Copper Chronicles

It makes sense that Eve, the Mother of All, according to ancient biblical texts eats the apple. I am not suggesting humanity’s fallen condition is great. Or, people should actively do what the so-claimed Creator says not to do. But, how will humanity arrive at any kind of concrete thinking about what the Almighty says, if they aren’t free to choose?

When a child says: “What will happen if I stick my finger in this light socket?” The archetypal parent says: “Don’t do that!” well-knowing the tiny brain of the child cannot absorb an info-rich description of electricity and conductivity in a few short seconds before he achieves his act of discovery…

A child might understand the word: “Ouch.” But, “Don’t do that because I said so,” doesn’t seem to carry much weight. At least not with me. That is not something I am proud of particularly. But, I can see why understanding and exploring is a principle part of humankind’s psyche.

So, exploring and allowing humanity to do foolish things – even bordering on destroying the planet – is a sort of a hands-on lesson. Seems that every generation has its: “Let’s see how much we can get away with! Let’s see if there really is a God!” moment. I believe we are having ours now.

People need to see what is the nature of things. A child puts a finger in a light socket even after being warned not to and says, “Ow!” Later he sticks his finger in a chocolate pudding, he learns: “Yum!”

I suppose wondering then is OK. Exploring is natural. Testing boundaries of rules, conventions, and social taboos and assumptions may be necessary for a person to actually decide which ones are genuinely useful and what are just outdated. discard-able illusions. These can be collective or personal.

Who believes the same things they did when they were young? Well, my friend still likes that Rock ‘n’ Roll group starring Mick Jagger. Mr. Tongue. Sticking out one’s tongue conventionally speaking is a sign of disrespect. Unless you are at the doctor and he is examining you, the slippery protrusion aimed in defiance at an audience is a subtle form of F-you.

I used to think statues of nude people a bit, well, vulgar- like in ancient and pagan cultures. Maybe its my New England puritan heritage speaking out. But I don’t want to see famous men “in all their glory” on parade at the city square. Imagine Bill Clinton or Barak Obama displayed so? Apparently that is a thing in those circles. But, I don’t want to see that. My generation calls this: “Too much Information” TMI.

So, my conclusion is guessing, exploring, and discovering is part of human beings’ “psychic array”- lets call it. This behavior is not in itself wrong or bad. But, its the stubborn ones who have explored and discovered behavior that proves to be harmful -that does not contribute to human happiness and flourishing- but they persist in it anyway who are guilty and wanting. Its upon them whom the punishment of the God they claim does not exist falls. That makes sense.

I dreamed my childhood home was laid waste. The earth was leveled where my house and my neighbors’ used to sit, side by side. Our two houses had different values. One was a house and the other a home. The war seems to have reached the whole neighborhood.

The comfy, East Coast neighborhood offered a degree of comfort, order, and freedom. But, was now darkened by great shadow. Some lived like refugees in the rubble, remaining inside and near the dark walls that remained of their existence.

Some walls were literal structures of concrete and stone. Other ones are illusions people hide behind in their minds. The State of War is winnowing out the literal and figurative barriers we human beings erect to survive.

This may seem frightening. I mean only to share what I believe may be useful observations how and why human beings experience wars. Perhaps, I observe dark scenes with less emotional tremors because I didn’t grow up in a home that had walls of safety, order, or happy inhabitants. My house was already laid waste by a war going on inside its walls.

Unfortunately, our nation has been at war with this, that, and the other thing my whole life. (See yesterdays post.) The media expresses itself with battle-like urgency so frequently – stirring up peoples’ righteous indignation into feverish pitch – that it cleverly disguises news stories about actual military action taken by our government.

Such wars aren’t just psychic battles or humans struggling with their imperfect state. These are violent, destructive, and will-be ongoing if Washington D.C. and its leadership continues unchecked.

The Bible warns in 2 Chronicles 6:19 the condition of humanity in rebellion is a State of War. Whose side shall we then chose? Life or death, blessing or cursing is what Almighty offers. Peace or War?

Life gives us varying expertise. Growing up in the seventies, a Gen-Xer, chaos is my home. It’s perfectly normal that disheveled, unhappy people like my baby-boomer older siblings, be running hither and thither in pursuit of who knows what??

“Social change” was the public school program language then. And now by the Socialists. But, “Changed into what??”

The hens whose behavior I studied for this Chronicle seem better accustomed to life’s trials and experiences than people today. Hens experience happiness and freedom. Life is not droning in some endless chore. Or, fighting endless wars.

Our nation has been fighting wars against “Poverty” “Drugs” “Racism” “Inequality” and “Terrorism.” We’ve a war machine in Washington D.C. as dangerous as the loosely labeled goals of our collective existence.

What if the engineers were wrong? The social engineers, I mean?

We’ve been told that a war on social problems (and other wars) is how we solve humanity’s problems. All are collective energy, intellect, and money organized into action – achieving the “programmable end” of human happiness…

Where’s the happiness? Where did all that money go, really?

Maybe happiness doesn’t come to humanity by force? Maybe that is why hand-me-down assumptions of previous generations are failing? People don’t like to be forced to do anything – especially things that don’t make sense to them.

If we tried to be objective, we may discover human happiness doesn’t come in one-size-fits-all solutions from on high. The High places of Washington D.C., I mean. Then, we’d recognize the dissolution of so destructive an avenue of human oppression – evolutionary speaking- is what happens next.

The power structure that is destroying us may possibly be swallowed up by the swamp it has made. The idea of “engineering human happiness from on high” may disappear into a sinkhole of our collective consciousness.

Washington D.C.’s political war machine has haunted and terrorized the world for decades. It’s a culmination of our collective fears and ambitions, good and bad. It’s also armed and funded and poised for attack. Like a cornered animal, it’s trying to save itself from its own destruction. Hence the chaos the in the collective.

My previous life was one of deep depression and suicidal thoughts that haunted me for decades. Modern science calls this phenomenon a “mental illness” because the condition alludes to a person living in “mentally unwell” condition. OK.

Someone suggesting I kill myself- that my life is an endless misery from which there is no hope of escape– may be a problem solvable by Big Pharma. But I doubt it.

We need to redefine what constitutes mentally “well” and mentally “unwell” as the distinctions may easily become Orwellian doublespeak. That confusion could land every half-delusional person hypnotized by social media into the psych hospital. That’s expensive.

Big Pharma will drown them all in drugs as a solution and profit exponentially off that plan. But, I suggest ideas that emerge in our consciousness be examined in the light of day even though it may require short-term suffering. Facing what is there in our dark moments- pains, sorrows, and failures- is the necessary pill for remedy. I tremble at the prospect.

Fyodor Dostoevsky mentions in Brothers Karamazov, I believe- that our remedy for suffering IS facing truth we try to hide, disguise, and escape. Otherwise, we remain prisoners of darkness whether we live in an actual prison cell, a deep depression, or walking about numb and uncertain about the future.

Owning my experience, facing my fears, being responsible for myself and what is happening around me I can be prepared for what is coming next. Staying asleep, silent, an agent-less consciousness is no solution. It’s accepting defeat which fuels despair.