Monday 7 December 2015

Dear Citizens of the World




It is not mere fantastical speculation or dooms day conspiracy mumbo-jumbo to suggest the very possibility we are facing, not only the extinction of our species, but every other species of life on this planet. The evidence, despite the aggressive effort of planet-killing corporate entities in conjunction with our corrupted politicians and media to have us believe otherwise, points glaringly and alarmingly towards global catastrophe. We inherited Eden and are turning it, with frightening proliferation, into Hell.

The Cambridge Project for existential risk states that the "greatest threats" to the human species are man-made; they are artificial intelligence, global warming, nuclear war and rogue biotechnology. In a nutshell, we are most likely to be the harbingers of our own destruction. What a legacy that will be in the vastness of time. A species so incapable of working together through their own fears and anxieties, so incapable of overcoming their individual gluttony and collective greed, so incapable of altering their blind stupidity into one of wisdom, so unwilling to turn their unending cycle of anger and hate into peace and compassion, they eventually annihilated themselves and the entire planet they existed on. Not really going to be a legitimate contender for "Intergalactic Time Magazine Species of the Nano-Second" are we?

Whether you subscribe to the man-made global warning phenomenon or not, it does not take a genius to come to the realisation that we are having a serious negative impact, even disregarding the rising carbon dioxide levels, on our planet.
Over-fishing has resulted in 1/3 of the world's fisheries becoming severely depleted.
We now have less than half of the forests left that formerly covered the Earth.
It is estimated 1 billion people are in serious threat of desertification (the process of areas of dry land becoming void of vegetation and wildlife), with 20% of land already succumbed.
The Western honeybee, vital for pollination, is now declining rapidly, at twice the rate prior to 2007. According to some theories, we are at present entering the Holocene extinction, sometimes called the Sixth extinction, and the name proposed to describe the ongoing extinction event of species due to human activity. That figure is believed to be as high as 140,000 a year.
Even freshwater, accounting for less than 1% of all water, is under threat. It is estimated that by 2025, 2/3 of the world's population will be "under stress conditions", with regards to freshwater availability.
I have only touched on some of the most urgent aspects of the sustained war we are raging with the planet. I know that we in the West have a particularly destructive habit of declaring war on things we don't like (see war on drugs, war on terror, etc), but to enact a war of aggression on our own eco system is clearly insane.


"Never underestimate the power of human stupidity". - Robert A. Heinlein


Of course, we might avoid the long, protracted, slow death of ecological disaster. Instead, we might realise human extinction in an instant. There are an estimated 17,000 nuclear weapons in existence worldwide. The US nuclear attack on Japan killed 200,000. If we take that as 100,000 per bomb, that's a total killing potential of 1.7 billion. Or 1 in 4 people. That, however, was the killing capacity of a 1945 bomb. Yields and explosive capabilities have increased significantly in 70 years. Any poor sods who do survive would have to eek out a relatively short but bleak existence, trying to survive the murderous warlords and their rampaging death cults, or fighting off giant cockroaches for the scraps of some irradiated dog meat, whilst simultaneously watching the sun fade forever from the skies, leaving permanent darkness and a painful death of everything.  

If we do somehow stave off both ecological and nuclear disaster, we may have an equally horrifying scenario in store for us instead. In 2009, experts attended a conference hosted by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) to discuss whether computers and robots might be able to acquire any sort of autonomy, and how much these abilities might pose a threat or hazard. They noted that some robots have already acquired various forms of semi-autonomy, including being able to find power sources on their own and being able to independently choose targets to attack with weapons. They also noted that some computer viruses can evade elimination and have achieved "cockroach intelligence". So, in place of fighting mutant cockroaches, we will be instead hunted down and terminated by robot ones.

We have already seen the devastation that the AIDS virus has had worldwide, not to mention the deadly Ebola virus in Western Africa. The consequences of a man-made virus unleashed upon an increasingly connected world could be catastrophic. According to Nick Bostrom, a Swedish philosopher at the University of Oxford, given current development, more risk from novel, engineered pathogens is to be expected in the future.


There are plenty of possible non-anthropogenic extinction events on the horizon; Asteroids, Mega-tsunamis, Super-volcanoes, Extra-terrestrial invasion. The risk from these "acts of God" cannot be eradicated, but man-made disasters, well, the name kind of gives it away. It is nothing less than tragic. I often wonder what an intelligent sentient being might think if he looked down on our planet and saw what was unfolding. I imagine it would be thoughts of horror and disbelief. I imagine his question to us would simply be, "why?"

Some might point to the follies of man; his greed, his ignorance, his lack of empathy. 
Others might point to the controlling powers of the world screwing it up for the rest of us. 
Whatever the reason, the facts are there to be seen. 
We can continue burying our head in the sand (after all, we may have a whole lot more of it soon), or we can come to terms with our current reality, fight past our fears and act now before it really is too late, and we do instigate our own demise.

This is my humble plea to the rest of humanity to wake up before we, ultimately, destroy ourselves, and this precious cradle of life we inhabit.



A concerned denizen of Earth.




Sunday 11 October 2015

Are we the Walking Dead?




As a new season of the hit zombie apocalypse series returns to our mind-control machines, it's never more evident the strikingly apparent similarity between our fervent rapacious desire for all things zombie, and our current sad situation of the majority of the population being consumer-controlled zombies themselves. Ok, a "Belieber" fanatic might not try to crack open your skull and feast on the brainy goodness inside, but in an IQ test between said Belieber and zombie? Far too close to call.

The Walking Dead portrays a hellish nightmare future, where no one is safe from a virus that permeates what is left of society, and each character has to eek out a barbaric and brutal existence just to survive. One wrong turn could trap you within a thousand strong throng of mindless creatures, aimlessly shuffling through the streets, hell-bent on satisfying their devilish cravings. That reminds me, when is the next Black Friday?

I like to think of Rick and co as the "awakened" ones. They have all gone through a traumatic episode in their lives, Rick was almost killed, Carol was an abused housewife and Darryl was always an outcast, and through that experience have become to see the world through a different lens. They are able to perceive reality for what it really is - a chaotic, fragmented world where the population has been largely reduced to a herd of vicious, brainless and heartless monsters out for their own pound of flesh.

