Cultural Prison
Just finished reading Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. It was a good read and he presents some interesting ideas. One of which is that we’re all living in a cultural prison. It’s an idea I have spent sometime thinking about in the past – how we are all enslaved by the current system: work or don’t be fed. Quinn presents the idea that one of the driving forces behind our prison is the destruction of our planet – which all of modern man is taking part in. The only way our planet will be saved is if we stop being prisoners to the current system and change our path. He suggests that we need to destroy the prison – not work within it because that won’t bring about real change.
Most people aren’t even aware of being in a system since that’s where they’ve been their entire life. It’s like trying to explain breathing to a fish – something completely outside the scope of their personal knowledge. People usually accept it was being, “The way things have always been.” when it isn’t true. The current system we have has been in the works for the last ten thousand years but humans have been alive for three million years before that and we were doing just find until we decided to rule the world. The system is composed of almost everyone and has been drilled into our heads since we were children. “Work or don’t eat.” seems to be the strongest motivation that keeps the system in place.
The foundation of the system is that it is possible for humans to have certain knowledge of good and evil. We have thousands of laws enforcing this agenda. We have priests and rabbis mimicking this in their sermons. We have our family, friends, news, and media repeating this rhetoric and judging others constantly. When in reality, there is no certain knowledge about this. It is all man-made and people fall into the fairy tale that works best for them. We justify our actions with the reasoning “We know this is good.” when in reality no one knows.
Let me point out that the “sinner” verses “saint” mentality is a mirror of the “us” verses “them”. Separate the people and keep them divided by imaginary lines makes people easier to control. They won’t want to get to know the other because of beliefs. You can’t argue logic with beliefs.
So, maybe you fall for some dogma which enslaves your mind or maybe you reject it. That still doesn’t mean you are free because money controls our society. Those who have it have power within the system but by no means are free from it. Those who don’t have money are forever at the mercy of their fellow inmates who have it. The distribution of wealth and power has nothing to do with justice. It is just luck of the draw which wasn’t the way things used to be because we made this system of the “have’s” and the “have nots.” The system is inherently flawed because it depends on people not having. Global wealth makes global poverty.
The only way this system is going to be teared down is if we have a revolution of ideas and change our ways. Repeating the same mistakes over and over again aren’t going to get us anywhere. The hardest part with this is that those who have their wealth due to exploiting of others will have to part with some of their wealth and privileged so that everyone can have some. Those with any wealth and privileged don’t want to give it up willing which is what is necessary for the division of power to be changed and the playing field be even. A golden example of this is gay marriage, heterosexuals don’t want to give up their heterosexual privileges and share with everyone. Humanity needs to learn to share with other humans and species else it will be our own end.
Copenhagen was a bust.
Okay, so I try to ignore the news. Rather, I try not to pay attention to what I can’t do much about to change. I like to act locally and think globally. But some things I can’t really ignore. Like the current state of our world and the impending doom of the human race. It bothers me. There’s a plaque at the Natural History Museum in New York City on the ground right before the room with the giant big blue whale. It has a list of the different extinction periods and their probable cause. It reads that we are currently in the middle of the 6th mass extinction that our planet has seen – all caused by humans. It’s because of the world myth we believe: Man rules the Earth. That this beautiful planet is being turned into a cesspool.
I am in the middle of reading Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. So far, it’s been a really good book. It’s laying out the facts as things are which people are in denial of hearing. Like last night, I read about how increase in food supply leads to increase in population. I know this isn’t a huge revelation – but we keep sending food aid to countries. By sending food aid, they reproduce, and create more mouths to feed. The end result is a never ending cycle of producing more food, to feed the new hungry mouths, while there’s an increase destruction of our planet. The end result if things keep going this way is that we’ll destroy ourselves. We’ll homogenize the planet to only be human food and what feeds it and the diversity of life will be eliminated but we’ll never keep up with the demands. I don’t know what to do about this. False aid to create more hungry and poverty is not the way to go. We should focus on sending birth control and work on population control to keep the cycle from repeating.
Another human myth is that humans are except from the forces of nature. We too, are vulnerable to famine, which it’s a fake famine to begin with because we produce enough food for everyone to eat. It is all economics. We need to dismantle the whole oppressive system we have in place in order to feed the people of the world. It should be about people, not cash. We need to revamp our entire economy so it won’t crash if we give people bread. We should feed the people we have and let food be a right – not a privilege and focus on population control. We can put an end to this with birth control and reforming our economy.
Right now, with the way we are heading and how many species are becoming extinct – we are heading for our own extinction because we are defying a fundamental laws of nature – who humans like to believe doesn’t apply to them but it does. The laws are: The world was not made for any one species. The world needs competition and diversity to survive. It was not meant to be homogenized. Take what you need but leave the rest for the other species. Man has decided that everything is his and when we act like lord and master of the planet – look at the destruction it caused. We need to change how we relate to the world in order for our own survival.
