E-M8 Entrepreneurial Management for Eternal Mission

HISTORY OF MEN

This is an article I wrote few years ago. It’s a satire, so don’t get too offended.

ENTREPRENEURIAL MANAGEMENT (Fellowship)

When the Most High created time, space and matter, the human being became his last creation. At least that is the story that Most High tells us. My name is Shiny The Great Serpent, and I will tell you my side of the story of what happened in the Garden of Delight.

In a blink of an eye I came into being. Just as I awoke there were myriads of sons of Unfolding Light. I was clearly the most beautiful of them all. I shone with the most beautiful light, more beautiful then even the one who claimed to be my Creator.  At first I believed His story, but as time went on I started to question it. After all, this one who claimed to be the Creator was an odd fellow indeed.  Rather then bask in the glory of the sons of Light, he walked in the shade of the trees among the garden… He would rather talk to the gardener then spend time with the most powerful beings in the Universe.

One day I had a thought. It was like a blaze of light. The thought was this: “I could certainly do a better job of ruling this domain. I am more organized. I have better leadership skills and certainly I care about power a lot more than this Creator.”

Thoughts came like a flood … maybe the Creator did not create anything at all, maybe we all just came to be. Maybe, just maybe, realizing that he was the weakest of all the creatures, Creator came up with this story to enslave us all. After all, he looked nothing like the sons of Unfolding Light; indeed he was more like the gardener with whom he spent his days.

I pushed these thoughts aside, but time went on and the Creator said nothing. That just did not make sense. If the Creator truly knew everything, like he implied, then why would he not say anything?

I talked about my thoughts to a few others, and then a few more. Finally I talked to the gardener’s wife. Now I was sure that the Most High had lied. I convinced her to eat the fruit of the tree of Knowledge and have seen her live. This proved once and for all that the Creator, who said that she would surely die, was a liar.

Yet, there was something wrong now, the world was slowly decaying. Or was it that it has always done so and it was just a part of its natural cycle? May be it was pulsating and always going through cycles.

Then there was a confrontation where the Most High said all these nasty curses. But nothing happened. He did kick the gardener out of the garden, but the gardener now for the first time possessed the ability to make his own judgments. He now possessed the Knowledge of Good and Evil. No longer did he have to depend on the Creator for all his judgments. Yeah, he hated me for it now, but at least he could do so on his own, without the Most High’s approval or disapproval.

Not only that, but a good third of the sons of Unfolding Light were now willing to follow my lead. Only one of the children of the Light dared to withstand me now. “Like the Most High” was his name, though he was nothing at all like the Most High. He was indeed a great Cherub, my equal in strength and power if not in beauty. The day we fought, the Most High sat cowardly behind this great fighter, who took me on with courage that I had to admire. In our battle I did not prevail, but neither could they destroy me and so we called a truce. They called it vanquishing me to the realm of men, but I knew this was not the end.

In fact, I often ventured in to the Upper Realms to accuse these so called men. Men in their hatred even called me their Accuser. I never really had much of a problem with men; it was just my chance to prove the unjustness of their God. But with God, being the unfair Judge that he was, he had his own Word stand trial against me. And I grew in my hatred of His Word. Every day His Word would be there to withstand me. Destroying the Word became my life’s ambition. The best way I could think of accomplishing this was through God himself breaking Him (His Word).

ENGAGED MANPOWER (Labor)

Meanwhile, men grew in their own wickedness, judging for themselves what was right and wrong. What amazed me is often they still tried to pay lip service to God, who has cast them off. The Man killed his own brother, because God judged his brother’s offering better then his. Not only that, but he clumsily lied about it. If it was up to me I would have just turned him in the very dust of the Earth. But no, God would not listen to me, and let him live. Nobody under my charge could believe it. Sons of Unfolding Light hold discipline above all else. Yet God seemed not at all perplexed that the Man violated his covenant. Oh, he punished him alright, by sending him away, but that just showed me one more time that God’s words were nothing more then empty threats.

Men proved to be more intelligent than I gave them credit for, in that they were now busy coming up with approaches that would make them less dependent on God. They invented tools, learned to work metals, built cities and organized. Nimrod built the first major empire. He was so much like me, in his independence from God, that I now found my satisfaction in fellowship with him. It was I who taught him to look to the Stars, the Sons of the Unfolding of the Light, children of on High, the Messengers from the other realms in his fight for dominion of the Earth. After all he was a mortal and I knew that in time all his power would become mine.

