Chapter 9. Ye Gods

Part III, COUNTING.

Part III is COUNTING – It has 4 chapters comprising;

  1. YE GODS.
  2. MEN.
  3. WOMEN.
  4. SUCKERDOM.

Many years ago, Lakota Shaman Lame Deer wrote that Americans (this is all of us in the ‘western’ world) are on “the road to nowhere — a paved highway which they themselves bulldoze and make smooth so that [humans] can get faster to the big empty hole which they’ll find at the end, waiting to swallow them up.”

Introduction to Part III, Counting.  (9.1)

Where do we think we’re going and what do we think is important? What counts in our lives?

Our current understandings/beliefs about what Life is for are not sustaining us, hence our behaviours (which come out of these understandings) at the macro and micro levels cannot go on; they are unsustainable.

What legacy are we leaving for our children?

  • Increasingly unable to own their own home – what then?
  • Many unemployed forever and no hope of any job, but we fudge the figures so we don’t really know. They have no ‘place’ in society – ‘place’ seems to be a very important thing. And with no jobs comes no hope of their own home or anything to build on actually. It also leads to very insecure children/adults who can be rather cross about it too.
  • Nuclear waste and just sheer waste, and mountains of it.
  • Exploitation built in.
  • Ever increasing Pollution along with the poisonous waste.
  • Ever decreasing nutrition in phake food.
  • Compromised health in so many ways; chronic disease, mental distress, and so on, with monstrous government bills supporting same.

Our programming, ie, our expectations.  (9.2)

We all grow up with a plethora of teachings as to those things that society considers normal for its people. These cultural teachings of what is valued and believed shape our attitudes to life. We should be like this, and we shouldn’t be like that; men do this, women do that. Our social ‘norms’ are what we are brought up to take on for ourselves. These are the ‘givens’ that become our background and part of our unconscious. However, all of society’s beliefs and values are actually someone else’s answers to someone else’s questions. Someone else’s answer to whatever question always behaves/acts as if it were a program to you, ie, you are programmed and don’t have control here. A program means if ‘a’ happens, you will do ‘b’. This is a reaction rather than an action. You have reacted here without any choice in the matter; hence program, like a machine. If you actually queried its relevance to you, you might find that you do not actually believe it, although you may wish it were true.

All our programs lead to expectations and assumptions. Another word that could be used would be conditioning. Part of becoming conscious is to query just what you believe and value and start to work out what is your own actuality. The idea is that as we grow up we begin to check whether or how these programs are true for us. This querying and finding one’s own answers frees us to act rather than react.

Changing these programs.  (9.3)

But how do we change any of this social programming which seems so inevitable? The problems seem so enormous; exploitation and unkindness seem so built in; and above all, the worship of money is supposedly the bottom line for us all; the primary reason for our behaviour to each other, as well as our government policies.

So, once again, is it possible to name any patterns here? What are we actually doing? Can we work out principles to guide us in what we are looking for?

Well, we can look at our social ‘programming’ and see what is actually happening to us. If our analysis and naming/labelling of these programs is correct, we can back up and work out the principles required for

  1. addressing those things that are wrong and also
  2. work out just exactly what is required for heading in the correct direction.

And I think this can be done, which is why I’m tackling this terrible tangle. And so, now we go on to Chapter 9’s sub-chapter 9A.

CHAPTER 9. YE GODS!

The Greek gods.  (9A)

I wish to return to Greek mythology again, this time to the Greek gods, where most of the stories are about their doings; the Roman and Norse myths also have very similar themes.

So, what do the myths of the gods tell us about them?

  • There are gods of different subject areas, eg, music, the arts, communication, trade, love, war, sport, etc.
  • They live ‘on high‘ on Mt Olympus. This also means that
  • They are immortal; they don’t die.
  • They are youthful. But they have no maturity and little to no wisdom. This is the downside of immortal.
  • They are beautiful, although with exceptions such as Hephaestus who was notably not, and they reject the non-beautiful.
  • They are powerful and able to have what they want when they want.
  • They are forever interested in aggrandizement and/or weaponry in whatever form.
  • They exploit ‘mere mortals (mm)’ (namely, you) as they wish, which looks like ‘fate’ to us ‘mm’s’.
  • They never change, because they are immortal.
  • They do not behave ‘any better than they ought to’ (as my Nanna used to say).
  • They hang on to what they have, ie, they do not give anything away to mere mortals (ie, us) and severely punish anyone who may do so, eg, Prometheus for bringing fire to humans. So, no sharing anything here.
  • They don’t appear to do anything physically to support themselves either, because they don’t have to; they have servants…. or fairies….
  • Their feet are off the ground; they are out of touch with reality, ie, Life as it is.

Their relevance to today.  (9.4)

What’s the relevance of these old myths to the modern day? We think gods belong in myth, but they are perfectly alive and well in the 21st century.

These characteristics are interrelated, but spelling them out separately gives a picture that is more easily recognized.

Characteristics.

Different Subject Areas.

Our ‘beautiful’ and wealthy people come from areas such as the arts, photography, film stars, sports people, the wealthy, the academic, royalty, fashionistas, industrialists/CEO’s, bankers, weapons makers, and so on; I’m sure you can think of more….

Live ‘On High’.

They look down on us, (back to the Sup/Inf Caper again. See Chapter 5) and generally despise us as well as laughing at us. They also do not have to experience the effort, struggle, pain and ‘fate’ of mere mortals, as in, they are quite separate from us and don’t have to live as mere mortals do.

