The Empirical Manifesto

Above all, know thyself. No, its not the biblical term for masturbation. I mean the apparent phenomenon that many people don't actually know themselves well enough to anticipate their own reactions to any number of random stimuli. Or worse, the same stimuli under different circumstances. Yes, I run into this on a near-daily basis. I even have a helpful reverse-idiom of sorts at the ready for times I encounter it. Its my get out of jail free card. I ask more or less, "Is my request the first of its nature?" I ask it to anyone who's job it is to perform a very specific function, yet who appear genuinely surprised ^* when its my turn to ask it of them.


The Judeo-Christian systems of belief would have you believe that the meek are going to inherit the earth. Not meek as its defined now, as it was. To mean gentle, yielding. As in turning oneself over to the service of the Lord and not fighting against His Will (Thy Will be done). I've sat through many a sermon agonizing over and studying the original Hebrew dialect in order to gain understanding of the word choice first used by King David in Psalms and later by Christ in Matthew. After all, who doesn't want to inherit the earth?


Unsurprisingly, I feel differently. Not that I don't want to inherit the earth - I do, but that I alone shall inherit it. At least, myself and those of my ilk. For its not the meek who will do so, rather the open-minded; those who can integrate new information into their belief system and exceed the limitations of their programming. The funny thing about close-mindedness as an ethos is that it has a way of proving itself ineffective through active rejection of newly discovered knowledge. So if the close-minded can claim that they shall inherit the earth through close-mindedness, I can certainly claim otherwise - and I have a whole lot more confidence in the unprejudiced, unbigoted, and impartial than the millions of monotheists out there who would disagree with me. Close-mindedness just seems like such a dead-end way of life despite their unsubstantiated claims to the contrary.


I personally learn through a process of doing - hands on experimentation. Succeeding and failing both. If the outcome is not as expected, I change a variable and try again. Some people give up entirely upon their first failure and see any further attempts as fruitless defeatism. Others try and try again, but miss completely the learning portion of the lesson by refusing to change any variables. In this case, I feel that I am with what I have presumed is the majority - those who persevere no matter their ideology, and that I can at least respect.


Changing, growing, can be as difficult as attempting to define something as elusive as love. Some make lists of things they do which prove love, or have ideas about another's actions which would run contrary to that list, thus disprove it - after all, we all see the world differently. Myself? I only know the depth of my feelings of affection and devotion - without lists. The moment I've written it down it runs the risk of limiting me - slowing me down from experiencing something which may greatly add to my exposure. Lists can get confining fast, and most of us aren't into limiting our expressions of love, but growing them - exceeding both the expectations of others, and expectations of self. Think Old Testament versus New Testament. In the former "works" were required for blessings, in the latter only Grace.


And speaking of sweeping theological changes, ever since Christ said so then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot I will spue thee out of my mouth, I've been walking the narrow path between two camps of hotheads everywhere I go. No matter what the subject of conversation is, NO ONE WANTS TO BE SPEWED FROM JESUS' MOUTH. They therefore run full hot, or full cold, under the assumption that one is more important than the other, never bothering to question why, and only seeking council and advice from like-minded folk which is nothing more than egotistical validation. These people are incapable of feeling shame, replacing it with pride and calling it humility. How can I combat that?


I was a teenager when my mother explained to me that I needed to get to know myself. I thought she was an idiot - I was me for goodness sake - how could I not know me? Of course I discovered what she meant during the months I spent in near-isolation the first time I left home. 5,130 miles from home to be precise. And have since learned that there are other activities in which to acquaint yourself with...yourself. The same tools used in character-building can also illuminate autognosis if you allow it, as its something which requires nurturing. And despite my own series of scenarios of how I would behave in any series of circumstances, even I'm surprised by my own emotional reactions at times. Except that by adding that knowledge to my data-set then helps me in anticipating it in future outcomes, thus strengthening my armament for dealing with whatever life throws at me. Perfect? No. Better than being continually (and more often than not negatively) surprised by life? Absolutely.


I told a young man once what my father told me when I was a young man, "The severe polarity you feel righteously about is common amongst youth. As you grow, learn, experience and mature, you'll start to question everything. And when you do, you'll find you become more moderate in your views as you discover the truth, which always lies somewhere in the middle." I explained to this young man that my father's words were true because it was just as I had experienced it, and I wanted him to experience it as well. This freedom from a lifetime of ignorance. The youth said I was stupid for being so weak to turn away from [whatever the ideological conversation was at the time].


So go forth and be meek. Or not. Run hot and cold. It doesn't matter, you're not going to inherit the earth. I am. I will outlast you. I will try and fail and learn and succeed. My dizzying array of hands-on empirical activities will trump your hibernation because I am infinitely flexible. Entropy destroys that which is unchanging - like those principles you put so much stock into - but has a difficult time feeding from that which grows and I am on a path of personal growth. I'll get mine in the end, and this is why.

