[Random Thoughts] In Praise of Liberalism
Imagine the barbarian inside you! 99% of your ancestors were barbarians - tens of thousands of years of genetics and culture built up inside of you. Your Germanic ancestors (if you're of Northern European descent like me) lived in a world defined by revenge and honor. Honor killings were a part of life - if your brother forsake someone else's honor, their whole clan could be coming after YOU in return. You would always be looking over your shoulder. Someone could be hiding behind every knoll that your oxen cart passes, ready to pounce with their axe in clannish revenge. There are no police - this is how order is kept. And what a chaotic order it is.
There is no Tinder or singles bar. Maybe your wife is the only fertile female around. You and the neighbor go out working one day and you don't come home. Did the neighbor kill you to take your wife? These were everyday situations for the barbarian. Now feel the fear inside you today around strangers. Feel the insecurity that perhaps has no place in the modern world. Feel the absolute rapture of being around friends and family. These are the feelings of your barbarian ancestors, passed down to you. 99% of your heritage was spent in this type of environment, and every time you feel irrational fear, insecurity, it's our barbarian past speaking. Feel it!
Now imagine the rumors of the Christians, they seem to possess a type of magic. Your neighbor has been converted and has a saintly air to him, he seems to rise above barbarism. He talks of a worldly god that loves all (all that convert that is). Your Christian neighbor does not automatically seek revenge, he believes in a heaven where god is the one passing judgement. Above all this Christian is a *good* man of character that you can trust. Prior to this you could only trust you own clan. This new religion allows you to trust a far greater number of people - all those that have been converted. People throughout the land are being inspired to leave the old barbaric clannish ways behind. The higher social trust allows bigger towns and cities and kingdoms to form.
Alas, the old ways still have hold, the barbarian isn't changed overnight. Charlemange and other rulers convert lands by the sword. The Church has many corruptions. Reformers come about, spreading a purer vision. The Reformation reaches your descendants and they convert to a more austere life. It's the logical continuation of that first conversion to Christianity - they feel they are walking in the footsteps of their ancestors in raising humankind's spirituality up to the next level. They feel they are furthering the Christianization of humanity.
These Presbyterians believe in hard work and have abolished slavery in England. The lack of cheap labor and work ethic contribute to the industrial & scientific revolution. There's also a liberal revolution - Democracy - culminating in the defeat of Fascism at the end of WWII. People gradually forget how they arrived at such a society. The Christian principles and spirit get separated from the religion itself.
And the barbarians are still around, they are being freshly converted to Christianity via evangelical movements. These fresh converts rail against liberal societies, not realizing that these societies embody original spirit of overcoming barbarianism itself. A sort of amnesia has taken hold of Red America. Meanwhile, the Swedes and Germans actually are the expression of the purest spirit of Christianity - holding steady in the face of terrorism, trying to love the barbarians in spite of their terror, sheltering the refugees, in spite of it. The freshly converted barbarians in the USA and elsewhere have no idea what they're witnessing. They remain barbarians at heart. But they've begun the process. May the good hearts in Europe and in the USA prevail. And thank you greater Europe for holding the candle.
The freshly converted barbarians take their bible literally. They confuse the metaphor for the real spirit of it. But the true spirit that converted the original barbarians, the spirit that brought about the modern civilized world, has very little to do with things like abortion. It has a lot to do with having a higher sense of morals, of loving thy neighbor. The highest form of this on a societal level being the courageous taking in of Middle East refugees. Yes perhaps they are diluting their society. Or instead, perhaps they are calling their society to its highest sense of purpose, its highest spiritual potential. Imagining you are one of these refugees and you become converted by their kindness. Perhaps over the long term this example is what lifts the greater part of the world out of its own barbarism.
Nevertheless, the Liberal principles have been divorced from their original spirituality. Something is missing from modern society - even in places like Sweden. That something is a sense of spiritual purpose. Remembering again where they came from can help. But to go forward we need a new metaphor. A modern metaphor that incorporates the highest forms of knowledge we have today. That something could be Quantum Reality.