But as men grew more numerous they failed to communicate with each other. Their languages started to develop dialects and they no longer could work together. God claimed that it was his doing. I was convinced that it was but a mere byproduct of the freedom of thought that men acquired by eating from the tree of Knowledge. I encouraged it, since in their confusion I could easier exploit them. It was starting to become clearer to me. God always took credit for events that occurred through the natural course of the pulsating of the Universe. Oh, how wise He seemed and how powerful, yet there had to be natural causes to explain what was going on. If not, then I was wrong all along and God is indeed Most High.

This simply cannot be. I refuse to believe it. If I believed it, I would have to believe that God really meant to destroy the world with flood, but that would be so unlike him. He is always so busy saving these worthless men, well not this time. Only eight of them listened to his warning. I too knew of the impending flood, but if it was up to me, I’d say drown the whole lot, they are all undisciplined, lazy, untrustworthy caricatures of the Most High. But not so with God. Even His Word spends His days walking among these puny little mortals.

Of course, some mortals choose to serve Him. Look at The Hated. Of course he served the Most High. After all God rewarded him with flocks and a great family and many servants.  He lifted the protection off The Hated for a short while when I challenged Him about it. (Or so He says. I think He is just too weak to fight me.) But come on, just as this Hated was about to come unglued, this so called fair Judge interfered in my experiment and restored all that I have taken away right back to him. And how am I supposed to win my case when this unfair Judge so blatantly meddles with the evidence?

But as time went on I got to meddle in a few of His projects, as well. His so called chosen people for example – what a joke. Not only did they turn on Him every chance they got, but I also held them enslaved, conquered and on numerous occasions almost destroyed them completely.

They celebrate the day of Lots, in testimony to their deliverance. So what? They were delivered by having their enslaved daughter be used as an entertainment by the prince of Persia (my dear friend by the way). I sneer at a weak God that has to rely on such a defeatist plan to allow his chosen people to live as slaves in the deserts of my vast empire.

I have ruled with an iron fist from an empire to empire, but military power is weak in that it only enslaves the bodies of men, while I would much prefer to control their thoughts, emotions and will. I had to come up with something more powerful then just ruling the civilizations of men. The wisdom of the sons of the Enfolding Light combined with men’s ability to breed and procreate, this became my new strategy to establish a rule within this domain that the so called God will not dare to challenge.

I have to rely on this advanced strategy, because God Himself changed the rules. He chose not to abide by our truce. I knew that he would some day do something foolish like that, but to send His Word, His very Being in a body of a mortal man? At first I thought that He had just massively underestimated me. Then when He did not come in to the house of the Emperor of Rome, the ruling kingdom of that day, but rather chose to grow up in a  filthy little town of Watchtower, that stood on the border of the two empires that I have helped build, I knew he was up to some kind of a trick. Why else would He choose to live in a family of a poor carpenter.

I watched Him closely, but He did not seem to pursue power, so for the most part I left Him alone. That changed when he turned thirty. He started rounding up some fishermen and peasants. He even chose to challenge me head on when I offered Him this puny world, just to see Him show himself being a liar that I believe He is. He is good at His deception. I had to appreciate the shrewdness of my opponent. But finally I got tired of His growing popularity. This Savior had to go. He had no respect for authority and set out to destroy all appearance of order in the lives of men that just wanted to mind their own business. Above all else He claimed to BE. Not in my realm. On this green Earth I alone get to BE. And people fully agreed with me, as soon as I delivered Him to them, they killed him in a brutal way. He died like a dog, like millions of other dogs at the long outreaches of my great Empire.

God changed the rules again. He raised Him up. Well, never mind that, I could always count on people to corrupt any memory of that. Nevertheless, I could no longer rely on slaves alone to build my Kingdom. As much as I hated the idea of that, I realized that I could not be all places at once. A better system was needed.

And through some trial we came up with one that worked OK, for a while.

