Imagining our place in the universe requires consideration of physical and spiritual ramifications. And whether you believe that we are at the center of the universe or dwell on its edge, the work and thoughts of Copernicus and Galileo are relevant. These broad-minded thinkers contradicted conventional wisdom and suffered for their inspiration and enlightenment. They have yet to be fully appreciated.
Galileo verified the concepts of Copernicus through his own observations and calculations. He confirmed that the Earth was rotating on its axis. His findings were treated as the disinformation of his day and got him into deep trouble. Galileo’s scandalous claim that our planet was orbiting around the Sun — and not vice-versa — threatened those who needed to maintain control. He was ostracised, ridiculed, and deemed a heretic by the Church for not accepting mainstream dogma.
Galileo’s scientific views did not reduce his spiritual sensibilities. Considering the extent of his discoveries, he actually perceived a universe that imagined creation in a greater realm than our relatively tiny solar system. Those who suppressed his knowledge recognized the potential effect of Galileo’s discoveries; they knew these ideas threatened the liberation of the human soul from their clutches.
Despite historical and scientific attestations, and because of continuing machinations of those who retain material power, this repression of the mind by an Earth-centered consortium continues unabated.
Even though the knowledge of the physical placement of Earth is widely accepted, the profound implications are ignored and intentionally repressed by similar forces that crushed Galileo. Despite nearly five hundred years of development in thinking and evaluation, the repercussions of his findings remain elusive.
It is partly because the sun still appears to rise and set, and the pull of gravity and our provincial sensibilities continue to provide a false impression of our preeminence. Our self-consciousness gives us the comforting delusion that we are looking outwards from the concentric foundations of the core of life.
This fallacy is the cause of many problems in our current reality. Humans act as if we are at the apex of civilization and are dwelling in the nucleus of an infinite cosmos revolving around us. This attitude drives most of our planetary activities and decisions.
We remain under the spell of this grand illusion; our existence is of the highest import to the destiny of all creation. This viewpoint feels objective and justifiable, and most people rarely stop to question it.
This mindset has some truth; we dwell within the heart of our personal universe. It is essential to our survival mechanism that we feel central and not lost in the world around us. This perspective is also a powerful factor in skewing the processing of the challenges we face.
It is also a limitation that accounts for many problems, particularly because of the dominant and persuasive, individuals and organizations that take advantage of, and reinforce our limited view of reality.
A narrow view of existence makes it easier for those with control to fiercely insist that they hold all the solutions to the growing problems of our day. And anyone who challenges them or gets in their way must be silenced. This serves the purpose of those who would use any means to maintain their power.
The Great Pirates
In his historical essay of 1968, Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth, Buckminster Fuller, futurist and inventor of the geodesic dome, describes the conquest and colonization of the planet initially by Europeans as the age of the great pirates. He marks the end of that era with World War I, followed by a subsequent attempt by a different breed of buccaneers who began taking advantage of a time when the planet’s fate was precarious.
We now witness the reign of the last of the pirates in their final self-destructive, single-minded grasp for profits and control.
The struggle between the conflict-generating profiteers and those who recognize that reducing conflict is the only path to sustaining human life on the planet is coming to a head. The modern pirates are in defiant denial, leading their final charge against anything that might get in the way of gargantuan treasure chests. They must lie, cheat, pillage, or kill in order to maintain their facade so that they can control events on the planet, even as crises abound.
They deceive, entice and encourage scapegoating to protect their status. Maintaining ignorance is an important part of their work. And anyone opposing these marauders and their skewed vision of the world become the object of derision, ridicule, and threats of violence.
The pirates of today: pharmaceutical, armament, petroleum, and agricultural industry giants — are the heirs to the developers of these repressive tactics — and all follow the same script. Their government lackeys smite deviant thinking and free speech in the name of maintaining social order.
Subjugation of Nature
Our challenge today is neither new nor unique. The powerful corporate entities and their hired enforcers cause and exacerbate problems — and then provide relief at exorbitant costs. They have a vested interest in the identical status quo that quashed Galileo — and despise the growth of the human spirit.
On our third rock from the sun, the sum of all of these detrimental industrial and corporate contrivances is now deemed a climate crisis. It is so much more than that. The devious, expensive, makeshift countermeasures reveal the true intent and approach.
