Westward Woe... (1998)

   As humankind rushes headlong into the end of life as we know it, there seems no better time to face the central force in the design of our demise with open eyes and minds, especially as this may be our only hope of engineering any type of viable survival.  Critical words in that sentence are design and engineering, for it is not a gigantic meteor or a coming ice age that threatens nearly all life on Earth, it is human thinking and behavior.  More specifically, the central demons at the core of mass ecological disaster are ideas.  Though this is plain as day, it is forbidden thinking for it goes against much of human nature.  Humans cannot, apparently, see their true nature.

    Who am I to write a book about such things?  Why should I dare to speak in terms traditionally reserved for someone sitting in the chair once occupied by Newton or Einstein?

Well, for one, I am a person who has devoted over 25 years to study, research, reading, intuition, and creative exploration in the realm of cosmology.  Perhaps more to the point, I am one who has been waiting for someone to state the obvious and dare to challenge the faulty holy grail of science for a quarter of a century to no avail.  In addition, I do not have a chair to lose in an academic institution or a job to be threatened in the halls of science.  And, it is my dream.

    I’ve been asked, “Well, what would you have people replace that belief with”?  My answer is that I have no intention of replacing one myth with another.  It is my dream to open up the doors of thinking about the cosmos to whole new generations of young minds to come so that the dark ages may lead to a new time and new ideas that are not set in stone so easily.  It is also my hope that I may contribute in some way to a broader, more interethnic and transreligious meaning to common forces and mysteries at the heart human nature.

    It can no longer be thought sane to bring about the extinction of water, air and soil, as they were originally defined.  It is no longer reasonable to live with mass extinctions of species around the world, or with industrial waste, pollution and military weapons capable of destroying the entire living biosphere of Earth.  There is simply no reason, excuse, religious, economical or political for this behavior.  The end of humanity as we know it has no winners.

    This book is about ideas.  There may be redundancies, repetition, creative expression and metaphorical or poetic ways of saying the same thing over and over again.  The reason is that these simple ideas may be completely opaque, incredible, ridiculous or implausible to many readers who choose to peruse these pages.  Just as during times when the Earth was believed flat by some it was not acceptable to question this logic, so it is now with popular cosmology.  It is virtually forbidden to question popular belief if one wishes to be taken seriously.

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a civilization by definition…(10/28/06 editorial addition)

   One way an entire culture or civilization might be defined, overall, is by literally looking it up in it’s own dictionary.  The ideas, principles, and beliefs held as truth or facts are part of the fabric or what makes a people, or an era, unique.  This is not to say that all people in a given group agree with what is contained in Webster’s Dictionary, for example, or use the same definition for a particular word or concept.  Rather, as an overall indicator of general popular meaning, it is useful to look at what a majority believes to be the case, and to see what answers available reference materials provide related to particular terms.

   In the time of the ancient Greek civilization, for example, if one wished to know what the phenomenon “lightning” was, one would find a definition related to the popular belief or knowledge of the times describing the God, Zeus, hurling lightning bolts down from Mount Olympus, and there might be additional information about His reasoning or purpose for doing this, etc.  The relationship of phenomenon to definition and description is also much more than just a theory or hypothesis that may be changed or evolved over time.  What is entailed in making changes to such big topics also involves revamping entire infrastructures, such as hundreds of statues of Zeus for example, and a change in one definition can have ramifications that alter the definition of the entire civilization.  Does this mean that a particular definition or belief is correct forever?  No.  What it does mean is that change is difficult and can even cause a revolution or transformation of an entire way of being and seeing things.

   This means that there can be great resistance to such a thing on many levels and some people might see their entire lives at stake in the process.  What if all the dictionaries, textbooks, and scientific terminology had to be rewritten?  And, what if the very laws of nature had to be rethought?   An example of this can be seen with what is happening with the internal combustion engine and gasoline.  Even though more and more people want to change the overall system and revamp the way we see and do things related to transportation and air pollution, it is a very complex and tricky puzzle to deal with.  Making the change is so massive and the tentacles of the beast reach into the economy, stock market, industry, business, etc., so it amounts to changing our entire civilization, as we know it.  Is there resistance to this?  Yes of course there is, and there are powers throwing millions of dollars into keeping things as they are for as long as possible.  There is also good reason to be afraid.  After all, in World War II the ones with the most gasoline and machines won.  Gasoline is a part of who we are.  It is not like just changing from oil lamps to light bulbs. We live in a gas based culture.

   Ideas are also incredibly powerful because they are often indications of much deeper structures and complex systems related to them.  The “eye” for example, does not exist as a separate idea or thing to itself but is rather related to nerves, the brain, and psychological relationships to what meanings are given to patterns “seen”, etc.  One idea can indicate a much deeper meaning overall.  The car is not just a car, and The Big Bang is not just an idea.   

