Dec 18 – And the Blind Shall See
They say that every cloud has a silver lining, or even better, that each setback is really an opportunity for improvement. Sure, I’ll take that. In two days (actually, it will be today by the time this is published) I will have a scalpel dragged across my eyes for something called a ‘cataract’ and I couldn’t be happier. Yes, it will clear up fading vision, but even better, it may serve to cure me of an incalculable sin.
It is not sacrificing babies to Ba’al or even secretly watching porn as my innocent dog sleeps at my feet. No – rather, it is an addiction to Amazon Prime TV series, where one can watch four seasons of shows in one week; where one can be absorbed into whatever the writer or writers’ perverse mindset – and, to make it in the moving picture industry it must be perverse – might be. A few weeks ago it was Fargo. Now it is a sci-fi series named The Expanse. It is so evil that it is not bad. It is actually the best sci-fi film (or screen) drama I have seen in years or even decades. It is so evilly good that I have given up my solitary night-time habit of reading sacred or philosophical texts, built up over fifteen years, to watch people in costumes pretend to be people they are not and who will never be.
The blessing of the surgery will be that I will not be able to watch it for a few days. I won’t be able to read either, but still, it is a step in the right direction. Maybe, just maybe, it will give me that needed moment to pause and repent. And maybe, just maybe, it will get me out of a vision of the future that confirms the author’s preferences of the present, as sci-fi works generally do. It is to the latter that blindness might be morally preferable. Jesus said, “If your eye sins against you, better to pluck it out!” or something similar, which I never thought to take literally, but now… might it bring blessings?
The Expanse; the characters are deliciously hard-nosed and in many ways amoral. Certainly they would not go to Catholic heaven. Still, it is hard to blame them. The world(s) of the future has (have) many problems. The Earth is grotesquely overcrowded with over 40 billion inhabitants, although the rich and powerful still live amazingly well. Because of this, Mars has been heavily colonized by eager patriotic fanatics whose dream is to flood the planet with water to make it into a new and better Earth. As the show takes place two or three hundred years in the future, the technology is already there for the enterprise, but all has been put on hold in the struggle to remain politically independent of Earth. The situation is similar to the early US of A’s relationship with mother England. Meanwhile, both Earth and Mars have sent people to work the asteroid belt out between Mars and Jupiter for its abundant natural resources, including water for Mars. Over the hundred and fifty or so years of mining operations in the Belt, the people there have garnered a resentment of their own towards their planetary masters. These people – who are largely hard-core miners with few niceties to their personalities - have developed their own language and customs and identity. They are largely run now by the OPA, a subversive and growing group of violent revolutionaries similar in (lack of) subtlety and methods to the old Irish Republican Army (IRA). Add space ships, betrayal, money and power and mix well.
Then throw in a large dollop of corruption and extraterrestrial life. A major mining concern has found an alien life form on Phoebe, and has been trying to exploit it to gain control of everyone. First they must understand it, and to do so, they infect an entire asteroid colony of 100,000 Belters with the “proto molecule.” They all die grotesquely, or so it seems. This seriously angers our heroes, a group of losers from Earth and Mars and the Belt who have fortuitously come into possession of an advanced Marian warship. They become intrinsically involved in everything, and as of last episode, save the Earth from near-annihilation – that is, for now. To be continued.
It is riveting stuff if you are a sci-fi geek, which I obviously am. I am coming to believe, however, that this is largely a spiritual venue, although if you look for it, you will find the spiritual in nearly every work whether the author or artist intended it or not. For Expanse, it is clearly intended, which enriches it immeasurably. The alien entity is looking more and more to be grander than just a hegemonic killer. But first, there are always the more superficial cultural and moral undertones that sci-fi writers deal with. Here are a few of the good, the bad and ugly ones slipped into the series:
The Ugly: women. Not so much that they are ugly, as in deformed, but that they are presented to us in the mode of the day: with the same aggressive personalities and physical strengths as men. Sure, it’s hard to say exactly where sex affects personality, but it does and, as the French say, viva la differance. In this, only the space-age barroom prostitutes seem to have a feminine side. Differences of physical strength between the sexes is more certain in reality, but here all the heroines literally pack the same punch as the guys. It is an insult not only to our intelligence but to our eyes to see a 110 runway model-type knock out a brawny 250 pound weightlifter with her delicate fist, but that’s the way “gender” is supposed to be today, and apparently will be in the future, facts be damned. Not awful but ugly and telling of a deeper real-life agenda.
