You may say I’m a dreamer But I’m not the only one I hope someday you’ll join us And the world will be as one John Lennon ‘Imagine’
There is an awareness of the prospect of a ‘New World Order’ in many modern western societies. It is ‘globalism’ by another name and assumes that for the eight billion or so inhabitants of planet earth, ‘one size can fit all’. We clearly see this in the communist countries such as China, where citizen’s rights are subordinate to the rights of society; ‘the lowest common denominator is best for everyone’ philosophy.
Astronauts in the International Space Station may enjoy a global view over breakfast and be filled with wonder at the planet without political boundaries and cultural differences.
But of course geo-politics is not as simple as the view from space implies. If we were to break down how societies are structured the categories might look like this;
…language, religion and ethics, race, class, cultural background, education, wealth, geographic placement, access to technology and food and so the list goes on. Societies are highly complex when viewed through the lens of a microscope.
There is an indigenous North American saying that, ‘it is easy to be brave from a distance’.
They should know, for their initiation tasks for young ‘braves’ were daunting to the point of life threatening. When poised to jump into a river from a high cliff, suddenly life looks and feels different from ten minutes ago.
This illusion of safety is becoming dominant in many Western societies in the modern times. Citizens go about their daily tasks in relative comfort because of the security that their State promises. Citizens will never be poised on the edge of a metaphorical cliff – so they believe.
We create a ‘safe distance’ around ourselves; living in a tiny bubble of the known and familiar. It is comforting and provides, what in general systems theory is known as ‘homeostatis’, or
‘The aim of systems theories is to create homeostasis, or a favorable person–environment fit, in that the individual interacts and responds to her/his environment where interactions and change are contributing to positive growth and development and social functioning.‘ ScienceDirect.com
The whole approach to reassurance given by crew to passengers on an aircraft is based on this principal. In a short briefing it is explained that the aircraft could crash in which case here’s a whistle, otherwise, drinks are available from the trolley.
Airliines pretend flyiing is safe, but if we think critically they could do more. For instance, why are children not given child seats as is the general law for cars? Why are companion and service animals so difficult to cater for? A disabled passenger will have their expensive wheelchaire thrown into the hold and they have to stagger to their seat; if they are lucky with extra legroom – at an additional cost. How quickly passengers embark and disembark, is mostly about money for airlines.
Life in western societies is rather like this problem that airlines have when people have unique expectations and needs. The tendency then is humans are herded like lost sheep and most of the time, we oblidge.
Fortunately, what stops the world from wobbling off it’s axis is a counter force which we call ‘co-operation’. Humans emerged successfully from the ‘natural selection’ disaster movie of prehistory by co-operating with each other. Instead of becoming the lone predator like tigers, they became pack hunters, like wolves.
So here is the good news. If generalisations and lack of detail are the centrifugal forces that tend to pull society apart, then co-operative forces are the centripetal reaction, keeping us all together.
A list of these co-operative forces would be something like this;
...written laws and national constitutions that describe and give rights to citizens, shared wealth and resources such as public services, pensions and private insurance, shared territory such a public spaces and open borders, shared fauna and fauna in natural ecosystems, shared technology and scientific research, shared buildings such as blocks of apartments and entertainment facilities, shared national infrastructure, shared human resources in education, health, armed services, politicians…the list is longer.
Those enjoying the re-assurance of a Western lifestyle, are aware of other countries where the centrifugal forces are actually pulling societies apart. We know there are wars, famine, plague and natural disasters, criminal and terrorist organisations, happening somewhere else on our shared planet all the time but we chose to do nothing at worst or give to charity at best. We rationalise our choice as ‘someone else’s problem’ because we were lucky enough to have been born in a bubble.
picture credit: Hedgeye
For the few who do take on responsibility for those less ‘fortunate than themselves’ is more they can do. If they have a set of skills applicable to a particular emergency they can join a charity or non-government organisation. Usually and sadly, such as in earthquakes or flooding, help arrives too little too late. Disaster relief warehouses do not exist at every air and sea port in the world. Instead it can take days for supplies to be shipped and taken overland to those as serious risk of harm, instead of hours. Governments and or those who caused the disaster lie about the cause and solutions that are in place such as is happening in Gaza in Palestine at this present time.
In this way disasters can be diverted from public attention; played down because ‘we’ are not the victims. Our lives continue with a good standard of living, fuel in the service stations, government workers in the social services providing education, health and the rest. The shops are open and we go to work.
Or so it appears, because of the illusion with which we are presented and which we choose to believe; we genuinely think we are brave, upright, honest, caring citizens.
That is until our borders are rushed by people without documents who risk their lives to get help, banks close, world shipping halts, a serious pandemic any other disastrous global event such as, well, global warming…
Arizona Border picture credit: APnews
Then the problem in western countries becomes, ‘how do we keep our way of life?’, because we assume, our lives and standard of living will continue unchanged.
The thing about Aladdin is that, for a ‘good for nothing’ youth, he had a very powerful imagination.
‘He ordered the jinnee thus; “I want you to bring me a retinue of four dozen slaves, two dozen to ride before me and two dozen to ride behind me, complete with livery, horses and weapons. Both slaves and horses must be arrayed in the finest and the best. After that bring me a thorough bred steed worthy of an emperor’s stable, with trappings all of gold studded with rich jewels.“‘
from : ‘A Thousand and One Arabian Nights’ : translated by N J Wadood : Penguin Classics
Most people in modern times, have played the lottery. Winning is about as likely as being hit by a piece of space debris, but the dream is real enough to part with money. Lottery organisers face an unexpected problem; helping winners, deal with their sudden wealth. Unlike Aladdin, many have no idea how to spend their millions. One U.K. winner went out and bought a new machine machine.
‘New Washing Machine’s for Old!’
As with much of ‘ordinary life’, we are fenced in by, not only our wallet, but our imagination. Aladdin wanted nothing less than the Sultan’s daughter, slaves, dancing girls and a marble Palace with windows made from precious stones. A new washing machine was not on his list.
This essay is about ‘imagination’ and also about another characteristic of human thought; ‘fantasy’. In common usage, these terms are similar but I would like to draw an important distinction between the two.;
Imagination: the ability to configure something that can be made real.
Fantasy: the ability to configure something that can never be made real.
Between these two is a spectrum of the possibility of ‘making dreams come true’. The lottery is highly unlikely to make you rich while becoming an innovative entrepreneur is moderately achievable.
Let us examine a few examples at the ‘fantasy’ end of this spectrum. Fantasy is a pretend world occupied by children in the early stages of their lives. Anything can become anything. You can be the doctor and I shall be the nurse. The whole game is meaningless except as a faculty of mental maturing in which rehearsals for real life are being run safely.
Children are whisked off to see Cinderella’s Castle in Disneyland or Santa Claus in Finland in harmless but expensive escapade’s by indulgent parents. What anyone gains apart from temporary gratification, is open to debate.
Is all this the archetypal ‘Hero’s Journey’ or just ‘Wham! Bam! Sock! Pow?‘
Teenager’s are sometimes drawn to the concept of a ‘super hero’. It’s a kind of oblique reference to the myths and legends of gods and goddesses of ancient Egypt and Greece that ignores any truth.
The ‘struggle for personal power, haunts many unfulfilled adults even in such mundane matters as their choice of car – a modern day ‘chariot of triumph’. Such self empowment was first expressed in a teenager’s bedroom in posters fantasising about becoming Superman or Wonder Woman or Taylor Swift or Beyonce. Association (borrowing power from another) is expressed but never achieved by mimicry of a ‘super hero’.
Comic heroes in both meanings! picture credit: The Mo Co Show
Whilst the comic hero may enrapture, the bottom line is that they are no stronger than the paper on which they are printed. The fantasy only lasts the time it takes to read the comic, unless you want to dress up!
