My first article written for this space can't yet be published. And I can't tell you why. At least, not right now. Cruel and unusual to tease you like that? Apologies. Sadly, it will have to wait.
I can't help but think of Hitch in moments like these. Moments where I, with the responsibility of bearing witness as a writer, am actually afraid to print what I've written. And it's not paranoia. It's self-preservation.
Earlier this week, I was wondering why more national print publications didn't pick up the story on how Northeastern University administrators and faculty have been hijacking endowed funds, grants and other monies designated to educate people about the Holocaust and Judaism, and instead, are using them to spread anti-Jewish and anti-Israel sentiment.
In light of last month's terror attack on a Jewish school in Toulouse, France that took the lives of three children and the father of two of the victims, as well as severely injuring a third man connected to the school, what came out earlier this week about Northeastern seemed appalling. Shocking, even.
Why weren't more people speaking out? Where is the ADL? Where are all the Jewish alumni of Northeastern? Heck, where is the Jewish community of Boston itself???
I'll tell you where they are: like me, they're cowering in fear of something bigger than anyone in America understands. I stumbled upon it in my research about Northeastern. It was an accident.
But Einstein said that there are no coincidences in the Universe. So it wasn't an accident then, was it? I was meant to bear witness to it, meant to write it out here...in this essay.
Instead, the best I can do is allude to the yet-clandestine knowledge. Ironically, when my website was new, I could have expressed anything I wanted--because I had a relatively small, contained audience. Now, that's no longer the case.
There are over 102,000 readers of my online essays; some of you are looking for something specific--like my piece on the Heelix Nebula, or on Dr. Black. Others are searching my name for reasons I don't know...from as far away as Denmark, Finland, Russia, Germany, Kuwait, Dubai, Australia, UK, Sweden, Italy, Spain, France, South America, and many other countries around the world. It's frankly awesome, and well beyond my imagings.
Though you may be disappointed by this first April-essay, let me assure you that I will keep the trust you placed in my proverbial pen. I will bear witness. But my hands must be patient. And so must you.
The fear is the reason why popular culture is so important. It pacifies the masses through a barrage of constant distraction, shortening our attention span, shortening our length of concentration. We've become the idiocracy so many of us feared. And we've all been witting participants in the dance.
I have some very bright students this semester--all young people with tremendous promise. I really love them all and worry for them all, especially now. We read articles on Futurism today, and the transhumanist movements pushing people to evolve through technology. As a discussion ensued, one young man who often leads class discussions was critical of changing our bodies through technology. He said, "It's just not right."
And he's right about that. It's not. But not because of religious moralism. It's not right because it is one of those instinctive-ethics that we're born with...little voices in our collective unconscious that hint at who and what we are.
We're missing something vital, something that has yet to occur. Something that could erase the fear that has silenced not only a whole university, but a whole city and state. It has to do with humanity's evolution, too--but not through artificial means.
When we become who we are meant to be, we will be able to use that technology responsibly. Until then, like with every other new idea in the world, there will be those who exploit it for their own selfish purposes.
Right now, Earth's human population is at varying stages of its psycho-social evolution. There are many people who "get it," but many more who don't. Many are yet in their infancy in terms of their psycho-social development, looking to feed off of difference as an excuse for even more primitive behaviors like inciting fear and hatred--the kind that often leads to violence.
I feel we're standing on the edge of a great precipice. Any moment, we may topple over the edge. But because we are still standing, there's still hope.
I'm still standing, too.
Hope. Fear. They're one and the same--twins, if you will. You can't have one without the other. Given that innate connection, it would seem impossible to overcome the latter. There is information that will eventually help humanity arrest the need for hope, the need to fear. But it's not accessible through a screen; it can't be found on a tablet. You won't be able to receive an illuminating text.
Vedanta calls the wider world "maya," meaning cosmic illusion. The ancient philosophy also states that true reality can only be accessed through one portal: the mind. It implies the individual nature of our psycho-social evolution. Such conversion of thought can't be done through argument. No amount of persuasive rhetoric can turn the tide. Only the individual. One at a time.
