CHAPTER SEVENTY SEVEN. THE TECTONIC PARADIGM SHIFT

This essay is devoted to the unknown author of the Biblical text found in John 8:32: Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

Few truths are as self evident as this. The international elite who are the self-appointed Masters of the Universe and their puppets in the US government are tightening their grip on the people of the United States. They do this to "protect" citizens who appear willing to trade their freedom for the illusion of secruity. Meanwhile, the international coporate terrorists who control the foreign policy of the U.S. expand the dominion of their corporate Empire by preemptive war on defenseless nations, while citizens who consider themselves politically aware waste their efforts arguing about which of the two corporate parties of the Duopoly best represents their interests.

Citizens of the U.S. and other western nations hope to be on the "winning" side in the dawning New World Order whose horrors they do not yet comprehend. These are people who still believe in the concept of nations in a time when international corporations are replacing governments in deciding the fate of the world.  Those individuals who are taking all of us down this path blindly accept the proposition  that life is an eternal competition for survival. They perpetuate this myth to maintain their power by playing on the hopes and fears of gullible citizens who  naively expect the defeat of terror at the price of their own liberty.

The idea that life is inherently a struggle between contending self-interests is a fallacy. The result of  failing to challenge this illusory vision of human nature would be the destruction of human civilization as we know it. Only by working together in the interest of humanity as a whole can we assure that the sins of our fathers will not be visited upon our sons and daughters.

It may seem that things are getting worse at this point in history, but it all depends on your point of view. If we focus on the continuing acts of reckless greed that are threatening the world economy, causing seemingly endless war and creating conditions for mass starvation, pandemic and increasingly frequent and severe environmental catastrophes, it is natural to conclude that human civilization may be already doomed. 

However, if we focus on the many positive signs that people are awakening and remember that our numbers give us the potential strength to resist enslavement in a permanent fascist New World Order, we will see things differently. It is only by going through the pain of the adolescence of humanity that we can learn from the mistakes of generations before us and give up the illusions of childhood. When we do, humanity will finally mature as a society of adults, ready to accept the responsibility of caring for our fragile species and leave a legacy of hope, peace and proseprity for our progeny.

Some compare humanity to a cancer, growing unchecked by natural barriers to growth and threatening to kill the organism from which it arose. However, unlike mindless cells or parasitic organisms, humans have the ability to direct their own evolution. We can choose to act to save our civilization by adapting not physically, but psychologically and spiritually to the threats we have created by our stubborn beliefs in dangerous ideas. We must abandon the belief in the supremacy of individual will over social needs and the idea that life is a zero-sum game in which only the strongest prosper, at the expense of the many. Failure to evolve our consciousness through an act of collective will and effort would be tantamount to mass suicide.

Transforming human consciousness may seem grandiose but it is not. Every major shift in human civilization started with an idea. If an idea has the power to capture the imagination of the multitudes and change how they interact with one another and with the natural world, change is inevitable. Those who argue that the dangerous beliefs that threaten our collective survival are "human nature" are mistaken. If there is one thing that can be said about human nature it is that it can be expressed in as many different ways as there are humans. The many men and women who have already realized the key to saving human civilization is to live up to the ideal of "liberty and justice for all" proves that the capacity to do so lies within each of us.

The very evolutionary pressures caused by human-caused global climate change have the potential to drive the shift in human consciousness that can save us. The threat of imminent demise may be what saves us. If we respond quickly enough, untold millions will die but human civilization may survive, chastened and changed for the better by its near-death experience.

Only when we are forced to challenge our most deeply held misconceptions will we succeed. The change has begun. It is almost imperceptible, as any exponential change is at first. However, it is a characteristic of exponential growth that at some point the rate of change grows so rapidly that transformation seems to have come from nowhere, like an algal bloom on a pond that appeared clear the day before.

