On History: Clarity & Delusion

It’s good to see some of the millennia-old illusions about history being slowly peeled away. To speak of the Roman Empire as, “the world’s greatest killing machine” is refreshingly honest. But to refer to it as bringing “civilization” continues the perpetuation of old delusions. A millennia-old Stockholm syndrome is just one part of that. The Roman Empire was a slave empire, based on mass murder, looting, rape and pillage, oligarchy, and mass theft of riches, culture and land – hardly civilized, but rather, starkly barbaric. 

To begin to cease to talk of Celts and other non-Roman and non-Greek cultures as barbarians, is a great improvement, however. And to see medieval, ancient, and earlier peoples in a more human and less pejorative light is likewise a refreshing progress, out of the nearly universal modern delusions of inevitable linear “progress”. 

But to refer to “experts” continues the anti-empirical, anti-science, scholastic habits of automatic and unthinking, slavish veneration and deference to imagined authority figures. How about using the more neutral term, scholars? 

Moreover, why on Earth do we continue to call mass murderers and slavers, such as Constantine, for example, as “The Great”? Staggering delusion, that is.

Terms and concepts need a radical questioning and re-examination, in terms of history, anthropology, sociology, social theory, politics, and broader usage. The terms and concepts, including, civilization, barbarians, progress, and the like, all require a radical re-thinking. Terms such as “experts” are best dropped completely, replaced by reference to scholars, researchers or thinkers. Refering to power elites as “important people”, is yet another delusional habit, exemplifying a general and nearly universal case of mass Stockholm syndrome. Refer instead, simply, and more accurately, to the business, religious or political elite (elite in terms of being a power elite, not a moral or intellectual elite, of course), or refer to the landed aristocracy (not “nobility”), or simply call them the priviledged classes, ruling class, or the power elite.

Likewise, the term anarchy needs to be used with precision: it stems from the Latin, an-archos, meaning simply, the absence of an overarching or centralized power. To use the term anarchy as a synonym for chaos simply reveals that you are completely ignorant of political-economy, political philosophy, history, anthropology and sociology. Only the ignorant and the deceitful use the term in such a manner.

Terms such as terrorists, freedom fighters, rebels, populists, nationalists, and many more, require a careful, thoughtful, critical re-assessment. Dogma must die. Words have power. Therefore we must, of course, question them, and think critically about them. Naming is powerful. It can be spell-binded and blinding, fetters and shackles and chains for consciousness, nations, peoples and lives, leading to a conquest of minds, and a resulting mass delusion and subjugation; or it can be clarifying, and an act of liberation. Choose your words carefully, therefore.

Illusions, delusion, prejudice, dogma and self-deceit are beginning to be peeled away, but we can do well to accelerate the process. 

Confusion, illusion, denial and delusion, remain the norm, both inside and outside of academia, to this day. Let’s change that, shall we? It’s high time for a new renaissance.

 – J. Todd Ring,

Author of Enlightened Democracy,

The People vs The Elite,

The Failure of Propaganda,

Importing from China,

When Liberals & The Left Lose Their Minds,

The Collapse of the West,

And

Slavery Or Rebirth

December 14, 2023

Here is the generally well-done documentary that sparked this set of further musings on history, its uses and abuses:

My response to the lovely doc, above:

Excellent documentary – but you are still talking about “the glory of Rome”, and the “civilization” of Rome? Come now. Delusions die hard, but die they must.

BLOWBACK – And Collapse

JFK, MLK, The CIA – And The Collapse Of The West

Yes, the evidence is clear: the CIA killed JFK, RFK, MLK, and Malcolm X. They are the goons of the corporate-state oligarchy. What did you think they do? Defend freedom and democracy? Were you born yesterday? (Read, Killing Hope, Class Warfare, Necessary Illusions, Year 501, The Shock Doctrine, and The CIA’s Greatest Hits.) Of course they’re a goon squad.

Read Blowback: America’s Secret Recruitment of Nazis. The SS, the Gestapo, the CIA… same shit, different pile. They’re hired thugs. That’s all they are.

Rare exceptions, are people like Ray McGovern – an intell agent with actual intelligence, a brain, a heart, a spine, and integrity. For the rest, the more fitting name would be something like, the Central Ineptitude Agency – or the BTI… Brainless Thugs Incorporated.

JTR,
November 3, 2023

P.S.:

Watch the video introduction to my newest book, on Rumble:

The Collapse Of The West:

Exodus

&

The Global Tectonic Shift

A Video Excerpt From My New, Multi-Media Book, By Way Of Introduction

By J. Todd Ring,
Author of Enlightened Democracy,
The Failure Of Propaganda, and The People vs The Elite
October 2023,
Villa Samadhi,
Uruguay

Note also:

Did the CIA foresee the collapse of the Soviet Union? Nope. Central Ineptitude Agency. Did the major media, academics, talking head pundits, politicians, business “elite”, or pop culture gurus foresee the collapse of the Soviet Union? Nope. Only one person is on record as having predicted the collapse of the Soviet Empire. But it happened anyway.

Now, I am telling you, the Davos/WEF-based, Western corporate-state empire is collapsing, and it is taking down what has been called Western civilization, along with it.

Given that only five people predicted the global economic crisis of 2008 – and I was one of the five – you might want to take heed, when I say that something extremely big is fast approaching.

Or not. Your call. Be bug splatter if you choose to be.

Your choice. You have been warned.

Do You Want To Be A Baboon, Or A Lion? On Hierarchy, Alphas, and The Sociology Of Delusion

This video/talk (linked below) expresses the social psychology underlying the deep, global crisis of legitimacy which the ruling elite are now facing. Kudos for that. However, it also reveals an utter ignorance of anthropology (see Eisler, Gimbutas, and Bookchin), and it expresses support for an obsolete social model based on domination and submission, as well as being rooted in the delusions of social Darwinism and “nobless oblige”.

Baboons and chimps compete for dominance and alpha status. Lions do not. How do you want to live? As a lion, or a baboon?

Actually, in terms of evolutionary biology, we human beings, homo sapiens sapiens, are more closely related to gibbons, than to any of the other primates – including baboons. And our close kin, the gibbons, live in a society that is non-hierarchical, based in equality, freedom, sharing, cooperation, mutual aid, and peace. If we are going to be reductionist about it, and assume that human nature has direct analogues in nature, to which we are inescapably confined, then we should at least be minimally scientific. That means, we are more closely related to the gibbons than to the baboons, which means we are innately inclined naturally to live in freedom, equality and mutual aid, and not in societies that are founded upon domination, submission, and hierarchies of class or power.