Immortal and Forever Youthful.

They consider themselves immortal, so do not face death or need to. They are protected from life and ‘fate’, which is actually what we would all like really, hence the attraction. They are also much more likely to be and stay healthy and resistant to illness if they have this background of wellness. This means they do not have to ask the ‘death questions’ which is all very well, but it’s these questions that help us know more about ourselves. Hence, less likely to ‘know themselves’. They also stay young forever’ youthful; how nice; no creaking or groaning here. On the other hand, they don’t ‘grow up’ or develop any wisdom either, or at least the main ones don’t. As for compassion……., forget that!

Beautiful.

Humans are much more likely to be beautiful (and intelligent) and reach their full genetic potential if they are fed the correct fully nutritious food for them for the nearly 20 years while they are young and growing. This then implies stability, routine and support for them while they are growing, the resources to do so, and a mother who is a good manager. Money may not guarantee such things but it certainly helps. As for beauty, the trouble is that it generally wears off, so use it while it’s there, and heaven help you once it wears off, because then you go back to ‘mere mortal’. Many women fear this one.

Power Over and Entitled.

Exploit their power as much as they can, and we have plenty of systems in place so they can. They also feel entitled to such power and status. Parts of the entitlement are the rights, privileges and access to powerful others that money and power brings, hence further power to increase their own. They also feel entitled to do what they want when they want and expect it. They consider themselves to have earned their status; they ‘work hard’, so by definition mere mortals don’t and thus don’t deserve rewards because they are ‘losers’ and feckless anyway. Actually, virtually everyone thinks they’re the ones that work hard.

Aggrandizement and Weaponry.

Mere mortals need to be impressed with the gods’ power and ‘bigness’, and shown what money can do, not to mention making others afraid of them. Otherwise others might fall into the mistake of thinking that the god is a mere mortal. Gods compete with other gods, often at the expense of mere mortals’ ability to access the resources they (mm) need to live, ‘but who needs them (mm); they’re always replaceable’.

Think of how many governments/institutions/councils/churches/kings spend money on huge buildings or monuments out of any proportion to the size of said body or their necessity to mere mortals, but in the end, it’s using up mere mortals’ resources with lots of ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ and trying to impress.

And Able to Keep it.

They can keep their resources within the family. Gods are born gods; hardly anyone earns ‘godship’, and we hope that we’re the exception. They have the power and understanding to hang on to what they have and will punish anyone who dares say different. They know about ways to avoid tax, and can hire those with expertise in such things. They can also build on their wealth which attracts more wealth within our current government/economic systems. The punishment meted out to Prometheus is the warning of don’t try to take their assets or resources away from them.

Always Right.

They are always right about everything. They have the answers, mainly because they have been taught by gods themselves. Contrary data/information is not just ignored, it is not even noticed in the first place. This has repercussions for you in all directions, particularly if you agree that they have the answers. They just might not, and then you’re back to being a mere mortal (read, ‘loser’), again. If you complain, they won’t be nice, and if you cross or gainsay them, they can be rather nasty. Plenty of them can be charming up front, but not always. Watch what they do rather than what they say, except you’re less likely to hear about these sorts of things because they own the Media.

Cannot Behave Any Better Than They Ought To.

Mere mortals like to hear about such things because it helps them think that they might become ‘gods’ too, ”cos they’re not so different from us’. All those magazines and social pages. They/we (mere mortals) also use gods as role-models; this is called ‘aping’.

They Never Change.

Well, why would they? They’re on a pretty good wicket. We would like to be there too. On the other hand, they don’t ‘grow up’ either, so they never actually get to real Adult either, no matter how ‘big’ they are. (Their behaviour is showing you that they are not Adult; they are using and actually need others’ energy to serve them, not their own.)

No ‘Doing’ Anything.

Others support them by looking after the food, clothing, house-cleaning and so on…

They don’t have to do any of these ‘infra dig‘ things, as in, beneath their dignity. All of these things happen ‘by magic’ and they have the resources ie, money, to make it happen. Essentially, they do not Serve Life or others in any way, shape or form.

Feet Off the Ground.

And they don’t want to ‘come down’ to earth and sneer at those who are. This means, all others need to stop hoping they will. This means they can’t tackle earthly problems because they have no practical understanding of them. So, no matter how much they claim and we expect them to ‘have the Answers’, they don’t, and said ‘answers’ are likely to be detrimental to peons/losers/mere mortals.

And we worship them! (See Ch.5b Worship) We watch what they do; we tell stories about them (we have heaps of films about them); we try to emulate them by consuming and copying their clothes, houses, lifestyles and cars; we let them tell us what to do because we think they have the answers and so on. Who wants to be a ‘mere mortal’ here? We think that being a god protects us from life and fate, as in, no death, and in our society, money is needed to be a god because we have no slaves (unfortunately – sarc) or fairies, (and they expect to be paid – the nerve!).

And notice that worship includes trusting whatever they tell us mere mortals. We simply do not query this, in spite of the fact that what they tell us is for their own purposes (make them more money), not yours or any other mere mortal, always. Hence, worship and trusting are bad news all round, and definitely not a good idea. We really seem to have forgotten ‘buyer beware’.

