I have been having a problem lately
with our use of history to guide us. I am a firm believer that we
should learn from our history. This is especially true with our
failures and mistakes. It is from those mishits that we learn the
most. For immediate success, not so much. That is another topic.
Really, I am having trouble with the fact that we look back deep in
our history and sometimes prehistory with a reverence that perhaps
was never intended. Or at the very least hold these words, documents
and axioms on a pedestal so high and strong that the idea of
displacement or evolution will be met with an almost violent response
from the masses or at least those that benefit the most from them.
I really want to
get to the 500 pound gorilla in the room. Lets talk about the bible.
All four testaments of the bible that is, Old Testament, New
Testament, Koran and The Book Of Mormon. Because that in of itself
is it's own conflict. I want to start with the simple fact that
these books were spoken, passed along and eventually written down
centuries or even several millennia ago. How is it we can take words
from a few thousand years ago and possibly know what those that spoke
them would have thought about how they applied today. I would love
to mention the Leviticus thing where we have cherry picked our devout
belief that it is most important that a man not lay with another man
in the way he would with another woman. Okay, so the ancient Jewish
were homophobes. But it also states that men could not live in the
same house with a woman during that time of the month. Perhaps good
advice but with all practicallity I could see a lot of good
relationships ending because the dude bolted when Aunt Flo came to
visit. Why is it we go so far as hate on the gays so much that we
tattoo the verse from the bible on our arm but ignore how in the same
book tattoos are forbidden.
I am not saying that some of the stuff
passed down from way back when should be ignored. Honoring thy
father and mother is some damn good advice. It is most certainly not
an original idea conceived of the by the writers of the old
testament. Parents have been and will always be demanding that their
kids listen and behave. At least till we enter that Brave New World.
Think about some of the real reasons for some of the Kosher food
rules. They had practical applications to the time and place but now they are considered some sort of dogma. I just wonder how we
can feel that a several thousand year old oral tradition can be
considered such a strict set of laws that we can no longer look to
the future as a chance for our growth. Well it actually happened.
Then came the Catholic Church. A
Jewish Priest name Jesus came around and spoke about how his religion had it wrong and there was a better way. He had his followers
and they helped to spread and expand upon his ideas. Of course the
prevailing powers of the time determined him to be a heretic and he
was executed for it. I want to get back to the a couple of points I
have mentioned so far. They make a lot of sense for the this
particular argument. Oral tradition and expanding upon the ideas of
a supposed prophet. We know that the language that was spoken in
those times, 2000+ years ago, was most likely Aramaic but the earliest
translatable printed versions of the Bible (New Testament) is in
Greek. (I may be wrong on the Greek thing it could be Latin.
Different sources say different things.) Needless to say there has
to be something lost in translation. But, really, when the book was
compiled was a few centuries after the prosecution of Jesus. I don't
want to get into a dispute about it how and when it was all put
together. The truth of nature is those books were written by men and
the ideas were expanded upon to suit their own purposes. Whether
those purposes were to spread the love or to tighten the leash of
power of the church does not matter.
Now we come to a large document that
we hold dear and inflexible written by ancient men of 2000 years ago.
It has been excepted by those followers that Jesus was not a heretic
but a prophet and his disciples were the spreaders of his word which
was the words of his god. Okay so again we have a bit of history
making things larger than life as time goes on. It is more about how
we forget that tends to make the stuff of legend. Once again, I am
not knocking some of the general ideas put forth in the New
Testament. Forgiveness is a big thing. Treating others with love
and compassion is great and how I want to live me life so good for
the bible. Of course those things are talked about in a book like “How
to Win Friends and Influence People.” What's so wrong with that
book? Absolutely nothing. Still it is not a revered as that 2000
year old book.
I am going to gloss over the next two
books of the bible a bit because I know less about them but the
general reaction to them and their prophets was similar to that of
the reaction to Jesus or to the Jewish by the Egyptians. I know some
may thing I speak heresy when I call the Koran or The Book of Mormon
part of the bible but really they are just that. They were an
extension of what was before. The Prophet Mohamed used some of the
teachings coming from his Jewish and Christian ancestors along with
other oral tradition of the region to evolve an new religion of
Islam. Well in 600 years I am sure there was some Christians
shitting their pants over this whack job pushing his new beliefs.
