The Great Bamboozle

Outside my window during a snowfall all I can see is snow. I’ve seen depths of 5 feet of freshly-fallen snow. But I am unaware of the individual flakes. If I were aware, I would see that each individual flake is different. No two snowflakes are identical. Humans are not aware of the differences in all things. What we see is snow, sand, blue, and robins. We see the categorical whole and have given it a name. But each thing in the category has no name of its own. Due to our lack of awareness of these differences we busy ourselves lumping together and categorizing our surroundings and treat these lumps (snow, sand, blue, robins…) as consisting of things that are the same. The entities created by lumping blind us to what is there just below the surface, namely infinite diversity. The lumped realities are not real at all but surface-feature fictions that shape us to see different things as the same. It is a process not unlike the one described in the fairy tale “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” Here the people see “the king” as a conceptual whole and fully clothed but not this king, who on this day has no clothes. In the pages that follow I will try to make clear how this gross distortion of reality permeates our lives and how we have lived since the beginning of our social existence in a state of perpetual bamboozlement where we are taught to see categorical wholes, not what is there. As a human I am more comfortable with perceived order. It provides me with a semblance of control. Grasping the infinite diversity in snowflakes or contained in any other thing would be overwhelming, if even possible. I will suggest that what I refer to in this book as the major embodiments of power in human existence, and I list six: the state, the military, religions, business, science, and the arts, and refer to these as the earth gods (Egs). They all contribute to our inability to see all things as different. They work together to impose their order or schema upon us. People create these six powerful earthly groupings to help them to make sense of their complicated world. The Egs are cultural creations. They simplify lives in a way that humans are naturally predisposed to accept. Perceiving wholes makes our lives simpler. Oneness or singularity, as opposed to diversity, is easier for us to grasp. There is a vast literature in perceptual psychology to support this simplification of perception where one is seen in a complicated array and not the diversity. Their power, these Egs, resides in their size, influence, and ability to effectively interact with each other to present a simplified version of our diverse world. The survival of these Egs depends on their ability to convince their followers and themselves that their lumping schemes or categories of the things in the world are true. They imply that if each individual were left to sort out the things of the world then chaos would result, and human progress would be thwarted, and its seeming randomness would terrorize us with fear that the end of civilization is imminent. They frighten us with ourselves, with our own individuality, limited vision, and with the natural tragedies in the world. These Egs bring us the promise of success, order, beauty, and salvation to an otherwise chaotic existence. They tell us to be good (see things their way) and “heaven,” either here or in the afterlife, will be your reward. Terrorists (or any perceived threats to the promised order) shall be identified and thwarted. I will try to show that contrary to their claims, these groups seem to be associated with mass destruction, murder, and lies on a scale that no terrorist organization has ever achieved. The lumped, unreal categorical entities that they create serve to divide us, turning one against another. Their categories (e.g., the holy versus sinner; the good citizen versus the terrorist, good versus evil, etc.) serve to help us wage perennial war against each other while allowing the Egs to maintain and increase their power, and their relatively comfortable existence. A simple example of one of the things we are taught to see by the science god is that water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit. In the pages that follow I will argue that this generality about the boiling point of water and all the others put forth by the various Egs as laws or truths are false. We live in an artificial god-constructed world which tries to obliterate the differences and puts great pressure on us to see their simplified, often corrosive realities. I’ll argue that there is only ‘one true god’ (OTG) and that is power. Simply put it is the energy in its various forms that keeps things everywhere in the universe constantly moving and changing. The OTG ultimately rules all creation which includes the mighty Egs. The OTG is the disembodied (nonorganic) form of power. I’ll argue that it moves all the elements in our world and in the universe and its structure and behavior is essentially chaotic. I am going to argue that our world is a chaotic place. Chaos is a place where humans fear to tread. They have tried to rid themselves of the chaos by substituting the false laws and dogmas proposed by the Egs of oneness and truth. By using them they have been able to mask the underlying chaos and bring about for many a semblance of order and calm. For many others, those who see the cracks in the presented reality, there is an existence of desperate loneliness and helplessness. I will present a unified theory which maintains that animate and inanimate worlds follow the same patterns. The OTG and its major human embodiments the Egs have together ruled the world since societies began. They work together. The OTG helps to frighten or terrorize us with things like disease, death, volcanos, etc., and the Egs are there to provide the numbing salve to help reduce our fears and provide hope. Alternatives to the Egs ruling our lives and helping to blind us to diversity are considered in the pages that follow. A major intent of this book will be to describe the role of power in our lives. The Egs are incredibly powerful. That they have survived unchallenged for so many thousands of years is a strong testament to that power. They truly have earned the title of gods. Grant me the premise and the facts that “no two things are the same,” that “all things are constantly changing,” that “fear is a primary human motivator” and the role of the Egs will be clarified as will their weaknesses. Once the veil has been lifted from our eyes, the veil placed there by the Egs and by human nature, and greater clarity is achieved, then perhaps individuals (INs), will be in a better position to formulate ways of being not based on continual conflict. But rather where there is a more positive and loving relational state based on the acceptance of the differences inherent in all things, including ourselves. This assumes of course that we will not be so frightened by a world without gods that we will not be able to move beyond them.