V.8. Truth exists in the dichotomy of optimism and cynicism.
A Journeyman’s Journal
I would be lying if I pretended I wasn’t intimidated by what I’m about to say, albeit I’m not the first to. Not just for the personal repercussions of who it might offend and how they might be invoked to act; but by how it could effectively change the way some societies work - if these words ever get anywhere. ‘Heaven forbid!’ It is pertinent to know that I am not forcing my own personal opinions upon you, nor am I even really trying to influence you at all. This is simply my blog, where within it I am trying to help a diverse audience understand my perspective so we can make informed decisions on whether or not we can, or even should, work together. As such, today’s blog is intended to analyse the cross section of culture and leadership in its highest form.
Quick heads up, this one might be a bit longer than the usual…
The context of this subject was created in order to allow me to have?the big conversation?with you, before it arises as a barrier later on when it could become crucial. I’m sure if you have been reading any of my Forrest Gump-esque ‘forayed gumpf’, you would’ve noticed the religious undertones to what I’ve been saying and how I’ve been saying it - leading up to me being called out as an evangelist Christian DJ. It’s a contrived way of rebelling against the crippling narrative major broadcasters, wider media, institutions and influential nitwits impose upon the public, by reinforcing false securities to lead the blind blindly. But not today; today is a day for truth. How you will use it, that, is up to you.
As previously stated I attended a Christian private school. It might’ve never been apparent to my teachers at the time, because of their heavily pre-supposed and coinciding opinions, but philosophy and religion was in-fact of great interest to me. The contradiction was that I spent most of my religious education staring at the brickwork outside the classroom door, due to our reverends inability to answer straight forward questions and not conceding to allow me in the room for the sake of not disturbing the class. When most of the time, my questions were quite rightly challenging the forced narrative of monotheism, as we were all aware of the broader diversity of choice available. For what I can remember, we only ever committed one singular lesson on broader philosophies. I learnt some names.
To get to the crux of the crucible though, I want to talk to you about the origins of religion. As ever I am open to being proved wrong, which I don’t doubt is well on its way. I am well aware that so far in my blogs I have stood on the shoulders of other great men by resurfacing their intellectual propositions and interpretations, piecing them together in a new coordinated light. Although I am adamant that is what’s needed to cut through the lies of today, to realise something was as relevant then as it is now … As long your attention span can cope.
I suppose the only place to begin is the chronological start point for all modern day religions. Despite our planet being 4.5 billion years old, breathing life sustaining oxygen for around 3.5 billion years and humans only leaving Africa about 50,000 years ago; some time between c.2000 BCE and c.500 CE - a few people decided they had all the answers. Dating back nearly 5 million of those formative years, somehow it hadn’t yet occurred to any of the early hominid species that leadership was a first come, doesn’t serve kinda transaction - by future tradition.
The first recorded religion to surface amid this period was Hinduism (c.2000 BCE), arising from the Indus Valleys which stretch through what is modern day Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, neighbouring Mesopotamia - Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Syria and Turkey - in roughly the same era. Not to mention the Sumerians (c.4500 BCE) who were local to the same geographic region, with an entirely different set of Gods that are no longer recognised. Regarded as the ‘oldest religion’ Hinduism isn’t attributed to having a founder nor any one God, but instead arose from a stringent social hierarchy in the area known as the ‘varna’, or what Europeans describe as the caste system.
The Varna:
The Untouchables - Disease riddled disposables
< The Sudras - Service workers
< The Vaisya - Farmers and merchants
< The Kshatriyas - Warriors and rulers
< The Brahmans - Priests and scholars
Fundamentally, the most alluring tenet of Hinduism is in the aspiration of reincarnation. A cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth (samsara) which commits your soul to an alternate life in the next, pending your transgressions in the current. The cycle of transformation only ending when a person realises that their soul and God’s are one and as so are ‘ready to die’. To say a life well lived exhausts itself, so we’re ready for death when death comes. To fulfil the cycle Hindus adopt a set of 4 sacred homilies known as the ‘Purusharthas’, as integral elements that dictate your karma: the balance of life.
