I find people who are offended by the sight of the human body deeply offensive.
This is a gut reaction, perhaps it is unreasonable of me to feel this way - after all, the covering of the body is generally held to be a symbol of shame, & Mankind has plenty to be ashamed about- war, ethnic cleansing, greed, the rape of the planet, putting cats in wheelie-bins - the list goes on and on. Even if you're a politically active pacifist who recycles - it is clearly perfectly reasonable to harbour a sense of collective guilt at our species' seemingly limitless capacity for utterly appalling behaviour. If I was to attend an intergalactic conference I would most certainly wear a Burkha - it is embarrassing being a Human Being (am I just paranoid, or are the other extra-terrestrial delegates whispering behind my back & sniggering, just as we laugh when a bear covers his eyes with his paws, "poor simple, deluded creature - he thinks we cannot see him!")
Yes, we have much to be ashamed of, it is no wonder we spend our lives devising more and more ingenious distractions. But if we sedate ourselves, if we choose to forget, then we will have learnt nothing, & if we have learnt nothing then we will make the same mistakes again, again, again & again.
Yes, it is easy to forget - but if each of us, as individuals, should choose to forget - then society forgets, for society has no memory outside of existing beings of men. We must remember - not to make our lives easier, but so that we can collectively learn from our mistakes, rather than repeating the mistakes of the past, the mistakes that we find so hard to face (reminds me of the vampires in the TV series 'Being Human', who have to keep killing people & drinking their blood, or they start to remember all the people they've killed and the suffering they have caused)
We should neither forget the Holocaust, nor should we deny it - no, we must strive to understand it. Consider this - it is comforting to tell ourselves that we wouldn't collaborate with the Nazis, because we are better than them. How many times have you heard words to that effect? It is understandable if you have thought it yourself. In what way might we be better than them? Its simple, everybody knows - we are better than them because they think "we are better than them" and we don't think "we are better than them".
In the twentieth century Hitler became a political activist - his ideas were wrong, and terrible atrocities were perpetrated by him - but was he, himself, 'evil'? Or was he just doing what he thought was right? When we watch a film about Aliens who think they are better than us we are happy when the heroes defeat them. The less enlightened Jews of today still think they are the 'chosen people', a philosophy of hate entrenched in their scripture in a less enlightened age, a perfectly reasonable reaction to their persecution in a more primitive age. Hitler should have known better than to adopt this philosophy himself, but while he was a brave and passionate man he lacked wisdom. Hear the words of Martin-luther King Jr -
"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."
"Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it."
If Hitler had this wisdom? Then there would have been no Holocaust, no WWII. We have had the experience of WWII and the Holocaust, and still we appear to be having tremendous difficulty collectively assimilating the obvious lessons these horrific, shameful events should have taught us - so it is patently obvious that without these experiences to learn from we would stand no chance whatsoever of collectively evolving to a point where such things could never happen again. If we can learn the lessons of time? Then WWII and the holocaust could be the best thing that ever happened to Mankind, & the terrible would not have been in vain. If we cannot learn? Then we are doomed,
Everyone has heard this phrase, but I think few understand it -
SEE NO EVIL HEAR NO EVIL SPEAK NO EVIL
Hate is an affliction, a disease - those who suffer from it are to be pitied. Feel sorry for them, they are filled with the cancer of Hate - how terrible for them. The disease of Hate burns inside them & consumes them, it is a pain inside, a fever that drives them to do unspeakable things. When we have a pain it is telling us something is wrong with our body, & so we take appropriate action. If there is a thorn in our side? We remove it. If we have a cold? We take a remedy to relieve the symptoms - as there is no known cure for the common cold.
Imagine your family is killed by people infected with hate. Sadly, some people reading this might not need to imagine this. Feel the terrible pain of your loss. What can be done about it? What is the cure for this pain inside? Without the benefit of scientific insight it is as natural as assuming the Earth to be flat to perceive the perpetrators of the atrocity to be the sickness itself, for hate is a contagious disease, and it is spread by anger. If you have become infected with hate the likelihood is that you will do something equally despicable in vengeance - and thus the endless cycle of escalating atrocities continues. You may have removed the thorn, but today's fresh wounds will become the festering, infected cancerous buboes that will disfigure your children's children's children.
But their actions and your reactions are the symptoms of this disease - the disease of hate is spread by its inappropriate treatment. In the past ailments were treated with leeches, mercury, blood-letting - all manner of useless & often counter-productive measures. We no longer use these treatments as they have been proved ineffective.
If only we could find a physician with a cure for hate! There was, once, a maverick doctor who proposed a radical cure, but he was widely misunderstood - his ideas were too advanced for the time.
"But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.
If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' lend to 'sinners,' expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you" Luke 6:27-37
I never thought I'd say this, but I think Maggie Thatcher was right when she said this -
"There is no such thing as society. There is living tapestry of men and women and people and the beauty of that tapestry and the quality of our lives will depend upon how much each of us is prepared to take responsibility for ourselves and each of us prepared to turn round and help by our own efforts those who are unfortunate."If we can truly penetrate & internalise the lessons of time? Treat the past as a valuable & incomparably powerful lesson & it will become our greatest asset, our teacher - for every life cut short countless will be saved, lives lived to the full in a brighter world. Ignore that ol' teacher Time? I guarantee you, should we persist in striving to prove that we are better than them - then we'll prove just one thing, to no-one - that we were an irredeemably brutal & selfish species, hellbent on pursuing endlessly repeating cycles of escalating violence, persecution & exploitation.
Lets face it, two hundred years ago almost everybody thought "we're better than them". We're better than them because they live in huts and dance naked in the moonlight. We're better than them because we're better at killing people. We're better than them because we're better at enslaving people. We're better than them because we're better at selling things. We're better than them because our holy books are more accurate and yours are perverted (who gives a flying fuck what it says in your fucking scripture, it could say 'THOU SHALT NOT KILL' and you'd probably ignore it, actions speak much louder than words).
It doesn't fucking matter what country your great-great-grandparents were born in or what colour you are, for crying out loud - we're a dysfunctional family, I'll grant you that - but we're all fucking related. Nor does it matter what pet name you have for G-d, its just a word, a grunt, some squiggles on paper you've agreed amongst yourselves indicate something inexplicable that you've felt in your hearts, something utterly beyond naming -yes, you gotta have a word for it - but as soon as you think your word is summat special you're worshipping a Golden Calf.
We're better than them because.. because.. because we fucking are, alright?
If there is one lesson that time should have taught us by now - when you say "I'm better than you" then whoever you say it to will resent it, and try and prove they are better than you are at the first opportunity. Its playground politics.
Pride is not a sin, to be proud to be part of this magnificent universe is natural - be proud to be a part of the glorious Nature of things! Be proud to be an animal! Pride is not a sin. So why is it so hard to be proud to be a human being? We feel pain for a reason, to tell us there is a thorn in our side, so that we can remove it. We are right to be ashamed to be human at the intergalactic conference, this shame is a pain, a pain telling us that there is something wrong. What is this thorn that needs to be removed? Its name is 'hate'. It is not a sin to be proud of your people - but there is no call for this pride to make you think 'we are better than them', your pride in who you are is a qualitative pride, not a quantitative one.
Is it just human nature, or is there the potential for change? Look at the past couple of hundred years, change is not just possible, it is inevitable. We are evolving, collectively. The rising values of 'tolerance, diversity & equality' are platitudes, but they are cornerstones of the global paradigm shift that is occurring. In Britain they are rightly enshrined in all the mission statements of public sector organisations. To me it seems one word is missing, one word that could replace them all - love.
J
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