Well, it took hold and again the Third Book of the Bible dash 1
became a tome of inflexible unevolving rhetoric. Now with Islam in
its adolescence it is the place we put our blame for the worlds
problems. Mostly because we all cling to these ancient and
antiquated beliefs written by people could have never imagined the
present day.
Real quick, we look at the other third
book of the Bible. The Book of Mormon. It is not the fourth because
it is really not an extension of the Koran but more of a different
branch. Holy smokes, Joe Smith was considered such a nut job and
heretic he eventually pissed somebody off enough to the point of
killing him where he stood. Actually, it was premeditated where a mob
stormed a jail he was in and effed his shit up along with his
brother. Yet things caught on. Still with a text that is only 125+
years old it is nowhere near as accepted as its predecessors. Still
it has had enough time to be considered another rigid regulation that
has to be accepted because somebody a long time ago had to be wiser
than we are today. I know I have spent a lot of time on the religion
thing and in particular the Judea-Christian stuff. It is what I know
more about but I list other old shit that perhaps need to be taken
with a modern grain of salt.
Sacred texts of various religions:
It is about time I get to what
really sparked my personal furor, “The Constitution of the United
States of America.” So over 200 years ago these guys got together
because the law of the land that was written a few years prior,
“Articles of Confederation,” did not work. They decided to
rewrite how they formed the government and how it would run. They
made the ability to amend the constitution to allow for some changing
of the time that they had just witnessed in the days of the
“Articles” and its failure. They made a set of amendments we
call the “Bill of Rights.” And those are quickly summarized
here.
| 1 |
Freedom of religion,
speech, press, assembly, and petition. |
| 2
|
Right to keep and bear arms
in order to maintain a well regulated militia. |
| 3
|
No quartering of soldiers. |
| 4
|
Freedom from unreasonable
searches and seizures. |
| 5
|
Right to due process of
law, freedom from self-incrimination, double jeopardy. |
| 6
|
Rights of accused persons,
e.g., right to a speedy and public trial. |
| 7
|
Right of trial by jury in
civil cases.
|
| 8
|
Freedom from excessive
bail, cruel and unusual punishments. |
| 9
|
Other rights of the people.
|
| 10
|
Powers reserved to the
states. |
They are nice and really
work well. But lets use the second amendment as a starting point.
At no point does it say we need a gun to hunt with. I am sure our
founding fathers probably thought that it would be reasonable for
people who hunt to have a gun but it is not part of the constitution.
Number 4, unreasonable search and seizures. If you get arrested for
a crime and have a cell phone on you it should be confiscated and
used as evidence against you for the crime. How is that much
different than arresting somebody for accounting fraud and seizing
their books. Still some how we are trying to use a 200 year old
document as our balance for determining if our law enforcement can do
their job to keep us safe. Don't get me started on speedy trial.
Bureaucracy is an infection that has clogged up our justice system.
The point is that if the
framers of the Constitution where brought up to speed on our modern
times and asked to look how their grand plan was being implemented
they would exercise their second amendment rights to topple this joke
of government system. Quite frankly, because our inflexibility the
constitution is a failure. We (those in power) have bastardized the
system of government to suite themselves and not the people it was
originally intended to protect and serve. Having a different view on
how to help the country is okay but putting up the great wall of
China between the republicans and democrats with jumble of
complicated parliamentary procedure is nothing but a grab for power
that shows a total lack of respect for the constituents they lie about
representing.
Of course our founding
fathers would not be the only ones wholly confused by our rigid
unimaginative way of following these guidelines. I would bet, and
win the bet, that the compilers, preachers and prophets would be
sickened by how the world has clung so ignorantly to what had been
said with no chance of a context in the modern world. Again, I am
sure that if they were brought up to date with our common era they
would see the wisdom in an ever evolving and growing set of beliefs
and written doctrine.
So in the conclusion
and bringing back to the title of this piece I would guess that
because I said this stuff today, I am a lunatic. Perhaps in two
hundred years or so historians will look upon my ramblings and
declare me a prophet. If only I had a time machine to find out or to
plant my lunacy in the past.
Another great set of good news. Once again if we celebrate our small victories we will start really seeing the positives in our lives. I do have to add one thing that might be a little drama driven. When the winter storm came through here tuesday night the wednesday morning news was nothing but weather and traffic related to the storm. There was no mention of any shootings in the area. I would like to think that the cold weather kept those would be shooters inside and out of trouble. So there was some good that came out of the storm. Anywho, that is it. If you have any news to add feel free and I will be getting to you guys next week.
