The Fall of Humanity

 Context

I like you am fearfully and wonderfully made (Brand, P and Yancey, P. 1981), literally awesome and unique. We were made to laugh and cry and sing. Born to hug and dance and touch. Destined to be free and to love being in close community with others. Interconnected. And blessed with a natural immunity to disease that has evolved and strengthened over millions of years. We have a built-in capacity to wrestle with issues, discern truth, and make sense of things – to see what we see.

 

A prophecy come true?

We should look for truth and wisdom in a myriad of sources - people, disciplines, information channels. Science and the arts. As widely as possible (Narrow-view peer reviews toe the party line and often distort and compromise the truth). Adopt left and right brain wisdom.

 

This pearl is from the New Testament, a mentoring letter written by Paul while in jail in Rome to Timothy in Ephesus (Turkey). It is in four sections that cover looking after what you believe in, suffering hardship for that if necessary, staying true to what you believe in and being inclusive – sharing with others. Staying true was the bit that captured my attention.

Paul’s prophesied context is that people will become “lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive… without love, unforgiving, slanderous, brutal… treacherous, rash, conceited …” (2 Tim 3: 2 – 4)  

 

All of what was predicted can be verified by recent sound, valid and reliable research and reasoning and captured in previous newsletters. In summary, the following trends and conditions have been exposed:

 

• Narcissism, boastfulness, being better than, arrogance are all on the rise (Jarrett, C. 2019)
• Love of wealth, power and control of others prevails (from big corporate to individual levels)
• Compassion, empathy, gratefulness and forgiveness are all on the decline (Williams, G. 2020)
• Divisiveness and polarisation is spreading rampantly
• Deceit, treacherous manipulation by fear and falsehoods, divide and rule, and the coercive employment of propaganda characterises government's imposition of Draconian societal controls (Robinson, P. Dr 2021) - especially now under the guise of a covid-19 “pandemic”.

 

Humanity has been slowly drifting into World where “winners” take all; capitalism is often irresponsible; the power - holders and wealthy “elites” exhibit a MacBeth-type, falling-over-itself, “vaulting ambition”; fake news, lies and deception are the order of the day; faith is placed exclusively in the rational, scientific, the military and the technological - for the determination of humanity’s sense-making, direction and values. The puppet masters are busy engineering and bringing into being a new world that remodels who we are, how we live and relate to each other, and become pawns in the hands of the wealthy elite and political power-holders. A dramatically different new model is urgently needed. (Williams, G et al. 2021)

(20 years ago, Peter Senge pointed out the dangers of a “shifting the burden” dynamic becoming imbedded in our culture. Instead of addressing human development as whole persons we have increased our reliance on science and technology for solutions to symptomatic problems, all the while suppressing our poetic, artistic, nature-inspired and spiritual natures and other human qualities and capacities.  A trap we have fallen into. (Senge, P. et al. 2004) This had led to widespread individual and collective trauma and to the very real danger of “augmented” humanism. A new narrative is now an absolute imperative).

 

A road to recovery?

We have lost a great deal of our social conscience, sense of justice, ‘old’ community values, care for the planet, a sense of meaning based on higher purpose, our very humanity. In our efforts to recapture this we could heed Paul’s charge to Timothy to live a life of good conduct characterised by the virtues of “purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance…”. For me, a part of his exhortation at the individual level is to shift away from the small p’s (increasingly driven by our addiction to information and communication technologies and algorithmic manipulation and peer pressure arising from that addiction) - to the BIG P’s as humanitarian drivers of our individual character, values and behaviours, and our interconnectedness and belonging:

Regarding this values-shift, a good start-point may be to contemplate, in order to discern:

 

