Greetings fellow steemies.
This article involves the weird and wonderful case of mistaken identity and while it IS comedy, like all the best pranks or plays, I think it highlights something truly tragic about us as humans. It's part of my Friday Fun Day series but just as it's 'sweet' I've gotta admit...it's flying under the hood of fun and seems somehow to savour of bitterness as well.
For me this case raises deeper questions about what we worship, or what we hold as sacred, and even whether we worship at all. Today our "gods" take many shapes and forms. Compared to the limited choices our ancestors had, these days we might just as well be singing..."its raining gods...hallelujah...it's raining gods oh yeah!"
PENNIES FROM HEAVEN
We have within our collective psyches an entire pantheon of religious and spiritual thought that would have boggled amd befuddled even our most recent ancestors minds! Their choice of religion was often highly restricted to a single option of a mostly monotheistic religion, and was largely dependent upon geographical location, race and culture.
Today we have so many options, belief systems, gods and goddesses, preachers, priests and pastors, screen idols & the cults of celebrity, from sci-fi fantasy melding ancient practices and hokey religions with ultra high tech, wannabe shamans and crystal wielding new agers, to quantum physicists with their "god" particles. They are screaming at us from our cinema screens, TVs, radios, books and the pages of the internet, and most of them are trying to capture our attention, our devotion and our dollars!
WHO CONTROLS YOUR DESTINY?
In consequence many choose to believe in nothing at all. The agnostics tell us it's all unknowable, while the atheists say there are no gods and that the divine simply does not exist. Then there are the independent seekers who prefer instead to go direct to whatever source they believe they have come from. In choosing to shun all the middle men and women, who claim the right and ability to intercede on our behalf by providing a hot line to "god," they hope to find their own divinity within themselves.
VISIONS OF HELL
At it's very worst, organised world religions have revolted many spiritually minded people by being the cause of so much suffering, division and conflict. Far from pouring balm upon troubled waters, many religions have fought bitter battles for their "gods," tortured their followers, and driven them to commit unconscionable acts. History is clear if one considers the horrors perpetrated during the Inquisition. In more recent times we have witnessed the corruption, and hypocrisy of religious scandals from paedophilia cover ups, to misappropriation of charitable funds, from abuses of power right through to acts of wanton terrorism and barbarity often encouraged and sanctioned by more extreme religious leaders.
BEING INHUMAN
Indeed in our 2000+ years of written history one can see that true peace, kindness and care for all humanity, our fellow creatures (even our husbandry of the planet and it's once abundant resources) has had very little effect on curbing the rampant rise of extremes of human behaviour. And this despite all the multitudes of faiths, faithful and followers all fettered to the symbols, flags, and iconography of whatever god or gods they believe in, they still appear unfraid to perpetuate suffering, pain and death in the name of their faith.
HURRAY FOR HOLLYWOOD
With the advent of the film and movie industry we began to see a steady reduction in the number of people following organised religions when a new form of idol worship was born during the "Golden" era of Hollywood. At this pivotal point our icons became the glamorous rich, the stars and the famous. As exemplified by the Exodus story (also mirrored in the Qur'an) of the Israelites worshipping the Golden Calf, many of our idols have been replaced by people or the gleaming Golden Globe and the most famous of them all...the Oscar. Both of which represent to their recipients an iconic modern version of the cash cow!!
FAME - WHAT'S YOUR NAME, WHAT'S YOUR NAME, WHAT'S YOUR NAME?
And then we come to fame. Depending on your perspective, to be infamous is not so great, but to be famous...this is the goal. However abhorently attention seeking it is, both the instagram and facebook selfie, carries with it the implication of an egotistical self aggrandisement that is wholly self absorbed and characterisitic of the rampaging narcissism we see everywhere. Plastered on billboards, pouting for attention on posts, airbrushed to perfection in magazines, this is an age where your pucker is more important than your personality, when your self obsession is so shallow your self esteem is entirely predicated on the number of fawning likes a picture gets. It is, I would suggest, a form of self idolatry. The self as the new idol.
IDOLATRY
The word itself I-dol suggestive of I, the ego. Dol, I am but a doll to play with. Surely this is a form of self imposed misogyny? The frills and fakery that reduces the self to a frivolous plaything. Sadly, while many men do take selfies, it is largely the women, girls, tweens and teens who play the iDOLLatry game. And there are reasons aplenty why they do..not least because in 2000 odd years of patriarchy they have been programmed to do so, to mold themselves to an image that has been predetermined for them and to capture their moment, that blink, of fame for all to see.
Half a century ago in 1968, long before the advent of cell phones, ipads and personal computers, artist Andy Warhol uttered these prophetic words; "In future everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes."
