Cottage Views

 

 

 

 

Where is Home?

 

 

 

 

Paul Cottage

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

---

Preface

I grew up in Scarborough, North Yorkshire. I attended the old Graham Sea Training secondary school. The school is now closed. It once was an all-boys school with around 100 pupils. It had approximately twenty students for each of the 5 years of British secondary education. The focus of the school was nautical studies, but it covered the full U.K. educational curriculum. I didn't learn a great deal from my early school years, especially when it comes to written English. I received minimal grades in pretty much all subjects, except for mathematics. Most of my educational experience was gained while working abroad, and I finally got a Bachelor of Arts degree from a U.S. university. This is something I do not believe I would have achieved under the British education system - especially when considering that the local Sixth Form College rejected my application to attend because my CSE grades were too low. This turned out to be a fortunate turn of events for me because it forced me to investigate the U.S. Air-Force for a meaningful career path.

Since leaving school, I have travelled and lived throughout much of the United States, Europe, the former Soviet Union, and the Middle East.

The original draft of this book was written in the summer of 2006, during a six-month break from work. Its original title was 'A Robin's Message'. It was re-written in 2009, and published under the name 'Why Governments will become obsolete in the Twenty-First Century'. This final version, published in 2015, is called 'Where is home?'.

Almost all of the information in this book can easily be sourced from the Internet and a host of bestseller books. So from this perspective there is nothing new in this writing. To many, my views will be obvious and perhaps boring. The fact that we still live in the world that we live in, though, would suggest that the vast majority of us have not grasped the obvious. It is for this reason, among others, such as refining my own knowledge and views, that the efforts in writing and re-writing this book has been worthwhile.

I have included hyper-links to where information referenced can be found on the Internet. Usually the links are to Wikipedia. They are shown in underlined text in hard copies.

Your feedback is welcome. I would like to know your thoughts. My email address is:

paul_cottage

---

---

Chapter 1 - Something about me

I live in an area that I would describe as urbanized forest. It is a town called Bracknell, just outside of London. The town has been designed so that it interweaves into a managed forest. Many of its homes are surrounded by pine trees and wooded parks. Paved public paths intertwine through the areas interlinking the suburbs, parks and the town centre. These paths are excellent for cycling and walking. It is very easy to get around the town without any need of a car or public transport.

What is amazing is the amount of wildlife thriving happily in the area. I have a small garden that is patronised by a wide range of finches, tits, squirrels and other interesting animals. A similar multitude of creatures greet me as I walk the many paths. I notice them only when I pay enough attention to my environment. It is not uncommon to spot a shy wren, or to disrupt a couple of busy woodpeckers.

One of my favourite creatures is the English Robin. I remember it was a real treat to see a Robin years ago, as they were relatively uncommon. The bird will often fly up to a branch within a few feet of me while I'm walking or messing around in my garden. It's as if he would like to engage in interesting conversation, and is waiting for me to speak. He is very brave, and must have something important to say. Or, maybe, he just wants me off of his turf...

Squirrels also race around throughout the wooded areas, chasing each other from tree branch to tree branch, especially in the springtime. They pay very little attention to people as they go about their very important social lives.

If I wander further away from the urbanized area and into Bracknell forest, the number of noticeable creatures become fewer and fewer, and those that I do see are substantially more discrete. It is as if the majority of creatures have made their homes intertwined with the human population, and thrive on a mutually rewarding relationship. Certainly, a lot of people, including myself, go out of our way to ensure food and water is available - especially during the winter months.

One of the disadvantages of living in Bracknell , and so close to London, is the continuous low-level murmur of traffic, including air-traffic that starts first thing in the morning and lasts until late at night. It is impossible to get away from this noise pollution, even when indoors. I often feel that the car drivers, of which I am one, are oblivious to the sanctity of the environment that we all share.

Many of the birds in the area, especially the Robin, sing very cheerful songs. It is a pleasure to listen to them. I often wonder how the relatively new urbanization and the constant drum of traffic noise affects their social interactions.

Research into Bird Vocalization suggests that urban birds are now singing louder than their country counterparts. Some, such as the urban Robin, are now singing at night to avoid rush-hour traffic. Research also suggests that some finches are having difficulties in distinguishing their own partner's bird-calls, and this may be affecting reproduction. Blackbirds may be diverging into urban and rural subspecies.

For me, the constant hum of traffic is stressful and sometimes depressing, and is a major reason for wanting to move away. I stay in the area because my partner works for a major corporation here, as I did up until recently. It is amazing that wildlife thrives so well in the town. Perhaps, like me, they stay and acclimatize because of the material benefits.

In many ways, my life has not been very different from the life of almost every Western middle-aged man. I started school when I was six. Then went on to full-time employment at around seventeen, and if I stick to the plan, I will be retiring in less than twenty years, at age sixty-five.

In some ways I have been more fortunate than most. My father is American and my mother English. This has allowed me to travel and work around the world, with fewer obstacles and more freedom than most people can experience.

It is strange that the hundreds of millions of supposedly 'free' people in the world all follow relatively similar routines. We normally get up at around eight am. We drive to work in congested traffic. We spend around nine hours at work, and drive home again in the evening in congested traffic. We either sit at home to enjoy an evening meal or perhaps we go out to eat. Invariably we sit in front of the television for a couple of hours before going to sleep, and then we get up and perform the same ritual the next day.

I read quite a lot - almost always in the evening before falling asleep. This morning I was sitting on a rock by a beach in Portugal. I started reading the first chapter of a book that rambled on for many pages, describing a character exploring a ruined old castle. I looked up from my book, and noticed a sand fly crossing a rock towards me. It occurred to me that there are a lot of interesting "mini-adventures" going on around me, yet I choose to read a book rather than engage in the reality of the moment.

I suppose many people also choose to read or to engage in 'soap dramas' on the television at night rather than partake in social arrangements with their neighbours. In fact, I don't even know my neighbours (~2006).

At times I have been flying into major cities at night, such as San Francisco, and I notice that, for as far as the eye can see, there are long lines of small points of traffic lights all dutifully following the light in front down endless 'freeways' surrounded in blackness. I have been engaged in these endless lines of traffic too, and I sometimes look at the driver alongside of me. Invariably it is a single person, normally a man, with a glazed, mindless look on his face.

The long lines of traffic remind me of the long lines of worker ants that are common in Bracknell forest. I have spent some time watching them. If you take a stick and disrupt their trail, the ants will come to an abrupt standstill in both directions and further ants will pile up from behind. This often lasts for quite some time until eventually the connection is re-made and columns start moving again. The situation is very similar to what happens on the motorways and freeways when there is a disruption.

Occasionally, I stay in hotels when on business trips. The hotels are normally brightly lit, and tastefully decorated, with pleasant background music. High quality food is normally served in very professional restaurants, and usually there is a lounge bar area where people can sit and enjoy a drink.

Sometimes these places can be depressing. I often sit on an evening in the lounge area where I notice that primarily these places minister to grey middle-aged businessmen that invariably sit alone or with a colleague. They normally have nothing meaningful to say unless they are talking about work. They look fed up. I often ask if these grey depleted businessmen are a reflection of me.

I have worked for four major organizations over the past thirty years. I worked for the principles of Western democracy and was paid in US dollars and paid US taxes for two organizations. For the other two, I worked for the goals of corporate profit, and was paid in English pounds and paid UK taxes.

In reality, I worked to provide a secure home for my family and myself. I have lived many years in the US, and the UK, and my work has allowed me to travel and live in many countries in Europe, the Middle East and northern Africa.

I'm sure that both the US and British governments think of me as their property. British forces are in the Mediterranean right now (Aug 2006). They are evacuating British nationals from Lebanon. Only British, mind you. I guess the other men, women, and children that are being bombed by Israel don't belong to the British government, so they aren't worth saving.

The projects I have been involved in have been very important - at least from the point of view of the organizations, my many colleagues, and me. Collectively, we have spent many stressful hours, days and months ensuring success. I built up many very close working relationships with various people over the years.

What is interesting is that, once I left an organization, the significance of the projects and the people suddenly disappear. None of the people from these organizations know where I am now or care. I am not keeping track of any of my former colleagues either.

I resigned from my last company several months ago. The experience proved interesting. I found myself waiting for that "all important" mobile phone call from either a customer with a concern, or a colleague to discuss an appropriate strategy, or to be informed about some technical issue. This lasted for the first couple of weeks after my resignation. It is surprising how these interactions give meaning to life.

Then I started to feel anxious. I woke up in the morning with an apprehensive feeling that I should be doing something useful, and not knowing what that useful thing should be. I know I can go a long time without earning money, but the psychological drive to be involved in some structured routine, earning an income, and my mind focused on an issue seemed very strong.

During this break from work, I have started a number of projects, including my own web site, and I have committed myself to writing this book.

I have debated if I should go back to work - perhaps take a job in California. Part-time work seems very hard to find. It is as if there is a global conspiracy insisting that everyone must work five days a week. Recent research, in the UK, has shown that almost half of employees would like to work fewer hours, and would be willing to give up pay for a better balance between work and family life (Independent newspaper). Similar research has also shown that many office workers are only 60-70% utilised during working hours, costing many corporations billions in wasted productivity time.

I think many of us feel anxious or depressed from time to time. Perhaps it's an unconscious realization that we are not achieving something worthwhile in our lives. It is not that the desire to do something worthwhile is not there. It is that we do not know what that worthwhile activity should be.

All of our efforts for a better future for our children seem to be driving us closer towards ruin. Many of us are concerned that our capitalist, competitive, consumer-focused life-style will most likely destroy our planet, and perhaps within our own lifetimes.

Collectively we are very similar, but we are all divided across cultural, political, religious, national and economic divides. The sexes also have different perceptions of reality. These differences cause a great deal of conflict. The media and governments seem to paint a black picture of those from different cultures unless there is a political or economic reason not to. Hardly a day goes by when the media or a government is not generating negativity towards illegal immigrants or other nations with different belief systems.

Of course, the way our culture sees things is the right way. And in time, all those other, mostly poorer nations, and illegal immigrants will see the world as we do. They will be happy to work for slave wages in their own country disposing of our toxic E-Waste , while we enjoy the benefits of their cheap labour. We will all realize our own place in the world, and we will all enjoy the utopian hierarchical relationships our governments are striving so hard to achieve.

Why aren't we all the same? It would seem reasonable that we should be. Green appears to be a popular colour in nature. At this moment, I am looking across a grass lawn; beyond are some large green bushes and then behind them some green trees. Imagine if everything was green. If the chair I am sitting on was green. The ground was green, and my pet dog (if I had one) was green. Imagine looking out and all was green. What decisions could we make? Every direction we moved in would be green. How would we differentiate between a green road, a green car, and a green path? What decisions would we make if every decision led to a green conclusion? Would we lose the ability to make decisions? What would happen if brown came along and liked to consume green? Would we be able to make the appropriate decisions to save ourselves? Would we learn to fear brown before we were destroyed by it?

An example of the, now extinct, Dodo would suggest not. The Dodo once lived on the island of Mauritius. It was a flightless bird that nested on the ground. It also gave birth to rather clumsy chicks. It evolved to this state because it had no natural predators to fear. Once humans arrived on the island, in the sixteenth century, and started introducing dogs, rats, pigs and monkeys, the dodo, with no natural defences, became extinct very quickly.

Fear of the unknown and our constant ability to make decisions in our ever-changing environment has ensured our survival. Making decisions, quite often out of fear, suggests we have choice.

Whether we have choice or not, is an age-old question. We are NOT free to choose if we imagine ourselves as being stationary, and do not see ourselves on a continuous journey from lower phases of understanding to higher stages of truth. I will come back to this subject again and again.

Unlike other animals, humans are supposedly self-aware. Many of us think about the quality and meaning of our lives. We wonder what the future holds, and want to make the right decisions and changes before our time on this planet has expired. We want to ensure a worthwhile future for our offspring.

At our disposal are countless books on science, cosmology, philosophy and religion, as well as computers that connect us to each other, and to a global storehouse of information (the Internet).

We can also express ourselves reasonably freely in Western democratic societies. These powerful advantages have not been available for most of our civilized history. These opportunities are still not an option to the majority of people that live within less open regimes.

We have psychologists that study our mental perceptions. Doctors examine our physical health, and scientists evaluate the health of our environment. We have at our disposal, probably for the first time in human history, almost all known knowledge.

We all perform our daily duties - many believing we are improving our individual lives. We hope for a brighter future for our family and ourselves. Invariably though, we spend our whole lives blindly serving a collective, and then we get old, lose our ability to serve, and we die. I have four children that will go out into the world, and do as I have done.

Some would argue that we are free now to express our heartfelt views, and that our governments and institutions are actively working towards an open and better future. Yet collectively we are failing miserably to take advantage of these opportunities to solve the social and environmental issues that threaten us. We are still willing to go to war with our neighbours, for what are in reality trivial reasons that are spawned out of mistrust and fear. We continue to live wasteful lives that pollute our environment, and threaten to destroy the existence of all life on our one and only planet.

We live our lives in a dream watching our environment and humanity fall apart as if it was happening in a movie.

Many Christians believe that our salvation will be through the return of Jesus Christ. They wait to welcome him with open arms. Muslims and Jews also believe in some future messiah that they will also welcome with open arms. I suspect that should such a person appear again we would treat him with the same contempt and fear that the Jews and Romans treated Jesus two thousand years ago.

It would be an idea to explore how we got to where we are today to better understand why we see our world the way we do.

Top - Table of Content

---

Chapter 2 - From The Beginning to the Vikings

Cosmology

Some scientists suggest that we are here as part of a long evolutionary process, and countless billions of improbable accidents. These scientists specialize in fields such as geology, archaeology, cosmology, chemistry and physics. They base their views on extensive studies and experimentation.

The views of Scientists change, as we better understand our environment; whereas religious beliefs are based on age-old dogmas, and faith.

Some say you must believe before you can have faith. I think a great many people espouse faith without belief - they find comfort in the rituals that are required by their faith.

The current, most popular, scientific theory suggests it all started in the beginning with The Singularity. 'The Singularity' lacks dimension. It has no length, breadth or width. Because it does not exist in space, it also does not exist in time. It does not exist in any sense that we can comprehend. I use the present tense in describing it for this reason. We cannot know its status. From 'The Singularity' came the big bang, exploding our universe into existence. Supposedly this happened in a fraction of a second, and our universe, with all its billions of galaxies, stars and planets, has been expanding ever since for billions of years.

Both the distances and time separating the galaxies, stars and planets are beyond our reasonable comprehension, but somewhere during this mass expansion our planet came into existence orbiting our sun. On a cosmic scale our planet is like a speck of dirt revolving around a small, hotly burning ember in a vast expanse of darkness. We depend completely on the finely balanced environmental conditions of this speck of dirt.

For many millions of years, our planet was lifeless. Then, due to some chemical interaction, the first single-cell life-forms came into existence. Over many more countless years, these evolved into multi-cell creatures. Then the first creatures evolved to live in the sea. These then migrated to the land. Eventually, mammals formed, and then the first apes came into existence, and somewhere further down the evolutionary line humans appeared.

Many religious Creationists believe that this whole process was by design and took six days. In the United States (reputedly the most educated, technically advanced country in the world) a great many religious fundamentalists are going to incredible lengths to ensure their views are taught as fact in preference to Darwinian evolutionary principles in public schools. Their views are based on faith in writings that are several thousands of years old, and have very little scientific analytical support.

I hope to show later that the debate about 'creationism over evolution' is meaningless (along with a great many similar theological debates). But, to add some credence to the religious "creationist" view - let's assume, as is currently believed, that the whole universe came into existence in a fraction of a second. It would seem reasonable to me that our planet, along with its various living creatures, could have come into existence in a period of time equivalent to six days. Perhaps time is slowing down as the universe expands. The slow-down of time would not be perceptible to us because we measure time based on the revolutions of the planets around our sun. Time speeding up or slowing down for all of us, within our own environment, would be the same. Scientists are quite confident now that time and space are NOT constant.

Cosmology is an interesting subject from a scientific perspective. It is also interesting from a religious point of view. Humanity's current perception of reality and the cosmos is rooted in our religious heritage and our current scientific understanding. Our religious perceptions have branched and evolved in different ways around the world, much like our scientific understanding varies slightly between differing and often competing theories.

Top - Table of Content

Humanity's Evolution

When looking at events from a Darwinian evolutionary perspective, four incredibly unlikely events have occurred on our planet over billions of years. The first was the coming into existence of our finely balanced life-supporting planet. The second was the appearance of life from inorganic matter. The third was the unlikely evolution to living species, and the fourth was the rise of humanity. Each represents a quantum exponential leap in understanding.

Some are now predicting that we are close to the next evolutionary leap as a result of an intelligence explosion. They suggest that super-computers could surpass human intelligence through a process of self-improvement. We cannot comprehend the types of intelligences that may evolve. This accelerated evolution of intelligence is also referred to as The Technical Singularity .

Whether humanity will survive as part of this evolutionary process is open for debate. Eckhart Tolle , and other new-age thinkers, believe that humanity may rise to our future challenges through a leap in understanding of our existing condition. He explains his views in his book, A New Earth .

Top - Table of Content

Late Palaeolithic

According to recent research into our DNA, Scientists believe that our human ancestry goes back between one hundred and one hundred and fifty thousand years. During this period the man and the woman from whom we are all descended walked the earth - although they did not walk the earth at the same time.

Archaeological evidence suggests that beings that demonstrate our level of potential intellect came into existence somewhere between forty thousand years ago and thirty thousand years ago. Scientists do not understand why this happened. The evidence for this massive leap in ability is reflected in cave artwork present in central European caves (France, Italy).

We can only speculate on the beliefs and attitudes of these early humans. This speculation is worthwhile because, in trying to understand the evolution of how people see the world, we can better understand why we see the world the way we do now, and perhaps gain a better understanding of where our sense of reality will lead us as we face the opportunities and challenges of our future.

The cave artwork of central Europe depicts Ice-Age mammals, and also strange creatures of half-man and half-animal form. Some of the artwork is in hard to reach places, suggesting that they were not done for general public viewing.

Many anthropologists now believe that this artwork is the creative result of people digesting hallucinogenic ( Psychedelic ) or mind-altering plants.

It is highly likely that we were developing language at this time. This language, along with the artwork, would have been instrumental in sharing our mind-altering experiences. These shared experiences could represent the earliest development of beliefs in the supernatural, and would have led to the first supporting ritualized activities, and our first religious experiences. It could have cultivated beliefs in the spirit world, and of life beyond death. It could have been the earliest time that humanity questioned its own reality, and became self-aware.

Examples of ancient African cave artwork are also available in southern Africa. They demonstrate a lot of the same characteristics as the European artwork. Ancient beliefs and rituals of many central and southern African tribes are still being practised today. Potentially, the beliefs of these African tribes could reflect the views of our earliest ancestors. This would add further credence to the speculation that the artwork was the result of trying to replicate and share supernatural experiences.

It is highly likely that family groups of humans spent extended periods of time within these caves during the cold winter months. The mind-altering drugs may have provided a focus of shared experiences that made these periods with very little food and extremely cold conditions more bearable and survivable.

These early humans had similar physiques to modern-day humans. This meant that their survival depended both on their individual, and more importantly, their collective intellectual abilities.

Young mothers and babies were the most vulnerable in these societies. Wild animals, such as wolves, and the harsh elements would have posed a constant threat. The survival of the human race depended on the protection of the most helpless. For this reason, women of child-bearing age held a special place within the community. It is likely that they were even revered, and their needs placed above other community members.

Female figurines with over-large "breasts and bellies", known as Venus Figures, have been found throughout much of Europe, from France to Russia. They date from this Late Palaeolithic era. The Venus Of Willendorf in Austria and the "Venus of Kostenki" in Russia are two examples. Many suggest that these figurines are an indicator of goddess worship.

This psyche of protecting young women and mothers remains to today. We are more inclined to aid a younger woman or mother in need than a man or older woman - despite of our egalitarian attitudes shaped by our modern societies, and notwithstanding the fact that we no longer have to fear wild predators, and we now have over six billion people in the world.

The early human communities that did not place a high status on the needs of young women or potentially did not share in psychedelic experiences probably did not survive the last Ice Age.

The word Psychedelic comes from the Greek meaning 'mind-revealing'. These types of drugs have been used in experimental treatments for mental illness such as schizophrenia and depression, and also to combat alcoholism.

Many prominent leaders in psychedelic research, such as Timothy Leary , have suggested that these drugs provide a direct route to spiritual enlightenment and heightened mental awareness. This has caused a backlash in many Western countries, and scientific research into the benefits has been severely hampered.

Many patients that have been involved in research activities have had life-changing experiences. Many, with criminal or abusive backgrounds, have found themselves appalled by their past lifestyles, and many drug users, most notably alcoholics, have been cured of their depression and dependencies through these experimental psychedelic experiences.

Timothy Leary wrote in 1964:

"A psychedelic experience is a journey to new realms of consciousness. The scope and content of the experience is limitless, but its characteristic features are the transcendence of verbal concepts, of space-time dimensions, and of the ego or identity. Such experiences of enlarged consciousness can occur in a variety of ways: sensory deprivation, yoga exercises, disciplined meditation, religious or aesthetic ecstasies, or spontaneously. Most recently they have become available to anyone through the ingestion of psychedelic drugs. Of course, the drug does not produce the transcendent experience. It merely acts as a chemical key - it opens the mind, frees the nervous system of its ordinary patterns and structures."

It is interesting to note that President Richard Nixon considered Timothy Leary as the most dangerous man in America, and a prominent judge remarked:

"If he is allowed to travel freely, he will speak publicly and spread his ideas."

The judge gave Leary a 95-year prison sentence; although he was released from jail a few years later!

Top - Table of Content

Mesolithic Era

The last Ice Age came to an end around 12,000 years ago when glaciers started a slow retreat. Mammals with large hairy coats, such as mammoths, were adapted to the cold, and found it hard to cope with the warming climate.

Britain was joined to mainland Europe at this time, and as the ice receded, people migrated into what is now England, most likely in search of game. The earliest human activities in England are from the Mesolithic period, dating back about 10,700 years.

Humanity demonstrated quite advanced technical skills including the use fire to clear reed beds. We used tools for hunting, fishing and construction. We employed rudimentary farming (gathering) techniques, such as picking berries and collecting wild seeds.

The first animals were domesticated perhaps as the result of saving orphaned creatures such as wolf pups. These animals would have been raised within the clan community, creating mutually beneficial relationships.

People lived in purposely built shelters, and seasonally moved to hunt game. Dwellings were usually close to water (oceans, rivers or large lakes). The waters were used as a constant source of food, and perhaps bathing in the summer months. Our diet would have been mainly protein (meat/fish), with seasonal greens, seeds, nuts and fruit.

We probably lived in extended family units or clans. A strong sense of altruism towards our community and close social interaction continued to be integral to our daily lives in the harsh environment in which we lived. This sense of altruism kept our small communities viable against threats from wild creatures and other small communities of hunting-gatherers. It is doubtful that we could count more than a few digits.

Very little is known of the beliefs of these people. Many suggest that magic and the supernatural hallucinogenic experiences played a key role. It is believed that we worshipped the Mother Goddess perhaps at special locations such as hills, waterfalls, rivers or caves. We were very much in tune with our environment. We felt 'a part of' rather than 'owning' the land on which we lived.

The night was significant. The celestial bodies dictated when we should move north or south, and what to hunt. It is likely that the light of the full moon was used for hunting.

Our physiology and beliefs evolved to accommodate this lifestyle. For example, the feminine cycle may have evolved to align with lunar hunting activities, and what we now refer to as "witchcraft" - supernatural rituals mostly invoked at night - may have its roots in this distant way of life.

Top - Table of Content

Neolithic Era

The next major milestone in human advancement seems to be around the Neolithic Age, with megalithic monuments. The word 'Megalith' has Greek origins, and means great stone. Many huge stones (Henges) can be found throughout Western Europe, the British Isles, and perhaps further afield. It is assumed (based on surrounding evidence) that these monuments were arranged around 5,500 years ago. Some of the most famous examples are Stonehenge, and Avebury, in the south of England.

These stones represent some of our very first monuments. The effort in staging them can only be described as monumental, and would challenge the very best of today's engineers, especially given the basic tools available at the time. The bulk of the stones at Stonehenge are known as sarsen stones and weigh in excess of 50 tons. They were transported over twenty miles from their quarry.

Other stones, known as blue stones, weigh around 5 tons, and were transported from Wales, 135 miles away. Surveys of Stonehenge carried out by Alexander Thom (~1973) suggest that the stones were not laid out in stone circles, but in geometrics derived from Pythagorean triangles, and use a standard measurement now known as the Megalithic yard (2.72 feet).

Evidence (raised by Mr C A Peter Newham (~1963), Dr Gerald Hawkins (~1965) and others), indicates that the Megalithic monuments mark celestial activities both of the Sun and Moon. Perhaps this is a good indication that, although the attention of humanity was moving away from being in tune with the Earth's natural environment, the celestial bodies still had a significant psychological or religious purpose.

Pottery and sophisticated flint tools can be found dating from the earliest of this period. Farming played a major role, and forest areas were cleared to support crops. Evidence of Ceremonial burials is common in the form of Burial Mounds.

The earliest burial mounds contained a community of bodies. Later mounds often contained a single significant individual. As we move further into the Bronze Age, artefacts made of bronze and gold have been found.

Commerce (bartering) within and between communities was probably common with perhaps rudimentary counting and maybe some form of writing ability employed by some (most likely elite) community members. No signs of currency (coins) from this time exist.

The extended family unit or clan has given way to larger settlements (small towns or villages), possibly fortified against neighbouring communities. The environment outside of protected settlements would have seemed hostile - filled with wild beasts and other unknown dangers. The diet of this period would have moved away from mainly protein (meat) to a mixture of grain and vegetables. Wild or domesticated meat was probably reserved for ceremonial purposes.

The beliefs of this period, in Western Europe, are not known. For thousands of years humans had believed in the spirit world. With the evolution of comprehensive language, beliefs would have turned into verbal stories which passed down from generation to generation. By the time of the Neolithic, folklore would have been used to explain natural phenomena, and to remember long dead relatives.

Legendary character and events turned into stories about the gods.

Our minds distinguished between inanimate objects such as rocks and mountains, and animated objects that could move autonomously and impact the environment. People and animals were alive. What about the plants, the oceans, the wind, the sun, the moon, and the star? These too were animate. They moved, by what seemed at the time, of their own volition and with devastating effects on the environment sometimes.

People were trying to understand. It was only natural that we invented stories that described these events. The created gods required rituals and appeasement otherwise the next harvest would fail - For the Neolithic mind what other reason could there be? People that ignored the stories did so at their peril.

The stories that had the most validity and were the most memorable were also perhaps the most unbelievable. It was through the fantastic that people were inspired to go beyond the mundane and to tolerate hardship for the greater good.

These stories referenced phenomenal structures such as mountains, cliffs or cyclical events such as the ocean tides, or the movement of the Sun across the sky. The fantastic legitimised the importance of significant people or events, and they remained alive in the minds of generations to follow. Significant leaders and story tellers understood this - Perhaps this is why we still have the propensity to believe in the implausible today.

People were determined and focused though, suggesting that their beliefs were wholehearted. Communities across Europe and Britain must have shared a common belief system, because these Megalithic stones (which must have had a common meaning or religious significance) can be found throughout Western Europe and Britain.

It is highly likely that community members had a set of expectations (rights), based on status. People felt that they owned the land on which they lived, and some people were seen as community leaders. Without this type of structured society, and common sense of purpose, organized farming and monuments, such as Stonehenge, would never have happened.

Community leaders sub-consciously or consciously learned to exploit the deep-seated human sense of altruism by shifting its focus from the family unit to serving the community objectives, and the leaders or gods of the time.

Religious rituals developed to perpetuate long-standing beliefs, and to enforce a common understanding and hierarchy between community members. People followed agreed rules in mutually beneficial relationships. Conformity would have been ensured through intense social peer pressure and expressed through rituals and public statements. To challenge these beliefs would have meant expulsion from the community or death.

A sense of fear or miss-trust of people from other communities would have been encouraged.

Temples or Shrines around Stonehenge and other significant location were probably used to honour the dead or perhaps for ritualistic sacrifice and cannibalism. A parallel pair of ditches and banks lead from the River Avon to Stonehenge. (A distance of a few kilometres) Perhaps sacrificial victims were washed (cleansed) in the river before consumption at the altar to the gods.

The need for sacrificial victims to ensure the well-being of the community is still relevant in the minds of many today too.

