In the aftermath of the 7.2 earthquake that ravaged Port-au-Prince and environs on January 12th, the international policy response was swift. Contingents from China, France, Belgium, the UN, Australia, and a host of countries from across the political spectrum were pouring in within 72 hours. Concerts were held. Non-governmental organizations turned on a dime in order to send staff, supplies, antibiotics, potable drinking water, and simple human comfort. Many journalists put down their cameras, rolled up their sleeves, and shouldered slabs of stone to free men, women and children trapped under rubble.
For all the lifelines that have been thrown, however, the sharks have begun to circle, many of them under the pretence of altruism. Beneath this wave of compassion and support is a strong undercurrent of moral self-congratulation, especially on the part of world governments who had hitherto demanded their pound of flesh from the small, desperately impoverished Republic. While the powers that be pat themselves on the back and jockey for humanitarian acclaim, inquiring minds are sceptical as to why it required a massive earthquake for the international community, which has no small role to play in Haiti’s longstanding plight, to lift a finger to assist what is arguably the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere.
In Haiti’s case, it may be argued that, from the outset, it has been besieged by a cabal of corporate, state and private interests that have had a vested interest in its destabilization ever since the Haitian Revolution.
Toussaint L’Ouverture, often overlooked during discussions of the most brilliant military and strategic minds in modern history, was able to forge an army and a national sense of identity powerful enough to outfight the British, the Spanish and of course the French in spite of the fact that practically all the major European powers with colonies in the Caribbean conspired against him out of fear that, should the ‘revolt’ be successful, it would spread throughout the Caribbean in a domino effect. The combination of shifting alliances, the use of top-notch guerrilla tactics as force-multipliers in the face of advanced weaponry, and stronger resistance to tropical diseases compared to their European invaders proved sufficient to best 21,000 of Napoleon’s finest. The Haitian Revolution rocked the world and sent shivers up the spine of Empire. The news was whispered in palaces and drawing rooms across the world: in the face of incalculable odds, black slaves had risen up, overthrown their imperial masters, and dared to form a new nation, replete with coat of arms, flag, government ministers, ambassadors, and a sophisticated administrative apparatus.
This simply would not stand. The French government demanded 150 million francs payable in gold in exchange for official recognition with the explicit threat of invasion should the ravaged Haiti refuse the terms. The US Government backed the French, and refused to recognize Haiti for sixty years. They also sent several warships of their own in 1850 which would patrol Haitian waters for at least another half century. Meanwhile, Haiti had lost thousands of acres of valuable arable farmland during the war for its Independence. Once the crown jewel of the French Caribbean, many of the fertile lands had been reduced to ash by scorched-earth tactics on both sides. The British, the US and the French imposed stifling embargoes to pressure Haiti to pay. Threatened with complete and utter isolation at a time when foreign assistance would have been instrumental in the reconstruction efforts, Haiti buckled to the French and US demands, paying down this debt scrupulously until 1947 in spite of the fact that debt service payments alone accounted for anywhere between 70%-80% of all foreign-currency denominated earnings. In a sadistic twist of irony, the only international banks willing to lend to the impoverished nation were French, British of American, and they demanded exorbitantly high interest rates in exchange for credit.
Yet in spite of all this, Haiti managed to produce one of the wonders of the world, the Citadel Laferrière. They routinely sent not only arms and materiel but also their best troops to South America in order to aid in the Bolivarian independence movements that were sweeping across the continent, gaining notoriety for their bravery, strategy, and unconventional guerilla warfare tactics.
But the pillage wasn’t over yet.
"I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class thug for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism…I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in.”
-General Smedley D. Butler, United States Marine Corps, 1935.
In 1910 the US State Department backed a National City Bank-led consortium of US banks to buy out the Banque National d’Haiti, the only commercial bank on the island and the correspondent bank for the government’s various accounts. When a popular uprising against the repressive regime of Jean Vilbrun Guillaume Sam in 1915 threatened American corporate interests such as the Haitian American Sugar Company, the corporatocracy responded in its usual fashion – by sending in US government troops to ‘restore order’. The invasion would result in the deaths of 15,000 Haitians and last for 19 years. The policies implemented by the new American overlords were predictable in retrospect. All restrictions on foreign landholdings were repealed. All import tariffs on American goods were dropped, key US advisers were installed in all major government outposts (their authority backed by the US Marine Corps under none other than General Smedley D. Butler) and all debts to First World banks and governments were scrupulously paid even at the expense of desperately needed domestic reforms that would have been able to alleviate widespread suffering.
In 1957, the notorious Dr. Francois ‘Papa Doc’ Duvalier came to power on a Black Nationalist platform and within two years ruthlessly consolidated his power through a combination of corruption, theft, and militia-led terror. He would receive USD 15 million a year from the US until 1962, as well as untold millions from international aid agencies, US-backed Fulgencio Batista (up until 1959) and associated foreign banks, most of which were diverted into personal offshore accounts. Together with his son Jean-Claude, who would succeed him in 1971, they attained levels of corruption and outright theft worthy of Nigeria’s Sani Abacha. It is estimated that at the height of Haiti’s foreign denominated debt load, which stood at US$1.8 billion before HIPC debt relief initiatives began to erode it, 40% of Haiti’s external debt can be traced back to the Duvalier years.
Papa Doc would rely heavily on US support to cement his rule in spite of public misgivings on the part of various US administrations regarding his repressive policies. The Tonton Macoute, the Duvalier clan’s personal militia and secret service, were trained by instructors on loan from the United States Marine Corps and the CIA, and the leaders of this brutal militia were routinely trained at the US Army School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Georgia, recently renamed the Western Hemispheric Institute for Security Cooperation or WHINSEC. This institution, nicknamed the School of Assassins, boasts such luminaries as Manuel Noriega, Gen. Anastasio Somoza, and Roberto D’Aubuisson of El Salvador. The human rights atrocities committed by WHINSEC graduates have been carefully documented by watchdog groups such as Amnesty International.
Both Papa Doc and his son Jean-Claude Duvalier ‘Baby Doc’ would rely on the US to maintain their grip on power through the use of mass terror. Known for their characteristic dark sunglasses and black clothing, the Tonton Macoute exceeded the official armed forces of the country in number and were responsible for the torture, disappearance and mass executions of civilian dissidents or anyone suspected of being a ‘threat’ to the regime. Like Augusto Pinochet and their pro-American counterparts in Spanish-speaking Latin America, the Duvalier regime learned early on that all that was necessary to massacre and plunder without let or hindrance was to pay lip service to the Six Commandments of American Foreign Policy as dictated to third world governments from Mount Washington throughout the latter half of the 20th century:
1. There is no God but neoliberal free-market capitalism, and Milton Friedman
is its prophet.
