Social Reformation: And the systems that define us

Intro

This intro may serve as more of a disclaimer than anything. I do not intend to attack anyone’s beliefs or offend anyone. I do not pretend to know everything. My intent is not so much to give answers to problems but rather to spark thought outside the box of current society, systems and structures. I want to challenge the normal thoughts and ideas when it comes to culture and religion. I also want people to know that I do not white knuckle my beliefs. I realize that I could be wrong and try not to make too many absolute statements. I also don’t have a problem if others don’t agree with me or see eye to eye on certain issues. Not agreeing is OK. There is nothing wrong with that. I try not to set many posts because my beliefs have and most likely will change over time. Having too many absolutes is how I become too rigid and stagnant, because then I tend to believe all must believe the way that I do. This causes me to always be stuck trying to defend my positions rather than engaging in constructive dialogue with others. I am guilty of this myself. I all too often found identity in my beliefs and chose to defend those over other people. I believe that healthy views and opinions are ones that have been challenged and thoughtfully worked through. This normally causes us to truly hear opposing views and to realize there are many different world views outside of our own. Absolutes become the very things that do not allow one to progress. I believe that hard-nosed stances are the very things that have hindered the growth of humanity for ions. I am fairly certain on a few points that some may find hard to move past. I am fairly certain that most of the major religions have white knuckled their beliefs and have hindered the progressive development of society. I believe nationalism coupled with religion are responsible for the greatest evils ever committed. I do not see any way around taking torture and evil in the human realm and calling it love in the divine realm. I realize this is a very touchy subject and I want to navigate it as such. I do not wish to make anyone feel attacked or marginalized. I come from a Western culture and a Western Christian religion and as such I use these as my points of reference throughout the book. I do however realize that there are many nations and religions that suffer similar issues or problems. I do not wish to stir up anger and resentment and if that is what the reading of this book will do then feel free to discontinue reading at any time. If, however you can put disagreements to the side and move on then please continue reading. Sometimes taking in contrary opinions is best done one small bite at a time. Read a little and chew on it a bit, then read some more.

I also want to make clear that the critique of different systems is just that. It is a critique or maybe criticism of systems, not people. I feel that many people caught up in upholding faulty social systems are victims of these systems as well. Normally when someone acts or perpetuates beliefs that are unbecoming of their true identities, in my opinion, it usually comes from an outside influence such as an established social system. When I mention the police, military, nations, religions, and so on, I am talking of some policies or beliefs that influence these institutions, not the whole organization and most certainly not the individuals. There is a big difference between criticizing systems that influence our society and criticizing individual people.

I will also mention that I do not use a lot of citations in this book for a couple of reasons. The first is that anyone can do research and find evidence to back up whatever beliefs they want. If someone sees a citation and takes the information as fact based on that citation alone, then that is essentially perpetuating the problems that I address in the book. It is once again just taking someone’s word for it without checking it yourself. My goal in this book is to create thought and interest. If a subject catches your eye and you wish to know more about it, then my aim is to cause you to investigate it yourself without me giving you a prescribed set of resources. It gives you the opportunity to see multiple sides of any issue without me feeding you resources that only back up my opinions. You can quite literally justify any opinion through research, and quite honestly, the word has been so misused that I immediately question the research someone claims they did. It builds zero trust in me when the average joe claims they researched something. If I was writing on one subject and attempting to make a deep dive into any one thing in particular, then I should definitely have citations, but that simply is not this book.

I will mention in closing, when I find my identity through systems and establishments, it is very easy to become offended when these systems are criticized. I can attach myself to anything, so being offended is easy when these systems are challenged. It is important to realize that our identity should never be derived from manmade systems and structures. To do this cuts us short of our true value and abilities. You are way bigger and better than anything human have ever created.

Chapter 1:

What Does This

All Mean?

