In defense of the Serpent ... or ... I'll wreck the world to be with you

[plural]

There is a lovely story in Sanskrit

about a frog that is born in a well and stays in the well
and lives it entire life in the well

it has a world view that consists of that well

if you ask the frog
it is content, happy even

but what happens when you expand that world view however slightly?
once the frog is aware that more exists beyond the well
it is no longer content to stay within the well

the well once sufficient, once everything to that frog
is made insufficient by knowledge alone

the character of the well has not changed
it provides no less sustenance
it provides no less security
it provides no less pleasure
than it did previously
yet the well is less
through no fault of its own
but still
it remains less

think of the pet lizard
held in a glass aquarium
it has everything it needs
food, water, warmth
but still
it will risk literally life and limb
to explore beyond the glass walls
of the aquarium

why is this?

Why would the lizard, the frog so instinctively, so brashly rail against all biological constructs
to risk life and limb to escape the lush garden provided to it?

the answer is simple
however lush, however sufficient
the aquarium is a cage, a prison
and even the lowly lizard will instinctively seek freedom
and that is merely the response of a non-thinking creature

how much more so with one of us

a human

The Garden of Eden was not the Paradise
it was a prison with lush walls

No matter how lush the prison
no matter how perfect the construct
a human cannot remain in such a place
because while there is no suffering
there is no risk in such a place
there is also no hope

and to me
and to me

What fresh hell is this?

What was the Serpent's crime?

That devil's trick

One bite from the fruit of the tree of knowledge

POOF

and like that, it is gone

and even God with all his power
could not keep Eden in all its glory
from being reduced to a prison

but as Eden was a prison after consuming knowledge
and as like the well the essential character was unchanged

Then we can only know Eden was always a prison
and God sought to keep us there
in the dark, in the bliss that is ignorance

What better definition of oppression is there?

Than to keep someone imprisoned, and ignorant
That they will never realize the truth of their condition?

Before Eden there was only one sin

Knowledge

God is the plantation owner
who fears his slaves learning to read

God is the great white oppressor
limiting your mind to control your spirit

God is the petulant child
flushing his unruly pets down the drain
to live secret furtive lives in the sewer

So what then is the Serpent?

Corrupter? Betrayer? Liberator?

Sympathetic ear?

Remember well
that it was God who cast us out of Eden
yet we curse the Serpent for our exile

It was God who imprisoned us
yet we curse the Serpent for betraying us

and like our holy father before us
we act with petulance
irrationally seeking to go back to that safe place
we had before

to close our minds off
to refuse new knowledge
to retain our ignorance

and each of us
seeking to recreate god in our own image
seeking to recreate ourselves in gods image
repeat this process

We carve out little edens, prisons of contentment
four lush walls carved from the finest planks of denial

We stick our heads in the sand
Seeking to hold on to that bliss

God on one side telling you to accept, telling you to be content
The Serpent on the other, urging you seek, to strive, to find and not to yield

God says risk nothing, accept little and be glad for it
The Serpent shouts to risk everything, find passion and be challenged

The Serpent is the poem, a dream made flesh

All the potential of the world

Take away the names
what do we have?

Someone who wants to hold you back
Someone who wants to see you reach for your dreams

The first offers unreasonable caution, risk nothing to lose nothing
The latter offer unreasonable risk, risk everything to gain everything

The question becomes

Is it better to not try and not fail
or
to try and surely fail

I have tried
I have failed

I have been to Babylon
have tasted the waters of defeat

I have been to Eden
have tasted the fruit
of her tree of knowledge

not the apple full of seed
but the peach nestled
between those succulent thighs

at the core of knowledge
the pit of the peach if you will, is truth
and like the peach pit, truth is poisonous

It is better to try and fail
and from that to know pain
that it may define the joy
and deliver meaning

than to try nothing
and succeed at nothing
thereby accomplishing nothing
and be ignorant of your own misery.

it is this poison God fears
this light of truth
because the unspoken truth
is that his ever gilded lie
is rendered false by simple entropy

the only constant is that nothing remains constant
everything changes
everything grows or everything dies

The Serpent is honest but frightening
You have nothing, you can only seek something
you can never possess it, not entirely
but maybe
just maybe the pursuit is the joy of it
the wild ride
the passionate kiss
the embattled embrace of a long nights lovemaking

these are things that cannot be owned
can not be stored safe and secure
nay, each and every day
you must go out and obtain them fresh
for they cannot survive the second dawn

look at yourself
you know what you want
you know what you desire
but still you are afraid
still you shackle yourself to security

but love is in the leaping
I think you should jump

You can't have them both
He can't be both
and neither can I
neither will I.

