EXCELLENT NEWS

regarding the interrelated possibilities of a utopian society and a light after death

1. The path to a utopian society America is not, it must be acknowledged, a democracy, not a society governed by and for the people who make up the society. America is a plutocracy a society governed by and for the wealthy. No thoughtful person of good will can be happy with this state of affairs, in which a wealth-based ruling class controls our economy, government, and the public space and discussion defined by the mass media. Plutocracy and the profit-over-people capitalism of which plutocracy is a part are a moral scandal willfully antisocial in the hallowed pursuit of selfish enrichment. And like any unjust system, modern capitalism depends on undermining real democracy, which would by definition weaken the totali ing power of the ruling class. !ut there is some very good news" buried beneath the company town indentured servitude of modern capitalist life is the fundamental, tripartite freedom-power-capacity that defines being human" you can imagine, you can use language to communicate, and you can work with others, from one other to multitudes, to get things done, make things happen, create things. #ou can imagine, you can talk, you can work with others. $ogether these three abilities constitute the fundamental human freedom and power to CREATE REALITY through shared language, values, and practices. And %this is crucial& that freedom-power is always there. 't may be obscured, twisted, and channeled to the ends of those wielding power, but it doesn(t go away it is what it is to be human it(s radical, )radi*,) meaning it(s all the way down at the roots of society. $his means this fundamental human freedom+power constitutes an always-there potential for a starting-at-theroots socio-cultural remaking that can, over time and in cooperation with others, produce a proliferation of new communities, new types of communities, new ways of living, in which voluntary participants use their freedom and accept their responsibility to work together to create the best societies they can at any given point. ,o if we choose to, we can use our human freedom and power right now to start creating new societies and ways of living right here in the middle of modernity(s capitalist company town. $he first step is to identify shared values about what it means to be a good person and have good lives and societies, and then start finding and creating ways to live according to those values, including seeking out others who are on the same path and creating values-based relationships and communities with them. -ur human freedom-power to create reality lights the path to social revolution start finding ways to live new values and the trek into a wideopen frontier of human reality construction has begun. .rawing on the /nlightenment tradition of which we moderns are a part, ' propose the following five interrelated social-civic values as an initial gathering place, a conceptual-ethical clearing in which like-minded people can find each other before setting off to bla e more particular paths according to more particularly shared values" ,tep 0& 123AN ./4/N4# At birth, every human being is e5ually deserving of respect and e5ually deserving of a society where she or he can live a good life.

,tep 6& $1/ 7-8./N 928/ + 3-9A8'$# 7ood citi ens and decent people value and seek to live by the following principle" do unto others as you would have them do unto you %or your children or whoever you care most about in the world&. $his golden rule demonstrates that morality %)the way a person should act)& is ,-4'A8: it(s about how you treat other people and the e*tent to which you consider how your actions will affect other people. ; ,tep <& ./3-49A4# =ith golden rule-morality as the starting point, the ideal political form is what can be called )true democracy,) which is to say that people govern themselves any governing is by and for the people being governed in any particular situation. =ouldn(t you want the opportunity to participate in any decision that affects you> $he golden rule demands we e*tend that right to all. And that is true democracy. ;; ,tep ?& @2,$'4/ =ithin the open-honest-thoughtful discussions that make up the political process of true democracy, good citi ens and decent people will consider the good of everyone affected by the decision to be made, as called for by the golden rule. 'f people try to argue for courses of action based on selfishinterest, good citi ens and decent people will recogni e and criti5ue such positions as anti-democratic. ,tep A& B9//.-3 8ive and let live: look kindly on people, both generally and specifically: feel free to find and create ways to be happy and enjoy life any way you can without hurting or infringing on others.

=e have the capacity the freedom and the power to create true democracy. (All( we have to do is believe in it and then start finding ways to enact it in cooperation with others who share the same values. $he path of true democracy won(t always be easy, but it will always be the best path available. And the resulting proliferations of societies and ways of living, as the products of democracy enacted by free, responsibility-assuming people, will be ongoing versions of what must count as utopia the best societies free, responsibility-assuming people can imagine and create at any given moment.
CCC

