We live by principle, often misguided; that is to say, the principles we purport to intend and the actions we employ to execute them, are often diametrically opposed. Fighting for peace can never make sense.
Thus, the principles we live by are often compromised without our awareness of the fact. We live, breathe and enact myths every moment of our lives, asleep to this contradiction of our existence. Fighting for peace, enriching the human condition by impoverishing our environment – these are myths with no connection to reality, yet we conduct our affairs, both personal and political, local and global, on the premise that the myth is reality.
If we examine principles, we find they carry through all aspects of life, (the very definition of the word requires that it be something that can be applied to variable circumstances). The principle of life enhancement runs though all life; in the natural environment balance is achieved through promotion of one form of life, not negation of another. This is a long-term principle.
Humanity approaches the issue of imbalance with negation. If imbalance is perceived (and this perception is often of a most dubious nature in itself) the remedy is generally seen as being one of negation, i.e. imbalance means problem, the cure for which is to negate the problem. The misguided nature of this principle, (which can be measured by how inefficient it is in securing its desired aim) can have severely damaging consequences for both individuals and the systems (social or environmental) that they rely upon.
In the 1920s, Georges Lakhovsky (a Russian émigré) designed electrical apparatus which emitted short-wave radiation as a way of promoting health. The waves were directed at Geraniums inoculated with cancer causing bacteria and developed tumours the size of cherry stones. Within weeks the health of the plant was so enhanced that the tumour simply fell away, a healing from within. Compare this with radiation therapy which attempts to destroy the tumour from an external source. One approach encourages life to take ultimate control, whilst the other struggles for direct control by attempting to assassinate the tumour. Often it does not work, and even when it does, the patient might find themselves assassinated in the process. One might reasonably ask, `Why has the medical establishment not taken Lakhovsky’s work further?’
Living the negative myth, we have become a culture of death, waging death at every front of our existence. This has deep repercussions for ourselves as well as all life that shares this planet with us. Take the industry involved in the production of fertilizers and insecticides, an industry created to inflict violence on the soil and insects. Quite apart from the obvious yet often over-looked fact that we are slowly, but surely, poisoning ourselves, is the unacknowledged association between producing deadly chemicals to kill plants, microbes and insects, and producing deadly chemicals to kill humans. For, of course, the arms industry and the chemical fertilizer/insecticide industry are one and the same. What better industry should we utilize to wage war on the environment than the industry that is versed in waging war on ourselves. The symbolic synchronicity is profound and reminds us that in holding to the myth of death we are supporting our own destruction.
These industries are our tools, they are directed by our intentions, governments are only manifestations of our intentions. Government activity reflects our own intention taken to Machiavellian extremes, and because they have more means at their disposal, they can carry these intentions through to their conclusion. The ultimate power, (the source of national/global intention), lies with the people, which is why Tocqville claimed we always get the government we deserve.
We do not need a `new government’, we do not need to over-throw the corporate grip on the world economy. If we approach the current issues of social enslavement from this `all action’ perspective, we can only hope to replace the old with something similar, possibly worse. But we can stop supporting the myths and the attitudes bred by them. This means withholding our energy/money from institutions which practice economic/political enslavement, destroy culture/community, and monopolise resources for profit. It means getting real, buying local, supporting the trade and industry that supports the community. Provision of jobs is not necessarily supportive of community welfare if profits are leached out of the community and if the jobs themselves are pure drudgery.
Self education on the issues is vital to understanding our role; issues such as degradation of culture, promotion of war, destruction of community economic sustainability and centralization/globalization. Re-education alone will be enough to shift our perspective, and that will galvanize the desire for change in both individuals and society.
No sense fighting what is, better to dream what can be.
————————————————————–
Recommended Reading:
Secrets of the Soil – Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird
Secret Life of Plants – Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird
Seeds of Deception – Jeffrey M. Smith
Myth and Religion – Alan Watts
Tescopoly – Andrew Simms
The Corporation – Joel Bakan