Matthew 3,16 Jesus, when he was baptized, went up directly from the water: and behold, the heavens were opened to him. He saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming on him. 3,17 Behold, a voice out of the heavens said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.";

Luke 22,19 He took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and gave to them, saying, "This is my body which is given for you. Do this in memory of me." 22,20 Likewise, he took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you".

Top - Table of Content

Iron Age

The Iron Age reflects the first general use of iron, and the migration of Celts throughout Europe. The Celts were among the first to discover the use of iron for making tools, weapons, wheeled transport, coinage, and art objects. This gave them a huge advantage over their neighbours.

The Celts may have represented an expansion of an Indo-European language culture and belief system. It probably originated in the Baltic States area (~3,000 years ago), and moved as far west as Ireland and as far east as Iran and northern India. What many believe are the remnants of this ancient Celtic language survive in the native languages of Irish, Welsh, Scottish, Manx (Isle of Man), and Cornish in England.

Celtic mythology was not recorded, in England, until the Christian era, and then primarily by Irish and Welsh monks. There may have been suppression of Celtic writing by the early Christian church because of the mystical significance placed on writing by the Celts - their writings may have been seen as spells.

Perhaps the remnants of Celtic beliefs can be gleaned in the Hindu religion. A great many similarities exist between Hinduism and recorded Celtic folklore, and also common word roots. For example, the Hindu Vedas , "books of learning", were composed in northern India around 2,500 years ago. The name is from the Sanskrit root vid, meaning Knowledge. This same root occurs in Old Irish as uid, meaning observation, or knowledge. Some will recognize it as one of two components of the word Druid or dru-vid - perhaps meaning "thorough knowledge".

Another example is the word arya , meaning freeman in Sanskrit, from which we get the word Aryan in the West. The word "Aryan" has significance most notably with Hitler's Germany - a subject I discuss later.

Druidism reflects our current understanding of the religion of this era. A large part of our knowledge of the Celts comes from Roman and Greek writing. It is speculated that they believed in the immortality of the soul, and in reincarnation. According to Greek writers Diodorus Siculus and Tacitus ,they were heavily into human sacrifice, and used human entrails to consult the gods and predict the future.

Sacred groves, especially those of Oak trees, played an important role in their religion. It is also commonly believed that they were expert in astronomy, and firmly believed in Astrology. Evidence of astrological beliefs is also well rooted in Mediterranean, Egyptian and Judeo-Christian beliefs.

Surviving artefacts suggest they possessed advanced skills and a great deal of ingenuity. Very little written language from these people has survived. Some have suggested that the Druid priests resisted the sharing of writing skills to protect their isolated mystical privileges.

Population explosions, as agriculture ensured a constant supply of food, was inevitable. This caused mass migration of people throughout Europe.

Tribal wars and human sacrifices may have become an unwitting means of population control - as each community tried to maintain their share of limited resources.

Elaborate social order, ritualized religious activities and beliefs probably maintained a semblance of control. Psychedelic drugs were probably used by sacrificial subjects, and by warriors before going to war with their neighbours.

Into these warring tribal communities came the Romans with their disciplined armies, literature, and government. The Celts were barbarians to the Romans. For several hundred years the Romans tried to Romanize their northern subjects. They introduced literature, built roads, towns and forts.

Top - Table of Content

The Romans

Although the Romans occupied much of Europe for more than 350 years, there is little evidence that the indigenous people embraced the Roman culture, suggesting that the local beliefs (Druidism) remained strong throughout this period.

There were inter-relationships, and Roman taxes though. Many Europeans were taken as slaves. Many became house servants; some became gladiators; and others became soldiers. Many earned their freedom, and lived in Europe as Roman citizens - many as unpopular tax collectors. The local tribes resisted roman literature, and did not enjoy many of the benefits of civilized Roman living.

In time, the Romans probably agreed with local chieftains on issues of trade and congenial cohabitation. The Romans also protected much of Romanized Europe from raiding tribes from further north (the Saxons). Little wonder then that, after the Romans left, much of Europe fell into a long period of decay known as the Dark Ages. Evidence suggests Druidism remained active well up to 1000AD and beyond.

One of the dominant kingdoms in England during Roman occupation was in the north. They were known as the Brigantes, and they were named after the Celtic goddess Brigit (the word Brigantes possibly meaning 'People of Brigit').

Queen Cartimandua ruled the Brigantes when the Romans invaded (~43AD). After initial defeats by the Romans, she negotiated a mutually beneficial collaboration with the Roman leaders, and was allowed to run her tribe under Roman jurisdiction. Queen Cartimandua's collaboration with the Romans caused a great deal of friction with other tribes in Britain.

The Romans must have viewed their relationship with the Brigantes favourably, because Hadrian (~120AD) built a shrine to "Britannia" (with reference to the Celtic goddess) in York, and put her image on British Roman coins. She was depicted in her familiar warlike outfit (shield, standard with the sea in the background) as has been commonly depicted on the old English penny coins until very recently. This is probably one of the earliest references to Britain as a country.

It is during this era that we gain a significantly better understanding of people in the form of recorded history for Europe, and from across the Middle East. Not only were goods being traded across the new Roman world, but also different beliefs.

For example, at the height of the Roman period, a man was born in a little-known state in the Middle East. His name was Jesus, and his teachings were so radical that not only were they a threat to his own community (Israel), but also to the whole Romanized world. The Romans were generally ambivalent of the religious beliefs of the various communities under their control, so long as they paid homage to the Roman gods and Emperor. They were not ambivalent to the early Christians.

Jesus was cruelly executed for his beliefs, and his followers were also persecuted and brutally killed for centuries to follow.

The teachings of Jesus took root despite the continuous persecution. The perceived threat that the early Christians posed was only placated through a series of compromises and indulgences that led to the Edict of Milan , and the Council of Nicaea under the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great .

"Constantine the Great" (around 325AD) effectively legitimized Christianity as defined through the Roman ruling bodies. Over the next hundred years or so, a formal legitimized Christian belief system was defined. To challenge the legitimized Christian position was punishable by death, and all known religious books that challenged the official Roman Christian stance were destroyed.

The debate over the approved version of Christianity would still continue for centuries to follow though. Constantius II (the son of Constantine the Great) had a more Arian view of Christianity, and this eventually resulted in the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Arianism was a view that God and Jesus were not the same, and that God created Jesus like everyone else. The name is derived from a priest ( Arius ) that lived in Alexandria, Egypt in the early 4th century.

Arian should not be confused with Aryan. The word Aryan relates to the Celtic word meaning "Free Man", and is also referenced from Indian Sanskrit roots. Hitler used the expression in reference to a superior race. It is interesting to note that it may also reference the objective of Jesus - to set people free. The type of freedom that Jesus was talking about has been misunderstood or obscured, perhaps purposefully, to this day.

Athanasius of Alexandria, of around the early 4th century, was the main opponent to the Arian view of Christianity. Athanasius held that Jesus was simultaneously divine and human. Athanasius' view prevailed for Western Orthodox Christianity. It was Athanasius who also declared that all Christian religious writing, except the current Old Testament and the 27 Books of the New Testament, to be Heretical .

Roman Papal dominance started somewhere around 533AD, when the Roman Emperor Justinian declared the bishop of Rome to be the 'Head of the Holy Churches' and 'Head of all the holy priests of God'. Justinian also endeavoured to turn the beliefs of the Church into law, and branded all those that challenged those beliefs as Heretics .

It is reasonable to assume that neither the Western nor Eastern Orthodox views reflect the actual attitude of Jesus and his teachings, even though the many resulting Christian religions are based on these teachings.

What obscure teaching of Jesus was such a threat to the whole Romanized world? It is worthwhile exploring this subject to see if there is still a threat to today's governments and religious communities, including Christianity. This is covered a little later in Chapter 5.

Top - Table of Content

The Dark Ages

The term Dark Ages is used to indicate the intellectual darkness that fell over Europe with the fall of the Roman Empire. It is generally considered the time between 400AD and 1000AD. The fall of Rome started sometime between 400AD and 410AD with a number of invasions into Italy by the Visigoths (Germanic tribes).

It was unthinkable to most that the civilized Roman world would ever end. It would be similar to us seriously contemplating that our Western civilised world could come to an end - We just don't do it.

Between 406AD and 408AD the citizens of the City of Rome found themselves having to negotiate with Alaric I, king of the Visigoths, for their survival. This unbelievable event marked the end of Roman security and the dawn of the dark ages.

The Romans left Britain between 400AD and 410AD. In 410AD the Emperor Honorius officially informed the Britons that they must organize their own defence.

With the retreat of the Romans, Europe fell into turmoil, with various warring kingdoms vying for dominance. The Saxons invaded England. Much of Europe was left in turmoil due to looting, pillaging and burning (especially books).

The Irish, who were just learning to read and write, were remote to a lot of these activities and many, recently converted, Christian Irish monks took on the task of saving and copying Western literature. Although these were known as Celtic Christians , they acted as a means through which Roman and Judaeo-Christian cultures were sustained, and they helped in the re-introduction of these principles to Britain and the tribes of Europe.

Whitby, (north-east England), at Saint Hilda's Abbey, provides excellent references of Celtic/Saxon Christian activities in England. Quite a bit is known about this period, thanks primarily to the writing efforts of Bede (672AD-735AD) - England's first historian, who lived in the area.

Bede was in touch with prominent kings and religious people of the time and used these contacts to write narratives such as the Ecclesiastical History of the English People .

We know that Celtic Christian religious activities existed on the cliffs of Whitby as early as 655AD when King Oswy (Northumbrian King) defeated Penda of Mercia (a powerful Pagan King of middle England), and founded Celtic Christian monastic activities of both men and women.

The Monastic activities flourished under the direction of Abbess Hilda ( Saint Hilda - a woman). This is perhaps a good indication that the Celtic Christian churches were not as patriarchal in their beliefs as the Romanized Christian Church.

The two branches of Christianity (Celtic and Roman) debated the matters that divided them the most at Whitby Abbey (664AD) and The Synod of Whitby decided in favour of Roman tradition.

Historians suggest that the debates were mainly around when Easter should be celebrated. It is interesting to note that we celebrate Easter (as well as Christmas) on dates relating to Pagan beliefs.

Missionaries and monks, under the direction of St. Augustine, converted large parts of Britain to Roman Christianity in the late 6th century. St. Augustine was sent to England to convert the pagan English by Pope Gregory I .

For much of Europe, the Dark Ages represented a struggle between the forces loyal to the established Druid beliefs, the Anglo-Saxon beliefs, and the new Celtic Christianity. Roman Christianity was re-introduced in the 6/7th Centuries, and a conflict between Christianity and paganism lasted well into the 11th century.

Although the romanticized story of King Arthur and his knights are the imaginative creation of medieval writers such as Geoffrey of Monmouth ( ~1130 ). They do draw on ancient folklore, and perhaps best highlight the struggle, compromise and collaboration between the various religious and political movements in England (and also Europe) during this time.

There was one religion, in England, during the time of Geoffrey which controlled all aspects of everyone's lives - from birth to death and everything in between including marriage, status, access to education, and opportunity. Not so, during the time of King Author. The British Isle's was awash with vying interests and beliefs such as the Celts; the Saxons; the Picts; the Celtics Christians; and the Roman Christians.

Within the Arthurian stories, the search for the 'holy grail' perhaps reflected Christian purpose. The tales of the wizard Merlin and witches echoed pagan beliefs.

King Arthur's round table probably highlighted medieval aspirations for 'consensus building' to accommodate pluralistic interests ( this was not typical during the time of Geoffrey ).

The yarn of King Author pulling the sword from the stone and, by doing so, earning the right to be King, perhaps reflects a yearning for a time when leadership, or status, was based on ability - The pulling of the sword from the stone may be analogous to extracting metals from rock ( tin and iron ) to make weapons - this skill made Author the most qualified to lead. ( During the time of Geoffrey status was hereditary )

Top - Table of Content

Pagan and Christian Symbolism

Despite this collaboration, pagan beliefs were dying out. Almost all pagan religious sites and rituals were eventually supplanted with Christian churches or Christian symbolism.

Glastonbury Tor is probably the most famous pagan religious site that was taken over by Christian symbolism. It is a 500ft high conical mound that is visible for miles around. Its history goes back way before the Celts and Druids, most likely to the Neolithic era.

A maze pattern on Glastonbury Tor, similar to the Cretan Labyrinth suggests goddess worship was practised before the Celtic arrival, with perhaps connections to Sumerian goddess Tiamat - "Ti", meaning Life, and "Ama", meaning mother, suggesting mother of life - the "at" also makes her feminine.

The Celts settled in the area about three centuries before the Romans arrived. A couple of Celtic villages have been found at Glastonbury Meare - along with Celtic burial grounds. Folklore also links our romanticized King Arthur and the legend of Avalon .

On top of Glastonbury Tor sits Saint Michael's Church. Christian activities go back well into the Saxon era, but the first church was built there in the twelfth century (Norman era).

According to Christian tradition, St. Michael is the ruler of the archangels. He is also considered the dragon slayer, and prominent adversary of Satan. He was the perfect champion to fight the demons of the old religions. To the early Christians, the Tor and its spiral maze represented the dragon (Satan).

Many less well-known sites throughout England have both Pagan and Christian significance, such as the church grounds in the village of Rudston, near Scarborough, in Yorkshire. Within the grounds is a 25ft megalithic stone. It is the tallest megalithic stone in Britain. Many suggest that it goes down into the ground for the same distance, and weighs around 40 tons.

It marked a holy place of worship for the Celts. It was a location commandeered by the Roman Christian missionaries for worship in the 6/7th centuries.

Today, "All Saints Church" and church grounds dominate the area. The church dates to the Norman era. The name of the village, Rudstone or "Rune Stone", a stone around which runes (spells) are cast, also highlights the pagan significance of the area.

Not only were religious sites hijacked by the early Christians, but also significant religious dates. For example, Sunday has its links to the Indian-Vedic (Celtic) God of the Sun, and also to the Egyptian day of Sun worship. Christmas falls on the winter equinox - a date of significance going well back into the Neolithic era - a date perhaps signifying the birth of a new year. And the list goes on...

Eventually, Roman Christianity became the dominant religion throughout Europe. This was primarily through organized determination, repression, and absorbing a lot of the cultural and religious symbolism of the pagan beliefs.

Top - Table of Content

The Vikings

The Viking era is commonly considered between 800AD and 1050AD, when the Vikings ( from Scandinavia ) began exploring, raiding and trading with the coastal areas of Europe, Iceland, and the northern Americas. They were commonly known as Norsemen.

The earliest reference to a Viking raid in England is in 787AD, when a group of Norsemen sailed into Portland in Dorset, and murdered a king's representative that wished to collect trading tax from them. Other early raids include the monastery at Lindisfarne, dated 8 June 793AD, and St. Hilda's Abbey in Whitby in 867AD, along with many others.

Saint Hilda's Abbey was abandoned until 1078AD, when the Normans undertook its restoration. Some suggest that Saint Hilda's remains were safely removed to Glastonbury Abbey .

It is from the Vikings that we gain our first practical understanding of the religious beliefs of the northern European tribes. It can be deduced based on the names of places, "Christian" religious dates, and the writings of Bede ( an Anglo-Saxon scholar and monk of the eighth century ) that the early Anglo-Saxons and Vikings held many of the same beliefs.

What is apparent is that the northern European tribes believed in gods, demigods (progeny from god/human relations), and giants. They had expansive sagas of these super-beings, with heroes such as Odin - Thor and Eostre - ( Easter ). These gods required sacrifices, both human and animal, and various rituals were performed to appease or invoke their support.

Written evidence of the belief in gods, demigods and giants go back to Sumerian civilization ( 6,000 years ), and continue into Egyptian, Celtic, Greek, Roman and even pre-diluvian Judaeo-Christian religion and legends.

Top - Table of Content

---

Chapter 3 - The Normans to the 19th Century

The Normans were Vikings that settled in France, and became Christians as part of a peace settlement with the French. The peace settlement required their conversion to Christianity. They became very pious, and were very much committed to the Roman Church.

The Normans, under the leadership of William the Conqueror, are most famous for their defeat of England's King Harold II at the battle of Hastings in 1066.

Saxon Britain, which was still a mixture of Celtic, Saxon, pagan and Christian interests, understandably was not ready to accept the paradigm shift that the Normans represented. It took six years of brutal campaigning, most notably with the harrying of the north (1069 - 1070) to subjugate the British.

William parcelled out most of the country to his mercenaries. Over 90 percent of the land was placed in French speaking Norman ownership, and the indigenous English were reduced to landless poverty.

The feudal system, which was now spreading across Europe, subjugated 95 percent of the English speaking population to a five percent Norman aristocracy.

Castles were built across the country. These were not as a defence against foreign attack, but as a defence against the resentful British.

The Normans support for the Roman Church and monastic life is perhaps best symbolized at Battle Abbey - built in the town of Battle near Hastings by 'William the Conqueror' as penance to the pope for Harold's defeat and death.

Saint Hilda's Abbey, in Whitby, underwent a great deal of restoration by one of William's Knights, Regenfrith (Reinferd), a soldier monk, who converted to monastic life after the invasion of England.

Almost every human activity was under the influence of church rituals or teachings during this period.

The Normans, as with other Roman Catholic Christians, lived in fear of the church. Salvation of the soul, in the afterlife, depended on the church's blessing.

The churches were packed with the indigenous peasants and Norman overlords. The congregations clung to every word of the church, but the church was not spreading the teachings of love and forgiveness as Jesus may have done. Instead, the church was talking about hell and damnation and was expanding its psychological and political influence.

The Normans helped to spread the Christian ethos through much of Europe, either through conquest or political dominance. They became a leading and wealthy power in Europe.

The church gained greatly from this dominance because the Normans spent a great deal of their ill-gained wealth building churches and abbeys as recompense to the church for their conquests.

It was probably during this period that the last vestiges of pagan beliefs at the fringes of society were routed out and completely suppressed through the religious zeal of the Norman conquerors, and the implementation of Norman feudalism.

Norman feudalism reinforced a system whereby Barons owned large areas of land usually granted to them by the King. The peasants (or serfs), who lived on the land, came under the jurisdiction of the Baron. They were allowed to make a meagre living on the land; While, at the same time, they ensured a decent standard of living for the Baron overlords and their families.

The Barons paid taxes to the King. The peasants were subject to the Baron's law, and the King had to negotiate with the Barons for financial support (taxes). The Baron's commitment to the King was often tenuous, especially when it came to taxes.

The ideals of Feudalism, which had spread across England, much of Europe, and into Russia, was the norm in the Far East also. It was legitimized through Confucianism in countries under Chinese influence, and the Caste system subjugated the people of India under Hinduism .

The wealthy landowners of Europe justified their positions through their Christian religious beliefs. They enforced their views on their subjects, and used the wealth gained from the labour of their serfs not only to pay taxes, but also to fund expensive pilgrimages to Jerusalem. It was now the natural order of things.

The Roman Christian church held great power throughout Europe. Even the authority of Kings was granted and restrained through the dictates of the Church. This is most notable in the twelfth century, with the tenacious relationship between Henry II (a very able and successful King of England) and Thomas Becket - Archbishop of Canterbury .

'Henry II' was not only King of England, but also held authority over much of France. 'Henry II' appointed Becket to the position of Archbishop of Canterbury because of their close friendship.

Becket and 'Henry II' were soon quarrelling over numerous disputes relating to who should have the rights of authority and punishment in England. Eventually, Knights of 'Henry II' murdered Becket. The Church, from Rome, forced 'Henry II' to do humiliating penance and to make further political and economic concessions to the church.

All education (notably literacy) was taught through institutions built and run by the Church Oxford University (was founded in 1167).

To be anything other than a Christian, or to challenge the church's views, meant certain punishment or horrific death. The majority of people were illiterate. They were in continuous fear of the local Baron for their livelihood, and in spiritual fear for their souls through the teachings of the church.

Matthew 7:15 "By their fruits you will know them".

Top - Table of Content

Islam

While Christianity was colonising Europe, another monotheistic religious movement, known as Islam , was taking over the Middle East. Islamic dominance spanned from northern India in the east to the North African Atlantic coast in the west. Muslims worshipped the same god as the Christians.

The Islamic religion started in the 7th century with its founder and primary prophet, Muhammad .

Muhammad preached peaceful co-existence, especially with other believers such as Christians (as did the early Christian Church). It's a little ironic that he was actively involved in around 19 military campaigns.

Islam spread pretty rapidly after Muhammad's death, usually through military force. Palestine was taken in 636, and Jerusalem was conquered in 638. The rest of Northern Africa was taken shortly after, including Egypt and what is now Morocco. Eventually, southern Spain also became predominantly Islamic.

Although these two fanatical religious movements worshipped the same god, and both espoused peace and tolerance, it was not long before they would come to blows, primarily over Jerusalem - a religiously significant location for both ideologies.

For the past couple of hundred years the Roman Catholic Church had developed a controlling relationship with all the Kingdoms of Europe. This ensured their support in this dispute. In a rousing speech that labelled the Muslims as degenerates, Pope Urban II rallied the forces of Europe to take back Jerusalem (1095).

He promised "Peace of God" protection to those that fought in the Holy War. Not only for themselves, but also for their families, and properties.

The first Crusades began in 1096 under William II . Crusaders gathered from all over Western Europe. The Crusades were to last for over three hundred years, and, along with religious bigotry, extreme poverty, disease, and other local wars, was one of the more oppressive on-going anxieties in everyone's life.

Out of the Crusades came various religious military organizations such as the Templars (~1118). The Templar Knights initially pledged to protect pilgrims to and from the holy lands. They gained papal support and self-rule. They attracted a great deal of wealth and considerable land through their efforts.

As should have been expected, eventually the Templars were perceived as a threat to the established religious and political governing bodies. Philip IV , of France, with Papal consent, saw thousands of the Templars brutally tortured and killed. Many were burned at the stake.

Some suggest that the Templars made secretive discoveries during archaeological activities in Jerusalem, and a whole host of Holy Grail stories have sprung up from these suggestions. The Freemasons, along with other secretive organizations, may also have their roots in the Templars.

Top - Table of Content

The Late Middle Ages

The Roman Catholic Church held an iron grip over Western Europe, with no reasonable challenge well up until the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Everyone paid the Roman Catholic Church - most often through indulgences. The wealthy paid huge sums of money for the "health of their soul". Much of medieval life was about living in preparation for death. To be unprepared meant a destiny with eternal torment in hell.

Probably one of the most soul-destroying events of the period was the Black Plague that hit around 1347 and wiped out in excess of thirty million people across Europe. There were just not enough priests to perform the sacrament of last rites and not enough space in the churches to bury the dead. Millions went to their death in terror, believing that they were lost forever to Damnation. This probably led to a great crisis of faith when many questioned why so many seemingly righteous people were being condemned to Hell.

Top - Table of Content

Challenges to the Roman Catholic Church

Key challenges to the Roman Catholic Church began with a religious and political movement in England known as the Lollardy .

John Wyclif (1330-1384) was a forerunner of the Lollardy. John persistently attacked clerical wealth and privilege. He challenged papal authority, and much of the Catholic doctrine. He taught that religious power and authority came through piety and not through the Church hierarchy.

In Europe, Martin Luther (1483-1546) initiated the Reformation eventually leading to the Lutheran and Protestant religions. Martin Luther believed that salvation was through the study of the bible as the ultimate authority for Christians, and that salvation was through faith. It was therefore essential that Christians read and understood the Bible. Martin Luther made his own celebrated translation of the Bible into German. Martin Luther did accept many Roman Catholic rituals such as Baptism, the Eucharist and Penitence.

Top - Table of Content

Dissolution of the Roman Church in England

Henry VIII (1509 to 1547) is most famous for his six wives. He was a powerful King that engaged in a number of wars with the French and the Scottish, as well as quelling some internal revolts as a result of his religious reforms.

In his early years he wrote a treatise denouncing Martin Luther's reformist ideals. This earned him the title "Defender of the Faith" from the Pope.

A series of events, most notably in divorcing or executing his many wives, saw 'Henry VIII' challenge papal authority and alter greatly the Christian religion. His actions not only affected England, but also had repercussions throughout the Christian world. 'Henry VIII' implemented the Church of England as a separate church from the "Roman Catholic Church", and placed the English Crown at its head.

The Pope excommunicated 'Henry VIII' in 1533.

Under 'Henry VIII', religious reforms were introduced throughout England. This included the dissolution and destruction of over 800 Abbeys, Monasteries and Churches. Many Abbeys were left to fall into disrepair, including Whitby Abbey, which was sold off to Richard Cholmley . Richard used much of the stones from the Abbey to build his own family mansion. The same happened to Battle Abbey near Hastings. It was sold to Sir Anthony Browne and fell into disrepair.

One of the most famous Abbeys to be destroyed was Glastonbury Abbey . There had been monastic activities at the Glastonbury Abbey location dating all the way back to 63AD. Reputedly, Joseph of Arimathea along with twelve followers, brought the Holy Grail or perhaps Mary Magdalene (reference the Da Vinci Code ) to Glastonbury and built a wattle church on the grounds of the Abbey. According to the New Testament, 'Joseph of Arimathea' donated his tomb for the burial of Jesus.

Christianized Saxons later built a church on the grounds in around 658AD. This grew into a fully-fledged Abbey over the centuries.

Glastonbury Abbey was destroyed by fire in 1184, but Henry II undertook the building of a new Abbey at the crown's expense. It took 120 years to complete.

It had been the richest Abbey in the country for centuries when Henry VIII's henchmen demanded its surrender. The Abbot, Richard Whiting , like many others, could not accept the paradigm shift required in changing his allegiances from the pope to the King, and resisted the conversion. He was dragged to the top of Glastonbury Tor, where his head was chopped off. His head was stuck on the Abbey gate, and his body was hacked into four pieces and exhibited in various towns as a message to other Abbots that may choose to resist the dissolution.

Top - Table of Content

Authoritative Power Moves to Monarchy

'Henry VIII's' goals were to solidify authority into the Monarchy. He set himself up as the supreme authority in England and head of the English church. He took on the title of "Majesty" for the first time in English history with the connotation that he represented the supreme authority and power of God. The expression "Your Worship" or "Your Worshipful" has been used in England in reference to Crown authority and Aristocracy right up to the twenty-first century.

Although 'Henry VIII' was able to attain complete religious and authoritative control for the Monarchy, it was to be challenged less than a century later.

Top - Table of Content

Protestant Monarchy

The second half of the 1500s saw Queen Elizabeth I take the throne as one of England's most famous Protestant monarchs. Her ascension to the throne was fraught with dangers and doubt. Her predecessor and half-sister, Mary, was very much in favour of a return to a Catholic England. She hoped to achieve this through a marriage to the Spanish Catholic monarch, 'King Philip II'. This was challenged through a rebellion known as the Wyatt's Uprising that also implicated Elizabeth. Elizabeth ended up in the Tower of London with demands for her execution. Luckily, Elizabeth survived, because her reign began a golden era for England.

It saw substantial increases in English influence and power around the world. Exploration to find new lands produced famous characters such as Sir Francis Drake , who became the first Englishman to sail around the world.

More liberal views encouraged people like Francis Bacon to share his philosophical, scientific and political views.

England, as a world power, went from strength to strength with the defeat of the Spanish Armada, and the start of the colonization of the Americas under Sir Walter Raleigh . Conflicts with Spain continued, mainly over the exploitation of the Americas.

The Roman Catholic Church persecution of free thinkers was at its pinnacle in Europe. Italian philosopher, priest, astronomer and astrologer, Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) was burned at the stake for his studies and ideas on the movement of the Earth and planets around the sun, and speculation on the existence of extra-terrestrial life.

Top - Table of Content

Power Moves from Monarchy to Government

Charles I (1600-1649) was to challenge the liberalism that had taken root in England. He wanted a return of greater power and authority under crown control. He had numerous disputes with Parliament over taxation to support his lifestyle and his views on the power and divine authority of monarchy. A large percentage of the British population held his loyalist views.

Where 'Henry VIII' challenged the authority of the Catholic Church, Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) challenged the authority of the crown, placing real power into a parliamentarian-style system, and leading the way to what we now know as modern democratic government. This required a major paradigm shift, which large parts of the population could not accept. The changes caused a far-reaching civil war in England that extended into Ireland, and cost the lives of tens of thousands.

