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17 Dec 2007 @ 09:59, by John Grieve
Superconsciousness
In this new period, post millennium, post modernist, 21st Century, all distinctions seem to be gradually disappearing. Only a few weeks ago Tony Blair, in a farewell speech, complained that in the media’s treatment of news stories the old distinctions between values and facts were becoming blurred. What we are in fact witnessing, in this and other areas, is the fusing of opposites that were once considered distinct and indeed often irreconcilable. Other examples include the public/private dichotomy which is being seriously affected by new means of communicating such as mobile phones/ internet. Most relevant to our discussion is the blurring that is happening between matter and spirit, to which I have alluded elsewhere. Material things seem to be becoming less “massy”, and indeed “material”, they are becoming etherealised, digitalised even spiritualised. If opposites are indeed in the process of undergoing fusion, then this raises some very intriguing possibilities. In the area of theory, a fusion of Idealism (as in Hegel) and of Materialism (as in Marx) would lead to a supertheory, which we could provisionally call “IdeoMaterialism”(IM) which would be a monism of a new kind. The old dualism of matter and spirit would be in a new relationship, and when I give some examples I think you will agree, a more harmonious relationship. In other areas the fusing of opposites promises radical if not utopian possibilities. The fusion of mind/ body in the Cartesian sense would promise a new and holistic science, while the fusion of Id and Ego, long mooted by utopian psychologists, would usher in a new era of enlightenment.
To return to our monistic “IdeoMaterialism”, I will present some of my ideas in this new light. I believe in three stages of human consciousness, two of which have long existed and the third of which is gradually emerging globally right now. The first level is what we would call “Animal “ consciousness, and is that level of consciousness and awareness that existed right through our process of evolution through primate and human groups of varying complexity, up to the lower/middle stages of Barbarism, associated with tribal/clan society. As the name suggests this level is typical of animals and does not imply real individuality or self-awareness. The knowledge of Good and Evil, presented in the Bible myth of the Garden of Eden, along with an awareness of nakedness and shame, is ushered in by the next level of consciousness, which is commonly called “Self-Consciousness”. This leads to great individualism and even narcissism, and indeed rapidly transforms and destroys the old society of clans, tribes, kinship, family and undifferentiated solidarity. The conventional materialist theory such as Marx’s, portrays these events as caused by money and other forms of wealth, brought about by improvements in technology and production techniques. But that is only half the truth. In reality, it was the new Individualism, the new consciousness, that created the conditions for these developments. It’s not that materialism is wrong, it’s that it only tells part of the story.
This brings us to the present time and the next level of consciousness which some call “Superconsciousness”, others like Bucke and Edward Carpenter term “Cosmic Consciousness”, and more recently people have started to refer to as “Universal Mind” and “Universal Consciousness”. This level of awareness and consciousness is well known and its coming long predicted by spiritual adepts and enlightened mystics. Basically it is an awareness of the cosmic connectedness of everything, a wholistic awareness that gets beyond the limitations of separation, individual egos and alienation. Just as “self-consciousness” gave the rationale to the sort of society known as civilization, so “Superconsciousness will give, and is now giving, rise to a particular and unique form of society. Whether this coming society will be called “SuperCivilization” or indeed “The Kingdom of God on Earth” we cannot yet be sure, but undoubtedly it will be characterised by some amazing and almost unbelievable things.
I will now present a further example of a subject which can be illuminated by this fusion of Idealism and Materialism. This look at the phenomenon of Fascism is no idle exercise, and i believe and hope to demonstrate, that it is one of the biggest threats to our common survival and achievement of “Superconsciousness”. Many different perspectives exist on the subject of fascism. It has been analysed from the viewpoint of economics, politics, society, mass and individual psychology, all more or less materialistically and, i’m sure, relevantly. It may surprise you that I am analysing it as a misguided form of mysticism, and as an infantile attempt to go back to the “animal” stage of consciousness, instead of forward to the higher stage of “Cosmic Consciousness”. A few commentators have already noted mystical elements in fascist themes of “the totality”, “the Folk” “union with Nature” etc. but I fear they do not see its true essence. In Fascism, people seek to follow seemingly powerful, Big Daddy, Big Brother leaders who will answer every question with certainty and make all decisions for their followers. These people are giving up their role of autonomous, responsible adults and seeking, in an infantile way, to revert to a “golden age” of childhood dependency and irresponsibility. They seek mystical union with a “whole”, whatever it is, whether their local football team, their nation, their state, and try to give up the pains and tribulations that come with self-awareness and adulthood. They want themselves and society to return to the preceding stage of “animal” awareness and their football team is a substitute for the tribe and the clan. There are great dangers in identifying something which is only partial as a totality, whether it be a football team or even a state, or a great talent like being a musician or artist. We are called to be whole people. The only totality is the Universe, The Absolute, The Source, God. To erect anything else as a totality is to worship false idols and we know what danger there is in making a great leader or state into an idol.
