Author: Liam Mcdonald

Since the dawn of man and the evolution of the species, Homo Sapiens, there has been very little sapiens, wisdom, used in the process. Take a step back and look at our planet. We have made one very fundamental error, we think we own the place. As a matter of fact most of our laws and the economic “reality that dictate our everyday life are based on this erroneous point of view.

Change our point of view and we can dismantle the matrix of ignorance and allow wisdom in, to illuminate our situation. We will find that being a Human Being is a lot more than what we perceive it to be at present.

The “troubles in the north of Ireland date back a long time and the people there seem to want to live in that troubled past. The people who suffer most are the kids who have to follow their blind fathers footsteps, the hatred, the complete intransigence, the need for the humiliation and surrender of the “foe. Peace is brought about in the heart with forgiveness and reconcilliation, one such example that stands out like a beacon for the current “leaders is Gordon Wilson who, as he cradled his dying daughter Marie, in the carnage of the Enniskillen bomb,was able to forgive the perpetrators of that bloody incident. Let those leaders, in their trenches of real and imagined fear, look into their hearts and find some of that extraordinary spirit that is in the heart of every human being.

As Buddha sat under that tree and the realisation of being human dawned on him, that moment has inspired millions of others to believe that state exists for us also.

This has been a while coming together, due to a number of factors, but lets just say that for the mowe are taking our first steps in hooking an idea, a concept, to this new technology which is evolving at astonishing speed. What would Karl Marx have thought of it, but look at how fast his idea, concept, spread and evolved into human consiousness. One step at a time.

Imagine no possessions, I wonder if you can

No need for greed or hunger, a brotherhood of man

Imagine all the people, sharing all the world.

You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one

I hope someday you’ll join us

And the world will live as one.

33 AD 1916AD. We have just commemorated the anniversary of two easter risings, both similar in blood sacrifice in the cause of freedom. When Jesus rose from the dead on that first Easter day it became the cornerstone of all Christian faith, that death is not the end of human life , that we conquer it and become free. Nearly 2000 years later a group of Irish men, professing that same faith made the ultimate sacriice again when they were put to death after a failed revolution against an occupying empire. These people did not rise from the dead but their deeds live on.

So what is this freedom that is so important to human existence. Freedom from fear. In our interpretations and actions we still have some way to go to appreciate the big picture. Freedom is the birthright of all human beings, which seems a contradiction as death is the inevitable consequence of birth. Long live freedom and the ideal of freedom.

Is this all we are, consumers? According to most of us, it seems that to be one is the B all and end all of this life. We seem quite content to be labelled and called consumers. So we breathe in air, take and consume oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide, which in turn is taken in by the plants and they breathe out oxygen, a beautifully controlled balance of consumption. Similarly with water and food we take what we need and pass on the rest for future growth. Well that was before we became civilised and had flushing toilets. And all the things we need now, our cars which we use to zoom around in, we have consumed most of the organic carbon, fossil fuel, that our little planet took millions of years to deposit, and hurled it into the athmosphere, in the blink of an evolutionary eye. We are encouraged to consume all sorts of stuff, because this is what makes the economy tick and makes us prosperous, makes some of us exceedingly rich.

Meantime on another part of the planet there are some of us who do not have the food and water to survive, to live a dignified life. This reality makes the very fabric of our consumer society a travesty, an obscenity even. The market economies that dominate this world are our freedom loving democracies. Are these rich countries using this well meaning, but flawed, system of government to further the cause of capitalism, where the rich get richer and the poor, well they can get screwed. Time to take a fresh look at ourselves, see beyond our selfish desires. Stop rushing towards the promised land of satisfying every want and need. Stop and take some time to consider what we have already. we might just find we have a great capacity to love and appreciate life as it is. We are Human Beings, not consumers.

A little while ago we witnessed some serious rioting on the streets of Dublin, the Green were rolling out the welcome mat for the Orange creating an atmosphere of hatred and lawlessness which was quickly taken up by the yob mentality. How long does it take to grow up and leave behind the entrenched points of view of bigotry. A bigot is a bigot be he green or orange, its all the same. The reasonable point of view is the White, peace between both sides means there are no more sides. Grow up boys.

When Walter Raleigh landed in the new world there was a poulation of indigenous people who lived in harmony with their world and who were free of the concept of ownership. I think they were rightly alarmed by the arrogance and heavy armour of Walt and his buccaneers. The natives were as hospitable as they could be and even welcomed them to share in the smoking of their pipes of peace. This was an ancient and sacred ritual, and the smoking mixture was a carefully balanced concoction of indiginous plants which were able to give the partaker an experience of the oneness of creation. a feeling of peace and satisfaction with life. On demanding to take this with him, he was given the tobacco leaf, which the natives used only as a carrier to aid the combustion. So Walt returns in great triumph and introduces the deadly weed to the court of Queen Elizabeth, and the consequences we all know about.

So as the white man set about colonising the new world and ethnically cleansing the native American with disease, war and broken treaties, the native had already sown the seeds of redress.

All the furore, all the debate, all the multitudinous points of view, the opposing opinions, and all about a cartoon of the prophet Muhammed. Lighten up in the name of whoever you believe in, or not, as the case may be. Faith in the one Creator, faith in Allah and his prophet, for those who profess to have it, be secure in that faith. A little bit of ridicule should not be so upsetting. the reaction of violence in some of the Islamic world does not do Allah or Muhammed any good.

If a man is given offence and he refuses to be offended, to whom does the offence belong?