Legalizing Recreational Marijuana... Legalize Something Better!

 Its a singular proof that the American Public has already smoked too much, that they want to Legalize Recreational Marijuana, when, if they still had any thinking capacity left, they would rather Legalize Recreational Drugs in General, which would then open the Door for the Big Pharmaceutical Companies to develop Euphoric Drugs, with the same or better Pleasant Feel that Marijuana has, but with none or less of the horrible side-effects that Marijuana has.



Look at HOW BAD Marijuana is -- young people who smoke it before their brains are fully developed are giving up IQ points (enough to make a Normal Person into an Idiot).   Steady Smokers slur their speech.  Steady Smokers show a lack of motivation and become passive and apathetic.  Marijuana increases appetite and may be one of the reasons behind the Big Obesity Epidemic.



Does any of that sound good to anybody?  So why Legalize that kind of Ditch Weed, when if the Pharmaceutical Companies are given the Green Flag, they could develop Drugs that could make us High without Screwing Us Up.



Right now the FDA (Federal Drug Administration) is a bit constrained by own regulations, one of which stipulates that Approved Drugs, by their definition, have to treat some kind of Disease, that is, they have to in some way help a Person in some Negative State of Health get back to the Neutral State of Health.   So, somehow it is against Their Institutional Rules to allow for any Drug that has the purpose of taking Persons of Neutral or even Good health and IMPROVING UPON IT.   But once we already have our first Recreational Drug Legalizations, then this NO DRUG ABOVE NEUTRAL Clause would already be relegated away… that is if the FDA ever comes to Recognize any of the State Recreational Drug Legalizations. 



Anyway, just a slight Tweak to the FDA Regulations, permitting for Drugs that might Improve Life Satisfaction – Drugs that can take us to an Health-Plus State of Being.   We must Unchain the Capacity of our Pharmaceutical Companies to not just fight the Negatives, but to allow them also to give us more of the Positives.



Eurphoric Drugs would make people Happy, and would that be so bad?  Especially if we could preclude Idiotic Side Effects.



Well, Historically anyway, not everyone has always wanted to be Happy.  Just look – America has a Puritanical Background.   The Calvinists would say that the Working Classes are already the Reprobate… the Un-Elect of God (or they would have been born Rich, or gotten Rich, like any good Presbyterian or Puritan) and so Life for them is just a way station to Hell, and if they belong in Hell, they certainly should not be allowed to be Happy in the World.   And then there is also the matter that the Puritans are a sad and morbid group in themselves… pushing for all that Money to prove to themselves that they are not Damned, well, so they reject happiness for themselves also.  But is this Past Way of Thinking important to us now?   And let us try to put these Puritans into something of a Modern Perspective – These Puritans were nothing more than the European and American branches of the Talaban, and their way of thinking. 



We need to get happy, even if it takes drugs for us to be able to do that.   But NOT Marijuana… unless you WANT TO BE a fat slurred speech apathetic idiot.   We put a Man on the Moon.   We should be able to make ourselves Happy without hurting ourselves at the same time.  

America’s Stubborn and Stupid Syrian Policy

I could not believe it when I saw it on CNN News, or was it CBS, anyway, the American Policy Makers saw only one possible policy in Syria, and that was to arm the ‘Moderate’ Opposition, What Moderate Opposition are they talking about?    The original Moderate Opposition was from the Junior Officer Corps of the Syrian Army who thought that the Syrian Civil War would go as mildly as Egypt, Tunis, or even Libya… that is what the American State Department had promised them – “Take to the Streets, stir up trouble, and in 60 days the Country will be yours”… whose idea was that?  Hillary’s.  Keating’s.   Well, both were horrible Secretaries of State…. Secretaries of State need to be Career Government People – outside of the pull of appealing to voters for their next big bid for Power… indeed, most Government Officials should be Career Government – outside of the pull of appealing to voters for their next big bid for power.  Anyway, after the first six months of the Civil War, many of these Young Officers reached out and begged to be taken back.  They confessed that they had been egged on by the CIA and promised Posts in the New Government but that they were sorry and wanted to come back and fight for the Legitimate Government.    Assad took them back.   When you hear on the News about the Free Syrian Army, well, its just propaganda at this point… most of the Free Syrian Army went back to the Real Syrian Army.  Their choice was to fight with the Government that had given Syria a Secular (none-religiously biased) Government for so many years, or fight side by side with all the Crazy Sectariains and Religious Fanatics.   What would any sane young officer choose?    So who is this “Moderate Opposition”?   Who ever they are are they are the little pussy cats who have been losing the Civil War to everyone whom they have gone against, indeed, the reason why ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) is so powerful, with all its tanks and artillery, was that it was able to snatch all of that stuff away from the poor little trembling and afraid Moderate Opposition.   Read History.  Revolutions are not won by Moderates.  Crazy Violent People win revoltutions… or they can be successfully opposed by Civilized, Ordered and well-funded Governments.    And in Syria today the only Government unified enough to do anything belongs to President Assad.

