Radical Change in this World
RADICAL CHANGE IN THIS WORLD will never come through conventional means. “Radical change” (from the Latin, radix, meaning root) means total change from the root up. It will not come through tinkering around with a few externals in order to feign or simulate change (which is as effective against disaster as moving the deckchairs around on the Titanic would have been!). Real, lasting, profound, permanent, fundamental, revolutionary, groundbreaking change cannot ever come through conventional means. By “conventional means” I am speaking of the outward processes which we have been conditioned to believe can effect change on this earth, such as politics, ideologies, religions, insurrections, etc. Unless we relinquish ourselves of these illusions, momentous, permanent, radical change for the better will never happen in this world. I use the phrase “for the better” deliberately; because, if we persist with the illusions and keep using old and tried (and failed) methods, there will certainly be change… but it will only be for the worse — which, in fact, is what we see all around us every day.
MOMENTOUS, PERMANENT, RADICAL WORLD CHANGE CAN NEVER COME THROUGH POLITICS. This is primarily because politics is based on the entirely false notion that the people in one’s government are the ones who really pull the strings in this world. Every leader who either installs himself/herself, or is installed by an election, has no real power whatsoever. Every governmental assembly or parliament — whether installed by a dictator or elected by popular vote — has no real power whatsoever. The real power in this world temporarily lies in the hands of an invisible and unelected power elite rooted in the principles of vanity (futility) and darkness. This is why presidents, prime ministers and governments come and go after announcing many high-sounding promises without ever having achieved them. Then, after a few years, the whole circus begins again, with people thinking some new ingénue will save their country or even the world! This pattern is because your government must always do the bidding of the power elite. Any member of any government who tries to stand against that will either be removed from office and/or assassinated.
The majority of people with an IQ of more than 50, if they kept repeatedly walking into a brick wall in the dark, would give up after a couple of tries. Yet — after centuries of abysmal experience with politics and its slick acting, lies, false promises, unmet targets, corruption, subterfuge and failure — people still avidly partake in it over and over again, to no avail. The people’s involvement in politics is the national and international equivalent of co-dependency. When we keep choosing bad life-partners over and over and over again, we begin to wonder if there is something radically wrong with us which we need to deal with before we run off into the next destructive liaison. But, it seems, not in politics. In politics, we keep banging our heads on the wall until we have acute brain damage! Yet, it is obvious that there needs to be some vast change in this world before the ultimate disaster strikes and this civilisation is wiped off the face of the earth like all the many other earth-civilisations which have gone before it (at least one of which was more advanced even than ours).
When I see those who I know to be well-meaning and lovely people devote themselves to some wily old politician who they imagine to be different and who they hope to see as President and thereby change the world — getting caught up in all the emotional razzmatazz of the campaign trail, the dreams and the hopes — I breathe a huge sigh of chagrin. If I try to talk to them, they often become aggressively defensive and exclaim things like “Well, at least I’m doing something. Which is more than you!” A year or so from now, after their campaign may have been successful, what disappointment awaits them as they see their dreams dissolve into the same mess as they have always done so before. When will they ever learn? Change begins with ourselves. Only when we change from within will the world change from without.
MOMENTOUS, PERMANENT, RADICAL WORLD CHANGE CAN NEVER COME THROUGH IDEOLOGIES. All the ideologies which have ever been have never brought about the momentous, permanent, radical change which this world needs. Communism, Marxism, Leninism, Maoism, conservatism, socialism, liberalism, capitalism, totalitarianism, fascism, imperialism or any other ideology you might believe in — all of them in different ways have led variously to misery, compromise, elitism, appeasement, poverty, oppression, terrible cruelty and genocide and are always doomed to failure. Why is this? It is because they are outwardly divisive (they pit themselves against all other ideologies) and they only target extraneous, outward matters, ignoring completely the inner human being. For, above all, the people who devise and enact these ideologies have not undergone a radical change of consciousness in themselves at a fundamental level. It is all superficial and rooted in mere belief and conformity rather than an internal revolution. When will people ever learn? Change begins with ourselves. Only when we change from within will the world change from without.