The Purusharthas:
1. dharma: living a virtuous life
2. kama: pleasure of the senses
3. artha: achieving wealth and success lawfully
4. moksha: release from reincarnation
All of which seems like a greatly efficient process to keep society content with the mundane drudgery and suffering of their lives, because it’ll all be okay; next time … It’s the spiritual equivalent of dangling a carrot in front of a donkey through a glass ceiling. Incentivising loyalty to a faith by promising to fulfil aspirations, making the process sound rewarding and fulfilling to ensure nobody ever second guesses it. It was foolproof. Or, the beginning of institutionalised cultural entrapment … Going through hell twice to get to heaven - creating a war in your soul wrestling with your own inadequacy and malevolence, neglectful that nature is given to us by our social class - to loosely paraphrase clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson.
In The Human Web: A Bird’s-Eye View of World History - J.R & William McNeil noted?“In subsequent centuries, urban dwellers, and particularly poor, marginal persons, found that authoritative religious guidance, shared faith, and mutual support among congregations of believers could substitute for the tight-knit custom of village existence (within which the rural majority continued to live) and give meaning and value to ordinary lives, despite daily contact with uncaring strangers. Such religious congregations, in turn, helped to stabilize urban society by making its inherent inequality and insecurity more tolerable.”
Judaism arose almost simultaneously to Hinduism in Canaan, present day Palestine and Syria. Which due its relative location, might seem like a convenient reinvention of a similar nearby ideology to sustain power and influence in the area. Especially in a region that’s been at war ever since - as well as long before - what with it sitting at the only egress point of Africa for the entirety of humanity to pass. I don’t want to talk too much more about Judaism exclusively, as for what I can tell it’s the world’s most organised mafia - with the Vatican and Christianity being the most well subsidised and protected, therefore engrained. To anyone who’s interested, I recommend they watch Abby Martin’s numerous interviews on the Israel / Palestine debate - it’s very transparent.
If you are interested, the name ‘Israel’ literally means ‘to wrestle with God’ as defined when Jacob, grandson of Abraham was renamed Israel after his confrontation with God in Genesis. With ‘lord’ also loosely translating to ‘leader’. Which is ironic, as a hopeful contradiction of what characterises their faith is how they contest with a God that also defines them. Which in itself is a magnificent idea, to challenge the status quo. I just don’t see how the apple falls so far, because all I ever notice is confirmation of biases and attempts at tyranny … Like a big game of ‘now the boots on the other foot’. Play nice, will you? … et al.
As per the other Abrahamic faiths, Christianity (c.100 CE) and Islam (c.622 CE) both also arose of Canaan. Each traces their heritage back to Temple Mount in Jerusalem as the holiest of holy sites, revering in their own interpretations of the Old Testament as the very place where God gathered the dust to make the first human. Dear God, he must’ve forgotten about poor old Africa too … Home to the oldest existing human fossils on record, pre-dating any religion by some 300,000 years. Most ironically, Coptic Christianity (c.42 CE) an ethnoreligious group throughout North and East Africa actually predates modern Christianity. Suitably emanating from Alexandria, Egypt upon the arrival of Saint Mark shortly after the supposed ascension of Christ. I’m quite sure Ethiopian Coptics claim they are in-fact the current and rightful holders of the original Ark of The Covenant too. Only a very slight contradiction of the other faiths … Oops.
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Then there’s Buddhism, more a personal philosophy than religion, which arose c.550 CE as a more ‘enlightened’ humanistic faith from the constructs of Hinduism. The founder of the religion, Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha) was born into the Hindu Kshatriya elite in Nepal (c.563 BCE), nearly 1000 years before the materialisation of the faith. Isolated from communal life out of his parents fear he would deviate from his birth right as a leader if he were to see the suffering in the world, Buddha spent the first 16 years of his life locked in an ivory tower. However a wise person would know that our fears manifest in our words and our actions to play out in reality, eventually confronting us with a compromise of contradictions as fate. Which is exactly what happened in the case of Buddha and the fears of his parents.
When Siddhartha turned of age at 16, he left the palace walls to see the malevolence, poverty, illness and death in his own community for the first time. Over the next 6 years he would look for ways to end the suffering in the world, while on his journey through South East Asia in his search for ubiquitous peace. His enlightenment came when sat meditating under a Bodhi tree in search for the truth, when he began to generate his realisation of the Four Noble Truths and Eight Fold Path - defining a worldview. Similar to the foundations of Hinduism, the prerogative of Buddhism is to transform the self in seeking enlightenment (nirvana) by ending suffering (dukkha).