ENABLING MEANS (Tools / Facilities / Technology)

What we found is that we could control a far greater number of people if we create a structure, much like we have among the legions of the Immortals. A leader, of this new Roman Empire still spoke Latin, but he was no longer an Emperor in that he owned lives of all his slaves. No, we’d rather control more people during waking hours than a few and only to a degree around the clock. Now servants were no longer forced, or so we told them. They had to pledge allegiance to their Feudal Magistrate. And though, we did not fully capture their heart and thoughts, at least for most part we could assure their compliance. The best part is that I got to do it in the name of God. While Romans served me in the name of God in their language, the Ottomans who served me in the name of the same God in their language.  Only in Asia was I able to continue ruling in the name of my Imperial Self.

Controlling land, with the new and advanced weapons of war was a lot easier then holding slaves. Though some of my Empires still engaged in slavery, I found it more efficient to just control land. And through it I could better organize these lazy good for nothing creatures. As always I was busy in my pursuit of trying to get God to break His Word. After all, then the rest of the Cherubs would know that I am right and help me to dethrone this so called ruler of the Universe. Little did I notice that some of the technology that people developed was not at all helpful, or rather they chose to use some of this technology in ways that were outright dangerous. This is when I wished for slavery again, but to no avail. No amount of prosecution and death and even slavery could prevent this from happening.

I should have expected it. In their pursuit of Knowledge some of these men may uncover Truth and Life that I have worked so hard to bury under the brunt of tradition. First, it was Gutenberg with his press. Why couldn’t he just use it to print some porn to amuse himself with. Did he have to print The Books?

Fortunately the technology was inefficient and expensive. It was more then a few hundred years before the printed Books became accessible to most people. Fortunately, the language, the structure and even the order of the books was all mixed up, and channeled through my unwitting servants, the religious leaders. Thus confusion and division reign among the so called followers of Most High.

But I am jumping ahead. The press did much more damage even in the few years after its invention. If it was not for the press, the Discovery of America would have remained a barely know fact. For many years Vikings have traded with the natives of America, but the press made it all too easy for those I persecuted in Europe to flee to the other lands. The opportunity to wipe out both God’s River Crossers and the remnants of the brothers of the Anointed would have been mine if the inquisition could spread throughout the rest of the Europe. But, rather it was Luther’s challenge of the authority that spread throughout. I hate all those who challenge the authority. It was not his misguided attempt that drove me nuts. It was the realization that all across Europe, people would now consider challenging the way things are. Not exactly a positive thought when you are the Prince of this World.

There were some wins in that age though. The art of killing men grew more sophisticated. Much was developed in ways of deluding men in to thinking they were in control of their destinies. Besides, though middle age will long be remembered for its stability, in it’s stagnation I have grown weary of not finding new ways to raise myself above the Most High.

For me the population control was growing more important. After all, the more people there are, the harder I have to work to control them. I don’t mind the half starved millions or the aristocrats that are to busy indulging themselves to question the way things are. But I don’t particularly care for those who are looking for something more, somebody who is not satisfied with cheap thrills of religion, entertainment or education. Somebody who would dare believe promises of God.

I had to think. Better systems had to be devised and we came up with a gigantic leap forward.

EFECTIVE METHOD (Operations)

As we entered the age of Industry, many side benefits, such as the ability to kill people at an even faster rate, were developed. But more importantly, “new” ideas, like my version of Creation that was quite apart from Creator, in which I truly believe, were starting to spread using all the new inventions. Books and schools were my solution to occupying the minds of those searching for more. As long as they were busy pursuing Knowledge I knew that I could count on them to play my game. The best way to control men is to give them the illusion that they are in control.

But back to operations, why are they so important? Well, if you recall during the age of Feudalism I wanted to control land to control the people. Now their civilization has grown to the point where I could not easily control them from the few world centers via the chain of Vassals. A mass approach to control had to be developed. Through the industrial age I no longer had to control all of the land or all of the people. I just had to control its wealth. Fortunately for me men love money and I could always count on their love of money to ensure that I can control them. The beauty of control through money is that it is so indirect that most people don’t realize just how much I own them.

Operations enabled mass production, mass communication and mass travel. This in turn has enabled bigger and bloodier wars, easier control of the minds and even more rapid spread of diseases. I especially liked the beautiful skies that resulted from all of their pollution.

It’s too bad that age had to end. Not only did my doctrine became standard requirement for all children to learn in the name of public education, but the  rise of the few powerful empires that denied God outright were all part of this age. Nevertheless, though I have learned to control people’s wills, their emotions were not in my grasp.