The show centres heavily around the choices each survivor has to make on terms of his/her own morality and how far they will stray from their humanistic values into their more primal, savage nature. Perhaps this is a stark foreboding of the choices we may one day, ourselves, have to make. The global economy is about as stable as an Irishman in a pub, a bunch of crazed lunatics are on the rampage in the Middle East and soon Noah's flood could seem like the log flume at Alton Towers.

There are only nine meals between mankind and anarchy.” - Alfred Henry Lewis (1855-1914)

Are we so obsessed with the zombie culture because we are being given a glimpse into a mirror universe, where the thing that makes us human, our humanity, has been stripped away to the rotting bone, to leave only a hollow shell of a killing and eating machine? Perhaps Rick's acknowledgement is correct - there is no use for morality and compassion if those traits are worthless in a society that does not recognise them. A walker does not care if you want peace. It'll tear your face off quicker than you can fashion your faded underpants into a flag of truce and shout 'parley'.  

Many of us are hoodwinked into this zombie-induced state by the West’s mesmerizing culture machine. It toils day and night, the unyielding smokestacks of the printed press spewing forth noxious stereotypes and poisonous rhetoric, the chicanery of the bigoted news conglomerates, the mind-manipulating marketing moguls and the toxicity of the Hollywood-sculpted “American Dream”, all fogging our judgement and skewing our values. The late comedian George Carlin said, “It’s called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.”  But then, a world where nobody is fully awake to make conscious, aware decisions on their own is a far more controllable world.

Well, I for one intend to seriously hound my local MP to vote NO on the next "create a nasty virus that re-animates the dead so then they try to eat us" bill, sit down with my fellow passive zombie citizens and indulge myself for a while in a rare bit of good TV programming, and try desperately to ignore the despairing similarities with the show and the "real" world... 



Wednesday 16 September 2015

Reality Sucks!




I was a very lucky child. I was lucky to be born into a family that love me unconditionally and I equally love them all back. I was lucky I never went hungry or wanted for anything. I was lucky I was never truly unhappy throughout my early years. That is until my reality was suddenly torn asunder.

It was not a devastation like war, disease, famine or death, thankfully, only a simple statement. Just a small nugget of information, that managed to turn my world upside down and burst entirely the bubble I had been living in. It was simply the words "Santa does not exist". It was not only those words, because I had heard those words uttered before. It was from whose mouth those words were uttered; my mum.

Whilst I was intelligent enough at that age to understand that the physics of Santa's annual trip around the world was impossible, or so I thought, but because my parents and close relatives insisted that his existence was real, I found myself having to make a clear choice: believe my mind or believe my heart. Believe what i knew was physically impossible in the world I experienced, or believe in my family and love ones and trust that they wouldn't lie to me. I am assuming most people in the Christian western world can empathise the dilemma. Although I pretended to admit he was fake, I still believed deep down.

Then that fateful day arrived like a thunderbolt. It obliterated everything. Suddenly, I was cast from a world safe in the knowledge that all the truth, honesty and love that I was told were the highest values in life, into another world full of doubt, uncertainty and fear. How could this be? The person you trust the most in the world is your mum and she, and other loved ones, have mislead you all this time. I don't blame her, of course. She was coerced into accepting this "tradition" and she genuinely believed that it was to make me happy and it did.  Mention Santa to any kid and watch their eyes light up with mystery and excitement. I think for me this is the moment I realised something was not quite right with the world. Obviously you hear stories of starving children in other countries and wars past and present, but they are in a far off land. And of course I knew about lies and lied myself, but this was different. This was bigger. This required something deeper. It required a belief of the fantastical over the physical.

That too was probably the day I stopped believing in God or at least believing his existence a possibility. I have a friend who experienced a similar situation, only hers was being told in school about evolution and the "truth" that we descended from a monkey instead of a creation from God.

I do know for certain that that was the day my reality was shocked to the core. It was only many years later, though, that my reality was truly blown apart, or to be exact, my perception of reality. And these questions of "what is reality?" and "what is the truth?" have plagued me since that day. If what I perceive to be true is based upon the extent of my beliefs, for example if I were a devout monotheistic I would not consider a reality where there are many gods, how do I know my beliefs are true? What if there are many gods and I'm worshipping the wrong one?
If all my beliefs are untrue, then I would be perceiving a reality that was completely false, and if some were true and others false, then it would only be quasi-real. There is simply no genuine way to know my core beliefs about my world around me are true. This "revelation" has been instrumental in transforming the way I now perceive the world. This has led me to question whether the entire or partial nature of my reality is not as it first seems...


Information about the world around us we get from our parents, our peers, our neighbours, our friends, our respective country's media and leaders and heads of state. We get it from school, in which we are told we must learn in order to understand the world and become successful in it. We know about our history from ancient writings and paintings, fossils and archaeological finds, and of course from word of mouth passed down through generations. What if some, or all of that, information is untrue? Or certain truths kept from us, by people who we trust, are providing us with the correct knowledge to allow us to perceive reality as it is truly is, and a distorted reality is being imposed upon us without our consent? Would you be happy with that particular arrangement? Well, this is exactly what I believe is being enacted upon us now.

Ever wondered why you buy a certain product brand over another? Ever wondered why you desire a certain car or a certain way of life? Ever wondered why a majority of us are invested in a lifestyle and way of life, that is not only destructive to ourselves and our environment but also our future generations, without as hardly a convincing "tut" over the problem during breakfast?


"Alas, my dear readers, reality will never live up to the promise of the parallel universe created by me and my fellow advertising executives, in our attempt to profit from the unfulfillable yearnings of our fellow man." - Alan Wolan MBA, CEO GoMedia Advertising Agency.


"The ideal of behaviorism is to eliminate coercion: to apply controls by changing the environment in such a way as to reinforce the kind of behavior that benefits everyone." - B. F. Skinner


I would like to replace one word from those quotes, by changing Skinner's "everyone" to "some". It is to the benefit of some that we live the lives we do and we don't even realise it. It is almost staggering in it's simplicity yet it's complexity. I could almost admire it, if it weren't for it's ruthless "evilness".  Everything we see, hear or read has been manipulated over generations. From the invention to the printing press, to radio, television and now the internet, we have been bombarded with images and thoughts subconsciously, that are literally altering the reality we perceive.

