Sensei, your opening quote from Orwell reminds me of something a former paramour once said to me. She was from Romania (she called it Transylvania) and was a former officer with the GRU. Rodica was a beautiful tall woman with raven hair and a thick accent and told me, about life: "The future is certain dahlink, it is past that is always changing."
Your research and writing has never been more important, Thom. Our First Amendment is a beacon trying to shine through this fog created by the psychos, sickos and criminals of TRump, his Administration and MAGA.
Do what you can, friends, even if it is only refusing to ever watch 60 Minutes and CBS again. Carry your own torch and point it right at the vile lies they are telling. Thank you, everyone. See you in the street.
I recall talking with A sociology professor during my undergraduate years. He asked: "What discipline are studying for your degree?" "History," I replied.
"Good," he said. "It is the only real social study."
That was 1968, and History was cool, and classrooms were alive with discussion and argument.
Some years ago I volunteered to tutor High School students in History for a group that was supporting inner-city children's advancement in education.
After a few weeks, I stopped going. No one ever came... not one kid, not one time.
This is all you need to know about where we are now, and why.
Just a note: During the Soviet era, Encyclopedias were printed as loose-leaf binders. Reality could be changed simply by replacing any page, as decided by leadership.
Since teachers, aside from my Dad and Malcolm X, have always been my heroes (and clearly you are one) I am legitimately curious about something. You stated you represented "a group that was supporting inner-city children's advancement in education..." Given that we all know, admittedly or not, what the dog-whistle "iN-er City" means do you think that participation would have been greater in a different demographic?
Perhaps I am not up on what words can and cannot be used in a not very complex relating of a personal experience.
If the main point of the story makes sense, please focus upon that.
I might add, it is this near-neurotic insistence upon the right phrasing and inflection that has contributed, to some degree, to put us in the situation we are now in.
We are in a knife fight, and you are insisting upon approved terminology, even while we get our throats cut.
I asked a very concise, simple and direct question. I wasn't anticipating the "knife fight" you are in, but that is your business. Where I come from we bring guns to knife fights, so save the defensiveness. Fact of the matter is you used coded racist language and you got busted. As an educator you should be ashamed to publicly exhibit such academic cowardice.
You did NOT ask a concise, simple and direct question. You changed the focus of the discussion. You assumed the whole purpose of my comment was to insidiously turn a discussion of the ignorance of our collective history into an attack on kids from a certain ethno-racial background.
It was not.
It happens I live in the city and volunteered in the city, versus driving out to the suburbs.
I know the kids there are also just as ignorant of their History because my sister taught there for years. But that is her experience.
I cannot imagine what it is like living in the closed, paranoid, near psychotic world you live in.
You are fighting a war that has long ago past you by.
The enemy that you are railing against has no need for dog whistles... They are declaring their targets openly, loudly, and with joy while you are looking for code words in the ether.
I don't make ass-umptions; I'll leave that particular tasking for those most qualified to execute, which clearly you are. My inquiry was quite concise and academic in nature; yet you lacked the intellectual rigor to answer it. In fact I made it easy on you and presented a closed probe. If the "inner city" was not a significant qualifier, in your mind, why did you deploy it?
And, no, you absolutely do not know anything about me, or my "world" (you'd be surprised). As far as a "war" that has passed me by? I figure you to be about my parent's age and the "war" I fight is something far beyond your meager comprehension and has been fought for 400 years; my children will fight it should they remain in the "US." How dare you lay down that paternalistic nonsense. I suggest you check your own socioeconomic statistics, professor.
In conclusion, I am a world class wordsmith dude; trained by the best, by the "enemy." You could spend the next 80 years boning up and you will never, ever be successful in vanquishing me with white supremacist inspired linguistic-salad. Further, I am better at the European-Amerikan's tricks than they are.
A study revealed that happy people are gullible. This begs a question: Are angry people highly skeptical? I suspect so.