MOMENTOUS, PERMANENT, RADICAL WORLD CHANGE CAN NEVER COME THROUGH RELIGIONS. As soon as one adopts a religion, one has merely bought into a readymade set of other people’s ideas which can then be used as a wax nose to point in any direction one wishes. All religions are usually made up of those who are liberal moderates (who are religious in name only and adhere merely to the outward trappings of ritual, high days and holy days), fundamentalists (who take their scriptures literally and seek to convert others) and off-the-wall extremists (who will take a “be killed or convert” attitude to evangelism). Some will say their religion is peaceful; others will use it to justify aggression, according to variant interpretations of their entirely ambiguous (and contradictory) scriptures. Usually (and ironically), those who know their scriptures best are often the most divisive and destructive. In this sense, religion can be likened to a kind of darkness or disease running rife across the world without ever really changing anything for the better, yet continually professing to do so. This is primarily because religion merely involves a change of belief at the level of the mind, rather than comprising a permanent, deep change in consciousness. Again, all it does is move around the deckchairs on the Titanic.
Most religions have occurred as a result of some wise person uttering some nugget-like aphorisms which then get mangled into a religion by a series of obsessed posthumous followers of that person. Only they don’t follow in that wise person’s footsteps; they merely enforce the superficial enacting and memorisation of those words onto adherents. Thus, a religion is born.
Religion is an extremely convenient influence which can be used by the power elite and the priesthood to suppress people and control them. It is also, as has rightly been said, “the opium of the people”, as the mass of folks desperately try to quench their feelings of alienation and anomie in a cruel and heartless world through superstitiously obeying and following the rules and rituals of their chosen religion. In a religion, one does not have to face reality. Everything necessary for life is laid out carefully in a multitude of regulations and observations. However, it is really much darker than that; for when one closely examines the ruling institutions and leaders of the major religions in the world, one finds a cesspit of cultish corruption, material wealth beyond belief, crippling ambition and gargantuan cruelty. Many leaders of religious sects were corrupt people who practised and encouraged sexual perversions in their ashrams/compounds while outwardly maintaining a “spiritual” image (e.g. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh — who morphed himself in Osho — Sai Baba, etc.). Even the celebrated supposedly religious leader, Mahatma Gandhi, was a self-confessed paedophile and racist (though this was all deliberately suppressed for many years)! We have relied far too much on hagiography rather than truth in our understanding of the past. One day, we will come to see that most of those who have been adulated as heroes and heroines in the history of this world — and especially in religion — are not really admirable at all but are fakes; whereas the real heroes and heroines have either died, unrevered, in obscurity or very often have been slain in a gruesome manner. Small wonder, then, that — for example — mainstream religions such as the Church of England, the Roman Catholic Church and Islam are also gross hotbeds of paedophilia and sexual perversion. (If you don’t believe me, do your own research and you will discover for yourself). One day, the terrible truth of all this will be revealed to all. In the meantime you can continue to bury your heads in the sand under a welter of political correctness and suppression which keeps the full ghastly extent of this under wraps.
It is understandable why people might imagine that a religion could be useful and comforting for them. It’s a big, bad world out there and the only certainties are betrayal and death, with the threat of hunger or homelessness always hanging over our heads. It is in this sense that Karl Marx’s aphorism, “Religion is the opium of the people”, comes into play. Religion provides us with an off-the-peg apparent panacea for these seemingly threatening issues, rather like the way that painting by numbers provides children with a convenient portrait that someone else has pre-prepared and designed. (Remember that from your childhood? A page would be presented to you with shapes containing a number which you would colour-in to make the picture. No thought. No creativity. No imagination). The problem there is that we are not learning the lessons we need if we are to grow and evolve. The difference between religion and genuine personal growth is like the difference between a blind man having someone describe a sunset to him and a sighted person actually being there.
Religion is rather like the comfort cloth or cuddly toy we carried around as kids. However, once we’ve got past being children, anything which we use merely to make us feel secure must be soundly challenged. If we’re really serious about life and growth, we need to let go of all our anchors and life jackets and swim far out to sea. We need to put a sign on our door saying “Please disturb!” We need to steer clear of comfort zones such as religion and head out towards the rocks. Then we will come face to face with ourselves and become who we are really meant to be instead of how society or our parents or our partners or our governments or our bosses want us to be. When will they ever learn? Change begins with ourselves. Only when we change from within will the world change from without.
MOMENTOUS, PERMANENT, RADICAL CHANGE CAN NEVER COME THROUGH INSURRECTIONS. How many so-called revolutions have there been which were carried out allegedly to overcome cruelty and oppression but which soon became as cruel and repressive as the government they originally toppled? Answer… all of them! Not a single revolution or insurrection has brought permanent change in the people’s hearts and lives who they were supposed to be liberating. There may have been some initial euphoria and perceived freedom and relief after being temporarily released from being in such bondage to an insufferable despot. But all they really do is bring about a sudden change in ideology and politics but make no real difference to the fundamental problem of consciousness which brought about the regime which had to be replaced in the first instance. Therefore, in a very short time, the same conditions will prevail again. This was brilliantly portrayed in George Orwell’s book, “Animal Farm” where, initially the post-revolution slogan was “All animals are equal”; but that soon descended into “All animals are equal but some are more equal than others” and from there it all went downhill, as it always will… every time. When will they ever learn? Change begins with ourselves. Only when we change from within will the world change from without.