With the power of the internet, our ability to communicate is amplified manyfold. People across the world struggling to find a way to change the course of human destiny can talk to each other directly. Through such personal interactions we can teach each other to reject the notion that conflict is inevitable. We can build a united international front against fascism and war at the grassroots level.

When a critical mass of people come to understand that our interdependence dictates that what is best for each of us is what is best for all of us, we will witness a tectonic paradigm shift in human consciousness. When we put aside the self-imposed distinctions that keep us from recognizing our common identity, consensus reality will change. Only then will democracy be truly possible. 

The most important lies that we tell ourselves are those that conceal the evil acts of leaders in government. Acceptance of atrocities as natural by the people in the nations whose governments commit them makes them complicit in these crimes against humanity. We can and must change the paradigm of consensus reality that accepts enslavement of people in weaker nations by powerful governments run in the interests of international corporations. The change begins when the individual accepts the interdependence of each of us with each other and the planet itself, but it can only become an exponential process if each of us dedicates ourself to awakening those around us to this reality.

Having come to understand that the survival of human civilization itself is in danger, each of us who have awakened must translate our understanding into political action, however we believe our efforts are best spent. Americans can begin to accept their responsibility to future generations by demanding a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate the constitutional violations by the Cheney regime that have sown the seeds of fascism in the United States. These have laid the ground for wars of choice to maintain the powerful oil interests that put them in office, wars that continue under the Obama administration.

As of this writing, it remains to be seen whether President Obama intends to address global climate change that is threatening human civilization or whether he intends to offer any resistance to those who would subjugate the world through fear and threat of perpetual war. In seeking to move forward without looking at how we got to where we find ourselves, he is continuing down a path of self-destruction.

In the process of creating democracy in America so that it might flourish in the world, Americans must demand transparency and accountability for the crimes of those in the U.S. government and the shadow government who create conditions to justify wars of choice. This will entail declassifying documents hidden from public view under the Orwellian logic of “state security.” The leaders who have treasonously betrayed us and used war to further the interests of international corporations and those who benefit from these crimes against humanity must face our collective judgment. 

The list of these crimes includes the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, the murder of democratic leaders throughout the world and the Iraq and Afghanistan invasions and occupations designed to make the chosen among the US aristocracy the rulers of a slave planet. War is the ultimate betrayal of humanity. That it persists in a world where there is only one superpower makes a mockery of the claim that the U.S. is a democracy. In a democracy, a free People who know the truth about what the government is doing in their name would not permit it to prey upon the rest of the world to benefit those who pay to put elected officials in power.

The true enemies of freedom are those stateless actors of the corporatocracy who direct the U.S. government and military to achieve their plans of world domination. The vast majority of elected officials in the U.S. are guilty of giving material aid to these international corporate terrorists and are thus guilty of treason. The idea of concluding an investigation with prosecutions is thus a fantasy. No serious investigation will ever take place if those in power had to face the same consequences as those they deem enemies of the state. The appropriate way to have accountability is with a Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

In the end, we must punish only those who refuse to cooperate with or who lie to the Commission, or there will never be an end to recriminations. Peace and freedom on Earth depend on facing the truth about what we have allowed our government to do in our name, then forgiving all but the criminals most responsible, while never forgetting their crimes. After all, any American who has not devoted themselves to ending the crime of war and its attendant evils shares some measure of blame. Only by forgiveness can we hope to move on to a future where all participate in the salvation of an otherwise doomed planet. Vengeance will only breed the pursuit of more vengeance by the vanquished.

Let's end the Uncivil War that has raged in the US for decades and establish true representative democracy. Only then will we have the moral authority that will enable us to spread freedom, justice and peace throughout the world by our own example where we have failed to do so at the barrel of a gun. We must have some sympathy for the devil within all of us and find a way to forgive those who are have acted out of shortsighted, narrowly defined self-interest. We have all at times let selfish considerations into our hearts and allowed them to guide our actions. When we free ourselves from the this self-imposed enslavement of our minds, we will free ourselves from a desire for revenge that would only breed resistance to our efforts to create a world where our children can live free of fear of want and oppression.

