Okraalom (Subtitles "The Eagle and the Dove")

Okraalom (Subtitles "The Eagle and the Dove") is a published book that harks back in the Syai world to when it was at about the stage of development  as our earth civilization was toward the end of the seventeenth century, that is, at the beginning of the post-medieval, modern era. It is adapted to illustrate, by means of close attention to detail, the state of civilization at that time in our world. It does this despite that the main events and background (even some of the themes) of the novel refer only to the very different world of the Syai. It can therefore be put in to a category such as fantasy-fiction, based on genuine historical records. One "collective character" in the book - the natives of the main island featured in the story - bear some resemblance to the Maori - I trust not unsympathetically. 

World and human species in jeopardy. What's to be done?

There could be one hundred billion trillion Earth-like planets in space, making it "inevitable" that extraterrestrial life exists, according to a  leading astronomer. (The Telegraph science correspondent).

A brief observation like this blog of the present state of the planet and human civilization as if "from outside" (possibly by such as the Syai?) may seem too sweeping to be taken seriously. Ignore it? No. It may be a tiresome cliche to refer to "elephants in the room", but "elephants" there are, and I dare to name them (as I think T. and the Syai would). 

(1) The retentive-come-expansive expectaions of the rich are the main cause of the plundering of the planet reaching unsustainable intensities.  
(2) Human fertility with its relatively recent explosion of numbers. Notwithstanding that the pace of that expansion appears to have slowed for the time being, there's no sign that increase in numbers will not continue - not without radical changes in global cultures.

Valiant efforts are indeed being made to lift some of the world's most crowded and climate-affected areas out of poverty, as well as to oblige the well-to-do to accept more transparency and less corruption, but the "elephants" remain. Rather, the world should unmask the "elephants" as dragons, biding their time to break out eventually, in full fury. Well-meaning reformers can damp down small fires started here and there by the dragons' breaths, but the dragons themselves have very thick skins.

What would "outsiders' like the Syai advise us to do?  Well, we can act on the expectation that the rich will continue to have all they need for a comfortable, interesting life, even after they have been sheared of their source-assets and their power monopolies and (in many cases) their obscene salaries and perks. Sources of prosperity must be taken into 'commonwealth' and managed accordingly by dedicated servants of 'commonwealth'; persons of good education and ethical integrity. Those who have established themselves to become very wealthy, often allow their offspring to live in a fools' paradise; 'princes' and 'princesses', with no need to exert themselves and contribute anything to 'commonwealth'. Let's put an end to that.

The line must be crossed (especially for men) over the present non-regulation of fertility. Except in extraordinary circumstances, every adult person should be licensed to have one, two or three children and no more. There might well be some encouragement to reduce even that quota. China with its experience of population-growth limitation might well take a leading role in global enforcement of this regulatory program.  Nations that refuse to follow should face ostracism and blockade. Proselytizing religious leaders who seek "tribal-style" population increases in their followers to overwhelm non-believers and take theocratic power, should be exposed as dangerous enemies of peace and prosperity.

It's a survival agenda, and hardly likely to happen. But with reference to the opening of this blog: only one acorn in hundreds of thousands from a single oak ever puts down roots and lasts long enough to become a mighty tree.

What do you think the Syai would think of this world?

T. explanations of humans behaving in typical ways and organizing things on their planet would have shocked and intrigued the Syai people. They would have expressed fears for the survival of our species. According to T., in comparing their civilization to ours, they picked up on the following points:

1.  The rich are concerned with making and keeping the planet as their exclusive playground.
2.  The poor are left free to churn out babies knowing that these babies as children and adults have little or no prospect of a decent life.
3.  The governments are happy (mostly) to be only partially free of corruption, and almost all are inclined to be tolerant of corruption in their most wealthy or influential supporters.
4.  Religions cannot disguise the fact, though they desperately try, that they have a historic and present role in fermenting bloody conflict; partly because they are extraordinarily stupid in getting their ethical priorities into a humanist non-supernatural perspective.
5. Scientists ... too easily bought.

