PILGRIM FATHERS

I have recently learned something about the Pilgrims who left England to sail to America.  They left because of religious persecution but it wasn’t to seek the most obvious sort of religious freedom. Apparently England had too much religious freedom for their liking and they called for less freedom. They were too much for the English people to bear and were persecuted for it. That does explain a lot about the USA, where I have heard that some schools still teach creationism instead of natural selection.

Those Pilgrims could be described as religious fundamentalists. That’s somewhat ironic now, when the USA has so much trouble with other religious fundamentalists from other parts of the world.

HOMELESS

I heard about the number of humans being made homeless has increased as more of them lose their homes, being unable to repay their mortgage.

This again shows how money is more important than humans. The money lenders are quick to remind everyone that they will lose their homes if they can’t keep up the repayments. If they can’t, they are chucked out on the street and the property is sold to get the money back. The money lenders couldn’t care less about those who have ended up sleeping rough on the street. The government cares even less about them.

This is a ridiculous situation, in a ridiculous society. Why do humans put up with this? Could it be because those who are still able to pay would rather ignore the plight of strangers? They don’t want to be reminded that it could be them if their circumstances change.

PROPERTY LADDER

This expression really makes me cringe. Homes are to live in and should be cheap and easily available. At least that's the theory. But no, it couldn't be that simple. It never is with humans. It seems like humans have a masochistic attitude to life in the way they have to complicate the most simplest and most basic necessities. Money is god and must be obeyed.

Homes are yet another way to make money. That's their primary function. They are to be sold for more than they were bought for, with improvements included to increase the value. The additional value is then used to buy a more expensive property. Hence the ladder humans crawl up.

It doesn't matter to the owners whether anyone can afford to buy somewhere to live. It's all down to greed of the owners and the banks or building societies. Humans have been conditioned to see such a progress as a sign of success and would be unhappy at being labelled as greedy. Some may complain about their property not selling, which obviously could be improved by cutting the asking price but that would be unthinkable to those selling. The property ladder is calling them.

If someone wanted to buy a proprty they can always borrow money and spend much of their lives paying back more than they borrowed. If they later can't pay back, the banks will quickly throw them out of their home and sell it themselves.

 It's the 21st century but there are many who are living in squalor, making a choice whether to use energy to heat their homes or to cook food. When someone manages to get a home, there are ridiculously expensive bills and taxes to pay. The elderly suffer the most.

OPIUM FOR THE PEOPLE. . .

Karl Marx described religion as the opium of the people. He was wrong, it’s money. It’s not just opium but every other recreational drug you could think of.

Like a narcotic drug, the effect depends on how much is taken, with a similar confusion between reality and fantasy. The user becomes convinced that they can do anything, that anything is possible. It numbs the senses, creating a cushioned bubble around them against the difficulties produced by reality.

They become less and less interested in those without money, possibly feeling paranoid about anyone planning to take it from them.

They have allies in governments who have always been on the side of the wealthy. They have created laws to allow them to prosper and to keep away the undesirables.

ARMS TRADING

During the Falklands War, the thing that struck me most was that the Argentineans were using French built Exocet missiles against the British armed forces. No one commented about this, that a supposed ally to Britain was supplying weapons to a country which was then using them to destroy and kill the British forces.

I find the arms trade a strange concept. Because of the resulting wealth they can largely do what they like. Governments become mesmerised by that wealth and the taxes collected from it. That’s more important than human life.

Countries have supplied weaponry all over the world and so it’s highly likely that they could be used to kill humans from those same countries. And no one seems to care.

I couldn’t imagine myself working for a company that produces weapons which were to be used for the taking of human life. Money acts to numb the mind away from such thoughts, to keep reality away.

WHY DO PEOPLE DO THAT?

Why do so many humans copy what others are doing rather than thinking for themselves? That applies in many situations. It can become a pack mentality.

If those who are in the world's military forces were to consider what they were doing instead of blindly obeying orders, there wouldn't be any wars. The same with governments but they are forced to conform to what their party decrees. There are many psychopaths running dictatorships, propped up by the military that follow blindly for their own advantage rather than thinking of others. They are given permission to exercise their basest excesses towards those who are considered a danger to the regime.

