My allegory is no one was sitting around listening to Connie Francis wondering, "Where the hell are the Beatles?" Only in hindsight did they seem inevitable.
Politically, the best I can do at the moment is to stop participating in the lesser of two evils nonsense we're being offered in hopes that a space is created for something new to happen.
that space for something different will not open up out of the blue or accidentally. people with visions will have to actively create it, against all resistance.
But, see... LOTS of folks I've actually known, heard Connie Francis knowing only full well, Captain Beefheart, George Clinton & Domenico Scarlatti were all out there WAITING for us? And none of us thought anything about this?
No! As usual, I was concurring? NOBODY, expects to banish introspection! Prescience, is just pattern-recognition with the clutch out? Some, who'd never seen any reason to seek, could not HANDLE or couldn't even be BOTHERED with reality; have recently been abruptly thrust straight into "mindfulness" covid style? I'd evidently been trundled through a 2nd hand store as an infant, WAMO blaring "Shake A Hand" "Saved" "Jim Dandy Got Married" and consequently became, well, dis-acculterated?
Too bad, enlightenment is SO painful, traumatic and unremittingly denigrated, dismissed & despised, in our culture (as detrimental to our production quota) that those fleeting instances, we're actually HERE, aware, awake, conscious & capable of self-actualization; it's like our skin's been flayed off, so we're in such horror and pain, we immediately retreat, back into obtuse oblivion. If you think this is exaggerated, or snark... you've never BEEN aware!
my philosophical understanding is, 1) there's nothing new or original under the sun in terms of human consciousness or intelligence, 2) and thus there's no progress or "getting better" on a linear measuring stick as more time passes, and 3) we have always understood and had choices, which do not overlap with each other, in terms of what kind of society, local and/or worldwide, we want to live in. and we live in what we collectively choose to live in. societies, alternative to what we live in, of various scales have existed and even thrived throughout human history and all over the world. never say no one saw it coming or no one knows what's going to happen. many have seen it coming, warned each other and presented alternative visions. what happens in the future depends on what we do now.
My philosophy still ponders what inspired(?) humankind to begin an agrarian way of life 10-12,000 years ago. Build civilizations? The beginning of war, pestilence, civil strife, and ruling classes, etc. Did aliens have a cruel hand in it? Can we escape this dynamo? (Industrial civilization that we were all born into) Hmmm...
Figured: flint edged weapons, tools; fermentation & ice "distilling" along with psychoactive plants, spinning, weaving & knitting during ice-age migration ALL enabled even the tiniest female to kill inebriated males in their sleep. The rest followed, once guys finally caught on?
interesting questions. i think that technologies from hoes to computers are tools that help us build and run a society but don't necessarily determine how we we related to each other in that society.
This article reminded me of the penchant people have to suss out hidden meanings, always encrypted of course, as in every fifth word of the bible or something read backward. Maybe it's to do with an innate distrust of officialdom, written rules and laws, mandates and commandments. They must feel the "truth" is in there somewhere, but is not literal and obvious. Greater consciousness is indeed an unfolding, a distillation of all experience. Its origins are mysterious, but we should always be open to it, the essence being, no one has a monopoly on "truth", it is inexhaustible, and the word itself has many meanings and manifestations. But for practice purposes, some obvious truths have priority: the planet is a mess, and we are in existential danger from the situation. Common logic, human perception, intuition and consciousness tell us that we as a species must be able to solve the problem. Otherwise we'd be the only species not to have been given the means to sustain itself in its environment, in this case, one to a great extent of our own making. That would say something unacceptably nasty about the universe, and we should not be willing to believe it.
knowing where the battle line is, who are on the opposing side and who are on this side and why is everything. solidarity across "divide and rule" lines is the first key.
Agreed ! The vision is motivational / inspirational yet the path is a hard reality where distraction, denial and delusion only serve one’s adversaries.
Perhaps if our relationship with the rest of the biosphere had been more attuned to that of some aboriginal peoples, we would be more inclined to see the peaceful reciprocity that evolved therein. And please try to refrain from a focus on biosphere interactions that seem un-peaceful like a wolfpack taking down a young elk or bison. That viewpoint comes of our distancing from Nature and our desire to control it on terms that are at odds with the frugality, reciprocity, recycling of materials etc. that are the biosphere's operational principles. We have immense difficulty appreciating the systemic perspective, in which the whole really is more than the sum of its parts. Aboriginals practiced ecological economics, an interaction with the biosphere that played by the macrosystem's principles of operation. The moment of great narcissism when we turned our species' face away from that path was the moment we became pariahs within a system that doesn't hold dissidence as a value, save perhaps in the value of genetic variation as the substrate for evolution.
