"Imagine if people in the future, say 2150, look back at our time, what would they say was our biggest mistake--let's say of the twentieth century and the early twentyfirst?" -john shirley asks
members4.boardhost.com/JohnShirley/msg/20250.htmlYET ANOTHER RANT by thorngrubAssuming we make it through this latest hurdle barring the progress of the human race and there is a civilization left in 2150 that hasn't been knocked back to the stone age to start all over again (i.e, assuming there will be pockets of humanity in that future time who have at their disposal the knowledge of what happened back here circa the early 21st century), I believe I know precisely what they will say was our biggest mistake.
They will have isolated 2 primary contributing factors that inexorably led toward our demise as a civilized society. Those factors are FEAR and SELFISHNESS. I believe they are at the heart of our current escalated problem. Allow me to review for you the reasons behind why I have come to conclude this.
We are supposed to be the "Home Of The Brave" - (never mind, momentarily, and for the purposes of our argument, the fact this indeed used to be the home of the Native American indian brave) - merely focus on our allegedly being the home of the brave (fearless). Well it seems pretty obvious we are a culture immersed so deeply in FEAR that it has surpassed the level of psychotic. For instance, you all do realize that we as Americans are fearful of every last constituent of reality, even down to the microbes we indeed are allowed to continue existing with because of a symbiotic relationship with them. Have you noticed the proliferation lately of "anti-bacterial" soaps and such on the market? What of the fact that there are only 2 states (I believe) in the Union which legally allow the selling of raw milk-? (Maine and California). It is because we have been instructed to fear these colonies of bacteria to the point of homogenizing them out of existance. The fact of the matter is, that these bacteria which flourish in our bodies are our allies in a symbiotic relationship which allows the harmony of co-existance with nature to continue. The fact of the matter is -- there are both bad and good such bacteria inhabiting our bodies -- which are a collection of cells -- a colony in cohabitation whose survival is permitted through the very allowance of this symbiosis. ANTI-BACTERIAL SOAPS are prevalent now because of the very FEAR most Americans have towards "germs" -- a vague, generalized concept indeed. When we eliminate the "germs" from our bodies by using anti-bacterial soaps, we are in fact eliminating the GOOD bacteria along with the BAD. This is disharmonious w/nature, and is a result of our misplaced FEAR of "germs".
There is a book called WILD FERMENTATION which describes the curious phenomenon in the United States of our gradual elimination over the past generations of such wild cultures in the foods we eat. The truth of the matter is, that such foods which are more prevalent in other lesser -"developed" nations are a wholesome, natural, and potent variable in the ever - balancing upkeep of harmonious interaction through these various microbiotic interdependencies w/live cultures that allow a more vital, thriving, and natural health to be established. What is happening in our society currently is that we have gradually sacrificed the integrity of this harmonious & wild balance w/nature by fearfully eliminating those components in favor of homogenization. The bottom line is foods w/wild fermentation & live bacteria are indeed very good for you; they strengthen your bodies harmony w/the complex microbiotic organisms which we are all intended to live in harmonious interaction with. Yet we as a culture have been bred for generations to fear this sort of thing.
Where can this FEAR originate from? Well I have the answer. It is the second variable that our future race will look back on us as having been guilty of: SELFISHNESS (which goes hand in hand w/HYPOCRISY). Let me lay it all out on the line for you. This country is one in which we have gradually replaced certain priorities w/each other, and to cut to the chase (I am not a religious man, merely an outside observer), I can tell you that in my opinion, we have subsumed our priority for GOD w/our priority for MONEY. It is as simple as that. We have, for the past 60-odd years, been busily orchestrating a sort of pogrom of ensuring our Capitalist-based economy is thrust onto the rest of the world, all in the name of securing power and wealth for our nation and ourselves. The great "American Dream" is to get rich -- but I must ask: at what cost-? ANY cost-? Even the cost of our own lives....or to put it more succinctly: even the cost of the existance of a great portion of the human race-? For in our short-sighted greed to achieve riches, I believe that is precisely where we are headed. We have sacrificed the integrity of the super-complex, fine balance of the very diversity which nature (and hence ourselves) thrives on. These "cultures" in our FOOD are but one small fraction of an example mirroring the very CULTURE OF HUMANITY. I.E, if we succeed in sacrificing the live cultures in what we eat out of fearfulness, we are only managing to succeed in sacrificing the very LIVE CULTURES OF HUMANITY, in the long run.