All those above four conventional means of change — politics, ideologies, religions and insurrections — are fatally flawed because they create outward division and the mere adoption of, or assent to, intellectual beliefs which may change minds; but they will have no innovative effect on personal consciousness. Real change on this earth, as it is presently constituted, can only come from one thing — a complete transformation of individual human consciousness. At present, human consciousness is in chaos, as the vast majority of people on this earth are totally wrapped up with their imaginary ego-selves (which are merely a set of memories of past events, including countless traumas and hurts which need defusing and resolving). Until we do everything we can to see beyond the ego-self to who we really are in essence — the kernel of our being — then our consciousness will be in chaos. This is not so much a question of “finding enlightenment” right now. Rather, it is a process that we can set in motion immediately and which will revolutionise our consciousness in its deepest being and set us on a life-path which, although it can be uncomfortable and challenging (as it should be), will always be authentic and healing.
If we look around the world and observe all the chaos, it is completely overwhelming — more so now than ever. It is as if we do not know where the next big blow is coming from but we know it will come and that those blows will get bigger and bigger. The reason for this is because human consciousness is so integrated with the planet as an active living being that all the chaos of consciousness in humanity triggers planetary upheaval and cataclysms. This is why we are seeing such an increase in, and awareness of, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, famines, pandemic diseases, vast sinkholes, bigger superstorms than ever, tsunamis, etc. THIS LIVING PLANET IS ACTUALLY A BAROMETER OF HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS. To observe planetary upheaval and cataclysm is to observe a mirror of the chaos of human consciousness. As this chaos of human consciousness reaches its climax, so will the upheavals of this earth. This is all part of the vast and inevitable change as we move from one aeon to the next.
When this civilisation is finished, the earth will shrug us off like a bad case of fleas and continue happily without us. (Please do not ever imagine that we can destroy this living earth! We do not have the power to do that). The question is this: Can enough of us wake up so that there are survivors who can build a new civilisation out of the ashes of the old? This would be a new civilisation based on a completely altered consciousness which has been raised to a higher dimension. This would be reflected in the fact that there would be a total shift in the very structure of the planet. The earth itself, genetics — and all matter too — would be renewed so that it has a completely different basis to the one it is founded on now. Does all that sound exciting? If so, then join the REAL revolution by stepping outside the boxes held in place by all the failed conventional means of change and aim to find out who you really are and why you are in this Universe, on this planet and in this body at this particular wonderful time in history. That is the direction in which we should be heading. The very act of aiming for that knowledge has its own momentum. Synchronicity will come into play and we will meet others who stimulate and encourage us, find articles and books which will help us, receive insights which will blow our tiny minds.
Of course, there will be many of those who have awoken to this need for a change in consciousness (and who will be living it) who will die in the run-up to the big change which is coming and therefore not be alive to witness it in the flesh. We won’t all survive. It’s as simple as that. We may die in an attack, a disaster, a pandemic or just from bodily frailty. There will also be vast governmental purges in which many of the awakened ones will be liquidated. But we must still play our part now in preparing the ground for a new civilisation.
The world today is full of folks who run around professing that they are “strong, independent” people. Most of the time that I see that stated, it seems like a false cover for fear and insecurity. Instead of puffing ourselves up, we need to discover our vulnerability — to undermine ourselves, to go back to the drawing-board of our lives, minds, hearts and souls to the very root and kernel of who we really are. Only then can we be rebuilt into who we are meant to be. This is not a one-time action but a lifelong process in which we will discover the depths of despair and the highest elation, the complexities of darkness and the laser-cleansing love of Light.
What is needed today are courageous, authentic, determined, disciplined, self-aware people with a desire to change their condition of consciousness from being stuck in outmoded divisive patterns — people who are brave enough to walk away from off-the-peg failed fixes such as politics, ideologies, religions and insurrections. No president, government, political party, ideology, pope, imam, guru or insurgent is ever going to save this civilisation. Only a revolution of consciousness — and the subsequent congruous upheaval of all matter — is going to make the difference concerning where the world is heading now.
Only when we change from within will the world change from without.
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© Alan Morrison, 2015
The Naked Troubadour 