As for iN___rCity, after thinking about it as I lay in bed in the wee hours, I concluded that Rohn K has a point. America is amazingly racist. Circa 2012, I took an online test for prejudice when dealing with possibly-armed people. I invited my eight email correspondents to take it. Only one responded – to say that she declined to take it.
I came out slightly prejudiced, but significantly less prejudiced than average Denver police and much less prejudiced than average Denver civilians.
I believe that my two children are not prejudiced, but I have to work at wiping prejudice from my brain. It takes will-power and practice.
Meanwhile, I commend and thank Donald Langhezza for trying to improve the world and Rohn Kenyatta for trying to inform it.
“We must push back against them boldly and loudly, and when they’re gone we’re going to have a huge job cleaning up the fascist mess they’re making.” We’re going to need the kind of leadership currently in short supply. We’re going to need leaders dedicated to democracy, not to disparaging, undermining, and excluding those most sincerely and energetically working to reclaim and rebuild it. That means our establishment corporate Democrats - the sort who embrace the notion that we should “role over and play dead” - must be replaced by a far more high-minded crew, the very types they clearly abhor. We aren’t losing our democracy, we have lost it, a fact demonstrated daily, abetted by ineffectual, uncommitted place holders.
It follows suit that Trump would want to cover up and deny past crimes of White nationalists and the ability of victim populations to overcome these criminal acts. He is doing this in his own life, and he is abetted in this injustice by a supine party and media.
Trump’s statements largely come from white Christian Nationalist myth maker David Barton. WCN writer Eric Metaxas, who is a Trump fan, Yale graduate and believer in all sorts of irrational conspiracy theories, recently published his tendentious history of the American Revolution, “Revolution.” Metaxas’s work makes many of the same arguments David Barton has made, and it includes selective use of historical sources. He did the same with his book about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and the descendants of Bonhoeffer’s family and Bonhoeffer scholars were decidedly unimpressed.
The Overton Window movement to the right. This is why so many uneducated Americans, younger Americans and misinformed Americans view progressive issues as either “radical” or unattainable. They are neither. They are mainstream, based on myriad surveys. And (with the exception of national healthcare) we have had them, before. Medicare, Medicaid, affordable healthcare, first class public schools and colleges, unemployment insurance, public roads and freeways…all part of the Welfare Capitalism we have had for years, before Republicans started gutting programs and privatizing agencies. Even Republican President Eisenhower maintained the 90% top tax rate on billionaires and spent money building roads, freeways, schools and hospitals. This is normal and mainstream, not radical. What IS radical is the Laissez Faire oligarchy being implemented by Trump and Republicans. No taxes or regulations on the rich or corporations, the creation of monopolies and oligopolies, price gouging, which led to the gilded age and roaring twenties..and led directly to the Great Depression.
Scholars confirm the word AMEN has no linguistic connection to the ancient Egyptian god Amun (the hidden one), despite phonetic similarities. Check it out.
Consider reading a novel by the great American author Ursula Le Guin named “The Telling” about a futuristic planet where the state created a new religion called the “Corporation” which wiped out all records of the previous society (including libraries) and any previous “belief” systems. Chillingly parallel to our present.
History is my lifeblood, from high school forward at least. I majored in history at UCLA. My reading since graduating has focused heavily on history, biography, historical novels, alternative history.
All that you say is true, Thom. There is one other thing worth noting, I believe. If one falsifies or skews history, one creates the situation where no one can understand how we got where we are, and therefore how to best go forward. Meaning making necessary course corrections, but also continuing things that are good and which work to make society function and do so in as fair and just a way as possible. Of course dictators don't care, because for most if not all of them, any future beyond their own nasty lives is of no moment. That is who we are dealing with now, especially with our felon in chief, Putin, and L'il Kim (though ironically maybe least with him, as his daughter is his apparent successor, and he wants her to have something to rule).
