Human nature

Language acts like a virus, especially once we enter the level of abstraction. While we might learn from General Semantics, or Rene Magrittes famous painting 'Ceci n'es pas une pipe', that even words describing tangible objects fail to capture the suchness of the worded item, abstractions lead us to a dive in truly murky waters.

We pave the road to misunderstandings elegantly when talking about all sort of -isms, as no-one can define those terms with authority and accuracy, albeit many claim to do exactly that. In most real life situations, people insist that 'everyone knows' what communism, socialism, capitalism, feudalism etc. means, and whether or not one abstract category fits into another.

Unless we become aware of the inherent inability of using language to describe our individual and shared experience, we are held captive in Plato's cave, and might easily get angry at those who have seen the light of day. That doesn't stop us from attempting to communicate verbally, and luckily in a majority of cases that still works out sufficiently for survival and even enjoyment.

Since Occupy Wall Street happened, the term 'human nature' became a highly popular confusing term to argue either for or against specific ways to organise society. Although all of us have our very own way of perceiving the world around us, and although language with its multiple levels of abstractions makes it challenging to pinpoint some agreeable ideas about 'human nature', I want to give it a shot.

The black-and-white perspective on human nature seems most popular, describing humans as inherently 'good' or inherently 'evil'. I guess most peoples experience rather shows them that some people act without the intent of harming others, and other do. Of course, even 'bad' people do some 'good', and vice versa. Using the black-and-white approach fails from the start to provide a framework that could be backed up by experience, no matter how much one wishes for people to fit into this worldview.

Modern psychology uses the Bell curve as a tool to describe the distribution of human traits. This approach seems much more appropriate to approach 'human nature' than the moralistic ideas lingering around in the dualistic approach of either 'good' or 'evil'.

Bell curve (normal distribution)

A lot of the categories we use in language compare to boxes, especially if we think in mutually exclusive categories (good/evil). Let's put the thinking in boxes aside for a while, and take the above image as a better representation of human nature, with potentially 'good' and 'evil' on the flat ends of the curve. If an axis 'willingness to do harm' exists in human nature, only a few percent fall into the extremes of psychopathy or saints, the rest will simply do whatever they perceive as 'normal'.

The origin of the idea of government, however, links back to the idea that humans can't be trusted, and need protection from each other. This meme spread first via religion (born in original sin), and was then happily reinforced by more secular forms of government which basically acted like parents for entire populations. The expressions 'fatherland' and 'motherland' remind us of the generally parental character of nationhood. 

As humans, we are individual expressions of consciousness, sui generis, and as such share some elementary needs. Besides that, we are pretty unpredictable most of the time, which makes life so interesting. A minority of humans lacks the ability of empathise, and therefor feels no remorse when harming others. How we can we deal with those individuals?

Keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer. In tribal societies, shamans held the responsibility to identify those individuals, and prevent them from harming the rest of the group. People with psychopathic predisposition don't turn automatically into monsters, and can still fulfil useful functions within their community. You might have noticed the absence of shamans in modern society, which happened unlikely just coincidentally.

Without anyone in the position to identify and keep psychopaths in check, they can basically do whatever they like. After killing or removing shamans as safe guards for communities, they could spread fear with impunity. And they used the fear they spread to demand even more power and less control for themselves. 

Has anyone ever wondered why an individual murderer bears the full brunt of punishment society can offer, while president Obama signs off kill list as regular routine task? We live in a world run by psychopaths, which used violence to implement systems of government that create heaven on Earth for themselves and other psychopaths. Being only a minority, this means hell for the rest of us. 

As a majority of humanity can be described as relative gullible, they perpetuate this mad system that harms the rest of humanity, many other forms of life on this planet and the planet itself. This has several motivations. (hey, we're all individuals), which potentially collapse into the erratic believe that human nature is inherently 'good' or 'evil'. As long as we believe in the validity of this construct, psychopath will maintain control over the rest of the population.

If ones believe that we're inherently 'good', then she/he will fall for any intentional lie. If government harms the environment or other people, it is 'for the greater good'. If one believes that we're inherently 'evil', their fear will ask for protection, even from themselves. Just when one understands that we cannot generalise this aspect of human nature, the opportunity arises to reign in the psychopathic elements in society without converting it into a prison for all but the psychopaths.

