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                     Introduction to Hierarchism Part Two:

Hierarchic Projection The Development of Social Superstructures

#12  Cosmology

May mahigit 6 billion na living humans ngayon sa buong mundo.  Ang dami noh!  At yun na siguro ang pinakamasaklap na mangyari sa buhay, kung sa 6 billion na yun ay wala man lang kahit isang nagmamahal sa iyo.  Ayy..

     To ensure the survival of humanity, humans need to overcome two things - Evolution and Quantum-Gravity.  Will we survive Evolution?  Very likely.  Ang claim ng mga molecular biologists ay within this century, we shall be able to genetically engineer the first immortal human.  Naku, wala ka nang kawala, wala nang till death do us part.  Kaya dapat madaliin na yung divorce law.

     From the side of Physics naman, si Helios sa Greek mythology, ay god of the sun - araw - kung saan pinangalan ang helium.  And if you still remember your Chemistry, in a series of reactions, 4 hydrogen atoms fuse to form helium.  At kung halimbawang ang timbang ng hydrogen ay tig-1000, according to the principle of conservation of mass, 1000 x 4 = 4000.  Kaya lang, ang magiging timbang ng helium ay 3972 lang - short by 0.7%.  Saan napunta?  Yun ang ibig sabihin ng E=mc2.

     Naging energy ang matter, at yung energy na yun ang ginagamit ng plants at bacteria para gumawa ng sugars na kailangan nating lahat para mabuhay.  Ang sweet naman!  In short, pag naubos na yung hydrogen ng araw, goodbye cruel world!  Tapos ang humanity.

     Unless, unless by that time, nakahanap na tayo ng ibang planeta o nakagawa na tayo ng space station na matitirhan.  And that is why we introduced the concept of an Endemic subset doon sa unang unang lecture.  Because while p is a subset of q, for any n that is not a subset of q, p for all you know may possibly be a subset of n.  Hehehe.  Ang ibig lang sabihin noon, baka naman pwedeng mabuhay ang tao nang wala sa Earth.  Kaya, tuloy ang ligaya!

     But still, planets and galaxies, quasars and other exotic heavenly bodies, are subsets of what mathematicians call the Universal Set.  And given time, either the Universe will dissipate and die a quiet death, or crunch and implode.  Either way, goodbye humanity.

     And therefore  the question becomes:  What if the universal set itself expires?  Will humans, or human beings, or the human principle still survive?   And we come to a full circle, back to our very first question.  Naalala nyo pa ba yun?  Hindi na.  What makes us human.  Naks! Kala mo tutuo..

     Eto subok lang uli.  What if the human principle is not endemic in the material universe?  In other words, what if the so called material condition is precisely that - a condition, and not an absolute given.  What if the material or historical condition is either a subset, an axis or a plane in a multi-dimensional infinite reality.

     And as usual, we have a little problem.  Again, there is absolutely no scientific means to verify First Cause or God or Infinity.  Which leaves us with only one logical solution:  For us to be able to grasp Infinity, assuming of course that it is interested in us at all, Infinity has to reach out and reveal itself to us, to our finite state.  And say Hi! 

     And that is what the Gospel is all about.  Infinity saying I’m interested in you.  Let me fill your life with songs that you may sing forevermore..  In other words, I love you.

     Ang subtext ay: dahil hindi kayang abutin ng finite ang infinite, nakikipantay ang walang hanggan sa may hanggan.  The password is Nakikipantay, the converse of Nagmamataas, the opposite of Hierarchism.  Sabi nga ng Ebanghelyo, Ang Diyos ay nagpakatao, leveled with us.

     And that is why some people, including myself, believe that the substance of Eternity is Communion.  Pagkakapantay-pantay.  At yun ang ibig sabihin ng love one another.  Yung iba dyslexic, love another one. 

     And because of that, we are committed to justice and equity.  So, kung may injustice, papanigan mo ang naaapi, kahit sino o ano man yun.  Not because she is human, not because he is a kababayan, not because it’s a business opportunity, and not because you belong to the same political group or church.

     Kung ikaw mismo ang naaapi, kalingain ang iyong sarili, you stand up for your rights.  Not because self-help books tell you to love yourself first, but because an injustice is done to you, period.

     And since we meet misfortunes and make mistakes all the time, kakambal rin ng compassion ang forgiveness, something that the Philippine Left might want to relearn if it wants to succeed.

     And ito ang ating Cosmology, o pag-unawa sa prinsipyo ng kabuuan.  Ang kabuuan ay relational, hindi kanya-kanya.  Mathematically, walang meaning ang 3=3.  Ang may meaning ay 3=2+1.  Ang ako ay walang kabuluhan kung walang sila, ikaw, kami, tayo.  Now note that 1 is different from 2 is different from 3, just like you are different from me. 

     So, our Cosmology, our appreciation of reality, does not negate our identities after all.  It affirms our selves, however, not as immutable independent individual atoms, but rather as integral connections in an ever-evolving spacetime.

     At pag tumungtong uli tayo sa lupa, sa kasalukuyang partikular na yugto ng kasaysayan, the eternal human principle is as simple as it gets.  If you are twenty-something like me, hindi mo na siguro mabilang kung ilang beses mo nang narinig yun:  Mahalin ang kapwa, katulad ng, kapantay ng, pagmamahal mo sa iyong sarili.  In a nutshell, that is the only sustainable antidote to hierarchism.

     What makes us human?  We are human because beyond survival, something infinitely divine is revealed in our very beings that compels us to eternally seek communion, and find delight in what is most just and most loving.

     But if you really want to push the envelope and ask me Are you absolutely sure about this??  Of course.. not!  This little series of all twelve short lectures, much as I hate to admit it, this is all guesswork.  In the end, we are all like frogs inside a well, in the middle of nowhere, trying to figure out where we are and what is out there.

     Yann.  And that completes our Introduction to Hierarchism. 

     Thank you, I hope that that didn’t take too much of your precious time. ~~