There Are No Enemies: A Practical Philosophy of Life

By Mary Anneeta Mann

Th ere Are No Enemies explores a Practical Phi losophy of Life for huma nk ind based
upon reverence for life and Th e Science of Being Altogether fi rst off ered by A ristotle,
the Philosopher. Human beings are al l deemed to share a com mon spiritualit y which
c an be accessed by the indiv idua l conscience and is div i ne, operating in the fi eld of
understanding. Th e fi eld of science shares the same source as the fi eld of spir itua lity
Writ ten by an arti st-scholar, the a r tistic suspension of disbelief is off ered to eff ect a vision
of humanit y part icipating harmoniously in the Life Force of t he universe itsel f and using
a s a touchstone for their common spirituality, their own religion, their own God, Allah,
Yahwah, cal led by any name or no name. Following t he philosophy applicat ions of it are
off ered concerni ng Iraq, Israel, Terrorists, the Money God, Hatred, Diplomacy, t he War
Machine, Aust ralian Aboriginal Spiritual it y, Native American Peace Examples as well a s
poetry excerpted from the authors other books: Th uGun and Natasha, Th e Round Table,
Maria and the Comet and Anz ac to Understanding.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jan 4, 2012
• ISBN: 9781468510072

Mary Anneeta Mann

Mary Anneeta Mann was born in Rockhampton in Queensland, Australia Her formal education ended after two years of High School. She obtained her B.A. degree with honors in English from Sydney University, the M.A. in Theatre from the University of California at Berkeley and the Ph.D. in Communications and Drama from the University of Southern California. Her book HUBRIS: The Construction of Tragedy, based upon Aristotle's Poetics and his Science of Being Altogether, explores the world view of tragic dramatists in plays from the Greeks to the present day. Her three plays for youth and family are Maria and the Comet on the life of Maria Mitchell, The Round Table which moves between the knights and ladies ofKing Arthurand theUnited Nations at the dawnof the 21st.century, (published as TWO FAMILY PLAYS)and ThuGun and Natasha, a drama with rap, moving beyond guns and violence, written forinner cityyouthin the United States of America. Science and Spirituality, co-authored with Rev. Leland Stewart of Unity-and-Diversity and other compilers, clarifies the common origin of both Science and Spirituality and, through the understanding of spirit is one, paths are many,shows how people of all faiths and belierfs can celebrate their common humanity. There Are No Enemies begins with the Philosophy of Lifeand includesarticles on its practical ethics and poemsas well as "The Right of the Womb - post 911". Mary has a son Attica Andrew and a grandaughter Destiny.

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Contents

Preface

A Philosophy of Life for Humankind

The Philosophy of Money

Management—Bringing Money into

Harmony with Organic Nature

The Philosophy of Egalitarian Democracy

The American Dream Revisited

W O M E N A W A K E N

The 21st Century Challenge

SOUND BITES

The Science of Being Altogether

Philosophy in Action

The Right of the Womb—Post 911—Excerpts

Struggling To Be Born

Through The Lens of Art

War For the People—The 20th Century

War In Obsolescence

About the Author

Dedication

This book is dedicated to Attica Andrew Mann and his

descendants, beginning with Destiny

I would like to acknowledge the assistance given to me by Rev. Leland Stewart, B.S.E., S.T.B. and Rev. Elizabeth Stewart from Unity-and-Diversity World Council, and the fellowship of members particularly Rene Crawford. The monthly meetings of this group over the past sixteen years have encouraged me and inspired me to continue with my work into philosophy and to move beyond my artistic endeavors. When we published Science and Spirituality at the end of 2004, it was not enough to address the issues of the twenty first century but in July 2006 it seems that I received the strength to send There Are No Enemies, A Practical Philosophy of Life out into the world. I would also like to thank my colleague Dr. George Berberich, Jr. for his invaluable assistance in editing this book at very short notice.

I am only one,

But I am one.