In her 1995 book, Cults in our Midst, Margaret Thaler Singer explores in detail the methods and processes of coercive persuasion. These methods are used not just by cult leaders, but by anyone who manipulates the behavior of others in order to promote a hidden agenda, often involving the consolidation of power.
According to Singer, the tactics of a thought reform program are organized to do three things: destabilize a person’s sense of self; get the person to alter his or her worldview and accept a new version of reality; and develop dependency in the person, turning him into a deployable agent for the controller or the agenda.
Singer also lists six conditions that create an atmosphere conducive to coercive persuasion:

  • Keep the person unaware that there is an agenda to control or change the person and their thoughts
  • Control time and physical environment
  • Create a sense of powerlessness, fear, and dependency
  • Suppress old behavior and attitudes
  • Instill new behavior and attitudes
  • Put forth a closed system of logic

The atmosphere of coercion is reinforced by peer-modeled behavior. Basically, this means that in a room full of people who whisper, you will likely whisper too. Or if you are exposed to a slogan often enough, you will repeat it, even if you don’t understand what it means.


"Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions." -Albert Einstein


An example of controlling the physical environment and deliberately controlling our perception comes from the controversial topic of chem trails. According to the chem trail conspiracy theory, long-lasting trails left in the sky by high-flying aircraft are chemical or biological agents deliberately sprayed for sinister purposes undisclosed to the general public. Believers in the theory argue that normal contrails dissipate relatively quickly, and contrails that do not dissipate must contain additional substances. Now here are two pictures of the opening credits of Wimbledon from an annual BBC TV broadcast of the Wimbledon tennis championships. The first of Rafael Nadal is dated 2012 and the second is dated 2013.





Notice the chem trails in 2013's picture but not in 2012's? Is this a tactic of subliminal brainwashing to make us think they are normal in the sky and have always been there?

A further example of this is the very opening scene to "This is England '90". The scene, which lasts only a mere 3 seconds, is the first view the eager fans are greeted to.




Now, call me cynical, but is this a deliberate ploy to condition the minds of the people into believing that this "phenomenon" has been with us since, oh, at least 1990?


There is no greater example of altering a nation's reality as can be seen in North Korea. We laugh and realise the ridiculousness of their beliefs in the "Great Leader" and his so-called powers, that include even registering a hole-in-one for his very first golf shot. We think the people must be stupid to suffer such brutal conditions all because of that one fundamental, quite obviously ridiculous, belief. Yet, what if someone is laughing at us, for being so complicit and ignorant of our own control system that is in place for us?


"If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed." - Adolf Hitler.
  

"A lie told often enough becomes the truth." - Vladimir Lenin.


"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it." - Buddha




The United Nations' Human Rights Committee states that "it does not permit any limitations whatsoever on the freedom of thought and conscience or on the freedom to have or adopt a religion or belief of one's choice. These freedoms are protected unconditionally". Similarly, Article 19 of the UDHR guarantees that "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference". 

Can you really say every country that recognises and "abides" with the declaration of human rights has the right to claim all it's citizens have unconditional freedoms of thought and conscience, without interference? This is clearly impossible, as all we soak up from the environment around us, influences everything we think and do. The only way to compensate for this would be to have the two, or more, sides to every argument, unbiased and uninfluenced in any way. Can we honestly say our mainstream media allows us this privilege? Do we have the time to even allow these thoughts to take root and grow? 
The extremely quickening speed of life we are exposed to, the crippling pressure placed on us all to work long hours, whilst simultaneously juggling life, work and leisure, forever chasing the dollar, or dragon (whatever your vice), social pressures to fit and belong, to look a certain way or act in a certain manner, all this takes time and effort. There is scant time left to explore anything but what is directly in your path in the present. We live in a pressure-cooker world, where material progress is buzz, and humanist progress is scuzz.

Niels Bohr, a Danish Physicist who made significant contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum theory, once said: "if quantum mechanics hasn’t profoundly shocked you, you haven’t understood it yet." Quantum physics has left scientists all over the world baffled, especially with the discovery that our physical material reality, isn’t really physical at all. "Everything we call real is made of things that cannot be regarded as real."

This is not mere theory, either. This has been quantified and tested in the real world. It has stood up to the rigours of the scientific method and found to be staggeringly true. This is proof that consciousness creates reality. If, at first, like me, this seems impossible and is so far-fetched that it does not even really compute, do not worry. This is quite a staggering and profound discovery and pretty much turns everything we knew on its head. The implications, though, I believe, could be extraordinary.

If each of us is armed with the necessary understanding that the world really is what we make it, imagine the possibilities if we all come from a place of love. The greatest antidote to the disease is us. Ourselves. And, suddenly, those fairy stories we listened to our parents read us at bedtime, don't seem so inconceivable. Perhaps all those goblins and fairies are/were real, only we are unable to perceive them. 

Who knows, maybe in one reality Santa does exist, and all those children do grow up in a world of magic and wonder? Maybe in their dimension, every person is treated with the same dignity and respect as each other, instead of being persecuted for their faith or race. Maybe in their experience, people are encouraged to take time to get to really know themselves and each other, and discover and pursue their passions without prejudice, and are not coerced through life like automatons to the benefit of others.

Maybe, just maybe, one day we will all come to the enlightenment that we can all have the reality we crave and deserve. A reality of unconditional peace and love worldwide. 

And if someone has the temerity to question it, and declares that reality sucks and will, henceforth, forever more continue to well and truly suck, just ask them the simple question, "what is reality?"


"Forgive them, for they know not what they do." - Jesus.


Wednesday 2 September 2015

I Told You I was Ill...




As our society plunges into crisis after crisis, it's getting harder to ignore the warning signs. Lurching up from our mundane existence, viscerally tearing through our protective bubble and piercing our collective delusion, one horrifying attack after another. 'Where did that come from?' we might hear them say. 'Nobody could have foreseen that'. Only the cracks are appearing too often and too bloody now. We can't simply condemn and move on, obliviously, until the next episode.

The latest atrocity to come from America, 'the land of the free', is the murder of a TV news reporter and her cameraman, apparently influenced by another bloody mass shooting in a black church by a lone white supremacist gunman. Eye for an eye anybody? Maybe Gandhi was right. Maybe we have blinded ourselves, because if we cannot see the lesson here, we sadly never will.  If we do not recognise that violence begets violence and learn it fast, it might be a godsend, in time, that we are blind.

