Philosophical Dialogues XXVII
Concerning Being a n d
Existence XXVII
By Franz J. T. Lee.
January 17, 2000
Revision: Absolute Truth, Religious Mind Control, Ideology
(Scene: Philosophy Workshop)
(In Hotel La Pedregosa, at
the swimming pool,
the Philosophy Students have organized another
Workshop, and they invited Prof. Coseino to attend
their academic deliberations.)
Coseino: (relaxing in a rocking chair) This is what I call life, a philosophic atmosphere, an Open University.
Mahatma: (sitting next to him, looking at the students frolicking and plunching around) For sure, Thales of Miletus was right.
Coseino: Why do you say that? Do you mean "ariston men hydor"?
Mahatma: Yes, Coseino. Water is the Best , the best for the eyes to see, to have a vision of beauty, of truth.
Coseino: Only the blue water?
Mahatma: (smiling, with an innocent childlike look) Well, also that what water had produced, what came out of the water.
Coseino: (laughing merrily) Mermaids?
Mahatma: No, goldfishes!
(Patricia approaches, drying herself with a towel)
Coseino: Hi! Goldilocks! Did you enjoy your swim?
Patricia: Why are you two laughing? Something is fishy here.
Coseino: Mahatma and I were just gaffing about the good olden days in Guyana, where we have fished many a surprise out of the Guysuco swimming pool.
Patricia: Well, folks. The fishing party is over now. Let's begin with our workshop. Today, freely, we will discuss all kinds of themes related to Religion, Ideology, Body and Mind Control.
(Comfortably, they all arrange themselves, seated in a circle.)
Adam: Before we dive into more profound, stormy waters, I would like to ask two very simple questions: What is the meaning, the purpose of life? Why should I worry, whether my body or my mind is ideologically controlled?
Coseino: This is what you call "simple questions"?! Then, I would love to hear the complex ones later! ...
Adam: (steering towards the far edge, towards the point of no return) Lately, I have been visiting the web site of the "Leading Edge International Research Group", there I encountered the following statement of Itzhak Bentov:
"We now know that the purpose of evolution is to produce consciousnesses of higher and higher order. The universe is a teaching and learning machine. Its purpose is to know itself...."
Coseino, what do you think about this statement?
Coseino: Apart from the capitalist, ideological phraseology, "purpose of evolution", "production of consciousnesses", "higher order" and a "teaching and learning machine", I think that Itzak scores a point, when he refers to the "purpose" of the "universe", of Cosmos, "to know itself". This, for sure, is oracular wisdom, is "gnothi seautón".
Adam: Sorry for troubling you with seemingly "stupid" questions. But, is perhaps the "meaning of life" not the search for Truth, for Absolute Truth? What is Truth? It is very significant in matters of the Mind, of Mind Control.
Coseino: The other day, I was strolling around on our small farm in San Onofre, on our mesita. It was a beautiful, sunny afternoon. I looked up at the sky, and without any mental reflection, I murmured: "The sky is blue". Given my specific visual organs, my eyes and my glasses, I was convinced that I am making a true statement.
Suddenly a vulture was soaring over my head, turned on its back, enjoyed the rays of the sun, and was sailing downhill. I wondered, what it would say about the sky, if it could think or talk, -- and who says that it cannot "think" and "talk", -- probably: "My nest is huge." Now, if billions were not mind-controlled, were not just repeating phrases, like Pavlov-Dogs, just imagine what they all would say about the sky. There would be billions of heavenly connotations.
Nonetheless, the ultimate truth about the sky
would be the totality of all "relative"
truths, the relation of all the heavenly views. This then would
be the famous "Absolute Truth" in the Patria.
Albert: Relativity is my field. Absolute, per definitionem, denotes "definite", requiring no qualification whatsoever. Absolute statements or Truth cannot be thought, not expressed in words or language, not in terms that exclude others, they are all-comprehensive, total. In fact, Absolute Truth is related to what we understand by Transcendence.