World governments are occupied by those who are filled with a sense of their own self importance. They are filled with corruption and greed, getting out it what they can to increase their wealth and fame.

WHEN ADAM DELVED. . .

Years ago, I bought a folder from Boots with a cover of William Morris designs including this print. I hadn't really thought about the print until someone asked me about it and I Googled it. The print was from 1888 and called John Ball's Dream. 

 

John Ball encouraging Wat Tyler rebels.

 

When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman? From the beginning all men were created equal by nature, and that servitude had been introduced by the unjust and evil oppression of men, against the will of God, who, if it had pleased Him to create serfs, surely in the beginning of the world would have appointed who should be a serf and who a lord. And therefore I exhort ye to consider that now the time is come, appointed to us by God, in which ye may (if ye will) cast off the yoke of bondage, and recover liberty.

John Ball (c. 1338 – 15 July 1381)

  

How right he was then. How true it is today as it was in the 14th century. Except that those who think of themselves as being in "power" now wouldn't be able to execute anyone who agreed with what John had preached.



REALITY?

When I have visited a friend at her flat, I park in her parking place and in front of me is a lawn bounded on two sides by trees and shrubbery. On the lawn I regularly see rabbits, squirrels and various birds. I have sat there looking at these wild animals and wondered at their lives and the lives of humans. I have wondered about why humans have created a world that is so difficult to live in. This is usually when I am feeling exasperated by something that I’d seen or experienced.

I have thought that those animals live in the true reality of this planet. By comparison, humans have created a world of fantasy. This world created by humans for themselves, exist because it has originated in their minds. They would not have been created without humans, not as it exists now. The poorer humans are, the closer they become to the true reality.

Humans have to do a lot of pretending in their "reality". This planet’s materials and resources have no value and are freely available but they are given an unnecessary monetary value. Money is the biggest pretence humans have created and which has become a source of evil and injustice in the world. When I watch films or television, the problems created by money and its distribution, often leaves me wondering why humans bother with it.

Money appears to be more trouble than it is worth. Of course it all depends on how much an individual has in their possession. Everyone is brainwashed and conditioned from an early age to believe that money has a value other than that of pieces of printed paper and discs of metal. Humans can never seem to have enough of it and there are those who will steal it, swindle for it and even kill to get it. Such is the basis of many films, dramas and documentaries. Humans watch this but have become so conditioned that it doesn't occur to them and, like automatons, they return to the endless round of consuming the earth's resources.

Money is used to represent the value of gold reserves held by a country but gold is itself simply a metal with no intrinsic value. I appear to be the only person on this planet who has broken away from the conditioning. To me diamonds are simply pieces of crystallised carbon, worth nothing.

Humans spend money on objects, becoming very possessive about them. That is until they become outdated by the latest technological novelty or they break or wear out. They are then converted to rubbish. Much of what humans buy was rubbish when it left the manufacturers. I walk past rubbish skips outside the houses of humans and see what they have spent money on in the past revert to their true value when their usefulness ends.

I have sometimes wondered what the world would be like without money. When Gene Roddenbury created Star Trek, his humans have dispensed with the use of money all together. It would mean that everyone would be volunteers and that everything they produced would be free to everyone. There would be no point in crimes such as robbery.

I hear a lot about humans in debt and owing money. There doesn't seem to be anyone who wants to live within their means today. They would attempt anything to get more money, including competitions and game shows. And there are plenty of organisations who are only too willing to help them to purchase what they would like. Gambling seems to be a growth industry and humans buy lottery ticket and scratchcards even though the odds are heavily against them winning anything significant.

For those who owe money, the most obvious way to prevent this happening would be to force those money lenders to reduce their level of greed and usury. But the money lenders have the law on their side, because governments are only interested in wealth. They have no interest in those who can't pay back the loans, except to get them to vote for them when necessary and to be used as industry and work fodder to create wealth for their business friends.

The more wealth a human accumulates, the larger their carbon footprint becomes. They buy larger, fuel consuming cars. They use more air travel, including the use of a private jet, for frequent holidays abroad or for numerous homes in various countries.