Don DeGracia
New
t wanted to bounce a couple of things off of the author since we got you here :)
I think it's important to try and understand the global economy game that the US is playing... and we all go along with / derive huge benefit from.
again, I just don't know if this is true... I mean, the net is also the greatest propaganda tool ever invented. And the "power elite" have much more experience and resources than we could ever imagine. Case in point, ISIS:
http://www.corbettreport.com/who-is-isis-an-open-source-investigation/
So, I don't think the economy or the state of world politics matters much other than huge fact that this massively corrupt system has worked in our factor and you and I have been privileged enough to have the time and money to do, and learn, and grow. Personally, I feel really blessed .
Hi Alex!
Wow! Thanks for joining the fray, thanks for reading Experience and thanks for your perceptive (as usual) comments. And, I like James Corbet's stuff too!
I am kicking around how to address these issues on my blog without turning into an Alex Jones type rant. I'm not there yet and still thinking about it. In general, with respect to these types of issues, I tend to favor Webster Tarpley's general viewpoint, but even his is limited in that it does not explicitly include the inner realms. There are many layers to these types of issues and I can't summarize easily. So I will just try to address head on your two points.
1. Yes, I agree, we benefit from the havoc the US is wrecking (and has been wrecking) on the rest of the world. It is like being a Roman Citizen during the Roman Empire. Having such position of relative privileged of material wealth, I think we are obligated to do what is in our power to counteract the negative aspects of our culture. For a single individual, that power is very small indeed. The internet helps amplify it and level the field a little bit. But what to do? I think you and me, and the people here are all doing things already. You have the cojones to stand up to the ignorance and fallacies that pass for legitimate learning. I try to do my little bit by spreading ideas around that I think will help. Everyone here probably has something they are doing. But in the big picture, there are vast societal forces at work that we are just slaves to, and the best we can do is be as aware as possible, and if they are bad forces, try not to let them play through us and our actions.
2. Yes, I agree about the Spy vs. Spy aspect of the internet. But in spite of this, Experience, What is Science? and all my other writing is now there for anyone in the world to grab if they have a computer and internet. Same with your work. So there is a leveling influence at work. But these things move slowly relative to our individual lives. A good parallel for the internet is the printing press. Within a couple decades of its invention, the protestant reformation occurred in Europe because all of a sudden, people could read the Bible in their native tongue. The Catholic Church in Rome simply lost control (This was not all grass roots, and people like Tarpley make a convincing case that the power elite of the day were behind these events to gain even more power). The repercussions still reverberate strongly today in the world. However, within a relatively short time, the power elite took overt control of the medium of printing, like the rich and powerful Elsevier family in the Netherlands. The rich and powerful continued consolidating power over printing, like the newspaper families in the USA at the turn of the century and like we see with Rupert Murdock and his ilk today.
So yeah, the rich and powerful do what they can to get control of things. They are attempting it now with the internet, and with some clear successes. However, it's not like it used to be. ISIS, Julian Assange, and stuff like that gets unmasked very quickly now. There is value to Alex Jones barking like a dog. And again, I point to your work. When I wrote Beyond the Physical in 1990, it was unthinkable to take some "famous" author and call them out for all to see. Now you are doing it every two weeks! To me, its just amazing.
So yes, the power elite have experience and resources in deception and propaganda. But Humanity as a whole has God and the Human Spirit, and these are way more powerful than any rich family. But again, these are long term forces. Individual people get mowed over like the grass. Look at Bruno being burnt at the stake, or the persecution of Paracelsus or Galileo. People who are agents for progressive forces always take the risk of getting crushed. But the forces themselves keep on keeping on no matter what, and people's sacrifices today do make a better tomorrow.
And this even gets to a very deep issue that Experience deals with, and is perhaps the weakest point in that book (I might as well say it before you do!). The theme of that book is that Maya is a mindless striving that ultimately goes nowhere. And, in the ultimate scope that is true. The Sun WILL go nova one day. The Earth and all of us will die. The entire universe will fade away trillions of years from now. But, in the meantime, there is also some kind of process unfolding in time, this Maya thing being discussed above. We can see it as a bizarre process that creates relative existence, but we can also see it as God's Will, or the Divine Plan, and it is making some kind of pattern that is great beyond our wildest dreams. Leibniz saw this and discussed it. This was really his idea of the "Best of All Possible Worlds". But you and i, in the form we are in now, won't see it. We can only imagine it as an ideal. We are all only stepping stones to it.
I think. I am not sure. I see both possibilities right now: the meaningless of Maya, and the indescribable beauty of God's Divine Plane. It is what I am worrying about right now. How to reconcile these two pictures.
Thanks for bringing this to the surface, Alex.
Best wishes
Don