There are great dangers of these kinds facing the world today. Fundamentalism of any sort is similar to this wish to revert to a simpler, more primitive, infantile state of certainty and dependency and is potentially fascistic. This inevitably gives power to those who are unworthy of it.
No, forwards is the only way. Towards greater awareness, responsibility, superconsciousness and the recognition that the only totality, the real mysticism, is of the universal. Not one tribe but all tribes. All creation, All the Universe.
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Category: Philosophy
2 comments
20 Dec 2007 @ 01:56 by mortimer : sounds good
Your bottom line seems fundamentally true except perhaps we should conjure neurodiversity instead of superconsciousness.
Peace
20 Dec 2007 @ 07:40 by vaxen : Right on!
I do have some RV materials done by one "KT," who works with Tom Bearden, which spans the timeline of the nuclear Fascism from 'when it began' in this century, though compare the Roman Fasces [link] , but maybe it isn't relavant to your above wonderfully worded piece. Thanks for this, John. Well thought out and, in general, I must say that I agree, mostly, heartily with your overall analysis. Good show and I look forward to a further developement and clarification of your ideas. Fascism is not a system of government and many people are made to think that it is. Bi Cameral to? Multiversal and beyond...
The Trilateral commission 'Too much democracy' theory in motion.
The effective operation of a democratic political system usually requires some measure of apathy and noninvolvement on the part of some individuals and groups." "[S]ecrecy and deception...are...inescapable attributes of ... government." The crisis caused by an "excess of democracy" in the 1960s shows the wisdom of, for example, privatizing public enterprise and deregulating industry. How can one expect competence from hoi polloi?
[link]
From the Streets of Little Beirut
By Glen Yeadon
There were little warning signs but few were paying attention when George Bush the poppy ran for president in 1988 and 1992. First during the campaign it surfaced that one of his campaign staffers was a distributor of pro-Nazi propaganda. Before the ink was dry on the individual’s resignation, further revelations showed there were in fact a number of ex-Nazis on Bush’s campaign staff including Laszlo Pastor and Yaroslav Stetsko. Pastor was a member of the Hungarian Arrow Cross during WWII and served as an envoy to Germany. The Arrow Cross was known to be excessively brutal even to their Nazi allies. Stetsko served as the prime minister of the short lived Ukrainian puppet government. During the short reign of this puppet regime over 100,000 Jews were slaughtered in Lvov. George Bush’s insensitivity towards victims of the holocaust is underlined by his employment of Fred Malek, a well-known collaborator with former Nazis in both his presidential campaigns.
[link]
And:
[link]
Ingo Swann's seminal works on the super powers of the human bio mind may interest you as well if you aren't familar with his work.
[link]
And, incidentally:
Dictator was a political office of the Roman Republic. A legal innovation of the Roman Republic, the dictator (Latin for "one who dictates (orders)") — officially known as the Magister Populi ("Master of the People"), the Praetor Maximus ("The supreme Praetor"), and the Magister Peditum ("Master of the Infantry") — was an extraordinary magistrate (magistratus extraordinarius) whose function was to perform extraordinary tasks exceeding the authority of any of the ordinary magistrates.
The Roman Senate passed a senatus consultum authorizing the consuls to nominate a dictator, who was the sole exception to the Roman legal principles of collegiality (multiple tenants of the same office) and responsibility (being legally able to be held to answer for actions in office); there could never be more than one dictator at any one time for any reason, and no dictator could ever be held legally responsible for any action during his time in office for any reason. The dictator was the highest magistrate in degree of precedence (Praetor Maximus) and was attended by 24 lictors.
On the establishment of the Roman republic the government of the state was entrusted to two consuls, that the citizens might be the better protected against the tyrannical exercise of the supreme power. But it was soon felt that circumstances might arise in which it was important for the safety of the state that the government should be vested in the hands of a single person, who should possess absolute power for a short time, and from whose decisions there should be no appeal to any other body. Thus it came to pass that in 501 BC, nine years after the expulsion of the kings, the dictatorship (dictatura) was instituted.
Other entries in Philosophy
31 May 2008 @ 03:10: Dualistic Monism and Economic Value
3 Mar 2008 @ 12:50: Taoism and Confucianism : Part II
22 Feb 2008 @ 09:33: Edward Carpenter, Gandhi and the Politics of Identity
27 Jan 2008 @ 09:37: On Creating and Resolving Contradictions on the ChessBoard: Part I
7 Jan 2008 @ 09:41: On the Dual Nature of the Universe Part II
30 Dec 2007 @ 09:43: On The Dual Nature of the Universe Part 1
13 Sep 2007 @ 20:48: "Shadows in the Dark" or "Enlightenment - virtue or crime, blessing or curse"?
15 Aug 2007 @ 17:17: Our world as a simulation
9 Aug 2007 @ 14:44: Beautiful Lies, Ugly Truths and the Answer to an Age-Old Paradox
11 May 2007 @ 18:44: All Religious Writings (Bible, Koran, etc.)
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