The Fate Of Public Enemy Number One

By Author: Tom Horn
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THE FATE OF PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER ONE
We live in a world of patterns. But, according to science, patterns are unlikely. Any patterns that do occur are described as chance events that become quickly reabsorbed into a pervading trend towards formlessness or featurelessness. You can test this easily. Take several coins and pile them up, one on top of the other, on the palm of your hand. You will observe a 'cylinder' of coins - a recognizable pattern. Now toss them on the ground. If three or four of those coins wound up in a pattern you would be surprised. If you tossed the coins again and they fell into the same pattern you would be completely flabbergasted. What generally happens, of course, is that the coins wind up in a scattered arrangement on the ground. All of the natural forces identified by science, except one, lead to randomness. The exception is gravity, which leads to the simple spherical shapes of planets and stars. But even the stars and planets are scattered across the heavens. If there are any patterns, these have occurred by chance and will not last.  But gravity cannot account for all the complex patterns ...
... and structures that repeat everywhere you look. Here on earth there are people, animals, plants, fish, birds, reptiles, insects. There are any number of repeating patterns of behaviour. Why? .
Science and logic attempt to explain the existence of patterns and structures by saying that chance is responsible for them. According to our learned duo, the whole world is a clockwork, predictable process in which order and routine appear by chance within a general trend towards featurelessness. In other words, the routines of your life occur by accident and always in an onward march towards meaninglessness, dissipation and the grave. Logic and science say that, ultimately, your bones will be nothing more than so much dust blowing in someone else's eyes. Well, that is one explanation. Now I will tell you a secret that logic and science are not aware of. Most of the patterns and routines that drive your actions and those that you encounter in your daily life have no logical antecedents. This means that there is no chain of causes and effects that you could trace that would lead up to the routine or structure in question. 'Patterns' just emerge into the world in a surprising way.
The patterns of development that emerge as if from nowhere repeat themselves in every era. Originally they were depicted in the great mythological stories. One such is the Greek myth of Phaeton. This is an important story because the pattern of development that gripped the central character is common in the modern world. Phaeton's father was the Sun God. Now this God was far away in the sky, so Phaeton was brought up by his mother alone. One day the young Phaeton's pride was hurt when his great lineage was doubted by an acquaintance. So Phaeton went to his mother and asked for proof that his father was the Sun God. The great lady directed her son to the land in the east where the sun rose. Phaeton traveled there and was greeted by the Sun God who confirmed that he was indeed his father. As an act of good will, the Sun God grants Phaeton a wish. The young man, still smarting from damaged pride, asks to be allowed to drive his father's chariot across the sky. Because of his inexperience, he was warned not to attempt such a feat. But Phaeton could not be dissuaded and he launches himself forward in the chariot. Eventually, control is lost and the fiery chariot lurches towards the earth threatening a great scorching of the land. Before damage could be done Phaeton is blasted out of the sky by a thunderbolt and is killed.
Now what possible relevance could that story have for today's world? Well, it is the 'pattern' of development that is important. The absent father. Offspring brought up by lone female. Lack of self-esteem. The young person biting off more than they can chew. The catastrophic fall to earth. The children of unmarried mothers are very much 'available' to this archetypal pattern. Perhaps the youngsters turn to crime and are emboldened by some early success. They climb to dizzy heights of notoriety. But, in their battle against authority, they have taken on more than they can handle and the police inevitably catch up with them, bring them down to earth and cast them into gaol. In those lives, the mysterious living trend of Phaeton will have been fulfilled. Many privileged people, politicians, industrialists and people in the public eye suffer a similar fate within the channel of their individual activity. Hitler, for example, did not get on with a father who died when he was thirteen. He then went on to live the tragedy of Phaeton. If you examine these lives you will discover an absent father or a weak father or perhaps they were sent away to boarding school. This lack of a male role model will prevent the optimum 'plan' for their lives from unfolding and they will become available to the one-sided living trend depicted in the myth of Phaeton. 
Could public enemy number one, Osama Bin Laden, be gripped by the myth of Phaeton? His father was generally absent and died when Osama was ten. The boy was then brought up by his mother alone. This would have made him available to the living trend. However, nothing is certain because living trends emerge in a surprising way. They are unpredictable, unlike events that occur under the known laws of interaction. But you can see how Osama could be living the tragedy of Phaeton. His father was missing. And plainly, in his war against the west, he has bitten off more than he can chew and the standard 'pattern' of the living trend is emerging. Osama's followers think that he is some kind of religious prophet. He certainly looks like one, with his Biblical clothes, general demeanor and apocalyptic utterances. But appearances can be deceptive. If he were a prophet, why can't he 'see' the 'power' in which he is caught up and the fate that awaits him. He can't 'see' because he is 'blind'. He is 'blind' like the rest of us who must go on in 'darkness' and live out, to the very end, the folly which we call human life.
It looks as though George Bush will 'blast Osama Bin Laden out of the sky', thus fulfilling the archetypal 'pattern' that was 'intended' from the beginning. But should George celebrate his great 'victory over evil'? Maybe not. You see, George is living out his own myth and it is an unpleasant surprise that awaits him too. It looks as if old George is living the myth of the problem solver. This is the myth of Hercules. Our hero is seen chopping off the heads of the Hydra, only to be surprised by more problematic heads growing elsewhere on the body of the monster. So here we have George 'Hercules' Bush chopping off Osama's head only to be confronted by more terror tactics from the monstrous AlQaeda terrorist network. Here also we have George ousting the Taliban in Afghanistan, only to create a 'vacuum' which sucks in an equally unacceptable regime. So George's solutions are turning into new problems. He is simply acting out the myth that most of us are embroiled in. So don't celebrate yet George.
We shouldn't laugh, because human folly afflicts us all. In a world where recognizable patterns of development are unlikely, everyday life is crammed with them. These living trends or vortexes of disembodied 'intent' emerge, in a surprising way, from a dimension beyond time and space. Call this dimension what you will - the unconscious, heaven, hell, the underworld, eternity, the void, phase space, it does not matter. The trends emerge just the same to enlist each one of us in a life of folly. They get away with it because we are unconscious of the nature of reality. We think we are in control but nothing could be further from the Truth.
You see, there is a transcendent 'pattern' for the development of Osama and George and you and me. But this never manifests because something goes wrong early on. A father dies, imperfect knowledge is imparted, unrealistic mind viruses are contracted, some unforeseen event pushes us off-track. For the transcendent pattern of a life to emerge it must be evoked by an already existing role model or by a special teaching. The teaching is designed to help a person correct imbalances and become available to a 'power' that creates nice surprises. In the absence of nice surprises, all you are left with is the living trends of science, technology, religion and culture. At the end of those beguiling 'paths' is an 'abyss'. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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