Observations of Life On Planet Earth
Posted: Sunday, June 20, 2010
by Randy Vaughan
Now I have no idea how we got to be on this planet. Seems to me it comes down to Divine Creation, pure happenstance of something-from-nothing and evolving life-forms, genetic experimentation by space travelers from other worlds, maybe dimensions, or any combination of these possibilities. But here we are. And here are some of the things I've observed during my stay here:
It would seem to me that the best answer is-as is usually the case-the most obvious. If indeed all are cut from the same cloth, humans clearly differ in levels of consciousness, with consciousness being defined as nothing more than awareness. The father driving the car is aware of the traffic and the idiots and morons. His kids in the back seat see only the signs for the rest-stop and McDonalds. Dad's responsibility, as the one having been around longer than the kids, is to remember what it was like to be thinking only "Are we there yet?" The kids are to be introduced to how important it is to pay attention to, and to be aware of, other things than what brings pleasure and satisfaction.
And so it would seem that this is so obvious it need not be stated. But humans seem to not get this at all. Men can't grasp that women see the world differently than they do, and vice versa, of course. And so on a planet with however-many billions of people running around, each seeing the same world from a thoroughly unique point of view, an unshared awareness of life, the universe, and everything else, it would seem to be a given that agreeing to disagree would be the most easily accepted and fundamental fact of existence on this planet.
But it's not, is it?
And again, that observation is based on the presumption that all humans are indeed fundamentally the same, minus gender, age, race, and so forth. After these many years of being on this planet, I'm now of the conviction that differences in consciousness-differences based on the relatively few distinctions mentioned here as well as those included by allusion-in no way begins to explain the horrid confusion, discord, and animosity between humans. Billions of people, most of whom don't understand the difference between lonely and being alone.
It was said perfectly this way: "When I was a child, I spoke as a childwhen I became a man I put away childish things."
So up to this point I've noted those whom I'll call the ruling class and, by default, everyone else. But what of those "everyone else's" who remain?
My observation now is that most fall under two admittedly overly-broad categories, but for the moment, I think it's a fair and accurate way to say the thing. So the rest of the inhabitants, those not aspiring to positions involving control and rule over others, make up the warriors and the workers.
And for the most part the warriors are content to be warriors and the workers content to be workers. These days, of course, warriors prefer to talk about the great career opportunities available through learning the fine arts of death, destruction, and mayhem, how it's not "just a job" but rather an "adventure" and how becoming a warrior is the only path known to earth's inhabitants that declares itself the way to "be all you can be". It's a sad observation that mastering the art of killing is the only endeavor laying claim as resulting in a human's ability to be "all" that a human can be. Are humans here to be only a killing machine?
Now there was a time, not so long ago, I'd have stated a greater appreciation for the warrior-class than the ruling class since, until recently, killing another person required direct confrontation, eye-to-eye contact. But I watched as an element of pure cowardice crept into the human condition and under the name of "technological advances," humans introduced the sad reality of long-distance killing. Creatures who developed the ability to kill at long distances before having long-distance communication surely proves a serious flaw if those creatures are here by Design, as well as raising serious doubts as to the possibilities of them "evolving" from so-called "lower life forms" into "higher" and so, at this point, I'm thinking their presence on this planet simply must be due to a rather malevolent, pre-existing species that bred them to be this way.
So it's here when I see nothing more than a planet made up of pirates and, well, most everyone else. The pirates with law degrees rule over the pirates who possess long-range missiles, but both are still pirates. And those who aren't pirates find themselves stuck right in the middle of this insanity and all that the workers want to do is live out their lives according to whatever it is they do to scratch out their existence. But just as the warriors displayed the cunning necessary to kill at long distances, many of the workers, those lacking the propensity both for killing-either up-close or far away-as well as wanting nothing to do with being part of the ruling class, simply weren't really content to be just workers.
And so they introduced all sorts of rather ingenious methods and technologies all of which, in the beginning, gave all the appearance of actually helping not only to make the lives of the workers easier, but to make life better overall for everyone. It took very little time, however, to see that their real purpose wasn't benevolent at all, but rather only so they could become a "ruling class" in their own right, separate and distinct from the first ruling class, but a ruling class nonetheless.