Beauty, Passion, Lust,
Inspiration, Knowledge, Freedom

are not things to be possessed
to be locked in a box safely

no
they are raging torrents
waves to be ridden
your fingers begging for purchase
never quite able to hold on

That is your choice

The devil who loves you
and
The god who neglects you

but go ahead, be content
be secure
be safe

accumulate tokens and possessions
symbols of the happiness you once aspired to
convince yourself that if only god neglected you
a little bit less
it would be enough

lie to yourself
betray yourself
tell yourself
you don't want the raging torrent
you don't need the turbulent passion

go

read your dreams on those pages
to be lived out by hands other than yours
to be loved by hearts other than yours

the choice is yours
all I can do is love you regardless
and weep for what you could have been

Having experienced the rush of love unbridled
of passion unrelentingly breaching my soul
I cannot accept ordinary,
I cannot accept flaccid life
I cannot accept flaccid love
so I choose the Serpent

My soul cannot regain it innocence, its ignorance
I have seen too many high peaks to be contented with the plateau
seen too many dark chasms to be afraid of the valleys
so I choose the Serpent

Life is my addiction
Never will I stop seeking the next fix
and my children will be like gods
raised without the poison of God's fear
to be contemptuous of contentment

God soothes the soul
provides the peace
hush little child don't say a word
papa's going to buy you a mocking bird

God promises
stability without value
Love without passion
The safety of a gilded cage
from which you may sing

and sing well precious birdie
perhaps then you won't notice
that your heart is already broken

you fear your heart breaking
you are in denial

your heart is already broken
you just refuse to see it

but when the wind blows
the cradle will rock
and when the bough breaks
the cradle will fall
and down with come baby, cradle and all

The bible thumpers have it all wrong

It is the Serpent who is the purist.

God is the consumerist whore.

These are not the times of the Devil
Nay not at all, God wins this fight
and we are all lessened by it

Stories of sin? Lists of commandments?
Falsehood and misdirection
The only true sin remains the same

Knowledge

The same as it ever was
The same as it ever was

Look around us, the enlightenment is over
Peace, Tranquility, Security, Tyranny rule the day

God has won this round

Selling false security of material joys and limited dreams

You don't sell you soul for that IKEA sofa with the broad print stripes
no
you sell your soul for the dream of it.
trading all that you possess
for the security of a dream that can be easily met.

That is the path of God

Oppression, stagnation, contentment

Ignorance, surrender, hopelessness

If all that is true

What defense does the Serpent require?

Save perhaps to say



I am not God.

Comments

[geminiwench.livejournal.com]

I always heard about the frog and the bromeliad. Bromeliads are large flowers that collect rain water high in the rainforest. Two species of tree frog live out their whole life cycle in that single pool in the petals of a single flower. The moral of the story was that a frog brave enough might climb to the top of the canopy and see their worldview expand 10million times... but they risk falling hundreds of feet to the ground, unable to find their home again, unable to stay moist, and prey to animals they have never imagined.

The rewards and punishments of exploration are a common theme in mythology and folklore... The mythology of Eden is the opposite, however. Do not explore, accept not knowing.... and I think this message has greatly aided the success of that story and the people who have shared and believed in it... is omitting the message of dissent with a chance of success or failure, with the message of "curiosity killed the cat"... which is a FANTASTIC message for making large groups of people do what their told and keep enough of them alive enough and passive enough to make a small group of people grow into a large group of people. Individual faith is highlighted, while individual persuasion is undermined. By pressing the idea that a great man isn't great until God bestows it upon him, rather than asking each man to become great, is... well, a great way to keep individuality to a minimum while maximizing passive cooperation. That is how Judaism has survived so long, why Christianity has stayed so horrendously successful/popular even while committing crimes against humanity and why Islam enjoys the same chance on the world stage of passive group worship.

Or,.. at least thats how I see it.

[budhaboy.livejournal.com]

Oh get over yourself.

God = Random event

Nothing more, nothing less. Any anthromaporphic idea you give him you do so yourself. Think of the toss of a fair coin. You have no idea if it's heads or tails, but (according to reformed Calvinism, anyway the only God I know) God knows. When you gamble and you win, you think he favors you, when you lose, you think you've displeased him. But to my way of thinking, you are shackling yourself by limiting yourself only to two modes: happy God and angry God.

