Equal Access Please
Art is the quickest path to social and political reform.
So I was really inspired by this remix, and I had few thoughts charged up by the vibration of this swirl.
I felt compelled to expound upon them, so I decided to write this rambling, potentially incoherent rant.
This is the part where I warn you that I am trying to drag you down the rabbit hole with me.
Are you a blue pill or a red pill person?
Assess now, and proceed accordingly.
We know from extensive, exhaustive, clinical meta-analyses that human talent is dispersed with shocking, almost surgical uniformity across the globe.
The supposed manifestation of this potential varies from region to region, but the actual talent intrinsic to the human psyche truly exists in all of us.
So in that sense, talent is perfectly dispersed.
Even when valuing talent based off of the apparent manifestation of its ability to generate money, or capital, or whatever is that you have deposited your concept of value, we can find “talent” everywhere, in all directions, on this spinning sphere we call earth.
Here is a thought though: Is humanity really using all of it’s collective talent?
Have we realized our real worth?
It is amazing to think about what humanity is capable of...
We see amazing expressions of talent all over, despite in some cases extreme environmental conditions.
In most countries in the developed West (and some facets of the bourgeois East), we are now able to nurture our talents and pursue them in accordance with our own free will.
Not all of us do,, but the possibilities certainly exist to manifest one’s own destiny to a reasonably irrefutable extent at this point in time (2018).
Significant advancements in technology have opened channels that have for some time been frozen, lying dormant with human potential.
It really is a great time to be alive.
(Despite our being alive now occurring within what is an oft misinterpreted stage of cyclic existence known as the Kali Yuga (elucidated via Sanskrit scripture)).
Promising signs are indicating that we have more agency over our own advancement and development than ever before (speaking relatively).
Let’s keep this ball rolling.
With that being said, I quickly want to point out a few things I think we all need to go over.
We all do create our own realities, regardless of what may seem to be occurring externally in relation to the potpourri of physical cells that constitute our identification of our self (some cells of which I don’t even know you would consider to be “self”, but nonetheless, I think you would agree that even these cells/organisms are a part of what you would call your “body”).
Yes, this is true.
But historically, we have created a reality in which some don’t get to create their own.
There has been a nasty history of unnecessary oppression of the human spirit.
We really need to stop abusing ourselves.
Fueled by fear, we splintered into nearly thoughtless, loosely hobbled collections of peoples that have fractured the unified genetic reality of humanity.
Not everyone was granted equal access to all the pleasantries of this allegedly desirable modern and sophisticated state of existence.
Some were outright denied it.
Even though some people may have had the talent, and they may have even been born close to a location that could have proliferated this talent, not all people truly were granted access to the transformative energies of the technological and scientific advancements of these times.
No, not everyone was granted access.
Only a select few were given the key, and many watched through the keyhole.
Even till this day, not everyone is granted equal access, believe it or not.
In many cases, one’s station in life is subjugated to the irrationality of birth rite, usually distinguished by specific, noticeable, yet completely arbitrary genetic markers.
Primarily, at least in the past, it was one’s skin color that was used as the distinguishing characteristic of worth, and more secondarily/tertiarily one’s allegiance to some country/faith/cause/etc.
Throughout history, pervading all spectrums of sort and categorization, in-group dominance has asserted rank and value through a caustically collectivist group-think.
The typical human was not really able to truly expand their mind and explore their dreams.
Only recently, with some happenings like the birth of institutionalized universities and government sponsored educational campaigns, has humanity really been able to go beyond a very narrowly ascribed role/station in life.
Sure, people throughout history have been able to catch their dreams, but typically, it was very rare to find this.
Let’s change things, and make it so that people can fulfill their talent.
I am here soapboxing to you, petitioning for equal access for all people.
I am not just talking in terms of the letters of the laws, but in actuality a space in which people are able to equally and democratically access what they need to fulfill their life’s destiny.
I would like to sincerely extend my gratitude at this juncture to Kanye West, for bringing a recent dose of awareness to the fact that it was not a choice to remain a slave.
It went well beyond the realm of normal human volition to runaway as a slave.
Nobody chooses slavery.
It occurred for about 450 years, and was so deeply instilled from a generational perspective that even today people wave confederate flags, even being over 150 removed from the termination of the civil war.
Slavery was beyond horrific.
There is nothing I can do to arrange these letters and words that would adequately convey the tortures of slave-life.
I am not going to go into it right now, but if you want to learn more, you can start by reading accounts captured in scholarly essays like this one written by one of the few honorable academics, John Connor: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/john-connor-children-of-guinea-voodoo-the-1793-haitian-revolution-and-after
Not long ago was it considered socially avant-garde for a person with brown skin to have their own freedom.