This conflict was between 'pluralistic reason' and traditional Christian belief. The royalists held fast to age old religious dogma. They espoused "Loving one another in conformity" to the values and teachings of the church. This notion had its roots in the original 'Nicene Creed' from the Roman era (~325AD). The purpose of the creed was to provide doctrinal statements of correct beliefs (or Orthodoxy), and to unite all in one faith.

Catholic Europe, and the Royalists believed in a unified, fixed order in the world, and that England suffered from an excess of religious freedom, and an excess of liberal thinking. This undermined the established religious and royal Authority, and was leading to anarchy.

On the other side, although still Christian, parliamentarian aspirations took on more liberal view that was more open to the sciences, and saw religious belief as a personal relationship with God. They held a more flexible pluralistic view of the world.

Cromwell was the first private individual to ever take control of a powerful European Kingdom. He also took it upon himself to sit in judgement of its lawful sovereign, and publicly execute his King - ( Charles I ).

Cromwell was compelled by his convictions to:

"...the establishment of government in which the godly, not a monarch, wielded power and guided (or compelled) the nation into ways laid down by God."

His campaign and ensuing civil war not only fell along religious line but also political. It challenged the age-old debate on the divine rule of Kings, and would pit family members against family members as allegiances shifted with changes in fortune.

His campaigns saw a great deal of destruction throughout the British Kingdoms. He destroyed most of the baronial castles because of their symbolic or potential loyalty to the Crown. He also caused a great deal of death and despair to many in Ireland - especially the Catholic Irish. Whole villages were destroyed. Catholic soldiers were put to the sword, and even priests and friars were not spared.

Top - Table of Content

Changing Attitudes

The way people thought was changing. A whole host of Protestant splinter religions were coming to the fore.

Although England could NOT be described as a religiously tolerant place to live at this time, it had made great strides in religious freedom. A little over a century ago, to be anything other than Catholic would have meant horrific death. During this period in England, radical thinkers generally just ended up in jail.

The 1600s saw many laws prohibiting torture. Indulgences were introduced permitting freedom of worship. People were becoming literate. Many were becoming more open minded and accepting of differing religious views. The exception to this was towards the Catholics. There was still a great deal of fear of a return of a Catholic Monarchy.

In 1660 Cromwell died, and Charles II restored the monarchy in England, but under strict parliamentarian control. Charles II worked to calm anti-Catholic sentiment, and he strove also for religious tolerance.

Many people moved to the Americas to escape religious persecution. Some tried to set up their own theocracies - particularly Puritans .

Superstition and bigotry moved to the New World too, though, most notably with the Salem Witch Trials of 1692.

Top - Table of Content

Late Renaissance and Enlightenment

The next five hundred years were to see further serious challenges to Christian fundamental views and monarchies.

Education of the masses was to prove the most powerful weapon against bigotry. In the late 16th century many more people were becoming literate. Technology and the Sciences were moving forward, and printing presses, first introduced in Europe, were bringing versions of the Bible and other literature to the public in their native languages. This allowed the masses to challenge the views of the dominant church, and governments.

National roads and coach networks developed, and the beginnings of a postal system came into being. This made travel and communication easier for everyone.

Characters such as William Shakespeare (1564-1616) were stimulating people to explore their own humanity, and Sir Isaac Newton ( 1643-1727 ) was challenging the boundaries of Science, along with others great scientists such as Galileo Galilei ( 1564-1642 ) in Italy. This helped in leading the way forward to a more socially and intellectually astute Western world.

By the 1700s, the authority of the Monarchy and Church was substantially curtailed in England, and the laws and taxes that most affected everyone's lives were enacted through Parliament. There was vigorous resistance to ruling monopolies and an overwhelming sense of liberty and freedom, especially among a growing middle class.

Even whole continents were demanding the right to self-determination, most notably with the Americas separating from British rule. The Americas led the way in setting up a system of government free from monarchy, and separate from Religion. It was a government aspiring to be by the people and for the people. It was a 'system of rule' that was to act as a beacon to millions in Europe.

The American Declaration of Independence was signed on 4th July 1776.

Many consider Thomas Paine (1737 - 1809) to be the father of the American Revolution because of a widely distributed pamphlet written by him called 'Common Sense'. Thomas had little esteem for either Religion or Government.

... SOME writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness POSITIVELY by uniting our affections, the latter NEGATIVELY by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.

Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one..."

In England, taxes came to the fore as the main grievance of the common person. Highway robbery became common, along with smuggling. Famous Highwaymen such as Dick Turpin and Smugglers , of less notoriety, enjoyed an active trade along the roads and coastlines. Piracy was also common on the open seas.

Parliamentary taxation, customs tax collecting, and road tolls were very unpopular. The working poor often envied the freedoms enjoyed by those that made their living outside the law. This often made the highwaymen, smugglers and pirates popular and in some cases legendary.

Top - Table of Content

Europe

Challenges to Church and Monarchy, in Europe, were most notable with the French Revolution (1789-1799). Through a civil war, republicans replaced the French monarchy, and the Roman Catholic Church was forced to undergo radical restructuring.

Influenced by events in England, and more importantly with what was happening in the Americas, French intellectuals aspired to remodel their society so that rational thinking would direct the laws and taxes of the land. Reason would re-shape society from the ground up ( by and for the people ). The French were tired of the excesses of monarchy and the Catholic clergy. The laws and taxes, created by elitist career politicians, had greed and the personal economic interests of the wealthy as their basis.

As has been shown time and again in this chapter, and as we will see in the next chapter, the paradigm shift required to reshape society invariably caused violent bloody turmoil and repression. This proved to be the case in France also. The years that followed the French Revolution are known as the Reign of Terror era. Tens of thousands of innocent people were tried by vigilante juries and publicly executed, invariably by guillotine. They were accused of being "enemies of the revolution".

Napoleon Bonaparte ( 1769-1821 ) further perpetuated change through his military challenge of most of the European monarchies, and his objective of replacing them with his autocratic dictatorship. Most of the nations across Europe from England to Russia were involved in this conflict, and hundreds of thousands died.

It should be noted that Napoleon was of no significance before the revolution, and his rise to power was through a series of unforeseeable events. No doubt he had aspirations of regime change and of power that guided him from the beginning.

The slogan of the French republic was " Liberty , Equality, Fraternity". Equality must have been the more important, because they were willing to do away with their liberty under Napoleon I.

Top - Table of Content

Holy Roman Empire

Papal dominance in Europe started somewhere around 533AD, when the Roman Emperor Justinian declared the Bishop of Rome to be the "Head of the Holy Churches" and "Head of all the holy priests of God".

For many, the dominance of Papal Authority was to come to an end twelve hundred years later with Napoleon's conquests and secular objectives throughout much of Europe. Napoleon brought down leading European Monarchies and had little respect for Papal Authority. He ousted Pope Pius VII from Rome and imprisoned him, in France.

Many consider Papal dominance as analogous with the Holy Roman Empire, although the Holy Roman Empire more correctly represents a number of Central European, mainly Germanic States, and since the Martin Luther (1483-1546) era many of these states had Protestant leanings.

Francis II , the last ruling Holy Roman Emperor, dissolved the Empire in 1806 after a disastrous defeat to Napoleon at the Battle of Austerlitz .

Top - Table of Content

Technology and resistance to change

Technological advances continued with the industrial revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries. There was a growing middle class and increases in the standard of living for many. Many had access to some form of education, but this did not include the working poor.

Machinery and automation brought mass production. Improvements in public transport (railways, canals, improved roads) meant that people could travel, and improvements in international postal systems made national and international communication a lot easier.

"The more things change, the more they stay the same"
Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr (1908 - 1990)

For almost two thousand year, millions of Christians condoned or actually performed incredibly cruel acts, including torture and murder. Many also suffered cruelly, including resigning themselves to torture and death, all for their steadfast Christian views. The Spanish Inquisition is one of many examples of where governments legitimized torture and murder to convert non-believers to the Catholic faith. People were now challenging these attitudes.

We may live better and have a higher standard of education, but the struggle continues. Single-minded attitudes continue to today. Many are fuelled through fundamentalist religious movements ( including Christian, Islamic and Judaism ), and patriotism. Governments and Religious leaders still rely on these ideologies as motivators for many of our current conflicts. Islamic fundamentalists are today calling all Muslims to rally against the Zionist forces of Israel, the United States and Britain. The West, led by the United States, is determined to protect the interests of Israel and to impose the ideals of Western government on the Islamic Arab world.

Top - Table of Content

The 19th Century

The 19th century saw support for the poor through reform as the most pressing parliamentarian activity in England.

European economies were in depression following the Napoleonic wars. Britain was still producing vast quantities of goods, but impoverished European markets were unable to absorb the stockpiles. There was mass unemployment and changes through social reform could not come fast enough for the working classes.

The British government was slow to respond. In 1833 it could only find £20,000 as an educational grant for the poor, but was able to find £20 million as compensation to slave owners after abolishing slavery in the British colonies during the same period.

Writers, such as Charles Dickens (1812-1870), expressed the plight of the poor through novels such as 'A Christmas Carol'. He campaigned vigorously for social reform.

Slavery was also abolished in the United States, but not without a civil war that saw Republicans from the north fighting against the Confederates of the South. Slavery ended with the Emancipation Proclamation, and the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

President Abraham Lincoln set the precedence for greater centralized power in the Federal Government, and the weakening of individual State government powers. He established a national banking system, and instigated the first Federal income tax. Lincoln planted the seeds that would see the rise of the Federal Government of the United States ( in the 20th century ) as the world's dominant institution with far-reaching national and international controlling influences.

Back in England, and on a philosophical level, great thinkers such as Charles Darwin (1809-1882) championed the theory of evolution. He, as with many great thinkers, had to consider carefully how to share his ideas. Religious superstition still controlled the minds of many. It took him over 20 years to publish his book Origin of Species in 1859. It was based on evidence and theories he formulated during his five-year around-the-world adventure on the Beagle (1831).

Other individuals, such as philosopher and political economist Karl Marx (1818-1883), were more outspoken. Marx was an atheist and a strong proponent of the rights of the working class over capitalists. He was a critic of oppressive bourgeoisie governments, and was direct in challenging the political and religious status quo. This led him to being expelled from his homeland of Germany (~1849) and he lived out his days in England.

Top - Table of Content

Leo Tolstoy

The famous Russian writer and religious/philosophical thinker, Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910), held strong anti-authoritative views which developed with age. His liberal outlook evolved even though he was from a 'well-to-do' aristocratic Russian background.

He eventually rejected organized religion and government in favour of Anarchism. This came about due to a crisis of faith that reached its catalyst in his late forties. The Russian Orthodox Church subsequently excommunicated him.

Tolstoy's views developed from his youth. As a young man he read the works of many European authors, including Charles Dickens . He was most interested in the affairs of characters such as David Copperfield, Pym, and Hampden.

Dickens' observations on the British Parliament reinforced Tolstoy's own views on the futility of government, even in more progressive countries such as England. In Russia, political life was seen as a career-enhancing employment opportunity by the aristocracy, and not as an avenue for effecting social or political change.

Leo Tolstoy's experiences in the Crimean war, and his crisis of religious faith, led him to anarchic views and a desire for an austere lifestyle later in life. This was much to the chagrin of his family, who were in constant fear that he may abandon what he perceived as a pretentious lifestyle for a life of homeless poverty.

A lot of his most in-depth research and writing into theology, especially topics that challenged the intellectual integrity of the Russian Orthodox Church, were suppressed. Some were published later in the 20th century.

Tolstoy had a mutually rewarding relationship with Mahatma Gandhi (1869 - 1948), the Spiritual leader and political radical who was a resourceful pioneer for the Independence of India from British rule.

Tolstoy's views and writings ( most notably: The Kingdom of God is within you ) helped Gandhi in formulating his own profound philosophies.

As we will see in the next chapters, political leaders and revolutionaries such as Stalin eventually hijacked the ideologies of these great philosophical thinkers to implement their own authoritarian political ambitions: In much the same way as the Roman Church hijacked Jesus' teachings.

Religious beliefs were still the most important influence in almost everyone's life through the 19th century, even though many had doubts about where to put their religious faith. People believed wholeheartedly in serving their god. They searched their souls to come to terms with conflicts between their true inner beliefs, and orthodox religious teachings.

A poem ( Last Lines ) written by Anne Bronte (1820-1849) shortly before her death of tuberculosis highlights this crisis of faith.

Anne's faith was challenged by desperate periods of religious doubt. She was disheartened by man's inhumanity to man. She was especially disaffected by the hypocrisy and "abuse of power" by the privileged classes, particularly men, which she reflects in her novels - most notably The Tenant of Wildfell Hall . She never married or had children; although Anne would have liked children.

Despite her religious doubts, she had a heartfelt desire to serve. She was committed to undergoing incredible suffering to appease her god. See her poem, Last Lines, below.

Top - Table of Content

Last Lines - By Anne Bronte

Last Lines A dreadful darkness closes in On my bewildered mind O let me suffer & not sin Be tortured yet resigned Through all this world of blinding mist Still let me look to thee And give me courage to resist The Tempter till he flee Weary I am - O give me strength And leave me not to faint Say thou wilt Comfort me at length A pity my complaint I've begged to serve thee heart & soul To sacrifice to thee No niggard portion but the whole Of my identity I hoped amid the brave and strong My portion task might lie To toil amid the neighbouring throng With purpose keen & high But thou hast fixed another part And thou hast fixed it well I said so with my bleeding heart When first the anguish fell O thou hast taken my delight & hope of life away And bid me watch the painful night And wait the weary day The hope & the delight were thine I bless thee for their loan I gave to thee while I deemed them mine Too little thanks I own Shall I with joy they blessings share And not endure their loss Or hope the martyr's crown to wear And cast away the cross

These weary hours will not be lost These days of passive misery Those nights of darkness anguish-tost If I can fix my heart on thee The wretch that weak & weary lies Crushed with sorrow worn with pain I may lift to Heaven mine eye & strive & labour not in vain That inward strife against the sins That ever wait on suffering To strike where-ever first begins Each ill deed that would corruption bring That secret labour to sustain With humble patience every blow To gather fortitude from Pain And hope and holiness from Woe Thus let me serve thee from my heart What'er be my written fate Whether thus early to depart Or yet awhile to wait If thou shouldst bring me back to life More humble I should be More wise more strengthened for the strife More apt to learn from thee Should Death be standing at the gate Thus should I keep my vow But Lord whate'er my future fate So let me serve you now

Top - Table of Content

---

Chapter 4 - The 20th Century

Many philosophers and religious people suggest that we are here on Earth to learn lessons. When we fail to learn a lesson, we get to take it over, again and again. Once we learn the lesson, we can move on to the next lesson.

During my review of the 'Iron Age', I suggested that war may have been an unwitting means of population control. It has taken up to the 19th century for our global population to reach one billion people. By the beginning of the 20th century it reached two billion. By the 1960s it had reached three billion, and it currently sits at around 6.6 billion.

As our global population has grown, so has the number and severity of the wars we have experienced. Our inhumanity to each other has risen by an order of magnitude. The 20th century has proven to be the most murderous in our history.

Is there a lesson to be learned here?

If Aliens, from out of space, were watching the history of humanity unfold, would they not conclude that our leaders are often creatures of treachery and murderous intent, and question why we, the serfs, are compelled to support them in their scheming campaigns?

In the past decade, tens of thousands of Iraqis have lost their lives as a result of our invasion of Iraq. How do you think George W. Bush or Tony Blair feel about this? How do you think the people of America and Britain feel about this?

Both Bush and Blair were re-elected to a second term as President and Prime Minster by their country's populace. Bush's main support came from organized Christian groups. How do you think the American and British public would feel if tens of thousands of American and British soldiers had lost their lives as a result of the war? How did the media affect the thinking of the people?

To kill one man is to be guilty of a capital crime; to kill ten men is to increase the guilt ten-fold; to kill a hundred men is to increase a hundred-fold. This the rulers of the earth all recognise and yet when it comes to the greatest crime - waging war on another state - they praise it!

It is clear they do not know it is wrong, for they record such deeds to be handed down to posterity; if they knew they were wrong, why should they wish to record them and have them handed down to posterity?

If a man on seeing a little black were to say it is black, but on seeing a lot of black were to say it is white, it would be clear that such a man could not distinguish black and white. Or if he were to taste a few bitter things and were to pronounce them sweet, clearly he would be incapable of distinguishing between sweetness and bitterness. So those who recognize a small crime as such, but do not recognize the wickedness of the greatest crime of all - the waging of war on another state - but actually praise it - cannot distinguish right and wrong. So, as to right or wrong, the rulers of the world are in confusion.

Mozi - A philosopher from China at around 470-391 BCE.

Could our leaders not know right from wrong? Are we, the people, still so unevolved, today, that we still rely on them for our moral compass?

Around a couple of hundred million people have been murdered in a myriad of wars across the globe in the 20th century, primarily because of our governments' ambitions for economic and political dominance through centralized power, and our willingness to support them.

A review of a few of these conflicts may help in further understanding a malignancy that has been with us throughout recorded history.

Top - Table of Content

Russia

Probably the best place to start is with the dynamics of Russia. Russia remained under a feudal system well into the late 19th century.

The survival of the feudal system, in Russia, was not the result of evil people intent on maintaining authoritarian control. It was more the result of Russia's separation and natural resistance to a lot of the evolutionary events that took place in Europe since the Normans, and most notably its resistance to Napoleon early in the 19th century. Reading a biography of Leo Tolstoy, or his novel War And Peace , sheds a great deal of light on the attitudes of the people under this system.

We should understand that the Russian aristocracy were generally ethical, church-attending people. Their notions of superiority and prejudices were reinforced by a class system that had been in place for centuries, and justified directly from the Christian Bible. The State, and the Russian Orthodox Church provided the legitimacy for the ruling classes to abuse the peasants, and this was invariably done. It was seen as the natural order of things by both the ruling classes and the peasants.

We can easily understand the psychology and dynamics of the situation because we still defend our national beliefs for good or bad in all countries around the world, including the United States and Britain.

The hereditary ownership, and the buying and selling of serfs, seemed a necessary and natural part of living in Russia. Many aristocrats felt a great moral responsibility towards the material and moral well-being of their serfs. Leo Tolstoy sold one of his estates to feed his serfs during a period of famine.

Serfs often viewed attempts to better their lives or raising their expectations, by the nobility, with great suspicion. They were very resistive to change. To a great extent, both serfs and masters were dependent on the feudal relationship, and the serfs were very much committed to serving their masters, even to the point of losing their own lives. A story from Leo Tolstoy's father (Nicholas) can help show the committed loyalty of the peasant classes.

Nicholas was in his late teens when Napoleon invaded Russia. He entered the army despite his parents' strong objections. It was during a return to St. Petersburg from a campaign in Germany, that the French captured him, and his orderly. His orderly managed to hide his master's gold coins in his boots, and for some months never risked taking them off. This is despite being in severe pain and badly damaging his feet. Thanks to this devotion, Nicholas Tolstoy was able to live quite comfortably after reaching Paris. It is unknown what happened to the orderly, but given the effects of infectious diseases of the era, such as gangrene, it is unlikely he survived.

Leo Tolstoy realized that the freeing of a person's mind started as a child. He was very committed to teaching the children of the serfs, and set up a school to do just this. His approach to teaching was completely radical for the time. He encouraged his children to take a relaxed open approach to learning. This was completely contrary to the approach taken by educational institutions across Europe, where the syllabus and methods of teaching were very strict. Leo writes:

...By the time-table there should be four lessons before dinner, but sometimes in practice these become three or two and may be quite other subjects. The teacher may begin with arithmetic and pass on to geometry, or may begin with Sacred History and end up with grammar. Sometimes teacher and pupils are so carried away that a lesson lasts three hours instead of one. Sometimes the pupils themselves cry: 'Go on, go on!' and shout contemptuously to any who are tired: 'If you're tired go to the little ones!'

In my opinion this external disorder is useful and necessary, however strange and inconvenient it may seem to the teacher. Of its advantages I shall frequent occasion to speak, but of its apparent disadvantage I will say:

First, this disorder, or free order, only frightens us because we ourselves were educated in and are accustomed to something quite different. Secondly, in this as in many similar cases, coercion is used only from hastiness or lack of respect for human nature. We think the disorder is growing greater and greater and has no limits. We think there is no way of stopping it except by force; but one need only wait a little and the disorder (or animation) calms down of itself and calms down into a far better and more durable order than any we could devise..."

He later writes:

"...Probably no one will deny that the best relation between a teacher and his pupil is a natural one, and that the opposite to a natural one is a compulsory one. If that be so, then the measure of all scholastic methods consists in the greater or lesser naturalness, and consequently in the more or less compulsion that is employed. The less the children are compelled the better the method..."

Change came about most notably in the second half of the 19th century through the efforts of the Tsar, Alexander II (1818-1881), and his liberal government. Influences from the Western world to modernize and reform caused a great deal of discontent, and the emancipation of the serfs was among the most contentious issues.

Many among the nobility believed that the peasants were too uncultured to comprehend civil law. They were also concerned about losing free labour to work their land, and also government plans to turn the land over to the peasants.

The result was a compromise that pleased neither the serfs nor the nobility. The peasants, that had worked the land for centuries, had to make redemption payments to the nobility to take ownership. Payments they could not afford, and the landlords could no longer coerce peasants to work the land for free.

The end result was that the serfs had their freedom, but it was as second-class citizens. They were bound to their local administration through redemption payment obligations. The peasants fumed with resentment and discontent, and the previous "serf owners" were unhappy because they lost authoritative powers and could no longer force the peasants to fulfil their old obligations.

Eventually, the land ended up in communal ownership and not ownership by the serfs. The commune had responsibility for paying taxes to the State and redemption fees to the landowners. Peasants did not pay taxes, but were tied to the commune, and were allowed to work and make a living from areas of land dynamically assigned to them based on the size of their family. They had to have permission and seasonal passports to travel from their village. These passports were required of everyone and were tagged to indicate status. For example, prostitutes had a yellow tag in their passports.

The Tsar and government pressed ahead with Western-style reforms by moving responsibility away from central government to local community administrations with the authority to elect their own representatives, and police their own district.

Russia struggled to find a proper mechanism to take it from the Feudal system to a modern Western society.

Russia was a hierarchy of autocracies. The Tsar was perceived, by large parts of the population, as being divinely anointed and had absolute authority.

The legitimacy of lower hierarchies rested on religious beliefs, and long-standing constitutional arrangements. The aristocrats consciously resisted the dilution of their powers, and the liberal laws that the government introduced were often subjugated to the whims of the nobility.

A great distrust of authoritative bureaucracy also meant that the Russian banks could not be trusted. This made capital investment from both national and international sources very difficult.

Industrialization was slow because of a lack of proper institutional infrastructure necessary to ensure adherence to business and banking laws. Restrictions on the movement of people and the poor availability of decent transportation for goods compounded the problems.

No legal political parties were available to represent the people. Parties such as the Socialist Revolutionary Party were underground organizations seeking to overthrow the regime.

Extreme poverty, and discontent by all, was sowing the seeds for revolt and war.

The Russian Revolution was the result of profound dissatisfaction in the factories because of a lack of investment and union representation; unhappy peasants and nobility; minority groups that felt their concerns were being ignored; an outdated agricultural base that could not compete with cheap grain from the West; and a war with Germany.

Russia was awash with dissatisfaction; mass demonstrations; acts of sabotage; political unrest, and strikes.

Underground radical political movements promised a utopian future if only they were in charge.

The main Revolution took place during World War I (The Great War). The Great War saw the German-Austrian Empire ( Prussia ) or (central European powers) aspiring to greater economic and political dominance. Russia was a part of what was known as the Allied powers, along with Britain, France and later the United States. The Allies fought against German aspirations.

In Russia, internal fighting between the patriotic White army that wanted to see a continuation of the Tsarist rule, and the Red army eventually saw the Red army come out on top.

A democratic government was put in place for a short period. The brief indulgence in freedom was perhaps exhilarating to many, but most Russians became quickly disenchanted because of the on-going war with Germany.

In October 1917, a sudden political overthrow by the Bolshevik Party , led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin , carried the Bolsheviks to power in Russia. The Bolsheviks destroyed the fragile Russian democracy and implemented a one-party dictatorship in its place - calling themselves Communists. This was the first ever socialist state.

The Soviet Communist Party , under the leadership of Lenin, promised a Marxist socialist society. Lenin demanded all power go to the soviets. He discredited ideologies of autocracy, democracy and liberalism. Under Lenin, Soviet Russia implemented a military-administrated state. There was to be a single proletariat class under socialism to be implemented under military control.

Lenin took a measured approach in nationalizing industry, and to some extent tried to protect the interests of the nobility, but the end objectives and result was the monopolizing of industry and agriculture under the control of dedicated soviet committees.

Countless thousands of Russians died as a result of the war with Germany, and the realization of the soviet system through the overthrow of the Tsarist regime.

As the story Animal Farm , by George Orwell, was meant to reflect, the plight of Russians did not improve under the new system. 'Animal Farm' was one of many thousands of books banned under the communist regime.

Lenin died in 1924, and a power struggle between Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin during the 1920s saw Stalin come out on top. Leon Trotsky was exiled, and eventually found refuge in Mexico, before he was eventually assassinated.

Stalin continued a campaign of political oppression and state terror that reached its peak in the late 1930s at the start of the Second World War. No one knows how many tens of thousands of victims died in Gulags .

To the majority of the peasant people in Russia, and to large communities of impoverished peoples around the world, Stalin was seen as a hero (almost a god). He was carrying the banner of a Marxist utopian future promised by Lenin, and the legitimacy of the communist state came from these ideals.

Stalin's repressive regime came about because of a lack of faith in the old regime, and a need of many Russian people to rally around a more inspiring ideology. As during the French Revolution, there was extreme mistrust of everybody that challenged, or could not accept, the paradigm shift. This included almost all 'political, religious and philosophical thinkers'; 'scientists and artists'; other political organizations, and any and all minorities. The Russian Orthodox Church also suffered severe persecution.

The Stalin regime portrayed other Western nations as aggressive oppressors of Russia. This was easy to do, given Russia's history and current events. The regime went on to fuel aspirations of global dominance as a means of self-preservation.

At the beginning of the Second World War, Stalin saw a means of expanding his power-base through a relationship with Adolf Hitler (the new dictatorial leader of Germany). Stalin was eager to align with Hitler in his genocidal objectives. They agreed between them to carve up the Baltic States: Poland, Romania, and Finland. Only Finland put up a strong resistance to occupation.

Hitler, of course, betrayed Stalin by invading Russia. Both regimes were the fruits of strong ideology born out of dissatisfaction, fear and mistrust of others. It was obvious that one would betray the other, as was alluded to by many intellectuals in the West.

Before finishing with Russia, it should be noted that its plight has not changed in over a hundred years. The soviet communist regime lasted a little over seventy years. The elite political insiders enjoyed a privileged lifestyle denied the soviet masses that lived in relative poverty and submission during communism. The communist regime is now replaced with a regime that is less of a threat to the West, but the majority of Russians have remained second-class citizens in their own country.

They still live in poverty. They still require passports for internal national travel. Permission is still required from local authorities if they wish to move residence. Ownership of property is still subject to the whims of local authorities. The judicial system and government bureaucracies are seen with a great deal of suspicion. The laws are subject to the whims of people with political connections, wealth, or organized crime. The tax system is a sham. The banks are still viewed with a great deal of mistrust by everyone and especially by the West. The new wealthy elite looks down on the masses with disdain, and the masses look at the wealthy with a great deal of mistrust. In their eyes they are all corrupt.

And the Russian Orthodox Church is making a strong comeback as an ideology that the masses can rally around.

Top - Table of Content

China

The story of China's path to communism is very similar to Russia's. The feudal system lasted in China into the 20th century, and fell apart because of extreme poverty and dissatisfaction. Eventually, Mao (1893-1976) united China under the People's Republic Of China in 1949.

As with Stalin in Russia, Mao was seen as a great hero (almost god figure) by the Chinese people.

Two great books highlight the falling apart of the feudal system in China, and the plight of the Chinese people as they moved from a feudal system to communism.

The first is Empress Orchid , a novel by Anchee Min. It tells the story of Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908).

Empress Orchid came from an impoverished middle-class Manchu family. She was selected as one of hundreds of concubines to the Emperor, and eventually she became the effective ruler of China. Her rise to power, and the decay of the feudal system during the same era, makes for compelling reading.

The second book well worth reading is Wild Swans (Three Daughters of China), written by Jung Chang. It is a family history of three generations. It includes the life of the grandmother, mother, and the author's own story.

Jung Chang's grandmother is from an impoverished family. She is sold as a concubine to a high-ranking official (this is China under the feudal system).

