Salvation

"Listen, the next revolution is gonna be a revolution of ideas." - Bill Hicks

As a species, the journey that humanity is undoubtedly on, given our more recent history and the current status quo, leads in only one direction - straight off the edge of a cliff. The ruinous path that the world's ruling elite have set us all upon is paved with gold (for them) whilst the rest of us meander along, often blissfully unaware that all that glitters is indeed not gold.

This isn't a political piece. Its not dystopian fiction either. Yet I am painfully aware that I will already have lost a good number of readers purely on the content of my opening sentence. For many, the perceived reality of the world and the actual state of things do not align. Such is the nature of the mass manipulation by the plutocrats who set the narratives, and the power that their backers in the mainstream media and politics hold by spreading and spinning those narratives, and the strength of our natural, inbuilt, human resistance to change.

I humbly but strongly advise the reader who hasn't already switched off at this point to have a read of one or two articles by the incredibly insightful Caitlin Johnstone, particularly this piece and this one too. She sums up the situation we all face far more eloquently and succinctly than I can.

So, for those who are 'awake', who see through the smoke and mirrors and crave a better way of life for humanity, for all the dreamers out there brave enough to rise above the stigma of daring to dream - what the hell are we to do? How do we move forward from sharing the power of the words that communicate our vision to actioning real change in the world?

It is salvation that we seek. We aren't going to find it in existing institutions, that's for sure. If we cling to the doctrines of religion or politics, two of the most prominent of these institutions, then we cannot move forward. Despite our manipulated and biased account of history, it should be clear to us by now that all the old institutions have been failing for a long time. What is truly needed is radical wholesale reform or replacement of the institutions that we base our beliefs, ideals and values on.

“Folks, it's time to evolve. That's why we're troubled. You know why our institutions are failing us, the church, the state, everything's failing? It's because, um – they're no longer relevant. We're supposed to keep evolving. Evolution did not end with us growing opposable thumbs. You do know that, right? There's another 90 percent of our brains that we have to illuminate.” - Bill Hicks

Resistance to change is strong in humans. Our natural proclivity towards entropy, our tendency to shy away from the hard work of changing our thinking, leads us to a short-sightedness and state of cognitive dissonance that is intellectually and spiritually destructive. Add to that mix the temptations of money and power and we have the recipe for the world in which we now find ourselves. For those who struggle to get past the idea that real change is but a utopian dream, those who stayed with me so far reading this but have now got to the end of their patience, my esteemed fellow blogger Caitlin Johnstone has written a great piece which may well be of assistance.

Even if we don't believe that real, tangible, visible, systemic change can be achieved in our lifetimes, we absolutely owe it to our children and subsequent generations to do this hard work now. When I say we need 'radical' change I don't mean violent or chaotic, but I do mean the kind of fundamental and systematic change that will undoubtedly shake society to the core. We can and are evolving as a species, away from the disastrously selfish and spiritually empty way of thinking that led us to the cliff edge, into a new age of enlightenment, towards a future where motivation by blind individualism, loyalty to shallow tribal affiliations and acceptance of religious and political dogma become the lessons of the past, rather than the status quo.

I leave you with the words of one of the finest dreamers who ever voiced his opinions..

"The world is like a ride in an amusement park, and when you choose to go on it you think it's real because that's how powerful our minds are. The ride goes up and down, around and around, it has thrills and chills, and it's very brightly coloured, and it's very loud, and it's fun for a while. 

Many people have been on the ride a long time, and they begin to wonder, "Hey, is this real, or is this just a ride?" And other people have remembered, and they come back to us and say, "Hey, don't worry; don't be afraid, ever, because this is just a ride." And we … kill those people. "Shut him up! I've got a lot invested in this ride, shut him up! Look at my furrows of worry, look at my big bank account, and my family. This has to be real." It's just a ride. But we always kill the good guys who try and tell us that, you ever notice that? And let the demons run amok … 

But it doesn't matter, because it's just a ride. And we can change it any time we want. It's only a choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings of money. Just a simple choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love instead see all of us as one. Here's what we can do to change the world, right now, to a better ride. Take all that money we spend on weapons and defences each year and instead spend it feeding and clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would pay for many times over, not one human being excluded, and we could explore space, together, both inner and outer, forever, in peace."
- Bill Hicks

Copyright ©2018 Richard C. Greenlow. All rights reserved.