Pruning the Tree

 

As I was choosing an illustration for this post I vacillated between burning books and the word propaganda on fire or covered by a blindfold. Censorship also briefly suggested images and illustrations, but it is all thread from the same cloth and that cloth is control. 

Knowledge is power and knowledge can be shaped, blotted out, censored, burned, changed, and altered in so many ways. One of the main ways to shape knowledge is to eradicate it and nothing has offered more opportunity and latitude than religion. Oh, you say to yourself, she's one of those. Probably an atheist or a heretic. She wants to control what we think and how we think. 

No, I don't. That is the agenda, the game plan of whoever wants to blot out how many people pay attention to what I say, what I write, how I express myself. Yes, I want to offer you knowledge. I want to change your mind about certain things, some issues, but I do not want to force you to change your mind. I do know want you to unlearn what you know or court a case of amnesia. I want to offer you a choice to believe or not to believe. It's up to you. 

Currently in US politics, Donald Trump is tearing up what should be the usual mud slinging, back biting, and lie fest that is the heart of politics. Every election the politicians parade their platitudes and promises for the people so that voters may make an informed decision, what is seen by the people as a clear choice for change. That rarely happens because the puppet masters will never let that happen. Those few individuals who see the strings and tell people they are being lied to and played will discredit the whistle blower, sometimes to the point where the whistle blower is branded as insane and dangerous, and everything will go on as usual according to the rules of the game. The whistle blower will fade into the background and may shine for a moment in a TV documentary that paints the whistle blower as someone who was honest and truthful and painted black. Viewers will feel bad for the 15 minutes of fame allotted and promptly forget why they cared at all. After all, handling the bills, raising children, preparing food, earning the money to pay for all that life requires -- and what will put them on an equal footing with the Smiths and the Joneses -- takes all their energy. You buys your ticket and takes your chances is the old saying. But there was never a chance. The game was rigged -- is rigged. You never had a snowball's change in a volcano -- and you never even knew it. 

The people most affected by Trump's center ring bombastic display aren't the people or the voters, but the career politicians and the people who have bought and paid for them -- who have always bought and paid for them. Trump will continue to put on a show and will rattle the powerbrokers' and politicians' cages and will do their best to discredit him and, failing that, will put out a contract on him. Men like Trump with plenty of money and a message that could actually change the game must be erased. They must be silenced at any cost. It is worth the risk if killing Donald Trump would not end in making a martyr of him and igniting a holy war but by sending the message to other whistle blowers that the result of being right so publicly and getting so close to ending the game will be death. 

I have called Trump a clown, a side show act, and he is both, but I see now that he is something else. He is the reason that the game was created in the first place. 

No, the game is not about politics or who becomes President of the United States (POTUS). The game is control of knowledge. Control of truth. Control of the mind of the people who don't know that this is all a game and that the real prize is who remembers what and for how long. 

In the past, the game has taken the form of witch hunts and burning witches at the stake -- or by drowning, dismembering, cutting out their tongues, and other methods that end with the destruction and eradication of the witch. 

Did you know that witch is the word that remains, but the original word meant wise woman? Someone who had knowledge. And the someone didn't have to be a woman and was often a man (shaman, witch doctor, healer, teacher, etc.) Is it any wonder that witches are portrayed as comic figures, ugly women with long hooked noses, warts on nose and/or chin or cheek with long hairs growing out of them? Are you surprised that witches were consorts of the Devil, Satan, Lucifer and that they sold their souls for power, for magic, for a way to cheat death? 

But, you will say, there have been beautiful witches and their beauty masked the evil beneath the illusion. Yes, I will answer. They were beautiful on the surface, but vile, hideous, ugly creatures beneath the skin. Their beauty was a mirage created to make sure you continue to look over your shoulder and distrust anyone with a pretty face -- or hard, muscular body -- and perpetuate the fear of magic and power and EVIL because Satan is everywhere and lies until you sell your soul. Fear is a powerful motivator. It has been used since the Creation. 

