The Flood, Part Three

Completed Unclean Thawts (At least for now)

So, I outlined the universal apriori basis of "The Flood" in part one, here:
https://fearfiles.blogspot.com/2019/12/the-flood-part-one.html

Then, last night, I explained it's implications within society and politics here:
https://fearfiles.blogspot.com/2019/12/the-flood-part-2.html

So there's your context, which is important in predicating what I think is the most important aspect of this archetype.  Tonight, I'd like to try and articulate the implications of preparing for "The Flood" in the life of the individual.

I think the Bible does an effective job of describing a proper way to perceive the relationship between the individual and reality.  It does this through a narrative that tells the story of how man evolved the instinct to sacrifice.  As I mentioned last night, these points are echoed in fables and parables that have been handed down from the recesses of time.  They are ancient in origin.  Mankind became aware of the difference between him and God: limitation.  The implication of this difference is suffering.  To be mortal is to suffer.  There are two natural reactions to this: 1) Become bitter at the nature of reality, believe in nothing, and slowly detract from the fund of potential energy around you by maintaining a severe affect; 2) Deal with reality on its own terms.  Enjoy what you can, while you can.  Find a purpose that is rewarding and believe that the purpose that you serve in enduring the pain justifies the struggle.  Understand that this sacrifice, this denial of gratification in the short term, will serve that purpose in the long term.  This idea of "sacrifice" is what is portrayed by Abel, and Abraham, and Noah.  It's reflected in the ant, the tortoise, and the frog.  We see the story everywhere we look.  In "Neo" from the Matrix, in "Cool Hand Luke, in "Obi Wan".  It is a recognition that the unfairness of the reality that we experience can only be mitigated by our effort in accepting the burden of responsibility for our fellow man, for the people that we love.

It is the recognition that The Flood is imminent, and that each of us has a duty to build a vessel within us that is capable of withstanding the worst abuse that can be dispensed by nature and by the malevolence of mankind.  None of us have a "right" to that vessel, precisely because nobody on Earth has the duty to build it for you.  It takes work.  It requires that we deny ourselves gratification so that fewer will suffer in the end.  It's an ominous responsibility that lies before every human being.

So, how do we get there?

If we accept what I just described with regards to the nature of the reality that we find ourselves in, I believe that we have a duty to tell the truth to ourselves, and to be aware of how malevolent each of us is capable of being.  When mankind first came to understand his own pain, it was a small intuitive leap to understand how to inflict pain on others.  This is another unfortunate implication of mortality, and that understanding is critical for each individual to gain an intimate familiarity with.  The alternative is a lie: "I could never do THAT."  "People are genuinely pure, it's the world that corrupts them."

In the biblical narrative, a good example of this is outlined when Christ was tempted by Satan in the desert.  He was shown, it is described, the successful ends of his efforts.  It was all within his grasp.  All he needed to do was to bow and accept the pure malevolence of reality.  He turned his back on that, understanding it at its core, and chose to go forward as he had: suffer betrayal by his friends, banishment by his church, and be tortured to death by his government so that it would be possible for God to look upon mankind favorably so long as they acted in a similar fashion.

Go back and read that again.  This is what preparation of the individual for the imminent Flood entails.

"But it's just a story, right?  That shadow, that temptation to submit to the cruelty of the world, it's just a parable.  Those implications don't apply to me.  I'm just a fat old white dude in the Mojave Desert." 

Such are the lies that we tell ourselves, seeking a justification for not taking up the burden that is rightly ours.  The denial of that burden leaves us vulnerable to the inevitable Flood.  Lies are just our futile attempts to bend reality to our advantage.  It doesn't work that way.  The Flood is coming.  It will expose your lies and leave you without shelter, emotionally unfit to continue.

