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The Slum of EdenA Sea of ignoranceWe are told that our original ancestors were a man and a woman living in the Garden of Eden, a place drenched in boredom and ignorance. Nothing ever happened and the man and woman were so ignorant that they didn't even know that they were naked.Can the citizens of today be as ignorant as Adam and Eve? Europeans embrace the myth that they are less ignorant than Americans. It makes them feel that they themselves are knowledgeable. They are not. Yes, Americans are ignorant of many things. Everyone is. We all sit on a little rock of knowledge in a sea of ignorance. But ignorance without relevance means nothing. I am ignorant of Sidney's transport system and millions of other things that have no effect on my life. Just as many Americans are ignorant of the difference between Sweden and Switzerland and Europeans are ignorant about the difference between Michigan and Pennsylvania. So what? The Forbidden FruitBoth Europeans and Americans are ignorant of what forbidden fruit Adam and Eve bit into. Most people believe that it was an apple. On hearing that it wasn't an apple, they fumble with a basket of fruit suggestions. How can people be qualified to judge the ignorance of others when they don't know what forbidden fruit hangs as a key element at the root of our culture?Adam and Eve liberated themselves from The Garden of Eden because they ate a fruit of "the tree of knowledge of good and evil." The tree and its fruit are a metaphor. A serious discussion of this metaphor provides an opportunity for understanding our present condition. Serious discussions are avoided these days like forbidden fruit. They tend to sour the artificial sweetening in a culture of bitter ignorance. Today's citizens appear to be as ignorant as Adam and Eve, but they no longer live in a garden of boredom. They live in a slum of fear. The tyrant who confined Adam and Eve to the Garden of Eden was known as God. He claimed to provide for their needs and guarantee their security as long as they obeyed him and didn't eat of the forbidden fruit. He needed no walls, bars or fences to keep them imprisoned. As long as they remained ignorant, as long as they didn't nourish themselves with knowledge, he could enjoy their reverence and obedience. The Light of KnowledgeAdam and Eve defied the God. They tasted the fruit of knowledge and could see the difference between good and evil. With the light of knowledge to guide them they ran out of Eden determined to be free and struggle in the real world on life's conditions.In order to save face God screamed that they must leave Eden even though they were already packed (fig leaves and fruit) and leaving. He yelled about all the bad things they could expect outside of the garden, outside of his control. He tried to fill them with fear of pain, shame, hard work and death. The joys of life, the glory of love and the fire of passion were not mentioned. Nor could discovery, laughter and excitement be seen behind his dark prophecy. He spoke of sweat and hard work but not of the satisfaction of accomplishment. But the game was up. Armed with knowledge, the young couple set out to face the world and bite into what life had to offer. They would no longer submit to the soul-deadening security of the holy tyrant. This drama about the Garden of Eden comes to us torn and bruised from a long journey traveling by the word of mouth through 100s of generations. Different versions can be found in many cultures. The version that found its way into the Bible was written by people who longed to get back into Eden, people who wanted a God to take the responsibility of life off their shoulders. They obviously feared women because they turned the hero of the story into a sinner. They condemned the brave Eve who took the initiative to bite into the forbidden fruit. She defied authority and was therefore painted in threatening colors by those who chronicled the glory of authority. Even before she gets to the fruit they portrayed her as a rib of Adam, an appendage to a man. Created from the rib of Adam indeed! What nonsense. The word Adam meant "of the earth" and Eve meant "living" or "becoming". Fertility was a dominant concern when these two words were joined to explain the start of life. Guess what our ancestors were trying to tell us! Ripe MetaphoresYour interpretation might differ from mine, but one thing should need no explanation. This tale that played out in the Garden of Eden is ripe with metaphors. Everything is symbolic. The state of ignorance in our modern Slum of Eden can be seen by the broad interest to discover what fruit the Bible is referring to. Was it an apple, a fig, a papaya-pineapple ...? One has to be engulfed in genuine ignorance not to know the difference between reality and a metaphor. The fruit of knowledge is a metaphor. What is the result of knowledge? What nourishing