2. There is no evil but socialism.
3. Thou shalt not covet, nationalize, expropriate, or otherwise demand
concessions from American corporate and banking interests
4. Thou shalt privatize any utilities or state-owned agencies that are remotely
capable of making a profit
5. Thou shalt give first preference to US-based firms (such as Bechtel) when
awarding engineering or supply contracts for debt-financed projects.
6. Honor the IMF and the World Bank and render them holy.
The US agenda in Haiti since the days of the Duvalier dynasty has been a relatively simple one when interpreted in the light of failed ‘neoliberal’ export-led strategies formulated in Washington, for Washington. The idea was to transform Haiti into a manufacturing base as a source of ultra-cheap labor for multinational corporations while also encouraging them to abandon agricultural production for local needs. Under the Duvalier administrations, there was no effective minimum wage for local wage worker performing menial tasks for foreign corporations.
In the 1990’s President Rene Préval would face massive resistance to any and all initiatives to raise minimum wage requirements not only from local business elites and factory owners, but from none other than the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) which would famously state in one of its project papers that “…wage systems should not be the forum for welfare and social programs” and that wage increases would endanger Haiti’s ‘comparative advantage’ in ‘low cost labour’. This was in the face of widespread starvation among the very poor as opposed to record profits for garment makers. Companies whose clothes or products were manufactured by Haitian workers under such conditions include Disney, Wal-Mart, Kmart, Kids R’ Us and J.C Penney. Factory workers were exposed to the same sweatshop conditions that appear to be identical across the globe: constant exposure to hazardous materials, inhumanly long working hours, constant fear of instant dismissal for the slightest infraction, physical, sexual and psychological abuse from managers and foremen, and subsistence wages sufficient only to delay starvation. The average sweatshop worker earned a dollar a day, if so much, which by the UNDP’s (United Nations Development Programme) own definition constitutes severe and life-threatening poverty. Unionization was banned, and any attempts to organize labor for collective bargaining purposes were promptly met with beatings and assassinations by the ubiquitous Tonton Macoute death squads, whose innovative execution methods included binding their victims’ hands, hanging used tires around their heads and setting the tires on fire in a practice referred to as ‘necklacing’. They carried machetes at all times, and in their frenzied attacks would quite literally chop their victims into pieces.
THE RICE RIOTS
Perhaps the most well-known example of predatory capitalism masked by free-market rhetoric is the infamous privatization of the main water treatment plant in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Engineering giant Bechtel had successfully tendered a bid for a water treatment and distribution plant that had been hitherto subsidized by the government. Under the previous arrangement, water rates were charged pro rata based on the income levels associated with different regions. The net effect of this policy was that water rates were effectively progressive, with the very poor paying heavily subsidized rates. Within months of acquiring the plant, water rates tripled under Bechtel in some of the most economically destitute regions of the province, leading to rioting, water shortages, social unrest and public outcry from the international community. The policy was so nefarious that Bechtel would post notices attempting to discourage the collection of rainwater as an alternative. This was no isolated incident of corporate thuggery. A similar dynamic would play itself out in Haiti, and with equally disastrous consequences. This sordid tale, like many similar ones throughout the Caribbean, Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa, can be traced back to what could be described euphemistically as misguided IMF policy prescriptions.
Under the neoliberal model, all forms of protectionism were discouraged, and Haiti was under intense pressure to privatize broad swaths of industry and open Haiti to foreign competition under heavy-handed terms.
In the 1980’s rice was one of Haiti’s chief exports in an economy where at least one out of every four Haitians depended on the agricultural sector for day-to-day survival. The USAID program, under the pretense of alleviating starvation allowed US agribusiness interests to flood Haiti with surplus rice exports at rock bottom prices, wiping out the local farmers. Having effectively neutralized the local competition, the price of rice, a staple in the Haitian diet, began to rise dramatically. The result was starvation, rioting, and social displacement.
In 1971 Papa Doc died, and his 19 year-old son Jean Claude ‘Baby Doc’ Duvalier took his place. Whatever he lacked of his father’s sheer brutality, (although the Tonton Macoute continued to operate) he compensated for in theft, stashing hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid and state funds in private accounts under false names at the Lichtenstein branch of UBS AG. During this period the Haitian people suffered severe, frequent crises such as the famine and disease outbreaks. After he lavished US$3 million on a fairytale wedding in1980 in the midst of unimaginable poverty, the Duvalier dynasty was beginning to crumble from lack of even minimal popular support, even amongst the military.
In 1986, a popular uprising against the now isolated Duvalier regime toppled the younger from power. The army asked Jean-Claude to resign, and a provisional government ruled until finally in 1990, a Roman Catholic priest named Jean-Bertrand Aristide won 67% of the vote in a national election.
In retrospect, his administration was doomed from the start. His radical policies made local business elites and foreign corporations ill at ease, and he argued vociferously for reparations to the Haitian Republic from the countries that had siphoned off so much of its wealth for nearly 200 years. Overthrown by a military coup in 2001 under General Raoul Cédras, a well-funded league of assassins called the Front for the Advancement of Progress of the Haitian People (FRAPH) massacred thousands of dissidents and Aristide supporters without let or hindrance.
Amnesty International would later report that the leader of these extrajudicial executioners, Emmanuel ‘Toto’ Constant, was an unabashed CIA asset who flaunted his Washington connections and was paid a stipend of US$500 a month. After he was detained by INS officials in the US in 1995, there was a broad-based campaign to have him deported back to Haiti to stand trial for war crimes. When he threatened to divulge the details of his involvement with the CIA, the Clinton administration ordered his release, and he was quietly relocated to Long Island.
POGO, MEET THE REAL PABLO ESCOBAR
“We can’t compete with the government.”
– John Gotti Jr.
(In response to allegations that his organization was involved in the
distribution and sale of heroin and cocaine)
In 1993, President Clinton dispatched former President Jimmy Carter to attempt to convince the military regime to step down while US troops prepared to invade should the attempt prove unsuccessful. The military assented, and Aristide prepared to return to power. Before he did, however, he delivered a speech in front of the UN General Assembly in which he claimed that the military regime was raking in $200 million a year in profits from the hundreds of metric tons of cocaine from the Colombian Cali cartel that was flowing through Haiti en route to the US. In the light of CIA support of death squads such as FRAPH and the allegations of CIA drug-related protection racketeering that resulted in the Oliver North/Iran Contra scandals of the 1980’s, the subtext to Aristide’s words are very clear- just as General Smedley D. Butler made Haiti ‘safe for the National City Bank boys to collect revenue in’ someone had a vested interest in making sure that vital drug smuggling routes went unmolested.