Cinema certainly has that ability to make us confuse fantasy with reality. The first cinema presentation by the Lumier Brothers in 1896 had audiences running for their lives when they imagined an approaching train in the film was real. Today the opposite has become the case and audiences dissolve their minds with fantasies on the white screen that have no substance.
Marilyn Monroe ; screen godess and girl next door
Whether at home on in collective presentations, Hollywood has led the way. Marilyn Monroe called it Weird Wood because presumably she saw nothing holy in it’s halls. Her off-screen persona – Norma Jean – was as real to her as the on-screen beguiling sex-goddess character and was her anchor that kept her in touch with her true self. Like the fragile letters on the famous hillside, the Hollywood fantasy is always as two dimensional as the silver screen.
The crux of what pure ‘fanatasy’ does to us is that it is a world of ‘pretend’ and gives no objective benefit other than perhaps, passing the time and unsatisying catharsis.
We should study now how the dream states of ‘fantasy’ and ‘imagination’, differ. Imagination introduces the possibility of making thoughts come true. An engineer for instance, might visualise an invention before recording the working processes on paper. Nicola Tesla sometimes invented whilst sleeping. He could turn an scientific device around in his imagination and make any necessary corrections before building it. We have to thank him for AC / DC electricity supply, TV remote controllers, radio and many other inventions in general use today.
Imagination is about making the possible possible and fantasy merely making the impossible, impossible. This is an important distinction because I believe so much human preoccupation today is as useful as smoke. Fantasist s follow, imaginaries lead.
The dreams that float across our minds in childhood may reflect some truth. They may be a memory and anticipation of past and future lives. Fortunate children will know from a very early age what they were in a previous life; a concert pianist or doctor or scientist. Some go on to have a rewarding career in that field. The phenomena of the three year old virtuous violinist fits few other explanations.
There is a channeller on You Tube called Daryl Anka who is worthy of consideration. The principle ‘teaching’ from his channelled entity called Bashar is to;
“Act on your excitement to the best of your ability without any expectation of outcome.”
This trigger of ‘excitement’ is something that is often extinguished by one’s self doubt or unconstructive feedback from others.
In endeavours of an artisitic nature, I would always advise people to explore what they love and are irresistably drawn to. This principle is a spark that contains truth and tremendous possibility of fulfilment in life; not just art. Without love we become like skittles without that array of arms that comes down from above and sets us up straight again, waiting for life’s next ball. We just roll around and fall into the black hole of disappointment.
In contrast, love connects to natural forces in a way that we do not understand and do not need to. It is inherently constructive in the way that imagination is constructive even if we do not know where it’s fractal growing patterns will take us. Nature works in this way and is beautifully described in such books as the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tsu; written 500 BCE and still freshly inspirational.
‘The leaves fall without purpose.’ Zen Photo and poem by the author
Much imagination and inspiration in human cultural and scientific achievement is inspired by nature. Art of great beauty inspires emotional responses in the same way that nature creates delight. Many artificially intelligent robots today, replicate the perfect design of the human body, animals and even humble insects because nature cannot be improved.
The evolution of human imagination using the scientific method, is surely a flowering of human consciousness, in the same way that that classicism inspired the Renaissance. This scientific evolution has brought to life moving holograms and virtual realities which even today are seen as magic. These techniques expand and explore the physical and energetic worlds in a manner that would never have been found without a scientist with imagination. Is this why scientists who are also artists, such as Leonardo da Vinci and Albert Einstein are some of the greatest thinkers?
Human thought that is clearly ‘off the wall’ can be overwhelming and hide a darker force. The world of the ‘impossibly impossible’ was seized and used by religions to control others. When prophets and saints exemplify love, humility and compassion, there message becomes watered down over the centuries and tragically can become toxic, as in the Spanish Inquisition between1478 and 1834. It would fantasise various versions of ‘heresy’ into being and punish those who did not comply.
Power to imagine is ultimately a personal endeavour. No religion, state or institution should ever be allowed to overrule the highest love and excitement of the people, in my view. I believe that we are all capable of ‘parting the Red Sea’ using mind alone. People with terminal cancer have died, come back and been cured the disease in days. Dr. Eben Alexander’s story describes his own experiences when in a medical coma and being treated by his colleagues in his book Proof of Heaven.
The only slippery nature of this slope is when we fantasise about things that just will never come true.
Our yellow brick road leads us to the Wizard of Oz who turns out to be just like us. Are we being force fed the fantasy of this illusory path and if so by whom?
Have we become slaves to those who promise a journey to nowhere?
Here is a long bamboo and here is a short one Ts’ui-wei Zen Master
Many western thinkers find it difficult to understand that war and peace are the same. This is because in dualistic thinking there are only two ‘opposite’ words to describe a broader thing for which there is no single word. This dualism and is a clear example of how words determine thoughts, in the same way that roads define journeys.
Consider this koan; when there is no war and no peace, what is there?
In order to construct a bridge that combines the extremes of ‘war ‘ and ‘peace’, one needs to use a phrase which is a paradox; a statement that contradicts itself. The concept of ‘soft war’ for instance, opens a whole new spectrum of possibilities around the ideas of ‘non-violence’. War has historically been the option used by humans to solve disagreements between ‘tribes’. At a higher level of consciousness however, it is possible to achieve the same ends without firing a single arrow. So let us look more closely at this paradox.
I propose a definition of soft war as, ‘the acquisition of state assets and benefits by peaceful means.’ Because surely, state violence as a means to an end should be far behind us in this twenty first century. Nobody has ever really won a war, when you study world history.
Presently, various state players are heading off to the moon. The initial batch of astronauts will need to be real estate agents, taking photographs and writing up a hot and cold, air-less deserted blob, as enticingly as they can for prospective nation clients.
Donald Trump pronounced publicly the creation of the United States Space Force as a department of the Air Force when he was President. Apart from the odd logic of the Air Force fighting in places with no air, one intention is clearly to use violence to acquire lunar assets and benefits for the United States of America. At least this time round there will be no natives and Buffalo to slaughter; assuming they are not hiding on the far side of the moon.
Will a World Space Peace Treaty be conceived before star wars break out?
There is some optomism in the idea that many people no longer believe in using violence to solve problems. An example of this common sense are the students presently demonstrating on the lawns of Columbia University in New York, in sympathy with the oppressed Palestinian people. The compelling argument for such a new vision is that when war became ‘industrial’, it became toxic; nuclear, radiological, biological and chemical.
Loving life and hating killing machines does not imply hating any particular racial or religious group as some oponents argue.
In the sixteenth century soldiers used to dress up in smart uniforms, line up in ranks or ships and shoot each other. Nasty but consensual. Since the ‘industrial’ methods of war emerged in the twentieth century, the victims of war largely became non-consensual civilians. Whole cities were flattened without recourse to any apparent ethical imperative and since it’s use in the second World War, this tactic has been repeated in countries like Vietnam, Lybia, Georgia, Iraq, Syria, Ukraine and now Gaza. Industrial War uses attrition of the civilian population as a means to an end. I will suggest somewhat optimistically, that these examples are the last batch of evil against humanity by humanity. Because there is an alternative and it is called ‘soft war’.
Peace does not mean peace. In ‘peacetime’ some level of pan national aggression is taking place but in secret. Most States use this means in ‘peacetime’ to subvert other States. After the second World War this was called a ‘Cold War’. In the USSR long term strategies were initiated to acquire more States. This I describe in my blog called ‘The World is Spinning Out of Control’ published on 14th December 2022. To save you looking back,
I list the Soviet’s four stages of this process from ‘demoralisation’ to ‘destabilisation’ to ‘crisis’ to ‘normalisation’. In the 2020’s we are well into the ‘crisis’ era. Putin’s Russia in my view is just the USSR Lite.
