There is no Source in Nature. Nature exists, a vast chemical-biological machine whose only purpose seems to be to exist. This planet where we live, the solar system, the cosmos have form, and the machinery operates, and here we are.
Evolution is part of Nature’s machinery. The design of Nature combines chaos with Existential disregard, and species appear and thrive for a time, and then the species either evolve further – successful evolution – or the species dies off – unsuccessful evolution.
Einstein chose the metaphor of the closed pocket watch to represent the Universe: we can see that it exists, but we can neither read the results nor describe with certainty the internal mechanism. Science is able to infer the nature of the hidden mechanism, but all is theoretical – if the theory is consistent with previously ‘proven’ Laws of Nature and-or to new measurements, then the theory is valid.
Science goes only so far, and statements are valid only to the extent that they are replicable
and work in practice.
Source arises only in the realm of human affairs. The pine tree does not source, it just performs according to the instruc- tions encoded in its D.N.A. – it sends out roots and converts sunlight & air & water into chlorophyll and produces seed cones and lives out its span.
Cetaceans & canines & cockroaches & algae do the same: they exist, they grow, they eat to survive, they procreate, and they fight or resist aggression from other species while reacting to changes in the environment.
But no Source. The biological machinery operates, and events occur, and survival of the individual or the species is never certain.
The species Homo sapiens has existed about 150,000 years, which is a mere tick in the existence of Einstein’s closed watch, A teeny, tiny, micro-moment in the timeline of the Universe, and only the most recent tick. Project out a future of another dozen billion years, and perhaps Homo sapiens and ‘civilization’ will last for another tick. (Maybe two ticks if Mankind works real hard, putting a real effort into the survival of Mankind, thru Reason.)
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Where did the Declaration of Independence come from?
Historians like to point to forces within Civilization that produce ‘progress’ as the inevitable result of History. Pure bunk. No such thing is inevitable.
While Locke and Hume and the Iroquois Confederacy did precede the American Revolution of 1776, they did
not Source the upstart patriots who met in Philadelphia to change the future of America – and the world.
Only 25 percent of the residents of the British Colonies of America favored breaking with King George III and the power- ful British Empire. The remaining 75 percent worked their farms, ran their businesses, drank their ale, and couldn’t be bothered. The majority just wanted to be left alone, their lives were tough enough already, they preferred to avoid all the fuss about rights and taxation and freedom.
But a conversation arose in the Thirteen Colonies, and less than 100 Individuals took on the importance of the suppression of liberties and oppressive taxation and ill-treatment of the populace. The commonly-noted heroes of the American Revolution are of course Jefferson & Adams & Washington & Franklin, but no one of the Forefathers was the Source of that Revolution and what followed.
What happened then – and is needed now – is that several committed Individuals took responsibility for the future of America, many Individuals holding clandestine meetings and communicating on paper – letters written by quill pen and delivered by a postal system based on horses traveling over dirt roads – and finally met and wrangled for 3 weeks in Philadelphia. There they produced a document that was signed by 56 men who ‘mutually pledged to each other their Lives, their Fortunes, and their sacred Honor’ for the cause, that document being the most important ever written. (A dozen or so delegates did not sign.)
These men, Individuals working as a group, Sourced a new Future for Mankind. And they fought the most powerful empire of the time – and they won.
Because these men did so, everyone born since then has access to (at least) the concept of Freedom From Tyranny, though the majority of now-living humans have never experienced any such thing. And of course, the neo-fascists currently running America into the ground are determined to
UNDO everything that the Forefathers stood for, that the Declaration of Independence spoke into existence, and that the later U.S. Constitution established forever in the form of Law.
Today, the Republicans follow orders lockstep, especially within Congress, and the Democrats flail about without leader- ship, and third party believers hawk irrelevant dogma. And the majority of the citizen-sheep again work their jobs and imbibe their drug-of-choice (mindless television) and cannot be bothered – What’s all the fuss?.
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Most people live inside a ‘they’ world. Their internal False Mind tells them that the Individual does not matter, that Reality exists according to ‘everybody else’.
They watch television, therefore you must;
they are in danger, so your reality can only be fear;
they are ‘better off’ as complacent sheep, so that is your best move also;
they don’t want the boat rocked, so you are left to sink or swim
(So what’s the problem?);
they say whatever, so it must be true;
they who made the mess insist that they are in charge by right, so please leave them in charge until they figure out a solution, any change of horses in midstream is too awful to contemplate.
‘They’ want control but do not want Responsibility or Accountability.
The opposite of Source is anything that destroys. The Working Minds definition of Evil is “the dis-empowerment of oneself or another being”. {See WMail essay #27, from Chapter 4 of the Working Minds book.}
King George of England exploited the Colonies ruthlessly, and American patriots severed all relations with England: the absence of tax monies from the Colonies severely cut revenue to England’s treasury (though the British had lots more Empire to exploit). {Visit the Working Minds ‘Boycott W-9 Project’}
The government of today’s Emperor George accepts as its god-given due your taxes (under duress) and the lives & future of your children (under economic duress) and massive invasion of your privacy (by secret use of force) because terrorists in Asian caves hate us. The neo-fascists have entirely dis-empowered the U.S. Constitution, piece by piece, right by right – only a Revolution to re-enforce the practices & intentions of the Constitution will prevent Emperor George from declaring himself dictator before 2008.
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We humans hold onto tales from the past because they embody lessons for the present. Whether historically accurate or not matters little, for we choose these folk tales and hand them down – and the tales taught or not taught in school – to serve as metaphor, as guidance for the future. The metaphors tell us what to do and what to expect.
The metaphors of today, however all derive from media (television, video games, music, news show propaganda). Our model is now the bickering that has replaced adult political discourse; the lawless government agent on TV who violates the rights of anyone in his path to ‘save the world’; voting is for “America Idol” contestants; and ratings-driven choices (x-percent watched this program or bought a ticket for opening weekend, and if you did not join the mob then you are a loser and uncivilized scum).
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George Washington was one of the half-dozen landed gentry who Sourced the United States, as an idea and as reality, and he/they also made of it an ideal for Mankind. Washington stood as Source the rest of his life, alongside others who carried on the Torch of Freedom. He is called the Father of His Country.
Perhaps Washington’s most telling achievement was the Winter of 1777-78 at Valley Forge. His men were underfed, the cold was extreme but often mild enough that the roads were muddy and supply wagons unable to travel, and firewood was scarce. But
this George stayed true to his mission, true to his commission as general of the Continental Army, and that is what Source is.
Washington’s men knew that their lives were in dire distress, but more importantly they knew that they each were necessary to the fulfillment, the success of Washington’s chosen mission, that they each had to make a choice
for Freedom (against tyranny),
for the Individual (against sheep-hood),
for the Future (against living in fear).
Source is taking a Stand that is uncertain and provides a Future for other people.
The men who Sourced the First American Revolution went to their graves knowing that they had done so, that they had lived true to their pledge of ‘Lives, Fortunes, and sacred Honor’, that they had each risked everything for an idea Sourced by a few.
Where are, who are the few who will Source the Second American Revolution? Who are the few who will stand up and lead the sheep away from the slaughterhouse of the Oligarchy? Who are the men
and women who are ‘not going to take it any more’?
Who are the patriots who dare to speak Revolution into existence, who dare to Source action in the existential (real) world, who dare to Stand for taking back this country from the neo-fascists, for restoring America as the Beacon of Freedom, and re-building America as a government “of the people, by the people, [and] for the people”?
And why exactly is it not you?
[copyright 2006 by Gary Edward Nordell, all rights reserved]
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