The recent 'migrant crisis' is classic fear-mongering. It even distorts the language for starters. The majority of these people are not migrant workers looking for work or benefit handouts, but are genuine refugees attempting to escape horrors and atrocities that would be near incomprehensible to many of us in the west. The only answer the authorities have to the problem is to put up rows of barbed fences manned by security to keep them out. I mean, Donald Trump is effectively running for president on the claim that he 'knows how to build really big fences'. I wonder if Joe the Plumber will be vice because he 'knows how to build a big dam to stop the immigrants getting our water'.
But, then, the fences ultimately begin failing due to the sheer vast numbers of refugees involved. Then the public are coerced through fear manipulation to build bigger and bigger fences, or use harsher and harsher techniques, until we are 'disposing' of them in mass graves and gas chambers...The walls may get bigger and bigger, but so too will the bodies piling up against it.

The sickness that fractures our world is no more evident than in the Middle East currently. ISIS or ISIL are quite obviously a direct and indirect result of the disastrous illegal Iraq war and the terror we have inflicted upon them. They are people so desperate they have to turn to radical hate groups because nobody else will stand up for them. I would like to know how many Iraqi orphans and widowers are within ISIS' ranks. They despairingly seek the comfort of the shade of anyone who will offer it, and if not met with a kind hand, they will turn, inexorably, to a cruel one.  


Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” - Yoda.


According to the World Health Organisation, 800,000 commit suicide each year, with many more attempting suicide. It was the second leading cause of death among 15-29 year olds globally in 2012.  The second highest cause of death. I hope you are as shocked as me when reading that statistic. The youth of our world are intentionally killing themselves in droves. How can we continue along this path unabated and unashamed? It's utter madness. It's sick beyond belief. With 121 million with depression globally and increasing poverty worldwide as the inequality gap further widens, we are surely heading for disaster of pure epic proportions.
The austerity cuts in the UK, totalling £80 million, are putting more and more pressure on the people who are the most vulnerable and are destroying lives and families. Warnings from charities are routinely ignored. The deliberately underfunded NHS is at bursting point and the petition on the government's own website with the most signatures is the one calling for the resignation of the current Health Secretary! Is that really listening to the will of the people?


These killing sprees, migrant deaths, suicides and gruesome murders we are experiencing and inflicting onto ourselves is NOT normal. I know it seems ridiculous to state this fact, but we, as a species, have the disastrous habit of missing the bleeding obvious. The psychological, emotional and physical violence we inflict on each other, day after day, is having its toll.

Every ounce of suffering is each tortured soul screaming for release from this invisible prison. The prison that has warped our minds, blinded our eyes and infected our hearts. The prison we incarcerate ourselves into through our misguided, distorted and delusional belief systems.

Society is screaming out in pain.

It's screaming, "I TOLD YOU I WAS ILL!!"


"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." - Jiddu Krishnamurti


Sunday 17 May 2015

No Longer Will We Accept Their Version Of Our Fate






The 2015 UK elections have opened my eyes immensely. They've opened my eyes to the absolute undemocratic system we have, where 63% of voters voted against the Tories. If you include those who abstained, it's more like 75%. If that's democratic I'll publicly eat my hat!

They've opened my eyes to the absolute ruthlessness of the Murdoch-controlled Tory party. In 2010, they used the Liberal Democrats to help prop them up into power. In 2015, they reveled in the party's self-destruction and mercilessly devoured their seats from them.
They purposely, with the help of Murdoch's Sun newspaper, condemned SNP south of the border, whilst simultaneously triumphing them in Scotland, knowing they would destroy the Scottish Labour Party and, therefore, Labour's chances of victory.
They used their 90% controlled mainstream media to perpetuate the myth of their economic competence over that of Labour and, of course, to structure the nature of the debate within predetermined parameters. They encouraged the rise of UKIP, which at the time was perplexing, as the party consisted mainly of ex-Tory members. But now we know that UKIP siphoned votes from Labour more so than the Tories. They are cold, calculating and ruthless and we all underestimated them.


"It is not power that corrupts but fear. The fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it, and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it." - Aung San Suu Kyi.


It is actually the Conservative voters I feel for the most, because it is them that have bought so whole-heartedly into their political lie. It is them that believe the "long-term economic plan" is working, when there are numerous reports to the contrary. But when it comes to contradictions in the party's claims, the list is fairly exhaustive. For example, the UK is now the most unequal country in Northern Europe and the NHS is being systematically dissected and sold off to private firms.

I hate to be blunt, but let's be honest with ourselves now. We are now run by a government that have in their ranks liars and criminals. I'm not saying the other parties are not tainted either, but the Tories are surely the sickest of them all. A reported 60,000 deaths attributed to DWP sanctions and the despicable cover-up of the Westminster paedophile ring are particularly heinous crimes. Not to mention the ferocious attack on the Human Rights Act and charities!






No longer can we stand idly by while our human rights and human values are eroded.
No longer can we just watch while our public services are stripped away.
No longer can we stay silent while we witness the persecution of the disabled and disenfranchised.
No longer can we take the flagrant theft of the honest people of this country.

No longer can we suffer the indignity of food banks, fuel poverty and workfare.
No longer can we just look on as they carve up the land for fracking and do nothing.
No longer can we believe the lies from the politicians and conspiring media.
No longer will we be silent.


Coming together as one is what they fear the most,
I say we pray on their fears for once!
We let no one fall, we leave no one behind,
We keep marching on! 

No longer will we accept their version of our fate.

We march for Truth.
We march for Peace.
We march for Love.

We march for Freedom...

...for All.



As we hurtle head-long into an Orwellian nightmare, we must not let the flicker of light be extinguished. We must remember the only way to defeat hate is not with more hate, but with love. We mustn't think we have to fight them, for what we resist will just persist. It's obvious to me now that we cannot change the system from the inside alone. The corporate and political behemoth is far too bloated and diseased for a quick fix. We must still use this vehicle because to abandon it would be disastrous.

There are many alternative ways to govern, issue currency, create laws and change this entire rotten capitalist system. We don't have to accept their limited, narrow viewpoint. The answers are there, we just have to want it. If we want it enough, it will inspire other people to realise what they want.

