No ratings.
This is a class assignment for my sociology of religion class. Please rate! |
The Terrestrial Manifesto Introduction There is no question that our world totters on the brink of destruction! Corporate greed, traditional ignorance, blind consumerism and environmental degradation threaten our very survival and our only home, Earth! How did we get ourselves into this mess? What are the future implications of our current way of life? Is there any hope, or is homo sapiens irrevocably damned? Read on to discover the answers to these questions- your future and your children’s future hang in the balance! I. THE EDEN PARADIGM-NECESSITY For thousands of years, humanity lived in absolute harmony with the Earth and with itself. Humanity roamed the world in foraging bands- THE EDEN PARADIGM. Days were spent contributing to the welfare of everyone. This service in the common good was accomplished through three primary means. The bands hunted and gathered food for their members, taking precisely what they needed. Second, these bands avoided joining in political, social and economic structures. This is vital because these bands preserved autonomy-both for the band and the individual. Additionally, they avoided the inherent environmental degradation and social oppression (our constant woes) of large-scale organizations. No consumerism, no blind dogma, no environmental destruction- pure necessity drove humanity. Humans lived and died with dignity. Life and Death were accepted as natural components of existence. Humans lived without the purely fictional depiction of Death as somehow abnormal. Instead, humans viewed their deaths as their return to the Mother that nurtured them. Humans worked hard and in unison with themselves and the Earth. Mother Earth provided humanity with everything it needed. A cycle of life and death was firmly in place. No “perfection”, just NECESSITY. II. THE GREAT DEVIATION-DOCTRINE Our historical and present woes are all contained in one grave mistake-THE GREAT DEVIATION. In short, our ancestors abandoned NECESSITY and adopted a new watchword: WANT. We ceased to be satisfied with fulfilling the needs of our existence. This new worldview led to the development of agrarian civilization, ultimately ushering in the great social and environmental pestilence: DOCTRINE. Namely, DOCTRINE includes the religious systems that encourage people to cast their eyes to heaven and ignore the here-and-now. Through their dogmas, these religions have separated man from his fellow, and have encouraged arrogant, exploitative attitudes toward the environment. These religions exhort man as the pinnacle of Creation. Therefore, what obligation will man have to his fellow man and his only true Mother? Furthermore, DOCTRINE entails science and technology. Science encourages man to think that he needs more than what is acquired to fulfill his needs. Technology simply serves to fulfill such avarice. This all leads to environmental degradation, consumerism and overall cutthroat competition. In short, the greatest danger of DOCTRINE is that it usurps the mentality and therefore the practices of humans under THE EDEN PARADIGM. In addition to DOCTRINE, THE GREAT DEVIATION generally stimulated social stratification that persists to the present age. The impact of THE GREAT DEVIATION reverberates throughout time, and its deadliness is made clear in our time: THE ERA OF DEMOCLES! III. THE ERA OF DEMOCLES-OBLIVION We are in THE ERA OF DEMOCLES! Our historical neglect of THE EDEN PARADIGM has devastated our social and environmental worlds. This folly has now reached its apex. Economic collapse and social strife haunt every nation. Political leaders, hailed as “men/women of the people”, are nothing more than puppets of corporate leaders. The corporate leaders use their influence to gather and preserve their wealth. And they could care less about the people they exploit. People and the environment are nothing more than assets in the blind pursuit of power. All of this explains our precarious situation in this century. And if we do not reverse ourselves, then our Mother will finally die. Our Home will be destroyed forever, and we will descend into a black vortex of madness and destruction: OBLIVION! Science cannot save us! Our craven gods cannot come to our aid! So is all lost? No! So what is the answer? OPERATION: RESET. IV. OPERATION: RESET OPERATION: RESET is nothing less than a complete return to THE EDEN PARADIGM. This includes a total rejection of the poisonous fruit of THE GREAT DEVIATION: DOCTRINE. What do you mean by this “nonsense”? Give up our pearls of science and technology? Give up our all-wise Gods and our special place in the world? Why give up such goodness? There is no goodness in DOCTRINE! This so-called goodness is nothing more than an illusion created by these self-destructive systems. The goodness you associate with DOCTRINE is a social and psychological construct. This illusion is the life’s blood of DOCTRINE! If we are to survive, we must smash the stony edifice of DOCTRINE and kick its rubble from our sight. We must accept the natural cycle of our ancestors. We must allow our Mother to revive Herself. All other arrangements we must avoid. V. IN SHORT: JOIN US IN OPERATION: RESET! DO NOT CLING TO DOCTRINE! YOUR WANTS ARE NOT YOUR NECESSITIES! YOUR MOTHER EARTH HAS ALL YOUR NEEDS, AND THAT IS WHAT YOU SHOULD DESIRE!! |