Our Human Condition

By John, January 1, 2019

Happy New Year!

A somewhat vacuous statement that we’ll hear for a day or so this week. But how can we ensure that this year will indeed be a happy one?

Well, we can continue our search for true freedom, the freedom to choose what we do every day instead of dancing to someone else’s tune. That way lies true freedom for the individual at least.

However, the freedom of choice for each of us doesn’t necessarily equate with good. My personal choice might be to fuck up someone else’s life through revenge or malice…it doesn’t, but you can see where this is going.

Yes, this year I want to aspire to greater heights alongside each of our individual quests and what could be a better or more worthy quest than an end to conflict, poverty, hunger and war? While we’re at it, why don’t we do something about Climate Change? Lofty aspirations by any measure, but easily within our grasp if we could only get to grips with the differences between cause and effect. The very essence of this lies in an understanding of the Human Condition.

It’s a massive and far reaching subject to tackle in a Happy New Year Blog Post, so this year I’m dedicating myself to exploring this idea as far as my little brain will allow and I would love to have some help.

Gonna have a war to keep us on our knees

At a time when it seems like the world has split into a few dangerous tribes, the danger in the comparative brevity of the individual human lifespan installing a common forgetfulness about the relatively recent past, has us staring down the barrel of a new wave of right wing fascism, hatred, bigotry and an apparent complete disregard for each other’s welfare and happiness. The powerful are taking advantage of the social media bubble to further the lining of their pockets by stirring up hate and accentuating difference, at a time when we should be consolidating our previously hard won unities and peaceful enterprises.

They want to have a war to keep us on our knees,

They want to have a war to keep their factories,

They want to have a war to stop us buying Japanese,

They want to have a war to stop Industrial Disease

Industrial Disease, Dire Straits

Brexit in the UK is one such fuck up in my mind. In almost every argument for this idiotic scheme the subject of greatest importance is the Economy, as if that was even a real thing, and a close second comes racism…“how can we stop people who talk different and eat slightly different food from us coming to live here in our place?”

This is exactly how almost every war in history has started and we all know how futile that is. The European Union has reigned over the longest period of peace in mainland Europe in many centuries, but now the Tory party want to fuck that up. At a time when Britain has the tiniest armed force ever, the English are beating their dumb chests and singing Britannia Rules the Waves. Just yesterday we were subjected to all of the stupid anointments of medals and honourable memberships of the great British Empire being bestowed on those with social clout (celebrities)…and the uber vacuous of this parish obediently puffed up their chests with pride, failing to see that they are being used in a game that started with and will continue to support the oppression and in some cases extinction of those who aren’t like us.

Anyway, I probably didn’t need to point all of that out to you, but you can see what’s happening here. The powerful find it most easy to conquer when they first divide us and pit us against one another…2019 UK, smells a lot like 1939 Germany to me!

After Brexit, unless some very well intentioned people with true knowledge of the Human Condition arise to take the reins, I predict another war in Europe in our lifetime. Although we might have no desire to become politicians or indeed one of the powerful, We are those people.

Duality and the Human Obsession with Symptoms

One aspect of being human that must be overcome is our obsession with Symptoms. This arises from our inherent split personalities as described by Jung, Plato and even alluded to within the Bible and probably all of the Good Books of the major world religions. It is certainly the key tenet of the peace driven thought system that is Buddhism.

You can observe Symptoms Thinking in almost every corner of every day life. In fact it is hard to observe anything else if we’re honest. Some examples:

This obsession with dealing with Symptoms rather than digging deeper to find the root cause of the problems we face is a very human one. In fact it isn’t that we don’t know we are just tickling the surface, it’s that we actually prefer it that way, otherwise we would have to face down our arch nemesis once and for all…Our Self.

Add to this equation a relatively un-illuminated Illuminati and you have the perfect recipe for perpetual suffering as described by the Buddha himself 2500 years ago and expounded later by Jesus Christ and all of the other wise religious teachers. In fact this is the source of the Heaven and Hell stories in those great books. Unfortunately the meanings of these texts are so deeply hidden in out-dated metaphor that we dismiss them as fairy stories. The are actually telling us about our own nature…The Human Condition.

So, regardless of how well intentioned and deeply qualified David Attenborough and Al Gore are in urging us to take action on Climate Change to save the planet, they are unfortunately barking up the wrong tree if they expect actions that will achieve that goal. And that is because Man Driven Climate Change is merely a symptom of Man’s greater trouble that is the underlying Duality of human existence.

At the root this is a conflict in every human individual between Instinct and Rationality. Our Instinct says “don’t touch that fire”, but our Rational brain says “I’ll just touch it to make sure my instinct is right, anyway, Ouch!

The Spiral of Disappointment

The trouble with this internal battle between our relatively new rational brain and our ancient instinctive brain, is that the conflict is born into us now as we are so many generations on from that first meeting of the minds.

But our continued focus on Symptoms will always result in more suffering. here’s an example from direct experience:

 

The reason for routine use of chemical fungicides resulting in more fungal disease in crops is that it doesn’t take heed of the underlying ecology of the field the crops are growing in. Factory farming is leading us down a spiral of doom that will one day result in there not being enough food to go around. Meantime, though it is resulting in a human population explosion due to the relative abundance of factory farmed food. The techniques employed to achieve this are depleting the world’s soils and reducing overall human health.

Soil Fungi form huge underground networks that are vital to the on-going health of soils and plants that has been described as the Wood Wide Web. Mycorrhizal Fungi play a fundamental role in a perennial plant’s ability to extract enough nutrients and water from the soil and in general soil health:

Chemical Fungicides are broad spectrum, i.e. they kill any fungus they come into contact with. Combined with other factory farming methods, this gradually depletes the soil of beneficial fungi species, leaving plants exposed to only the pathogens, therefore requiring more fungicide.

This kind of Symptoms thinking abounds in almost every sphere of human existence now including Climate Science, Agriculture, Medicine, Education, Law Enforcement and ultimately Government and Politics. This in and of itself is also a Symptom of one thing…The Human Condition. The duality of rational versus Instinct. Both can serve us well if we can only recognise and reconcile the conflict within.

I’ll expand on these ideas as the year progresses and would love to hear from you on this subject. Meantime…I wish you a very happy and meaningful 2019 and will leave you with some reading suggestions to help you take this further:

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