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UP-WINGERS
by F.M. ESFANDIARY
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Non-Fiction
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e-reads
www.ereads.com
Copyright ©1973 by F. M. Esfandiary
NOTICE: This work is copyrighted. It is licensed only for use by the original purchaser. Making copies of this work or distributing it to any unauthorized person by any means, including without limit email, floppy disk, file transfer, paper print out, or any other method constitutes a violation of International copyright law and subjects the violator to severe fines or imprisonment.
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This book is dedicated to visionaries everywhere who catalyze humanity's advances and who represent the best in each of us.
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introduction
I have often been told that I am too optimistic about the future.
How can anyone be too optimistic?
My regret is that I am not optimistic enough. It is not possible to project the fantastic worlds which will continue to open up to us in the coming years. Worlds which far transcend my most daring optimism.
No one today can be too optimistic.
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We are daily surging ahead in many areas: biology—genetics—physics—biochemistry—astronomy—medicine—surgery—fetology—communication—transportation—food-production—computation—weather-forecasting—environmental monitoring—international relations—interpersonal relations—self-image.
Advances in these and many other areas since 1955 have been more monumental than all the progress in the previous two thousand years.
Even fifteen years ago many of today's breakthroughs would have been dismissed as fantasies—too Utopian and optimistic. To us they are already routine.
This rate of advance is now accelerating. Progress is faster and more global than ever.
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Precisely because of the accelerating rate of change we urgently need plans for the coming years.
Unfortunately most projections of the future are pessimistic. Western intellectuals in particular, hobbled by puritan guilt and self-doubts, flood the world with books and films and scenarios foredooming the future. To them our successes and potentials are not real. Only our failures.
Their reactionary outlook has helped make people afraid of progress and the future. “If the future is so bleak” is the unconscious reasoning “why think about it? Safer to hide in the womb of the past or of Mother Nature."
We must develop a bold new philosophy of the future. A hopeful outlook which can embolden people to want to face the future. To want to plan for it.
More than ever we need short-range and long-range plans. Guidelines to help us steer our onrushing breakthroughs making them work for all humanity.
In our fluid times however plans and guidelines (such as I have outlined in this book) cannot be definitive. Lengthy guidelines may have been possible in slower times. Today we cannot and should not even attempt to structure the future through elaborate plans. Our increasingly fluid times demand fluid guidelines.
The plans I have worked out here are for the Near Future and the Middle Future—the next twenty thirty forty years.
Beyond 2020 the human situation will have changed so unrecognizably that it is superfluous to plan for it now.
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In this tract I have bypassed the plodding pace of print. Most books are too slow for our times. Up-Wingers—addressed primarily to the fluid—attempts to approximate the rhythm of electronics. Brief crisp rapid bursts of ideas intended to inform goad provoke catalyze...
We not only need new ideas and visions—but also need new ways to communicate them.
F. M. Esfandiary
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PART 1
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cosmic upheaval on planet earth
A cosmic upheaval is now surging on Planet Earth.
We are at a major evolutionary milestone.
3 billion years ago the emergence of life in the oceans.
400 million years ago the emergence of life on land.
70 million years ago the primates.
3 million years ago the rise of animal/humans.
Today the emergence of a new concept of life —
1. beyond the animal/human.
2. extending beyond Planet Earth.
This Cosmic Upheaval is one of the most extraordinary developments in the entire evolution of life on this planet. The last evolutionary leap of such magnitude occurred millions of years ago.
It is important to understand that some of the breakthroughs now burgeoning all around us are no longer simply historic—but evolutionary.
The asexual creation of new mutants and the emergence of cyborgs are not historic developments. They are evolutionary breakthroughs. The biological upheaval now in its infancy is moving toward radically new concepts of life—beyond animal/human.
The bursts to the moon and to the planets are also not historic events. They are major evolutionary breakthroughs. The Space Age still in its infancy is catapulting us beyond the premises that govern life on this planet. We are witnessing today the very beginning of a cosmic dimension which is not only altering life on this planet but affecting our entire solar system and the universe beyond.
Today when we speak of immortality and of going to another world we no longer mean these in a theological or metaphysical sense. People are now striving for physical immortality. People are now traveling to other worlds.
Transcendence is no longer a metaphysical concept. It has become reality.
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These new dimensions in human life defy all our philosophies—all our social economic political systems—all our age-old concepts of life and nature—Time and Space.
Until now human civilizations throughout the ages have been predicated on the same fixed premises —
Nature governs all life on this planet.
We are bound by the laws of evolution.
We are confined to flesh and blood bodies.
We are permanently confined to this planet.