Those of us who know and love history have to keep fighting for it, in all of its glory and darkness. The Smithsonian does that. Perhaps the best sign to put up outside the museum of American History would be "Don't go inside if you can't handle the truth." Which is what characterizes the MAGAtariat. The MAGAtocracy knows the truth, but has the money and power to delude its minions into avoiding it and embracing more comforting lies instead. That is possibly even sadder than it is dangerous. Because it is the complexity of history that makes it interesting. Simplifying it makes it dull and boring, which again serves the interests of the morbidly rich.
Keep telling it like it is, Thom. I only hope you and others of like mind at Bulwark are reaching enough people out there to make a difference.
I think Donald Trump is only the tip of the iceberg. Bernie and AOC have addressed the reality that there is an oligarchical network behind the scenes. What they have not touched upon is (even further behind the scenes) what has been called the Cabal – the group composed of some of the wealthiest and most powerful people on the planet who have covertly been in in charge of the extraterrestrial matter.
Speaking for myself, I would guess that, far beyond DJT and the Re-ugh-licans there is a larger domination-game being played out. It even seems possible that the entire visible right-wing is window dressings – unknowingly acting as a diversion/smokescreen.
I would expect that during the next few years we may get a peek at the deeper machinations – mendacity which we’ve not even had the ability to imagine. The scab may be pulled off, revealing an even deeper wound than we’ve realized.
But to move onto solutions…. Herr Mueller and Thom both talk about the power of momentum and “non-locality.” (Check out the “Hundredth Monkey” chapter in the Prophet’s Way). Yesterday I mentioned “radical evil.” I see a “meta-physical” aspect to what is occurring.
I’m guessing that to have a shot at prevailing we will need to meet the perverse politics with spiritual power. We will need to use all the skills we can marshal. And I think we will need more.
I think, in time, we’ll need to learn how to expand our awareness and make use of more subtle powers.
I think that George Lukas was on to something real when had had Obi-Wan Kenobi instruct Luke to “Use the Force.” King, Gandhi and Mandela did just this – and just possibly, we can take a page out of their books.
For me, one of the most compelling aspects of the current struggle…against fascism and for democracy is the interface of political power and spiritual power.
I’m aware that many of us have been “snookered by secularism.” Liberals are known for their aversion to all things spiritual (Feh!). I see this aversion as a form of delusion. The rational mind (which Ram Dass has described as, “a great servant and a lousy master” has colonized our minds. It’s like we’re wearing distorting spectacles that are soldered onto our heads. I describe them as distorting because many liberals appear allergic to the word “sacred.” Even though that is what reality is all about.
Our rational minds have great power. They’ve taken us to the moon, invented air conditioning, computers and AI. However, they have now hypertrophied.
Lewis Mumford:
He argues that our intellects have been steadily drafted into the service of the desire for certainty and control. The reality, he states, is that this process can be compared to a dangerous mutation. In The Transformations of Man, first published in 1956, Mumford comes to these inexorable conclusions:
“With the invention of the scientific method and the depersonalized procedures of modern technics, cold intelligence, which has succeeded as never before in commanding the energies of nature, already largely dominates every human activity… [Currently] we find scientific ideation and technical skill…at the mercy of an infantile scheme of life, seeking extravagant, super-mechanisms of escape from the problems that [individuals and any] mature society must face.”
He continues:
“Never before was man so free from nature’s restrictions, but never before was he more the victim of his own failure to develop in any fullness, his own specifically human traits.
“This extreme state of post-historic rationalism [may very likely] carry to a further degree the paradox already visible…The more rationalized become the means of living - the more irrational will finally become the end product, man himself. In short, power and order, pushed to their final limit, lead to their self-destructive inversion: disorganization, violence, mental aberration, subjective chaos.”
**
Our intellects automatically place us in an objective or “distanced” relationship to the universe. Authentic spirituality evokes our capacity for a subjective relationship to our universe – first as intimacy and eventually into a state of oneness.
