Category: On Being an Earthling

(The Roots of War)
(How to avoid the bitter fruits of war)

My brother and I
Are children
Of the same land
We are earthlings
Born of our mother earth
Who is the daughter
Of mother universe
Who seeded mother earth
With the nutrients
Needed to create
The biology of life
That began in the waters
On this world
So my brother and I
Came down
Through generations
Of hominids and humans
And occupied
The lands
Of this planet
And grew from
From a couple
To
A family
A group
A tribe
A town
A city
A nation
We took
The lands
We lived on
In ownership
Saw them
As our lands
We forged identity’s
To match
These social
And geographic
Groups
The groups we formed
Formed
An in-group
And an out-group
So in the fields
Of the mind
We formed
Myriad groups
With mental boundaries
Marking
The
Within
And the
Without

Various forces and circumstances
Will give
Pre-eminence
To particular
Identities
At particular
Times

So our social group
Will abrogate
In particular times
Specific lands
Of the Earth
To themselves
I become
This identity
Of this nation
These lands
Become
My lands
I own my lands
My land is
The best land
My brother is not
Like me
He lives
In his land
Which is not
As good as
My land
So my brother
Who is basically
Just like me
Is given
A role
In my story
That he is
Different
From me

I own my history
My history
Is the story
Of how I had to fight
To protect this land
From my brother
My brother’s history
Tells him
How he had to fight
To protect this land
From me
And so the histories
Of bygone times
Live on today
And separate
My brother and I

Walls are built
That separate
People living today
From other people
Living today
Because of
Ideas and behaviours
That drove
People in the past
To act badly
To others
Those ideas and behaviours
Reverberate
In the minds
Of present living people
Thus is the past
Recapitulated
In the
Memories
Attitudes
And actions
That continue
To separate
My brother and I
Thus the two of us
Who are
So deeply
Similar to each other
See each other
As so different
As untrustworthy
As antagonistic
Our brotherhood
Is forgotten
In our minds
We lose our sense
Of being one family
I own my culture
My culture is
In so many ways
Better than
Other people’s culture
So too does
My culture
Which is
Well known to me
Is the only one
Known to me
And even more
It is a mental identity
Lived by me
This deeply
Separates
Me from my brother
He does not
Know my culture
I do not
Know his
I definitely
Do not live
His culture
And he does not
Live mine
Thus we
Who are
So similar
Feel alien
To each other
We live now
In two minds
We both want
The same land
That is
Painted uniquely
By each of us
By our
Separate histories
Thus we see
Ourselves
As separate nations
And as nations
We try to solve
Problems
From the top down
But there are
No clear solutions
From that perspective
There is no full solution
Apart from war
And war
Is no solution
At all
It just creates
An interregnum
With a
Victor and a loser
We wait
Time will
Re-empower
The loser
And the war
Will erupt again
There will be
No end
Since each side
Will be held captive
By the last murder
Perpetrated by
The other side
The only end
Is genocide
Which is
Real death
Or full incorporation
By the latest
Stronger
Of the latest
Weaker
This is cultural genocide
We are not
Evil enough
For real total
Death
Nor
Strong enough
For full incorporation
So we risk
Eternal enmity
Eternal cycles
Of war

Yet there are
Truths
That stand
Before us
That
Challenge us
To be
Who we are
Hidden
Underneath
The characters
We play
In the stories
We tell ourselves
We are
All storytellers
We all believe
The stories
We tell ourselves
Yet we all
Believe
There is
An original story
That is
The truth
As we believe
There is
In our hearts
A true me
That is
Often
Usually
Partially hidden
Mostly hidden
Fully hidden
By other characters
That form
A matrix
That hides
The true me
From being
The daily me

Thus we live
A life
In bad faith believing
We are less
Then we are
Believing
That we are
The surface
Beings
Of our life story
Thus we become
The enemy
Of our brothers
Foreign
To our sisters
Our siblings all
Are pushed aside
Into different beings
Misunderstood
By us
Devalued
By us
Alien
To us
Unwanted
Threatening
And not of our kind

Yet we have
These whisperings
That
We are
Brothers
To our brothers
Sisters
To our sisters
Siblings to all
We know
In the silence
Of our selves
We are all
Children
Of the same
Mother
Making us all
A family
Of one

Here
We are
In this family
Earthlings all
Our primary nature
Isn’t that
Of where we are
It is
Of what we are
We are
Earthlings
Our origins
All the same
We all have bodies
That have all
The same subsystems we have
Structural subsystems
Functional subsystems
Sensory
Motoric
Neurological
Circulatory
Digestive
Reproductive
We all have
The same subsystems
But they all
Have differences
To other Earthlings
Skin eyes hair
Have different colours
Sizes differ
Reproductive systems
Can vary
Some menstruate
Gestate
Lactate
Some impregnate
Every subsystem
Can very in degree
From other subsystems
Every single
Earthling differs
In some way
From every other
Earthling
Everyone is
Ultimately unique
But everyone
Is ultimately
The same
An Earthling