How we ape the gods.  (9.5)

We think that ‘god’ type behaviour is the thing to do. All ‘mere mortals’ try to ape the gods, but generally don’t have the money to really copy them, so have to put up with things that wear out, or break down. Drat.

  • Gods eat perfect food, so we won’t have any food with a blemish on it, and we don’t do ‘stews’ either (that’s peasant food, unless we like to ‘play peasant’ like Marie Antoinette). We throw out anything not quite perfect. Gods eat gourmet foods and drink fine wines.
  • Gods are beautiful and young, so we try to look as beautiful, and remain as young as possible; anyone who isn’t is a ‘loser’. The ‘old’ aren’t gods unless frightfully rich. And ‘old’ for women is over 40 as most women over 40 know; for men it’s if you look decrepit, hence face-lifts and plastic surgery for all.
  • Ditto glamourous, whatever glamourous is at the moment.
  • Gods don’t have to do any housework; no ‘chopping wood or carrying water’ here. It is so beneath them; ditto any DIY. Few men will fully contribute to the household, and/or most ignore the need for it.
  • Gods live in perfect surroundings. If we can’t be bothered cleaning, mending, maintaining or making do, it’s gonna have to be new, and preferably shiny for some, and up to fashion for all. Then we need to change that to keep up to fashion, and so on… None of this ‘reduce, reuse or recycle’ stuff – that takes effort, which is for ‘plebs’.
  • Gods wear beautiful clothes, silk and fine wool, and goddesses must have new outfits and shoes for every/any occasion. As for op-shops – well, maybe for a fancy-dress party!
  • Gods enjoy the ‘sweet life’ of no worry about fate or death; we think sugar will get us there.
  • Gods consume, because they ‘do nothing’ and so do we; cars, houses, gizmos, bling, fashion, entertainment, on and on… we look for all the ‘trappings’ – (good word).
  • Gods do not pick up rubbish, ever.
  • Young men aspire to swanning around doing SFA knocking us all over with their looks and potential.
  • Women aspire to ‘princess’ (royalty – a goddess form) adopting whatever forms of ‘goddess’ they can emulate depending on whatever resources they can ‘latch onto’. Long perfectly manicured nails will confirm that little housework has to be done here.
  • Gods must always watch each other as well, to spot any mere mortals who try to infiltrate, and escape their lot/fate by putting on airs or being uppity; ‘we knew he was a mere mortal because he held his knife the wrong way’, or ‘he stirred his drink with a fork’.
  • Gods amuse themselves by telling each other stories about the latest stupid thing that a mere mortal has done. ‘She cleaned the gold taps with Ajax!’ (an abrasive cleaner); ‘that moron couldn’t control his mule’, and so on.
  • As long as he can find a home, a man can be a tin-pot god over his wife and children who can be the mere mortals; the wife just stays the ‘mere mortal’.
  • Gods get away with whatever they want and keep what they have; there’s no justice here. Don’t get in the way. This is part of the way we as aspiring to be gods think it’s OK for these people to behave any way they please.
  • All gods are mean to any mere mortal who doesn’t kowtow sufficiently.
  • Gods assume that all ‘mere mortals’ are competing to be gods.

Modern examples of gods.  (9.6)

For example, Zeus/Jupiter (Greek/Roman head honcho) lives on as the president or CEO who can turn his attentions to the latest beauty within his orbit, for his latest ‘exploit’. She should be grateful for his attention, after all, it’s an honour. She, of course, is left with any consequences, not him. On the other hand, she might just hit the jack-pot and get to be the new Juno, but for that, he’s going to be quite a bit older, and fighting off decrepit.

As for Hera/Juno, she lives on in the unhappy wife as an asset with no intimacy who can’t do anything about the ‘exploits’. If she actually tried, she would be ‘out on her ear-hole toot sweet’ you might say, so she goes after the ‘beauty’ to punish her. Again, no consequences for the gods, and plenty for the mere mortal. Notice that it’s possible for women to end up as goddesses, but most of them are ‘hangers-on’ rather than powerful in their own right. Male gods are highly likely to upgrade their models to maintain their status, and get rid of the old misery-guts in the process.

(The Greeks must have had plenty of this going on in their lives, because they knew so much about gods, so there is no new phenomenon here.  I also have a vague suspicion that these behaviours don’t foster long lasting civilizations.)

Other aspects of gods.  (9.7)

But, along with the worship, adulation and the aping of gods, we as society do some very strange things.

(With thanks to Wikipedia. These 2 points are from ‘Control – Sociology’.)

The culture of silence.  (9.7)

No god talks about or criticizes any ‘bad/crook’ behaviour of other gods, eg, violent, drunken, disgusting, demeaning or inhumane behaviour, or the exploitation or abuse of mere mortals of whatever kind, and there’s enormous amounts of that around from small to large. It betrays the ‘club’ of godship, as in, any criticizing god will get thrown out of godship.  Hence there is this deafening silence about what is actually happening to mere mortals. It is as if mere mortals have to prove these things actually happen over and over again, for millennia, and we’re always surprised! This is so much so that we like to think that these enormous differences between gods and mere mortals don’t exist, (while at the same time we want to be a god) and we’re all civilized here in our great democracies. The culture of silence is part of the ‘only gods count’ thing.