Which we see in the “bad:” where everyone has sex at will without any consequences, like a fourteen year old boy’s feverish fantasy. Good for guys on the make, which I suspect fueled a lot of the sexual revolution of the ‘60’s, but terrible for families, which is ultimately terrible for everyone, since we all come from a family one way or the other. In fact, our prime hero comes from a futuristic hippie commune and is the product, we are told, of a perfect genetic blend of its eight male and eight female members. All quaintly share in the loving parenthood, except that the “vehicle” that bore him – thank God a natural woman with a womb - seems to care for him the most. Otherwise, there are few children and even fewer committed couples. Happy happy.
There is the good. For one, in this future there is no race consciousness. I don’t know how they pull it off, but the actors pay no attention to racial differences in any way that I can see. It is surprisingly refreshing. It feels like the fetters of politically correct oppression have finally been removed – a true breath of fresh air that tells us just how grating and constant the hue and cry of racial politics are today.
There are also the heroes. The heroes are self-sacrificing and ultimately overcome their personal failings to do their best for friends, team, and humanity. Which brings us around to the spiritual:
Humanity: there are the three grand factions based on geography, as stated, and a fourth based on corporate greed, but all are seen as limited and rather stupid. This is where the alien entity comes in. While they are fighting its possible absorption of humanity, we see that humanity has to change. We see that it has to become more open to all factions, and that it must act as if all were members of an extended family, above and beyond those of one’s own planet or who share the same selfish agenda. This bringing together, it is becoming apparent, is what the alien entity intends to do, although we do not know if this will be a spiritual improvement or a Borg-like enslavement to the Prime Director. But we are being made aware that there is something that is infinitely more beautiful waiting for humanity.
I do not know yet how this will play out. Perhaps my temporary blindness will ensure that I turn back to my stuffy studies and will never find out (although my sci-fi fanatic wife will certainly see it to the end). But what we are given to know so far of the Proto Molecule, now that it seems done with killing people, is promising. “It,” as some of the scientists studying it say, never stops advancing. It goes on and on to the more complex and the more inclusive. It never stops learning and perhaps hasn’t really killed anyone at all. Perhaps it only enriches those it blends with, leaving private destinies intact. Perhaps, then, is it just as we think God is.
God and sci-fi. We have people mating like dogs and people fighting like dogs trying to mate; we have people unleashed from ancient custom and religion to behave like nothing but their thin selves, unhappy, unfulfilled and furtive amidst the most spectacular of technological achievements. Kind of like us today. And we have them searching and, in the fantasy, finding that ‘something extra’ that is beyond mere humanity. It is all the same, as it ever was. Just as written earlier, there is always a spiritual element in these stories, whether intended or not. We know that in this commercial enterprise of a series they cannot and will not go full God on us with all the bells and incense, but it is apparent that the writer(s) here understands the eternal human condition. He understands that his story is the story of humanity for all times, and that no amount of clever manipulation and technology can consciously change us. We need, rather, something from another source that will take the best of what we have and transport this beyond and beyond, in never ending improvement. In the old days they called that ‘going home to glory.” In this story it may well be “going home to the “Proto Molecule,” the original force that will somehow work its way either from or through our souls into our lives, to lead us beyond our original sin of blind narcissism.
Funny thing, too, that I am going blind in my mortal age, to be restored through modern technology. Perhaps somewhere in the haze of anesthesia I will find my personal proto molecule. If so, rest assured I will let you know.