• where and how we have gone wrong personally, 
• what keeps us locked into values, habits and behaviours that become harmful if not balanced (the small p’s) by the higher values and virtues (the Big P’s), 
• what makes us susceptible to authoritarian (even totalitarian) and societal pressures and conditioning (Luke Andreski’s clear analyses , moral compass and unique expression have been of great value. (Andreski, L. 2021)),   
• how to regain and reinforce our interconnectedness and togetherness and escape what the puppet masters would have: separation, division, distancing and isolation for their control purposes. What Brand and Yancey say about moral and ethical laws, using the analogy of the human body, applies also to our need for interconnectivity and community as we share the web of life.  “If you examine one law, like a random bone plucked from a pile, it may seem strangely shaped and illogical because laws, like bones, are designed for the complex, connected needs of a whole body”. (Brand, P and Yancey, P. 1984) We need each other in order to be fully human. Remember this?!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVoPG9HtYF8
• what concerns us most of the time and where our perspectives, world views and resultant behaviours have become swamped and skewed

 

Here is a depiction of where a lot of us might be in our thinking patterns at the present time:

I believe that a refocus:

 

• on humanity’s awesome potential, freedom and equality
• on what could be put right again, 
• and on an unselfish giving to and compassionate sharing with our wider family (community and society), the home which we inhabit (the environment, nature, the planet) and how we subsist by contributing and earning, bartering, giving (the economy)

 

could surely lead to humanity recovering and rising once more (as Buddhism explains) like a bird using two wings to fly – the wings of Wisdom and Compassion? 

And then we will sing and hug and trust and cry, commune and be human, be who we are.

 

References

Andreski, Luke (2021):

The 21st Century lies pandemic

https://dangerousglobe.com/news/the-21st-century-lies-pandemic/ 

A shield of values

https://dangerousglobe.com/news/everyone-needs-a-shield-of-values/ 

A wall of truth

https://dangerousglobe.com/news/politics/the-wall-of-truth/ 

The Socrates Bomb

https://dangerousglobe.com/news/politics/the-socrates-bomb/ 

Chaplin’s Stiletto

https://dorseteye.com/chaplins-stiletto/ 

Brand, Paul Dr and Yancey, Philip (1984) Fearfully and Wonderfully Made Hodder and Stoughton

Jarrett, Christian (2019) Psychopaths and Narcissists Have Hogged the Limelight, Now It’s Time to Explore the Saintlier Side of Human Personality, Say Researchers, as They Announce a Test of The “Light Triad” Traits British Psychological Society, Research Digest 22nd March, 2019 

https://digest.bps.org.uk/2019/03/22/psychopaths-and-narcissists-have-hogged-the-limelight-now-its-time-to-explore-the-saintlier-side-of-human-personality-say-researchers-as-they-announce-a-test-of-the-light-triad-traits/

Robinson, Piers, Dr (2021) Propoganda Allowed Extraordinary Measures Interviewed on Asia Pacific Today 4th August, 2021

https://rumble.com/vkppo0-covid-is-a-global-propaganda-operation.html

Senge, Peter; Scharmer, C. Otto; Jaworski, Joseph and Flowers, Betty Sue (2004) Presence: exploring profound change in people, organizations and society Society for Organizational Learning

Williams, Graham; Gargiulo, Terrence and Bánhegyi, Stévé (2021) Story-Bridging: from walls to bridges with story - exploring ways of countering the societal, economic and environmental impacts of negative, belittling, divisive, harmful and false narratives. Unpublished manuscript

Williams, Graham (2020) Are We Becoming Less Compassionate, Less Fully Human? How Might We Return To What We May Be? 

https://charterforcompassion.org/defining-and-understanding-compassion/are-we-becoming-less-compassionate-less-fully-human 

 

 

We like sheep...

 (Weller, K. 2007)

 

WE LIKE SHEEP

To misquote the Bible, “We, all like sheep, have been led astray …” 

That’s what authoritarian, fascist, technocratic, dictatorial, totalitarian regimes do to the people. Working from a basis of arrogance, a belief in their own superiority because of position, power or wealth, these self-appointed ‘elite’ antagonists believe that they have the right to dominate and control the rest of us. Lead us astray, like sheep.

