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a c ghaktivedanta swami prabhupada
September 2008 
Crashing Utopia
Posted on Apr 1st, 2008
by 
pRiMaLeVe
pRiMaLeVe
The great mistake of modern civilization is to encroach upon others' property as though it were one's own and to thereby create an unnecessary disturbance of the laws of nature. *These laws are very strong. No living entity can violate them.* Only one who is Krishna consciousness can easily overcome the stringency of the laws of nature and thus become happy and peaceful in the world.
As a state is protected by the department of law and order, so the state of Universe, of which this earth is only an insignificant fragment, is protected by the laws of nature. This material nature is one of the different potencies of Great Spirit, who is the ultimate proprietor of everything that be. This earth, therefore, is the "property" of Great Spirit, but we, the living entities, especially the so-called civilized human beings, are claiming Great Spirit's property as our own ('HOW CAN WE OWN THE LAND WE'RE BURIED IN?'), under both an individual and collective false conception. If you want peace, you have to remove this false conception from your mind and from the world. . . . This false claim of proprietorship by the human race on earth is partly or wholly the cause of all disturbances of peace on earth.
~ Excerpt from The Peace Formula, by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, adapted slightly by moi
People of this culture are trying to reinvent the wheel in their attempts to find a way to live in the world. We're behaving as though it had never been done before, as though we had no reference points from which to start. What I'm trying to point out is that humans, people as smart as you and I, have lived on this planet for hundreds and thousands of years. For much of that time people had a way of life that worked very well for them.
Now we are plummeting toward catastrophe, imagining that we have nowhere to turn for answers, when, in fact, there are people living on this planet now - descendants of those very successful people of earlier times - who know how to live. And it's still possible for us to learn from them.
Aboriginal or Native people are still living essentially the same way people were living hundreds of thousands of years ago. This is a way of life that "civilized" cultures have been stamping out for about ten thousand years. The assault on native peoples started in this part of the world in 1492.
> One of the basic ideas of our culture is that people are fundamentally no good, that people are greedy, cruel, and vicious to the core. That is our nature, so get used to it folks. Get as much as you can, then get really good locks for your doors.
I want to change that basic attitude. Not only is the world a sacred place, but we belong in it. We're not alien monsters here. We should stop perceiving ourselves in that way and begin to reevaluate our place in the greater community. The view of this culture is that we are vicous beings, but still infinitely better than every other creature on this planet. They are worthless beings we can kill off at will. I'm proposing that we all belong to a community of life. We are no better or worse than other creatures. We have to begin to think of ourselves as members of the world community, rather than as rulers of the planet. Our old vision of ourselves as the despots of the world, snapping our whips and making nature obey, might have thrilled us, but it's not working out.
*What's important for you to know is that the world religions of today are not the only religions. They are only those of our particular, estranged culture. I'm not advocating that they be abandoned, although perhaps, if we adopt a healthier vision, they'll die of their own accord.*
I'd also like to advise people against pinning their hopes on the utopian dream that we can become better than people have ever been before. In this sense, our present system is a utopian system, one whose institutions would work perfectly if people would just be better than they have ever been: our schools would educate; our laws would be obeyed; our governments would govern effectively and justly. The success of tribal systems doesn't depend on people being better human beings; and, indeed, that is why they succeed.
In the same way, nothing that I'm proposing requires people to be better than they've ever been. The new-age vision is that if people would just be better than they are now, if they would be more loving, raise their consciousness, and be more sympathetic and more sensitive, then everything would be wonderful. Of course that's perfectly true. But utopian undertakings never work. Besides, people don't need to be better, because ther's nothing basically wrong with them in the first place. For hundreds of thousands of years, people lived on this planet harmlessly - or as harmlessly as any other creature - so there's no need to change our nature. If we put our hope in people becoming better, we're inevitably going to be sorely disappointed. All the changes I'm talking about can happen without people becoming better than they have ever been. People need only to continue being what they are. That's the direction in which hope lies.
~ Carter Brooks, Carter Read Seed
As a state is protected by the department of law and order, so the state of Universe, of which this earth is only an insignificant fragment, is protected by the laws of nature. This material nature is one of the different potencies of Great Spirit, who is the ultimate proprietor of everything that be. This earth, therefore, is the "property" of Great Spirit, but we, the living entities, especially the so-called civilized human beings, are claiming Great Spirit's property as our own ('HOW CAN WE OWN THE LAND WE'RE BURIED IN?'), under both an individual and collective false conception. If you want peace, you have to remove this false conception from your mind and from the world. . . . This false claim of proprietorship by the human race on earth is partly or wholly the cause of all disturbances of peace on earth.
~ Excerpt from The Peace Formula, by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, adapted slightly by moi
Faithless - Insomnia
People of this culture are trying to reinvent the wheel in their attempts to find a way to live in the world. We're behaving as though it had never been done before, as though we had no reference points from which to start. What I'm trying to point out is that humans, people as smart as you and I, have lived on this planet for hundreds and thousands of years. For much of that time people had a way of life that worked very well for them.
Now we are plummeting toward catastrophe, imagining that we have nowhere to turn for answers, when, in fact, there are people living on this planet now - descendants of those very successful people of earlier times - who know how to live. And it's still possible for us to learn from them.
Aboriginal or Native people are still living essentially the same way people were living hundreds of thousands of years ago. This is a way of life that "civilized" cultures have been stamping out for about ten thousand years. The assault on native peoples started in this part of the world in 1492.
> One of the basic ideas of our culture is that people are fundamentally no good, that people are greedy, cruel, and vicious to the core. That is our nature, so get used to it folks. Get as much as you can, then get really good locks for your doors.
I want to change that basic attitude. Not only is the world a sacred place, but we belong in it. We're not alien monsters here. We should stop perceiving ourselves in that way and begin to reevaluate our place in the greater community. The view of this culture is that we are vicous beings, but still infinitely better than every other creature on this planet. They are worthless beings we can kill off at will. I'm proposing that we all belong to a community of life. We are no better or worse than other creatures. We have to begin to think of ourselves as members of the world community, rather than as rulers of the planet. Our old vision of ourselves as the despots of the world, snapping our whips and making nature obey, might have thrilled us, but it's not working out.
*What's important for you to know is that the world religions of today are not the only religions. They are only those of our particular, estranged culture. I'm not advocating that they be abandoned, although perhaps, if we adopt a healthier vision, they'll die of their own accord.*
I'd also like to advise people against pinning their hopes on the utopian dream that we can become better than people have ever been before. In this sense, our present system is a utopian system, one whose institutions would work perfectly if people would just be better than they have ever been: our schools would educate; our laws would be obeyed; our governments would govern effectively and justly. The success of tribal systems doesn't depend on people being better human beings; and, indeed, that is why they succeed.
In the same way, nothing that I'm proposing requires people to be better than they've ever been. The new-age vision is that if people would just be better than they are now, if they would be more loving, raise their consciousness, and be more sympathetic and more sensitive, then everything would be wonderful. Of course that's perfectly true. But utopian undertakings never work. Besides, people don't need to be better, because ther's nothing basically wrong with them in the first place. For hundreds of thousands of years, people lived on this planet harmlessly - or as harmlessly as any other creature - so there's no need to change our nature. If we put our hope in people becoming better, we're inevitably going to be sorely disappointed. All the changes I'm talking about can happen without people becoming better than they have ever been. People need only to continue being what they are. That's the direction in which hope lies.
~ Carter Brooks, Carter Read Seed
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