The Four Noble Truths:
The Eight-Fold Path:
Which you could suppose to say roughly translates into a pattern of universal moral code seen across all religions, to some extent. What signifies the difference between Buddhism and Hinduism that ignited its inception, is who the hierarchy actually serves. Both are systems designed to help people relate to others in growing populations, creating a sense of identity and purpose. It’s probably why the Chinese have censored Buddhism in Tibet through their annexing of the region, to prevent their citizenships collective ideology from becoming self and socially aware so that they can liberate themselves, rather than be dependent on and entrenched by a communist regime. Much like how the autocratic Qin dynasty did to Confucianism in China - but I’ll save this little delicacy for a separate article.
What I would contrast each of the Abrahamic religions to, is that they are all schisms of a pre-existing figurative expression pertaining to a belief system which explains a purposeful narrative of life and transformation. All superseded chronologically by Ancient Greek mythological lore (c.900 BCE), the influential framework of Orthodox Christianity, before The Great Schism (c.1054 CE) forming the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic factions. The entire European ecclesiastical population being divided over disagreement on whether or not unleavened bread should be used as sacrament in communion, and that they should retain Western beliefs that clerics remain celibate. If this doesn’t exemplify a question of integrity in the faith vs. pride battle for truth, a strong characteristic of Christianity - if not all faiths, I don’t know what will.
The emergence of Greek mythology conveniently coincided with the rise of democracy, philosophy and ethics among other social tools at the heart of Greek culture, and can really be seen as?the ultimate creation story. The oldest and most accurate literary testimony of this story is conceived in Hesiod’s Theogeny (Origin of the God’s). A supposed contemporary of Hesiod, Homer’s poems the Iliad and Odyssey indemnify the culmination of mythology in the Trojan War, simultaneously telling the tale of Aeneas, a Trojan war hero who’s journey led to the founding of a city that would eventually lead to become Rome. These stories created a source of pride to be able to trace the lineage of leaders from a mythological hero or God, defining the acculturation of Greece with a compelling narrative.
It’s originators must have realised that when we develop intellectual narratives for ourselves to explain life experiences, and as consequence an abstract thought is contextualised in a moment of ‘divine inspiration’, people can see it as almost super natural in making the absurd comprehendible. This unified natural phenomena, cultural variations, traditional contention and interpersonal interactions into a collective influence for democratic leadership and the inherited behaviour of civil society. It is only logical that we use the term ‘mythology’ to describe what could otherwise be classified as ‘religion’, so not to be audacious enough to attempt an attack of betrayal on an innocent persons innate beliefs.
When you look into the etymology of the word?democracy?itself, you would find its root source being the Greek word?demon, the singular accusative of the plural?demos,?used to describe ‘collective people’ in its neology with?kratos?depicting ‘rule’. Its structure predicating the idea that equality of civil rights through policy will only function as long as constituents attend to the virtues of their conscience, as though a demon is forever testing your resolve. On the supposition that a wise person would attend to the dictates of his conscience and commit their actions in the world accordingly, the wiser and more upright a citizenship the more functional the state would be. Or as renowned economist Adam Smith neatly articulated this relationship to reframe it as ‘The Invisible Hand’ concept in his Theory of Moral Sentiments c.1759, describing “the unintended greater social benefits and public good brought about by individuals acting in their own self-interests”. It would be safe to assume by this point, that religion is no doubt a political tool of moral orientation.
As a scientific explanation of our ability to contemplate and invigorate religious beliefs, some 500,000 years ago the hominid brain tripled in size, much of this expansion taking place in the neocortex. This more recent development in the human brain is responsible for reason, perception, thought, language and attention. Whereas the emotions drawn upon by varying collective religious beliefs reside in the limbic system - a much older and more rigid type of thinking. Social anthropologist and evolutionary psychologist Robin Dunbar theorised the relative neocortex size of any species correlates with the level of social complexity of the particular species. As evolutionary changes favoured larger brains, reflecting on inevitability and mortality would have become more apparent, suggesting the contemplation and discussion of religion became possible, thus cementing group adherence; which may pose as justification to how such a large percentage of humans have been so easily persuaded.
