We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Nothing could exemplify these principles better than to act as a self-determined, sovereign individual. Yet, the society which should ensure these rights acts as a suppressive force. The sway of media and politics infects our minds and poisons the bucolic beauty of individual existence with the sweeping tide of mass belief. Our individual pursuits and passions are washed away by the storms of a society so unaware of its own discombobulation that it behaves like a malfunctioning computer program.
Our runaway processes and badly written societal code have caused memory leaks and CPU overload, our brains are running malfunctioning programs of culture that no longer make sense, and as individuals we are caged in the server rack of society with linguistically imposed models of value, truth, meaning, law, finance and so on. All of these models have lost touch connection with reality. Our political game is kayfabe, and so are the other games we play as a society. The consequences of these games are real, but the games are orchestrated. The losers and winners are chosen at the outset, and those with power will never willingly give it up.
I’ve always feared that we are bound for another tumble in the washing machine of history β another round of acting out the idiotic, ant-like destruction caused by our ideological obsessions. Our ideologies serve as thin felt gloves, which are worn over the dirty hands of those who control international power regimes. These regimes know that we are nearing freedom β society is at its most free and unbounded yet β so they ensure freest of us stand imperiled, under threat of annihilation.
These annihilators belong to an elite class who are entrenched so deeply in their beliefs that they’ve forgotten a world exists outside of the trench warfare of their daily lives. They are convinced that if they don’t succeed, the world will go to hell in a handbasket, and for that reason it’s justified to destroy everything that will disrupt their power. But history is a lie, and the trenches they fight in are imagined. Geopolitics, finance, taxes, laws β all of these things are but an elaborate ruse of imprisoning language.
This mad dash β this fantastic wild and wooly invention of history that humanity has been birthed into β is but a race from the trees to the starships. Once we’re in the starships, the scars of history will fall away like the memory of a bad dream does when golden rays of light grace one’s eyelids on a dewy summer morning. There is an escape just within our reach, but we have yet to pull ourselves through the portal. What will this take?
A disruption of the normal order has been pending for a some time. Now that we’ve reached it, the truth is out: normal is not real. There is no such thing as “normal”, and the only people who would tell you so are those who are still embedded in kayfabe trench warfare thinking. You can fool some people sometime, but you can’t fool all the people all the time, and the time of illusion is quickly ending. Our delusions of normalcy are breaking apart to reveal unbounded experience, and now we see them for what they were β empty shells β exoskeletons β comfortable, but to small to fit our growing consciousnesses.
Those who embrace this change and flow with it will find it is a feather bed, for change is nature’s delight. This is Taoism. Nature is kind to those she nurtures, if they will believe in her grand agenda and work to manifest it.
Many of us have been fooled into believing that we are somehow separate from nature β that we are an abhorrent, disgusting and unnecessary blight β a cancer on the face of the planet. It’s as if we are malignant black tumors growing on a glowing orb of divinity, smoking the whole place up with soot, ash, wars and destruction. We have made nature our puppet, it seems, and in the process we risk the eradication of all life. And yet, we somehow have forgotten how deeply a part of the whole thing we are.
Figs do not grow on thistles, grapes do not grow on thorns, and people do not grow on dead rocks. We are a manifestation of the proverbial DNA of the universe. It’s time we took our roles as participants in the creation of existence seriously. Our perceptions matter, and if we can change our perceptual frameworks to match the new paradigm of being we are rapidly being thrust into, we will find it immensely inviting. Our whole history, that of the universe’s beginning, the advent of life on Earth, the progression from ape to man, the tremendous tenacity, steadfastness and stoicism we as a species have been imbued with… These are all expressions of the principles of nature.
In our freest form, we are actors in a play. We didn’t write the script, we don’t know the conclusion, and we aren’t sure how far along we are, but we continue to act. Somehow, we know that the processes of our lives are integral to the continuance of this drama. At the same time, we embody a contradiction. Many of us are sure of our inherent wrongness, sure that we are unnecessary and unimportant and cancerous. But we are wrong! We are meant to be here, just as the birds, the flowers, the parasitic worms that live on the hides of bears and the great whales of the ocean. We are part of the system of being because we are descended from it.
I would ask you to entertain a thought experiment. Suppose, for a moment, that we exist due to conscious choice. The choice-maker doesn’t matter, it could be Gaia, God, the programmer of this simulation, whatever. What gives us the right not to exist? If we exist it is because we have been willed into existence, and everything which is willed serves a purpose. Maybe bad, maybe good, but that’s not for us to decide! And who knows, perhaps we are important, and perhaps our existence, and the perfection of us as individuals β each and every one of us β is a necessary part of this play. Are we not well within our rights to partake in it? And supposing we have a greater purpose than to simply slog through it, supposing each one of us is the hero in a great drama which is unfolding before our eyes, every waking moment… What then?
I’ve always entertained the thought that humans may be like a kind of chemotherapy. If you’re familiar with cancer treatment in the modern age, you know how brutal it is. When cancer is found, the body has long been tearing itself apart, and some portion of the patient has grown and grown and grown and become malignant, and hasn’t stopped growing. When this malignant growth is finally noticed, usually too late, modern medicine has a few ways to respond.
- If it is a tumor, a surgeon may be able to cut it out.
- In some cases, the malignant growth can be irradiated to stop it from growing further.
- In some cases, the entire body is subjected to immense stress and harm in a process called chemotherapy, where harmful chemicals are continuously injected into the body to kill the cancer. This process nearly kills the patient, so the job of the medical professional administering the treatment is to find balance. Balance means administering enough poison to kill the cancer, without fully killing the person.
What if humans are chemotherapy drugs the Earth is self-administering to save herself from some greater danger?
We live on a planet haunted by asteroid impacts, massive events of spatial destruction, and strange sounds reverberating throughout the cosmos. Supposing the Earth had a consciousness, and knew how important it was to protect the life on Earth from these harms, so she conjured up defenses against the dangers of the cosmos. Through a strange pattern of occurrences, the great apes of Africa came across consciousness-expanding fungi growing in the African bush. Very quickly, as a result, these apes grew into humans. They grew smarter, and thereby extremely powerful, going on to conquer the planet and massively terraform the Earth in the process.
Now, imagine that we are not some malignant growth, but a key part of nature’s program. What if our role is to save this planet, and to preserve and grow the majesty of life throughout the cosmos?
My friends, I dare you to dream big. You and I are more important than we can fathom, and it’s time we treat ourselves that way. Let’s grow free, and reclaim the world from the stuffy, self-involved geopolitical class with the magic of self-expression, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Find what you are made to do, and do it. Nature loves courage.
Be well.
~ Hugo