Culture of Death

"A culture of death seeks to impose itself on our desire to live and live to the full. There are those who reject the light of life, preferring the fruitless works of darkness. Their harvest is injustice, discrimination, exploitation, deceit, violence. In every age, a measure of their apparent success is the death of innocents. In our own century, as at no other time in history, the culture of death has assumed a social and institutional form of legality to justify the most horrible crimes against humanity: Genocide, "final solutions," "ethnic cleansings," and the massive taking of lives of human beings before they are born or before they reach the natural point of death."
---Pope John Paul II

Added to the social and institutional form of legality are phenomena such as "premptive srikes," "fight against terrorists,"either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists." Shamefully, there are so many others we could add from the paradigm of our current culture that one can only conclude that the culture of death is not seeking to impose itself. Rather,it is THE culture, our culture. As such, a culture which seeks to destroy quite naturally it too will be destroyed in the process. One need not do anything to bring it on as it does so on its own. The only hope is that room will be made for a culture of life, of light, of love via the natural possibility that something new and completely different often arise out of chaotic states. Those of us who deplore the culture of death, must find a way to be ready when this possiblity arise. Only then can one become a part of the future of life and light and love. Such a future does not entail waiting to be raptured, or having a great leader provide all the solutions to our problems. It is learning to be objective and see our current culture for what it is-a culture of slavery and death. It is rejecting all the ways in which we contribute to the culture of death beginning with refusal to believe the lies.

Death of America

Rachel Corrie died around this time last year. This week another American woman has died though under different circumstances. Buried in the sensationalism of the past few weeks is the fact that another human being has had to suffer because of choices made by others. I wanted to avoid commenting on the big news story of the week but I couldn't help it. The death of this American woman Terri Schiavo, is symbolic of another dragged out possibly torturous death-the death of the American Republic. I know plently others such as Gore Vidal have written and shouted about this for a long time. It is a concept I would have believed preventable if not down right impossible in my once illusory view. I know better now. All one needs to do is take a look at the past and present. America's elite sacrifice Iraqis every day who are very much aware of what is happening to them. Countless other nations have also chosen torture and death for friends and enemies alike. We the American people have mostly turned a blind eye to it all.

As long as we can continue to be busy consumers who allow our children participate in the killing game we are indirectly condoing murder as fun. When we allow our military to use similar games to recruit our kids to kill for real and they die doing this job, we honor them as heroes. We directly choose to let Iraqi children, Afghani children, our children, die. When we turn a blind eye to the death and destruction of others, with ease we become victims of death and destruction ourselves. This is the essence of the death of America. Our allowances for the choices our government makes to torture and murder others is what gives people like Mike Schiavo the authority to make the choice he did concerning Terri.

As I wrote this, I received an email alert that the pope has died. I haven't checked to see if it's true. I can only think of others like him who used their authority (which comes from the choice to BE) to speak for the weak and dispossesed. I can see that such people are rapidly becoming a thing of the past. They have long carried the burden of witnessing and doing something about the persistent enslavement of this planet to no avail. Maybe the pople has done all he could with what he had in him and is duly tired of this world. As non religious as I am, I send prayers of thanks for the Rachel Corries and the Pope John Pauls, even Terri Schiavos of the world. They have reminded me that beauty and compassion though rare is possible only by us becoming its representative. I also pray for god or whomever, to have mercy on us for the kind of world we have participated in creating-a world where beauty and compassion has been held hostage by the slave masters. May we develop the will and ability release this hold and create something different.

Secret History and the DaVinci Code: entertainment or becoming free?

If you're like me, you may wonder what it is about a given work that makes it popular with so many. Take the Da Vinci Code for instance and all the ideas about Rennes-le Chateau and descendants of Jesus. Maybe it's the promise of entertaining us with a twist on the doctrines we have come to incorporate in our being as spiritual truth. It may or may not be about entertainment but it touches something in our psyche that induces us to question said teachings and possibly even the reality of the human condition. Maybe these works even induce a true grail quest. If the work really does this then it should remind us that things aren't always as they appear and that there is a destiny of man. They should also give some clues as to how to go about finding that destiny. They don't have to provide all the answers, just some clues.

The question is; does the Da Vinci Code accomplish that? This is where I find it and similar works lacking. They raise questions and presume to provide ready answers too. However, the answers essentially reinforce our beliefs about our reality rather than what is. They are answers that help to maintain our condition as slaves to a system we KNOW little but BELIEVE a lot about. But what do I know? It is afterall a work of fiction for fun reading during free time. It is afterall marketed as entertainment, even if most fans see it as disguised truths. How many would even consider that this Rennes le Chateau meme is exactly what the slavemasaters would like for us to think? The more we read this stuff, the more we become convinced we are learning the truth hidden in fiction. Truth can be entertaining for many. Then again lies are devices of mechanical popularity which is fueled by popular fiction like the Da Vinci code. I rather learn the truth not for entertainment sake but to find a way out of this mess we are in. If it also entertains then all the better.

So you may be wondering which works I consider to live up to this ideal of mine. The aptly named The Secret History of the World and How to Get Out Alive written by Laura Knight Jadczyk is one. It delves into mysteries surrounding the ark of the tabernacle, the Holy Grail and DNA. It draws on science, math, history, philosphy and religion. It discusses the contributions of great teachers such as Fulcanelli, Gurdjieff and of course Jesus, as well as secret societies and the age old conspiracies surrounding their mysteries. You may think it sounds a teensy bit like Dan Brown's The DaVinci Code but there is a fundamental difference. Dan Brown aims to entertain and possibly even entrain minds towards holding a particular belief. Laura Knight Jadczyk aims to and does show how all these things relate to the perpetual enslavement of our mind body and soul, and how we can work on becoming free and getting out alive.