Humankind has allowed itself to be ‘progressed’ into a cul de sac of inhumanity and
enslavement. Collectively, we have acquired lots of material stuff and
knowledge, but little personal wisdom, empowerment, and contentment.
This path was laid out for us long ago in the Middle East by our very first rich and powerful elites. That is, the kings who
took power beginning when Humankind transitioned from nomadic hunting and
gathering and pastoralism, to settled agriculture and urban living.
Very soon humans had wealth (food) surpluses for the first
time. That contributed to a perceived need to take strong control of such
wealth, and the land and people that produced it, through laws, money, and corporeal
and supernatural enforcement.
This was quickly followed by the tactical and strategic use
of power against neighboring lands and peoples. And this, in turn, lead to an
unquenchable desire among the new ruling elites for ever more wealth,
land and power. This was the beginning of actual and threatened inter-state warfare and exploitation, methods elites have relied on above all other options up to the present.
It also marked the beginning of the decline of personal
freedom, equality and brother/sisterhood. The early autocratic state collectives, and their
often self-proclaimed divine elites, were given our allegiance; a shifting of
our focus, our primal personal bonds, away from each other.
Thus began a tilting of the natural human balance between
individualism and collectivism toward various forms of ever-stronger and
irreversible state-centered collectivism. We had embarked on the road to what
we would later call ‘modernity.’ Learn more about the evolution of individualism, collectivism and modernity
here
and
here.
The
European
Renaissance and its successor the
Enlightenment offered a
lifeline to recover our surrendered humanity; that is, a vision of a sustainable balance
between individualism and collectivism.
We grasped it but lost our grip because the powerful current
of industrial and state-controlled living that soon followed was too strong,
and later the tempting comforts of consumerism were beyond our ability to
resist. For more on this see my essay "
Enlightenment Lost."
The corral, the trap, where the flickering embers of our humanity, our forsaken good balance between individual freedom and collective direction, would eventually
go to die was built by the controlling industrial-political elite, and stocked
with the enticing addictive bait of consumer goods that flowed from the
Industrial Revolution.
These early 20th Century manufactured goods were
redefined, through the gushing, language-massaging mass media, from
desirables for those who could afford them to necessities for the masses who
would be allowed to buy them on credit. The
Age of Consumerism was born.
Man, were we living then! We individuals were really
something special! Thus advised
Edward Bernays and the multimedia mass advertising industry he started. Why, it was only right to excel, we were told.
In fact, it was ‘natural,’ to shoulder above, out-compete, outshine our fellows in terms
of possessions and appearances. Darwin himself said so, we thought.
During the rest of the 20th Century the gate to that human
corral was locked and the manacles of law and social expectation applied to our
bodies and minds by the wealthy and powerful controllers of the
military-industrial
complex. We came to tolerate our neighbors but sought meaning and purpose
for our daily living mostly through the elite-controlled media, consumer goods,
and the elite’s myths of progress, exceptionalism and eternal life.
So here we are now, entrapped in the
kraal of our corporate masters
and their political cronies. Enslaved by comfortable but, for most of us, unbreakable chains -
sated, filled with myths of racial-tribal supremacy, hope and prosperity,
inspired by patriotism, and praying for Heavens to come; yet, when we think honestly about it, truly powerless
and sadly longing for deep personal meaning, purpose and contentment in our
lives, but finding little.
