14.A Brief Look At The Big Picture
WHAT IS WRONG WITH OUR WORLD TODAY.
1. The leaders of the Western world are driving the car in the wrong direction. They are making new laws for us "supposed" civilised, intelligent and altruistic human beings that do not tally with the 'animal' bodies we live in.
2. HOW SO. They are abolishing the timeless laws of RESTRAINT AND PUNISHMENT, which were the original laws that brought mankind into a civilised state in the first place, and instead are championing Freedom, which is the arch enemy of restraint. And this new freedom is going into overdrive because of even newer laws guaranteeing "Human Rights" which allows humans to do just about anything without fear of punishment.
3. The result is that human life is being hugely overvalued and insulated from all other life on earth. With 2 disastrous results.
(a). On the human to human side, we are seeing that decent, civilised and law abiding societies are breaking down.
(b). On the human to environment side, we are seeing, for the first time ever, the possible destruction of our own planet caused by one of the planet's own living species. And that species is our very own human selves. And the time this has taken to come about, in ecological terms, has been the blink of an eye.
WHAT CAUSED ALL THIS TO HAPPEN.
(A) Human power play and birth of Socialism.
1. It came about as a result of a huge "human power play" on earth over the last 300 years which allowed humanity to conquer nature for the first time ever and accumulate unfathomable amounts of wealth and power. Mankind became so secure of its own security that it thought it could rewrite the timeless laws of God and introduce its own laws instead.
2. THE POWER PLAY. Human brain power comes into fruition with an explosion of new inventions, scientific, industrial and medical advances, which brings on the industrial revolution, the colonisation of the developing world and the beginning of the human population explosion.
3. So much wealth is created that the owners, or winners, feel safe to redistribute some of that wealth to the losers, or the poor, who had been exploited to near extinction by the winners in order to create that wealth in the first place.
4 So "SOCIALISM" is born, based on a combination of Christian Charity and an overabundance of wealth. (Was this the first time, on a major national or 'community' scale, that wealth or security was passed from the rich (winners) to the poor (losers)? Surely this goes against the basic laws of the jungle, which is where we came from. It wasn't that long ago when most of us were involved with hand to hand fighting for the ability to survive on a day by day basis!!...in the same way that all animals at this very moment are involved in.) Whatever, in the overall long term view, SOCIALISM could be considered to have had a NATURAL BIRTH, because it was definitely needed at the time, for the winners were overplaying their hand with their limitless exploitation of the poor.
5 Together with socialism came the growing belief in freedom and democracy (all men are equal.....again, is this a 'first timer' in human political history?) and the power of the vote, which ensured that over time, there would be a real shift in power from the winners to the losers, because there have always been more poor than rich in most human societies.
6. This was an excellent Christian and commonsensical move and was needed at that time. It helped bring about the end of the slave trade and the emancipation of women. It put an end to the over exploitation of children and animals in the work place and above all allowed the peasants and working classes to at long last escape from the tyrant or the tyranny of the ruling classes.
7. BUT. After a 300 year or so trial period of transferring power from the winners to the losers, the worm has turned the full circle and IT IS NOW SOCIALISM THAT IS OVERPLAYING ITS HAND. With every good intention, socialism is overplaying the hand of kindness to its fellow human beings. And that human being, because he is still living firmly in his animal body with all its powerful animal instincts, is abusing that kindness. To the detriment of himself, his society and his own environment. The human being is biting the hand that feeds him. That at least is natural law. (The losers now feel so secure that they openly show resentment against the winners, (who made all the wealth in the first place,) and now openly want to bring them down. The word 'profit', which every individual on earth has been aspiring towards since the word dot, is now a bad word. We are now living in a world that is upside down to our natural selves.)
P.S. Let us clarify these two emotive words, 'poor' and 'losers'. In the old days the world was full of poor people, who could be considered losers through no fault of their own. In fact nearly all the poor were trying their best to be winners, working their backsides off simply to stay alive. Because the world they were living in was 'feudal' or involving some kind of caste system. However good you were, there was no way up. Even in our modern world today, the majority of what are considered 'the poor' or the working class, aim to be winners, because they are competing willingly in 'the game of life' in search of profit and the hope of a better life. This is 'natural' to man. We all seek to improve things for ourselves whenever we can. What is unnatural is the new phenomena we are now witnessing as a result of excessive featherbedding from the State. We are now seeing an increase of 'bad poor' who believe it is their moral right to live off the State and their fellow workers for their entire lives, and their leaders who champion that right and fan the flames of envy within society between the supposed 'haves', who they want to pull down, and 'have nots'. Both the economy and the society are damaged because of this, I.e. we are hurting ourselves and not profiting ourselves. And that is unnatural. Socialism is overplaying its hand to an unnatural degree.
(B). Transfer of power from Church to State. HAND IN HAND WITH POWER BEING TRANSFERRED TO THE LOSERS VIA THE SOCIALIST DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPAL, CAME THE SHIFT IN POWER AWAY FROM THE CHURCH AND TOWARDS THE STATE.
CONSIDER RE CHURCH.
1. The laws of the church represent the old laws based on restraint and fear of punishment. These laws, don't forget, however boring we think they are, are the very same laws that have brought us humans into a civilised state in the first place. They were hammered out by trial and error on the long journey from ape to man.
2. These laws were usually taught, preached or reminded to us humans ON A FACE TO FACE, DAILY OR WEEKLY BASIS BY OUR LOCAL VICAR, RABBI, PRIEST OR MULLAH. These are people we know and people who know us. So we are constantly reminded of the laws and it was very difficult to hide from them or go against them.
3. These laws could be considered 'unpopular' laws because they are constantly reminding us humans 'to tighten our own belts for the sake of others'. Thinking of others is the fundamental ingredient of 'individual responsibility', or vice versa, WITH BOTH INGREDIENTS forming the fundamental foundation upon which successful human societies are based.
4. These laws, we were led to believe, came FROM A HIGHER AUTHORITY THAN MAN. They came from the timeless laws of God, or our original 'headmaster' whose laws we would not question.
CONSIDER THE STATE.
1. 300 years ago most of the leaders of the State were amateurs. Now they are professional. Working for the State this day and age is big business. You can now class it as a major industry which people can opt into as a way of earning their living and fighting their way up their own ladder of life. And they certainly have a much better chance of going up that ladder and achieving money and power if they work "for the government in power".
2. To get into power you have to win the vote, and to win the vote you have to 'give' to the people or the voters, and not 'take away'. This is a hugely general statement, but over this tiny period (in 'civilising' terms) of 300 years, especially the more recent years, we have seen government after government 'giving' to the people in terms of reducing punishment, relaxing the laws of restraint and pornography and the material giving in terms of the Welfare State et al. The State was beginning to take over the jobs and responsibilities that were traditionally handled by the family. In simple terms, a huge increase in the featherbedding of humanity which in turn leads to jeopardising the corner stone of civilised society, namely individual and family responsibility.
RESULT: THE STATE HAS MUSCLED IN AND PUSHED THE CHURCH ASIDE. THE LAWS WE ARE NOW LIVING UNDER ARE "MAN MADE", COMING FROM THE PEOPLE AND NOT FROM OUR TIMELESS "HIGHER AUTHORITY". These timeless laws are what I believe the Ancient Greek Sophocles referred to as Antigone's "unwritten laws of humanity, which are eternal, absolute, and cannot be cancelled by any man made edict". Well, these old laws have certainly been beaten around the head in recent years!! Thus we repeat, the modern map that the western drivers are following are leading mankind to fundamental errors. AFTER A TRIAL PERIOD OF NEARLY 300YEARS, THESE ERRORS ARE NOW BEGINNING TO SHOW UP ON THE RADAR SCREEN.
WHAT SORT OF "ERRORS" ARE WE TALKING ABOUT?
WHAT ARE THE TANGIBLE RESULTS OF TOO MUCH FEATHERBEDDING.
1. THIS IS LOGICAL. The laws of restraint, and the punishment that make those laws work, have been built up over the ages SPECIFICALLY to hold in our natural animal instincts of greed, aggression, slothfulness and lust. (ORIGINAL SIN.) Because a surfeit of all these traits are considered as 'bad manners' and a threat to civilised society. SO, if you weaken the laws and weaken the punishment it stands to very simple sense, or logic, that the result will be an increase right across the board of any human action related to these (bad) animal instincts. Which covers most things. (Just look at any High Street in any town in England on Friday night.) And that, quite simply, will result in a 'bad mannered' society and not a good mannered society which is what civilisation and godliness is all about. I would guess that a search through statistical evidence over the last 50 years would bear this out. Namely, a rise in bad manners. Things that you see on the surface, like bad language, obesity, drunkenness, unwanted and unloved children, litter on the street, drunken air passengers, how you treat your pet etc, etc,.
2. WHAT IS MORE SERIOUS, YET LESS VISIBLE, is the gradual deterioration of the human being himself. If, over the years, he is encouraged to go through life on 2 cylinders instead of the 4 cylinders he has been born with, he will eventually end up as a person 'less able than he was born to be'. How deeply immoral is that, when 'man made law' ruins or detracts from something that nature or our Creator has made.
3. Hand in hand with the above are two more fundamental yet mainly invisible disadvantages. Firstly the 'game of life', which we are all thrown into from day one, will become less exciting, scoring only 6:10, (six out of ten) which in turn means that the chance of someone gaining the full "meaning of life" on earth is diminished. Obviously, the more exciting the game, the more you have to use your abilities to the full and the more spiritual and physical satisfaction ('the true meaning of life') you will gain out of your time on earth. So too much State interference and featherbedding will actually reduce the TRUE QUALITY of human life on earth. (Note. Game of life in the jungle = 10:10. = too severe. Game of life in reasonably civilised society = 8:10. = exciting but still civilised. Game of life under socialism = 6:10. = boring. Game of life under non capitalistic totalitarian communism = 2:10. = non-existent apart from party apparatchiks.)
4. NOW, IF YOU THINK THE ABOVE ARE THE MOST SERIOUS PROBLEMS FACING HUMANITY TODAY, THEN THINK AGAIN. Sure, they are deeply worrying in terms of human to human relationships and the survival of human societies. BUT THEY ARE NOTHING COMPARED WITH THE SURVIVAL OF OUR PLANET AND ALL OTHER LIFE ON IT. So concentrated has the Western world been in featherbedding itself and pushing up the value of human life that we have completely lost sight of a much, much more important item that is so 'all encompassing' that it is invisible. And that is nature, or the environment that gave us birth and what we need to survive in. We have taken it for granted. And now we have suddenly woken up to the fact that we, and all other life, are staring over a precipice of survival.
HOW CAN WE TURN THINGS AROUND.
As we know, the best laid plans of mice and men can sometimes end in tears. And we now know, after 300 years, that the kind hearted philosophy underpinning socialism has back fired due to time honoured "natural law", which somehow was overlooked and pushed aside such was the overwhelming support that was given to socialism when it first arrived. We now know socialism has simply, over the years, reduced that most important ingredient of any civilised human society, individual responsibility, which determines how you behave with yourself, your neighbours, and your own family and more importantly in recent years, the environment.
SO, IN ORDER TO TURN THINGS AROUND, WE HAVE TO FIND AND INSTALL THAT BASIC INGREDIENT BACK INTO EVERY HUMAN BEING ON EARTH. Because if the individual acts with responsibility and good manners then everything else that happens on earth will follow. From your own back yard, into the market place and big business and industries, into politicians and how your governments and leaders act, and even into your churches. Everything will follow the combined force and power of the individual.