For those who think the recent Covid 19 Sars 2 pandemic was a spontaneous health crisis, hopefully they have modified their view based on the hindsight of the evidence since then. I strongly believe the pandemic was a dress rehearsal in which future governments control populations against their will. China displayed this more blatantly than most other countries because that is what communism is good at. If you wonder why free thinking democracies used ‘lock down’ and ‘tracking’ contrary to their sacred principle personal freedom, we need to think beyond the official simplified narrative.
Control by governments of their citizens historically, used to be by the threat of force (Iran and other autocracies excepted) but there are more subtle althernatives. Money has always ‘made the world go round’ and soft war uses money as a primary tool. The application of sanctions by one nation over another is a slow process that puts pressure on populations long before governments are persuaded to change an offending policy. Presently all eyes are on digital currencies. As they transfer the power of purchase from governments to individuals, many state leaders are preparing national digital currencies. Once governments acquire control of their own population’s money, they are all powerful. No money, no dinner.
There are many other ways to bring populations to ‘crisis’ and it is happening now in ever increasing degrees. China is producing chemicals that make artificial opioids and flooding America with fentanyl; something the CCCP deny. Vast numbers of America citizens are now addicted to fentanyl. This drug is so harmful that President Biden has just signed off a law called the ‘Fend Off Fentanyl Act’.
‘Drugs and Alcohol’ because alcohol is not a drug – really?
Covertly undermining the health-hospitals-production-tax revenue, of nations using viruses and addictive harmful drugs is a clear example of ‘soft war’. In a liberal society, public safety measures and permitting populations the freedom to experience pleasure from drugs (legalising cannabis for instance), might be welcomed but the reality is frightening.
Even prescribed drugs can have a similar effect if delivered in large enough quantities, such as in a pandemic. ‘Excess deaths’ in the nations who licenced untested mRNA vaccines, have been inexplicably and worryingly high since 2020. Governments are not looking too deeply into why this has happened which raises a natural suspicion of what was really going on and why.
These are both perfect examples of ‘soft war’. In psychological terms they are ‘passive aggressive’ techniques producing a collective irrational fear of a problem such as disease. Humans are easy to ‘destabilise’ from their preferred condition of ‘tranquillity’ because we are not good at thinking. If we were, why would we ever put on a uniform and go off the commit a genocidal war, as thousands of Israeli’s are doing at this time? They who were the ‘prisoners’ in Nazi Germany are now the ‘guards’ in what they have left of Palestine. And if you do not understand this reference have a look at the ‘Stanford Prison Experiment’ on Wikipedia. Humans are easy to manipulate so that they think they are doing good when the opposite is the case. Not only the victims are manipulated but the oppressors too. The snake chases it’s tail.
The growing phenomenon of mass movements of refugees and economic migrants by legal and illegal means, is impossible to control. Mass movement of people over open borders into populations that are not welcoming, is both the product of complex factors such as climate change and, one must suspect, deliberate crisis creation to subvert sovereign states. The sight of governments arguing vehemently over migration such as within the European Union, brings much satisfaction to those who desire to covertly divide and conquer.
Who could be doing this? Well, The World Economic Forum for instance are notorious for stating ‘you will own nothing and you will be happy’. The clue is in their title…’World’. The World Health Organisation has likewise produced a plan that takes away a sovereign states right to decide how to protect the health of their own populations in a pandemic. The WHO will make the decisions for them;
“Member States of the World Health Organization have agreed to a global process to draft and negotiate a convention, agreement or other international instrument under the Constitution of the World Health Organization to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.” source: WHO website posting 23 June 2023
These and other soft war players do indeed have the world in their sights. Events such as climate change and the destruction of eco-systems worldwide will enable gaining assets and benefits of self serving ‘entities’, by non-violent means. Clearly, blaming the apparently uncontrollable ( such as ‘nature’ ) is a convincing way of cloaking covert methods of destabilising nation states. Despite well meaning conservation projects, humans have never intended to protect nature and it’s processes that support life on earth. If they had, action would have been taking place to stop it decades ago, in the same way that tobacco companies would have stopped selling cigarettes decades ago, if they had wanted to.
At the centre of all this complexity is the individual human. How can they be expected to understand the deep state and hidden cabals. Most humans are well behind the future curve of our species preferring life as it is. The ‘activist’ minority are also prey to covert manipulation. Instead of raising the roof to stop being cynically manipulated, activist groups, for instance, protest against the slavery of the nineteenth century, whilst ignoring modern slavery. There are those who complain against the loss of ‘black lives’ in the USA, whilst ignoring the supply of American made weapons and the killing of thousands in Haiti, on America’s doorstep. In fact there are racially predudicially discriminationing inspired genocides and pogroms all around the world in present time. But our anger against these is re-directed towards historical injustice and horrors, like the holocaust. History is as an oppurtunity to learn and forgive if we wish to keep our sanity. I cannot be responsible for the sins of my father, only my own.
Such shingle issue civil rights campaigners may not be fully aware of who has started and funded their organisations and what the true motives of their benefactors are. ‘Destabilisation’ and ‘crisis’ are easily achieved by creating well meaning protest movements that actual don’t make sense when the right questions are asked. Investigative journalists used to cover these stories but today their editors pull their punches and a good question is ‘why’?
It is apparently all to easy to get into the heads and their hearts of people and this is the most subtle and worrying aspect of soft war. As Artificial Intelligence looms menacingly, waiting to take over from heart centred humans, humans need to keep strict intellectual, rule based, control. War is increasingly being delivered by anonymous robots such as drones and unpiloted aircraft, in order that no service personnel are hurt and responsibility can be denied.
In a non-ethical, world ‘robot wars’ could be seen as the summit of success by those who believe violence within a species justifies the end.
And yet, ‘ethical concerns’ can ironically also become a cloak to disguise the overpowering of other states by non-violent means. China has displayed a mastery of this over the recent decades. It has used it’s massive wealth to enter foreign countries in Africa and around the world, offering to construct major infrastructure and lending poor nations the money to do it. When the port or whatever is completed, after a while, the other country finds it cannot repay the interest on the loan. China then offers to purchase the port or other project and completes it’s own agenda of using the port for commercial and military dominance.
This process has the same effect of acquiring the assets and benefits of another country in an apparently benign way. Indeed, it might be ethical if China did not ultimately intend to use these assets for military purposes. Looking at the size and sophistication of the Chinese Air, Land, Sea and Space Forces, it becomes obvious that such force will one day be used in offence.
Chinese Expansion picture credit: Research Gate
Russia is expanding (against ‘genocide in Georgia’ and ‘Nazis’ in Ukraine so all ‘legal’) in the same way. Their sights are also on the last great continent to be developed, Africa. By implanting mercenaries and aid into African countries to stabilised them. They are welcomed as many such as have become disillusioned with help from other states such as in French ex-colonies, like Niger.
War has not yet been perceived as moribund. In the same way that Chinese Shaolin monks learn martial arts that are completely ineffective against any firearm, so modern states display out of date weapons in their annual parades. Even the mighty aircraft carriers require a fleet to defend them from innovative methods of attack such as supersonic cruise missiles. The loss of a carrier to any nation would be catastrophe and their production and use, certainly under an ‘America First’ government, is a paper dragon. It is not likely to frighten those who know all about dragons.
Can we conclude that neither open violence nor passive aggression are acceptable in an peaceful world? The alternative was conceived by such historical world leaders as Mahatma Gandhi; to simply use the protest power of the people to alter harmful government policies.
In my view what is needed to stabilise human society before it spins out of control, is an axis of ethical commitment that is so strong it will prevent the world from wobbling. What that will be, we await to see but I expect it will involve, people centred leadership and a universal, spiritually inspired set of values.