This is not conspiracy thinking. It is plain to see that a new, evil, military-like oppression of people and suppression of information has been imposed around the World. Why have we had a lockdown, curfews and compliance regulations in South Africa that go on and on and on. Some of our 'unalienable' individual rights that have been threatened impacted, abused, or withdrawn partially or fully during this ongoing lockdown period, include rights to work, life, equality of relief and policing, dignity, absence of discrimination  including on the grounds of age), freedom of movement and travel, freedom from degrading treatment, freedom of thought, expression, criticism, protest and association, unhampered freedom of worship, of privacy including protection against search and seizure of home, person, and correspondence, ownership of property with the State legislating its 'custodianship' of all property and expropriation without compensation, the right to information held by the government, to being able to make properly informed choices, to unimpeded education, to self-defense … Participative democracy is long gone.

I never thought I’d witness the army in Sydney, Australia patrolling the streets to enforce “precautions” such as social distancing, the wearing of masks, and adherence to curfew rules. And similar crackdowns and forced compliance around the World.

I never thought I would ever see a world in which leaders of nearly all countries, and those behind the scenes, furiously pushing experimental big-pharma vaccinations, having mobilised their media lackeys, and aided in some instances by big business - like a prominent private sector financial/ health organisation in South Africa that has stepped in to promote and administer experimental vaccinations - in order to achieve a numerical target that they wrongly term “herd immunity”. 

I never thought I would ever see fearful people so subjected to a deliberate campaign to these ends that they are meekly accepting drastic curtailment of their freedoms, and clamouring to be vaxxed in order to ‘protect themselves’ against a variant of the SARS flu. And in the process turning hostile towards those who are unvaccinated.

 

HOW DOES SUCH A TOTALITARIAN SITUATION COME ABOUT?

'Totalitarian' fits closely with other descriptive terms such as fascist, technocratic, authoritarian, dictatorship, communist … the finer points of difference are unimportant here. We have had many lessons from a human history of power abuse. Think Hitler, Mussolini, Chairman Mao. Think slavery in many forms. Think total control by a small, arrogant ruling elite; insidious and deceitful propaganda; deceit; divide, separate, isolate and rule tactics. Fear, falsehoods and coercion. Demonisation of non-adherents, and censorship and punishment of dissidents. What amounts to psychological and even biological warfare supported these days by information and censorship algorithms, behavioural economic techniques, wave after wave of conditioning campaigns. The removal of individual rights, the manufacturing of mass psychosis and wildfire-like spreading of pathological fear and attendant beliefs. And a populace defeated by fragmentation of conscience, individual and collective trauma. Think about the lives we are now being forced to live.

MUST WATCH informative videos are: 

•  Academy of Ideas (2021) The Manufacturing of a Mass Psychosis - Can Sanity Return to an Insane World?  Apr 24, 2021

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdzW-S8Mwbl 

An informative, reasoned explanation of totalitarian strategies and tactics.  And:

• Hudson, Nick (2021) The Ugly Truth About the Covid-19 Lockdowns (Inaugural BizNews Investment Conference)

https://www.pandata.org/time-to-reopen-society 

PANDA aims to “promote open science, human agency and courageous societies, empowering the public with accurate information thereby enabling individuals to exercise freedom of choice and preserve human liberties and free societies”.

(This is not a case for capitalism, especially the rampant, destructive kind driven by a thirst for the egoic externals of power, wealth, status, being superior and winning, controlling and manipulating others, striving for hedonistic pleasure and perfection, exploiting to have and not share. And it seems to me that this is the great reset that governments, politicians and the wealthy ‘elite’ are feverishly chasing. That’s such a pathetic example for humanity. 