 

Why does America hate that guy?   When neither America or Israel could bring order to Lebanon, during their Civil War, Syria was able to step in and smooth things out… Perfectly?, well, no…. Hezbollah was included in the mix, but, really, what was Israel and America worried about, as Hezbollah had perhaps 3 or 4% of the military capacity of Israel… they could be nothing more than a nuisance.  So are we to Hate Assad simply because he solved a problem that no one else could solve while leaving a little tiny nuisance behind?   Yes, America is that stupid sometimes.  It comes from all the Crazy Money from the Pro-Israeli PACS, which accounts for most of the Money going into influencing American Political Campaigns.   Most Money going to Both Political Parties in America is sourced from Israel or collected in America from Organization based in Israel.  Therefore American Polititians – Presidents, Senators, Congressman, really have no Free Will when it comes to voting on issues involving the Mid East … the only way to be elected and stay elected is to Vote what the Crazy Israeli Right Wing wants you to Vote… and, we can’t repeat it too much – THEY ARE CRAZY!   But their dollars are green and that is all the American Political Establishment cares about, apparently.

 

But, if Common Sense ruled the day, then everyone who wanted ISIS defeated would recognize the fact that their best bet would be by backing President Assad of Syria.  A Tyrant?  Well, only in the sense that his Political Organization is Secularist.  The only people who have a problem with President Assad are the Crazy Religious Sectarians who believe that Allah wants them to Rule All and to subjugate all of the heretics and infidels who just coincidentally are not members of their Tribe and Clan.  But it can be said that Assad stands in the way of Democracy.  Duh!?  Democracy would bring into power all of the Crazy People… look at what happened in Egypt… the first free Election brought into power people direct from the Mentality of the 14^th Century – religious Nut Cases who instantly went to work to destroy Secular Principles and Fairness and Equality.  While Majorities in the Middle East are Politically Irrational because of Ethnic or Sectarian Biases, Democracy simply must be put On Hold.   And so it is a bit silly to punish Assad for doing the only rational thing that any rational Leader would do… or maybe the PACs from Israel have been remiss in not paying off Assad just as well as they pay off the American Politicians.   But for a Tyrant, maybe Assad is the only Honest Man left in the whole mix… certainly all of the Americans are paid off…

Red Eye and Infected Third Eyelid in My Cat

Sometimes everything happens at once, and one wonders whether there is some common cause underneath it all.  What happened here was that Betty, the Alpha Cat of my Household suddenly just died, probably of a heart seizure.   Well, the next day Rory, a Yearling Neutered Male, looked at me with a bit of a squint, and I should have paid more attention.   But he was not my only problem.  Foxxy, my Alpha Male 10 year old, was behaving strangely… going from sleeping place to sleeping place, apparently not finding comfort anywhere.   His ear had been drooping, but he had often used it as a mannerism (he is part Siamese, and they have all sorts of mannerisms and strange vocalizations that other cats would never even imagine doing), but when I finally decided to examine him explicitly, well, his ear was a complete bag of blood – a hematoma – “pillow ear” as some people refer to it.  So Foxxy went to the Veterinary Clinic (see my Blog about that, if you like). 

 

The next time I circled back home, well, Rory’s eye was a lot worse.  It was now decidedly red and the Third Eyelid was almost a third of the way up, almost blocking Rory’s vision.   There are places on line to read about the Third Eyelid of a cat, but I can give it to you in short – the 3^rd Eye Lid is like a passive spring, so that if the Eye is pulled back by a muscle behind the Eye, the 3^rd Eyelid automatically just pops up covering the Eye.   Cats need this because they get into fights a lot… if a Cat or some other Animal attacks them by going at their Face, then right before contact, a Reflex will pull their Eye back, and the 3^rd Lid will pop up and prevent them from being blinded. 

 

But, apparently, what happened here was that the eye had gotten infected, and that infection somehow affected that muscle behind the eye, causing it to contract, or the actual eye got smaller, causing the 3^rd Lid to start creeping up over the smaller eye.  

 

I thought it was probably a bacterial infection, and so I got some Triple Anti-Biotic Ointment (Neosporin), tested it by rubbing it into my own eye (no sting), and rubbed it in Rory’s.    Well, for a few days his eye got no worse, but not getting any better, I discontinued the Anti-Biotic Ointment.   That was a mistake.  The Time Line here was that Saturday evening Betty had died, I saw the ‘squint’ on Sunday Morning, the inflamed eye and rising 3^rd Lid on Monday.  I stopped treatment on Wednesday, and then by Friday morning Rory’s eye was very red, closed shut, and when you would pry the eye open, the 3^rd Lid completely covered his eye, and everything was red and inflamed, with a bit of puss seepage.   It all looked very very bad.   Well, I glopped on some more Neosporin as a last resort and then I had to go to work.

 

Yes, I should have taken Rory to the Vet, but we are still in what they call the Great Recession now, and Foxxy was taking up all of our discretionary income.  But this was serious, and I found myself planning to take Rory to the Vet and find out what the options were.  And if the Doctor would have suggested too many expensive Tests and too many possible treatment plans, all of them expensive, or the possibility that Rory would be blind in one eye… well, I am ashamed of it, but putting  Rory ‘to sleep’ was a possibility on my mental list of alternatives…. God have mercy on my soul.   But, thank the Good Lord, when I got home from work that Friday evening, Rory was at the door to greet me, and his Eye was open and the 3^rd Lid a great deal retracted.   The Neosporin had worked.   Rory would not have to die.