We must awaken more people from this sickly spell we find ourselves under. However, we can only light the path for them in our wake, we cannot force them along.

The choice must be theirs.

But the stronger we are together, the more we can achieve :) 


"When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it - always." - Mahatma Gandhi





Saturday 18 April 2015

From the Ancients to Hubble: The Pilgrimage of the Illuminati?














This image is lifted straight from the BBC's monthly astronomy program "The Sky at Night". It shows the patch of sky the Hubble space telescope took of the The Hubble Deep Field (HDF). It is an image of a small region in the constellation Ursa Major, constructed from a series of observations by the Hubble Space Telescope. It was decided that the target should be in Hubble's 'continuous viewing zones' - the areas of sky which are not occulted by the Earth or the moon during Hubble's orbit. Twenty fields satisfying these criteria were initially identified, from which three optimal candidate fields were selected, all within the constellation of Ursa Major. There are 7 brightest stars in the constellation, with 6 being of 2nd magnitude and the central star of 3rd magnitude.

Ursa Major, also known as The Great Bear, has mythological significance in numerous world cultures. It is one of the few star groups mentioned in the Bible (Job 9:9; 38:32; — Orion and the Pleiades being others).

The name of the Pleiades comes from Ancient Greek. It probably derives from plein ('to sail'). However, the name was later mythologised as the name of seven divine sisters.

In ancient Egypt, the stars of Orion were regarded as a god, called Sah. Because Orion rises before Sirius, the star whose helical rising was the basis for the Solar Egyptian calendar.

The Babylonian star catalogues of the Late Bronze Age name Orion "The Heavenly Shepherd" or "True Shepherd of Anu" - Anu being the chief god of the heavenly realms.

The same three stars are known in Spain and most of Latin America as "Las tres Marías" (Spanish for "The Three Marys"). In Puerto Rico, the three stars are known as the "Los Tres Reyes Magos" (Spanish for The three Wise Men).

USS Allioth (AK-109) and USS Megrez (AK-126) were United States Navy Crater class cargo ship named after the stars that form the base of the pyramid.








The Hubble Deep Field actual co-ordinates of the field are RA 12h 36m 49.4s, Dec. 62° 12’ 58”.

Ra is the ancient Egyptian solar deity. All forms of life were believed to have been created by Ra. In later Egyptian dynastic times, Ra was merged with the god Horus, as Ra-Horakhty ("Ra, who is Horus of the Two Horizons"). He was believed to rule in all parts of the created world: the sky, the earth, and the underworld.

RA created 6 gods, bringing the total to 7. The chief cult centre of Ra was Heliopolis (called Iunu, "Place of Pillars", in Egyptian)

His worship increased massively in the fifth dynasty, when Ra became a state deity and pharaohs had specially aligned Pyramids, Obelisks, and solar temples built in his honor.













Isis frequently schemed against Ra, as she wanted her son Horus to have the power. In one myth, Isis created a serpent to poison Ra and only gave him the antidote when he revealed his true name to her. Ra now feared Isis, as with his secret name revealed she could use all her power against him and have Horus take over the throne.




The meanings of Horus' name are thought to have been "the distant one" or "one who is above, over".

The original name also survives in later Egyptian names such as Har-si-ese literally "Horus, son of Isis".

In the Egyptian language, the word for this symbol was "Wedjat". It was the eye of one of the earliest of Egyptian deities, Wadjet. Wedjat was a solar deity and this symbol began as her eye, an all seeing eye.

The Wedjat or Eye of Horus is "the central element" of seven "gold, faience, carnelian and lapis lazuli" bracelets.

In Shinto, the 7 largest stars of Ursa Major belong to Amenominakanushi, the oldest and most powerful of all kami. Amenominakanushi ("All-Father of the Originating Hub", or "Heavenly Ancestral God of the Originating Heart of the Universe") is, according to the Kojiki, the first kami, and the source of the universe according to Shintoism. In mythology he is described as a "god who came into being alone".

Kami are the spirits or phenomena that are worshiped in the religion of Shinto.
In Shinto, Kami are not separate from nature, but are of nature, possessing positive and negative, good and evil characteristics. They are manifestations of musubi, the interconnecting energy of the universe, and are considered exemplary of what humanity should strive towards.
Kami are believed to be “hidden” from this world, and inhabit a complementary existence that mirrors our own, shinkai [the world of the Kami] To be in harmony with the awe inspiring aspects of nature is to be conscious of kannagara no michi [the way of the Kami]. Kami may, at its root, simply mean "spirit", or an aspect of spirituality. It is written with the kanji, Sino-Japanese reading shin or jin. In Chinese, the character means "deity".

Jinn, jann or djinn are supernatural creatures in Islamic mythology as well as pre-Islamic Arabian mythology. They are mentioned frequently in the Quran (the 72nd sura is titled SÅ«rat al-Jinn) and other Islamic texts and inhabit an unseen world called Djinnestan, another universe beyond the known universe.


In Theosophy, it is believed the Seven Stars of the Pleiades focus the spiritual energy of the Seven Rays from the Galactic Logos to the Seven Stars of the Great Bear, then to Sirius, then to the Sun, then to the god of Earth (Sanat Kumara), and finally through the seven Masters of the Seven Rays to the human race.



The emblem of the Theosophical Society includes seven symbols of particular importance to the Society's symbology: 1) the motto of the Society; 2) a serpent biting its tail (ouroboros); 3) the swastika; 4) the hexagram; 5) the cruxansata (Ankh); 6) the pin of the Society, composed of cruxansata and serpent entwined, forming together "T.S.", and 7) Om (or aum).






Theosophy (literally "God's wisdom"), refers to systems of esoteric philosophy concerning, or investigation seeking direct knowledge of, presumed mysteries of being and nature, particularly concerning the nature of divinity

Theosophy is considered a part of the broader field of esotericism, referring to hidden knowledge or wisdom that offers the individual enlightenment and salvation. The theosopher seeks to understand the mysteries of the universe and the bonds that unite the universe, humanity, and the divine. The goal of theosophy is to explore the origin of divinity and humanity, and the world. From investigation of those topics, theosophers try to discover a coherent description of the purpose and origin of the universe.

