It was just announced that a new life form has been synthesized. Now humans are in the business of inventing life. Although not a true creation of life from scratch, this development is a major step in that direction. What the entrepreneur Craig Venter and his team of researchers have done is make a cell that functions as the result of a synthetic genome which was pasted together. His team has figured out how to put together a bacterial genome and transfer it between bacterium. Venter said, ""This is the first synthetic cell that's been made, and we call it synthetic because the cell is totally derived from a synthetic chromosome, made with four bottles of chemicals on a chemical synthesizer, starting with information in a computer."
This development has many ramifications. There is great potential for the creation of new organisms to serve specific functions, as for example, eating up oil slicks or generating fuel through organic processes. Venter says that this development is an important scientific and philosophical step. In this he is correct. He also says that "extensive bioethical review took place before the experiments were done."
This is a problem, for what ethical review has ever stopped the development of a technology once it is workable? Nuclear fission, the hydrogen bomb, cloning, and an endless string of other technological innovations are things that were developed irrespective of ethical considerations. Science is not preoccupied with ethics; it is driven to develop whatever technology is possible. There are other problems with medical and bio - ethics. Upon what philosophical ground are these fields of ethics based? On logic alone or in combination with a value system. The problem is, that in a scientific paradigm of a relativity of values, and in a secular humanistic value system, one cannot say why any particular set of values are any better than any others. Consequently, don't count on either medical or bio-ethics to come up with any substantive arguments against the development of whatever technologies scientists and entrepreneurs can think up.
These innovators may try to proceed into uncharted waters, and make sure that "science proceeds in an ethical fashion" (Venter) - and this says it all, they aren't considering whether they SHOULD be proceeding and why, they are only concerned with how. For example, a scientist may be careful not to use animal by-products in the development of a new organism, but not worry about whether it is a good idea to develop hundreds of new engineered organisms for generating fuel and what impact these organisms will have if there is a mutation creating a freakish organism when it evolves in the wild if (and when) it escapes. Letting scientists genetically engineer whatever organisms they can think up and produce without a complete understanding of life on Earth and the impacts of individual organisms and species on the whole of the web of life is like giving toddlers (without a knowledge of how to drive or even the rules of the road) the keys to Semi-trailer trucks and unleashing them in downtown New York.
As Michio Kaku says, "You cannot recall a life form"
There are many philosophical, ethical, and environmental ramifications to this development, raising questions, like:
Should we develop every technology possible?
Should there be any limits on genetic engineering?
Should there be any limits on life engineering?
Should corporations be able to own the genomes of living organisms?
Should we be able to patent whole life forms?
Should we clone extinct species, including ones like Neanderthal?
Should we make computers out of living organisms, cloned brain cells, for example?
Should corporations be able to own the human genome?
Should we be able to develop human / machine / animal hybrids?
Should we clone human body organs?
Should we be able to engineer or clone humans?
Should we be able to genetically modify children in the womb?
What do we do if there is an "accident?"
Can we control the natural mutations of engineered organisms?
And then there are the answers to the question "Why" as applied to the above....
So there are many unanswered questions regarding this new breakthrough and the whole areas of bio-engineering, bio-ethics, genetic engineering, and medical ethics. This brings up a quote by Isaac Asimov, "The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom."
According to Ray Kurzweil, human knowledge doubles every year now. Vernor Vinge, another futurist goes on to suggest a "post-human era" - coming soon - in which computers and artificial intelligence will combine to produce super-human intelligence. With the advances in genetic engineering, cellular biology, neurology, and brain science, we may well be able, like the Borg in Star Trek, to connect to what has been called the "World Wide Mind."
So all this futuristic technology is coming at us more frequently, faster, and harder. Cloning other creatures, inventing life forms, artificial intelligence, human knowledge doubling faster and faster, super-human intelligence - all of this is a tall order to ponder. Now, why is this important to me - how does it affect the everyday individual? Well, it will. As 21st Century post-industrial, Knowledge Based societies get increasingly dependent upon science, new knowledge, and technology successful individuals will also be inextricably connected to developments in these areas. In medicine, new treatments, organ regeneration, and life extension will all be things in which everyone will be interested. Better computers, access to the best information and professional practices and tools will be critical. This all raises a few more questions as we move towards playing God with life sciences and Superman with technological prowess.
I think there is a very serious issue here concerning the "horizontal" extension of human capacities without a corresponding "vertical" expansion of being, love, wisdom, consciousness, and conscience...
Will everyone have equal access to such technology and knowledge?
If not, then who or what decides who gets access, and what do you do with the people who don't?
Also, since wisdom may be defined as good judgment, will humanity develop the wisdom necessary to use our scientific and technological potential in a just and equitable manner within in the same timeframe?
And ultimately, how do we ensure the democratization of science, technology, knowledge, and wisdom?
I think there is a very serious issue here concerning the "horizontal" extension of human capacities without a corresponding "vertical" expansion of being, love, wisdom, consciousness, and conscience. Evolution only means that things change; it does not mean that creatures or conditions "improve." Increasingly we are circumventing the forces of natural evolution through our manipulations of the environment, intelligence, the conditions of life in our societies, and life itself. For us, there is no more mechanical evolution - our future is squarely in our own hands. How we deal with that, whether we create better, more just, progressive, and equitable futures or not will depend upon the decisions we make every day in our lives from here on out. If nothing else, this all suggests an increasingly great need for philosophical dialogue concerning the future of humanity. It’s coming one way or another. We can consciously build good futures for all, haphazardly develop decent futures only for a few, or even wreck the future for everyone through conflict, biological monsters, environmental destruction, or sheer ignorance. It’s up to us.
Copyright 2010, B.E. Foley
Friday, May 21, 2010
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
What Kind of a Future is in Store for Us?
What determines our future? Our future depends upon many things. Essentially what kind of futures we have depend upon the ways we think, what we think about, and how we think about ourselves as human beings. We also have to think about how we are going to run our civilizations in a fair and just manner. Our future depends upon what we think about nature, how we look at the Earth, and whether we find innovative ways to preserve the environment. It also involves what and how we think about the nature of the universe, theology, and spirituality.
These issues are all philosophical. What kind of a future is in store for us? It will be a philosophical one! The challenge to us is whether our philosophical differences will take precedence over our ability to combine our wisdom. If, instead of pooling our knowledge and understanding of life, we descend into a spiral of religious and ideological conflict, we will not be able to successfully address the mounting social, economic, environmental, political, medical, and educational issues shaping our future. On the other hand we can have a philosophy driven future that involves encouraging creativity, developing new means for invention, inventing new ways of thinking “outside the box,” and generating new interdisciplinary fields to help synthesize all of the mounting information generated by the Age of Knowledge in which we live.
Philosophy has a wide scope and is more popular than ever. All we have to do is look at all the books for sale in the bookstores with topics on everything from world religions, to alternative science and medicine, to Yoga, to the paranormal, to science fiction and cosmology (the study of the universe). The future of philosophy is not only a study of language, logic, and the science of the mind, it covers a much wider area. Political ideology, self improvement, the study of being, general systems, computer logic and artificial intelligence, strategic planning, ecology, and design science are all philosophical in nature.
When we think of philosophers the ones that come to mind are all dead – people like Socarates, Plato, and Aristotle. They were considered wise and brilliant thinkers to whom people listened and sought out for inspiration. Today we have to find our own Platos and Artistotles to help solve our problems. We still call them philosophers, for their knowledge must encompass a wide variety of areas, including those of the universe, current events, spirituality, politics, religion, culture, and the environment. In an age of increasing specialization, philosophers can help lead the way toward combining knowledge, making sense of the information chaos of daily life, and fostering interdisciplinary synthesis. Philosophers can help provide a meta-scientific perspective not available from each of the differing scientific fields.
Unfortunately the very resource that we as individuals need to empower ourselves to make sense of the world has fallen into disuse – in favor of mass consumption, escapism, the replacement of thinking and reading with entertainment, mindless conformity, and the blind acceptance of authority and whatever media sources are available. At the same time, the scope of the field of philosophy has been severely restricted in regards to its role as a professional discipline. It is pretty hard to find philosophers’ shingles hanging in front of their offices downtown or even listed in the telephone directory.Much has been lost in the domain of philosophy as it has become mainly the academic study of the intellectual history of dead thinkers, focusing on logic, the study of language, and the study of the mind. All of these areas are important, but fall short of the grand task of shaping our future.
