(Images by Judy Shire)

Gaining Clarity in the world that really exists

 
FTLComm - Tisdale - Wednesday, February 5, 2003
Some years ago I remember reading computer magazines and making the assumption I understood what I was reading, then months later, picking up the same magazine and wonder if I had read it, because each of the articles seemed strange and different to me. What had happened was that in the interim I had experienced new software and worked with hardware that I had not seen, when I had originally read the articles and with new awareness the same material was meaningful in yet a different way.

I realise that in the past, I have discussed the issue of perception and the infinite expanses of reality, which indeed, was the the prime concern of several Greek philosophers, as they too struggled with the limitations of the senses, and the limits of their scientific knowledge, that imposed constrictions on awareness. Nothing has changed, we are still stuck with the same senses, even with the enhancements we are still deep in ignorance with regard to the fundamental basics of how things work.

This morning I watched and listened to Colin Powell with extreme interest, as he expounded on his concerns about the situation with Iraq and the pictures Judy had taken Sunday night came to mind. (those at the top of this page) The blur of motion and low light combine to reduce the scene near Birch Hills to the basic element of colour, form is unimportant in these images, it is the colour that matters. Could this be the case with Colin Powell and others whom we do not understand? I guess what I am telling you is that we may need to reduce some of the confusion we perceive by going to the essential elements of an issue and attempting to determine what indeed, if anything, is there that is important?

Imagine the intolerable situation for those people who are blessed with increased awareness, be it sensory or cognitive. How tough it must be for them as they must feel so lonely as they are suddenly aware of clarified situations that others have not yet perceived.

Last week as several contributors to this web site were disturbed at the almost inevitability of a military conflict in Iraq, one writer saw things entirely differently.
Ron Thornton's perspective was completely and totally opposite to the views expressed by Mario deSantis and I wondered in a message to Ron how could such a wide diversity of opinion exist with the same set of basic facts available to each individual? My realisation, that perhaps my perception was diverse and totally off base also occurred to me. Actually, we all really need to question ourselves and constantly update the opinions we ascribe to, as our awareness is based so much upon the facts we think are facts, and the opinions that we consider valid.

This was the absolutely earth shaking problem that Jonathan Swift was trying to work out when he assembled his tale "Gulliver's Travels". Consider if you will, what reality is to an ant and what it is to a Raven. Both are social animals who interact with others of their species, while the Raven has the cognitive power to make and find solutions for himself, the ant is reliant upon genetic code to live out the days of his short life. So we must wonder about the decisions of the people who decided that their only course of action is or was to kill themselves while taking as many others to their deaths, as they were able, in Israel, New York or Bali. What might it be that has developed in their awareness that would lead these individuals to such a solution?

Expanded awareness is both empowering and a curse. For centuries there have been those who when political situations tumble into confusion, they decide that the culprits are those with education and who earn their livelihood with their intellect. The Boxer Rebellion, Stalin's Purges, the whole Nazi era, American McCarthyism, the Red Guard movement, Cambodia's Killing fields, time after time there have been movements that select the educated elite and purge them.

The limited number of Jews in Europe and their desire to marry other Jews lead to extensive concentration of genetic lines, which tends to produce a peculiar problem; a reduction of people with average intellectual capacity and an increase of people with high ability and an equally numerous number of people with below average capabilities. In Germany, Poland, and other Eastern European countries this meant that a significant number of extraordinarily capable people in finance, universities and all positions requiring highly capable people were Jews. So when Hitler was looking around for someone close at hand to blame for the economic disaster surrounding him, the Jews were clearly the "chosen people". Selecting them as the cause of all trouble was dead simple, they were in charge and those that were not, were slow minded and a genetic threat in a time when eugenics was considered a positive thing.

The single most glaring flaw in the society in which we now find ourselves is the remarkable lack of resources, we as a society as a whole, are devoting toward a meaningful study of history. In an age when commerce has replaced every known idol, is worshipped with such devotion by almost all walks of society, the study of history has become the forgotten social science. Only a handful of historians are sticking to their calling, in a time when the past fifty years of events and development has been untouched and remain undefined in terms of what it means to the big picture. Without the perspective of historical study, decisions and policy are developed and implemented, based on myths and what amounts to superstition. As the World Bank imposes the American Way on every under developed country in the world, it is doing so out of "faith" in an economic system that doesn't work.

Judy's pictures of the deep blue blurred sky is what we are seeing now, it is foreboding and we just are overwhelmed with more information than we need and almost no historical perspective to give meaning to the subtitles of reality. The stock market is the very last thing of importance, not the first. The declining standard of living in the third world with its epidemics, civil war and victimisation by dictators and their American financial support, is not even on our lowest level of awareness, yet the chaos and unrest, the desperation and the hopelessness, will not go away, but is the major threat to the advancement of all societies, both rich and poor, world wide.
 

Timothy W. Shire

 

 

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This page is a story posted on Ensign and/or Saskatchewan News, both of which are daily web sites offering a variety of material from scenic images, political commentary, information and news. These publications are the work of Faster Than Light Communications . If you would like to comment on this story or you wish to contact the editor of these sites please send us email.
 

Editor : Timothy W. Shire
Faster Than Light Communication
Box 1776, Tisdale, Saskatchewan, Canada, S0E 1T0
306 873 2004