Jung Chang's mother (and family) highlights life in China through civil war, the Second World War, and the communist revolution.

Jung's own story is of communist China, and life under Mao's dictatorship.

In my view, Wild Swans is one of the more enlightening literary works of the 20th century.

Mao came from an insignificant background. He was of small physical stature and had a limited educational background. Yet the people of China feared and worshipped him. They used his illusionary persona and ideological views to justify incredible cruelty on fellow citizens and often on their own family members.

Top - Table of Content

The First World War

The First World War was the first global war. It took place at the height of the industrial age, between highly educated nations. It was a war fought in the interests of aristocrats, and their economic and political dominance in Europe.

It was a war fought at a relative high point of patriotism and belief in social hierarchy and empire. It involved around sixty nations, and ended with the overthrow of the central European Empires of Prussia (Germans) and the Ottomans (Turks).

It should be noted that patriotic fervour compelled millions of soldiers to volunteer for war; not just in the German army, but also in the British, French, Russian and most others.

As alluded to with the emancipation of the serfs in Russia, the ideologies that we are raised with are very strong. They are the ones that we trust the most, and are the most difficult to change. They are reinforced by family, friends, schools, the media, and are for many of us unchallengeable.

Morpheus - in the movie The Matrix :

You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inert, so hopelessly dependent on the system that they will fight to protect it...

The public school systems were the strongest promoters of the values and ideals necessary to be good soldiers. The glory of war and the obligation of patriotic self-sacrifice were the aspirations of the nobility, and the expectation and desire of the masses - 'For God and Country', as the adage goes. The illusion of the glory of war had a powerful hypnotic influence

'The good (those with our beliefs) must defeat the evil (those of a different ideology)'.

The cold reality was a different story, as most of the millions that were ensnared in battles such as the Somme would realize. War was about surviving through abject misery, along with the rats and lice that shared the dirty trenches. It was about watching comrades die slow, degrading, painful, gruesome deaths in dirty, muddy holes. It was about surviving hunger, the bitter cold, and knowing that we could be joining our dying comrades soon. It was about despair.

And what of the enemy? As many in the trenches realized during periods of quiet, or truces such as the Christmas Truce of 1914, the enemy was much the same. He shared our same fears, aspirations, sense of duty and nationalism. In reality, he was a decent fellow.

As one British soldier wrote home:

"Just you think, that while you were eating your turkey, etc, I was out talking and shaking hands with the very men I had been trying to kill a few hours before! It was astounding!"

This did not stop the soldiers from bloody murder when the tides of war moved in their favour or when opportunities arose.

Most realized that war was not a glorious adventure in which men protected their nation from potential tyranny. It was a series of humiliating, degrading, soul-destroying experiences.

But this was not the case for everyone. The aristocrats, safely in their homes and offices, continued to portray the war as glorious and their soldiers as brave. And there was a little-known German soldier named Adolf Hitler that was very enthusiastic about the war. He was fully committed to seeing the objectives of German aristocracy succeed.

Hitler wrote just before volunteering to serve in the German army:

"I am not ashamed to say, carried away by the enthusiasm of the moment, I sank down on my knees and thanked heaven out of the fullness of my heart for granting me the good fortune of being permitted to live in such a time."

He was totally committed to being a part of the German Empirical objective of Prussian domination. Hitler acted as a messenger boy (orderly) between the aristocratic officers (nobility) and the German men (cannon fodder) serving on the front line - a very dangerous responsibility. Every day he ran through the trenches delivering messages. Soldiers that knew him testified that he was not easily scared.

Hitler had few friends on the Western front. Many considered him to have an "unpleasant character". While comrades were being killed all around, Hitler miraculously escaped death time and again.

Hitler tells an English reporter after the war about how once he was eating his dinner with comrades in a trench:

"Suddenly a voice seemed to be saying to me, "Get up and go over there". It was so clear and insistent that I obeyed automatically, as if it had been a military order. I rose at once to my feet and walked twenty yards along the trench, carrying my dinner in its tin can with me. Then I sat down to go on eating, my mind being once more at rest. Hardly had I done so when a flash and deafening report came from the part of the trench I had just left. A stray shell had burst over the group in which I had been sitting, and every member of it was killed."

Later, Hitler describes how a British shell hit him while he was in a tunnel asleep. A shell fragment lodged in his leg.

"How bad is it? I don't have to go, have I"? - Hitler anxiously asked his lieutenant. But after a glance at his leg, the lieutenant ordered a hospital-orderly to carry Hitler away.

Hitler did his utmost best throughout the war. One of his fellow soldiers later told that Hitler became less and less liked:

"He was always deadly serious. He never laughed, he never made jokes."

When the other soldiers complained about the war, Hitler ranted on about patriotism and the responsibilities of a soldier.

"We all cursed him, he was a real pain."

Hitler found a dog during his time in the trenches. He was totally committed to the animal, and would not part with it. Perhaps he had found in the animal ideals of loyalty that he admired. Dogs are not capable of Critical thinking . Hitler was in a lonely place. A place he would stay for the rest of his life.

Luke 23-32 - There were also others, two criminals, led with him to be put to death. When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified him there with the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left.

Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."

Hitler was blinded by mustard gas in another attack towards the very end of the war and finished the war in hospital.

He was completely loyal to the German patriotic cause throughout. He was devastated by the German defeat. He saw Germany's defeat as the result of back-stabbing activities of the Jews, and democratic liberal politicians. He felt betrayed and had a burning desire for vindictive revenge.

A democratic republic was set up in Germany under the Treaty of Versailles after the war. The treaty also established the League of Nations .

The impetus for the founding of the League came from the United States, but with support from most of the involved nations. There was a desire to see a more moralistic approach to international affairs. Its many goals included the settlement of disputes between nations through negotiation, and for generally improving global welfare.

Its effectiveness has long been a point of contention. It did little to stop the Second World War, and it eventually evolved into the United Nations .

It would not be right to leave the First World War without mentioning the last British survivor of the conflict, Harry Patch , who died in June of 2009, aged 111.

Harry kept the horrors of the war to himself for most of his life, but at age 100 he began to talk about it.

When Harry was asked about his thoughts on the war, he replied simply:

"War is organized murder, and nothing more".

Harry was born in an English Somerset village. He grew up in a small rural farming community. He had the simple interests of most boys of his community. He explored the local rivers and woods, and collected bird eggs. As with most children of his age, he left school when he was aged 14. He would have lived a peaceful village life if it were not for the aristocratic political squabbling of European leaders - people who saw the likes of Harry as peasants that would be happy to fight and die to support their privileged lifestyle.

Harry had heard about the horrors of the front from his brother and he had no interest in being a part of it.

"I didn't want to go fight anyone, but it was a case of having to".

He was conscripted into the war.

"Any one who tells you he wasn't scared, he's a damned liar. We lived by the hour - You saw the sun rise. Hopefully, you'd see it set. If you saw it set, you hoped you'd see it rise."

One of the images that Harry carried with him until he died was of a teenage comrade disembowelled by shrapnel, but still just alive. "Shoot me", he said, but before Harry could react, he died, whispering for his mother as he passed away.

Harry, too, was seriously wounded, his stomach ripped open by jagged lumps of shrapnel. He was taken to a casualty station where he lay untreated for 36 hours. Finally, a surgeon came, and with the help of other men that held Harry down, the shrapnel was removed without anaesthetic.

Top - Table of Content

The Second World War

Three main ideological movements were beginning to de-stabilize the Western world. They were Stalin's communist regime aspirations; Hitler's aspirations in Europe; and Japan's aspirations to remove colonial influence and to dominate the Far East.

Top - Table of Content

Germany

Hitler's despair, after the First World War, fed a need to re-instate allegiance to a racially elite German hierarchy. This fuelled his political manoeuvring propelling him to complete authoritative power from the ranks of an insignificant orderly soldier. Financial and political help, both openly and secretly, from aristocrats of Germany and also from others in Europe, including some in the British Monarchy, maintained his campaign.

His ascension reflected the anxieties and aspirations of many in his country. The incredible instability of the German economy because of war retributions and political problems saw the German Mark become worthless in the 1920s. Millions became impoverished.

The global depression, caused by the Wall Street Crash of October 1929, further compounded the problem.

Once Hitler was in power, like Stalin, he used fear and ideology to compel people to incredible cruelty. It should be pointed out that Germany was a highly educated society. It is through an ideological context that many justified the murderous activities of Hitler's regime.

Adolf Hitler to his Army commanders, August 22, 1939:

"Thus for the time being I have sent to the East only my Death's Head Units' with the orders to kill without pity or mercy all men, women, and children of Polish race or language. Only in such a way will we win the vital space (lebensraum) that we need. Who still talks nowadays about the Armenians?"

The stage was set for the genocidal invasions of Poland and Czechoslovakia. Hitler also annexed Austria under his vision of realizing a superior aristocratic European Aryan race (white, blond, blue-eyed).

All those that might challenge his authoritative regime were rounded up and sent to slave labour facilities or concentration camps. This included 'political, religious and philosophical thinkers'; scientists and artists; members of other political organizations; and any and all minorities. Most notably, the Jews and many Slavics of non-Aryan background were murdered. Persecution also extended to boy-scouts and girl-scouts, because of their potential to organize resistance.

Fear led to the demonizing of all those that were not part of Hitler's superior Aryan war machine, and to incredible acts of inhumanity as a result.

Countless millions died in concentration camps. Of significance was the attempted genocide of the Jews that eventually led to the realization of the Jewish State of Israel after the Second World War.

Before leaving Hitler's Germany, we should realize that he was a product of our Western environment. As with all human beings, he is the same as you and me.

The cultural conditions that facilitated Hitler's rise to power, and destructive activities that followed, remain with us today. Economic poverty is a reality for the majority of people in the world, and the vast majority of us are the servants of one political system or another.

Top - Table of Content

Japan

Western interests and influence in Japan were spearheaded by Britain during the 19th century. It took place during the Meiji Period (1868-1912). The Japanese were forward thinking enough to see the benefits of Western ideals and technology. Although there were a lot of disputes, and sometimes violent resistance.

The Japanese government employed over 3,000 foreign experts in a variety of fields, such as English, Science, Engineering and military activities. Many Japanese were also sent to Europe and the United States to further their understanding of Western culture.

Unlike its neighbours that were cowed by the European powers, the Japanese soon became a dominant force in the Far East, defeating Russian imperial objectives at the Battle of Tsushima in 1905. Eventually, Japan rose to challenge all colonial influence in the region during the Second World War.

The United States came into the conflict with the attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941. The routing of colonial influences and the implementation of Japan's economic and political dominance over the Far East was the objective of the Japanese imperial forces. The Japanese were under the divine authority of Emperor Hirohito .

Like China, and other nations in the area, the majority of Japanese still clung to their ancient beliefs. To many, the Japanese Emperor, Hirohito , was a descendant of the Sun goddess, and the imperial family were seen as the offspring of the creator of Japan, Amaterasu .

Hirohito's divine empirical ambitions were the catalyst around which the Japanese committed incredible acts of inhumanity to millions of people across the Far East, most notably towards the Chinese.

Japan's aspirations of dominance across Asia advanced towards China, and cumulated in 1931 with what was known as the Manchuria Incident . A full-scale invasion was under way by 1937. By 1941 it had spread to an invasion of all South-East Asia, including Pearl Harbour. The attack on U.S. forces in Pearl Harbour brought the U.S. into the war.

The Japanese soldiers were reconciled to be sacrificial victims to U.S. forces in the defence of Japan. The Kamikaze suicidal air strikes against U.S. warships allude to this devotion.

The war ended when the U.S. dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and on Nagasaki . More than 200,000 people died as a direct result of these bombings. Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945.

Japan 's constitution now prohibits the use of military force to wage war against other countries. The same is true for Germany, although Germany is now a part of a greater economic bloc known as the European Union.

Top - Table of Content

Vietnam

The war in Vietnam is significant for a number of reasons. It was the first time a war was accessed, usually in a negative light, through the full living colour of the television media and the details made available to the United States public and to international communities. It was a war, perhaps more so than any other war, which brought into question the integrity of the United States government and how the American public viewed their political leaders. The Opposition to the Vietnam War was great.

At the time, the Vietnam War was a new kind of conflict. It was partly a guerrilla war. It was partly a political conflict. Most importantly, it was a war for the hearts and minds of the people. It was with this last aspect that the United States government failed miserably. Not just in Vietnam, but also with its own citizens and the world. This type of war was given a new name. It was called an Insurgency a term used also to describe our Current Afghanistan Conflict .

The Vietnamese peasants, and for that matter the Cambodian peasants, had little or no interest in the political ideologies of the West. They were, and still are, simple farmers that wanted to farm their land with the least amount of Feudal or Colonial interference.

We should realize here that communism and capitalism are both philosophies spawned in Europe during the industrial revolution. Countless numbers of Vietnamese and Cambodian peasants were brutally murdered as a result of Western colonial and political ideological objectives.

Many American soldiers also died in Vietnam. They gave up their lives with little or no understanding of the Vietnamese people, or any real understanding of the political power struggle of which they were a part. For this reason, it is probably a good idea to explore the background to this war.

Vietnam has been a satellite of Chinese imperial power and influence for most of its recorded history. A high ranking rebel Chinese General, Trieu Da , expanded his region of influence into Northern Vietnam in around 208BC.

For about a thousand years later, the native Vietnamese resisted Chinese occupation, and, at times, kicked the Chinese out of Vietnam. As with the Romans in Europe, the Chinese brought the Vietnamese new engineering techniques. They introduced writing, roads, military fortification, and harbours.

Most significantly, the Chinese introduced advanced farming techniques under a feudal system. The Chinese extracted large amounts of taxes from the Vietnamese Feudal Lords.

One of the most notable, and first successful, uprisings against the Chinese was around 39AD. The uprising was led by two of the most remarkable women in Vietnamese history - Trung Trac , the wife of a murdered Feudal Lord, and Trung Nhi , her sister. They became joint Queens of Vietnam. Their Kingdom only lasted a couple of years before the Chinese re-occupied Vietnam.

Many Chinese citizens migrated into Vietnam. The Chinese government sent troops into Vietnam to secure the area. The Chinese citizens became the privileged elite in Vietnam. They enjoyed greater economic and social status than the local Vietnamese. No Vietnamese could work for the Government unless he agreed to a full Chinese education - which was arduous and expensive, even for the Chinese.

As with the Normans in England, the Chinese became the landowners, and they took Vietnamese women as their wives. These Chinese immigrants eventually began to see themselves as Vietnamese. They wanted to run their own affairs without meddling from a central Chinese government. They also became resistant to the taxes that were imposed upon them.

The majority of the Vietnamese were peasants. They had no interest in the power struggles of the upper classes in Vietnam and the Chinese. It wasn't until around the 10th century that the aristocrats were able to rally the peasants in support against the Chinese. The downfall of Chinese occupation came during a weakness in the Tang Dynasty , which came about because of excessive exploitation of both peasants in China and also the peasants in Vietnam.

Through a number of internal warlord battles, one warlord, Dinh Bo Linh , eventually took power and declared himself King and Emperor of Northern Vietnam.

Dinh Bo Linh sought and achieved a peaceful settlement with the Chinese, whereby the Chinese had nominal authority over Vietnam - similar to the Commonwealth arrangement that Britain has with Australia and Canada - but Vietnam was required to pay tributes to China. This arrangement lasted until the 19th century.

Another Type Kingdom of Champa was to the south. The south held vast areas of fertile farmland. The northern Vietnamese moved south to take this land. Feudal disputes continued between the two kingdoms, with the north grabbing more and more land. Eventually, by the 19th century, Northern Vietnam owned most of southern Vietnam. Some small numbers of Champs survived into the 20th century. Generally, the peasants were ambivalent to a lot of these disputes. They were on the side that optimized the fruits of their farming activities.

Throughout this period, civil servants known as Mandarins, ran the administration of the state. To become a Mandarin required competition in public examinations, which were theoretically open to all. An applicant had to know the Chinese Classics and excel in literary composition. These requirements pretty much excluded all of the peasant classes, who did not have the time or money for education.

As with China, Vietnam was solidly rooted in a traditional civilization based on its own history, and thousands of years of Chinese classics, before its first interaction with Europeans.

The first to exploit the Far East were the Portuguese and Spanish in the 15th and 16th centuries. This was at the height of the Spanish empire. The Portuguese held exclusive trading rights in Vietnam for almost a century before the defeat of the Spanish Armada by the British in 1588, and more and more Danish and British traders moved into the Far East.

Feudal disputes continued, but they now included a growing number of European merchants. Europe was quick to exploit these disputes by selling arms and support to whichever side provided the greater political and economic advantage in the area.

By 1788, the King of France and the Emperor of Cochin-China (effectively Vietnam) had a treaty of alliance between them. France had exclusive trading rights, including the supply of arms in the area. This treaty did not survive the French Revolution a few years later, which put an end to all empire building in the Far East for the French for many decades to follow.

It was the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century that was to have the biggest impact on the Vietnamese and other Asian countries. European Feudalism, with its lords and serfs, was being replaced by capitalism. The new money was with the Bankers, businessmen and merchants. The old European Manor estate fell into disrepair as serfs found their freedom and looked for greater economic opportunities in the cities.

Britain had led the way with the Industrial Revolution in Europe and it also led the way in exploiting the Far East - primarily in China. The Chinese armies, with their age-old fighting techniques and weapons, were no match for the modern warfare of the Europeans. Humiliated in battle, the Chinese had to sign unreasonable treaties forcing them to yield territory as well as other trading privileges.

The beginning of the end for imperial China came about as British merchants brought opium into the country to sell. This created a booming business, and China's wealth flowed out, and into the pockets of British traders and investors.

Britain went to war with Imperial China when they tried to impose their own anti-drug usage laws to stop this trade. The Opium War lasted for three years. When it was over, the beaten Chinese had to give up five ports and the island of Hong Kong, which the British annexed completely. Other countries followed Britain and they gradually sliced up the region into trading areas.

Many suggest that it was official British Crown policy to encourage large-scale drug addiction in foreign populations to impose a state of backwardness, and thereby maintain British political control and unfair trading rights. Although, it should be noted it was not in the interest of most Imperial rulers to educate their masses.

The Chinese Imperial government was not too concerned about its citizens becoming drug addicts. Its concern was with the large trade deficit with England. No country likes to have a large trade deficit, because it means that the wealth of the country is being moved to another country. Sound familiar?

After the French Revolution, France had lost its colonial outposts in the Far-East. This put them at a severe disadvantage when trading in the area. To remedy this situation, France sent a large military expedition and attacked southern Vietnam.

Weakened by its severe defeats at home, the Chinese had no means of supporting the Vietnamese, and China was forced to give up its thousand-year-old relationship with Vietnam and recognize France as the ruling power over the region.

The French used the persecution of French and Spanish Catholic missionaries as an excuse for the assault.

Although the peasants disliked the French, they also hated their mandarin overlords, so they avoided taking sides.

It did not take long for the peasants to realize that the new French rulers were just as bad as their own mandarins when it came to exploitation, so they began to organize resistance movements.

The French implemented a policy of brutal suppression that was to turn the new empire of French Indochina into a slaughterhouse. Mandarins and the peasants joined in the battle in a rebellious effort against the French. It lasted for years. It was not until the end of the 19th century that the French were able to establish themselves firmly in power.

The changes introduced by the new rulers affected every aspect of Vietnamese life. Its ancient customs and traditions underwent radical transformations. Vietnam was plunged thoughtlessly into modern times. For the people, whose basic institutions hadn't changed since the 12th century, it was like being suddenly immersed in ice cold water.

As the many emperors and high ranking officials of both China and Vietnam had known for many years, the greatest danger to their comfortable life styles came not from the military might of Europe, but from its ideas.

As the old mandarin elite broke up, a new elite replaced it. This new group abandoned the old Confusianism teachings. Instead, they studied modern subjects such as science, medicine, European law and history.

Confucianism stresses social organization that reflects common sense and practical knowledge. It shapes society with a system of education that encouraged strict convention and social etiquette. It formed an ethical basis for traditional family values and included rituals promoting respect for family hierarchy and the worship of ancestors. The value of Confucianism is that it allowed the State to govern through moral values rather than by the use of coercive force.

These values were of little interest to the French. They introduced their own schools teaching Western values. They also built modern roads, railways, and Western-style hospitals. As the French saw it, they were fulfilling their mission of civilizing the natives.

The new French schools were made available to the Mandarin families. Some sent their children to France to study. These students were impressed by the noble ideals of 'Liberty , Equality and Fraternity' that were the focus of the late 18th century revolution. The young impressionable students were eager to try these new ideals in their home country.

To finance their new ventures, the French needed more revenue, so they raised taxes. The hardest hit was the peasant villagers. A new class of huge estate owners came into being among the Vietnamese. Speculators bought up large areas of land, which they then leased back to the tenant farmers. Many landowners moved to the cities, where they could better spend their new-found wealth. The gap between the rich and poor widened. The peasant was at the bottom of a pile of greed and growing wealth. His daily life consisted of back-breaking toil and debt. Landowners often made more money from debt interest than on the revenues from rent.

Many of the landless peasants moved away from the farms to work in the city factories or as labourers on the new rubber plantations. They became the new working class.

The peasants saw how certain mandarins co-operated with the French to further their own ends. The peasant gradually lost their belief in the old moral values and feudal relationships of the past. The breakdown in beliefs penetrated the entire fabric of society. Alienated from the French, as well as from their discredited old leaders, the people began to look elsewhere for leadership and solutions to their problems.

Thus the ground was set for a new phenomenon that was spreading across the Asian continent - Nationalism . The objective of this new nationalism was to drive out the foreign masters and create an entirely new order based on the newly learned European ideals of freedom of speech, liberty, and justice - or so they thought...

One of the leaders of these new ideals was Ho Chi Minh . Ho had spent much of his time in Europe, and some of his time in Russia and the United States. Although much of his early years are uncertain, he was actively involved in socialist movements in France.

The fall of France in 1940 to Nazi Germany set the stage for the fall of French Indochina (Vietnam). The French officials and the military found themselves cut off from their home country. This gave the Japanese the opportunity they had been waiting for. Already at war with China, the Japanese had greater ambitions throughout South-east Asia. The Japanese won military and then economic control of Indochina, but they allowed the French officials to stay on and run the country.

Ho Chi Minh had two enemies to combat. - The French and the Japanese. It was a natural progression for him to align himself with another revolutionary in China, Mao Ts-tung.

After the Japanese surrender to the United States, Ho summoned his followers to an uprising to remove the puppet Japanese Government in the north. The Viet Minh party announced independence for Vietnam with Ho Chi Minh as the president of a new Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

While this was happening in the north, British troops moved in to disarm the Japanese army in the south. This led to a divided Vietnam.

The British sympathies lay with the restoration of the French Indochina. Using British warships, French troops returned to Vietnam. Martial Law was imposed, and many government buildings in Saigon were re-occupied by the French and British. U.S. merchant ships also helped to transport French troops to Vietnam. This was met with some protests in the U.S., as many left-wing liberals opposed the re-colonization of Vietnam.

The Viet Minh struck back with savage street battles in Saigon. British forces used all means at their disposal to keep the peace - even bringing in Indian troops attached to the British forces.

It was not until 1949, and Mao's victory in China, that the Viet Minh finally found themselves with a strong ally on their northern border to fight against the French re-colonization.

French control of Vietnam began to collapse. Bao Dai , the puppet Emperor left in place by the Japanese upon leaving the country, needed a counter-leader and party to the Viet Minh that would be suitable to Western and, most importantly, U.S. interests.

They settled on Ngo Dinh Diem , even though Diem had strong National ambitions of his own, and the French had labelled him earlier as a subversive.

Diem had lived abroad in Japan and the U.S. He had lectured at universities, and had made many influential friends in the U.S., including John F. Kennedy.

The U.S. needed a stable government that was anti-communist and with pro-Western views in Vietnam; so, with the support of the U.S., Diem came to power in the south.

At a Geneva conference in 1954, it was agreed that the Viet Minh would take the northern part of Vietnam (The Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and a Bao Dai Imperial government led by Diem would take the south with the agreement that nationwide elections would take place two years later to unite the country.

Ho Chi Minh set up a communist state based on Communist China in the north.

In the south, Ngo Dinh Diem found himself in charge of a government that had very little authority outside the city of Saigon. In the city there was a great deal of political in-fighting and manoeuvring. Bandits roamed the rural areas.

Diem set about consolidating power to himself, his immediate family and a small number of trusted people. In the 1955 elections, Diem was able to oust the Emperor Bao Dai, which effectively ended monarchy rule in Vietnam and established a republic in the south.

On the surface, South Vietnam was a republic with a brand-new constitution promising freedom and democracy to its people. In practice, the opposite was true. Diem believed in a single strong executive. He concentrated all power in his own hands. Both the legislature and the courts were held tightly under his control. He fixed elections and packed the National Assembly with people employed directly by him.

The police were sent into the country to search for any dissenters. The villagers, who had traditionally always elected their own mayors and council members, were further alienated when Diem abolished this age-old practice and ruled that henceforth his provincial chief would appoint the officials. Diem also moved to open the way for taxes on the land similar to what was in place under the old French Empirical system.

Concentration camps were set up for those who were deemed to be 'a danger to the state'. Under this broad definition, the government was able to arrest anyone it pleased. The concentration camps were known as 'Political Re-education Centres'.

In August 1955, Diem informed North Vietnam that he would not hold the national reunification elections called for by the Geneva Conference. He did not feel bound by the agreements that he had neither signed nor approved. The communists reacted angrily to Diem's announcement. They had hoped to win all of Vietnam through elections.

The communists labelled Diem as a tyrannical oppressive dictator that stood in the way of free elections, and as a puppet of the U.S. government.

With limited funds, but lots of support from the people, the Viet Cong (Vietnam Communists) started a full-scale guerrilla war. The goal of the Viet Cong was to win the war, remove the puppet U.S. government, and make social revolution all at the same time (an Insurgency).

The war began almost casually. There was no invasion from the north. There were no soldiers and no battles between armies. Raids, murders and kidnapping were the tools used by the Viet Cong, and to a great extent by the Diem government also.

The Diem government sent punitive expeditions into the villages, making him very unpopular. The Viet Cong insurgency developed under the very noses of the Diem government and the Americans.

For the Americans, there was nothing from past military experience to fall back upon about this new kind of conflict. There was no large army or nation to fight against. No specific guerrilla defences to destroy.

The Viet Cong approach was based on a famous Mao dictum that likened the guerrilla to a fish in and out of water. Mao writes:

"The guerrilla is to the people as a fish is to water. Take the people away from him and the guerrilla must perish. That is why, when the guerrilla had the peasant, he was invincible, and without him, nothing."

"Let us consider the peasant. What are the things he wants? First, he wants land of his own. Then he wishes to be rid of the landlord and the tax collectors, and to live in peace, free of oppression. The guerrilla promises the peasant that he will put an end to exploitation and injustice. When he rules, the peasant will get his land and the landlord will go. He also gives his word that he will govern justly, tax all equally, and give the peasant a voice in his own government. This is something the peasant has never had before, so the prospect has great appeal to him."

As U.S. support for the Diem government swung into full gear with military and economic support, it ran into an unexpected obstacle - the American newspaperman. Raised with a tradition of 'freedom of the press', the journalists in Saigon reported the news as they saw it. Often this meant criticism of the regime and the way it was waging war. This infuriated high political leaders and military officials, who felt disloyal reporters were stabbing them in the back. The writers resented being told that they were unpatriotic because they refused to slant the news to fit official policy.

The Diem government and U.S. policy makers wanted the people to believe that the war was being won. Especially when considering the billions of dollars the U.S. was pumping into the war, and countless numbers of Vietnamese citizens and thousands of U.S. troops that were being killed. The newsmen, however, believed what their eyes told them. They went into the field and saw for themselves. Some of the most horrific, inhumane graphic images from any war came from this conflict. The media and the U.S. population became very cynical of their government. A popular ditty sung to the tune of 'Twinkle, Twinkle little star' was one of many jibes at the political leaders.

We are winning, that we know,
General Harkins tells us so.
In the delta, things are rough.
In the mountains mighty tough.
But we're winning, this we know.
General Harkins tells us so.
If you doubt this is true,
McNamara says so too.

By 1962, Saigon was a war-torn city. The government's casualty figures kept rising. Its soldiers were dying at the rate of five hundred a month. It was losing countless more as wounded and captured. American helicopters flew in and out with cargo and troops. The city was cluttered and clogged with ships bringing in goods and supplies. Its streets were filled with soldiers - many of them American.