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^{* http://ehowton.livejournal.com/322402.html}

The weight of the world is too heavy to rest upon mismatched, uneven pillars of self. We're not strong enough to bear that burden for long without stress cracks from the weight and constant motion of the societal superstructure we support. Raise therefore your children in an image other than your own, for we are all flawed. Increase their chances of survival by arming them with open-mindedness - For the things you believe now differ from when you were young, and shall differ again before your demise. Why then would we willingly sabotage those who will lead and those who will follow by teaching them to hold onto our current whims?

Ethical discipline is the indispensable means for mediating between the competing claims of my right to happiness and others' equal right. ~ HHDL

"I was wrong," is easy to say as an adult who's changed their mind, but much to late to easily remove it as a filter from a child who has clung to the values as so sacred that it permeates their every thought and action and threatens to be propagated to their children and their children's children. Four generations of fuck-up because of your ignorance. Raise your children instead to question everything - then teach them patience by doing so yourself when you answer them because they've turned that directive upon you. You may learn something in the process as your answers are challenged - this is a good thing, and keeps us sharp for remembering why we do the things we do instead of slipping into the comfort of apathy.

Your children are your legacy - don't propagate a legacy of dumb. ~ ehowton

Please don't pollute our future with your narrow-mindedness. Show your kids both sides of the coin - explain to them why you believe what you believe and then what other's believe - explain the similarities and the differences both. Invocation of balance doesn't make it so, only its practice. The opposite of multiculturalism isn't individualism, but it should threaten (territorial) nationalism - our borders are artificial¹ and our beliefs colored through ignorance or greed or both. You look as just as stupid to the group you're calling stupid. "Why can't they understand?" is fervently uttered aloud on both sides and the word tolerance is used as an epitaph.

All religion, my friend, is simply evolved out of fraud, fear, greed, imagination, and poetry. ~ Edgar Allen Poe

The United States of America is the first (and to date only) nation based on an idea, rather than on geography or ethnicity. And not just any idea, but the highest ideals which the human mind can formulate: freedom, responsibility, self-reliance, equality of opportunity, individualism. And that to be patriotic in America is a shorthand way to declare one’s allegiance to these philosophical ideals.² Those who wish to destroy what we've built and everything we've become are broken, and I don't know how to fix them. With my hands tied, all I can strive for is being a better person myself, and eschewing greed.

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^{1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7AWnfFRc7g
2 http://pajamasmedia.com/zombie/2010/08/31/whats-the-matter-with-texas}

As these apparent end times quickly approach, battle lines are drawn betwixt two sets of believers, and while one cannot deny the unprecedented activity in the heavens there are those of us who - caught in the eddy between two maelstroms - await the final verdict. Are these signs indeed the foretold biblical angelic trumps of Revelations marking the second coming of Christ...or UFOs?

I've heard convincing arguments on both sides.

In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. Inside this house there is a level where no elevator can go, and no stair can reach. This level is filled with doors. These doors lead to many places. Hidden places. But one door is special. One door leads to the source. It is protected by a wall great and high, which has twelve doors and atop the twelve doors are twelve angels and names written thereon are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Isreal. Only the One can open the door, and only during that window can that door be opened.

The fact that we - mankind, can self-ambulate; move from point "A" to point "B" under our own power fascinates me. Admittedly moreso now that I'm 40-pounds lighter. I seek places to walk, never turning down an opportunity to do so. Walking always leads to more walking. The more I do, the more I want to do. This reminds me of a time when I was in the Air Force and photogoot and I used to kayak. The idea that the only way to cross a body of water was through the motions of our own arms - carried out to the nth degree, our very survival was dependent upon our own fortitude, our own force of will.

Of course in the light of day, decisions made under duress seem downright foolish, though its hard to describe the feeling of panic a cacophony of noise or an eerily dark silence can bring lest its been previously experienced. Reconciling those decisions after the fact gives rise to justification in order to mask our weaknesses.

I've never sold my birthright for a bowl lentil soup, but I could see it going down that way. Hell, I'd sell my soul right now for a finger of single-malt Scotch and an ice cold bottle of Shiner 101. I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.

Jesus-freaks roll their eyes at the ignorance of UFOers while the UFOers laugh uproariously at the arrogance of Jesus-freaks, each of them wrapped up so tightly in the folly of the other they're blind to the shackles which limit their own range of motion; "Blest be the tie that binds." As for me, I took the road less traveled, and that has given me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord, and it looks a lot like that scene out of Independence Day. Or not.

I've heard convincing arguments on both sides.