The situation in the Middle East is spiralling out of control. The question leaders would do well to ask their advisers is ‘how do we de-escalate?’
The attack on the Iranian Diplomatic compound in Damascus, Syria, was almost certainly the work of the Israeli’s. They have not confirmed or denied this, probably because such an attack was not ‘self defence’ by any definition; unless ‘kill all your enemies’ is now defined as such.
The effect however, was to stir up the sleeping bear called Iran and it’s proxies. Why Israel wanted to do this is for them to answer.
Iran have retaliated a few days ago, with a demonstration of their ability to overwhelm Israeli air defences with decoy drones and missiles of various types. Naively, Israel thinks this was not just domestic crowd pleasing and sabre rattling, but a full on attack that they heroically repelled. This self congratulation is another indication of Israel getting it wrong. If nothing else, compare the costs of a drone and a missile to down it and simple arithmetic tells you that Israel could not defend itself against any repeated daily attacks from Iran. Not if your income is from tourism and oranges.
Israels next move might be another ‘retaliation’, thus sustaining a deadly game of international ping pong.
The situation is absurd.
The beginning of this conflict goes way back into the sands of time; even before the creation of Israel after the second world war by the Allies. The intention then was to create a pro-West fortress in the Middle East; particularly for protection of the Suez Canal. This was characterised as love and compassion for secular Zionist and religious Orthodox Israeli’s, after their attempted genocide in the second world war.
If you ask a class of Palestinian school children to write an essay on all the good things Israel has done for them and their families, they might be sucking on their pencils more than writing.
Love and compassion towards your neighbours has not been in Israel’s strategy book. So if the present government of Israel want to know what has caused so much hatred towards it’s people, the lack of love and compassion towards it’s neighbouring States since 1948, has to be at the top of the list.
So how should Israel proceed? In my essay entitled ‘Shalom, Salaam, Peace’ published on this site on 22 October 23 and written a week earlier, I cited the need for a proportionate response to the attack on Israel by Hammas on 7th October 23.
I said that the best tactic for Israel, was to send it’s Special Forces into Gaza to clear the buildings of Hammas fighters one by one. This would have protected innocent civilians and preserved the infrastructure for future habitation.
We know the opposite has happened.
It is not too late for the Netenyahu government to look back and remember what it’s stated aims are in this war. Number one is to get back the hostages taken by Hammas on 7th October and number two is to destroy Hammas.
I believe Israel now needs to forget about provoking Iran and focus on it’s original aims.
The Israeli Defence Force has shown itself to be the third rate Army described in my earlier essay and this is why so many civilians and so few Hammas fighters have been killed. Hostages have not featured in daily fighting except when IDF soldiers shot three waving a white flag.
Now would be a good time for the IDF to ask for support from Israel’s allies. Let us say there are five western countries prepared to send in one hundred Special Forces troops each; specialising in hostage retrieval. These can then start at one end of Gaza and using Intelligence led tactics, move through every building and tunnel until they reach the other side of Gaza. They will find hostages on the way and safely return them to Israel. The IDF could be used in a supporting role to occupy strategic positions as they are taken, stopping Hammas from filling up the vacuum.
The medieval siege tactics against civilians could end and urgent supplies allowed to pass into Gaza whilst this operation is taking place.
Clearing a city in this way is far safer than bombing it. The IDF have been fighting through rubble at an enemy that has had time to prepare defensive positions. An impossible task, even for competent soldiers.
Getting out the hostages is an achievable aim, destroying Hammas is not. Unfortunately, Israel chose a fight it could not win because small terrorist organisations such as Hammas, ISIS and Al Qaeda retreat and pop up somewhere else. Killing innocents, is the best way of recruiting enemies. Tragically, this is one of the few things the IDF have been good at.
Once the hostage aim has been achieved and a new government has been installed in Gaza, replacing Hammas and other organisations such as the Palestine Liberation Organisation; it will be possible to form new aims. This will hopefully be under a new Israeli government (with the present one under investigation for war crimes and historical allegations from before the war).
With support from other countries Israel, could aim to build a harmonious relationship with Palestine and it’s people. Until this is achieved, no participant in the present chaos, will know why it is doing what it is doing.
(almost a palindrome…the art of speaking backwards)
‘But I don’t want to go among mad people’, said Alice. ‘Oh you can’t help that,’ said the cat, ‘we are all mad here.’
…. extract from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
December 14th – the birthday of Brian
In the film ‘The Life of Brian’, when Brian was lying in a manger in Bethlehem, a group of exotic strangers with tall hats, entered the stable and started to offer him gifts. ‘Go away!’ repeatedly screams his mother. ‘But we come offering gifts,’ the magicians reply. ‘Gifts! Well why didn’t you say before!’
From birth, we are faced with a bewildering world. People are talking a language we do not understand. Later they arrange a religion for us to enter which we also do not understand. Then the poke us off to school to learn stuff we do not understand. Then we are sent off to work, until we are too old to understand. Then the great mystery wakes us up and we return from whence we came. The oddest thing is that we do not question any of this.
There is something that at a certain point in life, we would do well to understand; to look inside the Magi’s hat, so to speak. For most adults are similar to a placid audience about to watch a ‘magic show’. The magician has set up his props and practiced relentlessly until the show is seamless and the deceptions invisible to the untrained eye. The compliant audience follow the narrative and the hand gestures as if they know they have to in order for the deception to work. Sure enough, the final twist is more extraordinary than anyone’s wildest imagination. It’s a form of collective madness, but it’s fun. Like a joke, it gives us a jolt.
Recently, my dear mother died and I had to return to England for her funeral. The day after, I was sitting at London Airport for serveral hours in a somewhat depressed mood. ‘Departures Waiting’ is a compulsive merrygoround of brightly lit shops, overpriced restaurants and swathes of seating. Recently uncomfortable near horizontal chairs have been added in case you are too giddy or drunk to sit up properly. I watched my fellow passengers quizzically, for their high spirits indicated they believed they were ‘off’ on their long wished for, spring holiday in the sun. They imagined themselves sipping drinks on a beach or clubbing until the night wears thin, and had already begun to live the dream. When we arrived on the south coast of Spain, the weather was not as desired. For the next week it was windy, cold and constantly wet. It was weather that fitted my state of mind perfectly and made me think of those now, unhappy holiday makers huddled in their one star hotels playing endless rounds of cards.
‘The world is as it is’ is a simple truth but hard to realise. We tend to imagine the world is something else and mold our imaginations to fit our dream.
Once I stepped into a crowded underground train in London. There were no available seats except for one, on which a man had placed a goldfish in a polythene bag. I asked him to pick up his bag so that I could sit down. He refused saying that if he did that, the goldfish would die. I was not convinced by his conviction as he had clearly moved the fish already to get on the train, so I challenged him. His reply was the same. I decided to run with the surreal unreal. ‘Does the fish have a ticket?’ He didn’t take the bait on that hook but we continued to argue on his original fishocide position. Those around me were no doubt following this Socratean debate. A man behind me, got up and gave me his seat probably just to make me shut up. Was this kind man averse to nonsense or did he sacrifice his comfort in order to resume the ‘status qou’?
The late hypnotist and therapist Dolores Canon, spent much of her life travelling the world giving lectures and writing books on her work. She found that through hypnosis she could communicate with otherworldly entities, such as the great Nostradamus, connecting across time. One narrative given is that planet earth is presently undergoing a fundamental transition. Some souls will be able to see through the veils of secrecy of lies and tricks and frauds and take a completely new path in life; a path into what Dolores called ‘the New Earth’.
Now odd as this may sound without knowing Doloreses exemplary scientific methods, it may be obvious to readers that much in the modern western world is full of secrecy and lies and tricks and fraud. Politics is a good a example. Political parties in so called ‘democracies’ get randomly donated money to employ teams of persuaders, influencers, nudgers and even hypnotists to design their campaigns and write their speeches. The ‘Brexit’ campaign was designed and conducted in this manner, which is why those more level headed could not understand what the advantages of Brexit were and continue to be. It was all a fish; the infamous red herring.
