sigma

Japan.

When I think of Japan overpopulation comes to mind.

Followed by two nuclear explosions and the resultant effects of the mentality of a rather large isolated island nation.

Japan is entirely unique in how quickly it went from ancient ways to post-modern ones all across the board...no people evolve as quickly as the Japanese.

Arguable Post-Humanist sentiments originated there.

Yet what does Japan lose for being such an advanced and break necked paced civilization?

Well, there is the phenomenon of individual isolation in the post-modern world which, apparently from what I've seen of Anime and read in CyberPunk novels, is quiet considerably more pronounced in Japan than anywhere else in the world. That pervasive feeling of being alone - of having no one to understand you, that's all over the Japanese landscape from what I can tell.

The other consequence is economic. Japan hit economic gridlock about 10 years ago - the only nation to have ever done so. Arguably if Japan decreases its population size and continues to intensify its intellectual capitol then it will continue a degree of economic expansion but, by and large, it's hit an economic glass ceiling that no other nation has yet to run into.

Incidentally the Japanese are entirely overworked and, due to their selfless natures, have continued over the last 5 decades to become even more tireless in their pursuit of excellence. This is evident even in the children and the school system. Japanese Children are at school for the majority of their day. Then they go home and do homework, play Nintendo and - theoretically anyways - sleep.

From what Ive heard the Japanese hold hands during a significant part of love making. Now that is an interest piece of information about a society that is severely isolated on the individual level. Btw, I assume that my reader is aware of that the fact that, generally, the more human beings in a given area the more isolated they all feel.

Now this holding hands thing is significant: It says: Im not just fucking you, Im connected with you. Thats a big statement in a society where eye contact is nearly unheard-of and almost all 24 hours of your days you spend alone in a universe of one.

The problem with being the center of your own personal little universe is twofold:
1. Sometimes, as ruler of the universe, you just want someones head to explode.
2. There is only one center to every universe.

Hence being the center of your own little universe is both impractical, because eventually you will realize that you are not omnipotent, and its lonely, because as the singular center you come to realize that you are utterly alone.

Weve lost the connection the religion gave us to each other and we didnt actually gain the power that we were supposed to gain from shrugging off religion because we are all still just ultimately individuals in a would with 5-8 billion of them and as such we lack any significant power in the big scheme of things.

If this were really our own little universe we would have power over everything but we dont. Hell, getting power over yourself is hard enough.

Im in no way advocating religion here. I, in general, hate religions and the men behind the curtains that they are all run by and truly stand for. But I do think that rejecting god as a corollary to rejecting religion is throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

What you have to ask yourself, in an ultimately-responsible-for-my-own-universe sort of way, is whether or not god actually gives a shit about whats going on in this world of people who think that they are the only REAL person in existence? Or, as the song says, what if god was one of us? Just another self-centered prick, like one of us? The god in the bible certainly seems to be (remember kids: God is a jealous and wrothful god). Now how disturbing is that thought?

Many spiritualisms these days teach that you must accept everyone equally, love them all, see the divine light in each.

What they are literally saying is this: The guy in Arkansas who rapes goats is every bit as holy as the Dalai Lama, the Pope, and yourself.

Personally, I think taking a cyanide capsule is more comforting than believing this crap. Maybe thats why people who buy into this sort of thing at first REALLY end up drinking the cyanide cool-aid, not that they are brain washed but because they are EMBARRASED, literally, TO DEATH in what they have accepted.

So if I reject religion, and I reject spiritually-new-agey shit, and I say god isnt dead: shes napping. What the hell do I believe?

That the obvious truth is that in the beginning no one believed in god.

That the world isnt going down the tubes, because its always been at the bottom of wherever those tubes run to.

That life came from a ceace pool and, incidentally, the place where each human is spawned doesnt smell like Roses and fabric softener.

That human nature is to lie, cheat and steal in order to survive to the next minute.

I believe that whatever is good in this world: money, morality, the internet, has come about as a result of people fighting against human nature for long enough to consider the perspective inside someone elses personal universe.

I believe that people can connect by recognizing - not that everyone is holy but that everyone CAN be if they so choose to be.

I believe in science with a sense of morals.

I believe in religion without a spokes-person, customer sales representative, or accountant.

I believe in complexity. I believe in colors. I believe in the possibility of good.

I believe that there is a relationship between liberty and responsibility that must be understood by all and a happy balance between liberty and slavery (to the state) that must be found.

I believe that if we all stopped thinking of ourselves as the only true human being that god might wake up and start helping out again (be god a useful collective hallucination or not). And I believe that we dont need a single Church, Mosk, or Temple in order to do that.

I suppose this makes me Post-Modern but I like to think of it as being Post-Human.