The Author on his Book: Life On Meltdown

 

“What you know you can’t explain, but you feel it. You’ve felt it your entire life, that there’s something wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is, but it’s there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad” — MORPHEUS (The Matrix)

 

To me the above quote from the sci-fi movie The Matrix is indeed a wake-up call in a world that has long lost touch with reality. I just can’t explain my mental state in a better manner as I searched for truth since the last couple of decades, to finally sit down and store my findings in the form of a book titled Life On Meltdown. Thus this hi-tech technogenic world (Matrix) is the world that has been pulled over our eyes to blind us from the truth.

As a passionate observer of the human story spanning millions of years, I am trying to view the human world and its present civilizations from a little far, as also one from another generation, race or culture, and also away from the present knowledge industry. Going beyond facts and figures to describe the present state of the world, my philosophy is based on a macro-world view where it accounts for the biosphere, human creativity, security and happiness, and life in all its manifestations.

How did mankind, in our modern civilization, suddenly lose its potential quality for survival? Going into the chemistry of the moral, spiritual and cultural degeneration which science failed to present, and touching upon the nucleus of the force that is primarily responsible for this massive human degeneration process in general, this book is coming out with a new concept, DEGENERATION, on a wider canvas, and some effective alternatives to stem this catastrophic malady.

We have been looking to our dysfunctional governing institutions for leadership and directions, without understanding that, in their present condition, this is not possible. Their operational premises, and the beliefs of their minions, not recognizing and completely ignorant of the nature of existence, make our institutions—including the mainstream political parties—the least likely source of direction. Regardless of the progress they make, these systems maintain fundamental ideas that generate only misdirection and hold humanity bound and helpless in the throes of institutionalized dementia.

In doing this study, I was indeed performing a hide and seek game with the modern life process: living inside it and sometimes trying to live outside it; looking at it compartmentally and then, sometimes, trying to look to have an integrated and wholesome look and vision by linking it as a very minute part of the millions of year long human and other life forms and also trying to give it a continuity. Here, I see man in the collective. I have tried to not only scientifically know, but to intuitively feel that we are creatures of this Earth. And as such, one cannot help but take an interest in biology, medicine, the life sciences, and the Earth itself.

It was the reading and self-education I did on health and diseases of both mind and body that got me into this venture and the robust self confidence that drives me. I focused only on success – success stories of people and other species that keep themselves out of disease and unnecessary problems, people who lived the longest and healthiest, people who had travelled and observed human beings all over the world. I did not focus on the standard scientific or medical dogma, because that has all been a failure and there are more diseases, sickness, and misery in modern society than ever before in human history.

Everyone’s life consists in large part of the accumulation of lessons learned from many other people and from life. My case is no different. Availing an opportunity to walk through the villages of India with a leading Indian politician CHANDRA SHEKHAR – he later became the Indian Prime Minister in 1990 – in his 6-month long ‘Padyathra’ (travel on foot) from the South to the North of India on foot in 1983, I found myself with a drastically changed mindset. Later for the rest of my life, the best of my free time has gone into seeking honest answers to my inquiries and dilemmas. Nothing has been taboo. No doors were closed. My long years of membership in the American and former Soviet Union libraries in Delhi during the hottest period of the cold war years have all helped me a lot in having a somewhat hands-on experience with the live diverse world, with an unbiased and unprejudiced mindset. I could draw any conclusions; the evidence seemed to support and to call for.

The story of man, whether it is told in one paragraph or in several volumes, is highly incomplete if it does not take into account about the various sectors/areas through which it has evolved since millions of years and which still keeps the species evolving. The hindrance here is that we have made too many studies and too little generalization, integration or synthesis because of our over-compartmentalized and over-specialized studies in thousands of diverse sectors with no much relation or integration among them that left us to remain isolated and clueless. But this is no excuse for not undertaking a sweeping correction process simply because of the fact that it is we, the modern mankind, that have taken charge of our own evolution by creating our own environment. By the way, in this study, mankind from fifteenth century is generally assumed as modern humans for many distinct rationales.

