Colonies of Belief

Not everything is flat, like a board.
You have the regular roundness of a ball.
And not everything so regular either.
The geometric dance of atoms in
molecules becomes, closer, a blur
of energy or, further, sandy rubble.
So not everything, it appears, is the same.
Some things are different. And not everything
is different in different ways.
Things form classes. And a class is a point
of interest from a particular
point of view. And some things have a point
of view which is formed from a small area
around the thing itself. And some things have
consciousness which lets them change their point
of view. Unless they choose not to.
But they canít choose always, and the few times
that they can may get them carried away
imagining they can always choose,
which is power. Power to think the small
area around them from which springs
their point of interest forming their point
of view is the pre-eminent area
of the globe. And that the occupiers
of this first patch on the planet should be
very powerful things and, in turn, band together
to become a very powerful Thing.
And in their ardour to spread the good news
of their prestige destroy the
consciousness of things which occupy
areas around their area by removing
their already limited faculty of choice.
That is by making possible only
one particular point of view.
Their own. But their unity is time-
dependent and eventually they
fall apart and stop being a very
powerful thing, sometimes becoming powerless
under the power of another or other points of view.

Sometimes when area unity breaks down,
individual integrity which splits
events into right and wrong, becomes
of interest. To do the wrong thing for the
right reason or the right thing for the wrong
reason or the wrong thing for the wrong reason
is wrong. To do the right thing for the right
reason is right. If things cannot always
choose and therefore at those times behave
at random then wrongness should prevail
three to one unless things are under some
overpower. But rightness is a rule
holding the above relations with
wrongness, to select events and form two
classes, being stated by that thing.
And if that thing states the rule and states that
the rule is right then call it that thingís belief.
And if that thing behaves according to
its belief then it is sincere, honest,
and even noble. And noble things become a source
of rightness to themselves, every action
partaking of the becalming waters.

Sometimes conscious things forget the world.
They see everything from a point of view;
stay indoors discussing themselves;
Allow no checks on their comfort; perform
irreversible experiments on
the area around them; calculate
theorems in axiomatic systems and
call it truth, forgetting that precision
is only gained at a very low level
of meaning, where there is little foresight
and less control; they swagger, dominate,
dabble, destroy, dream, exploit and die out.