September 14, 2017
A separation from reason or logic is the nature of animals, an aspect of human life known as foolishness. People who see life as a struggle for survival are willing to harm others to protect themselves. “Kill or be killed” is a condition that leads to suffering or self-destruction. Though, there are other potential conditions that are mutually inclusive to human beings, as well, such learning, realization, compassion, etc. Nothing is more certain than actual proof found in the daily lives of people that have practiced a particular system of faith and worship, over centuries, even millennia, such as the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power over them, especially by personal God or gods that they call their religion. It takes a proper sense of responsibility to transform the culture in which we live. An ethical theory that treats self-interest as the foundation of morality is no more than egoism, even when the pursuit or interest, to which it ascribes supreme importance, is a religion. The world will never get any better as long as the people and their “guiding force and impetus” behind all their endeavors remains selfish and lacks compassion. People could gain by learning from animals, which not only exhibit loyalty, but which are also selfish. The good health of one’s spirituality is not a result of how well one practices a religion, but with taking personal responsibility for how we respond to our surroundings. Though with spirituality there is a concern for the human spirit or soul as opposed to the material or physical things, in our realm of existence, without the component of form, we are not living beings and at a loss to respond to our surroundings using the spiritual aspects of our existence, such as our perception, conception, volition, and consciousness. When we receive or apprehend external information through our sense organs, we grasp and form some idea or concept about what we perceive, create a concept out of what it is we perceive, initiate a particular action, while using our mind to exercise a value judgment, such as what is right and wrong about it. The state of a land is a reflection of the people who live in it. A foolish person will perceive, form a conception of, and react to the same surroundings in a completely different manner than one who acts with a sense of mission for the sake and happiness of people and for the Law of Causality. There is a concept that an ever-expanding consumption of goods is advantageous to society and the economy. Every merchant, lawyer, doctor, scientist, media outlet, religious leader, etc. uses cunning and stealth to appeal to the motivational and egocentric emotions of people to sell the product to their targeted consumer base. There are no exceptions. The success or failure of merchants’ “approach motivation” serves as food to either feed or starve their own motivational and egocentric emotions. To develop an awareness around these dispositions is to take actions that revolve around changing our beliefs and rethinking our positions. While a certain country’s power might be seen as a threat to some, there is none as one might think or with her countrymen, as many might allege a political situation in the country exists, where a “deep state” or state within a state, such as armed forces and civilian authorities (intelligence agencies, police, secret police, administrative agencies and branches of government bureaucracy) do NOT respond to the civilian political leadership! This is no different than the concept for defining the political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the civil state, which parallels religious liberty, to NOT fear government interference in one’s right to expressions of their religious conscience. Faith based on the inherent power of the individual is the difference between dependency and self-reliance, between deference and empowerment. Servitude lies in the heart of a fool, and ignorance no more than a state of delusion that must be cut off. Then perhaps, there might be some hope for moving forward and setting things upright.