To all the 'Really Good Ones', and to all in peril on land or sea: Every mob is ruled by people's collectively rampaging raw emotion. Once people have formed up into a mob, Reality itself, nor Reason, have any place in anyone's thinking. Facts don't matter anymore. Every mob, on every side, is in the thrall of lies, (and pretenses extending to the utmost absurd degree). Hypocrisy tromps freely through many a lost soul, as every black iron pot curses a black kettle, for being black. Under the controlling influence of people's most intense burning (i.e.: irrational) passions, driven to the very point of violence, with 'first blood' already shed, people easily come to believe the lies they themselves tell. At that point, people willfully leave Reality itself behind. Once mere Reality is jettisoned, people are then 'free' to build their insanely deluded ideologies, in service to Desire, to Appetite. Unrestrained by mere Reality, they can have their Desire, they can believe whatever they WANT to believe. This is how we're made. This is how humans commonly behave. It's been going on for 10,000 years. The stories are written. The songs are sung. The ancient stories have been so often retold. Mob behavior is deeply rooted in the mysterious 'juu-juu' of human tribal DNA. When mobs begin to rule, sparks of danger ignite on many sides. As anger and hatred rampage violently, volatile fumes begin to spread, followed by high-octane rivulets. At that point, at the point when The Mob willfully, and collectively, decides to believe its own lies, delusion has supplanted Reality itself. The only operational 'reality' left then, when people on every side form up into rival mobs, is that 'things' have gone completely dingbat nutball crazy, (and thus are VERY dangerous). "The inmates are running the asylum", and ole McMurphy, (Cuckoo's Nest), is leading a rebellion of the insane inmates against their insane 'keepers'.  Reason must be grounded in The Truth, in what's 'real', in facts, in data. So many people, on EVERY side, in every faction, have embraced their own blatant lies, as the basic premises upon which they've built their ideologies/belief systems, that actual 'reality' has no meaning in their minds anymore. "It's not their fault. They're just humans. They're just victims of The Insane". J Lennon.   So ... At the very moment that we, our nation, torn and bleeding, must face up to the deadly dangers that are closing in on us from every side, we have thrown Reality itself aside to passionately embrace our favorite individual and collective ideations/ideological delusions. Yeats is again a prophet. "The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity". We surely all see this. We surely all see that evil force is rising in power over us, over our nation, among us, between us, within us. 'The best' fall prey to hopeless despair. Apathy is a clever temptor. So many distractions can easily fill the mind with glowing images of mesmer's-own colored light. The best lack all conviction. Apathy comes to rule them. Nihilism spreads like deadly rotting cancer, as people take comfort in serving their own selfish appetites. It's not for nothing, folks, that the old 'bread and circus' trick has been an 'old trick' since the dawn of human civilization. Among 'the worst', Life itself is reduced to a deadly contest for Power. Lust for power gleams from the eyes of every mob. The wild gleaming 'orc-light' shines with intense passion from even the best of people's eyes. Boromir fell to it, but then recovered himself to die a hero. Galadriel had her moment of temptation, alone with Frodo, deep in the forest, when he begged her to take it. Raw lust. Desire. That is Power. Anger. Hatred gone to rage that is steadily becoming more violent. Rival evil spirits are rampaging o'er our nation. Among us. Between us. Within us. In short, we are confronting the basic paradox of the Human Spirit. It has always been inevitable, since humans began to rise from among the other beasts, that at some point Humanity would face this very Crisis. There is no 'walk-around'. It's 'over THIS wall', (or else!), for Humanity. Kerouac, ole Ti Jean, tried to make us 'see' that America was always destined to be Humanity's 'last frontier'. Humanity had 'gone west' until met up against the great ocean, with only more teeming Humanity again beyond. America was always the shore upon which Humanity would 'break', for good or ill.  Folks is just folks. We are capable of soaring flights to spiritual heights where love and kindness reign, but in each of us dwells a 'demon', Appetite, that demands to be 'fed'. In EACH of us this demon dwells. There are NO exceptions. That is our predicament. That is our Human Condition. That is Humanity's Existential Crisis. To be no more than we have been will be Humanity's end. One way or another, we will become what we have not yet been. Either Human Culture will quickly evolve, globally, (i.e.: 'species wide') to tame this demon within each of us within healthy spiritual boundaries, or else we will see Humanity soon come to extinction, as so many dominant species before us have.   