“I didn't think it would end this way."
"End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path, one that we all must take."
Gandalf to Peregrin Took - The Lord of the Rings
According to Google, "Culture can be defined as all the ways of life including arts, beliefs and institutions of a population that are passed down from generation to generation. Culture has been called "the way of life for an entire society." As such, it includes codes of manners, dress, language, religion, rituals, art." With the emergence of AI ( in particular ), as well as other related technologies, we are fast approaching the culmination, or even termination of much of what Google defines as 'Culture'. Many would beg to disagree with such a seemingly brash statement, but on the other hand, there are those who would heartily agree! Belief has become just something we say, a crutch, if you will: there are many out there who will say, "I believe this" or "I believe that", but their manner of life tells a much different story! Speaking of 'manners'................well, lets just say they've seemingly gone the way of 'common' sense'. AI ( I'm as guilty as anybody ) has made it easier ( more convenient? ) to create art, whether that be painting, writing, or even doing research on the internet ( "Hey, Google" ), but is that really 'Art'? Part of the problem, though most don't see it as such, is that Life, or the semblance thereof, has become so BUSY, thanks again to Technology, that we feel more often than not, we must take any shortcut we can in order to get things done.
This is what sparked this blogpost! I found this particular image on Pinterest & the comment that caught my eye is one that had to do with something called 'body shaming'. The comment went something like this; "Why do people always use pictures of skinny, naked white women for these kinds of 'memes'?" My reply, although this is not exactly what I said, ran something like this; "Well, maybe if we all got back to Nature, we would look like that too!" With the damage that we have done to our DNA, our fucked up genetics may not allow that sudden of a change, but "who knows?!" As I've said before, in the pages of this Blog; "It's taken us this long to get to where we are, it'll take at least that long to get back to where we should be!" But yet, on the other hand, Science has only begun to clarify the complexities of these Wonders we call our human bodies, so again; it's possible that the turn-around could be as quick as that. More importantly, we as human beings are not the ones running the Show: not only does the Universe have a big hand in our lives, but our own Higher Selves know what's best for us! If we, as a Collective, HAD NOT gone through the many centuries, or even millenia of what is called 'Civilization', who is to say if we would be where we think we SHOULD be!
For generations, our forbears have, to a great extent, swallowed hook, line & sinker, old adages like, "the doctors know best". Whether it's the drugs they prescribe or the foods they say we should eat or not eat, even the toothpastes we should use ( fluoride ), we have ruined our natural health to the extent that we have begun to rely on their poisons, with their inherent side effects, to even feel a semblance of good health. "Have you taken good note of the rise of auto-immune diseases?' Cancer is still a big Fear Factor. "Have you begun to realize yet that there is a CURE for cancer?!" Speaking of Google, a quick search might reveal countless former physicians, even some PhDs that have admitted there is a cure. Diabetes is another such disease that is on the rise. "Did you know that diabetes, if caught early enough, can be treated naturally?" There are most probably those who would ( strongly ) disagree with such a statement, but, as David Duchovny once said, "The Truth is out there!" The same could be said of diseases like the various allergies ( also on the rise ) & don't even get me started on ADD, ADHD & autism, which has been linked to certain immunizations, or 'shots'. It's interesting; as I write these words, I'm listening to music on YouTube ( thanks Google ) & one of the commercials was talking about child cancer. "How does this happen?" Well; I almost hate to say it, but it doesn't "just happen"! Remember those "fucked up genetics" I was talking about? Not to lay blame on the parents, necessarily, or really anybody in particular ( except maybe the food manufacturers, but we'll get to that later ), but not only the foods that they, THEIR parents & grandparents have ingested, again, "for generations", but the drugs that doctors have unknowingly ( in most cases ) prescribed, have been killing us; LITERALLY! I myself have a hereditary disease called Friedrich's Ataxia. I don't blame my parents or grandparents; I really don't even think about it like that. They, speaking of my parents, grandparents, etc, did the best they could with what they knew!
As the case may be, then, these "fucked up genetics" have slowly gotten worse over the generations. As we saw earlier, auto-immune diseases are on the rise, cancer is taking our older generation, even some of our younger ones, more & more cases of autism, ADHD, etc, are surfacing ( "It can't be what we're feeding them!" ) & when they do, we inevitably throw this drug or that at them, hoping they'll go away. But they don't! We've come full circle to "the semblance of good health" I referred to earlier! Please don't get me wrong; the doctors ( for the most part ), like our parents, grandparents, etc, are doing the best they can with what they know. "What they know", unfortunately, comes from textbooks. Yes, I know, they've garnered plenty of real-world experience, but again "unfortunately", the overwhelming majority of this real-world experience involves throwing this drug or that at the issue. Ultimately, the blame, if one wishes to lay blame, can be laid at the feet of that insatiable monster that we all love to hate, Greed!
