Hello everyone
Bill writes:
>Hi Glove;
>
>You write:
>
> "...mankind will never be perfect, or even approach perfection, for
>perfection is in the individual and not to be found in society... man and
>woman may approach perfection in spirit and in action... indeed even become
>perfection in spirit and action... but that perfection is something Dynamic
>and unseen. There will always be war and poverty, crime and hate, just as
>there will always be sharing and prosperity, Good deeds and love."
>Bill:
>I hate to think there will always be war and poverty. That's like
>thinking there is no final cure to AIDS.
Glove:
Hi Bill
Well, I wouldn't go so far as to say that... we have the ability to prevent
and even cure disease in the biological individual, but I guess what I am
asking is whether we have the ability to prevent or cure disease of the
social entity or level. If so, I have yet to see it demonstrated. As
population grows, so does social unrest. Here in the United States, our
prisons are overflowing and the only answer that is given is to build more
prisons. This is not an intellectual answer as a vaccine against the AIDS
virus would be.
I see other countries dealing with social unrest by cracking down on
individual liberties to the point that they are non existent. This is not a
intellectual answer either and I think us Americans realize that deep in our
bones and will resist any type of solution that restricts our individual
rights. What is the answer then? I have none to offer, other than it all
starts with the individual and not the social or group level.
I seem to sense some great changes coming, but these changes will not be
made without a total breakdown of society as we understand it today...
Bill:
I'm wondering if mankind
>will eventually slow down reproduction to the point that only a few
>are left, that their knowledge and wisdom and care of one another
>become so great that they live in something approaching perfection, and
that "the history of
>mankind project" falls like a ripe peice of fruit from the tree and is
>successfully completed (the last of the humans dies with a smile on her
face).
Glove:
>From time to time, it seems that catastrophic events occur on the earth's
surface wiping out the majority of life, including human life. Many if not
all myths and legends point to a increased disregard for morality and
righteousness as a "cause" of this unrest, angering God/Goddess into mass
destruction. Is there a kernel of truth to these legends? Perhaps more than
we care to admit to our highly enlightened 20th century selves, divorced
from any notion that our moral actions are tied intricately with the
universe...
I have seen many others claim that our ancestors were apes. Curiously, some
Native American legends say just the opposite... that a great catastrophy
overcame all the land (caused by disregard of morality) and some of the
people jumped into the water to escape, and became fish (actually not fish,
dolphins), while others climbed trees and turned into monkeys. Only those
who sought refuge underground emerged as humans.
Nonsensical fairytales? Perhaps... nonetheless it is an intriguing notion...
that we didn't evolve from apes, rather apes evolved from us...
Bill:
>
>Is mankind just this social level or is it really everything that makes up
>humanity including all of its perfect concepts like the wheel? Like
>Jesus, I believe that the poor will always be with us. But "we" won't
>be around for too long. It's very possible that mankind's decendants
>will go as far beyond us as we have gone beyond the early primitive
>humans.
Glove:
As much as I would like to agree with you, I think we are cyclical by
nature, as is the earth and the sun. Furthermore, I am not so sure our
ancient ancestors were so very
primitive at all. I know, I know... they were cave dwellers and
hiders-in-trees, right? We've inhabited this planet for at least hundreds of
thousands of years and perhaps millions of years... it seem to me very
arrogant of us to think of our own civilization as the highest ever to
occupy the earth... and if those higher civilizations are gone without a
trace, what hope do we really have?
Now, I am by nature a very optimistic person and not a pessimist at all,
despite my seemingly pessimistic outlook. There are no real beginnings or
endings... its all a cycle of life, up and down, drifting laterally at
times, leaping Dynamically outside of time... probably our biggest stasis in
our western culture is our insistence on a linear notion of time, always
flowing forward, second by second.
Best wishes,
glove
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