Adam: Do you mean that nobody can think, can possess Absolute Truth? Not even the Pope, the President of the United States, the Illuminati, Karl Marx?
Coseino: Let me quote what the "Leading Edge" scholars have to say about such Absolute Truths, especially the religious ones:
"Now to claim one is in possession of the absolute truth is tantamount to saying one is the Absolute. This is heresy, heresy of the most dreadful sort.... claiming to be the Absolute! Nevertheless, over the course of the past two thousand years, multitudes of Christians have been tricked into committing heresy -- by their very own religious leaders! They have been required to believe that the Bible is the absolute truth -- the word of the Absolute."
Elvis: Holy Smoke! I never thought that this could happen to me! I'm stunned! I got stung! Does this mean that the Holy Scriptures, that the Old and New Testament, are just telling fairy tales?
Coseino: You forgot to add the Gnostic Books to the Holy Bible, that were "purged" by the Spanish Inquisition.
Albert: Elvis and Adam, even then, please do not forget that these "Holy Books" were filtered by the religious interpreters, who were responsible for Mind Control, for Ideology. The Bible which Napoleon read, which was revered by Albert Schweitzer, which Luther translated, and which the Mother of Calcutta carried out, all were different, containing different "relative" and "absolute" truths.
Elvis: Then, what I have been taught by my Mom -- may she rest in peace --, at school, in church, all that has been absolute nonsense.
Mahatma: Worse. Just like the so-called Bible or Koran is a religious interpretation of the "Absolute", Marx' Capital is an economic interpretation of the accumulation process, and expresses no "absolute truth" either.
The Bible is not the word of the Absolute; it is an interpretation of the word of the Absolute. The Origin of Species is in no way definitive, even though it is regarded widely as the definitive word on evolution. The Origin is an interpretation of the evolutionary process, a patrian interpretation that has little scientific-philosophic merit. Also, the Origin is only a Darwinian interpretation. About all these things, we know no Truth, less so, the "Absolute Truth".
Jeanette: Yes, these all concern "Being and Nothingness". And you could add to the ideological list: Beauty, Justice, Democracy, Human Rights, Hope and Love.
(The waitress approaches. Everybody orders something to cool the "sacred" nerves.)
Martina: I thought that "terrorists" and "commies" brainwash the masses, now I see that the very "Fathers" of the Church and of the State are the culprits. At university, their beloved civil servants complete the brain-laundering. Where did the New Testament come from? Don't tell me that even Jesus Christ is fake, is some ideological fabrication.
Adam: Of course, the New Testament was written by some disciples of Jesus, who sat at his feet, listening to "His Master's Voice".
Coseino: Don't be too sure of that!
I'm sure that you all heard about Irenaeus, the Bishop of Lyons, circa 180 A.D. Well, he needed an authoritative text to control the minds of his flock, and to eliminate all medieval "terrorists" and "communists", all those unbelievers, who resisted religious ideology. He set forth his own orthodoxy, a voluminous book, called Libros Quinque Adversus Haereses (Five Books Against Heresies).
Forbidding any form of diversity, Irenaeus declared a One and Only Church; outside of this valid religious institution, there would be no religious salvation. Whoever challenged his authority, especially any member of the Gnostics, was immediately annihilated. He created a canon of "Holy Books", and they are now known as the "New Testament".
Adam: And I, poor idiot, thought that they contained the blessed "Word of the Absolute", of God.
Coseino: In 1995, the saddest thing of all is, that the otherwise excellent Leading Edge Research Group came to the following strange conclusion with reference to God:
"All in all, perhaps the most fair, and most scientific name, for the ultimate reality would be the "All That Is." All That Is has the very great merit of leaving nothing out. What better name can we find for the Comprehensive God?"
However, I must admit, they came very near to
Quodditas a n d Quidditas, to What Is
a n d That It Exists", to our Essence a n
d Existence, to Cosmos a n d Einai.
