It must be the book. Or maybe its the after affects of 10 days of strong coffee. Or both. It's such a silly thing, this book of 653 pages, La Resurreccion Maya by Steve Alten, that it almost makes me ashamed to admit that it is getting to my head, in Spanish no less. Conspiracy. In the book, there are circles within circles of conspiracies, from the lowest (simply making money or getting sex) to the most incredible: a race of superior beings that are beyond the restraints of time and space who are offering humans a way out of destruction through implantation of their own genetic code (60 million years before) set to express itself in certain humans starting in - you can guess from the title - 2012, the year that the Mayan calendar says that everything of the old age will begin to crumble into the new. But, of course, human and super-human interference comes about in the form of selfishness and downright evil, something our genetically determined heroes must confront to save human kind. Bring in whales and pyramids and chakras, and you get the idea.
All in fun, for sure, but it can get to one's head, as it did to me the other day when reading about the meeting of the great financial heads of international banks and companies in Davos, Switzerland. The article, read from the internet and taken from, I think, the Wall Street Journal or another well-respected source, matter- of -factly talks about the shock and even horror the people have there - including former #2 congressman Eric Cantor, who somehow (how?) was included on the list - of a Donald Trump presidency. The reason? That he is for blocking Muslim immigration to America for a waiting period to "find out what the hell is going on." (I recall that this is a direct quote).
As usual, I do not talk politics here and take no sides for or against candidates. What is so surprising is the reason for their horror. In America - as one developed country similar in this regard to many others - the percentage of people who want greater regulation of immigration has run consistently for at least a decade at anywhere from 70 to 80%. And yet - nothing has been done about it in real terms. Again, I am not coming out for it or against this, but rather wish to use this to make a point. Why has nothing been done? How can politicians in a democracy ignore such huge numbers?
The answer, in large part, seems to come from Davos. The reason these high financiers and top dollar execs are horrified at stopping Muslim immigration has little to do with brotherly love, but movement - of money, of things, of people across all borders, as if borders did not matter. They, in fact, do not like borders, for they believe, as the article states, that they are not good for business. Could it be that Big Money has been running our national destiny? Our world destiny?
Even saying such a thing reeks of naivete, for all of us older cynics know that this is largely the case, as it has long been. But at Davos, we find that the cloud of "money" has a face - or, to be specific, many faces of a mutual accord. It seems, indeed, that a small handful of elites are running the world. What then of other "news" that we hear of? Is the news that is reported, and the slant that it takes, meant to control us? Further - and now even darker clouds roll in - is it really all about money? Or is there something else involved?
In the Mayan novel, even the selfish rich are being controlled by other, higher intelligences, although they do not realize it any more than the average Joe realizes how much of his world is being controlled by these human elites. Circles within circles. And so I am forced to believe, at least when contemplating the darker side of life. Getting rich is not a fundamental building block of life. It may be based on the basic need for survival, but it obviously goes way beyond that. But why and how? It is well known that in some Native American groups, the most respected person was the one who gave away the most stuff. He was often the poorest guy in the tribe, and yet he was the most revered and the most influential. Why is it that massive accumulation has overtaken the simple need to be esteemed in the social group? What force has done this, and why?
We might easily say that greed runs the world, as Davos helps to show, but it only makes sense to those of us who have been raised in a world culture of greed. But this greed has a face, or several of them, and these movers and shakers are no more aware of the nature of reality than the rest of us. They, too, are being led by an ethos that they did not make. What is the face, or faces, behind this ethos, for it is, indeed, largely responsible for our current events and relatively recent history? And, even more provocatively, to what end does this ethos reach? The big money people have no other vision than a world unified under the banner of commerce, although many will say that solving poverty is their impetus. Still, that is not a visionary goal, but one so prosaic that, if humanity could only hope for that, we would soon disappear from earth out of despair, or at least out of boredom. No - in this great unknown universe of limitless potential, that goal is no larger in perspective than the dream of a four year old to someday get a whole bag of cat's eye marbles. And yet it is presented to us as the be-all and end-all from the crowd at Davos.
But they don't know. What is the greater meaning, the larger circle that circles this mentality? Our leaders are being led, but we don't know by what or towards what. There is something stirring in our DNA, almost as alien as Alten's aliens. And thus we are moved beyond finance and science and all our other pursuits back to page one, back to the basic questions: in a patterned universe, who is making the pattern? Why? What role does choice play? What role does morality play? From where comes morality? What unknown powers compel and guide our own small powers?
