Today - The importance of ORDER.

I know that I have commented on this before but I strongly believe that today, in April 2022, it is even more necessary for Governments, all Governments, to be VERY careful.

 

These turbulent and extraordinary times require that we should all take time to reflect on what we, as belonging to the species Homo Sapiens (“wise man”?) can start doing now and keep on doing into the future. 

 

We need to reflect on the full meaning of the term “civilization” and how this is expressed by our current ways of life and the general disorder we generate.

 

Such reflections may, just may, help to redress the disastrous and damaging ways we, as a species are despoiling the very Earth, the Nature, we need for survival.

 

To this end I offer the following extracts from quite an old book – but the sentiments expressed are, to my mind, still valid and very true:-

 

From “African Genesis” by Robert Ardrey, (Fontana Books paperback, 1970).

Pages 393/394:-

 

“But no animal compulsion stands alone in the debate of our instincts. And so I return to my second assertion, that civilization is a product of evolution and an expression of nature’s most ancient law. Far antedating the predatory urge in our animal nature, far more deeply buried than conscience or territory or society lies that shadowy, mysterious undefinable command of the kind, the instinct for order. And so, when a predatory species came rapidly to evolve its inherent talent for disorder, natural selection favoured, as a factor in human survival, the equally rapid evolvement of that sublimating, inhibiting, super-territorial institution which we call, loosely, civilization.

 

It is a jerry-built structure, and a more unattractive edifice could scarcely be imagined. It’s greyness is appalling. It’s walls are cracked and eggshell this. It’s foundations are shallow, it’s antiquity slight…… Yet however humiliating the path may be, man beset by anarchy, banditry, chaos and extinction must in last resort turn to that chamber of dull horrors, Human enlightenment. For he has nowhere else to turn.

 

If man is to survive without war, a gloomier conclusion could not be written that that this fragile, despicable, unattractive structure must become our last court of appeal. It has failed us consistently in the past. It tends to fall down every thousand years or so.”

…….

 

“But the choice is not ours. Never to be forgotten, to be neglected, to be derided, is the inconspicuous figure in the quiet back room. He sits with head bent, silent, waiting, listening to the commotion in the streets. He is the keeper of the kinds.

 

Who is he? We do not know. Nor shall we ever. He is a presence, and that is all. But his presence is evident in the last reaches of infinite space beyond man’s probing eye. His presence is guessable in the last reaches of smallness beyond the magnification of electron microscope. He is present in all living beings and all inanimate matter. His presence is asserted in all things that ever were, and in all things that will ever be. And as his command is unanswerable, his identity is unknowable. But his most ancient concern is for order.”

……

 

“You may read his command in the regularity of turning things, in stars and seasons, in tides and in striking clocks….”

 

“Where a child is born or a man lies dead; where life must go on though tragedy deny it; where a farmer replants fields despoiled by flood or drought; where men rebuild cities that other men destroy; where tides must ebb as tides have flowed; there, see his footprints, there and there.”

 

 He does not care about you, or about me, or about man for that matter. He cares only for order. But whatever he says, we shall do. He is rising now, in civilization’s quiet back room, and he is looking out the window.”

 

The importance of order.

As this turbulent and extraordinary year of 2020 draws to a close I think we should all take time to reflect on what we, as belonging to the species Homo Sapiens (“wise man”?), can start doing now and keep on doing into the future. 

 

We need to reflect on the full meaning of the term “civilization” and how this is expressed by our current ways of life and the general disorder we generate.

 

Such reflections may, just may, help to redress the disastrous and damaging ways we, as a species are despoiling the very Earth, the Nature, we need for survival.

 

To this end I offer the following extracts from quite an old book – but the sentiments expressed are, to my mind, still very true:-

 

From “African Genesis” by Robert Ardrey, (Fontana Books paperback, 1970 pages 393/394) - as an aside, Ardrey was one of the first people to suggest that human beings first evolved in Africa:-

 

“But no animal compulsion stands alone in the debate of our instincts. And so I return to my second assertion, that civilization is a product of evolution and an expression of nature’s most ancient law. Far antedating the predatory urge in our animal nature, far more deeply buried than conscience or territory or society lies that shadowy, mysterious undefinable command of the kind, the instinct for order. And so, when a predatory species came rapidly to evolve its inherent talent for disorder, natural selection favoured as a factor in human survival the equally rapid evolvement of that sublimating, inhibiting, super-territorial institution which we call, loosely, civilization.”

…….