(The
debate on Religious Mind Control continues for a while. Others participate
in the
discussion. Then, everybody wants
to pause for a while. All order some refreshments and something to chew the
"ghosts" away. Patricia pushes Mahatma into the pool. She dives in, too.
Others follow. Indira drags Coseino towards the pool, suggesting that exercising
is good for his "big" belly. He claims that he is so "skinny", that not even
rain drops could wet his body. After heavy protests, sprayed all over with
water, like a wet cat, reluctantly he slips into the pool. A friendly, sunny,
blue sky smiles at them. No boring doldrums, no voracious vultures, no ravenous
Illuminati birds of prey can be seen anywhere. Joyfully the crew cruises
in azure turbulent waters. Half-an-hour later. All afresh, everything anew,
the session commences again.)
Karl: I am enjoying the relaxed discussion today. Also the way in which we can ask free questions. From the launching of the "purpose" and "meaning" questions, arises another interesting aspect: Quo vadis? Where are we going? Is there an After-Life? What "meaning" remains after Life?
Coseino: Don't worry, Karl. Be patient, await a few classes more. We're already "on our way" to the "Promised Land". You remind me of T. S. Eliot, who in his "Four Quartets" wrote:
"We shall not cease from exploration/
And the end of all our exploring/
Will be to arrive where we started/
And know the place for the first time...."
This Eliot was a brilliant guy, at least, he questioned the patrian spatiotemporal parameters.
Karl: In philosophic terms, thinking about the Aristotelian Left, about Avicenna, Averroes and Avicebron, and about natura naturans and natura naturata, about Creator and Creation, the latter are practically synonymous.
Bill: Reminding you about your "Blue Angel" -- not about Marlene Dietrich --, which is definitely related to animism and totemism, to eco-salvation, in "primitive" society the aborigines or native peoples had exactly this very same philosophic idea. No metropolitan cathedra will classify them as "great" Aristotelian Left philosophers.
Karl: It's true. Probably, if we would ask the Bushmen or Pygmies in Africa: "What is the way for you to live?", they would reply: "We should live in harmony with the sacred natural powers of existence of our ancestors."
Coseino: Concerning this issue, in North America, the "Red Indian", Black Elk, said it very poignantly:
"Once we were happy in our own country and we were seldom hungry, for then the two-leggeds and the four-legged lived together like relatives, and there was plenty for them and for us. But the Wasichus [whites] came, and they have made little islands for us and other little islands for the four-leggeds, and always these islands are becoming smaller, for around them surges the gnawing flood of the Wasichus; and it is dirty with lies and greed."
William: Linking up with our previous discussion, did not modern bourgeois science destroy feudalist religion and God? And therewith religious Mind Control?
Coseino: Gerald Heard already confirmed, that "Newton banished God from Nature, Darwin banished him from Life". However, in the individual minds, especially in the billions of bi-cameral ones, God still lingers on.
Adam: Does this mean that I must close my Bible and open my "Origin Of The Species"?
Coseino: Well, Adam, as a "good patrian citizen", you can study the new "Science-As-Religion", Scientism. It's "New Testament" is composed exactly of Darwin's "Origin" and the "Descent of Man". The contemporary dominant religion, suited for Globalization, is Scientism, it is the current orthodoxy, Neo-Darwinism. Adam, you could join! And then inform us about its progress towards the Infinite.
Adam: No thank you! I won't be a good spy. I'm fed up with Religion, fed-up with the Absolute and the Infinite. Perhaps, Mahatma would love this new role.
Mahatma: No way! Coseino, in your youth, you always dreamt about becoming an excellent priest. What about joining the "New Priesthood", the Geneticists? These "genetic engineers" are the priests, the exorcists of the Third Millennium. Should I have a "dysfunctional behaviour", you could find my genetic defects and fix up my behavioural disorders.
Coseino: Be careful, the "modern scientists" hold that the only hope for you, for world peace, is in turning the planet into a kind of Leviathan, into a super-kennel. Hence, across the whole planet, from the ideological blockbusters a "peaceful" wow-wow will be heard. Jeffrey, you better build a solid bunker for us all.