I was talking to a dude the other day, a good man who is under criticism from his professional community because they refuse to accept his explanations for why they can't do something that they want to do.  I told him, "Tell them the truth unapologetically. The truth doesn't warp your reality, it warps the reality of those who are full of shit because they lie to themselves."  I had inadvertently walked into something that applies across the human experience and is one of the reasons why I've taken up the pen this weekend.

Accept as much responsibility as you can manage with dignity.  Challenge yourself at every opportunity.  Become familiar with your malevolent nature and hold that nature at bay, while also recognizing that malevolent potential in others.  Tell the truth to yourself and those with whom you interact. Do this every day.  Remain cognizant of this as you do all the little things.

The Flood is on the way.  People will be counting on you.  Be worthy of their faith in you, and be worthy of your faith in yourself.

Shalom, my friends.
Unclean

The Flood (Part 2)

So, expanding upon last night's argument (which can be found here, for those who need context: The Flood, Pt. 1

It is established that the threat of "The Flood" applies to societies worldwide, and this threat is viewed as having two causes: 1) sin, (defined as sustained apathy, incompetence, or corruption); and 2) entropy, (defined as the inevitable deterioration of everything). At first blush, it would almost seem as if the sustainment of a working system of culture, society, or government is impossible, given what we know in our apriori structures about the futility of these things.

Well, it's a good thing that we have memory, which allows us the opportunity to not make the same mistakes over and over again and thereby suffer stupidly. We've spent hundreds of thousands of years watching one another, noting what works and what doesn't, and then passing these observations genetically and verbally to our progeny. This has resulted in a number of utter fucking miracles, when you consider the odds, that I will deal with directly.

When contemplating the threat, "the Flood", that is represented in our collective memory, one might ask how we can mitigate it. Well, to use this metaphor to it's most effective ends, it would seem to be a moral imperative for us to prepare adequately for its inevitable arrival.

Holland, a country that has much of its arable territory located inconveniently beneath sea-level, has built a system of levees to protect against the eventual flood. Their engineers did so in a serious manner, planning their construction while accounting for the effects of the worst possible storm that could come about once in 10,000 years.

We can readily contrast this wise planning against the experience of Hurricane Katrina hitting New Orleans. The Army Corps of Engineers, when planning the levees to protect that city, calculated the effects of the worst possible storm that could come about once in 100 years. Meanwhile, corruption within the administration of that city took advantage of a system ripe for the taking, thereby corrupting the initial construction and subsequent maintenance of those levees. They were shown to be every bit as effective as the effort and thought that were evident in their creation and maintenance, and a whole city drowned as a result.

We should not be surprised. The fables that have been handed down to each generation for thousands of years give truth to this story. The "Ant and the Grasshopper", the "Tortoise and the Hare", and most depressingly, the "Scorpion and the Frog" all deal with treating reality seriously, not taking anything for granted, and preparing for the worst.

So, what should we do? Well, as nearly as I can tell, the solution for a sustainable society runs in exactly these areas. One must prepare a vessel capable of withstanding the worst abuse that the world and mankind can manifest upon it. Once that is done, it is imperative that the vessel be maintained appropriately, to be able to continually withstand this abuse.

Among the miracles that I referred to above, we can count the modern manifestation of a Lockean Republic as perhaps the best example. Locke put into words something that is truly fantastic: The idea that a government doesn't exist to enrich the throne, but rather a government exists to defend the liberty of its people, who will then prosper as they are allowed to exercise their own free-will in the furtherance of their own self-interests within the confines of the rights of their fellow men. Consider how unlikely it is that Locke should derive these specific ideas, that he could be able to articulate them effectively, that those articulations should prove to become popular, and that English exiles would then use those ideas and build a nation on another continent based upon them.

The founders of this nation are to political philosophy what Dutch engineers are to disaster mitigation.

In the way that the Constitution is laid out, and its rationale explained in detail by two guys who didn't even like each other in the Federalist Papers, they weren't planning out a Utopian society like post-modern flapnoodles such as Ocasio-Cortez, Warren, or Sanders. No, the founders were planning for the worst of times, the 10,000 year flood.

