HOLOLOGY (holo + logy; America, 2000): the search for solutions within a holistic context.

As it has been said of Hinduism, all gods are merely a different view of the same entity just as our plethora of subatomic particles are all merely harmonics of a resonating string. Reality is just different views of the same building-block-substance. The reason we see so much complexity is due to our four dimensional limitations, our existence is incapable of sensing everything at once. We are compelled by our own physical limitations to only view a fraction of the whole, a portion of truth at any given moment. It's up to us to put the pieces together, to gradually garner a greater level of understanding about the cosmic constant and universal truth. And thus we now have a scientific reason for religion. God is truth, truth is power, to know truth is to have the power of God.

The Intent of Holology

All the philosophers and brilliant philosophies throughout time, so many good ideas yet few bothered to commit those musings into techniques and concepts applicable to everyday life addressing the needs of the citizen and not just the intellectual. The Bible has been popular for hundreds of years not because it has any glowing mystical aura but because it provides simple lessons and understandable moral parables for anybody to use. Philosophy or religion has little strategic value if it can't be put into simple words and made comprehensible and useful to a popular audience.

Humani nil a me alienum puto

Holology is not for or against any specific transient issue, peace, war, love or hate but is a means of better understanding when and where to use any, all, or none of those concepts just as the world-wise King Solomon once wrote ".. for there will be a time for every activity, a time for every deed." Ecclesiastes 3:17. Because such ideals mutate and change with the era, good is one thing today and bad is another tomorrow; to build a platform upon one or the other merely plays to contemporary whims and leads to inevitable nullification. What's worse is the faith in such polarized visions of righteousness only bringing suffering, anguish and death upon ourselves and our descendants.

Holology is not just something for the future, it's something for today because, as we're all becoming painfully aware, the officially sanctioned leadership and all it's self-appointed experts don't lead to greater order or greater prosperity. Everything they produce is self-interested and the opposite of what the public wants and actually needs. Holology is in essence the desire to increase human intelligence because smart people are healthy people and healthy, smart people make wiser decisions.

Our Surplus of Misdirected Capital Produces a Deficit of Intelligence

 07.07.07 In total the world doesn’t lack for capital, there’s plenty of money circulating in the pipes of international finance and commerce for investment and development purposes, even if it is under the control of a tiny minority of the world’s population. But even more important, where is all that capital being directed? Is it being directed at exploring, learning and expanding human consciousness? No, it’s being directed at making more money because the rich that own and control the majority of the capital can only conceptualize a world where they're even richer!

The rare exceptions can be found in some governments where a small portion of the national surplus is used in research, and on a small scale at some colleges and universities. Yet when the private commercial sector invests in research and development the intent is only to improve the marketability and profit potential of the products being sold.

So, in our current capitalist milieu money chases money and capital is being used to inflate capital. Consequently, the people trapped within this realm, constantly being told that no alternative is possible except chaos and complete social collapse, are senses-deadened, apathetic, wandering around in a dazed state of chronic defeat where the only relief allowed is in hedonistic consumerism.

There’s no concerted effort to utilize wealth to learn new things within the current socio-economic establishment unless there’s some kind of clear commercial gain that can be extracted from it. The belief holds that intelligence and knowledge have no value unless generating a commercial profit, consequently knowledge must be privatized and restricted while working to make everyone else less smart and less conscious becomes a profitable endeavor!

For example, when a government space agency launches a mission they do it to expand collective knowledge and everyone is welcome to gain from the results. But when a private profit-driven company goes into space they do it to sell orbital joy-rides for the ultra-rich and the only people that gain from it are the rich people being briefly entertained and the company making the sale.

Looking at it from this perspective capitalism in its current manifestation, operating under contemporary values, is horrendously inefficient at delivering the things that the world really needs. Sure contemporary capitalism is great at manufacturing and marketing basketball shoes, hamburgers, and widescreen televisions but it can’t solve widespread problems, give useful direction to the masses, or enhance human intelligence – what we really need more than anything else.

What is Intelligence?

30.07.04 Intelligence is one of those qualities that most everyone can easily identify yet it still remains difficult to accurately describe. The standard tool used to measure intelligence is the Intelligence Quotient (IQ) test. Many people believe that this test miraculously manages to distill down an individual’s lifetime of experience and education into a neat little number that can then be instantly compared to everyone else’s number.

Yet in practice the number an IQ test generates from theory fails to account for the intangibles that characterize Intelligence in practice. Although still useful it has limitations, an IQ test cannot determine how well the individual will use their intelligence nor can it determine their ability to interact with other people or deal with life in general. An IQ score (100 is average) does not indicate the wisdom of an individual as demonstrated by the curious fact that some of the ‘smartest’ people have been known to make the some of the stupidest decisions!