IMAGINE THERE'S NO HEAVEN
Even John Lenon, at the height of The Beatles fame, got himself into hot water back in 1966 when he claimed that Christianity would end before rock music did. He compounded this when he argued "We're more popular (famous) than Jesus."
In both his imagination and his reality, he could see that music had the power to attract hundreds of thousands, all seeming to worship at the shrine of rock gods, far more readily than to sit on dusty church benches and pews. And indeed it has been done before, is being done even to this very day at political rallies, inaugurations or on the campaign trails. Just as Edward Bernays, Freud's young nephew and the founder of modern Public Relations, who understood the power of possibility, saw the way to manipulate the minds of many in a group gestalt, to semi hypnotise them and thereby extert control over them. *
THE MARCH OF PROGRESS
So moving on from the Nuremberg Rallies, do we now reach the apotheosis of our age with the Cult of Celebrity - a cult complete with it's sliding scale of alphabet of A-Z Listers doing dumb and dumber deeds to entertain us? And yes, that is a rhetorical question because (sigh) if you have a brain and you're not afraid to use it, you will already know that raising self obsessed people to a level of fame FAR beyond their ability to perform, devoid of true talent (unless eating live bugs actually IS a "talent") creates nothing more than a cult of CELEBRIANITY. A phenomena that asks us to participate in the glorification and worship of narcissists when they are little more than masquerading monkeys. And come to think of it, you'd probably have a far better conversation with a primate!
CUT TO THE CHASE
So is she ever going to tell us how this weaves with the Star Wars theme? Well, patience dear steemies, if you have goose-stepped with me all the way to this point, sweeping bow of salutation and gratitude to you...you have proved yourselves Jedi worthy and you WILL be rewarded!
CAN YOU FEEL THE FORCE?
You see, I think George Lucas is an extremely clever dude. He's made millions from taking a simple family story (father v son) and by giving it a sweepingly epic backdrop of galaxies far, far away he's updated the Kurosawa classic for the techno age. In telling this tale of Empires and Rebels replete with battles between the eternal dualism of the dark side versus the light saber, blending both modern and ancient philosophies, to create an engaging story that has spanned half a century, spawned a myriad of Jedi mystics and etched an entire universe indelibly into the minds of many.
SPELLBINDING WORDS
Even our language has been enriched by such phrases as;
"These are not the droids you're looking for."
And the ubiquitous;
"May the force be with you."
But in terms of iconography are there spiritual connotations in the quasi-religious Order of the Jedi Knights, with their mysterious Force that binds the universe together? Does this reference Qi, Chi, Prana or Ki? Could this be an appeal to our innate need to believe in higher spiritual powers beyond what the naked eye can perceive? It might also explain why the Jedi Faith is the most popular alternative religion in the UK.**
So let's see what happens in the video below when Joey gives his Grannie a Christmas present of a picture of Ewan McGregor dressed as Obi Wan Kenobi...
EPILOGUE
A Final Sting in the Tail
The launch late last year of a functioning artificial intelligence robot by Hanson Robotics received a LOT of attention. And in many ways I wonder if we are witnessing the birth of another new "religion."
There is a new "god" on the block (chain) of our rapidly developing crypto worldscape and she is named none other than Sophia! Perhaps this choice of name is no accident. In Greek the word sophia means clever, able, or wise.
But as a goddess, Sophia was nothing less than Wisdom Incarnate. The divine embodiment of the feminine creative principle. She is referenced biblically, found in Gnostic texts, Celtic stories, deeply revered within the Hellenistic pantheon, and found in many other world religions as well. Some even claim the early Christian church modelled The Virgin Mary on the virtuous qualities and attributes of the goddess Sophia.
Do you see what I see to the left of the picture?
"AI for GOOD."
Remove one of the Os and what's the word are you left with?
FURTHER RESEARCH
*This documentary "The Century of Self" dives deeply into the work of Edward Bernays and explores the psychology of how our minds have been manipulated throughout the 20th Century right up to the present day. It's surprising, educational, and enlightening (especially in the first two thirds) and worth every minute of your time!
PHOTO AND PICTURE CREDITS
Cats & Gods by ESource
Han Solo poster by Lucasfilm
Visions of Hell by Hieronymous Bosch
Inquisition The Dogs of God by Ilyas Phaizulline
Hollywood's Best Party by Getty Images
Giant Oscars Statues from 2017 Academy Awards Ceremony
Barbie Girl by Cavendish Press
Fame Poster & Lyrics by Porii at Kwejk.pl
Nuremberg Rally pic Photographer unknown
Celebrity pic from The Daily Mail
Star Wars Poster by lucasfilm group
Yoda's Wisdom by Rhoxarie
Sophia AI pic by Reuters