The virtues of caring for, serving and being the best that we can be for others who share the interconnected web of life with us (our family), looking after the planet, the environment, nature (our home), subsisting through purposeful, honest endeavour, earning, bartering and giving wherever possible (our means) - and all the while relishing the beauty of our imperfection and appreciating the implicate, never-fully-understood reality that interacts with and holds up the explicate reality that we see and know - surely deserve far greater emphasis in how we should all live our lives… And are aligned with the PANDA aims)

 

OUT OF AFRICA

In South Africa, Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma who heads the National Coronavirus Disaster Management Council appears at times to have a focus on political matters quite far removed from managing the response to the pandemic. A leading advocate and commentator points out that she “… sees the pandemic as a pretext for pursuing pet projects of hers that are both unconstitutional and questionable …” and she said at a press conference on 25th April, 2020 that the pandemic “… also offers us an opportunity to accelerate the implementation of some long agreed upon structural changes … These opportunities call for more sacrifice and – if needs be – what Amilcar Cabral called “class suicide” ….’.  (Marxist Cabral led the revolutionary guerrilla war for independence against Portuguese Guinea, West Africa. His solution requires, inter alia, doing away with capitalism and adopting the non-colonial values of the masses.  (Hoffman, P. 2020)

She is the ex-wife of ex-president Zuma (the man responsible for huge scale state capture, state creep, corruption … whose supporters were recently responsible for hugely damaging acts of anarchy and looting)

Dlamini-Zuma endorsed Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus as Director-General of the World Health Organisation. 

A member of her committee was Salim Karim, who was at the same time Head of the Scientific and Advisory Board of the Gates Foundation!  He still is. And was recently appointed to a key post in the WHO! 

There are other interesting connections and cooperations in this circle or den of friends.

 

BACK TO OUR SHEEP METAPHOR

Sheep are generally seen to be innocent, defenceless. Followers.

The Batswana (said to be the most competent sheep farmers in southern Africa) word for sheep is nku and it means “the dumb or voiceless animal”. Even when slaughtered “the sheep dies quietly”. The sheep metaphor is used in the Bible: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation he was deprived of justice”.

(Interestingly, Dolly the famous sheep, the first mammal cloned from an adult somatic cell towards the close of the 20th century - was the first known example of man manipulating the code of life).

We must not be shepherded like sheep to the slaughter in a 21st century agenda of sinister human devising.  

Instead, we have reason to respect and rely on our wonderful natural immunity and better natures, a need to stay alert, a duty to discern. and read the signs, a powerful motivation to think for ourselves and to ally with likeminded souls so that we can see each other through  And joyfully practice the peaceful sharing of hope and compassion in a society where we want to belong. 

 

REFERENCES

Hoffman, Paul. Advocate. (2020) Survival of the nation trumps the revolutionary transformation of the economy   PoliticsWeb 2 May 2020) https://www.politicsweb.co.za/opinion/survival-of-the-nation-trumps-the-revolutionary-tr

Mutwa, Credo (2007) Isilwane: The Animal Struik Publishers

Weller, Keith (2007) These particular sheep belong to a research flock at the US Sheep Experiment Station near Dubois, Idaho, USA  In the public domain.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2c/Flock_of_sheep.jpg/316px-Flock_of_sheep.jpg

 

A TIME TO DISCERN

                                              Perilous times

In a 2019 Halo and Noose newsletter (From Walls to Bridges with Story}:

Growing threats include global warming, degradation, destruction, pollution, conflict, the decline of scarce resources, shrinking economies, the rise of ‘we first’ patriotism relative to cooperative globalisation, and shrinking personal freedom. In tandem with these threats, we see a disquieting development - the emergence, in politics and in the business world, of story that misinforms, manipulates, coerces, divides, demeans, ostracizes and deceives. Witness fake news, astroturfing, Brand stories that pretend at values and principles that are not practised, and downright lies.  Web content creators manage to slip past gatekeepers and spread misinformation and lies. They succeed in these manipulations, and in pushing for and finding fertile ground for the establishment and reinforcement of their agendas. Some politicians deviously manage their desired outcomes by preying on fears, promoting 'alternative realities', presenting factoids based on false assumptions, resorting to propaganda. They blur the truth and bolster their own position and interests. (Curtis, A. 2016).  

This fudging of truth spreads and goes hand in hand with a rise in ever-increasing narcissistic attitudes and behaviours, and consequently we are seeing a drop in trust, civility, respect, compassion, and attempts to bridge differences. And we are seeing more ‘you-owe-me’ behaviour, naming and blaming, imposing of shame and guilt on others.

