Golden Age?

whitecrow · 10-18-2008, 09:01 AM

Imagine Conan the Barbarian peering into a crystal ball and seeing our era. Would he consider it a gilded age? Look at the clothes! The men are so puny, and the women look like manikins. What is there to eviscerate? What use is there for a big guy who's handy with a battle axe and a four-foot sword? He might not actually think it so hot.

One of our dearest hopes and sincerest intentions is for a golden age to emerge from the present chaos. We yearn for what thoughtful men and women have always desired: freedom, justice, a world where there is no ruling class but instead societies of fellows, each working as much for the whole as for himself.

If we could peer into a crystal ball, would we recognize what we are looking for? The landscape may be drastically altered. The very shapes of the continents may change. We may eat nothing but cultured pond scum. There may be vast deserts, and it almost goes without saying that there will be uninhabitable zones, places like Iraq that will be radioactive basically forever.

That radioactivity will blow around the planet, too. It will cause mutations and shorten lives, just as it is now doing in Iraq. We may end up looking more like the greys than like Conan. In fact, one theory out there - and I don't happen to think it's so "out there" - is that that is exactly who the greys are. They are our descendants, having learned to travel through time, perhaps come back to study whether there is anything that can be done to change the timeline that led to the world they live in.

Blasted landscape, mutated people...who knows? I'm describing it from my old 3D perspective. It is possible that the inhabitants of this twisted imaginary world might consider themselves the luckiest beings alive, having finally reached a level of enlightenment where they truly understand that the Kingdom really is and always has been within and among.

We may not have a crystal ball. But even in the present, it's important not to judge by appearances or leap to conclusions. When I imagine ourselves on an evolutionary road, midway between Conan and ET, I need to remind myself that all is happening exactly as it should, as it must.

10-18-2008, 09:01 AM	#1
whitecrow Avalon Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: California Posts: 469	Golden Age? Imagine Conan the Barbarian peering into a crystal ball and seeing our era. Would he consider it a gilded age? Look at the clothes! The men are so puny, and the women look like manikins. What is there to eviscerate? What use is there for a big guy who's handy with a battle axe and a four-foot sword? He might not actually think it so hot. One of our dearest hopes and sincerest intentions is for a golden age to emerge from the present chaos. We yearn for what thoughtful men and women have always desired: freedom, justice, a world where there is no ruling class but instead societies of fellows, each working as much for the whole as for himself. If we could peer into a crystal ball, would we recognize what we are looking for? The landscape may be drastically altered. The very shapes of the continents may change. We may eat nothing but cultured pond scum. There may be vast deserts, and it almost goes without saying that there will be uninhabitable zones, places like Iraq that will be radioactive basically forever. That radioactivity will blow around the planet, too. It will cause mutations and shorten lives, just as it is now doing in Iraq. We may end up looking more like the greys than like Conan. In fact, one theory out there - and I don't happen to think it's so "out there" - is that that is exactly who the greys are. They are our descendants, having learned to travel through time, perhaps come back to study whether there is anything that can be done to change the timeline that led to the world they live in. Blasted landscape, mutated people...who knows? I'm describing it from my old 3D perspective. It is possible that the inhabitants of this twisted imaginary world might consider themselves the luckiest beings alive, having finally reached a level of enlightenment where they truly understand that the Kingdom really is and always has been within and among. We may not have a crystal ball. But even in the present, it's important not to judge by appearances or leap to conclusions. When I imagine ourselves on an evolutionary road, midway between Conan and ET, I need to remind myself that all is happening exactly as it should, as it must. Last edited by whitecrow; 10-18-2008 at 02:49 PM.