Unfortunately the very aspects of philosophy that could prove critical for assisting individuals make better futures for themselves and each other have fallen by the wayside. This situation is sad, but things are changing. Philosophers have had quite a fall from the expansive universe of ideas of our truly great thinkers throughout world history. At this point in history we need these broad minded, freethinking students of life more than ever. Beyond merely serving as a tool for argumentation, deconstruction, or the intellectual vivisection of existence, nature, life, and consciousness, philosophy may also be an art of life. Philosophy involves a love of wisdom (good judgment), but it also includes the wisdom of love. Philosophy is also a source of imagination and inspiration, a spiritual technology for innovation and enlightenment. These are some of the directions the field of philosophy must take as avenues for development if it is to be a meaningful field at all or relevant to anyone in the 21st century. Luckily there are philosophers out there who understand this emerging from fields as diverse as design, music, art, ecology, future studies, social theory, psychology, and physics.
Perhaps we are still at the dawn of philosophy - after all, we hardly grasp what a human being may be, what the universe is, or what potentials there may be with life and consciousness. Perhaps philosophy is a field that has languished too long and needs its own Renaissance of Creativity - and maybe this is exactly what humanity needs to successfully address the mounting challenges facing the future survival of our species. It just may be that we need a Philosophical Revolution in thought to take us beyond the agricultural, industrial, and digital revolutions and thereby shape a better future for our children and their descendants - for many of our old ways of doing and thinking are now obsolete and don't work so well in successfully dealing with an increasingly complex world.
There is an emerging realization by people all over the world that human beings are unique geniuses with invaluable artistic possibilities of limitless potential. We must share our genius with each other if we are to develop sustainable methods for the continuity of human civilization on Earth. For the first time in history all of the peoples on the planet are connected through some type of communication. We are now in a position to develop interdisciplinary, cross-cultural, and interfaith dialogues to re-evaluate all of the old myths, world views, and primary assumptions upon which we still base our individual and collective realities. We are in a position to share scientific knowledge and spiritual wisdom that was never possible before. For this sort of activity, philosophy is an ideal resource.
Now there are more specialists, scientists, and thinkers at this time in history than ever before - and yet people seem less and less satisfied about their solutions for living life. Humanity has a great need for advances in the ways that the fields of philosophy and spirituality can evolve our consciousnesses, expand our creative horizons, deepen our wisdom and understanding, and increase our enlightenment. We need a new generation of generalists – philosophers – to facilitate a coming together of the understandings from all of the diverse scientific fields in a way that makes sense to everyday people.Finally we have enough new historical evidence and discovered scientific knowledge available to us to say entirely new things about humanity and the world in which we live. What is missing is a coming together of all of our new information and knowledge about ourselves and the universe. Novel ways of thinking must be developed for us as individuals to translate all of our new knowledge generated by modern society into personal action in our daily lives. Globally, each of us is individually undergoing paradigm shifts in our world views and understandings of what we are as human beings. This is a necessary process for humanity in order to embrace a shared future and to prepare ourselves for incorporating all our new understandings in science, art, and spirituality.
Together, the people of the world can come together through global communications and social networking to invent new approaches to philosophy and replace outdated world views and inspire each other to develop new insights. With help from the professional philosophers to pilot through the information chaos of the modern world, everyone can begin to explore their own unique philosophical and creative genius. We are now all able to be philosophers and combine our diverse artistic, scientific, spiritual, understandings of life, and cultural wisdoms and traditions. Otherwise, if we do not engage in this dialogue of wisdom between people of differing faiths and cultures, we risk falling into a chaos of ideological conflict as old ways of thinking and acting slam headlong into the problems facing our continued existence. The challenges facing the sustainability of global civilization will not be successfully addressed using obsolete ways of thinking and acting. The world is far too interconnected and complex for old fashioned simplistic solutions to work in solving today’s problems. The future of humanity hangs in the balance of whether the world moves towards philosophical collaboration and creative dialogue, cultivating a Renaissance of Creativity - or devolves into conflicts between people unable to rise to the occasion of the challenges facing us, basing their decisions and actions upon outmoded world views. The future of philosophy is that of the development of our shared imagination, creativity, and vision working together towards the co-creation of positive futures for all the citizens of our planet. Our continued existence depends upon it!
Copyright 2010, B.E. Foley
These issues are all philosophical. What kind of a future is in store for us? It will be a philosophical one! The challenge to us is whether our philosophical differences will take precedence over our ability to combine our wisdom. If, instead of pooling our knowledge and understanding of life, we descend into a spiral of religious and ideological conflict, we will not be able to successfully address the mounting social, economic, environmental, political, medical, and educational issues shaping our future. On the other hand we can have a philosophy driven future that involves encouraging creativity, developing new means for invention, inventing new ways of thinking “outside the box,” and generating new interdisciplinary fields to help synthesize all of the mounting information generated by the Age of Knowledge in which we live.
Philosophy has a wide scope and is more popular than ever. All we have to do is look at all the books for sale in the bookstores with topics on everything from world religions, to alternative science and medicine, to Yoga, to the paranormal, to science fiction and cosmology (the study of the universe). The future of philosophy is not only a study of language, logic, and the science of the mind, it covers a much wider area. Political ideology, self improvement, the study of being, general systems, computer logic and artificial intelligence, strategic planning, ecology, and design science are all philosophical in nature.
When we think of philosophers the ones that come to mind are all dead – people like Socarates, Plato, and Aristotle. They were considered wise and brilliant thinkers to whom people listened and sought out for inspiration. Today we have to find our own Platos and Artistotles to help solve our problems. We still call them philosophers, for their knowledge must encompass a wide variety of areas, including those of the universe, current events, spirituality, politics, religion, culture, and the environment. In an age of increasing specialization, philosophers can help lead the way toward combining knowledge, making sense of the information chaos of daily life, and fostering interdisciplinary synthesis. Philosophers can help provide a meta-scientific perspective not available from each of the differing scientific fields.
Unfortunately the very resource that we as individuals need to empower ourselves to make sense of the world has fallen into disuse – in favor of mass consumption, escapism, the replacement of thinking and reading with entertainment, mindless conformity, and the blind acceptance of authority and whatever media sources are available. At the same time, the scope of the field of philosophy has been severely restricted in regards to its role as a professional discipline. It is pretty hard to find philosophers’ shingles hanging in front of their offices downtown or even listed in the telephone directory.Much has been lost in the domain of philosophy as it has become mainly the academic study of the intellectual history of dead thinkers, focusing on logic, the study of language, and the study of the mind. All of these areas are important, but fall short of the grand task of shaping our future.
Unfortunately the very aspects of philosophy that could prove critical for assisting individuals make better futures for themselves and each other have fallen by the wayside. This situation is sad, but things are changing. Philosophers have had quite a fall from the expansive universe of ideas of our truly great thinkers throughout world history. At this point in history we need these broad minded, freethinking students of life more than ever. Beyond merely serving as a tool for argumentation, deconstruction, or the intellectual vivisection of existence, nature, life, and consciousness, philosophy may also be an art of life. Philosophy involves a love of wisdom (good judgment), but it also includes the wisdom of love. Philosophy is also a source of imagination and inspiration, a spiritual technology for innovation and enlightenment. These are some of the directions the field of philosophy must take as avenues for development if it is to be a meaningful field at all or relevant to anyone in the 21st century. Luckily there are philosophers out there who understand this emerging from fields as diverse as design, music, art, ecology, future studies, social theory, psychology, and physics.
Perhaps we are still at the dawn of philosophy - after all, we hardly grasp what a human being may be, what the universe is, or what potentials there may be with life and consciousness. Perhaps philosophy is a field that has languished too long and needs its own Renaissance of Creativity - and maybe this is exactly what humanity needs to successfully address the mounting challenges facing the future survival of our species. It just may be that we need a Philosophical Revolution in thought to take us beyond the agricultural, industrial, and digital revolutions and thereby shape a better future for our children and their descendants - for many of our old ways of doing and thinking are now obsolete and don't work so well in successfully dealing with an increasingly complex world.
