SYNERGY-NET on http://www.wiredbrain.net/ pflaump@cfl.rr.com RE: Democracy and Survival; Gnothi Seauton (Know thyself) All life has a few clear and central design functions. The goal of life is to eat, reproduce, and grow within its niche (environment). The human animal is no different except it has created a complex and powerful Cultural science and technology. Normal evolution takes a long time for the progressive changes to effect population norms. These slow changes allow an adaption to new dangers, perils and opportunities. Cultural technology (Income taxes, cars, social security, bond and money markets, computers, corporations, space travel, mass communications, public education, hospitals, psychology, International Associations, Scientific enterprises, biochemistry, atomic energy, military systems, spies, T.V. preachers, etc.) these new social creations have propel us every more quickly in the last few hundred years to bump into the limits of growth. The contact with limits has a pathological impact and generates a lot of denial. It is the syndrome of death and dying - denial, then anger before acceptance can set in. We are in a cultural trance, asleep. People act like machines, they are done to; and can do little in themselves. Event "just happen". The forces of nature act upon society and individuals like the wind, the rain and snow. It is a grand illusion to think we have control. Humans are unaware of the forces that control their lives. They are hypnotized by convention and run on auto-pilot. As our societies are using culture and technology to punch the limits of growth beyond the capacity of the systems to adjust, we go along fro the ride. Evil enters our souls, because we do not want to face the reality of our situation. In the mad passion to avoid the truth we attack others and harm ourselves. Projections of internal sadness become violent hate of others. Our times have been called the "Age of the Anxious, Apprehensive,( fearful, distrustful, suspicious,) Artificial and Annoyed", Alone, suffering from anomie, "The discontent", loss of cumunity, family, civic virtue, the land of the false faces, trash as art, the Intelectual Wasteland, where "true Believers" sell cults that ring hollow because of fallacious reasoning. Any set of fixed ideas is likely to be false; democracy, free enterprise (capitalism), environmental conscience, evangelical right, liberal left, socialism, communism, but some are more fraudulent so than others. People have little sense of the realities of space (They are in a cultural bond, or box, or pit) and time perceptions are too short to see the feedback of their collective actions. Socialization produces a common (collective) illusion. We believe we actually are perceiving reality. The romantic belief that large (too human) populations can grasp the path they are on and the results of their behavior - leads to distractions, destructions, and foreordain ruin! Hooray we proclaim for the victory of free markets and democracy which is sending our culture and ourselves to a painful end. We are so proud of our foolishness and blind ambition, limited vision, and stupid greed. We are fools being controlled by fools - in no way can popular democracy and commercial values make the future anything but worse. DEMOCRACY has, alas, over the last couple of centuries produced a mass culture bent on self-isolation, a lack of awareness of who we are and where we live. - To change the evolution of the human animal requires a Change of Mind ( METONIA= In Greek means repentance, among other things) and self-knowledge - self- awareness that is less automatic, self-remembering a self before and beyond our socialization. Our belief that we are knowledgeable in the way things actually are keep us in prison, false beliefs are so strong that few escape to a "higher sense of reality". Wisdom = information (knowledge + Understanding) Mass media and mass education has made the situation worse or even impossible for democracy to stand a chance. The first thing we have to give up is the Illusion of Democracy and liberal freedom and capitalism. Only a special elite can have any chance of "see things for the way they are" not as we think they are - objective reality requires a sense of things unseen and unknown within the current context - (superman) What we see and know is too limited in time and space. We are the captives of our sense perceptions - even vastly augmented by a scientific culture, our world view is too limited in space (cultural limits) and time. PAY ATTENTION - get your self out of your own face - STOP talking to yourself. (who cares?) I have said about Haiti - they never have had the renascence, the Age of Enlightment, the growth of the middle class, industrial revolution, labor movement, or liberal Democracy. They live in dreams, superstitions, magic and limited world views. But this is almost just as true of all of us. Democracy is more than an election - it is pluralism - independent institutions and people. Where are our independent thinkers and institutions. We now live in a mass dream world of O.J. Simpson, soap opera talk shows, commercials, corruption and a public school system without values, goals, traditions, not only FAMILY VALUES but political, civic, educational, business, financial, and religious all down the old tube - booby tube. We have a major crisis which almost no one is aware - WAKE-UP. The false and romantic belief that large (too human) populations can grasp the path they are on - leads to distraction, destruction, and doom! We ride on a ship of arrogant fools - no way it can become better it can only get worse, DEMOCRACY is a illusion, a wall, we are afraid of what we know - we say the Politically Correct words because we are afraid of the truth - about ourselves, our culture, our future, the children, think of the children - True conseratives have never believed in democracy. So much of friendly fascist follow the Walt Disney style, you will be happy and follow instructions - the leaders of wisdom (information + understanding) of today don't sound so hot - Authoritian solutions will be popular - only the liberal elite really believe in the illusion of democracy - and they are loosing their faith. But as unpleasant and unlikely as new authoritian regimes are - what are the alternatives? The Founding Fathers had a healthy distrust of popular democracy. Limited government by representives of the best people. Where are the best people? Small is better. How about really trying the constitution system? Federalism? A blind animal- the "masses" without reason pushing the environment to its limits and beyond? The Tao is a final condition of chaos - more walled towns and developments - I'm all right Jack - in my walled fort - the microbes and prisons - will take care of "THEM" -we look to war, plague, poverty, HAITI of the world - Central Africa - India - Indonesia - Brazil - Salvador - Chicago - LA - it spreads and our child children take drugs and have babies - The Brothers and Sisters take drugs and have babies - The Brotherhood of the Seekers of Truth (fakirs, yogis and monks) is not there to save us - the leaders of wisdom could become the doers of wisdom Please wait . . . Love Peter-- Document filing being completed --Do you want to send this now [Y/N]? ************************************************************ Peter E. Pflaum Ph.D. *INSTITUTE FOR HUMAN RESOURCES* 225 Robinson Road, New Smyrna Beach * IN THE WORLD - FL 32169-2176 (904) 428-9609 * BUT NOT OF THE WORLD ************************************************************