Quantum Note

December 31, 2004

History will not remember 2004 as a decisive year of a violent and bloody century, but as a year that bore the consequences of the preceding three years, which may have set the tone for the rest of the century. Had it not been for the fateful events of September 11, 2001, the twenty-first century may have enjoyed some brief respite from violence for a few more years, but since 9/11, many historical developments have quickened in their unfolding and the resultant violence has devastated millions of lives, not only in Afghanistan and Iraq but around the world. Seen from the perspective of sacred history, this quickening of time is an irreversible process, heralding a new, and perhaps final, phase of human history.

It is, however, not merely the events of September 11, 2001 -- when 3000 lives were ruthlessly terminated by a still-to-be-identified group (search the web for factual scientific evidence contradicting the official story, and the details of the sale of steel from the Twin Towers to Indian and Chinese furnaces for recycling) -- that have forced a new phase of human history; rather, it is the cumulative effect of numerous social, political, economic and technological developments that have dawned an era upon us of rapid and cataclysmic descent. Surely, this swift descent is not the result of some pre-ordained and inescapable Divine writ, but the result of our own follies, fatalistic interpretations of history notwithstanding.

One of the most important characteristics of this new era is the rapid erosion of carefully constructed foundational structures, which used to provide a certain degree of stability to societies. The new century is decisively witnessing an erosion of many pillars of human existence.

The age of well-defined local economies, built on national production and transactions, is quickly becoming a thing of the past. Most of this economic change is technology-driven; most new technologies are geared toward mass production; goods produced in large quantities need large markets.

In order to secure these large markets, political pressure, and in many cases outright aggression, become political imperatives for governments beholden to large corporations, which own these new production systems. This politico-economic dimension of the emerging global markets has also produced many client groups, which act as local political mafias in smaller states and facilitate the spread of mass-produced goods in these smaller markets for a share in the profit. This mafia has been created in the name of free enterprise and its existence is founded on a democracy of a hitherto unknown kind.

This new democracy resembles the genuine democracy of the older world in its outward aspects but has nothing to do with its spirit. For instance, there are elections in this new democracy wherein the masses have no choice and the outcome is pre-determined. In this new democracy, it is possible for a single person to hold multiple offices-thus an army general can be the head of the armed forces, president of the country and the chairman of the Supreme Council, a body drawing token representation from various civil bodies. Even institutions such as Parliament and Senate have new meanings in this new democracy. It is now possible to have a parliament that is a token institution and a senate that is a rubber stamping institution. And all of this is still recognized as a democratic setup of intern

Indeed, several new varieties of democracies have been invented to prop up these client groups. Just as there are second-class citizens within states, there are now second, even third class democracies in existence. In these democracies, the only function of the electorate is to maintain the illusion of choice through a periodic casting of votes, but not an actual choice; the outcome of such elections is pre determined by those conducting the elections.

This large-scale erosion of political institutions that evolved over the last two centuries in Europe and were thereafter replicated in European colonies, is not restricted to countries like Pakistan, Egypt, and Indonesia; it has now spread to much of the so-called "advanced" world, with the difference that its manifestation in North America and Europe is of a different kind. The recent elections in the United States, for instance, offered no real choice to voters in terms of policies and issues; both political parties of that country being dependents of large corporations for their existence. This is also mostly true of Canada, where a similar political culture has produced a similar democracy of corporate economy.

The most obvious signs of the large-scale erosion of values are to be seen in the degradation of the limits of what is considered acceptable in a society. Taboos of even a decade ago have now become a norm. This has come about through the replacement of revealed laws by man-made laws. This tyranny of man-made laws has infused its way into all realms of human existence and in much of the "advanced" world, where even the very concept of a Divine order of existence has become foreign. This tyranny draws its sanctity from the rule of the 51%, and operates to eradicate the last remains of the moral code enshrined through successive revelations. It has given birth to "laws" which "sanction" acts and practices founded on a revolt against nature upon which human beings have been created.

Almost all of this change is driven by Western civilization, which has reached a critical point in its self-destruction. It insists on inflicting its own suicide upon all other civilizations, which are then forced to accept this vast change in the patterns of life in their societies. This torrential outpouring of vast cultural, political, social, and economic change--generated through the self-destruction of the West's civilization--has not only forced all other civilizations to the receiving end of this phenomenon, it has also produced numerous self-propagating destructive processes within these prostrate civilizations. Driven by imported technologies and propagated by materialism, these local processes are rapidly eroding values in these cultures, giving birth to hollow existence based on the blind imitation of the West.

There are numerous agents of this change; electronic media being the most important. The reach of this media is deep and insidious. It has penetrated remote villages in the heart of Africa and the hidden valleys of the Himalayan mountain range, and continues to expand its devastating impact.

The ultimate goal of this civilizational invasion is to produce a global culture based upon the values of the Western civilization. This is a goal shared by the large corporations of the Western world and neo-con ideologues. This new dream world would oscillate between the Orwellian and Huxleyan scenarios, the baseline being that all inhabitants of this ravaged planet aspire to the dream-life of America.