If we want to understand hierarchy, freedom, history, evolution, human nature or human society, political philosophy, political-economy, sociology, anthropology or history, or if we wish to be scientific or empirical, then we must reject dualism, reductionism and mechanistic thinking, and reject social biology and social Darwinism, both of which are unscientific assertions of a crude ideology, and not sound science. And if we are to be scientific, rational or empirical, or if we are to understand any of these things, and not merely be blinkered ideologues, then we need to read Kropotkin’s, Mutual Aid – a work which in reality is much more significant and important than Darwin’s Origin of Species; and we furthermore need to read Rianne Eisler’s, The Chalice & The Blade, along with Murray Bookchin’s The Ecology of Freedom. These three texts should be considered the minimum requirements to be considered educated, in any sense, and particularly in the fields listed above.

There are many theories, and many views, ideologies and philosophies. Most of what passes for informed or educated opinion, is mere ideology and indoctrination, and it is as unscientific as it is delusional. If we want a better understanding of the world, then I would suggest we take the theories, views, or philosophies of social ecology, expressed by Murray Bookchin, ecofeminism, expressed by Vandana Shiva and others, Kropotkin’s landmark work on mutual aid, and Ken Wilber’s flawed, but highly useful integral theory – and synthesize their best elements, along with the values and inspiration of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, and republican constitutional democracy. Or you can read my own writing, which synthesizes all of these important and liberatory, emancipating threads, and more.

(Note that Ken Wilber is a brilliant polymath, but he is not God, and he is not omniscient, nor infallible. His four quadrant theory is brilliant, and extremely useful. But his views on the quadrant pertaining to human society – sociology, anthropology, social psychology, history, political-economy and political philosophy – are based on a gross misunderstanding, and are therefore, frankly delusional. The problem in that quadrant, or his views of it, hinges upon his conflation and confusion of hierarchies of complexity in nature, which are inescapable, with social hierarchies of power and domination, which are human creations, and relatively recent human creations, a mere few thousand years old, and tragically disastrous ones, at that. He has no understanding of the broad sweep of human history, nor of the radical implications of Kropotkin’s work in evolutionary biology. Therefore, everything he says about hierarchy, and political philosophy, is based in ignorance and delusion. I have great respect for him as a person and as a thinker – but he is simply wrong when it comes to social theory in general, and hierarchy in particular.)

*

False messiahs, tyrants, dominators, predators, exploiters, oppressors, fascists and demagogues pose as leaders, but what they really do, is to usurp the power of others, by convincing others to yield up their power to them – usually with false promises of protection and safety.

Domination is not leadership. True leaders empower others. True leaders are not afraid of equality, or diversity, or freedom, but celebrate, embrace and promote all three. This is the difference between a true leader, and a mere authority figure. We have many of the latter, few of the former.

Authorities rule the world – not leaders. But that too, shall pass.

The people are beginning to awake.

J. Todd Ring,
September 21, 2021

On Puritan-Capitalism: Money As The Measure Of All Things

The mechanistic materialist world view, which the West, beginning with Europe, adopted a mere 400 years ago, and then exported through economic, financial, military and cultural colonialism and neocolonialism to the rest of the world, has been nothing short of a cultural, sociological, political, economic, ecological, spiritual, public health and psychological disaster; and it has led to to a global tyranny of neofeudal corporate-state oligarchy and technocratic scientific fascism.

Part of its logic, is to view all things, all of nature, human beings and all living beings, as mere objects: to be exploited, used up, and discarded at will. The natural result of its logic is to view all things, ecosystems, living beings and people as mere resources for wealth extraction.

We human beings are viewed, at least by the business elite, as cattle, to be milked for money, or yoked for sevitude, for money and power, or disposed of – or slaughtered.

Extrinsic value is the only value recognized: people, nature, living beings, and all things, only have value for their usefulness. It is a world view that is nihilistic and utilitarian by nature, and must, if its logic is consistent, degrade and destroy all other values, such as the systemic value of ecosystems and living beings, and the intrinsic value of ecosystems, nature and living beings. (I am borrowing here from one of my brilliant mentors, Professor Robert E. Carter – not the novelist, but the polymath scholar.) Money therefore becomes the measure of all things, including the measure work, the measure of social status, the measure of respectability, and the measure of human worth – or the worth of anything, or any living being.

When we examine closely the mechanistic materialist world view and its consequences, we can see and understand how and why it has been a truly catastrophic error, and one which must be quickly overcome, before it destroys us all, by destroying all life on Earth – and before it enslaves all of humanity, on its way to total ecocide, and collective self-annihilation.

*

Anecdotes and personal stories are things I generally avoid, but the following is enlightening, I believe.

When I was a younger man, in my late teens, I decided in a flash, after reading Plato’s parable of the cave, in my first year of university, that I wanted to become a philosopher, a political theorist, and a writer. When I soon afterward announced to my parents that I was switching from studying science, to studying philosophy, my father, at least, thought I must be mad, or at least, drastically foolish. What money can you make as a philosopher? That was the only question that mattered, to his mind. That was the only measure of my studies, to his mind: does it make money? Of course, his view was, and is, the nearly universal view in modern society. But I was utterly resolved. Nothing would budge me.

As Margaret Atwood said, “This society doesn’t respect writing. It respects success. I could have been a used car salesman, and if I was successful, I’d be respected.”

Or as Emerson said, in his essay on The Poet, by which he meant the writer in the broad sense: “Every profession has its sacrifices. For the poet (or the writer), it is that for a long time, he will be considered a churl (a bum) and a fool, and will be understood only by his peers.”

Or as Thoreau said (and I am paraphrasing from memory), “Men are concerned, not with what is respectable, but what is respected.” “Such men deserve as much respect as wooden men, or clumps of earth.”

Nietzche was insane, and from what I can tell, his philosophy was insane; but he was right in one observation, when he remarked, “The ego – our last article of faith.” This is what mechanistic materialism, and the Puritan-capitalist psychology that arises from it, does to men’s and womens’ minds: they profess all sorts of values, but when you look more closely, their true values are money, status, and their reputation. Their true and over-riding concerns, thus, are comfort and ego. “What would other people think?” This is the thought that secretly haunts them, and it is both their prison, and the source of their moral bankruptcy and spiritual degeneration.

Thoreau also observed, “Most men would feel ashamed if their work consisted of throwing dirt over a fence, and throwing it back again; but most men are employed in no higher purpose that this.” We are obsessively busy, but what are we busy with?

(Kindred spirits, I have many. I have no need of false friends, nor of the trappings of worldly success. As Thoreau said (I am once again paraphrasing here), “Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.” I could not agree more. To thine own self be true.)

Furthermore, when automation and robotics are poised to eliminate 90% of jobs, and make most people, in the words of Yuval Harari, “useless”, we clearly and urgently must re-think the nature of work.

Some years later, as a young writer, intellectual, activist and philosopher, my father said to my sister, “Todd’s on permanent vacation.” As far as he was concerned, any activity that did not make money, was not work – therefore, since your activities do not make money, you do not work; which, of course, in the prevailing culture and psychology of Puritan-capitalism, means you are a useless fool, and a worthless bum.