To this ‘distancing’ trend, politicians have used fear, falsehoods and coercion to impose physical social distancing (along with many other measures, and while at the same time not providing people with the information needed to make informed decisions of their own). They have done this ostensibly because of the coronavirus threat. 

In the local South African situation, we have suddenly experienced extensive, localised, sporadic anarchy – perhaps opportunistic, perhaps born out of frustration and dire need, but perhaps also strategically orchestrated. There is a chance that more anarchy will follow and lead to a total destruction of our economy, environment and society. Without miraculous intervention, given the current government ideology, aims, levels of corruption, incompetence, and a penchant for deceit and creating divisions, the cracks in the dam wall will continue to rapidly widen. The dam is nearly about to burst.

And yet the vast majority prefer to not see and they turn a blind eye.

There exists a mega - need in these times for those who can, to discern the truth, in every situation that arises.  
So that we can shift the societal narrative positively.

 

What is discernment?

It is not, in the context of this newsletter, about interpreting of social nuances or cross-cultural engagement cues in order to discern differences and then alter one’s communication and behaviour accordingly.  Nor anything other than discerning the truth about what is happening around us and to us as a society under threat. 

Discernment is not cognitive brilliance, or emotional and social acuity, but a soul thing. A heart-informed thing. An aspect of an agent-based (that is, person-based and not rules-based) spiritual maturity. It is not about power, but about acting upon, and appropriately alerting, influencing and guiding others according to truth received.

“We have a ‘heart brain’ with a vast array of neurons that are processing sensory information on their own and communicating that information to our brain, nervous system and other organ systems. This means the heart is able to learn, remember, and make decisions independent of the brain” (Tafler, A. 2019)

It is about seeing what is hidden from most. It is about recognising that even in the depths of darkness and despair, the soul yearns for and responds to kindness and love. Discerning the truth in matters of great importance to our well-being as whole people – physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, spiritually.

(Without limiting the number of senses that we have and the ways we can sense, to six only), the term “sixth sense” is generally understood as an indefinable. Something beyond the other senses, beyond instinct and intuition. An extra faculty that allows for the obtaining of an awareness and insight that is not explained in terms of our normal perception). Discernment relies on a tapping into an implicate reality. A reality that is deeper than and upholds and feeds the explicate reality that we are able to observe. My word for this implicate reality that we don’t know, cannot fathom nor explain, is ‘God’.

In my icon collection, the Apostle John is depicted listening to the whispers of an angel.  I love that image.

Discernment is fed by wisdom and love and leads to wise, loving and congruent thinking, feeling, behaving (morally and ethically) and knowing. It is hearing that still small voice by a readied-to-receive person.

Individuals stand watch but discernment, formulation of ways to guide and influence may also be an aspect of small - group dynamics.

Since ancient times, First Nations and a number of other indigenous peoples have burned sage for centuries as part of a spiritual ritual to bring about healing and wisdom. When we speak of sage advice (advice from a discerning Sage) we acknowledge truth, wisdom and the opportunity for sound, pure healing. A Seer or Prophetess is a see-er - one who has insight into what we shall all see externally in future.

 

Why is discernment so necessary?

During and after times of twisted truth, confusion and fear-mongering, we must go against the odds and be a part of reconstructing compassionate communities. In order to do so we must first see what is wrong and how to put it right. This requires that we avoid self-deception.

4 songs have helped me to understand:

• The political system is broken. There are lies and people-of-the-lie, psychological stress, dysphoria. Foresight trumps hindsight as we’ve learned from our mistakes in the Hitler, apartheid and other eras). Leonard Cohen from Everybody Knows:

            Everybody knows that the boat is leaking. 

            Everybody knows that the captain lied.

            Everybody got this broken feeling. 

            Like their father or their dog just died

•  It’s up to us. Bob Marley’s Redemption Song speaks of our inner work being the route

            Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery

                

            None but ourselves can free our minds

•  Normally we see dimly, defend the limited truth we think we have to avoid mental stress (cognitive dissonance). Discernment is not only the weighing up of argument in a left-brain manner but comes from the inner realm and a pure heart. This enables true interpretation of the external. Another Jamaican musician, Jimmy Cliff:

"I can see clearly now …

                    Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind”

•   And Neil Diamond (from his 12 Songs Album, singing We) reminds us;

            "It’s not about you.