information does the tree of knowledge produce? Truth? Understanding? Distrust of authority? This is the question we are meant to discuss. A discussion about the kind of fruit eats away at the metaphor like a worm. It's a rotten discussion that diverts from the heart of the story. And you don't need a cardiologist to discuss "the heart" of the story.Our ancestors employed metaphors to carry truths beyond the limits of the customs and prejudices of each generation. To understand the message of the story the metaphors should be arranged like pieces of a puzzle to form a big picture. On the one side we have God, a symbol of the highest, most respected authority. At the opposite end the snake symbolizes the lowest order of creatures, one that crawls upon earth. The God symbol tries to keep people from knowledge by forbidding them to taste it. The snake symbol persuades people to taste knowledge. Who represents the good and who represents the evil? What were our ancestors trying to teach us with this story? The holy authority in the sky tries to keep us ignorant. The down-to-earth snake encourages us to become knowledgeable. How many Adam and Eves wander in ignorance in the global Slum of Eden? How many trust the authorities on high and turn a deaf ear to those "lowly" down-to-earth people? The Corporate ShowInstead of an unseen god today we have unseen corporate powers. They don't utter explicit commands forbidding us to taste of knowledge, but dazzle us with entertainment, excite us with sensations, titillate us with gossip, seduce us with toys, distract us with games, infected us with fear and inoculated us with a reverence for the experts and authorities who promise us security as long as we stick to the official diet of approved fruits, as long as we remain obedient and ignorant.Such is their almighty power (and the condition of ignorance) that they can wage war and kill hundreds of thousands of people in the name of freedom and democracy. They can take from the struggling, the hungry, the sick and the aged and give to the wealthy and the powerful in the name of necessity. They can cut down rain forests, dry up rivers, deplete the oceans, contaminate the air and heat up the atmosphere in the name of progress. Holy Democracy QuizFear and ignorance grow like wild weeds in Slum of Eden behind the walls of holy democracy. "Democracy" rolls off the tongues of the ruling authorities as "God" once rolled off the tongues of the rulers' priests. But just as there is a natural God at the force of life within us—as opposed to the holy God in the sky—there is a real democracy as opposed to the false flag of democracy pasted everywhere on the prevailing order.Here's a little quiz. We live in a: 1. Cacistocracy, the rule of the worst and most ignorant 2. Corpocracy, the rule of corporation managers 3. Democracy, the rule of the people, the majority 4. Kleptocracy, the rule of thieves 5. Myocracy, the rule of the rats 6. Plutocracy, the rule of the wealthy Only one choice is completely wrong. For help with the answer, I turn the microphone back to our guest, The Snake. Snake on DemocracyDemocracy (Greek demo- = people; -cracy = ruling/governing) means the rule of the people or governing through majority rule.This requires a process. The democratic process, like the process of manufacture, consists of three main components: 1. raw materials 2. production/assembly 3. the product itself. 1. THE FREEDOMS (raw materials) Freedom is the raw material of democracy. Without the freedom to discuss, publish, read and assemble in order to exchange ideas, desires and opinions, the will of the people cannot be known. No freedom, no democracy. 2. THE PROCESS (production/assembly) The ideas and desires expressed by the freedoms must be processed into concrete alternatives capable of being passed as laws. Here's where the system of interest groups, parties, elections and parliaments come into play. 3. The LAWS (products) The actual laws, decisions or policies are the results, the products of the democratic process. In other words boys and girls, Adams and Eves, the products of the process of democracy should taste as sweet as the desires of the people. If the products, the decisions/laws/policies, do not reflect the desires of the people, something is rotten. Let's take an example. People have clearly expressed a desire for peace. They have demonstrated for peace and voted for a candidate that promised peace. After the elections, the candidate who promised peace extended the war. Those who can't see the difference between good and evil when democracy gets ravaged and women and children get bombed have obviously not tasted any fruits of knowledge. Fruits of knowledge are plentiful in the shadows behind the glitter and sparkles in the Slum of Eden. But there are so few snakes. Perhaps they're busy hunting rats. © Joel Miller/BenTarZ ⇐ Back - 08 Cotes & Rotes Next - 10 The Holy ⇒ |