We have just religion enough to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another. — Johnathan Swift
We have drawn up an indictment in the Three Great Questions Trilogy concerning human behavior. What type of defense would be most effective in order that we could avoid hearing the dreaded rap of the Celestial gavel and the verdict that we all dread and yet know is inevitable? Perhaps we could hearken back to the “case” of the first person who violated the first rule of the newly minted universe. “Thou shalt not eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil!”
We can see her now with rounded shoulders and squinting, up-cast eyes, begging for mercy. “The serpent did beguile me and I did eat,” whispered the pathetic, shrinking terrified Eve. Alas, she had been forewarned, and the “devil made me do it defense” was not persuasive. Nor was the Old Testament God noted for his compassion. He was, in that stage of his evolution, noted for focusing on the strict interpretation of the law (compassion was a character trait that would be developed over time).
For now these humans must be kept in line because they had the potential for making a mess of his precious planet. They had, as a result of Eve’s concupiscence, acquired free will and lost consciousness in one fell swoop. In short, humanity was given the choice of finding its way back to the Garden or chasing the temptress Maya and her delusional pleasures.
A few offspring of the original couple have been able to find their way back to Paradise, but very few indeed. How are those of us in the Global Village faring today? Leonard Pitts in his column written for the Miami Herald gives away his verdict in his chosen title: “Freedom to make stupid decisions.”
He uses the metaphor found in the Marvel Comics graphic novels. The villain Victor Von Doom (the form the shape-shifting Maya has taken) is ruling the world and has taken away humanity’s free will. In doing so, all of humanity’s bone-headed behavior has disappeared and Paradise has returned.
Now we introduce two contrasting worldviews. We have Mr. Pitts’ P-B narrative and the story of P-A; two radically different contexts. We return to the story of the devil (or angel), Victor Von Doom. “When the Avengers [the heroes] defeated him, the world returned to rack and ruin [sound familiar] as humanity reasserted its rights. The Avenger Hawkeye [picture Daniel Day Lewis] wondered if they had done the right thing. Captain America [picture Rush Limbaugh] admonished him, ‘The world isn’t perfect. But people are free to make their own choices [read “Do what I tell them.”]—and that’s the way it should be.”
As our story continues we have left the Marvel Comics story and introduced real life zombies … uhh … errr Americans, and have Milton Tingling, a New York state Supreme Court judge lecturing Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York City. The imperious mayor had attempted to rescue the unconscious citizens of New York from committing suicide imbibing copious amounts of sugar by forbidding the sale of monster, non-diet soft drinks, or in other words, taking away their freedom of choice.
Judge Tingling called the mayor’s proposed policy “arbitrary and capricious.” It may be OK for the state to pass laws to protect the health, welfare and property or defend the vulnerable from exploitation and other restrictions to regulate behavior, but Bloomberg’s “restrictions” had gone too far.
Siding with the Supreme Court justice, Pitts supported laws to restrict criminal behavior but not restrictions on the consumption of the 20 teaspoonfuls of sugar that the average American has come to consume each day. “The latter reflects a lack of faith in the wisdom of people, their ability, when properly informed, to make the right choice.” What?
Wisdom? American zombies don’t know from wisdom. American zombies cannot distinguish up from down. “If one is not free to make one’s own decisions, then one is not free. It is an abiding truth of which we seem to need constant reminders.” Mr. Pitts makes a spirited plea for freedom but is peering from behind the bars of his own self-created jail cell. Free will is a sad delusion for a people who are clueless as to the nature of the story that they are choosing for themselves. There is no free will when there is no actual choice. To choose between P-B and P-A, we have to know of the existence of P-A and almost no one does.
We can sympathize with those that are mistrustful of an over-reaching government because after all, those in the halls of our legislatures are as unmindful of the nature of “what’s really happening” as the rest of us. We have ample evidence that they don’t really know what they are doing. But neither do the rest of us. But we are right in suspecting that the blind can’t lead the blind.
We have trashed Jehovah’s planet and treated each other badly—should we be expecting another flood or is it “the fire this time?” So! What will it be when it comes time to enter our plea—guilty—or not guilty; and our defense? The devil made me do it! There is much about human behavior that might persuade a jury to consider there is a devil in the mix somewhere.
Does humanity have a built in excuse? I think we do and it’s not stupidity, although some of our brethren are not playing with a full deck. How about the ultimate defense? How about we wake up? When we do that, and it is a choice we all have, then we will realize we are back in Eden, the present moment beyond time and space and the grasp of Maya.
Listen up Eve. Yes! It’s true. It was all a dream and you are still in Paradise. Go ahead and have that apple; we know you’re hungry. And by the way, don’t tell Adam about your dream—you know how men are—he’ll start to worry.
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References and notes are available for this essay.
Find a much more in-depth discussion in books by Roy Charles Henry:
Who Am I? The Second Great Question Concerning the Nature of Reality
Where Am I? The First Great Question Concerning the Nature of Reality
Simple Reality: The Key to Serenity and Survival