There is an emerging realization by people all over the world that human beings are unique geniuses with invaluable artistic possibilities of limitless potential. We must share our genius with each other if we are to develop sustainable methods for the continuity of human civilization on Earth. For the first time in history all of the peoples on the planet are connected through some type of communication. We are now in a position to develop interdisciplinary, cross-cultural, and interfaith dialogues to re-evaluate all of the old myths, world views, and primary assumptions upon which we still base our individual and collective realities. We are in a position to share scientific knowledge and spiritual wisdom that was never possible before. For this sort of activity, philosophy is an ideal resource.
Now there are more specialists, scientists, and thinkers at this time in history than ever before - and yet people seem less and less satisfied about their solutions for living life. Humanity has a great need for advances in the ways that the fields of philosophy and spirituality can evolve our consciousnesses, expand our creative horizons, deepen our wisdom and understanding, and increase our enlightenment. We need a new generation of generalists – philosophers – to facilitate a coming together of the understandings from all of the diverse scientific fields in a way that makes sense to everyday people.Finally we have enough new historical evidence and discovered scientific knowledge available to us to say entirely new things about humanity and the world in which we live. What is missing is a coming together of all of our new information and knowledge about ourselves and the universe. Novel ways of thinking must be developed for us as individuals to translate all of our new knowledge generated by modern society into personal action in our daily lives. Globally, each of us is individually undergoing paradigm shifts in our world views and understandings of what we are as human beings. This is a necessary process for humanity in order to embrace a shared future and to prepare ourselves for incorporating all our new understandings in science, art, and spirituality.
Together, the people of the world can come together through global communications and social networking to invent new approaches to philosophy and replace outdated world views and inspire each other to develop new insights. With help from the professional philosophers to pilot through the information chaos of the modern world, everyone can begin to explore their own unique philosophical and creative genius. We are now all able to be philosophers and combine our diverse artistic, scientific, spiritual, understandings of life, and cultural wisdoms and traditions. Otherwise, if we do not engage in this dialogue of wisdom between people of differing faiths and cultures, we risk falling into a chaos of ideological conflict as old ways of thinking and acting slam headlong into the problems facing our continued existence. The challenges facing the sustainability of global civilization will not be successfully addressed using obsolete ways of thinking and acting. The world is far too interconnected and complex for old fashioned simplistic solutions to work in solving today’s problems. The future of humanity hangs in the balance of whether the world moves towards philosophical collaboration and creative dialogue, cultivating a Renaissance of Creativity - or devolves into conflicts between people unable to rise to the occasion of the challenges facing us, basing their decisions and actions upon outmoded world views. The future of philosophy is that of the development of our shared imagination, creativity, and vision working together towards the co-creation of positive futures for all the citizens of our planet. Our continued existence depends upon it!
Copyright 2010, B.E. Foley
Monday, May 3, 2010
The Future of Philosophy
The future of philosophy not only involves the future of the ways we think, but what we think about ourselves as humans and what we think about the nature of the universe, theology, and spirituality. The future of philosophy involves how we go about running global and national societies, fostering creativity, developing new means of invention, shaping the future of civilization, and whether or not we preserve life on our planet.
Unlike Heidegger, I don't think metaphysics is dead, and I don't believe that the future of philosophy is only a study of linguistics and cognitive science! Unfortunately the very resource that we as individuals need to empower ourselves to make sense of the world has fallen into disuse – in favor of mass consumption, escapism, the replacement of thinking and reading with entertainment, mindless conformity, and the blind acceptance of authority and whatever media sources are available. At the same time, the scope of the field of philosophy has been severely restricted in regards to its role as a professional discipline. It is pretty hard to find philosophers’ shingles hanging in front of their offices downtown or even listed in the telephone directory.
I think that much has been lost in the domain of philosophy as it has become mainly the academic study of the intellectual history of dead thinkers, logic, linguistics, cognitive science, and / or sophistry. This is quite a fall from the expansive universe of ideas of our truly great thinkers throughout world history. Beyond merely serving as a tool for argumentation, deconstruction, or the intellectual vivisection of existence, nature, life, and consciousness, philosophy may also be an art of life. Philosophy involves a love of wisdom (good judgment), but it also includes the wisdom of love. To me, philosophy is also a source of imagination and inspiration, a spiritual technology for innovation and enlightenment. I feel that these are the directions the field of philosophy must take as avenues for development if it is to be a meaningful field at all or relevant to anyone in the 21st century.
Perhaps we are still at the dawn of philosophy - after all, we hardly grasp what a human being may be, what the universe is, or what potentials there may be with life and consciousness. Perhaps philosophy is a field that has languished too long and needs its own Renaissance of Ceativity - and maybe this is exactly what humanity needs to successfully address the mounting challenges facing the future survival of our species. It just may be that we need a Philosophical Revolution in thought to take us beyond the agricultural, industrial, and digital revolutions and thereby shape a better future for our children and their descendants - for many of our old ways of doing and thinking are now obsolete and don't work so well in successfully dealing with an increasingly complex world.
There is an emerging realization by people all over the world that human beings are unique geniuses with invaluable artistic possibilities of limitless potential. We must share our genius with each other if we are to develop sustainable methods for the continuity of human civilization on Earth. For the first time in history all of the peoples on the planet are connected through some type of communication. We are now in a position to develop interdisciplinary, cross-cultural, and interfaith dialogues to re-evaluate all of the old myths, world views, and primary assumptions upon which we still base our individual and collective realities. We are in a position to develop syntheses of scientific knowledge and synergies of spiritual wisdom that were never possible before. For this sort of activity, philosophy is an ideal resource.
Now there are more specialists, scientists, and thinkers at this time in history than ever before - and yet people seem less and less satisfied about their solutions for living life. Humanity has a great need for advances in the ways that the fields of philosophy and spirituality can evolve our consciousnesses, expand our creative horizons, deepen our wisdom and understanding, and increase our enlightenment.
Finally we have enough new historical evidence and discovered scientific knowledge available to us to say entirely novel things about humanity and the world in which we live. What is missing is a coming together of all of our new information and knowledge about ourselves and the universe. Novel ways of thinking must be developed for us as individuals to translate all of our new knowledge generated by modern society into personal action in our daily lives. Globally, each of us are individually undergoing paradigm shifts in our world views and understandings of what we are as human beings. This is a necessary process for humanity in order to embrace a shared future and to prepare ourselves for incorporating all our new understandings in science, art, and spirituality.
Encouraging round table dialogues with those of differing beliefs is a way to develop new understandings between people and generate new ways of shared learning and interaction. I call these Philosophy Jams – discussions where people respect each other as equals, acknowledge one another’s beliefs, and work together to combine their knowledge, experience, and understanding to generate new knowledge, invent new ways of thinking, and develop new ideas. Philosophy Jams can play a useful role in helping to invent future philosophies. They are a lot of fun - surprise, surprise. Philosophy can be fun and entertaining too!
Together, the people of the world, (by combining our diverse artistic, scientific, spiritual, and cultural wisdoms and traditions) must invent new approaches to philosophy to replace outdated metaphysical paradigms and inspire individuals to establish their own unique wisdom systems. Otherwise we risk falling into a chaos of ideological conflict as old ways of thinking and acting slam headlong into the problems facing our continued existence. The challenges facing the sustainability of global civilization will not be successfully addressed using obsolete ways of thinking and acting. The world is far too interconnected and complex for old fashioned simplistic solutions to work in solving today’s problems. The future of humanity hangs in the balance of whether the world moves towards philosophical collaboration and creative dialogue, cultivating a Renaissance of Creativity - or devolves into conflicts between people unable to rise to the occasion of the challenges facing us, basing their decisions and actions upon outmoded world views. The future of philosophy is that of the development of our shared imagination, creativity, and vision working together towards the co-creation of positive futures for all the citizens of our planet. Our continued existence depends upon it!
Copyright 2010, B.E. Foley
Unlike Heidegger, I don't think metaphysics is dead, and I don't believe that the future of philosophy is only a study of linguistics and cognitive science! Unfortunately the very resource that we as individuals need to empower ourselves to make sense of the world has fallen into disuse – in favor of mass consumption, escapism, the replacement of thinking and reading with entertainment, mindless conformity, and the blind acceptance of authority and whatever media sources are available. At the same time, the scope of the field of philosophy has been severely restricted in regards to its role as a professional discipline. It is pretty hard to find philosophers’ shingles hanging in front of their offices downtown or even listed in the telephone directory.