I thought to myself, and maybe I said it to him – probably so, since I was anxiety-ridden and depressed but also paradoxically fearless: I could work 40 hours a week, or 60, or 100, helping the sick, the poor and the dying with Mother Theresa, and you would consider me a bum who didn’t work, because I did it for free, and received no money for it. (His values seemed deranged to me, so I immediately disregarded his opinion, as itself being worthless.)

*

That story shows the sheer insanity of what I call the Puritan-capitalist psychology, sociology, or world view. It is truly insane. To take it further, we could say that, if I, or anyone else, worked in the arms industry, dealing in weapons and tools for mass murder and killing, or in the pesticide or chemical industry, poisoning the people and the planet, I would be a respected member of society, and viewed as a hard worker, and praised, so long as I was paid well for my evil actions, and made a good income from it.

Puritan-capitalist ethics and psychology revolve around two central premises: busyness is always good; and more importantly, money is the measure of all things. If I work 100 hours a week saving the planet, or raising children, or healing the Earth, that is nice, but I am a fool and a bum, in the eyes of the grimly delusional great majority, who are literally brainwashed into the Puritan-capitalist psychology – and blinded and enslaved by it. But they will defend their chains to the death, and decry anyone who tries to liberate them, or who even points out the chains, as a dangerous heretic and a madman.

What madness is this? This, as Erich Fromm and Henry David Thoreau, and many others have realized, is sheer insanity.

*

Artists, writers, musicians, thinkers, philosophers, activists, parents and care-givers, are generally all viewed as worthless and useless bums, and their work is invisible and discounted – unless they find a way to acquire money, wealth, status, fame or power, which are the great redeemers, and the only things the great majority of people seem to truly value in modern, nihilistic, materialist, Puritan-capitalist society: in which case, they are super-stars, and greatly loved, respected, and admired celebrities.

When, in practice, rhetoric aside, we value money, material goods, comfort, entertainment, status, wealth, power and fame above all else, then there is no room for justice, ethics, morality, virtue, nobility, wisdom, compassion, human decency, or even basic sanity. This has become the profoundly abnormal norm of our modern corporate-industrial society. Clearly, something needs to change.

When human beings are being systematically degraded, exploited, oppressed, indoctrinated, deluded, blinded, imprisoned and enslaved, and all life on Earth is being destroyed, and both as a result of our materialist mechanistic world view, and by our Puritan-capitalist psychology, it is clearly time to reassess and to change our world view and our pyschology. That, by now, should be undeniable. If it is not, then we are truly and deeply, profoundly delusional.

I am no cynic, nor am I a jaundiced, jaded misanthrope. Cynicism, fatalism and misanthropy are pathologies of the mind, and delusions to be overcome. The long term for humanity is promising, to put it mildly; but the near term and present are looking undeniably dark. What we make of our present, and our future, however, is up to us.

Noam Chomsky is right: “The great majority of people have basically decent impulses.” It is true, as science has confirmed (see Kropotkin, Mutual Aid, and Rifkin, The Empathic Civilization): human beings have a natural empathy and compassion, and we have survived, and thrived, because we have a deeply seated instinct for solidarity, community, cooperation and mutual assistance. But our good nature is being systematically degraded, twisted and deranged, by a society which is truly, deeply dehumanizing, and frankly, crazy. And that is before the soma kicks in.

*

Our modern society, as I have said, is thoroughly insane. Re-evaluating our concepts of money, work, status, respectability, success, development and growth, and the values and psychology which underly them, is now critical. Without that, we are doomed to a madhouse – and one that is on wheels, travelling as fast as possible toward dystopia, and the cliff that lies just beyond it.

JTR,

August 20, 2021

The Fundamentals Of History

(The following thoughts were written in response to a podcast, linked below.)

I liked this podcaster’s treatment of the Druids, which was very good. However…

This talk (linked below) asks fundamentally important questions – what is the origin of religion, agriculture, cities and states? But the coverage is average, typical: meaning, extremely superficial, and extremely poor. 

She misspoke – farming began around 7,500 BC, not 750 BC; but that is a minor point, by comparison.

*

Here are some essential points on history, that everyone should know and understand, but which the vast majority, including most scholars and intellectuals, do not.

1. Religion was not invented. Organized religion, in terms of hierarchical religious structures, was invented. But religion as spirituality, mythology, symbolism, narratives and philosophy, is as old as humanity. The essence of religion is experienced, not invented. Hierarchies and structures are then later overlain upon that human religious experience – for better, or often for worse.

2. It is essential to know that for the vastly greater majority of human history, humanity shared a common world view, mythology, or mono-myth, as Joseph Campbell put it. It was essentially the perennial philosophy: all things are interconnected, all things are one, and all of nature, life and the cosmos, is sacred.

3. The radical change that came about in the late neolithic period, around 5,000 years ago, was the new belief – the delusion – that self and other are divided: the delusion of duality. The agricultural revolution which occurred roughly 10,000 years ago, created food surpluses, which allowed for the creation of cities, which were complex and required organization, which did not necessitate, but facilitated, the first inequality, and the birth of class and gender divisions. Hierarchies of domination, conquest and empire, were thus born. The history we think we know, is the history of this brief 5,000 year old aberration. 95% of our history, the 195,000 years preceding this self-banishment from Eden, via delusion, was rooted in an awareness of the oneness of life, and hence also, in freedom, equality, and respect for the Earth and all living beings. I am not saying it was beatific, but I am saying it was radically different. Freedom and equality are our human norm; empire and inequality are the aberration. You can bury your cynicism now. It is rooted in ignorance.

4. Modern science, spirituality and human culture are all now awakening to the interdependence, interconnectedness, sacredness, and unity of all life. Our awakening has begun, and for that reason, the new renaissance has begun. And the Old Testament prophet, Daniel was right: The age of empires, as a result, must and will, begin to crumble, and to fall.

Anyone who does not understand these four fundamental dynamics of our human history, has no real understanding of history at all; and nor, for that reason, is there any remote understanding of the future or the present.

But do your own research. Investigate for yourself. Think for yourself.

I would urge this, however. Submit to God, if you are religious; but submit to no man, no woman, and no empire.

And remember:

It ain’t over ’till it’s over.

*

What does the future hold? I don’t have a crystal ball, but it is a truism that if you don’t change course, you will get to where you were going.

Based upon current trends, and based upon our current direction, the most likely scenario for the future is this. There will be large areas of the Earth that are somewhere between a Brave New World and 1984 – if we don’t stop it. Other areas may well be a Mad Max scenario. Both scenarios are dystopian, of course, and if we do not change course, some combination of them will be the plight of much of humanity and the Earth. Other areas will be more like a Swiss Family Robinson scenario, or a Renaissance agrarian society. Others yet, will find a relatively peaceful life, balancing and synthesizing low tech and high tech, the pre-industrial and the modern. People will live in freedom in some areas, and under nightmarish tyranny in others. What we can expect, unless humanity awakens rapidly, is what we have now on Earth, but to much greater extremes, and in much starker contrasts – almost as if Life is a grand teacher, which, of course, she is.