Thom has said (I agree!) that the deepest cause for the current we’re in is our immersion in an illusion of separateness.
“We are facing a planet-wide physical crisis, which has a spiritual and cultural basis…largely caused by our thinking we are separate from – disconnected from – the rest of life and the environment in which we live.”
Obviously, the issue of power is relevant here. As I’ve explored on my own Substack – there are different types of power. There is the power of domination – “power-over-others.” There is the power of partnership or “power-with-others. There is also a form which can be called “power-from-within” (which Gandhi called “soul force”).
Scott Peck describes political power as the capacity to coerce others, overtly or covertly, to do one’s will.
“Consequently, political power is unrelated to goodness or wisdom. Very stupid and very evil people have walked as kings upon the earth. Spiritual power, however, resides entirely within the individual and has nothing to do with the capacity to coerce others…It is consciousness.”
If we look at the lives of beings who are widely considered “great souls” (Mahatmas), we find statements like these:
Gandhi:
““Nonviolence is an active force of the highest order. It is soul force or the power of Godhead within us.””
“I believe in the absolute oneness of God and therefore of humanity. What though we have many bodies? We have but one soul. The rays of the sun are many through refraction. But they have the same source. I cannot, therefore, detach myself from the wickedest soul nor may I be denied identity with the most virtuous.”
Martin Luther King:
"I just want to do God's will. And he's allowed me to go to the mountain. And I've looked over, and I've seen the promised land! I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land."
Joanna Macy:
“By strengthening our compassion, we give fuel to our courage and determination.”
“In the past, changing the self and changing the world were often regarded as separate endeavors and viewed in either-or terms. But in the story of the Great Turning, they are recognized as mutually reinforcing and essential to one another.”
**
In meeting the challenges of our era. I don’t think our outrage, our caring or even our capacity for careful, strategic analysis as being enough. If we want to prevail, I believe will need to draw on some form of spiritual power.
The Smithsonian is a private Institute, otherwise Trump would have had his grubby little fingerprints all over it already. It's EXACTLY like 1984 all over again. I can't believe what's happened to our Country in just 18 months, or how many of my fellow Anericans are perfectly okay with it.
Time To Tune Out Political Ad Propaganda: Just Google For Candidate Information
In 1971 fascist Nixon took the country off the gold standard ushering in a new era of wealth expansion enjoyed by the business interests of the wealthy people who run corporations. In a way taking the country off the gold standard was the beginning of deregulaton. Without it the economy could be freewheeling without governmental restraint. This set the stage for Reagan’s attack on government itself.
Now the country faces a new issue. Can elections be purchased due to extreme wealth disparity. Voters in Wisconsin’s Supreme Court said no to Elon Musk when voters chose to ignore his $20m he put into his late campaign donation. He’s now up to possibly being indicted by the Wisconsin AG for attempted interference by bribing donors didn’t work out.
All the political ad buying is material taken out of context meant to deceive, outright false, or a combination of both. WE the People shouldn't bother with the propaganda that has filtered into our ecosystems. Time to ignore it all and get your information directly through the internet and Google.
Will Abdul El-Sayed’s message resonate with Michigan voters while AIPAC seeds Haley Stevens $30M in campaign financing? Politicians are bought off and Michiganders have a moral decision to make.
Sensei, your opening quote from Orwell reminds me of something a former paramour once said to me. She was from Romania (she called it Transylvania) and was a former officer with the GRU. Rodica was a beautiful tall woman with raven hair and a thick accent and told me, about life: "The future is certain dahlink, it is past that is always changing."
And so it is.
Oh, that's priceless! So True.
j
Your research and writing has never been more important, Thom. Our First Amendment is a beacon trying to shine through this fog created by the psychos, sickos and criminals of TRump, his Administration and MAGA.