I think that much has been lost in the domain of philosophy as it has become mainly the academic study of the intellectual history of dead thinkers, logic, linguistics, cognitive science, and / or sophistry. This is quite a fall from the expansive universe of ideas of our truly great thinkers throughout world history. Beyond merely serving as a tool for argumentation, deconstruction, or the intellectual vivisection of existence, nature, life, and consciousness, philosophy may also be an art of life. Philosophy involves a love of wisdom (good judgment), but it also includes the wisdom of love. To me, philosophy is also a source of imagination and inspiration, a spiritual technology for innovation and enlightenment. I feel that these are the directions the field of philosophy must take as avenues for development if it is to be a meaningful field at all or relevant to anyone in the 21st century.
Perhaps we are still at the dawn of philosophy - after all, we hardly grasp what a human being may be, what the universe is, or what potentials there may be with life and consciousness. Perhaps philosophy is a field that has languished too long and needs its own Renaissance of Ceativity - and maybe this is exactly what humanity needs to successfully address the mounting challenges facing the future survival of our species. It just may be that we need a Philosophical Revolution in thought to take us beyond the agricultural, industrial, and digital revolutions and thereby shape a better future for our children and their descendants - for many of our old ways of doing and thinking are now obsolete and don't work so well in successfully dealing with an increasingly complex world.
There is an emerging realization by people all over the world that human beings are unique geniuses with invaluable artistic possibilities of limitless potential. We must share our genius with each other if we are to develop sustainable methods for the continuity of human civilization on Earth. For the first time in history all of the peoples on the planet are connected through some type of communication. We are now in a position to develop interdisciplinary, cross-cultural, and interfaith dialogues to re-evaluate all of the old myths, world views, and primary assumptions upon which we still base our individual and collective realities. We are in a position to develop syntheses of scientific knowledge and synergies of spiritual wisdom that were never possible before. For this sort of activity, philosophy is an ideal resource.
Now there are more specialists, scientists, and thinkers at this time in history than ever before - and yet people seem less and less satisfied about their solutions for living life. Humanity has a great need for advances in the ways that the fields of philosophy and spirituality can evolve our consciousnesses, expand our creative horizons, deepen our wisdom and understanding, and increase our enlightenment.
Finally we have enough new historical evidence and discovered scientific knowledge available to us to say entirely novel things about humanity and the world in which we live. What is missing is a coming together of all of our new information and knowledge about ourselves and the universe. Novel ways of thinking must be developed for us as individuals to translate all of our new knowledge generated by modern society into personal action in our daily lives. Globally, each of us are individually undergoing paradigm shifts in our world views and understandings of what we are as human beings. This is a necessary process for humanity in order to embrace a shared future and to prepare ourselves for incorporating all our new understandings in science, art, and spirituality.
Encouraging round table dialogues with those of differing beliefs is a way to develop new understandings between people and generate new ways of shared learning and interaction. I call these Philosophy Jams – discussions where people respect each other as equals, acknowledge one another’s beliefs, and work together to combine their knowledge, experience, and understanding to generate new knowledge, invent new ways of thinking, and develop new ideas. Philosophy Jams can play a useful role in helping to invent future philosophies. They are a lot of fun - surprise, surprise. Philosophy can be fun and entertaining too!
Together, the people of the world, (by combining our diverse artistic, scientific, spiritual, and cultural wisdoms and traditions) must invent new approaches to philosophy to replace outdated metaphysical paradigms and inspire individuals to establish their own unique wisdom systems. Otherwise we risk falling into a chaos of ideological conflict as old ways of thinking and acting slam headlong into the problems facing our continued existence. The challenges facing the sustainability of global civilization will not be successfully addressed using obsolete ways of thinking and acting. The world is far too interconnected and complex for old fashioned simplistic solutions to work in solving today’s problems. The future of humanity hangs in the balance of whether the world moves towards philosophical collaboration and creative dialogue, cultivating a Renaissance of Creativity - or devolves into conflicts between people unable to rise to the occasion of the challenges facing us, basing their decisions and actions upon outmoded world views. The future of philosophy is that of the development of our shared imagination, creativity, and vision working together towards the co-creation of positive futures for all the citizens of our planet. Our continued existence depends upon it!
Copyright 2010, B.E. Foley
Friday, April 30, 2010
The Arizona Immigration Law Reveals that We Need a New Civil Rights Movement to Reclaim American Values
The United States was founded by immigrants. Throughout our history as a nation we have been renewed by successive waves of people of many different cultures an ethnicities coming to our shores. All have contributed to building our nation into what it is today. New Immigrant groups usually do work that those already here will not. Unfortunately our country has not been that welcoming to each new immigrant group, often caricaturing the immigrants as lazy, stereotyping them as morally flawed or dangerous, making laws that discriminate against them, and utilizing them as slave labor.
There are many reasons why immigrants have come to this country. Some have come willingly, others forcibly. Some came here seeking opportunity; others were brought here in slavery, and yet others came to avoid economic hardship, political turmoil, religious persecution, political repression, or cultural and ethnic oppression. Over the centuries immigrants have come, wishing to build a better life for themselves and their children and have enriched this nation in the process. Whether it was the English, Dutch and who laid the foundations for the Colonies; or the Germans who built farms, small business, and industries; or the Irish and Chinese who built the railroads; or the Africans who built the agricultural might of our nation; or the Italians who did the difficult jobs building the infrastructure of our cities; or the many other immigrant groups who have come here over the last three centuries – all helped build this nation and expand its potential. The only people living here who are not immigrants are the Indigenous People of the Americas, although many of them were turned into migrants in their own lands. Nonetheless, the values and traditions of Native Americans have given us our uniquely North American notion of freedom and our sense of government; providing us with the basis for our Constitution from their Great Law of Peace. Each of these groups of people make our nation stronger. We are a melting pot and our diversity increases our cultural wealth, expands our creative potential, and brings new knowledge, new ways of thinking, and new ways of living to our society. All of this makes us stronger, not weaker. This diversity has made us into what we are today.
On the other hand, there are those who dislike diversity and wish to preserve some vision of a way of life they imagine from the past. They claim that immigrants threaten their culture, and that they need to mobilize to preserve their “Traditional Values” – violently if necessary. The names of their movements change over the years, but their values remain the same. Which values are they defending? What are these “Traditional Values?” Just whose are they? These groups – such as the supporters of the Confederacy, the old KKK, the modern Conservatives, the Tea Partiers, and the Militia Movement support the values of income inequality, oppose civil and equal rights, and are for State’s Rights, in opposition to any federal governmental regulations which get in the way of their bigotry, racism, classism, and single minded radical religious viewpoints (which they wish to impose on everyone else - contrary to our freedom of and from religion)! Are these the values of Benjamin Franklin, Patrick Henry, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, Florence Nightingale, Sitting Bull, Susan B. Anthony, Black Elk, Doc Holliday, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosa Parks, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Harvey Milk, and Gloria Steinem – or those of Jefferson Davis, John C. Calhoun, John D. Rockefeller, Phyllis Schlafly, Ivan Boesky, Jerry Falwell, and David Duke?
It is clear – now more than ever - that the Conservatives, the Tea Partiers, and the Militia Movement are showing their true colors – they have all embraced the political positions of the Confederacy and the old KKK. This is unacceptable in modern America! We need to point out the basis for their beliefs and resist their attempts to turn the clock back on progress.
The Immigration law enacted in Arizona is a case in point and it is Un - American. I do not use this term lightly. Not only does it fly in the face of our traditions of immigration and progress towards equal and civil rights, but it supports a form of legalized racial profiling. This is tantamount to legalizing racism and discrimination. Asking people to provide their “Papers Please” – based upon their ethnicity is a throwback to one of the darkest periods in human history and has no role in a free, democratic, just, fair, 21st Century United States. We do need comprehensive immigration reform, but destroying the civil rights of whole groups of people – most of whom are here legally – is not a way to do it that is consistent with American values. Many of the very people who will be negatively impacted by the new Arizona immigration law – and any other such laws enacted in the South West are American citizens. A large number of these Latino and Latina citizens are descended from families that have lived here for centuries.
