paragraph 8

80.
It is understandably difficult for obol’s fellows , at first, to accept that they are not seeing the wood for the trees, but he can, he sees both wood and trees, and it is this true vision of our common predicament and its present nature and imminent resolution that he is now imparting to others. Holding out against it is not actually possible. ….It is a divinely lovely and intelligent cosmos after all.

7

And here Hugh, who with essential help from his eldest daughter Laotse, on a visit from her new home in Singapore, typed these paragraphs, signs off for at least a few days. His 80th birthday is this coming Tuesday 21st June. Laotse publishes the blog, and when back in Singapore will try to spread knowledge of it via search-engines, etc. A print-out is also foreseen, of which photo-copies may be made. There is no question of copyright, or any such effort at control : think and say what you like, words are free in obolworld -- but no bullying of any sort on any pretext! Meanwhile ; OPEN HOUSE IN KNOCKANDARRAGH……..

6

All these paragraphs on aspects of obol’s vision of our time as that in which a line is drawn in human history, between learning by not knowing but needing to know (our immaturity as a species), and the initially awesome if not awful realisation that we need to know no more in order to live optimally in this not yet fatally damaged paradise, which is our native home, all these paragraphs so far written or unwritten, simply exist to waken people’s minds to the possibility that all their problems have at last been solved in a human head, and as they pay attention , they will understand and rejoice. Endless aspects still remain needing clarification, and only in the heads of the coming generation can we expect to see unquestionable fulfilment. What happens next is PAGEANT ASPHODEL, a global 12-month voluntary pageant, in which all people everywhere will hopefully find themselves drawn in, a fairy-tale pageant, centering on a journey round the world of obol , meeting people of all sorts and discussing together anything and everything with only one pre-condition : no violence! Guide-lines for social behaviour in obolworld are provided for beginners in the formula, or code pll, lg, ic, where p stands for peace, l for logic, and l for love; l for local and g for global; i for impartial and c for compassionate. Understanding and good-will are required of all who would consider joining in the establishment of a society where coercion is not tolerated (inter-human coercion in the first place; it implies the liberation of other animals from servitude to us as well, but that may take a little longer). Pageant Asphodel was officially announced in the Dunlavin Courthouse in County Wicklow 25 th May ad 2004 as the opening event at a District Court session, and considerable information was then accepted by the District Court Clerk (Naas Courthouse), and has been supplemented since. The Garda Station in the local town of Baltinglass has much information also, as has the Church of Ireland Rector in Donard. Further references can be provided to those interested to research the early history of the ERA OF OBOL (on planet asphodel, previously known in english as planet earth) on enquiry : in nearly 28 years obol has been in touch with every person humanly possible, and left his trail. Furthemore there exists in the house in Knockandarragh a veritable museum of records, deliberately stored from the very first as evidence of the true circumstances and nature of this break-through. (Obol envisages his home, where it happened quite unexpectedly but undeniably logically, being preserved by his fellows "for all time" as near as possible just like it now is: thus was it, and not other!)

5

Besides power and money, both of which disappear automatically from the face of the earth with the adoption of NO COERCION, a corrupt generation may enquire about sex. Here as elsewhere obolworld simply turns upside down that order of society that causes the trouble. At present children are born into and reared in a world of blatant lechery, in which every perversion under the sun is featured luridly in the entertainment and advertising media , but which they are not allowed to take part in until the age of 16 . The devil never had it better. Corruption of the innocent is the name of the game, all the vices rampant , including defiant hypocrisy In obolworld by contrast, as during most of the last century in the Trobriand Isles off New Guinea, children learn most of what there is to know playing freely in living communities. They are watched without thought by all, then pair off by sexes in adolescence , travelling and playing mating games within their peer group, till they marry and settle down, maturely in their turn taking on the gentle and wise responsibilities of the community, enjoying their new roles as much as those previous (and future as elders observing and relating).. How boring , some may mistakenly say, correctly appreciating that the particular compensatory pleasures they wish presently will not be available then! But the change-over will certainly not be boring, and natural circumstances seem set to change considerably for the foreseeable future, calling for the utmost flexibility of us all in unison to survive optimally. Moreover future generations, reared in peace and wisdom, alive to the incredible wonders of each passing moment, not only in their evident sensuous beauty but also in our appreciation of their infinitely complex manifestation in the structure of the cosmos (to the best understanding of the only sapient species we know of), will neither know boredom nor desire, for heaven on earth is different from hell on earth. Earlier generations looked forward to heaven on earth , later generations will look back to hell on earth, only our transition generation , only those alive today find it now our lot to fully experience both. Intelligent love will reign on this planet, formerly known as earth, or terra in latin, but in obolworld, to mark the millennial era renamed PLANET ASPHODEL.

