A death among the common people … imagination.

Or maybe my title would better fit as “Laws, Books, where to find, and the people who trust them.”

What a society we’ve become!

The wise ones tell us over and over how the more things change the more they stay the same. The more we pride ourselves on invention and the progress of civilized society and it’s technological wonders, the more our majority loses its innocence and the most vital aspect of living … imagination.

We trust what the legalist thinking minds tell us in terms of science, technology, gadgets and consumer pleasure.

We trust what the legalist thinking minds tell us politically, replacing our own abilities  to imagine peace, justice or community with assumptions based on some persuasive legalistic mind whose theories represent the ultimate bookishness.

We trust what the legalist thinking minds tell us  in the pseudo-spiritual realm of religion, this time replacing our own abilities to imagine a loving non-judgmental God of compassion who is not interested in power, control, authority, or spiritual warfare against a satanic banshee that does not exist.

We retreat to our books – be they hard-cover or entertainment versions of someone else’s magic.

Is there any difference between one compilation of laws and another in our conformity-addicted mental processes?

Laws and the Books Where They are Worshipped

Let’s see now, ya got yer laws of gravity, planetary motions, conservation of energy, thermodynamics, and on … and on … even a law of motion that had to be replaced by a theory, of all things, of relativity.

Where do these laws accumulate, hang out together, fester like bats in a cave? Why in sacred science volumes; textbooks, treatises, and the journals of the priesthood of science.

The notion of a cutting edge of research and development of new science and technology breakthroughs is offset more and more by the death of imagination and creativity as a prevalent consciousness among humans. The more we become satisfied with some level of entertainment the greater the death of that restless spirit the moved our predecessors across unknown oceans.

We become dominated by an imaginative and creative few who … willingly and knowledgeably or otherwise … work themselves into a monopolistic dominance of what we as an entire race are willing to attempt, imagine or accomplish. This because those who’ve done that very thing have now become willing or unwilling gurus who are looked to for advice as to whether or not “it can be done.”

And then ya got yer laws from the One Who Created It All … more frequently expressed as “commandments” although the legal aspects can be found in the guise of “theology.” Ya got yer God-laws upon which all of God’s good will and blessings are predicated; 

the law of no other Gods

the laws against killing, stealing, adultery and lying

the law to keep Sunday sacred

the law to love the Lord with all heart, soul and mind

the law to love neighbors in like manner

 

The only difference between where these laws accumulate, hang out together and fester like bats in a cave is that the books are limited … almost entirely to The Book, The Bible, the scribe-idolater's textbook and manual of shoulds, shouldn’ts, cans and can’t-dos, and if you do you will die and God will slap you around.

The notion of a cutting edge of research and development of new spiritual breakthroughs is severely restricted by a traumatic fear of non-conforming heresy. Spiritually, biblical literalism is flat out the perpetrator of the death of imagination and creativity as a prevalent consciousness among humans. The more we become satisfied with some level of literal belief the greater the death of that restless spirit the moved our predecessors across unknown oceans of seeking and finding God. Many among the literalists are then like children in the shallow end of the pool supported by their biblical water wings … terrified by a fear of deep water where learning to swim is a requirement.

We become dominated by an unimaginative and non-creative biblical authoritarians who … willingly and knowledgeably or otherwise … work themselves into a monopolistic dominance of what we as a religious society are willing to attempt, imagine, believe and accomplish. This because those who’ve done that very thing previously are stuck on pedestals the bases of which are now granite-like inflexible and immovable doctrines from which the common terror of heresy enforces conformity.

 

In both venues an understanding of these “laws” which were never really legislated (although commands from a Boss of the Universe could be construed in the same either-or manner that we mortals tend to worship the laws we make) is not a bad thing.

However … lives constructed totally around a blind acceptance of someone else’s definition of non-existent laws is a process of our own deterioration from a society of courageous explorers, doubters, and adventurers to a cowardly collection of believers seeking safety in the restricted confines of books.

In that regard there is no difference between which book you live by … if your imagination has died or dying because of your fear of being thought of as marching outside the parade … you have lost … and then we have lost you.