It is an abomination that the new immigrants, who come here to avoid extreme poverty and seek opportunity, are asked to do work that others here won’t, are subject to slave wage labor conditions and pay, and are stereotyped and oppressed by the sanctimonious people who benefit from their labor. It is unthinkable to anyone who values the ideals of this country to suggest that computer chips should be put into any immigrants (as Iowan Congressional candidate Pat Bertroch suggested) or that naturally born citizens of this country should be deported if their parents happen to be here illegally (as California Congressman Duncan Hunter suggests). How could we treat anyone like that regardless of their ethnicity or point of family origin? If we don’t recognize the citizenship of people born in this country where do we drawn the line on who is a citizen? Furthermore, if our new immigrants earn wages, they pay taxes, but get no representation and do not receive any of the benefits from paying these taxes. This is nothing less than modern slavery and racism. The United States fought a Civil War to make a CLEAR STATEMENT that these values ARE NOT American values.
It is sad for the Mexicans that they just happened to be born on the 'wrong side of the tracks' (i.e. border) and that because of their severe poverty, they feel that they have to come here to provide for their families. What gets lost in all the rhetoric is the fact that these immigrants are real human beings, not abstractions, and that they are victimized by the people who bring them across the border, the people who profit from their slave labor, the injustice system that oppresses them, and the heartless people who demonize them.
This new law is clearly racist. The Conservatives, Republican and Tea Parties, and Militia Movement all support this legislation. Why don't these Conservatives want to crack down on the slave wage labor profiteers who make their money off the backs of these poor people coming from Mexico? Instead they would rather enact discrimination into law! Conservatives are always first to take the rights away from minorities and prosecute the least among us, but never wish to go after the greedy legions of Mammon! Can't we do just a little better than this - after all, we are the greatest, richest, mightiest country in the world - or are we just a nation of bigots and slave-mongers?
We need to reclaim the symbols, ideals, traditions, and values back from the Conservatives. We must no longer put up with their perversion of these icons of the United States for their own ends of greed, bigotry, and class warfare through their twisting history and promulgation of outright lies designed to confuse, divide, and control our people.
We need a new Civil Rights movement in this country to reclaim our culture and history back from the forces of fear, hate, intolerance, and bigotry; resist the rise of the Tea Party, and oppose the values it espouses that are derived from a long discredited vision of who and what we are. We must not go back to our sad past of bigotry and discrimination; we must advance forward in the light of freedom, tolerance, and human rights. We need a new Civil Rights movement to reclaim American values so that we can stand up, hold our heads high, and say when asked the question, “whose way of life is going to prevail – the regressive one, or ours?” – By proudly responding, “Ours, the progressive one, OURS!”
Saturday, April 24, 2010
What Does "Liberal" Truly Mean?
I am probably one of those you might call the 'Super Liberals' - and I certainly don't want government intruding in our private lives. As a Liberal I want our people provided decent lives and individual rights. I am no fan of the ‘Nanny State’ – being a Liberal DOES NOT mean believing in an intrusive government that wants to lord power and control over our personal lives. So what does being a Liberal truly mean? What I have come to understand as TRULY Liberal is a philosophy that is based on generosity, freethinking, tolerance, is not bigoted, that favors maximal personal freedoms, and that supports progressive reforms that improve the welfare of humanity.
A True Liberal could be called socially progressive and individually Libertarian.*
A True Liberal is socially progressive when it comes to providing our citizens a decent standard of living. This means a belief that no one should go without food, shelter, health care, or education. True Liberals feel that there is no excuse for the wealthiest society in the history of the world to selfishly deny basic standards of human existence to the disadvantaged. True Liberals hold that the greatest amongst us have an obligation to help provide for the least among us. True Liberals also believe in strong occupational health and safety laws that help to guarantee a safe working environment. True Liberals also believe in product safety standards that ensure our people aren't sold faulty or unsafe products. True Liberals support child labor laws, and regulations that guarantee fair and decent work schedules and conditions. True Liberals believe in environmental regulations that keep polluters from dumping toxic waste all over the place on our land, in the air, and in our drinking water. True Liberals believe in taking care of the sick, the handicapped, and the elderly (through Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security) and helping to provide for the poor through welfare, food stamps, and educational grants and scholarships. True Liberals believe in investment in early childhood nutrition, education, and family living skills. True Liberals believe in Civil Rights and Equal Rights for ALL our citizens. These things all are, in my opinion, TRULY Liberal.
True Liberals think everyone should be given a basic foundation from which to build - no one should go without food, shelter, health care, education, freedom, and the ability to pursue their dreams. True Liberals know that there are more than enough resources on Earth and in the Solar System to guarantee enough to go around for everyone. Hopefully, enough people will agree and live their lives in a way dedicated to see that this eventually comes to pass.
As well as just, equitable social systems, True Liberals believe that we should extend real freedom to ALL our people. True Liberals are Libertarians when it comes to our individual rights. True Liberals do not think that any of the rights we already have should be infringed upon in any way - in fact True Liberals believe that the United States of America should be in the business of advancing human rights, creating new rights for our people, and expanding those rights we already have. True Liberals totally support free speech, freedom of and from religion, the right to bear arms, freedom of assembly, and all of the rest of the rights enumerated by our Founders in the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, and the subsequent Amendments to the Constitution. True Liberals also believe in a TOTAL right of choice. True Liberals believe that individuals have the right to control what goes into, goes on it, and comes from their own bodies. This means choice not only in reproductive rights, but also in terms of sexual preference, the right to die, the right to control of our genetic material, the right to control any specimens from our bodies, the right to ingest whatever we wish, and the right to privacy as well. If members of a society do not have the total right of choice to control their own bodies, the people are slaves to the state, other institutions, or corporations. All of the above beliefs are TRULY Liberal. True Liberals are patriots who support freedom and an equitable society. Without the social justice provisions and individual liberties described above, we are not living up to our ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and are falling into a downward spiral of exactly their opposite!
*Libertarian: a person who upholds the principles of individual liberty, especially of thought and action - - Merriam-Webster
Copyright 2010, B. E. Foley
A True Liberal could be called socially progressive and individually Libertarian.*
A True Liberal is socially progressive when it comes to providing our citizens a decent standard of living. This means a belief that no one should go without food, shelter, health care, or education. True Liberals feel that there is no excuse for the wealthiest society in the history of the world to selfishly deny basic standards of human existence to the disadvantaged. True Liberals hold that the greatest amongst us have an obligation to help provide for the least among us. True Liberals also believe in strong occupational health and safety laws that help to guarantee a safe working environment. True Liberals also believe in product safety standards that ensure our people aren't sold faulty or unsafe products. True Liberals support child labor laws, and regulations that guarantee fair and decent work schedules and conditions. True Liberals believe in environmental regulations that keep polluters from dumping toxic waste all over the place on our land, in the air, and in our drinking water. True Liberals believe in taking care of the sick, the handicapped, and the elderly (through Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security) and helping to provide for the poor through welfare, food stamps, and educational grants and scholarships. True Liberals believe in investment in early childhood nutrition, education, and family living skills. True Liberals believe in Civil Rights and Equal Rights for ALL our citizens. These things all are, in my opinion, TRULY Liberal.
True Liberals think everyone should be given a basic foundation from which to build - no one should go without food, shelter, health care, education, freedom, and the ability to pursue their dreams. True Liberals know that there are more than enough resources on Earth and in the Solar System to guarantee enough to go around for everyone. Hopefully, enough people will agree and live their lives in a way dedicated to see that this eventually comes to pass.
As well as just, equitable social systems, True Liberals believe that we should extend real freedom to ALL our people. True Liberals are Libertarians when it comes to our individual rights. True Liberals do not think that any of the rights we already have should be infringed upon in any way - in fact True Liberals believe that the United States of America should be in the business of advancing human rights, creating new rights for our people, and expanding those rights we already have. True Liberals totally support free speech, freedom of and from religion, the right to bear arms, freedom of assembly, and all of the rest of the rights enumerated by our Founders in the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, and the subsequent Amendments to the Constitution. True Liberals also believe in a TOTAL right of choice. True Liberals believe that individuals have the right to control what goes into, goes on it, and comes from their own bodies. This means choice not only in reproductive rights, but also in terms of sexual preference, the right to die, the right to control of our genetic material, the right to control any specimens from our bodies, the right to ingest whatever we wish, and the right to privacy as well. If members of a society do not have the total right of choice to control their own bodies, the people are slaves to the state, other institutions, or corporations. All of the above beliefs are TRULY Liberal. True Liberals are patriots who support freedom and an equitable society. Without the social justice provisions and individual liberties described above, we are not living up to our ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and are falling into a downward spiral of exactly their opposite!
