Remember Plato's Cave Analogy

As I stood before the entrance of departure-Heathrow, I couldn’t help but to think of the words by George Orwell’s 1984: “Big Brother is watching you”.

There I was; surrounded by a faceless crowd entering the building, checking-in their bags from no-name brands to Versace, browsing the local shops, and stuffing themselves with the grub from countless restaurants – oblivious of the armed men in their bullet-proof vests backed up by their impersonal glaring camera counterparts in each corner. The forefront of the crowd (including me) was queuing at the entrance of Departures, with ‘bulldogs’ scrutinizing our every move and barking at us to place our liquids in little plastic bags. With shaky hands, some young mother tried to calm her screaming child as she obeyed the bulldogs’ commands. One man started an argument with one of the bulldogs over the size of his laptop case; bit by bit, the hoard of flesh moved forward into phase two of delightful departures.

Phase two – the crowd gets broken up in segments by barriers, much like those on a cattle ranch, the queuing hoard awaiting scrutiny by eye, hand and machine. We get ordered as usual to place our belongings in containers, but then a new order dawns: “Off with your shoes, place them on the conveyor!” Without any hesitation, we do as we are told, and barefooted we stroll through the metal detector; our damp naked feet creating brief vapoury prints on the cold floor.

And so, with naked feet, we scrambled to get our chaotically squashed belongings from the conveyor belt’s end, desperate for the oasis of consumerist splendour that awaited us a breath’s length away. (I sarcastically remarked that one of these days, they will probably make us walk naked, whipping us profilactically just in case we might be terrorists).

“It is for your safety”, they will say. For our safety, hmm.

So for our safety we get treated like sheep and cattle awaiting the slaughter; like nameless, faceless drones, conveyored through with disregard and disrespect. The task of mothers to feed their babies gets much tougher than it already is in an overcrowded economy class area, and we all get a “good boy” pat on the back by glazing our eyes with ‘duty free’ consumerism.

We have to ask ourselves two little questions:

Firstly, why do we have a safety issue anyway? Where did it come from? Why do these so called evil individuals exist, plaguing our minds with terrorist fear, gnawing at the basements of our sanity? What created them? We do after all live in a universe where action begets reaction, don’t we? So somewhere, the ‘western world’ must have done something behind the scenes; something so vile and hideous, that it sparked the blind and evil hatred that now ‘creates’ this abuse in disguise that is called ‘safety precautions’.

Secondly, why do we as individuals let ourselves be treated this way? Why do we act like sheep, grazing the consumerism fields while we timidly await our slaughter?

You might laugh at the harsh ‘slaughter’ word, but dare to think outside the box of your day to day existence, and see the bigger picture:

If we look back on our recent history, will we notice how our freedoms are being taken away in stealth mode. Slowly but surely, the hoarding methods are becoming less humane. Think of the harsher treatment at airports, the CCTV cameras on each street corner, armed police everywhere you look, the strenuous passport control of ‘lesser nations’, the proposed ID cards and compulsory Criminal Records Bureau check (which accidentally made a teenaged girl a convicted felon in their first year of operation).

Bit by bit, the water is slowly brought to boiling point; the boiling point of an Orwellian society, where there is no more room for smiles or laughter, companionship and friendly smiles between strangers. We are becoming a massive hive, where most of us are drones, slaving away for the elite in their air-conditioned offices, sipping their café latte’s while they think of more clever ideas to suck the milking cows drier without them noticing.

Remember Plato’s cave analogy: “To keep slaves from rebelling, make them believe that they are free”.

And how are we kept in this delusion?

By allowing us the ‘freedom of choice’. The choice of the colour car you want, which supermarket to shop at, hundreds of television channels and which bank to keep your money ‘safe’.

Democrat or Republican, Labour (excuse me, New Labour) or Conservative, thus the puppet on the left or the one on the right.

In the end, standing back from the labyrinth we find ourselves in, we realise that we are merely following the preconceived pathways that have been placed there for us to choose from – in order to make us believe we are free.

But the signs of oppression are showing. It is seeping from our collective being like water from an oversaturated sponge. No matter how much we have – be it money, or the pleasures we attain by it – there is always that low hum in the shadows of our subconscious minds, playing tricks with us when we dream at night. The hum of sub-acute discontent that presents itself as our ‘depression’, obesity, self-harm, substance abuse, and family violence. And lest we forget those super celebrities with their ever quest for happiness in clubs, sexual endeavours, mansions, private jets and plastic surgery frenzies.