Humans can adapt probably better than any other species to their environment. Humanity survived much longer without the illusion of government than with it. Well, maybe we managed to get to this historical water shed moment before, and just wiped out the memory of it by nearly extinguishing our species. We have seemingly unlimited learning potential, as individuals and as community. We can create a world that shares the resources of this planet, and allows 100% of humanity to survive and prosper. 

If we don't do it, the cosmos might giggle in schadenfreude about the failed human experiment, or feel sad about its end, or remain equanimous as the universe continues to exist.  

In the mood

"Bugger off!" snarled the security guard of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), as I just finished my chalking. "I'm done. I don't think you have the authority to tell me to leave, but I comply."

I came back after a minute, as I didn't have a shot yet.

At that point, a second security guard stood also outside the door. I tried to convince them that I didn't commit an act of vandalism, that their employer was legally foreclosed, with only little success. "Don't do this again! You're on camera, and it goes straight to the Federal Police." I was still not impressed, but happy that the tone of conversation was relatively friendly. "You have done this before, don't you?" 

I realised that persistence works out fine, though attracts attention. From a publicity point of view, tonight was a failure - not many people pass through this area in the late evening. It seems though that at least some people within the foreclosed organisation take notice, and that they don't like being reminded at the legal status quo.

"At least you didn't use paint." I mentioned that it might rain very soon, which would make cleaning the pavement obsolete, yet the strategy seems to be to remove 'dangerous messages' straight away.

"I have to clean this up", he complained, pointed to his comrade, "he makes me do it." I excused myself for causing a stir in their routine. "I have to do work because of you. I didn't come to work to do work." 

Public information

Unbeknownst to the wider public, all governments, banks and corporations have lost their legal foundation on December 25th 2012. They have been officially and legally foreclosed. The pictures below show a public information campaign that happened today in Melbourne's CBD.

ANZ, Collins Street

Reserve Bank of Australia, Collins Street

Westpac, Collins Street

Commonwealth Bank, Swanston Street

NAB, Swanston Street

HSBC, Swanston Street

Town Hall, Swanston Street

Parliament House

PS: The reactions today to basically the same information campaign were quite interesting. In front of Westpac, an employee asked me what I was doing, and probably took care that street sweepers removed this outrageous bit of truth in front of their ATMs quite fast. At HSBC, a couple of police asked me what I was doing, and I replied friendly: "Spreading some good news." I explained shortly that all banks have been foreclosed last christmas. When the police man asked why the government hadn't done anything about it, I replied that governments were foreclosed as well.

I mentioned that I regrettably had no printed info for them, yet he did most likely consider me a loony at this time already. He asked me to be careful while chalking, not being a hazard for passer-bys, and walked off with his comrade. When I cruised along Collins Street again, most of the information was already wiped out again. I wish I still had a printer available to hand out the foreclosure flyer to those interested when seeing me chalking, it's still massive fun to do.

Sinking

The people travel

from here to there

coming 

going

Their destination

reverses itself

over and over again

The Tao remains firmly

planted in one place

and yet cannot be left behind

Four kings guard

East, West, North and South

The paths they guard

are precious

and cannot be separated

Each has a colour

that can't be blended

Each has a sound

that can't be imitated

The center remains still

It has no colour or sound

yet the rest could not exist

without it 

The time-binding capacity or energy of man (no matter what time is—if it is), which is unique to man, is a most subtle complex; it is the highest known energy and probably has many subdivisions. Ears are sensitive to the vibration of the air. Eyes are sensitive to the more subtle vibrations of light; in a similar way, the time-binding apparatus is sensitive to the most subtle energies; besides which it has the capacity to register not only all of our sensations but also the time-binding energies of other people; and it apparently has the capacity to register the energies of the universe.

"What do you wish from me?" the master asked.

"I wish to be your student and become the finest karate student in the land." the boy replied. "How long must I study?"

"Ten years at leastI", replied the master.

"Ten years is a long time," said the boy. "What if I study twice as hard as all your other students?"

"Twenty years," replied the master.

"Twenty years! What if I practise day and night with all my effort?"

"Thirty years," was the masters reply.

"How is it that each time I say I will word harder, you tell me that it will take longer?" the boy asked.

"The answer is clear. When one eye is fixed on your destination, there is only one eye left with which to find to find the way."