Not only were brown-skinned people systematically denied access to the ameliorations this supposed “progress” had brought the human condition, they were even pushed down and essentially scapegoated in an attempt to cover up the excessive greed that some of these “improvements” produced.
Sidenote: We were almost at the point of industrially farming humans to such a capacity in which humans bred for slavery died so quickly that the dead were essentially liquified and intravenously fed back to the living (another Matrix reference).
(Many people still exist in this purgatorial state, (or is it a hell realm?), even so it exists all over as a mindstate. Watch yours and I’ll watch mine. Let’s make sure you we are actually alive now, and not existing as some ghost of christmas past or christmas future).
The bottom line right here is that equal access has historically not been granted to all of humanity.
Slavery in the U.S. (and elsewhere, obviously) was a real thing that happened, despite even some of these scream and shout/cover your ears/close your eyes type messages we see as an effort to cover up/minimize it.
Black people were considered to be less than an actual person, about ⅗ of an actual person, to the best estimation of congress in the mid 19th century.
It seems really silly, and it is, but trust me, it is not really a laughing matter.
It was used literally to justify the institutionalized dehumanization of many people.
Imagine if all of humanity were able to live in accordance with God, the scriptures, the balance of the universe, the tao, etc.,
Imagine if people were actually able to pursue their dreams and live out their true destiny.
I speak of this vision having somewhat realized it, only from an overly heady, quasi-intellectual standpoint.
I am only beginning to actually feel the feelings of it now.
Ok so this is that point where I am going to talk about myself now, because frankly, I’m feeling a little self-absorbed.
I was fortunate enough to be born into the right conditions to allow solid growth in this planar existence.
I was born to very loving, caring, supportive parents.
I was born in Nashua, New Hampshire.
I benefited from a very liberal education and the edginess of the traditional New England/tri-state hectic, frenetic work ethic, which pushed me for more.
I was raised in New Milford, Connecticut, where, being the son of well-to-do technical sales rep., I lived without any real worry of attaining any of the levels of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
My father really was an excellent provider, so I lived essentially in excess.
Material abundance was abound, to the point where I often was left wondering what to do with all my shit.
It was almost a classic comic paradox in which I almost ran out of room to play with my toys because I had too many toys in the way.
All of that ‘material abundance’ became more a distraction than anything of real worth, but the point remains that my mind was able to travel upwards towards my dreams due to the fact that I never had to worry about access to clean water, never had to worry about eating quality food, never had to worry about finding sufficient shelter, and so forth.
Finding love and affection was one of the harder challenges, but that really was because I was swinging on my own mood and not really even seeing all the love that was always around me.
I always had every type of support basically regardless of whatever could happen.
I had carte-blanche.
You can call it good karma, or whatever, all I know is that I was for sure blessed, and I thank the Lord every day for that.
I don’t mean to ramble on about myself and boast about how great I had it, but I think it is worth mentioning that I came from a very fortunate background.
I actually had to physically learn (through school and church basically) that there are people around the world right now that do not have these things that I had so naively taken for granted.
At first, this was nothing more than an intellectual understanding.
I understood that people around the world did not have some of the fundamental components of human existence, but I did not really fully grasp what this actually meant in terms of feeling it as a reality .
It was only through time and providence that I was eventually able to experience, only through observation, various degrees of overall quality of life and station in the realm of human existence.
What I had learned through my book-learning had now become more than just stuffy, ego-clouded interpretations of human history and current events.
I saw that not everyone had it as cushy as me.
But I like my cushy life, and I think others should live cushy lives too.
(Please bear with me, because I know as a reader I usually quit after a pretentious comment like that).
We don’t need the material excess that I lived with because it didn’t really do any good.
That much stuff eats up a lot space, which makes it hard for new stuff to come through and present itself.
So you are just left with a bunch of tired stuff, wondering how to get out of its way.
That time of excessive material abundance of the 90’s and early 2000’s had the energy of a dog chasing its own tail.
Buy it just to throw it away so you can use that pointless trashcan you just bought for a deal.
Cushy actually means just the right amount, and if we all hit on the right amount, we are all good.
There is no need for a lack/scarcity mindset.
Quite frankly, it isn’t even strongly backed by any logical argument.
Grow a couple vegetable plants to get a real feel for how truly naturally abundant our earth is.
In fact, matter is infinite. There is no limit of matter that we know of.
Anyhow, we don’t need to keep going along with this irrational fear that there isn’t gonna be enough to go around.
There has always been enough to go around.
The natural earth is so pluralistic in its providings that I honestly, shooting from hip here, believe all of humanity can survive even the most severe of famines and natural disasters.
Reflect on this: Look outside, find a tree/trees. Marvel at how tall/big that tree is. If you can, touch the trunk of the tree. Feel how it feels very really, materially speaking. Kiss the tree if you like, but don’t get carried away because then mean people will start looking at you.