Power is the means to serve Appetite. Raw. Primitive. The desire for power is the desire to serve Desire itself. Jeff Bezos is the most evil man on Earth. And he doesn't even know it. Crazy people don't usually think they are crazy. "The Devil's greatest trick is getting people to believe he doesn't exist". That is a confession from Kaiser Soze. There's that old name again. The Kaiser and the Czar, fought a great and deadly war. Angels, (as ole Abe Lincoln called them), draw apart. Better angels fret, powerless, like Plutarch, as the worst angels of Human Nature draw up in lines of battle, horses snorting, weapons and armor glinting in all their deadly beauty, in the morning sun. Our nation has become a collection of rival mobs, each ruled by the "passionate intensity" of their various competing 'belief systems', (aka: 'ideologies'). Okey doke then ... This should be 'interesting' ... Eh? ... If an old man like me, of course, lives to see the outcome, that does not portend well for Humankind. A 'resolution' in my lifetime would surely mean that the 'existential' dangers that threaten us have had their seemingly inevitable way with us. Those of us still foolish enough to expect a good outcome to Humanity's existential crisis, must continually take heart from always remembering that the Truth is an immensely powerful spirit that will serve those who serve it. It was always inevitable that Humanity would arrive at this glowing lava-edge of the Mount of Doom. We all must now make choices, and the choices we make will determine whether, (or NOT), Humanity itself will outlive even our older citizens. Will our grandchildren have any reason to hope? What bitter twisted dreams will they dream in a world from which Hope has been banished? How can they live to dream at all in such bleakness? Will they not rage? And hate with burning intensity? Will their hatred not set fire to the Final Conflagration? These kinds of words once would have been the province of wild-eyed prophets giving early warnings. But now the time has come when we are ALL beginning to realize that these are NOT the words of early warnings of some distant fate. We are beginning to understand that Humanity's fate is upon us to face and determine. We are awakening to fatal reality, to the realization that these are the very real questions that now fall on us, on ALL of us, on EACH of us, and on us ALONE, to answer. Or ELSE! Or else there will be no dreams for our grandchildren's children. This is 'spiritual' battle, folks. Very, (VERY), bad spirits are rampaging in a GREAT many people's hearts. "When the button is pushed, there'll be no runnin' away. There'll be no one to save with the world in its grave". We are tip-toeing through a giant warehouse full to the highest rafters with racks of old rusty leaking drums of gasoline. The fumes are heavy. Puddles are forming. And many are arrogantly smoking, and defiantly flicking their ashes here and there.  Steady, folks ... We can do this ... Better Spirit has not yet even 'taken the field'... We'll be fine ... Believe in the power of The Truth. Believe in the power of "the better angels of our nature". Folks is just folks. But people on every side, even those whose faces are now twisted in hatred and rage, have Good Spirit in them. That's the Reality we must come to 'see'. We cannot get rid of the current population of humans and get a new population of 'altered' humans to work with. (People have often tried, of course. Genocide anyone?). Folks is just folks, and we have to work with the humans that are already alive now. There is no other option. Humanity, in all our irrational glory, is the only species we have to work with, to mold ourselves, through spirit, through powerful cultural belief, into something that Humanity has not yet become. Gee ... That's all we gotta do? Yup. Every dang prophet been tellin' us, or tryin' to, for a really REALLY long time: Treat other folks like you wish they'd treat you. If we can't learn to do that, our children, and their children, face a horrific future of misery, death, and constant anxiety and woe. It is The Truth alone that can save us. The Truth will serve us well, if we will faithfully serve it. People who should be allies must first stop being enemies. How's that for a small slice of The Truth? Caliban R Zwarich Bent Birch Farm 63 Webber Rd Brookfield, MA 01506 774 449-8030 rzwarichatgmail(etc) |
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