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Been contemplating the experience of human bondage in all its forms.

The most typical that is recognized is the age old physical enslavement by a ruling or invading force that oppresses and subjugates some for the benefit of others usually of a privileged class.

The bondage I speak here of is much more invasive and less obvious or recognized by the masses. These forms range from vices of the lower impulses and drives from the human body to the same that extend from the human ego or false self.

These type are much more invasive and insidious given they are more relevant, or common and therefore less likely to be seen for what they are.

Moreover, a persuasive argument can be made that these I speak of when left uncheck ultimately lead to the more obvious and profane form of historically noted human bondage and enslavement.

In this day and age human enslavement and bondage is rampant in many forms and reinforced by nefarious outcomes of self-perpetuating systems. Addiction, pleasure, greed, gluttony and the rest are staples in modern Western civilization. In more ways than one they define the current post-modern Western way of living, of being, of doing.

Whether through consumption in a society and economy based on consumerism or its consort and ultimate effect of becoming an object to be consumed by the bottomless abyss of corporate production and exploitation through the pharmaceutical industries to big tech and government. They all lead to the same result when they operate for their own sake of self-sustainability and perpetuation. A hollowed out form of what was once the essence of humanity. So there it is.

Even so, human bondage and enslavement is nothing new under the sun. It’s been around for as long as written history and the dawn of known civilization. Perhaps the only difference today is the form it takes through the cloak of technology. Where technology today is being leveraged to monitor, control and enslave the masses. Whoever may be susceptible to be caught in its dragnet of sort.

And all the talk of transhumanism and the infiltration of AI into the human experience is one more layer to this most intriguing riddle of empowerment, disempowerment and the will to power Nietzsche wrote about, or at least one of the interpretations floating around in cyber land.

So where does this leave me to conclude? Well, let me be clear here. There is no conclusion. Conclusion implies an end. There is no end here, only a continuation. So let me add, to be continued.

What do you think? Leave a comment if it’s worth sharing.

What a time to be alive. For every ending there is a new beginning. Consider for a moment that for the end of one age a new one is ushered in. And the transformative powers that be move at their own pace and cadence.

Something no one talks about is how messy transformation is when you’re smack-dab in the middle of it, observing it being played out, whether its a week, a month, or nine months its a large slow moving process. So much so people are generally too busy, too distracted and too indifferent to notice or even care. Even so the passing years, decades, lifetimes even, weave the events and changes like every instrument that contributes to a symphony. And just like a symphonic performance unless it’s recognized and appreciated in its completeness it will be taken for a senseless, out of sync, fragmented and disjointed noise rather than an opus.

But who lives long enough to see how cycles of civilizations contribute to the species that comprise them? And if they could, they’d also see how much is diluted and often intentionally distorted obscuring accurate accounts of events, narratives and outcomes. Unless there’s enough history and outlets of information to derive context to the present what can be hoped to be gained from a convoluted blotted out body of history anyway?

But even with those obstacles consider for a moment how much knowledge has been distilled, preserved, enriched and advanced in the last three thousand years. And now add to that the millions, billions of lifetimes that have come and gone each contributing to that living organic monolith we loosely call humanity.

Like the first ten minutes of a twelve minute symphony leading to the crescendo of the grand finale, so has history led to this space between two eras before us, one passing away, as the other one has yet to fully emerge into its own defined form. But it’s evident this being between two eras is real by the witnessing of odd, bizarre and nonsensical events taking place on a massive scale, even a global one. Some consider these particularities similar to when one encounters death itself. As if entering the twilight zone. Everything is turned on its head and most begin to question their own sanity and judgement.

Is this the end of modern history?

To be continued.