carine hartman 2021

By Carine Hartman

Chief sub-editor


The human race has corrupted innocence

In fact we have lost it.


I’ve been listening to Aussie biologist Jeremy Griffith for over an hour telling me on YouTube he holds the holy grail to fixing the human “condition”.

Read aggression, greed, top dog, whatever we, as humans, feel guilty about. I stopped at innocence – because we have. Lost it.

We don’t see the wonder of daily existence anymore. For me, as I said umpteen times: the first coffee, ciggie, a hug, a kind word.

I thank Griffith for acknowledging free thinker Lawrence van der Post. And that he even read our own Eugene Marais blew my mind.

Not that he mentioned The Soul of the White Ant acknowledging the way humans should live: loving and cooperative. And lots are said about this loving and cooperative state.

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Griffiths quoted Plato raving about the “time most blessed; life most spontaneous; fruit for all to pick – unaware of the evil to come”.

What evil? The conscious mind that needs to be liberated, he said.

The conscious mind that is corrupted – as Darwin found with his infamous apes: they are loving because they haven’t woken up to a consciousness yet; they live an untroubled mind.

And that’s my problem with our corruption; with losing our innocence. We must consciously change our troubled minds.

We must consciously love again. Unconditionally. I can quote Griffith ad nauseam now. I choose not to. I go back to my lesson in the ’80s when I discover Doubting Thomas’ writings discovered in the Red Sea.

He, biologist Griffith, queried, too. And Thomas, then, instinctively knew it was not about science. You can mention genes, liberate, even blame.

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Thomas got the essence of the soul: it’s about ego. How dare I love another human being without prejudice?

My ego just won’t allow it. Get over it. Phone that brother you won’t forgive because of your inflated – sorry – ego. He still loves you.

That friend you lost because you one night in a wine-infused tirade said too much in your driveway. And forgive. Your kids who don’t quite measure up to it (whose do? The apes without consciousness).

There’s nothing romantic, nostalgic about it: change your mind, consciously.

We have to consciously live together; love together. Unconditionally. I should practice what I preach.

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