Didn't Satan lie to Eve and talk her into defying God and eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and didn't she use her feminine charms and pretty face (and sex) to entice Adam into sin by sharing the Forbidden Fruit? That may be the true origin of the evil behind the pretty face and figure and the beginning of Lucifer's evil plot to destroy mankind. This is a game that has been going on longer than anyone thinks. This is the first fruit of the Propaganda Tree. 

The story of Adam and Eve is a cautionary tale that is all about propaganda and lies. There is no truth in the story and religion has been used to hide the truth and perpetuate the lie that underpins all of society. 

There are religious beliefs that aren't about Adam and Eve and First Sin and the punishment visited on all of Mankind because of Adam and Eve's Sin or Lucifer's trickery. There remains a version of the First Sin and women have borne the brunt of the Sin. 

The Greeks passed the baton to Zeus's creation to punish Prometheus for giving fire to Mankind. It wasn't fire Prometheus gave and it was not Pandora's curiosity or opening the box that let loose all the evils into the world, save the bright spark of Hope that was left after evil was unleashed. Zeus orchestrated that First Sin but setting up a game where Pandora, a woman, was bound to follow her nature, the nature Zeus instilled in her when he created her and baited his trap with her to destroy Mankind because they knew too much after Prometheus gave them Fire, rescuing them from ignorance and an existence closer to the beasts from whence they sprang. God wasn't such a friendly and caring Father then and Prometheus was rewarded for his betrayal of Zeus by being chained to a rock in Tartarus (the punishment zone of Hell in Hades's underworld kingdom) where an eagle attacked Prometheus and devoured his liver day after day for eternity. Since Prometheus was immortal, his liver grew back so the eagle could continue to feast on him without end. 

The real point to these stories of First Sin is not the sin because that is a hoax. Part of the reason is to destroy knowledge, to keep Mankind from being more than a beast. Mankind was -- and is -- created in the image of the gods and given the power to determine his own fate and increase his own knowledge by accepting that there is more to know than what is parceled out. 

In a way, the story of Adam and Eve and Pandora and all the other women who have been burdened with atoning for the sin of wanting to know more is the story that I have lived all my life. Born female, I was not allowed to show off my intelligence or make a man or boy feel inferior because I was born to be the weaker sex. I was not meant to rule and I was certainly not meant to use my knowledge to make anyone's life better, especially not my own. If God had wanted me to rule or to lead the way to enlightenment, he would have made sure I was born male. I was born to be punished, to atone for the First Sin for all eternity because I in the guise of Eve enticed a man to share the knowledge I took from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and an eternity of suffering is all I can and should expect for my crime. 

Crime and Sin are useful tools in the Game. People usually tend to have second thoughts about committing the crime of chasing knowledge if they know the result will be punishment. It didn't stop Prometheus, but I would say Prometheus didn't know how Zeus would react and Adam and Eve certainly didn't know that their god would cast them out of the garden and force them to suffer for the rest of their lives. Adam and Eve had been God's favorite children and they were nothing after he cast them out. 

The one thing that God could not take from Adam and Eve -- or their children -- was the knowledge they gained from eating the Forbidden Fruit. That they would keep, little good would it do them. No, they must beg God for his forgiveness, which he would never give because they disobeyed Him and learned for themselves. 

The Audacity of creatures little better than beasts to believe they could possess knowledge -- and use it. How arrogant. How sinful. How evil. 

The Great Lie didn't stop with casting Adam and Eve out of the Garden and it didn't soothe Pandora's heart when she realized that through her evil and death and sin came into the world. Not even shining Hope could change that. She would live her life knowing that she destroyed her fellow beings and condemned them to a life of suffering and death and chaos. 

I doubt the outcome would have been better if Adam or some other nameless, faceless being Pandora called mate had been the sinner. Can't have the male of the species carrying the burden of shame and sorrow since they weren't equipped for suffering, not since it had been declared by their respective gods that they were the strength and power of the world. No, the weaker, more sentimental female was the better choice, especially since the female would never be allowed to lead or control power -- center stage. 

The real point was not to make Mankind suffer, but to destroy the knowledge of good and evil. Parents believe that knowledge in a child is akin to allowing the child to play with matches or use sharp objects. Since Mankind was cast in the role of child of the gods, Mankind cannot be allowed to make use of the knowledge gained without setting limits and erecting boundaries. Too much knowledge could end with Mankind deciding his and her own fate. That cannot be allowed. 