6. The healthy don't find it easy to accept that sport is not reality - only play!
7.  The sick too easily excuse themselves for not having controlled their appetites for things that made them sick; also, don't make much effort to moderate their demands for consumption of financial and other kinds of resources. (That is not to imply that an empathetic social system shouldn't do its best to take care of them.)

The wisdom men and women are capable of, doesn't show up much in conservative traditions of religion of 21st Century

Says the witch in Game of Thrones, "The night is dark and full of terrors."  Strong beliefs (easily corrupted) are the launching platforms of action. That explains a lot of the mayhem around the human planet of today, especially in regions rich with oil (and oil money), of strategic importance to ex-colonial powers and riven by religious conflict.  

But the source of the terrors and the darkness of ignorance are not what we hear or see on screen somewhere far away out there. They are deep - or not-so-deep - inside us!  Because traditional organized religion and its off-shoots are "out there", they can't help us much in saving our sanity, procuring for us a sustainable biosphere, and providing us with ethical standards of behavior. In fact they seem inclined instead to drag us into the "dark and full of terrors" regions. The religious founders and pious ancients are not really as helpful in making us intelligently moral beings as the philosophers of ancient Greece and China with their love of natural beauty, elevation of Reason, and penchant for critical social- and self-examination.                        (Picture by Severen, 6 y. o.)

The language & culture connection

The diagram (from 'Spirituality and Aging' conf. 2009' - c.o. Dr Richard Egan) struck a chord with me when revising material about the connection between the religio-mythological side of Syai culture and its language. In the three outer areas of the 'map' of the psyche are the Physical, Social and Mental. They are centered by Spirituality. These designations come close to what the Syai call the Gods of the Minor Quaternary and how Syai linguists introduce a crucial part of their language structure. At the center is the Heart-goddess (spirituality); on the outer are the "Worldly-deeds" god (physical), and the Emotive/Motivational goddess (social) and the Intellectual god (mental). Each Syai verb-form can be divided into four variants according to which of the god-realms it most suitably seems to belong in. This provides a pattern of meaning-associations that facilitates the learning and use of the language.

Naturally, each of the deities mentioned has its own Syai name, and all four are major protagonists in the dramatic creation story that is used by Syai adults to explain the world to their children.

Main points in Syai democratic constitution

Iperial Syai system of government ... just a sketch, no details as my focus here is on the democratic principles. Center (Q)  (metaphorically) reflects the Minor Quaternary of Syai gods, the Empress/ Emperor and the three 'elders' of the Imperial Council.They are the source of validation of power, but in themselves have almost no power. The three 'Elders' are go-betweens, advisers and guardians, informing the imperial personage and organizing everything around her/ him. (If the two real powers can't come to agreement on something, then 'Q' might have to play an important, even deciding role.) The real powers are the Villages' Assembly and the Walkers' Council. The Walkers are not so concerned with steering the course of government as with environmental and social well-being and justice.

Some points of the constitution as far as T. could remember them.
(1)  Freedom of access to readily-available truth.
(2)  A holistic education founded on the humanities, on children learning about their biological/ natural surroundings to start with; with science and technology built on that foundation.
(3) Stimulating but fair competition, with emphasis on individuals or groups competing against their past selves, not blocking or undermining efforts of 'rivals'. 
(4) In an open society where everyone has personal aims that can be better pursued in co-operation rather than cut-throat competition, there is no place for secrecy and transactional privacy. Acts of  personal and consensual privacy are assured and protected, so long as they have no direct harmful effect on persons unknowing and uninvolved.
(5) To have unity among diverse communities there must be a grand symbol of unity, and to be effective a-ffectively that symbol needs a face - that is, some degree of personification. The gods of Syai cultural mythology serve this purpose without fueling a demand for theocracy to take precedence over democracy.