I was raised Christian, so I am quite familiar with the biblical quote, "Money is the root of all kinds of evil". This is, unfortunately, one of the Bible's Universal Truths, for it applies across the board. Much, if not most of what I've described above is funded by, driven by, you guessed it; money! You might be familiar with the saying, "Money makes the world go 'round!" In a very material sense, this might not too far off the mark, but in reality, Love, not money makes the world go 'round. But that might be another Story for another day. So, back to the money issue, the Story goes something like this: the pharmaceutical companies ( AKA, Big Pharma ) are all about the bottom line ( like most corporations ) & because they're all about the bottom line, this usually translates to the doctors, who, even though only a few realize they're poisoning their patients, for the most part, are actually trying to help their patients. Then Politics steps into the Ring & all bets are off! Although many or most politicians have, at one point or another, dirtied their greedy little fingers by dipping into the pharmaceutical pool, it's not all politics; some politicians, I'm sure, have seen through these nefarious schemes & refused to play along. Of course, these politicians rarely last long either!
Big Pharma doesn't have a corner on the market either, although, being the conspiracy theorist I am, they're probably in bed with the food manufacturing industry! I say, "manufacturing", because, "Yes", much of the food we eat today is manufactured, much like automobiles or cell phones! Unless you grow your own fruits & veggies, even raise & butcher your own animals ( beef, pork or chicken ), you cannot get away from it. Even if you ARE self-sufficient; the poisons are in the ground we furrow, the water we drink, even the air we breathe!
"Whatever shall we do? Wherever shall we go?" "Frankly, my dear, I'm pretty sure they don't give a damn!" But seriously, there is really only one thing we CAN do & one place we CAN go. No, I'm not saying we should all become expatriates & leave this sinking ship behind! Neither am I advocating that we should all become militant Patriots & physically, with violence, dismantle our government. To affect any lasting Change, the most & best we can do is to work on ourselves, to make the necessary adjustments in our own lives to bring about the desired effect. That leaves the second question; "Wherever shall we go?" If you are at all familiar with the musings of this Blogger, you should know that the clear Answer is "Inward"! Inward & Upward is the Way to go! Again, if we are to affect any lasting change in our little world, we must BE that Change! In order to do that, we must examine our own shadows. "Have we accepted "hook, line & sinker"like our forbears, that "doctors know best"? If so, why? We must go Inward to figure out why we have done so. If not, we have taken at least one step toward understanding what we need to do to extract ourselves from this mess!
"Where SHOULD we be?" Well, now that could be rather a complex question. Is "where we SHOULD be", where our programming tells us we "SHOULD be", or is it some Utopian Dream, more or less based on the Christian concept of 'heaven'? At the other end of the spectrum, so to speak, should we endeavor to return to living in caves? Would it be best for us to become hunter-gatherers again & strive to forget our agrarian ways? "Is THAT the Answer?!" No, I think NOT!!! We can have our nice little houses, even white picket fences if you feel so inclined. We can still have our nice vehicles, in order to get back & forth to our nine-to-fives & YES, we can keep our guns, so that we can enjoy the bounty of Nature, with wild meats like deer, elk, antelope, even moose & bear, if you're so inclined. Most importantly though, is to do the Inner Work, for without that, the Outer Work will have no real & lasting effect!
My purpose here is not to present you with a horror story! We have all seen ( or heard of ) the movies where AI takes over the Culture, but the thing is, as far as I understand it, anyway, AI is simply a very complex, very well thought out computer program. It is not, in & of itself, a sentient being, as the fearmongers would have us believe! Now, is it possible, especially if we stay on the track, or in the 'RUT', I should say, that we are currently traveling at a dangerous rate of speed, that these advanced computer programs could become self aware? I'm going to go out on a limb here & say that, "Sure", its possible, maybe even probable. With the leaps that Science & Technology have made over the past 50 to 100 years, I can't say I'd be too surprised by much of anything!
Unfortunately; these "leaps" are slowly but surely killing us! Not to mention the burgeoning transhumanist movement, etc. It's not too late! To borrow from my Christian days; we can "Reverse the Curse"! There is much ( too much ) generational trauma to heal from. However, once we DO heal those generational wounds, again, speaking collectively; everything else will fall into place. It may not be in our lifetime, or even the lifetimes of our grandchildren, but it's gotta start somewhere. If it starts with us, it'll happen that much sooner, but, just like in 'The Matrix'; we have a choice, we can take the 'red pill', a very dangerous proposition indeed, or we can opt for the 'blue pill' & keep dying while we're alive. I choose to live dangerously ( within reason ); how about you?!
Namaste' & Blessed Be!
Sage Charles