They say that every cloud has a silver lining, or even better, that each setback is really an opportunity for improvement. Sure, I’ll take that. In two days (actually, it will be today by the time this is published) I will have a scalpel dragged across my eyes for something called a ‘cataract’ and I couldn’t be happier. Yes, it will clear up fading vision, but even better, it may serve to cure me of an incalculable sin.
It is not sacrificing babies to Ba’al or even secretly watching porn as my innocent dog sleeps at my feet. No – rather, it is an addiction to Amazon Prime TV series, where one can watch four seasons of shows in one week; where one can be absorbed into whatever the writer or writers’ perverse mindset – and, to make it in the moving picture industry it must be perverse – might be. A few weeks ago it was Fargo. Now it is a sci-fi series named The Expanse. It is so evil that it is not bad. It is actually the best sci-fi film (or screen) drama I have seen in years or even decades. It is so evilly good that I have given up my solitary night-time habit of reading sacred or philosophical texts, built up over fifteen years, to watch people in costumes pretend to be people they are not and who will never be.
The blessing of the surgery will be that I will not be able to watch it for a few days. I won’t be able to read either, but still, it is a step in the right direction. Maybe, just maybe, it will give me that needed moment to pause and repent. And maybe, just maybe, it will get me out of a vision of the future that confirms the author’s preferences of the present, as sci-fi works generally do. It is to the latter that blindness might be morally preferable. Jesus said, “If your eye sins against you, better to pluck it out!” or something similar, which I never thought to take literally, but now… might it bring blessings?
The Expanse; the characters are deliciously hard-nosed and in many ways amoral. Certainly they would not go to Catholic heaven. Still, it is hard to blame them. The world(s) of the future has (have) many problems. The Earth is grotesquely overcrowded with over 40 billion inhabitants, although the rich and powerful still live amazingly well. Because of this, Mars has been heavily colonized by eager patriotic fanatics whose dream is to flood the planet with water to make it into a new and better Earth. As the show takes place two or three hundred years in the future, the technology is already there for the enterprise, but all has been put on hold in the struggle to remain politically independent of Earth. The situation is similar to the early US of A’s relationship with mother England. Meanwhile, both Earth and Mars have sent people to work the asteroid belt out between Mars and Jupiter for its abundant natural resources, including water for Mars. Over the hundred and fifty or so years of mining operations in the Belt, the people there have garnered a resentment of their own towards their planetary masters. These people – who are largely hard-core miners with few niceties to their personalities - have developed their own language and customs and identity. They are largely run now by the OPA, a subversive and growing group of violent revolutionaries similar in (lack of) subtlety and methods to the old Irish Republican Army (IRA). Add space ships, betrayal, money and power and mix well.
Then throw in a large dollop of corruption and extraterrestrial life. A major mining concern has found an alien life form on Phoebe, and has been trying to exploit it to gain control of everyone. First they must understand it, and to do so, they infect an entire asteroid colony of 100,000 Belters with the “proto molecule.” They all die grotesquely, or so it seems. This seriously angers our heroes, a group of losers from Earth and Mars and the Belt who have fortuitously come into possession of an advanced Marian warship. They become intrinsically involved in everything, and as of last episode, save the Earth from near-annihilation – that is, for now. To be continued.
It is riveting stuff if you are a sci-fi geek, which I obviously am. I am coming to believe, however, that this is largely a spiritual venue, although if you look for it, you will find the spiritual in nearly every work whether the author or artist intended it or not. For Expanse, it is clearly intended, which enriches it immeasurably. The alien entity is looking more and more to be grander than just a hegemonic killer. But first, there are always the more superficial cultural and moral undertones that sci-fi writers deal with. Here are a few of the good, the bad and ugly ones slipped into the series:
The Ugly: women. Not so much that they are ugly, as in deformed, but that they are presented to us in the mode of the day: with the same aggressive personalities and physical strengths as men. Sure, it’s hard to say exactly where sex affects personality, but it does and, as the French say, viva la differance. In this, only the space-age barroom prostitutes seem to have a feminine side. Differences of physical strength between the sexes is more certain in reality, but here all the heroines literally pack the same punch as the guys. It is an insult not only to our intelligence but to our eyes to see a 110 runway model-type knock out a brawny 250 pound weightlifter with her delicate fist, but that’s the way “gender” is supposed to be today, and apparently will be in the future, facts be damned. Not awful but ugly and telling of a deeper real-life agenda.