While I agree that "There are so many lights that can yet be switched on. So many potential doors currently hidden in darkness creating the illusion that there is no exit." I am also convinced that beyond one of those doors must lie a society that recognizes its collective interest as tied to the rest of the biosphere, that moves at least closer to the aboriginal understanding of the necessity for ecological economics as the replacement for consume-and-discard economics. Until that becomes the central focus, other economic arguments, e.g., capitalism vs. socialism, become less relevant. But can we find a way through that door without the racism and classism implicit in continuing the current and longstanding first-world/third-world narcissism?
I think, therefor I am. Since I feel physical pain if my skin is pinched, it must be part of me. If my brother is cut and bleeds, I feel no physical pain, so maybe there's a boundary there. But lack of physical pain doesn't mean lack of care, which is developed and expressed through language. So yes, we are part of something larger, but I don't buy the ego doesn't exist schtick.
An unusual reprieve may have given humanity another few years to mend their wicked ways(or get their inner shit together) in that an under-ocean volcano in Fiji, near Tonga, on Sunday that spewed tons of volcanic ash high into the atmosphere. The ash, as an aerosol, acts to help reflect Sunlight back into space. It just may slow global warming to give silly humans another year or two to get their inner affairs in order. Enjoy today for all it's worth. Love your loved ones. May tomorrow come as well. It will all keep chugging along until it doesn't. It all begins with us. Peace, The Ol' Hippy
“My existence does not extend beyond the single track on the LP record.”
If so, can it be played over and over and over? Or what if your existence is downloadable from Amazon’s Consciousness Prime? Or what if you’re streaming live now on Netflix Cosmic?
(Note: to receive Netflix Cosmic you need to use something like a) the Happy Buddha VPN, or b) the InstaChrist app, or c) the Tor2 browser, which gives you access to the Light Web.)
Re your first question—how would you know you’re in a time loop?—you won’t know. That’s part of the fun. Also, your question assumes there is a “you” or “I”.
Re your second question—what’s the difference?—see the movie “Groundhog Day” for one interesting answer.
Re your third question—what concept of time would allow you to play your life over?—the idea seems to get scientific credibility from quantum physics which holds that information cannot be created nor destroyed. Assuming Life = Information, then voila, "your" life is eternal. So “you” can play it over and over again exactly as “you” would a recorded song streaming from Pandora. (If there is an app to replay Lives, I suspect it’s called the Akashic Records app.)
My allegory is no one was sitting around listening to Connie Francis wondering, "Where the hell are the Beatles?" Only in hindsight did they seem inevitable.
Politically, the best I can do at the moment is to stop participating in the lesser of two evils nonsense we're being offered in hopes that a space is created for something new to happen.
that space for something different will not open up out of the blue or accidentally. people with visions will have to actively create it, against all resistance.
But, see... LOTS of folks I've actually known, heard Connie Francis knowing only full well, Captain Beefheart, George Clinton & Domenico Scarlatti were all out there WAITING for us? And none of us thought anything about this?
Guess I should have said "there were those" instead of "no one." So much for my painting with an overly broad brush...
No! As usual, I was concurring? NOBODY, expects to banish introspection! Prescience, is just pattern-recognition with the clutch out? Some, who'd never seen any reason to seek, could not HANDLE or couldn't even be BOTHERED with reality; have recently been abruptly thrust straight into "mindfulness" covid style? I'd evidently been trundled through a 2nd hand store as an infant, WAMO blaring "Shake A Hand" "Saved" "Jim Dandy Got Married" and consequently became, well, dis-acculterated?
Too bad, enlightenment is SO painful, traumatic and unremittingly denigrated, dismissed & despised, in our culture (as detrimental to our production quota) that those fleeting instances, we're actually HERE, aware, awake, conscious & capable of self-actualization; it's like our skin's been flayed off, so we're in such horror and pain, we immediately retreat, back into obtuse oblivion. If you think this is exaggerated, or snark... you've never BEEN aware!
my philosophical understanding is, 1) there's nothing new or original under the sun in terms of human consciousness or intelligence, 2) and thus there's no progress or "getting better" on a linear measuring stick as more time passes, and 3) we have always understood and had choices, which do not overlap with each other, in terms of what kind of society, local and/or worldwide, we want to live in. and we live in what we collectively choose to live in. societies, alternative to what we live in, of various scales have existed and even thrived throughout human history and all over the world. never say no one saw it coming or no one knows what's going to happen. many have seen it coming, warned each other and presented alternative visions. what happens in the future depends on what we do now.
My philosophy still ponders what inspired(?) humankind to begin an agrarian way of life 10-12,000 years ago. Build civilizations? The beginning of war, pestilence, civil strife, and ruling classes, etc. Did aliens have a cruel hand in it? Can we escape this dynamo? (Industrial civilization that we were all born into) Hmmm...
Figured: flint edged weapons, tools; fermentation & ice "distilling" along with psychoactive plants, spinning, weaving & knitting during ice-age migration ALL enabled even the tiniest female to kill inebriated males in their sleep. The rest followed, once guys finally caught on?
interesting questions. i think that technologies from hoes to computers are tools that help us build and run a society but don't necessarily determine how we we related to each other in that society.
