A post I wrote quite a few years back, that still seems relevant, especially in light of recent tragic events…

We are stardust…
Billion year old carbon…
We are golden…
Caught in the devil’s bargain…
And we’ve got to get ourselves…
back to the garden.

Joni Mitchell, Woodstock, 1969

I’ve reluctantly come to the conclusion that the world “se fue para la mierda”…a crude thing to say, but since my readers generally don’t speak Spanish, I can get away with it.

But it wasn’t meant to be that way, was it?

If you believe that there’s a creative force behind everything our senses perceive, it’s just not logical to think that creation was meant to be this screwed up. The book of Genesis tell us that God created a garden (called Eden) where he placed the first two humans. This garden was perfect and they lived in complete peace and harmony between themselves and nature.

Sounds kind of nice, huh?

Then something happened. Since God had given these two creatures, made in His image, a dose of “free will”, they decided to exercise it to their detriment. And things haven’t been so perfect ever since…in fact, far from it.

Moreover, what’s the force in this world that seems so determined to prevent that from happening?

It would seem that this force is what we sometimes refer to as evil. And even though some deny its presence, it certainly seems to exist and play an ever-present role in the daily affairs of humans.

Why else would a dude named Hitler adopt the belief that natural borne Germans should dominate and subjugate the entire world and in the process eliminate a race of people (the Jews) that he felt were a threat to that belief? If that’s not telling evidence of the existence of evil in this world, then I don’t know what is.

Much of the strife and conflict in the world has to do with opposing belief systems. Moreover, it seems that “evil” often resides in the recesses of such belief systems like a dormant virus. At the appropriate moment evil turns them to its own insidious advantage.

Why else would such systems, initially conceived with laudable ideals and goals, be later used to propagate such inhumane acts?

These belief systems offer differing ideas about our spiritual existence and how that should lead us to manage our material existence.

For instance capitalism says that since we’re endowed by a “creator” with inalienable rights, we should be free to exercise those rights and manage our own material existence free from government interference. Socialism, or Communism, on the other hand, directly opposes capitalism with the idea that our material existence should be handed over to a central governing entity, “the state”, that will make sure everyone gets an equal slice of the pie.

Proponents of each system hate those of the other. So each seeks to annihilate the other at all costs, even threatening the virtual destruction of the planet in order to do so.

Does any of this make the slightest bit of sense?

Should we be teaching our children to hate? Will that create a better world?

I don’t think so.

I say do away with the labels and open the mind to ideas that will serve to take us back to the garden, or at least in that general direction.

There are serious flaws with all man-engendered systems for managing our material existence…what we routinely call governments. None of them are perfect…in fact, they’re all far from it.

For instance in a capitalist system those that are “advantaged” tend always to take advantage of those who are not. There will always be such power imbalances inherent in such a system. In a communist system, the idea of replacing the “Creator” with something “created”…that is, “the state”… will always lead to tragic human rights abuses.

Could a system that recognizes and protects our creator-ordained freedoms, but at the same time creates a secure safety net for those left behind, or disadvantaged, for whatever reason, not be better?

And why do we rant and rail about every government program designed to help the less advantaged at our expense? Are we willing to step up and take up the slack without a government mandate?

No, of course we aren’t.

If everyone were willing to be less focused on his or her own material existence and more on helping others with theirs, then we wouldn’t need those government programs…now would we?

And if we did away with the labels that foster hate and fear among nations, or groups within nations, then maybe we wouldn’t need to pour the trillions of dollars into creating a war-machine in the name of defeating the “evil of opposing beliefs.”

These are just some thoughts that occurred to me today in contemplating how society could march in a different direction…

one that takes us away from “the cliff” and back towards “the garden.”