*Libertarian: a person who upholds the principles of individual liberty, especially of thought and action - - Merriam-Webster
Copyright 2010, B. E. Foley
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Philosophical Revolutions in Thought Could Generate a 'Spiritual Enlightenment'
It is apparent that many religious teachers and leaders such as Moses, Buddha, Jesus, Krishna, and Muhammad have been trying to create an enlightened age of wisdom for millennia. Yet positive attempts at improving the lot of humanity and efforts towards the evolution of mutual understanding keep getting hijacked by profiteers and the unscrupulous. Hopefully we are at a point in history where twistings of wisdom teachings, abuses in the name of religion, and injustices rationlized by appeal to authority or force of passion are recognized for what they are - misguided attemtps to control and oppress humanity. The spread of Democracy, increased public education, and global communications may help to avert this in the future.
Aldous Huxley described the Perennial Philosophy as one which seems to appear throughout all times and places in history. He maintains that in an enlightened era, social and personal decisions are based on love, there is recognition of mutual understanding, and that individual growth is recognized as the key to a life worth living.
My experience has taught me that the true "job" of an individual is spiritual development. Your spirituality is the art or practice of your philosophical and religious beliefs. Your spirituality is in essence your being and its growth through conscious effort. Your being is the totality of your experience; it is a holistic cumulation of all of your human aspects. The job of spiritual evolution is the growth of the complete human. We are not born with everything we need to live a spiritual life. We each must work at our own spiritual growth. This has been recognized by all of the greatest teachers throughout history.
It is increasingly apparent that a Spiritual Enlightenment is emerging in the consciousness of humanity. All around the world people are turning away from orthodoxy and established religious institutions and are beginning their own spiritual journeys. We are at a time where the focus of attention of many people is turning away from the glorification of material pursuits – and towards the asking of questions like, “who am I, why am I here, what am I doing, and how do I make a better future?” Not only are increasing numbers of people developing their own opinions about philosophy and their practices of spirituality, but many are developing their understandings from a wide variety of different religious traditions. Many people are discovering that there are mutually shared wisdoms throughout history that can be incorporated into their daily lives. This is nothing short of a Philosophical Revolution.
It has become apparent in the Western world that the so-called “Age of Enlightenment” in Europe is not complete. Something was left undone. We are discovering that the use of reasoning and logic alone is not enough to fully enjoy life. A real Enlightenment would be a spiritual one occurring both internally and externally - both within individuals and externally in society. In the Eastern world there has always been a strong role for spiritual exploration in society although it has seldom transformed into any positive social action as a result. There is a great yearning in modern societies for answers to questions deeper than those offered by the “Enlightenment” or industrial revolution, and a disappointment at the slow pace at which we translate our ideals into actions.
The agricultural, industrial, and scientific revolutions liberated us from many of the difficulties of life. Now we need a Philosophical Revolution in thought to free us from the old prejudices and fallacies of the past and enable us to grow our creative potentials and mutual understandings. Without these, all of the technology in the world will not save us from ourselves and the disasters we wreak on each other and the planet through ignorance, fear, and hatred.
Humanity is at a critical pivot point at which global cvilization either transforms into a healthier reality, falls back to obsolete ways of life, or dissolves into a chaos of cultural and religious conflicts. There are increasing numbers of people who are becoming sensitive to the fact that we are at a crossroads of human development. There is no more important task than the elevation of human society from the morass out of which it constantly struggles to emerge. Each of us must take this task upon us; we can no longer sit and wait while things continue on autopilot.
To accomplish a transformation into an ‘Age of Wisdom’ throughout this new millennium we must facilitate a Spiritual Enlightenment – something which has been struggling to emerge throughout the 20th Century. The challenges facing humanity can be addressed if we comprehend the underlying reasons for the old historical errors we keep falling into and muster both the individual and social will to make positive changes. This begins with each of us in our personal lives. Social change begins with the individual person and when there are enough people dedicating their lives to the betterment of humanity larger scale social progress then becomes possible. A prosperous and healthy world could be just around the corner - humanity already has all of the needed ideas, technologies, people, and resources to make the necessary changes to better ways of living. This is possible now, let’s get started!
The whole effort of many successive generations has been to create better realities for their children than they had themselves. The nurturing of the future is the true job of humanity. It is no less than the liberation of our individual minds, hearts, bodies, and communities from slavery. There have always been forces opposing this liberation, and at many critical junctures on the way to positive social development all previous societies until now have failed in this quest. Yet there have been messengers of many sorts, examples of which are replete in all civilizations - people who point the way for possible future development. These spiritual teachers and leaders have all asked us to use loving compassion as the driving force in our activities and to create communities based on cooperation, respect, and tolerance for one another. Each successive generation must work at this in its own way. New generations now have many resources coming "on-line" to facilitate yet another attempt at the advancement of our consciousness through self knowledge and spiritual evolution.
The efforts of humanity over its history have been toward increasing liberty and improving community standards of conduct. Enlightened education liberates us individually from ignorance, fear, greed, and hate. ‘Civilization’ is a development that could ennoble humanity yet now more than ever is a machine for slavery for billions rather than a means to increase freedom. There is widespread confusion at the change of the millennium as to 'where things are headed,' and why we do what we do - unanswered because the big task of explanation is languishing. Like Moses we must open the granaries of the wisdom of the ages of humanity and feed the hungry. The common threads in our cultural wisdom must be revealed to make sense in our daily lives. The way to do this is through communication, education, and activism.
We are at the point where nature will not evolve us further. Evolution means improvement in the conditions of life. Future human evolution for humanity is impossibile unless there is a major alteration of our destructive and consumptive trends. Our ability to alter our environments to suit our purposes has circumvented the forces of the early natural selection that shaped our evolution to this point. Any further evolution of our species will come as a direct result of our own individual conscious efforts. We are at the point where we must consciously create our future or fall into chaos. The beings created must become new co-creators. Our future evolution is not the mechanical extension of our already existent functions to become stronger and faster, or to see and hear better. The future evolution of humanity is in the direction of the deepening of our beings, the growth of our consciousness and consciences, and the transformation of our world views and environments into more positive ones.
Future spiritual evolution involves individuals co-creating a global perspective of experience. We must grow beyond our divided selves. To further evolve as individuals we must include all the parts of our psyches in our active lives. Whether an individual has the corner on the market of wisdom and truth is less important than whether a person works on nurturing the growth of one's being while helping family and friends in this process. Along with all of our other functions humans have a religious, mystical, and magical dimension to our psyches which should not be neglected. Spiritual evolution involves allowing common sense and love to permeate life. Such enlightenment is the foundation for the creation of a human community basing its ethics on mutual values. The future of humanity depends upon the creation of a global community with a tolerant dialogue of religions and belief systems. This will only be possible with a Philosophical Revolution in the hearts, minds, consciences, and souls of increasing numbers of people around the world.
With the globalization of society we are having social transformations on a scale unprecedented in history. At the same time never before has the imperative to make the personal and social change to a more enlightened global society been so great. We are at a point where there can be an evolution of consciousness, common sense, conscience, and creativity. Unfortunately the benefits of humanity’s successive growth as a whole have only been enjoyed by a small few. Unscrupulous profiteers have been utilizing the developing capacities of humanity to maximize the efficiency of mass exploitation and their own profit generation. We must ask ourselves how we as individuals can act to correct this historical maladjustment.
The social problems of today have been repeated over and over and the warnings of the ancient wise echo down the hallways of time for those who have ears to hear. Our struggles are not new; they have been replayed a thousand times at differing scales of human civilization. The most difficult of our challenges in the survival of civilized life is not merely providing for our material well-being, but providing for the social, psychological, and spiritual aspects of life as well. The greatest challenge to the future of civilization is the drama played out in each and every one of our daily lives.
We have a unique historical opportunity with a global communications revolution. As people from different backgrounds increasingly communicate with each other, many perceived boundaries to mutual understanding will begin to fade. It is inevitable that not only will people globally communicate about stock prices, entertainment, and advertising; people will also share their ideas on philosophy, spirituality, religion, and politics. The great dialogue of human experience as expressed through the spiritual ideas of different cultures can begin to establish commonalties and new understandings. The achievement of just such a global dialogue on spiritual synthesis can set the stage for a real enlightenment, a spiritual one.