I cannot do everything,

But I can do something.

And what I can do,

That I ought to do.

And what I ought to do,

By the Grace of God

I WILL DO!

Willie Augustus Mann, Anzac (1895-1981)

Preface

This hasty little collection has determined its own birth and compelled me to accomplish it. The philosophy itself, The Science of Being Altogether, is the result of a lifelong journey and has only just been completed. The articles in the Chapter Philosophy in Action are instantaneous outbursts which I may wish to revise later, together with a few articles taken from Science and Spirituality, published in 2004. The Right of the Womb—post 911 had several readings in the NoHo district of North Hollywood, California under the auspices of the Synthaxis Theatre Company. I had not considered it finished but nothing has been written in it since Ground Zero was cleared on May 30, 2002. The Chapter Struggling to be Born consists of a few recent difficult articles which I may wish to revise later and a few others which have presented themselves to my mind and demanded to be included. During the editing, I noticed that several articles explore the same subject. I found something unique in each one however so they are all included . I did set a page limit long enough to deserve a spine for the book but short enough so as not to bore you, the reader.

This book is written in love and delivered in love. There are some recommendations that may be considered impossible. Let me assure you they are not if, collectively, we use all the human resources available to us such as the artists of the world and the women of the world, all of whom have been under-represented to date.

We know that the planet can survive without humankind but it won’t have to if each one of us in our individual and collective heart can recognize the truth of the title There Are No Enemies and ACT upon it.

We know too that the greatest gift we have as human beings is our language. The War Machine has nothing on it. Our language is our most understudied resource. Let us study it. Let us study it’s role and let us use it now as we have never used it before so we can push back the tide of violence that threatens to engulf us all.

Preface to the Second Edition

Begin with the SOUND BITES

It has been five years since this book made its first appearance. In 2006, I had just found the philosophy and I knew there was more work to be done. I was aware of the role of money and there was an article The Religion of Money as well as other references within The Science of Being Altogether. I was aware of the need for philosophical oversight at a global level and there is also an article on The Court of the Wise which is taken up again in this second edition.

Two thousand and eleven is also the 10th anniversary of the fall of the Twin Towers. From The Right of the Womb had come the plea,

Let this OUR sacrifice be what it is

A closure of the war to end all wars

A NEW millennium

Not just another century

Piled upon the others

Bloody zeros from the beginning of time

However there have been another ten years of war since 911, the usual which tells me that the lessons have not yet been learned on how to live in peace.

Goodwill

I believe we will not learn to live in peace until human beings en masse look into their own hearts, find their own conscience and think and meditate upon their lives and feel that, if they all work together, they do have the ability to find their own personal freedom and their own self actualization of a life style that sheds resentment and hopelessness in favor of self empowerment and creativity. The essence of Peace is Goodwill.

Events in the world such as the great financial collapse and the Arab Spring have impelled me forward to expand The Philosophy of Life to include integrating the spiritual ideals taken from the Bible and the Quran, and to write chapters, The Philosophy of Money Management and The Philosophy of Egalitarian Democracy as well as The American Dream Revisited. These two latter chapters have many elements in common so there is some duplication of ideas presented. Please accept this with goodwill as well as other apparent duplications as the same organic concept is presented from different angles.

As globalization replaces eastern and western civilizations, it has become clear to me that the visionary Court of the Wise, referenced above, needs to be expanded upon as well as the also visionary but still developing concept of a Meta-Government. The United States has become the flagship of democracy in the 21st century. It is struggling to understand its own tilt toward shifting its allegiance from the ideals of democracy toward the God of Money. It is setting a poor example to those rising Arab nations as they emerge from dictatorships and seek their own functioning democracies which will have to be egalitarian democracies if the world is to have peace.

I had wanted to include something about the organic imperative for the free market system but the research is daunting and this edition must go to press now. I have therefore simply made a note that more work needs to be done on this and other topics and hopefully other philosophers will continue this work.