 

Now, my Veterinary Doctor says that Neosporin is not for the eyes.   But it does seem to work.  And the good thing about Neosporin, or any generic Triple Anti-biotic Ointment, is that the cats don’t mind it.   Rory was actually holding still and seemed to welcome my rubbing the Ointment into his eyelids.

 

Oh, and remember what they say about Anti-Biotics… that there must be a ‘Course’ of  treatment… 10 days or something.  Anyway, don’t do what I did and stop halfway through… keep administering the Treatment until the eye is better.

 

Now, Rory is back to being Perfect.  This morning he jumped on me to wake me up (yes, after 8 hours sleep they are allowed to at least try to wake me up) and both of his eyes were so open, wide and bright… no one could have guessed which eye had been the sick one.

 

All that aside, though, if money is no problem for you, and you have the time to take your Kitty to the Veterinary Clinic, and you notice even just a slight squint with just a hint of redness, well, don’t lose any time getting Kitty to the Vet… that Red Eye Third Lid Inflammation Thing gets BAD in a real quick hurry.   If I had gotten to Rory sooner, maybe it all would not have had to become quite so dramatic.        

Cat Ear Hematoma or Pillow Ear and the Various Treatments

Poor Foxxy Buddy… one day I discovered that his ear was simply inflated with blood or ‘something’.   I should have known something was wrong.  Foxxy had given up his usual sleeping place and was wondering around trying place after place… trying to get comfortable.   I thought that he may have been a bit distraught over the sudden death of Betty, the House’s Alpha Cat, though I did wonder about that, as Foxxy never showed much affection for her (her sudden death may have caused him to be more anxious, in such a way that he would scratch at his ears more than normally... a Hematoma of the ear is caused by the rupturing of blood vessel within the cartilage of the ear but without a corresponding tear in the skin surrounding the ear that would allow the blood to drain).   Anyway, once discovered, and finding that he found his ear quite sensitive to the touch, I took Foxxy to my usual Veterinary Service, and their treatment protocol was to drain the hematoma, stitch up the ear to close it up, and to tell me to bring Foxxy back in 10 days to get the stitches taken out.  

Well, because of a tropical storm moving through the Islands at the time, the 10 days was changed to 13.   But several days after Foxxy had his stitches removed, his ear had puffed up again.   

Instead of going back the same Vet, for ‘warranty work’, I went to a different Veterinary Service.  The first thing the New Doctor, and old man, found was that it was no longer a simple Hematoma… an ear full of blood… no, it was an Abscess –an ear full of puss and infection.  He had never seen that before.  Anyway, the New Doctor’s Treatment plan was to drain the air, but to stitch it up with a backing material to support the ear… he used X-Ray Film.  He left a huge hole in the skin in the inside of the ear (more than a half of inch long, and a bit more than a eighth of an inch wide), so that the wound could drain, and he gave me instructions to clean the drainage… to clean off the scab… twice a day, and to put some antiseptic yellow stuff on the wound, and to do that until the ear seemed to have stopped draining and begun to heal.  Also, I was told to give Foxxy some antibiotics, orally, to stop whatever infection there was at its source.    And I was not to bring Foxxy back for stitch removal for 20 days… twice the protocol of the first Veterinary Service I had gone to.  

Lessons learned in all of this.    If your kitty’s ear is operated on, you shouldn’t have to be told to put antibiotics on the healing wound… using Neosporin on Foxxy’s ear, although nobody told me to do it, might have saved Foxxy another trip to the Vet.  Also, 10 days did not seem so much time to heal… not even 13.  

Oh, when the New Doctor removed the X-Ray film from the top of Foxxy’s ear, well, it looked red and infected and horrible.  I had my doubts about that part of Foxxy’s treatment.  But the Doctor went out into his garden and clipped me off some actual aloe vera leaves, and instructed me to freshly break the leaves section by section and to smear the aloe vera juices on Foxxy’s ear.  Well, even by the next day, Foxxy’s ear was looking so much better.    

But I am a bit concerned about the short glaze of fur that coats a cat’s ear.  Foxxy’s ear now looks a bit like bare skin, and I do hope that a new layer of fur glaze will grow up on his ear.  

Foxxy’s ear now droops, like a dogs… no longer standing up like a cat’s ear.  That is a bit sad, and also a bit ironic.  You see, if you remember, Foxxy’s full name is Foxxy Buddy, named after another ‘Buddy’ cat I had known who would always cock his ears down, like Star War’s Yoda, and Foxxy Buddy would do the same when I first met him.  Well, now, Poor Foxxy has no choice about it in regards to one of his ears.

 

But he now is doing okay.  He had hated the Treatment.   But now that the Treatment is over, he has re-initiated all of his old Quality Time Rituals, and then some… reaching out to Bond with me a little extra, after what must have been quite an ordeal for him.

