Protests, Blockages, Threats of War: What Happened to Freedom? Dr. Pieter Noomen’s Website Offers Guidance for a Troubled World
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Long before he died in 2019, Dr. Pieter Noomen explored deeply the meaning of life, death, freedom and so many other topics that the writings on his website will continue to enlighten and inspire readers for decades. In a time when mass protests and threats of war fill our daily news, his musings on freedom seem starkly meaningful.
Many of these protests focus on the freedom to decide for yourself what you will inject into your body or put on your face. But what about the freedom of others not to be impacted by decisions you make that might endanger them? It’s a slippery slope to be sure.
On his website, www.wordsforall.org, Dr. Noomen writes:
“’Yes’ a free will, ‘no’ a free will, argued the sages of all ages. Like they did, it does in me. I vacillate, how much am I free? By my logic, no answers do fit. Yet freedom is, and that is it. It features as essence and substance in all life’s creatures. You see that we are free to even choose our own slavery?” He also wrote that “all living is based on free participation.” Freedom is embraced in many of the world’s nations, but not all, and the chaos of early 2022 may echo for many years to come. How can we make sense of it all and find some semblance of inner and outer peace?
Visitors on www.wordsforall.org can explore Dr. Noomen’s comprehensive collection of vivid experiences and wisdom drawn from the communications he shared with what he called a “spiritual presence.” He grew to believe that, either directly or indirectly, all life stems from one common source, and when we can reconnect with that source, we reach the highest level of existence. And perhaps more importantly, he believed that being in direct contact with the ALL of existence is possible for anyone and everyone.
In essence, we’re all in this together, and the path forward starts with accepting that. As Dr. Noomen wrote, “Let it sink in that you are part of the oneness of all. You’re one of its constituents.”
Born in the Netherlands, Pieter Noomen completed doctoral studies in theology and pastoral psychology at the Free University of Amsterdam and became senior minister of three Protestant churches. Later, he worked as a psychotherapist and as a staff member of a Los Angeles metropolitan church, working in mental health fields like suicide prevention and hospice.
An example from Dr. Noomen’s Wisdoms of the Week from his website:
“If today all people decided to drop negative behavior, and our societies would become peaceful for all, we still face that nature won’t follow the change. It will remain violent at will, not caring about our human needs. In other words, the brokenness and imperfections of life do not depend on our human behavior. The roots of that go deeper. Our earth and its potential for carrying life is put together as a faulty product. Any hope for fundamentally changing the world? No! Any hope for substantially changing people? Yes! When we as individuals connect with the Real, the full, Reality.”
Trish Stevens Gloria Gonzalez Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 281.333.3507 Main [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com
The Great Rupture Explores Impact of Information Age on Humanity
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Imagine that by the 2040s, Harvard College is shuttered, its hallowed halls impenetrably overgrown with miles of vines — closed for lack of demand in Ivy-League education. It’s just one jarring possibility suggested in Viktor Shvets’ thought-provoking deep-dive into the challenges facing today’s world: The Great Rupture – Three Empires, Four Turning points and the Future of Humanity – Do we need to be free?
“The lessons of the last five centuries were unequivocal — without freedom, there could be no prosperity or happiness. However, does this still hold true in the Information Age?” Shvets asks.
He expertly and compellingly distills the lessons learned over the last five centuries, and projects these into the future. Could the Information Age be rewriting the recipe for individual and national success?
According to Shvets, modern technologies are disrupting the structure of our societies, altering every facet of our lives, from the nature of work and what we intrinsically value to how we are informed, entertained and educated — it promises to be a far deeper disruption than Industrial Revolutions. Humanity is at a major turning point, and how we respond to the merger of technology and financialization will decide our future. Will it be capitalism or communism, feudalism or despotism?
The Great Rupture explores the weakening nexus between freedom and prosperity and what that means for the future of humanity. From the birth of our modern world, pivotal events have led to the collapse of non-Western civilizations — Mongol warriors sweeping across Eurasian steppes; the Black Death and a re-awakening of human spirit; Zheng He’s voyages and the collapse of Novgorod republic; and finally, the ban on printing in Arabic. What can we learn from these historical events to better prepare ourselves for the future?
As we hurtle toward that uncertain future, Shvets writes we must decide whether our cherished individual freedoms are still necessary for success and prosperity, or if in adapting to new technologies, non-Western civilizations are now better positioned for this new world, creating highly illiberal and possibly brutal orders that might no longer suffer from stagnation of ideas or wealth. For the first time in at least five centuries, we have an opportunity and tools to build a different society and economy. The book explores specific policy choices that might help us navigate this treacherous transition. Will we embrace the challenge?
Author Viktor Shvets is a global strategist at Macquarie Bank. In his almost four-decades-long investment banking career, he worked in Sydney, Melbourne, Hong Kong, London, New York and Moscow at a number of global investment banks, such as Baring Securities, Deutsche Bank, DLJ, Lehman Brothers and Credit Suisse. Over the years, he has been a highly rated analyst across various disciplines, head of research and is now recognized as one of the more innovative global market strategists, working on the intersection between finance, technology, politics and history. He is a prolific writer on key global trends and is a frequent commentator on CNBC, Bloomberg and other media outlets.
Viktor was born in Kiev, which at the time was the capital of the Soviet Ukraine. He attended Kiev University of Trade before immigrating to Australia, where he completed a Bachelor of Economics degree from the University of Sydney and a Master of Commerce degree from the University of New South Wales. He is married with two sons and currently resides in Hong Kong.
The Great Rupture – Three Empires, Four Turning points and the Future of Humanity – Do we need to be free? Publisher: Boyle & Dalton ISBN-10: 163337386X ISBN-13: 978-1633373860 Available from Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, Kobo.com and iTunes
Trish Stevens Margot Cunningham Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com 281.333.3507 Phone