The culture of no responsibility.  (9.8)

Gods are not held responsible by mere mortals for their bad/crook behaviour. This is part of the entitlement aspect of being a god and it boils down to, gods do not experience the consequences of their decisions or behaviour. We excuse it as ‘natural’, or we don’t take any notice that this is what’s happening, (ie, we won’t look), or we diminish the effect on others of this behaviour, as in, we belittle its effect as not important, the mere mortal is just whinging, or we think that they deserved or brought it on themselves in some manner. This ‘gods can’t help it’ is part of the ‘mere mortals don’t count’ thing.

This one is a doozy; think of all those stupid natives being wiped out by white men, or all those whinging women who don’t like being raped. We could also notice that gods actually have no idea how much they can hurt/injure ‘the other’.

Hence, I consider these ‘gods’ to be perfectly alive and well in the 21st century.

But where are these ideas about how to behave coming from? It’s not as if we all know the myths about the gods.

Our commercial media promotes godship all the time.  (9.9)

The argument here is that the commercial media promotes all the values of the gods, and guess who owns the Media?

So much of our media in its various forms is about promotion of the idea of gods, and that this is what we must aspire to, so of course, we do. Much of our conspicuous consumption is to emulate them and kid ourselves that we’re achieving such status, until the next dose of ‘fate’ reminds us that ‘darn, we’re not’. Apart from that, nobody, but nobody wants to be a ‘mere mortal’. It is a diminution as well as a denigration of human beings and it is done to a great many people. (Mirror Laws anyone?) It is so bad for one’s self-estimation and, of course, that’s the fear.

Exposure to the media starts very young. And is especially so nowadays because families as single units fending for themselves need help with child-minding, and that’s what the TV/Media is used for, and our ‘harmless’ entertainment promotes these values, which sink in at very deep levels to a set of expectations that promote alienation and resentment in those who are stuck in ‘mere mortal’ with no hope of otherwise, not to mention judgemental attitudes in all directions. Even the children’s films have these values, and the children pick up on them very quickly.

These levels are so deep that it’s a ‘brain-washing’ and does not get queried at all anywhere, (and anyway, you’re just jealous). This is how life is supposed to be, so ‘get real’; this is how it is, and if you’re a loser you don’t count.

So, what are some of the social consequences of this?

Social consequences.  (9.10)

  • Everybody is trying to get to be a god, and those who get there are not only not interested in you, they are not interested in your welfare one single solitary bit; in fact, they despise you. They are entirely allergic to Serve, and thus they are avoiding Life as much as they possibly can.
  • Mere mortals hate being mere mortals and are extremely cross about being stuck there, particularly with all those films about the lives of gods. Hence greater disenchantment with social structures and attacking society. Not to mention a great deal of suffering as exploitation becomes rife, but we don’t hear about that. Mere mortals consider themselves victims in this comparison game, and end up with a great deal of Self-Pity and Envy which are very corrosive.
  • People will do anything to get there, with the anything including lying, cheating, greed, graft, corruption and so on, but that’s OK. (Well, not; Mirror Laws). After all, this is what gods do.
  • It is all competition, dog-eat-dog; survival of the ‘fittest’; even the ‘mere mortals’ are competing all the time, and judge, judge, judge forever. (The more you judge, the more you will be afraid of what you judge.) Gods quite like it when mortals attack mortals; it splits them up, and weakens their power. ‘With any luck it helps reduce the population, who tend to demand too much anyway. They think they have rights! How amusing.’
  • Gods have no idea of what mere mortals actually need. Why should they? Our problem is that we think they are experts when, really, we should take no notice of them whatsoever.
  • There is also lots of spying and keeping tabs on the populace, who are a bit cross about gods, and have to be kept under control. But, plenty of mere mortals will help, for a fee.
  • And in particular, our politicians, as in, those people who develop our policies, are highly likely to be gods because nowadays that’s how they get to be a politician. We need to understand that all gods have nothing to offer us mere mortals, and will work to look after themselves and other gods, because that is what they know.

And we are developing a ‘godship’ society.

Well, what’s wrong with all this?

Being a god seems like such an excellent way to be, that this is what we all think we want.

This behaviour is starting to seem so perfectly normal to us that we are not questioning it, or we must not. It is sold to us as ‘real’ life and ‘get with it’, as in, lump it.

The problems with godship.  (9.11)

The big problems with this ‘godship’ culture are …

  • ‘Gods do not experience the consequences of their decisions or behaviour; they don’t have to and we sure wish we didn’t have to either. But I hope by now that you understand that this is not in line with how Energy works. Everybody, including God, experiences the consequences of their decisions and behaviour at some time, in some manner, in this life or whenever in the next ones. This UUS is trying to show that we can use these consequences for ultimately our own true satisfaction. Therefore, being a god eventually leads to nothing except emptiness. We might enjoy the ride for a while until ‘fate’ (the InSelf starts to protest) gets us, but we may not enjoy the destination.
  • This is doing a ‘power over’ ‘the other’ and thus, not a ‘power for’ your Self, and as you do ‘power over’ to the other, so you will get to experience the other’s power over you, which you might not like. (Mirror Laws – them again.)
  • This is the Superiority/Inferiority Caper going on all the time, which is the great indicator of the internal Split between outself and InSelf which leads to complete inability to be Creative or to Flower. (See Chapter 5.)
  • It’s an ‘every man for himself’; there is no ‘other’ here. Not good for the person doing it, and not good for the person receiving it. We are here to learn that ‘the other’ does count, and that counting that ‘other’ is to our ultimate benefit. ‘Godship’ does not and will not consider the other.
  • This is a winner takes all setup; one person gets the lot versus 99 people get SFA, except ‘failure’, and in this case they are treated as less than human. And this is OK?
  • Gods do not, cannot and will not treat mere mortals as human beings. And in fact, mere mortals don’t think of themselves as human beings either really; they think of themselves as ‘not gods’ and hence a failure unless they can find someone lower down the rungs. Very bad news all round. Being a human being is being demeaned and degraded to mere mortal; this is an enormous disrespect for us all. When things have no meaning, we get mean.
  • Gods do not, cannot and will not grow up. This is part of being immortal, but it also means that they never actually get to Adult, in that they never serve others. They just remain a tyrant child, but we don’t notice because we don’t have that many Adults visible in our society. (They’re not gods because they are actually Serving, so we don’t worship them – ironic!) Neither are gods able to accumulate any wisdom (entirely because they can protect themselves from Life).