Now to put it into a greater perspective. What is going on right now w/the War in Iraq and extreme-Islamic terrorism, is but an extrusion of consequence from our having fallen victim to these very FEARS and SELFISHNESS in pursuit of the "American Dream". Because those who prescribe to Christianity and are leading this country in the wake of our Founding Fathers are not practicing what their very own prophet preached: When Jesus taught us to "turn the other cheek to our enemy", don't you think he may have been trying to say, in so many words, that we should not FEAR our enemy-? That we should, instead, practice forgiveness and compassion towards him-? In essence, I believe (while not being a "Christian" per se myself) that what Jesus was trying to instruct us on was how to behave in order to prevent enemies from forming in the first place. When he pointed out that 1 loaf of bread could feed an entire group of hungry people, I believe he was merely pointing out the practicality of refraining from gluttony. I.E, rather than one sonofabitch scarfing down an entire loaf of bread for himself & getting fat off it, Jesus was trying to say "Hey: take 1 bite out of the loaf, and pass it around". That way, everyone gets at least a little bit & hence won't starve. He was trying to show us how to share, and how to care for our fellows. Did we listen to Him -?
Anyone who studies our Foreign policy in military intervention throughout the history of this nation should be able to see the bigger picture, and should be able to see that in our having turned away from the teachings of our own spiritual beliefs in favor of getting rich and powerful as a nation, we have gradually sacrificed the very integrity of the symbiotic balance w/nature such teachings are meant to maintain. We, as a nation of "Christians", are not practicing what we preach, and over an inexorable period of chasing that dollar-sign on the horizon of our lives, we have somehow forgotten the true tenets of our own supposed spiritual beliefs. Now we have this fundamental conservative right wing president who believes "Might Is Right", who believes in our military strength over the strength of our hearts & minds. It is such a tragedy on such an overwhelming scale that I believe we are all in Denial simply in order to prevent us from breaking down sobbing in abject & total anguished grief. We have become accustomed to turning a blind eye to this reality lurking ever-present beneath the skein of our collective perceptions.
So whatever happened to the "Home of the Brave"-? We are the home of the FEARFUL, the home of the BLIND, the home of the government-oppressed covert pogrom that STOPS AT NOTHING in order to achieve world domination & ensure our capitalist economy on the rest of the world. If you stop and think about it, we should have nothing to fear - but ourselves. Yet our government implements a program of propaganda through fearfulness. And what is it that terrorists utilize in order to try and get leverage -? Our very own FEAR, of course. In other words -- if we truly remained UNAFRAID of the terrorists -- THEY WOULD HAVE NO POWER OVER US. If we truly reverted to a nation that could honestly be called the "Home of the Brave" -- the terrorists tactics would mean nothing to us.
What has resulted globally over the last century is merely a karmic sort of extrusion of extremist factions of EACH of our own cultures. I.E, when we use the word "THEM" to describe the muslim culture, it is a disservice on such a profound scale, because IN TRUTH WE have our own extremist faction [currently in power @the Oval Office] who literally represent but a minority of our population, just as the terrorists are but a minority of the population of the Mideast.
The thing we must do is ABADON our Fear of this mideastern culture and at the same time abandon our SELFISHNESS that has been gradually implemented in our society busily sacrificing the very integrity of what allows us to live harmoniously not only with the INNER cultures at the microbiotic level (good & bad germs we are in symbiotic co-existance with) but also the OUTER cultures of the human race itself that we are SUPPOSED TO HAVE reached a harmonious interface with by this time in the development of our race.
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