The world is infinite, boundless. There are no constraints on possibility, because the world is fundamentally chaos. None may plumb the depths of nature. Which, you would think, should inculcate some kind of sense of wonder at the mystery. No such thing.
People think they know it all. Which is fair enough, if this 'all' were constrained to a limited account of what we may know. Philosophers through the ages have said that when one touches on the limits of knowledge, one touches on truth.
Mystery is ubiquitous. Language cannot even begin to convey facts about the 'nature' of the world. Perhaps the world has no nature - Nature's essence is nothing, empty. Or it could be flux and mutability. But one thing is for sure - Nothing lasts forever in nature. The only enduring thing is the source from which all things spring, and the fact that these manifestations are themselves impermanent. That's factual - We're mortals.
But as I said, people think they know everything. They set their goals according to what their social group believes; they pursue material wealth without even considering that the feel-good factor of being rich lasts only so long as it does - Not long. In the words of Mephistopheles - 'You are, when it comes down to it, what you are.' Wealth doesn't contribute anything to what it is that is truly *you*. It's just chaff. Sometimes useful, oft baneful. Is it possible to prolong that feel-good factor by becoming more rich? Aye, in the same way that a crack addict pursues their addiction. They want to hit that initial high, that rush, which they first experienced when using the drug. Tragically, in both cases that doesn't really happen.
Moreover, many don't care who they impoverish in their wealth-seeking. All wealth comes from somewhere; surplus comes from deficit and deficit from surplus. Wealth and poverty depend upon one another. When Jesus said that the poor will always be with us, he should have added '..or for at least as long as the rich are.'
I think half the world's population lives on less than a dollar a day. And because their natural economies have been subverted by Westernisation, many starve to death. Was there this much poverty and need in Africa before the white man moved in? My guess is No.
We issue from the source, live among its creations and then return to it. That is life, in a nutshell - All humans are born to the same griefs and sadnesses.
This world is a wonder. Wonder of wonders, nothing can even begin to explain or account for it. Why does it exist? My advice to the metaphysicians is to move on - There's really nothing to see here.
And so, through the mysterious workings of the source a being I call I, Me, is manifested in this reality. The present point is merely a continuation from my birth, and my birth - Like all others - Reaches out through infinity and back to the source. We all have this bond, this one thing we share in common with each and every thing. There is nothing existent that does not come from the source.
With this in mind, let's take a look at the world we live in.
Poverty - 90% of the world's wealth is controlled by the richest 4-5%~ of the population [and the wealth-divide is widening.]
Sickness - 29,000 children die every day from preventable diseases.
Stupidity- I don't see stupidity as a condition of the brain but of beliefs. There are so many brainwashed dolts out there who take everything they're force-fed by the media as Gospel. Terms like 'recession', 'terrorism', etc do not refer to actual things in the world but ideas which are collectively shared by groups of people. People believe in these things. They believe in what the politicians say about these things; they believe in talking heads on the tube. They believe in the cue cards. They don't know that 95% of news comes from the Pentagon, as established by Herman and Chomsky in 'Manufacturing Consent'. Why? There's several elements to it. Sometimes they crave submission - Responsibility can be a burden. If there are immutables in this world then who can help those, hey? We've just gotta live with them.
Nuh-uh. The recession - We all know where that comes from right? Sure, we know that governments borrow and overspend. But the money they're borrowing is just pretty pictures printed on pieces of paper. So there's gotta be something more to it.
National debt is a necessary consequence of having private interests in control of the money supply. Why's that? Because when a national bank prints out - say, a dollar - the government accrues a certain percentage of debt on top of that. So when the bank loans you a buck, you gotta pay that back plus the percentage.
Assume we've got an enclosed economy. I am a banker. You ask to borrow One Gloon. I say 'Sure, I'll lend you a Gloon. But you've gotta pay me back One Gloon and One Gloonth.' OK, we've got the Gloon - We can pay that back. What about the Gloonth? Where can we get that from? Well, that would come from the bank. So if you wanna pay back that Gloonth, you've gotta borrow more money. Which means what? An endless cycle of debt. That's what money means in the present day - It's written into the very definition of money. Money means debt. The men who attempted to dismantle that extra percentage on top were assassinated shortly after drafting laws to do away with it. Among these are Abraham Lincoln and JFK.
So debt is necessary, given the present circumstances. In the bigger picture it's not. But hey, things have gotta change for that.
This is England. Every five years we go to the polling station and tick a box on the ballot. People call that a democracy, and then equate democracy with freedom. Is it, though? Really? No. Democracy seen in this sense amounts to little more than lunacy. We vote people in who enact the legislation drafted by previous governments. We have 'continuity of government', which happens behind the scenes. Politicians merely rubber-stamp pre-approved legislation and then patting each other on the back, saying what a fine job they've done. But that's because they're puppets - Public men. If the masses get angry and want things to change, hell, they can call down as many curses on the heads of the politicians as they like - They can even change the public men, because that doesn't really change anything. We don't have people with ordinary upbringings put into power, have have people from abundantly priveleged backgrounds put into power. Every five years some phantoms are hovered in front of our eyes - Cameron, Clegg, Blair - They're all the same. They won't change anything, they'll only make it worse. Because they get their orders from somewhere else. And if those puppet-masters don't want them in, they'll simply take 'em out.
So who are these puppet-masters? The tip of the pyramid, the progeny of those who contradicted all natural law and custom in amassing wealth beyond their means or needs. They don't need hundreds of billions. That very tiny percentage has a vested interest in maintaining the current state of affairs because otherwise they'd simply be like us. And they can't stomach that - No, they're not human. No way can they be human! I mean, no-one with that much money can still be a human being, surely? With that lineage? They must be the new Nietzschean Ubermenschen... Bullshit.
All this contemptible crap aside, people cling to what little material possessions they have because they've worked their life for them. And I understand that. But you were robbed, son. Corporations suck the wealth out of nations and communities alike, by taking the resources and translating them into money elsewhere. But people like you and me - We like strong communities. We like knowing each other. We like self-social determination. We like providing for ourselves and our families. These are human values. To what extent are we and our communities dehumanised by the 'progressive' onslaught of these corporate machines? Polluting our rivers and sucking the earth dry? Is it worth it? They benefit only a few, while the rest are left to shift for themselves.
Meanwhile, natural and organic foods are being criminalised by governments and unvoted-for-superstates [such as the North American Union, the EU etc]. A food crisis is said to be coming, yet governments are illegalizing fruit and veg grown in our own gardens? And not only that - They're trying to take natural foods off the market. 'Food safety' they call it. But the nutrients in GM aren't absorbed into the human body - And it's perfectly plausible that a man could starve for lack of nutrients, even though his belly were full.