Considering what is needed for a well-functioning democracy

Using what 'T.' reveals of the Syai Empire as a model of democracy, I have been thinking of our Western so-called democracies and what would be the revolutionary reforms needed to change them from oligarchic semi-democracies to what would satisfy the Syai to call them real democracies. I have worked out five or six principles which I will subsequently present (in some form) on this blog. My fear is that if any country on this globe under present conditions dared to come near to implementing these principles, that country would be trashed. If not armed agression, practical reasons and even moral considerations would be dreamed up and given full air-time by the Western media for why it was a bad experiment that was being justifiable undermined in the interests of growth, international co-operation, freer trade and so forth. Even if the "experiment" proved popular, the discontent of a power-hungry few would be worked upon both in and out of the country to bring about a reactionary reversal. But there is no credible historic evidence that a real democracy experiment could never succeed in a country or region, provided it was

left free of outside interference.

Preparing a seminar on matters of faith, the spiritual dimension an reality

As planned next year I should have a seminar prepared on some of the negative aspects of religion and how they might be overcome. My contention is that a greater understanding of the spiritual dimension of our lives can potentially overcome the conflicts and violence that these days seems to rage around religious issues. I fully approve of suspending disbelief - there's a lot to be gained from it in entertainment and even in wisdom. But to think it doesn't matter if people believe whatever they like or suits them to believe, is simply to "feed into" the aforementioned conflict, violence and rage. The picture above might well be taken as symbolic of the beauty of 'Gaia' or the natural sciences. However, without the spiritual dimension and openness to philosophical criticism, scientists themselves can fall into belief-systems that cause conflict and environmental harm, often in bowing to the self-interest of their human, emotional selves, or to the greed and ambitions of their financial backers.

This picture is T.'s impression of a Syai caravan-cottage (drawn from memory and T. is no artist). Each Syai adult has such a private dwelling to him or her self although much of their daily activity is usually spent in the communal buildings of the village. Villages are situated in well-forested regions and have cultivated fields and meadow-like surroundings with well-protected water-ways and wet-lands.

The adult individual can live and work in solitude using his or her caravan-cottage, pretty well as he or she sees fit. Food is stored just adjacent to the door, as needed. If there is reason for the individual to move and work in a different village, the home goes as well. The letters (picture) indicate some of the utility of the parts of the home, while the base (yellow, 'F.') is where the wheels are a little below the surface and where electricity supply and drainage are taken care of.
A :  skylight- can be opened or made opaque. 
B :  raised organic toilet, to facilitate the composting process.
C:   access trap through which the compost can be retrieved, used.
D:   auxiliary unit for storage and temperature regulation.
E :  Attachment for when 'tractor' needs to pull home to new place.
F ;   As already described above.
G :   Paved pathway to main communal building (cover not shown).

Intelligent Design (/Creationism)

Donald Duck ponders: "Maybe your design wasn't intelligent enough!"

I've been seeing on Google that there seems to be a lot of academic stuff written in defense of (evolutionary) Intelligent Design. In the next philosophy-discussion meeting I attend, a member is going to give us supposed evidence to justify belief in this. 

Unfortunately, the idea behind Intelligent Design  can be linked to the Rev. Paisley's "Proof of God's Existence". A primitive wandering along a beach finds a working watch on the sand and marvels at the intricacy of it - then looks around at all the wonderful examples of nature and says to himself, "This thing in my hand could not have come-to-be by accident or from nothing. It must surely have had a creator. But when I look about me at the marvels of nature, surely I am obliged to conclude - just as with this object - there must be the intelligence of a divine designer and creator behind it.

