“Living in Paradise without noticing it – the slavery of want or the freedom of abundance”
Jürgen Kleinwächter, December 2017
Humanity is facing an epochal upheaval. We are leaving the fossil and nuclear age by leaps and bounds and are finally turning to the source of all life, of all energy and matter, the huge fusion reactor of our solar star. Billions of stellar stars have been incubating, in successive generations since the birth of our universe 13.4 billion years ago, inside their hot hearts, from the initial hydrogen and some lithium, all the elements from helium to the heaviest transuranic and scattered in massive explosions in space , The light of the stars shone through this 'cosmic dust' and another miracle of creation happened: the encounter of light and matter led to the formation of complex molecules down to water and amino acids, the basic substances of life. It can also be said that the confluence of spirit (light) and matter (the elements in the cosmic dust) in the vast drama of the unfolding world created the condition for life. Another cosmic miracle, gravity, then led to the formation of the planets, including our beautiful earth. So we are, literally, children of the stars and the light (in each of us there are still molecules from the first protoson's of creation).
Exaggeration says that today's lifestyle of rich, industrialized countries, is literally based on 'mountains of bleached' bones. From this interaction of solar photons and matter, step by step, the biosphere of the earth - plants, animals, and finally man - emerged. Plants and animals formed complex biotopes, in which cooperation’s and synergies led to stable conditions despite the great differentiation of the most varied forms of life. Man also owes his existence to this ladder of mutual support. As an oxygen breather, he could not have lived in the primeval atmosphere that was poisonous to him. When nature invented photosynthesis about 2 billion years ago, first photo synthetically active bacteria, then the leaves of the plants in the atmosphere depleted the abundant CO2 and split it into oxygen, which accumulated in the atmosphere and carbon, the light was incorporated as an essential component in the biomass produced by the plants. We oxygeners now had the opportunity to live and populate the earth dominantly. The self-proclaiming humanity, with no small amount of arrogance as the 'crown of creation', here interpreted a central Old Testament phrase: '... subjugate the earth', obviously wrong. A God who has performed the miracle of creation described far beyond our imaginations, far beyond our imagination, may, in my opinion, have meaningfully meant only: the human being, the only creature capable, deeply concerned with himself and his environment thinking about it gains power, but it also carries responsibility. If he perceives the latter, he will try to discern his environment in all its subtlety and complex interrelations, and not use its power unilaterally, out of sheer selfishness, by exploiting, without understanding, the flora and fauna of the earth and its mineral treasures, gradually destroyed, and thus in the literal sense, the 'branch on which he sits himself' saw off. Such a course of action was and still is the dominating paradigm of the 'triumphant march' of the great powers that still dominate the earth today. Domination was interpreted here as a constant struggle of the 'stronger' over the 'weaker' and perversely sanctioned by the ruling religions and churches. For example, it was possible that in the name of the cross unimaginable atrocities and genocides were committed out of greed for natural resources and land. Cultures such as those of the Indians, for whom the earth was the holy mother of all life (pachamama), were mercilessly classified as primitive savages and destroyed where they stood in the way. Thus one can unfortunately not undo this, but we must be aware of it, so that our future action does not become an endless continuation of this horrible aberration.
In order not to stand there as a pure know-it-all with an uplifted index finger, I would like to add the following: while one may say the deeds of former times with the biblical phrase, 'Lord, forgive you, for you do not know what you do', you have to say today: 'Lord, do not forgive you, because you do not do what you know'. Today, we know about the human contribution to the ever-clearer climate catastrophe, but the 'most powerful nation on Earth' is blocking its contribution to the solution; we know that despite the devastating consequences of oil spills at sea, what could be done - nevertheless, environmental regulations are being considerably relaxed; we know that animal and plant species are disappearing in an unprecedented way because of our way of doing business; we know about the tragedies of growing refugee flows due to wars and extreme poverty - yet more weapons are ever sold to the crisis areas - no real measures are being taken to reduce the ever-widening gap between rich and poor; We know about the misery and torment of mass animals and their brutal deaths in the big slaughterhouses - and yet more and more meat is being consumed. We know, we know, we know ... and yet we do not control enough against it ...
I come back to the statement: '... subjugates the earth'. This can only mean: understanding, careful and intelligent dealings with the world around, for mutual benefit. Not just cool analyze, but act with heart and mind. Understand that the phrase, "We are all one" is not an esoteric saying, but the more we understand, the more real it becomes.
But if humanity today has a knowledge that gives us the opportunity to solve all the threatening problems, why do not we do it? If we do not see the clear signs on the wall, we do not notice that, compared to today's frenetic dance about the 'golden calf', Moses 'following was a harmless children’s' dance; We do not see today's 'towers of Babel' and the growing 'Babylonian language confusion', against which even the high-tech in the digital information age does nothing (probably also because bits and chips have no heart.) Do not we realize that the constant turning of the nuclear armament spiral inevitably, within the framework of the probability calculation, will sooner or later lead to the annihilation of humanity? And………….
If we recognize it and do it anyway, we must ask ourselves: are we afflicted by a collective suicidal longing?