Which we see in the “bad:” where everyone has sex at will without any consequences, like a fourteen year old boy’s feverish fantasy. Good for guys on the make, which I suspect fueled a lot of the sexual revolution of the ‘60’s, but terrible for families, which is ultimately terrible for everyone, since we all come from a family one way or the other. In fact, our prime hero comes from a futuristic hippie commune and is the product, we are told, of a perfect genetic blend of its eight male and eight female members. All quaintly share in the loving parenthood, except that the “vehicle” that bore him – thank God a natural woman with a womb - seems to care for him the most. Otherwise, there are few children and even fewer committed couples. Happy happy.
There is the good. For one, in this future there is no race consciousness. I don’t know how they pull it off, but the actors pay no attention to racial differences in any way that I can see. It is surprisingly refreshing. It feels like the fetters of politically correct oppression have finally been removed – a true breath of fresh air that tells us just how grating and constant the hue and cry of racial politics are today.
There are also the heroes. The heroes are self-sacrificing and ultimately overcome their personal failings to do their best for friends, team, and humanity. Which brings us around to the spiritual:
Humanity: there are the three grand factions based on geography, as stated, and a fourth based on corporate greed, but all are seen as limited and rather stupid. This is where the alien entity comes in. While they are fighting its possible absorption of humanity, we see that humanity has to change. We see that it has to become more open to all factions, and that it must act as if all were members of an extended family, above and beyond those of one’s own planet or who share the same selfish agenda. This bringing together, it is becoming apparent, is what the alien entity intends to do, although we do not know if this will be a spiritual improvement or a Borg-like enslavement to the Prime Director. But we are being made aware that there is something that is infinitely more beautiful waiting for humanity.
I do not know yet how this will play out. Perhaps my temporary blindness will ensure that I turn back to my stuffy studies and will never find out (although my sci-fi fanatic wife will certainly see it to the end). But what we are given to know so far of the Proto Molecule, now that it seems done with killing people, is promising. “It,” as some of the scientists studying it say, never stops advancing. It goes on and on to the more complex and the more inclusive. It never stops learning and perhaps hasn’t really killed anyone at all. Perhaps it only enriches those it blends with, leaving private destinies intact. Perhaps, then, is it just as we think God is.
God and sci-fi. We have people mating like dogs and people fighting like dogs trying to mate; we have people unleashed from ancient custom and religion to behave like nothing but their thin selves, unhappy, unfulfilled and furtive amidst the most spectacular of technological achievements. Kind of like us today. And we have them searching and, in the fantasy, finding that ‘something extra’ that is beyond mere humanity. It is all the same, as it ever was. Just as written earlier, there is always a spiritual element in these stories, whether intended or not. We know that in this commercial enterprise of a series they cannot and will not go full God on us with all the bells and incense, but it is apparent that the writer(s) here understands the eternal human condition. He understands that his story is the story of humanity for all times, and that no amount of clever manipulation and technology can consciously change us. We need, rather, something from another source that will take the best of what we have and transport this beyond and beyond, in never ending improvement. In the old days they called that ‘going home to glory.” In this story it may well be “going home to the “Proto Molecule,” the original force that will somehow work its way either from or through our souls into our lives, to lead us beyond our original sin of blind narcissism.
Funny thing, too, that I am going blind in my mortal age, to be restored through modern technology. Perhaps somewhere in the haze of anesthesia I will find my personal proto molecule. If so, rest assured I will let you know.
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