Therefore and thus.

  • There is no TISP here; not one bit, so no Love and no Life actually.
  • This is exactly why we have the biblical 1st commandment of ‘don’t worship gods‘, and look at the trouble we get into when we do! (Our images today may not be ‘graven’ but we craft them alright, and we have squillions of them all day every day on our media, and we worship/ape them daily.)
  • We remain very fearful of growing old, which is the human condition after all, and we are perfectly unable to be wise. We go on worshipping youthfulness, and then wondering why their ‘godlike’ answers aren’t that hot. We end up ignoring or disliking older people unless they are a god, which leaves us with no wisdom, and unable to develop any new insights into humanity. In fact we are becoming inhuman and soul-less.

And is this what we really want? Because that’s what we’re getting.

Feudalism.  (9B)

And as we all adopt our ‘godship’ culture, we head toward Feudalism.

So, what do I mean by Feudalism? Why would I consider saying such a thing in these modern times when everything is so wonderful?

Our worship of money and power translates as the adoption of ‘Market Forces’ as a good thing, because of course it makes more money and power for those with money and power; how nice. And people with money and power are gods.

But, the end-point of ‘gods’ and ‘market forces’ is Feudalism. And we are seeing this happen before our eyes. We have had this before, for a very long time; it’s called history. Of course, we think that nowadays we are doing no such thing, because we are so much smarter now. But I am using the word ‘Feudalism’ because that meaning is in our bones, and we actually know what it means ie, bad news for most of us. I could use modern words for the very rich such as ‘oligarchs’ or whatever, but these are ‘new’ words that we don’t really understand. We don’t have a word for the consequences for all of us when a very few people have all power and money concentrated in their hands, but we have done this before, lots. My argument here is that the words we use may have changed but, essentially, we are still doing it, and this time, failing to recognize it as the old pattern it actually is.

Feudalism had lords (= gods) and serfs, peasants, minions or peons (= ‘mere mortals’) doing the grind, (but I will continue to use the words ‘god’ and ‘peon’ to maintain the emphasis on the words and their relevance to today.

A definition of Peon could be; someone who has to accept the god’s ‘product’ whether that be crap, lies, piss or semen, and powerless to protest (but underneath will be very angry). Peon’s get peed on.

The pleasure of being a god or goddess.  (9.12)

Notice that there is a lot of pleasure in being a god.

  • Lolling around being handed food and drink on a platter whenever you want.
  • You don’t have to do anything to get it – it just gets served up to you by someone else who is naturally inferior.
  • No effort or drudgery or Serve anyone or anything.
  • Have your way and able to indulge in anything, anytime, whenever you want.
  • Power over others to make them do whatever you want.
  • Self-gratification – it feels good, and ‘we deserve it’.
  • Protection from nasty surprises from Life or anyone else – with luck, unless they’re bigger.
  • Control over that god’s world – who is in it, what they do, who is allowed in or not, and so on, and throw out anyone who won’t obey.

Thus, some of the reason and value of being a god is to be able to pee on others. There’s a kind of glee here. ‘Oh, I’m allowed to do as I please and they have to accept this ‘cos they’re not as good as me.’ It’s a power over, and it feels ‘heady’; it gives us a ‘buzz’, and we like it and want it because there is pleasure here (for the god, not the peon). It’s a self-gratification, also referred to as ‘wanking’ also known as ‘massaging the ego’ (‘ego’ used here in lay terms). [I’m generally avoiding using the word ‘ego’ because it has different meanings whether used technically or in the lay manner. However, most people know what I mean when I talk about ‘massaging the ego’; another word for someone who wanks is a ‘jerk’ – same thing.]

This is a very important point that many gods do not understand at all, but it is the basis of many powerful men’s inappropriate treatment of women that these women happen not to like – how strange (sarc.). These powerful men can be appalled when they are ‘called’ on it, as is happening more recently, but they are not being a normal human being flirting with the other sex (as they may tell themselves); they’re doing it to prove to themselves how powerful they are, as in, it’s a wank. There is no relationship here. The whole point of being a god is to be able to wank (whatever gives the god or goddess a buzz); that’s what it’s all about.

As I have said, gods do not have to grow up, and the above are the characteristics of the tyrant child forever wanting more, and very cross if can’t get it. But, the ‘advantages’ of godship are what we all want, and are expected to want; it’s our social formula or recipe for ‘success’ in Life. And it makes us very afraid of being a peon; far less pleasure or self-gratification, not much control and precious little to no protection, quite a lot of abuse and/or exploitation, and lots of drudgery and effort.