Suddenly, the Resurreccion Maya does not seem so silly. In substance, perhaps, but not so in perspective. There are indeed controlling forces, some of which we know and many of which we do not. We do have a destiny, for we are moving in a very specific direction, but towards an unknown fruition. And so the questions, and the search, continues. FK
All in fun, for sure, but it can get to one's head, as it did to me the other day when reading about the meeting of the great financial heads of international banks and companies in Davos, Switzerland. The article, read from the internet and taken from, I think, the Wall Street Journal or another well-respected source, matter- of -factly talks about the shock and even horror the people have there - including former #2 congressman Eric Cantor, who somehow (how?) was included on the list - of a Donald Trump presidency. The reason? That he is for blocking Muslim immigration to America for a waiting period to "find out what the hell is going on." (I recall that this is a direct quote).
As usual, I do not talk politics here and take no sides for or against candidates. What is so surprising is the reason for their horror. In America - as one developed country similar in this regard to many others - the percentage of people who want greater regulation of immigration has run consistently for at least a decade at anywhere from 70 to 80%. And yet - nothing has been done about it in real terms. Again, I am not coming out for it or against this, but rather wish to use this to make a point. Why has nothing been done? How can politicians in a democracy ignore such huge numbers?
The answer, in large part, seems to come from Davos. The reason these high financiers and top dollar execs are horrified at stopping Muslim immigration has little to do with brotherly love, but movement - of money, of things, of people across all borders, as if borders did not matter. They, in fact, do not like borders, for they believe, as the article states, that they are not good for business. Could it be that Big Money has been running our national destiny? Our world destiny?
Even saying such a thing reeks of naivete, for all of us older cynics know that this is largely the case, as it has long been. But at Davos, we find that the cloud of "money" has a face - or, to be specific, many faces of a mutual accord. It seems, indeed, that a small handful of elites are running the world. What then of other "news" that we hear of? Is the news that is reported, and the slant that it takes, meant to control us? Further - and now even darker clouds roll in - is it really all about money? Or is there something else involved?
In the Mayan novel, even the selfish rich are being controlled by other, higher intelligences, although they do not realize it any more than the average Joe realizes how much of his world is being controlled by these human elites. Circles within circles. And so I am forced to believe, at least when contemplating the darker side of life. Getting rich is not a fundamental building block of life. It may be based on the basic need for survival, but it obviously goes way beyond that. But why and how? It is well known that in some Native American groups, the most respected person was the one who gave away the most stuff. He was often the poorest guy in the tribe, and yet he was the most revered and the most influential. Why is it that massive accumulation has overtaken the simple need to be esteemed in the social group? What force has done this, and why?
We might easily say that greed runs the world, as Davos helps to show, but it only makes sense to those of us who have been raised in a world culture of greed. But this greed has a face, or several of them, and these movers and shakers are no more aware of the nature of reality than the rest of us. They, too, are being led by an ethos that they did not make. What is the face, or faces, behind this ethos, for it is, indeed, largely responsible for our current events and relatively recent history? And, even more provocatively, to what end does this ethos reach? The big money people have no other vision than a world unified under the banner of commerce, although many will say that solving poverty is their impetus. Still, that is not a visionary goal, but one so prosaic that, if humanity could only hope for that, we would soon disappear from earth out of despair, or at least out of boredom. No - in this great unknown universe of limitless potential, that goal is no larger in perspective than the dream of a four year old to someday get a whole bag of cat's eye marbles. And yet it is presented to us as the be-all and end-all from the crowd at Davos.
But they don't know. What is the greater meaning, the larger circle that circles this mentality? Our leaders are being led, but we don't know by what or towards what. There is something stirring in our DNA, almost as alien as Alten's aliens. And thus we are moved beyond finance and science and all our other pursuits back to page one, back to the basic questions: in a patterned universe, who is making the pattern? Why? What role does choice play? What role does morality play? From where comes morality? What unknown powers compel and guide our own small powers?
Suddenly, the Resurreccion Maya does not seem so silly. In substance, perhaps, but not so in perspective. There are indeed controlling forces, some of which we know and many of which we do not. We do have a destiny, for we are moving in a very specific direction, but towards an unknown fruition. And so the questions, and the search, continues. FK
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