Patrick Elie, anti-drug czar under Aristide, was quoted in the Los Angeles Times as saying that CIA liaisons rebuffed all attempts on his part to call to their attention the rampant drug-smuggling by the Haitian military, and the National Intelligence Service (which was created by the CIA under the darkly appropriate acronym SIN) were among the most prolific in the drug trafficking trade. SIN operatives such as Col. Gambetta Hyppolite were routinely trained at the US Army School of the Americas. As in Manuel Noriega’s Panama, the intention was clear- to create yet another CIA funded narco-state to assist the agency in carrying out its dark agenda. As outlined in the Kerry Report of 1988, it was testified before the Senate that Minister of the Interior General Williams Regala would routinely facilitate mass cocaine shipments under the watchful eye of DEA agents. Investigative journalist and author Dennis Bernstein would allege outright that the Haitian military elites, many of whom were on the CIA payroll since the mid 1980’s, were merely a proxy for yet another CIA drug op.
Aristide served the remainder of his term, but was defeated by one-time ally René Préval in 1996. He would be reelected in 2000 amidst allegations of election fraud. Drug trafficking continued to be rampant even under the Aristide administration, and high-ranking figures would accuse Aristide himself of demanding a share of their illicit profits in exchange for protection. Aristide, in his defense, would argue that this was part of a disinformation campaign design to destabilize his administration, and that the US had reneged on a deal in which he would privatize certain key state enterprises and sell them off to US firms in exchange for ongoing support. Though Aristide’s words bear the ring of truth, it would be both disingenuous and naïve to paint him as being a virtuous white knight.
After a tumultuous and violent four years, a revolt broke out in the city of Gonaives and rebel contingents marched towards Port-au-Prince. Although the United Nations’ official version of the events claims that at this point Aristide resigned, Aristide himself maintains to this day that uniformed US troops escorted him out of office for his ‘safekeeping’. A provisional government would govern until 2006 when sitting President René Préval was reelected with 51% of the vote.
It is painfully evident that Haiti’s plight up until January 14th is due in no small part to the rapacious policies of international banks, intelligence agencies, multinational corporations, short-sighted aid agencies, powerful drug cartels and world governments that have been able to bring their vast resources to bear on a country that was vulnerable from the beginning. Slowly, signs of normalcy are beginning to appear in Haiti. However, as the foam subsides, the sharks have begun to circle once more. There is yet another reason why there are 10,000 US troops are strategically located throughout Haiti, and once again it has nothing to do with restoring order, providing aid, or altruism.
The feeding frenzy is about to begin anew.
Veritas vos liberabit
Marli A. Creese
Monday, February 8, 2010
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
The Philosophical Implications of Quantam Physics
In Ayn Rand's magnum opus, Atlas Shrugged, the mysterious protagonist John Galt studies both physics and philosophy at an Ivy League university, baffling his classmates and professors. His attitude suggests that ultimately, both are two sides of the same coin. The fact that they both fall on two opposite ends of the logical-creative spectrum that encompasses human thought is a testimony to their harmony. We associate philosophy with creative, right-brained thinking- the dominant image that comes to mind is a toga-wearing, daydreaming freethinker reclining on grassy plain looking into the sky, wondering whether it is possible to jump into the same river twice. We associate physics with a character that approximates Spock from Star Trek- logical to the point of absurdity and lacking imagination.
The irony is that there are elements of the opposite in both sides of this spectrum. The history of mathematical theory, from Pythagoras to Schrodinger, is littered with fits and bursts of inspiration that completely broke away from everything that came before them. Conversely, order is an integral part of the the most creative processes, which would explain why a deaf Mozart could compose flawless symphonies without being able to actually hear what he was playing.The union of both disciplines, like the union of both hemispheres of the brain, results in a remarkable synthesis that allows us to combine possibility with probability. Reason guides the imagination as to what is both possible and probable; a balanced creative process calls upon both modes of thought.
Einstein wondered what the world would like like if he could ride a beam of light. The answer he came up with is what we know today as special relativity.In essence, the classical definition of philosophy also applies to physics: the rational investigation into all reality in the light of first causes. Can physics fill the gaps that philosophy cannot? The answer is a resounding YES; to glibly paraphrase Kant, I would say that when pure reason fails, experience prevails.Let us see what insights we can gather from the hard sciences.
ON FREE WILL
Our universe is nothing if not counter-intuitive; our Newtonian concept of reality (given the velocity, mass and location of all matter and energy in the universe we can accurately forecast all that will ever be an discern all that has ever happened) is an illusion. We live in a quantam world. At the subatomic level, there is no such thing as an event with a probability of one. The exact same experiment conducted under the exact same conditions lead to different results due to the inherent instability of quantam particles- when unmeasured, they exist in an 'in-between' state of ambiguity- imagine a particle spinning in more than one direction at once, being both here and there, and so on. The mathematical equations of quantam physics reflect this ambiguity by proclaiming that there is no absolute certainty. Ours is a world governed by probability, not determinism, and as such, the element of chance is a fundamental constituent of reality.
This brings us to the quantam measurement problem. Simply put, the very act of observing an experiment affects its outcome. An electron fired from an electron gun is represented by a probability wave in which the electron could be in any of several locations, or more importantly, actually be in several different locations simultaneously. It is only when we attempt to measure the definite location of the electron does it actually assume such a location. With regard to demonstrating wavelike or particle-like properties, a single electron is actually both, but will become dominantly particle-like or dominantly wavelike depending on how we try to measure it- attempt to measure it as a particle, it becomes a particle. Attempt to measure it as a wave, and it becomes a wave.
This is the paradox of Schrodinger's cat, a hypothetical illustration of this phenomena: imagine a cat inside a closed box that, unobserved, exists in a fuzzy mixture of being both alive and dead, only becoming either alive or dead when we peer inside the box. Human consciousness seems to the stimulus that impels these particles, which would otherwise exist in a state that can be best described as raw potentiality, to assume specific values.
Let us recap before we go any further:
1) The element of chance is woven into the mosaic of reality itself.
2) The human mind warps the very thing it pays attention to, though this phenomenon is best observed at microscopic levels.
This amounts to nothing less than an argument in favor of free will, since predestination assumes the ineffectuality of the human will against rigidly deterministic causality. As for the wider implications of this, hic sunt dracones. If awareness is a necessary prerequisite for matter to assume fixed, quantifiable dimensions, then why is it that (and I admit this is not the best example) rooms do not degenerate into an ambiguous aggregations of quantam particles when we walk out of them? If we are staring out of the Hubble telescope into one of several, far flung, uninhabited galaxies, those parts of the universe that we are unaware of or choose not to acknowledge, should by all rights return to their natural, chaotic state of raw potentiality, unless they are under observation by some other sentience. Now inflationary cosmology teaches us that at the gargantuan, macrocosmic level, the universe is symmetric, homogeneous, and most importantly, consistent. There is no evidence to suggest that there are patches of the cosmos that flit back and forth between actuality (having distinct features) and potentiality (being neither this not that, or both this and that).
There are hundreds of billions of galaxies in the known Universe. Each galaxy can contain thousands of solar systems, and each solar system contains dozens of planets. This entire structure is flying outwards at incomprehensible speeds as space itself expands. Now if conscious awareness is a prerequisite for definite actuality, then the only logical reason why the Universe maintains its remarkable consistency is because there exists a Consciousness that is completely aware of the entire Universe and has been from the very beginning. There is no other explanation, otherwise there would be patches of the Universe here and there that, being unobserved by either man or other intelligent being, would revert to a state of quantam ambiguity- disparate particles being both here and there, spinning about more than one axis at once, having no definite shape, and so on and so forth.
