A 1400 Word Long Rambling Rant about History, The Enlightenment, Capitalism and The Brave New World
There is no denying that it is an exciting time to be alive. Though some will argue that mankind is in a constant state of evolution and revolution, therefore these times are no more or less significant than any of the times before them… but I disagree. We’re in a state of flux and riding the wave of whateveritis to whereveritis that we’re going. We seem to be experiencing some sort of large scale crisis of meaning… and when that has happened in the past, new systems emerge in an effort to stabilize the structure.
So far though, the course of Western Human Civilization, in all its manifestations and adaptations, has operated based on the same structure… one which features a power base from above, controls the resources, and distributes those resources according to their rules. When huge shifts have happened throughout civilization, they have occurred because a new group has infiltrated and assumed control of the power base… and they change the rules according to their values and philosophies and ideologies…
The Enlightenment. The last time there was a massive shift in the rules… The Rational Empiricists, those who were the strongest critics of the Religious Establishment… had finally organized themselves well enough to change the conversation. Through a series of revolutions, they infiltrated the structure and changed the way that resources were distributed. Two new models emerged from the Enlightenment… Capitalism and Representative Democracy.
The rules of this game were laid out in a couple of key documents which provided the masses with a new narrative of rights, freedom and equality… The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, The Social Contract by Russo, Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica by Isaac Newton , A Vindication of the Rights of Women by Mary Wollstonecraft, The Emancapation Proclamation and The Delcaration of Independence are a few off the top of my head.
Although the systems changed… and the new narrative had much promise, the structure did not change. That is, resource control was still concentrated in the hands of a select few… and they were still riding on a fundamental ideal of absolute moral authority, guided by a Christian God. A Christian God which would reward materially if you did his good works here on earth. Both before and after the Enlightenment, wealth and power was still concentrated among those who were literate… among those who could spin the best yarns, promise the best material rewards and be the best manipulators of and dictators to the masses.
Capitalism and Democracy were new systems of the best and brightest minds of the times… Replacing previous systems of Imperialism and Monarchy… but they still were being actualized through a top-down structure. And perhaps worse than the systems they replaced, they were presented and legitimized as the “best” and most objective processes towards the ultimate goal of the new narrative… that of personal freedom, individualism, and consumer choice… things that were attainable by anyone and entitled to everyone, equalized by the checks and balances of these shiny new systems.
Some very important ideas were born in The Enligtenment… but I tend to believe that Rousseau and Locke and Smith had much higher expectations of humans than they were capable of living up to at that point in history. The lofty ideals of the narratives did not confront human as flawed, and prone to greed and corruption when faced with the opportunity to advance himself despite the consequences to the greater good. Like communism, democratic capitalism looks way better on paper than it does in its actuality.
And ultimately the culture of greed, competition, entitlement and individualism that the systems of Capitalism and democracy fostered, inherently compromised the integrity of everything… and has now brought us here, where the architects of Capitalism and Democracy once sat… skeptical, cynical, doubting the norms, and angry…Calling for Change! Now!
And the calls are being echoed around the Western world… Change! Now!
But the question remains; as the ideas and systems of the Enlightenment changed the narrative, whose ideas will shape the next narrative? Who gets to change and enforce the rules? Will we completely break the cycle of civilization, and finally change the way we control and distribute resources and power? Or will we once again reproduce the structure, but frame them with new systems and processes?
David claims that Capitalism is “the only natural system” that it is as old as humanity itself, and that morphs and changes with the power structure. I tend to agree, but only because I don’t think that those who would replace the structure (which are also a natural byproduct of the structure) have figured out effective delivery systems of that structure… and no one is going to be convinced to abandon the structure with nothing there to take its place. Therefore the structure remains and the new systems have to adapt to it.
I tend to believe the only ingredient to finally compel us to shakedown power structure will lie in the realm of knowledge of human perception. Some major revelation which forces us to stop competing for power and resources and re-evaluate everything that we think that we know about human existence. Indeed, if the pursuits to find absolute, objective truth about our existence, pursuits enacted by the ideals of the Enlightenment, are allowed to progress naturally, then perhaps Western Civilization will be provided the opportunity to actualize… I believe if we are allowed to naturally evolve as a society, then this structural change is imminent.
But we may have gotten to the point, where the current power structure, in its effort to maintain power will do everything that it can to suppress any new knowledge which arises that could potentially cause that shakedown.
We will never be allowed to naturally evolve…
In all likelihood, the structure stays the same, and fulfills its next destiny – the fascist democracy… the perfect dystopian blend of individual freedom and comodification of identity.
Though it might sound like an inherently contradictory system… In my mind, the fascist democracy is the one where the narrative of personal freedom, individual entitlement, and consumer choice as being the raison d’etre, and all those which stand in the way of the pursuit of these things, will be judged and persecuted for it, if not institutionally, then by their peers… It is a recombinant society… the capitalist imprint mutated, and resulting in the effects as prophecized by Huxley, Foucault, Asimov and Gibson…
We will be given robots and bionic eyes (with Twitter integration) and hovercars and SOMA to keep us preoccupied. There will be a cure for cancer and a microchip that we can implant into our wrists, which contain all of our data identities… S.I.N., PIN, MSI, Interac… we will never have to worry about those pesky cards again. We will have two minutes of hate towards our political enemies… those who despise freedom and democracy… and enclose the absolute poor and sick in large glass domes… not to mention the ugly and the fat… We will be able to have our genes manipulated to produce the image of perfection… designer babies coming out of their physical vessels of the best and the brightest.