Esotericism signifies the holding of esoteric opinions or beliefs, that is, ideas preserved or understood by a small group of those specially initiated, or of rare or unusual interest. The term derives from the Greek, "inner", or from its derived adjective, "pertaining to the innermost". Examples of esoteric religious movements and philosophies include Alchemy, Astrology, early Christian mysticism, Freemasonry, Gnosticism, Magic, Rosicrucianism, Scientology, Spiritualism and Taoism. Although esotericism refers to an exploration of the hidden meanings and symbolism in various philosophical, historical, and religious texts, the texts themselves are often central to mainstream religions. For example, the Bible and the Torah are considered esoteric material.

According to the post-1900 publications of Theosophy Lord Sanat Kumara is an "Advanced Being" at the Ninth level of initiation who is regarded as the 'Lord' or 'Regent' of Earth and of the humanity, and is thought to be the head of the Spiritual Hierarchy of Earth who dwells in Shamballaha (place of peace/tranquility/happiness).

The Great White Brotherhood is a spiritual 'fraternity' of Ascended Beings, including Lord Sanat Kumara, long since dedicated to the eventual Salvation of Mankind and the establishment of Divine Law again in this Three-dimensional reality. The Great White Brotherhood, in belief systems akin to Theosophical and New Age, are said to be supernatural beings of great power who spread spiritual teachings through selected humans.

The idea of a secret organization of enlightened mystics, guiding the spiritual development of the human race, was pioneered in the late eighteenth century by Karl von Eckartshausen in his book The Cloud upon the Sanctuary; Eckartshausen called this body of mystics, who remained active after their physical deaths on earth, the Council of Light. Eckartshausen's proposed communion of living and dead mystics, in turn, drew partially on Christian ideas such as the Communion of the Saints, and partially on previously circulating European ideas about secret societies of enlightened, mystical, or magic adepts typified by the Rosicrucians and the Illuminati.

Rosicrucianism is a philosophical secret society said to have been founded in late medieval Germany by Christian Rosenkreuz. It holds a doctrine or theology "built on esoteric truths of the ancient past", which, "concealed from the average man, provide insight into nature, the physical universe and the spiritual realm."

The Illuminati (plural of Latin illuminatus, "enlightened") is a name given to several groups, both real and fictitious. They are often alleged to conspire to control world affairs, by masterminding events and planting agents in government and corporations, in order to gain political power and influence and to establish a New World Order. The common theme in conspiracy theories about a New World Order is that a secretive power elite with a globalist agenda is conspiring to eventually rule the world through an authoritarian world government—which will replace sovereign nation-states—and an all-encompassing propaganda whose ideology hails the establishment of the New World Order as the culmination of history's progress.

The End of History and the Last Man (1992) by Francis Fukuyama proposed a similar notion of progress, positing that the worldwide adoption of liberal democracies as the single accredited political system and even modality of human consciousness would represent the "End of History".
The end of history is a political and philosophical concept that supposes that a particular political, economic, or social system may develop that would constitute the end-point of humanity's sociocultural evolution and the final form of human government.
The concept of an end of history differs from ideas of an end of the world as expressed in various religions, which may forecast a complete destruction of the Earth or of life on Earth, and the end of the human race as we know it. His ideas are frequently associated with neoconservatism.

Eschatology is a part of theology concerned with the final events of history, or the ultimate destiny of humanity. This concept is commonly referred to as the "end of the world" or "end time". In the context of mysticism, the phrase refers metaphorically to the end of ordinary reality and reunion with the Divine. More broadly, eschatology may encompass related concepts such as the Messiah or Messianic Age, the end time, and the end of days.




So, what does all this mean? Out of the entirety of the sky they happen to pick that exact space which is culturally and religiously significant throughout our history. Their official line is of course "primary optical conditions" but it's one hell of a coincidence if believed.

Are they searching for something that the ancients knew about from that part of the sky? Most prominent religions and civilisations seemed to believe that patch of the sky is where "God" came from. Perhaps they found something that indicates that to be true or they are just testing the hypotheses of our fore-fathers. Or maybe they are searching for the origins of the Big Bang, the origin of creation.

Perhaps they are looking for possible planets and extra-terrestrial life? HD 23514, from the Pleiades system, has a mass and luminosity a bit greater than that of the Sun, and is surrounded by an extraordinary number of hot dust particles. This could be evidence for planet formation around HD 23514. It could be that they expect to find alien life there, especially if you already believe aliens are here and manipulating events. It could be they are sending a signal "home". This might be to let their "fellow kin" know that Earth is ripe for conquer/enslavement/enlightenment.

If Quantum Teleportation is to be believed, however, it could be that they are preparing to bring something here from that region of space or move something there. Quantum teleportation is a process by which quantum information (e.g. the exact state of an atom or photon) can be transmitted (exactly, in principle) from one location to another, with the help of classical communication and previously shared quantum entanglement between the sending and receiving location. There is a flaw in this theory in that while it is possible to teleport one or more qubits of information between two (entangled) atoms, this has not yet been achieved between molecules or anything larger. This does not, however, have to be the case as this discovery could be kept hidden from us.

If we look at the symbol of Ouroboros in the Theosophist society emblem , this could refer to the Eternal return (also known as "eternal recurrence"). This is a concept that the universe has been recurring, and will continue to recur, in a self-similar form an infinite number of times across infinite time or space. The concept is found in Indian philosophy and in ancient Egypt. If we then take the 3 symbols of the Ankh (Ancient Egypt), Swastika (Nazi Germany) and the Star of David (Israel), maybe once the final dynasty has been established, then perhaps they believe that the universe will renew.

Or maybe it really is the end of days and the messiah/antichrist is on his way. Or maybe we are finally entering the Messianic Age, a theological term, which many religions believe, referring to a future time of universal peace and brotherhood on the earth, without crime, war and poverty.


Whatever the truth, knowledge/beliefs from our past is driving the future of space exploration as I for one find it hard to believe it is just a coincidence.








 


Thursday 9 April 2015

Musings on Maslow










Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a theory in psychology proposed by Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper "A Theory of Human Motivation" in Psychological Review. It shows the different sections a person must transgress in order to reach "self-actualization", an individual's full potential. Expressing one's creativity, quest for spiritual enlightenment, pursuit of knowledge, and the desire to give to society are examples of self-actualization.

