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Polemic and Anecdote The following polemic mixed with anecdote was written in the course of correspondence with Brian, an old friend from days together working in Madras (now Chennai). The general theme and purpose of the ongoing dialogue is a shared understanding of the origin and nature of human consciousness.
“As
to ourselves, November has been a sobering month of reflection and change.
Change in our material circumstances (an excellent newish tow vehicle, etc) and
in our world view following the death of brother Michael.
Overall,
I have concluded, at least for now, that things have become much too
complicated, that too much time is spent in refuting the old, the out of date
ideas, rather than just embracing the new. How can it be that myths, legends
and superstitions from the Bronze Age still have any influence? They are
fading, losing their hold, but how splendid it would be if they did not exist.
Let's just forget any ideas that arose before Marx, Darwin and Einstein. Simple
enough. Let's just ignore anything in psychology, psychiatry, philosophy,
sociology not based on post-Darwinian thinking.
That
leaves something much simpler: the evolution of life forms and the development,
in humans, of self-awareness (consciousness) and, with it, language. That's
all. After that, we can leave it to Marx to understand how societies develop,
based on the means and organisation of work/labour/production and how that
society, in turn, distorts our consciousness (our internal simulations and
narratives) to suit its own ends.
Now
we are formed and live in a society dominated by capitalism in its late and,
perhaps, final form before its collapse. And how programmed the people are who
surround us wherever we go in northern and western Europe! Programmed to work
and consume. How pleasant it is to be among people with less sophisticated
programming: late feudal mixed with early capitalist, beginning in Greece.
Further east and south, the heavy programming of hegemonic religions takes
hold.
Sitting
in the crematorium for 30 minutes, looking at Michael's coffin while an account
of his life, from birth to death, was read from the lectern, I realised just
how simple things are. Here was a mammal with a brain, programmed to follow his
male parent figure into work in a bakery, marry, beget and raise 5 children, take
part in socially-approved activities and hobbies, have mass-produced opinions,
form a version of himself, an ego if you will, and die as an animal does when
the genes kicked in with one of several diseases of the elderly evolved for
this purpose (in his case, cancer).
What
more to life can there be beyond this, except what you do, Brian – seek and
search for the truth, attempting to reach and touch the reality of our human
condition. And share that awareness, attempting to dispel delusion. Perhaps begin
to prepare a generation for a life when the ideologies of capitalism crash, die
and fade.
We
cycled through Romania in 1988 on our way to Istanbul. At that time, a third of
the population was in or reported to the secret police, the Securitate. All books published in the
country were written by Nicolae or his wife Elena (eg all the books we saw in
the university bookshop in Timisoara). Religion was banned and Marxist-Leninist
theory was taught in schools, etc. Every road was lined with billboards of quotes
from the Ceausescu's speeches. This was an attempt to impose a rigid ideology
on a closed society behind closed borders: took us hours to get in - and to get
out again.
We
went into Romania again in February 1990 with a donated Budget van overloaded
with aid for orphans. This was 6 weeks after the Ceausescu's were shot. There
had been a 'communist' regime since 1945, with the Ceausescu's in power from
1965 to 1989. But within 6 weeks of the partial collapse of the regime and the
opening of the borders, the ideology was dead. The young people we met were
already planning for the advent of capitalism and learning English rather than
Russian.
We
have been back to Romania several times since and capitalism rules, with a
parallel culture of cronyism and corruption.
This
just indicates the strength of the capitalist ideology that entraps us. People
will die for it – in the armed forces but also from stress and overwork
supporting the system from within. This is particularly true for the layers of
middle management and the professions picked out of the working class by the
11+ and similar processes, to be seduced into a suburban materialistic
life-style.
Travel
(we are now in our 19th year) is the only way we know to escape from
much of this! We try to see it and understand it from the outside.”
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