Affluence is Destructive
Indeed, it is the most destructive force Man has ever discovered – it makes the Atomic Bomb look puny by comparison. I just barely survived it myself – but the America I left behind is full of the dazed victims of its success, who have no idea what hit them. And every other country in the world is rushing to emulate them.
No matter what the final fall of the world will look like, we can say one thing for sure – The End has already happened, and now we are just waiting for it to inexorably complete itself. It cannot be reversed, because its basic assumption is everywhere the same – everyone wants to be affluent, and will settle for nothing less!
Even if the whole world falls in – as it is indeed doing.
What I am saying here is nothing new – The Good Book (especially the New Testament) said the same thing, over and over. And everyone, to some degree – agrees. But their unconscious mind (which is firmly in control) will reply “But we gotta have it anyway. If the world goes to Hell, let it go to Hell with a bang!”
A short historical review is in order here – a review of the 20th Century, which was mainly an orgy of destruction. WWI and WWI (basically the same war) were wars of industrial destruction, which left behind two super-powers, the US and the USSR. Which promptly went to war with each other – in a most unusual war: the Cold War.
This almost resulted in global nuclear annihilation, when the USSR ordered one of it missile submarines to launch its missiles during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The submarine commander, fortunately for us, ignored these orders.
The Cold War’s objective, and one at which it succeeded completely, was the destruction of the American and Soviet economies – which ended unexpectedly with the Soviet collapse.
But meanwhile, back in America, post-war affluence – the most exaggerated one the world had ever seen – had destroyed America, without firing a shot. I witnessed this personally, as a child, as a young college graduate, and as a working adult. Like everyone else, I had no understand of what was going on. I only had the strong feeling that something was wrong. And that things were not turning out the way they were supposed to.
Even much later, in the beginning of the 21st Century, when this was completely obvious, people were still saying “Nothing wrong is going on!” Or its close opposite – when fingers were pointed at nearly everything imaginable (such as Terrorism) as the Problem.
When the Problem was that we had been destroyed by Affluence – and destroyed completely.
How this happened, I am not sure. Except the same thing happens to spoiled children – they do not grow up, and cannot function as adults. This happened to a whole society, or culture – the culture of Affluence (with a capital A).
“fortunately for us, ignored these orders”… really? I had no idea! Wow and cool.
As for the rest, have you read Paridise Lost by Milton? It postulates a lot. It asks us to answer the most controversally piece of humanity: obedience to a higher power.
Better to RULE in Hell than server in Heaven
In the mind one can make a Heaven out of Hell and a Hell out of Heaven.
If one considers the culture of affuence one will find a god, a goal, a focus, a locus of control. Are we not controlled by our goals? What is the goal in the contemporary mind?
Back up /Answer these questions:
If you create something do you have the right/control to break it/smash it?
Can a child usurp the wishes of the parent?
If a parent is bad, whose fault is that?
Can a child dicern when a parent is bad?
What is bad?
What is love?
If you do not feel love does that mean that you do not need to act in a loving way?
What is love?
Is love a feeling?
Is love an action of free-will without reason and based on goodness of the giver or must it be earned?
If it is not earned what then?
Who then is worthy of love?
What should I then love?
Should I only love those things that give back to me?
Pleasure gives back to me. It is predictable.
I therefore love myself.
Another take:
I serve my maker.
My maker has control over me.
My parents serve the maker who made them to make me.
My maker is good.
My parents are good.
However, I may choose. My choice will determine my relationships.
I can choose to be subservient or dominant.
My choice depends on my evaluation of my domination.
If my dominating force is bad in my estimation I will not obey.
If my dominating force is good I will obey.
I have the free will to decide.
I will serve my best interests.
I will base this on who I love.
I need to decide if I am for the team or for a new captain. If I do not agree with the reasoning of the play, I will consider if this benefits me.
I will trust my maker who can break me as he made me. I will consider his play to benefit me as he has put me into play.
I am not the captain of my soul
I disagree with my teammates on these points:
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
This is original sin in my estimatiom. This will create the greedy god of affluance, who many will worship without being satisfied. I would rather serve in Heaven as Who I serve loves me. Love; an action.
Contemporary society has exchanged love due to not being loving; they are in search of love again. They love a new god. They love themselves are not satisfied.