Responsibility from On High
“We hear much about His patience and forbearance and long-suffering: we hear nothing about our own, which much exceeds it” — Mark Twain
Imagine for a moment, that the Universe we exist within is Conscious. If you prefer, you may call this “god”. And our universe may exist within a larger multiverse. And on and on and on, like a fractal.
What “responsibility” does our universe — if it is a form of consciousness — bear for our suffering?
Are we not, in some sense, Its “children”? Or perhaps we are less Its children and more a part of Its larger whole — the “universal experience”. We are, after all, not really separate from the universe, but a part of it.
Why then is there suffering? Is our universe “sick”? Is it imperfect? It is certainly ever-changing. Chaos after all, is just another form of order we are not yet able to understand with our terrestrial, mammalian minds. Minds that are a part of the universe — its internal workings; a kind of perception and experience.
Perhaps we first need to define our terms: suffering exists within the umbrella of conflict, but conflict is not always suffering. Rocks banging together in space is conflict, but not suffering. Our own blood cells that are routinely destroyed, or the plant life we consume, do not have central nervous or limbic systems, therefore it is “constructive destruction” not suffering. It is conversion and change — the creation of something new and potentially wondrous.
To continue the moral explorations of cells, instead of thinking on a cosmic scale, now think microscopic. It is still all a part of the ever-shifting Fractal of Existence.
Our bodies are made up of trillions of tiny individual organisms. Yet we tend to think of them not as individuals that warrant our “godly” attentions. We tend not to think of them at all. But should we?
These cells, individually do not seem (from our perspective) to have agency, yet they make up the collective that is our greater consciousness. What consideration do we owe their wellbeing? What consideration does the Universal “God” owe us?
Is it moral to think of them in a proprietary manner, or to not consider them at all? Like a smoker, polluting their body, giving themselves cancer. Is the wanton, unnecessary destruction of all those cells within their “right” simply because it’s within their power? Or is this disregard, the lower awareness of a “higher being” somehow morally wrong?
What responsibility do we owe our own cells that make up our collective whole? What responsibility does the universe owe to us as a part of it?
Evolution is like a blind person stumbling around in a dark room in a dream. I say “in a dream” because they are creating the room as they discover it. The countless “dead ends” of evolution are like bruises the person acquires while bumping into unexpected corners. This causes suffering but is forgivable because it is accidental, not intentional.. What’s more, it’s not in vain. Each instance of suffering on this macro scale creates a sort of “illumination” or understanding. Evolution, though still blind, can now navigate more effectively towards Betterment: greater understanding. This process is potentially infinite. Each instance of suffering/extinction is a learning event that better mitigates such suffering in the future. It is not cruel because it is not intentional. And it is not hopeless, because it is ever-improving.
If we as as individual “atoms” of Existence give up, we become yet another extinction event. This is Natural Selection: only those with the luck and the will to survive do so, and live to replicate by example. We as a species (along with most other sentient life on this planet) have developed skills of empathy and communication to minimise suffering and maximise — not only survivability, but also wellbeing. And we are just one species in a biosphere, on one planet among trillions, in a universe that may be one among many. We are — all together — from our individual lives to the cosmic scale, contributing to an exploration of our collective “dream room”. We are — all together — working towards greater understanding; ever-increased Betterment.
Suffering is born of ignorance. Love for each other, care for our selves, cross-species compassion — all these inventions help raise our awareness and dispel the dark.
“But where are the gods to make an end to all these horrors, these wrongs, this inhumanity to man? No, not the gods, but MAN must arise in his mighty wrath. He, deceived by all the deities, betrayed by their emissaries, he himself must undertake to usher justice upon the earth” — Emma Goldman
This article was written by Lord Reverie (Lady Reverie’s partner). I have decided that I want to share some of his writings on this blog alongside my own, because our ideas evolve from conversations we have together. In fact the name of this blog comes from the name we give to letters we send each other on themes such as consciousness, ethics, philosophy etc. It is fitting that I share some of his “reveries” with you. All articles written by Lord Reverie will be labelled as such, all others will continue to be attributed to myself. — Lady Reverie