A high IQ does not necessarily indicate a wise or prescient decision maker resides behind the number. And regardless, even if one has an above average IQ and social intelligence they’re trapped if they can’t communicate what they think and feel to others. A person’s communications capacity acts like a funnel for their intelligence.

Although it may be difficult to quantify, empathy is very likely a more accurate measure of true intelligence than the mathematical or spatial abilities gauged by an IQ test. It’s the social intelligence factor that really matters in daily life because of the endless series of interactions involved, that is unless you’re a machine or have a machine like job in which case the ability to surmise the thoughts and feelings of others is unnecessary.

In this regard autism is a curious illness that inflicts varying degrees of social dysfunction upon a small portion of the (predominantly male) population and, wasn’t even identified until about fifty years ago. People with Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) tend to have problems with social and communication skills. They’re likely to repeat certain behaviors and to strongly resist change in their daily activities and routine. Autism is three to four times more likely to affect males than females. In fact, many developmental disabilities have a greater male to female ratio.

Although the cause is unknown, the effects of autism vary from an above-average intelligence, as with Asperger’s syndrome (computer hackers often have it), all the way down to autistics that are complete invalids. [See also: Religion, Crime & Conformity] Autistics obsess over routine and enjoy repetitive tasks that normal people would hate to do. About 10% of autistics possess the famous savant skills, such as being able to count very rapidly or instantly recall arcane and obscure facts and trivia. But regardless of the severity of autism the disability revolves around an inability to comprehend the thoughts and feelings of others; they have little or no empathic abilities and thus no social capacities.

It’s an interesting thought to consider that as the needs and character of society changes, previously normal modes of behavior may become classified as illnesses! It’s possible that autism, or at least in the more mild forms, is one of these new illness’ as perhaps Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) may be too. It’s also increasingly clear from research and induction that autism is not just another random illness but rather is simply an extreme expression of the male mind. Indeed if autism is not so much an inherent illness but rather an imbalanced male mind then it may be more accurate to place autism on a scale and measure the degree of empathic disability characterizing the subject. Thus if indeed the male brain is not designed to excel at relationship-based social intelligence then men are fundamentally disabled when it comes to grasping and reacting to the thoughts and feelings of others, although obviously the degree of empathic handicap varies widely.

Autism is a spectral disorder characterized by degrees of disability but it all centers on a lack of emotional capacity perhaps from physical damage in the brain, hormone imbalances, or both and maybe other factors too. This disability creates havoc in the mind and body because emotions and emotional judgments are what humans used to categorize sensory input in order to process the massive volume of data constantly flowing into the brain. This is the difference between the relational and linear processor-based brain. For instance, autistics sometimes say "I" when they mean "you", or the other way around. Without an emotional center to differentiate between ‘me’ and ‘them’ and to also try and judge the feelings and thoughts of ‘they’, the mind simply becomes a handicapped machine, and a self-destructive one at that.

Again this is no idle statement but actually has vast consequences for a modern society that increasingly relies on advanced communications and complex interactions in order to function. Yet the friction in the system, anti-social behavior, is rooted in the inability to comprehend the feelings of others; indeed lack of empathy may as well be the defining trait of a psychopath. [See also: Gorillas in the Midst] This is why mass-murderers, criminals and your basic run of the mill undesirables are predominantly male. A street gang or a stone-age clan can be built with these skills but not a modern society, although it can be dissolved this way.

In the 21^st century the masculine brain has become an acute medical condition with no known cure and no effective treatment.

Basic survival in a hostile wilderness may have been aided by a functionally autistic mind in the primitive past, like being able to focus on a target or remember obscure details, but this situation no longer holds true today or anytime in the foreseeable future. Cooperation, empathy and effective communication are critically important elements necessary for maintaining advanced society. It seems that the male mind and thus the body attached to it will need to adapt very rapidly in order to have a function within not just the future but simply the present social system, a system that ironically it worked to create! This is not unprecedented and although some organisms will alter their immediate environment in more favorable ways, short-term advantage often yields long-term extinction.

Regardless of this prognosis, intelligence will increasingly come to mean an ability to communicate, empathize and relate to people and situations rather than simply the ability to process data and produce an answer because of the advanced nature of modern technology.

Forces

16.04.03Just as nature has four fundamental forces so can it be seen that human nature and activity has fundamental forces as well. Although the human ones should perhaps be called rules instead of laws to reflect their (potential) capacity to be violated, albeit an unlikely event, whereas natural laws cannot be broken. These forces work in hidden ways to construct the superstructure (the cake) of society when coupled with the transient values and goals of the age (the frosting) which is mostly built from force #4.

The four forces of human nature

Force one is that of individual self-interest - every healthy human is fundamentally selfishly motivated. Multiple layers of culture and psychology try to mask this but it nevertheless remains so and it can't be any other way. Rule/Force #1 is rooted in personal survival.

Force two, collective interest, is what emerges when everyone's self-interest is put together in society or a region proscribed by language, geography, etc.

