Our Culture, Our Inheritance, Our Burden

The Way In and a Way Out from the Nightmare of Western History

In the “Allegory of the Cave” we get a depiction of the human cultural condition according to the Greek philosopher Plato, who lived approximately 2400 years ago.

The image to your left is the scene he describes to his student and brother Glaucon.

The wording Plato uses to describe the scene will be the subject of article 3 in the current featured series. I will compare his wording and imagery to my following description and the wording and imagery from the movie The Matrix.

For the purpose of this article I will allow the reader to arrive at his or her own associations with the words and images I provide and the depictions shown in the image. You will see how no change has occurred over the last 2400 years with regards to the human cultural condition.

The Cultural Unconscious

There are built-in cultural blind spots preventing most of us from grasping the almost invisible and hazard-strewn process of enculturation.

Cultural anthropology provides the clearest assessment of what truly lies behind the iron curtain of history. Cultural anthropology applies the scientific method and a host of other disciplines in an attempt to gain the most unbiased perspective and clearest understanding of the various forces giving rise to cultural particularities.

We will also come to know how and why the past is still with us. More importantly we will learn what to do if we wish to forge a different future.

Those living on the fringes of society are the least absorbed by the wide-spectrum powers of enculturation. The ruling class has the best perspective because they are the ones running the show–that is projecting the reality they would have us believe in–the grand illusion.

The problem with the ruling class perspective, is that for all intended purposes, they are biologically and culturally compelled to keep the status quo at the expense of the environment and the rest of society.

Culture as organized society is given its direction and purpose by those who structure and lead society–the religious and secular lawmakers.

Religious and secular laws are what give authoritative structure to culture. In describing the ruling class I will interchangeably use the terms establishment, lawmakers, rule makers, leadership class, super rich, governors and plutocracy.

In describing the non-ruling classes I will interchangeably use the terms subject-class, general public, we, us and the people.

When the tyrant has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or treaty and there is nothing to fear from them, then he is always stirring up some war or other in order that the people may require a leader.

– Plato

Laws are the beginnings of mental and behavioral conditioning as a cultural practice by those who govern or make laws. For example, reading and writing has been the sole privilege of the ruling class for 4500 years. The rest of us have had access to the written word for a few hundred years at best.

And then to make matters worse, information leaked out to the general public, via public education or mass media outlets is generally favorable to the interests of the leadership class.

Informationally, we are born blank slates, but by the time we are old enough to think critically for ourselves, culture has already done its job, which is to stamp out replicas of itself–or those who conform to cultural dictates and guidelines.

“What good fortune for those in power that the people do not think.”

– Adolf Hitler

We have been indoctrinated to believe that our culture is the best there is (enthnocentrism) and that we should continue along the same path we have for thousands of years despite our legacy for terror, environmental degradation and periodic self-destruction.

Many of us have rejected certain aspects of our culture. Some of us may no longer hold traditional religious beliefs though we may still believe in our political system or some combination thereof.

In our day and age a spectrum of hybrid worldviews has emerged. That was once not possible. It would be safe to say that at one time the entire population of Western culture was under the spell of the religious worldview.

Chinks in the Armor

The religious world view began to fall apart in the mid 1500’s with the initiation of the Copernican Revolution. Forty-five Hundred years of mental-spiritual monotony began to crumble under the weight of increasingly accurate observations of nature and the concrete evidence afforded by the scientific method.

The advent of technologies amplifying our senses, coupled with a knowledge-purifying methodology has enabled us to describe nature in progressively greater detail.

Fast forward to the present moment and the scientific age has affected all of our lives in ways never dreamed possible.

My intent is to extend understanding into the relationship between religion and science. Science is an inevitable outgrowth of religion. Religion (Abrahamic variety) as known in the Western world, is a mixture of obsolete science, mythic lore, urbanized spirituality and socio-economic engineering.

Religious fundamentalists have embraced almost every contribution of science such as electricity, astronomy, physics, genetics, transportation, medicine, iPods, computers, satellite TV, and just about any modern convenience you can think of—yet they reject the scientific understanding of evolution.

My purpose is not to convince you of the value of science, but to introduce you to the conundrum of how some people when faced with overwhelming evidence will still reject the most obvious and correct answer.

The forgoing situation is testament to the power of enculturation coupled with indoctrination. The politicians are also anti-science. Religion and politics are but two sides of the same coin.

From Ancient Warrior Kings to Modern Day Lawmakers

Secular governance began to break away from religious leadership early on in history.  Secular governance would make its most pronounced departure about 232 years ago with the formation of the US Constitution. At this time, the monarchies of Europe began to give way to various forms of democracy.

The “break” between religion and secular governance is not yet complete, but chances of a complete break are better than ever. Western democracies are in need of many refinements before they can be considered the egalitarian systems of governance the Athenians practiced over two thousand years ago.

The mechanisms governing religion and politics are frozen in time due to the conservative practice of tradition as cultural maintenance. This function best serves the ruling class since it maintains their dominance as lawmakers or social engineers.

A lawmakers primary function is to direct the flow of people’s surplus effort, “taxable income” to specific points of collection (tax agencies).

Using pipes an engineer designs plumbing systems to channel water to specific points of discharge. Similarly, a lawmaker writes laws that compel people through use of force (incarceration) or coercion (fines & penalties) to discharge their surplus money at specific collections points.

Thousands of tax laws exist just to tell us what we can and cannot do with our surplus earnings.  I refer to lawmakers as social engineers because they use us and our money (congealed surplus effort) to create their world. And that is a world where the very few exploit the many.

The ruling classes have been embroiled in a constant struggle amongst themselves for supremacy and empire ever since civilization roared to life.  However, the Plutocracy does not suffer during hard economics times and they do not fight their own wars.