  It’s not about Me.

   It’s about We”

So, these 4 songs teach that we could seriously deliberate on and discuss:

- the discernment of lies and deceit, hidden agendas, subtle propaganda, the use of psychology and behavioural economics to influence covertly and even subliminally, the seeding of collective trauma,

- discernment of how we fit and connect with nature and others. Do what is best for our environment, our interconnectedness, our interactions and transactions. Our home (the planet), our family (society) and our subsistence (economy).

- and discernment of how to bridge the gap between what is and what should be. Our opportunities for truth, peace, compassion, hope, love.

 

Thus

In these times of fake news, lies and deception let’s strive to be accurate and informed in our evaluations and judgements – and learn and work at discerning the truth and then to alert, influence and guide those who would hear. Theologian Richard Rohr speaks of “the demonic legitimization of oppressive and destructive power by governments and institutions”. He speaks too of the benefit of spiritual discernment: “… you can understand on a whole new level… because now you see with wisdom and truth. It is the birth of subtlety, discrimination, and compassionate seeing”. (Rohr, R. 2013)

If the world is potentially being subjected to a campaign of fear, falsehood, coercion and force towards a new normal that is against the best interests of the majority of humanity, then it is critical that this evil be fully discerned, bravely exposed, and confronted in whatever ways are left open to us, for as long as we are able – and whatever labelling, abuse and persecution may transpire for us.

 Practicing discernment, as uncomfortable, challenging and as dangerous as it may be, falls under the umbrella of how we live our lives, and is an act of love, especially during times such as these.

Existential psychiatrist Irvin Yalom, a ‘non-believer’ and in many ways a maverick (being against how the profession subscribes unnecessary medication, how psychiatrists keep ‘objectively’ aloof instead of practicing self-revelation with their patients. And who pioneered small patient-led circles/ groups long before the official medical profession was ready) explains beautifully in this anecdote:

 

“Jill, I said, ‘You have a young daughter who’s about nine. Imagine that she asked, ‘If we are (all) going to die, then why or how should I live?’

How would you answer?

Unhesitatingly she replied, ‘I’d tell her about the joys of living, the beauty of the forests, the pleasure of being with friends and family, the bliss of spreading love to others and of leaving the world a better place’”. (Yalom, I. 2009)

 

 

REFERENCES

Curtis, Adam (2016) HyperNormalization: a different experience of reality

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fh2cDKyFdyU

Rohr, Richard (2013) Daily Meditation 18 of 52: Calling Evil Good and Good Evil, adapted from Spiral of Violence: the world, the flesh and the devil

https://myemail.constantcontact.com/Richard-Rohr-s-Meditation--Calling-Evil-Good-and-Good-Evil.html?soid=1103098668616&aid=1TLbC3YW5Sc

Tafler, Afshan (2019) How Your Heart May Be Your Wisest Brain June 27, 2019

https://unyte.com/blogs/news/how-your-heart-may-be-your-wisest-brain

Yalom, Irvin D. (2009) Staring at the sun: overcoming the terror of death Jossey-Bass

 

IMAGE ATTRIBUTIONS

Bob Marley live in concert in Zurich, Switzerland on 30 May, 1980 at the Hallenstadium. Wiki Commons Free File: Bob-Marley-in-Concert Zurich 05-30-80 cropped.jpg

Jimmy Cliff en concert sur la scène Landaoudec lors du festival du bout du Monde à Crozon dans le Finistère (France). 4^th August, 2012. Wiki Commons Free File: File:Jimmy Cliff - Festival du Bout du Monde 2012 - 008.jpg

Neil Diamond 29^th September, 1977. Wiki Commons Free File: Neil Diamond 2.jpg

Leonard Cohen 27^th October, 2008. Wiki Commons Free File: File:Leonard Cohen 2143.jpg