Force number three is that all human action is based upon competition in one form or another. Competition is related to Force One but it’s also a force so powerful it permeates the very fabric of all known existence.

Force four is that human behavior starts with imitation and ends with habit; and culture is just a collection of these individual behaviors. Imitation forms a significant portion of what it is to be human. We learn from imitation and through repetition; this forms habit and habit is the bedrock of everyday life.

Culture and the accumulated biases and prejudices of human nature are the product of a feedback mechanism between individual interest and collective interests. The contentious interface between the two over thousands of years has produced built-in evolutionary adaptations, in other words no human being starts out as a blank slate and no culture starts out without a history to start from. Everyone begins life trying to find where they fit in to a pre-existing system rather than trying to build their own; none of us exist in a social vacuum.

Each class is rigidly sure of the rightness of its own ends and hence not overscrupulous about the means of attaining them. One side proclaims the ultimacy of order—that of some old order which conduces to its own interest. The other side proclaims its rights to freedom, and identifies justice with its submerged claims. There is no common ground, no moral understanding, no agreed upon standard of appeal. Today such a conflict occurs between propertied classes and those who depend upon daily wage; between men and women; between old and young. Each appeals to its own standard of right, and each thinks the other the creature of personal desire, whim or obstinacy. Mobility has affected peoples as well. Nations and races face one another, each with its own immutable standards. Never before in history have there existed such numerous contacts and minglings. Never before have there been such occasions for conflict which are the more significant because each side feels that it is supported by moral principles. Customs relating to what has been and emotions referring to what may come to be go their independent ways. The demand of each side treats its opponent as a willful violator of moral principles, an expression of self-interest or superior might. Intelligence which is the only possible messenger of reconciliation dwells in a far land of abstractions or comes after the event to record accomplished facts. From: John Dewey in Human Nature and Conduct, 1922.

Defining Intelligence

19.08.02 Just what exactly is human intelligence, how is it best defined? Standard IQ tests are one way of quantifying it and despite the drubbing they sometimes take nothing better has yet to replace them empirically. Another less quantifiable means of measuring intelligence is the ability to regulate one's urges and impulses. So intelligence, or lack of it, could be interpreted as the degree of self-control. This is a rather problematic definition because of its inherent variability; self-control can be altered by things in life such as state of mind, fatigue, drugs, and so on.

I've pioneered another way to qualify intelligence defined as the chronological perception of reality. Greater intellects are more conscious of alternate times and places, of longer-term consequences stemming from immediate actions. Alternately someone of minimal intellect, be it genetic or self-inflicted, has a limited sense of reality down to the absolute minimum of the instantaneous 'now'. This scale has the added advantage of ranking animal species within a logical progression from say, the amoebae or flat worm existing entirely within an absolutely singular moment and merely reacting to whatever stimuli occurs, up to birds and mammals able to plan and make tools for the near future. Eventually progressing up to the human species capable of planning decades in advance.

We also see that civilization-builders are the most intelligent of all because they are able to plan for the future by building safety nets and structures to carry society through tough times by borrowing from the prosperous times.

Thus, intelligence is an awareness of time into the future and back in the past, of history forming the present and the consequences of present actions forming the future affecting oneself later in life and their progeny after that. This intelligence can usually be judged by personal actions and composure. So a heavy drug addict for instance, is one who's sense of time is shrunken down to the singular moment of now and everything revolves around that; they act according to their intellect - rash, impulsive and self-destructive. Whereas at the other pole is the genius, aware of past and future out to years, centuries even millennia. The genius' actions are quite the opposite of those living for the moment. One is reduced to the slavery of mechanized compulsion, the other becomes a careful calculator, one is the victim of events the other capitalizes upon them.

Values & Expectations

21.05.02 Most of life is relative not objective because most of it is defined through social standards, expectations and values. If you want to create civil unrest then first expand the public's range of expectations; in other words convince them they want and need things they don't. And if this range is stretched to encompass things that the people can never have, impossible desires, then you've really got trouble on your hands. Nevertheless it's an unfocused agitation, it has no name or form only a general sense of unease and anguish that never leads to constructive outcome.

So what am I talking about? Television, entertainment, Hollywood culture. Look at any previously isolated part of the word say fifty years ago before television and radio penetrated into their stable little worlds. Now check it out, what do you find? Sickness, anger, violence, crime, social instability, and suicide just scratches the surface.

Complaining of American laziness is downright trite anymore, but stop for a moment and put it in perspective. All people are lazy but only as lazy as they think they can get away with as determined by the limits of cultural context. If a 14 hour workday is a common social expectation and the people have little or no awareness of an alternative, then the workers will complain and slave away for 14 hours a day. But if watching TV as your fat ass slowly sinks ever deeper into the recliner hour after hour, is common and acceptable then people will still complain but work, say, an eight hour shift.