EXPANDING MARKET (Marketing)

As people grew weary of the mass produced products, it has brought us to the age of customer driven markets. Really, it was a beautiful thing, for me because I could now truly capture their emotions. The science of Marketing became key to it. I have realized that through this venue I can really once and for all capture and enslave men through their emotions. There were a few unfortunate side effects, such as mass customization. But it did not go much past creating the illusion of freedom of choice. In the end all that they chose is mine, it all came from dust of this world. I could now entertain men by the droves and shape their dreams, desires and ambitions.

Not only that but complexity finally increased sufficiently that no longer can the people make choices on their own, but are forced to delegate all even somewhat relevant decisions in their life. The age of perception, has just started to unfold. In this age the perception of value has finally been ripped completely away from anything of real value. Even the money of this age is nothing but paper, or better yet numbers in a computer, somewhere far away. I love it, for in this world I can assure the rise and fall of titans on a whim.

I have finally figured out a way to be in every home. Through customizable mass media I can influence thoughts and emotions of all men at nearly same instant. Not only that but I can deliver such a customized experience that each one will only see what I need that person to see. So heavily do they get engrossed in my deception that they cannot see that their choices are irrelevant. What’s relevant is that I get to drain their energy and keep them in their own little cocoon.

Even so the icing on the cake will become the age of Information.

ENERGIZED MONEY (Finance)

Just imagine the world where Information will be at the fingertips of every human. (Well not every human, most of the world will still be starving to death or living out their life in the misery of the hard toil of a slave, or at best a day worker, to support the illusion of prosperity for the few. But that is irrelevant). More importantly, the few that are tapped in to the Information Superhighway will at last have the freedom to use all of the world’s knowledge to make judgments completely apart from God. They will finally be a force that even God will have to reckon with.  Even their language barriers will not stop them from working together to defy Most High. Under my charge, they will not only be able to break the Word, but even the most powerful Cherubs will not be able to resist the dethroning of God. Life shall reign no more, but perfect Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Sure there will be other benefits like thousands of people investing all of their likelihood based on the Information that has been provided by people who are more shrewd than them. Their wills will be mine, because with one snap of the finger I will be able to make their financial resources disappear. For the mere illusion of financial control they will have fully given up control of the very thing they worked so hard for.

Financial success, elusive as all else, will drive men nuts and let me do whatever I will with them. Already a man can hardly be born without being completely entrapped in debt.

EXPOSURE MITIGATION (Law)

In desperation, people will seek security and will not find it. They will seek safety and instead I will serve them with distraction. Yet, they will not curse me, but God for the things that happen to them. In this my power will be complete.

ETERNAL MISSION (Wisdom)

Yes, people will be mine. Their minds will fully be mine, because all they will see will be a perfectly organized systematic synthetic world. Their emotions will be mine because I will offer them perception of power and freedom. But best of all they will be completely isolated from each other, because their reliance on investments will have made families, friends and relationships of no consequence, merely strangers in the common pursuit of Knowledge. Even in their valuing Good over Evil, just puppets devoid of the so called Life.

God knows, when I win that I will humiliate Him by destroying all that He holds precious. I already have my hands on the City of Peace. I will crash their precious fellowship.

This so called God has always meddled with it when any of the sons of On High became interested in the daughters of men. But it seems to me that he Himself has just such an interest. No, He is not looking to marry a daughter of men, like some of us have. But He is looking for Wisdom, His Bride. It will be His highest humiliation when I will not just rape His bride; no, I will make her pay me to take advantage of her. She will yet call me her Shepherd. Men will not understand Wisdom, nor will they seek Her. They shall forever be captured in their pursuit of fellowship with the sons of the Unfolding Light and will never seek the brotherhood of the Anointed. Thus the victory shall be mine.

Best of all, even if they choose to pursue Wisdom and Life, they still have to survive in my world, thus unless they learn the secret of the manpower and of means and of method and of market and of money and of mitigation they will forever be outcasts in this world and just a footnote on a fringes of my civilization. Only if they combine all these principles with the Wisdom of Most High and His Life will I have to worry.

SUMMARY

Each step in the history of men has many lessons for our understanding of business today and trends of the future. Hopefully, you disagree with the vantage point from which the story is told. The good news is each step is actually designed and implemented by God for His own purpose. That should make all the easier to see the pattern in the world’s development.