Man is Mortal

Man is mortal. And he struggles to find a way to become immortal, trying to avoid an end to his physical existence and the materials with which he associates his success.

I use man, him, he with reason here.

I am glad to be the sex historically not regarded for violent capabilities.

I read recently that masculine is related to action.

So perhaps the feminine relates to the theoretical—the theories like wombs in which ideas develop and mature and it is through the cooperation between the feminine and the masculine that the ideas materialize—transform into the realm of words, to the realm of the physical.

But back to man’s struggle to overcome death.

Think of how much technology and technological research relates to the prolonging of life.

Empiricism.

Suddenly the route to truth came by the physical, observable and testable world. Amazing that as many different ways as there are to be in the world, objects fall the same way by the same forces.

With our understanding of the rules that exist, the natural laws, of-course we had to manipulate them, break them. The threat to our survival became our own ability to destroy using our understanding of science. There is little respect for nature and too much hubris that allows for our experimentation.

Incestual rape—how we hurt the mother earth that makes possible this life.

I remember learning how Einstein had advised the people working on the atom bomb to stop. Their meddling with forces revealed how immature their understanding was, how their motives were fueled by greed and a desire for power, control.

You need men and women to create. Maybe it’s only logical that since women give birth, men are responsible so often for destruction.

When did monotheism come along? When did the patriarchy overturn a mythology that gave credit to the feminine forces of creation? There used to be a moonth—a period of twenty-eight days, the same number as a woman’s fertility cycle and of the moon—and thirteen moonths made up a year. When the patriarchy took over, leaders got rid of the thirteenth moonth and this is why the number thirteen is considered unlucky. At the end of the thirteen moonth year, a king was sacrificed to the gods in order that the people would have a good harvest. So essentially the patriarchy got rid of the moonth so that they wouldn’t have to keep sacrificing men, though it was an honor to die for the greater good.

When did the separation between that which is divine and that which exists occur? One is the whole. Each part of the whole is still whole.

Science. Chemistry.

The physical we have known is proven to all come from the same stuff. And when we’ve gotten down into it—beyond the skin, the surface, past the veins and rivers, past the bones and rock, behind the warmth and within the core, the atoms, the molecules, tiny things colliding—it’s all energy.

E=mc²

Quantum physics has shown that our perception is the manifestation of one of an infinite number of possibilities. One environment within which we play an active role.

The storytellers know that speech, that stories are creation. They recognize how a system of symbols comes to represent the way we exist and perceive this reality.

But business men are not men of words; they are men of money. Of a currency that has come to represent an action so far removed that we have no appreciation for the labor involved with most of our creations. Capitalism, like empiricism, has moved us further from ourselves and deeper into the illusion of separation. Interconnection is real. The world is chaotic, but we are all connected, we are all part of the same essence, the same energy, the same god. But we fuck and make more babies and pull them into a world where it is easiest to secure a small and isolated and seemingly safe piece. We limit our dreams and actions to systems that function regardless of the principles, the thoughts, that formed their potential.

Kinetic energy.

It is important to be aware of our thoughts. Freud brought the idea to our attention that there is a realm of our very perception of which we are not immediately aware—the subconscious. It is important to discover the aspects of ourselves that shape who we are that we do not consider because they are hidden, buried, repressed beyond conscious reach.

There are dreams I do not remember. What parts of my existence do I fail to realize?

I am fascinated by the relationship between thought and action. The role of choice. The decision in translating an idea into a movement. Ethics exist between thought and action. You might call it reason, or justification, or logic, but there exists a choice.

The decisions one makes are based on desire—yes. What I think desire may ultimately relate to is either creation or destruction, positive or negative, progress or an arrest.

Gandhi promoted nonviolence. The hippies wanted love not war. There are examples from both the East and West that disprove the idea that all humans are prone to destruction and disharmony. To greed. To the exertion of power over rather than power with.

Action without representation.

My country is responsible for actions that I do not support. Actions that, when processed by my own sense of reason and awareness, do not seem sensible or beneficial to the greater good, or creative. And yet I play no role in the choice to carry them through. My own country, then, has provided an atmosphere in which it is easy to conclude that I am powerless.

Just as each moment is the manifestation of one combination of possibilities, the actions of a government and a people tend to represent one of many—one of many perspectives, decisions, options, alternatives.

It is important for us to recognize that we are not powerless though our actions may not lead directly to a shift in social norms, behaviors, systems. Growth must occur on an individual level, in each part, to yield a more wholistic growth. Change must begin with the individual seeking to become more aware and therefore more conscious of the ways in which they contribute to the construction of a global reality.

Ripples.

From the specific to the general.

From the general to the specific.

Once we understand, once we have ascertained a wholistic principle, then it requires work, persistence, discipline and awareness to transfer that understanding into each little part of our lives. It is a challenge. A battle with statistics, history, illusion, delusion, and opposition.

Who is it that coined the term world-historical-individuals? The few names that have gained notoriety outside the countries and man-drawn borders in which they lived?

In Waking Life a man discusses how uncommon is the saint, the philosopher, the artist, the prophet. He says there is more similarity between the average person and a chimpanzee than the average person and Nietzche or Plato or Ikeda, or even Hitler.

But the potential exists within each person to accomplish what those men did. We are back to ideas and action. And we have added the matter of ethics, making a conscious choice.

Words are powerful. Knowledge is the greatest weapon.

And when we consider the distribution of power we begin to realize that systems, societies, function according to the rules that the majority accepts to dictate their behavior. It is easier to follow than to challenge. It is easier not to fight, not to risk our sense of safety. Most subscribe to ideals set forth by people with totally different perspectives, archaic when we consider how long ago they developed.

Our culture has continued without assessment. When paradigms emerge they take too long to reach only a scattered group of individuals; the most important ones never take hold of enough people. It may not be definitive, our culture, but there are characteristics that deserve our attention. It seems we have become wrapped up in the material, the physical, the tangible symbols of ideals so much that it stifles the innate curiosities responsible for the very technologies that add to the array of man’s ability to manipulate and control.

I know I need more specifics.