by Ray Jason
I was awoken this morning by a tropical alarm clock –
the joyous sound of wild parrots flying above my anchored boat. Their airborne chirping reminded me that the
last thing that I heard as I dozed off the night before was also from the
non-human world. It was the raucous
barking of a troop of howler monkeys.
Perhaps it was because my sleep had
been book-ended by these emissaries from the realm of Nature - but I felt
radiantly refreshed. Lying in my bunk, I
noticed that an amber shaft of equatorial sunlight was resting on my chart
table. And there, sitting in the middle
of it was a little gecko sunning itself.
A feeling of cleansing jubilation swept over me. It felt like something momentous had
transformed the planet as I slept during the night. It was as though the long-rumored pole shift
had occurred. But it was not a
geographical reversal, it was a philosophical upheaval.
*******
Suddenly, the ordinary people of the world had awoken
to the fact that war was not about spreading democracy and ousting hideous
tyrants. It was a fraud imposed on the
regular people by the irregular people – who are awash in money and power and
who benefit obscenely from war.
These Malignant Overlords create the latest “enemy”
that they declare a “threat to our way of life.” Their groveling media hacks then ceaselessly
regurgitate lies claiming that the citizens of the enemy country are actually
subhuman and must be either defeated or perhaps even annihilated.
The war frenzy lines the pockets of the power people
because their investment portfolios are filled with military industrial
corporations. And as the war drums beat
louder the media engorges itself on higher ratings and rising ad revenues. The politicians are also ecstatic because
they know that in times of conflict the incumbents are almost always
re-elected.
What makes the march towards war even more orgasmic
for these Malignant Overlords is the fact that they are at no risk
whatsoever. They will not be on the
front lines and neither will their sons or daughters. They will lead the troops from the rear- or
more likely from the country club bar.
And what is even more despicable is that in this age
of possible nuclear incineration those who start the war and don’t have to
fight in the war will be protected from the war in underground bunkers. While they survive, we will be converted into
an enormous porcelain puddle as the cities are vaporized.
But during this Night of Awakening the mass of
humanity snapped out of their trance and recognized what war truly is – a form of temporary insanity that allows our
leaders to convince us to kill innocent people who are just like ourselves and who
have never done us any harm. And so
they ripped off their uniforms and threw down their rifles and vowed to never
fight for the Rich Man again.
*******
This morning’s golden dawn also rejuvenated the people
of the world with the understanding that morality and justice do not require
religion. They suddenly had a secular
epiphany; and they realized that Big R Religion or Institutional Religion is
more harmful than it is helpful. They
saw through the self-glorifying propaganda of the priests and the rabbis and the
mullahs.
They realized that for thousands of generations humans
behaved ethically towards each other without any need for sky gods or temples
or “holy” books . The evidence for this
is that our species survived admirably without fiery edicts from above.
The glory of this sun-plush morning also inspired a
vision of people emancipated from the false and un-provable concept of an
afterlife. And with humanity liberating
itself from the belief in heaven, they could also be freed from the fear of
hell. This inspired them to recognize
that we have but one life and that it is ever so brief and must be cherished
and lived as joyfully and purposefully as possible.
And those who defend religion because it is a noble
form of extended family and does reinforce certain worthy moral principles
suddenly realized that these positives are far outweighed by the negative “baggage”
of the history of religion.
They had to acknowledge that its legacy is soiled by
witch-hunts and religious wars and repression of scientific discoveries and
support of slavery and suppression of women and nowadays by be-headings and
suicide bombers. How can these horrors
not outweigh any supposed moral teachings?
Enlightened by these conclusions, the same mass of
humanity that had decided to never fight or support another war now also swore
off religion. They recognized that the
only moral compass that they need is already within them. And they understood
in their heart of hearts that the myth of an afterlife only detracted from
their ability to exquisitely savor this one life that we are bequeathed.
*******
For about an hour I rested in my bunk and reveled in
this glorious vision of an unshackled humanity.
Then I looked over at the chart table and noticed that the beam of
sunlight was gone. The little gecko had
also vanished.
Then my gaze shifted to my beautiful brass ship’s
clock, which has sailed with AVENTURA for all these years and all these
miles. And then I noticed my little
calendar. It rudely reminded me that it
was … April 1, 2017.
If the gecko was hiding nearby, it surely heard me
sigh - for I realized that I am not just an April Fool – I am an every damned
day fool.