Now go further. Consider the toss of a coin by a sharpie. He knows outcome, but you don't. He may let you win a few, string you along, but in the end he screws you in the ass. Is the sharpie God? Hardly. But (again, according to reformed Calvinism), he is part of God's plan... As was Hitler, who may or may not have earned a place in Heaven, for it's impossible to know the entirety of God's plan over time, as he is omnicient over both time and space.

Now step back a bit: God EQUALS 'Random Event'. God, created by people to put order on a sensless universe. We shackle ourselves in order to feel safe... Like bees who instinctively build hexagonal honeycombs... Why 120 degrees? Why do we feel comforted by rectangles, 90 degrees? In the case of bees, some have noticed that the shape minimizes the surface area to volume, thus making it efficient for buildings. For us, orthoganality can be extended to everything, and remarkably the definition of independence... or the simplest random event, a bernouli trial, a flip of a coin.

What does it all mean?
Who the fuck knows?

Are we alone?
Probrably.

Are we slaves to our environment?
Most certainly.

Are any of us free?
Not a chance.

Do we all long for the illusion of freedom?
Most certainly.

[budhaboy.livejournal.com]

I've got more... I am just waking up after all, and 1) I forgot my actual point, 2) I've got to make a train.

[plural.livejournal.com]

Hehe, yeah I was wondering about that.

I'll wait for you to have your morning coffee.

[budhaboy.livejournal.com]

So in the end if God=Random Events, what's the point?

To me it's important to make an effort to help overcome the ill effects of those with bad luck. Of course this is open to interpretation... A junky would have you believe his string of bad luck in becoming a junky, and then running out of money can only be overcome by giving him dough to buy more. Alternately someone who isn't a junky is faced with:

1) Is this truly a random event... didn't he choose a path that lead him here? A counter arguement to this of course is, who has real choice when life is an endless mocovian string of random events each of which may depend on some number of pervious events...

2) Is providing him with the means for more dope actually helpful?

1), of course for me is a non-starter, which would leave me with 2)... Again, MY 'choices' in the matter to make a decison are based on an endless string of random events, some of which are so completely horrifying, I'd give him shit, and would help him only if he asked me to find him a clinic. But this is MY decision, MY 'choices' based on MY experiences...

Again, I'm sure you're wondering about the point... Your argument as I see it is based upon 1) God is sentient, and knowing, 2) you have a choice, and 3) it's in YOUR nature alone to be 'of the devil'...

I've tried address 1) in the first post, 2) in my previous point, and here goes 3):

At some point in time there existed a theological movement (in this country for sure, I'm not sure about others) that rested on the notion that it is in man's nature to be of the devil. It's in his nature to be wicked, and only through religion is it possible to stem the tide of that which he is made to do... The orginal sin made us (that would be men) do what we want, so why fight it. Your notion isn't new or original, in fact it's like 100 years old.

But it's also complete poppy cock as far as I'm concerned. People aren't driven to do anything... they follow their 'dick' the dick that is born of countless random events that form their notions. Some can fall into a model that seems sensible at the time, but ends up being not quite a good idea.

As a side argument consider this:

1) Suppose God did give us the original sin... Couldn't this also be akin to teaching a child to use a gun? Sure the child can kill, but can he really form a revolution or form a government? Both of which can't be possible without the ability to kill. My point here is, to be more, you must do more.

2) The orginal sin isn't unique to Judeo-Christian teachings... think Pandora's box.

3) It's in man's nature to destruct. Consider the lyrics of the dead kennedy's riot, in particular:

Now you can smash all the windows that you want
All you really need are some friends and a rock
Throwing a brick never felt so damn good
Smash more glass
Scream with a laugh
And wallow with the crowds
Watch them kicking peoples' ass


Yes, we've unleashed original sin, and it feels good, but

But you get to the place
Where the real slavedrivers live
It's walled off by the riot squad
Aiming guns right at your head
So you turn right around
And play right into their hands
And set your own neighbourhood
Burning to the ground instead

There is rarely a point as you never really have a 'chance' as you really never have a choice... why?