Ironic then that even the elite - the puppet masers pulling those very strings for self-gain and harming the puppets with their stealth abuse and slavery – are suffering from the same lack of freedom; the freedom to unconditionally love…

Our Dying Civilization: Part 3 (Resolution to 'Monkey in our Veins')

As I have briefly mentioned before: in studying systems, one will notice one system reflecting another. It is as if the universe has a specific ‘recipe’ in which it designs, builds and runs things; as if to keep things simple. This can be seen in how atom structures reflect solar systems and galaxies. How fractal patterns can be seen from cardiovascular systems to tree branches, river deltas and animal migration patterns on African savannas. They all resemble each other; fractals always at play.

In part II, I likened the human individual to an individual cell, shaping with all the others, the organ called ‘human society’, which is but one of the many systems - or organs if you will – in the biosphere we know as Earth. I also described that; if cells go ‘rogue’ (become cancerous), that they form tumours which has a high consumption rate and toxin output, which in the end destroys the organism. Just so, our current consumerist ‘programming’ is likened to that of cancer cells; organised in massive clusters called cities (tumours) consuming more resources than necessary, releasing toxins and oppressing other healthy systems to the extent of the super organism, Earth, suffering and eventually dying. As in cancer, the problem starts with one cell of which the DNA programming malfunctions (due to many causes). The same applies to humans, where the programming of ‘consumerist egotism’ lies more or less in each and everyone of us. How else? We are born into this malfunctioning society, programming us since birth to act in a certain way: to egotistically consume as much as one can at the expense of anything or anyone else.

Now, some will argue and say that it is natural; that it is an instinct drive to survive. I couldn’t agree more. That is how all other organisms work; they compete until death do part. For them – that is all animal and plant systems – it is perfectly fine. These systems will regulate each other. As systems grow too large - for instance a Kudu-herd in Africa - resources will dwindle, and the fittest will survive, the old and sickly dying in the process. In nature, systems tend to regulate each other with strict competition; animals and plants dogmatically following their instincts. They all have natural inhibitors on the hierarchy of the ‘food chain’.

But the human seems to be different. For some bizarre reason, the Homo sapiens ‘ape’ escaped this natural cascade of events. One day, the human fashioned a weapon from a branch, and stood up to his predator; not blindly accepting his fate. The hunted became the hunter. The hunter became the gatherer. The gatherer started questioning his surroundings and his dreams, talking to his (her) fellow humans about this very notion; drawing images in caves to reflect the inner self. The human ape started escaping the laws of ‘the fittest will survive’, and slowly started on an inward journey to self discovery.

What has happened since we started ‘awakening’ more than forty thousand years ago (if one relates to the earliest cave paintings), is the history we learn today; a slow and painful journey on self discovery in the form of religion, wars and civilization. It is the growing pains of a collective organism called ‘the human race’, trying to escape the bondage of this ‘rat-eat-rat’ existence in the natural world. But unfortunately, we have now entered a phase in which we are stuck somewhere in the middle. Part of us is still the monkey which thinks it has to fight for survival; to compete no matter what, in order to make it ‘out there’ and in the process (not having any natural inhibitors or predators), becoming a completely over populating and consuming monster. The other part, is the urge and dream to escape this very monkey in our veins; the part that wants to love in stead of hate, dream in stead of fear and collaborate with fellow brothers and sisters of all races and species in order to create utopia.

We are like ‘spiritual adolescents’, stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea; our DNA and bodies stuck in the world of ruthless competitive drive and our minds and souls beckoning to release the fear; to let go of that primal instinct to survive no matter what, and to survive naturally by collaborating with fellow spirits.

We can observe the monkey in our veins through our daily actions; the woods’ stench of our primate ancestors merely covered by fashionable embroidery and high street perfume. In the home, in the office, health system and politics; there is always a fight to the death to be found – from nasty remarks and blind ambition to corporate fraud and wars based on an impending energy crisis. We are merely monkeys in suits and designer wear, fighting each other with social criticism, deception and out-right high-tech weapons of war. In stead of using our new found intellect - our inner calling to a connection far beyond the scope of this limited and fragile universe for collaboration and spiritual growth - we use it to compete in more clever ways. In effect just being very clever monkeys. Closely study the typical routine of night-clubbing and you will recognise the mating tactics of all other animals in stealth form – the ladies advertising themselves with the latest fashion trend and body language of ‘I’m available, come and get me’; the men advertising their alpha-male capability by flexing their steroid-muscles under their skin-tight T-shirts, bragging about their money and their cars, and fighting with would be ‘alpha male challengers’. Look at supermarket sales; where people will elbow each other out of the way for that ‘last’ sales item, and you will see the ‘watering hole’.

