The Gardener
Santa Clara, CA 95051
theroot_us@yahoo.com

  • HomeClick to open the Home menu
    • The Wave
    • The Henge
    • Jeans Are
    • Ghost Play
    • Tesla's Tavern
    • Daft
    • Coy Pond
    • Extreme Weather
    • The Visitor
    • Contagion
    • summation
    • Renewal
    • Friendly
    • Sound Check
    • Bee Tracks
    • Backyard Jungle
    • Dew Drops
    • The Hit
    • Rufus
    • Iridescent Bird
    • Tiger Tale
    • Early Bird
    • Red Rice
    • Etched
    • The Riddle
    • Orange
    • Insight
    • Peace Corps
    • going for the gold
  • an orange fordClick to open the an orange ford menu
    • world wide weeds
    • mythic flower song
    • ah the loafster
    • go turn any stone
    • a seasonal meal
    • crow's wheel rhumba
    • our nested realms
    • on a leafless tree
    • crows hackberry home
    • hen house serenade
    • plain as day
    • on becoming conscious
    • an even match
    • a history of tomorrow
    • eddies in the stream
  • Water SpoutClick to open the Water Spout menu
    • no blind spot
    • liberation
    • sun feather
    • creek shimmer
    • the engine telegraph
    • doom glow
    • the village bell
    • inner ear
    • free the clouds
    • noodles
    • og's paradox
    • fireflies at sunset
    • hue and laughter
    • for frankie
    • reason on the level
  • Atop the May poleClick to open the Atop the May pole menu
    • weeds
    • autonomous wheelbarrow
    • Bright colors Big balloons
    • bocce balls
    • human action
    • nasturtium
    • meaning
    • the trumpet
    • time lapse
    • tall tail
    • a better breeze
    • sunday thunder
    • two-way mirror
    • what we knew
    • larry 9-3-62
    • enough is
    • profusion
    • a jitney once
    • time's up
    • the cosmic well
    • the magic mountains
    • planchette pen
    • blankety blank
  • HeresayClick to open the Heresay menu
    • Heresay Three
    • Heresay Two
    • Heresay Four
    • Heresay Five
    • Heresay Six
    • Heresay Seven
    • Heresay Eight
    • Heresay Nine
    • Heresay Ten
    • Heresay Thirteen
    • Heresay Fourteen
    • Heresay Fifteen
    • Heresay Sixteen
    • Heresay Seventeen
    • Heresay Eighteen
    • Heresay Nineteen
    • Heresay Twenty
    • Heresay Eleven
    • Heresay Twelve
  • Being-TimeClick to open the Being-Time menu
    • Dominoes
    • Wood Duck Theater
    • Said The Crows
    • Frankie & I
    • From Here To
    • Larry Again
    • Pale Shadows
    • Rogue Wave
    • Fragen Shade
    • Dove Tail
    • Half-eaten Peach
    • Twilight Ozone
    • Midnight Sun
    • Granma's Kitchen
    • Category Zero
    • Ever After
    • Heresay
  • Cat's CradleClick to open the Cat's Cradle menu
    • Not A Quant
    • Sing, Sing, Sing
    • The Vortex
  • Living SpaceClick to open the Living Space menu
    • Planet Bliss
    • Blefirmagest
    • When We Wake
    • My Way
    • Music Loom
    • Banjo Blues
    • Reality Show
    • Twinkle
    • Frames
    • Ancient Pond
  • The ViewClick to open the The View menu
    • The Orion Factor
    • Humpty
    • The Unexplained
    • Untitled
    • Frankie
    • Thunder Fingers
    • Frankie & Twinkie
    • Death and Oranges
    • Clinkers
    • Brown Rice
    • Happens To Be
    • Twilight Tea
    • Fossils or Fusion
    • Three-Way Quartet
    • Artless Art
    • Blues Dhalia
    • Unboxed
  • TimelessClick to open the Timeless menu
    • Fossils
    • Just Add Water
    • O'l Factory
    • bAlls
    • Holo Words
    • Communique
    • Flight Line
    • The Leap
    • just SO
    • Tipster
    • Tripology
    • Twitch Hunt
    • An Audience
  • FusionClick to open the Fusion menu
    • Wheelbarrow
    • Endless
    • Segnaro
    • A New Page
    • Make It So
    • Gravel Gavel
    • Right On
    • Conspirit
    • Mind City
    • Hackberry Breeze
    • Peace Happens
    • For Sure
    • Sage Flat
    • Enchantment
  • The VanishingClick to open the The Vanishing menu
    • Sonorous Sun
    • Flung
    • Shuttlecock
    • Rhyme Time
    • JOY
    • Win-Lose-Draw
    • Text
    • Pale Blue Dot
    • Heliotrope
    • Cadillac Cat
    • Baker's Dozen
    • Roux
    • Crazy Quilt
    • The Warehouse
  • Beneath TreesClick to open the Beneath Trees menu
    • The Visitor
    • The Castle
    • The Airplane
    • Here Goes
    • Wood Song
    • Renegade Rider
    • Hot Saxes
    • Moving On
    • Search Dog
    • SETI
    • Fried Artichokes
    • The Rock
  • Rolling ThunderClick to open the Rolling Thunder menu
    • Toehold
    • Pistory
    • Back Beat
    • Next . . .
    • Stop and Go
    • Beyond
    • Sleep
    • Pulse
    • Outback
    • Retro
    • The Source
    • It Is
    • Red Berries