Yes, there have been many attempts at a new age spirituality, but none can pass the inspection of our greatest scientists. The new spirituality should conform to the purest scientific rationality; it should get the thumbs up from someone like David Deutsch. So that is our goal here. Nothing less than a simultaneous revolution of both science and spirituality.
There is no Tinder or singles bar. Maybe your wife is the only fertile female around. You and the neighbor go out working one day and you don't come home. Did the neighbor kill you to take your wife? These were everyday situations for the barbarian. Now feel the fear inside you today around strangers. Feel the insecurity that perhaps has no place in the modern world. Feel the absolute rapture of being around friends and family. These are the feelings of your barbarian ancestors, passed down to you. 99% of your heritage was spent in this type of environment, and every time you feel irrational fear, insecurity, it's our barbarian past speaking. Feel it!
Now imagine the rumors of the Christians, they seem to possess a type of magic. Your neighbor has been converted and has a saintly air to him, he seems to rise above barbarism. He talks of a worldly god that loves all (all that convert that is). Your Christian neighbor does not automatically seek revenge, he believes in a heaven where god is the one passing judgement. Above all this Christian is a *good* man of character that you can trust. Prior to this you could only trust you own clan. This new religion allows you to trust a far greater number of people - all those that have been converted. People throughout the land are being inspired to leave the old barbaric clannish ways behind. The higher social trust allows bigger towns and cities and kingdoms to form.
Alas, the old ways still have hold, the barbarian isn't changed overnight. Charlemange and other rulers convert lands by the sword. The Church has many corruptions. Reformers come about, spreading a purer vision. The Reformation reaches your descendants and they convert to a more austere life. It's the logical continuation of that first conversion to Christianity - they feel they are walking in the footsteps of their ancestors in raising humankind's spirituality up to the next level. They feel they are furthering the Christianization of humanity.
These Presbyterians believe in hard work and have abolished slavery in England. The lack of cheap labor and work ethic contribute to the industrial & scientific revolution. There's also a liberal revolution - Democracy - culminating in the defeat of Fascism at the end of WWII. People gradually forget how they arrived at such a society. The Christian principles and spirit get separated from the religion itself.
And the barbarians are still around, they are being freshly converted to Christianity via evangelical movements. These fresh converts rail against liberal societies, not realizing that these societies embody original spirit of overcoming barbarianism itself. A sort of amnesia has taken hold of Red America. Meanwhile, the Swedes and Germans actually are the expression of the purest spirit of Christianity - holding steady in the face of terrorism, trying to love the barbarians in spite of their terror, sheltering the refugees, in spite of it. The freshly converted barbarians in the USA and elsewhere have no idea what they're witnessing. They remain barbarians at heart. But they've begun the process. May the good hearts in Europe and in the USA prevail. And thank you greater Europe for holding the candle.
The freshly converted barbarians take their bible literally. They confuse the metaphor for the real spirit of it. But the true spirit that converted the original barbarians, the spirit that brought about the modern civilized world, has very little to do with things like abortion. It has a lot to do with having a higher sense of morals, of loving thy neighbor. The highest form of this on a societal level being the courageous taking in of Middle East refugees. Yes perhaps they are diluting their society. Or instead, perhaps they are calling their society to its highest sense of purpose, its highest spiritual potential. Imagining you are one of these refugees and you become converted by their kindness. Perhaps over the long term this example is what lifts the greater part of the world out of its own barbarism.
Nevertheless, the Liberal principles have been divorced from their original spirituality. Something is missing from modern society - even in places like Sweden. That something is a sense of spiritual purpose. Remembering again where they came from can help. But to go forward we need a new metaphor. A modern metaphor that incorporates the highest forms of knowledge we have today. That something could be Quantum Reality.
Yes, there have been many attempts at a new age spirituality, but none can pass the inspection of our greatest scientists. The new spirituality should conform to the purest scientific rationality; it should get the thumbs up from someone like David Deutsch. So that is our goal here. Nothing less than a simultaneous revolution of both science and spirituality.
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