Let There Be Life
The more that we try to get our heads around the question, "What must we - our community - do to free itself from bondage to corporate interests the more it becomes apparent that the answers lie well beyond changing the laws or organizing ourselves into corporate units or any of related standard fare dished out by union leaders and other well-meaning pillars of the existing order.
"To be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others." Nelson Mandela
Spending our lives fighting to be a little less enslaved isn't going to make us free. Living on your knees is living on your knees no matter what your economic situation. The existing order - the corporatists and their administrative tools have created a purpose for us: To serve them and to consume their shit. Defining ourselves as their serfs and defiling ourselves with their shit doesn't seem like a good strategy for getting ourselves ahead.
If we are to progress as individuals and as a community we must stop thinking of ourselves as slaves and believe instead that we are capable of much more than bowing and scraping, shutting our brains off and covering ourselves in corporate excrement.
Do you think that you are capable of doing more with your life that you're currently doing? (By "capable" I mean, you would if you could). If you answered "yes", I'm going to suggest to you that knowing you are capable of more creates an obligation to do more. If you don't, then every day you rot a little more. If you do, then every day you live a lot more.
It's fundamental. It's what is meant by "Let There Be Life".
My colleague Elvis Viskovic and I came to this conclusion in a mind-expanding email exchange. It all started with a riddle that he emailed me. The riddle and the discussion that followed allowed us to get our heads around a subject that has always intrigued us - and million of others: The Book of Revelations. We think we figured out its core message and want to share our thoughts and engage others in discussion about it.
From: Elvis Viskovic
To: wm pasz
Sent: Monday, May 15, 2005 11:58 PM
Subject: Do you want to break every rule there is??
I'm going to attach what I wrote today. Then you can yell "freak!"... at both yourself and me. Damn MFD!!!
Us, labour, the economy. It's all there. Just gotta dwell on it.
I would like this to be an MfD community project. I feel this is relevant and will speak to everyone and not just me personally. The creation of this 21st century 'movie' should be a shared internet experience by multiple 'directors' and writers with an interest. Everyday working people. It's a story about all of us. So contribute your thoughts and let's all discuss the ideas. Don't let it scare you. Its time has come.
The Book Of Revelation - The Ultimate Brain Teaser
The final book...
Of the perfect Trilogy.
Its old episode was filmed generations ago.
Its new installment is still playing 'on-screen' around the world.
The third part. The series finale. The clincher with the answers, where it all comes full circle. Um. Well, it's um...just a little...um...confusing? It seems to be sort of an outline. A description. A mixed-up Hollywood 'treatment' of a script, if you will. A movie waiting to be made. It's written, but nobody can figure out how to make it come alive and mean something on screen. So it's been sitting there collecting dust for a couple thousand years just waiting for a writer/director with an interesting vision to undertake the project.
How many of you have read the rather lengthy trilogy that I'm talking about - even partially? How many of you have been bored out of your minds? I'd raise my hand, but I'm typing.
On the surface, it seems to make no sense and the parts don't mesh well with each other. So you just don't bother with it. But wherever you turn, there is someone waiting to replay the story and a certain interpretation to you. for a mind-numbing thousandth time. And it's always the same story. Which is not the problem.
It's the interpretation and how it's presented.
For some reason almost all classic novels and many modern ones seem to get turned into movies. People love to be entertained with good stories. But the movie is never the same as the book. The best movie reviews are usually given to those that remained truest to the ideas and spirit of the original. You can add whatever soundtrack you want, change the accents, move the setting across the globe and do whatever else you like. As long as the original spirit shines through.
With great respect to the original writer, I'd like to try and bring a little exposure to his shunned classic. Why? Well I've always enjoyed puzzles. Huh? Well, I look at this book, not only as a book. but more as a logic puzzle. A puzzle with some pretty deep meaning and a clear final answer. One that has escaped and confused people for way too long a time. Every interpretation of this text so far is based on getting so specific that we all seem to be missing some greater message. It just keeps confusing us, so many of us end up giving up and tuning out. Others continue to believe and obsess on illogical interpretations.
This puzzle is definitely not illogical.
Think about the little brain teasers that have stumped you before. The ones with the simple answer that you just couldn't figure out, and had to ask a friend. or maybe look up on the internet. Then you slap your forehead and say "that's all it was. that's just stupid". Ya, blame the puzzle. that's just smart! The puzzles usually throw confusing information at you, while the simple answer waits for you to stop thinking so hard. So stop thinking so hard.