According to Maslow's hierarchy, we must have all the preceeding levels in place before self-actualization can be achieved. On the surface this seems perfectly common sense. A person cannot achieve one's true potential if they cannot find enough food to eat or are threatened by war and disease. The controlling elites, I believe, have recognised this. I believe that is why our world is plagued by problems. I believe that these "problems" are targetted directly to preventing us from achieving the goal of reaching the top of pyramid. All the wars, famines, terrorism, racism, discrimination, but to name a few, have all been created and encouraged to attack us at these various levels and keep as low on the pyramid as possible.

If Maslow's hierachy is true, this also poses a problem in the structure of the pyramid, in terms of its impact on society. If self-actualization is the goal then it is essential for people wanting to achieve it that they have all levels in place first. Therefore, their first priority is themselves achieving the necessary levels and themselves alone. This creates a very selfish "rat race" to the top to not only make sure you get there, but that you remain there also. With the top level being esteem, this poses the question how can one achieve maximum esteem, as that is surely the goal? And if esteem is a judgement, then what basis are we using the criteria? Is it that we are higher than most on the pyramid? Is it from recognition and praise from others? Or is it based on our criteria that we derive from our own beliefs? Do some people confuse self-esteem with narcissism? Because the answer to that question is fundamental on what sort of society you create when self-esteem is considered the highest spiritual commodity, especially when Dante stated that pride was the worst of the seven deadly sins.


What would happen, though, if the top of the pyramid was inverted and self-actualization was actually at the bottom and not at the top as Maslow proposes? I agree with Dutch psychologist Geert Hofstede that this could be the case. I believe that self-actualization is reached when all those things are stripped away. When you lose esteem and the care of being judged by others. It occurs when you don't belong to society because it has different values to you or does not care for its citizens and ceases to function properly. The road to enlightenment begins when you lose the fear of safety and realise that you can't control the world to make you safe. Most of all, it is when you strip away the need for material goods and the need for attachment to things and people, that true self-actualization can be achieved and your true potential can be unleashed.

 

"It's only after you've lost everything that you're free to do anything." - Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt)



I was perusing youtube one evening and I came across a video of the Dalai Lama holding a Buddhist conference. In it he stated his belief that there is an increase in people becoming enlightened because more and more people are being cast into poverty due to the inequality gap. So, perhaps the money and power grab of the elites is actually waking more people up from their mental self-imprisonment than ever before.

Before the Dalai Lama began talking, the camera panned around the room of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people that came to hear him talk. I was taken aback by what I saw. The diversity amongst the crowd was staggering. Men, women, old, young, black, white, every other shade of colour you can think of. They were not sitting in little clumps of each ethnicity or age group but interspersed between each other. It was the picture of true diversity, not the buzz words used in the media, but true acceptance.

There were a few minutes of complete silence before the Dalai Lama spoke. As waves of peace and tranquility washed gently over the congregation, I noticed there was not just peace and tranquility in that room. There was love. There was respect. There was an unbelievable power that no money, wealth and individual fame will ever come close to reaching. The power of coming together with no prejudice or agenda. The people in that room had no fragile ego to maintain. No one to clamber over to get ahead of on the structure. No need to attack someone to maintain their safety. No need to steal to climb the social ladder.

Because the irony is that by first losing the need to achieve all those levels in the pyramid, you realise that by coming together to help each other achieve these things, we get the whole lot anyway. Together, where nobody gets left behind.


And it's a far, far nicer experience along the way.





Sunday 25 January 2015

The State of Teaching Today




In the last years, I feel there is a concern in society regarding the way children are being brought up, and most of the eyes turn to schools questioning what we, teachers, are doing to prepare students, so they will be able to solve, in the future, all the heavy damages that we are doing to the world nowadays.


Once upon a time, there was an era when teachers were considered honourable citizens, people upon whom you could look, they were respected by authorities, families and students themselves. Well, that era is over, and we need accept it to be able to respond to the new reality we all are facing currently.


It is not easy being a teacher nowadays. Not easy at all. And I am not talking about what should be obvious for everyone, which is for example the insane amount of useless work demanded to us by authorities, or the challenge of being in a classroom with 30 teenagers, for whom their social and love life is the most important thing in the world, trying to make them see how important it is going to be for their future to know the difference between a verb and an adverb!!!


No, it is not about those things that I am talking about. The real concern that I have as a teacher is something related to real teaching. What really worries me is that I am obliged to follow rules and contents which are too strict, that no matter what the reality of one of my students is, I just cannot walk out of line in my teaching practice to help that student the best way I see necessary. What worries me is that, what I really consider important, is seen as completely useless in this competitive society we are living in. And for me teaching is something different, it is something which I feel is not seen either by society or by governments.




I would like to think that for everyone teaching is making an impact on kids, letting them feel they can, letting them feel we care, helping them have a thirst for knowledge, showing them there is a world of things for them to search, investigate, ENJOY,...

Teaching for me is encouraging my students so they feel capable of becoming what they want to be, it is inspiring them so they want to be their best them.

But I, as a teacher, am frustrated. Not because of low salaries, or because of the pressure we feel from the governments or from the families, or because of this changing world which moves faster than many of us, who have been teaching for years now, do. I am frustrated because I cannot do what I think would help my students to be ready for their future, a hard future they have ahead of them thanks to the world we, adults, are creating/leaving for them. I would need have less kids in each group so I can be there with them and for them, individually, because they are just that, individuals, all different, and should be treated as such. The world is changing so fast that we cannot close our eyes to it, we need new approaches, new subjects in which we do not have to repeat the same stuff year after year. Lessons should be more interactive, kids can learn in a different way and help each other in the process; if they are able to learn new things by themselves, they will be learning all their lives, and that is something to which every human being should aspire.


Not all human beings are the same, and as such, not all kids are the same either, so they should not have to learn the same things; it should all depend on their capacities, interests, abilities... It should be essential to provide real special attention to kids with special needs, they are the ones who need most to know that there is a place in society for us all, for them as well. They should know it as soon as possible and be helped into becoming their best version.

I can hear some voices saying out loud that I am naive, that I am daft, that I forget essential things for this so highly competitive society in which material things seem to be imperative. If marking must exist, it should not be as it is right now, it should not be the key aspect of education, because that is another thing, that is non-cooperation and ranking students based on just one thing. And students, my students, are much more than just a number.



