Hundredth Monkey and Other Modern Myths

[thoughts from     ~burning woman~      by Sha'Tara]
 
I recently watched an interview with CIA whistle blower Michael Ruppert.  (If you don't know who this man is, there's the Internet!) Makes some good points but he lost me with his emotionalism.  The capper, however, wasn't the emotion, or the obvious pro-American bias (the belief that somehow Americans are smarter, tougher and more likely to be survivors in the 'great collapse' than any other people – spare me that BS!) but his use of the discredited hundredth monkey myth, to illustrate how we can bring about real change here with a very small number of people (actually one hundred) enacting a new idea. 
 
For those who do not know about the hundredth monkey theory, it's the story of 10 monkeys introduced to a radioactive island following H-bomb tests, who were taught to wash radioactive coconut shells before breaking them open to eat the fruit.  The story goes that the monkeys reproduced and all dutifully washed their coconut shells until the day they reached the magic number of one hundred.  At that point, thousands of non-related monkeys on nearby islands also began to wash their coconut shells (though it seems they had no reason to do so). 
 
The hundredth monkey idea was spread by those seekers for magical solutions to man's problems.  Going from monkeys to Earthians then, if one hundred somehow learned, or were taught, to, let's say, love one another, then thousands, then millions, would simply follow suit.  Whatever the first hundred were taught to do, that is exactly what the other 'Earthian monkeys' would find themselves doing, willy-nilly. 
 
What's wrong with that picture?  Well, how many times in the real world have we done the hundredth monkey thing, in so many different ways, yet it did not materialize as meaningful change?  And why not?  Because that's not how change comes about.   Contrary to popular belief, it is obvious to an observant person that meaningful change always comes about by the commitment, dedication and self-sacrifice of individuals, usually one at a time—never by the efforts of the collective.  Popular revolts or revolutions, you say?  Name one that has resulted in positive, meaningful and irreversible change for this world? 
 
We are not robots, we are intelligent creatures who somehow (and don't ask me how) developed the ability to think for themselves.  I'm not saying that many actually use that ability (certainly if one observes Earthian behavior, it is screaming obvious it is an ability hardly ever tapped into) but we have it.  That being the case, and faced with the inevitable collapse of our short and horrifically vicious flirtation with 'technotopia,'  what now, brown cow?
 
Question:  Do we want change, or are things just fine the way they are?  That's the first question each of us must answer for ourselves.  If we decide they are just fine as is, then that's that.  We all live in Pleasantville, our daughters bake chocolate chip cookies for Whitey and no one else, our sons are forever getting ready for that all important big basketball game tomorrow, and I can stop writing right here because the rest won't be worth the proverbial pinch of you-know-what. 
 
But what if some of us are actually sensing that things are not fine; that Pleasantville isn't what it used to be, you know, before there were colors, and lightning and rain, and wives did not forget to cook dinner, or forget the iron to imprint a humiliating burn mark on hubby's shirt.  What if, as common sense indicators seem to be pointing, we are in for a very rough ride in the very near future?  What if there is going to be thunder, and lightning, even if Homeland Security bans the sale of umbrellas? What then?
 
There are those who can see the economic collapse coming a mile away.  There are those who are already into it, those who a couple of years ago had an apartment to live in and a job, who now live out of a Safeway shopping cart in an abandoned strip mall parking lot.  But… "unlike those irresponsible people of Third World countries who keep having kids when there's nothing to feed them…" the majority in these benighted northern nations of North America aren't quite there yet, so for them it's not an issue.  "Bad luck and poor management for the shopping cart tribes, that's all.  Won't happen to me, I've got a job at Enron Inc. and my pension funds are in secure stocks.  I'm OK Jack." 
 
Sure.
 
Christmas time is always the best of times, the worst of times for me.  The worst of times because it's totally fake and associated good times only serve to reveal the paucity of 'milk of human kindness' among Earthians world-wide.  The best of times because I know what's behind the garish displays.  I was raised in a very religious environment (do not make the mistake of confusing that with 'spiritual' – it wasn't!) and I know the real story behind the nightmarish dog pile that has become Christianity. 
 
Me talking to myself here, out of my stubborn mind:  There actually was a Jesus, and he actually said and did what the New Testament record claims for him.  I know that Christians by and large have given up on those stories of 'miracles' and tough teachings, replacing the poor, skeletal, driven Avatar with their obese, made in America Coca Cola savior in his blood-soaked suit, their ho-ho-ing Santa Claus (known to me as Satan's Claws, but that's a really bad pun).  Be that as it may, I can't give up on the old stories and you know why?  Because they make sense!  They don't have to be literally true you know, just as long as they make sense while nothing else does.
 
"Oh, they do?"  you ask with a sneer.  And with scornful expression as you survey the achievements of your wonderful 20th and 21st Century from the very top of your Dubai hotel skyscraper, you quote such passages attributed to Jesus as:  
 
"Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”
Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” 
Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”   
 
"Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life ? 
Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?   
 
"Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. 
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
 
"Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 
“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. 
And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
 
" “But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 
bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. 
If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. 
Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. 
Do to others as you would have them do to you. 
 
… And you say, with the full wisdom of the age, "What sort of crap is that, huh?"  Indeed.
 
I mean, how could anyone celebrate Christmas if the above quotes (just a few out of many) held true ?  Impossible.  Hence we must rethink Jesus' message.  He simply didn't mean what he said and didn't say what he meant and subsequently it was all mistranslated.  So, Christians and hedonists alike, you're off the hook.  That thing about loving enemies?  False alarm.  We know because a new White House war monger just got himself a Nobel Peace Prize, his "peace means war" acceptance speech worthy of any made by Hitler himself.  How about that for doublespeak, George?
 
{Quote}  In "1984" [George] Orwell introduced us to the words doublethink and newspeak.  A word he DIDN'T use - but which combines the two - is doublespeak.  Doublespeak is saying one thing and meaning another, usually its opposite.  In 1984 when BIG BROTHER and the Party say PEACE they mean WAR, when they say LOVE they mean HATE, and when they say FREEDOM they mean SLAVERY.

{And another quote - }:  NO PEACE IN NOBEL PRIZE  The 100th Nobel PEACE Prize (2001) went to the United Nations and its Secretary General, Kofi Annan, to honour their work "for a better organized and more PEACEFUL world."  Kofi Annan, in accepting the gold medal award and the 10-million Swedish crowns said, "It seems almost indecent to be accepting a prize for peace when peace and security are still denied to so many people in different parts of the world."  At a news conference in Oslo, there was scant talk of peace.  Police with sub-machine guns have been guarding the normally relaxed Nordic capital.