Do what you can, friends, even if it is only refusing to ever watch 60 Minutes and CBS again. Carry your own torch and point it right at the vile lies they are telling. Thank you, everyone. See you in the street.
Yes.
I recall talking with A sociology professor during my undergraduate years. He asked: "What discipline are studying for your degree?" "History," I replied.
"Good," he said. "It is the only real social study."
That was 1968, and History was cool, and classrooms were alive with discussion and argument.
Some years ago I volunteered to tutor High School students in History for a group that was supporting inner-city children's advancement in education.
After a few weeks, I stopped going. No one ever came... not one kid, not one time.
This is all you need to know about where we are now, and why.
Just a note: During the Soviet era, Encyclopedias were printed as loose-leaf binders. Reality could be changed simply by replacing any page, as decided by leadership.
D.
Since teachers, aside from my Dad and Malcolm X, have always been my heroes (and clearly you are one) I am legitimately curious about something. You stated you represented "a group that was supporting inner-city children's advancement in education..." Given that we all know, admittedly or not, what the dog-whistle "iN-er City" means do you think that participation would have been greater in a different demographic?
Perhaps I am not up on what words can and cannot be used in a not very complex relating of a personal experience.
If the main point of the story makes sense, please focus upon that.
I might add, it is this near-neurotic insistence upon the right phrasing and inflection that has contributed, to some degree, to put us in the situation we are now in.
We are in a knife fight, and you are insisting upon approved terminology, even while we get our throats cut.
D.
I asked a very concise, simple and direct question. I wasn't anticipating the "knife fight" you are in, but that is your business. Where I come from we bring guns to knife fights, so save the defensiveness. Fact of the matter is you used coded racist language and you got busted. As an educator you should be ashamed to publicly exhibit such academic cowardice.
You did NOT ask a concise, simple and direct question. You changed the focus of the discussion. You assumed the whole purpose of my comment was to insidiously turn a discussion of the ignorance of our collective history into an attack on kids from a certain ethno-racial background.
It was not.
It happens I live in the city and volunteered in the city, versus driving out to the suburbs.
I know the kids there are also just as ignorant of their History because my sister taught there for years. But that is her experience.
I cannot imagine what it is like living in the closed, paranoid, near psychotic world you live in.
You are fighting a war that has long ago past you by.
The enemy that you are railing against has no need for dog whistles... They are declaring their targets openly, loudly, and with joy while you are looking for code words in the ether.
I don't make ass-umptions; I'll leave that particular tasking for those most qualified to execute, which clearly you are. My inquiry was quite concise and academic in nature; yet you lacked the intellectual rigor to answer it. In fact I made it easy on you and presented a closed probe. If the "inner city" was not a significant qualifier, in your mind, why did you deploy it?
And, no, you absolutely do not know anything about me, or my "world" (you'd be surprised). As far as a "war" that has passed me by? I figure you to be about my parent's age and the "war" I fight is something far beyond your meager comprehension and has been fought for 400 years; my children will fight it should they remain in the "US." How dare you lay down that paternalistic nonsense. I suggest you check your own socioeconomic statistics, professor.
In conclusion, I am a world class wordsmith dude; trained by the best, by the "enemy." You could spend the next 80 years boning up and you will never, ever be successful in vanquishing me with white supremacist inspired linguistic-salad. Further, I am better at the European-Amerikan's tricks than they are.
That would include y-o-u.
I believe Donald L to be of good will.
A study revealed that happy people are gullible. This begs a question: Are angry people highly skeptical? I suspect so.
As for iN___rCity, after thinking about it as I lay in bed in the wee hours, I concluded that Rohn K has a point. America is amazingly racist. Circa 2012, I took an online test for prejudice when dealing with possibly-armed people. I invited my eight email correspondents to take it. Only one responded – to say that she declined to take it.
I came out slightly prejudiced, but significantly less prejudiced than average Denver police and much less prejudiced than average Denver civilians.