The Emergence of Science

The scientific worldview began its breakaway from cultural stagnation of institutionalized learning over 500 years ago and it poses the greatest threat to the social dominance of the religious and political kingdoms.

The leadership class will resist ideas regardless of their social or universal value, if acceptance of such ideas will eventually undermine their power and authority.

Scientific views on the other hand are constantly being updated as new information comes in. The scientific method was designed to resist the encroachment of tradition and cultural bias.

Even so, the power of tradition and bias is such that the scientific community is not entirely immune from it. However, the built in power of the scientific method will force a much faster evolutionary rate when compared to that of Western religio-political systems, which in actuality, have only changed names and clothes in the last 6000 years.

Western politics and religion strive to maintain the status quo and are therefore anti-evolutionary in design and purpose. To evolve, means to share power and wealth in Western religio-political terms.

Why do you think religion and politics are so anti-science?  The foregoing is the truest meaning of conservatism.

Tradition as the Perpetuation of Cultural Dysfunction

From the start of the invasion of the Americas in 1492 by the Europeans,
to the invasions of Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003 by the Euro-Americans, the tradition of plundering weaker nations for their resources continues.

Tradition is a built-in cultural blind spot resulting from a practice or belief repeated often enough until it becomes culturally ingrained and unquestioned. Some traditions are socially useful and some just serve the interests of the leadership classes.

The traditions I take aim at are those ignoring present-day information and the consequence being greater social chaos and environmental degradation.

Knowledge as Power

We have inherited a cultural system that was established thousands of years ago when “information management systems,” (as rudimentary as they were) were the sole privileges of the priests and warrior-kings.

The ancient rulers from the “cradle of civilization” invented writing and rulers through the ages have kept the craft to themselves. For the last 4500 years, writing was meant to be understood as a privileged mode of communication only insiders could understand and employ to their benefit.

“Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own Governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.”

– James Madison [Inscription on the Library of Congress]

The appearance of Gutenberg’s printing press in 1439 would gradually begin to lessen the ruling class strangle hold on information technology and distribution.

What do you think was the first book to hit the presses?  It was none other than the Bible. The code and law book of the cultural leadership of the day.

Gradually, the subject classes have gained more power as the result of greater access to unfiltered, uncensored and alternative sources of information.

I am not the only one to give such significance to Gutenberg’s press. In 1999, A&E Network ranked Gutenberg #1 on their “People of the Millennium” countdown, and in 1997, Time–Life magazine picked Gutenberg’s invention as the most important of the second millennium.

TV, Radio and Newspapers: The Seductive Reigns of Power

The essential nature of TV, news-print and radio it best suited for dictatorships. Information travels through TV, radio channels & printing presses in only one direction–from the broadcaster (Government & Corporations US-GORP) to the receiver (you and I).

And who is the only entity to get free press–the government.  Who has access to TV broadcasting, but only the wealthiest and most powerful of establishments–the corporations.  Who rules the country–the Plutocracy.

And what is a Plutocracy?  A Plutocracy is governance via the moneyed relationships existing between political officials and the private sector, or rule by the rich and politically powerful.  Oh, and who owns the mass media, the printing presses, and the TV-radio stations? Five corporations control most of the mainstream media.

“Perhaps freedom is not universal. Maybe it’s only Western people that can self-govern. Maybe it’s only, you know, white-guy Methodists who are capable of self-government.“

– George W. Bush, London, June 16, 2008

Welcome to Western Civilization in the 21st century where the super-rich run the show, deception is the name of the game and “might makes right”. It is the longest running program in the 6000 year history of Western Culture. We still work for the warrior-kings. Don’t believe me?

Fifty-four percent of the federal budget, our tax dollars, goes into the black hole also known as the war machine.   Is that big enough to qualify Rambo as the big man on campus? And get this, our children (our future) get one penny out of every dollar.

That ought to tell you what the priorities of the lawmaking classes are.  Fortunately for us and for the rest of the planet the story does not end here.

Digital Justice

On December,25 1990 the second most momentous event in the history of social communications took place. The global brain was switched on and the first few neurons on the world wide web started firing.

A revolutionary information technology was born!  Mass information transmission became multi-directional, multi-source, cross-referential and available to anyone with access to an internet connected computer.

Actual 3-D depiction of World Wide Internet Connectivity

courtesy, www.opte.org

Dialogue and the sharing of uncensored, unfiltered and alternative sources of information between millions of people has become a global phenomenon.

Internet usage represent the worlds fastest growing cultural trend. The Plutocracy’s monopoly on the distribution and production of information has been crumbling ever since that fateful day 18 years ago.

It would take less than two decades before the Establishment’s instruments of control and domination would begin to cave in.

It is happening right before our very eyes.  Over the last few years there has been significant shift from print “reading” and television “viewing” to “online interaction”.

The “viewer” and “reader” are the passive recipients of television programming and mass media news print that exists for the sole purpose of creating malleable super consumers.

The commercials prod, “buy this product because you will be a happier, better and a sexier person”.  “Wage war to show them Democracy” plead the politicians.

The trick now is to find credible sources of information on the web. Ask the following two questions: Is this person or group peddling mere entertainment, propaganda or distractions from the real issues, or is this person or group enabling a more informed public capable of bringing about the cultural reforms we are in such dire need of?

The person or organization who provides the former helps spin your wheels and matters get worse. The latter gives you traction and you become part of a budding worldwide movement seeking to supplant oppression with justice and destruction with restoration.

The Modern Cave Walls of Culture

Emergent-Culture is a public supported enterprise much like public TV, radio and is now accepting monetary contributions.

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