photo from Seedmagazine.com
“The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all. I like a little rebellion now and then.” — Thomas Jefferson
It’s 2:58 a.m. I’m hammering away again, and I’m starting to wonder if all this relentless hammering for all these past years is going anywhere. Guys like James Kunstler believe there’s really nothing to be done in the face of overwhelming societal deterioration and claim there really isn’t any solution. Peak Oil, Financial Collapse, Resource War are crises that simply must be be endured.
So what is the point? Why were we given this level of inquisitiveness? It seems the power of introspect and sentience turns out to be no real gift after all when it’s that same power that ultimately leads to expansive wasteland. I’m beginning to conclude that it’s the relentless hammering that matters and perhaps that’s what weaves our fabric. I can’t help but chip away at these problems day after day even when I’m not sure why.
The crisis event is coming, but I’m not afraid.
“Naturally the common people don’t want war. Neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. that is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” — Herman Goering at the Nuremburg Trials
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Great topic.
Lately, I’m hammering away at the concept that “sentience is not all it’s cracked up to be”. Partly in the light of the movie “Avatar”, where the people are connected to the trees and life of the moon they live on (many don’t notice Pandora is a moon, not a planet). Humans tend to think too much, and forget that 80% of their life is NOT their brain, but their whole organism. As I get older, I realize it too much. I also think about “hammering away”, and that humans evolved to actually BE hammering away physically, not mentally. Constantly moving and running and carrying and then sleeping when tired. Our modern world has become one of the imaginary internalized one (such as we are in right now on the internet), rather than the real one, and thus the real one has been neglected by us all. Kunstler is one of my faves, partly for his turn of phrase, but also because of his view that our neglect of reality is coming to bite us in the ass, and we deserve it for our hubris.
If our minds are not such a big deal, then our bodies become relatively more important. When our bodies are more important, then the natural world becomes more important also (relative to our ego).
In the above comment, also insert “God” where “mind” is, and you get the perspective that seeking ‘top-down’ power is backassward, whether through prayer or petition, we give up our reality in favor of the fantasy of a ‘castle’ in the sky which will bestow freedom/security/money/grace upon us that we would otherwise simply look around and appreciate or create for ourselves.
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