Common Sense

the fall of mankind, the history of lies

Theodore H. Smith recently posted the fall of mankind, the history of lies on the progstone yahoo group about a topic I've been considering lately. Civilization enables psychopaths with the power to control us.

So... I was thinking...

So it's clear that there is something very wrong with humanity. That there is something very wrong with this world, that as humans we create.

So... it's clear that our ancestors, must of, at one time, been more in-tune with nature. Because we evolved from animals, and animals are more in-tune with nature.

There must have been some point, that humans decided to do everything in reverse.... To lose health for money, instead of spending money on health. Or women looking sexy for money, instead of looking sexy simply for the sake of it. Or to leading and being popular to dominate and oppress, instead of leading to inspire and uplift.

I think I know when it was. It was when humans became clever enough to lie. When humans developed enough intelligence to lie, that was when everything became fucked up. If you want a specific date, well I don't know... I guess that narrows it down though. All you need to do is find out when ancient humans first became smart enough to lie.

Of course, women lie more than men... so I guess it's fair to say that women caused the downfall of humanity, and turned us away from nature. [Ed: I strongly disagree with this misogynistic point, but it can be ignored and not change the meaning of his posting.]

There must have been a point, when our ancestors, after learning how to talk... learnt how to lie. The lies spread and spread. People started refusing to undo their lies. It became easier to kill a liar than to make them stop lying. People who didn't lie, became influenced by lies, and started lying themselves.

Because everyone was lying all the time, people started having to develop enough intelligence, to survive a society full of lies and liars. And develop enough intelligence so that they survive despite their own self-destructive behaviour.

So, because some guy ruined a project (perhaps building a dam to hold in water, or something that primitive people might need) with his lies... his project is doomed.

Imagine that there are 10 liars who each ruined their own project. But... one liar is clever enough, to find someone else, who is foolish enough to swallow some of the lies, but smart enough to know how to fix the project. The liar, who is now acting like the leader, takes all the credit for fixing the dam. Or perhaps he finds a way to be honest about the dam, but instead, lies about something else. So he switches his lies, because he is sadistic and doesn't want to stop lying entirely.

Well... now he is more likely to survive than the liars who just destroyed their own project. And so... modern society was born. People became smarter at lying, and getting away with it, passing on the destruction to other people in soceity, and onto nature.

And of course, people had to develop enough intelligence to survive lies, quite often just become better robots, because they still believe the lies, they just now have to survive with an added burden, meaning they need more intelligence to survive.

Until we reached this point in time, when there will soon be nothing left to destroy. All the lies will end up destroying themselves, the liars, the plants, the animals, and everyone else.

I guess... that history makes no sense, unless you study the history of lies. How most people lie, because most people are sadistic. How it's not the fault of a few powerful people, it's the fault of most people. How it's not self-interest that makes people lie, but SADISM. And how sadism is a BAD THING, and there is no excuse for it. Anyone who says sadism is OK or says it's a result of evolution, is also just
a liar.

Humans are both sadistic and self-interested. It's multi-dimensional. Like left and up. Going up doesn't stop you from going left.

Self-interest is the positive aspect of humans that makes them cooperate, invent, share, love, save.

Sadism is the negative aspect that makes us lie, refuse to hear the truth, destroy the environment, torture, steal, murder, fight wars, let innocent people die in front of you when you could easily save them, support evil leaders, etc.

Some people don't have sadism, they just have self-interest. Some people have self-interest and higher natures too, like true-care, or "natural-respect" (the opposite of sadism). Some people have self-interest and coldness. Or self-interest, true-care, and sadism (making them twisted).

But most humans are self-interested and sadistic. Even if it's only 1% sadism, it's still sadism.

But that doesn't mean life has to be that way. There must be other planets out there, where most people are just purely self-interested. And so almost all the negative events on Earth, don't happen there. It would seem like paradise, compared to Earth, and that's just people who are purely-self-interested.

There must be other planets out there, where people have self-interest, and true-care, and no sadism. That would be a far higher existance than even that lovely self-interested world that is already better than Earth.

The way I see it... is "souls" are categorised, and sorted according to their nature, and end up on the planet where most people are like them. Most of the time, anyhow. So you end up with planets of self-interested people, planets of self-interested and sadistic people (Earth), planets of people with self-interest and true-care (somekind kind of real paradise), etc, etc.

For what it's worth, most humans aren't that sadistic. Maybe only around 1-5% sadism

Follow-ons to that post led me to Of Psychopaths and Sycophants by Hari Heath which strongly resonates with me.

What use is this knowledge? I'm not sure yet.

Interesting Quote

Nassim Taleb:

I wake up every morning knowing that I don't understand what's going on.
...
Our understanding of the world has been proven to be extremely weak.

"We Are the One's We've Been Waiting For"

"We Are the One's We've Been Waiting For"

A Hopi Elder Speaks

"You have been telling the people that this is the Eleventh Hour. Now you must go back and tell the people that this is the Hour. And there are things to be considered . . .

Where are you living?
What are you doing?
What are your relationships?
Are you in right relation?
Where is your water?
Know your garden.
It is time to speak your Truth.
Create your community.
Be good to each other.
And do not look outside yourself for the leader."

Then he clasped his hands together, smiled, and said, "This could be a good time!"

"There is a river flowing now very fast. It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid. They will try to hold on to the shore. They will feel they are torn apart and will suffer greatly.

"Know the river has its destination. The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open, and our heads above water. And I say, see who is in there with you and celebrate. At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally, Least of all ourselves. For the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey comes to a halt.

"The time for the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves! Banish the word struggle from your attitude and your vocabulary. All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.

"We are the ones we've been waiting for."

-- attributed to an unnamed Hopi elder

Hopi Nation
Oraibi, Arizona