If one is devout to a religious faith, of such a realisation it is inevitable to ask oneself ‘What does this take away from me?’ - when the better perspective is to be appreciative of what it gives you instead. It is only you who can answer that question for yourself, and as is apparent, I encourage you to exercise interest over your own dominion. Any one thing can only ever take from you what you let it, similar to the mantra ‘offence is taken, not necessarily given’. The constructs of any religion impose a sense of just actions that can continue to be used, but what also mustn’t be lost or ignored is the significance religion has had on defining the identity of countries, it’s people, their history, the social etiquette, architecture, infrastructure and diplomacy it has inspired.
The one thing I am in spite of though, is how the lure of religion preys on our innate fears of the unknown. Namely, the afterlife - for this characterises the existence of all of which we love and have loved. I have no doubt people will assume my personal views, so I’ll tell you them myself in anticipation. I’m concerned that the afterlife is an abstract manifestation of control, and its contradiction lies in the paradox that no matter how in control you feel of yourself, you are never truly in control of your surroundings. In life our attempts at control are to harmonise the collective identity of people over time, to develop the social opportunities necessary for influence. All we can control in the afterlife is our sense of sureness that we did our best to leave a legacy on Earth that resonated with our beliefs. I believe if more people were intent on that, we wouldn’t need second chances.
I would also point out that in the New Testament it is stated ‘Just because you make a claim to moral virtue through your belief in God, it doesn’t mean you’ll be granted access to the gates of heaven.’ That is not to say I wish it weren’t true, nor that my statements are a tool of any other kind of thesis. I’m not a mere heretic, idolator or pagan with a God complex. Like you, I’m a simple human trying to make sense of this extravagant universe. What I am convinced I can believe in, is the alignment of people on noble causes. It being how religion, culture, prosperity, moral communion, colonisation and humanity in general ever succeeded in the first place. Through candid, captivating story telling to transfer a message and bring unity. With imminent power at the disposal of temperamental world leaders in far flung corners of the world, and civil unrest evident in the global village, a touch of unity could go far today. Don’t let religion be your condition for objection. You understandably might feel objectified by my imposing opinions upon those you already had, but ask yourself, where did those beliefs originate from in the first place?
The greatest inspiration I find across all religions, is the notions ‘God is good’ and that ‘God exists within you’. It implies that we are all born with an understanding of what is right or wrong, and it is the conditioning we face in our lives through an absence of love or consideration we can become lost in ourselves. You don’t need a scientific explanation to evidence the benevolence of almost every child that’s ever been. If God exists within you, then he exists in all others too. An awareness of equality that should so permanently remain, for without it those who are spiritually lost will never be found. It doesn’t matter where or when a person was lost; it only matters why. For it is in the why we can retrace the journey that led someone to where they are today. Start trying to help others find theirs, they might help you find yours too. In proclaiming ‘the death of God’ it was Frederick Nietzsche who declared “We would have to become Gods in ourselves to replace what we will have lost”. That is not to suggest we should become self aggrandising with delusions of grandeur, but to ensure that there is something greater than ourselves around which we should be revolving - community, noble ideals, family etc.
Albeit I have a dissociation with religious associations, I am curious that there may well be existential forces at play which govern patterns of interactions, fate, reason and compromise. There are some moments in life where if you’re really observing, listening to and in parlance with your environment, you can become awestruck at the irony of coincidence - sometimes even repeatedly in places you’d never imagine. I’m not speaking of anything instantaneous or glaring, but subtle accumulations of consistent but delicate indicators about something unspoken that resides in your subconscious. Think of it as signs of positive reinforcement. I’m not saying to look for coincidences high and low, especially not in a digital medium, but passively through interactions with people and nature. If you’re ‘woke’ enough, it might find you. You can start by being the deity on your own shoulder a bit more often, you’ll find your voice of reason knows you better than you first thought. Realise that?questions are the answer, and then advise yourself as though you were a friend. Hold your own hand as though you were your child self. Seek courage in self mastery, finding comfort in the uncomfortable. Be ‘self is’, not selfish. If you get there, we will get there.
