Author: Liam Mcdonald

Been quiet for quite a while now, looking, listening, observing and being. The optimist in me is taking a bit of a knock as what I am witnessing is the human race still powering on, oblivious to the reality that is oh so obvious to a few of us, that is, that the race is over. The human race is finished, done for, doomed. This is not and does not have to be a cataclysmic event. What takes its place is a collective of human beings, caring, sharing and cooperating. All we need to do is stop. Stop competing, stop racing, stop being blind selfish fools.
Each and every one of us carries the choice, to be selfish or to be selfless. This conflict of interests has been at the heart of our evolution through our ages, the great teachers have shown us the way, we have blindly ignored the truth for ages. We are now faced with a collective view of globalisation of two kinds. One is of rampant corporate greed where profit is the top and bottom line, the other kind is one of one, one world, one planet, one people. The choice is ours both on an individual level and a collective one. Can the vision of change, of consciousness overcome the primordial force of self, vested interest, short term “gain”, ignorance.
Lets finish the race now, and let the light of wisdom pervade this beautiful creation.

Where are we now? Firstly lets get to grips with that idea. Its we. We are human beings and we are in this together, us and the planet and the rest of the fauna and flora. All our time right up to the present, we have been fighting, competing, about everything, from who owns what piece of land, to what god we should be praying to. Over the last century there has been a gradual realisation of the truth of our situation. Two world wars set the tone, the first was the war to end all wars and shortly after the second culminated in the two atom bombs. The realisation that we had reached the point where we had developed the power to blow up the planet was a sobering moment. We had the cold war, the space race, again the moment of the beautiful photo of planet earth from a distance permeated the consciousness of us living in it. Now we have the internet, the www, mobile phones, instant communication to any other part of the planet and which was instrumental in the “Arab spring”. So, recent history has pushed us into the present now with the dawning realisation that it is “we”. But we still have the age old characteristics, the negative side of our human nature, to deal with. Me, us and them, rich and poor, black and white, the selfish uncaring bad old self. Is there a way of overcoming this negativity. “Yes we can” had a ring to it that resonated for a while but did not really materialise, “yes we care” might have a better chance of gaining a foothold. This caring side of our nature sees a bigger picture, one beyond the narrow confines of me, and can and does inspire the idea of the common good.

Again great good fortune has been bestowed on me with the arrival of a beautiful baby grandaughter. Having just spent the first week of her life with her I am again reminded about what being a humanbeing is all about. We all start from pretty much the same place and before we become totally preoccupied with this world we live in a state of pure bliss, this is our natural state, our real selves. My little one has no concepts. Love, food and shelter is all she needs. She gets that and gives totally of her presence, love and peace. Sound familiar? 

We have just witnessed another cataclysmic event here on our planet earth. The massive earthquake in Japan, followed by a devastating tsunami, and then the nuclear failure. It puts our situation into very clear focus, the utter fragility of our existence here and the futility of our pretense of our thinking that we are in control. This is not the truth. What is self evident is the strength of the human spirit. The Japanese people have shown tremendous fortitude, resilience and true grit in coming to terms with the losses they have suffered. But the biggest threat to that spirit is coming from the ongoing and worsening nuclear situation. We have been deluding ourselves into believing that atomic power was our energy salvation. Not true. A quote from a great human being, ” As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world- that is the myth of the atomic age- as in being able to remake ourselves” Mohanas Gandhi.