Look at the Book of Revelation as a puzzle - a coded message. It's symbolism. And it's all about you. All about each and every one of us. View this puzzle as a basic concept or theme with very few parts to it. Once you're looking at it properly, other things will start to make sense. Then concentrate on making those little parts mean something to you in your own life. Something good. That's what all screenwriters want and hope that their movies achieve. A personal connection with everyone that watches the film.
It ends with a specific rule. Some of you might know about it already. Apparently, you're not allowed to change any of it.
For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
We're looking at a puzzle. And ending it this way makes total sense. If this rule isn't followed, the puzzle no longer exists. Without the rule you're missing information or are being given way too much. The original writer didn't want or intend that. A puzzle has a solution, unless it was specifically created as a practical joke. I'll stick with the idea that there is a 2000 year old point to it all. And I don't want anyone thinking that I'm trying to change it (especially that original writer who would not be impressed). I just want to take a shot at trying to understand and make it mean something good to me personally. And if it helps me learn and become a better person, then it might help others who are willing to actually think and not just be told.
Well, deep breath. And let's begin.
The answer is BALANCE.
From: wmpasz
To: eviskovic
Date: Mon, 16 May 2005 12:17:55 -0400
Subject: Re: Do you want to break every rule there is??
Nothing like a good brain teaser to start the week. My first impression upon reading the excerpt that you sent was that it means "You have a responsibility to do no more and no less than you are capable of doing" towards the greater good - to contribute your gifts, talents, whatever, to their fullest. Having mulled it over for a while, I feel even more confident that this may be the meaning.
It's a big order when you think about it: Contributing all that you're capable of - considering that we're all capable of a lot and one that requires an acute sense of balance. Exceed what you're capable and you'll crash and burn (or get various plagues). Not contributing to your fullest leads to decay of your life or potential.
This makes a lot of sense to me and it actually makes sense that it would be set out in the Book of Revs. It is after all, quite a revelation. And let's face it, just about everybody has at one point or other had some kind of fascination with Revelations. The title itself is sort of interest-generating and all that strange cryptic stuff about multi-headed beasts and apocalypses is even more "gripping". I think it was written that way for just that reason - to get people's attention and get a message across in terms that - to the author(s) - were shocking and would hammer the point home. It's quite different from the rest of the books of the Bible - in style and direction. It was written by a different author - some biblical era shock jock or guerrilla journalist maybe. I don't think it was ever meant to be taken literally - it's hugely metaphorical.
People are drawn to Revelations because of some vague sense that it has the answers to the most fundamental questions: Why are we here? What must be do? What happens if we don't do it?
If you consider the "riddle" in the context of the whole trilogy, then the answer might be:
- Our mission on this planet to do the work of what I call "the Source" (others call it God, Universal Power, Ultimate Hub, etc.) which we are all a part of.
- In order to thrive (live) we must do good things (create, construct, evolve, heal, that sort of stuff) or else...
- We will suffer, individually and collectively, in really rotten ways.
That's my take so far. Don't be shy to write some more. If you think it might work and if my nterpretation of the puzzling excerpt is in line with yours, maybe we can use it in the evolving text.
From: Elvis Viskovic
To: wmpasz
Date: Mon, 16 May 2005 13:13:46 -0400
Subject: Re: Do you want to break every rule there is??
Good job so far. And I'd like to get others in on it. I think they'll understand the concepts and if they agree will be good speakers. you know, without realizing it, you've been a 21st century preacher for some time.
"You have a responsibility to do no more and no less than you are capable of doing"... beautiful and i'll dwell on it. Perfect balance is found in one equation...
Love your neighbour as yourself.
No numbers or math. You can't knock this line out of balance. If your decisions are geared selfishly and not for the greater good then you are imbalancing. That's where the world is. Following that path creates the 'beast' within. You accept the evil and you disconnect yourself from...humanity. I can describe hell to you and it's one word. Forget the parties. It's eternal loneliness. A disconnection. Imagine yourself living in an empty room. Nothing in it but you. No contact with the outside world. No friends. No one to hear you... ever. No pencil or pen to write. You stuck with your thoughts which will get crazier and crazier in a vicious spiral.
I can't wish that on an enemy.
666 represents man. Pick a 6. Good six. Bad six. Balanced six. who cares? We're all this guy. Some become Hitler and maybe a really evil pope or someone is on the way. who knows. We're just man. When we decide that we're a God and better than our fellow man, we quickly fall out of balance and are damned. There is one unpardonable sin in the Bible. It's to blasheme the Holy Spirit. Not Jesus or God. It's simple math. God = love Jesus = the hysical manifestation of love and the holy spirit is the bind in between. When you speak in 'tongues', you're speaking with that knowledge which others haven't been clued into yet. You're blessed by it. This theme runs through most religions and for that reason believing in Jesus and his teachings, uniting religion etc. is not as scary or hard as one might think. Everyone always externalizes evil and makes God into a perrson. God is a an understandable concept on a scale of love between 2 people times a few billion. You just have to trust 'him'.