Given the totality of space-time as a single entity whereby the equations of Maxwell, Newton, Einstein and Schrodinger agree that past present and future are all equally real, and that time does not 'flow' in spite of our intuition, it must be that if the future already exists, and exists in a definite state though we cannot directly perceive it. Therefore, the consciousness that illuminates all space must illuminate all time as well.
Allow me to borrow a metaphor from Dr. Brian Greene. As a consequence of special relativity's time dilation, for a being billions of light years away walking towards earth at a given speed, that being's present, which is quite real, is actually our future. All time exists. The future Universe is real, and if so, must be illuminated by the same Consciousness that gives the present Universe its remarkable consistency.
If the quantam measurement problem, also known as the collapse of the superposition, is a natural consequence of human sentient awareness, then by a series of logical steps this would imply the necessity of a transcendent, omniscient, timeless Consciousness that bore witness to the birth of the Universe and whose continued presence allows it to retain its current, measurable form.
ON THE UNITY OF THE COSMOS
Scientists have long uncovered a property of quantam mechanics that can best be described as being downright weird, and that is entanglement. Simply put, two particles, regardless of distance, may be mysteriously correlated such that any changes in the properties of one particle is reflected in the other, in spite of the fact that they are supposedly isolated. Entanglement is only one example of the principle of non-locality, which states that what happens here and what happens there are connected by the very fact that they both take place in the same universe. For any two particles that are in a state of quantam entanlement, attempting to change certain characteristics in one affects the other in spite of all attempts to 'isolate' them. Distance makes absolutely no difference whatsoever. They could be millimeters apart, or, theoretically, light years. Attempt to change the direction about the axis that the particle rotates, and the twin particle elsewhere will respond as though it, too, were being directly affected. From this we may conclude that space and distance are of dubious relevance when calculating the independence of two events. Remember that probability theory categorizes two experiments as independent if the outcome of the first does not affect the second.Non-locality and entanglement suggest that no two experiments or events anywhere in the universe are independent. Everything is connected.
Now the next great paradigm shift in physics, or 'natural philosophy' to use the Newtonian denotation, will in all likelihood come from M-theory, the grand unification of the five different variations of String theory. The difference between M-theory and the original String theory is irrelevant for the purposes of this essay, so both may be referred to interchangeably here.
According to String theory, the finest, most basic constituents of reality are tiny, vibrating filaments of string that can be measured in Planck lengths, or 10 to the -34 power of a centimeter. Depending at the rate at which they vibrate, these strings form other basic particles such as quarks, protons, neutrons, etc cetera. These strings also constitute space itself.
All matter, space and energy is ultimately divisible down to these strings. The only difference between the hand that plays upon the ivory keys, the keys themselves and the space between them is that for each of the above, the strings vibrate on different scales, leading to different configurations and densities that consequently respond in different in ways to the different forces- gravitational, electromagnetic, strong nuclear, weak nuclear. We are all connected. In Zen Buddhism, and many eastern mystic traditions, enlightenment entails the ability to feel, on an intuitive level, that we are one with the Universe. Indeed we are.
The irony is that there are elements of the opposite in both sides of this spectrum. The history of mathematical theory, from Pythagoras to Schrodinger, is littered with fits and bursts of inspiration that completely broke away from everything that came before them. Conversely, order is an integral part of the the most creative processes, which would explain why a deaf Mozart could compose flawless symphonies without being able to actually hear what he was playing.The union of both disciplines, like the union of both hemispheres of the brain, results in a remarkable synthesis that allows us to combine possibility with probability. Reason guides the imagination as to what is both possible and probable; a balanced creative process calls upon both modes of thought.
Einstein wondered what the world would like like if he could ride a beam of light. The answer he came up with is what we know today as special relativity.In essence, the classical definition of philosophy also applies to physics: the rational investigation into all reality in the light of first causes. Can physics fill the gaps that philosophy cannot? The answer is a resounding YES; to glibly paraphrase Kant, I would say that when pure reason fails, experience prevails.Let us see what insights we can gather from the hard sciences.
ON FREE WILL
Our universe is nothing if not counter-intuitive; our Newtonian concept of reality (given the velocity, mass and location of all matter and energy in the universe we can accurately forecast all that will ever be an discern all that has ever happened) is an illusion. We live in a quantam world. At the subatomic level, there is no such thing as an event with a probability of one. The exact same experiment conducted under the exact same conditions lead to different results due to the inherent instability of quantam particles- when unmeasured, they exist in an 'in-between' state of ambiguity- imagine a particle spinning in more than one direction at once, being both here and there, and so on. The mathematical equations of quantam physics reflect this ambiguity by proclaiming that there is no absolute certainty. Ours is a world governed by probability, not determinism, and as such, the element of chance is a fundamental constituent of reality.
This brings us to the quantam measurement problem. Simply put, the very act of observing an experiment affects its outcome. An electron fired from an electron gun is represented by a probability wave in which the electron could be in any of several locations, or more importantly, actually be in several different locations simultaneously. It is only when we attempt to measure the definite location of the electron does it actually assume such a location. With regard to demonstrating wavelike or particle-like properties, a single electron is actually both, but will become dominantly particle-like or dominantly wavelike depending on how we try to measure it- attempt to measure it as a particle, it becomes a particle. Attempt to measure it as a wave, and it becomes a wave.
This is the paradox of Schrodinger's cat, a hypothetical illustration of this phenomena: imagine a cat inside a closed box that, unobserved, exists in a fuzzy mixture of being both alive and dead, only becoming either alive or dead when we peer inside the box. Human consciousness seems to the stimulus that impels these particles, which would otherwise exist in a state that can be best described as raw potentiality, to assume specific values.
Let us recap before we go any further:
1) The element of chance is woven into the mosaic of reality itself.
2) The human mind warps the very thing it pays attention to, though this phenomenon is best observed at microscopic levels.
This amounts to nothing less than an argument in favor of free will, since predestination assumes the ineffectuality of the human will against rigidly deterministic causality. As for the wider implications of this, hic sunt dracones. If awareness is a necessary prerequisite for matter to assume fixed, quantifiable dimensions, then why is it that (and I admit this is not the best example) rooms do not degenerate into an ambiguous aggregations of quantam particles when we walk out of them? If we are staring out of the Hubble telescope into one of several, far flung, uninhabited galaxies, those parts of the universe that we are unaware of or choose not to acknowledge, should by all rights return to their natural, chaotic state of raw potentiality, unless they are under observation by some other sentience. Now inflationary cosmology teaches us that at the gargantuan, macrocosmic level, the universe is symmetric, homogeneous, and most importantly, consistent. There is no evidence to suggest that there are patches of the cosmos that flit back and forth between actuality (having distinct features) and potentiality (being neither this not that, or both this and that).
There are hundreds of billions of galaxies in the known Universe. Each galaxy can contain thousands of solar systems, and each solar system contains dozens of planets. This entire structure is flying outwards at incomprehensible speeds as space itself expands. Now if conscious awareness is a prerequisite for definite actuality, then the only logical reason why the Universe maintains its remarkable consistency is because there exists a Consciousness that is completely aware of the entire Universe and has been from the very beginning. There is no other explanation, otherwise there would be patches of the Universe here and there that, being unobserved by either man or other intelligent being, would revert to a state of quantam ambiguity- disparate particles being both here and there, spinning about more than one axis at once, having no definite shape, and so on and so forth.
Given the totality of space-time as a single entity whereby the equations of Maxwell, Newton, Einstein and Schrodinger agree that past present and future are all equally real, and that time does not 'flow' in spite of our intuition, it must be that if the future already exists, and exists in a definite state though we cannot directly perceive it. Therefore, the consciousness that illuminates all space must illuminate all time as well.
Allow me to borrow a metaphor from Dr. Brian Greene. As a consequence of special relativity's time dilation, for a being billions of light years away walking towards earth at a given speed, that being's present, which is quite real, is actually our future. All time exists. The future Universe is real, and if so, must be illuminated by the same Consciousness that gives the present Universe its remarkable consistency.
If the quantam measurement problem, also known as the collapse of the superposition, is a natural consequence of human sentient awareness, then by a series of logical steps this would imply the necessity of a transcendent, omniscient, timeless Consciousness that bore witness to the birth of the Universe and whose continued presence allows it to retain its current, measurable form.
ON THE UNITY OF THE COSMOS
Scientists have long uncovered a property of quantam mechanics that can best be described as being downright weird, and that is entanglement. Simply put, two particles, regardless of distance, may be mysteriously correlated such that any changes in the properties of one particle is reflected in the other, in spite of the fact that they are supposedly isolated. Entanglement is only one example of the principle of non-locality, which states that what happens here and what happens there are connected by the very fact that they both take place in the same universe. For any two particles that are in a state of quantam entanlement, attempting to change certain characteristics in one affects the other in spite of all attempts to 'isolate' them. Distance makes absolutely no difference whatsoever. They could be millimeters apart, or, theoretically, light years. Attempt to change the direction about the axis that the particle rotates, and the twin particle elsewhere will respond as though it, too, were being directly affected. From this we may conclude that space and distance are of dubious relevance when calculating the independence of two events. Remember that probability theory categorizes two experiments as independent if the outcome of the first does not affect the second.Non-locality and entanglement suggest that no two experiments or events anywhere in the universe are independent. Everything is connected.
Now the next great paradigm shift in physics, or 'natural philosophy' to use the Newtonian denotation, will in all likelihood come from M-theory, the grand unification of the five different variations of String theory. The difference between M-theory and the original String theory is irrelevant for the purposes of this essay, so both may be referred to interchangeably here.
According to String theory, the finest, most basic constituents of reality are tiny, vibrating filaments of string that can be measured in Planck lengths, or 10 to the -34 power of a centimeter. Depending at the rate at which they vibrate, these strings form other basic particles such as quarks, protons, neutrons, etc cetera. These strings also constitute space itself.
All matter, space and energy is ultimately divisible down to these strings. The only difference between the hand that plays upon the ivory keys, the keys themselves and the space between them is that for each of the above, the strings vibrate on different scales, leading to different configurations and densities that consequently respond in different in ways to the different forces- gravitational, electromagnetic, strong nuclear, weak nuclear. We are all connected. In Zen Buddhism, and many eastern mystic traditions, enlightenment entails the ability to feel, on an intuitive level, that we are one with the Universe. Indeed we are.
On the Relationship Between Philosophy and Mathematics
In all my attempts to describe philosophical concepts, I have often resorted to using mathematical constructs, for example, I hold that the fundamental concept of God (the all-encompassing intelligence which transcends all existance) as a being that exists inside the Universe defies Logic. If God is Infinite Intelligence, and the Universe a creation of thought-power within that Infinite imagination, then to conceptualize God as creating the Universe around of instead of within Himself would a violation of Set Theory, since God himself/itself would be the Universal Set.
The fact that most philosophical theories can be mathematically conceptualized and demonstrated cannot be a mere coincidence. The Egyptian (and subsequently Pythagorean) definition of harmony as the union of opposites is manifest in both in Music (which is a form of applied mathematics) and the concept of odd/even numbers.
Perhaps the perfect backdrop for understannding the relationship between philosophy and math would be the 'Pythagorean' Cosmological Doctrine, i.e the idea that all things are numbers. Recall earlier the definition of harmony as the union of opposites. It applies to Music in that harmony is produced in any combination of notes (each of which can be assigned a mathematical value) whereby each note is a number of evenly spaced distances apart from the other notes in a finite set. From this we develop musical scales, then majors and minors, and finally chord progression.
The Union of Opposites is also found in masculine-feminine attraction. Men and women are attracted to each other specifically because of their diametrically opposed differences. The narrow-shouldered, wide-hipped, high-pitched woman is attracted to her 'numerical' opposite, the broad-shouldered, narrow- hipped, deep-voiced man. When men and women sing together, it is the differences in their pitch and tone that creates harmony. Men and women were meant to complement each other, not mirror.
It is no coincidence that in Plato's Republic, the speakers all agree that along with dialectic (logic) the guardians of the ideal city-state should study Music and Arithmetic. The three complement each other.
Philosophy is defined as a rational investigation into all reality in the light of first causes. Mathematics is the objective study of structure, change and space. It is a demonstration of causality, without the imposition of Time. The I-Ching, the ancient Chinese study of change, is perhaps the spirit of math in its purest form. It is a mathematical system whose thesis is that:
1) All things constantly change (similar to Heraclitus' Flux)
2) All things that change, change according to fixed, immutable laws.If philosophy is an attempt to discover the underlying nature of reality, and mathematics is composed of a set of symbols that, at their core, seek to quantify the Laws of the Universe, then mathematics represents nothing less than the 'proofs' of philosophy. It is the sentential logic which underpins ideas.It is the programming language of The Universe v.0, in much the same way that all software can eventually be reduced to binary code.
The fact that most philosophical theories can be mathematically conceptualized and demonstrated cannot be a mere coincidence. The Egyptian (and subsequently Pythagorean) definition of harmony as the union of opposites is manifest in both in Music (which is a form of applied mathematics) and the concept of odd/even numbers.
Perhaps the perfect backdrop for understannding the relationship between philosophy and math would be the 'Pythagorean' Cosmological Doctrine, i.e the idea that all things are numbers. Recall earlier the definition of harmony as the union of opposites. It applies to Music in that harmony is produced in any combination of notes (each of which can be assigned a mathematical value) whereby each note is a number of evenly spaced distances apart from the other notes in a finite set. From this we develop musical scales, then majors and minors, and finally chord progression.