   In modern Western civilization, one can look up certain ideas or concepts to find their official, or common, meanings to see what beliefs are held as fundamental by the majority of people and see what defines us as a people in general.  For example, from a Pocket Oxford dictionary:

redshift n. displacement of the spectrum to longer wavelengths in the light coming from receding galaxies, etc.

Since this is in the dictionary, one would assume that this is in fact the established true meaning and only interpretation of this phenomenon and that this is true.  In fact, it is more a part of what defines Western thought and civilization and the infrastructure of popular science and belief.  And, it is in fact not a “true” statement at all.  The truth of the matter is that the nature of light is still very much mysterious and there are no experiments that can address the nature of what happens to light over millions of light years traveling through dust, gas, and other interferences, etc.  Expansion of the universe is one interpretation of redshifting of distant light. It is in fact a popular definition used so widely that to question it would cause so many changes and alterations in the field of science that it has become something that one dare not even address.  It has become something almost sacred.  It has been decided to accept this interpretation as THE interpretation and work from there.  To question it would be catastrophic to science, yet unfortunately this does not make it so.

   The fact that even the way we measure the distance of astronomical bodies leaves something to be desired, or room for improvement and further study, is something that is not often spoken aloud, again partly because it would reek so much havoc to throw so much information and knowledge into question and drag us back into the dark ages of seeing everything as a great unknown mystery.  How awful that would be?

   So, rather than dare to go back to the dark ages of mystery (which I obviously hold as higher, not lower, knowledge) science stacks ever more “truth” upon this pile of “facts” with the latest being new “background microwave radiation findings” with more interpretations for the dictionary.  [microwaves n. proof of The Big Bang Theory]  Again, there is no indication that this definition means anything related to a giant explosion or beginning of the Universe from a primordial atom, etc., and this wave pattern is possibly related to fields around the Earth, or to the electromagnetic fields of the Sun, or something else altogether, but what defines us, and our science in particular, is what will be accepted by the majority and printed in future dictionaries = expansion and velocity.

   So, when you look something up, in the dictionary or The Internet, what you find there is more an indication of a civilizations belief systems and common agreed upon truths, at the time, more than solid fact.  And, if one could live a couple of hundred years, you would find a different definition later on.  Or this might happen next year.

   In modern times of incredibly rapid changes in the environment and growing numbers of extinctions, even including the natural makeup of basics like water and air, it is time to look beyond dictionary definitions and to be brave enough to risk massive infrastructure overhaul and a paradigm shift altering core beliefs.  The alternatives are not good and staying the same will bring more of the same, or worse.

   Take a good look around and see what you might be willing to question and what you are unwilling to give up.  Is this your definition or one given to you?

   There are particular reasons why major civilizations end and disappear, related to this unwillingness to change, rather than reinvent themselves.  Perhaps it is as simple as seeing this reinvention or transformation as an end in itself.   Maybe I should get out the dictionary again and look up “revolution”, “transformation”, or “change” and then I’d simply see why a civilization must resist these at all costs, and that perhaps paradigm shift is defined in some ways as the death of a civilization.

   In modern times, perhaps resistance at all costs is now something that cannot be afforded any longer since we are now a global force.  Maybe we have fewer choices now and our stubbornness will affect all future generations all over the world.  It’s not just a matter of what we alone desire.  It’s time to think as Native Americans did, about people seven generations from now.  What would be important then?  Do we have a right to despoil the planet such that there is literally no opportunity for future generations to even breathe?

   So, when someone states something like "We now know...", insert your own question mark therein.  Take a little time to wonder what else there may be going on in the universe. 

   When you see a map of the visible universe that has a oval shape, does this mean that we live in an oval shaped universe? Or is this the shape of our limits and abilities to detect light, like the limited visibility from a watch tower? Is this a map, something like the one Columbus had before setting sail for "the new world", just of what has been mapped so far?

   Every belief system in the history books has had an ending or transformation or revolution over time.  Why would one assume that Western ways of seeing things is the permanent way humans should view the universe?  Is it just part of how humans are, or are we getting dumber over time?  If we are growning less intelligent in some ways while in an technological boom unprecidented in all of human existence, what dangers will there be?  Are we becoming apes with nuclear bombs?  Is there a way to evolve our minds fast enough to keep up with every faster technological change?

   The final answer may be that it is our nature to avoid such change until it is thrust upon us. If this is true, we may be in for some very radical and shocking change.  Either we will make changes large enough to make a difference or change will be made for us.  The test of our civilization will come in the form of our ability to change and adapt, or not.