Choose, Are you YOU or are you Everything

What I have noticed in Popular Culture, even in regards to Spirituality, is that the emphasis is on INDIVIDUAL wellbeing… it is as though the Business of Spirituality was addressing itself to the Market of Individual Needs and Desires.  Well, we all do live in a Capitalist Society where success is measured on the ability to sell products to Individual Consumers, and so we can’t be much surprised when even Spirituality begins to address its appeal to the Individual – the Ego, when, really, isn’t the entire point of Spiritual to transcend the Ego and Identify with the Universal.  But, apparently, the Marketing People within the ranks of the Spiritual Community haven’t yet been able to resolve that contradiction…  apparently they have all borrowed money from the Banks to fund the Business of Spirituality , and, well, they are honor bound to pay it back… but it is questionable whether they are doing it honorably.      

Yes, it may seem just like a small point of confusion… not so much the Blame of Spirituality as the Culture we now live in, so addressed to the Individual Consumer.  I forget who said it, but it was a very wise quote, regarding the good and moral men from past ages, that “their virtues were their own, but their vices belonged to the Age in which they lived”.  Anyway, all our vices belong to this Capitalist Age where Greed and Selfishness are accounted the Primary Virtues.

So we really need to look at Spirituality, and what we expect of it. Try to drown out the drumbeats of our Selfish Consumer Driven Culture , and look at Spirituality itself, in its purity.

This introspective Look  may not be pleasant.  Well, it WON’T be pleasant.  Humanity, the World, the Collective, the Universe are all in sad shape.  If you are at all Spiritually Connected, well, you should  be sad.  If you are into Spirituality to find Peace or Bliss, well maybe you are in the wrong place.  Maybe you should turn to Drug Addition  or promiscuous sexual activity to get what you are really after.  

Tara the Hero Cat, An Evolutionary Milestone

At first Man and Dog had been Symbiotic Species – two Species living together in cooperation for their mutual benefit – Dogs, because they were so well adapted for locating food-game at close proximity and being able to bring it down, and Man, because he was able to stand up on his hinder legs and look over the tall grasses and spot food-game at long distances.  Their Partnership gave them Hunting Abilities that combined the best of both worlds.

 

But, at the onset of Civilization, where Mankind would have to live on Surplus Grains – foodstuffs stored away for Tomorrow, well, Dogs could do nothing.   Rats and Mice, too small for dogs to care about, would get into the food stores and barns and eat away all they could find.  Civilization based upon Surplus Stores seemed impossible.  Then, two things happened.   First, somebody had the good sense to invent the Wheel… not just the wheel we use for wagons and such, but perhaps even more importantly, the Industrial Wheel, in this case the Wheel used for Spinning Clay Pots.  With the Clay Spinning Wheel, Storage Pots could be somewhat Mass Produced, and inside of Play Pots, grains and surplus food-stuffs could be kept safe from rodent predation.    But while the long-term Storage of Grains was thus made secure, Civilization still had the problem of protecting the Grain while it would still be in the Field, and while being gathered at Harvest, and then again when it would reach the Kitchens and Bakeries for end use.   And the rodents would not just bring with them their seemingly bottomless little appetites, but also Dirt and Disease.   Civilization was still vulnerable.   But Rescue was at hand – enter what became our new little friends, the Cats.   If Humans would only be cordial and welcoming to Cats, that is, pose no threat to them, then the Cats could come out of the Forests and Jungles and into the Fields and Barns, and then even into the Kitchens, and then confront and defeat, and have for dinner, those little maraudering rodents that had been such a problem.   Anyway, to help advance this end, in early striving Civilizations, the local Priesthoods and Shamans gave to Cats something of a Divine Status, especially in Egypt.   Cats therefore, nearly everywhere, got a boost up on Humanity’s Totem Poles and were given various new degrees of Protection.  Like Dogs before them, they acquired a special status – they became recognized as, well, ‘Pets’.

 

Now, dogs were brought into Symbiotic Relationship with Man perhaps more than 10 Thousand years ago, and, incidentally, may have actually contributed to our Language Skills.  Consider that no other Primate (monkey or ape) finds it necessary to speak to one another, but Man, who found it necessary to give commands and direction to Dogs, DID have to learn how to stretch out the Voice Box to elaborate a whole inventory of Sounds connected to expressing Conceptual Meaning through phonics.  There is no denying it – Dog was obviously ‘Man’s Best Friend’.  But Cats and Civilization came later, perhaps 5 to 7 thousand years ago, and so the Symbiotic Process with Cats has lagged a bit behind that of Dogs.  We can see some of the differences, for instance, Cats are not quite so willing to obey commands… at least not so promptly, and there are even some breeds of Dog that have evolved a kind of a ‘smile’, that serves, no doubt, to make them more ‘agreeable’ to Human Beings.    Cats still have their unexpressive ‘poker’ faces.  But they purr for us, and quickly learn to recognize words, and vocalize back to us when we speak to them.   Cats are indeed coming along.   But who really was expecting THIS… The Hero Cat!?