As I sit to write this book, I am not writing from a place of composure or being put together by any stretch of the imagination. I am actually writing from a place of uncertainty, asking myself the same questions I present in this book. This is more of an insight into my own questioning than anything else. I can’t help but wonder if we, our planet, solar system, galaxy and even universe are floating around on a speck more consistent with Whoville than anything else, with an alternate realm of existence just outside of our observation. What if we, and all that is around us, are part of a much larger entity, the same way that we are comprised of protons, electrons, atoms, strands of DNA and cells? What if our universe and the galaxies therein are of similar content, building something much larger and beyond our imagination? What if a galaxy is merely a cell among trillions of others that comprises something much bigger? We humans being much the same, could we be building blocks to something much bigger? Could we humans be much like an atom in a cell, floating through existence on a speck and unaware of the expanse of existence beyond what is us. Are the cells within our bodies and within all that exists, their own galaxy or even their own universe? Where does it all begin? Where does it end? Are we as humans merely in a progression between the beginning and the end? Does it even end? Is it as broad, or as narrow, as what our imaginations are willing to create? Does the universe only stop at the end of our imagination? The possibilities are so vast, and the frontiers of wonder are so great, yet we are here, on this earth fighting over who becomes our next president. The universe, so pliable and willing to conform to our immense desires and imaginations, stands still as we fight for better fuel prices. Humanity sits, bickers, and divides on the subject of climate change and what is causing it, not realizing we could all be wrong. We could all be right at the same time, containing an element of truth in us all. What if climate change goes beyond carbon emissions and greenhouse gasses? Could the earth and all of existence be linked into us, into who we are? Could quantum entanglement go far beyond our imagination. Could we be the energy from which all else finds its pulse? We find humanity progressively spiraling into disarray, and somehow our climate is doing the same thing. It seems recently we see more hurricanes, tornados, floods, drought, fire, and just overall crazy weather patterns. We have had a lot of new sickness and even a pandemic over the last couple of decades. Humanity is going through a huge upheaval right now. Could we be creating it all? Could the upheaval be the immune system of the universe, fighting back at all that plagues it? Could we be holding onto the very things that the universe is attempting to rid itself from? Can we likewise be the power of restoration? The scale of our upheaval is probably bigger than it has ever been. Could the universe simply be mirroring back to us the state of disarray that humanity finds itself in? As dark as it all may feel at the moment, could our outlook be equally as bright? I feal the heaviness, I feel the darkness, but I also see the possibility of light as we have never seen before. I need the sunlight. If I sit indoors for too long, my body cries for sunshine. Can we, as the creators of the darkness around us, equally be the bearers of the very light we so desperately need? Could both the darkness and the light be something that is contained within us? In an attempt to reach a place where the light can be attained, a walk through our darkness may be required. Only when we realize that the darkness around us is the creation of our own social constructs, can we as the creators of this darkness begin to bring in the light.

We as a human species are more destructive and lethal than ever, but could we be just as loving and nurturing? The twentieth century has been the bloodiest century in history with the number of dead attributed to war alone being estimated at around 187 million people. Could nature be feeling this stress and darkness that we are manifesting? Could our tumultuous existence be the reason for nature’s upheaval as well? In other words, could the universe be manifesting the energies that we are projecting out into it? Maybe humans are powerful enough that nature tends to follow us in some mimetic way. What if all of nature including the earth and our weather, animals, and us all come together as one living organism? Could the earth be alive, and we just have such a narrow vision of life that we are totally missing the definition? Is the whole universe a living breathing thing, and we are just a small part of it all? If we molest this earth for our own gain without consideration of how we are hurting our planet, then how long will it let us continue without pushing back? Will the rest of creation resist humanity and our destructiveness until we are gone? Will it continue to ramp up its resistance to us, the same way our bodies fight any disease? There is already a study and theory of our continued molestation of the planet releasing more new diseases the farther we invade and violate nature. Nature’s built in immune system perhaps? When a bear, cougar, or buffalo attacks a human on a hiking trail, we tend to call them dangerous. We will normally pursue and kill the attacking animal as something purely evil. We pretend to not understand why these animals would do such a thing. Sure there could be animals with evil intent similar to humans, but we normally do not consider the fact that we humans are the most dangerous creature on the planet. We kill way more animals in a single hunting season than the number of humans killed by all the animals combined. Could even the animals be fighting back to some degree? Do they know, even if it is through a different form of consciousness, how dangerous and harmful we are? If I was them, I’d keep my kids away from us too. Almost everything else around us, from the large to the small, from plants to animals, are all participating together, in harmony to nurture this earth and their ecosystems. We humans, the most developed animals of us all seem to be the only ones fighting for our right to destroy it. We, rather than living with creation seek to dominate it. Do we have a misconception of what a developed and conscious creature is? Maybe we have a stronger or more powerful brain in some way, but maybe it’s just different and not so much better. If we shift our perspective of intelligence we could see that being able to build things does not necessarily mean that we are more intelligent. A dog often seems to be much happier than humans. If the ability to have inner peace, or to feel joy and love were the measuring rods for intelligence, then maybe our pet’s intelligence could almost be seen as higher than ours. I don’t know. It just seems to me that for all the intelligence we claim to have, we can do some really dumb stuff.

What about our understanding of civilization and what it really means to be civilized? Who gave the definition of what civilized means? Was it a European person sitting in a nice house with four walls and a cozy fireplace? Why did we feel the need to define it? Was it another tool by which we sought superiority to justify our quest to subjugate the less civilized? Was it another tool used to label and isolate those living in the land that we wished to acquire? Should civilization be defined by our technology and the things we possess, or by how we treat each other? Shouldn’t our actions be a display of how civilized we are rather than our ability to produce a smart phone? The way people conquered and subjugated other people groups reveals the barbaric and savage nature of the conquerors, not the ones they subjugated. Who was to say that the tribal cultures of Africa, Australia, Asia, the Americas were not civilized? Why were they viewed as barbaric and savage? The conquest of the Americas and the enslavement of Africans revealed more about our level of being civilized (or lack there of), rather than the other way around. The tribal people around the globe seemed to be thriving just fine and generally seemed to have life more figured out. They seemed to be living as part of their ecosystems and in harmony with the rest of nature for the most part. The settlement and conquest of many of these lands destroyed most of that. European civilization tended to be the downfall of most of the continents they inhabited. Pestilence, war, and famine seemed to go wherever civilization went. The loss of life went wherever civilization went. The disease, famine, and war took so many lives of native tribal cultures across the globe that it is impossible to even estimate the numbers in any constructive way. European conquest and civilization seemed to spread more like a viscous cancer than anything else. Maybe our version of civilization is more like the polar opposite of what it should be. Why do we even need to define it anyway? Maybe through conquest and settlement we have turned humanity into the virus of the universe. Maybe the universe is coming together, like any known living thing, and is fighting to rid itself of the virus that is killing it. I do tend to believe that we humans are much more powerful than we could ever dream of. Our power can destroy (which seems to be what we are focused on right now), or we can be life givers and heal this place just as easily. We can also bring life to the universe in a very beautiful way, but we cannot do it under our current mentality, structures, and systems.

