Just as humans have
inevitably turned against each other time and time again across history,
usually in order to further their own tribe at the cost of others, recent
history also have a few examples of humanity, or at least a diverse
cross-sections of different ideologies and cultures, uniting over a common goal
which in turn furthered the entire species as a unity. The two world wars of
the 20th century, by some historians considered as one great
conflict, serve as one example. After World War I, international leaders came together
in an effort to form a League of Nations to ensure that the intricate
diplomatic alliances that had caused so many different nations to get dragged
in to the war in the first place, could never again cause a conflict on that
scale. As everyone knows, they failed and the grudges planted by the Versailles
treaty spurred on Adolf Hitler to rally the German people and create a
dictatorship that spiraled out of control due to his and his lieutenants’ own
personal racism and hatred of certain people groups. Alongside the
imperialistic ambitions of Japan and Italy who also felt overlooked after World War I,
these superpowers united managed to pose such a threat to the world order that
it rallied the entire rest of the world against them. This is an example of the
Necessity of Crises that I mentioned earlier. Humanity needs a threat on this
scale in order to unite in greater numbers. Only when the shit really hits the
fan do we get things done. And World War II certainly got some things done. So
many modern inventions were spurred on by this conflict, jet engines, rockets, computer
systems to name a few, and of course the whopper, the nuclear bomb which
irrevocably changed our species’ history perpetually.
Sometimes it is hard
to understand just how big this conflict was when you have only read about it
in history books or watched Steven Spielberg movies about it. But having now
travelled to and visited World War II memorials all over the world, I am slowly
starting to realize the scope. One epiphany particularly stand out that made me
realize just how big this conflict was. Growing up in Denmark my first
encounter with World War II was naturally in our own history books and tales
from grandparents as we were occupied from 1940 to 1945. As a result, our
Western coastline and the forests around my hometown are littered with German
bunkers, which used to form great backdrops for childhood exploration. But in
my hometown there are also streets named after a man called Kaj Munk, who was a
minister and a poet. His claim to fame however comes from the fact that he was
executed by Gestapo on the roadside not far from my hometown. This was one of
my first encounters with the conflict as a child. 20+ years later I was in the
Sabah Museum in Kota Kinabalu in Borneo reading about that city during the war
when Borneo was occupied by the Japanese. And sure enough, KK had a Kaj Munk of
their own. Dr. Cho Huan Lai, executed by the Japanese for whatever bullshit
reason they used. That was when it dawned on me just how big this conflict
really was. The accumulated sense of awe and respect I had gathered during
childhood trips to the beaches of Denmark and Normandy, all my travels to
Washington D.C., Hiroshima, Tokyo, London, Berlin, Darwin, to the jungles of
Borneo and everywhere else that has World War II stories to tell across the
whole globe, finally sunk in to acknowledge how there has never been any
conflict of that magnitude in our entire history, and hopefully there never
will be again. But the legacy of it cannot be denied. For whatever horrors it
caused, it also propelled us into action and in turn raised us higher in our
evolution. This is the Necessity of Crises, unfortunately the only way so far for
our species to combat the Danger of Contentment and get off our collective asses.
Hopefully in the future it will no longer be necessary. At least, this should
be the lesson to draw out of all that chaos.
Humans have created
wonderful technologies and made astounding discoveries about the universe due
to our superior intelligence and intricate machines, but we are still animals
at heart. Human nature is animal nature and as such, idealists and dreamers
will usually end up disappointed because like animals, when threatened, humans
will ALWAYS think of themselves first. In many ways, human, or rather, animal
nature is, like natural selection and evolution in general, just another cog in
the Universal Clockwork. I believe it is in fact one of the driving forces
behind the Patterns of Recognition enabling human history to constantly repeat
itself in cycles, because humans and their inherent animal nature have remained
unchanged. History has shown the true nature of humanity and of animals, time
and time again, as mentioned earlier both on a geological scale with species
exterminating other species to ensure their own wellbeing and survival, but
also again and again in recorded history when stronger civilizations have made
contact with weaker ones. The Romans across Europe, the Conquistadors in Latin
America and the Manifest Destiny of the White Man in North America. All of
these came, saw and conquered, because it was too easy not to. This is the
dependability of human nature. We say it is within our nature, that very choice and meaning of the word, illustrates that
our nature is nature itself. We are part of nature, thus our instincts go
hand-in-hand with it, as well as all other of nature’s creations, i.e. animals.
When faced with
opportunities to improve their own conditions at the cost of others, on a long
enough timeline, the stronger will eventually rise on top of the weaker. This
not only applies to inter-civilization encounters. Within societies as well, certain
stronger individuals will seize any opportunity they can get to rise high and
above the masses. Many times these individuals are like the false prophets I
have mentioned before, using the Trinity of Control to play on people’s need to
believe, their desperate desire for directions and purpose. The ideas that the
false prophets convey might seem sound in theory and they might themselves even
believe it at first and have good intentions, but in reality, corrupted by the
power they create or simply with a planned out strategy they rise as dictators
at the cost of the masses. Stalin and Mao are good examples. Communism works
fine in theory, everyone is the same and everyone shares the responsibilities
of the state. That is all good and true for Stalin and Mao, but not for the
millions that died during their rule and/or dictatorship. They are examples of
false prophets using the second part of the Trinity of Control, society. They
both rose up as part of a revolution that swept in and cleaned out an old,
outdated regime, enticing the masses with idealistic ideas of perfect societies
where everyone was equal, and the people ate it up and eventually suffered the
results. The same can be said about Hitler, Franco or Mussolini. They are other
examples of false prophets who played the tunes of society and used the Trinity
of Control to gain supporters and overthrow the established order of their
times. Although they were promoting a very different type of society their
methods were the same as Stalin and Mao and they all successfully enticed the
masses to create new societies which eventually transformed into de facto
dictatorships. Without sounding like a doomsday prophet myself, this tendency
is still seen today with the various crises facing contemporary society. People
like Donald Trump, Nigel Farage and Rodrigo Duterte all play the tunes of
society within the Trinity of Control to entice the impressionable masses to
further their own agenda, perhaps from a desire to do good but with the
potential for the same consequences. Hopefully the consequences will not be as
dire this time. Preventing this could be up to some of the more positive
examples of individuals playing the tunes of society which will be mentioned
later, but in reality the responsibility lies with each and every individual. Everyone
needs to evolve a global consciousness and understand that they are part of
something bigger. A Network of Legends heading for perpetual destruction, as
long as it keeps following the Patterns of Recognition. Unless we learn to
adapt and evolve. Then maybe the network could run more smoothly and without
interruptions. Thankfully, history also have examples of the Patterns of
Recognition providing impetus for progress, so maybe we should not abandon all
hope just yet.
