Sunday, June 9, 2013

Truth and Lies in a Material Culture.

Dog Poet Transmitting.......

May your noses always be cold and wet.

We so often tiptoe through minefields around here that we sometimes forget they are even there, until we step on one, of course. One of the things I have noticed in the alternative media, is how many writers play it safe to the advantage of their careers, however they perceive that to be. Some people can separate themselves from what they do. I cannot. My career is my life in a certain way and maybe I should call it a 'careening' instead of a career (grin).

Anyway, it comes down (in my mind) to whether you tell the truth or not. Following that, we have to define the truth and that, apparently is not the easiest thing in the world. Like Pilate asked, “What is truth”? Ironically he was addressing the truth at the time. I wonder how many people have captured the significance of that? I'm always getting unusual messages from the various scriptures. I don't read them anymore but they are indelibly imprinted on my mind. I say that they are unusual messages, because the usual translations I get from, 'the great out there' often doesn't resolve itself into what I'm picking up on from 'the wide in here'.

The truth is an elusive thing, almost serpentine at times. Then, at another time, it has corners and angles, reminiscent of some of Escher's work. On occasion, it seems to me like a shining light that is so bright one cannot see the form that encases it and this puts it past description and definition, except for something, like 'shining light'. In a world of lies, people inexplicably die for the truth and on many occasions it is not the truth at all.

One thing for certain, the truth, whatever it may be, is a hard commitment and the wise truthseeker has to learn to employ silence on occasion. Seeking the truth and furthermore, presuming to speak it, can put you at odds with almost anyone and even everyone at times but... the importance of risking this and following wherever it leads, is something to be determined by whomever is engaged in it. As we have seen, in this world, people's ideals and youthful aspirations are often sacrificed on the altar of pressing (real or imagined) material necessity. This comes about through the inevitability of challenges, as well as pressures, which seem designed to test and too frequently separate one from one's principles and beliefs.

One can assume that not everyone who becomes a doctor or a lawyer, is initially driven by self interest exclusively. However, it is one of the things that can come with the territory. As far as bankers and stockbrokers go, one can assume that self interest was always the main (de)generative drive to begin with. An argument could be made that occasionally someone gets into politics with the idea of helping people but... politics is the art of the deal and soon enough, integrity is gone in the process of further continuance. I'm not sure we've ever had such a collection of vicious sociopaths and bumbling clowns, operating in the political area, as we have today. It's hard to process the collective venality and herd instinct of the present American Congress, or their facsimiles in various other countries, joined together in mutual antipathy, against the Muslim people, for no other reason than that the single most dangerous creatures on the planet are driving them to do it. There is most assuredly a conspiracy to evil on this planet and anyone who doubts this is either complicit or a fool. We’ve no shortage of either.

It seems to me, in these days of maximum exposure, people are being given the opportunity to present themselves any way they want to. The results are, or will be, devastating at some point, or... the object of a guaranteed payoff, in some manner of speaking. It can take weird twists on occasion, like costing you your life and that not making a whole lot of sense in terrestrial terms but... we're only looking at half of the equation, aren't we? Many people don't believe in the other half of the equation and many that say they do don't either. Often the version of it they believe in does not exist. How that works out gets determined by the other half of the equation (grin).

In these times, when the force of material culture is so great, a goodly majority of the population, either believes in nothing but material culture and... that's really noticeable in The East because of the tragic-comic way it can look at times. We don't see the tragi-comic aspect here in The West because... because we are looking at ourselves. Then there is that significant portion of the public that does believe in some version of the other half of the equation and it is personalized to their tastes, with whatever real strictures might actually exist, being bent to the needs and desires of the one so engaged.

Truth places nearly unendurable requirements on us sometimes. Do we take the opportunities that life seems to give us and play along with the conditions on their terms, so as not to disturb the possibilities inherent or... do we test the conditions to see if they contain the necessary merit for us to continue in those conditions? Once again, that's a subjective and personal thing. We sort out the details of this in our conscience and it gets filed under, “What we can live with”.

If you're serious about the truth, it stands to reason that the truth will eventually get serious with you. I see this kind of thing in terms of inevitability because it's all there for the computation, in the proper application, of simple math. The same holds true for the other side of the equation, which, simplistically can be stated by the phrase, “as above, so below”. It really comes down to what one wants to be convinced of. When it comes to the other side of the equation, established religion can really screw up one's perspective on the truth because most established religion is absurd and no rational person can take it seriously, after a certain point. Religion is for people who still need to color inside the lines. It provides systems of behavior for people to operate within. It also holds out that hope of something after; beyond all the struggles of this plane that affect the majority of us. The priest class is aware of all of these things and quite often it constructs a variety of ways to milk the parishioner dry.

It is a rare bird indeed, who ventures forth and beyond the boundaries of organized thought, into the place where inspiration and revelation reside. It's like walking out of a city, through the suburbs and outlying areas and then into the vastness of a desert, in search of a rumored oasis; keeping in mind the near certain appearances of Fata Morgana and the usual deprivations of the course. You can look at the desert as a metaphor if you like. You can look at this entire posting as a projection because it certainly is. It's how I've come to view the thing itself.

“What is truth, indeed”? One thing I do know is that everyone is stuck with what they've come up with in terms of identifying themselves and everything around them. They come to these definitions based on their level of self interest. Whatever we believe has to accommodate what we want. Thankfully, within the vastness of existent creeds, scriptures, interpretations and whatever, one can find something suitable for however they need it all to look. If you're filthy rich, you can find all kinds of justifications and support for your fortunate situation. If you are poor, you can find all sorts of explanations for that and even an impressive hope for the future as well.

I want to go back to that bit about these times being times of incredible media pervasiveness, along with all of the communications devices, not to mention social networking. We truly are being given the opportunity to define ourselves, in ways and to a degree never seen before. At the same time, the infrastructure of all of our enduring institutions and systems are crumbling away. We're up against it, so to speak, or, like some, we are cruising through the wreckage, indifferent to the landscape or even our effect upon it; survival of the fittest, after all. It's what many of them believe. They're made to feel this way, or, let us say, the way they have been predominately disposed to feel, has been enhanced by the cosmos to see they arrive at their destined end. In reverse, the same is true for sincere seekers after the truth. You may be sure you will be tested to see if your commitment is real and not just another hot-tubbing, firewalking, Reiki seminar, with engraved certificates of attainment, suitable for framing. 90% of the aspirants are pretty assured of leveling off at one plateau or another and then claiming it to be the top of the mountain.

I see all sorts of things going on among my peers but it's not my place to analyze their motivations. That was for earlier times when I was less certain of my own. Truth isn't for everyone and when it comes to lies, we've got something well past Baskin and Robbins as far as selection goes. These days we're walking through a virtual automat; 'lies to the left of me, lies to the right of me, into the valley of lies, marched the clueless millions', to paraphrase a poet.

We're given a length of time to experience and to decide what life means to us. We're all going to find out something, or find out nothing, depending on who you believe and, as I have said ad infinitum, that all depends on what's in it for you, according to what you are after; what you value, what you hold dear, upon that rests your fate as well.


End Transmission.......

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