The present build up to the elections in the United States of America should evoke a response in the average citizen voter;
‘I don’t want to vote for mad people.’
‘Oh, you can’t help that’, replies society, ‘we are all mad here.’
The world voluntarily followed (‘nothing to do with us’) China into a so called ‘pandemic’ based on a slightly harmful virus. We were told by governments across the globe that the situation was ‘unprecedented’ and the virus was deadly, despite the relatively small number of deaths compared to the normal daily death rate. The narrative of reversed common sense continued by insisting masks stopped transmission, cash spread the disease and door handles did not. Vitamin D was good for the immune system and stay indoors…etc. etc. Various novel and untested ‘vaccines’ were the solution to, what was in reality, an imaginary problem. Perhaps the phantom memory of the Black Death and so called Spanish Flu was invoked from the smoke of the cauldron of lies. If you could go back in time, you would see that those were real pandemics, killing half the population of some countries.
During the pandemic in communist China, citizens had to get a green ‘tested clear’ screen on their phones by taking a constant merry-go-round of tests every forty eight hours. The charade was absurd and only a small number of people saw through the illusion at the time at the risk of losing their jobs, fines and prison.
If you have a reflective and analytical mind, you might have been unconvinced by this carnival of absurd narratives and masked figures parading down the centre of your city like the Rio de JaneiroCarnaval on steroids!
If you are still following, let’s return to white rabbits and top hats. Clearly the only person who ever understands the magic tricks presented to the public, is the magician. We the audience, have no idea how to produce a white rabbit from an apparently empty top hat. Magicians are normal people, except that they know how to take ‘power’ from others. The audience sits open mouthed because they have given away their observational and thinking faculties (their power) to a devious stranger.
We all have the means to take back our power from whoever and whatever is trying to decieve us…even if it takes decades. If we are not in the dream, then we cannot be manipulated by it. This is the answer to those who ask ‘what is the meaning of life?’ Life in a lunatic asylum has no meaning. Only those with a truly objective view from high above the clouds might see the slights of hand and madness.
This following paragraph is distressing but real. In the Crocus City Hall in Moscow recently, gunmen shot dead at least 137 members of the audience and injured many more. These were people who had entered the hall for an entertaining evening, as they have done many times before. They would never have expected the horror that confronted them. The headline on ABC News is, ‘Moscow theatre shooting fans flames of a disinformation war.’ Not only did the audience anticipate nothing of the horror of that night but afterwards, governments produced ‘disinformation’ supporting their different versions of the facts.
A macabre example of ‘waking up’ to end this essay but a necessary prod in the ribs because we are all guilty of sleep walking through most of our lives.
In a mad back to front world, it is logical to refer to a ‘fairy story’ for a breath of common sense. Sleeping Beauty is a story familiar to most of us and yet it has a deeper provenance and meaning. In ancient Egypt, the god Osiris is killed by his evil son Seth and placed into a coffin and then a tree. This represents Osisris experiencing a life in a material body on earth. He sleeps whilst in the tree as does Sleeping Beauty for they are both unaware that they are dreaming and mistake dreams for life. In the case of Osiris it is his wife Isis, who discovers him and puts his broken body back together. Similarly, Sleeping Beauty is restored with a kiss from an enlightened being; her prince.
The tales are dark, as is any tale of murder, and yet we lovingly narrate them to our children and let their unconscious minds piece together the ageless wisdom and truth in the story.
The process of learning or ‘waking up’ is a mystery to most, but in present times, the cry to us all is just that, and wake up before you die, not afterwards.
The theatrical tricks and wobbling scenery that we witness daily, should be forcing us to ask the question;
There is a tradition in England to bake special buns at the end of the Christian period of Lent. These are characterised by a white cross symbolising the cross on which, they believe, Jesus the Christ was crucified.
We are familiar with one of the meanings of the word cross is ‘annoyance’. Insignificant in itself but keep it in mind as you read on.
When I was a young student of architecture in London, we had lectures on the philosophy of architecture. I was greatly influenced by an American anthropologist named John Steel, whose philosophy of life in general appeared innovative and exciting to me. He said, for instance, that we should be wary of using right angles in our designs. He sited the geometry of astrology where an angle of 90 degrees indicates a clash, as does 180 degrees. In contrast, the angles of 60 and 120 degrees are harmonious.
I set about designing with architectural plans based on equilateral triangles. Other tutors cited the work of the great American architect Frank Llyod Wright who used this grid extensively. His buildings are greatly valued today for their harmonious relationship with nature and an ambience of content.
In the Chinese order of landscape and building design known as Feng Shui, the corner created by a right angle is called a ‘poisoned arrow’ and needs careful mitigation.
What this is leading up to is an invitation to consider the universal symbol of the cross; two lines that cross each other at right angles. It might be that it is not so benign a symbol after all; if only because it is a depiction of the causing extreme death of a human being.
The symbol of the cross is of course far older than Christianity, whether on the diagonal, vertical or the many other variations.
We should also remember the variation of the spinning cross known as the Swastika and it’s modern association with Facism. The spinning cross was a symbol of the sun for ancient cultures all over world. The Nazi’s reversed it’s direction in a doubtless, intentional Satanic reference because they studied and practiced spirituality for it’s power.
Jesus the Christ called himself ‘the light of the world’ and ‘the son of God’; but we rely on translations for this and it is possible that he came as the solar deity whom the ancient Greeks named Appollo. If modern day Christians are uncomfortable with this association then they are invited to read deeper into this subject.
Whether or not any of the above is absolutely true or relevent is not my thesis. Suffice to say that the crossing of straight lines is generally, a male and solar symbol.
Historically, much of mankind’s evolution over the last millenia, has been male or solar in character and I would argue that it is natural we would expect history to be filled with accounts of male humans fighting; war, opposition.
What was desperate to happen, in terms of human evolution, was the rise of the complimentary feminine principle known as the Divine Feminine. For we are not so bound by our religious dogmas today as to deny that God is equally female and male. The old stereo type of a white bearded ‘nice guy’ needs to be put into the ‘no longer believable box’. Humans were made in the image of the Divine male and the Divine female. Their physical bodies hold more in common than difference meaning the two genders have more in common than difference and are complementary in nature.
The power and relevance of the divine feminine appears in ancient Egypt. Their pantheon is a full of female gods as well as male. Isis and Osiris almost share the same name and are depicted, just as Mary and Joseph, with a divine child from their union.
This balanced recognition of Divinity as a whole ‘yin and yang’ complimentaryness should have informed all of human endeavour to the present day but sadly, the alpha-male energy jumped ahead of the game.
There were exponents of this Divine androgeny based on ancient Egyptian texts, the Greek Cabala and Jewish Cabala and Hermiticism, but they had to operate as a secret society. They were the Rosicrucians whose symbol was a vertical cross with a rose at it’s centre. The meaning is clear; that of a combination of male and female Divine energies forming a Unity.
At a similar time came another religion based on the house of Abraham, Islam. Whilst today many Islamic cultural dogmas (such as dress codes) are based on tribe and tradition. In countries like Iran, enforcement of dress codes if enforced more for male power than to solve any problem. Early Islam was a beacon of feminine influence in society at many levels such as architecture and art. Sufi poets aspired loving feelings towards a soft and nuturing, Creator. Islamic architecture is renowned for it’s flowing depictions of nature and it’s geometric patterns. Courtyards and landscapes were intended as earthly depictions of paradise and were characterised by soft flowing waters and fountains. The contemplative, reflecting, geometric ponds in the Alhambra Palace and castle in Spain, were invitations for reflection and enjoying the solar heat from the cool embrace of shadowed courtyards.
