The Heart of Darkness

Dennis Praeger states that lying is the source of great evil. I know that Eric H. and others lament that committing a crime is one thing, but far more vitiating is the attempt to cover it up. The cover up is a pattern of lies that makes evil done become systemic. The rot spreads wide and deep.

Only as an awake individual does one exist in the truth, breathe the truth, feel the truth and cogitate along the lines of veracity. Where that acute individual loves and enjoys a close relationship with the Higher Power, the interlocking connections to truthful being is powerfully reinforced. 

Group living, with all its demands for conformity of thought and behavior, is living the lie. Therein, reside dark powers. There resides the heart of darkness.

Looking Beyond Pessimism

11/17/2010

                                                      

To be thirty years old or older: one had gained weight and gone soft. One’s hair is thinning and premature gray hair is showing. Youthful idealism has long deserted one. One’s career and relationships have not panned out as one once planned.  One feels that time has passed one by. One no longer feels relevant. One’s life feels like a wasteland. One’s hope is shattered. The future looks like an infinite horizon, where each day is just a bleak copy of the boring, dreary, and previous day. 

For too many people, this is how they perceive their spot in the world. There is always hope. No matter how true the pessimistic viewpoint represented above was yesterday, tomorrow is a new day, a fine opportunity to make things better.

I am an optimist and an idealist.  No matter where one is at, from that jumping off point, one can work tirelessly and shrewdly to better one’s lot and improve the world. We must envision that it can happen, before we will act and work to make it happen. Things will improve. Our life, even our suffering, will not be without purpose. We can make a difference. Things soon will be looking up.

The Double-Edge Sword Called Power

J. R. R.  Tolkien was prophetic in doubting that we can wholly trust anyone, especially ourselves. Even when we strive mightily to be strong and honest, we are weak. Often we fail and backslide. Worse yet, we often and willingly embrace temptation.

All humans are very corruptible. The more centralized and the more formally wielded and officially assigned are personal allotments of that available political, economic and institutional power, the more risky and corrupting it is for each person to wield that power.

Due to the predictable danger inherent in such power-wielding, is the answer to wield no power? No, the individuator and each undeveloped person must wield at minimum bestowed personal power. Too often the unprepared person even botches this responsibility.

The trick to moral, successful wielding of power is to decentralize its distribution into the hands of individuators surrounded by millions of other, free, democratized and willful power-wielders. So distributed, much lessened are the dangers of wielding such power. At the very least, they will not lust so much for the power of powerlessness. On this negative side of the equation, the competition among millions of wielders will lead to their canceling out pernicious side effects. The influence of power-wielding on society is kept harmless. On the plus side, the beneficial result of power-wielding is to make society grow and progress. 

To get to this point, humans must pledge to take five steps and then do it. Here are the steps:

First, the life of individuating must have gained wide adherence among citizens.

Second, all must admit that they are sinners whose lives will be wrecked and whose souls will be fallen, should they choose to accumulate power to themselves.

Third, by accepting that people are basically evil, they will fear the handling of power in a destructive, centralized fashion.

Fourth, by admitting that none is exempt from the innate, human proclivity to be corrupted by amassing power to oneself at any time, each likely has the awareness and will to repel the compelling urge to amass power.

Fifth, each pledges and acts in such a way as to work ceaselessly to keep power decentralized.