Transformation From Pain And Tears To A New Atlantis
Dear Reader,
Today's issues can easily make people wonder whether it's possible for grief to be transformed into joy.
Leaving aside (if possible) Climate Change and pandemics, these appear to be unforgiving times. The economic pressure on every ordinary person - working or retired - causes the scrounging nature of the UK energy companies to be more vividly exposed. Their profits, apparently, are not to be touched while the average household energy bill is due to rise early in the New Year by 250% since April.
The privatisation of these energy companies - plus the water companies - in the 1980s seems, now, to be something to be justifiably vilified, and this can be said without taking a political stance. From an independent standpoint, the argument seems to be clear. In fact, I always did think that there was something unnatural about the privatisation of water. Like education and health, water is surely a natural right not to be exploited for profit - it is essential for the existence of life itself.
Furthermore, many of these companies are foreign-controlled, the outcome of a period when the selling off of the crown jewels of our own country seemed to be a great idea to bring cash into the exchequer. Our government also thought it a great idea to allow the creation of many energy companies, only for a dozen to be forced into closure, almost as a batch, causing mini mayhem for their customers. Another continues to be bailed out by the exchequer.
The government's stance regarding railways is also now very different, recognising at last that private ownership causes problems in certain respects. In fact, the whole of the transport infrastructure has largely been left to its own privatised devices with resulting issues.
But the lack of a social conscience in the remaining energy companies is now vivid, with even the water companies not having performed their required task of investing in infrastructure.
On top of all this, it's a quiet secret that employees in the London City financial sector have lately acquired a 10% salary increase - on top of their existing exorbitant pay - as compared to the pitiful increases awarded to key state workers. And, of course, Members of Parliament receive a regular top-up to their pay with little difficulty.
This is the outcome of the famed period of 'handbag politics' in the 1980s and carried on into the 2000s, which included the elevation of 'the City' as being the foremost UK 'industry'. Also, competition came to be the keynote in our approach to everything. In fact, competition is natural to the ignorant while cooperation is natural to the wise. We can only assume that ignorance has taken over.
Apart from the matter of ignorance, the very morality of the way by which we are governed, and by whom, must surely be under question, notwithstanding that not all our elected representatives are at fault. It is essentially the system and the principle under which it is established - materialism - that is the main issue, an attitude that spawned the idea that Quantitive Easing should be the knee-jerk solution of the moment, only for those immense funds not to reach the places that they were intended for.
Our systems and social attitudes are out of kilter with the needs of justice, Mother Nature and of life itself. Despite all the difficulties, we all surely need to self-improve, re-focus and find new ways.
In an earlier post, I stated that in the early 1980s there was suddenly a swing to greater materialism in western governments - in both the UK and the USA - under the leadership of Thatcher and Reagan. We were even told theirs was "a special relationship".
An article by Matthew Watson, Professor of Political Economy in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick and an Economic and Social Research Council Professional Fellow, reveals that the attitude of western governments in the 1980s was partly triggered by an obscure interpretation of the work of 18th c. Adam Smith (rather regarded as the grandfather of modern economics), who was and is still revered and looked upon almost with awe in economic circles, and is made to influence us still, even though he lived in a different age.
It's the fact of the probable misinterpretation of Smith that Professor Watson is bothered, refuting "The idea that companies should just be left to do as they please because they are ... the geese that lay the golden eggs of economic growth", and saying:
Such a view is today regularly attributed to Smith, following a strategic reading-in of modern-day competitiveness concerns to his concept of the ‘invisible hand’. Yet nowhere is it evident in his own published work.
Smith simply did not believe that corporations should be left to their own devices: there is no underlying message anywhere in [his book] The Wealth of Nations about ‘letting business be business’. This is because in his framework corporations, like all actors either individual or collective, have a responsibility to those around them. The whole of his economics is based on a moral theory which suggests that people flourish only in the context of widespread deference to a structure of duties. Smith reserved his most biting criticism of individual action for instances in which that structure is not respected.