The Union of Opposites is also found in masculine-feminine attraction. Men and women are attracted to each other specifically because of their diametrically opposed differences. The narrow-shouldered, wide-hipped, high-pitched woman is attracted to her 'numerical' opposite, the broad-shouldered, narrow- hipped, deep-voiced man. When men and women sing together, it is the differences in their pitch and tone that creates harmony. Men and women were meant to complement each other, not mirror.
It is no coincidence that in Plato's Republic, the speakers all agree that along with dialectic (logic) the guardians of the ideal city-state should study Music and Arithmetic. The three complement each other.
Philosophy is defined as a rational investigation into all reality in the light of first causes. Mathematics is the objective study of structure, change and space. It is a demonstration of causality, without the imposition of Time. The I-Ching, the ancient Chinese study of change, is perhaps the spirit of math in its purest form. It is a mathematical system whose thesis is that:
1) All things constantly change (similar to Heraclitus' Flux)
2) All things that change, change according to fixed, immutable laws.If philosophy is an attempt to discover the underlying nature of reality, and mathematics is composed of a set of symbols that, at their core, seek to quantify the Laws of the Universe, then mathematics represents nothing less than the 'proofs' of philosophy. It is the sentential logic which underpins ideas.It is the programming language of The Universe v.0, in much the same way that all software can eventually be reduced to binary code.
The Philosopher as a Product of Leisure Society
The transition from tribal, hunter-gatherer man to settled civilization was made possible through the creation of increasingly sophisticated irrigation,agricultural and farming techniques. Man realized first that hunting and living in groups produced more food per capita than individuals or single families; the rearing of livestock and the conscientious growing of crops on ever larger scales allowed not only for larger gatherings, but also for the twin economic phenomena of specialization and division of labor.
As this surplus grew, fringe occupations began to range from blacksmiths or tool-makers to more abstract professions such as griots (storytellers),teachers, and with the development of the money economy, even moneylenders. This meant that the average member of society could afford to work for fewer hours each day, and could perhaps choose a profession better suited to his own unique skills and temperament.
Early civilized man was no longer immediately preoccupied with having to find food or fighting for his very survival. Life was still perilous, but stable. His newfound free time and increased security gave him time to paint, draw, and create music, but more importantly, to think. As society became ever more affluent, private property emerges, and with it the institution of inheritance. The combination of money, surplus and specialization now allows for a man to accumulate wealth or inherit it, freeing him from the kind of soul-crushing labor and constant anxiety that Karl Marx would describe as being anathema to free intellectual development. Herein lies the rub- no matter how wealthy the society, the concentration of wealth and power would invariably be pyramidal in shape, so that not all would have the luxury of abundant leisure time. This was as true for ancient Egypt as it was for 18th century industrial England. It also applies today.
The Greek philosopher Heraclitus, who would laze on the grassy plains and stare at the clouds for hours, once sat crying at the side of a river because it occurred to him that all things are in a state of flux. Such unmanly conduct aside, Pleistocene-era man, hiking across the frozen Caspian sea looking for that night's shelter, would never be able to indulge himself in a similar fashion.Many of history's most celebrated philosophers were either middle-class, noble born, or lived off of the bounty of others while they created their magnum opae. Socrates was an Athenian senator who studied in Egypt. Plato was born into a well-to-do family that had ties to the Spartan leadership- one of his uncles was among the thirty tyrants that seized control of Athens after the Peloponnesian War. Aristotle was elitism itself.Gautama Buddha was a Prince before he renounced his title. What ancient Nepalese peasant could afford to squat under a bodhi tree for twenty years, contemplating the mysteries of the Universe? Leo Tolstoy was a Count. Yashua (better known by his anglicized name,Jesus) lived off of the generosity of his hosts, and Muhammed (Peace Be Upon Him) was married to Khadija, a well-to-do merchant. Mahatma Gandhi was an Oxford-trained lawyer before he began his quest. The list continues ad infinitum.The philosopher class is ultimately the product of a civilization that has so evolved that its surplus production allows for the existence of a luxuried, social stratum that does not directly contribute to a society's survival.
As this surplus grew, fringe occupations began to range from blacksmiths or tool-makers to more abstract professions such as griots (storytellers),teachers, and with the development of the money economy, even moneylenders. This meant that the average member of society could afford to work for fewer hours each day, and could perhaps choose a profession better suited to his own unique skills and temperament.
Early civilized man was no longer immediately preoccupied with having to find food or fighting for his very survival. Life was still perilous, but stable. His newfound free time and increased security gave him time to paint, draw, and create music, but more importantly, to think. As society became ever more affluent, private property emerges, and with it the institution of inheritance. The combination of money, surplus and specialization now allows for a man to accumulate wealth or inherit it, freeing him from the kind of soul-crushing labor and constant anxiety that Karl Marx would describe as being anathema to free intellectual development. Herein lies the rub- no matter how wealthy the society, the concentration of wealth and power would invariably be pyramidal in shape, so that not all would have the luxury of abundant leisure time. This was as true for ancient Egypt as it was for 18th century industrial England. It also applies today.
The Greek philosopher Heraclitus, who would laze on the grassy plains and stare at the clouds for hours, once sat crying at the side of a river because it occurred to him that all things are in a state of flux. Such unmanly conduct aside, Pleistocene-era man, hiking across the frozen Caspian sea looking for that night's shelter, would never be able to indulge himself in a similar fashion.Many of history's most celebrated philosophers were either middle-class, noble born, or lived off of the bounty of others while they created their magnum opae. Socrates was an Athenian senator who studied in Egypt. Plato was born into a well-to-do family that had ties to the Spartan leadership- one of his uncles was among the thirty tyrants that seized control of Athens after the Peloponnesian War. Aristotle was elitism itself.Gautama Buddha was a Prince before he renounced his title. What ancient Nepalese peasant could afford to squat under a bodhi tree for twenty years, contemplating the mysteries of the Universe? Leo Tolstoy was a Count. Yashua (better known by his anglicized name,Jesus) lived off of the generosity of his hosts, and Muhammed (Peace Be Upon Him) was married to Khadija, a well-to-do merchant. Mahatma Gandhi was an Oxford-trained lawyer before he began his quest. The list continues ad infinitum.The philosopher class is ultimately the product of a civilization that has so evolved that its surplus production allows for the existence of a luxuried, social stratum that does not directly contribute to a society's survival.