U.S. fighters and bombers streaked through the sky at night to drop their loads on defenceless villagers in a vain hope that they may hit the occasional Viet Cong guerrilla entrenchment.

For political and legal reasons, the U.S. government denied that it was at war with the Viet Cong during much of this time. Its troops were technically only 'advisors'. The American soldier on the ground was not impressed with this denial.

Diem ruled from his palace like an old monarch: cut off from the people that hated him and his regime.

The Buddhist monks were the most vocal. One of the most dramatic events happened in Saigon on June 11, 1963. Early in the morning, an old car pulled up at a busy intersection. Four monks got out. One of them, seventy-three-year-old Thich Quang Duc , sat down on the pavement and crossed his legs. Two of the other monks poured gasoline over him. The old monk then calmly struck a match and he was engulfed in flames. This was the first in a series of high-profile suicides by Buddhist monks.

It was only American money and American arms that were keeping the South Vietnamese regime in power. Eventually, under a great deal of political and public pressure, the war came to an end in 1975.

We should also realize that it is only Western money and forces (the U.S. and U.K.) that is keeping the current Afghanistan administration in power. David Milliband ( Britain's Foreign Secretary) recently highlighted this point in an interview to 'the Guardian' newspaper (November 09). The Afghan government would fall in a heartbeat if U.S. financial support and troops were to pull out.

We know that the Vietnamese soldiers on both sides of the Vietnam War were peasants that only wanted to farm their land in peace.

What about the American soldier in this conflict? Invariably, he was a teenage youth, often straight out of high school. His interests were mostly about girls and baseball, and his background was invariably working class. Like the soldiers of the First World War, he was very patriotic, and was fighting for what he believed was a defence of his country. From the age of six he had pledged allegiance to the Flag that represented his country. He had no knowledge or interest in the peasants of Vietnam, and his only limited knowledge of world politics came through a slanted consumerist media owned by the rich and his political leaders.

Many challenged their government and refused to be drafted into the war; most notably Mohammed Ali . Ali was found guilty of draft evasion and stripped of his World heavyweight boxing title. Unlike many other conscientious objectors, he did not go to jail. His sentiments were:

"I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong. ... They never called me nigger."

Opening the doors of hell is easy enough. Dogs know as much, but closing them is another story. After the Vietnam and Cambodian wars, extreme hatred of capitalism and everything it represented spawned what is known as the 'Killing Fields' in Cambodia where the Khmer Rouge Communist party murdered over a million people. Anyone that was remotely associated with the old imperial regime, or anyone considered intellectual or professional was murdered.

Top - Table of Content

Wars that were not wars

India

Mahatma Gandhi pioneered the idea of resisting oppression through non-violent civil disobedience; an idea picked up on by Martin Luther King decades later. Gandhi showed a lot of courage in challenging British authoritative rule in India.

His ideas developed while living in South Africa. Initially, he went to South Africa on a one-year assignment as a lawyer, but ended up staying for twenty years. He found himself defending marginalized Indian communities in court. This is where he developed his ideas of non-violent resistance, and returning oppression with truth and love.

Gandhi also gained a lot of liberal ideas of democratic government from studying to be a lawyer in England for three years.

He had a vision of a new free India. A vision of a humane liberation of India was not obvious or agreeable to many nationalist Indians that strove to end British rule through force.

Gandhi initially did not push for the end of British rule. He was reluctant to support independence because he could see the egotistical political objectives of the nationalists. At least the British government aspired to being servants of the people, and aimed to respect human dignity and religious beliefs. This was not necessarily the case of the Indian Nationalists.

Gandhi's support for an independent India came about because he realized that his ideals of Swaraj (an idea I come back to in later chapters) could not materialize under British rule. He was also overwhelmed by nationalist pressure to support their cause. He organized peaceful resistance to British occupation, a resistance that won the day primarily through Gandhi's truthful approach.

Gandhi was able to use his own lifestyle and philosophical views to influence public opinion. He did not have visions of grandeur or power. Where Jesus washed the feet of his disciples, Gandhi cleaned the toilets with the untouchables. He lived an austere life in servitude to humanity.

As Gandhi feared, national and religious ideological conflict ripped India apart after Independence . India was divided into three countries (India, Pakistan and Bangladesh). Tens of thousands died at the hands of their neighbours during this period. Luckily, a full civil war was averted because of the split-up.

And what about India today? The vast majority of Indians still live in hopeless poverty. A hopeless poverty that is reinforced through their beliefs - beliefs that are encouraged by religious and political leaders.

Top - Table of Content

The Cold War

The Cold War is another war that was luckily averted. The stand-off lasted from the end of the Second World War to the beginning of the 1990s. It was a state of ideological conflict between the Soviet Union and the Western world (most notably the United States). It almost led to military conflict on a number of occasions. It perpetuated the nuclear arms race, and could have easily culminated in the annihilation of humanity, especially during the Cuban Crisis of 1962.

Diplomatic, economic, and pressure of military build-up on both sides pushed the Soviet Union into economic stagnation. Eventually, its own citizens and the Western economies compelled the leadership ( Mikhail Gorbachev ) to liberalize and reform its old communist ideologies.

This was not without a great deal of internal conflict and almost civil war that culminated with the Soviet coup attempt of 1991 by hard-line communists. The coup was avoided through the timely political leadership of President Boris Yeltsin , and the willingness of the Russian people to passively resist military activities by blocking key government buildings, and demonstrations. Russia did experience severe economic poverty and almost complete bankruptcy and devaluation of its currency after the collapse of the Soviet system, but is slowly rebuilding its economy.

Top - Table of Content

Reasons for War

It is worthwhile exploring "non-violent resistance" a little further. The concept averted war between India and England, and played a big part in avoiding civil war in Russia. The majority of people, when thinking of "non-violent resistance" refer to Jesus' teaching on the subject - as in:

Matthew: ...5,38 "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth'. 5,39 But I tell you, don't resist him who is evil; but whoever strikes you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also. 5,40 If anyone sues you to take away your coat, let him have your cloak also. 5,41 Whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. 5,42 Give to him who asks you, and don't turn away him who desires to borrow from you."

For most people, the logic of this passage is difficult. First, we must consider what is meant by evil. Perhaps evil refers to someone blinded by egotistical ideological beliefs. Secondly, injury may not necessarily just mean physical harm. We have to also consider the psychological harm that may be done to both the victim and the perpetrator by lack of action.

I believe that the key point of the passage above is in 5,41, and going the extra mile. In other words, pro-actively doing what is in the best interest of all involved. Going the extra mile may mean helping others to see their delusion. This may include physically restraining those that would be harmful. Our actions to restrain should be done with kind intent towards all involved, and by using our own good judgment and common sense. This, I believe, is also in keeping with Gandhi's approach of "non-violent resistance".

We all tend to put our allegiance to our ideologies and material possessions above our allegiance to humanity, and we all suffer as a result.

Perhaps this is the lesson to be learned from our long history of wars.

There have been many other wars and disputes in the 20th century, including the war in Korea, and the Gulf wars.

We have a genetic propensity to serve our own and to mistrust those from a different background. This may have ensured our survival when we were struggling against wild beasts for limited resources, but will it serve us well in the 21st century?

Top - Table of Content

Late Twentieth Century

Cultural changes

America's economic strength and active involvement stopped the complete suppression of Western liberal democracy in Europe, and helped to re-build Europe after the Second World War.

We should realize that the Allies' containment of Hitler's Germany and Hirohito's Japan, and later the containment of Soviet Russia and our war in Vietnam, was largely as a defence of our economic and political interests and for continued dominance of Western culture.

It would be a mistake to think that the actions of our governments were for humanitarian concerns. It would also be a mistake to think that the Allied forces were not as barbaric as their enemies. Thousands of German civilians, many fleeing refugees, were needlessly killed towards the end of the Second World War. The invading forces also raped thousands of German women. It can be strongly debated whether the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and on Nagasaki were really necessary also.

Top - Table of Content

Britain

The British Empire was at its height at the beginning of the century. The costs of containing Hitler in Germany, and in protecting British interest in the Far East against the Japanese, impoverished Britain and saw the break-up of the British Empire.

It also saw serious dilution of the class system as the British Monarchy and aristocracy shared in much of the plight of the country. Rationing and hardship focused everyone's attention towards the common enemy.

The current English Queen, Queen Elizabeth II , is Head of State of over 16 nations and over 128 million people, but has no authoritative power; although many still perceive their status and role in life as subservient to the Monarchy.

America took the lead as a global power in the West.

The Soviet Union survived the Second World War, and put up walls to protect its negotiated territories and communist regime from Western democratic capitalist influences. This lasted through to the end of the century.

The young of England and Europe looked to the U.S. for inspiration and for setting new standards in living, success, and personal freedom. The world was sold on the American Dream as portrayed through countless Hollywood movies.

Music that was free from political or religious propaganda dominated the music scene - and legends such as Elvis Presley and Ray Charles became household names, along with other rock and soul legends. Those of older ideologies (the Religious Right) often challenged the modern music and attitudes, suggesting they were demonic in nature. Organized Christian groups also tried to ban the sale of music from the Beatles because of a perceived subversive influence. Today (50 years later), all of these legendary musical influences seem totally harmless.

Top - Table of Content

Equal Rights

America also led the way in contentiously challenging our prejudices regarding race and sex. Laws were put in place compelling people to put aside their prejudices.

Feminist movements were calling for laws to enforce equality of rights for women.

One of the most famous proponents of the American civil rights movement was Martin Luther King (1929-1968) - a black Baptist minister. Influenced by Gandhi, he encouraged a non-violent approach to achieve racial equality.

Martin Luther King had two objectives as part of his civil rights platform. The first was equality of rights (opportunity) under the law. This required equality in access to employment, education and social services. It also included the right to use public transport and other public services without discrimination.

His second objective was that black Americans, along with other disadvantaged Americans, should be compensated for past wrongs. His argument was that, should a man enter the starting line of a race three hundred years after another man, the second would have to perform some incredible feat to catch up.

The vast majority of Americans were supportive of Martin Luther King's first objectives. It was in keeping with the principles that America was founded upon, and was reinforced by the American Civil War a century before.

The second part was contentious primarily because it required laws that pushed a paradigm shift on the American people. The enforcement was through the launch of the affirmative action programmes.

The Federal government wanted to re-shape the way US population thought, similarly to how the Soviet regime wanted to mould Russians to communist beliefs, and Hitler's Germany imposed Nazism on its populace.

Racial Integration of children took place through forced desegregation busing of children to and from different rural areas. All books were re-written and published to be gender neutral. The media couched its programming in a pro-equality stance in fear of prosecution. Affirmative action programmes made it compulsory for companies to employ equal numbers of women and minorities, often requiring the exclusion of better skilled white male candidates.

For the vast majority of Americans, this required a radical change in thinking. The southern states were very much racially segregated, and the majority of Americans held to Christian ideals of marriage where the woman should stay at home to take care of the children, and the man went out to work.

For many Americans the federal government had overstepped its sphere of responsibility. Many had fought and died in the belief they were fighting for freedom from those that would force ideologies upon them.

Right-wing resistance movements came to the fore across the United States. Individuals such as Gordon Wendell Kahl called on Americans to stop paying Federal income tax. He tried to set up parallel courts and government based on English common law, and to withdraw recognition of the Federal government. This led the way to the Montana Freemen stand-off, and the Posse Comitatus challenge in Texas.

Other individuals took a more separatist or anarchist approach, as was the case with the Randy Weaver family. The Weavers tried to detach themselves from society by purchasing 20 acres of land in Idaho where they could live in isolation. This led to the Siege at Ruby Ridge.

Others set up separatist religious communities such as the Branch Davidians at Waco, Texas.

All of these groups challenged the ideological objectives of the Federal government and were dealt with severely. Federal law enforcement officers killed men, women and children to subdue these nonconformists.

Private militia groups came to the fore challenging the constitutional legality of a lot of the U.S. Policies, both domestically and internationally. The media and Federal government labelled these dissenters as "white Supremacists". They saw themselves as separatists or anarchists that were defending their beliefs against Federal Government social reform - the Federal government was their enemy.

Most white Americans just tried to move away in what was colloquially called the white flight , where many white upper and middle class Americans moved west.

This did not stop the influence of Federal meddling permeating all aspects of employment laws, leading to the phenomena of workplace rage commonly known as going postal a term derived from a series of incidents in which United States Postal Service workers shot and killed managers, fellow workers, members of the police, and the general public.

These activities culminated in the Oklahoma City bombing, where Timothy James McVeigh destroyed the Alfred Murrah Federal Building, killing 168 federal workers and injuring hundreds more.

For reasons unknown, the activities of the political right and militia groups faded away - perhaps because of a counter-influence of the New Age movement. Many may have come to the realization that all people have a right and obligation to be the best that they can be, and we collectively have an obligation to ensure avenues for this realization.

As stated earlier, this was a major paradigm shift. It challenged the two thousand year old Christian ideologies of the role of women in society, and it challenged the racial/cultural prejudices that had been around since the beginning of recorded human history - a history that perpetuated a hierarchical dependency where the elitists exploited the masses and this was the way of things.

We are getting closer to the point where people can seriously challenge their dogmas without fear of retribution from their governments, religious leaders or peers. We now have more freedom to explore what we really do believe based on personal experience, and analytical thinking, than at any other time in human civilized history.

Many people no longer know what they believe or where to put their allegiance. This has left a great void in the lives of many. This void will be filled with some ideology or other if we do not promote critical thinking in our youth.

Whereas at the beginning of the century there were almost no agnostics or atheists, towards the end of the century that figure has moved closer to 25% in the United States and even higher in Europe. There has also been a massive fall in church attendance, especially in the more traditional Catholic and Protestant churches.

Our scientists, philosophers and psychologists have searched for objective truthful answers, and to a great extent they have been successful. In the West, we have become more knowledgeable, wealthy, and liberal, but we do not feel safer or necessarily happier.

We still lack a lot of the personal freedoms, in a free world, that so many millions envisioned and died for during the 20th century. We have reshaped the political landscape with the United States as the main superpower in the Democratic West, but with China aspiring towards economic and political dominance in the East.

Communism promised a classless, stateless social society when in reality it delivered one of the most authoritarian, murderous governments of the 20th century.

The democratic governments of the West promised rule by the people, through the vote, but our politicians seldom ask for the views of their representatives. Instead, our politicians are slaves to the dictates of their party leaders; the economy; large corporate businesses; international alliances; special interest groups; pressures from a manipulative media that panders to sensationalism; and, as always, the uninformed fears and bigotry of the populace.

To better understand this malignancy in our nature, and before exploring the problems that face us in the 21st century, perhaps it's worthwhile examining the way we think based on our current scientific and psychological understanding, and with reference to our religious heritage.

Top - Table of Content

---

Chapter 5 - Religion and Morals

"Nationalism, like Religion, appeals to the narrow minded."
Paul Cottage, 2006

Most would challenge this opinion today, but if humanity survives this century, our descendants will see this view as obvious. There have been a few enlightened individuals such as Jesus, Buddha, and Gandhi that grasped this concept, but very few have taken it to heart. Is this generation ready to grapple with a new major paradigm shift and major leap forward in understanding? What if we cannot move forward from our narrow views? In this chapter we explore why we think the way we do.

Top - Table of Content

The Supernatural

For many, a big dilemma with religion is that it requires a view of the world through rose-tinted glasses - from a certain paradigm. Western religions require faith. Faith requires an acceptance of dogmas without proof. This faith is often in conflict with other religions, and strong demonstrable evidence that would logically suggest a different stance.

Unlike religion, science always strives for a truthful understanding, and accepts that understanding the truth is an evolutionary process.

No objective evidence to support the existence of god(s) or the spirit world exists. There is, however, a great deal of subjective evidence. It is important to explore religion because religion, more so than any other learned set of values, has the most profound impact on our current view of reality, and may have a substantial impact on our future existence.

Top - Table of Content

Spirit Worlds

As already suggested, it is highly likely that we started our journey into the supernatural in the late Palaeolithic era, when cave dwellers began using mind-altering drugs to visit the spirit worlds. For most of us, these types of experiences are hard to comprehend, due to a lack personal experience. Many native people around the world still use hallucinogenic plants to invoke out-of-body experiences. These people firmly believe in the existence of these other realities, despite secular pressure suggesting to them otherwise.

A series of books by Carlos Castaneda about the teachings of 'Don Juan' can help in gaining an insight into these points of view. Another interesting book on the subject is 'Supernatural', by Graham Hancock .

Many of our most prominent scientists would argue strongly against the existence of what the Shamans call spirit worlds. But other scientists, especially those that study cosmology, string theory, and quantum theory, would argue that parallel realities can and do exist simultaneously. It is likely that we would have to leave our current reality to visit other realities. This may be impossible for our physical material bodies, but may be possible for our non-tangible minds. Many discredit this area of study because the hypothesis cannot be physically tested.

Top - Table of Content

Voices and Visions

For as far back in recorded history to today people have experienced visions, or voices within their head. In the past these types of experiences were associated with spiritual experiences of either a good or evil nature. Today, many consider seeing visions or hearing voices as a disease of the mind, even though there is no biological test to highlight the disease. The disorder is broadly covered under an umbrella term known as Schizophrenia. Often it is thought of as multiple personalities existing within the same person, and is also known as "dissociative identity disorder". It is more common among persistent drug users or those that have experienced severe trauma or stress.

Recent studies by Dutch psychologists Marius Romme and Sandra Escher suggest that around 3% of the world's population actually experience voices in their head or see visions. Most of these people are functioning normally, and are considered perfectly sane. Only a small percentage of them become mental patients.

Although these voices can be destructive, some leading psychologists now suggest that people should consider the voices as being real, and should listen to them rather than try to suppress them. This does not mean follow through with what the voices are suggesting, but to try to understand the reasons for the view of the voices.

Many scientists suggest that these voices are models (simulations) that the brain creates to replicate key activities that the brain is working on. Once these models are activated they run independently to our consciousness, and the resulting information is completely unpredictable, much the same way as the results from running computer simulation can be unpredictable.

Often these models manifest as real characters - or separate consciousnesses within our own mind. Many brilliant people have experienced this phenomenon, including William Blake - reputedly one of England's finest artists, and a freethinker.

Often these models can perform incredibly complex mathematical tasks - as has been the case with some autistic people (as portrayed in the movie Rain Man ). These people often insist that the answers just appear in their mind.

Often these models come to life as characters within a book. Among his other noteworthy pursuits, Russian author Leo Tolstoy is also considered one of the greatest of all novelists. His masterpiece War and Peace includes 580 characters, both fictional and non-fictional, and provides an incredibly real depiction of Russian life during the Napoleonic era. A number of Tolstoy's contemporaries insisted that Tolstoy's characters were alternative personalities within his head.

A really good book that explores this idea is 'Sophie's World', by Jostein Gaarder . Within this novel, Sophie, the main protagonist, becomes aware that she is a character within a book, and tries to control her own destiny by attempting to influence the mind of the author. I don't know if Jostein Gaarder thinks of Sophie as a real person or if it is just really good fictional writing.

The premise raised in 'Sophie's World' is interesting when we consider it further in relation to ourselves, and ask the question, "Do we think, or are we thought?" - Are we just acting out a predefined simulation or do we have control over our own actions?

Michio Kalu alludes to this notion in chapter 12 of his book 'Parallel Worlds' when he discusses Wigner's hypothesis that the universe is one large consciousness.

Top - Table of Content

Our Minds & Science

Genes

Genes can be considered as living heredity information encoded in genetic material known as DNA . We carry this detailed heredity information in every cell of our body. Our genes have a strong sense of self-preservation. Through a complex cohesion of the millions of cells our genes defend themselves against foreign organisms. We realize this from our immune system. This complex cohesion also ensures that all of our body organs grow and perform their correct function in complete and very complex harmony.

This strong sense of preservation does not just manifest itself autonomously within our bodies. It also ensures its survival by passing itself on from generation to generation by giving us an overwhelming drive for sexual intercourse. Our bodies may die, but our genes go on. We are genetically predisposed to develop strong attachments to our sexual partners. Parents have an overwhelming sense of altruism towards their young - a commitment that ensures the survival of our genes.

We feel a strong sense of empathy towards our own genetic offspring, regardless of their behaviour. We are less forgiving of the offspring of others. We have empathy for others so long as they return that empathy. We are often quick to condemn those that are different.

The influence of our genes is so strong that it can compel us to give up our own life for the benefit of our children or community. We are altruistic towards our own nation or those that share our interests, and mistrust those that do not. We have the capacity to intimidate or murder our neighbours.

Through wars we act on our genetic insecurities by murdering millions of strangers in the name of some ideology. We justify our actions by disassociating and degrading our perceived enemy - they are not a part of our superior group.

We know that we receive our capacity for altruism and empathy from our genes because some people, most notably people with Autism , find it difficult to be empathetic, and find it very difficult to adjust socially.

We know that physical brain damage can change someone that is normally aggressive into someone that is apathetic. The reverse is also true.

We know that drugs and food also have a strong impact on our psychology. We know that stimulants such as caffeine arouse brain activity, and we know that alcohol can make us happy before leaving us depressed. We know that refined carbohydrates can give us a sense of comfort, but has the negative effect of making us obese.

Our genes can compel us to act without consideration of the consequences. This is normally when we are angry. At other times they can compel us to be caring to further our own best interests.

We gain our unique personality from our genes. We know this because our children have different personalities from birth. We obtain our ability to understand there is right and wrong from our genes. We all have an innate desire to be right - but it is our environment that directs our understanding of what is right and wrong for good or for bad.

"All men are created equal."
- Abraham Lincoln

Top - Table of Content

Memes

Richard Dawkins is a strong critic of religion and the supernatural. He uses genetic evolution, and another theory known as Meme Theory, to uphold his position. Dawkins' arguments are very strong - except, (as with most Scientists of his genre (such as the late Carl Sagan ), he fails to look beyond testable hypotheses.

Our morality is developed through our collective memes. Meme theory suggests that our language, along with culture and ideas, have a life of their own. They are also evolving, but at a significant order of magnitude faster than our genetic evolution.

Memes can be thought of as active processes (ideas) capable of spreading from person to person in the same way as a "common cold virus", but given today's modern technology, potentially a whole lot faster. Dawkins points out in his book, The Selfish Gene, that, because of meme evolution, Geoffrey Chaucer (1343 -1400; renowned for his English articulation and poetry) could not hold an intelligent conversation with a modern English-speaking person, even though we are separated by a mere six hundred years.

Like genes, memes evolve, and if they don't adapt, they become extinct. For example - we have learned over the past couple of centuries that slavery is wrong - but most slave owners were ethical devout Christians and justified the ownership of slaves through their faith.

We have learned that it is wrong to discriminate - demeaning someone because of their sex or race is no longer acceptable in modern Western society. It was common, and the law, to discriminate based on sex or race less than fifty years ago, and believed by most to be morally right...

Civilizations come into existence with their religions, philosophies, and bureaucracies. They last for a few hundred years and then disappear. Religions come into existence, normally from a single source, and within a few decades have evolved into multiple sects, quite often with fundamental differences of opinion.

The same is true for written and verbal languages. English has fared better than others in this century. It is spoken around the world as either a first or second language. The English written language is based on a Romanized alphabet that has proven very adaptable to the needs of modern Western civilization.

The oldest known written language is Chinese. Its roots go back over eight thousand years. The Chinese alphabet is made up of symbols with each symbol, or sometimes pairs of symbols, representing a word. This means that the Chinese alphabet is made up of over forty thousand symbols. Many will appreciate how difficult it might be to put these characters on a standard computer keyboard, or to develop "text-message functionality" on mobile phones for the Chinese. The Chinese have evolved their written language and will continue to evolve it if they wish to maintain their momentum as an up-and-coming world power. Some countries, whose language roots are based on Chinese, are abandoning their old pictographic alphabets for a Romanized system instead. Vietnam is a good example.

Memes (in the same sense as software, and the human mind) are our reality. Everything that we experience is through our senses and accumulates as electrical impulses, and chemical interactions in our brain. Eastern philosophers liken this to a finger pointing at the moon. The finger is NOT the moon, it is just a pointer (map) to the moon. There is nothing factual about our mental reality. We can only use our memes (perceptions) as a guide to evaluate our perceptions (memes) of reality. In other words - a fallacy is confirming our view of what we think is truth.

As suggested earlier, our perceptions of reality (our beliefs) are very strong.

The Stranger within my gate,
He may be true or kind,
But he does not talk my talk -
I cannot feel his mind
I see the face and the eyes and mouth
But not the soul behind
Rudyard Kipling (1865 - 1936)

Feral children are children who have been isolated from human contact from a very early age. They have not been exposed to normal social behaviour or human language. They may have become isolated because they were accidentally lost or abandoned, or due to severe neglect from their parents.

Oxana Malaya (born 1983) is a Ukrainian feral child that was found at the age of eight having lived most of her life with dogs. Her parents were impoverished alcoholics, and Oxana was abandoned to the street dogs. She found a home in a dog kennel behind her house, where she was cared for by the dogs. She learned their behaviours and mannerisms. She barked like a dog, she sniffed her food like a dog, and she crouched and jumped like a dog. She developed an extremely sharp sense of smell, hearing, and sight. She completely ignored her own reflection when given a mirror - much the same as an animal would ignore its reflection. She was not self-aware.

Oxana thought and acted like a dog. She had developed the attributes necessary to be acceptable in a dog's world. With a great deal of help, she is now learning about her humanity. Many experts, who work with feral children, believe that it is impossible for them to make the major paradigm shift required to realize their own humanity.

Being Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Hindu, American, British, Palestinian are memes/masks that we wear to be acceptable in our own communities. To some degree they may be desirable. Many are dependent on our masks as they provide us with a sense of self. They provide us with a frame of reference when engaging with other people. They provide us with a cultural language and set of norms. We see the world differently due to differing circumstances.

Our masks can become an issue when we, or our authorities, use them as justification to discriminate. Or when we use them as a reason to persecute others.

Our inability to see past our masks is not just a barrier in our relationships with people that are culturally different, they can also affect our relationship with our own children - especially if they engage in activities deemed to be socially unacceptable (or if they have cerebral issues such as Down-Syndrome or Autism) - Our relationship with our parents (should they develop Alzheimer etc) is another example.

By becoming more self-aware and engaging with these differences we can find greater capacity to lower our own masks because we are aware of the masks that we wear. This in turn can help us to evolve to greater levels of understanding.

Below our masks is our humanity (our soul/nature). We derive our capacity to love and to forgive when we realize our humanity. We see that although our masks provide us with our identity they also contain our faults, misconceptions and create our anxieties. They are a lie. We can also see the lie in other people.

Our masks fuel our fears and use flawed logic to justify their existence, and they direct our actions for good or bad.

Matthew: - 7,1 "Don't judge, so that you won't be judged. 7,2 For with whatever judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with whatever measure you measure, it will be measured to you. 7,3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but don't consider the beam that is in your own eye? 7,4 Or how will you tell your brother, - Let me remove the speck from your eye;' and behold, the beam is in your own eye? 7,5 You hypocrite! First remove the beam out of your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck out of your brother's eye.

The New Age Movement is a movement that has come about in the late 20th century. It is a movement that does NOT promote any particular ideology, but an awareness of our own reality.

Our greater understanding, along with the assistance of modern computers, is expanding our knowledge at such a rate that we can now evaluate and modify our genetic programming, and even evaluate and direct our own meme evolution.

We can now control our genetic tendency to reproduce through the use of birth control pills. We can test our genetic make-up to determine our propensity towards genetically transmitted disease. We are even at the cusp of controlling the physical and mental aspects of our offspring.

The Affirmative action programmes of the late 1970s and 1980s brought about major paradigm shifts that ensured equal rights in employment, and equal treatment under the law. This is a good example demonstrating how we can control our meme evolution.

We have computers to store information, and to perform incredibly complex calculations and simulations for us. We know about, and can simulate and evaluate, many of the key issues that face us. For example, we know that our genetic propensity to reproduce is causing a population explosion. We know that through burning fossil fuels we are causing global warming, and we know that if we don't make the right decisions in this century our species, and perhaps all life on this planet, will become extinct.

We have to stretch our currently limited minds if we hope to cope with the challenges of our future. Hopefully, we will prove intelligent and ethical enough to use our resources wisely.

If we do move above our prejudices and grasp a higher understanding of our humanity, where will we be in a hundred years? If life exists on other planets, where could they be intellectually by now?

