The End Of The World...Again

[CVX]

By Michael Goodspeed

www.thunderbolts.info

10-2-4



Part I



"[A] while ago, this humongous comet came crashing into the Earth. Bam! Total devastation. End of the world as we know it--no celebrities, no cable T.V., no water. It hasn't rained in 11 years. Now, 20 people gotta squeeze inside the same bathtub. So, it ain't all bad." -- Tank Girl



What is the End of the World? Most of us view it as the literal annihilation of all human life on Earth. God's great, Final Judgment disposed upon humanity in the form of earthquakes, floods, and great fiery stones raining from the heavens. Global catstrophe. Armageddon.



But we must remember that the "world" is not merely defined as this vast, green body in space, but rather as a way of life for human beings in a particular historical era. The "world" is civilization, and civilizations have been forming and collapsing since the beginning of time.



The world has "ended" before, and the evidence is all around us.



Every human is haunted by the unconscious memory of a singularly traumatic event, an event the ancients remembered as Doomsday, or the end of Paradise on Earth. The timeless epoch of the Golden Age was forever lost, when the gods became angry and the heavens were thrown into chaos. The skies turned to blood, the seas boiled, and the terrible cosmic dragon scorched the earth with his fiery breath. The world ended, and regeneration and re-birth followed - old and destructive ways were cast aside, bringing about a New Age of global harmony. This event is recorded in the myth, folklore and religion of every culture on the planet.



In the 21st century, human beings celebrate the End of the World without any conscious awareness. When the ball drops in Times Square on New Year's Eve, bringing one cycle of time to an end and beginning another, it symbolizes the vanishing of the ancient "sun" - signifying the end of the Golden Age. The Chinese New Year is marked by the bobbing and weaving of a giant serpent through city streets, symbolizing the terrible, world-ending wrath of the cosmic dragon.



Some believe that the myth of the End of the World was based on REAL events witnessed by the ancients. In the mid-20th century, bestselling author Immanuel Velikovsky (Worlds In Collision) asserted that as recently as a few thousand years ago, our solar system experienced cataclysms on the most prodigious scale. Planets moved on unstable courses, nearly "colliding" with one another, causing horrific, global catastrophe on Earth. The enormous collective trauma created by these events led to a condition that Velikovsky called "Mankind in Amnesia." He described our pathological need to re-enact the End of the World through human sacrifice and tribal warfare, even though conscious memory of this epoch evades us.



Many people in the modern world still look to the skies with dread and wonder, anticipating a cataclysm equal to the one(s) witnessed by the ancients. The pathology of End Times fascination has been oft-discussed in recent years, with people seeing "signs" of the End in everything from the (unfulfilled) Y2K computer scare, to the terrorist attacks of 9/11, to the very close-approach of asteroid Toutatis.



Most skeptics of religion and the paranormal would have you believe that the Apocalypse is an absurdity, and only the dumb or hysterical run around screaming that the "sky is falling." Unfortunately, these people base their assertions entirely on the accuracy (or total lack thereof) of predictions offered by self-styled seers and prophets of doom. Are we to believe the End of the World is impossible, simply because no one seems able to predict the exact date or manner in which it will happen?



Let's remember again that the End of the World is not necessarily a physical end to all life on the planet or the planet itself, but rather the end of a WAY OF LIFE. It is the transformation of the entire spectrum of human activity. I submit that the End of the World is not only possible, but inevitable. Furthermore, when it does come, the benefit to the whole of mankind will be immeasurable. Indeed, our very survival may be dependent on it.



Part II



"We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off..."



-Tyler Durden, in David Fincher's Fight Club



Whether or not the literal End of the World is upon us is a matter of contention. Of course, climatic shifts, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and near-hits from asteroids have been a fact of life for planet Earth since its beginning. But many people believe that these phenomena have worsened over the last few years. Even British Prime Minister Tony Blair recently warned that the world is facing a potential economic and human catastrophe if "climate change" is not addressed.



I'd be lying if I said that the world's daily weather report did not cause me concern. However, when I look at my home country of the United States, I see a trend even more troubling than the collapse of our physical environment. In America, we are facing a cultural Apocalypse of mind and spirit far more grim than anything that might be reaped by Mother Nature.



Every day, we are told that America is the greatest nation in the world. This is supposedly evidenced by our unparalleled military might, collective wealth, and various "freedoms" (freedom to vote, freedom of choice, freedom of speech, freedom of religion.) Undeniably, children born in America today have enormous "advantages" over much of the world's population. They will likely never know the pain of famine, disease, or (overt) subjugation. Virtually no one in this country - not even the most destitute and homeless - will experience the kind of hunger and hardship that is commonplace for billions of others on planet Earth. But contrary to popular belief, America is anything but Shangri-La. All things considered, this country is probably not "the best," and a denial of this fact does not benefit anyone (other than a few elected officials, and the Fox News channel.)