We are finite—we are born and we die. Today so far as we know for the first time since the emergence of life on this planet all these premises are challenged.
We have no philosophy no ideology no conceptual or social system to accommodate this emerging dimension.
This new cosmic dimension defies all our human traditions.
We now need new conceptual frameworks and new visions to guide us as we venture into uncharted spheres which are potentially full of hope.
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up-wingers
To transcend more rapidly to higher levels of evolution we must begin by breaking out of the confinement of traditional ideologies.
We are at all times slowed down by the narrowness of Right-wing and Left-wing alternatives. If you are not conservative you are liberal if not right of center you are left of it or middle of the road.
Our traditions comprise no other alternatives. There is no ideological or conceptual dimension beyond conservative and liberal beyond Right and Left.
Right and Left—even the extreme Left—are traditional frameworks predicated on traditional premises striving in obsolete ways to attain obsolete goals.
The premises of the entire Left are indistinguishable from those of the entire Right. The extreme Left is simply a linear extension of the extreme Right. The liberal is simply a more advanced conservative. The radical Left a more advanced liberal. You can move farther and farther Left to the most radical Left you will still be advancing within an intrinsically orthodox framework.
It is no longer only the Right that is conservative. The entire Left is also suddenly co
nservative. The liberal and the radical Left have fallen behind. But they will not face their new conservatism. They resist and attack the new breakthroughs—the more they resist the more conservative they grow and therefore the more cynical.
There is no cynicism more bitter than that of liberals or radical Left-wingers who sense that they have fallen behind the times.
They still like to view themselves and are viewed by others as progressive. This is precisely where the danger lies. This is one of the main reasons for resistances to more rapid progress. In the name of progress the liberal and the radical Left resist progress. They resist because the new breakthroughs do not fit into their highly structured frameworks and confined goals.
The Space Program? That is a waste of money they protest. The money ought to be spent on more important things.
Genetic Engineering? That is dehumanizing. It will lead to push-button people.
New concepts of reproduction such as out-of-the-womb? That is hideously impersonal—mechanical.
Modern technology? Dehumanizing. It is robbing us of privacy and individuality—upsetting the balance of nature.
Every breakthrough is viewed as a threat. Every new idea viciously attacked as anti-human simplistic utopian.
The Right/Left establishment is fighting a losing battle. It is following in the footsteps of earlier traditionalists who resisted the more modest breakthroughs of the past.
Those earlier traditionalists were also sure that giving women the right to vote would upset the laws of nature. That the camera and the telephone would do away with privacy. That birth control and planned parenthood were impersonal dehumanizing. That television was an “idiot box” etc.... etc....
It is particularly important to recognize that the liberal and the radical Left are the new gradualists—the new conservatives. I stress the point because this liberalism and Left radicalism masquerading in the name of progress are putting up the strongest resistances to the newest breakthroughs.
What effrontery calling themselves progressive. What self-delusion. Those who do not believe in progress or in the future have not deserved the right to call themselves progressive.
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There are whole new dimensions emerging which go far beyond Right and Left—far beyond conservative and liberal.
These dimensions defy all the old labels.
How do you identify Space scientists who this very day are working with new sets of premises to establish communities in other worlds? Are they Right-wing or Left? Are they conservative or liberal?
How do you categorize radio astronomers now scanning the galaxies in search of Intelligent Life? Or scientists working on the implantation of devices in the human body enabling the individual to control its own pain and pleasures—emotions and dreams? Or those working on telefarming systems which can provide endless quantities of food? Or computerers developing cybernated systems to free people of the primitive ordeals of perpetual work and of leadership government? Or bio-engineers striving to conquer death?
These and other breakthroughs are outside the range of all the traditional philosophical social economic political frameworks. These new dimensions are nowhere on the Right or on the Left. These new dimensions are Up.
Up is an entirely new framework whose very premises and goals transcend the conventional Right and Left.
As I will show in this hook we are at the beginning of two major upheavals —
1. The Historical Breakthroughs (beyond feudal/industrial systems). What are these systems? Exclusive parenthood—marriage—family—school—money—work—leadership—government—nations. Up-Wingers do not want simply to modernize these archaic systems—they want to do away with them altogether.
The Right/Left revolutionary for instance wants to overthrow a government. The Up-Winger wants to overthrow the very concept of leadership government replacing it with cybernated systems.
2. The Evolutionary Breakthroughs (cosmic upheaval). Here the Up-Winger proceeds from the premise that we are now flowing to a higher evolution and that therefore it is no longer enough to resolve age-old social economic political problems. We must urgently overcome the more basic tyrannies of nature—the arbitrariness of evolution—the limitations of the human body—the confinements of Time and Space.