Historically, Feudalism was supported by all the institutions of the day, including churches that wanted their bit too. It is characterized by a very few, very wealthy and powerful people (1-2%) with a retinue of supporters who ‘hung off’ – and made their living from – their directives (8-9%), with the large majority (roughly 90%) in mostly poverty and unable to escape, unless they made themselves ‘illegal’ and at risk of great punishment.

Characteristics of feudalism.  (9.13)

In companies or countries Feudalism is characterized by.….

  • There’s a single head honcho (the male god/lord/master/CEO/president, dictator etc.) in charge.
  • His ideas and understandings rule. He calls the shots; his word ‘goes’/counts. One person in charge has all the power. This is the ‘noble’ leader. (‘Noble’ is a Big Cheese word.)
  • As head of a country or kingdom he usually has control of the military, because he has the money/resources to do so, thus he could enforce his will, and had others to do so. (Now we’ve reached P&C – power and control, the 2nd stage in the Superiority/Inferiority Caper.)
  • Money flows up to this person and permanently away from the lowest. (And much more like a ‘rush up’ than a ‘trickle-down’ too.)
  • He can ‘disappear’ you if you offend, or certainly make you suffer, greatly; a real ‘snakes and ladders’ situation.
  • He usually has secret police or spies on you in some manner, so you sure need to conform; do as you’re told and shut up (= no voice). You need to be controlled in case you’re a terrorist. (This is nowadays happening through the Internet.)
  • Sub-gods get to hang around (dependent and puppet) waiting for the great man’s word, so they had plenty of time for lots of plotting and intrigue. The small percentage of people in power had to work to keep that power so that is where most of their thinking and efforts were directed.
  • Much of the population, especially anyone who wants to achieve, has to spend their time with their noses up someone else’s bottom. This is labelled ‘brown-nosing’, which is a great way to spend one’s talents; living with your eyes full of ‘largeness’ and saying ‘yes’ to whatever crap lands on you. You will be much better off if you don’t look around or see anything other than the next person up, and just say ‘yes’. This is not only churches….
  • Peons are regarded as entirely expendable and easily replaceable; (see also any Management Theory). They were there for the function of doing the slog of the dirty work and that was that. They were used and definitely not a person, but more a mechanical function (basically a robot). (You will hear gods complaining about the lack of skills/abilities displayed by their peons.)
  • Peons were also used as ‘cannon fodder’ whenever the lord felt threatened or wanted to thieve because of course he wanted more. The label/name for this is greed.
  • There was rather a lot of money spent on weapons for defense and attack, and always said thieving.

with an enormous contrast or gap between the lord/god and his peons. While peons enjoyed…

Peons ‘enjoyed’…  (9.14)

  • No security whatsoever.
  • No choice; all of this was by birth, and you couldn’t change anything. You were stuck with this lord and that was that.
  • Rarely proper food, clothing or housing; sufficient, dry or clean.
  • Probably poor sanitation as well.
  • Hard labour all your days.
  • No protection from your lord/master at all, who might, for example, be keen on exercising his rights over any of the women he fancied, or he just might not like you.
  • No travel; how? Travel usually needs money.
  • No education; what for? There was no point in thinking about it. Superstition and ignorance were rife.
  • All very hand-to-mouth; no opportunity to build up resources no matter how hard you tried. Your money ‘rushed away’ and so did everybody else’s.
  • Other peons told on them or took advantage when they could. They were competing too, and copying their ‘betters’. Hence plenty of nastiness to each other.
  • No justice; and in so many ways. A basic example could be if your husband wanted to get rid of you, all he had to do was murder you, get rid of the body properly, and then just say you ran away. End of story.
  • Differences were not accepted; no tolerance here.
  • The church stuck the boot in as well, calling down hell-fire and damnation. All quite charming really.

Hence, no voice or say in what you got and definitely no autonomy here; just lump it because you did not count. Tons of fun here.

Heading towards feudalism.  (9.15)

When a few people have ‘godship’, societies become more ‘feudal’ and are characterized by…

  • More people become poorer, ie, an increase in poverty.
  • Fewer ‘middle class’. Many dictators specifically elect to get rid of their middle class and/or educated.
  • More people with less power and less say or ‘voice’ and they don’t count. Their potential or actual skills and abilities are lost or wasted, and thus there is less contribution to society, not to mention fewer taxes paid to any government. Thus, less creativity and less democracy, and a weaker government.
  • Increased crime, along with Graft and Corruption; poor people are much more easily able to be bribed by gods who have the money/might.
  • Increasing militarization of the police, in dress, weaponry and behaviour. They do what the gods tell them and because they too want to be gods, they like to look down on peons as ‘bad’.
  • Increased vandalism and destruction because more people have less to lose; also, more wars.
  • Peoples’ rights steadily decrease. There is less to no justice, and less to no equality.
  • The ‘weak’ are exploited and locked into the system, with no choice here.
  • Filth, squalor, degradation, slums and general ugliness.
  • Immense disrespect and blame for the ‘unwashed’/unemployed as lazy/stupid, their own fault etc. ‘Unwashed’ is the old godship reference to those who had no running water. ‘Losers’ is more fashionable at the moment.
  • Gangs with godship agendas of their own.
  • Increasing dominance of the military, as in, Power over through military might; not necessarily government.
  • Guns and weaponry everywhere.
  • Environmental pollution and poisoning; absolute disregard for ‘the other’s’ backyard.
  • No proper sewage systems or utilities etc. for washing and cooking. In the worst, women spend a lot of time carrying water, exhausting them. It is difficult for anyone to be clean.
  • Precious little education, which leads to ignorance and narrow views which promotes Superstition and Fanaticism, and attacking the different (the ‘other’). Not to mention, easily herded by godship agendas. ‘Terrorism’ is our current version. ‘Terrorist’ now includes anyone wishing to protest this state of affairs.
  • Little public transport, including rotten roads, even for bicycles.
  • Poor/slow communications.
  • Increasing health problems of sickness, disease and death. Increased numbers and types of deformities and poorly functioning babies, not to mention an increased birth rate.
  • Fend for yourself, and ‘dog-eat-dog’.
  • Keeping the plebs occupied with bread and circuses. Make them compete for food, although you do need to make sure they have it (remember the French revolution) and keep them entertained, preferably with as much sports, gore (or porn) as possible.