 

This whole Tara the Hero Cat Thing is certainly a huge Evolutionary Milestone Event – that a Cat went beyond its original contract of simply eliminating pests and being a Pet Companion, to actually committing itself to a dangerous Fight to Protect its Human Patrons.  Yes, it must have certainly happened before, but what is different now, is that it was captured on camera and went on line, became ‘viral’, and then hit the Television News Rotations, which sent people back on line to add to the ‘viral spread’.   Now I’ve heard that Magazines and Big Corporations are jumping in to get a ‘piece’ of Tara, so to speak.   That Cat has become Famous.   Everyone I have spoken to on the street knows about and has ‘checked out’ the story of Tara the Hero Cat who saved little boy from Dog.  With all the trouble in the World right now, it is really, for the moment, the biggest story out there.   It hit a very powerful Cultural Nerve… and Globally… All of Humanity seems to be cheering for Tara.

 

So what will be the repercussions?   Cats, who many had formerly seen as merely overly proud and opportunistic partners in their relationship with Humanity, and as mere ‘pussies’ when compared to the more macho-seeming Dogs, well, all that has changed overnight.   Cats have now faced off Dogs and come out victorious.   And Dogs, who had once been thought to be ‘friendly’, well, obviously their Breed Lines have been corrupted by the interventions of Human Gamblers who had bred dogs to bring out traits for Crazy and Unconditional Violence – so that their Dogs could thoughtlessly and automatically attack and kill Bears and fight and kill Each Other, just so their owners could win wagers.   Oh, and the modern idea of Police Attack  Dogs… was it ever a very smart idea to breed dogs that would excel at attacking Human Beings?  For such small advantages, we turn our Best Friend into a Feared Enemy.  So it has come to this end, that now the World sees, sadly, that No Dog… or well, No Dog without a solid Pedigree for Peacefulness, can fully be trusted.   And the World now sees that Cats are now the NEW Protectors of our Families – selfless and brave little Protectors.   And when they are not ferociously defending us from our enemies, they are affectionately curled up on our laps, or close by on the arms or backs of our chairs… loving us, really, before we truly loved them – that is, giving them the respect that we now know they deserve.

 

Well, what can be said, now, but that ‘Cats are the new Dog’.   It took thousands of years, but cats have finally caught up and surpassed that other, older Pet – the Pet that had been so useful before We became Civilized.   Oh, and, what’s more, cats are so much cleaner.   A dog will pee and poop on the floor, but cats will naturally ‘go’ in a box of kitty dirt and then bury its business to minimize the unpleasant hygiene smells.

 

Anyway, stand back at the Pet Stores and don’t dawdle in front of the Cat Cages… or you may be trampled in the stampede to buy up members of Man’s New Best Friend – the intrepid and fearless Kitty Cat!

  

Problems with the Immortal Soul and Reincarnation

 

I’ve been reading Professor Mark W. Muesse’s book, “Age of Sages” and it has served as something like grist for the mill in regards to this essay.  Professor Muesse was writing about the rather important and transformative time in History called the Axial Age (which ran roughly from 800 to 200 B.C.), in which Religious and Spiritual Ideas underwent radical change.   In Persia there arose an awareness of Morality and Individual Moral Responsibility that had not existed before, and almost World-wide there was a shift toward believing in Individual Immortal Souls.  The Aryans from the Euro-Asian Steppes were the primary drivers behind these new Belief Systems, bringing Morality to Persia, as well as the doctrines of the Immortal Soul, which later came to influence Jewish, Greek, and still later, the thinking of Christian Civilization.  In India, however, thinking on Immortality turned toward Reincarnation.   Now, this essay is not for quarrelling which doctrine is right, and which is wrong.  Indeed, both ideas are wrong.  But I would like to present some opinions regarding why these mistaken notions arose in the first place and what has kept them going.

 

Before the very transformative Axial Age, Religions were largely amoral, that is, people were not judged on whether they were good or bad, but by other more practical criteria – how successful they were, in such things as Business, Battle, and in procuring women and livestock – both valuable commodities at the time.  The primary virtues were in Strength, Valor, Prowess and Cunning, although the Most Successful People tried their best to convince those beneath them that Loyalty too was a virtue.  Oh, and related to Loyalty, we also have the Higher Ups preaching the merits of ‘Bravery in Battle’… yes, and who wouldn’t give vast praise to somebody willing to die fighting your battles for you.  But, putting cynicism aside, for a moment, whether the Pre-Axial Virtues served for just furthering personal ambition or for contributing to maintain the Hierarchical Social Structure, in isolation to these individuals or groups, these ‘Virtues’ did have their utility.  It is when Individuals or Groups clashed that problems with such ‘virtue’ arose, where we would have the paradox of Virtue being good from some but very bad for others – those on the receiving end of the other groups ‘virtue’.  Just think how many people had to die throughout History so that some could prove how brave they could be in battle… and nowadays they are trying to prove it with suicide vests.       

 

The Religions of those Pre-moral times were not yet Monotheistic, but rather there was envisioned a huge Pantheon of Gods and Divinities of various Rank and Relation.   These Gods, with certain exceptions, were Immortal.  Of course, the Gods of conquered and collapsed Civilizations somehow had to be killed off, and so the Legends account for ‘Dead’ Immortal Gods.   It was in this way that the Greek Pantheon had displaced that of the Cretan Civilization  (which was highly unfortunate, as Crete had been the center of a Very Advanced Civilization (think Atlantis), while the Greeks were still a patchwork of warring Barbarian Tribes – a state of affairs that they never were able to much transcend, even today).