Earthlings
Are created
By mother earth
They are living systems
Biological
Psychological
Social
They are shaped
Biologically
By the material world
They live in
Those who have
A developed society
To live in
Are psychologically shaped
To develop
Identities
Rooted in
Their biology
And fashioned
By their social groups
Their psychology
Is their mental world
Within which
All their identities
Are formed
Their mental world
Is replete
With all their stories
All these stories
Have sub-stories
Of the original story
That we are Earthlings
Only that original story
Gives the deepest truth
That we are all one
All identities
Derived from sub-stories
Deceive us
All mental ideas
Are systems of meanings
And can therefore
Be understood
From different points of view
All the myriad identities
Beneath our primary one
Are subsidiary identities
We are always greater
Than those identities
There is more to us
Than those identities
If we think
Our core identity
Is one of those
Then we are hiding ourselves
From our self
Subsidiary identities
Always create
Separate Earthlings
Always create
An in-group
And
An out-group
Always designate
Land
As belonging to
One group rather than
Another
They always
Create
Strangers and enemies
Of other Earthlings
Who have lived
For long swaths of time
On that same land
Then there is
Antagonism
If each group of Earthlings
Gives their country name
To that property
And does not recognize
That other earthlings
Have also lived there
For long periods of time
Then if they believe
That their history
Is the only relevant one
Then there will be war
One Earthling will fight
Another earthling
Because they believe
They are
At their core
Owners of that land
And it belongs to them
They have no understanding
That other earthlings
May have the same history
And therefore
The same right
For ownership
If they maintain
That subsidiary identity
Then they will fight
If they accept
That they are all earthlings
Then there is
An opportunity
For negotiation
For they will recognize
They are not two solitudes
There is only one group
Of the same people
Who wish to live
On the same land
All that is needed
Is to breakdown the walls
Caused by identification
With smaller identities
And realize
That all belong
To the same group
Earthlings
It is better to
Embrace our siblings
And be embraced
By them
Than to
Fight
It is better
To be
One friend among
Many friends
Than to be
One enemy among
Many enemies
The best to be
Is to be
An Earthling
Among every one else
Who are all
Also
Earthlings
Who deserve our love
And who long to
Give us love
In return
We are all
Special
Living life
That is amazing
That has space
For us all

We are no longer a small world
Of individual nations
There are no boundaries
Etched into the surface of our planet
Only political definitions
Transformed into lines on a map

There is no mountain we cannot cross
No sea we cannot traverse
Only lines in our minds
To which we grant the power
To prevent the passage
Of a brother
Travelling to meet
Another brother
When we are all
More alike each other
Than different
Then restrictions
Make the differences
More real
Than the similarities
So
Culture & Religion
Skin Colour & Language
Economics and Politics
Become more real
Than being alike
In so many other ways

We are all people who
Strive to create
Good loving families
Accepting supportive societies
Efficient sustainable economies
People who long
To live free of oppression
To be able to
Sing the songs of their hearts
Dance their visions of life
Paint the images of their minds
Write the words
That tell the stories of their world
Such things reveal who we really are
Beyond all

The assigned and assumed
Characteristics
We remain human
And seek one as the other
To love more than to hate
To befriend more than reject
To be human to human
More than
To be enemy to enemy
One day will come
When the real real
Will overcome
Those partial characteristics
Which given power
Have wrought
Over the centuries
Hatred wars destruction
Unimaginable murder
On a mass scale
And established
A baseless superiority
That has allowed
One human to feel
Better than another
Justifying discrimination
That has hidden
From us all
The joy that comes
From understanding
The reason why
Human rights
Stem from the nature
Of being human
And not from
Political edict

We humans
Live together on one planet
A planet not given
To a few
A planet on which
We evolved together
We are of Planet Earth
She is the Mother of us all
We have a responsibility
To care for our Mother
To use her gifts respectfully
To look after them
To use them wisely
To use them
For the betterment of all
Not for the enrichment of a few

Gifts that lie within our own home
Grant privilege of initial use
Assign responsibility
For care and for sharing
Proper use makes money
And work for all
Proper accounting
Leaves payments
Where costs are incurred
Not where profits are made
Profits are not profits
If they come before
Payments of costs
Some must not make money
When others lose it

Rules are needed
To protect our Mother
To control the accounting
To enrich us all
Only then
To allocate the profits

Seeing the whole endeavour
Understanding the value
Of the economic adventure
Leads to responsible financing
There is no “First”
In using the fruits of the Mother
There is only “Us”
And that demands
Respect and consideration
Understanding and goodwill

Politics for the person
Politics for the nation
To be good and wise
To be fair and effective
Must always acknowledge
That they are but part
Of that which is greater
Politics for the whole world