And so, as I've said, this planet become home to a ruling class with control and dominance over the warriors and workers and the mystery remains as to why it is that both warriors and workers are perfectly content to obey the ruling class when their collective history conclusively proves that the sole purpose of the ruling class is to use, control, and manipulate them both-the workers and warriors-for their, the ruling class-own purposes and ends.
I have no answers for why this state of affairs exist, why the many who make up the warriors and the workers so quickly and so readily give obedience, allegiance, and loyalty to the few who make up the ruling class. Without knowing the beginnings of all things, the possible reasons are as varied as are the possible explanations for the appearance and existence of humans in the first place.
This quick and willing obedience could be, for example, all by Design if such would be the plan of the Divine Intelligence behind Creation and if, again, Creation is how this all started in the first place. On the other hand, if it's by chance and evolution that everyone is here, then I'm left struggling with the madness that evolution among humans is slower in some, faster in others, and that the indisputable result of evolution, of something-from-nothing, remains the same as what existed at the beginning of it all, and that would be chaos. No, that's probably not really fair. Chaos brings with it no deliberate malevolence.
And if evolution is true, than humans have evolved to point of hilarious megalomania, thoroughly deluded that they alone of all other species of life on the planet, all of which evolved from the same origin-they, humans, alone have the ability to bring order to chaos. And yet, as I've already alluded, with the some ten-thousand or more years of recorded human history, humans are no closer to replacing chaos with order than is the salmon ready to eat the grizzly bear. If anything is an observable truth, it's that humans create chaos, not order. Put a monkey in front of a personal computer and he's still a monkey.
So here's where I lean toward the possibility that some really nasty and malevolent types used this planet as a huge science experiment to play with DNA and breed the species we now call humanoids. For that matter, it might have been the cosmic equivalent of a sixth-grader's science experiment gone horribly wrong.
But even these categories of ruling class, warriors, and workers still fail to explain it all. After all, there are many humans who are none of these, at least not by choice, not by natural inclination. What we have, you see, is a confusing world of worlds within worlds. The whole thing is very much like a perfect and delicious banana split, only someone, or something, for purposes and reasons unknown to me, topped the whole thing with a large slice of onion.
So enter now the world of athletics and sports, both on the amateur and professional level. There's certainly no shortage of earthlings attracted to these endeavors and, at each step of the way, I'm told that sports activities become the defining aspect of life on this planet and that it can all be summed up as simply as the concept called teamwork.
Now while such musings make humans feel really good about themselves, and as is usually the case, we're back to that onion on top of the banana split. Truth, and truths, about life on this planet come in layers. And this observation serves only to further compound the complexity of time spent on this planet. Some are quite content to remove the skin and forever accept the first layer of truth as being "the" truth, the sum-total and end-all of all truths. Others peel away until they come across a layer they find acceptable, one that makes them feel good, one that challenges little, the smell of which, though mildly disagreeable, is at least tolerable. And so they become content to rest there for the remainder of their days. But there are more layers, always more layers of truth and repugnant smells.
And so it's clearly true that sports may well indeed teach the lone human how to be part of a team. But few like to peel back another layer or two and discuss other lessons learned. The sole purpose of sports is, quite naturally, to be found within the word "competition". That means the situation is reduced to winning and losing. And the historical records of humans do indeed establish that the overwhelming preponderance of this planet's inhabitants conduct their daily affairs as if life itself is a game, the sole purpose of which is to win. But there are so many teams involved it boggles the mind.
It begins with the individual competing against the rest of the world and the individual who identifies himself as part of a group and that group is competing against other groups and it's nation against nation and the whole thing becomes a world of worlds within worlds and teams within teams and it's all about winning because winning is everything and consequences be damned!
And all the while this is happening, humans continue to complain about all the conflict in their daily lives. Without knowing the beginnings of all things, there's no chance of ever moving beyond thesis and antithesis to a world of synthesis. But it leaves one struggling whether to accept that humanity is thoroughly insane and beyond all hope or if there just might be, however remote the possibility, a higher meaning and purpose behind it all.
Another deeper truth, however, is that sports, on the professional level, should actually be relegated to the world of work, that and nothing more. Those who "play" sports for money do it not for their love of the sport-which would be a noble thing-but rather for the money, just as the man who picks up garbage sells his labor for pay. If you disagree, you need only ask yourself how many professional sports would exist if the players made the same pay as the garbage man.
So now we've actually built a pyramid: Ruling class on top, warrior and worker at the bottom.