Islam was and is, fundamentally, a lunar religion, still represented today by it’s use of the lunar rather than the solar calendar and it’s use of the crescent moon as a symbol.
This ‘feminine principle’ was carried by returning crusaders and travelling troubadours to the Christian Europe as chivalry. Many of the Crusader knights learnt from Islam the importance of respecting women and the essence that women contained and expressed in enchanting, subtle ways. This sea change should not be underestimated as it continues to inform and revolutionise the feminine principle in modern societies; expressed as ‘feminism’ in modern politics but culturally is far more profound.
The ‘Round Table’ of King Arthur was a practical representation of the sharing of power amongst equals. This replaced the Alpha-male monarch of previous centuries who killed all who opposed him. The circle is a geometric form which expresses harmony and potential infinite expansion and/or introspection. It is a planet and a universe all at once and has none of the negative values associated with a cross. But most of all, it is the maternal womb and the expression of the greatest thing that the Divine Feminine has to offer; completion and life.
It is today, in many European and other progressive countries, that women have been given principle parts to play in the affairs of government and social order. Their plain speaking and intuitive understanding of complexity, is in contrast to the previous male dominated ways. As leaders they have become highly respected, such as Ursula Gertrud von de Leyen in the European parliament.
So may we this Spring season of renewal, view the ending of the male, solar dominated world (open to all to view across North America as a solar eclipse on 8th April 2024) and welcome those gifts that the Divine feminine brings to us in abundance; the natural world, procreation love and an end to those hot cross males!
The Solar Eclipse; a moment for feelings or fiesta?
At some point in it’s evolution, humanity has to decide whether to accept violence or not.
At present, it appears we accept violence within certain rules. We say that if you did not initiate the violence, then you can be violent towards the aggressor, to any degree. This is called ‘self defence’ and few can think of an alternative. But why should defence be more morally right than attack? Can either be justified? What is the difference, morally?
Suppose you were a citizen of the United States of America and you own a gun and know how to use it. You are woken in the middle of the night by a noise downstairs. You arm yourself and go down to investigate. You see a dark figure and shoot. At this moment you believe you are acting in self defence, as is your right. You switch on the lights and to your horror you see the body of your teenage son lying on the floor. He was creeping back into the house after a secret night drinking with his friends. This is not fiction. This happens.
Just because the law enables a gun to be the solution to your ‘problem’, was this the only solution? Were there other more proportionate actions you could have taken? Yes, you could have switched on the light before you shot at a higher risk to your own life, or you could have called the police. You could have just done nothing. Each approach is problematic but only one invites heart break.
I lived in a country where only specialist police carry guns, England. Good peace keepers should be skilled at talking down a potentially violent situation. It’s a technique and can be learnt. Now many officers carry a Taser non-lethal gun as well as non-lethal CS gas. Non-lethal is a practical half way to non-violence.
Between attack and defence there are a thousand grey variations. The best option is always somewhere between total war and total defence; not either or. Ultimately they both are characteristics of the same thing; violence.
Fortunately most sovereign countries do not attack each other and a state of peace exists. But we know that peace is a fragile situation, where historical, economic and political rivalry bubbles away under the surface like a dormant volcano. Violence has to be contained for peace to exist and this is created using ‘deterrence’. Joining forces with another group of nations is one method of deterring attack. Not being a threat is another and here we realise that it is impossible to deter another nation without them being scared of you. Russia is presently in this conundrum with it’s relationship to NATO countries.
We watched as Russia reached a tipping point and claimed that Ukraine had a Fascist army. Historically, the communists (Soviet Union) and fascists (Nazi Germany) were enemies and this history still clearly carries some import as ‘justification’. By fighting ‘fascists’ Putin possibly feels he has his predecessors moral high ground on his shoulder. Coupled with a perceived threat from an expanding NATO and Ukraine moving towards joining the European Union; Putin is clever though and he does not use the word ‘war’ or ‘attack’. He insists he is acting in ‘self defence’ to NATO’s growing threat and his military action is just a ‘special operation’.
Words are master deceivers and suit Putin well. Because two words, ‘attack’ and ‘defence’ are the same thing; a resort to violence is claimed to be justified.
Zionist politicians in Israel have more or less done the same thing. They have an historical antagonism towards the people of Palestine whom they have been squeezed into smaller and smaller enclaves. Any similarity between this and the Warsaw Ghetto in the Second World War is of course, purely coincidental. The question is whether Palestinian or Isaraeli fighters are defending their country by attacking their neighbour. Defence quickly escalates into violent action that can get wildly out of control. The question of ‘proportionate’ use of violence (an eye for an eye) is the current debate.
So how can non-violence ever replace violence? The answer is it probably can’t whilst humans are attached to a materialistic and territorial lifestyle which they guard with weapons. In this respect humans are less sophisticated morally than most animals who rarely fight their own species to the death.
We learn to deal with violent conflict as children in the school playground. When we become adults we are expected to rise above violence as a solution to problems.
Two boys start fighting in the playground. A huddle of eager spectators quickly forms around them. These bystanders are too immature to try to pull the boys apart and instead encourage them. A stronger third party with moral responsibility for order is required; a teacher.
The teacher breaks up the mob and marches the two boys off to the headmasters office.
‘He started it!’ is a common defence from children. Their false logic is that when attacked there is no other response than a defensive counter attack. There is usually an option to run.
If we change the scale of our example, to that of governments and countries, you will find that ‘he started it!’ is also used as a justification for the use of violence by sovereign states. Only a third party intervention from a body with higher moral and political authority has the power to stop and settle wars. After the horrors of the second world war the League of Nations and subsequently United Nations was created to step into this role. The objective voice of world opinion should, in theory, make the warring parties ‘see sense’ and the more mature aim of seeking a peaceful resolution.
The United Nations and the United States of America, could go to the preesnt Israeli Zionist government and point out that killing innocent women and children in Gaza is morally unjustifiable. Putin could be hauled into the headteacher’s office by the United Nations, but has not.
Mahatma Gandhi lead a nation using moral authority based on non-violence. He wanted the British to leave India and for Indian people to govern themselves. His tactics using moral discipline, diplomacy and example turned out to be more powerful than the military might of the British Raj.
War was described by Carl von Clausewitz as ‘ the extension of politics by other means.’ Personally, I would be more precise and describe war as the extension of politics by violent means. This creates the logical possibility that peace is the extension of politics by peaceful means.
Of course, peace is an abstract idea and never completely exists but there is a place close to total peace which might be reached using skilled, non-lethal force.
To use a personal example, when I was a boy at school, I never sought to fight. When I was inevitably confronted aggressively, I stepped forward, put my leg behind the thigh of the aggressor and pushed him to the ground. Yes, it was violent but it only hurt a bully’s pride.
This was the extension of politics by peaceful means, meaning no one was hurt. Later in life I came across Aikido. This an unusual martial art in that it enables winning a fight without confrontation. For this reason it requires no strength and is ideal for women and the elderly.
An interesting example was given me by one of the teachers. He was on an ice-rink when he felt a hand going into his pocket and pulling out his wallet. Instinctively he grabbed the wrist of the thief and continued the forward movement of the pickpocket’s body. The result was to send him rapidly across the ice rink. In Aikido, the art is to avoid conflict using simple non-aggressive moves that eventually tire out or restrain the opponent until help arrives or submission.
City dwellers would do well to learn the tactics of pickpockets even if they do not feel able to defend themselves physically. Usually they work in teams in crowded places and choose victims carefully. This is done by the ‘spotter’. Then the thief moves in using much the tactics of the illusionist in a theatre to distract and act deftly. Then a third party intervenes by preventing escape or creating another distraction.