What is most essential to understand, however, is that the future, as Chomsky and many others have said, is largely what we make of it. The mass delusions of powerlessness, fatalism and inevitability, must now die, in order for humanity to live. Embrace your power now.

JTR,

August 12, 2021

Essential reading:

The Hero With A Thousand Faces, by Joseph Campbell

World As Lover, World As Self, by Joanna Macy

Choosing Reality, by Allan Wallace

The Book, by Alan Watts

The Perennial Philosophy, by Aldous Huxley

The Ecology of Freedom, by Murray Bookchin

The Chalice and The Blade, by Rianne Eisler

Mutual Aid, by Peter Kropotkin

The Empathic Civilization, by Jeremy Rifkin

Roads To Freedom, by Bertrand Russell

Escape From Freedom, by Erich Fromm

The Shock Doctrine, by Naomi Klein

Confessions Of An Economic Hitman, by John Perkins

The Great Turning, by David C. Korten

Oneness vs The 1%, by Vandana Shiva

Year 501, by Noam Chomsky

Stolen Continents, by Ronald Wright

A Short History of Progress, by Ronald Wright

The Discourse On Voluntary Servitude, by Etienne de La Boite

Walden, and, On Civil Disobedience, by Henry David Thoreau

And my own works,

Enlightened Democracy

The People vs The Elite

And (coming soon),

All Hell Breaks Loose: Global Geopolitics 1945-2045

Big Brother Is Watching You – and Yes, It Matters

I talked to my boy in the car this past weekend about what to do when he drives, if he has any problems; and he talked to me about the language learning, free software that he uses on his phone. Two days later, Virgin Mobile, now owned by Bell, sends me text messages telling me about deals on roadside assistance and language learning software. Creepy fascist bastards. 

Not everyone knows how routine and universal both corporate and government surveillance are, though they should. They can even remotely turn on your microphone and camera, on your computer or phone, record everything, then sift through your every conversation, chat message, search query and email with Big Data analysis, searching for key words and phrases. I will be glad to switch to a Purism phone and laptop: no more corporate or government surveillance, trackers or data mining; and it’s also maximum security against hackers, as well. Fuck you, Big Brother. Say it with me.

Switch to Brave Browser, Protonmail, Swisscows search engine, Bitchute, Minds, Telegram, and Purism for phones, laptops, servers, VPNs and chat. Boycott Big Tech now.

JTR,

July 13, 2021

PS: On a happier note: I had a great weekend of boondock camping on public “crown” land with my boy. Wonderful. The wilderness is the real world. This “civilization” is a bad dream – one that is passing away, and one, from which I am always glad to break free.

Wisdom from the East, Clarified: Paradigm shifts, dying ideologies, and real feng shui vs fast food feng shui

(Some people will think that talk of things such as feng shui is frivolous. To them I say, bracket that distaste – feng shui is a very small part of this discussion, which covers very important ground in terms of philosophy, the philosophy of science, history, anthropology, sociology, political-economy, ecology, science and scientism, and the state of modern industrial society. Please read on.)

Many people who think they are scientific, and even think they are scientists, have an out-dated view of the world, based in a pre-Einsteinian and pre-quantum physics paradigm of materialist reductionism. They are actually the great majority of “scientists”, doctors and academics. They are over a century behind. And they are stridently dogmatic in defending their dying materialist ideology.

Things like feng shui, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), or yogic, Buddhist or Taoist philosophy, are branded heretical and unscientific by these medieval high priests. But in fact, all these things fit perfectly well in the new paradigms, or models, arising out of modern science itself. (Science is the slow man in the race, and is only now catching up with the mystics.) These things don’t fit with the old materialist reductionist model of Newton and Descartes. But that 400 year old model is dying now, and that model itself does not fit with modern physics, ecology, systems theory, epigenetics, or recent mind-brain research.

How then, should we view these things that were previously thought heretical or taboo? Firstly, we must clarify that there is no linear causality. That means control is an illusion. It also means that the position of the stars or the design of your home, for example, do not singularly cause or determine your fate. They are an influence, among many other influences. If we are intelligent, we will take a holistic or full systems approach, and try to maximize positive systems influences and dynamics, while reducing or mitigating negative influences or dynamics. That is what yoga, Ayurveda, TCM, t’ai chi, chi gong, meditation and feng shui seek to do; exactly as permaculture or intelligent systems design seeks to do. The principle applies to ecosystems, landscapes, gardens, farms, homes, buildings, communities, relationships, study, work, spirituality, prosperity, resilience, and health. This is the logic behind feng shui, for example: intelligent design of systems for maximum harmony and well-being.

*

E=MCsquared. Energy = mass x the speed of light squared.

What does that mean? Among other things, it means this. Einstein showed matter and energy and inter-convertible. In fact, both Einstein’s famous equation and also quantum physics show that matter is, in reality, condensed energy. Hence, not only does every living being have an energy field, and every thing, and every material substance, has an energy field, but all beings and things are in fact energy fields. Materialist reductionists quiver and foam at the mouth at such talk, but modern physics proved what I am saying over a century ago, and the materialist reductionist world view or paradigm is crumbling now, in any case.

Feng shui, like Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ayurveda and yoga, is based on a knowledge of how various patterns or formations of energy interact. If we are intelligent, we will be curious, and look into these bodies of knowledge, with an open mind and some serious humility, since they fill out the radically incomplete, grossly inadequate, and dying modern Western model or paradigm of science, and of health.

*

There is no longer any question that acupuncture works. (See David Suzuki, The Nature of Things) Western conventional medicine has been forced to acknowledge it works. It has been used successfully for addiction recovery, and has been used as a replacement for anesthetics for surgery, so it definitely is proven to work. That should logically lead us to conclude that the medical model of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is sound, since that is the basis of acupuncture. TCM is based in Taoist knowledge and philosophy, acquired through meticulous empirical observations from more than 2,000 years of field experiments. That should then give confidence, logically, that Taoist knowledge and philosophy is sound. Feng shui is also based in Taoist knowledge and philosophy, and hence, we should have confidence that that system is also sound.

The hubris of modern Western society must be shattered, and now. Time to grow up. We have been boisterous and arrogant adolescents for far too long. It is a much bigger world than we were taught to believe. Our minds must now become open to the East – and on an equal basis, as Bertrand Russell urged decades ago – along with the Global South, indigenous knowledge, and knowledge from the past, particularly from the Enlightenment, the Romantics, the Renaissance and the ancients. Clearly and undeniably, the modern Western and Westernized world is drunk with power, suicidal, ecocidal, imperialist, and hell-bent on a course leading to the collapse of our civilization (sic). Our hubris will be our self-destruction if we carry on like this any longer. It is time for a little humility, and a good deal more open-mindedness.

