(orig. published) February 9th, 2007
This is a response I wrote to a post on Siona’s blog on Zaadz onChristian Fascism and pre-rational thought. (still working on my letter to Jeff Wells, sorta coming along…)
130 to 100 years ago in America, the ancestors of the people who are today falling under the spell of the Christian Eschatologists were tuned into the growing realization that the whole system in this country had become dominated by what were then called the Monopoly Trusts, the capitalists who worshipped profit at any cost (the costs, of course, to be born by other people, by the land, by the web of life). If we study what happened in the U.S. between 1900 and 1920 we can see the establishment of systems to co-opt this threat to the egoistic hegemony of those who “think they are in control” – chief among them, perhaps, public education based on the Prussian and Indian lower-caste models, the so-called “Income Tax,” and the so-called Federal Reserve Banking System. A similar burst of terrified suppression followed the flowering of the Hippy Movement in the 60’s, leading to the wide-spread fear among so many to foolishly entertain the notion that we don’t need experts to guide us in every aspect of how we see ourselves and plan our lives. What has happened to religion follows the dominator / social engineering model. It is made to seem that we need mediators between ourselves and god, that we are incapable of approaching the truth of what we are without external guidance, when exactly the opposite is the case. ONLY we can find the truth of our inner nature for ourselves – and any trustworthy guide or teacher will be very explicit and specific about this.The system that underpins concensus reality has entered into the crisis that social critics in the last century saw coming and characterized as “The Crisis of Capitalism.” Actually, however, IMO, this rapidly escalating crisis is the ultimate crisis of the human ego. All of the human institutions worldwide, and certainly all of the established religions, have come under the sway of people completely obsessed by a false idea of who they are and determined to do whatever is necessary to maintain control and the illusion of a stable, Cartesian, “normal,” unchanging world. These efforts are, again IMO, being driven to extremities by the at least subconscious perceptions of the dominators that there is a flowering of human awakening underfoot. The only commodity that institutional leaders, and particularly those striving to keep people from questioning the truth about their divine nature, have to sell is fear. If I am afraid enough about an afterlife of limitless suffering, about the loss of my support network in heaven due to the damnation of my loved ones, about being unacceptable in the sight of my creator, about the threat represented by anyone I perceive as “other,” then I will follow anything that appears to hold out a scintilla of hope, even if what I’m called to is clearly against my own interests, and those of my children, neighbors, wife, country, whatever. This is where many of our compatriots are headed now. It’s not out of any fault of their own. They are simply deluded, as are we all when we look at the world from a perspective that makes anyone seem wrong, threatening or evil. This is the play of Lila, and a perfect reflection of the mass states of consciousness of humanity as we get ready to awaken from the fever-dream of the ego, apparently so necessary for our evolution beyond it. Let’s just wake up…
Bruce Tanner, February 2007
