"AS A YOUNG MAN I BEGAN LIFE BY SEEKING TO ASSERT MY RIGHTS AND I SOON DISCOVERED I HAD NONE NOT EVEN OVER MY WIFE. SO I BEGAN BY DISCOVERING AND PERFORMING MY DUTY BY MY WIFE MY CHILDREN FRIENDS COMPANIONS AND SOCIETY AND I FIND TODAY THAT I HAVE GREATER RIGHTS, PERHAPS THAN ANY LIVING MAN I KNOW." - Cable to H.G. Wells, The Hindustan Times, 16 April 1940
America won. I don't say that with any pride, in fact, it gives me sort of a sick feeling inside.
Hedonism, consumerism, greed have been spread across the globe.
In 2003 (!), the China Daily announced that the 100th Kentucky Fried Chicken had opened in Beijing. Wikipedia lists 97 countries with KFC franchises including Iran, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Syria, Yemen and nearly every other country in the Muslim world.
Is it any wonder that so much of the planet hates us?
In 1886, the Supreme Court of the United States made corporations 'people .' As 'people,' they have rights. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court did not give corporations souls.
Even in this country there is a love/hate relationship with the facts. Corporate America brings money and jobs, and with the money comes freedom and democracy. Liberal Americans also note that it comes with ecological damage and health damage. Conservative Americans note the sex and drugs.
'People' without souls are sociopaths.
10 May 2011
09 May 2011
On Osama's Death
A friend wanted to know what I thought about the killing of Osama bin Laden .
I've had a theory for a long time that the next step in human evolution would not be physical but spiritual - homo spiritus. It's not a new idea.
Evolution is not revolution. In evolution the new live among the old. The new don't kill off the old, they simply live longer and have more successful progeny; successful in the biological sense.
I think this is why so many of us seek guidance and sustenance of a higher power. We want to evolve. Some of that seeking leads to evolutionary dead-ends. Forms of creation that become too twisted to survive.
I'm not advocating killing such creatures off. The thing about evolution is that we don't have to kill them off.
I don't know whether Osama was a failed step on the evolutionary road. I just hope he was.
I was also thinking about what kind of a little boy Osama was. How was he raised? Did his mother and father love and nurture him or was he raised by surrogates? Did he have friends? Did he get to play silly games?
I don't think hatred is natural. I think it is learned. We see those around us frightened. We see fear become anger. We see sustained, unresolved anger become hate.
And our fear becomes anger.
And our anger becomes hate.
And we kill what we hate.
I've had a theory for a long time that the next step in human evolution would not be physical but spiritual - homo spiritus. It's not a new idea.
Evolution is not revolution. In evolution the new live among the old. The new don't kill off the old, they simply live longer and have more successful progeny; successful in the biological sense.
I think this is why so many of us seek guidance and sustenance of a higher power. We want to evolve. Some of that seeking leads to evolutionary dead-ends. Forms of creation that become too twisted to survive.
I'm not advocating killing such creatures off. The thing about evolution is that we don't have to kill them off.
I don't know whether Osama was a failed step on the evolutionary road. I just hope he was.
I was also thinking about what kind of a little boy Osama was. How was he raised? Did his mother and father love and nurture him or was he raised by surrogates? Did he have friends? Did he get to play silly games?
I don't think hatred is natural. I think it is learned. We see those around us frightened. We see fear become anger. We see sustained, unresolved anger become hate.
And our fear becomes anger.
And our anger becomes hate.
And we kill what we hate.
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