It is the human situation that is basically tragic. Right/Left revolutions cannot alter this basic dilemma. For instance the most revolutionary Left-wing group has no program to overcome death. The entire Right/Left establishment is still death-oriented.
Space programs and biological advances in capitalist and socialist countries are outgrowths of modern science and technology—not of Right/Left ideologies. We are extending ourselves in Space and in Time not because of capitalism or socialism but in spite of them.
The Right/Left Capitalist/Socialist establishments have used their Space programs chiefly to advance their nationalistic militaristic hang-ups. They still do not comprehend the evolutionary impact of the Space dimension.
The Right/Left establishment is psychologically and ideologically unprepared for our emerging situation in Time and Space. It is not surprising that much of the Right/Left is vehemently opposed to this new cosmic dimension.
The Right/Left establishment wants to maintain an evolutionary status quo. It is resigned to humanity's basic predicament. It simply strives to make life better within this predicament.
Up-Wingers are resigned to nothing. We accept no human predicament as permanent no tragedy as irreversible no goals as unattainable.
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To be Up you must sever all ideological ties with the Right/Left establishment. You must make a break with the traditional concept of linear historical progress. That is now too slow and limited.
You must be prepared to quantum-leap forward. This means starting with a new set of premises new visionary aims.
In the coming years you will hear much about the Up-dimension. Right and Left will become irrelevant. Conservatism liberalism Left-wing radicalism will continue to become indistinguishable—they are all conservative. They are all Down.
This tract is a guideline for the upcoming Up.
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optimism: the cosmic dimension
We not only need a new ideological thrust. We also need a new philosophical outlook.
Guidelines for action are useless if there is no commitment. There can be no commitment if there is no will no self-esteem no hope.
In my book Optimism One I explained some of the reasons for our age-old pessimism. The ones I developed are —
1. Lack of self-esteem. Until a few years ago children the world over grew up in destitution or in repressive overprotective environments. The orientation to failure began early in life. Nothing ever works out for me became generalized into the lifelong pessimistic philosophy that nothing ever works out for anyone that there is no progress that nothing ever really changes or can be made to change.
2. The second factor is guilt arising from puritan upbringing. Until recent times people—particularly in Western cultures—were brought up with the conviction that they were wicked and did not deserve happiness or success. As adults such people are unlikely to rejoice in human success and progress. Even if personally successful they maintain a philosophy of pessimism and failure. Optimism—hope—happiness—progress evoke in them a sense of guilt impelling them to dwell on failures.
3. Lack of historical perspective. Until recently people did not have opportunities to see firsthand different cultures at varying levels of historical development. Feudal societies were not aware that other peoples had advanced and that therefore it was possible to advance, while industrial peoples were seldom aware of the primitivism and backwardness in other lands. People the world over could not experience the movement of history and therefore felt that nothing was changing.
4. Finally, our legacy of theological and philosophical pessimism. Throughout the ages people were conditioned by theologies and philosophies of Submission—Resignation—F
atalism—Nihilism—Despair—Nothingness etc.... These theologies and philosophies were logical since our human situation was tragic—limited by Time and Space. Even recent visionaries like Marx Nietzsche Freud and the evolutionists were justifiably resigned to the inevitability of human mortality and the limiting confinement to this planet. It is therefore understandable that during our entire history there has never been a philosophy of Optimism based on an open-ended future.
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I am aware that other factors have helped sustain pessimism. For instance, genetic disposition to life-long depression.
Whatever the reasons, pessimism as a philosophy was at one time logical. Today it is not.
We have reached a stage in our evolution at which pessimism fatalism are no longer rational philosophies.
Today Optimism is the only relevant outlook.
This is the very first time in evolution at which a philosophy of optimism is possible.
Ours is the First Age of Optimism. We are at Optimism One.
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What is the meaning of the philosophy of Optimism? How can we make this philosophy work for us?
Optimism as a philosophy is squarely predicated on two central developments: our emerging situation in Time and Space.
Suddenly the barriers are coming down. Suddenly humankind's situation is not circumscribed or limited. Not intramundane and not finite.
For the very first time our potentials have become totally limitless. Our future open-ended.
Everything is now suddenly possible. Everything attainable.
As I will explain in Part 3 we are breaking out of elemental confinements to extend ourselves throughout All-Time and All-Space. We are on our way to becoming Universal and Immortal.
Without these new cosmic dimensions Optimism is meaningless. Social economic political progress does not by itself justify a philosophy of optimism.
So long as we were hopelessly doomed to finite lifespans and trapped within a small speck in Space all our social economic political freedoms and amenities were limited and ultimately meaningless.
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