The catholic church will have a ton of problems with this. I'm now considering them as sort of a drug. The Sunday morning vice that they inject you with and slave you into. And it's just causing more ill. the priest should get people to come in rags and go on a tree planting trip instead of that ritualistic bullshit.
If you want to start thinking about mark of the beast, get into thoughts about debt and credit cards etc. Or the pursuit of cash. Money is the root of all evil. And the false system behind it is based on you working your ass off and still never getting out of debt, never owning the house, etc. The richest people live in debt. Once you clue in... call it a transfiguration, call it Jesus coming back and catching you up into the clouds in a twinkling of an eye...you disconnect yourself from the evil of the world and without your support, the wall of cards eventually comes down. Those not able to deal with it are destroyed. Those believing in the greater good survive. Tribulation is all about those corporations and their stooges not able to keep the ruse going. If the banks fail and these guys are suddenly broke, picture the mayhem. They're exposed and will have to choose whether to join humanity or accept the mark of the beast to the end.
The commandments are guides to getting life in balance, where the good outweighs the bad. None of us are perfect and we do things on a daily basis that puts us out of balance. It won't be held against you if you are concious of it (we all have a conscience at one time... call that the spirit... unless we destroy it). An example that bothers me... I finished a 2 litre bottle of pepsi in a couple days. I threw out the plastic bottle. How many of those get thrown out daily (not recycled). It provided me with a bit of sugar and liquid... and now will spend thousands of years with the countless other ones I've thrown away for no reason. My health is not any better of by with that fizzy drink. The balance of it is so out of whack. And we all do it without thinking.
From: wmpasz
To: Elvis Viskovic
Date: Mon, 16 May 2005 16:18:29 -0400
Subject: Re: Do you want to break every rule there is??
I think that Revelations is sort of like a code - one that was written in a language from a long time ago and been perverted and "reframed" (to use the language of modern bullshit artists) to the point where few can decipher its meaning - or comprehend that something so simple can be "the answer". Only now, with large heaping piles of knowledge available to us for the first time, is it becoming possible to solve this puzzle.
No numbers or math. You can't knock this line out of balance. If your decisions are geared selfishly and not for the greater good then you are imbalancing. that's where the world is. Following that path creates the 'beast' within. You accept the evil and you disconnect yourself from... humanity. I can describe hell to you and it's one word. Forget the parties. It's eternal loneliness. A disconnection. Imagine yourself living in an empty room. Nothing in it but you. No contact with the outside world. No friends. No one to hear you... ever. No pencil or pen to write. You stuck with your thoughts which will get crazier and crazier in a vicious spiral. I can't wish that on an enemy.
I can relate to the disconnectedness. That's how I felt throughout my long journey through the "labour relations system". It is a rotten thing and it doesn't matter how well you are doing or how prestigious your job. You do a lot of things to try to make the picture look right but somehow it never does. I concluded eventually that this is why alcoholism seems to be rampant among people who work in this field. A lot of people feel the urge to mess with their own brains. I just felt like no matter how well I did, how hard I tried to find my place in the system, I just didn't fit in. In fact, the more I tried to understand the awful system, the more I became convinced that it reeked and I couldn't live in it indefinitely. It wasn't until a few years ago when I crossed paths with some like-minded others that the disconnected feeling ended - and all this running off at the mouth began.
"God is a an understandable concept on a scale of love between 2 people times a few billion."
Best definition of God I've ever heard.
The catholic church will have a ton of problems with this. I'm now considering them as sort of a drug. the Sundaymorning vice that they inject you with and slave you into. And it's just causing more ill. the priest should get people to come in in rags and go on a tree planting trip instead of that ritualistic bullshit.
Agreed. I think that's what the whole church thing was supposed to be about way back when. Churches were just community hubs where people would gather to meet up, talk, help each other and focus their thoughts on the bigger picture. Some still are - sort of. The civil rights movement in the US sprang out of a lot of little Baptist churches that operated pretty much like that. But there are the churches of the oppressed and of the oppressors. A lot of people don't understand that there's this distinction. In the case of the latter, they've set themselves up as gods. There are a lot of gods on our planet right now. Religious leaders are just one variety. There are corporate gods, unionist gods, political gods - we're drowning in a sea of fake gods.