Only now there's another endeavor which seems to not fit into any of these classifications. Welcome to the world-within-the-world of those who claim to know more about these matters than do the ruling class, the warriors, and the workers. I put these for now into a sub-folder called "religion".
It's fascinating to someone like me, a mere observer of the human drama, how each geographical place on the planet lays claim to one or more specific religions. And for the most part, nearly all the religions agree on the need for men to love one another, even if this love can be reduced to nothing more complex than accepting each other in spite of the differences. The major differences will be found in whom/what the particular Deity is supposed to be, how man can and does, or can not and does not, find his way back to this Original Source, and so forth.
But one need not put these religions and religionists under a microscope to see the deeper layer of really stinky truth of what has gone on, and continues as I write this. Religion, ideally the calling of a man to be a bridge between the Unseen and the Seen, between the Known and Unknown, has been become nothing more than another pyramid. Those who claim to know sit at the top. On one side at the bottom are warriors willing to fight and die in the name of their particular religion against other warriors from other religions ready and willing to oblige them in these religious wars, these silly escapades of "my god can beat-up your god". And at the other side on the bottom are the workers of the world who are simply searching for some semblance of meaning and purpose in lives that leave them feeling utterly hopeless and filled with despair.
Those at the top, however, far more often than not, have either forgotten, or never understood, the nature of their "calling". It is not now, nor ever was, a contest to see who could gather the most followers and who would win these endless religious wars. What they succeed in doing is to reduce the noble quest for meaning and purpose to the mundane level of a professional sporting event and worse, a pathetic excuse for more death, destruction, and mayhem in a world that needs no more such exercises in self-immolation and self-destruction. This "calling" is, of all endeavors among humankind, the easiest of all and requires nothing more than the ability and determination to inspire others to seek lives of peace and harmony for no reason(s) other than it's the most beneficial path for everyone. It's also the easiest.
Most humans are convinced that conflict-wars and competition-is, if not a bad thing, something that is inevitable. The sole purpose of religion is to persuade them such is not the case. And religion has failed, miserably.
Without knowledge of the beginnings, of course, the irony is that perhaps these things are meant to be, or simply are Unknowable because there's nothing else here, there, or anywhere else to be "known". After all, believing a thing to be true, wanting it to be true, does not necessarily make it so. Based on my observations of things, however, I'm of the absolute conviction that random acts of kindness, decency, courtesy, respect, and a desire for the absence of conflict and war is a far more worthwhile and noble endeavor than is the path humans have chosen since they began to keep records of their adventures. And contrary to what most humans have been led to believe by misguided, albeit perhaps well-intentioned religious leaders, is that such a dream, such a prayer, such a hope requires no Deities whatsoever.
Humans have been so concerned with trying to avoid a hell in the afterlife that they've successfully created a hell on earth. And for me, hell on earth has been hell on my nerves.
And so we have worlds-within-worlds and pyramids-within-pyramids and notions such as peace can be had only through war and death and that happiness is determined by how much money one has in a bank account and that winning is everything and going to a local church and following the tenets of a religion is the same as having faith and that living vicariously through sporting events is a convenient substitute for actually living the life you now have and on and on until it can drive a man quite mad.
And perhaps "mad" is the best word to describe the last "class" of human I've watched over the years. For lack of a better word, I'll just go with "artist". Throughout human history and continuing during my time on this planet are men and women who live and stand outside of it all, the worlds-within-worlds and pyramids-within-pyramids. They need not be "artists" as most use the word. They need not create music or paint or build sculptures or sing or dance or act or write or any of the other aspirations usually assigned the status of being an "artist".
It was St. Francis of Assisi who summed it up this way: "Those who work with their hands are laborers. Those who work with their hands and their heads are craftsman. Those who work with their hands and their heads and their hearts are artists."
These artists might be described better negatively. That is, they live and have their being in the world of humans, but they are never, and will never, be content to be a worker and wouldn't begin to consider being part of the ruling class and nothing else in life is more repugnant to them than the thought of having to be a warrior.
Easy to understand is the ruling class, the warrior, the worker, the sports and the fanatics attached to them, and the religious leaders and followers. The most complicated, and by far the most fascinating, are the artists. The world would do well indeed to follow the lead of the artist simply because by his example he embodies a world void of the need for conflict and war, one in which one competes only against himself to "be all that you can be" and not the need to win a contest or kill others. And the artist lives this way, from what I can tell, by nothing more complicated than by following his own intuition. It's all he really knows to be a life worth living.
And yet the warriors and the workers and the religions and the athletes all continue to prefer, and to choose, the life dictated by the ruling class. And perhaps the end result of such so-called leadership has never been expressed more truthfully, and more successfully, then in the document titled "The Declaration of Independence":
"all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed."
Humans are not only content, but eager, to compete in a thoroughly meaningless sporting event to win, to say they're the best, or to make more money. They'll kill in the name of this god and that. They'll wage wars in the names of freedom, peace, democracy, and most recently, the quest for oil. But at each step of the way they reach a point beyond which they dare not cross, and it's simply the desire to end, once and for all, the "evils" they find to be "sufferable". Continue to complain about the horrors of war? Yes, by all means. But take what would seem to me to be the next and inevitable step which is to simply stop having wars? No, and hell no! War is a "sufferable evil".
And so, again, without requisite and first-hand knowledge of the beginnings of all things, why this is will remain forever a mystery. My intuition tells me much about these things, but humans, for the most part, have relegated intuition to the realms of magick, mysticism, and all other things that can't be put into a test-tube and proven. Science is the new religion and it, like its predecessor, is still just a religion, capable of both so much good and, regrettably, so much evil.
But that leads to the three fatal flaws I see among humans after having been on this planet for all these years. First, most choose to believe they live in a world of dualities-night and day, up and down, right and wrong, good and evil, God and the Devil. But as day fades, you must first pass through twilight before entering the night. And as night recedes, you must first experience the dawn before basking in the light of the sun. Humans have yet to learn that truth and reality are to be found, known, and experienced in the shadows and shades of twilight and dawn. They prefer the easy absolutes of conflicting dualities that symbolize the supposed inevitability of the need to compete, to fight, to wage war, to win, to lose.
Long ago I grew bored with the notion of two sides, good and evil, endlessly battling in a war that neither side ever wins. Yet humans have been practicing such madness and folly for thousands of years. I'm no longer trying to make sense of it, to understand it further, but am now content to do the rest of my time on this planet until I either die or the mother-ship returns and takes me away.
The second flaw follows naturally from the first. Humans want everything both ways. They want to have a war, naturally, but first they sit down and agree on "rules of engagement" that forbid the use of certain types of bullets and weapons, fighting within certain geographical locations and on certain days, and so forth. They treat the realities of daily life the same as a sporting event-it's all just a game, but both sides still want to win, and all the death, destruction, mayhem, and suffering in the world really doesn't matter simply because, after all, it's all inevitable.
The third flaw is the absolute certainty among humans that they need rulers. They really don't. They need rules, yes, but not rulers.
And that's because of my last observation.
It's been said by the romantics and poets of the world that "love makes the world go round". Closer to the truth is that it's "money" that makes the world go round, especially the love of it. The real truth, whether humans like it or not, is that it's "fear" that makes the world go round. This fear permeates the entirety of the human condition. Humans fear losing their jobs, their homes, their lives to drive-by shootings and clever little viruses. They fear other humans who dress and talk differently, who practice a different religion. They fear the possibility of meteors and asteroids crashing into their planet and killing them all, never acknowledging the madness that killing each other is perfectly acceptable but the idea of a piece of rock zipping through outer space and doing the same thing is totally unacceptable. They fear global warming and impending ice ages. They fear being eaten by sharks and grizzly bears. They fear falling to their deaths, drowning, burning to death, and being buried alive. They obey their leaders out of fear of being put into jail. They obey their gods out of fear of going to an eternal hell-fire.
So much fear.
Humans define "bravery" as being ready, willing, and able to kill others and be killed by others. Yet they lack the "bravery" necessary to make such activities the stuff of ancient history. What they really fear the most is a life absent everything that makes this world, life in this world, a study in madness.
And yet, there has never been a time in this planet's history that there have not been men and women delivering the same simple message: The one thing that will put an end to this insanity is love.
And when all is said and done, this "love" need not be anything special that one must "do". If it makes it easier for humans to understand, it can be defined negatively as nothing more complicated than living your life and doing harm to no one else.
But even this is either too difficult, or too frightening, for humans to understand and practice. It makes me glad my time on this planet is nearing an end.
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)Nice view and thank you.Chris
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