Top - Table of Content

Religion - the gods

As stated earlier, on a cosmic scale, our planet is like a speck of sand revolving around a small, hotly burning ember in a vast expanse of darkness. To reach our planet from other stars would require travel at such incredible speeds that in reality aliens would have to travel through time distortion as well.

All of our ancient literature suggests that the world's earliest civilizations believed in god(s), demigods (progeny from god/human relations), and giants. These include the ancient Sumerian civilization from around 3000BC; the Persians; Egyptians; Greeks; Romans; early European civilizations, and even the Jews.

We cannot say that these gods were benevolent. They displayed the same negative attributes we associate with humanity, such as treachery, jealousy, anger, greed, vindictiveness, stupidity, and arrogance. They required servitude and sacrifice (both human and animal), and debasing rituals are still performed today to appease or invoke their support.

It would be easy to debunk ancient thinking that no longer has relevance to our current beliefs, but greater value is gained in critiquing our own way of thinking by exploring our most dominant Christian-based views, and, by inference, Jewish and Islamic views as well.

Top - Table of Content

Religion - The Old Testament

Many Christians believe that the Bible represents the word of God and is absolutely true and infallible.

Historians will tell us that the 'Books of the Old Testament' were written centuries after the events took place, and by various unknown authors with differing religious and political objectives.

The Books of the New Testament were written at least decades, and possibly hundreds of years, after the death of Christ. And again, not by his disciples but by people who had their own religious and political objectives. The source for the four main gospels (Mark, Luke, John and Matthew) is known as The Q Document , and has conveniently disappeared. Many other books, some of them ascribed to Jesus' disciples, did not meet the Roman Church selection criteria and were destroyed. Some ancient copies of these suppressed texts have come to light over the past century.

It is very easy to question the morals of the Christian God when exploring the Old Testament. In Genesis, man is created in the image of the gods (plural).

Through the use of computers we are also trying to create intelligence comparable to our own. We also try to build simulations of our own environment.

Genesis1:26 God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

Did you ever think that it was pretty short-sighted and hypocritical of the U.S. administration to sell 'weapons of mass destruction' to the Iraqis and then act indigent when they actually used them?

Genesis2:8 Yahweh God planted a garden eastward, in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed. 2,9 Out of the ground Yahweh God made every tree to grow that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the middle of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
2:16 Yahweh God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 2,17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it; for in the day that you eat of it you will surely die.

It seems that God has similar shortcomings.

Of course, many would argue that humanity was given free will, and the story of the 'tree of knowledge of good and evil' is an example of exercising this free will.

In the Christian, Muslim and Jewish worlds this 'free will' is most apparent. You are either 'Catholic or damned'; you are either "'Sunni or damned'; you are either 'Jehovah Witness or damned'... etc.

The gods must have created man in their image for more than one purpose, because a little later we read:

Genesis 6,1 It happened, when men began to multiply on the surface of the ground, and daughters were born to them, 6,2 that God's sons saw that men's daughters were beautiful, and they took for themselves wives of all that they chose. 6,3 Yahweh said, "My Spirit will not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; yet will his days be one hundred twenty years." 6,4 The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also after that, when God's sons came in to men's daughters. They bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.

And now we have demigods, and giants on the earth. The main god was not happy with this situation. It is not clear if the other gods shared his view:

Genesis 6,5 Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6,6 Yahweh was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him in his heart. 6,7 Yahweh said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the surface of the ground; man, along with animals, creeping things, and birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.

The gods did not stop having relationships with women, even after the flood. A little later we read:

Genesis 21,1 Yahweh visited Sarah as he had said, and Yahweh did to Sarah as he had spoken. 21,2 Sarah conceived, and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. 21,3 Abraham called his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore to him, Isaac.

Jesus also is supposedly born of Immaculate Conception.

Throughout ancient literature, the gods have required sacrifices and fear from humanity, and this is very much the case of the Israel Gods:

Genesis 22,6 Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. He took in his hand the fire and the knife. They both went together. 22,7 Isaac spoke to Abraham his father, and said, My father?
He said, Here I am, my son.
He said, Here is the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?
22,8 Abraham said, God will provide himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son. So they both went together. 22,9 They came to the place which God had told him of. Abraham built the altar there, and laid the wood in order, bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar, on the wood. 22,10 Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to kill his son.
22,11 The angel of Yahweh called to him out of the sky, and said, Abraham, Abraham!
He said, Here I am.
22,12 He said, Don't lay your hand on the boy, neither do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.

It is easy to go on further through the Old Testament challenging the benevolence of the gods. I think it is clear that the Christian god did not have a very compassionate attitude towards humanity. Fear was their primary motivating tool...

Top - Table of Content

Religion - The New Testament

Very little historical information is available about the life of Jesus. Most of the information we have is focused on his ministry that lasted about three years between the ages of 30 and 33 and his death. New Testament accounts of his virginal birth; the visit of wise men that followed a star; and the slaughter of thousands of innocent babies are debatable with little or no supporting evidence. These stories were most likely embellishments for political or religious reasons.

From the resources we do have, it is reasonable to say that Jesus must have been a very intelligent, dynamic and charismatic individual. He had the most profound impact on the Roman world of two thousand years ago, and that impact is still felt today.

The true teachings of Jesus are obscure. This is most likely for a couple of reasons.

The first is, he often talked in parables. Christians would suggest that this was because his teachings were too intellectual for his audience. I would suggest that he talked in parables to make his stories palatable to the Jewish and Roman communities. Most were not ready to hear what he had to say, and, as in the Islamic world today, to say the wrong thing would lead to severe punishment. Jesus was also very knowledgeable of the Jewish scriptures, and laws. He used this knowledge in his speeches to educate, and in his defence.

Most of us are not ready to have our views challenged, even today, as is obvious by the mass protests and murderous acts which took place around the world as a result of the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy which portrayed the Islamic prophet, Mohammad, in an unflattering light.

The second reason would be that the orthodox writings that we commonly ascribe to (the Stories of the New Testament) were written by people decades after his death with religious and political agendas that were different to Jesus'. It was essential for them to present the story of Jesus in such a way that would be acceptable as the official religion of the Roman Empire.

It is important to realize that at the time of Jesus there was no separation between religion and government. This is still very much the case in the Islamic world today. Even Roman rulers authenticated their authority through the gods. Many leaders were considered gods in their own right.

For the Jews, the political and religious leaders were the Pharisees and Sadducees. Scribes were not writers but lawmakers (lawyers). They issued decrees in the name of the King. The King of Jerusalem probably had dual loyalties as he was subject to the Roman occupation. The lawmakers in Jerusalem were representatives of the Jewish god, and they had authority to punish those that did not toe the line.

Jesus' opinion of the representatives of the Jewish god is very clear from numerous places in the New Testament. It can be summed up in Matthew, where he is directing his conversation to the Pharisees and Scribes:

Matthew:12,33 "Either make the tree good, and its fruit good, or make the tree corrupt, and its fruit corrupt; for the tree is known by its fruit. 12,34 You offspring of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. 12,35 The good man out of his good treasure brings out good things, and the evil man out of his evil treasure brings out evil things."

Jesus' God was different from the Jewish god. This is a reasonable argument for why we have a New Testament. The message was different from the Old Testament.

We have to explore Christian Gnostic Scripture to expand on these differing views. Gnostic is a Greek term meaning knowledge. Many consider Gnosticism as meaning hidden knowledge. There were many Gnostic religions during Jesus' time. Most of their gospels (writings) were destroyed as heretical. In general, they believed that the world was an evil material place, and that the ultimate divine being is completely separate from the material world. For the Gnostics, we are trapped here in a material body and we need to learn how to escape to the divine reality.

For the Christian Gnostics, Jesus had the answer. He may have spoken in parables to the masses, but he revealed the truth to his closest followers, and it is this truth that can set us free.

The discovery of the Gnostic writings at Nag Hammadi , Egypt, in 1945, has shed a great deal of light on the Christian Gnostic beliefs. There seems to be a great deal of similarity between their beliefs and Buddhism. Many Gnostic scholars suggest that Jesus gained his enlightenment during a visit to India (Some suggest England), but there is no evidence to this effect. We do know that 30 years of Jesus's informative life is missing from history.

Please understand that it is not my goal to revive other religions long dead, but just to highlight that there were many views on the teachings of Christ, and that the views we gain from the orthodox New Testament were shaped to be palatable to Roman political and religious leaders.

From the Christian Gnostic text 'The Apocyphon of John' we can gain an understanding of the Christian Gnostic god when John asks Jesus about him:

...He is the invisible Spirit, of whom it is not right to think of him as a god, or something similar. For he is more than a god, since there is nothing above him, for no one lords it over him. For he does not exist in something inferior to him, since everything exists in him. For it is he who establishes himself. He is eternal, since he does not need anything. For he is total perfection. He did not lack anything, that he might be completed by it; rather he is always completely perfect in light. He is illimitable, since there is no one prior to him to set limits to him. He is unsearchable, since there exists no one prior to him to examine him. He is immeasurable, since there was no one prior to him to measure him. He is invisible, since no one saw him. He is eternal, since he exists eternally. He is ineffable, since no one was able to comprehend him to speak about him. He is unnameable, since there is no one prior to him to give him a name.
"He is immeasurable light, which is pure, holy [and] immaculate. He is ineffable, being perfect in incorruptibility. [He is] not in perfection, nor in blessedness, nor in divinity, but he is far superior. He is not corporeal nor is he incorporeal. He is neither large nor is he small. There is no way to say, 'What is his quantity?', for no one can know him. He is not someone among [other] beings, rather he is far superior. Not that he is [simply] superior, but his essence does not partake in the aeons nor in time. For he who partakes in an aeon was prepared beforehand. Time was not apportioned to him, since he does not receive anything from another, for it would be received on loan. For he who precedes someone does not lack, that he may receive from him. For rather, it is the latter that looks expectantly at him in his light.
"For the perfection is majestic. He is pure, immeasurable mind. He is an aeon-giving aeon. He is life-giving life. He is a blessedness-giving blessed one. He is knowledge-giving knowledge. He is goodness-giving goodness. He is mercy and redemption-giving mercy. He is grace-giving grace, not because he possesses it, but because he gives the immeasurable, incomprehensible light ..."

The description sounds rather similar to our current understanding of the source of our universe or the "Singularity" discussed earlier. It does not sound like the god of the Jews - a god that likes to meddle judgmentally in the affairs of humanity - a god that the ruling authorities could use as an ideological point of reference for empire building or for punishing subversives.

This below message ascribed to Jesus is almost certainly embellished by the Romans.

Matthew: 22,37 Jesus said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." 22,38 This is the first and great commandment. 22,39 A second likewise is this, "You shall love your neighbour as yourself."

Every military organisation has such a clause in their Military Code of Conduct - A Clause that requires first and foremost loyalty to the Crown, Emperor or an ideological symbol such as a flag, and secondly to yourself and your 'brothers in arms'.

Jesus' message is a message of love - not debasing servitude to nebulous gods.

Jesus also talks about forgiveness and turning the other cheek in other verses.

The god of the Jews, which is the same god as the Christian god and the Islamic god, requires fear, servitude, and appeasement - these being in harmony with the objectives of the governing bodies.

What does Jesus mean by neighbour? He makes this clear in the Good Samaritan story (Luke 10:30). For the then Jews, their neighbour was the Samaritans; For Russians, of the late Soviet Union era, it would have been the gypsies; For the German Nazis it would have been the Jews; For today's Israelis, it is the Palestinians; And for today's Western countries it is the 'illegal immigrant'.

There is no moral difference in supporting our governments in persecuting 'illegal immigrants' then there was in supporting the Nazi's in persecuting the Jews.

Some would say illegal immigrants shouldn't be in our country; that they chose to come here, and so they deserve what they get. I would suggest that every human being has the right to self-determination, and by denying illegal immigrants we are denying ourselves. I shall discuss immigration a little later, but keep this in mind should you be compelled to NOT employ an illegal immigrant because your government (god) tells you not to.

"Borders are for Sheep and Cows."
- Paul Cottage, 2006

Borders are for people that are deluded. They are incapable of thinking outside of their own culture. They are for people that struggle with critical thinking.

Jesus' message was not only to "love your neighbour" but also to serve one another:

John:- 13,3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he came forth from God, and was going to God, 13,4 arose from supper, and laid aside his outer garments. He took a towel, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 13,5 Then he poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him...

13,14 If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. 13,15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. 13,16 Most certainly I tell you, a servant is not greater than his lord, neither one who is sent greater than he who sent him. 13,17 If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.

Jesus wanted his followers to care about and to serve one another.

These are not the words of someone that wants to set himself up as a "God".

The gods of Jesus' world required debasing servitude. Commitment was expressed and reinforced through elaborate rituals. We do much the same in today's churches, and also within our military and civilian rituals such as the pledging of allegiance to the flag or to the queen.

Jesus' view was:

Matthew: 5,33 "Again you have heard that it was said to them of old time, 'You shall not make false vows, but shall perform to the Lord your vows,' 5,34 but I tell you, don't swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is the throne of God; 5,35 nor by the earth, for it is the footstool of his feet; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 5,36 Neither shall you swear by your head, for you can't make one hair white or black. 5,37 But let your 'Yes' be 'Yes' and your 'No' be 'No'. Whatever is more than these is of the evil one.

During the time of Jesus, to "swear" meant pledging allegiance. Little wonder then that the teachings of Jesus were so threatening to the Jewish and Roman gods and authorities.

Jesus' greater capacity of understanding our true nature, and his commitment to share that understanding, not only enlightened many to their enslavement, but also to an understanding and capacity to excise our inner demons.

In Luke: 8,1 It happened soon afterwards, that he went about through cities and villages, preaching and bringing the good news of the Type Kingdom of Name God. With him were the twelve, 8,2 and certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary who was called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out; 8,3 and Joanna, the wife of Chuzas, Herod's steward; Susanna; and many others; who served them from their possessions.

Jesus envisioned a world of beauty and peace where people lived in the present and not the past (the past being full of demons).

Jesus became more of a threat as people began to see the wisdom in his teachings and his following grew. The results were predictable. Jesus was cruelly tortured and murdered. His followers were tortured, murdered, and persecuted for centuries to come.

The teachings and stature of Jesus survived and evolved because the spirit of his teachings would not die with his death. The Romans had to make them palatable and malleable to the needs of the Empire.

Top - Table of Content

The gods - And Benevolence

There may or may not be supernatural gods, but, historically, their benevolence towards humanity is on a par with the West's benevolent attitude towards poverty and disease in Africa. We are far better off believing that there is a spark of divinity (the God of Jesus, Gandhi, and Buddhism) within all living creatures, and relying on our own infallibilities than the whims of nebulous gods.

The effectiveness of this spark of divinity is determined by the physiological and psychological ability of the living creature through which it works. Humans have far greater capability than animals - and those that are concerned for their minds and bodies generally have greater capacity than those that don't care.

Living creatures naturally care about their lives. The robin that I talked about earlier, that visits my garden, now cares deeply for a chick she is raising. She feeds him religiously, even though he is now substantially larger than she is.

We have great ability, but because of our fear placating hypnotic world and history, we have lost our contact with our nature, and for this reason many of us are losing our capacity to care. Perhaps we should care for no other reason than the Robin cares.

Top - Table of Content

Love and Fear

The key message of Jesus was love. At a very simplistic level we could say that humans have two motivators. One is fear and the other is love. Both fear and love are necessary. We would not be here as a species today without them.

Top - Table of Content

Fear

Looking forward we need to fear 'fear' because in all probability fear will drive us towards a destructive end.

From fear we derive all of our other negative emotions and attributes such as anger, anxiety, vindictiveness, depression, greed, deception, despondency and apathy.

Even our altruistic attitudes of loyalties often have their roots in fear. We fear for the perpetuation of our genes, and fight to maintain our cultural way of life because of fear.

Fear has always been our dominant motivator. We are still motivated by fear today. On an individual level, most of us work because we are afraid we won't be able to pay the bills. We rush our children to school in the morning and ourselves to work because we are afraid of being late. We fear about our taxes; we fear our neighbours, especially if they are culturally different. We fear for our possessions and our status in society. We sit and watch television on an evening and are fearful of events going on all around us. We are afraid for our soul because we are not sure if we are a part of the right religion or should be religious at all.

Our society tends to treat the symptoms of our negative emotions, such as depression, with drugs rather than to excise the cause by evaluating our core fears.

Usually we remain afraid - anxious, depressed or despondent. Every morning we face the day's stresses of work and traffic; and in an evening we placate our anxieties with over-eating, drinking, smoking and watching television. We reward ourselves with material goods and activities. Our placated hypnotic state veils the consequences of our over-indulgence such as obesity and heart disease.

We don't consider how our material world compounds our anxiety because of our dependencies and fear of loss. We don't consider how our lifestyle is destroying ourselves, and our planet.

Top - Table of Content

Love

Love is an emotion that causes a feeling of contentment and happiness. It can be love for another person or love of all life. The psychological effect is the same. Love is expressed by doing for others.

The vulnerability of sourcing the emotion of love from another person is the inevitable let down when that person is no longer available to us. Many people fear getting close to other people because of this reason. It is far better to source our love from life. In that way we have greater capacity to get close to people and of letting go when the appropriate time comes.

Gandhi used a term, Satyagraha meaning the power of "Love and Truth". Gandhi suggested that our objective should be NOT to see our "enemy" as an "enemy", but as an "opponent" in a struggle for mutual dignity. Our actions should be through love and a search for truthful understanding. We find the strength to overcome our fears and cowardice when our motivator is love. Jesus demonstrated this through his crucifixion, and Gandhi demonstrated this in a number of instances where his principles placed him in danger of losing his life.

The Love that Gandhi and Jesus talk about does not espouse patriotism. Patriotism is defended because of fear. Love and Truth require no defence, and are certainly not defended out of fear, or through persecution or war.

Jesus talked about loving one another, and about serving one another. Through love comes trust. We trust our neighbour, and our neighbour trusts us.

Very few of us evaluate our motivators, and make the appropriate changes. Once we realize that our two key motivators are fear and love, we can then evaluate why we do what we are doing. Our motivators are not always obvious to ourselves, let alone to our leaders.

As an example - the Bush and Blair administrations use of fear of "weapons of mass destruction" to justify our invasion of Iraq. When no weapons were found, they used a moral stance of freeing the Iraqis from the oppression of a dictatorial government, and our obligation to enlighten them with our superior democracy. In reality we suppressed the more truthful fear of losing political control in the Middle East and access to oil.

An honest appraisal of our fears could have compelled us to make different choices, perhaps avoiding the Gulf war. A continued denial of our fears will ensure its sustained malignant dominance of our future.

I have talked about fear and love in this chapter. I would suggest that our concepts of 'good' and 'evil' are really reflections of our propensity towards love and fear. If we are motivated by love we are motivated towards good. If we are motivated by fear we are motivated towards evil. Bad things are done for good reasons. And those good reasons are often rooted in fear. Bad things are done in defence of our ego, our nationalism, or our religion.

Top - Table of Content

---

Chapter 6 - The 21st Century

...We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers to such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes, and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed...
Excerpt - The Declaration of Independence

The focus of this chapter is the challenges and opportunities that face us in this century.

Our History has shown that our governing authorities (gods, monarchs, or even today's political leaders) have often had the most harmful impact on the well-being of society. In our recorded history, no predator, disease or natural disaster has caused more deaths.

Tens of millions were killed in the 20th century due to politically motivated decisions and the aspirations of a small few. Our governments are at best Amoral. They have self-serving objectives and are often encouraged to war by fear and short-term political gain.

Our pseudo-democratic governments of the west make decisions that have the most profound impact on our lives, and we, the peasants, have no control over these decisions. How many of us voted on whether we should go to war in Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan?

The responsibility for this lack of control lies with us, the people. Ask the average person on the street today if they would die for their faith or government, and a large percentage would say yes. The power of government comes from the people, and it is our ignorance that allows them to get away with literally bloody murder.

Governments echo the prejudices of the people they represent, and we give them the power to make decisions on our behalf through our fears and servitude.

Invariably, when we do rise up to challenge our governments (Cromwell in England, The French Revolution, the Russian Revolution), our inhumanity to each other increases by an order of magnitude often for decades to follow. The end result is one system of government based on one ideology replaced with another.

The twenty-first could see the end of civilized humanity, and quite likely the end of all life on our planet because today's governments have incredibly destructive tools at their disposal and they are fearful enough to use them. And we, the serfs, lack the mechanism to take control away from them.

Governments and religions build bombs. Bombs, religions, and governments would not exist if our fearfulness did not exist. We all have a genetically programmed propensity to be a part of something bigger than ourselves, even if that something is evil.

Top - Table of Content

Our Politics

Fear is still our primary motivator. In politics, the surest way to lose your job is to tell the truth. The media is very quick to condemn those that make difficult decisions or bring bad news.

Politicians that challenge the views of their party leaders lose favour. This is most notable in British politics. Some principled British politicians, such as Clare Short and Robin Cook, lost their jobs over the Gulf war. It should be made clear that Clare Short and Robin Cook served the Labour government, and not the public that voted them into office. The majority of people in England were against the Gulf war - Clair Short's and Robin Cook's views reflected this strong British opinion. They could not serve two masters (their own principles and the Labour government) - so they were obliged to hand in their resignation.

Another principled politician, George Galloway, was also removed from the Labour party over the Gulf war. He has formed his own party, known as the "Respect Party" - a party that is principled but lacks political clout. The US government tried to imprison him because of his strong anti-war views, but George Galloway challenged the US Senate, and showed, perhaps more so than any public figure, the hypocrisy endemic in our political systems. George has proven himself to be an incredibly humane and powerful character - a character not in keeping with our current political bureaucratic systems.

Top - Table of Content

Our Character

Our greater awareness through science, improvements in technology, and our understanding of our own psychology has made clear to us that our future existence on this planet is endangered, and our history has shown us that we lack the ability to deal with the issues that face us.

We know we lack control because we continue to do things we know will lead to dissatisfaction and eventual disaster. We still go to war. We still exploit the less fortunate, and are indignant when they rise up to challenge their exploitation. We still think we are right and those from different cultures are wrong, or their existence is less important.

Most of us are completely wrapped up in our consumerist lifestyle, even though we know that it is bad for us as a species and bad for our environment. We prefer to keep our heads buried in the sand. Many of us feel completely helpless. We feel we cannot make a difference.

Given our current system of top-down government, and our lack of capacity for critical thinking, we have to question whether we have the ability to deal with any of the major issues that we have to face in this century.

I will mention just some of these issues in this chapter.

Top - Table of Content

Israel

The area of land that is currently known as Israel came into existence primarily through the efforts of the British and US government as a means of finding a home for displaced Jews after the Second World War. The Palestinians that lived in the area before the arrival of the Jews were generally poor herdsmen. It is an area of desert land that has no economic value.

It is an area of land that has been fought over since before the Crusades, almost a thousand years ago. It is an area that has a great deal of religious significance to those that follow the 'Jewish god of war'.

Boasting evidence of the Jewish war god's military accomplishments is sprinkled throughout the Old Testament. There would be more, I suspect, if it were not for Roman censorship. For example, the 'Book of the Wars of Yahweh' is long lost.

In the Old Testament

Numbers - 21,14 Therefore it is said in the book of the Wars of Yahweh,... Haggai 2,22 I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms. I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations. I will overthrow the chariots, and those who ride in them. The horses and their riders will come down, everyone by the sword of his brother. 2,23 In that day, says Yahweh of Armies, will I take you, Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shealtiel,' says Yahweh, 'and will make you as a signet, for I have chosen you,' says Yahweh of Armies.

Generally, people (including Jews and Palestinians) have the same wants and needs. They would like a safe place to live, and to raise their children.

To the ruling religious authorities that have a strong direct or indirect influence on our political leaders, Israel has important ideological significance. It is the capital of their fears, superstition and bigotry. For this reason the political and religious leaders of the world incite their minions to hatred of their neighbours and brothers. It is for this reason that Israel is a powder keg waiting to explode...

Most of the Middle East is made up of desert land that has no economic significance, except for the huge amounts of oil buried beneath. This is the second main reason the Middle East is such a dangerous area.

Top - Table of Content

Our Dependence on Fossil Fuel

Fossil fuels sustain our vast global industries, so it is not surprising that the organizations that control the supply of fossil fuels have immense financial and political power.

Many of us feel completely dependent on our car to get to and from work. This dependency has been encouraged by substantial under-investment in public transport, both in the US since the 1960s and in England since the 1980s.

Other growing economies, such as China, India and the former Soviet-Union countries, are increasing their demands for oil and gas as they struggle to bring their economies up to Western standards. Russia has vast reserves of natural gas and is using these reserves as political leverage against its European neighbours.

The US government holds around half a trillion barrels of oil in reserve; at around $70 a barrel, it is not hard to imagine how much of the US economy is tied up in oil.

There is a finite amount of oil in the world, and the Middle East holds around 50% of the known reserves. At some point, no one knows when, demand will exceed supply. What will be the response of our governments once this situation has been reached?

What has been the US response in the Middle East when the political stability of the region is threatened?

The Bush administration did not know how much the Gulf wars would cost. Estimates are over a trillion dollars and rising. With over $30 trillion dollars invested in oil reserves and a substantially larger part of its economy dependent on the oil industry, it is little wonder that the Bush administration believed that it would prove far more expensive to ignore the issues of the Middle East. To many, whose fortunes are invested in oil, the war was economically justified. Needless to say, the US will go to extreme lengths to protect the oil industry and its interests in the Middle East.

Any talk about going into Iraq to liberate its people from a dictatorship or discussions on weapons of mass destruction, or that Iraq (or Afghanistan for that matter) is a threat to the US or British people is absolute dribble. The majority of Iraqi's are simple, hardworking people. The same is true of the majority of Americans. It is politically motivated governments that are the threat.

Top - Table of Content

Our Environment

Another major concern is the impact of fossil fuels on our environment.

On a personal level, I aspire to a quiet small-town lifestyle, and enjoy visiting quiet country locations. It is upsetting to me that car exhaust fumes and traffic noise plague almost every small village in England. The noise and pollution is on an order of magnitude greater in our major metropolitan areas. All of this noise and pollution is having a profoundly negative impact on our quality of life, and our natural environment.

As we should all know, life on Earth depends on a finely balanced atmosphere. The pollutants, most notably CO₂, from fossil fuels are destroying this balance.

Since 1985 we have been aware of an expanding and contracting hole in the ozone layer at the poles. Estimates suggest that up to 40% of the arctic ice has already melted in key areas due to global warming. The expected rise in sea levels plus climatic changes that are under way will have devastating impacts around the world.

Sea currents, that supply the Gulf Stream, are already shrinking. The Gulf Stream maintains the temperate climate in England and much of Western Europe. Drought is already causing severe agricultural problems throughout Australia, Africa and China. Flooding and extreme weather conditions are affecting much of Europe, and hurricanes, like Katrina (that destroyed New Orleans ), will become more and more common.

These severe weather conditions will have a devastating impact and will displace millions of people, causing mass migrations and global economic hardship - and, as our governments are dictating our reactions, this will 'of course' lead to wars.

We are only years away from an effect that is known as the Positive feedback on global warming. Once we reach this point, the process of global warming will be irreversible (we may have already reached that point). Scientists predict that, as the ocean temperatures rise, methane gas (another greenhouse gas) frozen in our oceans will be released, ensuring the destruction of our planet's ecology.

Top - Table of Content

Immigration

Immigration is seen as a major problem by governments and the media. It is seen as a problem because of a deep-seated fear of losing national control. Governments are afraid of being undermined by immigrant communities that have little or no allegiance to their host nation.

The internet, telephone, and cheap flights have made the world a much smaller place. It is becoming increasingly difficult for governments to maintain their own national ideologies when vast segments of the population hold different views. This fear of losing national identity is encouraged through the media in all nations.

Whereas the west has maintained stable population growth through lower numbers of births, many poorer countries have seen population explosions.

Many of these young people are ready to go out into the world to do great things, and the wealthier countries of the west, that espouse civil liberties and human rights, are where they look.

Although the media is full of scare stories about immigrants, the reality is that immigrants have had a profoundly positive effect. Immigrants maintain both the US and UK economies by performing the very important, but menial jobs such as cleaners, labourers, care workers, and waiting staff. These jobs are the life-blood of any strong economy.

Immigrants also introduce different ideas and different foods. They challenge our ideologies, and they diversify our gene pool. They are the life-blood of many great businesses. You can be certain that England would not have a world-class Premier football league if it were not for foreign players and foreign investors.