Did you ever wonder how the sweatshop laborers of the 19th century dealt with the chronic toil and drudgery of everyday life? How did they deal with being crammed into a tenement housing complex with four, six eight or more people living in a tiny room? Ever wonder how the pioneer families managed to endure incredible hardships to find new land and turn it into productive farms? It wasn't because they believed in Jesus or read the Bible, they weren't physically any better than people today. They just didn't know any different and they had few options. But at root it was a psychological issue, these people accomplished incredible things because they thought they had to! But they were free and happy too, and they owned what they built.

Those proficient persons had one crucial advantage: they weren't psychologically defeated before they started. They didn't have television showing them fictional lifestyles of the rich and famous creating illusions and false expectations of wealth and hollow lifestyles that are impossible to achieve. Conversely, today everyone is unhappy even though superficially it seems like we have so much less to complain about, no 14 hour shifts in a sweatshop or swarms of locusts eating our food.

Do you start to see why TV and mass media have so radically altered culture and society? Human effort can accomplish anything but only within the limits of standard expectations and values. Fortunately the values are relative; if you change the values you remake everything. So is this an endorsement of long work hours to enrich industrialists? No! It's an endorsement of the effort to be free and create things that benefit yourself and your allies. Don't be mentally defeated by noise and illusion.

The Book of Holology

15.06.02 Holology in book or Internet form is nothing like the typical religious or political mental stamp-press where the vociferous preachers force their one-size-fits-all pseudo-solutions onto everyone else while conveniently excusing themselves in the forceful process. Rather, the Holology book and web site serves as a resource for the individual to better understand social structures and world events while interacting with others on a higher plane to create and define their own life-meaning and weltanschauung.

The book of Holology, now in development, is for when readers ask 'where does this stuff come from?' And 'how does Freydis come up with this [hopefully no expletive here] stuff?' It's giving everyone who cares or dares to read the ammunition they need to defend against the fools and loudmouths plaguing everyday life while simultaneously laying down a a targeted volley of return fire - winning new allies and vanquishing old enemies.

Examples of the pioneering authors and landmark source material include:

• 'Propaganda' and the spread of Ideas - The Crowd by Gustave Le Bon; Susan Blackmore's The Meme Machine

• Biology and Human nature - Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene, etc.

• Philosophy & nihilism - King Solomon's Book of Ecclesiastes, Nietzsche, and more.

• Organizational structures: From A. Hitler to VI Lenin

• Conflict and revolution from Marighella to Colonel Qiao Liang

• Just to name a few!

The book of Holology will work for the reader on multiple levels, for many it will be both a source of informative analysis and modern scientific conclusions on a wide range ideas and critical issues from physics to biology and mental to physical health. For some it will even be a way of life and a source of community in goals and identity. It will also be a valuable asset to nihilists as well because they can easily access the roots and source material both scientific and philosophical that so inexorably accumulates into the formation of their caustic world-view.

Reductionism & Holism

17.09.01 Primitive, classical interpretations are often holistic, they stress non-uniformity, chaos and the unpredictability of nature and universe. Modern Western interpretations are reductionist, they stress order and the immutable laws of nature. This penchant for European lawmaking and order imposition that extends even to that which is naturally chaotic is perfectly encapsulated by the mediaeval Church putting animals and even swarms of insects on trial. This really did happen; imagine being the prosecuting attorney for a swarm of bees, "your honor these immoral creatures have openly defied God's will and laws and deserve swift punishme- ow ahhh! argggg! get 'em off me!"

The point is that chaos is not a factor to be conquered, nor should we want to. Laws have a place and a purpose but only within a context that balances the known and the unknown, that which can safely be regulated and that which should be left alone. Truly only in the world of fantasy do all things bow before the mighty king and his mighty artificial law.

Let them be free and leave it alone.

Holology Versus The Hollywood Horror

26.05.01 The film industry has been spewing out a number of war films recently, apparently due to audience demand since such films consistently gross hundreds of millions of dollars for the Hollywood production companies. I detest war films as a heinous perversion of fiction and history for the purposes of converting mass-murder, rape and bloody death into cinematic entertainment and because they're a clear attempt to justify the unjustifiable - the collective insanity that is war. War films apologize for national mistakes and the unforgivable calculated atrocities of our leaders. The implied reasoning is that 'our country was forced to bomb Pearl Harbor' or 'our country had to invade Normandy on D-day'.

Now war is as easy as pushing a button or pulling a trigger, but while the targets of aggression once had to be within swords length now they can be anyone and anywhere. The murdered can be a peasant farm family, women and infants in a city slum, hardened combatants in front-line trenches or even you. War is no longer a noble effort of righteous versus immoral, it's an anti-noble effort of one evil cavorting with another evil. War is an enterprise of collective suicide that profits only despots and the death-merchants, killing the strong and leaving the weak to propagate in the remnants like weeds overgrowing the wrecked remnants of an ancient building.