The point here is that the natural elements contained in the soil, in combination with the awesome power of the sun, created such a pithy material that with proper care, this material can maintain form and function for hundreds of years, even with habitual use.
This wood can provide you shelter, and heat when its cold.
All of that happens naturally, without your doing of anything.
You can plant trees, sure, and that is nice and a good thing to do.
But go take a drive around and look at the hillsides or untrampled lots of land.
Covered as far as the eye can really see, is tree after tree of dense hardwood (at least here in the Northeast U.S.).
Nobody planted those trees intentionally.
It all just “happened.”
By the grace of God, our forests have bounced back.
Not that far in the past all of that densely wooded land had been cut down and reduced to nearly irretrievable wasteland, bothered by noisy, busy, buzzing industrial operations.
This further proves the point of the abundant and tremendously restorative quality of nature.
Now, when you really put all this together, do you really think that there is not enough to go around?
If the earth can effortlessly produce massive amounts of material with the density of wood, how is it reasonable to claim that we won’t be able to grow enough spongy annual food crops?
Study U.S. history and you will see that in many cases, we have overproduced.
We know we continue to overeat, because we have actual trouble getting out of our seats due to the size of our stomachs.
A lot of us have developed a gut that literally limits our physical movement on this earth, (induced by disease causing “foods” that contain little more than calories with no real nutrition to be found anywhere in them. We will pinch pennies tight when it comes to finding the best deals on food. Which makes a lot of sense, because we just bought all that shit we don’t really need?)
In this country, America, we have had a very strong history of production of food.
We have certainly never been left without enough to feed our people, to put it modestly (with the caveat that there have been instances where isolated communities suffered droughts, blights, etc. that made it difficult to find/produce food. This is not something that this country collectively has had to endure all that much considering our very disparate history and physical geographies).
In the early-mid 20th century, silos of cereal crops were left to rot in government attempts to stabilize commodity markets.
This all, of course, with the advent of industrial agriculture.
I’m beginning to feel a little cranky, and I sense another tangential diatribe brewing (of which I’m almost certain I would later regret), and I’m trying not to get off track here so I am going to cut the point and say that there has always been enough food/whatever to go around, and there is no real reason to think we can’t all eat at the proverbial table, animals included.
Grow some plants to marvel at the amazing abundance of our universe.
Go take a hike to really start to dive into the mysteries of our world.
Connect with the source that is everything.
Maybe you call it God, maybe the Universe, who knows.
Through this undeniable connection you will realize we don’t need to be fearful of each other.
Back in the days of Vikings, Huns, Romans, etc., it was much more justifiable to have such a distinct self/other dichotomous viewpoint.
.
But these are new times.
We are now able to connect with each other virtually instantaneously around the globe at any point in time.
It is safe to say the channels of communication are open.
Many have had experiences online where they have connected with someone very far away (in terms of physical distance and/or social orientation).
This is quite a new phenomenon in the human experience.
Not even that long ago, the only way to communicate across distance was to send letters through mail.
How many experiences do I think my great-grandfather had with people from different parts of the world and different walks of life, if even people outside of little pre-gentrified Albermarle County Virginia?
I don’t know for a 100% fact, but I strongly feel it probably could be counted on one hand.
Generally, people were afraid, and didn’t really know a whole lot about each other.
The in-group felt a need to maintain distance from the out-group.
Even today people struggle with this lingering, primitive fear of the other.
When humanity first began, meaning, when modern humans (homo sapiens) first evolved and appeared on earth, humans were charged with more than even any cool-headed logician could handle.
Even if the gears of the brain that could lead to higher realms of consciousness had been physically present somewhere within the cranium of these early humans, they weren’t really able to access them all that well due to that unshakable anxiety of not being able to sustain one’s own existence.
Life had to have been very choppy.
Eventually, as human population grew, people settled into communities designated chiefly via kinship.
Some of these tribes were good, some were bad (if I again must insert my own annoying sweeping generalization).
Really though as we watch this history of bands of humans conglomerating, it becomes evident that to join the pack, full allegiance to the in-group was required.
We developed a sturdy groupthink.
We confirmed our own biases.
We overvalued our own importance.
We circle-jerked our way into ignorance.
I’m not even sure if this really fits here but I just feel like repeating these lyrics written by Kurt Cobain in the song “Milk It”, by Nirvana:
I am my own parasite
I don't need a host to live
We feed off of each other
We can share our endorphins
Doll steak, test meat
I won my own pet virus
I get to pet and name her
Her milk is my shit
My shit is her milk
Doll steak, test meat
Look on the bright side is suicide
Lost eyesight I'm on your side
Angel left wing, right wing, broken wing
Lack of iron and/or sleeping
Protector of the kennel
Ecto-plasma
Ecto-Skeletal
Obituary birthday
Your scent is still here in my place of recovery
These lyrics essentially summarize the overall energy of this period of mob rule, at least according to my own wacky perceptions.