Recent research (Independent Newspaper) suggests that there is around half a million illegal immigrants in England. If allowed to work legally they would raise over a billion pounds yearly in extra taxes.

The populaces of countries such as India live in economic and educational poverty. A major factor that contributes to this situation is strict immigration controls. Western people (legally) find it difficult to live in India, and cannot own property there. This ensures the ideologies of the caste system are maintained. Imagine the effects of millions of western Europeans buying property in India. Would they not demand civil liberties, good quality western education, quality roads, and good hospitals?

What would motivate millions of Europeans to live in India? The answer is simple - cheap land, cheap housing, pleasant climate, and substantial natural resources.

Of course, this would be very bad for western businesses that rely on the exploitation of cheap Indian labour, and of course bad for the Indian government that wants to maintain control of its subservient populace.

Many would argue that Europeans would just exploit the Indian populace, as the English did when India was one of many British colonies. The truth is that England did exploit India, but it also introduced railways, roads, schools and new ideologies. It challenged the dogmas of the caste system. In 1829, the British made the practice of sacrificing a widow on her husband's funeral pyre illegal.

Many women can now get an education in India and some have careers, although this is still not true of the lower castes. They still have to clean up our toxic E-Waste .

359,500 people left Britain in 2004 to find a different life abroad (the Independent). Many more would move abroad to live if it were not for the ignorance of immigration laws by the world's governments.

The negative impacts of immigration are realized when governments try to stop immigration. In England, this means that there are half a million people that have to make a living illegally. They are forced into prostitution, drug pushing, and crime by the policies of our government. In Europe, and the US, many die while trying to cross borders. Many are held in concentration camps.

Of course, the plight of illegal immigrants is restrained in the media, much as the plight of the Jews was kept out of the media during the Second World War.

Many would argue that because they are different they are not welcome. I would suggest that these illegal immigrants are the true pioneers and heroes of our era. They are exercising their independent right to self-determination - the right to do the best they can in life - and they are doing it in the face of overwhelming legitimized bigotry.

This organized bigotry has also done incredible damage at the heart of our humanity. It has devastated the essential family and social bonds for countless millions. In today's world, most family members live across multiple countries. Borders now separate parents from children, and children from their siblings.

With the negative effects of climate change displacing millions and our continued policies on immigration, we can look forward to large groups of under-class non-citizens and large communities that function outside our laws and our tax systems. The media already labels them as undesirables, and groups with similar ethnological backgrounds, although living here legally, will be painted with the same brush.

The displaced may well be the British if England turns to ice after the Gulf Stream fails, or if half of Britain is flooded. Or the displaced may be the southern states of the US should hurricanes and flooding make life intolerable in the south.

You can bet that our governments will take the same amoral approach as they have in the past - an approach reflected in the plight of Mexicans that are looking for a higher standard of living in the US, or Africans that are looking for employment in Europe. Think back to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, and the plight of those displaced.

Our governments will obviously introduce more draconian methods to control population movements, and eventually we will see mass revolts, probably espousing Marxist or some other miss-leading ideology, and the ushering in of more authoritarian, murderous governments to take control.

We do have over-population issues. We have severe food shortages in poorer countries now. Severe food shortages will be an issue for wealthier countries in the future. As England is an island that imports around 50% of its food, it is not hard to see how this will adversely affect England. When millions of people are starving in England, strict immigration laws in other countries will stop people from leaving. Our governments are not competent enough to address these issues. Their answers will be greater and greater authoritarian control to protect the interests of the privileged few.

So what would be the first steps to a more Authoritarian-style government? We could start with ID cards...

Top - Table of Content

ID Cards

The political leaders in the UK have already agreed the introduction of ID cards. The time scales for their introduction are up for debate.

The government says that ID cards will boost national security, tackle identity fraud, prevent illegal working, and improve border controls. It would seem reasonable that they could also be used as a form of identity for purchases. They could be a convenient way to store and access medical information at hospitals, and criminal records could be accessed for employment consideration.

Of course, people could lose or damage their ID cards or they could be copied for fraudulent purposes. This would cause many identity predicaments. Since we have the technology, the most reasonable approach would be to tag everyone with little chips under the skin.

Tag implantation is already done voluntarily as a convenient means of controlling access to a number of nightclubs in Europe. I'm sure the idea is not far from the minds of many of our political leaders.

The government has already said that it would use ID cards to prevent employment of illegal immigrants. Illegal immigrants are obviously undesirable. What about those that help illegal immigrants? Surely they are undesirable too. What about Islamic fundamentalists? They support terrorists. Surely they are undesirable. The Jehovah Witnesses have always been a subversive lot - what about them? What about those that evade paying taxes - especially the old-age pensioners that can't afford to pay council tax or won't pay on the grounds of principle? They could organize and challenge our government. They are definitely undesirable. It is not hard to see where this is going. We have first-hand examples, in the 20th century, of what our governments do with undesirables.

Top - Table of Content

Guantanamo Bay

Many people would argue that this couldn't happen in our civilized Western societies - we have rights under the law. I would suggest that our politically motivated governments operate in their own best interest. We only have to look at Guantanamo Bay or the Gulf war to see how much respect our current governments have for the views of the populace, human life, human rights, civil liberties and the rule of law.

Hundreds of people from around 35 different countries are being held as prisoners at the US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, without access to any legal support or families. They have been there for almost a decade now. No charges have been brought against them. Many of the prisoners have been subject to torture and other inhuman, degrading treatment. Many have attempted suicide.

No one has successfully challenged this inhumane activity. The U.S. government is above the law. The same as Stalin's and Hitler's governments were also above the law.

Top - Table of Content

Renditioning

Another activity that the US engages in that is outside of the law is 'rendition activities'. Rendition is the term used to explain the capture and transfer of foreign nationals to countries where the use of torture is a natural method of eliciting intelligence information. This is often done to individuals suspected of involvement in activities subversive to 'western democratic' interests.

This intelligence information can then be used as justification for surgical military or clandestine activities anywhere in the world. Of course, our governments conceal the sources of their intelligence, and in most cases the intelligence is completely bogus, much to the chagrin of the relatives of the individual that is murdered because of this information.

Of course, our governments may deny that this is happening, but, given their politically motivated ethics, can we trust them?

Top - Table of Content

Islam

I could go into the very real threat of Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism. To a large extent our governments are creating these demons for us. These demons often live right next door. It is not Islam that is the problem. It is our demonizing of those of Islamic faith.

Almost all of the terrorist acts committed in the United States and in England were either by our own citizens, or the citizens of countries that are our Allies (Saudi Arabia). It is our own people challenging the policies of our governments. These people have similar concerns as the Militia Movement of the 1980s and early 1990s that culminated in the Oklahoma Bombing - which was a direct challenge to the authority of the Federal government.

For most Muslims, Islamic extremism is not about Islamic supremacy, but a challenge to the imposing of our secular pseudo-democracy on the Islamic world.

Top - Table of Content

China

I think I have hammered to death the dangers of ideology and the fears that drive them.

It is worthwhile pointing out that China is fast becoming the dominant economic super-power in the world, and, unless there is a dramatic paradigm shift, the West will come to blows with the East, bringing the whole of civilization into the confrontation.

The moral justification may be over North Korea or Taiwan, but the reasons will be that of economics. The US has a humungous trade deficit with China.

Top - Table of Content

Financial Crisis

Our financial institutions now use complex accounting and money management techniques that are far beyond the understanding of mere mortals. The easing of financial regulation in both the US and Britain has allowed speculators to bundle large amounts of debt into obscure packages which are traded on the world markets. Computers are used to manage these transactions.

The credit crisis of '2008 and 2009' has come about because of the realization that the economic resources to back up many of these obscure packages is non-existent, and no-one knows which packages are worthless. Loans to people and institutions with no reasonable means of repaying caused the 'Credit Crunch' and our governments are saying we need more Credit to get us out of this mess. They are, in effect, printing money with the belief that the taxpayer will pick up the bill through higher taxes on future earnings.

Of course, for the past few decades we have been running up substantial trade deficits with emerging markets such as China and India. Much of our wealth and our jobs have already moved east. Where the average American has high personal and national debt, the average Chinese has reasonably strong savings and a national surplus of wealth. The Chinese are currently happy to maintain the US debt, but what happens when it becomes obvious that the resources of the US can no longer support its humungous deficit?

What happened to Germany during the 1920s after it had accumulated huge amounts of debt to support its war efforts? Germany did not have the economic resources to meet its financial obligations.

The response from Germany was to print more money - much the same as the response from Britain and the US today. In 1914, one US dollar was worth about four marks. By 1923, a trillion marks could not buy a dollar. People raced to spend wheelbarrows loaded with money in order to turn their worthless currency into some tangible asset.

History has shown us that a nation can go from great wealth to extreme poverty in a very short period of time. In less than five years, Germany went from being one of the most advanced and wealthy nations on the earth to complete poverty. Both in Germany, and also the great depression of the 1930s, are good examples of where this has happened in our Western economies.

No-one knows the value in a lot of the financial instruments and derivatives that are traded as units of wealth on today's stock markets. Much of it is based on perceived future wealth such as the repayment of debt (perceived future values of corporations or national debt). We can say with some degree of certainty that at some point in time, either through computer malfunction or a lack of trust in the system, our whole financial system will collapse.

We are completely reliant on the financial systems of the world. A lack of confidence in our currencies will lead to no food in our supermarkets and no petrol at the pumps. Since most of us have never eaten anything that was not packaged and processed through a supermarket, you can bet that there will be mass anarchy, starvation and disease.

Can we trust our governments to make the right decisions? We know that most of the time our governments have a hard time telling the truth. We know that their decisions are politically motivated. We know that they ignore our views.

Top - Table of Content

Technology

Technology is a two-edged sword. It could provide the venue for our future salvation, or it could also perpetrate our destruction. If we overcome our prejudices, then our intellect and the use of technology and science can lead us to a wondrous future. If not, technology and science will be used as tools in our destruction.

Top - Table of Content

The Internet

The internet is now our prime means of communication. The internet can be used to break down the barriers between nations. It is a medium that people can use to communicate freely, usually with little or no government control. It allows us to share information and knowledge instantaneously around the world. It makes a global warehouse of information available to anyone with a computer.

This same technology can be used to control us also. It can be used to tag us, and track our activities anywhere on earth - much the same as we can now use our mobile phones anywhere in the world. It is a technology that can be used to track all scientists; 'political, religious and philosophical thinkers'; artists; politically subversive organizations, and any and all minorities that our governments deem as undesirables.

Also, our financial institutions are also completely reliant on computers and internet technology. Electrical impulses now represent all the money in the world. We may already be in a situation where there is not the tangible assets to substantiate this electronically generated wealth.

Top - Table of Content

Genetic Research

Genetic research is an area that holds great promise in making us better people. It may be through genetic research that we make the next quantum leap in our evolution. Recent stem-cell research has demonstrated the ability to grow body parts in lab environments. This may lead to the ability to re-grow or rejuvenate ageing body parts, negating the effects of old age and disease.

Through selective genetic reproduction we may have the ability to evolve to superior human beings. This is an ideal that Hitler aspired to. The flip side of this is the potential for extreme inhumanity towards all those perceived to be of a lower order of life, as was the case in Hitler's Germany.

We should also realize that most of us are still clinging to our ideologies, and we are still committed to fighting to the death to defend them.

Many in the Roman Catholic Church would like to excommunicate those involved in genetic research. From a Catholic's point of view, Excommunication is the cruellest punishment that they can perform on another human being. Excommunication condemns a soul to eternal damnation.

Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo , a church leader in family related policies for the Catholic church, said in an interview referenced in 'The Guardian' (July 2006), that stem-cell researchers should receive the same sanctions as women who have abortions and doctors who perform them.

Destroying an embryo is equivalent to abortion, the Cardinal said - "Excommunication is valid for the women, the doctors, and researchers who destroy embryos." - It was not made clear whether the Pope agreed with the cardinal's comments.

Luckily, the Catholic Church, along with our Monarchies, no longer have authority over our bodies and minds.

We are still in servitude to our governments though, and the US Bush administration had limited funds for genetic research because of its superstitious fears. It will be interesting to see how we handle the issue in the future.

Top - Table of Content

Nano Technology

The first computer circuits to be built on the molecular level have been realized. Nano technology offers computing power a 100,000 times faster than today's silicon-based technology, and it is becoming a reality now.

The uses for the technology are mindboggling. Along with making computer astronomically faster, devices can be built (nano-robots) that can change the molecular structure of any organic or inorganic material. Potentially they could be injected into the body to target cancer cells, for example, - or they could be used to turn inorganic or organic waste into nutritional food.

It is easy to see how this technology could be used for good or bad.

Top - Table of Content

Space Travel

I would like to end this chapter on a positive note, and where I hope our evolutionary endeavours will take us.

We are at the cusp of space travel, with a number of technological ideas that may make this dream a reality. It is a dream that has been with us since the beginning of our recorded history.

Solar sail technology is one of our most realistic ways of powering interstellar travel and exploration. Using current technology and solar energy as a means of propulsion (much the same as the wind is used for sailing boats) we can make space craft that will accelerate slowly, and, because of little or no resistance, can potentially reach incredible speeds and travel incredible distances.

We don't know what new things we will learn once we start on this journey. It is reasonable to assume that once we have conquered space we will have also conquered time.

We have a potentially wonderful and incredibly interesting future if we have the strength of mind to realize it...

Top - Table of Content

---

Chapter 7 - How Do We Take Control

I have raised many concerns in the previous chapters, and there is no point in highlighting the problems that face us without exploring what we can do about them. No-one has all of the answers to all of the issues that face us, and those that have stood up, such as Buddha, Jesus and Gandhi, with enlightened ideas have not been received well. Collectively, but with a respect for each other's independence, we can make a difference, though.

We still each individually have choice. We do not have to be automic victims. We can learn to control and challenge the deep-seated programming that is our genes and memes. Through exercising individual control we can change the course of events that are almost certainly mapped out for us in this century. Gandhi showed the way through passive resistance in India.

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
Gandhi

Thousands of self-improvement books are available on the market. It seems to be very much 'in vogue' to be self-aware.

It is well worthwhile exploring these great books, as they can explain better than I will how to take control.

Some books that I have found helpful include:

The Success System That Never Fails - by W. Clement Stone
- The power of little hinges that open big doors, and overcoming our fears

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People -by Stephen R. Covey
- he Power of the Paradigm Shift

The Celestine Prophecies - by James Redfield
- The Significance of Synchronisity

A New Earth - by Eckhart Tolle
- Understanding our Ego

We should strive to be the best that we can be. We should exercise our right to self-determination, and we should defend the right of others to do the same.

We must first take control of our own lives before we can ever hope to take control of our fears. We can then allow that spark of divine inspiration to guide us in making the right decisions. Our governments personify our superstitions and prejudices. Once we have control of our own minds we can then effectively control our own environment and destiny - we take away control from our gods (ideologies and governments).

This concept is in alignment with Marx's philosophy which suggests true democracy will occur when the alienation between individual and the political community is overcome.

It is also in keeping with the philosophy of Abraham Lincoln in his Gettysburg address to the nation during the US civil war, and can be summed up with his sentiment of:

"Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Are we ready to be proactive in determining our own destiny?

Many of us are overweight, and always tired. We do not sleep well, and we generally feel out of control of our bodies and lifestyle. We are the victims of our genes and our environment (memes). This is not the fault of our governments. It is the fault of the way we live.

Exercise, along with nutrition and consideration of our mental focus, are significant aspects of being in control. I have taken the time to discuss each in turn here because each of these factors is important. It is important to feel good about ourselves, and what we are doing. Life does not have to be about hypnotic repetition, revolution and wars. It can be about taking control, evolution and peace. We can work towards realizing our own inner values, and a 'common good' with a positive mental attitude.

Our ideologies and culture influence our values. Critical thinking is the key to qualifying our beliefs.

We must first take control of our own bodies though. My intention is not to be prescriptive here, but to show a general direction.

Top - Table of Content

Exercise

Engaging in regular exercise is a very important factor in promoting good health and psychological well-being. Simply by reducing sedentary activities (i.e. watching television), and increasing physical activities (cutting the grass, going for a walk) will increase overall well-being.

It is better not to focus on losing weight when exercising. Instead, focus on following a healthy programme of training and nutrition so that our body can find the best weight and composition for our own optimum performance.

Many forms of exercise are available. A regular cardio-vascular programme can require a great deal of commitment, and a high degree of mental and physical determination. The rewards can be a lean, toned, healthy body, with more energy and endurance. Regular exercising will also increase self-confidence, and help realize a positive self-image.

Top - Table of Content

Running

The simplest, least expensive, and also rewarding form of exercise is running. A light run around the block three or four times a week will produce positive results, and, with commitment, will turn into a routine that can inspire the right amount of exercise for us. Running is not just a means to an end. It can have purpose in itself. It is time we take for our-self, or time with friends (a running club). It is time we can spend contemplating, being creative, and problem solving.

Top - Table of Content

Circuit Training

Circuit training is one of the most holistic forms of exercise. Generally, circuit training is best approached through local sports clubs or gymnasiums. The objective of circuit training is to keep moving by allowing minimal breaks while working through a series of different exercises. Circuit training works by pushing our body aerobically, while simultaneously challenging our strength. We exercise a much wider range of muscles than other forms of exercise because of the wide range of routines involved. A great deal of dexterity is also required, which keeps the mind focused on exercising. This limits the mind's ability to wander (this is generally not the case with running), and has a positive effect, similar to meditating, in that it helps to clear the mind of negative thoughts (the Ego).

Top - Table of Content

Weight Training

Almost any form of exercise will stimulate some degree of strength and muscle development which will help to control weight; and contribute to healthy bones, muscles and joints. These factors become more important with age. Weight training should be considered as another option in maintaining body strength and agility. It is advisable to discuss a weight-training programme with a trainer at a gymnasium. This is to minimize the risk of potential injury. It is important to warm up before weight training to create blood flow throughout the body, thus preparing your muscles for the workout. A cooling down and stretching period is also recommended after the training session.

Top - Table of Content

Nutrition

An optimum nutritional diet will be different for everyone. These differences can relate to sex, age and the amount of your daily physical activity. The information here has been put together using pointers from today's nutritional community. I would recommend research and 'trial and error' in determining the best dietary mix for you.

The main object of a healthy nutritious diet is to help us feel good both physically and emotionally. It should provide us with energy to enjoy each and every day. A good indicator that our diet is not as it should be is if we feel tired or sluggish half an hour after eating or if we suffer from indigestion (especially at night).

Depression or anxiety may also be good indicators that our diet is not optimum.

Eating should provide our body with the appropriate amount of nutrition to last until the next scheduled meal. Eating more than the body requires means that the body has to work overtime to process the excess food, and the excess nutrients will be stored on the body as fat. This is especially true when eating excess refined carbohydrates.

The closer food is to its natural living state before preparation for eating, the better it is for us. Meals should be balanced with adequate quantities of proteins, natural fats and complex carbohydrates.

Proteins are important because they help to maintain muscle and bone mass.

Fats (both animal and fish) are important for proper brain functioning. They also help to slow the release of sugar from carbohydrates, and also act as an indicator to the brain that we are full, reducing the natural desire to over-eat.

Complex carbohydrates contain many of the vitamins and minerals needed for a healthy body and immune system.

It is worthwhile considering organic or 'free-range' products when purchasing food. Mass-produced foods (with a more commercial focus) may lack many natural and necessary nutrients. They also potentially contain harmful pesticides, hormones and other man-made chemicals and sugars designed to encourage us to eat more of the unhealthy product.

Foods to avoid include most vegetable oils (EXTRA virgin olive oil is fine). We should stay away from refined carbohydrates (sugar, white bread, most pastas, white rice, cakes, chocolate, pastries, etc). These foods (and other processed foods - cheap hotdogs, sausages, lunch meats) have generally undergone a great deal of human modification, and our metabolism, which has developed over many thousands of years to process natural foods, does not manage these foods very well.

Multi-vitamins and nutrients are also available from health stores. Many cannot be economically produced from natural sources. Co-enzyme Q10 is one supplement that comes to mind. I personally find Q10 beneficial to my well-being. As discussed in the previous chapter, science may also bring to the market manufactured rather than grown foods. We have to use our educated judgement in determining the true value of these options.

Top - Table of Content

Good Foods to Eat

Green, orange and yellow vegetables are very good. Consider eating them raw for maximum benefit, or steamed/micro-waved, if desired, to retain the most nutritional value. Avoid boiling. Natural starch vegetables such as potatoes, carrots, parsnips, squash, beans, artichokes, yams, etc, are also good.

Meats including fish (sea food) and dairy products are highly recommended. The more naturally the animal has been raised the better. Liver, kidney, heart and other organs are of primary nutritional value. Meats should be cooked enough to kill harmful bacteria, but resist over-cooking. A balance of natural fats and oils in our diet is very important.

Fruits are generally good, and should be considered as our only source of sugar (though this will prove impossible). Consider limiting acidic fruits such as oranges, grapefruit, lemons and limes, as they may have a negative impact on our teeth. There is also evidence of adverse effects on bones because a great deal of calcium is required from the body to neutralize the acid.

We should consider water as our drink of choice. Add a slice of lemon if desired. Herbal drinks are highly recommended. Avoid sodas and caffeine drinks.

Fresh clean air contains the most important nutrient the body needs for good health (oxygen). When the opportunities present themselves (i.e. when we are in the country), it is well worthwhile taking a few moments to breathe in deeply clean air. This also helps to calm stress and focus the mind.

Top - Table of Content

The Mind

Imagine sitting in a field on the side of hill. The nearest town is miles away. As you look into the grass you see a very small insect, perhaps a couple of millimetres in length, navigating its way along the side of a grass leaf. The insect moves warily from side to side, sensing its environment. Perhaps it is following the scent of a mate, or following the trail of something to eat. Tapping the side of the leaf with a twig causes the insect to immediately take evasive action. This small insect is a very complex creature. Most of it is made up of highly crafted legs, a complex body system, and sensors to evaluate its environment.

If it were possible for us to make such a creature, where, within this very small body, would the very complex computer required to control it go? Many would speculate that there is not enough room within this creature for such a computer, and by inference, the computer (consciousness) must exist outside of the space that is this creature. By deduction, it must also exist outside of time.

Some will point out that we are on the verge of building quantum computers , made up of several atoms, with the capacity to realize more states than all the believed elements in the universe. Again, by deduction, these states must exist somewhere - they cannot exist within space and time.

If we realize that we are an expression of consciousness that is so powerful and complex that it cannot exist within space and time, then we should realize that the only limitation on this consciousness is the physical apparatus of the body through which it works (for example, the insect). This is a very good reason to keep the body working optimally by encouraging good health.

Every living creature is a portal through which the light of consciousness illuminates. Another way of looking at it is to consider that every living cell in the human body contains the coding information of the complete body, but each cell performs a unique function that maintains the well-being of the whole.

Our mind will relentlessly work on any problem presented to it, even to the point of depression or insanity. It will even create multiple instances of itself (schizophrenia) to work on problems hidden deep within the subconscious, or perhaps within our DNA. We need to be consciously aware of our mind so we can direct where to put its focus.

Imagine sitting on the side of the hill listening to the peaceful quiet. The sound of birds singing punctuates the silence. Breathe in the clean, fresh air. Up until very recently (in evolutionary terms), this would have been our normal environment. Any sudden sound or disturbance would have invoked a "fight or flight" response (similar to the insect).

In today's civilized world we are continuously bombarded with harsh stimuli. We are also kept in a continuous state of anxiety by the media, our work environment, traffic and relationships. Rarely is any of this harsh stimulus life-threatening, but our physical make-up (genetic programming - similar to the insect) ensures our body reacts anyway - ready for action. This subconscious reaction has ensured our survival, and is natural. We have grown so conditioned to our environment that, most of the time, we are not aware of these reactions that are taking place within us. We become consciously aware when our stress levels rise, often through heightened anxiety or depression.

Our subconscious will respond to whatever stimulus is presented to it, and will discharge the appropriate bodily reactions. These chemical reactions, along with their emotional indicators (fear, depression, anxiety, aggression, stress), have a strong detrimental effect on our judgement, as well as our physiological well-being. This is especially true when we are unnecessarily overly stimulated (much of modern-day living).

Although our stress may be the result of over-stimulation from our environment, we do have a certain amount of control over our environment. To some extent, we can control the stimuli around us, and, with effort, we can also control our thoughts. Meditation is one of the ways of doing this. As well as relieving stress, controlling the mind also frees it to work on issues that are of real importance to us.

Meditation is about controlling the incredible and constant amount of thoughts and stimuli that rush through the brain at any given moment. The idea behind meditation is to focus on a single stimulus, such as breathing, and exclude all other thoughts or stimuli. The goal here is to reduce stress. There may also be spiritual aspects in practising meditation. Focusing on breathing is one of the most common activities when meditating, especially for beginners.

Research shows that meditation reduces electrical activities in the brain, and the brain waves become more synchronized. Alpha waves, which are related to relaxation and well-being, increase. It is not possible to consciously "will" this state of mind. Meditation stills the conscious mind and allows inspirational thought to surface.

Top - Table of Content

To Meditate

Find a quiet, comfortable location to engage in meditation.
Take long, slow breaths, and listen to the sound of the air coming in and out.
Pull your abdomen out, and expand your chest when inhaling (hold for three seconds) And exhale for a count of five seconds. Do this for the first ten breaths, and relax into your normal breathing
Try to think of nothing else except your breathing.
When your mind wanders, gently and without recrimination, return your focus to breathing.
Progressively relax all of your main muscle groups such as your feet, then your legs, your trunk, hands, arms and finally your face and neck.
This is a good way to recognize which muscles are uptight. Feel the relaxed muscles as dead weight as you relax them.
Repeat the above, after you have relaxed each major muscle group.
Finally, try thinking of absolutely nothing.
The whole activity should take between 10 and 15 minutes, and should be practised daily.
Remember the feeling of relaxation later during busy parts of the day, and take several deep breaths. This will help your mind to return to the same state of relaxation.

There are also some good relaxation and meditation tapes available on the market. These can be very helpful when meditating.

Top - Table of Content

Life Style - Ourselves

This chapter has been about taking control of our mind and body so that we can take control of our fears, and focus on making the most appropriate decisions in our lives.

When we take time for exercise, a good nutritional diet, and time to consider our emotional wellbeing, we are already making many of the lifestyle choices that will improve the quality of our life, the lives of people around us, and our environment. In other words, when 'wellbeing' becomes our major focus, we naturally find that we have time for ourselves, others, and the world in which we live. We cannot stay in a situation that is opposed to our conscience.

There is overwhelming evidence that our state of mind directly affects our health. It directly affects our immune system. Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) explores how our beliefs, our environment and our behaviour affect our well-being. We know that what we think affects our bodies. The more deeply we think, the greater our body's response. Our mind and body is an inseparable unit. They both affect each other.

Top - Table of Content

Mind Control

It can be threatening to our sense of self, but it is not impossible for all of us to challenge the overwhelming influence of our memes. It is also possible for us to overcome the overwhelming influence of chemical imbalances that cause so much distress in our every-day lives (anger, depression and disease).

Those that can control their minds can also, to a very large extent, control their psychological and physiological well-being. We can control our mind through meditation or self-hypnosis. Quiet meditation encourages us to switch off our minds. This within itself is powerful mind control. It often allows silent inspiration to come to the fore. I say silent because inspiration often does not come to us in the form of words. Self-hypnosis allows us to focus on a specific objective or concern while in a quiet state.

Many scientists refute the ability and power available to us through the controlling of our minds, but the evidence is overwhelming. We truly do not know the scope of the powers that may be available to us. Many of us also have deep-seated fears, nurtured by our beliefs. These compel us not to find out.

The power of controlling our minds is so significant that many major surgical operations are performed on people under meditative or hypnotic control without the use of anaesthetics. People have cured themselves of life-threatening diseases. People have been able to reduce the effects of autism and depression, all through the active controlling of their minds.

Acupuncture is another tried and tested method to control psychological and physiological well-being. This is simply controlling electrical impulses to the brain by inserting pins into the body at key locations. Many surgical operations have been performed under the influence of acupuncture, including heart surgery.

The Placebo effect is so overwhelming that it is one of the main considerations that scientists must include in testing procedures before releasing new drugs. People have also been cured of major physiological problems through placebo operations.

We can also influence less self-aware minds (other people) for good or bad through the use of autosuggestion (example, patriotism), and direct or indirect hypnosis. Some would suggest that this is a good reason for our self-serving corporate and political leaders not to promote the practice of meditation. The use of autosuggestion, through the media, is of paramount importance in maintaining our consumer economy and sense of national identity.