Gods arose as an externalisation of our imagination, with Greek mythological origins as constellations of deities juxtaposed against the celestial presence of the nights sky - quite similarly to the Gods of the Egyptian Pharos (c.3100 BCE) or the Nubians (c.7000 BCE) a little further south along the Nile river. Each civilisation still pre-dated by Stonehenge (c.3100 BCE) and G?bekli Tepe (c.8500 - 9000 BCE) as Neolithic sites of worship, without knowledge of the pre-conceived beliefs that inspired their erection. Similar to the Greeks and the Egyptians, our imagination helps us to confront the future, to compose things in possibility before we realise them in actuality. Dreams being the most integral part to our imagination, allowing us to decompress our subconscious to lay it out in an interpretable narrative. This process of what is essentially a psychological debrief with some added forethought, is the fuel of our compelling esoteric wisdom. Studies in the 1960’s by Dr William Dement have proved that?if you’re deprived of your dreams, you will lose your mind. We have to access our incoherent imagination and possibility to maintain our sanity.
What we’re looking for is to keep looking. Or as Buddha himself conceptualised it “Your purpose in life is to find your purpose and give your whole heart and soul to it". A pathway to realising your own search for truth is predicated by your ability to be abjectly cynical of your past behaviour, allowing you to see yourself in light of the views of others. It is only when we are confronted with this bare reflection of ourselves can we be bold enough to build ourselves back as something better. You have to know where you’re coming from to get to where you’re going. Only then can we be optimistic about our future, knowing that we are in control of ourselves by confronting our inadequacies to create our desired outcomes. It’s the whole point of manifestation, to realise the process and expectations of ourselves to reach our goals.
I have no right to make a proclamation. I know nothing. There’s plenty wrong with me that needs to be fixed, I haven’t necessarily earned the right to use the information I’m sharing. I’m just being very honest with you about what I think and using well sourced evidence to substantiate my views. All I can explain is where my ideas and beliefs come from, through the accumulative value every person and interaction my life has ever provided. The formulation of ideas does not reside on an individuals acts of magnificence, there are numerous triggers that mature as they conflict with and transform one another. Although great ideas are articulated by individuals, they’re almost certainly generated by communities. A great example is how we share the transcendent wisdom as found in ecclesiastical lore through music, as our modern day method of communicating intricate messages. Ironically, the same social tool was used by the Greeks to initially engrain mythological narratives. I wonder if as an instrument the?lyre?was named intentionally so … Bloody poets.
What can be said is that numerous people of a variety of faiths have had good fortune going back as long as time, regardless of orientation. The consistent binding quality amid them all being faith itself, pivotal on the existence of conscience. How you practice your faith is at your own discretion, a private matter that resonates with the origins of your own identity and culture. Whatever yours is, be proud of that. Regardless of beliefs, it is no one’s place to tear down the house of another for we all live on the same spiritual street.
To close, the reason why this type of discussion is necessary is simple. Solutions sometimes have the potential to become bigger than the problem they were initially intended to resolve. Religions were initially established to prevent the disharmony of people in large populations; in most cases specific to a geographic principality which has been war torn ever since, creating a vehicle to concentrate wealth and mobilise the ‘free’ movement of society. Yet nowadays religions are used as justification to acts of war, genocide, for cheap political points or to stoke polarisation. The evidence is everywhere. You look for it. You talk about it. You get others talking about what is or is not important. Because that’s the greatest distraction religion has and ever will be, in the notion there’s a higher power waiting to clear up your mess with a magical mop and bucket. Take responsibility. Take action. THIS is your chance.
As the world’s biggest fan of irony, I’ll leave you with a thought. How ironic is it that it is our bin men who pick up responsibility for the waste of society, and it is waste and pollution that is now threatening life on Earth more than it ever has been (besides everything else); yet it was their classification as lower class citizens in the caste system (varna) that personifies the foundations of modern day religion - picking up responsibility to excuse the neglectful acts of others, yet again. Religion will keep humanity tilling the soil of our souls until there’s no nutrients left to grow from, out of stubborn inability to see beyond our own periphery. Rather than being the nomadic, tool wielding adventurists we were designed to be and finding pastures new for to flourish from.
What a load of rubbish.
To me, to you.