We need to break free from this primal instinct. We are more than just clever primates. We can express ourselves in the most imaginative ways; creating works of fiction, art and music that stirs the soul. We can keep ourselves from reacting instinctively, and forgive our trespassers. We can show our love with a kind smile, a gentle touch and an enduring kiss. We dream and share these dreams, creating fantasy worlds in our minds and sharing these worlds with others all over the globe; this being the reflection of our yearning to break free from this animal bondage, and explore the other dimensions of inner space and of the collective and subconscious self, intricately connected to the collective mind of the universe.

When we break free from this primal instinct, thus egotistic ambitious drive, which in essence is monkey-mode with a human mask, we can each and everyone of us, become the healthy cell in the organ of society; shaping a healthy society which can break free from the primal need of competition, and collaborate in order to solve this mess we have made so far.

Our Dying Civilization: Part 2

I agree, part 1 is pretty grim. Grim is the future of any self destructive being. Take an intravenous drug addict for example – he or she cares not for the long term future, only for that short lived sense of euphoria, replaced by the opposite of bliss. In spite of all the warnings against drug use; all the complications and misery that will lead to a premature death, this person will pursue that short lived euphoric sensations at all cost, leading to only one thing – disaster. Mental break-down, hepatitis B, HIV, festering groin wounds, cardiac valve lesions secondary to septic endocarditis and eventually premature death. The reasons for people becoming addicted in the first place is another matter entirely, but in the end; self destructive behaviour leads to self destruction – cause and effect, action and reaction.

Now, not all individuals are necessarily as self-destructive as the said intravenous drug addict, but, most of us have a self destructive tendency. Smoking, drinking alcohol (which is essentially a mild poison), over eating, thinking negative thoughts leading to lowered self esteem and even mental illnesses, over working, etc; we are all aware that certain things we imbibe, inhale or do, is bad for us, but still pursue it with relish. In the end, most humans have self destructive tendencies, the drug abuser being only the extreme representative of the scale. Now, as individuals, we never really think about our actions affecting the whole. After all, what can one insignificant soul among the billions on the planet change? You will be amazed at the power of the individual. Let me explain…

If one studies systems closely, the words; ‘as above so below, as within so without’ comes to mind. Systems reflect each other from the minute to profoundly large. It is even evident in fractal pictograms, where the original pictogram will keep repeating within itself if magnified infinitely. As atoms shape molecules, shape cells, shape organs, shape organic bodily systems and eventually the body; so the individual human being can be likened to the cell shaping and organ we call society when collated. Thus, we are the cells of the organ called society. If all cells function perfectly, we have a healthy organ and body. If the cells function otherwise, the organ becomes sick.

It can be seen in cancer. Cancer in short, is one cell going rogue due to a ‘fault’ in it’s DNA or programming; it’s differentiation and multiplying abilities altered, so that it keeps on multiplying without differentiating, thus, not becoming the specific cell it was destined to become. Eventually we have a situation where the normal cells in the organ are displaced with rogue cells, which consumes much more energy than the surrounding healthy tissue. This conglomerate of rogue or cancer cells is called a tumour; expanding into the healthy organ and causing mass amounts of toxins to be released into the surrounding organ and body’s blood stream. Eventually, the tumour will rot at its core due to an imbalance in the supply and demand equation; some bits dying (causing more toxins) and other bits spreading or ‘metastasising’ to other parts of the body, where it will continue this destructive behaviour until the whole body dies under the strain of toxins and imbalance in supply-demand.

Now, if the above scenario is compared to modern man and society, we will see an eerie similarity. Individual humans have become self-obsessed consumers (especially those in western countries), consuming more products, thus earthly resources than is needed and in return to the earth, fill her with toxins. The city – modern dwelling for society or conglomerate of individuals if you will - can then be seen as a tumour, ever expanding due to it’s ‘rogue cells’, replacing nature with concrete structures, polluting her seas and rivers with chemicals, plastic bags and bottles (to name but a few), while consuming more and more energy and other resources. The more consuming individuals, the bigger the city, the higher consumption of resources and output of toxins.
Parts of the city will have its less fortunate areas; filled with souls burdened by unfair trading, lack of education and stealth racism (thus imbalance in supply and demand affecting an exponentially growing minority). Of course this will breed sub-cultures of hatred which in turn will cause crime – thus the rotting parts of the tumour. This happens all over the world on a daily basis; the human cancer has metastasised, killing the earth slowly but surely.

If most human beings have a self destructive tendency, then society (conglomerate collective mind of the individual) will be self destructive as well. Thus, the problem and cause of our dying civilization, lies on individual level – thus you and me.

Then, if the problem lies in the individual, then so does the solution. Thus the solution to the world’s problems, lies inside you and me…

(continued to part 3)

The frog in the slowly boiling pot: Symptoms and signs of our dying civilization.