Where you allow your mind to focus determines the type of person you are, and often the decisions you will make. If you focus positively on worthwhile pursuits you will gain a great deal more than if you dwell on fear and what you cannot do. Many self-improvement books expand on this subject, most noticeably books that focus on the relatively new idea of, Neuro Linguistic Programming .

How does our thinking mind affect the reality of our environment? Or how does our environment affect our thinking mind? We each only have a partial distorted view of a vast reality far beyond our comprehension. We are not capable of understanding Empirical knowledge (the truth). Our beliefs are based on flawed knowledge.

Reality is so nebulous that our thinking mind does affect it. Thinking of drug addicts or prostitutes as criminals turns them into criminals, rather than individuals that perhaps need help. Beliefs direct our behaviour, and the behaviour of people change based on a consensus of beliefs.

"...there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so..."
William Shakespeare, Hamlet

The number of women in US prisons has risen by well over 800% since the 1970s. A lot of this increase may be because of legislation that has imposed changing attitudes towards women in US society. It may also reflect the changes in laws that now crack down heavily on drug usage and drug-related crime such as prostitution.

Many young women go into prison pregnant, and many of them are forced to give birth while being chained up and with armed guards. They are seen as potentially dangerous, even though to any critically thinking person it would be hard to comprehend how a woman giving birth poses a threat. Obviously babies are removed from their mothers once they are born.

The way society thinks has caused this radical change in behaviour towards women. It has also affected the way women behave in response.

The US has about 5% of the world's population, but has over a quarter of the world prisoner population. It is one of only a couple of first world countries that still has the death penalty. It is also considered one of the most Christian countries in the first world.

Our views are shaped by our passions and fears. Our views affect events, and then the events affect our view, often in a continuous feedback loop. As is true for the relationship between our mind and body.

We have to learn from our past. Then our concern for the future can more intelligently lead to actions that will promote a better environment for all - The first step is realizing that we want to make a difference. We start with ourselves. Once we understand our own flawed logic, we can better accept flawed logic in others.

Noetic theory is the philosophical study on the power of the mind and its effects on our perceived reality.

Many are already totally engrossed in vocations that provide a great deal of meaning in their lives, so a lot of what I am about to talk about does not apply.

Others have to recognize that change does not happen overnight. We must be patient with ourselves, and our environment. It is not beneficial to rush towards poorly defined goals. By moving slowly, by first taking control of our mind and body, and understanding ourselves, we can then define positive goals to work towards.

The greatest hindrance to taking control of our lives is our insatiable appetite for consumerism. This is very much linked to our working life - our careers. We work long hours. We subject ourselves to substantial amounts of emotional abuse, and stress at work. When we get home we want to reward ourselves with a nice meal, a few drinks and an enjoyable programme on television. We spend the weekend also over-consuming for the same reason. We over-indulge on the weekends to forget that we have to be back to work on Monday. We see our nice cars, expensive homes, and HD-TVs as rewards for all of the abuse we have endured because of our employment. We buy our consumer products on credit cards, accumulating large amounts of debt that further guarantees our continued servitude to our employment and meaningless lifestyle.

It is not until we take control of our own minds and bodies that we realize that the copious amount of food that we eat is degrading our bodies; our consumerism is killing our souls and environment, and our employment is robbing us of our lives.

What if we spent less time working for the benefit of corporate executives, and more time working for the benefit of humanity?

We could spend less time in meaningless employment if we ate less; bought less useless consumer items; lived in smaller homes; and drove a cheaper car or no car at all.

Perhaps we could work three days a week instead of five. We could then spend the other four days a week working on objectives that have real meaning to us.

Perhaps we could find out about our family. Many of us spend so much time at work that we really don't know our children. We could find out about that neighbour that we are supposed to love. Engaging with people from different cultural backgrounds enriches and diversifies our own understanding. Perhaps we could start our own organic farm, and provide vocational employment for family and friends. Perhaps we could write that novel we've been thinking about, and help by sharing our thoughts and humanity.

"You must produce and express what has ripened in your soul,
for it is something no one but you will ever express."
- Leo Tolstoy

Believe it or not, the activities that are truly meaningful to us are almost certainly meaningful to our families and neighbours. We are genetically programmed to serve. It is for us to decide whom we serve.

We should realise that the soul has love as its basis and the ego fear. The first is anchored in truth, the second in culture, politics, or religion.

- Matthew 7,24 "Everyone therefore who hears these words of mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man, who built his house on a rock. 7,25 The rain came down, the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house; and it didn't fall, for it was founded on the rock. 7,26 Everyone who hears these words of mine, and doesn't do them will be like a foolish man, who built his house on the sand. 7,27 The rain came down, the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house; and it fell, and great was its fall."

Simply by taking control of our own lives, we are taking control of our environment. We can say to our employers we no longer wish to work five days a week turning out widgets that have minimal value, fuel consumerism, and perpetuate the destruction of our environment. Our employers may threaten not to employ us or perhaps may take their business offshore - as they are doing now - but the reality is, we can choose from where we source our products. We can choose to purchase locally or not at all.

Those that are exercising choice are already having a profound effect on the quality of the food available to us through our supermarkets. Organic and free-range food now takes up as much shelf space as conventionally grown foods, and the vegetarian sections are becoming more and more obvious.

Most of us would not be materially poorer if we did not buy a single new consumer item this year (ie car, television, computer, camera, refrigerator, mobile phone... etc). Simply by not purchasing products that we do not need we can substantially curtail the continued exploitation of our environment - BUT we could also crash our global economy.

Change must happen thoughtfully, and hopefully with co-ordinated support of business and government. We cannot afford another revolution in this century. We must aim for thoughtful evolution.

Top - Table of Content

Our Governments (Anarchism)

The robin that visits my garden lives its life in accordance to its nature. It is free to come and go as it pleases. It is not locked into my garden. I welcome its visits, but respect its freedom.

Leo Tolstoy believed that we have our own moral law that is our human nature - and, as with the robin, it is this law that should be used to govern our lives.

Leo Tolstoy held that our allegiance should be to God alone. His studies of Christianity led him to believe that the alliance of church and state under Constantine was tantamount to the abandonment of Christianity. He challenged Paul's (New Testament) defence of government - he asked to which government should we have allegiance...?

Paul's letter to the Romans -
13,1 Let every soul be in subjection to the higher authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those who exist are ordained by God. 13,2 Therefore he who resists the authority, withstands the ordinance of God; and those who withstand will receive to themselves judgment. 13,3 For rulers are not a terror to the good work, but to the evil. Do you desire to have no fear of the authority? Do that which is good, and you will have praise from the same, 13,4 for he is a servant of God to you for good. But if you do that which is evil, be afraid, for he doesn't bear the sword in vain; for he is a servant of God, an avenger for wrath to him who does evil. 13,5 Therefore you need to be in subjection, not only because of the wrath, but also for conscience's sake. 13,6 For this reason you also pay taxes, for they are servants of God's service, attending continually on this very thing. 13,7 Give therefore to everyone what you owe: taxes to whom taxes are due; customs to whom customs; respect to whom respect; honour to whom honour. 13,8 Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbour has fulfilled the law.

Tolstoy was often obliged to represent the interests of peasants in the Russian courts, especially in defence against the pursuits of the nobility. It became clear to him that the courts did not work in the interests of the common man. He could see the bias and bigotry in the system that corrupted the moral law of human nature. This further compelled him towards the view that the legislation, law courts, police and prisons should be abolished.

He also believed that men would never dream of destroying on the scale of wars if they were not bound, through allegiance, to do so by their Kings, Emperors or ministers, who in turn would never order such activities if they themselves had to do the dirty work.

Tolstoy saw great truth and integrity in the simple life of the peasant - a truth that was affirmed by the teachings of Jesus.

For the past two thousand years multitudes have sought to separate from mainstream society in search of a more austere, meaningful life. These were the goals of the early Christian monks; it was the goal of a lot of the Christian religious communities, such as the Quakers , the Shakers , and the Hutterites that sought refuge in the United States. The hippy movements of the 1960s and 1970s sought the same freedom from a material world.

These communities have met with limited success. They have not persuaded the vast majority of people to join their cause - even though they aspire to a simple humane approach to life.

Living within these communities requires an ability to live only with our most basic human qualities. It requires a capacity to suppress an awareness of the world around us and to forego aspirations of continual improvement. It requires living a life much the same as the robin lives its life.

Tolstoy aspired to the meagre life of a peasant. His family stopped him from giving away his fortune. I would suggest that their actions provided a great service to the whole of humanity. It ensured that Tolstoy had the means through which he could continue his literary work.

Life must be about more than austere living.

Our individual and collective awareness has caused us to want and to understand more, and our materialism has provided the means through which we can achieve more.

We face a dichotomy that has to be addressed in this century and on a global scale. How do we protect the interests of the "haves", and raise the expectations of the "have-nots"? I would suggest primarily through pro-active non-ideological education - in wealthy countries, but also, and more especially, in poorer countries.

Top - Table of Content

Our Governments (Authoritative)

Many of us feel as if we are working towards something. We want to know the truth. We want to know the reason for our existence. Our capacity of self-awareness has bound us to this desire.

We are the most defenceless of creatures. Even sheep have warm woolly coats to keep them warm, and can survive on the most common of food - grass. We have no warm coat, our diet is a lot more complex, and we are the slowest and weakest of all mammals. Our survival has depended on our individual, and, more importantly, our collective intelligence.

I mentioned during my discussion of the Neolithic era that the great megalithic stones of Stonehenge would not have been staged, or that organized farming would not have happened, if it were not for our ability to organize and serve a common cause.

Our understanding of our place in the Universe, and the computer I am now using with access to a global storehouse of information (the Internet) would not exist if it were not for our great capacity to learn.

The comfortable lifestyle we enjoy, including the food we eat, comes about because of our organizational abilities. Many wild and domesticated creatures are now also reaping the benefits of sharing with human communities.

If we accept the idea of a morally conscious universe that is working an evolutionary process through us all, and with purpose, then we have to accept that our ability to organize and serve the common welfare of humanity is a part of our nature, and integral to our evolutionary process.

We are free creatures - just like the robin. Our freedom is available to us through our ability to choose - a freedom affirmed by Jesus, Buddha, Gandhi and others.

History has shown that enslaving us to an ideology retards our intellectual growth and leads to conflict. We have to realize this truth now.

Abraham Lincoln -
"No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent."

"When the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, persuasion, kind unassuming persuasion, should ever be adopted. It is an old and true maxim that - a drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall'. So with men. If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere friend. Therein is a drop of honey that catches his heart, which, say what he will, is the great highroad to his reason, and which, once gained, you will find but little trouble in convincing him of the justice of your cause, if indeed that cause is really a good one."

We have to see our governments like we see our technologies. They are tools. We have to use them as servants to our humanity (all humanity). When they are no longer fit for purpose, we have to discard them.

Israel is bombing Lebanon right now. Its Jewish soldiers read the Bible and say their prayers before sending bombs into Lebanon. The Hezbollah, in Lebanon, say their prayers five times a day and recite the Koran before sending their bombs into Israel. Both the Jews and the Hezbollah are praying to the same 'god of war'.

We have to see when our governments or gods are failing us. Our allegiances in this war are not to the US government or to the British government, or to the Israeli government or the Hezbollah. It is to the plight of the innocent people that are being killed. If our governments were true servants of humanity there would be no conflict. The majority of the people in the area want to live in peaceful co-existence.

Top - Table of Content

Voting

When we vote we normally either vote for a Democrat or a Republican in the United States. In England, we either vote Conservative, Labour or Liberal Democrat. It is beyond me why we vote at all. In fact, most of us don't vote. If we vote Republican in the US, we are voting for someone that has the interests of the Republican Party at heart. If we vote Labour in England, we are voting for someone that has the interests of the Labour Party in mind. We can be sure they only have our interests in mind to the extent that they can win our vote. Our views are immaterial when it comes to whether or not we should go to war in Iraq, or implement ID cards, or increase taxes, or how taxes should be raised, or what our taxes should be spent on.

Why not vote for an independent that represents our interests?

Dai Davies has just won the Blaenau Gwent seat in South Wales today as an independent (June 2006) His platform was very simple. He ran a positive campaign affirming his desire to represent the interests of the community from which he was elected. The British media has almost completely ignored the significance of Dai Davies' platform, and has instead focused on the political infighting between the three major parties (Labour, Conservative and Liberals) - primarily over why they lost the seat, and the negative, personally abusive campaigns that the major parties ran.

We don't need personalities or parties representing us. We need people that represent our interests. How does an independent find out what our views and interests are? It's simple: he asks us. Every 'member of Parliament' or 'member of Congress' has their own website. There is no reason why they should not ask our views through a forum and poll on every issue that they vote on. If they do not vote according to the majority views of their constituents, then they do not represent their constituents.

Abraham Lincoln -:
"I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts."

Eventually, our governments, along with our gods and monarchy, will become obsolete. We simply aspire to agreed laws and taxes that reflect the values of those subject to those laws and taxes - laws and taxes that are subject to continual honest and open debate and re-evaluation to ensure an evolution to closer truth and integrity.

I have omitted justice. Justice comes about through an equality of opportunity for everyone. We must realize our obligation in making this a reality. A strong indicator of our moral evolutionary progress is the amount of physical or mental force required through the use of government legislation. It is reflected in the number of people in our prisons, or our attitudes towards war. These are the sentiments of Leo Tolstoy.

We are better off being subject to laws and taxes that have been presented, evaluated, debated and the majority agreed upon by 50 million people in England, or 300 million people in the United States, than laws and taxes imposed upon us by several hundred politicians, that are focused on their own political careers; or the interests of their party; or the interests of special interest groups; or the interests of big businesses such as the oil lobby.

We now have an ability that has never ever been available before in human history. We have an ability to collectively evaluate and influence the important decisions that affect our lives.

Without national borders, religions and ideologies we can focus our minds on the real important pursuits so necessary in this century.

For example, we may endeavour to turn the Sahara desert green to combat global warming and provide more space for people to live. Knowledge gained from this activity could perhaps help us in realizing a human colony on Mars or the moon. Many large corporations are considering turning the Sahara into a solar power source for Europe. An excellent idea, so long as the people of Africa benefit from the idea also.

We can focus on developing nano-technology to turn waste organic or inorganic material into nutritional food, and solve the world's food shortage problems. The same technology could also be used to re-cycle waste, or provide regenerative food necessary for extended space travel.

Top - Table of Content

Poverty and Despair

It would not be right to end this chapter without talking about poverty and despair. As I have expressed a number of times, the ideologies that we are raised with are the ones that we trust the most. They are the strongest and the most difficult to change.

History has shown that charity meets with limited success - most Africans and Indians live in incredible poverty, despite extensive charitable activities. We have to challenge the mind-sets that maintain this 'status quo'.

Sending money or food to India or Africa does little to address this humungous humanitarian crime. Only equality of opportunity will address this situation, and equality of opportunity comes about through education. The religious caste system, that the majority of Indians believe in wholeheartedly, holds them in poverty. What is the point of educating the poor if their role in life is to beg or clean toilets?

Another example is the belief of society that women should act as servants to their husbands and children. This belief is strong even in the United States - especially among fundamentalist Christians. Many women do serve with the most dedicated commitment. It is their service to humanity, and it is very important.

Most Arab Islamic countries feel very strongly about the role of women in society. Many feel there is no point in educating women when their role in life is to be mother and wife.

The legal age of sexual consent for girls is nine-years-old in many Islamic communities. This means that girls as young as nine can be forced into marriage. They are obliged to wear clothing that covers them from head to toe, since their role in life is to satisfy only their husband. 'Moral police' patrol the streets ensuring conformity. These same moral police also have power to arrest and torture all those they believe are guilty of Crimes against chastity . Many women are flogged for simply talking to men, or for not being properly dressed. Many teenage girls today face public execution by hanging or stoning because of their 'crimes against chastity'.

Atefeh Sahaaleh was publicly executed by hanging in 2004 for 'acts incompatible with chastity'. She was sixteen years old. She was accused of removing her hijab (head covering) in front of a judge, and of having sex with unmarried men. In reality, she was raised under very difficult family conditions, and a man that was older than her father sexually assaulted her over several years. In the west the man, would have been convicted as a rapist and paedophile.

Rape and sexual abuse charges against men, in many Arabic communities, do not stand because of a very simple defence. The man simply says that the woman seduced him, perhaps by dressing provocatively or by talking to him.

Six teenage girls face public execution in Iran today. A large part of the Islamic world believes wholeheartedly and completely that these attitudes are morally justified.

The role of women in many African communities is just the same. Many African men believe it is appropriate to have sex with very young girls (the younger the better) because they believe it cures Aids.

I do not want to suggest that Islamic fathers or African fathers do not love their daughters or that Indian parents from the lower castes do not love their children. They do very much. It is because they love them that they set their expectations where they believe they should be. They believe that aspiring to more than their lot in life will, at a minimum, cause disappointment. More realistically, it will cause condemnation from religious leaders and the community, and potentially much worse.

Not all people that live with very little in the way of material possessions are unhappy. Millions of people live very austere lives, many from choice. Many are happier and live more fulfilling lives than a lot of wealthy people in the west. Their lives have more meaning to them. Poverty and despair are attributes of the mind (how we think about our condition).

Equality of opportunity is our weapon in addressing bigotry, poverty and despair, and this comes about through open societies and education. Poverty throughout Europe was addressed through liberal attitudes and education. With education came the capacity to challenge the 'status quo' and effect change.

Giving money or food to people often has the effect of enslaving them to poverty. Many are brought up without any capacity for employment because of the welfare system. These people are prisoners to the welfare state because welfare is all they know. They lack the know-how to change.

Aid is one of our most important humane obligations, but it should be in the form that encourages self-help, education and provides opportunity.

Lot of issues face us in this century, and of course we can keep our heads buried in the sand, and let our politicians make the decisions for us. We can then blame them for all of the catastrophes this century will bring. It is up to us.

We are at a point in our history where we have to choose between freeing our minds or remaining enslaved to our ideologies.

We have to choose between the "blue pill" or the "red pill", as the movie The Matrix alludes.

Top - Table of Content

---

Chapter 8 - The Meaning of Life

Why Do We Live?

In this chapter we explore why. Why take control if we are going to die anyway? What are we living for? There are many worthwhile pursuits we can follow while we are on the earth that can give life meaning, but do not explain the meaning of life.

Perhaps it's about serving some higher purpose. Maybe, as the movie 'The Matrix' suggests, we are an energy source for a higher order of intelligence. With around 6.4 billion people in the world perhaps the analogy of reaping a harvest in the Bible is more than just allegorical - maybe we are a crop to be harvested at some future point in time.

Over the past several thousand years many brilliant minds have struggled with the question of purpose. A whole host of religions purport to have the answer. Leo Tolstoy spent the second half of his life struggling with the question. His thoughts on the subject are well presented in an essay he wrote called A Confession (well worth reading). His conclusion was that life was not about examining life, but about living life. He uses an analogy of a beggar that is taken off the streets, given food and water and told to move a handle up and down. The beggar at first does not know why he is to work the handle, but once he is compelled to do so, he soon learns that the handle works a pump that waters the fields that grows the crops that provides the farm with bread. Tolstoy further points out that the purpose of a watch could not be determined by taking it apart and examining all the pieces - The watch would simply stop working. He suggests the same is true for life. The meaning of life cannot be found by examining it.

His arguments are reasonable. A watch tells the time. The answer to the purpose of a watch is not in the individual elements.

The purpose of my fingers, now, is to type on this keyboard to produce what I am writing. They do not know their purpose. In fact, it may be better that they do not know. They might rebel. Sheep do not know that their purpose is to become lamb chops. They would not go to the slaughterhouse so willingly otherwise.

My fingers, sheep, and the creatures that visit my garden do not know their purpose, and they do not know enough to ask. They are not self-aware.

We are self-aware, and so we ask the question. Since we ask the question, it is reasonable to assume that we are designed to ask the question. We must then assume that a part of our purpose is to solve the question of the meaning of our own existence. One could argue that we would not have the capacity to ask the question otherwise.

I'm an engineer, so I tend to look at problems from an engineering perspective. When an engineer (or scientist) has a problem to solve, they write a function in a computer language to work it out. The function contains within itself all the variables necessary to solve the problem. The engineer provides values to the variables and calls the function. The function then resolves the problem and provides an answer. It is not necessary for the variables or function to know their purpose in providing an answer.

Often problems are not that easily solved. It becomes necessary for the function to be aware of itself and its variables so that it can call itself again with a slightly different set of values, and this process repeats in a loop until the right answer is found.

The process can be further enhanced with Object-Oriented Programming . Using 'object-oriented programming', a parent function can spawn child functions that contain all of the values of the parent and a whole new set of values of the child function. The child function in turn becomes a parent function to its own children that contain all of the information from the grandparents, parents and its own set of values. This process can continue indefinitely until the question is answered or until all of the memory on the computer is used up and the computer crashes.

Looking at the question of life from this perspective we can see that life is the function, and the world is the computer that the function is running on.

A computer may provide an answer of say '21' or the letter 'A' to a question, but does not comprehend the significance of '21' as a number for counting, or the significance of the letter 'A' in an alphabet that can be used as part of a written language.

Scientists have been working since the inception of computers on how to make them intelligent. It is not enough that they can return an answer of '21'. We would like them to know the meaning of '21'.

The difficulty is in finding a frame of reference for communication. A computer only knows two states '1' (ON) and '0' (OFF), and, regardless of how powerful or large the computer is, it can still only reference these two states.

On the other hand, we can program trillions of these two states and create very complex and powerful programs, but the computer (or programs) do not understand the significance of the information they maintain, and we lack the capacity to tell them.

The finite represents what we understand within the confines of our computer. To understand the infinite, we have to think outside the box. Some brilliant minds, such as Allan Turing , who helped Britain against the Germans in the Second World War by working out algorithms to de-cipher German military communications, had perhaps the intellectual brilliance to move to this next level of understanding. Allan looked for patterns in nature and came up with the idea of Morphogenesis 'Morphogenesis' explores how billions of identical cells in a living body evolve into performing their own individual function as part of a whole. His theories were far advanced for his time. Prejudices based on religious superstition of the 20th century resulted in his criminal prosecution as a homosexual. He eventually committed suicide.

Edward Lorenz, an American mathematician, continued on with similar lines of investigation that came up with the concept of Chaos Theory and the Butterfly effect .

Chaos theory suggests that small, initial changes in a dynamic system can create dramatic and turbulent events. An example is of a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil causing a tornado in Texas.

Many suggest that although these events appear to be random, they really following their own set of rules. Scientists are trying to understand what these rules are.

What these great thinkers have shown is that completely unpredictable results can be produced, even in a completely determined computer environment with pre-defined algorithms and fixed variables - And also that repeating patterns can be created in a completely chaotic environment.

For no obvious reason, evolving patterns appear in both organic (such as the human body) and non-organic environments (such as the universe).

Going back to my fingers that are now typing on the keyboard, what if my conscious mind could communicate with the cells within my fingers and vice-versa? How much more effective and efficient could my body perform with this level of communication? Superficially, we understand that our mind does communicate with the body. We know that our thoughts affect our emotions, which in turn affect our overall well-being.

What kind of universe could we live in if we could communicate with a Universal Consciousness? Since the beginning of human recorded history we have believed in a connection between the stars and humanity. Astrology reflects these beliefs.

We are not at this point yet where we can understand these possibilities, but how far away are we?

We are now trying to write programs that can teach themselves about their own computer environment. They can then hopefully evolve so we can find a mutual frame of reference for communication between computers and humans at some future point in time. We are trying to make computers self-aware. By becoming aware of their own computer world, we hope they can evolve to become aware of the outside world.

One hypothesis that scientists have envisaged since the 1960s is the Technical Singularity. The concept explores the idea of self-improving Artificial Intelligence. Given the incredible speed that computers can process information, it is predicted that the self-learning computer would gain knowledge at a rate exponentially faster than we are capable of currently. Such a computer would quickly dissolve the unpredictability of the universe and the future. In an instant we (the computer) will know everything and will be able to predict the future with great certainty.

These computers, Not Humans, will drive progress, and will drive progress at a significantly faster pace than we can image. The ramifications of such an event are beyond our current comprehension. In effect, we will have all knowledge at our disposal. Our flawed humanity (humanity as we know it) will suddenly become irrelevant. We will know the outcome of our decisions before we even make them. We will lose the need, and most likely the capacity, for choice. We may be years away from such an event.

If we accept, as many scientists suggest, that there are billions of parallel universes and an infinite amount of time, would it not seem reasonable that intelligent life would have reached this point already? What would such intelligent life do? Would it recreate simulations of the world they know in another parallel environment? Could we be the result of such a creation?

We humans are self-aware. We are also aware of the box within which we exist. We know about our planet, the solar system, our galaxy and the universe. We are aware of the physical elements that make up our universe. We can explore right down into an atom, and all the way to the ends of the universe. We can speculate that only about 4% of the universe is detectable, even through the use of our most advanced material-sensing equipment; the rest is made up of what we call dark matter (22%) or dark energy (74%). We realize this through scientific study of the cosmos and quantum physics.

Modern Science suggests that there is no separation between the dark matter and matter. Take away space and time and there is still something there. When examining complete voids, virtual particles spontaneously come into existence and vanish just as quickly, and particles in one location in a void can affect particles in another location at the same instance in time. Eastern philosophy also suggests that there is no such thing as nothingness.

Chang Tsai
"When one knows that the Great Void is full of Chi, one realizes that there is no such thing as nothingness."

We are physically aware of the finite (matter). It exists within space and time. What is outside of space and time we cannot easily comprehend and we call this the infinite. The finite (our universe) and the infinite exist and are inseparable.

Since we know all of this, it is reasonable to assume that our purpose is not just to return the number '21' to a question of life, but to understand the significance of the number '21' - to comprehend the infinite, in other words.

The frame of reference to realizing the infinite may be found through further scientific studying of our physical universe, but I would suggest this is only part of the way to the answer. We cannot understand the significance of the number '21' through the study of '1's and '0's within our computer. We can only become aware that '21' exists.

Many spiritual leaders, such as Gandhi, believe that within everyone is an inner voice that is the voice of God (the universal consciousness). They believe that greater understanding is obtained by listening to this inner voice, and this is only possible by focusing on the self and blocking out all corrupting outside influences of our world (by meditation). For many, striving for this understanding, and a truthful life, is the same as the realization of God - we recognize God in all living things.

Many dedicate their lives to meditation. Their goal is to achieve a oneness with God (Nirvana). Meditation helps to quiet the mind so that we are able to listen to the silent voice of understanding and inspiration. It also gives us a sense of well-being, and perhaps a confidence that our existence has purpose.

Perhaps with a global self-awareness and a refocusing of our minds to that which is important, we can find the answer to the question of our existence. If not, at least we will be better prepared to survive the 21st century and can continue our search into the future of space and time.

Carlos Castaneda, "The Teachings of Don Juan"
"For me there is only the traveling on paths that have heart, on any path that may have heart, and the only worthwhile challenge is to traverse its full length - and there I travel looking, looking breathlessly."

Top - Table of Content

Where is home?

Do we ever reach a time when we no longer entertain the hypocrisy of our gods (religion, nationalism, politics, and ideology)?

We would like to think science, reason and empathy direct our lives, but the reality is we are all bigots. Our history, science and media conclusively proves this.

Many would argue, we can't change things so does it really matter? We are doing what society and our gods expect of us.

This would be true if we imagined ourselves as being stationary, and not on a continuous journey to higher stages of truth.

And it does matter! Remember the robin that I talked about earlier. The one that feeds her chick religiously. We have children too. We have an innate obligation for their future.

The good news is that our bigoted attitudes, like our language, is learned. We may not be able to immediately change our circumstances, but we can be honest about them to ourselves and our community.

History and science has shown us that when we are honest with ourselves we cannot stay in a situation that is opposed to our conscience.

It is easier to reach for the stars when our roots are planted in a secure home and loving family; when our community cares for us and looks out for our best interests.

Lilo & Stitch (Disney 2002)
'Ohana' means 'family'. 'Family' means 'no one gets left behind'

Our current home is a small insignificant planet in a vast expanse of nothingness.

Will there ever be a time when we are all well-fed, properly clothed, and well educated? When we are joined in personal integrity from one corner of the world to the other?

Our gods would suggest that we can force this state of being on humanity. Our History has shown that we can't.

Top - Table of Content