*

Science did not begin in Europe in the 17th century. That is a conceit that needs to be laid to rest. The Islamic, Arab world preserved science from ancient Greece, and further developed it, before passing it generously to Europe (which was still by and large in an anti-intellectual dark age) through Moorish Spain, in the Spanish Renaissance of the 8th to 13th centuries, and then, 500 years later, to the Italian Renaissance. We owe, not the birth, but the rebirth of science, therefore, to the Spanish and Italian Renaissance, and to Islamic, Arabic society, and only secondarily to people like Newton, Bacon and Descartes. A little humility now will save our skin. It cannot be emphasized enough.

If by science, we mean an empirical method of investigating life, then science began in ancient Greece, and India and China, and probably in many other places, thousands of years ago. Modern science, which is a mere 400 years old, has produced great knowledge, and powerful technology. But we are foolish in the extreme and dangerously deluded if we equate technological power with wisdom, or even understanding. That surge in scientific knowledge and technological power has made modern society arrogant and filled with hubris, presuming we understand more than we do. That is error number one.

Science requires an open mind, and that requires humility. Dogma kills science, and dogma is what we have descended into. That is not science. It is scientism: which is the dogmatic and anti-scientific clinging to presumption, orthodoxy, high priests, official doctrines and an official canon.

Scientism is a form of medieval scholastic dogmatism, which is an ideology, a form of secular fundamentalism. That is what reigns now, not science. That is the second error: to take our over-confidence, and turn it into a religion, and a cult.

The third big error was to adopt Cartesian dualism. The fourth was to adopt a Newtonian mechanistic, atomistic, materialist reductionist model, paradigm or world view.

The fifth great error of modern science was to elevate that which can be measured, to the status of the only things worth investigating. The sixth was then to assume that what cannot be measured is either unimportant or unreal, non-existent.

These six errors, plus the common problems of (7) group-think, (8) egotism and careerism – it is more important to defend one’s ego than to value the truth, (9) corruption by conflicts of interest – science is overwhelmingly controlled by big business and the state, both of which have their own agendas, and truth is not high on the list; and (10) cultural bias, cultural arrogance, or simple racism – modern Europeans know best, therefore indigenous knowledge, Eastern knowledge, ancient, medieval and Renaissance knowledge, must all be worthless… These ten errors, we can now count and list, have blinded science, and have blinded the great majority of scientists, academics and intellectuals, and have blinded modern industrial society more broadly. That blindness will be our downfall, if not corrected immediately.

Again, humility and open-mindedness are imperative, and urgently needed. We are myopic blind men, quarrelling in the dark over shadows on a cave wall. And we will remain so, until and unless we redefine empiricism more broadly, and more thoughtfully, and until we admit our ignorance, so that we can once again learn.

Remember Socrates, the founder of Western philosophy. Socrates famously said, “I am the wisest person I know, because I am the only one who realizes his ignorance.” Begin with an open mind, and an admission of ignorance, or at least, an admission that what we think we know, could turn put to be entirely wrong. Otherwise, we are not practising science, nor are we even practicing basic intelligence.

There is a Zen story worth conveying here. A scholar comes to a Zen master and asks to be taught. The Zen master offers the scholar some tea. The scholar says yes. The Zen master pours the tea into the scholar’s cup, fills the cup to the top, then keeps on pouring. The scholar exclaims, “Stop! My cup is full!” The Zen master replies. “Precisely. Your cup is full. You mst empty your cup before it can be filled.” We are that bombastic scholar, heads too full of preconceptions to learn anything, or even to see or to hear.

As geneticist David Suzuki said, we really have very little understanding of life. He was talking about modern science. But ancient, Eastern, mystical and indigenous knowledge traditions have a great, immense understanding of life, in vast scope and tremendous depth. Modern science, by comparison, is obsessed with the dust on the lens as it peers obsessively through a microscope at the molecular structure of the bark of a single tree. “What is this forest you speak of? Sounds like flakey, voodoo mumbo-jumbo to me!”

Watch Mr. Magoo. That is modern science. Too narrow, too myopic, and therefore, stumblng blindly along. We must take a step back, and broaden and deepen our perspective. As Shakespeare said, “There is more to heaven and earth than is contained in your philosophy.”

To abandon science would be asinine, to put it bluntly; but to worship what we narrowly define as science, and hence, to turn science into a quasi-religious cult of scholastic dogmatism, which we have done, and to presume that what we narrowly define as science is the only valid means of acquiring knowledge, and the only valid body of knowledge, is even more asinine.

Science, to be truly worthy of the name, must be empirical, not dogmatic. But science, even then, can only tell us how the world works, and even that in a very limited and superficial degree. Science, even when practiced well, which means empirically, cannot tell us how to live, what is meaningful, what is ethical or virtu or what is wise or unwise to do. Science offers no values, only facts, or more pften, presumed facts and partial truths. Science therefore, even at its best, must be subservient to philosophy. And philosophy, to be practiced well, must be subsevient to experience, and to a radical empiricism. This is not a circular argument: it is taking empiricism to a much deeper level.

We can call it mysticism, or prophetic vision, but I prefer the term, radical empiricism, borrowing from William James and Allan Wallace. This means we take figures such as Jesus, the Buddha, Shakara, Moses, Meister Eckhart and Hildegaard of Bingen, Mohammed and Lao Tzu seriously. And we take our own experience seriously. Science now proclaims itself empirical, while invalidating direct experience. The radical self-contradiction is not perceived, but that is the root of our blindness in the modern world.

If you want to understand where science went wrong, read William Blake, There Is No Natural Religion. And read Emerson and Thoreau, America’s two greatest philosophers, for good measure. Until we admit our mistake, and radically expand our conception of empiricism and valid sources of knowledge, both science and modern “scientific” industrial society will remain blindly destructive, and we will continue to be on a collision course with reality, with full steam ahead.

*

This short essay began as a brief musing on feng shui, but then I remembered that many people are very narrow-minded about such things, so I wrote a short preamble. That preamble has taken on a life of its own now. But that is ok. Let’s continue.

As I have said before, and written before, the old paradigm, model or world view of Newtonian-Cartesian materialist reductionism, is dying, and we are in the midst of a paradigm shift which has been going on for over a century. (Old dogmas die slowly.) But… What is wrong with the old paradigm? Well, besides the fact that it no longer fits with the scientific evidence, the mechanistic, materialist world view has been blamed for being one of the root causes of our destruction of nature, and for the growing environmental emergency we face. That indictment holds water, and can scarcely be denied, since the mechanistic, materialist world view reduces all living beings, ecosystems, plants, animals, forests, wetlands, oceans, rivers, and human beings, to the level of mere objects, mere things, to be exploited and harvested, and disposed of at will.

