The end of closed societies

What some experts call a clash of civilizations and some leaders a war between Good and Evil, actually is just a mechanism that takes place, I think.
Modern techniques, communication-techniques in particular, are breaking open all closed societies now. One cannot build iron or other curtains against satellites.

(With a 'closed' society I mean a society wherein not all doors open for everyone, so where the rights of for example man and woman and young and old are not equal. Closed societies are nice for those who rule the society, are easy for people who do not want responsibility, but are a prison for all other people.)

Traditional leaders do not like this opening of their society and then they firstly punish those members of their own society who break the rules; these often young girls and boys just want more freedom. Secondly these leaders then hate the West, for indeed nearly all these modern techniques came from the West.
But Western leaders cannot to be blamed; they did not invent and produce the computer, MTV or internet. Ordinary Western people cannot be blamed either; we are just consumers.

(Political leaders are only consumers as well; in the last 20 years for example, these politicians saw that the computer took over everything, their own political business as well; they did not have any influence on that mechanism.)

It is a mechanism that is doing it. After men like Volt, Coulomb, Ampere, Ohm, Marconi and other inventors discovered the basic laws of electromagnetism, the discovery of all modern electronics - including communication-techniques - was inevitable, like a physical law.

And it is not even the contents of these TV-programs and websites that break open the closed societies, but simply the existence of all these communication-techniques. Everyone now can chat or email with everyone else on earth; internet is one big open society (of minds) with equal rights for everyone.

I think that historians after say 50 or 100 years, will look back at the time we are living in now in about the same way (see 'The new age'). Then these historians also see that we do not act wise now, because we do not understand what is happening.

This essay contains two messages:
1. To the leaders of closed societies:
Do not blame Western leaders or Western people. See that techniques break open your society. Also see that you cannot win from internet (= all ordinary people of the world).
2. To the leaders of the West:
Do not see the closed societies as Evil. Our Western societies were closed too, only a 100 years ago.

(I even think that a closed society is better when people have to live in difficult - natural - circumstances. The society then must be like an army, with strong leadership, in order to survive. For such a primitive society, democracy means the end. But in a modern society, techniques help us to survive, and then strong leaders no longer are needed. We need inspirers now, ideas to feed democracy.)

If we all (both civilizations) see what is going on, then we can talk and find solutions.

I by the way nevertheless can very well understand the anger of members of closed societies; they are afraid that every city on earth becomes a Western city, full of crime and dirt where everybody is afraid and nobody is happy (see 'The economic monster').
But Western leaders cannot stop this destruction, because the world is a free market. And politics does not rule the market, but it is the market that rules politics now.
I think however that there is a solution. We, all consumers of the world, could take over control. If we organize ourselves (as UC = United Consumers), we can make much more demands to the producers (see 'Consum-unism').

A final remark:
In the Relational philosophy, all these techniques playing in nature form the Spirit of Nature (see 'Spirit as fact'). So it is (the unveiling of) Spirit itself that makes societies open, and people free. And becoming free also is the destiny, the spirit, of the human (see 'Our naked existence').

About God

In a closed society, God often is a (supernatural) Father who has written down his rules of action in a Holy book. In our open society, this holy book is replaced by the books of science, describing the working (= Spirit) of reality, and written down by ourselves.
But in the West, we do not recognize Spirit (= God) in science. We even act as if we have created these physical laws ourselves, as if we are godlike ourselves (see 'God and human'). But physics only gives us a description of for example electromagnetism. And describing does not involve understanding, of Electra.
I think that God as a kind of Father-spirit, the Creating, deserves a place again in the West, not as a father who wants to rule our life, but as some-one who made us free, to make our own rules of action. Because that is another source of anger for members of closed societies; they do not want to lose their fatherly God completely, and I can understand that.

Relational religion

Maybe we need to believe again, in the West, believing in the sense of knowing that not everything can be understood. Will we ever be able to understand the most basic movement behind everything, the essence of Electra and the force of life? It is a fitting of forms that is playing there. But what forms, what kind of fitting? Nevertheless, we experience a truth when we experience life, an incromprehensible truth.
This basic Truth deserves more respect, I think. It is the ultimate creating force that also created us and our mind. It is Nature that deserves more respect, our own nature as well.
Such a belief goes with humbleness, also goes with self-surrender a bit. Because since my mind is limited, I can not help to make mistakes now and then.

Western people have made many scientific discoveries in the last centuries. And that is something to be proud of. But, blinded by the results, we more and more started to overestimate the reach of our mind. We need to become humble again. Then people all over the world will start to like us again.

Jan Helderman
5-1-5

Fabiker.

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