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Restoring
Power to the People
Physical war is
really not the primary arena for battle in the modern age.
The Real battlefield of the modern, is not fought with guns,
knives, bombs or chemicals. It
is fought amongst the neural architecture of each human brain, using the
weapons of ideology. Many
people today are closer friends with propaganda than they are with the
neighbors. Ideas are the
actual combatants, in the corporate contest for the physical world.
In fact, they always have been.
Groups of ideas form cultures, ideals and political parties. They
become the nexus for social action, even though most of them do not
originate from the minds of the public. Contrary to popular opinion,
ideals are not instantly made holy upon winning mass approval.
Never the less, the ideals of our day, (as questionable as they
are) form the front lines of struggle, where every world conflict is
truly won or lost. The
human mind is the ultimate battlefield, where our indoctrination into
materialistic culture and nationalism begins.
It is from this conditioned way of seeing the world, that our
bastion of reason is assaulted.
As
a result of accepted ideas, we find that the graduates of
“education” emerge without distinct personal identity or direction.
They certainly are not becoming enlightened beings, through the
medium of doctrinaire books, stale air and carefully channeled
curriculum. Education has thus become a mould out of which mental clones
are fashioned, and from this stock the fittest are considered those most
capable of following inane orders without question. Individual autonomy
has become a rare a thing, almost as rare in fact, as public protest
over corrupt policy-making. There
is often talk about freedom of speech, yet that freedom extends only so
far in the modern media, as one is able to think within well-established
boundaries. Meanwhile,
almost no one speaks of freedom of thought, or freedom of consciousness.
It
is commonly assumed that the givens of life are already established by
society. The social ideals
of “success” and “progress” are considered unquestionable, due
to their overwhelming acceptance by the public. No one dares question
the religious fallacies of materialism, or its holy grails of paychecks,
social one-upmanship and cosmetic surgery. Money is our God, and as
everyone knows, to worship anything less is sheer lunacy. Not only are
we trained to believe in the business worlds’ definition of life, but
that there is not, nor has there ever been, any other way to live.
Memories are short. They
get lost somewhere in the transition of the generations.
As a species we are suffering from a form of amnesia, with regard
to natural, practical living.
This
is why freedom of thought has become an unknown quality, one that is
rarely discussed. The
question becomes “What good is the freedom of speech, when the freedom
of thought is no longer exercised?”
Freedom of thought, (or mind-state) is not encouraged by our
institutions of “higher learning”. To be recognized by the academic
community, one must religiously repeat the same catch phrases and
political jargon. We quote
this “expert” and that PhD, but rarely do we speak from the soul,
real experience, or from natural intuition. We go on quoting the same
tired “fathers of this or that science” not because they are
fascinating or even pertinent, but because we fear to speak for
ourselves. The original modern sin, is original thought.
We feel bullied by academia and the status quo, so we all “get
in line” in order to be “accepted”. To do otherwise is to be
considered unteachable and unsociable.
Our culture considers wisdom to be the product of greater
knowledge, no matter how irrelevant to sane living that knowledge may
be. Relevance of knowledge
is considered pertinent to daily affairs, only when it generates money. Thus we are taught to regurgitate on command, the precepts of
the profit-margin priesthood, regardless of the obvious illogic of doing
so. Those who succeed at
flawless parroting are granted the status of a “learned person”, and
rewarded with money and notoriety.
Those who fail to regurgitate properly are considered below par,
and are thus not allowed into the closed circles of higher (mis)education
or corporate management.
As
a people we will never taste liberation, or live in a genuinely
democratic society, until we free our minds.
To do this it is necessary to go beyond the parroting of
book-learned rhetoric and political correctness, to find real wisdom.
Wisdom is gained through experience, not classrooms. Through
introspective living, the vast majority of real wisdom and knowledge is
accessible to every open mind. By
cultivating clarity, we realize that ones’ depth of insight into Truth
cannot be accurately measured according to standard tests. Nor can it be gained by sheer bulk of knowledge.
Wisdom is better defined as that state
of being which directly applies truth in every-day living.
Wisdom is therefore a verb more than it is a noun.
The open mind is not a conditioned one.
So long as we believe in the conditioning supplied to us by the
institutions of our day, we will never achieve our full potential as
human beings. That vast
potential is no less than genius. As
a species we use less than 10% of our mental capacities, and perhaps
even less of our spiritual abilities, because of the faulty, culturally
imposed beliefs we teach our children to revere.
Our felt lack is learned behavior! It is little wonder that a
greatly increasing number of high school graduates are barely able to
read, let alone live in a sane or autonomous fashion.
We do not encourage youth to think for themselves.
What we teach them in fact, is to believe and act like everyone
else. The main problem with this method of instruction, (other
than the fact that it lacks any real concern for personal empowerment)
is that everyone else is behaving very poorly.