For the same reason, the materialist world view has led to a deep alienation between humans and nature; which means, between ourselves and life. That alienation is in turn driving people into mass addiction, addictive consumerism, compulsive escapism and perpetual distraction, mental illness, suicide, anxiety and depression. So yes, for many reasons, aside from purely scientific reasons, the old model needs to be discarded, post haste.

*

One example of the utter failure and disastrous results of the grossly flawed model, paradigm, or world view of mechanistic, materialist reductionism, is the growing environmental crisis, as I have said, and as many have pointed out. Another example is the tremendous failure of modern “scientific” medicine. Despite all our much-vaunted scientific knowledge, we still have essentially zero success in treating the skyrocketing prevalence of chronic degenerative diseases, or mental illness and emotional distress. We can and do push freight train loads of pharmaceutical drugs, but these treat only the symptoms, and even those with patchy and poor success. The underlying causes remain largely ignored, because they require a holistic perspective, and that contradicts the official cannon and dogma of materialist reductionism. People are living longer, yes, but they are in general deeply unhealthy, both physically and psychologically, and they are living longer while saddled with multiple pharmaceutical dependencies, each of which has its own, often serious side-effects.

For context, a couple of figures that are not widely known, should become known. the US government has reported that 80% of pharmaceutical drugs have not been adequately tested for safety or effectiveness. That should be alarming. But why would this be the case? How could this be the case? It is the case because the big pharmaceutical companies are driven by concerns for profits, over and above public health. And it is the case because the pharmaceutical industry took over the medical colleges and the medical industry a century ago. It is corruption above, and dogmatic group think and indoctrination below – in the medical health field, and in our very much business-run society more broadly.

Worse yet, according to the US government, in the US alone, every year 200,000 people die from taking pharmaceutical drugs – correctly prescribed and correctly taken. That’s the equivalent of a fully loaded jumbo jet crashing every day. The US government report never made it on the news media, and the governments and the corporate and state media don’t mention it, because Big Pharma is too powerful to cross. Meanwhile, the much-decried natural health and traditional Eastern (TCM and Ayurveda) medical-health methods produce zero documented deaths per year. This is one of the many reasons why conventional Western pharmaceutical-obsessed medicine is in crisis, and is furthermore seeing an exodus to natural medicine and Eastern methods.

Andrew Weill is right: the future of medicine is integrative medicine. That means, we take the best of modern Western conventional medicine, and integrate it with the best of natural and Eastern medicine. The faster the dogmatists accept the fact, the better off we will all be.

*

Now, to briefly discuss feng shui – from a layman’s perspective.

It seems to be the case that Western feng shui is a modern Western pop culture, New Age invention, and is not in accord with classical feng shui. So, if you are going to use feng shui, which in essence is a practice of harmonizing energy in homes and buildings and landscapes, make sure it is classical feng shui, not fast food feng shui. Second, it must take into account the specific home design, compass orientation, and natal charts. I’d say this is too complex to do on your own. Get a consultation with someone knowledgeable in classical feng shui. Otherwise, it can be like wiring up your own electrical breaker panel – too risky for novice hands. Consult a pro. 

Normally I’d say you can do everything yourself. You can design and grow a garden, and grow your own food if you want to. You can build your own home, design it and build it yourself, even wire it, if you study up. But for wiring a breaker panel, get an electrician. It is out of bounds for laymen and novices. And for feng shui, consult someone who knows what they are doing. Otherwise, you could cause disharmony and harmful negativity when you wanted to do the opposite.

*

I would offer the same advice with regards to yoga and meditation: stick to the classic methods, tested and proven to be effective for over 2,000 years. When you are fully enlightened, then you can invent your own style. Until then, bow your head before the true masters, and humbly learn what they have to teach.

(Be wary of New Age MacThis and MacThat. It is far too unreliable, to hit and miss, too much a case of Russian roulette, to entrust your health or spirituality to it – even though there may be, and are, some gems among that heap.)

For yoga, I know of two schools that are definitely reliable, who teach classic yoga: Sivananda and Kripalu. Other approaches or styles may not harm you, but you may not get the same depth or benefit, either.

For meditation, I would stick to Zen, Theravada, or one of the four traditional schools of Tibetan Buddhism. Again, New Age meditation teachers may not do you any harm, but you may simply be wasting your time, and likely are.

Don’t try to reinvent the wheel. Not in this case. Not with yoga or meditation. Those systems and methods are based on thousands of years of experience. Stick to the classic techniques that have been developed over millennia. Avoid the fluff.

Modern society is addicted to novelty and newness. Everything must be the latest fashion – even in spirituality or health. But this is foolish. The best things remain unchanging. Only the superficial things change. Do not be superficial. Stick to what works. In home design and construction, sometimes in technology (though not always) and in many fields, new ideas are sometimes better ideas. Not when it comes to yoga, meditation, or spirituality.

Remember the saying from Aikido: “Big lake, but shallow. Small lake, but deep.” It is depth you should be looking for, not novelty. This is not a shopping mall approach. Find a path that works for you, and that is not based in some New Age egotist’s self-aggrandizement scheme, and stick to that. Find novelty elsewhere in your life. (Plant a garden, and read widely.) When it comes to health and spirituality, you need to focus, and you need depth. Don’t jump all over the place. Don’t dig shallow wells. Study broadly, think broadly, discuss broadly – but pick a spiritual or health approach that works for you, and go deep. That will produce results. Skittering across the surface of things will not.

*

For clarity sake, let me add this. While it is now imperative that we allow the East into our minds on an equal footing, as Bertrand Russell urged many years ago, and do the same for indigenous knowledge, the Global South, the Enlightenment, the Renaissance and the ancients – because if we do not, modern Western, and Westernized industrial society, will most likely destroy the very basis of life on Earth; that does not mean we must have a mass conversion to Eastern or native spirituality. We must become renewed in our confidence, our dignity, and also our humility, yes. But we can still keep our own spiritual traditions, or our secular traditions, if that is what you prefer. It simply means that we must, of necessity, now broaden our minds.

The stakes now, are not only our wisdom, or capacity for wisdom, or our health, happiness or well-being, but our very survival. We need to draw upon the best of human knowledge and wisdom, from across the world, and across the spans of time. It is truly that imperative. And it should be exciting. No doubt this is a very challenging time. But it is a very exciting time, as well. We are witnessing nothing short of a rebirth of our world. And that is both painful, and also joyous.

JTR,

July 3, 2021

For more up to date scientific models than what the dogmatic materialists are offering, see:

Einstein, Schrodinger, Wheeler, Bohm, Vandana Shiva, Joanna Macy, Ken Wilber, David Suzuki, Rupert Sheldrake, Rene Weber, Michael Talbot, Thomas Kuhn, and Allan Wallace, as a foundation.

Unfortunately I am too new to feng shui to give specific references on that subject at this point, sorry. But stay tuned! I am always learning, and you should be too! That is, after all, the true scientific mindset, and the only intelligent approach to life. Shun dogma. Stay open-minded. And… Keep learning!