The Decline of Political Awareness in Contemporary America
The Decline of Political Awareness in Contemporary America
Modern American society, as opposed to only a few decades ago, conspires to stifle the political awareness of the modern wage slave. The wage slave works upwards of 70 hours a week for the corporate machine for just enough money so that he will not quit, and has no job security. He may be the CEO or the janitor, it makes little difference. He has little time to read and reflect upon the true state of the society he inhabits; he comes home tired, overworked, and depressed, and tries to drown out his internal monologue of anxieties, insecurities, and suspicions of insignificance by tuning out in front of the television. Subsequently bombarded by thousands of message that correlate consumption with happiness, he is then programmed by corporate America, which spends billions per annum on marketing and mass psychology research, to spend prodigiously on luxury items he scarcely needs nor can he afford. He falls asleep on the couch, awakes the following morn, and repeats the cycle. His children are shuffled of to increasingly mediocre high schools whose main purpose is to streamline its students into college or else staff the local McDonald’s, not to create critical, independent thinkers. The colleges, though they do produce exceptional scholars and conscientious citizens, are intended primarily to mass produce mindless bureaucrats, public servants and cogs in the corporate wheel. Anything else that emerges is a bonus. The teenage youth, whom many believe are the hope of the nation, are far too busy trying to navigate their way out of a complex maze of angst, existential confusion, overmedication, unlimited entertainment and pathological narcissism to pay too much attention to what is going on in Congress. An informed, conscientious citizenry is the foundation of a Republic. The natural tendency of government, when left to its own devices, is to consolidate as much power as possible at the expense of the private citizen, a task made considerably easier when its citizens become disinterested and distracted from the political process.
Modern American society, as opposed to only a few decades ago, conspires to stifle the political awareness of the modern wage slave. The wage slave works upwards of 70 hours a week for the corporate machine for just enough money so that he will not quit, and has no job security. He may be the CEO or the janitor, it makes little difference. He has little time to read and reflect upon the true state of the society he inhabits; he comes home tired, overworked, and depressed, and tries to drown out his internal monologue of anxieties, insecurities, and suspicions of insignificance by tuning out in front of the television. Subsequently bombarded by thousands of message that correlate consumption with happiness, he is then programmed by corporate America, which spends billions per annum on marketing and mass psychology research, to spend prodigiously on luxury items he scarcely needs nor can he afford. He falls asleep on the couch, awakes the following morn, and repeats the cycle. His children are shuffled of to increasingly mediocre high schools whose main purpose is to streamline its students into college or else staff the local McDonald’s, not to create critical, independent thinkers. The colleges, though they do produce exceptional scholars and conscientious citizens, are intended primarily to mass produce mindless bureaucrats, public servants and cogs in the corporate wheel. Anything else that emerges is a bonus. The teenage youth, whom many believe are the hope of the nation, are far too busy trying to navigate their way out of a complex maze of angst, existential confusion, overmedication, unlimited entertainment and pathological narcissism to pay too much attention to what is going on in Congress. An informed, conscientious citizenry is the foundation of a Republic. The natural tendency of government, when left to its own devices, is to consolidate as much power as possible at the expense of the private citizen, a task made considerably easier when its citizens become disinterested and distracted from the political process.
The Existence of God
The reverse causality argument for God's existence hinges upon two assumptions:
1) For any eventuality there is a preceding actuality, which is a rather obtruse way of saying that for every event is the consequence of a prior event, (Aristotle's Prime Mover argument, later improved upon by Saint Thomas Aquinas)
2) Since this chain of causaity cannot logically extend backwards into infinity, there must have been, mathematically speaking, a point of orgin, an unmoved Mover.
The typical atheist response to the aforementioned argument is to ask: if all things have a creator, then what created God? They reject the hypothesis than it is possible for any entity or state of being to have always existed before which there was nothing, and after which there can be nothing. They allow for no exception to the metaphysical law that, ceteris paribus, all that causes has a cause.However, though they reject the idea of the unmoved mover, science itself defends such a concept.
According the philosophical, non-sectarian definition of God, it is an omnipresent, all-encompassing, transcendent being with neither beginning nor end ( a concept represented in Catholicism by the Greek letters Alpha and Omega).
Isaac Newton's first law of thermodynamics states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, (always was, is and always will be) moving into form, through form and out of form. The String Theory and other advanced concepts of modern quantam physics suggest what ancient mystery systems have known for millenia: THAT ONE IS ALL AND ALL IS ONE. Energy is indivisible and ever constant throughout reality, transcendent and omnipresent.The separation of bodies is an optical illusion, but that is another topic for another day.
X can neither be created nor destroyed, exists everywhere at once, constantly moving into form, through form and out of form, where X can be used to represent energy...or God. Newton's law makes it possible for such a Being to exist because it is the inherent nature of energy itself to be eternal, transcendent, and all-encompassing.
'Fine then,' you ask, 'this Prime Mover exists. Yet God is ascribed with Intelligence, how can you prove that this Prime Mover acted conscientiously? How can you show...that Energy can possess intellect? Could it not have been a cosmic accident?'Easily. If there was no external mover, then this Prime Mover moved itself to act. For a thing to affect others, it may be moved externally such that it moves something else, for example, the white ball, acted upon by the pool cue, can move the 8-ball. However, there is no pool cue. There is only the white ball, and yet the white ball moves. For the white ball to move when there is nothing else to move it, the elimination process points to the white ball as the mover of itself.Now, for any given entity to move itself unassisted, IT MUST DECIDE TO DO SO, otherwise it cannot move or act.
For the Unmoved Mover to act of its own accord, it must possess the power to decide, which is ultimately the definition of intelligence. Intelligence is nothing less than the ability to make choices, because the concept of choice necessarily implies self-awareness, which in turn is the defining criteria of sentient life. There can be no 'I am,' I act' or 'I will act' without a concept of 'I."To conclude: The possibility of an eternal, transcendent and omnipresent being, before which there was nothing, is theoretically supported by the scientific laws of thermodynamics. If there was an unmoved mover, in order for it to act it must have been self-aware, else it was not truly the first.Ergo, the possibility exists for the existence of what we call God, even if only in a distant, impersonal sense.
P.S*I may have confused the Law of Thermodynamics with the Conservation of Energy.P.P.S 7/2/2007 The first law of thermodynamics IS the conservation of energy. I guess my physics aren't so bad after all.
1) For any eventuality there is a preceding actuality, which is a rather obtruse way of saying that for every event is the consequence of a prior event, (Aristotle's Prime Mover argument, later improved upon by Saint Thomas Aquinas)
2) Since this chain of causaity cannot logically extend backwards into infinity, there must have been, mathematically speaking, a point of orgin, an unmoved Mover.
The typical atheist response to the aforementioned argument is to ask: if all things have a creator, then what created God? They reject the hypothesis than it is possible for any entity or state of being to have always existed before which there was nothing, and after which there can be nothing. They allow for no exception to the metaphysical law that, ceteris paribus, all that causes has a cause.However, though they reject the idea of the unmoved mover, science itself defends such a concept.
According the philosophical, non-sectarian definition of God, it is an omnipresent, all-encompassing, transcendent being with neither beginning nor end ( a concept represented in Catholicism by the Greek letters Alpha and Omega).