I think they succeeded fantastically.

With the vessel (The Constitution) having been effectively constructed by serious people to stave off corruption and apathy, while also mitigating the effects of incompetence, what is left to us is to maintain that vessel. How does one do that, exactly?

First, it depends on a competent citizenry. It is necessary for us to understand and articulate the machinations of the protective scheme that was handed down to us. This also requires us to understand the composition and strength of the "flood" that is inevitable. Only through reading and comprehending these things will we be able to maintain the worthy structures that were gifted to us to maintain. Since part of this protection involves freedom of expression, we must take each opportunity to remind one another of the coming storm, whether it be just off the coast or imminent sometime in the next 10,000 years.

Therefore, maintenance of this vessel looks something like this:
Learn about our government. Learn about the alternatives that we've chosen not to exercise and why we've made those choices. Talk to one another about the utility of what has been prepared for us and the threat posed by these alternatives. Teach our children about these things. Pray the entropy doesn't undermine our efforts. Everything else is in God's hands. As He described to Abel, your sacrifice must be genuine and sincere.

And that gets into tomorrow's bit...

The Flood, Pt. 3

The Flood (Part One)

Most societies have a "flood" mythos that fits into our story. It is a cross-cultural phenomenon that is there for a reason. It is a warning.

Mircea Eliade, in his book "History of Religious Ideas" says that the commonality between most "flood stories" across the narratives of many societies is a manifestation of a combination of "sin and entropy". Each of us can learn a lot from this, both individually and as a perspective on our culture.

First, I think it's necessary to delve into a few definitions.

The etymology of the word "sin" comes from the Hebrew word "chatta’ah", which translates "to miss the way". Whether you admit God or not, each of us knows what it is to do wrong, and that description of "sin" is instructive, I think. To "miss the way" implies that the "way" was there, but you missed it, through apathy, incompetence, or malevolence.

Entropy is the inevitable deterioration of everything. It's a fundamental law of the physical world around us. It implies that everything, an atom, a molecule, a structure, or an ideal is running to ruin constantly, right before our eyes, and we are helpless to stop it.

So it would be logical to say that the destruction of reality, i.e. the world around us (the flood) is brought about by the apathy, incompetence, and malevolence of people (sin), accelerated by the natural tendency of reality to dissolve over time (entropy). This would seem to be the lesson of this story that is common among cultures, warning us against a "flood" in our society and a caution to each of us in our personal lives.

Viewed thusly, it would seem to be an important lesson, given to us from time older than time. What is implied in this lesson, then? What are the moral implications that have been handed down to us, individually and as a culture, to avoid this disaster?

I've got a few ideas about these remedies, temporary as they might be, to stave off this inevitable flood. I'll get into my ideas about the societal implications tomorrow night, and the individual implications on Sunday.

Unclean

Part 2 can be found here.

The Context of a Free Culture

Last night we talked about the "Great American Stew Pot" and why that's awesome.

Tonight, we need to break down reality a bit. Because, let's face it, despite the shiny happy story we all want to believe, every religion agrees on one central point: we are mortal, which means we have limits. The cost of limitation is suffering. Therefore, to be mortal is to suffer.

I leave whatever coping mechanisms you've developed over the years to deal with that realization, but what has specific implications for us as a nation is this: if everybody suffers, then no suffering by any group can be said to be more important than that of any individual. In this manner, the law that protects us all under this social contract recognizes the rights of the individual as the accepted unit of measure. Thus, we've arrived at an agreement with each other that "I will live my life and defend my liberty and property in such a manner that it will not interfere with you doing the same thing."

It really is that easy.

What complicates it ties in a little bit with what I was saying last night. We're not a "melting pot", we're a "stew pot". You bring into the equation your identity, with all of the oppression and suffering from your line, and I bring all of mine, and we stand and bitch at each other about whose ancestors got the shittier end of the stick. The basis of suffering as the primary condition of mortality would seem to negate the basis for that conflict. Let me explain.

