Mirror Reversal Excerpts

The destiny of mankind could wind up a cruel ironic cosmic joke:

And as religion separates people from nature, it encourages and rewards people for making babies in a dangerously overpopulated world.  The leaders of the church hierarchy don’t give a damn – ‘cause they believe the world is going to be destroyed anyway.  And it looks like it will, in a self-fulfilling prophecy. What a cruel ironic cosmic joke!  Books written by goat herders and fishermen, determining the destiny of mankind and the entire planet.”

Liam the Leprechaun describes his world:

“With religion and superstition so powerful here, it’ll take centuries before humanity can evolve into a spiritual entity.  People will steal the gold right out of your teeth, they will.  We remain in the Dark Ages.” 

Cynthia states her worldview:

“Look, when you’re a doctor of evolutionary biology you look at life differently.  We’re living in a crucial time in humanity’s timeline.  My grandfather says during World War II his generation shuffled the cards of fate to determine the course of world history.  His generation determined how people would live for the rest of time.  But that was sixty years ago.  Now our generation is shuffling the deck again. What we do and the way we live is going to determine the future of the Earth itself – whether our planet will be another spinning lifeless rock like the other terrestrials, or continue to be a verdant oasis in the infinite void of nothingness.”

On the plight of the working man:

“I guess that’s the price we have to pay for conformity—we can only do our jobs as best we can and helplessly watch the natural world being defiled and brazenly violated right before our eyes. 

Cynthia, the visionary:

“Once you’ve reached a certain level of education, the Bible’s quaint stories don’t answer the questions anymore. The hope for heaven and the fear of hell are just that, mammalian emotions.  But the reasoned belief that a futureworld will exist is all but certain.  And what will the futureworld be like?  That should be our main concern.  Instead of worrying about an imaginary heaven as an individual, let’s devote ourselves to entering a real futureworld as Homo sapiens, the wise.  At this very moment there might be future souls praying to us to preserve the Earth and its ineffable beauty.  Sometimes, when I’m listening to Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony, I can hear the sighs and yearnings of the world’s future citizens, ‘Please preserve the Earth,’ they weep, like the mystical chants of Odysseus’ sirens borne by the winds of time, ‘it belongs to us also.  Don’t destroy it any further; it can’t be replaced.  Your awareness of the condition of the world is the only thing that can save it.  Just get us there and we’ll know what to do.’”

Later in the story, Cynthia says that the thought of the extinction of mankind and the death of consciousness from the Earth is unbearable to contemplate for a rational mind:   

She rested her head on his shoulder, rested her eyes on the shimmering wavelets, and spoke facing the windshield.  “I once saw a movie clip on one of those nature programs on TV.  Showed a pair of young sea otters – genus Enhydra – teasing a hungry polar bear.  They were just about a year old, when they could feel confident leaving their mother’s side, awed by the splendor of the real world.  They made little chirping noises at the top of a snowy embankment, and when the bear came rumbling after them, at the last second they skidded down the snowy sliding pond into an open water hole and disappeared.  Then, as the bear stood confused at the top of the mound with a where’d-they-go look on its face, they stuck their heads out of the icy waterhole and appeared to be laughing, like it was a joke.  The natural world is filled with joy and wonder; now the entire family of sea otters is dangerously near total extinction.  I tell you big business, the government and religion are leading the world down a blind alley.

As the story unfolds, Cynthia descends the social “ladda.”

The streetwalker looked at the newcomer for one second and knew exactly what was happening.  “The Lord could strike me dead right now and I wouldn’t mind a bit; ‘cause now I’ve seen everything.  ‘Fifty dollars for fellatio and a hundred for coitus.’  I gotta write that down so I can use it on the muckety-mucks from Connecticut.” 
    She walked up to the new girl by the curb and kept laughing.  Cynthia knew not to be scared; the girl had a friendly demeanor, in spite of the non-stop laughter. 
    “What’s a skinny ass like you doing out here in those threads, girl?  If some gorilla ever caught you out here, he’d have every pimp in the on the Lower East Side flatten you out like a pancake.  I know you need money, baby, but you gotta get yourself a chili pimp, at least.  You’re like a baby lamb out for a stroll in the middle of the jungle, darlin’.” 

Cynthia returns home:

He led Cynthia and her boyfriend in front of the mirror.  “It’s time to go back to your half of the mirrorverse. On this side, the very pillars of society – the judgment of right and wrong -- are decayed and corrupt. Go back to your world of florid universities instead of overcrowded cities. Go back to where Reason is God, instead of Money.  Go back to where the human condition determines what’s legal and moral, not the dictates of a few power hungry war mongers benighted by superstition.  Go back to the world where the welfare and happiness of future humanity are more important than the luxury of the rich and powerful.  Go back to where the biodiversity of nature is sacred and not plastic relics and figurines.  Go back to where species consciousness protects the animal world and Earth consciousness protects the precious environment for future generations.  Go back to where consciousness is based on ancestral wisdom and not Madison Avenue conditioning.

Cynthia’s worldview will be of special interest to: secular humanists, naturalists, brights, atheists, antitheists, PETA members, sex industry workers, homosexuals, agnostics, feminists, down-and-out bums, anti-supernaturalists, tree huggers, existentialists, nudists, environmental whackos and one or two conservatives.  Also perfect for people in religious communities who have their doubts and would like to start self-deprogramming.