All ‘developed’ countries have ‘been there, done that’, although some are forgetting. Most ‘undeveloped’ countries have some to many of these characteristics. Who wants this?

Feudalism in the old days went on for a long time precisely because so few people were able to use their brains, or live with open eyes. Within any society this is a shocking waste of most people’s skills and abilities at all levels really, not just peons who were treated as stupid and entirely dispensable, especially in armies thieving from the next kingdom. It leads to no democracy and plenty of corruption everywhere, and absolutely no justice or truth for most people and this occurred by birth; not much different from slavery.

And all of these problems are the actual antithesis of Christian teachings, so why aren’t more churches protesting? But, of course, they’re doing their own version of godship.

Well, what about more equality?

Equality.  (9C)

Introduction.  (9.16)

We all fear being a peon and rightly so.

It actually denies humans the ability to explore and express; it severely limits their opportunities and gives them no voice. A primary problem with Feudalism is/was the enormous waste of people’s abilities and their inability to contribute to society or even propose anything different.

Hence, the long fight for equality over centuries. And the way that men can and have argued strongly for equality with the gods is through reason, and thus being rational is of immense importance.

Rational.  (9.17)

As Beck (1997) points out in ‘Breaking Point’, during the Enlightenment period, some men who weren’t the biggest gods had the time and resources to be able to think and consider more humane systems as alternatives to whatever feudal system they were part of. They had the ability to read, which was new (it was mostly the clergy before) and access to written materials because of printing, which was new, and this material included ancient Greek writings. This led to a lot of thinking and writing about the equality of man/men.

They used the ability to reason to argue for the equality of man in their fight for a say/voice in what happened to them from their gods. They were arguing that because they could be rational by reason of logical thought and education that they were just as good a god if not better than those who ruled.

Hence rationality is of crucial importance in the fight for equality in godship and to be part of the ‘club’ of godship.

But this ‘man/men’ was men only; it did not include women, much less slaves or servants.

Why not women?  (9.18)

Because of the problem of ‘chopping wood and carrying water’ (CWCW).

In the world of gods, it’s the peons who do this, the ‘mere mortals’, servants, serfs, slaves, peasants, most women, and of course, not gods; it is always Somebody Else.

Hence any whiff of doing CWCW means you must be a peon, by definition; gods don’t have to do this.

Being ‘rational’ then is of key importance in the struggle for equality with the gods, which is why men hang on to it like grim death and accuse women of the ‘irrational’, so that all men can be ‘gods’ to women as peons. But the whole business of ‘godship’ leads to that Lakota Shaman’s ‘big empty hole at the end of the road’ which is a kind of grim death in itself. (See quote at beginning of the Chapter.) It is all judging and Superiority/Inferiority and it leads to great fear and terrible waste.

‘Rational’ is really what Descartes was talking about in his maxim ‘I think, therefore I am’. He was saying, I am rational, therefore I count, as the antidote to the general complaint about being a peon and not counting, and hence not really taken into account. Do we exist if we are not taken into account? And this is the Fear of the Ghost in operation, which is one of our primary fears (See Chapter 7C).

Chopping Wood, Carrying Water (CWCW).  (9.19)

This CWCW is the daily grind of looking after the body; the interminable daily routines and the thousand small things of never-ending cooking, organizing, managing, feeding, cleaning, and the care of children, the elderly, others needing nurturing and healing and so on and so on; all having to be done, just so that it can all be done again tomorrow. Neither, strangely enough, does this ‘keeping the body’ stuff ever end; somebody gets to do it, or else no body.

And for these men of the Enlightenment period arguing for equality, Somebody Else did their ‘keeping the body’ stuff so these ‘Somebody Elses’ could not be gods by any stretch of the imagination.

The ‘logic’ goes, only men are rational and thus can be gods too. And if gods are rational, it has to be that peons are irrational.  The ‘keeping the body’ stuff proves that women are peons, and therefore irrational. So, although this hardly passes any logical test, it’s a right pain for women because it is used all the time by men. Also, gods always need a peon to be a god to.

Hence peon is defined by having to do this CWCW effort of ‘keeping the body’ stuff.