Finally there is a chapter entitled SOUND BITES, tweets as it were, for ideas which need to be explored by the new generation and future philosophers who might find the whole philosophy burdensome but who might be tweeked into looking into a particular chapter.

The rest of the book remains the same and readers will therefore find some repetitions of the ideas. Please read these with charity and understand that the Philosophy of Life treatise begun here and still in process, goes back for its foundation to Aristotle, the philosopher and there are so many ongoing developments in this modern world that were not even dreamed of in (his) philosophy.

This unique work, There Are No Enemies, is a beginning only, of the philosophical journey for humankind that really began with the war to end all wars and must continue until those words represent deeds and the world finally finds its peace in its harmony with the Life Force of the Universe

This second edition is going to press on the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 2011, ninety two years after the Treaty of Versailles when those hopeful words were spoken, the war to end all wars.

To you from falling hands

We throw the torch

Be yours to hold it high.

In Flanders Fields, Colonel John McCrae

The Philosophy Diagram follows this Preface together with a short explanation of it. Thanks to George Berberich, Ph.D. for editing assistance and proofreading.

maryanneetamann.com

Shake the tree and take from it

What is falling from above

The bitter, bitter, berries,

The nectar for the dove,

And leave the rest to others

To sort through endlessly

And find forever,

Love.

SOURCE

GOD—by any name or no name

LIFE FORCE

INFINITY

UNDERSTANDING

F I E L D O F S P I R I T U A L I T Y

Religions

Mystical Experiences

Conscience

Reverence for Life

Values

BELONGINGNESS

Female strength

female

BIRTH__________________________________________________

male       Outer limits of KNOWLEDGE

Goodwill

F I E L D O F S C I E N C E

Conscience-in-Action

(MONEY—inorganic construct)

HUMAN ACTIVITY

KNOWLEDGE

Facts

Ethics    LAWS

Male predominance

_______________________________________

Integrating Religion, Spirituality and Science

Copyright Mary Anneeta Mann @2008

Explanation of Philosophy Diagram

The SOURCE of all life has been given many names by humans since we seem to communicate best with language. Religions called it GOD—by any name or no name, Yahwah, Allah, etc. Natural philosophers call it the LIFE FORCE, scientists, INFINITY.

In the F I EL D O F S P I R I T U A L I T Y, that which lies beyond the outer limits of KNOWLEDGE, there are the originators of all of the Religions as well as Mystical Experiences by poets and mystics. For humans also it is UNDERSTANDING where language is not yet adequate. In the F I E L D O F SP I R I T U A L I T Y, there is the Conscience, each individual’s connection to the LIFE FORCE, a totally innate phenomenon, a gift as it were from the Creator or GOD which always reminds each individual of which actions are in harmony with pure organic life development. Reverence for Life is the absolute requirement, the primal impulse of the organic development of all life. The Universe lives.

BELONGINGNESS is an inherent female sensitivity, a gift of the womb.

BELONGINGNESS anchors the female in the F I E L D O F S P I R I T U A L I T Y and since it is inherent she is unable to escape from it.

The F I E L D O F S C I E N CE is finite, forever gaining ground in its drive toward comprehending the infinite, always aware that there is a field beyond its borders.

HUMAN ACTIVITY takes place in the F I E L D O F S C I E N C E, pushing KNOWLEDGE to its outer limits and moving forward with each generation.

HUMAN ACTIVITY is anchored by the Conscience-in-Action, the innate phenomenon now compelled to act. In humans the will is free to choose whether to act in harmony with the guidance of the Conscience as in GOODWILL or to act otherwise as in turning away from the prime organic directive of reverence for life. The fracture here grew to ominous magnitude in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Ethics or the science of morals is the attempt to put into practice, the directives of the Conscience.