The hubris in considering climate change a symptom that needs treatment is only confirmation of human recklessness with nature. Usually, the disdain for nature is disguised, although occasionally the contempt is overt; other examples, small and large, are plentiful.
The prolific use of mood-altering drugs or narcotics to fight epidemics of depression and pain is self-revelatory.
During the recent coronavirus fiasco, natural immunity has been marginalized, fueled by the flagrant promotion of a useless and dangerous vaccine.
Adding additional chemicals to the atmosphere to dampen the effects of human pollutants is a telling display of pouring fuel on the fire.
In the most evident demonstration of defiance of nature, we are repeatedly told that to satisfy our natural instinct for a peaceful life, it is necessary to fund gargantuan budgets on defense, to fight endless wars against prescribed enemies.
The subjugation and degradation of nature are at the core of every problem we face. Whether ignoring, denying, or fighting these self-igniting disasters, the public is manipulated in an effort to minimize the need for changing detrimental activities.
Polluted water and air, chemical spills, denuded forests, and microplastics permeating land, sea, and the atmosphere are undoubtedly caused by those of our species with complete disregard for the integrity of the planet. Severe weather, rising oceans, and fluctuating temperatures are both part of long-term natural cycles and evidence of the human ability to exacerbate these trends.
The combination of all influences results in severe global storming that is undeniable.
Extortionists have insisted that imbalances were normal phases, even a necessity, and claimed they were tolerable for the longest time. However, their practices are turning the Earth into a toxic dump. And now that the stench can’t be hidden and the fringes are smoldering as greater incineration lurks — denial has turned into demands for absolute control.
We are now ordered to trust these virulent forces in their efforts to clean up the mess they created.
Mutiny Is A State Of Mind
Many of us recognize that the very same elements in society responsible for conditions that aggravate our planetary homeostasis are profiting from providing ineffective and dangerous solutions.
We have allowed the same vainglorious pirates and their cutthroat government co-conspirators to control the response to incomparable manmade disasters. There is no apparent change of course, and we are repeatedly asked to pay the price and suffer whatever restrictions are imposed.
Their ruse has become blatantly apparent.
This is far beyond the fox guarding the hen house; it is more like allowing the fox to build the hen house with his own entrance. And regrettably, this fox can’t comprehend that if he kills all the chickens, there will be no more eggs.
The huge crisis is not environmental, nor about climate; these are just symptoms. The growing disaster on Earth is attributable to the narrow-minded, self-centeredness, and self-destructive ethnocentricity that leadership encourages and benefits from.
Their greatest weapon is promoting divisiveness; and those who are entranced by a false reality are easy to divide.
We can no longer continue to follow those who claim to be guarding us against the destructiveness they engender — as they are leading us over a cliff. Yet without the weapon of a polarized view, the fear-mongering and pirating will end.
It is time to look out to the heavens and recognize that humility and ethical principles are the foundation of decorum, grace, and dignity. This comportment is essential for all crises to be diminished and eliminated.
There will be no course correction of Planet Earth without a great mutiny against the current paradigm; our minds must be willing to recognize and choose a creative way.
The question is a philosophical one and the prison is too. The schools teach that life is an accident caused by a big bang or quantum flutter. There is no afterlife.
The only rational response is fear, but science will come to the rescue and we can upload our consciousness to the cloud and live forever. Whoopee. I’m not making this up, they really think like this.
Some believe they have a soul, but apparently haven’t thought this through too well either, because they seem to be afraid of where their soul will go, which can be a worrisome consideration.
If something is eternal (since it is highly unlikely that absolute nothing produced something), then so is our soul.
If our soul is eternal, it means it can’t be harmed, in which case all efforts to save it are rendered redundant. What can’t be harmed needs no saving. So what is the prison? The prison is fear.
Brilliant. Bravo.
I see a humanity living in harmony with the planet and all her species. The trees and fungus having been doing it for millennia. Surely we can learn from them?
I see a return to nature as the way forward. We should embrace ourselves as animals of the Earth, the Earth which provides an abundance for us to all thrive together. There is more than enough for everyone. There is so much art and culture and innovation still to come.
The current capitalist monetary system has failed. It will always go down the path of corruption. Creating wealth and material cannot be our primary directive as a species. It is inauthentic.