The Threat of Contemplation

There several kinds of human intelligence, several ways of measuring human intelligence. Despite the ocean of educational literature regarding the importance of encouraging development of synthesis of ideas, you will seldom see any evidence of synthetic intelligence arising from any government controlled educational institutions, and darn few private ones.

Even more remote is the likelihood of contemplative intelligence. Indeed, the very ability to contemplate is the last thing TPTB want to see. Our Western culture has been reduced to commercial exploitation, and it was easy to do, since it was founded on materialism. The very essence of middle class lifestyle is an empty legalistic morality paired with conspicuous consumption. Contemplation is the enemy of such a culture.

Contemplative intelligence is the very foundation of ancient civilizations. Contemplation comes at a high price in material terms. To become contemplative means to back off from investing so much energy in efficiency and production. Were we suddenly smitten with a genuine wave of contemplation, life would slow down, and people would stop scratching for the next consumable fixation.

We see today a consumer culture driven by acquisition for consumption. Durability of anything is counted against its value, because there is no newness and freshness inside the consumer. It must all come from the outside. Herein is the key: A person easily bored is himself boring. He has nothing inside himself, nothing within to produce the flowering freshness of creativity. Thus, creativity itself is limited to what can be sold, not because it is moving, but because it fills the emptiness. It need not result from any truly artistic talent, only the ability to thrill, or simply to shock.

We are a people as empty containers, leaking and lidless. We rush about splashing whatever has been put in, adding nothing to it, and certainly taking nothing from it, since it contains nothing of value in the first place. We have no idea what we are, much less what we could be. Western Civilization is corrupt and empty, collapsing under its own weight. Were any of this frenzied seeking stop, and people begin to build from within, we might have a shot at seeing something worthwhile replacing this mess.