Patience. The world cannot collectively receive information it's not ready for. But every moment, another mind makes the journey. And that's another moment we come closer to our true gift:
Ourselves.
I can't help but think of Hitch in moments like these. Moments where I, with the responsibility of bearing witness as a writer, am actually afraid to print what I've written. And it's not paranoia. It's self-preservation.
Earlier this week, I was wondering why more national print publications didn't pick up the story on how Northeastern University administrators and faculty have been hijacking endowed funds, grants and other monies designated to educate people about the Holocaust and Judaism, and instead, are using them to spread anti-Jewish and anti-Israel sentiment.
In light of last month's terror attack on a Jewish school in Toulouse, France that took the lives of three children and the father of two of the victims, as well as severely injuring a third man connected to the school, what came out earlier this week about Northeastern seemed appalling. Shocking, even.
Why weren't more people speaking out? Where is the ADL? Where are all the Jewish alumni of Northeastern? Heck, where is the Jewish community of Boston itself???
I'll tell you where they are: like me, they're cowering in fear of something bigger than anyone in America understands. I stumbled upon it in my research about Northeastern. It was an accident.
But Einstein said that there are no coincidences in the Universe. So it wasn't an accident then, was it? I was meant to bear witness to it, meant to write it out here...in this essay.
Instead, the best I can do is allude to the yet-clandestine knowledge. Ironically, when my website was new, I could have expressed anything I wanted--because I had a relatively small, contained audience. Now, that's no longer the case.
There are over 102,000 readers of my online essays; some of you are looking for something specific--like my piece on the Heelix Nebula, or on Dr. Black. Others are searching my name for reasons I don't know...from as far away as Denmark, Finland, Russia, Germany, Kuwait, Dubai, Australia, UK, Sweden, Italy, Spain, France, South America, and many other countries around the world. It's frankly awesome, and well beyond my imagings.
Though you may be disappointed by this first April-essay, let me assure you that I will keep the trust you placed in my proverbial pen. I will bear witness. But my hands must be patient. And so must you.
The fear is the reason why popular culture is so important. It pacifies the masses through a barrage of constant distraction, shortening our attention span, shortening our length of concentration. We've become the idiocracy so many of us feared. And we've all been witting participants in the dance.
I have some very bright students this semester--all young people with tremendous promise. I really love them all and worry for them all, especially now. We read articles on Futurism today, and the transhumanist movements pushing people to evolve through technology. As a discussion ensued, one young man who often leads class discussions was critical of changing our bodies through technology. He said, "It's just not right."
And he's right about that. It's not. But not because of religious moralism. It's not right because it is one of those instinctive-ethics that we're born with...little voices in our collective unconscious that hint at who and what we are.
We're missing something vital, something that has yet to occur. Something that could erase the fear that has silenced not only a whole university, but a whole city and state. It has to do with humanity's evolution, too--but not through artificial means.
When we become who we are meant to be, we will be able to use that technology responsibly. Until then, like with every other new idea in the world, there will be those who exploit it for their own selfish purposes.
Right now, Earth's human population is at varying stages of its psycho-social evolution. There are many people who "get it," but many more who don't. Many are yet in their infancy in terms of their psycho-social development, looking to feed off of difference as an excuse for even more primitive behaviors like inciting fear and hatred--the kind that often leads to violence.
I feel we're standing on the edge of a great precipice. Any moment, we may topple over the edge. But because we are still standing, there's still hope.
I'm still standing, too.
Hope. Fear. They're one and the same--twins, if you will. You can't have one without the other. Given that innate connection, it would seem impossible to overcome the latter. There is information that will eventually help humanity arrest the need for hope, the need to fear. But it's not accessible through a screen; it can't be found on a tablet. You won't be able to receive an illuminating text.
Vedanta calls the wider world "maya," meaning cosmic illusion. The ancient philosophy also states that true reality can only be accessed through one portal: the mind. It implies the individual nature of our psycho-social evolution. Such conversion of thought can't be done through argument. No amount of persuasive rhetoric can turn the tide. Only the individual. One at a time.
Patience. The world cannot collectively receive information it's not ready for. But every moment, another mind makes the journey. And that's another moment we come closer to our true gift:
Ourselves.
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