Often times this complete conformity to the confused group would come with the expense of rejecting our own inner guiding light, which had to be shut down so as not to rock the boat, so to speak.
Over time, we have really learned to zone out and shut down even the most clear messages from our higher self.
Conform or die, many think.
But it isn’t totally quite like this.
Now, we are beginning to hear these intoxicating whispers of decentralization.
Some of these technological theories seem like they could be plausible.
We still exist in a centralized state currently, although information is spreading faster than any ability to censor it.
We will see what the future holds, when that time comes for us to see.
Truth is, up until this point in history, we have had to conform to some despotic government because we were afraid we would die if we didn’t.
Not many could actually resist conforming to the collective narcissism of feudal rule.
Sure, if you were an enlightened saint you could live in the forest and actually sustain.
But for most, psychologically, there was no way we could live without the protection of the tribe.
So, in essence, we developed into what we see today as what we identify to be races/religions/orientations/etc.,.
It is time though, to really reflect on our collective humanity.
We now know there is no reason to arbitrarily classify humans (at all).
It is especially foolish to perpetuate juvenile myths about people of different skin colors or religions, knowing that we are 99.9% genetically identical, and that all of the world’s major religions fundamentally differentiate at the semantic level.
All trails lead to the top of the mountain, but chart different paths.
The human population is fairly genetically homogenous, especially in comparison to other life forms.
What this means is that we are all way more related than we think.
We are more connected than we can even imagine.
We are completely reliant on others, at any point of abstraction.
Self, you, required the genetic combination of two parents (others, because they’re not self) to even enter the plane of physical human existence.
Then, as a baby, we needed our parents to do everything for us to procure our survival.
As a child, you relied on others for companionship.
As an adult, you rely on others to build your car, program your software, make your stuff, etc., to give overwhelming superficial, yet incontestable examples of our interdependence.
We need to get over this fear of “other.”
Back in the days of tribal kinships, a lack of communication between people kept them paranoid of each other.
This how we developed this strict boundary with the “other.”
The Book of Genesis goes into more detail about this, see the story of Babel.
This fear inspired greed which in brutally cyclic fashion further validated the fear.
We developed this confounded notion that there was an ‘us’ and a ‘them’, because we didn’t have any experiences with the other due to our own feelings of inadequacy or lacking of wholeness.
We began to believe that the Lord created bands of humanity upon which he empowered some, but not others, even to the point where we endorsed it in some of the most sacred of spaces.
We acted like a jealous child, demanding exclusive attention and affection from our parent.
We thought that we wouldn’t have enough if the other proliferated.
But we now know, even if the other were to proliferate at basically any conceivable rate,
through geologic surveying and overintellecualized algorithms, we have figured that we can probably all get by for a considerable amount of time, if we all use what we need and stop consuming in complete reckless excess.
We are here worrying about not having enough food to eat when most of us are rocking 15+ lbs of fat.
We look like a political cartoon come to life.
Overpopulation is obviously a possibility, but it simply isn’t something we are going to have to deal with in our existence (whatever you identify that to be in this time-matrix).
The metrics really aren’t there to support this anxiety, even despite concerned millenials that feel they will upset the grand balance of the universe if they decide to have a few children.
At some point, it is possible that humans will have abused the earth to such a point to where we can no longer sustain life here, but we aren’t going to navigate away from that unless we are united as humans together, attempting to fix some of these self-inflicted environmental problems we are facing.
The underlying point that I am trying to get across is that there is enough for everyone to eat as long as we simply take we need.
As soon as we start meaninglessly stockpile provisions in fear of attack from the other, we are living in a state of not having enough.
In this state, you will not have enough. It’s the state of not enough. A little more you think and then you’ll be ok, but right now, you need more. You don’t have enough. You need to save more. You need to check your security to make sure no one’s taking your stuff, because if someone takes some, then you won’t have enough.
Don’t exist here in this type of thinking.
No.
Yes.
We have enough.
You will eat a dinner tonight.
You will find someplace to sleep.
You will find clean water.
The earth provides enough of what we need, at least.
We can put to rest our irrational fears of scarcity that we have amplified and projected onto the other.
If we hold these fears, now we know that is something deeper, something more internal in our experience.
We have now really chopped it up, so we should know better than withhold opportunity from anyone that is getting after it.
In other words, if you still fear the other or not having enough, it sounds like it’s a personal problem.
Reconnect with your true nature.
Connect with the earth.
Do everything with love and compassion.
Live your life.
You are your own captain.
Godspeed.
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