 

So, the Pre-Axial Gods were immortal, while it was understood that Human Beings all died and stayed dead, at best sinking down into the soil to be ghostly earth spirits, no longer with Human Consciousness, but more or less the way we think of ghouls today.  Ancient Man had the good sense to correlate good conscious and cognitive functioning to healthy bodies and minds, and so it was simply assumed that the Faculties of Dead People would be rather severely impaired.   But in their Legends the Ancients did work in Exceptions to this Rule of Death being Final, and they probably did it only to enhance their Entertainments and Dramas – the Story Tellers and Poets, after all, had to make a living too.   They Created ‘Heroes’.  A Hero was some Human Being so exceptional in the Virtues of that Time – Strength, Valor, Prowess and Cunning – that even the Pantheon of Gods would be impressed and grant that particular Human Being the Status and Condition of being Immortal.  Hercules and Theseus had both been ‘Heroes’ that had attained Immortality.  But wasn’t the granting of such privileges to some bound to stir up envy and ambition among all the other Mortals?   It seems that the Poets may have taken a bit too much license with the Real Truth of Things.

 

Well, at first the damage could not get too much out of hand, because, well, given the Virtues that could Win Immortality at that Time, remember – Strength, Valor, Prowess and Cunning.  Such martial Virtues didn’t give ordinary people much of an Opportunity to advance toward Immortality.  Just think about it  – to prove their Worthiness, wouldn’t they have had to at least subdue their own Tribe and then others, and all without ever encountering Defeat or Setback?  That would be almost impossible.  Most aspiring Heroes would get killed, by other aspiring Heroes, the moment they started making their Move.  

 

But when the Idea of Moral Responsibility was introduced to Religion; when the List of Virtues underwent a radical change, swinging over to the appreciation of  attributes such as Love, Kindness, Charity, Selflessness, Service and Self Discipline; then suddenly the imagined door to Heroic Immortality swung wide open, relatively speaking.  Yes, to practice perfect as Love, Kindness, Charity, Selflessness, Service and Self Discipline, well, that would seem almost impossible too, but, yet again, there would be none of those dangerous demands from the Old Barbarian Virtues that involve  killing thousands of people who would probably fight back quite earnestly, and most likely kill you first.  No, the New Civilized Virtues, if difficult, were not ‘that’ impossible, and so people could HOPE for Immortality on the grounds of Moral Perfection, or, rather the more likely condition of being Morally ‘Good-Enough’ to please a God with a sunny and forgiving disposition.  

 

Of course, leave it to the Greeks to cheat the System there also.  When the True Christian Church was annihilated with the Destruction of Jerusalem in 71 A.D. the heterodox and unauthorized ‘Christian’ Church of Greece, introduced their own cheap Doctrine for Immortality, claiming that one only had to ‘believe’ in Jesus, go through a few cheap rituals, and then one would be forgiven for all past and future sins and get heavenly Immortality as a matter of course, with no real moral effort or moral practice at all.  It was a Doctrine that,  from then on, True Christians were ever at extremes to guard against and to try to suppress.   But Darkness won out, and with Martin Luther, a defeated and subjugated Catholic Church, and Modern Protestantism, the Doctrine of Cheap Amoral Immortality won out, and so it is today that Modern Protestant Globalized Civilization is largely Selfish, and Amoral and on the verge of ruinous collapse.  As Jesus said, “One knows a Tree by its Fruits”, and it does not take a very discerning look to see that World Civilization is rotten to its core.

 

But, where the Greeks weren’t involved, the urge for Individual Immortality through the Path of Moral Perfection, made some wonderful strides.  Zoroastrianism rose up in Persia as the first Moral Religion, and its doctrines later spun off to create the Sufi Orders – extremely pious, virtuous and spiritually talented individuals.

 

But what happened in India where the emphasis on Immortality took the bazaar turn toward Reincarnation?  It was more or less the same Aryan People involved.  But in Persia nearly all of the interactions between Peoples were between other Aryans.  You see, in most cases when there are ‘Invasions’ of Pastoral Nomadic Peoples, the Invading Forces consist of a confluence of Several Allied Tribes, and they work their successes by taking on only one Native Tribe at a time, pushing them out of their territory before moving on to another.  Most of the time the confronted Native Tribe will not care to stand and fight, as they see the Land at their backs as just as good as the Land they would be giving up.  Their only inconvenience is that must pack up their tents and move, that is, outside of their usual schedule .   You see, Pastoral Nomadic Tribes move about anyway.   As Hunters they must keep moving because if they stay in a certain area too long  they will either deplete the Game or they will scare it away or the animals will learn how to avoid them.  And as Pastoralists, they must keep moving because their animals will eventually overgraze the area or attract an influx of wolves and big cats, which are just as dangerous to them as their sheep.   So it is no inconvenience worth dying for, for a pastoral nomadic Society to pack up and go down the road, seeking fairer pastures.      

 

Anyway, as first one then more Native Tribes are displaced, they themselves, the Displaced Natives, form Alliances so that in their own turn they can displace Peoples further down the line.   So it is that when China built their great Wall, it started a push of Pastoral Nomadic Peoples to the West, like dominos, the Victims of One Day being the Invaders of the Next, and it ended in the Invasion of  Europe and contributed much to the decline of Roman Civilization. 