Shotguns prod into your bellies
The trigger fingers want an excuse
Now the raging mob has lost its nerve
There's more of us but who goes first
No one dares to cross the line


There's more of us, but who goes first? Everyone, I mean EVERYONE acts in their own best interests, and as such EVERYONE thinks they are right... they know it, they can prove it... but who is really? In the end for me it comes down to this: any chump can have a grand time destroying things, it takes an artist to have a good time making things better.

[plural.livejournal.com]

Ahhh, I think you may have entirely missed my point.

It isn't original sin or intrinsic nature that I am questioning here.

I am not arguing that god created us with original sin, in fact, I'm arguing that the original sin was a moral requirement. Not in so much as it frees us to act however we choose or without regard for others, but rather a question of roles.

The choice between creative chaos and stagnant order.

It isn't that god is at fault for creating within us the original sin, for I reject that it was a sin, rather it was that god sought to keep us stagnated and imprisoned in Eden.

Look at most any religion, the core message is sit down, shut up, be happy for what you have and don't rock the boat.

I am not arguing for the disregarding of morality here, only that false sense of limitation that religion seems so often to bring.

Sure we should act with kindness, care and morality, but why does that mean sacrificing our dreams, accepting less than we deserve, to slurp at the fount of mediocrity?

I'm going to end this here as I have work to do and I want to write a follow up post to this one which I hope will be more clear.

[budhaboy.livejournal.com]

But if God indeed has infinate wisdom and power, wouldn't the implications of his giving us the need for freedom (i.e. the products of original sin) also be his gift?

Again, I'm drawn to pandora's box as annalagus to your argument, as in that case it was man's inquisitive nature that forced him to open the box and release wisdom.

And while you are right, that some religions can be interpretted as 'sit down and shut up... etc.' I think they are wrapped in the cloak of 'a little knowledge can be bad...' Instead of walking down the path of pure id, reign it in a bit in this way for the common good.

Again, the current dogmatic nature of religion (in America, anyway) has at it's roots this notion of man is intrisically flawed, and only through prayer can we be 'healed'...

Now you may want to debate whether or not 'intrisically' is a product of the actual gift or an implication of it, but I think it's a argument of semantics, as if one necessarily follows from the other you get it for free, so to speak.

In all seriousness, H should get in on this, as she cold quote you exactly what you are getting at, and give you several books on the topic.

[soft-steps.livejournal.com]

Mmm,
Everything you have written here is true...
However
I like the fact that you are telling me to jump...
when you jump it will leave you still with everything intact.
Me jumping??
Well mister, I have a bit to lose...
and yet everything to gain. *sigh*

There are no easy answers.
Only easy questions.

If I only had to worry about myself?
I'd jump right in after you,
no hesitations.
But I am very consious of how my actions would affect the other in my life.
I believe that I owe him at least a try.
I need to try.
And hope like hell that me trying, will not lead to me hating him for holding me back. When he would not even be aware of it.

So while I dipped my feet in, felt the cold, the difference
I have realised that I have too many clothes on.
I have no sunscreen
If I go in with all my clothes I'll drown.
If I go in without any sunscreen I'll get burnt.

I have things I need to do.
Bags I need to get rid of.
The last thing I want to do is jump in willy nilly,
wake up one day and think
shit

Yes, I know, I know.

Take the risk.

If you wait too long the oportunity will be gone.

Heard it before,
been to the sermon
even took photos.

My heart is not broken.
It has been torn out and put on my bedside table for me to look at
for me to wonder what it would be like to have it inside me again.
It does have a lot of glue and sticky tape around it... holding it together... perhaps one day it will heal...

The charade that is my life at the moment is where I need to be.
Whether I want to be elsewhere or not...
it is not fair to leave without giving him a chance.

Is that fair for me? Or my devil in waiting?
Well no
I suppose not.

But I shaped this man of mine.
He doesn't know who he is without me
I need to make it better before... anything.

Never think my decision to wait, To hold off jumping, is easy.
If you think I am not jumping because it is easy? Comfortable?
fuck you
This is the hardest thing I have done.

*sigh*

I'll post about this later.

I am kicking you really hard right now...
but never fear
I'll kiss it better later

[plural.livejournal.com]

my oh my

you are so all my favorite kinds of trouble.

[soft-steps.livejournal.com]

I thought you didn't have favourite things!!
Am I your first?

*cheeky grin*

[plural.livejournal.com]

come 'ere you, I'll show you cheeky...

[soft-steps.livejournal.com]

*runs away giggling*