Of course he is not obliged at all to think that.  The primitive fellow would be more inclined to use his common sense and put the thing he has found into the category of his stone ax, but assume that its maker would be a being very strange and powerful - a spirit or god. If he did so, he would be making a correct distinction between the made or manufactured creation of things and the things that are self-created or appear in the natural formations of the environment, The fact that we need to and easily make this distinction between what is 'manufactured' and what has evolved to "grow like Topsy" does rather make nonsense of the very idea of Intelligent Design. For making that distinction is at the very basis of our understanding of reality. Without it, confusion would reign and accumulation of knowledge, or science, would be impossible. (Apol. to Disney for taking picture out of context)

Spirituality

I’ve been speaking to several groups on the subject of Spirituality. The idea that spirits live in the world (or in some place linked to the world) has been around from ancient times and persists in some quarters today. We draw on experience of things, animals, unfamiliar persons and natural features or processes. Out of that mix we fashion spirits. Many of us endow them with a reality they don’t deserve. However, different tribal or “super-tribal” cultures with their religions are largely dependent for their continued separateness on the formation and maintenance of their notions of dynamic spirits (or “Spirit”). Although this human phenomenon has to do with the rich diversity of cultures, it tends to alienate us from unification when it is needed world-wide, tending instead to foster ideology and conflict between different groupings under different “flags” or symbols. Despite this, there’s no doubt as to the value of it so long as it is recognized as belonging in the realm of mythology and symbolism. It would then be possible to dig deeper and analyse the underlying significance of “spirituality” as opposed to spirits. Spirituality would be clearly seen as beneficial to the theorizing and mind-experiments that stir the imagination of scientist in looking into the unknown and making advances in our understandings of  micro- and macro- cosmos. The unity of religious groups would be made more possible and their buildings would be open to all as“church" community centers. . 

Science, the arts and philosophy must be integrated before science can help with the answers

This gloomy picture (Chirico) is titled 'Philosopher and Poet' - why choose that title is not obvious, but to me it could represent the frozen condition of a lack of positive underlying progress in both general science ("philosopher") and culture in general ("poet"). The blankness of the screen confronted by a rigid figure and a weird, detached something beside it, the figure with no arms to challenge the blankness and create something new on the screen ... It could be interpreted as our present global civilization in its reluctance to get moving and examining in any depth the future for our planet and its inhabitants; science having no answers and the humanities mired in repetitiveness, trivia and nostalgia.

Sitting and meditating doesn't change anything. Nor does science per se. Nor our playing around with the remarkable capacities of present-day technology. Do we want change or are we content to concentrate on trying to make life better for our individual selves and those selves that are alike to us?

Most of the inhabitants of our present global civilization live in the present 'dream-world' of unlimited growth with the excitement of ill-regulated competition, the available escapes into fantasy and the comforts of procrastination. All that gives to some - but not all - zest and meaning to life. They would prefer to leave change to chance, to 'Nature' or to 'God'. It is easier to bury misgivings about the future in the minutiae of living and to let the demon of environmental degradation do its worst.

Of course the Syai vision that this blog is basically about is not the only vision of a future life-sustainable world under the governance of (supposedly) intelligent beings. Even with our biosphere burdened with such a large human population as we now have, such a world is still possible. It would require spreading that population out over a changed landscape, integrating human needs and talents with the requirements of the natural environment to flourish and to heal itself from the cancerous imbalances already inflicted upon it by such as weeds, pests and depletions of our supportive flora and fauna.

The Syai vision of home-villages is a plausible possibility. At least some of our scientific theorists are also on to such a possibility: two of them are mentioned in 'New Scientist' (July, 1914), namely Porrit and Sanderson. Unlimited growth and urban congestion would become gradual, measured growth, taking humanity in a new direction with probably slower, more prudential technological advances (one would hope not longer associated with weaponry development).

Most of us ardently desire something like this rather that continuing on a path to extinction or at least to the total destruction of anything resembling a civilization worth living in for most of us. What, then,is the key to real progress and sustainability?  In a sense, it is meditation and appropriate concentration on what matters, because it is from the mind that individual and collective decisions originate.