I've never thought of myself as a pacifist and this sermon isn't an effort to convince the world to live in harmony or 'give peace a chance'. Armed conflict is inevitable and even acceptable in certain circumstances although not as government sponsored campaigns, at least not in our present world order. Before stumbling into any armed conflict we each need to think long and hard about who the enemy really is and then rationally determine the best method to deal with the enemy. And I sincerely doubt it's with high-velocity rifle bullets and shattering explosives anymore than the best way to deal with witches is to test their underwater endurance or to use torture to alter the opinions of heretics in Church dungeons.

The real battlefield is the human mind, what people believe and within that context armed conflict has no validity because no one can force another to honestly believe anything. Bad ideas and flawed ideologues have always plagued humanity but today we have some hope with scientific analysis, logical reasoning and literacy as our allies. That's a start, but it's no guarantee of success. What's needed even more is the intelligence to discern the sure from the sham and the true from the trite. Intelligence needs to become the norm not the anomaly because intelligence is the ultimate affront to every erroneous belief system and potent challenge to otiose compulsion and empty addiction.

The Broken Made Whole

04.02.01 After everything is catalogued and measured, after the reductionists have their say, it's still a matter of fact that life isn't complete. The remainder is comprised of various intangibles like social need, beauty and aesthetics. It goes by various names like spirit or soul and is usually filled by place-holders such as religion and the theologies of many-colors. But Holology is not another one of these place-holders, it's not a sponge to soak up the disaffected or landfill the yawning need gap. It's a means of unifying the spirit and the mind. As I estimate it, the purpose of human existence is at base to further itself and at peak to make life more substantive and rewarding for our descendants.

Holology remains inclusive of myth, it accepts that human nature needs belief in the interplay between spiritual and the irrational. To reach this lofty goal we need new leadership for spiritual renewal and wellness of the soul.

I say to you that now is not the era of reason and science, nor of politics and law, for that mode is obsolescent. Today we build with the forces of myth and religion. Why? Because our foundations have decayed and crumbled into a vacuum which must be filled before constitution and State can be rebuilt.

Jesus said "I am the truth, the way and the light. He didn't say, I'm probably the way, or I think I am the light! It is perhaps unfortunate but true that within standard social conventions being right or wrong is secondary to strength of conviction! Example: "As Jesus walked besides the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fisherman. Come, follow me, Jesus said, and I will make you fishers of men. At once they left their nets and followed him." Mark 1:16-18

And thus what is needed is a holistic code incorporating the summation of world knowledge but with a plan that incorporates everyone, each with their own skills and aptitudes into the fold and unambiguously sets the collective agenda for action. Now to do that we have the terms Party and Church, so lets take the positive aspects of both, add our cumulative knowledge and call it social engineering. Of course this is greatly simplified. What's actually included are merely the highlights, like a Readers Digest condensed book only more-so. This is the solid, mechanical aspects of the whole, but it is not in and of itself the entire sum. Now we have a Holy book fulfilling spiritual and intellectual cravings.

Next we must have an algorithm for propagating holology. Here I ask why reinvent the wheel? Christian missionaries conquered the Roman Empire. Setup a building, the 'Church', preach and proselytize. Send out missionaries to start a new church, spread and permeate.

God Needs A Miracle

01.01.01 Since you are already reading this in the 'God section' you must be on the edge of your seat in suspense waiting for my take on the holy of holies. But first ease back in the chair a little, I don't want anyone getting hurt here.

Belief in God should never require faith

God is: immutable, omnipresent, consistent, and predictable. God is: everywhere and equally unavoidable because... God is: the framework of reality, the laws of nature. God is self-evident.

Nevertheless my concern with God in everyday life is no greater than the ingrained notion that if I drop an object gravity will assuredly bring it to the ground in a hurry, or if I punch a wall it's going to hurt my hand. Equally only a moron would fear gravity, in other words if you jump out of a plane without a parachute God's going to make it sting a little when you hit the ground, know what I mean? The best thing I like about God is that he's always there to punish the foolish!

The inescapable conclusion manifest is that in order for God to have any validity within the context of the traditional Christian interpretation we need undeniable evidence of supernatural activities. So far the only event that can, sort of, pass that criteria is the original creation of the universe, but I don't think that's really going to convert anybody either because 1) everything else known and unknown can be explained with the laws of physics and, 2) by virtue of the fact that we're limited to the inside of our cosmic bubble just because we can't know beyond the beginning doesn't make anything outside that realm miraculous or supernatural (or relevant).

In other words, unless miracles happen on a daily basis, in a way me and you can tangibly perceive, then (old) God is dead and the stale old institutional religions will continue to dwindle in numbers and significance to the point that only the paranoid superstitious believe in the classic unpolished version of God.

