Somewhere in America, in the state of Georgia, a unique monument was erected on March 22, 1980. Unlike other stone monuments this one is more like a guide, hence the name guidestones. There are in total a number of six granite slabs, four of them bearing the message in eight different languages. One slab is situated in the center, with the four around it and a smaller one as a capstone. The structure has a hight of 5.87 meters and it feature some astronomic elements, like being aligned with the celestial pole, a horizontal slot indicating the annual travel of the sun, etc. The languages on the four main slabs are English, Spanish, Swahili, Hindi, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese and Russian. The first thing I observed but no other commentator seemed to point out was the presence of Swahili. This language has around 800 000 native speakers with around 40 million learning it as a second language. It is the national/official language of five African countries, Kenya, Uganda, Comoros, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo. On the other hand, languages like French, Japanese, Korean, German, Italian, Portuguese, Turkish or Persian are not present. The reason for this decision may have something to do with the desire of those who created the monument to represent, in large, the main language families with their best/most numerous representatives. This theory still doesn't feel right because Japanese, for example, is in a language family of her own. Nonetheless we can clearly see English and Spanish written on the same slab, and this also goes for Arabic and Hebrew while Russian and Chinese on the same slab is as logical as Hindi and Swahili. Around the edges of the capstone there presented the languages: Classical Greek, Babylonian (cuneiform), Ancient Egyptian (hieroglyphs) and Sanskrit. Strange, no Latin.
Now let's take every one of the ten "recommendations".
1. "Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature." - Out of all the possibilities, they had to start with this one. Notice the word "maintain", the people who created this monument and aligned it with the heavens would not write one word without thinking first. The number should be under 500 million, so we could even have 100 million, never 500 million and one (just exaggerating) but in a "perpetual" balance with nature. The idea that we must be in balance with nature is crucial. what could this balance mean? And why such a low number of humans? We could be 2 billion and still have room for more. I suspect it has something to do with control, not necessarily in a bad way... although control never has a "good way",
2. "Guide reproduction wisely - improving fitness and diversity." - This is strongly linked with the first and adds a little bit of eugenism, just the amount you would need to make Galton, Davenport and Hitler proud.
3. "Unite humanity with a living new language." - First of all, humanity must be united, and secondly, under a "living" and new language. Esperanto does not make I guess. It would be interesting to find out how this language could be accepted by everyone, and eventually unite them. Language is a very important part of one's personality, the first generation to adopt this new language would need to put some effort into learning it and rejecting their old one.
4. "Rule passion - faith - tradition - and all things with tempered reason." - Passion, faith and tradition must be controlled through the use of "tempered" reason. I like this part, I personally am in favor of this. In this context I feel it gives a hint to the previous phrase, language being part of someone's tradition. Reason is the key, as we are told and faith will lose it's power. This could be the part that motivated some to describe them as the "ten commandments of the Antichrist"... but if you think about the crimes done in the name of faith, of God... you will arrive at the conclusion that promoting faith would be the dangerous decision. So yes, reason must be in the minds of the people and even it should be tempered.
5. "Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts." Justice, it would be great if this will be achieved. It also makes me think about the situation when you will have a united humanity with one language but different nations, the explanation would come from the limitation in population that will lead to communities scattered around the earth and nations being mostly administrative in nature although politics will inevitably make some room for herself. What would happen if competition will start between the nations? The same old story.
6. "Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court." - Strongly linked with number five, the same comments apply.
7. "Avoid petty laws and useless officials." - Small government, clean and clear laws. No need for a law legalizing breathing.
8. "Balance personal rights with social duties." - If you are given, then you must also give... but wait... it's about personal rights, wikipedia says that personal rights "are the rights that a person has over their own body". Could it be just an error in the definition, and these personal rights could be merely unemployment benefits? I don't believe so. Apparently militating for justice, this phrase could be an introduction to a "how to build your totalitarian state".
9. "Prize truth - beauty - love - seeking harmony with the infinite." - Truth... yes, beauty... hell yeah, love... sure, harmony with the infinite... definitely.
10."Be not a cancer on the earth - Leave room for nature - Leave room for nature. " - Cancer.. a cell that is constantly multiplying and that ends by destroying the body. "Leave room for nature" is repeated twice, making it a very important statement, maybe fundamental (or at least among the main ideas) to the group that erected the monument.
There is also an explanatory tablet, a real gold mine for archaeologists from 5000 A.D. I imagine. From there we find out that the name of the monument is "The Georgia Guidestones" and that the "center cluster [was] erected [in] March 22, 1980" continuing with "let these be the guidestones to the Age of Reason". The author, we are told, is R. C. Christian and the sponsors are "a small group of Americans who seek the Age of Reason", remember the "small" before the "group". The time capsule under the explanatory tablet mentioned remains a mystery, if it exists and there is no date when it should be opened although "to be opened on" is written.
More than six billion people need to either die or move to another planet or to the Moon and those who will remain/survive here will live in a cleaner, more balance world, but will have fewer liberties I suspect. Something that is created on genocide is nothing good, if we get there slowly and not through man-made viruses and wars I will be impressed. The Age of Reason must be reached through compassion, with God.
Who is R. C. Christian? We will leave this one for another article.