If you doubt this, then just take a close look at international
affairs and domestic policy.
Our
schools have become places of personal dis-empowerment, strict adherence
to routine, and the acceptance of irrational, trivial detail.
They serve as a model for the blind following of authority,
regardless of stated purpose. In these public hells of increasing
violence and unnecessary stress, all real creativity is stifled.
“Education” now promotes only the necessary recommended conditioning
to both body and mind, which will serve as future training for
work-place function. Bodies
are trained to eat, sleep and work according to a clock, rather than
according to natural rhythms. Children
are forced to perform rather than perceive.
They are encouraged to dive head first into bad habits, rather
than a healthy lifestyle. Competition
through ruthless egotism, is presented as the “winning” norm,
whereas only “losers” do not “achieve” according to preset
standards. “Grades” are doled out by underpaid and generally
uninspired state employees, according to graph-charted, peer
comparisons. Herein the
spirit of cooperation and the joy of learning dies out.
Modern
education exists to serve only one true function, and that is to
accommodate the corporate desire for an easily managed work force.
Only through constant conditioning is the human spirit finally
beaten down, at which point it finally acquiesces to perpetual drudgery.
How else would the institutions of our day get a normal, healthy,
naturally intelligent child, to grow up to be a worker-ant automaton,
and wage slave? This is accomplished only through 13 years, (or more) of
constant conditioning by clocks, pressure, stress and authority-figure
domination. How else could
a sane individual possibly be talked into giving away the best 30-40
years of their youth, to such absurdly abstract ideals as “achieving
your financial goals?” The illusion that money equals happiness can
only be held in place, so long as we call ourselves “consumers”.
Yet the natural fact is, we are intelligent and autonomous
beings, who have far greater potentials than catering to the usual
buy-sell hysteria of the marketplace.
Education is of course, not the only force for public
mass-conditioning. Modern
media is far more invasive. It
offers a constant stimulus of mediocrity and mis-information, which the
unwary fall prey to, during each dinner hour.
Part of our “education” has been to accept any presentation
given without question. We do this regardless of content, and therefore without any
attention paid to relevance, logic or usefulness. If this were not so, then the average television commercial
would be constantly ridiculed and laughed at. In a sane society, modern
commercials would serve only to turn potential customers completely off.
Yet this is not the case, because we are trained to avoid thinking for
ourselves at all costs. The average individual accepts this cultural
conditioning, because they assume that it is their duty to swallow
anything which “authority” says is true, or because they cannot
brave a viable alternative. Yet, it is every persons duty to their own welfare, (and to
Truth and spiritual progress) to question everything which is presented,
in this modern age of unscrupulous persuasion. Why must we question
modern media and education? Because
they both contain more lies than truth, to put it bluntly. They harbor
more propaganda and
distraction, than relevant, timely knowledge. They do not sustain us, so
why should we sustain them?
As
an example of media absurdity, I present the following evidence derived
from CNN Headline News. These
statistics were gathered on January 16, 2001.
I gained this information by simply watching a news report, and
writing down each topic that was covered.
While watching, I noted how much attention in minutes each
subject was given. I ask the reader to perform the same fascinating inquiry.
I ask you to confirm for yourself the mediocrity of modern
reporting, by watching the so-called “news” in an analytical,
(rather than accepting) way. Write
down what you observe minute to minute during any news report, and then
ask this crucial question. “Does
any of this information have any REAL or PRACTICAL bearing on sane
living?”
The
following is a list of subjects covered in that half-hour CNN broadcast;
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The actual
minutes of coverage, starting at 7PM Pacific time;
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Subject of coverage
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Time in
minutes spent on subject
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7:00-7:02
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How to identify a certain kind of skin disease
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2
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7:02-7:04
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The McVeigh execution proceedings
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2
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7:04-7:05
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History and attempted assassination of a South
African leader
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1
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7:05-7:05:30
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Trial details
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1.5
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7:05:30-7:06
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Reagan surgery recovery
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1.5
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7:06-7:07
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National weather
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1
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7:07-7:10
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Debate as to whether a certain disability law
applies to a golf professional
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3
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7:10-7:11
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Cold and Flu advice, in its relationship to aerobic
activity.
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1
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7:11-7:13
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Commercials
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2
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7:13-7:14
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Ashcroft debate, and Clinton cancer surgery
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1
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7:14-7:15
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Stock market
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1
|
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7:15-7:16
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OPEC pricing
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1
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7:16-7:18
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Commercials
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2
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7:18-7:19
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College sports
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1
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7:19-7:21
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Commercials
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2
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7:21-7:25
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“Lifestyles”
(man who does world record jumping jacks, movie reviews
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4
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7:25-7:30
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Commercials
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5
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To summarize the above, the following emphasis was
noted;
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General
categories of “information”;
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Percentage of
total time spent of this category;
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Sports
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3%
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Health (disease)
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6%
|
|
Weather
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4%
|
|
Economic
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7%
|
|
“Lifestyles” forum (social trivia)
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14%
|
|
Commercials
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30%
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|
Miscellaneous domestic and international trivia
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33%
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Clearly,
the January 16th CNN report is very comparable, in terms of
content and relevance, to most other sources of media “information”.