I believe that my two children are not prejudiced, but I have to work at wiping prejudice from my brain. It takes will-power and practice.
Meanwhile, I commend and thank Donald Langhezza for trying to improve the world and Rohn Kenyatta for trying to inform it.
“We must push back against them boldly and loudly, and when they’re gone we’re going to have a huge job cleaning up the fascist mess they’re making.” We’re going to need the kind of leadership currently in short supply. We’re going to need leaders dedicated to democracy, not to disparaging, undermining, and excluding those most sincerely and energetically working to reclaim and rebuild it. That means our establishment corporate Democrats - the sort who embrace the notion that we should “role over and play dead” - must be replaced by a far more high-minded crew, the very types they clearly abhor. We aren’t losing our democracy, we have lost it, a fact demonstrated daily, abetted by ineffectual, uncommitted place holders.
It follows suit that Trump would want to cover up and deny past crimes of White nationalists and the ability of victim populations to overcome these criminal acts. He is doing this in his own life, and he is abetted in this injustice by a supine party and media.
Trump’s statements largely come from white Christian Nationalist myth maker David Barton. WCN writer Eric Metaxas, who is a Trump fan, Yale graduate and believer in all sorts of irrational conspiracy theories, recently published his tendentious history of the American Revolution, “Revolution.” Metaxas’s work makes many of the same arguments David Barton has made, and it includes selective use of historical sources. He did the same with his book about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and the descendants of Bonhoeffer’s family and Bonhoeffer scholars were decidedly unimpressed.
The Overton Window movement to the right. This is why so many uneducated Americans, younger Americans and misinformed Americans view progressive issues as either “radical” or unattainable. They are neither. They are mainstream, based on myriad surveys. And (with the exception of national healthcare) we have had them, before. Medicare, Medicaid, affordable healthcare, first class public schools and colleges, unemployment insurance, public roads and freeways…all part of the Welfare Capitalism we have had for years, before Republicans started gutting programs and privatizing agencies. Even Republican President Eisenhower maintained the 90% top tax rate on billionaires and spent money building roads, freeways, schools and hospitals. This is normal and mainstream, not radical. What IS radical is the Laissez Faire oligarchy being implemented by Trump and Republicans. No taxes or regulations on the rich or corporations, the creation of monopolies and oligopolies, price gouging, which led to the gilded age and roaring twenties..and led directly to the Great Depression.
George Orwell was a prophet. His Goldberg is Trump
He who controls the past controls the future
Let's see, this abomination has reframed himself as . . .
- Not a Rapist of Kiddies, Wives [his and others'], Women
- Not a Killer of Innocents
- Not a Nepo-Baby
- Not a Failed Businessman
- Not a Peeping Tom
- Not a Pussy Grabber
- Not a Russian Spy
- Not Illiterate
- Not a Glutton
- Not on Drugs/Pampers
- Not Immature
- Not Fat
- Not his true Height/Weight
- a Messiah
- a Politician
- Honest
- Intelligent
- Honorable
- Serious
- Moral
- Responsible
- Well Educated
- Heterosexual
- Not a Racist, and much, much more
So why would he not try to rewrite U.S. History? It's his m.o.
And yes, the cleanup will take at least 100 years.
#VOTE for Serenity NOW #Send Barron to Oman
Scholars confirm the word AMEN has no linguistic connection to the ancient Egyptian god Amun (the hidden one), despite phonetic similarities. Check it out.
True. Amen in Hebrew means "so be it."
Consider reading a novel by the great American author Ursula Le Guin named “The Telling” about a futuristic planet where the state created a new religion called the “Corporation” which wiped out all records of the previous society (including libraries) and any previous “belief” systems. Chillingly parallel to our present.
History is my lifeblood, from high school forward at least. I majored in history at UCLA. My reading since graduating has focused heavily on history, biography, historical novels, alternative history.