In the immortal words of John Lennon:






When I find myself in times of trouble,
Mother Mary comes to me,
speaking words of wisdom.
Let it be, let it be.

And in my hour of darkness
she is standing right in front of me,
speaking words of wisdom.
Let it be, let it be.


Whisper words of wisdom,
let it be, let it be.

When the broken hearted people
living in the world agree,
there will be an answer,
let it be, let it be.

And when the night is cloudy,
there is still a light that shines on me.
Shine on till tomorrow,
Let it be, let it be.


I wake up to the sound of music,
Mother Mary comes to me,
speaking words of wisdom,
Let it be, let it be.


Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be.
There will be an answer, let it be.
Let it be, let it be, let it be, yeah, let it be.
Whisper words of wisdom, let it be.




Rick Staggenborg, MD

Roseburg, Oregon

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FIVE. EACH OF US A PROPHET

Written by: Rick Staggenborg, MD on Sep 8, 2010 8:36 AM PDT

This essay is dedicated to Dr. Aftab Ahmed, who has patiently tried to teach me that in his reading of the Qua’ran, there is no reason not to believe that there may have come later prophets who were needed by Allah to remind the followers of Mohammed that his message was in its essence very similar to what Jesus taught. He is part of the worldwide effort to get out the message of the Amaddiyah sect of Islam but he does not proselytize, nor do any other members.

 

There was a recent slaughter at an Amaddiyah mosque in Pakistan, a country in which I have a number of friends and from which most of the members of the Rizwan mosque I attend come from. The perpetrators considered themselves Muslim and felt they had a duty to murder those of differing beliefs. Like urban African-Americans who live in poor communities where the incidence of “Black on Black” violent crimes far outnumber crimes committed against whites or others, fundamentalist Muslims are killing many more Muslims than Christians or Jews.

I have been studying comparative world religions as I find the time over the last several years, looking for the common elements of these seemingly disparate texts. I describe my conclusions in What if God Were All of Us? the only essay in this book long enough to merit the title “chapter”. I continue to give this a great deal of thought and have touched upon corollaries to the theory of Reality that I describe in it in later chapters.  Those who have read this will realize that belief in God need not mean accepting the need for religion.

It seems to me that we can never know world peace as long as Fundamentalists of all religions continue warring against each other and begin to listen and learn from each other about alternative theories of God, Mankind, the relationships between them and the nature of Reality itself. There are many men and women seeking God who are doing this already. 

It may be of interest both churchgoers and atheists that their is a growing ecumenical outreach is going on all over the world. They are working together to find a core of common belief that will unite them in the cause of liberty and justice for all. No one is telling anyone what to think, but together they are like the twelve blind monks who tried to describe an elephant by touch alone. Each received a different impression. Only by maintaining open minds and clearly communicating with one another in a spirit of love, common purpose and acceptance of differences could they succeed at grasping the essence of “elephantness."

My study of religion has led me to conclude that all prophets have been those most attuned to the ultimate reality that our imperfect senses can only perceive as through a glass darkly. Perhaps God is still speaking, if we listen closely enough. They divined these things by various means, but each of the greatest prophets set about systematically spreading the truths they had found by face-to-face contact until enough people were convinced that a movement was started. The spiritual descendants of these men and women are the Soldiers For Peace of today. The only weapon of a prophet is the truth. Truth is the greatest enemy of slavery and the only way it has been defeated since slavery was invented by Man.

I started my study as an agnostic but became a believer in God when I began to perceive highly improbable relationships between various prophecies of the future from the great religious texts that seemed to be woven into art, film, literature, song and other forms of creative expression by men and women of no particular religious affiliation or training. Is it possible that these men and women are tapping into a greater consciousness accessible to all who are open to its existence? A suggestion that this may be true is the observation that early prophets with no knowledge of modern science seem to have discovered important truths about the nature of the physical universe that could only be conjectured before modern physics emerged in the 20th century.