In other words, we are constantly being fed a great deal of bull,
and very little lean meat. The
one inquiry that is rarely asked in modern reporting is “the golden
question”. We hear about
what, how, when and where, but never do we hear the one truly relevant
question that can be asked. We
never hear WHY events are occurring, as though motive and cause were too
trivial to merit comment.
Having heard about the CNN version of life, lets look at the
REALITY of our world situation, the one that is so carefully excluded
from “the news”. Those
who are aware of the impending global crisis on a variety of fronts are
prompted to ask, “Ok, so where is the REAL news?”
Where is the responsible depiction of global events?
Why are the following issues never or very rarely addressed in
the media today?”
1)
Why is there no discussion of the latest extinctions of species,
industrial toxins, the death of whole rivers, lakes, streams, oceans
shorelines, reefs and seas?
2)
What about the serious depletion of world natural gas, oil, wood
and clean water reserves?
3)
The international news… What is happening today in countries
around the world? When is
the last time you heard anything in depth about all of South America,
Europe, Australia, or Asia? How
about our own “next door” neighbors, Canada and Mexico?
4)
Why is there little to no mention of recent earthquakes, floods,
mudslides, climate changes, global warming, ozone depletion, Arctic and
Antarctic ice sheet meltdowns, record low or high temperatures, and
their effects on the whole world?
5)
Why no analysis or attempted remedy for widespread lay-offs and
other labor problems around the country?
What about increased poverty and domestic violence?
6)
When was the last time you heard anything comprehensive about
what our government is doing, in terms of both domestic action and
policy making? What are the
latest laws, and how will they effect the people?
What is the US doing in foreign countries right now?
Why are we forced to pay taxes in order to support the largest,
most violent military in the history of the world?
7)
Why is there no more discussion of the greatest election scandal
in the history of the United States, in a supposedly “Democratic”
nation?
8)
Why no mention of the ever-increasing social problems we witness
in public school violence, widespread symptoms of child stress, or that
1 in every 6 people is estimated to be in need of mental-illness
treatment? What about increasing addiction rates? Why does the US have the highest percentage of imprisonment
of its own population, of any country in the world?
The
reason why the REAL news is not accurately presented, is because the
corporate world doesn’t want you to be aware of it. It is as
simple as that. They don’t want you to know that the life
you’ve been told is desirable, is an incredibly destructive lie.
“Consumer confidence” must constantly be maintained, or else this
whole economic house of cards we have built, will come crashing down.
This will happen soon enough anyway. In the interim, we are all
supposed to go on pretending that nothing is wrong. In polite
society one puts on a happy face regardless of what they are feeling
inside. It’s supposedly “negative” to speak of things as
they are, regardless of their obvious factuality. We are taught
that appearance is far more important than honesty. Those who are
honest, we are told, are either naïve or simply deranged.
In
reviewing the REAL world crisis, the responsible person is prompted to
find a sensible alternative to this Brave New World. Our current
“reality” increasingly resembles such movies as “The Matrix”,
“Rollerball”, “Looker”, “Fahrenheit 451”, and the various
depictions of the Roman Empire, just before its Great Fall. The
realist knows that we approaching “the second fall of Rome”, even as
you read these words. Those who still pretend to live happily in
accord with modern society, are either living very sheltered lives, or
lives in denial. For the sake of money and status, the majority
willingly sacrifice the benefit of the world, and even their own
children, on the altar of egotism.
The
dollar is not our God. Divinity is not contained in those
institutions who prize only profit margins over all other values.
For this reason, corporate goals do not merit the 30-40 year, 40-50 hour
a week, worship schedule.
Our sanity demands that we withdraw from the madness of accepted norms
and goals. As individuals we may not be capable of changing all of
the worlds’ problems. But we can
find ways of living other than those presented by a hysterical
media, and a “dumb-down” educational system. We are not
“consumers”. We are the very manifest intelligence of Nature.
To return ourselves to the natural state of human wisdom, we must
simplify and make practical, all of our daily routines. We must embrace
Nature like the Native peoples of the world have done for untold
millennia.
Let truth alone be the guiding light of the new millennium.
Only through the natural will we survive the coming century.
Only by observing the natural laws of health, mental clarity and
spiritual growth, will we find the joy of living, remembered deep within
our own cells and souls. Question
everything. Ask the golden
question “WHY?” and embrace what is already within!
Matthew Webb
visionquest@eoni.com
The World
Mind Society http://www.eoni.com/~visionquest
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