‘Ahh’, think the green little critters, ‘so comfy now that the water is warming up. It was so cold a little while ago’. True; the waters of time has been cold since and after the world wars. But it has since then so nicely warmed up, that all the little froggies are now comfortably frolicking about in the still warming waters of time and space. Warmer and warmer it gets, the little frogs frolicking and prospering; their numbers growing and growing in the hot little pool, fogging up their cute little eyes. Then one day, some of the frogs on the sideline realise that the water is becoming a bit too hot for comfort, and start warning their friends, but alas, the rest go about their business (ridiculing their paranoid friends), enjoying their new found sauna – after all, isn’t sauna’s supposed to be healthy? Alienated, the paranoid ones climb out of the steaming pool, taking one last look at the now slowly bubbling waters. As they disappear over the hills; the smell of boiled frog flesh start drifting from the valley with the volcanic pool…

Like the little frogs, we frolic around in our hot little pool called civilization or culture if you will. We dress in the mornings, go to work with a hot steaming cup of Starbucks in hand (as it looks so cool in the movies), read a book on the metro (cause, that’s what smart and sophisticated people do on their way to work apart from shutting out all those possible maniacs surrounding you), go to a café or bar after work, get drunk, get laid, get bored with our own routine, become obsessed with other people’s lives splashed on glossy magazines…Everyday, we do the same old routine over and over again, buying more stuff we don’t need in order to muffle the voice in our heads that try and wake us up from our consumerist, modern civilization stupor. While all this is happening; our self obsessed fascination with our egos drowning the meek and the mild with pathological ambition and lust for power, our comfortable ‘pool’ is warming beyond the point of not only comfort, bur sustainability of life.

Stand back from it all – gain perspective, and you will notice that the rose colouring of the world is an illusion. It’s an illusion created to keep the whole cookie from crumbling, as it is a very brittle cookie at that. To put it as plain and simple as I can, I will use the words of one of my friends: ‘I may not know a lot about economics, but as I see it, if there are too many worms on a dwindling leaf, the game is over…’. If you take the time and study the statistics of what is really happening in the world in regards to how many children die of starvation each day, how little resources is left in the ocean and elsewhere on the earth, and the unhealthy demand supply equation of oil (not to mention the problem with Hubbert’s Peak Oil) on which our whole civilization is built, and you look at the human race’s population of 6.7 billion, growing exponentially, there is but one outcome – too many worms, and too little leaf; thus, game over.

No matter how positive you are or how much one tries to rationalise it; our days here are getting numbered, one by one. There is simply too many human mouths to feed (and greedy mouths at that, especially looking at the western cultures using more than 50% of the world’s resources), and too little goodies to put in those mouths. It is being artificially buffered by virtual money in the form of interest rate credit loans, escalating into the trillions of dollars each year. And who are then the ones falling for this trap? Why, you and me of course; Mr and Mrs Ordinary, programmed everyday by mass media to WANT - want new digital gadgetries, Scandinavian buffet sets, designer handbags, German super cars, plastic surgery for ‘that special look’…while the steam is rising from our ‘comfortable little pool’. One can set the boiling point of water at a higher level with cheap trickery, but in the end, if the heat rises, that water will boil – tricks or none. One only delays the inevitable; the coming economic meltdown, depression and a fading civilization, as history has taught us over and over again that economic depression and war goes hand in hand. But alas, the next world war (seeming to be around the corner if one looks at the new American Defence budget, super carriers closing in on Iran, and Israel asking permission to bomb the same country), will certainly be more devastating than WWII. I think it was Einstein who said: ‘I don’t know what they will use to fight WWIII, but they will certainly use sticks and stones for WWIV’.

This might sound like I’m a good old doomsday prophet: ‘goodness, he is such a negative guy’. ‘Mmm’, then how in the hell does one break it lightly to friends, high on dope in a burning house that their lives are at stake? You don’t if you want them to live, no matter how much of an idiot you might seem to them. You will scream and shout your head off in order to save them.

Now; civilizations have come and gone; Egypt, Greece, Rome, China…They ebbed and flowed like all things do in our limited universe. The one always makes room for the other. But what happens to a civilization not confined to a single space on earth? What replaces a civilization that is global and stupendously interconnected in politics and economy on a limited planet with less than half her resources left? Another civilization? Or a long cold spell of struggling human beings, reverted back to primitive primates as they fight for tomorrows morsel of food?

The only way we can stop this, is to firstly, wake up from our denialist stupor that blinds our perspective minds. We need to wake up NOW, and realise that the ‘warm’ pool is at boiling point, and that soon, we sill start smelling our own cooked selves before departing…

(alternatives to the abovementioned scenario follows soon)