    • Communication
    • Simpatico
    • Salt Pond Dues
    • Green Gremlins
    • ONE
    • Tea
    • Magic
    • Jackdaw
    • Final Analysis
  • With FireClick to open the With Fire menu
    • Puff
    • Wild Onions
    • The Toll
    • Mute Messenger
    • Serentripity
    • Five Ring Circus
    • The Road To Well
    • Pacific Players
    • Gumbo Gone
    • MGB
    • Castle Rock
    • Truth
    • Breeze
    • Daycare
    • Nothing Doing
    • Existence
    • Flying Circus
  • FREEDOMClick to open the FREEDOM menu
    • The Corner
    • The A Train
    • Solstice
    • Holiday 2016
    • The Quarry
    • Suite Home
    • Spring
    • The Dream
    • Go For It
    • A Grove
    • Unfree Speech
    • Seasons
    • Wheelies
    • Rim Shot
    • Rain Drops
    • The Loft
    • Benton Street
    • Jingo Jangle
    • Surreygate
    • 'Snuff Box
    • Tiuana
    • Being
  • NO MINDClick to open the NO MIND menu
    • Surfing
    • H two OH!
    • SV Tweet
    • Fusion
    • Dove's Dream
    • Super Sol
    • Unseen Universe
    • Outsourced
    • Effortless
    • Fool's Gold
    • Between Storms
    • Gas Lamp Blues
  • Debit MemoClick to open the Debit Memo menu
    • Whim Logic
    • Ripples
    • Renewal
    • Frond
    • Noon Moon
    • The Red Seals
    • The Song Itself
    • Marmalade Mind
    • The Marquee
    • Dodge Cities
    • Book TV
    • Hymn
    • Referendum
    • Next
  • DRY CREEK OVERPASSClick to open the DRY CREEK OVERPASS menu
    • THE CREEK TALKER
    • heresy
    • nothing doing
    • the story
    • cap trade
    • burning bright
    • purgatory
    • the way
    • stirring coffee
    • Sightless Vision
    • dung flower
    • mute vision
    • dove
    • Margin!
    • Bone Deep
    • yestermorrow
    • the ROSE garden
    • Cancelled Flights
    • Oak Country
    • XTECHNO
    • gateless
    • Transitions
  • reckoningClick to open the reckoning menu
    • hysteria
    • juice like blood
    • yonder
    • step by step
    • sharp tools
    • blinders
    • plain clothes
    • souveniers
  • phoenixClick to open the phoenix menu
    • ashes
    • leaf mould
    • window blossoms
    • flat bush
    • improvised vision
    • 100 proof insurance
    • how's them apples?
    • bits and pieces
  • circling forthClick to open the circling forth menu
    • back home
    • middle earth
    • lightning strikes
    • tabitha
    • night vision
    • spirit tune
  • karmic fireClick to open the karmic fire menu
    • rosie
    • harbinger
    • sleepy time tea
    • speed bump
    • breaking news
    • juice
    • plenitude
    • brain storm
    • no price
  • wild muffinsClick to open the wild muffins menu
    • moments
    • bow sprit
    • taiko buzz
    • real music
    • from here to . . .
    • karma dogs
  • oil lamp daysClick to open the oil lamp days menu
    • repose
    • tranquility
    • harmony
    • rapport
    • departure
  • bird brainClick to open the bird brain menu
    • wind song
    • dust devils
    • folded echo
    • bach boogie
    • bird brain
  • rusted dinosaurClick to open the rusted dinosaur menu
    • blue haze
    • what hath?
    • fractal
    • transbiohomo
    • rusted
    • peacocks
    • beetles
    • tents
    • trance
  • sand dollarsClick to open the sand dollars menu
    • grist
    • griftology
    • gerrymander
    • gondolas
    • griffins
    • galloping
    • galaxies
  • LIFTOFFClick to open the LIFTOFF menu
    • commencement
    • joy nest leap
    • wisp of reason
    • breeze cap
    • the gathering
    • impersonal portrait
    • when chaos dies
    • going down the trail
  • oroborusClick to open the oroborus menu
    • smoke in our eyes
    • anthrology
    • buried gold
    • R and R
    • dominion
    • compost
    • oroborus
  • laughing thunderClick to open the laughing thunder menu
    • swivel liberty
    • scrabble stone
    • never never mind
    • clap rag shuffle
    • circus pipes
    • endurance
    • sky serpent
    • song breeze
    • fog thorns
  • thoth moodsClick to open the thoth moods menu
    • peace cloud
    • truth food
    • drifters
    • out of context
    • radar ears
    • crow song
    • green tea day
    • floating
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Savvy Neighbors Impede Profiteers
  • Links
  • AS THE WORLD BURNSClick to open the AS THE WORLD BURNS menu
    • the creek talker
    • ark welding
    • old tree
    • the compost bird
    • through the scaffold
    • holly day celebration
    • infinity paralyzes time?
    • opus 3!
    • way past

on becoming conscious

ON BECOMING CONSCIOUS

 

 

What is happening now cannot be told in a single story. A shift in consciousness is the gist of it.