It may be coincidence that prophets always seemed to have arisen at times that Peoples and now the world are threatened with slavery, but I do not believe so. There might not be a God who is directing things, but we evolved compassion for a reason. It ensures that those who do not shut it off will suffer so much from feeling the pain of others that they will dedicate their lives to making the world fit for human habitation, regardless of the odds of success. 

The United States government has been co-opted from the American People by international corporate terrorists and their Puppets in Congress and the White House. This has resulted in the forfeiture of the democracy the people of the US were in the process of creating until the corporate coup that killed John F. Kennedy. The loss of hope for democracy in America would threaten prospects for peace and democracy in the world at large. It is time that each of us accepts our responsibility to speak out against the corporate corruption of the US government and the evil that is done in the name of the citizens of the United States. 

It is imperative that we remember how Americans banded together in 1776 to put narrow self interests aside in pursuit of a higher goal. Together, the Left who look toward the future and the Right who look to the past can put America back on the path to democracy. Only then can we look forward to a future where we realize the promises of the past that the older among us remember and many imagine still exist in the United States.

We can and must come together again to end corporate dominance and privilege, as American colonists did when they revolted in Boston. In response to the blatant favoritism of the British government toward the East India Company over American shippers and small business owners, we destroyed the equivalent of $3,000,000 in corporate tax-free tea by tossing it into Boston Harbor. It is time to destroy a political structure that more closely resembles fascism than a democratic government of, by and for the People of the United States.

Average Americans do not appreciate that corporate dominance of government is the definition of fascism according to Mussolini, the man who coined the term. We have to ask ourselves why we fought a World War to end the threat of worldwide fascism, only to give it the world we had in our hands to the corporations who start wars for profit. These endless “wars” produce a constant stream of disaffected and damaged youths, many of whom are destined to lead aimless and purposeless lives unless they can find the help they need to reintegrate into civilian society.

War is an obsolete concept. If we reject the self-fulfilling prophecy that war is inevitable, we will achieve the Tectonic Paradigm Shift in human consciousness where war will become inconceivable. When that day comes, we will have reached the point where we can live in peace with our fellow humans. This is not only possible but necessary to prevent human civilization from descending into Hell on Earth in a nightmare vision of the future that none of our politicians seem to recognize will be the end result of their continued capitulation to a corporate agenda. Their Puppetmasters  have done so well at manipulating the collective consciousness of Americans that their "leaders" have accepted the delusion that they have no other choice.. It is fortunate that a growing number of Americans have come to see that the Empire has no clothes.

It is only the steadfast belief that the truth must get out that is emboldening men and women around the world to criticize their governments and to work for change. They will succeed where they can picture what progress needs to be made instead of what they have come to expect and demand such changes from their governments. 

Each of us can be a Prophet if only we speak what we believe to be the truth as publicly and open-mindedly as we can. The only difference between the so-called “minor” prophets and the truly great prophets is that the great ones were able to gather together all men and women of good will who would listen to them and their message of Peace.

In the immortal words of the prophet John Lennon:



Here come old flattop he come grooving up slowly.
He got joo-joo eyeball he one holy roller.
He got hair down to his knee.
Got to be a joker he just do what he please.


He wear no shoeshine he got toe-jam football.
He got monkey finger he shoot coca-cola.
He say "I know you, you know me."
One thing I can tell you is you got to be free.
Come together right now over me.


He bag production he got walrus gumboot.
He got Ono sideboard he one spinal cracker.
He got feet down below his knee.
Hold you in his armchair you can feel his disease.
Come together right now over me.


He roller-coaster he got early warning.
He got muddy water he one mojo filter.
He say "One and one and one is three."
Got to be good-looking 'cause he's so hard to see.
Come together right now over me.


Rick Staggenborg. MD


Sawyer Rapids, Oregon