Manic Materialism

20.11.00 I've always wondered about the sociological principles of collecting, especially junk and antiques. Possessions in general give us a sense of power and security, or at least for some of us. Why do people collect, what is the interest in possessions? Human nature seems to connect wealth and perceptions of power with owning and accumulating stuff. It's not so much the quality as it is the quantity - more is better. So is it not true that people spend their adult lives trying to get everything they didn't have as kids? You know, friends, toys, power, money, etc. Perhaps...

Antiques and collectibles are a major industry. From E-Bay to the flea market to the garage sale next door, everyone is selling to someone else, trading my junk for yours. A strange recycling of sorts that never really generates any profits for all but a few smiled upon by the goddess Dumb-Luck. Yet it continues, and increases annually!

Now certainly some antiquities do have intrinsic value, professional artwork, or vintage wine perhaps but how much of that do we find in your neighbors garage sale? More likely you'll find Elvis 'collectible' plates or Smurfs 'collectible' tumblers from Hardee's or a crumpled poster for the Alf TV show or... you get the idea. Isn't it incredible? American's will collect anything! Not only that but they'll pay big bucks out of their diminishing take-home wages to own a piece o' that plastic history? Didn't anybody pay attention in Sunday School? "Do not wear yourself out to get rich; have the wisdom to show restraint." - Proverbs 23:4

And such a poor sense of aesthetics is more than disgusting, it's a national disgrace. For Americans, Mickey mouse is our mascot and Elvis our counselor. The common man seems to have little if any ability to discriminate between plastic and solid, pathetic and wholesome. The national fixation with youth, childhood and play and the corollary rejection of adulthood, rejection of responsibility and facing consequences. It's more than just tacky it's quite insidious. It all promotes this collective obsession with youth both in mind and body to the point that it's socially acceptable to act immature, even to be childishly foolish and irresponsible.

Rampant materialism is really just a reflection of the abominable state of national spiritual health, the sickness of affluenza. Owning objects, not quantity but quality, the sheer magnitude of possessions become representational for success and prosperity. I think Females buy for volume, males buy for impact. Females buy lots of (relatively) lesser priced items while males tend to go for fewer bigger, more costly items. Either way to say one sex is more spending-addicted is spurious.

All About Escape

Toys and games are an easy way to forget abut problems and the spiritual vacuum that consumerism only exacerbates. Think of all the money sent into senseless and nonproductive industries, manufacturing that only generates waste products that don't even biodegrade. Billions of dollars in wages burned up on Barbie and GI-Joe, Figurines and glass vases, stereos and TVs; highest living standard in the world only to spend income on Pokemon Christmas ornaments and Beanie babies.

As a kid I always marveled at my playmates that had all the toys I wanted but never got, which they remarkably managed to break within a few days of being gifted by their magnanimous parents. Because of their surfeit of toys those kids never gained any sense of responsibility, they could treat their toys as carelessly as they liked because they knew Mommy and Daddy would always get them more. For a kid that was lucky to be alive, on multiple accounts both environmental and self-inflicted, I suppose in the larger scheme of thing I didn't have a whole lot to complain about. But at the time it was impossible to mask my envy. Nonetheless in my subconscious I was keenly aware of the injustice inherent within the indiscretions of wealth. And I think this is an accurate lesson for explaining how our society has become so rotten. We have spoiled ourselves to death, from Parent to child, multiple American generations posses so much yet gain so little.

Now it's probably asking too much for people to start exercising a little discretion in their impulse purchases but it's very important to at least exercise moderation. Moderation is the key to success in many of life's endeavors. Moderation is taking the minimum one needs plus a little extra for fun.

Lack of moderation is no idle issue. Americans literally kill themselves with obesity, earning diabetes, heart disease, strokes and death on a daily basis. Have a little self control because no one respects a glutton and no one wants to be around a selfish rival. No one respects a parent that can't distinguish between generosity and spoiling their kids to the point that they have no sense of responsibility or consequences.

Today's Sermon: Order From Chaos

05.11.00 I was reading the daily rag, the newspaper today (no I did not pay for it) and it had several interesting stories, none due to their stated premises of course, but rather for their implicational insights. Being election season one issue is measures and initiatives. For example Oregon has over 26 local measures. Many voters are whining over the fact they don't have time to figure them out, or in other words participatory democracy is too much of a hassle after all. But besides just being ingrates the populace has a legitimate problem in that they're generally unable to discern laws that are effective from those that are poorly written, or to judge the consequences of these rules, most of which are amendments to the state constitution. One wonders if the latest trend is to make the constitution a chalk board so you can erase it and revise at will a la the barn wall in Animal Farm? But true these are complicated measures, some even have legitimacy, and the average member of the electorate is just not capable of dealing with complexity. They either vote no or not at all then instantly revert to stuff they'se can figger out like the latest fashions from K-mart and the hottest CDs from N'Sync and Eminem. You know the people I'm talking about, the fat women slowly pushing the rusty cart at your local Wal-Mart watering hole, convenience store beer section regulars...