 

“The choice is not ours. Never to be forgotten, to be neglected, to be derided, is the inconspicuous figure in the quiet back room. He sits with head bent, silent, waiting, listening to the commotion in the streets. He is the keeper of the kinds.

 

Who is he? We do not know. Nor shall we ever. He is a presence, and that is all. But his presence is evident in the last reaches of infinite space beyond man’s probing eye. His presence is guessable in the last reaches of smallness beyond the magnification of electron microscope. He is present in all living beings and all inanimate matter. His presence is asserted in all things that ever were, and in all things that will ever be. And as his command is unanswerable, his identity is unknowable. But his most ancient concern is for order.”

……

 

“He does not care about you, or about me, or about man for that matter. He cares only for order. But whatever he says, we shall do. He is rising now, in civilization’s quiet back room, and he is looking out the window.”

 

My new normal

A new normal - for me. What is that and how is it arrived at? Things happen in life that we are generally unprepared for, that are, as the saying goes, “out of left field”. Is this “karma”? Is this just “happenstance”?

As always it is my attitude that colours or influences my response. People have asked me if I might not find “comfort” and “meaning” by joining a church. Now, having an enquiring mind I not only have the copies but I have actually read the Bible (more than once), translations of the Koran, the Hindu Bhagavad Gita and the teachings of Buddha. I therefore deem it unnecessary to attend a church. I can read and reflect on and interpret what I read. I can relate the wonderful messages contained in these various religious books to my life and my circumstances. Maybe I’m being presumptuous and somewhat hubristic but why should I listen to a stranger telling me how to live? That person wouldn’t know me and would know nothing of my life experience. 

While I am certainly not “religious” in the accepted sense - I do have my own beliefs and they satisfy me. I do draw on the strength that I derive from my reading and my beliefs. It seems that the “core message” from these different teachings is the old and seemingly universal belief that all people need to be treated equally – treat others the way you would like to be treated; that justice for all must prevail; that one’s dealings with others must always have moral underpinnings. And that Love for all beings is the guiding principle of life – or it should be.

One of the things that I have learned over the years is that it is often pointless looking for a reason why “things” happen. Certainly there are times when it is obvious that the principle (the Law?) of “cause and effect” applies but often it seems random events just happen.

And I see no point in blaming God. As I’ve written before, there is an old saying (possibly a Spanish proverb) that goes something like this, “Take what you want from Life,” says God. “Take it and pay.” Also a simpler version is, “you reap what you sow”. Honestly, why should God care what I do? Does He really look down on me and say, “Hey buddy! You had better watch your step!” Really? 

I also believe that His most ancient concern is for “order”. Just for order. His order. No more and no less. And we disturb that order at our peril.

So there is always a balance, or in scientific terms - homeostasis – “a dynamic state of equilibrium that is the condition of optimal functioning for an organism” – it’s a “fluid” state, never static.Homeostasis is brought about by a natural resistance to change in the optimal conditions – again, it’s a constant battle to regain the status quo.

 In this case it’s me and my homeostatic point!

Now in my situation I do struggle sometimes to accept my new “normal” without someone to share my life with. But I am coming to terms with this fact of life. It has taken me over three years and I’m still feeling my way. I don’t resist it, that would be pointless, but I’m not quite there yet. I have no idea where my homeostatic point is or even if I have one; or what I have to adjust to; or what I have to prepare for. It is definitely work in progress! Fortunately I have family and friends who are always there – or at least easily contactable.

It also helps that I have always been able to write about my thoughts and feeling. Getting it all on paper, as it were, enables me to rationalise, to reflect and to arrive at some sort of “homeostasis” in my mind. This can be confronting – I might write something and think, “Where did that come from?” The mind, or at least my mind, is very strange!!

One very important thing I’ve learned is that what has befallen me in my life has made me more understanding and empathetic to the trials and tribulations of others. And I think that is a good thing.

Otherwise, I wonder why are we here? And why us?

Tyrants beware!

History is never kind to those who abuse their fellow men. History is never kind to those who attempt to immortalize their achievements. History is never kind to those who blow their own trumpets.

And Nature has a way of taking over and restoring order, Her order.

I offer my one loyal reader this poem (by Shelley) that tells the story, far better than any words I could ever write, of how Hubris and Pride will always lose to Nature and be brought down:

Ozymandias

I met a traveller from an antique land

Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,

  Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown

And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

  Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.

And on the pedestal these words appear:

  ‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!’

  Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,

  The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

                                    

Rest and Repose

The other day I read some lines which resonated with me, “Every being that acts, acts for the sake of its end, that in its end it may find rest and repose.” Meister Eckhart (1260-1328) a German born philosopher quotes the words.

If you think about those words they are true. We study to learn, we learn so that we can work to earn money to do what? To end up in a position where we “may find rest and repose” – i.e. leisure time, holidays or retirement, either at the end of each day, each week or each year or at the end of our working life. This is what life is for. Anything that gets in the way of this is not only conducive to stress and unhappiness but is really unethical. We are all ‘acting for the sake of our end’, and it is not only us humans. The quote say ‘every being that acts’ – animals, birds – every being, and every being acts for the same end, ‘that it may find rest and repose’. A cow ruminatively chewing the cud, dolphins, a pet dog at the end of a long day playing with children, birds flying home as the evening draws in, all head home from their ‘work’, as do we.

Now this is not to say that we do not find pleasure and fulfilment in helping or giving pleasure to others, doctors, nurses, carers and social workers immediately come to mind as do artists and sportsmen and women. But ultimately we will all find rest and repose at the end of our day.

Anything that gets in the way of this must then be questionable. This is why ethics is so important. Ethics teaches us that anything which is not based on the principle of treating others the way we would like to be treated is not a good idea. Any exploitative action by others which affects the well-being of any life form needs to be questioned and reviewed. All unethical conduct will have the effect of upsetting or preventing a person’s or other being’s rest and repose. Why should we wish to do this? It will only ever be for the purpose of some perceived personal gain – financial or power. But what is generally overlooked in the immediate ‘excitement’ of the perceived gain is that this will immediately trigger the law of cause and effect, the law of consequences, the law that states there is no such thing as a ‘free lunch’. Someone has to pay and ultimately it is always the person who perpetrates the unethical conduct who will pay in some way or another. This law is not codified in that any breach of Sect 4 (b) sub sect 22, para 8 will mean a penalty of X, Y or Z. But the Fates in the guise of Nemesis always work their will in some form or other. It has to be that way – I did not invent it – it just is. It must be so, life being common to all beings ( and we do not know what the Life ‘essence’ actually is). Our genes – many of which we share with all life forms – also tell us of our shared heritage.

Therefore let us so order our lives that we interfere as little as possible and bear as lightly as we can on the lives of all other beings so allowing them to reach their rightful state of ‘rest and repose’ at the end each day.

We need some harmony and order in the world.

Nothing is permanent in Life. Nature is dynamic. Life is dynamic. It must be so, because everything that is alive, either moves, grows or in some way changes with time. Nothing stays as it was and trying to keep something as it was is similar to chasing rainbows. This is the order of Nature. The order that dictates that a salmon shall return to the river of its birth; the order inherent in the cycle of the seasons, in the ebb and flow of the tides; in the spiral galaxies, in the stars and their courses, the order can be sensed in the regularity of all turning things.

We may not appreciate it but the universe is unfolding as it should – there is order and harmony in the way things happen. Nature is harmonious in its entirety. When order is absent and chaos reigns then there are problems. And have you noticed something – we humans are the only creatures on the face of the earth that can actually create disharmony? An ant cannot create disharmony, because an ant will always behave as an ant should; it is in its nature to do so; likewise with parrots or any other creature that you care to name. They cannot be anything other than the way nature (evolution, creation?) has dictated they shall be. Human beings on the other hand can and often do behave in strange and violent ways that cause havoc with the natural order of things.

The natural world is in our genes, we are all from the earth; when we die we return to the earth. We need order, we need harmony – chaos disturbs us, we become afraid and then panic sets. We cannot, as a species abide disorder and lack of harmony in our lives. Disharmony creates fear of the unknown and unhappiness is the result. Just look around at the world.

But we cannot expect harmony and order in the world outside, if there is no order or harmony within each of us, within ourselves. I cannot be happy and have harmony and order in my life if I know that my wife, or my children are unhappy, because of some emotional ‘disorder’ or ‘dis-ease’. It disturbs me greatly that there are others who are unhappy; who lack harmony within themselves and therefore are instrumental in creating disharmony amongst others.

Harmony between people can only come about when we treat others as we would like to be treated ourselves. Harmony and internal peace and order will only be evident when we remember the Law of Cause and Effect. That what we do will affect not only our families but also many others. Remember the ‘six degrees of separation’? Knowing six people is alleged to give us a link to everyone in the world. So we must treat all sentient beings in an ethical way because we are all interconnected – it is in our genes. To do anything else is to invite chaos and unhappiness.