Once the billions have been properly kennelled, the dog-eat-dog status quo established, the body and mind control machinery perfected, then the "Brave New World" of genetic engineering will celebrate its heyday.
Martina: If that happens, then the whole of humanity would surely be on the straight path of definite extinction. Is there any way of avoiding this disaster, generated by ruling class exploitation a n d domination, by Body a n d Mind Control?
Max: This reminds me of the famous statement of Buck Rogers, sorry, of Buckminster Fuller: "Quite clearly, our task is ... to get all of humanity to educate itself swiftly enough to generate social patterns that will [enable us to] avoid extinction." Karl, I think that this is exactly what you have in mind. Correct?
Karl: Yes, Max. I think that it is the goal of the whole Pandemonium Crew.
Coseino: Survival
depends on the ability of homo sapiens to adapt itself to the
catastrophic conditions brought about by the disastrous, globalized, post-industrial
Third Millennium. I do not even see an infinitesimal possibility of the Darwinian
"fittest", adapting themselves to the future apocalyptic life circumstances,
which will face us in the immediate future. Another species, for that matter,
an artificially created, cloned human substitute may survive, but then we
are not talking about homo sapiens anymore.
In early history, when the natural and social environment underwent drastic changes, human organisms had tried to accommodate themselves to the new situation, however, others, for example the Bushmen or "Red Indians" could not, hence, they perished. Similarly, the bulk of the so-called "Third World" will necessary perish, as a result of the new post-industrial technological means of production.
Karl: Coseino, please give us a "concrete" example.
Coseino: A simple
example will suffice. We are out in Ejido, in the semi-desert region, where
during the day, the average temperature is 35 degrees Centigrade. Then night
falls, it is suddenly "invierno", also the temperature falls to 14 degrees.
Indira, Jeanette and Martina begin to shiver, get goose flesh. Shivering
agitates the body, hence generating an increased blood flow. Jeanette's shivering
is the message of her body: "Girl, I need to warm up!" This
is a natural need. Now imagine, under the stress of a destroyed ozone layer,
intoxicating smog, no oxygen, no potable water, high levels of radio-activity,
the after effects of prozac, massive body exercises, artificial, cloned food,
which sane and healthy body of homo sapiens could survive this total
onslaught on human life? Who can still "adapt" himself to
these harsh conditions? Who is still "fit" after the psychological stress
of Mind Control and the physical strain of "body exercises", weight-lifting,
aerobics and "flex appeal", of Body Control, to withstand this hellish torment?
In fact, a great part of "humanity" has already perished, and it is vanishing
every second. I would not call walking corpses and brainless bodies "human";
they are not to be blamed, but they are being transformed progressively into
rather very obscure "Zombies". This is how far "democracy", "world peace",
"development", "progress" and "technology" have gotten us!
(A couple of tourists approaches
the Crew.
With surprise, the lady greets Coseino.)
Mary: By Jove! Are you really Coseino? The real Prof. Coseino? We heard somebody addressing you. We could not believe our ears and eyes!
Coseino: Yes, Madam, it's Yours Truly!
Joseph: We're from Sydney, Australia. By accident, a search machine directed us to your Home Page, to the Pandemonium Crew. It became our favourite Web Site. Instead of looking at soap operas, impatiently, we are awaiting the new weekly scenes. We never ever dreamt, that we would see you and your marvellous class in flesh and blood!
Coseino: What a small world, what a huge step for the historic future of emancipated humanity.
Mary: It was a pleasure meeting you. We're off to an Internet Cafe, to read this next chapter.
(Happily, the two rush off. What a strange world! What weird coincidences...)
Coseino: Well, folks, I'll have to be off. Enjoy the next section of your workshop debates.
(Warmly, the students wish their beloved tutor a cheerful day. Coseino thinks: There are more things in Heaven and on Earth than are dreamt of in my Philosophy.)