Between disenfranchisement and ignorance the path leads only to greater crisis and more complex problems, while the culture descends further into the abyss of debasement. It all turns into a vicious feedback mechanism. Scared, increasingly nearsighted and selfish, they eventually reach a point of near total impulse and emotional guidance; they act not out of reason or thought but out of reaction and feeling.

And I'm reminded of when Moses left his people to climb the mountain and 'rap' with God. God had a few good ideas, a few rules, in fact just 10 really good ones. Moses descends humbled and wiser hopeful in his expectations of quick acceptance by the masses below. But what were they really doing in Moses' absence? In the absence of righteous leadership and reasoned authority? Well they got a little unruly. But the outcome wasn't quite that dim, although it took a plague and crackin' a few heads as punishment. What Moses saw as an insurmountable crisis worthy of rejecting his loser flock, turned out to be a genuine golden opportunity. Not for the calf-idol but for the imposition of a new order!

Now let us join together in somber reverence for your holy guide as we pass the collection plate...

Justice, Reason and Social Principles

04.06.01 Use of the term 'moral relativism' brings out a horde of righteous opponents always with the same belief that by highlighting the absurdity of justice and moral absolutes merely endorses the equality of all action and behavior, forming an amoral playground for evil and perversion to run amok. Indeed.

Basal rules have a level of consistency and they find origin in natural behavioral consequences, the reaction to action. Those rules gained validity through the test of time; in other words it's an inveterate legitimacy. For example, murder has always been a wrong because it disrupted the orderly nature of collective society. Yet war which is murder, actually worse than murder because it's organized and pre-meditated, is of course 'acceptable' because it's not killing neighbor or kin but enemy clan; in other words opponents for resources.

A significant portion of these rules are ingrained into human behavior, indeed are definitions of certain cultures and ethnic groups, and the reason is simple. Especially during periods of struggle only the law abiding cooperators are allowed access to limited resources and the rewards of group efforts such as protection and food. Civilizations, from the clan to the nation, attempt to reward the obedient and punish the unlawful. They reward the ones that promote order and civilization and punish the heterodox - anyone that by action or thought functions counter to that order. Over time the rewarded groups will reproduce more than the punished, creating a biological link to social rules.

This is no more illogical or insidious than antibodies attacking an invading virus, this is the definition of a perpetuating system - it attempts at all costs to maintain equilibrium and defy both entropy and evolution, by which I mean radical change caused by environment or any other force. It may seem counterintuitive but life itself avoids change, natural selection works despite and in spite of genetic and life's efforts. Now we can see that healthy change and improvement occurs not so much with the help of these resilient structures but by compelling outside forces -- killing one group and promoting another. Humans, some more than others, strive with special aplomb not for revolution but for safety, stagnation and security, for the comfort and stupefying rigidity of civilization. And what we call 'revolution' is just a forced effort to impose a superior order on the populace! We've seen throughout history that peace and order also provide opportune moments for innovation and change, but that change creates destabilizing situations that dissolve the original order into chaos, ready for the next order to slowly re-emerge forming the classic cycles of history.

Since we've been selected by circumstance and environment as followers of rules, admirers of order with altruistic and cooperative tendencies, we build structures that expand and enhance that order and security. We use technology to become lazy and obese, we build automobiles to drive to the corner grocery and buy bags of chips and ice cream to assuage our primitive ingrained need for high fat foods to tie us though the lean winter months while watching dramatic, violent television shows for our hunter bloodlust cravings in our warm 'caves' with central heating.

With one foot in the far-far past and the other trying to reach into the distant future we're in a constant state of agitated struggle, because although technologically advanced we're still socially primitive. I'm convinced that we've got to work on that trailing foot before we can reach any farther lest we all stumble badly. Since our present is guided by the vestiges of our archaic past it creates a sanctimonious and illogical world of contradictory rules and ethics. We eat formerly necessary foods that kill us today and obey formerly critical rules that now serve to destroy us.

Ethnic and racial groups relish their own set of myths and reject those of others largely due to habit and enculturation. The socio-biological imperative is not something a social engineer can ignore but, just like religiosity, they must realize the utterly programmed nature of the attachment to these institutions. It explains revolution it explains civilization it explains where people are headed and where they're coming from. And these parameters largely define the sandbox boundaries; they can be altered but only over lengthy periods of time or intense anachronistic pressures.

I think much of the problem here, both in immediate history and the dim primeval, is the nature of the paradigm of improvement. Thinking that we can consciously advance ourselves, especially through tool making (technology) has always proven the opposite. Humans are adept at destroying themselves because they can't adapt quickly enough to new situations generated by rapid technological revolution. This retarded reaction is compounded by the chronic employment of the traditional lies, myths, religion and ignorance formerly out of necessity but today out of laziness and fear of change. Until we begin to build with knowledge and understanding, with fact instead of fantasy we won't produce anything but more boom and bust cycles.

