“When seeking guidance, don’t ever listen to the tiny-hearted. Be kind to them, heap them with blessing, cajole them, but do not follow their advice.” ~Clarissa Pinkola Estés
Despite what we say, most of us would rather remain in our comfort zone and discuss subjects that keep us warm and certain about our lives. We might claim that we “think outside the box,” or that we’re able to break our own mental paradigms or stretch our comfort zones, but when it really comes down to it, most of us mindlessly maintain “the box” and repeatedly think within comfortable yet outdated paradigms.
That’s precisely why it is a good idea to talk about things that we’re “not supposed to talk about.” Taboo subjects are usually the best subjects to discuss. Because they usually represent a psychological hang-up in the machinery of the human condition. They are typically a kind of evolutionary speed bump that we must overcome in order to advance as a species. By discussing them, dissecting them, and questioning them, we may discover new ways to break mental paradigms and think outside the box. Indeed, we may even discover a smarter way of being human. As Ray Kurzweil said in The Singularity is Near, “Our sole responsibility is to produce something smarter than we are; any problems beyond that are not ours to solve.”
1.) Power:
“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” ~Abraham Lincoln
Generally speaking, power is wealth. It matters little what that wealth represents: money, gold, deer skin, seashells, skill. If any person in any cultural dynamic acquires enough wealth, they have power over others in that culture. What a person does with their power will define his or her character.
If a person lords their power over others then their character is unhealthy, oppressive, limiting, and tyrannical. If a person uses their power to help others then their character is healthy, compassionate, liberating, and prestigious (See #7 on this other list).
The problem with the way most people handle their power today is that they tend to lord it over others due to an outdated “survival of the fittest” mindset imbedded through cultural conditioning, brainwashing, and propaganda that creates a kind of hoarding mentality. We have forgotten how cooperation must be primary over competition in order to progressively evolve as a species. In short: We’ve had the cart of competition in front of the horse of cooperation for too long. It’s high time that we discuss and teach each other the true nature of power.
2.) Income inequality:
“The primary purpose of the police is to enforce the delusions of those with lots of pieces of green paper. Those without the green papers generally buy into these delusions almost as quickly and completely as those with. These delusions carry with them extreme consequences in the real world.” ~Derrick Jensen
Income inequality is a direct descendant of antiquated aristocracy. Having more than what we need has become almost pathological in our modern civilizations. The problem lies in the psychology of money and its relevance to reality. Relevance is an environmental/cultural phenomenon. It is a cultural condition. Money is a good example of this. Money is only an invention. If one does not assign any value to money then it has none, simple as that.
All value is actualized through imagination alone. We all agree, as a society, that money represents the exchange of goods, and therefore it has value. This is fine, but only if we understand that it is an illusion in the first place; that it is an abstraction of an abstraction. It’s when we lose sight of this fact that things go awry. It’s when we lose sight of value as truth that things become unhealthy.
Truth-as-value must trump truth-as-certitude, otherwise all matter of things gets knocked out of balance. The problem with money being the preeminent modern-day ritual is that it is based upon truth-as-certitude.
What we need is a new ritual. We need a ritual that trumps the ritual of money and the over-consumption that comes from it. We need a way to diffuse and to reciprocate immoderate wealth. And then we need to somehow make this an aspect of our psychological makeup. But how do we do this? Understanding #1 on this list might help. Also, understanding how a resource based economy functions will go a long way.
3.) Sexual inequality:
“There’s no weakness as great as false strength.”
The sexes are not equal. Generally speaking, women are more powerful than men in every way but one: physical strength. And even then, women can handle more pain than men. Forget about money, possessions, military might. These are fragile and pretentious powers. True power is the ability to create life. And no animal creates life more powerfully than the female human animal. All women are beholders of this prolific power. If this weren’t enough, women have intuitive thought that most men lack. They have access to another system of knowledge that few men ever develop –what Clarissa Pinkola Estes calls the “Deep Knowing.” Above all, women are the closest thing Mankind has to a relationship with Mother Nature.
But, there’s a flipside to this coin: the now cliché notion, “with great power comes great responsibility.” Because women are more powerful than men means that women should be more responsible than men. They must be more responsible with their power. This doesn’t mean men don’t need to be responsible. It just means that a man’s responsibility is secondary, while a woman’s responsibility is primary. This idea is hardly ever discussed because most people falsely assume that men are more powerful than women.
