How Dare You Say Something Anti-Evolutionary!

How dare you say something anti-evolutionary
Earthsight as seen from Apollo 8, December 1968

In the normal course of events, people might say “My ethnicity is this.” Or, “Your nationality is that.” Possibly even “That person’s religion is the other.” A while back, I wrote about how Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895-1986) characterized all such statements as violence.

How dare you say something anti-evolutionary

I make no expectation upon anyone to believe anything just because Jiddu Krishnamurti says it. I do encourage everyone to weigh it in their own experience and feel how it feels. But there might be some people who reject these ideas. Therefore, I would like to offer them from a different angle, a different world view.

R. Buckminster Fuller in 1979 with a tension-integrity sphere

R. Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983) was many things in his life. An architect, a designer, a futurist. One book he is well-known for is Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth, published in 1969. As far as I can tell, this book has never gone out of print. I share this brief excerpt with you.

This “sovereign” — meaning top – weapons enforced “national” claim upon humans born in various lands leads to ever more severely specialized servitude and highly personalized identity classification. As a consequence of the slavish “categoryitis” the scientifically illogical, and as we shall see, often meaningless questions “Where do you live?” “What are you?” “What religion?” “What race?” ’”What nationality?” are all thought of today as logical questions. By the twenty-first century it either will have become evident to humanity that these questions are absurd and anti-evolutionary or men will no longer be living on Earth.

I prefer the word “ethnicity” to “race,” but that was the commonly used word in 1969. Krishnamurti called identification with ethnicity, nationality or religion “violent.” Buckminster Fuller leveled an even stronger criticism, calling such identification “anti-evolutionary.” How dare you say something anti-evolutionary! But people do it every day, alas.

I believe some of you are reading this and thinking “I say, Douglas, that’s a pretty harsh criticism.” What would you have us say and think instead? Glad you asked, friend, glad you asked! Buckminster Fuller would encourage you to say, believe, act and demonstrate the words

“I am a crew member of Spaceship Earth.”

Perhaps this alternate formulation would help.

“I am a citizen of Planet Earth. I claim certain rights and accept certain responsibilities for the survival and freedom of the human family.”

I realize some people may call this unpatriotic. But the New Message from God tells us we are entering a time when no ethnicity will succeed at the expense of another. Likewise for nations and religions. The New Message from God calls us citizens of the Greater Community of Worlds. We are clearly citizens of Planet Earth. I am a citizen of the city of St. Paul. My citizenship in the state of Minnesota does not invalidate this. I am a citizen of the United States of America. This does not override my citizenship in Minnesota. My citizenship in the Greater Community of Worlds does not nullify my citizenship of Planet Earth.

Step 187 of Steps to Knowledge

Will there be enough crew members of Spaceship Earth in time? Can we evolve our thinking enough in time? We will find out shortly.

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Welcome to Mystery of Ascension! We are students and advocates of the the New Message from God. We are members of a worldwide community. We seek to assist the world in successfully navigating difficult times ahead. We seek to assist the world in successfully emerging into a greater community of intelligent life. You will also find some poetry. Find out more about us here. Contact us here.

Identity Is Tricky And Sticky

Identity is tricky and sticky

This quote by Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895-1986) has been making the rounds in my world.

“When you call yourself an Indian or a Muslim or a Christian or a European or anything, you are being violent. Do you see why it is violent? Because you are separating yourself from the rest of mankind. When you separate yourself by belief, by nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence. So a man who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country, to any religion, to any political party of partial system; he is concerned with the total understanding of mankind.”

One critic of this quote suggested that “violence” has been redefined out of existence. Another critic suggested that replacing existing identities with a larger, global identity is an act of violence.

Step 134 of Steps to Knowledge, the book of spiritual practice of the New Message from God.

Identity is tricky and sticky

In the New Message from God, certain practices are identified as debilitating. Judgment is one of them, saying “this is good” or “that is bad.” Assumption is another one, saying “this is the case” or “this is not the case.” Yet another one is defining, saying “this is a that.” Suppose I look at something and say “this is a that.” My mind responds with “Ah, then that is likely to do the things that a that does.” But what if it doesn’t? Will I keep investigating, or surrender to the mental sloth of defining? A special case of defining is identifying, saying “I am an Indian, or a Muslim, or a Christian, or a European.”

But this isn’t where the mischief lies. Identifying is saying “This is my group. These are my people. This is my tribe.” In any group, people make efforts to be the leader of that group. People make efforts to get the largest share of the group’s resources. To identify means I want my group to be the leader over the other groups. It means I want my group to get the largest share of the world’s resources. I believe this is what Krishnamurti is getting at when he speaks of separation leading to violence.

Step 290 of Steps to Knowledge

Identity is tricky and sticky. So to be human is to be in a predicament. To be human is to use one’s capability to identify. This is going to lead to violence sooner or later. Step 290 of the 365 steps of Steps to Knowledge says the following:

“In the world you are a student—always. Every day, every hour and every minute you are learning and attempting to assimilate your learning. You are either a student of Knowledge or a student of confusion. You are either a student of certainty or a student of ambivalence. You are either a student of wholeness and integrity or you are a student of conflict and war. You can only learn from being in the world, and you can only demonstrate the result of your learning.”

While it is true there are things I identify as, I make great efforts to consider them as interim, contingent identities. The identity I feed and ratify and choose again is that of a student of Knowledge. I desire for no nation or religion to succeed at the expense of any other nation or religion. I will no harm to any other nation or religion. And when I do, I don’t want to.

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Welcome to Mystery of Ascension! We are students and advocates of the the New Message from God. We are members of a worldwide community. We seek to assist the world in successfully navigating difficult times ahead. We seek to assist the world in successfully emerging into a greater community of intelligent life. You will also find some poetry. Find out more about us here. Contact us here.