Wow, thank you for that.
This article reminded me of the penchant people have to suss out hidden meanings, always encrypted of course, as in every fifth word of the bible or something read backward. Maybe it's to do with an innate distrust of officialdom, written rules and laws, mandates and commandments. They must feel the "truth" is in there somewhere, but is not literal and obvious. Greater consciousness is indeed an unfolding, a distillation of all experience. Its origins are mysterious, but we should always be open to it, the essence being, no one has a monopoly on "truth", it is inexhaustible, and the word itself has many meanings and manifestations. But for practice purposes, some obvious truths have priority: the planet is a mess, and we are in existential danger from the situation. Common logic, human perception, intuition and consciousness tell us that we as a species must be able to solve the problem. Otherwise we'd be the only species not to have been given the means to sustain itself in its environment, in this case, one to a great extent of our own making. That would say something unacceptably nasty about the universe, and we should not be willing to believe it.
Imagine by John Lennon, 1971
knowing where the battle line is, who are on the opposing side and who are on this side and why is everything. solidarity across "divide and rule" lines is the first key.
Agreed ! The vision is motivational / inspirational yet the path is a hard reality where distraction, denial and delusion only serve one’s adversaries.
No justice No peace
Perhaps if our relationship with the rest of the biosphere had been more attuned to that of some aboriginal peoples, we would be more inclined to see the peaceful reciprocity that evolved therein. And please try to refrain from a focus on biosphere interactions that seem un-peaceful like a wolfpack taking down a young elk or bison. That viewpoint comes of our distancing from Nature and our desire to control it on terms that are at odds with the frugality, reciprocity, recycling of materials etc. that are the biosphere's operational principles. We have immense difficulty appreciating the systemic perspective, in which the whole really is more than the sum of its parts. Aboriginals practiced ecological economics, an interaction with the biosphere that played by the macrosystem's principles of operation. The moment of great narcissism when we turned our species' face away from that path was the moment we became pariahs within a system that doesn't hold dissidence as a value, save perhaps in the value of genetic variation as the substrate for evolution.
While I agree that "There are so many lights that can yet be switched on. So many potential doors currently hidden in darkness creating the illusion that there is no exit." I am also convinced that beyond one of those doors must lie a society that recognizes its collective interest as tied to the rest of the biosphere, that moves at least closer to the aboriginal understanding of the necessity for ecological economics as the replacement for consume-and-discard economics. Until that becomes the central focus, other economic arguments, e.g., capitalism vs. socialism, become less relevant. But can we find a way through that door without the racism and classism implicit in continuing the current and longstanding first-world/third-world narcissism?
Thank you for writing such a hopeful message!
Sadhu, sadhu, sadhu.
Beautifully said.
Peace is always here waiting for us to notice it.
I think, therefor I am. Since I feel physical pain if my skin is pinched, it must be part of me. If my brother is cut and bleeds, I feel no physical pain, so maybe there's a boundary there. But lack of physical pain doesn't mean lack of care, which is developed and expressed through language. So yes, we are part of something larger, but I don't buy the ego doesn't exist schtick.
hows that forced vaxxed aussie lockdown...that you never write about...working out for ya? just wonderin
An unusual reprieve may have given humanity another few years to mend their wicked ways(or get their inner shit together) in that an under-ocean volcano in Fiji, near Tonga, on Sunday that spewed tons of volcanic ash high into the atmosphere. The ash, as an aerosol, acts to help reflect Sunlight back into space. It just may slow global warming to give silly humans another year or two to get their inner affairs in order. Enjoy today for all it's worth. Love your loved ones. May tomorrow come as well. It will all keep chugging along until it doesn't. It all begins with us. Peace, The Ol' Hippy
“My existence does not extend beyond the single track on the LP record.”
If so, can it be played over and over and over? Or what if your existence is downloadable from Amazon’s Consciousness Prime? Or what if you’re streaming live now on Netflix Cosmic?
(Note: to receive Netflix Cosmic you need to use something like a) the Happy Buddha VPN, or b) the InstaChrist app, or c) the Tor2 browser, which gives you access to the Light Web.)
Re your first question—how would you know you’re in a time loop?—you won’t know. That’s part of the fun. Also, your question assumes there is a “you” or “I”.
Re your second question—what’s the difference?—see the movie “Groundhog Day” for one interesting answer.
Re your third question—what concept of time would allow you to play your life over?—the idea seems to get scientific credibility from quantum physics which holds that information cannot be created nor destroyed. Assuming Life = Information, then voila, "your" life is eternal. So “you” can play it over and over again exactly as “you” would a recorded song streaming from Pandora. (If there is an app to replay Lives, I suspect it’s called the Akashic Records app.)