Instead of basing every ethical and moral decision on the Ouija board of the almighty American dollar perhaps we should utilize a more substantive substrate to build our house upon? Holology strives to modify morality and exorcise the ambiguity of arbitrary right and wrong creating a system based upon what can be empirically defined in harmonious conjunction with those sandbox parameters of vestigial ingrained moral notions. The reason is because anything ambiguous can be manipulated to mean whatever authority wants it to mean.

Although superstition is everywhere and deeply rooted that doesn't preclude the effective employment of fact in the role of mimicry. And I think the place to start is the mind which is the realm in which social constructs exist. The human mind is a highly impressionable system, and although those very rigid limitations exist alternate forces can be used to circumvent much of it. Tools like group identity, mimicry and social conformity are so powerful they can even be abused to convince large portions of the population to totally contradict healthy behavior and commit suicide. No other animal known can do this; no other animal can be molded and led to a heaven or hell. Thus the primary need is role models, symbols, guidance and guide books; the message is what matters. Holologist's are the prophets, the leaders, the mimic idols, the role models; they espouse wisdom and fact to generate propitious popular perceptions.

But what is the message? The "answers" are already known, but the primary impediment is moving forward and enacting some of those answers amidst the powerful headwind of conservatism, the fear of change and the adherence to outmoded idols, those vestigial ethical guidebooks based on mythology and superstition. Keeping in mind that the greatest gain is through the application of the least amount of force, the simplest message is the best and that's the promotion of intelligence and wisdom. And to achieve that message I don't want a rule book based on capricious edicts or adherence to faith but a methodology for adaptability so as to generate positive outcome regardless of the situation, a one way ratchet system akin to natural selection. A system tuned to produce a generational continuity of intelligent individuals because they're better able to address complex problems with appropriate solutions both immediate and abstract.

We don't know where we should collectively go, just as natural selection has no goal except adaptation for survival. Our goal is thus to become more capable of adapting to change and difficult situations either in the case of physical resources or intellectual challenges generated by our technology.

Today we don't need to, and shouldn't, use more lies to lead the public by the nose just as morality has done for millennia. In order to promote comprehension amongst heavily indoctrinated and ignorant populations it may be necessary to soften the edges because a little guile is unavoidable. But the idea is to avoid the lies and fantasies of olde and we have the tools and the methodologies to do that for the first time in human history. As long as we can build a system based on fact we can last and develop with confidence because we can understand the consistency of the universe without invoking fantasy and falsifications. Science is a step in the correct direction but at present it's purely limited to a narrow societal range of issues and implications.

Now on to practice. We know the main goal is to create wisdom and enhance intelligence. To build anew one must first destroy, this is the purpose of the CounterOrder. Television as it is used today is a tool to create ignorance, and that must be countered and reversed. Schools and Universities today are too often institutions that use opinion and politics to prop up facts, and that must be reversed so that facts and critical analysis is used to form opinions. Ambient culture is espoused by imbeciles, voluble charlatans and the patrons of both, that culture is one of suicide and destructive addiction. By and large teachers, politicians and all high profile role-models are rapacious, salacious, otiose idiots and it should be no surprise the public is often the same. All this must be counter-ordered, the seeds of CounterOrder culture must be spread and watered. It will take time but the results are worth the wait.

The Spiritual Principles of Holology

• Intelligence and wisdom are the ultimate panacea; they're an affront to every erroneous belief system and potent challenge to otiose compulsion and damaging addiction.

• The purpose of human existence is to make life more meaningful first for our descendants and then for ourselves.

• Our visions of subjective complexity are nothing more than a profound misunderstanding of simplicity.

• Truth is verifiable consistency. God is truth, truth is power, to know truth is to have the power of God.

The Structural Principles of Holology

Every individual citizen has the unmitigated right to:

• Freedom of expression, particularly to disprove any idea, theory or law in any form in public debate and discussion.

• Freedom to pursue personal gain but not at collective expense, unless with agreement of the majority.

• Define their own identity free from coercion subtle or brutal - legislative mandate, cultural imperative or mass media. A sense of purpose and identify is so critical to survival that it must be guarded more jealously than individual life itself.

• Freedom from coercion in action or thought originating from any rule, law or principle by any name which is known to be false or that unavoidably generates hypocrisy. Any rule, law or principle by any name known to be false cannot be used to coerce public action or thought.

• Freedom of association across all boundaries.

All things in nature reflect God, since God created them. God’s will can be deduced from nature and its rules. Therefore nature’s laws are God’s laws and also must be our laws.

Freydis responds to the critics < audio clip >

Good is the Intellect which comprehends The coming forth and going back of life, What must be done, and what must not be done, What should be feared, and what should not be feared, Mokshasanyasayog, Bhagavad-Gita