Governments would do well to learn from these examples at a micro scale of conflict. Having a clear aim is vital to managing any violent unsolicited action. The method of conducting the conflict and ending it with minimum force and casualties for both attacker and defender and vital. Fast and deft military moves have time and time again proved their worth on battle fields.
When Napoleon wanted to teach the Zhar of Russia a lesson for breaking their pact of unity in 1812, he formed an army and headed for Moscow. Contrary to most other opponents Napoleon had fought, the Russians did not line up and wait to be shot or cut down by flanking cavalry. Instead they conducted an extraordinary retreat, burning everything in their wake. Only when Napoleon reached Moscow did they choose their moment to swiftly counter attack. Napoleon’s army fled in disarray and only 5% of the original army returned to France.
Sun Zhu in his famous book on military tactics said, ‘engage with the ordinary, win with the extraordinary’. A little side stepping and originality can nimbly avoid a cataclysmic confrontation like Ukraine v Russia. ‘Give some ground,’ is one solution.
Special forces, such as the British Commando’s came to the forefront of military tactics in the Second World War, where small teams of four men used guerilla tactics against an unprepared enemy. Casualties for the attacking side were minimal compared to strategic gain.
Ultimately the choice is not whether to attack or defend but to avoid unecessary violence by what ever means possible. There are always alternatives that require imagination and focused problem solving techniques in exactly the same way the animals avoid killing their own species. There is no ‘perfect’ state of non-aggression where humans in their present terratorial state of consciousness are concerned. Perhaps in the future, peace will break out and violence will never be the preferred problem solving option. In the words of , ‘what if there was a war and nobody came.’
“Ah! There is the rub.”
A Samurai was famous throughout his kingdom for his skill in battle and duels. This notoriety inevitably brought unwanted attention in the form of young swordsman. They were all eager to beat this Samurai and steal his fame and title.
One day the Samurai was on a large trading ship with a number of other passengers. As he stood staring at the water, he was approached by an impetuous young swordsman. He immediately challenged the Samurai to a duel amidst a string of insults. The Samurai looked him up and down and said he was busy. The young swordsman became more effusive so the Samurai agreed to a duel on an island they were passing. He told the young man to get into the small boat being towed by the ship and they would fight on the island. The swordsman immediately slipped down the rope and looked up expectantly. The Samurai cut the rope with his sword and the young man spun away in the wake of the ship.
When I was in my first year at University I used to have debates with my parents about the harm made by internal combustion engines. Their reply was that if I did not approve of cars why do I ride in them? The answer was of course that at that time there was no alternative; unless you lived in cities. In London I rode my bicycle with a sign on the back saying ‘no noise, no fumes’ for a decade.
Fifty years later I have won my argument. London has introduced ‘low emission zones’ having recognised that the air pollution from vehicles is harmful to the health of it’s inhabitants.
When I retired in Spain I bought a Spanish made electric bicycle. At first it was great but after five years the battery had lost so much of it’s capacity to fully charge that I had to buy a new one. This cost me about a third of what I had paid for the bicycle. Then the computer had a problem and no e-bike specialist knew how to fix it and the BH factory was closed because of the pandemic. When the motor broke I took my bike down to the recycling centre and said goodbye to it. Never has a bicycle caused me so many problems.
Interestingly, many e-car owners are going through the same experience, only worse. They have invested considerably more money in an e-car than the cost of a bicycle and their anxieties must be proportionately larger.
Properganda or Proper Policy?
I will not list all the of the problems they face but here are a few;
*Recharging the batteries; those without a private drive will find it hard or impossible to charge in the street. Already pavements in cities have electric cables running across the pavement from homes to e-cars overnight.
*Recharging is expensive; unless you are recharging at home using your own photo voltaic panels, you will pay for your electricity.
*Mains electricity at home is not green electricity. In Spain mine is mainly produced by nuclear and gas fired power stations. Only 5% of my electricity is from renewable sources.
*Electricity sent to users via a national grid is highly inefficient, losing about 80% of the energy from the original source. Local power production will one day replace this but not yet.
*Electric cars are cheaper to maintain than internal combustion cars but there is not yet the infrastructure and technicians in place to repair broken e-cars.
*Electric cars are heavy and need expensive tyres.
*Electric car tyres put out more particulate matter into the air than diesel cars produce from their exhaust.
*Electric cars are heavy and some multi-storey car parks and car ferries may have to be redesigned.
*Lythium ion batteries have a risk of spontaneously combusting.
*Drivers of electric cars experience ‘distance anxiety’. For longer trips they will have to stop and find a charging point. While these are being increased in number, there is no strategic control over the number of these points and customer demand. Waiting for a recharge is not satisfactory for people in a hurry.
*If there is a traffic jam for any reason, e-car users could find themselves running out of electricity and being powerless (literally) to do anything about it. Apart from planned road closures and random accidents, extreme weather such as freezing blizzards can stop the traffic and cause deaths. Keeping the lights and heater on is not an option for e-car users.
*As one third of a cars energy consumption in it’s lifetime is consumed in it’s production. It makes sense therefore to make cars that last a long time. A diesel engine can do a million miles as often London taxis do before some are sent off to California for an overhaul and new life. The lifetime of new e-cars is unknown but certainly the batteries will the first to be replaced and that raises the question of where new rare earth materials are going to ethically sourced from…the moon?
At present, many e-car users are in the ‘honey-moon’ phase of ownership but already some are questioning whether their choice was really such a good one.
Car producers are also going through the same questioning process. Major companies such as Ford, General Motors, Apple and Volkswagen are applying the brakes.
It is without question that personal transport (outside of cities) is not going to go away. We love our cars and the convenience, privacy and comfort they provide. With the approach of the era of the self drive cars, users will be able to sit back and enjoy the ride…until a pesky teenager deliberately steps out in front of the car (just for a laugh) and forces an emergency stop…or a car jacker on a lonely road at night! Making moral decisions based on appearance of those stopping cars, is still over the horizon for AI. Does it recognise a police officer in uniform?
And then if you are used to driving over the speed limit (as most drivers are except when they approach a clearly signed speed enforcement camera) then you will find your journey times extended as your AI dutifully follows the traffic laws.
In the meantime drivers are left with the internal combustion engine. There are stories of some drivers who bought e-cars dusting off their old diesels and selling the Tesla.
Toyota appear to be the most ‘customer need’ focused car production company and have asked themselves the question; ‘how can we make the internal combustion engine green?’
Toyota Hydrogen Car
One answer is to use hydrogen as a combustible gas using electrolysis to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. I remember watching this being done on a science television programme back in the 1970’s and thinking then – ‘that is the future’. I was not wrong.
There are nuances regarding how ‘green’ hydrogen production is and the infographic below describes this.
There is another alternative fuel which is ammonia. This is a main component of many fertilisers and is a chemical made of hydrogen and nitrogen (NH3). It can be burnt in a combustion engine as a zero carbon fuel.
This essay has focused on electric cars but clearly heavy transport by train, ship and goods vehicles are substantial polluters are the moment. Hydrogen has always been a preferred route for the development of engines of the future for moving heavy goods around the world.
Science tends to have a momentum of it’s own. New inventions often take the lead in how society uses them and evolves. This new ‘green transport’ debate, raises the questions of how much the government provides subsidies for new enterprises and how important planet sustainability is believed to be by various governments around the world.
If these decisions are devolved to industry leaders it is likely that little will be done as we have observed over the last five decades or so, when ‘global warming’ was first highlighted as an issue. Politicians such as Margaret Thatcher took a very forward looking view as to the health of the planet and the effect of unrestrained industrial production and consumption. Private enterprise so far has followed the policy of ripping the planet apart. Only now is this policy biting back.
Perhaps today, it is down to the individual to vote with their feet. Move into a city, use public transport or a bicycle. Or move to the countryside and fit photo voltaic cells and solar water heaters to your house. Or just do nothing.