In advanced societies the temptations for the individual conscience are many and varied. LAWS have been enacted in most societies to ensure a certain social stability. To date they are primarily man-made and some lack the female attributes of BELONGINGNESS. This is very noticeable in the United States where the prison population is disproportionately high.

For (MONEY—inorganic construct), refer to The Philosophy of Money Management

(This diagram is a blueprint only)

A Philosophy of Life for Humankind

Tiger! Tiger! burning bright

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye

Dare frame thy fearful symmetry.

William Blake

Historical Definitions—Philosophy

(for scholars)

From the Oxford English Dictionary,

Philosophy (In the original and widest sense.) The love, study, or pursuit of wisdom, or of knowledge of things and their causes, whether theoretical or practical.

1586 T.B. Philosophie is a love or desire of wisedome: or otherwise, it is a profession, studie, and exercise of that wisedome, which is the knowledge of divine and humane things.

1603 HOLLAND Aristotle and Theophrastus, with the Peripateticks. Divide Philosophie in this maner; namely, into Contemplative and Active.

1607-12 BACON Certainely a litle Philosophie inclineth to Atheisme, but depth in Philosophie bringeth Men about to Religion.

1775 HARRIS Philosophy, taking its name from the love of wisdom, and having for its end the investigation of truth, has an equal regard both to practice and speculation.

(= natural philosophy) The knowledge or study of nature, or of natural objects and pheomena; ‘natural knowledge’: now usually called science. Now rare of Obs.

(= moral philosophy) The knowledge or study of the principles of human action or conduct; ethics.

1481 CAXTON After cam Boece… , And compiled… plente of fair volumes aourned of hye and noble philosophye.

1592 SHAKESPEARE Romeo & Juliet Ile giue thee Armour to keepe off that word, Aduersities sweete milke, Philosophie, To comfort thee, though thou art banished.

1634 MILTON How charming is divine Philosophy

1751 BOLINGBROKE History is Philosophy teaching by example.

1816 SHELLEY Alastor The fountains of divine philosophy Fled not his thirsting lips.

(= metaphysical philosophy.) That department of knowledge or study which deals with ultimate reality, or with the most general causes and principles of things. (Now the most usual sense.).

1794 J. HUTTON Now, Philosophy is that general knowledge by which the works of nature are understood in seeing the wisdom of design.

1852 SIR. W. HAMILTON The Philosophical Society of Cambridge ought not, however, to be so entitled, if we take the word Philosophy in the meaning attached to it everywhere out of Britain.

1857 FLEMING Underlying all our inquiries into any of these departments (God, nature, or man), there is a first philosophy, which seeks to ascertain the grounds or principles of knowledge, and the causes of all things. Hence philosophy has been defined to be the science of causes and principle. It is the investigation of those principles on which all knowledge and all being ultimately rest.

1862 H. SPENSER Philosophy is completely unified knowledge.

1865 J. GROTE Philosophy, by which I mean the study of thought and feeling… As we understand, think, feel them of ourselves and from within.

1880 J. CAIRD Whatever is real is rational, and with all that is rational philosophy claims to deal… So far from resting in what is finite and relative, the peculiar domain of philosophy is absolute truth.

1887 Edin. Rev. That philosophy only means psychology and morals, or in the last resort metaphysics, is an idea slowly developed through the eighteenth century, owing to the victorious advances of science.

1891 LADD Philosophy—we define it to be—the progressive rational system of the principles presupposed and ascertained by the particular sciences, in their relation to ultimate Reality.

1902 H. SIDGWICK I regard Philosophy then… as the study which ‘takes all knowledge for its province’.

Wisdom

Give this glad tidings of happiness to

those of my worshipers who listen (closely)

to all that is said and follow the best of it, (for)

it is they whom God has graced with

His guidance and it is they who are truly endowed

with insight and constantly use their intellect.

Quran 39:17/18

The noble aspiration for Philosophy in the 21st century is to assume responsibility for understanding the workings of the universe. This is the Science of Being Altogether, a meta-science, going beyond knowledge and into the unknown both knowable and unknowable.