For the first time in history all of the peoples of our planet are connected through some type of communication. There are more specialists, scientists, and thinkers at this time in history than ever before and yet people are less and less satisfied about their solutions for living life. We are now in a position to re-evaluate all of the myths, world views, and primary assumptions upon which we base our actions. There is now enough historical evidence and scientific information available to say some new things about people and the world in which we live. What is missing is the synthesis of the existent information and knowledge. The synthesis of knowledge must be done by each of us individually and then translated into action in our personal lives. We each must go through a paradigm shift to prepare ourselves for the future by re-evaluating our ideas and actions in the light of new understandings.
At each stage in the growth of humanity the same challenges arise again and again. Each person must rise above the baser qualities of human thought and conduct. The battle for human evolution is now amplified in each generation. We are now at a point where if we do not come to terms with our shadows they will overtake us. The price of failure is the pollution and destruction of our planet and therefore our annihilation. The ultimate battle for planetary survival is happening now and the forces of destruction are those which represent ego, fear, and greed - those which ravage the planet, destroy communities, preach intolerance, and base their authority on violence.
The way to change our society is through changing ourselves. Only by individual changes in the way people think, feel, and act will larger scale changes occur. Who else is responsible for the social ills which beset us but each of us individually through our cumulative actions? The only change that can happen to improve the nature of our lives and society in general are the personal decisions we make in our own lives and how we act towards others. It is now necessary to have a Philosophical Revolution occur individually on large scales in global society. There is no other way for the conditions of life to improve.
For too long we have been appointing or relying on others to do the participation with spirituality and society for us. We have become isolated and despondent in this condition. Our job as people is to be artists that consciously co-create their lives with each other. We are rapidly coming to the point where the technology will be available to us to create and engineer our own environments, genetics, minds, and personal realities.
The question arises as to how we can begin the evolution of our own personal consciousnesses and consciences. We must remember that the human is a creature of heart, mind, body, and soul. The battle for our imaginations takes place in the arena of vision - that of ourselves and that of the future direction of society. The political future of the nations of the world will turn on what type of vision of human nature takes precedence - that of the enlightened teachers and leaders throughout history and culture or that of the profiteers of culture wars. New methods are necessary for people to grow from the stream of unifying human values that exist regardless of time or place. An example of this is the individual conscience - it transcends gender, race, religion, culture, lifestyle, and political ideology.
Only by making conscious the underlying beliefs, attitudes, and world views which operate within us unconsciously can we come to an understanding of what is happening on the planet. The mass confusion which is occurring in many industrial countries and in people’s lives is driven by the combination of many mistaken interpretations of history, a huge amount of ancient beliefs and assumptions, and the disconnected mountains of meaningless information provided through modern communications. We must open up the assumptions of the past and the visions of the future and challenge them if we are to create our own meaning in life and fashion decent futures for ourselves. This process is that nothing less than an individual’s own Philosophical Revolution, and when enough members of humanity seriously undertake this process, it will add up to a real Spiritual Enlightenment!
Copyright 2010, B. E. Foley
Aldous Huxley described the Perennial Philosophy as one which seems to appear throughout all times and places in history. He maintains that in an enlightened era, social and personal decisions are based on love, there is recognition of mutual understanding, and that individual growth is recognized as the key to a life worth living.
My experience has taught me that the true "job" of an individual is spiritual development. Your spirituality is the art or practice of your philosophical and religious beliefs. Your spirituality is in essence your being and its growth through conscious effort. Your being is the totality of your experience; it is a holistic cumulation of all of your human aspects. The job of spiritual evolution is the growth of the complete human. We are not born with everything we need to live a spiritual life. We each must work at our own spiritual growth. This has been recognized by all of the greatest teachers throughout history.
It is increasingly apparent that a Spiritual Enlightenment is emerging in the consciousness of humanity. All around the world people are turning away from orthodoxy and established religious institutions and are beginning their own spiritual journeys. We are at a time where the focus of attention of many people is turning away from the glorification of material pursuits – and towards the asking of questions like, “who am I, why am I here, what am I doing, and how do I make a better future?” Not only are increasing numbers of people developing their own opinions about philosophy and their practices of spirituality, but many are developing their understandings from a wide variety of different religious traditions. Many people are discovering that there are mutually shared wisdoms throughout history that can be incorporated into their daily lives. This is nothing short of a Philosophical Revolution.
It has become apparent in the Western world that the so-called “Age of Enlightenment” in Europe is not complete. Something was left undone. We are discovering that the use of reasoning and logic alone is not enough to fully enjoy life. A real Enlightenment would be a spiritual one occurring both internally and externally - both within individuals and externally in society. In the Eastern world there has always been a strong role for spiritual exploration in society although it has seldom transformed into any positive social action as a result. There is a great yearning in modern societies for answers to questions deeper than those offered by the “Enlightenment” or industrial revolution, and a disappointment at the slow pace at which we translate our ideals into actions.
The agricultural, industrial, and scientific revolutions liberated us from many of the difficulties of life. Now we need a Philosophical Revolution in thought to free us from the old prejudices and fallacies of the past and enable us to grow our creative potentials and mutual understandings. Without these, all of the technology in the world will not save us from ourselves and the disasters we wreak on each other and the planet through ignorance, fear, and hatred.
Humanity is at a critical pivot point at which global cvilization either transforms into a healthier reality, falls back to obsolete ways of life, or dissolves into a chaos of cultural and religious conflicts. There are increasing numbers of people who are becoming sensitive to the fact that we are at a crossroads of human development. There is no more important task than the elevation of human society from the morass out of which it constantly struggles to emerge. Each of us must take this task upon us; we can no longer sit and wait while things continue on autopilot.
To accomplish a transformation into an ‘Age of Wisdom’ throughout this new millennium we must facilitate a Spiritual Enlightenment – something which has been struggling to emerge throughout the 20th Century. The challenges facing humanity can be addressed if we comprehend the underlying reasons for the old historical errors we keep falling into and muster both the individual and social will to make positive changes. This begins with each of us in our personal lives. Social change begins with the individual person and when there are enough people dedicating their lives to the betterment of humanity larger scale social progress then becomes possible. A prosperous and healthy world could be just around the corner - humanity already has all of the needed ideas, technologies, people, and resources to make the necessary changes to better ways of living. This is possible now, let’s get started!
The whole effort of many successive generations has been to create better realities for their children than they had themselves. The nurturing of the future is the true job of humanity. It is no less than the liberation of our individual minds, hearts, bodies, and communities from slavery. There have always been forces opposing this liberation, and at many critical junctures on the way to positive social development all previous societies until now have failed in this quest. Yet there have been messengers of many sorts, examples of which are replete in all civilizations - people who point the way for possible future development. These spiritual teachers and leaders have all asked us to use loving compassion as the driving force in our activities and to create communities based on cooperation, respect, and tolerance for one another. Each successive generation must work at this in its own way. New generations now have many resources coming "on-line" to facilitate yet another attempt at the advancement of our consciousness through self knowledge and spiritual evolution.
The efforts of humanity over its history have been toward increasing liberty and improving community standards of conduct. Enlightened education liberates us individually from ignorance, fear, greed, and hate. ‘Civilization’ is a development that could ennoble humanity yet now more than ever is a machine for slavery for billions rather than a means to increase freedom. There is widespread confusion at the change of the millennium as to 'where things are headed,' and why we do what we do - unanswered because the big task of explanation is languishing. Like Moses we must open the granaries of the wisdom of the ages of humanity and feed the hungry. The common threads in our cultural wisdom must be revealed to make sense in our daily lives. The way to do this is through communication, education, and activism.
We are at the point where nature will not evolve us further. Evolution means improvement in the conditions of life. Future human evolution for humanity is impossibile unless there is a major alteration of our destructive and consumptive trends. Our ability to alter our environments to suit our purposes has circumvented the forces of the early natural selection that shaped our evolution to this point. Any further evolution of our species will come as a direct result of our own individual conscious efforts. We are at the point where we must consciously create our future or fall into chaos. The beings created must become new co-creators. Our future evolution is not the mechanical extension of our already existent functions to become stronger and faster, or to see and hear better. The future evolution of humanity is in the direction of the deepening of our beings, the growth of our consciousness and consciences, and the transformation of our world views and environments into more positive ones.
