by Ray Jason
At the time, it was just an eccentric, utopian game. But now, a couple of decades later, I realize
that it was a perfect metaphor for my deepest aspirations. I would find some nicely rounded, sea-worn
rocks along the shore. My favorites were
about the size of a mango and slightly flattened. On each one I would paint a short quotation
from a wise thinker.
Here are some examples that swiftly rise from my memory
vault. Whitman’s “Question much and obey
little.” Thoreau’s “Simplify, simplify,
simplify…” And Plato’s “The unconsidered
Life is not worth living.” I would then
anonymously place these at well-known snorkeling sites, so that unsuspecting
divers would suddenly be jolted by these pearls of wisdom. I always thought of them as my “Ponder
Stones.”
After doing this for a couple of months, I gradually closed
my underwater library. I can’t recall
exactly why, but I suspect that it had something to do with a sea gypsy
romance. And now, with the perspective
of a quarter of a century, I realize that this intellectual lark was actually
symptomatic of a much deeper yearning.
For some inexplicable reason, I have always been lured by the Sirens’
call of Idealism. My desire has long
been to try to help make the world a slightly better place as a result of my
time here.
In a way, these Ponder Stones were the seeds from which my
own individual worldview would sprout.
My belief is that anyone who grapples with the mystery of human
existence is building upon the accumulated wisdom of those who came, thought
and shared before. Those Wise Ones, who
spanned the globe and the centuries, never COERCED – instead they CONVINCED. They spurned the SWORD and revered the PEN. Their goal was to INSPIRE and not to IMPOSE. I share that quest.
*******
I had not thought about those Ponder Stones for years - but a
few days ago they leapt to mind as I was about to place an empty bottle in the
recycling bin. Holding it in my hand, I
realized that it was the perfect size and shape for leaving a message in a
bottle. So I discarded the rest of my
glass and plastic, and took it back to AVENTURA.
Normally, a note in a bottle is a desperate method that
castaways use in the hopes of being rescued.
It is a cry for help. But my
message would be a cry for clarity. Here
is what I have in mind. If AVENTURA and
I are ever in a tempest so dangerous that it looks like I am about to be harvested
by The Stormy Reaper, I will toss this bottle overboard. Inside will be my final message to the
world. My initial title was Sinner Ray’s Last Epistle to the
Earthonians, but I decided to temper that impulse with the version that you
will find below. Hopefully, the Reaper
will not discover my Lat/Long for many years, and I will frequently update this
document as my knowledge increases. But
here is the first rendering.
*******
AN EPISTLE TO THE
EARTHONIANS
By the time you find this message in its little bottle on
some distant shore, I will no longer be a laughing, dreaming, wondering human
being. I will have merged with The Sea. But sometimes a man’s deeds or words can slip
through Death’s grasp. This is my final
attempt to contribute something of value to The Human Voyage.
******
I needed almost a half a century to escape the programming
that invisibly cocoons so many of us.
Even though I have a college education and was endowed with an above average
skepticism, it still took me 50 years to perceive just how different the world
is from what we think it is. Because of
my good fortune in making a small breakthrough in this regard, I feel called to
share some of that awakening with you, dear stranger.
Start with this question.
When was the last time that you heard someone marveling at the utter
miracle of our little planet? Gaze in
wonder at all of these astonishing life forms roaming our continents and
oceans. And then look elsewhere in the
heavens and you see only lifeless celestial bodies. And given how blessed we are to inhabit this
plush sphere, why do we not dedicate ourselves to the flourishing of all of
Earth’s creatures and ecosystems? How
have we gotten into a position where human conduct is so destructive to other
humans and non-humans and to the natural systems that sustain us? Why are we staring into the abyss - instead
of rejoicing in happiness and plenty?
I believe that it is because the meta-systems that dominate
our world are all organized in a hierarchal manner that allow the very few at
the top to make almost all of the important decisions. And those with the authority gain it because
they are addicted to having power over others.
Most of humanity has no desire to control others. We only seek a basic decent life for
ourselves and our families.
And so the system is structured to attract the least
desirable people to positions of power. The
most predatory, ruthless and soul-less types - who do not mind trampling others
to get to the top - are the most likely to succeed. My term for these control freaks is The
Malignant Overlords. They dominate the
worlds of government, religion, commerce, and media. And these are the institutions that shape our
society. So in a very real sense, they
DO rule the world.
One of their weapons is their divide-and-conquer
strategy. By fomenting strife between us,
they distract us from the fact that we are under their thumbs. By incessantly praising competition and
denigrating co-operation, they keep us struggling against each other. Their skill at manipulation is so
extraordinary that they convince us to go forth and slaughter supposed enemies
who have never actually done us any harm.
They are Svengalis, who have billions of people sleepwalking
through life in a trance. They hypnotize
us with mega-consumerism and endless televised spectacles. They throw us crumbs while dining on caviar.
Since this is my final summing up, let me sketch out as concisely
as possible my assessment of how the Malignant Overlords want to sculpt the
future. They are seeking rule by elite
oligarchs, with a one world digital currency.
This shift to electronic money will be mass marketed as something that
is great for everybody and that will end drug trafficking and money
laundering. This is a sick joke since
the Elites are neck deep in these activities.
The bad news is that they want a society of Masters and Serfs
– a modern feudalism. But the really bad
news is that they are willing to replace as many serfs as possible with
robots. They intend to continue dumbing-down
the population until they are smart enough to do the work, but not smart enough
to look behind the curtain. And those
who do try to reveal the true depth of the oppression will be easily detected
as the Malignant Overlords continue to perfect their surveillance grid. Their vision of Plantation Earth is so
horrible that it makes the dystopia in 1984 seem like a Montessori School.
*******
Now that I have finished summing up my thoughts about THE world,
please allow me to speak a little about MY world. I dedicated my final years to the writing of
philosophical essays in the hopes that they might add something of value to the
Human Conversation. I strove to be more understandable
to a wide audience than the academic or “heavy” philosophers. But I also avoided being a “pop” philosopher who
was sweet and folksy, but who never dealt with the serious and dark parts of
the human condition. My quest was a
middle path that was daring but decipherable.
And I would always strive for a poetic tone that might help the little
essays SING.
Investigating so deeply the tragedy and injustice that taints
so much of modern life can be emotionally and psychologically toxic. And I think that one of my victories in my
time here was that I remained joyous through it all. For me, the Darkness never vanquished the Light. I could still savor the mystery, the beauty,
the heroism, the magic and the shortness of it all.
Once upon a lifetime, in a run-down park in the Archipelago
of Bliss, I watched a little Indio girl, who had never seen a sliding board,
build up the courage to give it a try. The
joy on her face when she safely made it down just saturated me with
happiness. And as I now write these, my
final lines, I can still see her image perfectly. Perhaps, in the end … that is enough…