The possibilities of imagination are so great and yet we find ourselves here, fighting over the most trivial things in comparison to it all. Imagination can do just as much real work as a general laborer building a new home. We tend to focus on the material things that we can physically discern. The things we physically see and touch do not necessarily give us a complete view of reality. Some believe that the unseen universe is every bit as real as the observable universe. Some humans wish to explore vast unseen realms, and others see no reality outside of their physical senses. There is a portion of humanity that wants to know what is beyond the stars, and a portion who cares only about their nation or religion, and nothing else. Part of humanity envisions an existence so vast that it defies human reasoning, others just want cheaper gas at the pumps. This is not meant to ridicule or belittle anyone. I simply think it is time for humanity to take the lids off our imaginations and reconsider what is important and real. My inner self just knows that mankind as a whole is not living up to our full potential, not even close actually. Are new possibilities literally unlocked through our curiosity and our willingness to explore these possibilities? Can we literally create things that did not exist before, simply through our imagination and the pursuit of the unknown? What if through our exploration and sense of wonderment, there is something else out there that hears us crying out? I fully believe that humanity has no idea what we are a part of or what the possibilities are. I do not profess to have answers to much of anything that I am writing about. My goal is not to have answers but rather to inspire thought. I would like to push my own imagination to the limit, but I first need to process the here and now. I first need to understand the world I live in and attempt to throw out the things that don’t matter. I first need to recognize the reality that we humans have created, but not necessarily the reality that must exist. I believe we all as a species need to look around us and differentiate between what is there because it is essential, and what is there because it has always been there, what we created. I believe that somehow humanity needs to broaden our vision of exploration. We can explore thought, ideas, and imagination the same way that we explore the oceans. We do not need to stop exploring the planet or space. We need to further explore everything that is around us, but maybe we also need to explore ideas and thought in a way we are not used to. Even our imaginations are held captive to the constructs of society, government, and religion that humanity has built. I love the idea of once again placing a human on the moon. I love our exploration of Mars and our attempts to see into the far reaches of the universe. I love our human drive to climb the tallest mountains and dive to the lowest seas, but we can’t stop there. A famous mountaineer of the early twentieth century George Mallory summed up the human drive and passion for exploration in a very beautiful way. Mount Everest had never been climbed at this point in history and some people thought him, and the expedition he was part of, were crazy for attempting to summit the mountain. There was actually great controversy on whether such an unnecessary thing should be done. Afterall, what would this accomplish? What good would come from such an accomplishment? George Mallory was part of a previous expedition attempting to summit Mount Everest and it resulted in seven men losing their lives. Despite all this he was joining another expedition in preparation to give it another attempt. When he was asked Why did you want to climb Mount Everest? he responded with the famous phrase Because it’s there. What a beautiful response! I believe that those words sum things up beautifully for humanity’s drive to push the limits of possibility. This drive is an absolute necessity for the advancement of mankind and should never be snuffed out in any way. We need this drive. It is absolutely vital for our future. Mallory ended up dying in his attempt to climb Mount Everest in 1924. We can ask whether his attempts were worth anything if he never accomplished his goals. He never summited Everest and ended up dying trying to accomplish it. Throughout history people have debated regulating expeditions such as this due to its danger. Many mountaineers both male and female have perished in their attempts of reaching the tops of mountains. One could argue that Mallory died in vain and that it was a waste of a good human life. One could argue that viewpoint very well, however there are many things to consider. From the most basic viewpoint, climbers who superseded Mallory could use the route he chose and take it a bit further due to his exploration of that particular route. His exploration led the way for many people to summit the mountain. Humans were wondering if a person could actually reach those heights and survive. This was an unknown elevation realm for humanity, and he helped push our understanding of it. For Mallory himself it would have most likely been an equally fatal blow to him as a person if another person or committee would have stepped in and prevented him from attempting it. It would have taken the dream and the spark out of his life, and he would have probably gone to the grave as an unhappy and defeated man. A person with such visions, drive and determination must be allowed to pursue their dreams and visions because the inability to pursue may prove to be just as fatal as the pursuit. I think this may be the cause of much of the depression and anxiety that runs rampant in our society. People can easily turn to much more foolish endeavors such as alcohol and drugs that can kill a person just as quickly as a dangerous expedition. To withhold such lofty goals from a driven human serves to be just as destructive to the human’s emotional state as a physical neutering would be to that person. A person becomes so unmotivated and depressed that one could argue that the physical death of a person who is whole heartedly in pursuit of their goals would be much more humane. Another factor to take into consideration is that people such as Mallory