The book forms a meeting place of some importance between what is written in it and the scientific facts, although this study is rather against the scientific method. But you won’t find much “Research Source Proof” in this book. If you read this and get the big idea, you will realize that you won’t need such a proof because common sense and logic will be all the proof you need. Don’t let the lack of sources of scientific support in this book trick you into presuming what is said isn’t true. Once you understand the natural system, you won’t need such proof, but it is available should you want it.

The book seeks to inspire people to question themselves, to look at their world and our accumulated knowledge in a fresh way and see if it makes sense. Although it doesn’t use proof as a weapon it encourages people to try and disprove what it says so long as they understand what it is they are trying to object to; because by doing so they will put the ideas to test from many different angles and also come to understand things in more detail, perhaps ultimately verifying it for themselves; however it does not seek to impose ideas on minds that are not yet ready. It doesn’t want people to believe but to find out for themselves and to develop their own understanding.

It seemed to me that at every turn of my search, I learned something that contradicted what I thought I knew. The history of man is the history of his gaining self-consciousness through his interaction with the objective world surrounding him. The task of an author is to absorb, incorporate, and transform the knowledge and emotional currents of his own epoch and to present them in his own personal way, enriched by his own experiences. These ideas represent a force of resistance against enormous odds in the present market-science-led world. May be, they are in strong contrast to public opinion and the majority views and wishes of this time. Some may even think that this philosophy is extreme. There was a time when everyone who thought the world was round was thought to be extreme – even insane. The greatest and most enduring successes in history are those which were least understood and least publicly accepted in the beginning. Today, regarding the ideas of modern science, I think the clearest indication is that modern science will not survive an open debate, independent scrutiny, or public accountability. It is in this critical context, this author attempts an open debate through this book.

Modern science, as it is being explained in the coming chapters, understands only the surface of the verifiable seen or unseen matter and even then it can understand them only very partially. Science misses out on 90 to 95%of the functioning, laws, and principles of existence. In practical terms, modern science is filtering down to be an ideology of self-delusion and self-destruction. Thus science, as the basic cause, lies behind the dualistic thinking that misleadingly regards Nature as wholly knowable, technologically manageable and accurately replaceable, which is a fundamentally flawed theory that turned evolution as devolution, leading to the consequential ecological and social crises of contemporary modern society. Incidentally science is rapidly reaching its limit and has degenerated to a system that is less about understanding and more about manipulating, and hence the evolution of a ‘culture of denial’.

This book, however, isn’t going to be another scholastic, scientific collection of so called facts. It is only an attempt to clear the fog that prevents man from looking at his real problems and their solution. What I have tried to do is to converse plainly, simply, using simple analogies, stories and concepts to dismantle the cloak of invisibility that seems to surround the modern knowledge process and its “experts” wise sayings. I am not here to attack anyone, condemn actions, or to promote anything except what I believe to be simple, basic, provable and scientific “natural” facts, and to present possibilities and concepts as food for thought.

Readers need to take note of the fact that any of my studies do not represent my final view on any of the issues raised. It may be treated as ‘the works in progress’. Indeed, I take all the knowledge that mankind has acquired over the ages in history as only work of knowledge in progress – never as any final word. And, I am leaving this mission incomplete, not because of the feeling that it is un-accomplishable but because of the feeling that it is easily possible through a joint effort. Today it is absolutely impossible to individually practice what I put forward as solutions, but they are only possible through joint efforts, for our fates hang together.

Apart from the natural limitation of language (at least when it comes to expressing thought, mainly because language is essentially linear, ambiguous and does not provide words for all concepts) I hope the readers to forgive me for any possible language errors as English is a foreign language to me. The book is written as simply as any layman may understand. Very little technical or scientific terminology is used. The reader, however, will find that the content is somewhat unusual because the historical and scientific research on which it is based, as well as the conclusions reached, in some respects depart from the tenets and assumptions of mainstream thinking. It was deemed important that the reader be afforded with a wide diversity of viewpoints crossing multiple disciplines and sectors, all of which has been integrated into a traditional indigenous worldview. In taking this approach it is well understood and anticipated that not everyone will readily agree with all of the observations and conclusions presented.