The modern-day view that the only responsibility of business is to make money is anathema to Smith’s moral theory. Duties for him are something that one person owes to another and, within a societal context, something that everyone owes to everyone else. The notion that a corporation might have a duty to extract profit from the economy is therefore completely meaningless in this strictly interpersonal setting. The modern-day notion residing within competitiveness discourse that a corporation has a right to extract profit any way it likes therefore cannot be constructed out of Smith’s texts.
It is this very falsification of ideas that helped to re-stimulate the re-newed 1980s policy of never-ending economic expansion and expansion of personal wealth, leaving the responsibility to sort out its dire legacy to future generations. We have been aware of the effect of the economic and ecological fall-out for years. We certainly were made aware of it before the 1980s and yet the issue was ignored. Commonsense became a heresy.
So, Adam Smith - brilliant though he was in his own time - is now 'old hat'. The fact that economists and governments have continued to try to interpret his largely pre-industrial 18th c. language in this modern age is in itself a cause of wonder: it is actually quite disturbing. Were modern thinkers not able to formulate a new formula in the modern language to suit these times and conditions?
What's more worrying is that, despite insightful warnings (that admittedly were not much publicised), we all went along with it. For a while (to ordinary intellects), it seemed to be the "geese that laid the golden eggs of economic growth". Even into the 2000s the heads of business corporations refused to acknowledge that a change of approach was necessary, particularly the biggest corporations.
The attitude of the 1980s essentially sewed the seeds of today's ecological, economic and social problems, though that generation blamed the 1960s era for most of it. Rather, the 1980s failed to address the idea that the 1960s inferred, or actually promoted, that spirituality was needed in the approach to solving social ills and the problem of war. The 1960s, however, was mainly a period of experimentation rather than concrete self-education; no one knew what exactly should replace formal religion as a moral creed.
Somehow all religion was progressively discarded by the mainstream as being irrelevant, but there have since been many individuals that have stumbled along their own path toward finding the essence of religion. For the mainstream, however, their learning comes from our educational systems; secularism is the primary consideration. Some think of Science as the only source of knowledge.
Of course, intellectuals have too often viewed the idea of spirituality as too much of a challenge for their egos. However, there was - and is - a way forward that needs the unification and input of both (intellectuality and spirituality).
In the 18th and 19th centuries, an enormous amount of study was put into Greek thought, despite the fact that there were some that found greater satisfaction in the ancient cultures of India and Egypt. Perhaps Greece (being a European country) seemed more acceptable to the European palette, they probably not knowing that Greek thought largely stemmed from India and Egypt!
Therefore, philosophers of the ilk of Plato took centre stage. However, in common with other ancient philosophers of many climes, it was Plato's conviction that the human being was created but not created merely to simply engage in barter and exchange. His purpose, thought Plato, was rather to perfect himself as the noblest of the animals, endowed with reason and the natural ruler of the material world.
His Critias described how - aeons before - man departed from the perfect pattern of his conduct, and in the end was denied the very truths which were the foundations of his strength. With the loss of his spiritual perception, material ambitions increased, and the desire for conquest was born. Men yearned afterwards for that which they had not earned and gazed with covetous eyes upon the goods of others.
Furthermore, in the Critias, Plato confirmed the existence of a once great empire, called Atlantis, that had once been great in its culture until its materialistic demise and eventual destruction, being wiped off the face of the Earth. Historians think otherwise - they do not generally believe that civilisations existed beyond 10,000 years ago, despite the ever-increasing evidence of their existence in other parts of the world, including India.
That literature was available to 18th and 19th c. Europeans, but possibly because they thought that Atlantis was a fable, they appear to have lost sight of its wisdom and the inevitable outcome in giving way to the priesthood of Mammon. The way of Mammon was renewed in the 1980s even after two World Wars that had been generated by conceit and jealousy. There is nothing wrong in money by itself - it is the intent behind it, particularly in any form of grasping at the expense of others; that is the issue.
Nothing had been learnt, as can be seen in 2022.
But wisdom did not, of course, begin and end with Plato, or his era, but it is noteworthy that in Greece in those times, no one would have access to the highest levels of wisdom without first of all purifying themselves through certain processes or rituals. It was similar in India and Egypt and other places of wisdom. Also, it was considered that people of authority in government should have earnt the right to such a role through the gaining of hard-won wisdom.