But all this effort is needed to maintain and promote life and growth; it’s a service for our bodies and for our children and the other; it is the supporting of Life. This support of Life is the Sustain and Protect of ‘the other’, (our body is an ‘other’ because it is part of the unconscious), and as we refuse to give Time and Interest to this support, we are failing to ‘TISP the other’. Thus, we are unable to ‘Love Thy Neighbour as Thyself’. This means we cannot and will not get to relationship, Equality, Merge and above all, Flower which, as I hope this UUS has shown in Part II, is what humans actually want because this is how we get our True Self-Esteem which is what humans really want, and without it we will just want on until we learn to give TISP.

Our spirit part of us does not want to do any Serve whatsoever; it is only concerned with itself which fits in with all our ‘god’ tendencies. [The body is the soul, and its business is with the Physical Sensing and the Emotional departments of Energy. This is in contrast to our spirit which is concerned with the Mental and Intuitive departments of Energy. (See also Part I.)]

CWCW is absolutely essential for life.  (9.20)

We have a lot of names for this ‘keeping the body’ stuff; housework, childcare, raising the family and so on, but it is our ‘Till and Keep’.

I consider this ‘keeping the body’ stuff as ‘Soul-Keeping’ because it is entirely concerned with keeping the soul and this is the serving of ‘the other’. It is in this Soul-Keeping that we work out how to Do Love (which I have defined as TISP) for ourselves and the other.

Thus on the one hand we have the great wish of not having to do this effort of Soul-Keeping, and we deny it, (as unnecessary), trivialize it, (it’s so easy and simple to do) and denigrate it, (only peons/stupid/women do it) while on the other hand this Soul-Keeping is giving TISP and teaches us how to Do Love and find our own internal Flowering and its satisfactions; see Part II.

There is a Zen Buddhist saying that goes “Before enlightenment, chopping wood, carrying water. After enlightenment, chopping wood, carrying water”. This is a warning that enlightenment does not get you to being a god. Chopping wood and carrying water belongs to humans and it’s actually good for them; it’s Soul-Keeping. The thing is that it’s probably the actual CWCW that helps you to get to enlightenment, but we don’t like to think that this may be correct.

Remember lots of people want enlightenment to get off earth or to be a god to those who are unenlightened. Be aware.

CWCW is soul-keeping.  (9.21)

So, the way to solve this problem of peon versus god is to turn our judging on its head, and understand the value and primary importance of Soul-Keeping for a far more humane society with a voice for all. Well! That would be amazing! What would/could our society be if it did not waste more than half of humanity’s potential contribution by denigrating the housework and physical work along with the women and other peons and their skills in doing it? I suspect we could solve all of our problems and without too much difficulty either. However, letting go of our Superiority/Inferiority Caper is another thing altogether and is the last thing that gods are gonna do – they’ll die first, and that’s the crux of it, because that’s what happens.

The rational world.  (9.22)

As we hunt for godship so we enter into the twilight world of the ‘rational’ leaving out at least 2 of the 4 Energy departments in the external world (some Physical is allowed if it can be measured, but the Emotional and the Spiritual are excluded as non-rational which will keep you as a peon). But no-one can navigate life properly without taking all 4 of the Energy departments into account, so how ‘rational’ is this? Giving TISP involves using the Mental and the ‘Spiritual’ domains of Energy in the service of Soul-Keeping. And these are only the external energies, not the internal energies which are discounted even more.

We are meant to be human beings.  (9.23)

We are not meant to be either gods or peons. We are human beings here to find our own individual powers within ourselves for our own wholeness. Unless we can ditch this pernicious god/peon judging we will never be able to get to any real civilization, and certainly not get out of the pickle we are in, made by us. The more we keep judging others, the more we judge ourselves internally (Mirror Laws) and lose confidence in our own abilities to direct our own lives for our own ‘right living’. We won’t even know what our ‘right living’ actually is or could be.

Our worship of gods is leading us to exactly what God has warned us about in the 1st commandment, as in, ‘don’t worship gods’, because if we do, we won’t be able to find our true powers. This is because as we do god/peon to others so we do it to our InSelf (because of Mirror Laws), and we can be quite sure that the InSelf does not like it.

Can we change?  (9.24)

The thing is that changing this delightful system of gods/peons requires personal action to…

  • Stop worshipping gods by thinking that’s what we’re supposed to want, as in, we’re letting them tell us what’s right for us.
  • Stop judging and comparing, not to mention, blaming.
  • Grow up. Stop wanting to be a child, as in, told what to do, and rescued/saved by someone else; it isn’t gonna happen.
  • stop doing nothing to help yourself, and
  • stop distracting yourself from thinking about all of this.
  • And maybe take no notice of the media either.

What would life be like if you started to treat the other, including your InSelf, as being of equal importance? (Equality meaning equal in importance or value, not ‘same as’.)

But we don’t want to think for ourselves and gods like us to do as we’re told. The more fearful we are the more we can be manipulated/herded to what they want which is Feudalism. They want poor, uneducated, scrambling, desperate, deadened people competing amongst themselves. There will be no unity here, which takes the pressure off the gods actually, and the peons can just support said gods and do the drudgery. And the more money gods have, the more they can protect themselves from the consequences, but not you because you don’t count. Have you noticed that we don’t do ‘protests’ anymore? I suspect we’re hoping that we ourselves might get to ‘god’ one day. It’s part of wanting to be in the club, so we don’t criticize.

But now we turn to how we bring up our children to ‘fit in’ with our social expectations, which differ according to the gender of the child. I’ll deal with boys/men first – as you do.