Isaac Newton's first law of thermodynamics states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, (always was, is and always will be) moving into form, through form and out of form. The String Theory and other advanced concepts of modern quantam physics suggest what ancient mystery systems have known for millenia: THAT ONE IS ALL AND ALL IS ONE. Energy is indivisible and ever constant throughout reality, transcendent and omnipresent.The separation of bodies is an optical illusion, but that is another topic for another day.
X can neither be created nor destroyed, exists everywhere at once, constantly moving into form, through form and out of form, where X can be used to represent energy...or God. Newton's law makes it possible for such a Being to exist because it is the inherent nature of energy itself to be eternal, transcendent, and all-encompassing.
'Fine then,' you ask, 'this Prime Mover exists. Yet God is ascribed with Intelligence, how can you prove that this Prime Mover acted conscientiously? How can you show...that Energy can possess intellect? Could it not have been a cosmic accident?'Easily. If there was no external mover, then this Prime Mover moved itself to act. For a thing to affect others, it may be moved externally such that it moves something else, for example, the white ball, acted upon by the pool cue, can move the 8-ball. However, there is no pool cue. There is only the white ball, and yet the white ball moves. For the white ball to move when there is nothing else to move it, the elimination process points to the white ball as the mover of itself.Now, for any given entity to move itself unassisted, IT MUST DECIDE TO DO SO, otherwise it cannot move or act.
For the Unmoved Mover to act of its own accord, it must possess the power to decide, which is ultimately the definition of intelligence. Intelligence is nothing less than the ability to make choices, because the concept of choice necessarily implies self-awareness, which in turn is the defining criteria of sentient life. There can be no 'I am,' I act' or 'I will act' without a concept of 'I."To conclude: The possibility of an eternal, transcendent and omnipresent being, before which there was nothing, is theoretically supported by the scientific laws of thermodynamics. If there was an unmoved mover, in order for it to act it must have been self-aware, else it was not truly the first.Ergo, the possibility exists for the existence of what we call God, even if only in a distant, impersonal sense.
P.S*I may have confused the Law of Thermodynamics with the Conservation of Energy.P.P.S 7/2/2007 The first law of thermodynamics IS the conservation of energy. I guess my physics aren't so bad after all.
Monday, December 3, 2007
The Questionarian
"Whosoever asks oneself the Question,
And can clearly articulate it to himself,
Is a questionarian.
One who has been intiated by the First Scholar,
Becomes a Student.
The Question emerges as a vague, transcendent feeling,
One that emerges even before the questionarian possesses the vocabulary
To express it.
The Question occurs during times of deep reflection or mental quiet,
and its contemplation offers the promise of cosmic self awareness
For a fleeting instant.
The questionarian feels as though T
hey are on the brink of a powerful philosophical breakthrough
When they ask themselves the Question.
Fortunate is he who senses the Question, but cannot articulate it,
The words will come to him.
Fortunate is he who senses the question, and can articulate it
He is further along in his journey.
Many will live their entire lives without asking themselves the Question.
I will not tell you what the Question is.
Whosoever knows the Question,
And has asked it of himself of his own accord,
Is forbidden to reveal the Question.
The true Questionarian comes into his own without being prompted by another,
Not all are meant to follow this path.
To ask the Question is a commitment to wisdom,
To find the Answer is to become a god.
A student is one who has asked,
A Master is one who can answer,
But no-one has The Answer,
So there are no Masters.
Thus the founder is but the first among students.
Whosoever claims to know The answer to the Question
Is a liar, heretic and a fraud.
The journey towards the Answer is the end unto itself.
Impossible to complete, it is infinitely frustrating
Impossible to complete, it is infinitely rewarding.
In ieiunitas aeternus, gaudium.
In eternal hunger, fulfillment.
The contemplation of the Question guarantees nothing.
It does not offer 'salvation.'
It is left to the student to make the best of his journey,
And learn as much as he can.
The study of the Question is not a body of knowledge,
It is an appetite, a yearning for more.
Like the initiation rites of tribal man,
The experience itself is the test.
Perpetual growth is an absolute law
The all-encompassing attitude of the student.
Intellectual curiosity is an absolute law,
The all-encompassing motivation of the student
The delight in things mental is an absolute law,
The all-encompassing pleasure of the student.
The three laws serve as signposts,
Fixed and unmoving,
The reliable guides of the student.
Compatriot souls may journey together,
Comparing notes on their journey.
Compassion amongst them is a desirable thing
Communion means sustenance for all.
There are paths left behind from foreign explorers
Who did not seek the answer to the Question
Some of their landmarks may appear on your map
But remember that their quest is not ours."
And can clearly articulate it to himself,
Is a questionarian.
One who has been intiated by the First Scholar,
Becomes a Student.
The Question emerges as a vague, transcendent feeling,
One that emerges even before the questionarian possesses the vocabulary
To express it.
The Question occurs during times of deep reflection or mental quiet,
and its contemplation offers the promise of cosmic self awareness
For a fleeting instant.
The questionarian feels as though T
hey are on the brink of a powerful philosophical breakthrough
When they ask themselves the Question.
Fortunate is he who senses the Question, but cannot articulate it,
The words will come to him.
Fortunate is he who senses the question, and can articulate it
He is further along in his journey.
Many will live their entire lives without asking themselves the Question.
I will not tell you what the Question is.
Whosoever knows the Question,
And has asked it of himself of his own accord,
Is forbidden to reveal the Question.
The true Questionarian comes into his own without being prompted by another,
Not all are meant to follow this path.
To ask the Question is a commitment to wisdom,
To find the Answer is to become a god.
A student is one who has asked,
A Master is one who can answer,
But no-one has The Answer,
So there are no Masters.
Thus the founder is but the first among students.
Whosoever claims to know The answer to the Question
Is a liar, heretic and a fraud.
The journey towards the Answer is the end unto itself.
Impossible to complete, it is infinitely frustrating
Impossible to complete, it is infinitely rewarding.
In ieiunitas aeternus, gaudium.
In eternal hunger, fulfillment.
The contemplation of the Question guarantees nothing.
It does not offer 'salvation.'
It is left to the student to make the best of his journey,
And learn as much as he can.
The study of the Question is not a body of knowledge,
It is an appetite, a yearning for more.
Like the initiation rites of tribal man,
The experience itself is the test.
Perpetual growth is an absolute law
The all-encompassing attitude of the student.
Intellectual curiosity is an absolute law,
The all-encompassing motivation of the student
The delight in things mental is an absolute law,
The all-encompassing pleasure of the student.
The three laws serve as signposts,
Fixed and unmoving,
The reliable guides of the student.
Compatriot souls may journey together,
Comparing notes on their journey.
Compassion amongst them is a desirable thing
Communion means sustenance for all.
There are paths left behind from foreign explorers
Who did not seek the answer to the Question
Some of their landmarks may appear on your map
But remember that their quest is not ours."
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