Enlightenment
effect: disorder
Notes
Humans need two things to see: eyes and light. “They kindled a fire to illuminate what was around them but suddenly lost their eyes.” Al-baqarah. The 18th-century enlightenment launched reason, scientific method, colonialism, African slave trade. By contrast, Buddhists seek enlightenment through rituals, meditation, and nonattachment. The rulers built a shining city on the hill to launch wars and warheads. God said, let there be light, but darkness persists. Light is a spectrum of colors. Light is energy as the heat turns into light, light into heat. The speed of light (denoted c) in a vacuum is 299792458 meters per second. But light is only half the story. Darkness is a spectrum of colors, emits heat, and travels as fast as light. Light and darkness are the binary figments of waves and particles, so “chant mantras in the dawn and dusk twilights.” Laws of Manu. Plants digest sunlight and exhale the surplus they do not need. Sleep specialists prescribe total darkness for restful sleep. Nightingales sing at night. “No person shall break, damage, or carry away any lantern, glass, frame, fixture, or other parts of any public lamp.” Streetlamp Regulations. A revolution first shatters the lampposts.
This is part of a work-in-progress called 501 Laws. CounterPunch will publish one or two “laws” a month.