What do I do every day? I try to make teachers aware that we all know their job is important, our job is significant. I focus on what I can do to help my students, to make them feel they are not alone. I know it is not much, but it is what I can do at that moment, and I would like to know I am making a difference. They see it and most of them appreciate it as well. And I wish people would realise of what teachers and students consider important and necessary, and would make the change be a reality, because it has to be us the ones who believe we have the real power to change this.


- Nymm.





Wednesday 21 January 2015

The End is Nigh...?


Throughout human history the constant struggle over the acquisition of resources has led us to different epochs of savage and brutal conquerors and warring civilisations. The Ancient Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Ancient Greeks, The Roman Empire, the Mongol Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the British Empire, the list is exhaustive. The supreme goal of these empires was to expand and provide resources for its citizen’s consumption. The unfortunate cultures in the path of this expansion were left with two stark choices: assimilation or extermination.

The brutal world wars crippled the last great empire, the British, simultaneously destroying her socially, economically and spiritually. That inevitably left a power vacuum that was exploited upon by the United States and the Soviet Union, fighting a half-century “bluff” war for the riches, the US emerging victorious. They now have 900 military bases in 153 countries as they snake their way to world domination. However, the current expansion of China’s economy may well lead to a new power struggle on the horizon. But, perhaps, there might be a different power struggle emerging. Not from between warring states, but the mere slaves to these land-grabbing civilisations, the struggle of the common man.



We are at a crucial point in history. This century could well be the biggest revolution since the Industrial Revolution of the Eighteenth Century - the social revolution of the Twenty-First Century and, perhaps, the greatest social revolution of them all. We could witness the final struggle for the common man against his rich and powerful overlords. The battle that has raged unwaveringly and intensely for eons, the war for the control of the masses, could finally come to an end and the winner could well be the masses.

The battles that our forefathers bravely fought for - the right to protest, the right to vote, the declaration of Human Rights - could provide the framework for a peaceful social revolution through the means of democracy. Not the distorted and warped version we are forced to endure today - a plutocratic oligarchy deceitfully masked as democracy, but a real working democracy. There is a considerable way to go and we may never get there. The well-trodden path might well lead us, blinded by our usual self-centred short-comings, down another cul-de-sac. But the slave-owner’s unquenchable, voracious greed could prove to be their downfall. The huge inequalities, where a new Oxfam report had the richest 1% nearing 50% of the world’s wealth, could be the trigger.



Throughout Europe, the common man is awakening from his slumbering coma. He is realising the battle before him. Induced into this hypnotic state by the ruling elites to keep him subdued and unable, even unwilling, to question the “way of things”, he is opening his eyes and heart to great new possibilities for a fairer, more egalitarian, society.

The immense scientific achievements of the last century may well be one of the most important movements in history. Our understanding of the world we live in has had profound impacts on society. From elevating our knowledge on the almost infinite universe through pioneers like Einstein and his theory of relativity, Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection, (that proves all life on the planet is related and dependant on each other in a delicately shared eco-system) and science’s peer-regulated method of turning data into evidence, mankind has truly emerged from the dark ages. We are beginning to finally understand our place in the universe. We have seen it’s a hostile universe and the Earth is the only sanctuary we know of. Without it we are likely doomed to destruction, or a nomadic and harsh existence on alien planets. We are a part of this planet and our physiologies are not suited to other worlds. There’s not another crucible for human life just around the corner.



"Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception." - Carl Sagan



The scientific revolution has not just provided us with theoretical milestones but technological ones too. The countless improvements in technology have greatly improved our lives. The internet has opened up communication and exchange of ideas like never seen before. People from different countries and cultures can communicate instantly. New ideologies and information can reach a whole variety of people that may have not had access before.

The field of robotics has led to an ever-increasing mechanisation of the workforce, pushing up unemployment and pushing down purchasing power of more and more. Without jobs, the capitalist system will crumble. There are some who predict this demise as imminent and propose a new examination of the entire system as a whole. With an obviously broken and increasingly unstable structure, the break-away of countries is already happening, such as Iceland from pro-austerity and the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela. 

Whistle-blowers such as Edward Snowden and Julian Assange have jolted the masses’ attentions from the official “truth” and led many to begin questioning everything in the mainstream media. The same media is 90% owned by corporate companies, where the same corporations lobby the governments and fund political parties into office. Releasing secret files, these heroes/villains (depending on your stance), have revealed the nefarious orchestrated movements performed in the dark by these untrustworthy governments.

With such disdain and despair in politics, the rise of the right and left extreme parties in Europe was inevitable. It is from the left, with their political position of supporting social equality, which the social revolution could emerge. They hold real alternatives to the tried-and-tested politics of the corporate-pandering middle ground.

Of course, as proven throughout history and echoed by Machiavelli, people in power will do all they can to keep it. The ruling elites will not shed their wealth and power readily. The only difference from previous civilisations is the nuclear situation. When previous civilisations collapsed, the fallout was contained within that civilisation. With a truly global world now, and prejudices running deep, an increasingly weakened ruling elite could take down everything with them. World War III and total planetary destruction is a distinct terrifying possibility.



I have watched as the precious, finite resources are perpetually wasted and destroyed in the name of profit and free markets. I have watched the social values of society be reduced into a base artificiality of materialism and mindless consumption. And I have watched as the monetary powers control the political structure of supposedly "free societies". I have watched humanity set the stage for its own extinction.” - Jacque Fresco.



The end is perhaps certainly nigh. It might well be nigh for free-market capitalism that is killing our planet and driving the social and economic inequalities, or the vampiric super-rich that suck the life from this corrupt system. It may well be the end of us all as a species. It may, however, just be the end to a complete history of oppression, slavery and domination of the strong over the weak. From it might just spring the notion that the gloriousness of life is something not crooked and exploitable, but beautiful and to be cherished. It might give birth to the realisation that we are an integral part of this planet, not an exception to its rule and able to act without consequences. It might give rise to the idea that only by working in unity can we achieve harmony.

We owe it to ourselves and future generations to build a society where all life brought into the world has a chance to live, not just survive; to flourish, not just struggle along; to realise their potential in a nurturing and caring environment, not be persecuted and demoralised by it. That is a world worth fighting for and, if the masses win, with the help of clarity of thought and the conviction of moralities, could, maybe, become reality.