Once upon a time . . .

After the terror of thunder and lightning subsided, embers glowed. Meat dropped onto them turned out easier to eat. To keep the fire alive, sticks were brought. Not letting it go out became an important ritual.

Evidence uncovered by archaeologists shows that about 50,000 years ago Neanderthals had learned to strike flint on hard minerals like pyrite, to spark a fire. By some accounts, controlling fire was the birth of civilization.

That long ago, there was probably no word for co-operation, but it was obvious that building a hut would be easier if several people helped. And anyone could understand that a group might do several things at once, an advantage over one person doings things in serial order. The group could use a sentry to warn against intruders, wild animals, unfriendly humans. An enclosure would be worth the effort.

Workers and sentries need to eat. But getting food also needs time and effort, and in greater amounts than for a group. The hunter gatherers of prehistory evolved to specialize-- meat or grains. Meat for immediate needs, grain to be eaten later, some perhaps stored.

Someone accidentally spilled grains and later noticed them growing on the ground. This was better than going out gathering. Stored grains would be another convenience, along with controlling fire. Stored grains could be planted to grow new ones when conditions were ripe.

Family enclosures with overwintering grains became villages, which multiplied into larger aggregates called towns. Enclosures were furnished with walls. Walled towns came to be called cities, and the inhabitants of these were called citizens. Collections of cities with all their inhabitants, and their activities, habits, products, thoughts and expressions have come to be called civilizations. And all of these, taken generically, are more simply denoted civilization.

With this, the narrative becomes an entity. It includes both recorded facts and reasonable guesses. So construed, civilization becomes an object of veneration, eliciting expressions of gratitude for past achievements, an accumulation of knowledge. And more especially, in comparison with our cave-dwelling ancestors, an overall increase in material well being. And proudly, landing on the moon: a giant step.

In the midst of this, almost unnoticed, is that there is no such entity as civilization. Rather, what persists is a collection of ad hoc arrangements.

 

* * *

 

What began as a division of labor elaborated and settled into a caste system. It has a grip on the entire world. Already long established in India, in America it dominated slavery. Slaves are told they deserve their lot, and any thought of being better or rising up is a mistake. Jim Crow laws were studied as the basis of a legal framework for exterminating Jews in Nazi Germany. Isabel Wilkerson describes this in her book, Caste.

When slavery was made illegal, American slaves were freed from involuntary servitude, but not their caste. As with various arrangements throughout the world, it remains in force. From the ground level grocery checker to the glass ceiling, workers must know their place. Hair and skin color still define boundaries. Language, place of birth, level of education, associates, place of residence, are just a few of the markers.

 

* * *

 

The end of plantation slavery came in tandem with the discovery of fossil fuel. Muscle power can't compete with the internal combustion engine. Crude oil also supplies new products in high demand. With the boost of fossil energy, prosperity has shifted more wealth to the dominate classes. Rapidly developing technology is also giving the fortunate ones more leisure time and disposable income to entertain fantasies and ideas for their own sake. Markets have emerged, prompting research into what motivates these new consumers.

Abraham Harold Maslow's investigation found a hierarchy of needs. The fortunate ones, in contrast with lower caste people subject to brutal suppression, find ascending levels of interest to pursue. As a need is satisfied, the next level opens up. For example, he explains that a starving person will not be concerned with security until food is obtained. Lower existential needs, upon satisfaction, give way to higher psychic ones. Each higher need presumes lower ones have been met. He saw these as a pyramid with the lower existential needs at the base. Those who arrive at the tip are already well fed and secure. Here the need is less survival and more immaterial. One might be interested in creative expression, perhaps painting or photography, designing one's own clothes, composing music, gardening, writing, psychology, philosophy, self realization. For every need a shelf, so to speak, in the new market place.

The most interesting aspect of his motivational marketing scheme is that, as he says, needs are not mutually exclusive. The unmet ones still have unconscious force, striving to be realized. It's true for everyone. Thus self realization, at the tip of the pyramid, and though perhaps dormant, motivates everyone.

 

* * *

A shift in this direction is happening. Two very different hierarchies are coming into dynamic relation.




write "subscribe" or "unsubscribe"  in the subject line of an email to:  theroot_us@yahoo.com

The Gardener
Santa Clara, CA 95051
theroot_us@yahoo.com