Armageddon Outa Here?

Pondering Allen Watts again: (Alan Watts~ Way Past Seeking Stage!)  He discusses the differences between eastern and western modes of thinking. He makes the point that east and west are so different on fundamental beliefs that the eastern belief systems don't even fit our definitions of religion. I won't go into all the details now, but I find it interesting how easy it is for westerners to look at eastern practices and just assume they're seeing the basically the same thing, under a different guise, when in actuality the similarities are, at most, superficial.

I am thinking about how we approach medicine and health in general. We love our mechanistic view, where everything is made up of individual bits that can be taken apart, analyzed, swapped out and put back together again with no problem whatsoever. But when you take closer and the illusion starts to fall apart. Everything, from individual cells to whole ecosystems are interdependent systems. Take a part out, or change it, or add something new, and the whole system reacts in often unpredictable ways. We know this, individually, but we don't believe it, culturally. This is obvious by the way we act, from individual choices up to government policy, like we can do whatever we want, "fix" whatever we want, and everything will be just fine. The "boss" mentality that says that whatever the boss says, goes, and the boss can say whatever he likes because he has the "power," and we are the boss.

In medicine that is sad. The body is not like a car. If your car has a bad carburetor, you can put in a new one and the car will be as good as new. But, no matter what anyone says, you can't replace a heart or lung or kidney and have the body be "good as new." The best anyone can hope for is a normal-ish life forever dependent on anti-rejection drugs and the ever-present specter of complications and infections. Better that dying to be sure, but "good as new," hardly.

The problem is that the body is a fully integrated and interdependent system, way past our ability to understand or cope with. We may never be able to seamlessly replace organs, but perhaps there's a different path, one we find when we stop pretending that the body is nothing but a machine.

Most people intuitively know that they are more than a biological machine, but it's still perfectly acceptable in scientific circles to deny that there is anything more to existence than chemical reactions. Even among the enlightened there is much more understanding about what goes on inside the body than in the mind or spirit. Our language says it all, there are thousands of words for parts and processes in the body and regular people use them all the time, but almost nothing for the non-physical aspects of life. Look at what we have, mind, spirit, soul, ego, conscious and subconscious, pretty much cover it, unless you reach out for eastern concepts that include Chi and chakras. We have lots to say about disorders of the mind, but only a rudimentary understanding of what the non-physical is and how and to what degrees it's integrated with and affects the physical. Not too surprising in a community that still can accept the notion that self-awareness doesn't exist at all.

Western cultures and religions both have a very simplistic, and generally dismissive, view of "spirit," which goes a long way in explaining our self-destructive way of dealing with everything we come in contact with. Our economic, political and religious systems are explicitly designed to ruthlessly exploit and ultimately destroy the very things they depend on to survive.

Individuals and groups can and do fight back to try and keep things from going too far, but unless the systems are changed and ridiculous assumptions like "perpetual growth" are replaced with something real and sustainable, they will ultimately lose.

I believe we need to stop pandering to the materialists and ignore their little taboos about subjects that make them uncomfortable and angry. We need to acknowledge what's right in front of us, do the research and follow the data wherever it leads. Let's stop all this stupidity that certain subject are "not acceptable" or research or publish. It is clearly in the best interest of the system, as it is, to keep any proof of the interconnectedness of all life and people strictly off the books, but it will surface. Whether that will be soon or after a few more Armageddons, remains to be seen.