Future spiritual evolution involves individuals co-creating a global perspective of experience. We must grow beyond our divided selves. To further evolve as individuals we must include all the parts of our psyches in our active lives. Whether an individual has the corner on the market of wisdom and truth is less important than whether a person works on nurturing the growth of one's being while helping family and friends in this process. Along with all of our other functions humans have a religious, mystical, and magical dimension to our psyches which should not be neglected. Spiritual evolution involves allowing common sense and love to permeate life. Such enlightenment is the foundation for the creation of a human community basing its ethics on mutual values. The future of humanity depends upon the creation of a global community with a tolerant dialogue of religions and belief systems. This will only be possible with a Philosophical Revolution in the hearts, minds, consciences, and souls of increasing numbers of people around the world.
With the globalization of society we are having social transformations on a scale unprecedented in history. At the same time never before has the imperative to make the personal and social change to a more enlightened global society been so great. We are at a point where there can be an evolution of consciousness, common sense, conscience, and creativity. Unfortunately the benefits of humanity’s successive growth as a whole have only been enjoyed by a small few. Unscrupulous profiteers have been utilizing the developing capacities of humanity to maximize the efficiency of mass exploitation and their own profit generation. We must ask ourselves how we as individuals can act to correct this historical maladjustment.
The social problems of today have been repeated over and over and the warnings of the ancient wise echo down the hallways of time for those who have ears to hear. Our struggles are not new; they have been replayed a thousand times at differing scales of human civilization. The most difficult of our challenges in the survival of civilized life is not merely providing for our material well-being, but providing for the social, psychological, and spiritual aspects of life as well. The greatest challenge to the future of civilization is the drama played out in each and every one of our daily lives.
We have a unique historical opportunity with a global communications revolution. As people from different backgrounds increasingly communicate with each other, many perceived boundaries to mutual understanding will begin to fade. It is inevitable that not only will people globally communicate about stock prices, entertainment, and advertising; people will also share their ideas on philosophy, spirituality, religion, and politics. The great dialogue of human experience as expressed through the spiritual ideas of different cultures can begin to establish commonalties and new understandings. The achievement of just such a global dialogue on spiritual synthesis can set the stage for a real enlightenment, a spiritual one.
For the first time in history all of the peoples of our planet are connected through some type of communication. There are more specialists, scientists, and thinkers at this time in history than ever before and yet people are less and less satisfied about their solutions for living life. We are now in a position to re-evaluate all of the myths, world views, and primary assumptions upon which we base our actions. There is now enough historical evidence and scientific information available to say some new things about people and the world in which we live. What is missing is the synthesis of the existent information and knowledge. The synthesis of knowledge must be done by each of us individually and then translated into action in our personal lives. We each must go through a paradigm shift to prepare ourselves for the future by re-evaluating our ideas and actions in the light of new understandings.
At each stage in the growth of humanity the same challenges arise again and again. Each person must rise above the baser qualities of human thought and conduct. The battle for human evolution is now amplified in each generation. We are now at a point where if we do not come to terms with our shadows they will overtake us. The price of failure is the pollution and destruction of our planet and therefore our annihilation. The ultimate battle for planetary survival is happening now and the forces of destruction are those which represent ego, fear, and greed - those which ravage the planet, destroy communities, preach intolerance, and base their authority on violence.
The way to change our society is through changing ourselves. Only by individual changes in the way people think, feel, and act will larger scale changes occur. Who else is responsible for the social ills which beset us but each of us individually through our cumulative actions? The only change that can happen to improve the nature of our lives and society in general are the personal decisions we make in our own lives and how we act towards others. It is now necessary to have a Philosophical Revolution occur individually on large scales in global society. There is no other way for the conditions of life to improve.
For too long we have been appointing or relying on others to do the participation with spirituality and society for us. We have become isolated and despondent in this condition. Our job as people is to be artists that consciously co-create their lives with each other. We are rapidly coming to the point where the technology will be available to us to create and engineer our own environments, genetics, minds, and personal realities.
The question arises as to how we can begin the evolution of our own personal consciousnesses and consciences. We must remember that the human is a creature of heart, mind, body, and soul. The battle for our imaginations takes place in the arena of vision - that of ourselves and that of the future direction of society. The political future of the nations of the world will turn on what type of vision of human nature takes precedence - that of the enlightened teachers and leaders throughout history and culture or that of the profiteers of culture wars. New methods are necessary for people to grow from the stream of unifying human values that exist regardless of time or place. An example of this is the individual conscience - it transcends gender, race, religion, culture, lifestyle, and political ideology.
Only by making conscious the underlying beliefs, attitudes, and world views which operate within us unconsciously can we come to an understanding of what is happening on the planet. The mass confusion which is occurring in many industrial countries and in people’s lives is driven by the combination of many mistaken interpretations of history, a huge amount of ancient beliefs and assumptions, and the disconnected mountains of meaningless information provided through modern communications. We must open up the assumptions of the past and the visions of the future and challenge them if we are to create our own meaning in life and fashion decent futures for ourselves. This process is that nothing less than an individual’s own Philosophical Revolution, and when enough members of humanity seriously undertake this process, it will add up to a real Spiritual Enlightenment!
Copyright 2010, B. E. Foley
Monday, April 19, 2010
An Open Letter to the Members of the Tea Party and Militia Movements:
Just Joined Up? Welcome to the New KKK
By An American Philosopher
April 19, 2010
By An American Philosopher
April 19, 2010
It may come as a surprise to many people, and even some in the Tea Party and Militia movements, but the positions advocated by these groups are identical with the positions once held by the old KKK. At one time in American history the Ku Klux Klan was a very active political force and counted millions of members within their ranks. The Tea Party and the militia movements are following in their footsteps. Welcome to the new KKK - upgraded with radio and television talk show hosts like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck; featuring performances by good lookin,’ fast talkin' gals like Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachman. Nonetheless, the talking points are the same for these new organizations as they were for the members of the old KKK.
All these groups maintain that we are living in a nation in decline, that traditional values are being eroded. These groups believe that people outside of their own narrow experience are threats to their time honored and cherished traditions. They all believe that they are defending their rights against an onslaught of immigrants, minorities, and those who hold other religious beliefs. They all share a fundamentalist value system and believe that their version of white conservative Christianity is the only proper view and that it is the chosen system of beliefs to govern everyone else. These groups do not like the beliefs of, nor association with, anyone else outside of their white, strict, conservative Christian bunker of beliefs.
None of these groups advocate ideas of equality - of equal rights, civil rights, or equal opportunity. They all oppose immigration and the upward mobility of ethnic groups other than their own. They also are particularly harsh towards the rights and welfare of the working class, the poor and those otherwise disadvantaged; preferring to protect their own rights as they see them.
These "victims of change" in the United States all hold an amazingly consistent belief system. The old KKK, the Tea Party, and the Militia movements all are anti federal government and pro states rights, favoring local government. They do not want any regulatory oversight of their own practices. They are all anti black and anti minority while supporting what is called “white power.” If you question this, just look at the absence of minorities in their membership demographics. Their beliefs send the message that minorities are not welcome by the absence of policy positions favorable to minority groups, women, immigrants, and those who hold religious beliefs other than their own. These groups are anti Jewish, anti Catholic, anti Muslim, etc., and are pro Right Wing Christian. They are anti-liberal and pro conservative. They are anti gun control and pro gun. They are against women's rights and equal rights. They are pro white male rights and are anti choice. These groups are anti immigration and prefer to support the rights of those who already hold property over those who don’t.
From the above description of the shared positions of the old KKK, the Tea Party and the Militia movements, is there any question remaining as to the recent re-incarnation of the old KKK? All one has to do is look at their publicly stated positions and it is clear as day. Don't be fooled by their modern window dressing. The rhetoric is the same, the hatred is the same, and the political positions are the same. The only things missing are the burning crosses and the flowing robes. So if you are in the Tea Party or a militia and don't agree with these positions - and maybe didn't realize what you were getting yourself into - recognize that you have joined the new KKK - then GET OUT!
Copyright 2010 B.E. Foley
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