(All companies, within every industry, need their loyal followers to buy their products, otherwise they will die. These loyal followers, or individuals, make up the demand market that supports the industry. In the same way, each Church and each State need their respective loyal followers, otherwise they will be paper tigers and die. The three main factors in most human societies are the economy, the government and the Church. Each are dependent on their 'market' support. Each market is made up of individuals. That is how important individual action is. It is therefore LOGICAL that if you re-introduce responsible good manners into each individual, hey presto, you will change all three markets for the better. And again LOGICALLY, as all three markets reside within the all-encompassing environment, the environment will get better as well. For example: If people are responsible when buying their products in the economic market, they will reposition the goalposts of capitalism into a more nature friendly position. If people are responsible when voting, they will vote in stricter laws to give higher values to the environment, even if that means lowering the values given to humans. And if the the people are good mannered on the religious front, then all decent religions will be freely practiced and all religious laws will take on board new environmental laws in order to save our overall Creation, or Nature. That is why individual responsibility is so important. You change the individual, you therefore change the three markets and you therefore save the planet. Sorry to sound so dramatic, but it is simple common sense. )
TO DO THIS.
1. REAWAKEN ALL CHURCHES. Mankind has always needed his religions, because it is the religions we know of today, and all those earlier 'wise men' we have never heard of, that have always reminded us, in their own slightly differing ways, of " the timeless laws of humanity which should never be interfered with." For we now know that the timeless laws work, because they have been forged out of natural laws. So it is these laws, with certain up to date finessing, that have to be retaught to the individual, and the best people to teach the individual these "moral matters" are the churches. They have always been in charge of how we behave. The State, especially the democratic State, is not capable, because the State this day and age is still more interested in gaining the vote and giving to the individual rather than disciplining him.
2. TO MAKE THE CHURCHES STRONGER, THEY HAVE TO ALIGN THEMSELVES WITH THE ENVIRONMENT AND GET HELP FROM ALL PEOPLE INVOLVED WITH SAVING IT. Religious laws 'per se' in our modern and much more knowledgeable day have lost some credibility. All religions have got to band together under the much more serious and understandable business of environmental laws which is all to do, in religious terms, with saving Creation. This certainly supersedes saving the souls of mere mortals. For example, new religious/environmental teaching will range from big subjects (family planning) to small subjects, like how to boil an egg using the least amount of energy.
3. THE MESSAGE can be passed from the churches/environmentalists via all and every mode, from the pulpits, from television, from the radio and magazine and from all modern forms of communication, but above all it must be aimed at the individual...not the society. IT IS UP TO THE INDIVIDUAL TO CHANGE SOCIETY, not the other way round.
4. Once the message gets into the individual, and once that individual regains his individual responsibility to others (and the environment), then there is a chance of democracy working properly, because people hopefully will at long last vote according to what is for the common and environmental good, rather than what is good for their selfish selves. And once this happens, when you get good foot soldiers directing a good State, then you have a real chance of big things happening fast, because everyone is pulling in the same direction. We then will have a chance of saving the most important thing we all have, which is the environment which we and all other creatures on earth live in. Together with more orderly human societies that survive within that overall environment.
5. It would also help if a new 'teacher' popped out of the woodwork, (..............?!) with an easy to understand and down to earth message. It's about time. We, certainly in the Western world, are all a little confused with all the scientific advances that have been coming thick and fast over this last half century coupled with all the freedom and lack of punishment we are now experiencing. We don't quite know where we stand and I think we all would welcome a bit of down to earth direction. Now is a very critical time, because we all know that both human societies are beginning to disintegrate and the environment is in serious difficulties. And we, as humans need both. AND WE ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR BOTH. We must be reminded and reminded of that. Our own manners are responsible for what happens on earth. Don't pass the buck onto the faceless State. It is down to us, the individuals, and how we act in every sphere of our lives morning, noon and night. And with the modern methods of communications, think how fast that message could spread and what a huge effect it could have. Just give that snowball a little nudge and set it off down the hill and see how it grows.
"To be sure!"
Phil the Fluter's Game of Life