Once upon a time the world was covered in forests. People lived in these forests happily until one dreadful day a war started.
The people in one particular forest were badly persecuted by their enemy. Most of their trees were cut down and the people died in great numbers as they could not survive without the bounty of nature. By the end of the war only one man survived, called The Hunter.
The Hunter
The kind people from all over the world felt sorry for the Hunter. They decided to send him to the very best forest in the world known as the Holy Forest. It was for him to look after and live in peace with the forest animals for the rest of his life.
The Hunter was very pleased and quickly set to work building himself a timber house in a clearing. The forest animals watched from their hiding places and wondered how the Hunter had been allowed to live in their Holy Forest. One day the Hunter walked out with his axe and started to chop down trees. He chopped and he chopped all day long until the clearing was very much bigger. The forest animals who lived in those trees ran away to their friends and family and hid in fear.
As the months and years went by, the Hunter carried on chopping down trees until there was only a tiny part of The Holy Forest left. The animals were hiding anywhere they could find but could not avoid the bullets from the hunter’s gun.
They could not understand why he hated them, so they sent the largest of the bears to warn him to stop – and fight him if he refused. The Hunter did not want to talk with the bear so the bear scratched his face very badly and blood poured out. The man grabbed his gun in a rage and shot the bear dead.
Now the forest animals were very frightened and hid in their burrows and up in the trees. In a rage The Hunter shouted that he was going to kill every living creature and that was all their fault for sending the bear. He took out his axe and cut down the remaining trees, shooting the forest animals one by one for they had nowhere to run.
The kind people of the world had been watching the Hunter all this time. Although they protested at what he was doing, they never stopped him. When they saw that the Holy Forest was gone and the ground was littered with the bones of the forest animals, they were shocked.
They could not understand how someone who lost his own people’s forest could destroy another one gifted to him in peace, especially one so holy. When they asked him he flew into a rage and accused them of being friends of the bear who cut his face and he pointed to his scars. His sense of self righteousness knew no limits and his eyes flashed anger and hatred at them.
So they walked away, and it started to rain on the once Holy land and the Hunter had no animals to hunt, no kind friends to look after him and only a wasteland in his memory.
He realised then that he had done exactly the bad things that had been done to his people without knowing what he was doing. ‘Bad things happen to make us wise,’ he thought, ‘when all the time I blamed others. Now I understand my actions were filled with fear and hatred but it is too late’. And the Hunter laid down his gun and collapsed. He had broken the sacred law to only do as you would be done by, and to break this law in a holy place was an end of honour for his fallen people and himself.
Most of us live ‘out there’. We see and feel our skin as the join between us and ‘that’; whatever ‘that’ is. For more and more people, the outside world is being discovered to be ‘not what it seems’ or in common parlance ‘fake’.
Films like The Matrix trilogy highlight the idea that what we look at is no more than some sort of construction. But who is making this illusory world?
In medieval times, before psychiatry and psychoanalysis, it was a widely held hypothesis that a being called God made the world and us. God therefore, had to be responsible for the running of human and if that gave you a problem you had an option to pray. Prayer was the only way humans were able to feel they had a say in the matter or else they abandoned themselves to kismet or fate. Both are soft options and unrealised humans, like soft options.
Mystics however held a different view, from times well before the Essenes and their Star pupil, Jesus the Christ. Mystics never believed in the story of an all controlling, Commander in Chief, deity. Instead they experienced directly a love of ‘God within’. As beings made ‘in the image of God’ (the literal consequence of what we now call fractal geometry) we are indeed God or as the poet and mystic Rumi said, a fragment of the mirror of God that shattered into countless pieces. We are, in other words, a shell within which energy and Mind (which is not us) are facilitated.
Picture a movie projector plugged into the electric wall socket and a light shining within the magic box. Out of the eye of this box are projected moving images in a most compelling way.
Because of a certain suseptability within the human mind, our attention becomes fixed on the world ‘out there’. Our attention moves from ‘here’ and ‘this’ (Self), to outside ourselves and we are transported to wherever and whatever (ego). So ‘ordinary life’ revolves around us in a merry go round that we call ‘experience’. Indeed it is because of our growing addiction to this series of dream sequences, that life can become a blur. In modern times the spinning world appears faster than ever and in a way and as a consequence, many feel overwhelmed by a lack of clarity and control. But there is a mechanism by which we can halt the confusion.
The ancient Greeks had an interesting take on how the human eye works. Whilst today we describe the eye as a camera or receiver of light, the ancient Greeks understood it as a projector. They thought the eye projected light, but perhaps they were describing how the process of mental projection works? Could it be that they intuited the idea that we create everything we see?
Quantum physics tells us that we are able to affect what we see by being an observer. The conundrum of Schroedinger’s cat imagines two realities present at the same time. Until the human observer makes a choice, the cat is both alive and dead.
When Jesus the Christ preached, ‘you are the light of the world’ he meant that we hold the power within ourselves to be not only our own light (God), but able to illuminate the whole universe. We hold tremendous power and he demonstrated this with miracles. Moses did the same when one of his followers walked into the rising tide of the Red Sea to certain death…except instead reality shifted and the waters receded. Parting waters was one of the many spectacular ‘tricks’ in ancient Egyptian magic.
We know that in Ancient Egypt the so called ‘Emerald Tablets’ of the demi-god Thoth or Djbuti instructed all beings to ‘seek light’. This is not as simple a process as it sounds of course. The illusion of reality is strong and shadows and false figures have to be ruthlessly eliminated in what mystics call ‘the hero’s journey’. The archetype of the hero as a warrior on the physical plane is nothing compared to the life long war of mystics and seers for understanding of themselves or enlightenment. This inner battle is the true and only meaning of the Islamic ‘Jihad’, whereby the veils that cover the inner light are tantalisingly removed, represented by the dance of the seven veils and the tantalising feeling of the hidden essence.
It is important to understand how all of this can apply to our own modern lives. One of the great ‘inhibitors’ to the removal of the veils is, ironically, religion. I shall not name and shame any particular religion because they are probably all guilty in my view.
How religion interrupts and corrupts the ‘hero’s journey’, is by promoting the description of the world as being ‘out there’. Most distracting of all is the notion that the saints and the angels and the Divine are all ‘out there’.
We might smile at the Renaissance painting of an old man sitting on a cloud today, as the archetypal God, but such a distortion of reality is still widely believed. Prayers are offered ‘to God’ as if such a being has both the time and interest in our self obsession. ‘You get on with it!’ one might hear a Divine voice command dismissively. Certainly in Christianity, humans were given ‘freewill’ at the beginning in the Garden of Eden, as a punishment rather than a gift. This Divine curse means we are always ‘on our own’.
If it sounds like heresy that God may not listen to prayers, then you are probably missing the point. Prayer was never intended to benefit a Universal Mind because God is by definition, complete in every way. Prayer is a mechanical process whereby a human mind can open paths to the human Soul, using those words that are not of one’s ego. Muslims are compelled to pray five times a day because it stops the ego in it’s tracks and can send our concentration inward. The body is bent in submission and the forehead (brow chakra) touches the ground. The arrogance of the ego is positioned (in Sajda) lower than the heart chakra, where Soul resides.
This process of ‘submission’ is found in most gnostic practises as a way of overcoming the constant demands of the lesser self (ego) and becoming aligned with the higher self (Self).
The words of the prophets to ‘know thyself’ are a hint to what today we might call ‘therapy’ or ‘psychoanalysis’. But these will not take you to a destination. They are principally an unveiling of an archetypal journey which is to travel inward to one’s higher Self, with skip in your step.
Body, Mind, Spirit and Heart on the Golden Road to the Wizard of Self picture credit Pacific Standard
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