All that you say is true, Thom. There is one other thing worth noting, I believe. If one falsifies or skews history, one creates the situation where no one can understand how we got where we are, and therefore how to best go forward. Meaning making necessary course corrections, but also continuing things that are good and which work to make society function and do so in as fair and just a way as possible. Of course dictators don't care, because for most if not all of them, any future beyond their own nasty lives is of no moment. That is who we are dealing with now, especially with our felon in chief, Putin, and L'il Kim (though ironically maybe least with him, as his daughter is his apparent successor, and he wants her to have something to rule).
Those of us who know and love history have to keep fighting for it, in all of its glory and darkness. The Smithsonian does that. Perhaps the best sign to put up outside the museum of American History would be "Don't go inside if you can't handle the truth." Which is what characterizes the MAGAtariat. The MAGAtocracy knows the truth, but has the money and power to delude its minions into avoiding it and embracing more comforting lies instead. That is possibly even sadder than it is dangerous. Because it is the complexity of history that makes it interesting. Simplifying it makes it dull and boring, which again serves the interests of the morbidly rich.
Keep telling it like it is, Thom. I only hope you and others of like mind at Bulwark are reaching enough people out there to make a difference.
(Con't)
I think Donald Trump is only the tip of the iceberg. Bernie and AOC have addressed the reality that there is an oligarchical network behind the scenes. What they have not touched upon is (even further behind the scenes) what has been called the Cabal – the group composed of some of the wealthiest and most powerful people on the planet who have covertly been in in charge of the extraterrestrial matter.
Speaking for myself, I would guess that, far beyond DJT and the Re-ugh-licans there is a larger domination-game being played out. It even seems possible that the entire visible right-wing is window dressings – unknowingly acting as a diversion/smokescreen.
I would expect that during the next few years we may get a peek at the deeper machinations – mendacity which we’ve not even had the ability to imagine. The scab may be pulled off, revealing an even deeper wound than we’ve realized.
But to move onto solutions…. Herr Mueller and Thom both talk about the power of momentum and “non-locality.” (Check out the “Hundredth Monkey” chapter in the Prophet’s Way). Yesterday I mentioned “radical evil.” I see a “meta-physical” aspect to what is occurring.
I’m guessing that to have a shot at prevailing we will need to meet the perverse politics with spiritual power. We will need to use all the skills we can marshal. And I think we will need more.
I think, in time, we’ll need to learn how to expand our awareness and make use of more subtle powers.
I think that George Lukas was on to something real when had had Obi-Wan Kenobi instruct Luke to “Use the Force.” King, Gandhi and Mandela did just this – and just possibly, we can take a page out of their books.
(Con't)
For me, one of the most compelling aspects of the current struggle…against fascism and for democracy is the interface of political power and spiritual power.
I’m aware that many of us have been “snookered by secularism.” Liberals are known for their aversion to all things spiritual (Feh!). I see this aversion as a form of delusion. The rational mind (which Ram Dass has described as, “a great servant and a lousy master” has colonized our minds. It’s like we’re wearing distorting spectacles that are soldered onto our heads. I describe them as distorting because many liberals appear allergic to the word “sacred.” Even though that is what reality is all about.
Our rational minds have great power. They’ve taken us to the moon, invented air conditioning, computers and AI. However, they have now hypertrophied.
Lewis Mumford:
He argues that our intellects have been steadily drafted into the service of the desire for certainty and control. The reality, he states, is that this process can be compared to a dangerous mutation. In The Transformations of Man, first published in 1956, Mumford comes to these inexorable conclusions:
“With the invention of the scientific method and the depersonalized procedures of modern technics, cold intelligence, which has succeeded as never before in commanding the energies of nature, already largely dominates every human activity… [Currently] we find scientific ideation and technical skill…at the mercy of an infantile scheme of life, seeking extravagant, super-mechanisms of escape from the problems that [individuals and any] mature society must face.”