Historical Bias Is The Norm: An Example – The Real Origins of The Renaissance

In the generally well-made history documentary, 1,000 AD – A Tour of Europe (a History Time, YouTuber video linked below) at just 13 minutes in, there is already one giant, elephant-sized error – a common one, which is almost universal among historians of the West. Examining this one common, seismic scale, nearly universal illusion, propounded by nearly all Western historians, colleges, universities and history books, will not only enlighten us, but hopefully, and even more importantly, encourage people to think for themselves, to question everything, and to not be so utterly vulnerable and susceptible to commonplace illusions, propaganda or group-think, which pass for informed, educated, scholarly opinion, or worse, for facts.

Do not assume that YouTube videos are reliable sources of information, even if they sound authoritative and are visually well-made. Likewise, do not assume your history books, history teachers, or history professors, or your bookish intellectual friends, know what they are talking about. Generally they get the details right, though often not; but they almost invariably cannot see the forest for the trees – and they radically mistake and misrepresent the bigger picture or larger narrative, as a result of their own indoctrination, naively, and out of simple ignorance and delusion, or commonly shared illusions. This, we call being “educated”. (See Chomsky on the media, indoctrination and thought control, and on education.)

While the German kings of the Holy Roman Empire are portrayed in the documentary in generally positive, even glowing terms, as rightful emperors of Europe, and heavy focus and attention is given to them; meanwhile, a scant few seconds is devoted to Andalusia, where, we are told, by stark contrast, “a brutal tyrant” ruled (unlike the German kings, who were, of course, righteous and holy), a place in southern Europe where, in the 8th century, under Moorish/Islamic rule, the Spanish Renaissance had begun – the Renaissance which pre-dated the Italian Renaissance by *500 years*, and which was the true beginning of the Renaissance in Europe; a place and time where the spirit of “convivienthia”, or living together peacefully, was the motto and the norm, where the Islamic, Christian and Jewish people lived together in a very tolerant and cosmopolitan culture, where the exchange of ideas flowed freely – which is always what brings about a renaissance – and in Moorish Spain, where a Renaissance had begun, the people lived in general peace, while the warring tribes and nations of the rest of Europe were perpetually at each others’ throats, and living like barbaric savages, by comparison. But, as is the norm in history, cultural bias and massive distortions of historical facts and the true historical narrative, are passed off as informed and scholarly, objective truths.

The people of Andalusia, in what is now southern Spain, in the 8th-11th century began the Renaissance that, over the span of 700 years, swept slowly across a reluctant and recalcitrant Europe, which in general clung to the ways and beliefs of the Dark Ages, and clung to their habits of warring, perpetual bigotry, division, hubris and hate, authoritarianism and narrowness of mind. But this fact, of the real origins of the Renaissance, has been swept from mind in European history, because the true founders of the Renaissance, the people of Andalusia, had the wrong skin colour and the wrong religion. They were darker of skin, and worse, they were ruled by Islamic governments.

The Renaissance is commonly said to have begun in Florence, Italy, with the patronage of the Medici banking family. Firstly, the Medicis didn’t come to power in Florence until the mid-1400s. The Italian Renaissance, which began in Florence, began in the 1200s, and was inspired by St. Francis, not the Medicis – and it began two hundred years before the Medicis even rose to power. The Medicis funded Renaissance artists, to be sure – but only after the Renaissance had been flourishing for two centuries. They were late-comers, who wanted to claim the glory for themselves – as all elites, in their tendency toward hubris and egomania, tend to do.

St. Francis, in turn, was inspired by Hildegard of Bingen, the 12th century German mystic, theologian, philosopher, composer, musician, doctor, healer, polymath and activist. So we should rightly view St. Francis and Hildegard of Bingen as the true founder of, first, the German Renaissance, which began in the 12th century, and the Italian Renaissance, which began shortly afterward. But that doesn’t fit with the official narrative, of the triumph of secular humanism and the rejection of a spiritual world-view, so that has also been unacceptable. But the humanism of the Renaissance was not a rejection of spirituality, but rather, an enlivening compliment to it, which was meshed and fused with spirituality.

How many giant, glaring errors of historical omission and distortion can we have with regards to one single, albeit pivotal, era of history, which are taken as objective, scholarly, indisputable historical fact? A shocking number, with a shocking, and mind-numbing gravity to each, is the true answer.

Wikipedia, that bastion of utterly unreliable information, which frequently if not typically is simply a source of gross distortions and misinformation, says of the Spanish Renaissance that it spread from the Italian Renaissance, and came in the 14th and 15th centuries. The fact is that the Spanish Renaissance began in the 8th century, and spread to Italy, giving birth to the Italian Renaissance, and not the other way around. Never rely on Wikipedia for anything. And do question everything.

We can and should, and must, trace the origins and the birthplace of the Renaissance back to its beginning, naturally, if we are true scholars, and not merely pseudo-intellectuals, mouthing the confused and deeply distorted narratives that we have been indoctrinated into accepting as the veritable word of God on the matter. And the real origins of the Renaissance in Europe, which transformed Europe, and brought Europe out of the Dark Ages, were in Spain, in Andalusia, in the 8th century, 500 years before the Italian Renaissance got going.

History is written by the conquerors – and we all lose by losing the real story, the fuller story, the more honest story. It is high time we reclaimed the bigger picture. And by we, I mean humanity, in all its wondrous diversity.

– J. Todd Ring,
Author of, Enlightened Democracy,
and,
The People vs The Elite
February 28, 2021

Find my books and essays on Amazon, Barnes & Noble,
WordPress, Patreon and Minds.

As I say, the history documentary referred to above and linked here below is generally well done, but glaring errors of massive implications must be pointed out and corrected.

*********************************************

Important Reading In History – The Clearing of the Fog:

Year 501: The Conquest Continues – Noam Chomsky

Stolen Continents – Ronald Wright

A Short History of Progress – Ronald Wright

The Ecology of Freedom – Murray Bookchin

The Chalice and The Blade – Rianne Eisler

Mutual Aid – Peter Kropotkin

The Wayfinders – Wade Davis

The No-Nonsense Guide To World History – Chris Brazier

A People’s History of the United States – Howard Zinn

The CIA’s Greatest Hits – Mark Zepezauer

Blowback: America’s Secret Recruitment of Nazis and Its Disastrous Effect on US Foreign and Domestic Policy – Christopher Simpson & Mark Crispin Miller

Overviews of philosophy, religion, politics, history & sociology: where one might begin – or continue in more depth

Fascinating look here, in this BBC podcast (linked below), at the history, sociology, psychology, theology and politics of fundamentalism, evangelism, millennialism & apocalyptism. See also, Michael Grosso’s, The Millennium Myth, & The Millennium Book of Prophecy by John Hogue.