4

Most people to whom ideas for peaceful reform of human society are put, sooner or later take refuge in the plea that, even if they themselves agreed, those in control would certainly not: power and money, institutionalised privilege backed by force being facts of life here to stay -- for good or ill. Two points may be made in reply. One is that any alternative scheme to what prevails, must be comprehensive and able to meet all objections -- which is why the present one regards itself as uniquely qualified : in the last resort there is only one alternative to imperfection, and that is perfection, and exactly as the other wonders of our cosmos are just so and not otherwise, so its crowning glory, a natural species endowed in its maturity with understanding and sanity, can only occur the precise way it does and not any other. The second point is that our rulers and leaders owe their entire position to the general consent of the population; the moment , for instance, the armies and police forces plus their opponents and irregulars see the advantage of everyone everywhere pursuing the arts of peace and togetherness rather than those of war and division, then laggards of all conditions will be rendered powerless to stop the change that will divide troubled past from blissful future. That a wide-ranging debate will be needed before all objections are met is , of course, obvious. It is maintained here, however, not only that no objections can withstand the comprehensive good sense of obolworld, but also that it is in accord with both the logic of the cosmos and with the highest aspirations of our species throughout history.

3

Absolute peace of mind is a condition of a sapient paradise, and has two dimensions, the social and the psychological. Socially, the members agree in subjecting themselves to only one coercive law, the law of "NO COERCION! -- EXCEPT TO PREVENT COERCION", thus guaranteeing everyone freedom from terrorisation. Every able-bodied member would cooperate not only in the operation of this basic law, but also in behaviour patterns conducive to is success. (We who are the heirs of millennia of inter-tribal warfare and tyranny may well find it difficult to imagine the general prevalence of such good sense, but we may take courage from the various remote stone-age societies discovered in the last century that surprised us by their sanity and sense.) Psychologically, once freed from fear of our fellows -- and the necessity to please them rather than our own best intelligence -- our mental monitors (the i in each of our heads) would no longer be trapped within the understanding of our mind, but would fearlessly float free in the sort of vacuum that anxiety decries, leaving it to the workings of the mind to sort its information out as best it can without our anxious vigilance -- so that when our senses next alert us, our i responds happily, matching information to knowledge as best it can, and then rests again in peace and happiness. And if at this stage you have doubts about the social cohesion of such apparent individualism, remember that families and villages can undoubtedly achieve success this way if not harried from outside, and the world is now, communication-wise, a single global village. What is envisaged here is not the species falling further apart, but rather it coming together to face its real problems without anxiety and with optimal intelligence and voluntary cooperation at every point.

2

The writer of this blog has been occupied continuously with this proposition for almost 28 years, starting in middle age, and now just 80. He considers this relevant only to indicate the possibility of his knowing his subject, although at his age he may not be able to set it out as neatly as one might wish: the hope is that others may make the central ideas their own, and develop them from their own minds and understanding. Ideally, interested people would come and talk it out in person. He lives with some of his family in an old farmhouse with garden some 30 miles south of Dublin in Ireland, and welcomes anyone seriously interested who comes in peace and with some consideration for family and locality. No warning of visit desired, ask in the shop in Donard, County Wicklow for Hugh, who lives in Knockandarragh, and contact by email to sacker@eircom.net. Hugh realises that, if this catches on as he hopes, his life for a year or so will be very public, but he has plans for a transitional year anyway, and after that would very much hope to be left in peace for any time he may have left on earth, content with others to see the species united and full of hope at the end of his days. From a personal point of view it would be some compensation for all the problems his obsession has caused his family and friends.

1

This blog-site is the last chance saloon of the human species. Convinced of our imperfection, we are divided and destructive, seemingly doomed. The alternative to imperfection is perfection, and obolworld investigates its nature and practicability. The claim is that, within a year of obolworld being talked about and debated -- from every point of view, everywhere on earth, something not difficult with modern communication -- the transition would be made, peace, sanity and healing everywhere replacing war, lunacy and sickness. The sad assumption that, since this transformation has not happened before, we cannot expect it now, will disappear in the realisation that
our time is the only one in which it could logically happen -- when we understand so much more than our predecessors and enjoy so much better intercom, as also when we have unprecedented awareness of t he catastrophic consequences of continuing as we are. The one thing missing till now is a comprehensive and compelling guide to our golden age, our maturity, when we live in harmony with ourselves, with one another, and with the planet which gave and gives us our life. There are some very simple principles of this change, and endless aspects: we have to find ourselves, after due deliberation, going through a narrow bottleneck (the traditional "Gate"), but the other side we each and every one experience absolute freedom at every moment of our lives to do our best according to the understanding of our own minds, subject only to the obvious absolute limitation that we may not force our ideas of what is best on anyone else. Each one of us will have access to the knowledge and wisdom of all, but will understand their own situation uniquely well. In a sense it is the species as a whole that reaches maturity at this point, emerging after a painful but exciting learning period as a truly sapient species in its planetary paradise (a place in the heavens, as we now know).