I used to see religion as a means of preserving knowledge that must remain intact. I was wrong. I see religion as a brake on knowledge, a way to decide what knowledge will be sanctioned for use and what knowledge will be suppressed. In order to put the brakes on knowledge that knowledge must be destroyed. Religion provides the perfect means of stopping too much knowledge. Holding back the water by erecting a dam or blowing up enough material to halt the flow of the river or knowledge. 

Throughout history wars have been the means of destroying knowledge. From war came the saying that the winners write the history and it is not far wrong. Sometimes the wrong person won the war, but it didn't matter as long as the accumulated knowledge was destroyed. Books were burned. Libraries were destroyed and pulled down. Possession of books and knowledge was a crime and sinners were tortured and killed. No religion is free of taint in this regard. Religions have pruned the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil throughout the lives of Mankind. 

The Roman Catholic church destroyed the writings of the people they conquered and suppressed the knowledge by murdering priests and teachers. Death by Jesuit priests. Oh, you thought the Jesuits were teachers and advanced knowledge. They did, but only knowledge that they deemed safe. The Vatican vaults contain knowledge that has been suppressed since Emperor Constantine declared Christianity the State Religion in the 4th century. 

Islam destroys any books and knowledge that is not the Quran and the writings of Mohammed's followers. Nothing else in their estimation is worth reading or knowing and is certainly not worth saving from the cleansing fire. At least the Roman Catholic church saved the books and knowledge even though they denied it to the world at large. 

Protestant Christianity continued the war on knowledge through witch trials while promoting the publishing of the Bible so that the average man who didn't know Latin or Greek could read Jesus's words for himself. Wise women -- and men -- were murdered in order to promote the Protestant version of religion. I should say versions since there are as many versions as there are Protestants that see the Bible and its teachings in light of their own conscience and beliefs. All those who do not accept their versions will be hanged or burned at the stake, but destroyed to prune the Tree of Knowledge. 

Those same Christians in the newly minted United States of America pruned the Tree by destroying the knowledge the savages had and by removing their children, taking away their culture, cutting their hair, making the wearing of native dress illegal, and forcing the children to learn the ways of the civilized world in the name of Religion. 

The Nazis burned books and murdered rabbis and priests and anyone who didn't accept the Nazi Party Line. The Mongols were supposed to have destroyed libraries and books and teachers in their wars against the Chinese. Every change in the Chinese dynasties was heralded with the destruction of the writings and teachings of the dynasty they destroyed. The Chinese often rewrote the knowledge to reflect their control and power. Every continent, every country, every people on this planet has warred on the neighbors and pruned the Tree of Knowledge. Nothing remains of the Truth -- or at least very little remains. 

The Smithsonian destroyed evidence of the giants in the Americas and giants became evil cannibals whose sole purpose was to destroy Mankind. The Smithsonian took their booty and sank it to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Like the Vatican, they keep some artifacts and some knowledge hidden deep in their underground vaults. 

The Tree of Knowledge has been assaulted innumerable times during the existence of Mankind as soon as people learned enough to question their gods and chose to decide their own destiny. No one is immune to participation in the game. All have played a part either as the victim or the power broker exerting control. The Tree of Knowledge is no longer recognizable in its original form because I doubt anyone exists that ever saw it. The knowledge of the power brokers is as fractured by the rats gnawing at the roots and pruning as the rest of Mankind is. We are all diminished no matter how we struggle to find the Truth. 

Every Dark Age, every Age of Deceit, every perversion of innocence, and every Lie and Sin committed against the Tree of Knowledge begins with Religion. Every technological marvel has been stolen and hidden and kept from the hands of the gods' children so they don't hurt themselves and it has been a very long and very painful childhood that never ends. And it will never end until the Destroyers of Knowledge are seen for who and what they are and they are stopped. It's no wonder that the old saying is that in order for the child to reach adulthood that child must kill the parent. How else are we to learn. 

That is all. Disperse.