; 'mportant aside 0" 'n other words, morality is not a code laying down specific )don(t dos) and )do dos) in order to be a good person. 'f an individual or voluntarily-associating group want to A8,- live by some code of ethics with strict rules of what you can and cannot do, that(s their business, they are free to do so as long as it does not interfere with anyone else. =e have the right to e*pect people to act morally, but good citi ens and decent people do not try to impose their particular ethical codes on anybody else who does not voluntarily choose to live that way. ;; 'mportant aside 6" Bundamental respect for our fellow humans and the conse5uent application of the golden rule mean that decisions in true democracy are not determined by partisan-style A0-to-?D votes: they are decided through open, honest, thoughtful discussions aimed at consensus about what is best for the group: and if no consensus can be reached, when about 6+< of the people agree on a course of action, the other third should accept the democratic decision and go along, or else break away. CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

2. The path to a utopian light after death Also %for those who care about such things& %and ' know it sounds cra y but it(s true&, there is a spacetime on the other side of light where energylike beings lead an e*istence of unimaginable freedom and pleasure in a beautiful beautiful light of everything everything %so to speak&. %$he spacetime of our known universe the whole thing, from beginning to end is like a short <-d scroll to the beings on the other side of light.& And ' know it sounds cra y but it(s true it is possible for humans to become one of those beings on the other side of light when we die, as our being becomes de-tethered from the spacetime of organic life, and there is a moment to find the path to the other side of light and jump out of the gravity-like pull toward the black hole of black holes, the deep blank sleep of !eing Nothing where most human beings go when they die %an eternal being that is not good or bad Ethankfully, there(s no sufferingF just being nothing&. Binding the path to the other side of light is not hard. 3any dying people see and approach )the light,) mistaking it for the afterlife promised in their particular traditions of beliefs and assumptions. $he trickier part is getting across a stunning threshold e*perience of light that 5uickly slips away unless you find a way to grab on to and step through it. And that the final+first step into the other side of light re5uires the help of the beings already there. !ecause if you don(t find a purchase on the other side of light right away, by seeing something there and knowing what that something is, your being will slide past the threshold and into !eing Nothing. 'f, on the other hand, you can know )what something is) across the threshold, something in the

stunning light, you can focus your awareness on that thing, attaching your consciousness to the reality on the other side of light: if successful, the gravity will loosen, the threshold will recede behind you, and you will find yourself occupying your new self as an energy-like being in a beautiful beautiful light of everything everything. -f course, you can only know )what something is,) and know it fast enough to slip free of the gravitational pull toward !eing Nothing, if beings on the other side of light tell you )what something is.) 'f the beings remain silent and withhold their reality-constituting language, no being in the black-hole gravity of death can cross the threshold. $o make it across, a being must find and focus on something in the light, and then ask for help, ask in a way that feels out loud, )=hat is that>) !eings near the threshold will then have to decide whether to share their language of light, whether to tell you )what something is,) thereby including you in their language, demonstrating how to start reading and navigating the light in the ways that establish the kind of individually-focused group consciousness that is being on the other side of light a light after death. 2nderstandably, the beings on the other side of light are not interested in helping a being across the threshold and into their reality if that being would bring disorder to the utopian way of being they have in effect. And %GG& to be the kind of being that would e*ist harmoniously in the e*isting utopian way of being on the other side of light, and thereby gain access to the light after death, you must have endeavored, while you had the chance in the light of human life, to live in accord with the basic moral principles constituting true democracy, which, in fact %and more than coincidentally&, is the utopia of the beings on the other side of light. CCCCCC

Postscript 6.0" -ne of the best things about this is that there is absolutely nothing and nobody to worship. No worshipG %=orship is not the path to utopia. $he beings who grant membership into the utopian light after death think worship is for losers.& All you have to do is be a good person, the kind of person who would live harmoniously in a group practicing true democracy, and you open up a path to utopian social revolution AND light after death. GG Postscript 6.6" 9egarding the beings on the other side of light and the light after death, ' am not out to convince anyone it(s true %although ' assert that it is&, or imply anyone should believe it. ' am passing along information that if someone else had, ' would want to hear about sharing valuable information is living the golden rule. !eing of an agnostic bent myself, ' would not believe the information just because somebody said it was true. %!ut here(s the thing" you don(t have to believe it to use it when the time comes: all you have to do is live your life as a decent person and then, when you do find yourself, as we all will, dying, and momentarily appearing before the light that serves as the escape hatch to death(s black hole gravity, remember to look around and start asking 5uestions about what you see.& -n the other hand, regarding the radical human freedom-power to create true democracy, ' would very much like to convince people that a radical remaking of how we value and live our lives is possible and that people should start finding ways to do it it(s the best available path. And, sooner than many e*pect, getting on some new and different path may be a matter of survival. $he collapse of the modern capitalist way of life appears to be at hand, ongoing, right now. 4heap fossil fuels, the lifeblood of modern capitalism, are more than half gone. 4apitalism(s necessary delusion of