America has earned its title as the biggest, baddest, and most wealthy nation on Earth. But it has also achieved many other, considerably less flattering titles, including:



1) The world's leading producer of serial killers. 76% of all serial murderers were born and raised in the U.S.. Our nearest rival is England, with 17%. Bear in mind that the US, while sporting three quarters of all serial killers, has but 6% of the world's population. (Source: http://www.fortunecity.com/roswell/stre ... _stats.htm)





2) The highest rate of childhood murders and suicides among the world's 26 wealthiest nations. For children 14 and younger, the U.S. suicide rate is double that of other indistrialized nations. (Source: http://www.ucgstp.org/lit/gn/gn012/news.html)



3) The highest rate of obesity, with 55% of the population classified as overweight or obese. It is also estimated that 1 in 3 children are overweight, and levels of obesity are rising. (Source: http://www.annecollins.com/weight-loss/ ... -women.htm)





4) The highest incidence of the eating disorder anorexia nervosa in the world. (Source: http://http://www.uc.edu/news/ebriefs/weight.htm)



5) The highest rate of adolescent drug use of any industrialized nation. (Source: http://www.mnstate.edu/kausar/psyc202/chapter_12.htm)



6) The highest rate of adolescent pregnancy in the Western world. (Source: http://www.mnstate.edu/kausar/psyc202/chapter_12.htm)



Most of the problems listed above exist almost exclusively in the U.S., and a few other Western nations. Anorexia, bulimia, obesity, and serial murder have all been classified as "diseases of affluence," or pathologies that are directly linked to collective prosperity.



America's enormous wealth is undoubtedly a factor in the endless proliferation of mental illnesses endemic to this country. But at the core of these problems must lie a more fundamental root cause. After all, money has no intrinsic ability to be "good" or bad." What is this sickness of mind and spirit that is leading more and more Westerners to destroy themselves and everyone around them?



Part III



"Let justice be done, though the heavens fall..." --Lord Mansfield



Perhaps the mythical loss of Paradise described by Velikovsky is symbolic of mankind's original fall from spiritual grace - an end to our perfect Communion with God.



At the timeless moment of your Creation, you were aware of nothing outside of yourself, because you lived fully in the eternal present moment that is inside of you. You knew of no contradictions or opposites - birth and death, dark and light, masculine and feminine, and good and evil did not exist. You did not experience yourself as a separate entity dependent on external acquisitions. You lived as God intended - complete, whole, and One with Everything.



When you were born into this world, everything changed. You were no longer One - you were given a name, a race, and a gender; you were told that you are separate from everyone and everything (including God, who towers unseen in the sky somewhere); and most importantly, you were taught that your best interests are in conflict with everyone else's. In order for you to "win," it is necessary for someone else to lose.



A child born on planet Earth - particularly in the Western world - is forced to live by "rules" that are in total conflict with spiritual law. The soul longs for Oneness, shared purpose, and unity, while the world teaches that fulfillment comes from material acquisition, conquest, and empowerment of the ego.



The idea that happiness can result from an egoistic existence is a proven lie. This more than anything is the lesson we can learn from the prevalence of "diseases of affluence" in the Western world. Individuals who LIVE ONLY FOR THEMSELVES are never happy, no matter how much wordly success and material possession they might obtain.



The self-centered Western lifestyle that gives birth to so much internal misery is spreading to the rest of the world like a virus. The truth be told, this is the real reason the terrorists want so badly to destroy America.



More and more individuals are waking up from the dream of egotism only to realize it was a terrible nightmare. The "values" of self-centeredness and materialism have lost their appeal, and people are desperately searching for a better way. They long to re-discover their true identities as complete and fulfilled beings at One with Everything. They want to go Home.



Any world - or WAY OF LIFE - that is built on a lie is destined to crumble. The End of our world can come in any number of ways. Because consciousness affects matter, the global cataclysms spoken of in religious texts may still occur. But I envision a more likely scenario: an ever-increasing number of people will simply turn away from the destructive lifestyle of conquest and greed. They will seek others of like mind, forming numerous small communities across the land devoted to spiritual study, sustaining themselves on private farming, paying no taxes and giving no money to large corporations. These communities will grow rapidly, drawing millions of people who literally abandon everything in the quest for Truth. Meanwhile, the violence reaped by diseases of affluence will increase exponentially, and the millions who continue to invest in the big lie of egotism will burn themselves and all those around them to piles of ashes. The world will "end," and this will be good.



Many will look at the death of the old ways, and see nothing but catastrophe, pain, and the loss of all hope. Others will find in the End of the World an opportunity they have spent a lifetime awaiting - a pathway leading back to their long-forgotten state of spiritual perfection, and a gentle hand guiding them Home.

[Suresh Gupta]

CVX wrote: What is the End of the World?


A very good and thouht provoking post. Congratulations CVX. Let me put it in another manner. There was no time when this creation (what you call world as seen by our eyes) was not there. There will be no time when this world will not be there. Now if we talk of individuals in this world, end of one physical body is start of another physical body. It is what we call death and birth of living beings. Whatever span of life one gets in this world should be spent in loving other beings. Only love will bring love in to this world.