He continues:
“Never before was man so free from nature’s restrictions, but never before was he more the victim of his own failure to develop in any fullness, his own specifically human traits.
“This extreme state of post-historic rationalism [may very likely] carry to a further degree the paradox already visible…The more rationalized become the means of living - the more irrational will finally become the end product, man himself. In short, power and order, pushed to their final limit, lead to their self-destructive inversion: disorganization, violence, mental aberration, subjective chaos.”
**
Our intellects automatically place us in an objective or “distanced” relationship to the universe. Authentic spirituality evokes our capacity for a subjective relationship to our universe – first as intimacy and eventually into a state of oneness.
Thom has said (I agree!) that the deepest cause for the current we’re in is our immersion in an illusion of separateness.
“We are facing a planet-wide physical crisis, which has a spiritual and cultural basis…largely caused by our thinking we are separate from – disconnected from – the rest of life and the environment in which we live.”
Obviously, the issue of power is relevant here. As I’ve explored on my own Substack – there are different types of power. There is the power of domination – “power-over-others.” There is the power of partnership or “power-with-others. There is also a form which can be called “power-from-within” (which Gandhi called “soul force”).
Scott Peck describes political power as the capacity to coerce others, overtly or covertly, to do one’s will.
“Consequently, political power is unrelated to goodness or wisdom. Very stupid and very evil people have walked as kings upon the earth. Spiritual power, however, resides entirely within the individual and has nothing to do with the capacity to coerce others…It is consciousness.”
If we look at the lives of beings who are widely considered “great souls” (Mahatmas), we find statements like these:
Gandhi:
““Nonviolence is an active force of the highest order. It is soul force or the power of Godhead within us.””
“I believe in the absolute oneness of God and therefore of humanity. What though we have many bodies? We have but one soul. The rays of the sun are many through refraction. But they have the same source. I cannot, therefore, detach myself from the wickedest soul nor may I be denied identity with the most virtuous.”
Martin Luther King:
"I just want to do God's will. And he's allowed me to go to the mountain. And I've looked over, and I've seen the promised land! I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land."
Joanna Macy:
“By strengthening our compassion, we give fuel to our courage and determination.”
“In the past, changing the self and changing the world were often regarded as separate endeavors and viewed in either-or terms. But in the story of the Great Turning, they are recognized as mutually reinforcing and essential to one another.”
**
In meeting the challenges of our era. I don’t think our outrage, our caring or even our capacity for careful, strategic analysis as being enough. If we want to prevail, I believe will need to draw on some form of spiritual power.
The Smithsonian is a private Institute, otherwise Trump would have had his grubby little fingerprints all over it already. It's EXACTLY like 1984 all over again. I can't believe what's happened to our Country in just 18 months, or how many of my fellow Anericans are perfectly okay with it.
Time To Tune Out Political Ad Propaganda: Just Google For Candidate Information
In 1971 fascist Nixon took the country off the gold standard ushering in a new era of wealth expansion enjoyed by the business interests of the wealthy people who run corporations. In a way taking the country off the gold standard was the beginning of deregulaton. Without it the economy could be freewheeling without governmental restraint. This set the stage for Reagan’s attack on government itself.
Now the country faces a new issue. Can elections be purchased due to extreme wealth disparity. Voters in Wisconsin’s Supreme Court said no to Elon Musk when voters chose to ignore his $20m he put into his late campaign donation. He’s now up to possibly being indicted by the Wisconsin AG for attempted interference by bribing donors didn’t work out.
All the political ad buying is material taken out of context meant to deceive, outright false, or a combination of both. WE the People shouldn't bother with the propaganda that has filtered into our ecosystems. Time to ignore it all and get your information directly through the internet and Google.
Will Abdul El-Sayed’s message resonate with Michigan voters while AIPAC seeds Haley Stevens $30M in campaign financing? Politicians are bought off and Michiganders have a moral decision to make.