A reddish colored Thinker sits 'up a tree', in lotus fashion, clothed by the leaves, eyes blank and staring. He is in a trance. Behind him the sky is filled with flame. Wrapped around his forehead a blue chain spirals counterclockwise, with the left end emerging from behind his left ear and holding a human heart on the end. The right end emerges in front of his right ear and is pulled upon by nude male and female figures on the ground. A triple band of light spirals clockwise overhead. A serpent climbs the tree. Behind the Thinker the world goes up in flames, as the nuclear bombs he invented explode, and a poisonous technology runs amok. As species fall by the wayside, the human ecosphere moves towards the limits to growth, and the collapse of everything humane and beautiful. The technology of the Thinker shall complete the rape of the earth of all her non-renewable resources, and when that is done, the exponentially expanding population with its exponentially expanding luxuries shall suddenly stop and collapse like a burst balloon. He doesn't care. He sits blindly indifferent, entranced, uncaring, assuming no responsibility. The Thinker has invented a mental picture of the world based on the machine. That is the single idea which holds him entranced. Nothing is allowed in this picture which is not machine-like. No room for feeling or purpose. The universe must be blind and cold and governed by chance. No room for free will. Machines have no free will, and we are all machines according to the Thinker. And when the machine breaks down, that's it. Nothing exists beyond the cold metal, that which can be measured by machines and molded by machines. No room for life. No experience contrary to this picture is allowed in the universities with their machine-like assembly lines of the intellect, characterized by extreme division of labor and standardization of 'product'. Of course, life refuses to fit this evil enchantment. It keeps presenting data and experience which refutes the world-machine. But the Thinker cannot hear. He is lost in Shadow (Shaitan or Satan). He is Satan, and his Satanic mills grind on, casting a lurid red glow on all, as though touched in blood. The architecture of the time is built by machines for machines. It has no place for purely human needs, such as beauty or privacy or conviviality. Cold, blank walls, square surfaces, endless corridors. Efficiency. The kind of efficiency that can be reduced to a number. A bureaucracy is a machine-like social institution. It is designed like a piece of engineering, with flow-charts of information and control. Even the utopias of the Thinker are machines, with their checks and balances, running automatically. Of course the Thinker is 'up a tree', and in some corner of the collective mind, we have always known it. We have always had the image of the 'mad scientist', with his insane dream to destroy the world. The Thinker styles himself a devotee of truth, indifferent to the 'petty' concerns of politicians, religious leaders, artists or others beneath his contempt. The Thinker opens the door of experience only a crack, and slams it shut quickly if a UFO or a psychic should come flying in. The beam of the light of experience has narrowed until it only lights the machine. His specialized expertise is only good for murder and destruction. He is good at working out the equations of thermonu-clear bombs and missiles, but the more holistic requirements of peace, beauty and love leave him baffled. His equations do not fit. It does not compute. The three golden links of creation, preservation, and destruction must be kept separate, though linked, as they are in the Royal Maze. Here the light of creativity spirals without cease first into dogmatic preservation (via the schools) and then into destruction. An example could be found in the evolution of nuclear energy. This will cause confusion, as the Nameless One says, for we are taught to regard Thinkers such as Einstein as virtual saints. Einstein created the equations of mass to energy conversion, and had no basis, or character, or wisdom sufficient to avoid using them for destruction. It was he who prodded Roosevelt to launch the age of nuclear catastrophe. But blame someone else. Blame the politicians for using it. Blame the people for starting wars. But consider this. If it were not for the Thinker, those who want to fight wars would have to do them with bows and arrows. The total destruction of the world would not be possible. Whoever creates a thing is responsible for it, and ultimately will be blamed for it. The Thinker may soon be brought down to earth, and held accountable. The serpent climbs the tree to initiate him to earth, and break his ivory tower trance. The utility of technology for economics (symbolized by the leaves) will not clothe him then. |
"The next book will cause confusion... The Thinker is the Book's name. Old tarot--Satan. Significance equals error. No more."