My family is Scots-Irish. A quick summation of my tribe: Two thousand years ago, the Romans slaughtered 1/3 of the Celts, enslaved another 1/3, and taxed the shit out of those remaining who were lucky enough to survive, farm, and reproduce. After the Saxons conquered Britain and intermarried with the Angles enough, many Scots moved to Ireland. The Anglo-Saxons then bought up a lot of the land and eventually started forcing Scots-Irish into debtors' colonies in the New World, which was great until Sherman burned it down. So a bunch moved to Texas and lived up on the plains, fighting with Comanche with no expectation that the government could protect them. It was rough, but enough of my ancestors reproduced and here I am.

None of that matters now. Every single race or creed can trace a similar path of woe and oppression. The woe and the oppression is the default position of the human race. It's not the "Man" or the "System" that's kicking my ass, it's the limitations of mortality. As near as I can tell, there are two possible reactions to this realization: 1) Become bitter and cynical of the reality in which I find myself, and accept a nihilistic representation of the world around me and just make it worse; 2) Accept reality on its own terms and seek to conduct myself in a manner where the suffering is justified by challenging myself to become better. Voluntarily accept responsibility for as much as I can and try to follow Christ's example to make the world around me a better place.

By a miracle, I've been blessed to live in the greatest nation in the history of the world. One where my natural rights are protected by law and I have the latitude to make these choices. The fact that this latitude exists for every single individual citizen should overshadow all of the ancestral baggage that we're dragging around. The potential that lies within the individual, when added to the chaotic potential that exists within a free society is enough of a challenge for each of us to master without kicking each other in the shins about the fact that you are of Italian or Belgian or English or Yankee or Comanche descent and our grandfathers fought once upon a time. -Unclean

Nation of Exiles (AKA "People Stew)

Okay everybody, let's talk this out. Let's admit some hard truths that might be hard to admit. Let's look at all of this realistically. Any who disagree are always more than welcome to challenge this, and I encourage you to do so in the spaces below this.

I'd like to carve this up into two or three pieces, but I'll try to keep each one relatively short.

Tonight: WHAT IS AMERICA?
First, America is not a "melting pot". It's a stew. In a melting pot, everything combines. That doesn't happen when you throw together the descendants of almost every global society into one single system. A "stew", on the other hand, has a completely different connotation. It indicates that, even though your family has been here for hundreds of years, the big chunks of identity that they've passed down to you still haven't combined into some sort of...sauce. However, contrary to what the media is desperate for you to believe, this is NOT a nation of immigrants.

We are, my friends, a nation of EXILES.

It's an important distinction. "Immigrants" are like cattle, who wander for better pasture and cleaner water. No, our ancestors left their homes and came here. Generally, because they were malcontents who didn't like the conditions in the motherland that had nurtured their ancestors SO MUCH that they told everyone they knew to get bent, picked up all they could carry and came to this country. Or the government took notice of them and sent them here to shut 'em up. Or, in my case, they had enough debt on the books to be sent to the debtors' colony in Georgia. Or they were impressed into slavery and sent here. Why is this important? Because, this created an environment where they were protected from all of the shitty propensities that governments have, by virtue of them being citizens of this nation.

Oh, and they could buy all the guns that they could afford.

So, instead of a "melting pot" of people sauce, you've got a people stew of wildly different flavors of backgrounds and histories, bound together under a social contract roux that is based in the Constitution, and everything tastes EXACTLY like mistrust and suspicion of authority. With guns.

Meanwhile, ALL of those countries that expelled our ancestors kept all of the folks who would just accept their lot, sit down with the other kids, and color inside the lines.

But without any guns.

These two sets of people have been breeding and teaching their young what society means for hundreds of years. Whatever it is that makes us suspicious of authority has been concentrated. Whatever it is that made them docile and accepting of control has also been suffused.

This is what makes us different.