The scientist deals directly with what I would call base-reality - the world as revealed to us in unemotional observation, discovery and prediction. So long as base-reality has its rightful place in our thinking, a path of change is opened to a level of well-being that is sustainable. Science cannot give us reasons on philosophical, ethical grounds why we should take this path, It is up to all the faculties of our consciousness to fashion a human future grounded in a species-survival ethic. Science can only give us valuable clues as to how to achieve this. And it does so mainly due to its predictive power. The "Why do it" has to come from other reaches of the mind, namely, culture, values-prioritization (morals), the creative imagination (the arts) and religion (spirituality). But with respect to religion, we cannot any longer afford the indulgence of not aligning these broader reaches of the mind with base-reality. Fantasy and escape into dream-world can enrich our lives, but it must be "put in its place"!  We cannot go on ordering our lives according false-to-fact constructions of 'reality', at odds with base-reality. Much of tradition and much of religion has to be re-interpreted or abandoned. A great deal of simplification will be required in the spirit of 'Occam's Razor'. As in the Syai world, religion would harmlessly "simplify" into culture, wisdom-myths and seasonal festivity.

How the mind-realm of creative imagination best-serves the child

This is a western child in an eastern posture. He probably has his head full of stories and not the thought-chatter emptiness that his meditation teacher hopes for him. Stories legends and myths are a proxy source of experiential wisdom, providing simple ethical lessons that give due recognition to individual freedoms and self-assertion as tempered by reason and consideration for others.

Why, then, do we so cling to the need for religious interpretation of some of them?

All the value of the above-outlined is lost as soon as a religious or quasi-religious body - a collective in competition with other collectives - elevates one story only, tending to disparage others, thus giving that story the imprimatur of what I might refer to as "base-reality" (rightly more the province of science).

If the humanities, the poetry of life, symbol, myth, legend and story can be focused more on the future, which is the child's near-present - a focus that seems to be a crying need in this present age - then it's all doing proper service to the child. If it continues to be wrapped up in the past and tradition too much, it will only serve an established body-politic to subject the child to its service.

If the beneficial re-adjustment of the humanities is to be achieved, we can respect the grandeur of the religious achievements of the past (for example architecturally) without being held by them in thrall. At the same time we can re-adjust our minds to insist that the humanities and sciences complement each other in "non-religious" but soulful harmony, no more treading disdainfully on each other's ground.

Because imaginative stories are only "fun", Syai mythology enters harmlessly into the culture and year-round of festivals without the dangerous solemnity of religion.

Was religion ever anything much better than a dragon feeding on its own tail?

In answering "probably not" to the title question, I don't want to downplay the genius that has gone into architecture, music and other arts that have had such cultural influence throughout the ages. Religion, of course, has been historically where much of the opportunity, time and money was on offer for the creative person. Like the (fictional) Syai, we, in the present day world with its pressing socio-political and material problems, need to grow out of religion per se, while we retain and continue with the arts, symbols and stories. These include works that can delight and teach us something, despite that it was normal in the past for their creators and communicators to make serious reference to superstition-promoting, supernatural pronouncements, images and myths masquerading as "Truths".

No devised system can self-asses its aptness for what is is designed to do in action and/ or persuasion. 

(Natural systems, such as the ecological, are naturally excluded, here) That is the Archilles heel of religion, but not only religion. It is also why we cannot dismiss the reality of the mind or mindfulness ( See, previous blog). The "axiom" of reality above explodes all religious claims to truth-absolutism, but also the scientific claim that reality is best understood by materialistic behaviourist determinism. Our mind - our capacity to observe and think rationally - is either "talking" to the real world or it is "talking" to itself in a manner lacking a faith-to-fact basis in the real world.

My blogs have already dealt with the ideology fanatic. Despite that, my feeling here is that the comparative sanity of a pragmatic person's "matter-of-fact"-ness   and acceptance of things as they are (as if they could never have come-to-be or needed-to-be otherwise) is not good enough. Awakening to reality requires imagination; and one of the underlying purposes of this blog-site is to try to support the imaginative envisioning of possible positive progress for our species on this planet.