The modern idea, therefore, that true wisdom can just be made available on tap in the absence of spirituality, is absurd. Of course, in today's world the idea of 'spirituality' is usually equated with 'religion' as religious structures, and so no wonder today's perceptions seem to be blinkered.
True understanding can only be accessible by those who have spiritually improved themselves, yet today's governments contain more than a few people who seem to be far removed from real understanding and vision. Most are self-seeking; some are even corrupt.
Plato was one great name who wrote in the cause of wisdom. There were others that followed, but in England one name appears to stand out more than any other: Sir Francis Bacon, who (amongst his many other activities) wrote a work entitled The New Atlantis, in which he described his notion of a perfect state.
This book closes with a long lecture delivered by a great dignitary, who summarised the achievement of this perfect state in the following magnificent statement, one which might well be inscribed over the doors of learning and in the hearts of all scholars, scientists, and philosophers: "The end of our foundation is the knowledge of causes, and secret motions of things; and the enlarging of the bounds of human empire, to the effecting of all things possible."
He then described the laboratories, observatories, mines and hospitals; and the various engines and inventions by which the elements could be controlled and the secrets of Nature discovered. There were gardens for the study of plants, and parks filled with birds and animals so that men could investigate their habits. Even reptiles, insects, and fishes were considered and their uses classified.
Medicines of all kinds were distilled and compounded, and mechanical arts were perfected but only according to the laws of Nature. There were houses where the senses of man were studied with the aid of perfumes, flavours, sounds, music, and extraordinary acoustical devices.
And there were houses where the deceits of men were on record so that the methods by which men can be deceived could be made known and studied.
In this philosophical city, all men were employed according to their tastes and ability, and each contributed in his own way to the sum of useful knowledge. There were museums where rare and excellent inventions were preserved, and galleries containing the statues of great men who had contributed to the improvement of the human race.
Bacon's book was published in 1627 - long before anything of the foregoing had been otherwise dreamed of in this Christian Age. But it was a book calling on the highest attributes of man; importantly, it was not an invitation to materialistic science as some thought. Today many credit Bacon with setting the method of modern science, but they ignore his underlying call to the utilisation of spiritual philosophy in scientific determination.
In today's world, there is a clamour for more and more laws to deal with this and that. Where there are many laws there is much lawlessness, and men come to despise and ridicule the restraints that are imposed upon freedom of action. Corrupt laws, resulting from efforts to amend inadequate legislation by further inadequate legislation, reveal a general ignorance of right and wrong. Where such ignorance exists the ideal function of democracy is impossible, and liberty degenerates into license.
Apart from that, too many laws are unenforceable and those that are deemed the most important are tackled according to some artificial notion of priority.
We live in a day of partial truths, and until we remedy the condition we must suffer the inevitable consequences of division. If we make the old mistakes we will be rewarded by the old pain. But if we make a new effort, we can set up imperishable footings and bestow as a heritage the beginnings of a better way of life. According to our choice, the results will be inevitable, for Nature will never change her ways. Let us consider her ways and be wise.
Permanent progress results from an appropriate education, and not from legislation. The true purpose of education is to inform the mind of basic truths concerning the conduct and the consequences of conduct. Education is not merely the fitting of the individual for the problems of economic survival. This is only the lesser part of learning, but modern universities seem to be essentially organised for economic survival; their method is via quantity, not quality, to ensure their financial viability.
In Indian philosophy, there is the ancient concept of dharma, which essentially alludes to the true nature of something. Thus the dharma of sugar is to sweeten, the dharma of fire is to create heat and burn while the dharma of the river is to flow or that of air is to blow. As such a human being’s dharma consists of certain duties which make his/her life purposeful and potentially fruitful. Thus dharma is the unchangeable nature of human beings irrespective of any religious affiliation. Indian spiritual philosophy - in line with Plato - insists that man has a moral and spiritual purpose to fulfil.
The greater issue of living deals with the intangibles of the right motivation and right use. No human being who is moved to action through wrong motivations, or misuses the privileges of his times, can be regarded as educated, or behaving according to dharma, regardless of the amount of formal schooling he has received.