 

One wonders why the Victims never formed Alliances to attack those who attacked them first.  There did not seem to be much appeal for Revenge.  Well, apparently it was seldom conceived that it would be practical that they should turn and fight their Original Enemies, as, since their Enemies were already in a Strong Alliance, they would be a tougher fight then simply going to fight those, down the line, who are united and unprepared.  So, in regards to our present Essay, the Aryans largely had Persia to themselves, and all their squabbling was between each other. 

 

But the Aryan Invaders in India came upon settled Cities – what was left of the declining Indus Valley Civilization.  These Settled Natives did not run away before them, and they were too many to kill, and besides, since they were already pacified by the habits of Civilization, it appeared as though they were willing to submit themselves to the service of the Aryan Predators.  Apparently these Natives had been slaves before, and they didn’t mind so much being slaves again… like working for a company that has been ‘taken over’… one assumes that the new boss won’t be much different from the old boss.  

 

So, anyway, to account for the differences between Persia and India, we can guess that the Urge for Morality on the Persian Steppe was influenced by the repugnance for the violence being done between Aryan and Aryan – they saw each other as One People and it probably did not require of Zoroaster, the Founder of the First Moral Religion,  much Moral Imagination to define a Teaching  that would see Harming one another as Evil, while being kind to one another would be seen as  Good. 

 

But in India, the Aryans had no concern for those they conquered, except that the defeated should completely submit, and perhaps they needed some salve for their own Guilty Consciences.  So they taught Themselves and those they predated upon that some were born to Conquer and others born to Submit, and that the Aryans who did their duty in suppressing Native Rights would be rewarded in future life times by being permitted re-birth back into the Aryan Fold, and that those Underlings who submitted and groveled the best, would be permitted to be born ‘fully human’ someday, that is, as an Aryan.  Oh, yes, the Aryans were supreme racists.  Take a look at the Ramayana.  In the Ramayana, we have the Aryans, and then we have their portrayal of the Native People of India, whom we find are literally described as Monkeys – walking talking Monkeys with their own Cities and  Palaces and diplomatic services, but they are called Monkeys.  Nowadays, when we see paintings of the scenes from the Ramayana, they don’t paint in the short and dark People of those ancient times – the Natives to which the Ramayana was obviously referring – no, we pictures of actual Monkeys… we are to believe that India was a land ‘peopled’ by little Apes, and, consequently, that all the Non-Aryan peoples who form the majority of People in India must have come along later, very quietly and unobtrusively, from somewhere else.  Then, one has to wonder why the people of India never wonder where all the Walking Taking Monkeys went.  What a Virtue it must be in India to believe everything and to question nothing.

 

Anyway, Reincarnation provided both Justification and Excuse for Social Injustice.  And it largely worked.   Using both the Threats and Promises of Reincarnation to reinforce Caste Duty – Suppression from Above, and Submission from Below – there was created a very Stable Society.  It persisted like that for over two thousand years and still has not been thoroughly discredited – we can assume that one of the most pervasive problems in India today is with Caste Identification – People who think they were Born to Have their Own Way, and People who can’t pull themselves out of the Hole for thinking that they were born to grovel, bow and die to be of utility to those born above themselves.   It must all lead to a horrible misapplication of Human Resources as Unqualified but Self-Entitled ‘Aryans’ still capture many of the most important jobs, while the Native Indians are too busy maintaining their perpetual cringe and bow to exert their Talents and claim their Due – ostensively waiting to take their Promotions in some Next Lifetime.  It must be odd to be in a Religion where one is enjoined to Serve Evil, and then one’s final Reward is to be allowed to Become Evil.  Well, being Evil has always paid better than being Good, if that is where one’s priorities are.  But it is not really Religion, is it?     

 

But, even still, back to our Essay.  No matter that the Idea of Reincarnation turned out to be such brilliant Propaganda, we need to wonder how such a seemingly ridiculous idea was ever able to take hold in the first place.   After all, Reincarnation doesn’t explain anything about the Individual Soul that Biological Reproduction does not explain so much better, and with so much tangible Proof!  If we are Reborn at all, it is that we are the Reborn Versions of our Mothers and Fathers.  And yes, in the most sanguinary biological terms, virtue is rewarded and vice is punished, that is, Good Breeding leads to good healthy, strong Blood Lines, while careless breeding leads to a thin and spotty herd – ‘common’ people as they are called.   Look within ourselves and it is plain to see that both our Strong and Weak Points run in our Families.  We do not have to thank or blame some Spiritual Past Lives for our Merits or Problems, no, not when we can see it all plainly coming from our Parents and Grandparents, and shared by our brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts and cousins.   It is simple Common Sense that our origins, Physical and Spiritual, are entirely Biological.  