Now I do not want to be a bloodless moral apostle, but offer real solutions. As a solar researcher, in the course of my life I have learned what a fantastic gift the Creator gave us when he sent the Light of the Stars (see also my Easter Essay in the Appendix).
I would like to present my position concisely (and thus somewhat simplifying) using the example of energy as follows: as stated at the beginning, starlight was and is the starting point of everything. When the first humans began to settle the earth, they could not know that. They found in great joy of discovery isolated, widely scattered resources of coal, oil, gas, uranium (which I make a leap in time of many thousands of years). This, coupled with technologies such as the steam engine, has led to industrial power and dominance. Since the resources were not available to everyone, it was the 'profiteers' (brutal’s) who exploited them and thereby gained control over the needy end users. This is especially true in addition to the energy for the areas of food and medicine. In general, it was and still is believed that the large, dominant companies of the respective industries are necessary for our survival; it is suggested that we live in a world of scarcity, and with fast-growing earth populations, only have a chance of survival if we can access those big sales organizations. We are simply afraid that, despite all the injustices and hardships associated with it, this is the only way.
This is accompanied by a great disorientation, with fear of loss on the side of the dependent masses; at the same time as the appearance of false prophets, all of whom, with these fears, very often with their consciously artificially created fears, drive their fools.
Fascism, once believed defeated, captured the whole earth in a kind of conflagration and reappears in many variants. Racism, demarcation and defense against strangers, their religion and ways of life, fears about the security of supply in all areas, resulting territorial delimitation to the construction of walls and armed conflicts over raw materials and spheres of influence. (Here I am thinking of the thesis of the German Hitlerite Azis: people without space).
The fear of more and more people having to go to the lack, the poverty, the misery. In contrast, the world of the rich and the super-rich - who live in material abundance and, to give a typical example of their use of resources, discard 'superfluous' foods that could prevent millions of hungry and death of the poor. Add to this the subtle indoctrination that this increasingly divisive gap between rich and poor is causally related to inability on the one hand and proficiency on the other. Hence the understandable wish of many poor people to work their way out of their misery through a lot of work. In doing so, they toiled around the world for starvation wages, under inhumane conditions, in front of them the dream image of a world glittering with luxury, as it is conveyed today by modern communication techniques even in the most remote corners of our planet. They are modern slave armies who valiantly sacrifice even the most valuable things a human being has, his lifetime, in the hope that their children will feel better. They are unaware that they are primarily promoting the wealth of the propertied class with this self-sacrifice.
How can I speak of the 'freedom of abundance' in this situation, in the 'slavery of want'?
To do this, I return to the starting point: Everything that today constitutes the objects of our dreams and desires was created by the radiation of the sun (s). For example, coal, oil, gas, uranium is ultimately almost marginal by-products compared to the incredibly large, steady flow of light on our earth.
We understand more and more that we can technically transform this clean, for many billion years lasting, completely environmentally neutral light flux directly into all the known utility forms with many, unimagined possibilities in the future.
With a huge difference to today's situation: the sunlight falls freely and evenly distributed, free on our earth. And even the smallest parcel receives so much radiant energy that you can only marvel. Who knows that the solar radiation that falls in the course of a year on a one-hundred-square-meter single-family house roof in Germany is not just sun-kissed, equivalent to the energy equivalent of about 10,000 liters of heating oil? An equal area in Africa receives about three times this amount.
Saudi Arabia's national territory receives an annual amount of radiation that far exceeds the oil supplies dormant under the desert. And today we are technically able to convert this radiant energy elegantly into electricity, power, cold, heat, biomass and much more. Local, producible on site, creating jobs - that's already a reality today. In order not to become too technical at this point, I refer as an example to my own work described in the appendix: 'Interview from the future'. In the context of the worldwide growing implementation results of innumerable, mainly small development and research groups, a potential emerges here that will change our world in a positive sense.
However, what matters to me in this essay: If we finally understand what should characterize the true solar age, we can cling to three concepts: Dionysian abundance. Free gift. Liberation from class-creating opposites.
Let's start with the gift: not accepting it means either being blind or being rude. Using it only partially (for example, for electricity production) creates monocultures instead of using the very wise nature of diversity.
To excess: this does not mean to fall victim to the unrestrained, unreflective craving for consumption; on the contrary, in spite of abundance, to deal intelligently and rationally with the radiation resources, in harmony with the equally acting nature. And it also means the end of the myth that we are reaching the limits of the population density of humanity, and depending on the increase 2,3,4..additional earths would need to feed them.
For the liberation from the class-creating opposites of today's distribution structures:
It means that there is no more fighting for resources in abundance; that the free gift enables the creation of modern, small tribal societies that cooperate peacefully in global networks for mutual benefit. (See my attachment in the appendix: modern tribal settlements and my talk about autarky)
My personal view of the now clearly visible solar age is religious ('religere': recollecting oneself). The dazzling and profoundly joyful immersion into the solar creation shows me that beyond all the exciting physics of light photons there is also information for a world of comprehensive love and justice in you. Although we cannot directly see the Creator's face, but by contemplating his world, we can feel the indescribably deep empathy for the entire creation of his innermost nature.
We have the free will to decide our actions. Let's go the solar way and climb the next level of human evolution. Only then we deserve the title: Crown of Creation.