Exceptions, yes, and God speed to them. Science, for example, can be an exception, but we shouldn't forget that science is a function of scientists and a random sample of scientists is simply a representative sample of the human race.
Is this being negative and perverse? Well, Jesus said to judge us by our fruits and George Bush (and Adolph Hitler and Joseph Stalin, etc.) are fruits of the Homo sapien tree.
But, that's a minor point because WHY DO WE ALLOW SUCH TRASH to mutilate human existence? Another question: WHY DO WE ALLOW VAMPIRE RICH ELITES to treat us like human cattle? We allow it because we're so g.d. incompetent as a life form. The absolute truth of the matter is that we don't have to allow ANY of these things any more than we have to suck up to brain dead religion cults.
However, it also needs be said that none of this discounts the reality of human evil. Evil, too, is all too real, but it’s a symptom of feeble or nonexistent wisdom. Wisdom is more than equal to the challenge of evil. Indeed, foolishness is the host of evil; hence the buck stops with the human species, not some transcendent higher evil power. When you bury your life in 40 IQ sitcoms (television and otherwise) you abandon your children to cars in the street – and murder in Iraq.
Here's another way to say all this. We don't have the courage or "character" to be in touch with reality. That's the dead center of human existence, i.e., we are creatures profoundly out of touch with reality.
Look, there are BILLIONS of human cattle and only a literal handful of international elites. Is that pathetic, or what? And we've been living like this or at least 6,000 years. Why do we allow a few thousand human beings to enslave literally billions of the rest of us?
We aren't "overpowered", that's b.s. Neither are we "brainwashed" by religion. More b.s. Excuses are meaningless since ultimately all human atrocities and tragedies are "allowed" and only a life form that's a walking vacuum of wisdom would allow such things.
Can we change? Of course we can change since global stupidity is ultimately a choice. So why do we choose it? Hard to say, isn't it? All the "deadly sins" come to mind. Probably, mostly cowardice, since we have the neurological equipment to split the atom and write Bach Partitas, but our brains are clogged with the sludge of fools.
The unequivocal claim of this piece is that social/political/religious/etc foolishness is a CHOICE. We don't have to be living like this. May I repeat that? We don't have to be living like this.
We are living like this because we are indifferent or cynical about "wisdom". Wisdom is more real than foolishness, but we took the wrong turn. We are a foolish species, not a wise species. One can imagine that our galaxy is teeming with wise species . . . but we aren't one of them.
If we WERE a wise species, would we be living like this? Would we keep allowing the Have and Have Not Horror? Would we be selling our souls to dufus religions (talk about being out of touch with reality!)? Would we be sending our children to cannon fodder oil wars for the vampire rich? Would we keep allowing the billionaire religious fanatics of the Israeli lunatic fringe right wing to TOTALLY dictate our foreign policy? Would we keep obfuscating a massively objective examination of what REALLY happened in 9/11?
Bottom line? Our species has made the fool choice, not the wisdom choice, and the human condition is the inevitable consequence.
The Buddha’s First Nobel Truth is that life is suffering. Not to realize this is not to be alive.
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W. Christopher Epler (Bill)
ps Buddha’s Fourth and last Nobel Truth is that consummated wisdom is Nirvana . . .