This understanding means having an awareness that in the Science of Being Altogether or this meta-science, including the science of knowledge, there is an unknowable component, an activity or creativity, a Life Force in the workings of the universe which is far beyond the comprehension of human beings. There is however within this meta-understanding the understanding that all human beings, all creatures and participants in the universe, the birds that fly, the rocks, the rivers etc. have an intrinsic or umbilical connection to this Life Force of the Universe.

Human beings have the gift of consciously accessing the Life Force of the Universe by way of their consciences. An active conscience may be felt and observed in humans at a very early age and each culture develops its communal conscience in its own tradition.

The understanding that philosophy goes beyond the knowledge of things and their causes is in great need of development in the 21st century, firstly in the area of human morality or Ethics now that the internet has mandated a global vision for humanity and secondly in the area of the environment, where the demonstration of the relentless drive or activity of the Life Force of the Universe is compelling us to tap into the understanding that human activity must move itself into harmony with the workings of the universe itself.

People’s immediate decisions are based upon the directive of the conscious mind at the moment of critical choice. This requires that either a philosophy of life or a belief system has to be in place long before that critical decision is made. Belief systems are in the field of Spirituality. People act however according to their own belief system and laws written or unwritten need to be studied in a comprehensive way to obtain something of a world view of what motivates people to act as they do so laws provide a key foundation in arriving at a global philosophy of life.

All of the inner directives to assist human beings in their choices have already been set out in the tomes of the great religions. They all hold their own laws and a knowledge of these laws is now imperative if philosophy is to lay down its global foundation and build upon it.

Law in the 21st Century

"In the beginning was the Word,

and the Word was with God,

and the Word was God"

St. John 1:1

Behold God is all-Knowing, All-aware,

Quran 49:13

Charity incorporates both humility and goodwill. It is with charity then that scholars need to study the works and the language of past ages. When something is unclear, when something is clearly at variance with what is a currently accepted viewpoint, it is with charity that the contemporary scholar must understand what can be brought forward into the 21st century and beyond, what must be abandoned and what may be refined. Charity used here is more like loving kindness, a whole hearted acceptance of people despite certain reservations, based on lack of knowledge. Love will go to the ends of the earth, above and beyond the call of charity with both being on the same continuum. What Aristotle wrote about slaves and women does not detract from his other masterpieces, although we have to understand that a slave for Aristotle was more like a servant and a barbarian was someone who was not Athenian. What is proffered as literal language from God cannot be allowed to detract from the wisdom in the words themselves, just as words such as made in the image of cannot be allowed to detract from the understanding of an umbilical connection between God, known by any name or no name and every human being and every other creature on the face of the earth.

When Charity prevails all things are possible in a global civilization built upon all of the creative endeavors of all of the generations of civilizations that have preceded it.

Historical Definitions—Law

(for scholars)

Law In generalized sense: Laws (of Nature) in general: the order and regularity in Nature of which laws are the expression.

1853 ROBERTSON Such an event is invariably followed by such a consequence. This we call law

1865 MOZLEY In the argument against miracles the first objection is that they are against law.

1856 DR. ARGYLL We have Law as applied simply to an observed Order of facts.

1873 H. SPENSER The accepted conception of law is that of an established order to which the manifestation of a power or force confirm.

1883 H. DRUMMOND The fundamental conception of Law is an ascertained working sequence… among the Phenomena of Nature.

Scientific and Philosophical uses.

In the sciences of observation, a theoretical principle deduced from particular facts, applicable to a defined group or class of phenomena, and expressible by the statement that a particular phenomenon always occurs if certain conditions be present. In the physical sciences, and occasionally in others, called more explicitly law of nature or natural law.