4.) Updating politics:
“Nature is busy creating absolutely unique individuals, whereas culture has invented a single mold to which all must conform. It is grotesque.” ~U. G. Krishnamurti
Everyone wants to talk about bipartisan politics. Republicans rail against democrats. Liberals whine about conservatives. The leftwing and the rightwing flap, lifting the obese and outdated bipartisan bird off the ground for a second only for it to collapse into a heap of parochial politics and flightless feathers. In short: bipartisan politics is old hat. It’s high time we discarded it and donned a new hat.
The problem is nobody wants to think outside the bipartisan box. Nobody wants to allow politics to evolve. People are too busy clinging to their “wings” in disgusting displays of willful ignorance and cognitive dissonance.
At this point, any talk of democrat-republican, leftwing-rightwing, liberal-conservative is nothing more than stopgap red herrings seeking to divert your attention from what really matters: progressive evolution. Don’t be distracted by their stagnated politics. Don’t allow the idiot talking heads to divert your attention. Forget the strawman! Set it on fire and move on. Leave it to the bullies in their pusillanimous pulpits to hem and haw over outdated reasoning and parochial politics. Let’s get down to brass tacks and talk about updating politics instead (See #3 on this other list).
5.) Redefining God:
“Man simply invented God in order not to kill himself. That is the sum of universal history down to this moment.” ~Dostoevsky
The power of questioning answers is gaining new knowledge. The fear of questioning answers is the failure of old knowledge. This applies, especially, to redefining God. Still, the forbidden fruit must be eaten. Otherwise we live in stagnated emptiness void of mystery, magic, and novelty. As James Russell Lowell said, “Time makes ancient good uncouth.”
If you question things far enough and long enough, gods fall. They collapse into the ashes of their burnt-out thrones. They trip over their self-righteous halos. They stumble into the puddle of their own hypocrisy. Which was really our own hypocrisy all along. For the concept of God was only ever a side effect of our anxiety over our own mortality. All hypocrisy is a derivative of this. And so we must constantly invent, outgrow, and then reinvent the concept of God so as not to kill ourselves.
But one God’s falling is another God’s rising. In the mind of mankind, it’s gods all the way down. Your god begets my god begets our God, ad nauseum. Dumb god begets smart god begets smarter God, ad absurdum. Old God begets new God begets newer God, ad infinitum. With each fall, we learn from our mistakes. With each rise, we learn something new that propels us, ever-forward, into a progressive evolution for our species. Don’t be afraid to redefine God.
6.) Polyamory:
“You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.” ~Mary Oliver
There are two predominant reasons why most people don’t like to discuss polyamory: 1.) because they are culturally conditioned to be monogamous, and 2.) because they get hung-up on sex. It’s also often tragically confused with polygamy and swinging, when it is the furthest thing from both.
Polyamory (from the Greek poly, “many, several,” and the Latin amor, “love”) is simply the practice of or desire for intimate relationships with more than one partner, with the knowledge of all partners. It really is that simple. It’s based on honesty, forthrightness, and deep communication, allowing for the free and open intimate expression (not necessarily sexual) of all involved. There’s even research showing how polyamory may be good for you.
These consensually non-monogamous relationships are rapidly challenging the way we think of jealousy, commitment, and love. The most powerful concept emerging from polyamory being the concept of compersion: The feeling of joy associated with seeing a loved one love another; contrasted with jealousy.
7.) Immortality:
“Man is a finite, limited creature but he holds infinity within him, and he demands infinity as an end.” ~Berdyaev
On a long enough timeline, the Fibonacci sequence of human evolution striving toward PHI can achieve functional immortality. It’s just a matter of perseverance, time, and technology. We began with shoes, so our feet wouldn’t blister. Then we harnessed fire, so we could eat more, stay warm, and live longer. Then we built engines, so we could travel farther and shrink the world. Now, the information age has knowledge at everyone’s fingertips. Technology is growing faster and faster. We’re on the brink of designer babies, growing replaceable organs, and manipulating our own genomes to the extent that our very DNA is fast becoming the scientific-artist’s new canvas.
The singularity is near, and it’s intriguing if not frightening. Today, we fly to the moon, we Lasik retinas into functional vision, put artificial valves into heart muscles, and steel rods into legs. Tomorrow, we’ll fly to Mars and beyond, utilize nanobots that proactively heal human tissue, grow organs in 3D-printers, and tweak our DNA. The day after tomorrow we achieve functional immortality. The universe is the limit, let alone the sky.
Our technologies are catching up to our imaginations. Fibonacci is stretching infinitely toward Phi. The ancient Sun God is transforming into tomorrow’s Godson. Quantum Buddha and Fractal Christ are manifest within the human condition. We’re at the dawn of human Godhood, and yet we’re all too damned scared to talk about it
Source: themindunleashed.com