My own views in terms of religious philosophy, political philosophy and the philosophy of history are more influenced by people like Joseph Campbell (The Hero With A Thousand Faces), Thomas Merton, Alan Watts, Allan Wallace, Joanna Macy, Plotinus, Spinoza, Meister Eckhart, The Gospel of Thomas, Aldous Huxley, Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu, Shankara, Patanjali, Nagarjuna and the Buddha – which is to say, broadly speaking, the Perennial Philosophy (the view, not just the book); along with Murray Bookchin (The Ecology of Freedom), Noam Chomsky (Necessary Illusions), Kropotkin (Mutual Aid) and left libertarianism, Weber and Fromm, Montaigne, Blake, Emerson and Thoreau; and the core values of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment: humility with confidence and dignity in balance, openness, liberty, equality and solidarity.

But in order to understand America and the West, we need to look more broadly at the cultural and historical, political and sociological currents, which have shaped and continue to shape our actions and our thoughts. It is true, we must have some understanding of our past in order to understand our present or our future; and if we do not understand our past, then we are most likely doomed to repeat our worst mistakes, ad infinitum, or until we extinguish ourselves from this Earth.

J. Todd Ring,

January 27, 2021

Gender, Hierarchy, Civilization & Collapse: A Few Thoughts

 

What did Sumeria ever do for us? Invented writing, our concepts of time, irrigation, cities, created the first literature…little stuff like that.

Sumeria predates ancient Egypt, Babylon, Greece, and Biblical times, though it was a completely forgotten civilization until very recently. The civilization spanned roughly 3,500 years, between 5,500 BCE & 1,750 BCE.

Remember, modern Western civilization is a mere 400 years old. Just a baby, by comparison.

The Sumerian civilization, mythology and writings inspired the book of Genesis and Homer, for example, and provided one of the primary the seedbeds for Western civilization, such as it is. Unfortunately they also invented or co-invented war, empire, conquest, ecological degradation, class division, hierarchy, plunder and inequality. Crappy stuff we’re still living with today. 

They did uphold gender equality, however. Mind you, this seems to indicate Eisler was wrong and Bookchin was right: hierarchy spreads as a corrosive social model that comes to infect everything, but it does not necessarily begin with gender. 

“Even so, the culture had been struggling to retain its autonomy ever since the Amorites had gained power in Babylon. A shift in cultural influence, evidenced in many respects but, notably, in the male-female ratio of the Mesopotamian pantheon, came with the rise to power of the Semitic Amorites in Babylon and, especially, during the reign of Hammurabi (r. 1792-1750 BCE) who completely reversed the Sumerian theological model in elevating a supreme male god, Marduk, over all others. Temples dedicated to goddesses were replaced by those for gods and, even though the goddesses’ temples were not destroyed, they were marginalized.

At this same time, women’s rights – which were traditionally on par with men’s – declined as did the great Sumerian cities. Overuse of the land and urban expansion, coupled with ongoing conflicts, are cited as the primary reasons for the fall of the cities. The correlation between the decline in the status of female deities and women’s rights has never been adequately explained – it is unknown which came first – but it is a telling detail in the decline of a culture which had always held women in high regard. By the time the Elamites invaded c. 1750 BCE, the Sumerian culture was already deteriorating and the [invading] Elamites simply finished the process.”

   – Joshua J. Mark, Ancient History Encyclopedia 

Hierarchy, inequality of class, empire, war, conquest, pillage and plunder, and ecological destruction: all of these things existed in Sumer alongside gender equality, it seems, and gender equality both in terms of cultural values, religion and mythology, and in practice. Therefore, we have to conclude that gender imbalance is a severe social, spiritual, and moral problem, but the evidence seems to indicate that it is not the root of all evils that it is sometimes presented to be.

That being said, when gender imbalance begins, society rapidly spirals into ever deeper problems, because the fundamental balance between agency and communion is destroyed; until the society finally collapses, or rediscovers a balance.

Sumeria was well on the way to collapse, regardless of external threats, exactly as with the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Internal imbalance always brings internal decline, and finally, either an eventual renaissance and rebirth, or the collapse of the civilization.

“Sumerian was well established as the written language by the late 4th century BCE and Sumerian culture, religion, architecture, and other significant aspects of civilization were as well. The literature of the Sumerians would influence later writers, notably the scribes who wrote the Bible, as their tales of The Myth of Adapa, The Eridu Genesis, and The Atrahasis would inform the later biblical accounts of the Garden of Eden, Fall of Man, and the Great Flood. Enheduanna’s works would become the models for later liturgy, Mesopotamian animal fables would be popularized by Aesop, and The Epic of Gilgamesh would inspire works such as the Iliad and Odyssey.

The concept of the gods living in the city’s temple, as well as the shape and size of the Sumerian ziggurat, is thought to have influenced the Egyptian development of the pyramid and their beliefs about their own gods. The Sumerian concept of time, as well as their writing system, was also adopted by other civilizations. The Sumerian cylinder seal – an individual’s sign of personal identification – remained in use in Mesopotamia until c. 612 BCE and the fall of the Assyrian Empire. There was literally no area of civilization the Sumerians did not make some contribution to but, for all their strengths, their culture began to decline long before it fell.”

   – Joshua J. Mark

Their civilization began to decline long before it fell and actually collapsed. Then as now. History is repeating.

We must regain the balance, in multiple ways, or we too are headed for collapse.

“When I observe the ruts in a road, I am compelled to think, how much deeper the ruts in the mind.”

– Henry David Thoreau

But as Thoreau said, it is never too late to give up our bad habits, or our old ideas. Remember: “There is more day yet to dawn. The sun is but a morning star.”

JTR,

May 19, 2020

Post-Script:

On a comic note, for comedic relief, note this. Trump must have been advising the Sumerians on wall construction. Something was clearly amiss. The futility is amusing, in any case. Decline and collapse was due to internal factors, not external threats. But it surely is a Homer Simpson moment to build a wall, and not even get the basic concept right!

“The Sumerian civilization collapsed c. 1750 BCE with the invasion of the region by the Elamites. Shulgi of Ur had erected a great wall in 2083 BCE to protect his people from just such an invasion but, as it was not anchored at either end, it could easily be walked around – which is precisely what the invaders did.”

Wow. Is that how historians will look at us in 4,000 years, presuming humans are alive on Earth by then? Ending our civilization with one big, “Doh!”

Oh, Marg….

 

Critical Reading:

Rianne Eisler, The Chalice and The Blade

Murray Bookchin, The Ecology of Freedom

Erich Fromm, Escape From Freedom

Ronald Wright, A Short History Of Progress

Wade Davis, The Wayfinders

David Suzuki, Elders’ Wisdom

Joanna Macy, World As Lover, World As Self

Allan Wallace, Choosing Reality

Noam Chomsky, Year 501

Noam Chomsky, Necessary Illusions

Henry David Thoreau, Walden and On Civil Disobedience

Joseph Campbell, The Hero With A Thousand Faces