The ‘laws of nature’, by those who first used the term in this sense, were viewed as commands imposed by the Deity upon matter, and even writers who do not accept this view often speak of them as ‘obeyed’ by the phenomena, or as agents by which the phenomena are produced

1665 BOYLE The Wisdome… of God does, confine the creatures to the establish’d Laws of Nature.

1690 LOCKE A law of Nature… Something that we being ignorant of may attain to the knowledge of by the use and due application of our natural Faculties.

1697 DRYDEN Happy the Man, who, studying Nature’s Laws, Thro’ Known Effects can trace the secret Cause.

1755 JOHNSON, Law, an established and constant mode or process; a fixed correspondence of cause and effect.

1827 WHATELY The conformity of individual cases to the general rule is that which constitutes a Law of Nature

1883 H. DRUMMOND The Laws of Nature are simply statements of the orderly condition of things in Nature

1898 G. MEREDITH Those firm laws which we name Gods.

Divine Law The body of commandments which express the will of God with regard to the conduct of His intelligent creatures. Also a particular commandment

1380 WYCLIF To this ende shulden clerkes traveile… for love of Goddis lawe.

1548 HALL To be observed by christen men, as consonant to the law of God.

Law ‘something laid or fixed’. A rule of conduct imposed by authority.

Human Law The body of rules, whether proceeding from formal enactment or from custom, which a particular state or community recognizes as binding on its members or subjects. (In this sense usually the law.)

1000 Laws of Ethelred (in Old English)

1548 HALL All offices had by dower… to be confiscat and spent to the use and custome of the law.

1596 SHAKESPEARE Merchant of Venice The Venetian Law cannot impugne you as you do proceed.

1662 Bk. Comm. Prayer. Injoyned by the Lawe of the Land

1726 SWIFT Gulliver But he was at a loss how it should come to pass, that the law, which was intended for every man’s preservation, should be any man’s ruin.

1764 GOLDSMITH Laws grind the poor, and rich men rule the law.

1896 Law Times Rep. This court has no jurisdiction over the property in America; it is governed by the law of that country.

Pol. Econ . . . Gresham’s Law. The principle, involved in Sir Thomas Gresham’s letter to Q. Elizabeth in 1558. That ‘bad money drives out good’, i.e. that when debased money (sc. Coins reduced in weight or fineness, or both) is current in the same country with coins of full legal weight and fineness, the latter will tend to be exported, leaving the inferior money as the only circulating medium.

1858 MACLEOD As he was the first to perceive that a bad and debased currency is the cause of the disappearance of the good money, we are only doing what is just, in calling this great fundamental law of the currency by his name. We may call it Gresham’s law of the currency.

Sorting Through the Definitions

Do we begin with the human mind, do we begin with the word of God, do we begin with the scientific advances of the last two millennia when we begin to examine the meaning of law in an emerging global civilization and a cosmic universe or do we imagine what an ideal global civilization might be and how it might be achieved.

Recent scientific advances have led to an understanding of an organic universe with the interdependence of all of its parts and an awareness that human beings do not have dominion but the ability to maim and mutilate. The term environment has come into being with great vigor.

Aristotle, the philosopher, explains that in the human mind, first there is thought. Thought is the understanding that humans need to reach beyond themselves to their tribes, their societies, later their nations and in the ever encroaching future, their global civilization. Thought is in the field of spirituality where there are differences between the female and the male. The female thinks with her womb as well as her mind, the male with his mind.

Thought precedes language. Language itself is in the field of science. For hundreds and sometimes thousands of years, thoughts have been expressed in language. There are still many languages in the world. This book is written in the English language which has hundreds of years of refinement to date and great thanks are due to the 13 volume Oxford English Dictionary first published in 1933.

Holding the English Language Accountable

and Responsible

Through language we communicate with each other. Some of us have one native language, English the one almost embedded in our genes, the one in some form used by our ancestors for hundreds of years and the one still used in the 21st century. Probably the most prominent language in this 21st century is this English. So