infinite growth is melting away. !y burning so much carbon and creating and releasing so many chemicals, we have disrupted natural systems beyond our capacity to repair them. Nature on /arth will survive the mad-dash e*periment of modernity %though not, considering the abnormally high e*tinction rate associated with the modern era, in its present form&. $he human future seems less certain, but to whatever e*tent we survive, it will not be in the present form of centrali ed, totalitarian capitalism. $he plutocrats of modernity trashed the globe with their industrial-financial pon i scheme. As it collapses, they lose their power. $he democracy demanded by free people does not take over or try to salvage the power of the plutocrats: it moves on, constructing new societies in which the kind of power plutocrats wield does not exist societies based on the golden rule particular instances of true democracy. CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC 4onsciousness - 8anguage - 8ight $he disembodied, energy-like being of the beings on the other side of light is imaginable %and enactable& based on this core concept" at its root, consciousness is an individuali ed confluence of language and light, the living of light using language. And while consciousness may emerge through embodiment, that does not mean it re5uires embodiment to e*ist. 4onsciousness does re5uire language to e*ist, and more specifically membership in a group making a reality based on a language that makes sense of light. And just like us but much much better, that(s what the beings on the other side of light are doing working together to create a group reality using a language that makes sense of light.
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

-ur 4hallenge 's $o 4reate $rue .emocracy 'n An /ra -f /conomic 4ollapse And /cological 4atastrophe
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

4ommunities practicing true democracy will develop their own priorities and practices %that, after all, is the democracy demanded by free people&, but one goal they will necessarily share is to move their lives off the grid of corporate-orchestrated consumer capitalism. ,ignificant steps in this regard include adoption of locali ed permaculture perspectives on living in particular places and the /arth in general, 'powering down' from dependence on fossil fuels %reducing energy needs and finding alternative sources for those remaining&, connecting to local farmers and growing food at the household and neighborhood levels, developing sharing economies and open source, do-ityourself technologies, and the creative creation of new kinds of commons and community-based livelihoods. People can and are doing these things now. Binding others and having a community of people on the same path talking, helping each other, working together transforms individual practices into the creation of societies. And the people creating these green true democracy neopublics will be bla ing benevolent paths through the collapse of modern capitalist society and into a wide open frontier of utopian reality construction. Let s !o"

The True Story of the God in the ld Testament 7od was a being on the other side of light. $here was a time when the beings grew a little la* on their organi ing principles, so when 7od got a couple of other beings to be his )followers,) the population of beings looked the other way, even though a sustained leader+follower relation should have been precluded by the credo. /mboldened by his status as a leader, 7od sought a universe in which to e*periment further in population control. ,o 7od and his crew came to /arth and encountered Abraham, who was told 7od was )the 4reator) who should be worshiped and who would, in return, favor Abraham and his descendants over other humans. Hery 5uickly, the beings on the other side of light reali ed what was going on and used their collective power to keep 7od away from the /arth-universe and eventually, by withholding the society of language necessary to e*ist on the other side of light, forced 7od to dissipate into !eing Nothing. 7od no longer e*ists. 7od(s crew members, on the other hand, recogni ed their mistake and were happily brought back into the fold. $he beings on the other side of light make it a point not to have negative impacts on others, and were concerned that 7od(s emphasis on worship and special )chosen people) when encountering Abraham had infected humans with ideas that would undermine the capacity to imagine and achieve the utopia of true democracy. 'n an effort to right the damage, a crew of beings was sent to encounter a human person with the message of true democracy and the light after death. $hat person was @esus. 2nfortunately, the message was a bit garbled between the beings and @esus and more so between @esus and the people who heard and carried on the message. 2nhappy with the results of their attempt, the beings determined not to intervene in the /arth-universe again and let humans come to the message themselves, as beings tend to do eventually. @esus did understand the message well enough to become a being on the other side of light when he died. 1e e*ists there now, sharing the endless variety of utopian e*periences of the groups he runs with.
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

* frente por la liberacion de la imaginacion moral americana * ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

democracylight.blogspot.com
ninethousandflowers@hotmail.com

Klamath Democracy Laboratory