A seed must die to be reborn and grow into a tree. So too, a man must die to be reborn and become a new man. His ego must die. He himself must kill it, or at least be willing that it be killed. The same goes for power. The world is ruled by power, not justice. Power must die to be replaced by justice. If we look at the world and consider what is happening, we cannot but see that a huge transformation is taking place. It is the dying of power.
We do not pretend to know how and why this is happening. But we see it happening. And despite the colossal dimension of the transformation and the inevitable pain it will cause, there is reason to rejoice. For when justice rules, we all benefit. But then we must now all make sure that power will indeed be replaced by justice and not by more power.
Reason
Of course, all of this could be done on the basis of reason. There is no need for all this violent destruction. In itself destruction must be, because we cannot build a new house without destroying at least part of the old. But we don’t necessarily need a bulldozer to do it. It can be done stone by stone even, gently without unnecessary pain. But in human history these kinds of changes always came about after a period of extreme violence. We see that happening now.
The sovereign nation-state is obsolete. To replace it by an international conglomerate of states under minimal justice-based government is part of the process that is underway now. But we have to be very careful. It can only work if it be minimal government. If we allow government to continue to function as it does now, big and powerful, the rebirth of justice will not take place. We’ll end up with an international police-state based on repression instead of justice.
Crucial times
So we live in crucial times. We can build a free and democratic planetary civilization or an unfree totalitarian nightmare. And freedom includes economic freedom. It is absurd to talk about a free and democratic state, if 95% of the population do not own a part of it. Yet this is the situation at this moment, both internally (even in the richer countries) and internationally, where the 95% do not only not own any part of it, but can hardly live at all. If the transformation does not transform these facts as well, it is not a real transformation at all and will result in failure, i.e. a police-state.
Today’s video is an old clip from an interview with Aldous Huxley in which he warns us of the horrors that may await us, if we are not mindful of what is happening to freedom and if we allow it to slip into repression. It is chilling to hear him speak, if you realize that the clip must date form the beginning of the sixties. He points out that people may even be made to be contented with their servitude. Brain-washing (modern media), bread and circuses (football, baseball) and endless distractions (films, festivals, tv etc.) pave the way to this servitude (repression), not to forget this frightful ‘doublespeak’ in which those who actively undermine democracy and human rights claim to be their most fervent advocates (such as George Bush and to a lesser degree Tony Blair, Sarkozy and other reactionary European so-called ‘free market’ leaders).