The human mind is established in knowledge not only by the reading of books or the study of arts and sciences but by the examples set up by leaders and the personal experiences of living. According to the Baconian system, there are three sources of learning. The first is tradition, which may be derived from books. The second is observation, by which we learn from the actions of each other. And the third is experimentation, which is a study of causes and consequences brought about by personal conduct. This is the classic spiritual approach.
As indicated earlier, the supreme human purpose is the perfection of man. This must come first, and when this end has been achieved all good things will inevitably follow. Only enlightened men can sustain enlightened leadership; only the wise can recognize and reward wisdom.
Here lies the solution to the great educational reform so necessary at this time. We cannot hope to build a nobility of man upon the sterility of a narrow, competitive, materialistic educational policy: the system has to change. The ignorance of man has been his undoing. Only wisdom can restore him to his proper divine estate.
The religious motion in the modern world should be directed away from theology and all the artificial limitations set up by creeds and dogmas. To meet that dissatisfaction, there must be a new vision concerning the substance (or essence) of spiritual truth. The religion of the future will include within its own structure the best of science, art (including crafts), literature, politics, and sociology. All this will be studied as parts of a whole, not as separate issues.
Even unto recent times, the work of the craftsman had a higher calling, it was not merely subject to utilitarian demand. I (for example) come from a family of craftsmen and when I was quite young I had it instilled in me that a craftsman should never blame his tools. The error, if any, always lies within the craftsman as it is he that chisels his own destiny. That basic learning always affected my approach to work, though I will never claim I did not have faults. Mistakes are always made, but those mistakes should inform one's intellect accordingly for them not to be repeated.
Long ago there was a craftsman named Antonio Stradivari, a maker of violins (the famed Stradivarius). Today a great violinist will hope to be able to acquire one of Antonio's works, expensive though they are, because of its supreme quality. Now, what was Antonio's secret? It was that he took a long time in the making of each and every one of his violins; he wanted perfection, not for perfection's sake, but only to please God. In the process, he pleased his customers. His preference was certainly not to make a lot of money.
This idea of aiming for quality for altruistic reasons - for the good of one and all - is one that is being revived, with the cause being the need for spiritual evolution, as was the intention of Creation.
In the UK, the Schumacher Institute and Schumacher College are vivid examples of this 'new' thought and are working hard to constructively transform the way we think into something needful and admirable. Below is a link to 'Earth Talks', where many videos of enlightening talks are provided. There is also a link below to a video on the true teachings of Jesus, which indicates the basis of how we might truly improve ourselves before we go into action.
Spirituality and its approach is not a blind faith about things invisible. It is an inspired use of things known and available. That man can be called religious who truly lives well and possesses a clear conscience, not a person who submits to a religious structure. That man is sacrilegious who perverts universal good for purposes of private gain. The abstract parts of religion are useful only to the degree that they justify and prove moral virtues.
A great sage is recorded as saying:
The Eternal Good reveals its will and pleasure through the body of Nature and the motions of Universal Law. Within the body of Nature and Law there is a soul which must be discovered by great thoughtfulness. And within that soul of Nature and Law there is a spirit which must be sought with great understanding; for verily I say unto you, my brothers, that it is this spirit concealed from the profane but revealed to the thoughtful, which giveth life.
This each man must do by learning how to control the vagaries of his mind and the onset of ego. It is the design of true activity: that men shall abide together in peace and shall devote their energies to the common good.
Man is greater than the animal, not by the strength of his body, nor in shrewdness, nor in the power of his senses, nor simply in skill and patience (which are, simply, just helpful talents); man is superior because he contains within himself the faculties and powers by which he can perceive his true place in a divine order of life. Man can consciously evolve, but will not if he misuses his powers.
His power partly lies in his dreams, his visions, and his ideals, but there is more than that: his power essentially results from such educated self-knowledge that reveals 'the light'. If these intangibles are left uncultivated, man is at best but a superior kind of beast, subject to all the ills and vicissitudes of an unenlightened creation.
Change of the kind described here is essential. It cannot be enforced but experience (particularly through suffering and error) must surely bring the realisation that such change is the real destiny of mankind. Cooperation, not competition, is the true key to achieving much-needed one-ness and true justice.
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one (Lennon)
Thank you for reading this.
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