Thoughts on Providing for Oneself

The preoccupation with what should be is estimable only when respect for what is has been exhausted.¹ Yet respect for what is does point us — to the direction from which we came — to that place and time where humans looked at the animals they killed, regarded them with reverence and never ate them except with gratitude.²

The Hindus speak of Minahana, the little, personal boat which must be mastered to be able to make a real contribution to Mahayana, the big boat of humanity. The benevolent principle of socialism can be realized only when the willing-and-able inspire the willing-to-be-carried to provide for themselves as a contribution to the welfare of the general community. Otherwise the festering welfare-state breeds resentment among the “burdened,” justifying their heartless usury of the “burdens.”

Providing for oneself is being essentially, solely responsible for one’s own survival, one’s continued health and expanding awareness. Not since hunting and gathering  were replaced by farming and markets has such integrity been at all common. Restaurants and processed fast-food have finalized our morphing from concern for health continuation to wealth accumulation.

This loss of gratitude for the symbiosis we enjoy within the nature of this body from which we arose and of which we are living cells was caused by severing such ties as required in order to justify a claim of the exclusive rights and privileges granted us by a mythical creator of it all.

The myth of any civilization is hidden within the practice of repeating every “fact” overheard somewhere, from the big bang theory to the big bangless nativity gospel. While myth does provide a framework upon which to weave an ever more complex fabric, it also creates an invisible, tautological prison the confines of which are indescribably obvious to anyone still able to think without words — like children, guided by instinctual genetic memory.

Having to qualify for civilization soon intrudes on the child’s far more profound developing curiosity in pursuit of new flavors of experience on its own. The rules of the myth-become-fact shout louder and demand more immediate attention until the quiet voice of instinct’s guidance is ignored or demonized for practical expedience and passing marks.

Humans gather to share a common interest, such as a family commune, or to share a common enemy, like defensive victims. Acts of faith such as religion and patriotism make belief in wishful thinking so certain of itself that experiencing nature cannot be explained without sorting events into “good” for God-us and “evil” for D’evil-them. In their evangelical activities, religions and nations act defensively by preemptively converting or combating all D’evils they imagine coming to victimize their shaky claims of superiority seen through their reality tunnels.

If the deer is mortal, the herd is immortal

If the wolf is mortal, the pack is immortal
The best of both is assured

¹ José Otega y Gasset, Meditations on Hunting

² Michael Pollard, Omnivore’s Dilemma