AN APPLE A DAY
Astonishingly, humanity’s yet to fully comprehend its elasticity, its inter-connectedness, its Oneness with self and everything. Dooms-dayers love saying the world is SICK, and while I remain the most optimistic person on this planet, I must admit, this world is pretty sick. If one continually deforests the largest oxygen producer in world for the sake of cattle-breeding, OR one slaughters 136 million chickens, 890 000 cows, 1.5 million sheep and 1.3 million goats EVERY DAY for meal & textile consumption, OR one mines insatiably across the planet leading to soil erosion, loss of biodiversity, waterway contamination & misbalancing of global morphic fields + schumann resonances… then one must ask, are these the actions of a sane and healthy person? This week on “The Other Side with Sihle Sibeko”, we’re putting the gloves on and playing doctor.
"Something to think about: The Earth is 4.6 billion years old. Let's scale that to 46 years. We (humanity) have been here for 4 hours. Our industrial revolution began 1 minute ago. In that time, we have destroyed 50% of the world's forests. This is not sustainable." Vala Afshar… One could explain humanity’s relationship with nature as untenable, haemorrhaging, vain and hateful. A nasty outward projection, disdain & violence towards nature in the name of capitalism, mirror’s a sad internal reality, a disdain and violence towards ourselves – such an attitude can never be reflective of a healthy being.
In prior posts, I noted that African Spiritual Sciences (“AS”) views all organisms in life through a humanist lens, ie: I can take the consciousness of a thing, place it in human form and study it as if it were a person. Biology is to Economics that it is to Chemistry that it is to Sociology. Even African economies were viewed in this humanist lens. Kemet to West Africa to Southern Africa, common theme is an extrinsic and intrinsic flow of energy (trade, microeconomics & macroeconomics), as well as the consolidation of energy in a centralized point to be redistributed (tax). Energy in an economy is comparable to energy in a body.
A healthy person aligned to their purpose maintains an optimized balance in physical, mental and spiritual faculties both with self and their environment. An unhealthy person is the polar opposite - they are riddled with dystopian relationships between themselves and their environment. Their individualized "me/I" consciousness posits people & environment as secondary to self, which is really a reflection of their own self-abandonment. The greatest affliction to a body is a build-up of Mucus. A healthy body is constantly detoxified because the inputs (food, media, thoughts, etc) are purified and conducive to the body. Mucus cannot build in a healthy body because there is no site in the body to host such a build-up. An unhealthy body however is primed for mucus build-up, leading to bodily-deterioration, ill-health and cancer. Cancer cells are observed as parasitic cells acting antithetically to the body and white blood cells at large. If there is no uniformity in how the body functions, the body dies.
A positive collective consciousness gives vitality & health for individual & collective benefit. Individual cells in a body work in collective harmony, ensuring a healthy body. Communities (cells) live in collective harmony, ensuring a healthy natural environment (body). People (cells) work in collective harmony, ensuring healthy societal relations (body). African economies were built on an understanding that collective consciousness and customs must be healthy and balanced to yield collective benefit - hence the palatial, laxed lifestyle that thrived in pre-colonial indigenous communities.
Ray Dalio sees an economy as a machine, AS sees an economy as a human - both are systems Whereas Western logic views things as mechanical, indigenous communities view things as fluid because the consciousness + customs of a human are impressed upon whatever it creates. Western consciousness may be the dominant consciousness in our world, but things are slowly beginning to revert back to the mean of fluidity- the economic data is no longer as fixed and mechanical as it used to be... just ask the Federal Reserve Bank of America.
The current economic order is conducive for capitalism to thrive, yet the world is paralyzed by constant fiscal panic. Is capitalism our best effort at creating economic harmony? Let’s look at the ultimate indicator of health: mortality. In a study conducted by Boris Urlanis, it was found that since the 1600s, over 839 000 deaths can be directly attributable to wars fought for capitalist interests (700 000 of those came from the imperialist capital age). The greater the conquest, the greater the cost to human life. It’s not much greater in respects to general health either, if you consider that 82% of illnesses quoted as “viruses” came into existence in the imperialist and neo-colonial eras of capitalism (yep, since 1898). Want to know what is the second largest contributor to suicides in the world according to the World Health Organization? You guessed, economic recessions. Substance abuse deaths also points to the same conclusion: Princeton economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton published a paper detailing how drug overdoses are largest cause of death in USA and directly linked to inequality + economic despair.
Environmentally and personally, despair is rife. If Capitalism as an ideal is our best shot and creating a prosperous economic system, then we’re not trying very hard. We’re living in a society of widespread inequality, thinking one must either be exceptional or exceptionally unscrupulous to achieve success. What does that categorize everyone else as? The only path this leads to is an overwhelming majority of people tainting their self-image with shame and disapproval. This is not to compliment Socialism/ Communism either. The issue is not the system or its ideals, the issue is its inventors, participants and collaborators. An economic system and its ideals, whether capitalism, socialism or whateverism, is reflective of OUR consciousness & customs, it permeates out of US and exists in the way that it does because of US. This is where the ailment lies – in creating and sustaining systems that project our self-contempt, our pain, our trauma, our fear and our disregard for human life & the environment. Only a sick individual would sustain systemic torment, enjoying every moment of it whilst SIMULTANEOUSLY complaining about it. Masochism, schizophrenia or both – have your pick.
The panacea, if no other data is available, is then is uncover remnants of past where economic systems were sustained in Harmony. AS principles relating to economic affairs, the maintenance of peace between self, others and the environment are predicated upon One being in total alignment with their purpose in order make meaningful contributions to the said society. Fulfilment of purpose (fulfilment of self) means an individual impresses their gifts upon the world, and this gift has affinity with nature (hence the preservation and supplication to nature in African cultures) and affinity to others (exhibited in the consciousness of ubuNtu and the customs of isiNtu). Everyone can win because everyone MUST win. If even one person doesn’t win, disharmony arises. An entire society in support of you fulfilling your purpose; isn’t this sane? A consistently positive feedback loop of Balance, Harmony and Self-Actualization; isn’t this healthy?
Wisdom dictates prevention is better than cure. May we shift our consciousness away from amelioration and into total health - spiritually, mentally, & physically.
Siyabonga!
This weeks affirmation: My health is my wealth - I am both healthy and wealthy.
This weeks vibe: https://open.spotify.com/track/60YKaBvjgNvGRVei6rmRQk?si=ffa6ab2df71c4c97 | https://music.apple.com/za/album/amazing-grace/1628625185?i=1628625350 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbMzVb7WzfA - Amazing Grace by Thandi Ntuli feat Ndabo Zulu / https://twitter.com/TheSihleSibeko/status/1554133056101007361 - A snippet on healing from "Project Ma'ruf"
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