 

But, to be fair, I need to admit that there are certain phenomena that can give some imaginary credence for the Idea of Reincarnation.  Dreams, for one thing.   Take for instance when Grandfather dies and then he is seen in the Dreams of many of those in the Family, well, that leads one to suspect that Grandfather survived the Grave, and that his Spirit continues to live in some Spiritual Afterlife.   But, as life goes on, and the years and generations recede, these dreams of Grandfather become fewer and finally cease altogether.  Well, what then?  Either Grandfather finally ‘died’ – his being in the Spiritual World slowly running out of whatever Substance keeps an Individual Spirit coherent and identifiable -- or we can imagine that he must have been reborn.    Those who Hope for Grandfather’s Survival, go along with the silly explanation of reincarnation, because they find alternative too stark -- the final annihilation of Grandfather’s Soul… and eventually their own soul as well.   Sometimes to feel good, we suspend our critical faculties.   And, then what about when a child is born looking just like old Grandfather, well, doesn’t this support the notion that Grandfather may have been reborn?

 

And then there are dreams of Other Identity.  Have you ever had a dream of looking into a reflective glass window or a mirror, and not seeing ‘your own self’ but seeing a different persona altogether?  Or one may dream way outside one’s ordinary life conditions and customary expectations  – a farmer dreams of being a Knight in battle, or a tradesman dreams of being a Sailor on a boat.  To us today, these would only be considered dreams rich in symbolic content, but, several thousand years ago, the Local Aryan Priest might have been quick to claim it as positive ‘Proof’ of past lives.

 

Well, I have not finished Professor Muesse’s book yet, but I have gotten as far as Buddhism, and have found that the silliness does not stop there.  To be fair to the Buddha himself, he carefully negated Everything, so it is surprising that any Buddhist in the World should counter the Buddha by positively affirming Anything at all, let alone something as intrinsically flighty as the notion of Reincarnation, but they nearly all do.  Buddha specifically declared that there is no fixed Self, no fixed Identity, not even some constant and eternal Transcendent God or Higher Self.  Everything to the Buddha was in constant flux, endless change – Reality was a Process where Everything interacted with Everything else – Brains trying to keep up with a Reality that would never stay the same from one moment to the next.  So his answer was to just go with the flow and not expect much.  But how does anybody see Reincarnation in any of that.

 

Buddha had probably plainly said that if you Know the Truth, then you will Know that there is no Rebirth, and that Reincarnation was just one of those Stupid Mental Constructs that any amount of True Awareness should make short shift of.   But Generations of Ignorant Followers have remembered Buddha entirely differently, pretending that he had said instead, “if you Know the Truth, you will no longer be Reborn”… you know there is a big difference there.  We do not have to be ‘Liberated’ from rebirth.  There simply is no rebirth.

 

You know, Liberation Theology is so strange, with the assumptions It makes and then with the directions it takes, versus what would seem the Logical Conclusions that one would assume just from common sense.   For instance, we have people who will spend years in quiet meditation all so they can supposedly drop their desires and attachments to all the Material Things of Life, so that they will not have to be Reborn.   Well, to prove conclusively that they are no longer attached to the Things of Life, why do they not simply just commit suicide?  Isn’t it the most perfect and definitive Statement in that regards?   Isn’t Suicide the Supreme Renunciation?  So why would anybody who commits suicide ever be re-born?  Oh! From Justice, they would be called back … that they owe some other soul and can’t get away until the debt has been paid?  Well, if this is true, then no amount of Meditation could liberate one either, no, not if all the tets and tats of debts and credits and crimes and punishments are all added up and one is forced to wait until the Karmic Slate was finally becomes completely clean.  Five minutes or five years of meditation can’t wipe out a morally justified grudge against you – you can meditate your own head clean, but not somebody else’s, especially if the grudge comes from a Past Life.  In this sense, it makes no sense to try to escape from the Wheel of Rebirth at all, especially by the Do Nothing Path of Meditation.   If the Doctrine of Karmic Rebirth is True at all, then the Logical Conclusion would be to simply live your Life totally open to Karmic Retribution, while at the same time to do nothing to contract any new instances of Bad Karmic debts.   Oh, and here I assume that one can renounce the Fruits of Good Karma, just as Creditors are always entirely free to forgive their loans, and so one should not be in any danger of doing too much good. 

 

Oh, there was the ridiculous doctrine that one could do Evil and not suffer the Karmic Consequences as long as one Surrendered that Karma to God.  It’s in the Bhagavad Gita, a Post-Axial Age Document, and so goes to show that even in the Modern Age Hinduism is still largely an amoral Religion.  Being Free of the Moral Consequences of doing Evil, because one lays it all at the Feet of God.   Please!  Has anyone ever believed that?   All that Corporate CEOs and all those Used Car Salesmen and all those sordid Lawyers would have to do is ‘surrender’ their Evils to God, and they could just keep going on doing all that awful crap they do, and all without Karmic Consequence.  But then, what about God.?  What good is a God stained by so much Sin.  It would become a stinking putrid God, and the big problem there would be in differentiating it from the very Devil himself.

 

Anyway, if your biggest worry in life is being Reborn because of the mechanisms of Karmic Reincarnation, well, you literally have nothing to worry about.   You don’t have to seek Liberation – you already have it.   When you die, rest assured, you will stay dead.  Likewise for those who expect Immortality in Heaven, well, it should not come as too much of a disappointment  for you that the Peace of the Grave will last Forever.