The Promised Land Project: In the Realm of the Prophets: How to Slay a Dragon

Turning Vision into Action....at least hypothetically

Strike up the music of the band
We're blazing a trail for the promised land
Heaven on earth is within you.

Through the writing of stories, poetry, essays, and a novel, I’ve creatively contended with the consumer culture and the problem of the ideal in the modern era. This preoccupation in time would lead to a vision of cultural transformation and where I believe our democratic society needs to go to truly progress beyond the modern era. Conceding my limited credibility, this blog provides a synthesis of recognized visionaries, poets, and writers with the objective of making a credible argument. Ultimately, it is a certain feeling the project strives to inspire and sustain on a certain level, making more vital use of poetry and the arts; consequently whether one agrees or not is less important than whether one senses it and feels it over time.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

In the Realm of the Prophets: How to Slay a Dragon

By introducing a romantic element in the form of a dragon, representing the human passion for greed in both wealth and power, we can address the problem while avoiding casting blame on any particular person or group. As we're promoting a vision that validates both the maladapted and well adapted alike, we hope that those who've attained whatever degree of wealth and power, or wealth and status, will use their position to promote love for the greater good in its myriad of forms.

Furthermore, by using symbols to represent certain aspects of our human nature, we avoid the 'us' and 'them' mindset that so enables the dragon in its rationale, such as the stoking of nationalism. By casting light on the issue, it can enable us to see with greater clarity of greed as a destructive force; the dragon hides in false narratives as stated in the previous blog of September 22.

So how do we slay a dragon? There's only one way that occurs to me, taken from a poetic verse in the Biblical Book of Revelation (12:13):

They defeated him
by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony;
they did not love their lives so much
as to shrink from death

Put another way, you have to pick up the cross and slay the dragon, as Jesus states according to Biblical Book of Mark (8:34):

"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me."

The narrative of Christ accepting the cross is a narrative symbolizing a deep sense of love and faith, among other virtues. Thus to overcome the dragon, representing greed in both power and wealth, we draw on the power of the cross, representing a deep faith in the human capacity to love, though it may not be of benefit to our lives individually. This is both an internal and external human struggle for the best of our nature to overcome the destructive forces of our nature.

Does this mean we're fulfilling prophecy? That's what we're trying to do as we seek divine guidance in human salvation. But the old adage applies here: Man proposes, God disposes.