On Top of the World: Why the West’s present dominance is both recent and temporary

An Economist article on a new book:
Why the West Rules—For Now: The Patterns of History and What They Reveal About the Future. By Ian Morris. Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 750 pages; $35. To be published in Britain by Profile in November; £25.


This isn't my attempt to convince or assert - but an essay of response from the way I have come to see human experience and history.

Human consciousness has many facets that are yet of one mind - acted out as is they are separate.
Where are they acted out? In the world.
Where are they one mind - in the non-local or universal consciousness.
How does this relate to the topic?
Because the mentality of dominance and control is itself a play of action and reaction in which force, and reaction make density in which identities are forged, that then play out as if they themselves are the real or true active principle; the agent of change; the free will.
This is so at a collective level as on an individual level.

The notion of dominance is supported by a set of values that must be shared by all players. It is so that core values such as equating true Identity exclusively with the physical - and its presentation - are almost completely unquestioned in the world - because the focus of attention and identification of human consciousness is almost totally engaged and active within 'the world'.

But the 'war' of man upon his brother is the same 'war' he wages on Reality. Upon his Greater Environment. These 'Horsemen of the Apocalypse' are the inevitable result of a misidentification and willfulness that seeks to triumph over, rather than dance or flow or cooperate with.

The Prodigal Son's Inheritance was wasted in a world that ground him down and left him homeless and destitute - but Its Source is an unseparated Consciousness.

The play of a seemingly independent will, in a reality seemingly different or other to it's mind - and largely threatening or hostile to it, sets up a patterns of self-protection and self-serving that can be observed as an identity - that then expresses as a culture. Observed not via the partiality of thinking that merely expresses such a presumption - but observed directly in oneself - for the nature of our awareness itself is a local experience of a Universal Mind - of which we in truth can not separate ourselves - but only forget - and experience as if separated.

So I seek to sketch here some ideas that posit the Greater Mind - if you will - as the primary or native Environment of all human experience and endeavor. History is a working out of idea and experience - but the level on which such a self-educative process actualizes itself is upstream of man's thinking - though when belief and experience change, new insight arises with it.

The idea of dominance - of triumph, is destructive in that it separates from and uses 'the other' as a testimony to the validity of one's own self-made identity or self-will. Written globally, this is out-picturing an insanity.

The opportunity of such times is an awakening to the true nature of our experience - as the effect of the values, thoughts, beliefs and intentions that are currently accepted true - in the greater mind that we all share, knowingly or unknowingly.

Whatever 'life' is - we are in it together. As I give to you - I set up the value that I will myself be done by. Having tried to dominate - I find myself subjected to. Eventually it becomes obvious; I hurt but myself and teach hurt to others who would learn it. What kind of culture arises from the realisation that this is not my will - and allowing a fresh appreciation to rise and become active instead?
Thanks for your attention.

Your Country needs you!

It is so that politicians refer to truths.
Your society - your larger culture - your country DOES need you.
Because without your sense of value manifested among your fellowman - there is a vacuum that is filled by whatever happens to take its place.
This remains true always - because a society where everyone drifts into automatic tramlines of habitual reaction is not creative, nor inspirational or even wisely practical.
Crisis are opportunities to wake up and rededicate or realign ourselves with a current sense of value.
Even though there is a long history of difference, distrust and even enmity between many strands of society, there is a need or a call to not indulge ouselves of our personal reactions and pause and look for willingness to find ways together.
Regaining trust is not about placing trust in others - so much as finding it in our own hearts and extending it to others in a way that is an ongoing communication.

If this coalition fails to answer the need of our times then it will fail altogether - but the need remains to be addressed. It is much deeper and bigger than the slavery that the deficit debt MUST entail.
The ideas of the last century belong there. The new ideas are not going to arise from the old mind. What is a new mind? One that comes from a shift or change of heart.
There are seeds of truth in all sorts of things we reject because we are so attached to being right - and then 'loving to hate' that which we see as enemy or use as scapegoat.
Blame is the shit everyone tries to put on someone else - but only when they stand in the same shit. We ALL were party to the near bankruptcy of our culture in some measure. Rather than try to deal in blame - which always recycles itself when given attention - lets shift to response - ability.
What if no one else does? - Then so what!  A world in which your presence is felt and known is one in which we can meet and share appreciation for who and what we are.
But my sense of becoming active is not from an ideological mask - but from the heart. Take walks in nature. Get out of the routine headspace. Let stillness and wonder into your life. Find new eyes to meet the moment. Its a wake up call.