Headlines in Hell

Sometimes it can be difficult to keep it all in view. Simply keeping abreast of happenings in this insane and accelerating world becomes a consuming task, and I'm left staring somewhat bewildered at a spread of strange headlines standing in at this moment of time for all the weird currents making their way through the modern zeitgeist.

What am I to make of those Somali pirates boarding freighters and holding their captains for ransom? Thank god the navy of the free world is there to protect the lives of sailors (and the trade routes they ply.) As usual of course the villains don't call themselves 'pirates', but pass themselves off as members of the 'Volunteer Coast Guard of Somalia'. Of course the self-styled affectations of criminal gangs aren't to be taken seriously. Nor, if it can be helped, mentioned, lest the weak-minded be led astray.

Tony Blair has risen, born anew from his ignominous political death into the life of a spiritual man of faith, and that conversion is by all accounts proceeding splendidly for him. Most recently he has announced the formation of his Faith Foundation, an interfaith teaching society of some sort that will work towards peace and and understanding between the world's faith. Is it cynical of me to suspect him of acting with ulterior motive, here ... perhaps as part of an effort to coopt faith communities much as Al Gore was used to marshall the green movement? There is a plan here, but I am not sure it is God's plan save in the very long term, as all plans must ultimately be.

In New York City, the police state is baring its fangs at the the student population, as a taste no doubt of more and worse to come. The author of that piece seems very concerned about the brutality and the repression, as any good socialist is, but yet I wonder ... how many of them listened, nodding wisely, to smart men tell them that there were no conspiracies, that the source of all the inequalities and atrocities is systemic? Now the system is important, I agree, but few of these people ever ask themselves whose system and rather than ask those questions, how many agreed that there was no point, for serious men at least, in wasting valuable time picking apart the labyrinthine world of secret societies, black budgets and banking cartels? And, now that those conspiracies are bearing their rotten and infected fruit, oh, their horror, their disgust, their shock!

It need not be for nothing. Such things happen in order to provide lessons, that we might gain understanding but ... have they?

Well, I forgive them if they don't understand. I ceased to understand long ago, but at least I understand that I don't understand, if you understand me on that. And if you're confused, too, don't despair, for these are confusing times in which it's difficult more more people than ever to hold on to their personal identity. Boys look like girls and women act like men and the criminals that supply stolen identities are engaged with each other, as we speak, in a price war. We spend more time marking and tracking and identifying one another than ever before and are more confused than ever ... and what else might you expect, in a world where so few even know of the concept of realizing the Self within, or suspect that that Self may be one with everything else?

There were four UFO sightings across the US yesterday. The usual reports, colored lights, changing geometric shapes, abrupt alterations in speed. I don't have any idea what to make of that, whether these are aliens or hyperdimensional beings from the future or evil spirits but ... given the nature of the times I don't much expect they're hear to do much good and, there certainly are a lot more of them than ever before. I wonder if we might not find ourselves all having seen some strange lights in the sky, before long. A man can dream, can't he?

It seems there's been clashes between protestors and police in Thailand. In fact, it's escalated to the point of troops being deployed, and you might think you know what I'm about to say about that and be about to nod along in agreement but ... remember the protests last December, when the airports were shut down by protestors? Perhaps you recall that they wanted rid of their corrupt puppet of foreign powers 'leader', and they were successful in that (though not as much was said of this success.) Well, they wore (and still wear) Yellow Shirts and these new ones are wearing Red Shirts and for certain primal psychobiological reasons movements that adopt the color red, well. It's seldom good news, and in that vein I'll mention that the Red Shirts have already resorted to molotov cocktails when the much larger Yellow Shirt movement confined themselves to peaceful protest (and in so doing forced out their quisling prime minister.)

The Conspiracy King is finding himself under attack by the very paranoia he did so much to encourage, and from an increasing number directions. Here's a broadside from the long-time Jones skeptics at SOTT, and here's another at Alternet. The responses in this Reality Sandwich link to the Obama Deception, Jones' recent film, continue to this day, and even those who admit to having been, to a certain degree, activated by Alex voice doubt as to, at the very least, the wisdom of dwelling too long on the things he says. I myself remain ambivalent. The case against Jones is compelling and worthy of everyone's consideration but not yet airtight; at this point, only Jones' own actions will reveal the truth of his intentions. In the meantime he's become, for me, simply one voice amongst many, and if that one voice should someday call for armed uprising or some other patently disastrous mass movement, well, he can count me out.

The truth is hard to pin down when you're pinned to the surface of a warm wet rock hurtling through space. Your perspective gets warped, sucked into the minutiae of your own little world and there's nothing inherently wrong with that. The universe is a fractal hologram, with the smallest fragments of any world containing worlds of their own, all of them in their own way a mirror of the whole. Still, though, unless one contemplates the wholes as well as the parts one is unlikely to understand very well how their own world works and so, the whole becomes a hell and that, to me, seems to be the truth of the situation here on Planet Earth.

And as another sign that those who don't contemplate wholes understand them poorly, and a final link for you to look at, have a look at the amazing glowing black hole at the heart of M87. The astronomers are mystified, for its behaviour doesn't seem to be at all in accord with what they'd expect of a black hole with an accretion disk - its luminosity varies far more than should be physically possible - and 'this doesn't make sense' is a line you seem to hear a lot from astronomers these days but for the moment dark matter and dark energy are doing fantastic work covering the gaping whole in mainstream astrophysical theory and as a result the astronomers can go on not worrying about things like UFOs, for instance, and go about secure in the illusion that they need not revise their theories save in minor details.

A funny thing to leave off on, perhaps, but one must occasionally look at the stars and wonder, and if you don't do that and you lose sight of the vital connection between your deepest Self and the expansive cosmos around you, well, you're liable to get stuck in this mud. Or is it a lake of fire? Because it sure is getting hot down here.

It doesn't have to be this way. It never did but, that's the road we chose several thousand years ago and so this is the experience we're going to get. It's just one experience among many and we'll all experience it in our own way at some point these next few years, one way or another, whether we want to or not (and, deep down, we all want to, don't we? That, after all, is why we're here). We will experience it for exactly as long and as often as we need to.

And afterwards ... maybe, this time ... maybe this time we'll understand.

Update: As though to emphasize the importance of looking up on occasion, shortly after posting this I found myself looking at NASA's newest discovery: God's right hand. Yes I know what it really is, but is there not some symbolic significance to the fact that this object was found at this time, and not another?