And some might ask… well is that so bad? A friend of mine told me that she was so primed for change, that if it meant we were hurtled into the Brave New World… she wouldn’t care… she just wanted something to give… for the next phase to make itself visible and certain. Indeed, as I typed the paragraph above, I ask myself… well is the Brave New World so bad? Why is it that I continue to fight, what appears to be destiny? I don’t have the answers to those questions yet… all I know is that I do…
In the end, the systems and narratives that win out will be the ones which holds the most promise. That spirit that has been with us through feudalism, imperialism and now, capitialism… will morph into its next top-down, heirarchial system… only this time, our brains are much more malleable and squishy… we actually already idolize the cultural ingredients necessary for the top-down structure to take this next leap. Technology, Beauty and Pleasure. Therefore, we will almost certainly, and willfully accept the new system, in whatever form it takes. And be fooled once again into thinking that change has occured and we have naturally evolved to our next form of social organization.
Are you Rapture Ready?
Funny how our thoughts arrive in certain places… I’m going to take you on a cognitive trip detailing how I got to find myself checking out raptureready.com’s rapture index for March 20, 2009.
Last night I decided to zone out in front of the television. W5 was on, doing a story about a wildlife rescue organization in Ontario. They were recuing bears, and deers, and beavers… it all looked very lovely. My friend Mike came in the room and asked if I had ever heard of Christian the Lion. I hadn’t… the story was quite compelling as he told it… so I got my google on and found this…
This actually brought a tear to my eye…
In any case, as the W5 story was ending, I clicked through on a few more of Born Free’s videos… including this one about a lion who was rescued from a teeny tiny cage and released into a sanctuary… I found it funny how the lion is just looking around… not quite knowing what to do with his newfound space.
Then onto some horrific videos of circus animals in Europe… which made me want to see videos of animals attacking humans… So I found some “when animals attack” videos which kept me interested for about 10 minutes. I wanted to see some shark attacks!
The first video I found was one of a killer whale eating a great white shark… that wasn’t exactly what I wanted… there was nothing really close to what I actually wanted to see… which was footage of a real live shark attack on a human.
From there, I noticed some videos of bizarre fish, one that looked like a dragon, and one that looked like the tapeworm from a grey whale or something… then… the big leap happened… alien fish… alien fish to ufo’s and this little doozy of a video which freaked me out a little… especially the white space jellyfish… or donut… or whatever the hell it is…
So from UFO’s I get into asteroids, and then… 2012 stuff…
I find out about this thing called the Web Bot Project, which is an interesting piece of software… a webcrawler which has been released on the Internet to gather key emotional words to get the pulse on the unconcious collective. The software was designed for picking stock tips, but has since been adapted to do a little prophecizing about the future…
Then I went to bed.
Today, after showing Dave the clip above, we started investigating this dude’s claims about the Heliosphere. In case you are worried, the Heliosphere hasn’t actually completely disappeared, but it is shrinking…
After dabbling around 2012 astronomy for a few minutes, I stumble across the raptureready.com website, and cautiously snoop about on the message boards… I remembered visiting this site before, back when Air America first started broadcasting… they were making fun of it all the time.
raptureready.com is a website to discuss and prepare for the imminent rapture.
With North Korea’s missile launch, part of the Antarctic breaking off into the sea, an alarming number of people going on shooting sprees, the economic collapse, and massive instances of civil disobedience and unrest… one could see how one might actually start to believe that end times are upon us. But fear not…
According to the raptureready.com Rapture Index, as of March 30, 2009 we are at 163… the record high Rapture Index Score was 182 on September 24, 2001. But it does appear that overall, we have entered the “Fasten Your Seatbelts” phase of the Rapture. The one thing that I don’t understand though, is the whole framing of the collapse of capitalism as being an idication of the rapture… I had no idea God was a ruthless, vengeful capitalist.
I am personally ready for the rapture. But my rapture and “end of days” interpretation is a little different than the water turning to blood and the dead raising from the dead to ascend with the blessed souls on earth, leaving the sinners behind to fend for themselves in torment and dread for evermore… my end of days interpretation is thus… the death of religion… the death of the nation state… and the death of corporatist capitalism.
… and the meek shall inherit the earth…
But… I do not necessarily believe that these days are upon us now in any case.
It is certain that each day holds within it the potential for the great big paradigm shift to occur. Every day we wake up and are handed astounding new piece of information. Pieces of tangible, undeniable evidence which forces us to face the reality that the government is corrupt, the corporatists have raped us economically and environmentally, the advertisers have waged a damaging psychological warfare on us… we are anxious and depressed and unfocused… we are empty and lost and uncertain… we are sick. It is certain that each day holds within it the potential for the great big paradigm shift to occur.
That being said, the slow and widespread disbursement of bits and pieces of these revelations subdues that potential… so as not to go off all at once, as a ticking time bomb… or a day of rapture… but as a slow descent into our decomposing society, with isolated outbreaks of breaking down the structures…
As opposed to most doom and gloomers today, I am actually optimistic about the rapture… at least my version of it. I believe there are many opportunities to be had during a paradigm shift if one can manage to not get caught up in the isolated outbreaks of societal disruption. But panic is enemy of finding opportunity during crisis… when we start to panic, our physical presence takes over our cognitive one… we do stupid things that are not guided by logic, and generally provoked by our own thoughts and fears… nothing real or tangible.
Don’t panic.
Unless of course that space jellyfish decides to land..