What an amazing time we are living in right now. Mass movements of people power, coming together, rising up and overthrowing repressive regimes, despots and dictators. There is a realization that when people recognize that they share the same situation and come together, that they can do something to change their lot in life. This has been spectacularly facilitated by the new forms of communication that now exist, the internet and mobile phones. Witness the success in Egypt, where the police had a stasi like grip on the people and thru fear, torture and imprisonment without trial, they were able to help keep a dictator in power for over 30 years. But when the people were able to stand together they overcame this insidious force and were even able to demonstrate to the army that the “force” was with them, persuading the army to stand back and not interfere. Not so fortunate in Libya as Gadaffi has built up a fanatical support over the years and has a strong grip of most of the military might.
Where does this revolution stop? Are they after our so called freedom as practiced in most western democracies? Now as we have been witnessing over the last few years the west is in the grip of a more subtle but equally enslaving dictatorship. Consumer Capitalism. This has been shown to be a morally bankrupt regime. So as we stand and admire what our brothers and sisters have achieved, so far, in North Africa, we should enliven ourselves, wake up, get in touch, and push on together towards real freedom,.

We are at a time when the mantra is ” we have to satisfy the market”. How ludicrous is this situation. The very nature of the beast is that it can never be satisfied, it is all about making the next fast buck. It has become the collective force of the human race, exhibiting all the lower forms of our nature, greed, fear, uncertainty, and we bow down to its power. Nothing in there to inspire the higher forms of our nature, reason, justice, love. Why do we give the market so much power. It is controlled by a ruling elite and it is time they were overthrown. It is an insidious force, a consensus of the super rich, that pervades every facet of life on the planet now. But it is being exposed as a fraud and we now need to form a new consensus, one of cooperation not competition, one of reason and the good. Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, Sound familiar? Lets do it right this time.

Been quiet for a while, nothing but recession, economics ad nausea, and the usual natural disasters as well, flooding in Pakistan where millions have been, and still are badly affected. Well this week the world has focussed in on a good news story, where 33 men buried underground were all safely brought to the surface. Scenes of joy and love, and all conducted in the presence of the worlds media and beamed around the globe where billions of us were watching. Great.
It reminds me of a story in Plato of the Allegory of the Cave. There is a similarity in the condition of those 33 men living without the light and our own human condition where we live in a world of shadow, concentrating on the struggle for existence, our so called real world dominated by economics, rarely seeing the true nature of our existence. We are all living in a cave and we need rescuing. Plato saw it 2,500 years ago and attempted a rescue of sorts by pointing this out.
The story of the Chilean miners and their rescue hit a chord in us, reminding us of the joy of just being alive and being able to appreciate it.

On a lighter note, it was facinating to witness the “awful” humiliation suffered by the French team at the world cup. They got there by cheating and were sent on their way with the curse of 4 million leprechauns wishing them ill in their quest for world cup glory. And so it proved to be, the French people wishing they had not cheated poor Ireland out of their “rightful” place in South Africa and suffering a terribly embarrassing early exit and lots of infighting in the camp. Ah the Irish, if only we had been there, we would have displayed only great unity of purpose and togetherness and possibly have even come out of recession by reaching the semi finals, at least.  {2002, 8 years ago and a small incident on the island of Saipan, off Japan, between a manager and his captain resulted in the 2nd civil war of the Irish We are all friends now, and today we will raise a glass of great French wine and drink to Englands continued success.

Where truth, reason and justice are lost on us humans, a state of paranoia lies and inhumanity begins to thrive and many serious errors are committed. Take the recent behaviour of  Israel towards the aid flotilla heading for the Gaza part of the Palestinian state. Armed commandos boarded the lead ship in the middle of the night, in international waters, and in the ensuing engagement 9 of the ships crew were killed. The aid flotilla never made it to the poor people of Gaza, intercepted and diverted by a paranoid Israel who belived it was carrying arms.

It is past the time when the international community should say to Israel, Enough, Cease, Desist. There are reasonable people within the state of Israel, who recognise that the direction Israel is now heading is to a state of alienation, where it will have lost sight of its own humanity. It is not that long ago that the Jews of Europe were nearly wiped out by an inhumane and evil force, it is strange and perverse that the same people who were so cruelly ethnically cleansed, should be perpetrating the same fate on the poor people of Gaza. These reasonable voices within Israel should make themselves heard and the internatioal community should enforce a total boycott on Israeli goods until such time as the extremists of that state are no longer dictating the course of history.