About debt and credit: I have often wondered what would happen if everybody who qualified for credit, got the max amount that they could - credit cards, loans, lines of credit, everything they can get their hands on. Then they use the money for the common good - to set up co-ops, do stuff for the community, that sort of thing. Then say to the creditors, sorry dudes, we'll pay you back when you start contributing to the common good (which ain't ever gonna happen because that's anathema to the corporations). The whole economic order would collapse. And what could anybody do about it?
The whole system is destructive. It's all about personal materialenrichment with no balance at all. In fact, balance is bad. If there's balance then there's not as much enrichment. That's the corporate credo - maximize profit. Anything that puts the brakes on that or impedes it, is bad. The beast will eventually eat itself because there will be nothing left to consume but it's keepers aren't thinking that far ahead.
From: Elvis Viskovic
To: wmpasz
Date: Mon, 16 May 2005 22:11:44 -0400
Subject: Re: Do you want to break every rule there is??
Just scanned cnn for the latest on mark of the beast technology...look at the picture on the credit card. It's the hub. And evil sits at its core.
You know when you're on a path to something good. This is their last hurrah. On the way home today, the guy I thought about a lot is [a union leader]. I look at him and think that no matter what slime he might be or hang out with, he has the best chance for any "redemption". He's scared, not loaded with cash, and his only recourse might be to seek help. The thing with these guys is that they are all disconnected without realizing it until it's too late. They can't trust each other, us, the law, etc. The ones that give up and reach out might survive. The others are lost causes.
Now your story leads me to vices. We know vices are an escape from reality. And our reality is wrong. We live in an evil world. As kids we're taught to share and play with each other. Then as adults we're thrown into a rat race competition. We spend our weekends partying and escaping the stress of Monday to Friday. If you cut your needs in half (use a low gas mileage car, live in a smaller house, eat out less, etc.) you theoretically only need to work half the time... which would be half or less of the stress... and double your family/leisure/party time. Same thing happens if our wages double for example. Instead of the CEO gettng millions, the people get more and can afford more... or work less. Less need for that smoke and drink etc. (unless you're an actor making millions, but it further shows the uselessness of money). The vices we escape to only add to further the imbalance. They spiral you downward. You're using the wrong outlet in your balance attempt. And it's the same corporations that don't pay you enough that provide your vices. You save and save to buy an overpriced vacation (always too short) or throw it away in a casino (always too fast). You're trapped in a bad spiral. You need to go back to work because it rules your life. All of us at MfD probably enjoy discussing the work more thanworking. By discussing it we'll learn to make it more efficient and that's a spiral upward. We evolve for the good.
I'm too tired to continue, but like I said, let some of these thoughts get out to the others mfd'ers. It's a lot to just get hit with. And it's nice to know you're not alone. Here's a blessing/kharma/good-wish suggestion... smile and say hello to people. So if you talk to any webbies, tell them I say hi and think they're all cool... even without ever meeting them. Makes us all feel good.
From: Elvis Viskovic
To: wmpasz
Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2005 7:15 AM
Subject: the final piece of text
One more addition before you post please. Thanks!
Last year MfD had some lengthy theological discussion about another related writing of mine. And in the discussion was included an interpretation of a famous prayer. If you wan't to challenge the theme of balance throughout the original two books of the Bible and specifically in the teachings of Jesus, you should study the words that he left to his followers. It was the Lord's Prayer. My attempt at the update at the time was as follows...
Heart of all life
Eternal Love
May your Rule arise
Be followed
On Earth together
With the Universe
Forever fill us
With your energy
And excuse our mistake
As we excuse each other
May we never again
Be tempted :)
Now if anyone is weirded out by the translation, please deal with the original that you are used to and look for the central theme of it...balance. It's the foundation.
-Jesus included the Golden Rule of "Love your neighbour as yourself" in the prayer. He wasn't referring to a standard earthly kingdom. And the Golden Rule is all about balance.
-On Earth as it is in Heaven (the universe and all the unseen dimensions)... meaning we ask that you help guide us into balance.
-Our daily bread, our energy... the proper (balanced) amount of sustenance and love that we need to go on in our journey. No more, no less.
-Excuse and forgive us (our debts, sins, mistakes, trespasses) as we excuse and forgive each other. Bring balance. The Rule. Help us to follow it. And it is only one mistake. And that is not working toward the greater good. Being selfish and knocking ourselves out of balance. The prayer asks for understanding and the ability to learn from the mistakes.
-Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil... don't lead us there, but understand that we are not perfect and make errors. If we fall into the trap of temptation and unbalanced behavior (which we will), please help guide us out.
It's all about balance. It's all good. And it's the perfect prayer to a loving God.
Do it and you'll be alive. You must be alive to be free.
Also by Elvis Viskovic: