You are God.

God is necessary. People generally know nothing of what happens around them. The last two centuries Western folk, who were so stupid to leave god in a book, tried to improve their own life with technology, thereby closing the spiritual sense of life of from society. They call this "progress". Their most tangible proof: Prosperity. What is prosperity? Living a healthy and a long life. Is this good for "Life" it self? Probably not. The consequence of this is, as it happens, an indescribable quantity of Washingmachine-manuals, DVD's, gang's, car accidents and the acceleration of the destruction of their planet.
However, there is a remarkable characteristic that binds itself to prosperity; luck. One considers oneself more fortunate than before. But how can we ever know this? No writings have been left behind like: "My name is Pedro, it is meanwhile the 13e century and I am in general, as is my society, deathly-unfortunate. I think that generally most of the people were in the past happy. I cannot prove this, therefore I think it.
I also think that nowadays most of the people are happy. And how about the 3rd world? Ok, they are not fortunate. There they are poor and unfortunate, hence all the shooting. They are, as it happens, angry and desperate. We, in the west, have set up global economy. We have almost eradicated Native-American civilisation, but now we get to eat nice bananas. We looked for luck far away from home. We expanded and developed more recreation, such as music, theatre, sport and art. All this, because of our weak spiritual base.

Now God, a successful and strongly commercialised form of Okpotalja, dominator of the dropping birds from trees some centuries ago in slave-ridden Jamaica, however is no recreation. God is serious shit. Inventor, mighty ruler, king and, not to forget, omnipotent. Physicists say that there is the endless conservation of mass and energy, and that things can be only converted. Creation is therefore impossible. But in my eyes physicists still cannot explain why something happens. They can explain how it happens and what preceded the proces, but the question of why the molecules, powers and fields connect in this way can only lead to discussions which are only for understandable for a small elite, which have no connexion with society. This way they in fact become superfluous.
Meanwhile at camp god, one will speak of several worlds. The rather childish view of heaven and hell, the pseudo-scientific Kabbalah, where you can only say something sensible if you
are a man above the age of 40, the eastern views of reincarnation, the roman-cultish views of parallel universes, etc.
In short: nobody actually knows why and thus we remain with and empty field which we can fill with the weirdest, undefinable, senseless word: God.
But, God is not your mother! I don't care how spiritual you are, you remain people, simple evolved animals, that live on - or near - the ground, we call earth. The phenomenon God functioned in former days in the eyes of the people as a man of War, Politics and Government - he arranged asylum for the Jews and set them up with a Promised Land. But now, as our scientific knowledge is growing, we know more about our actions, the causes and the effects. We are able to observe and rationalize the largest part of what we sense.
God went from leading role player, to director, to producer and now he is the audience in our movie. Even in the case of natural disasters - always God's hit number in old writings - he does not take part anymore. Individuals within human society are therefore more capable without aid of God. Or not?
Because mothers also exist in your feelings, your inner self-sense. God is a little voice in your head. Christians seem to have already agreed to the compromise: God is your behavioural standards and values. Live good, honest and sincere and then have you God. Be open for God and all will go well. But this leaves space for interpretation as for some listening to Slayer feels good, or even burning a trash can.
Well, before this tale is silted up in a... uhm... desert, I wantto make my point clear: Technology, culture and luck are matters that you yourself have in your hand. It is a question of your orientation on living. This is not new, there are already a heap people who tried to make this clear. Buddah, Jesus, Mohammed. But to call a couple. People, yes simply people, that tried to convince other people being that they should focus more on their spiritual health. To persuade them they talked of heavenly kingdoms and devotion. Unfortunately we are psychopatic and greedy herd animals. Together we came so far tha now, our earth, our existence, are all easily destroyed.
Way to go!

The Rise of The West?

The agricultural revolution some 10,000 years ago was likely the first major technological transformation in human history. It is said to have happened in nine different places at approximately the same time, which were not in contact with each other. By the time the next major technological step forward was made in 18th century England, most parts of the world were in contact. One industrial revolution in the West was enough to transform the world. The Western world became the modern world. Nowadays many other regions of the world are stepping up to the Western standards. So how Western was the industrialization? Obviously the main developments took place in England. So probably the conditions were best in England. But how did these conditions came into being? I think it is legitimate to seek the reason of England’s being at 'the right place at the right time' in global history.

Most of the time historians seek this reason in the development of Europe, which according to most go back to Ancient Greco-Roman times. This reasoning follows a certain cultural prejudice which is not scientific at all, considering the fact that there was always contact between peoples of different regions in the Eurasian human web. Through trade, war and religion ideas were able to cross most cultural or political boundaries. Most regions. Not all. Some boundaries were hostile towards external ideas. Depopulated Medieval Europe, with it’s totalitarian Christendom and it’s conflict and hatred of the Islam provided a mental boundary, which closed mainland Europe off from all sorts of progress, achieved in the rest of Eurasia. It was only after the crusades in the Crescent and the establishment of a Pax Mongolica that some techniques of trade and farming, religious ideas and other information trickled into Europe. Once Italian cities enter the trade circuit development starts to catch on. The Renaissance is the cultural result of this renewed connection. Once Spanish and Portuguese sailors directly find the trade circuit of the Indian ocean and China developments grow steeply as more abstract ideas enter circulation in European towns. The Enlightment is the cultural result of this more direct connection.

Acquiring knowledge and ideas at a rapid pace made a categorizing world-view known as ‘science’ necessary, replacing a despiritualised religious world-view in some European minds. It is possible that it is the tempo of discovery of the rest of the world, physically and mentally, that led to a culture of consumption, that propelled Europeans economically speaking into colonialism and transformed Europe’s basic trade routes into Wallerstein’s Modern World-System. The intense integration and expansion of Europe’s economic networks in the early modern age provided that it was now able to acquire ideas and information from all over the globe. A few people in England, now knowing about 12th century Chinese industrial inventions, aiming to improve the production of cotton and wool, struck ‘oil’. Soon the English state mobilized all efforts towards maximizing this progress, which quickly resulted in the world-view of cultural supremacy, racism and transformed the European trade networks into imperialistic experiments. This was the birth of the modern man and his world-view.
This view of history may seem anti-European, but as an historic model of interpretation it provides a powerful explanation of the Rise of the West, by implementing the importance of a civilization’s world-view. The global culmination of technological innovation resulted in a breakthrough in an area of the world, which for a long time was one of the most backward.

Main sources:
-J.A. Hobson - The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation
-W.H. McNeill - The Human Web. A birds-eye view of human history
-A.G. Frank - ReOrient. Global economy in the asian age 1400-1800
-D. Landes - The Wealth and Poverty of Nations. Why are some so poor and some so rich?
-I. Wallerstein - The Modern World-System. Volume 1