to shore by exhausted dolphins, which then die, exist in the literature as far back as the ancient Greeks. This latter degree of conscious altruism is found elsewhere only in Homo sapiens. So there is something for us to aspire to.

But humans have made it this far in evolution without cosmic consciousness being necessitated as a universal state or trait. It has been restricted, whether by design, chance, or what have you, to a limited number of extraordinary individuals. And its relative lack of abundance has not prevented the human race from surviving and expanding, nor does that lack chiefly threaten our survival now.

What does?

Why, the lesser and most base human traits, of course: Greed, Gluttony, Envy, Hatred, Sloth, Lust, and Pride. And where are these Deadly Sins most evident?

In those lives most preoccupied with and emblematic of conspicuous consumption, wealthy first-worlders and even more particularly in those of the elite and super-elite.

I agree that “social Darwinism” per se is an addled-brain materialist philosophy, but I do not for one second believe that it is the dominant philosophy of the powers that be.One can certainly interpret their actions in light of such simplistic and raptor-like a modus operandi, but I think that this is just carnivorous window dressing for the masses.

It is that philosophy which, exactly because it is so easy, cheap, and seductive (hmm, what does that sound like?), very much appeals to the masses and readily serves to corrupt their/our behavior. It is a down and dirty, dog eat dog, or fish eat fish replacement for our formerly held religious morals, or just social ethics like honoring one's word, that used to be considered part of at least our overt, rather than covert, Western traditions and heritage.

And yes, the modern world has brought us further and further away from the physical reality of the beautiful earth, and what it takes to survive on it, and what it will take for the earth to survive as a viable habitat for the diversity of life forms, human included.

But it ain't Darwinism that has taken us away from that reality.

It is clear that the powers that be clearly have some pretty abstruse and convoluted ways of thinking and doing things, that make mere social Darwinism look like infant's pabulum by comparison.

The Secret Wisdom of the Qabalah by British Major General J.F.C. Fuller provides some pretty compelling, and harrowing, reading on the subject of “illuminism.” This is close to the mark of what I think many, if certainly not all, of the so-called "elites" hew to.

It is the occult mumbo jumbo of "illuminism" that inverts good and evil, and the Cabbalist mythos that humans create Reality and direct the cosmos that has put our 'civilization', such as it is, in a near agonal crisis.

The occultists among the elite, who I personally believe actually hold more of the reins of power on this run amok elephant of the post-modern world, don't really care if it survives. In fact, they are counting on its destruction to magically recreate their version of utopia, probably your and my idea of a dystopia, phoenix-like, out of the ashes of our lovely little world once they have succeeded in destroying it.

As far as such dogmas go, in my assessment anyway, nothing else could be further from the truth.

In fact, I think we may be seeing the beginnings of a major rift forming between those elites who follow such stuff, and those who just went along with that stuff for the power and money ride.

I think the social Darwinists among the elites may in fact be our best hope for survival in the present circumstances. That is because they want to survive, and they want the world to survive.

So, personally, I'd rather take my chances with the social Darwinists who want this physical world we inhabit to survive along with them, their children, and grandchildren.

But we, the masses, are not blameless in this mess either. We have also fallen for the sucker’s ploy of “aspiring” to be like the elite, of coveting the lifestyles of the rich and famous.

Mesmerized by People magazine, or Entertainment Tonight, or American Idol, or the 15 minutes of fame or infame from contrived psyops like Survivor or Big Brother, et alii ad nauseum, we have been sucked into the devilish maelstrom of a fabricated worldview based on the most base human failings. These very big lies go against our more natural, most basic, truly survival-oriented, human behavioral tendencies. We have been mind-fucked into acting like ‘barbarians’ rather then human beings.

This barbarity is NOT our essential nature, anymore than we are all born to be Jesus or Buddha or Muhammad.

But at least we can aspire to the latter, while in the meantime we remember simply how to act like human beings.

And, yes, it is almost certainly correct that the myth of scarcity, the lie of earth’s purportedly limited “carrying capacity”, is one of the prime tools of fear used to cow the masses, along with the phony “war on terror”.

But it is not some fault of our basic human nature which is behind this dilemma. I believe we are basically born good. Our essential natures are harmonious and attuned to life and survival.

If this is not the case, then we would have never made it this far, since we began standing upright about 40,000 years ago.

So what went wrong?

Well, somewhere along the line there developed a tendency among elites to conscript the labor and wealth of the mass of men and women not for the greater common good, but for the greater glory, wealth, and power of the ruling elite only. And this form of psychopathy has bred itself generation after generation to stay in power. And it uses all manner of techniques, from the mundanely mechanical to the ritualized and mythological, to crush and control the greater mass of humanity, both physically and spiritually, in order to serve only its own pathological ends.

But we as a human race, taken together, are much better than that.

At the moment, it is not cosmic consciousness that we need to survive: it is COMMON SENSE, the awareness of our inextricably shared destiny.

Our failure, if we were to succumb to the mind fuck, would not be from a lack of enlightenment, but rather from a lack of basic, evolutionarily honed survival tendencies.

We have to remember that we are members of the same species, even before we aspire to yet higher states of being. We need a good dose of species consciousness before we can benefit from cosmic consciousness.

And surely as the day flows from the night, intelligent species consciousness will lead to earth consciousness. And from there, it’s a few more steps to cosmic consciousness.

But we have to start where we are.

As has been said elsewhere, we need the wisdom of the earth and to revive our own wisdom of the body. That is to say we need to give up those anti-survival habits which we have allowed to be foisted upon us by our sedentary lives of consumption and media indoctrination. We need to wise up fast, and give up gluttony, hatred, sloth, greed, envy, lust, and pride. These are the enemies of survival.

These things do not constitute our basic nature, they represent our failings. We are better than that. And we must be.

We don’t have to develop cosmic, or even cetacean consciousness to survive, though it would certainly be a boon. We first need to reclaim our human birthright as intelligent, evolutionary beings and stop allowing ourselves to be abased by other members of our group who exploit us by pushing us headlong towards an abyss we have allowed ourselves to be enslaved into digging out of our own lesser traits.

So I will throw in my lot with those, merely evolutionarily guided, folks who are struggling decently for survival in the general, intra-species manner of live and let live, rather than with psychopathic elite occultists who believe in the meme of a nuclear forest fire to wipe the slate clean, that they might scribble their own unnatural designs madly on it, after they emerge from their bunkers.

No thank you very much.

Just a thought for the day.

And the future.

According to physicist David Bohm, "In a universe in which all things are infinitely interconnected, all consciousnesses are also interconnected. Despite appearances, we are beings without borders. Deep down the consciousness of mankind is one."

I completely agree with Bohm on this point.

All I'm saying is that we are so far from there as a human race, and we are in desperate straits now. We have found ourselves in an ever deepening hole and we need to stop digging, right now.

We need to climb out of the hole we are in with the means readily at hand. Then we can think about scaling the mountain.

If you tell a man in a ditch that he needs to climb a mountain he can't even see, he'll either call you crazy, or curse you and give up.

That won't help.

Let's get out of the ditch first.

Then, once we're all on up on the surface, we can join each other on that mountain.

W T F ?

Sometimes I just have to say, "What the......?"