The book may be read critically. Take nothing for granted. Never allow any concept or viewpoint to become sacrosanct, neither mine, your own or that of an institution or society. Using the rules of best evidence, logic and objective reason, you should always be the final judge. Accept nothing unquestioned. Let no individual, organization or government usurp your natural right to final judgment. Submit your mind only to objective evidence, evidence based not on modern science alone but also on ground reality.

Therefore, no part of the book stands alone; a person wishing to understand fully any part must try to understand all parts until the pattern is complete. In general there is much in each chapter that, if it is to be rightly understood and its spirit fully sensed, must be read in the light of all that has gone before. Incidentally, in order to make certain points/ideas clearer, repetitions of some quotes and reasoning have become unavoidable. Repetitions have been resorted to wherever I felt it necessary to create a sense of rhythm that helps to convey the message clearly. The best way to perceive the pattern is to read through the book quickly without getting “bogged down” to details or to some particular commentaries in the book. For example, it is only because America is the most regimented and studied society in the world today, and also because the data on the American society come more authoritative and handy, I have chosen to present these facts about the American society in support of most of my arguments, especially in the case of health and degeneration in modern society on the whole. This does not mean the rest of the world is different. In a highly globalized scenario, the case of the rest of the world may be worse. Further, it is the sort of magnanimity of freedom and courage exhibited by the writings and other intellectual pursuit of the real Americans – and I can see this noble quality in 99% Americans – which has made this book possible. And I will remain ever indebted to their ingenuity and goodwill.

This book establishes that the problems mankind faces and their solutions are as simple and analogous as this: if a person walked up to you and said, “Every time I pour kerosene all over my house and light it with a match, my house catches fire. How do I stop my house from burning?” You would say “Stop dousing your house with kerosene and putting a match to it”. At this juncture and in a wider picture, I am sure that our solutions are this much simple. Here the only clue may be that we must be able to demystify our problems from their present complexities. But the core of the key problem that the world faces today is that it is unable to state or define its problems simply and objectively. The book is a direct attempt to address this dilemma.

In short, this attempt is an appeal for a moral awakening that touches not only the social and the political but the very essence of humanity that can only come from our own hearts and spirits and which will enable everyone to see the big picture and to become the spark of a new age. This book is an attempt in that direction and it is born out of my anxiety to be alive spiritually and feel the ultimate concern of existence within the trivial apprehensions of everyday life.

Let us accept the truth while we are in a position to do something about it, and not when we have become totally helpless and I hope we are not in such a state, already. But we don’t have much time. We are already starting to see the early signs of total ecological and social collapse, and although this collapse is unlikely to reach a head in a year or two – it could take a couple of decades – we may already be too late to start action to prevent it.

Today we live in a participatory culture by building relationships with people from different cultures. As people work on challenging problems, they will have to hang in there together when things get hard. They will have to support each other to stay with an effort, even when it feels discouraging. People will have to resist the efforts of those who use divide-and-conquer techniques–pitting one cultural group against another.

Relationships are the glue that holds people together as they work on common problems. This is the relationship to common heritage of mankind that share their common concern. Whether you are American, Russian, Vietnamese, Indian, African American, Protestant, Catholic, Hindu, Muslim or from any other racial, ethnic, religious, or socioeconomic group, you will probably need to establish relationships with people whose group you may know very little about.

Each one of us is like a hub of a wheel. Each one of us can build relationships and friendships around ourselves that provide us with the necessary strength to achieve community goals, we can solve problems that we have in common. What we now want is closer contact and better understanding between individuals and communities all over the earth. The elimination of egoism and pride which is always prone to plunge the world into primeval barbarism and strife. Peace can only come as a natural consequence of universal enlightment.

We may not like some of our individual visions/ideas. But we can well SHARE these differing visions/ideas with our friends to ascertain their opinion. Actually, diversity is the charm of relationship of every species, let alone human. Reciprocal SHARING enriches diversity that leads to healthy evolution.

John Muthukat (M J John)

Note: This e-Book is now available for sale and for free reading of some its few parts in various Amazon websites in US, UK, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, New Zeland, Japan, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Australlia and India as:

 

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 Note: Here I am looking forward to your likelihood of  REVIEWING this book by entering the AMAZON site of  your choice. Also please SHARE it among your friends, other appropriate groups and relevant individuals.