Sunday, September 13, 2015

Is This Really Who We Are?


I have this neighbor friend, she's about the same age as me, with similar health related issues.  About once a month she'll call and we chat for awhile about mundane matters; until she can no longer hold back the tears.  She has an abusive husband, and over the last ten years I have been an unwilling ear witness to his angry shouting and fits of rage.  The other neighbors hear it as well, I know because they've told me so. The man is a beast.  Just over a year ago she suddenly began walking with a cane, and can't get far without it.  I cannot help but wonder if the beast has now crippled her as well.  She calls me when she's really up against it and we talk it through.  I always listen; and give her the best advice gained from my years working as a counselor.  These peer counseling sessions have been going on for nearly five years; and yet I am no closer to understanding why any woman would tolerate such chronic spousal abuse. 

Why do any of us tolerate the kind of abuses we see every day at work, and at home?  In our heart of hearts each of us know that berating & belittling others for fun and profit is just plain wrong, period. We know this yet time and again we watch without comment; our silence is our tacit approval.  Worse yet, sometimes we join in out of peer pressure and the need to fit in with our tribe.  Of course some people can be exasperating and a real challenge to deal with; but perhaps after so many generations of waiting for things to get better maybe we're all a bit nuts here.  What if we switched our default mode from rude & crude to something that honored the spirit within each of us?

Imagine that!

I'm another you ~ You're another me

Each of us has the potential to become a fully realized human; and this potential is great.  Unfortunately, most all of us fall decidedly short of what we might otherwise achieve.  We allow ourselves to be manipulated by fear, guilt and shame; then we give our power over to others who are undeserving, and lacking all dignity.   

We somehow seem to forget that inside every other human we meet there is another soul; just like us, with similar values, hopes and dreams.  Somewhere along the way we quit holding all other souls with the same esteem we give ourselves.  We see others as different and separate from us, less than in a lot of cases.  Look out for #1

As we struggle to make our way in the mundane rat race, acquiring the desired status tokens and trophy spouses along the way; we loose touch with the dignity within us.  Having little marketable value in today's world, we put it away, up on the shelf.

It is not basic human nature to distrust each other.  We had to learn that from somewhere. Distrusting others by its very definition precludes communion & working together; makes  it all but impossible.  When some natural disaster strikes we show our true colors by coming to the rescue and aid of total strangers; but as soon as the emergency recedes we're back to snarling and fence building.  Where does that come from?  Yes, it probably served us well to distrust others back when the first Cro Magnon humans appeared on the scene; and yet modern science has determined through DNA testing that instead of wiping out the Neanderthals, the Cro Magnon instead, interbred with them.

 I suppose that could certainly explain a lot.

With the exception of some who nature just wired wrong, I believe each of us would rather live in a much kinder, gentler world where co-operation and peace prevail.  The trouble is that life shoves us into the rat race where competition and greed call the tune we all dance to.  Because none are offered, we're hypnotized into thinking there are no options to the rat race.  There are, but we must seek them out, and then decide to choose those options.   Anything less is called dreaming.  Soon that may be illegal too.

According to the Hindus, Mayans, Nostradamus and the zodiac; this is the age of spiritual evolution when humanity takes a big step forward.  Even a casual glance around this place confirms we are not there yet.  Not even close. What we're currently seeing, and living through is the ugly side of evolution; the nasty part where the broken old corrupt paradigm must make way for the shiny new Aquarius thing.

As Warren Zevon explained it to us, "It ain't that pretty at all."

Before we can expect to actually see what this evolution is going to look like, we're gonna have to do something about things like human trafficking, starvation, poverty, racism, and letting the psychopaths run everything.  As we can readily see from the puppet theater we call mainstream media, the status quo is doubling down on the insanity in an effort to trump any chance of a return to reason and dignity.  They really believe that if they keep humanity below the threshold for evolution, they can remain on top forever.  Not much dignity in that at all.

We have learned all too well that those who honor integrity, honesty and truth are soon exploited by the world as if those were weaknesses rather than virtues.  Those who only play by their own rules are very fond of using our virtues against us at every turn.  Business practices nowadays are nearly all predatory, and quality control has been relegated to being an insider joke.  Big business to small are equally guilty of treating prospective customers as little more than a renewable resource, a walking dollar sign to be harvested by any means necessary.

"This is customer service; we're not satisfied
until you're not satisfied."

You cannot legislate morality because people will resent it and hold onto their intolerance and entitlement even tighter, like a rabid pit bull on steroids.  Case in point the jailed county clerk in Kentucky who refused to issue same sex marriage licenses after the recent judicial decree recognized them across the land.  Here's the thing, so simple: If issuing marriage licenses to same sex couples offends her faith so much then she should quit her job - not refuse to perform it!   It seems that a great many Americans have forgotten that this country was created as a melting pot of people from many diverse backgrounds and belief systems.  We've bought into the them or us ideology and allowed ourselves to be set against one another for other peoples gain, profit and entertainment.   Divide & conquer, it really works quite well.  Who sold us this "bill of goods" where the only human life we honor is our own? 


We now have the opportunity to evolve beyond that kind of intolerant mindset; into a consciousness which honors all life.  Dreaming about such things won't get us there, that is just the first stage.  We need to think, speak & act in way which will bring about the evolution we desire to see.  Gandhi said it best, "we must be the change we wish to see in the world."

"For some people this world ain't ever gonna be right."
                                                             ~ Doc Holiday ~

The third leading cause of death in America is medical care.  Let that sink in a minute.
Big medicine and big pharma are in an unholy alliance of the worst kind.  When folks are ill, and at their weakest they should be able to trust those who provide their health care.  Instead we get "care" providers who only want to treat the symptoms and not the ailment so they can over charge by 300 percent, sucking every possible penny from their patients.  Sky high medical bills force hundreds into bankruptcy every year, force folks into poverty & homelessness.  Worst of all is the over-hyped total fabrication of make believe medical conditions so they can sell us their pills with side effects far worse than the imaginary ailment.  Unfortunately these side effects are very real, and in fact are often life threatening.  What ever happened to their famous oath of "First, do no harm?"

What dignity do we show our war veterans when in the case of Vietnam, it was dioxin from agent orange that gave them cancer, or with the gulf war when "gulf war syndrome" was caused by the vaccinations given them?  Guinea pigs and cannon fodder; and those who manage to survive must battle the government for years to gain promised benefits and medical care.  Where is the dignity in allowing that in our name?

The powers that (shouldn't) be of course have long ago stacked the deck in their favor. 
As it turns out you really can't fight city hall because the game is rigged, the fix is in. 
It has been this way for so very long now you'd think we'd tire of all the persecution & unexpected sudden death, and revolt or something; but they have taken care of that as well.  The population at large has been taken right out of the equation with pacification technologies like chemtrails, fluoridated water and GMO food-like-products.  Have you never wondered why the worlds largest manufacturer of pesticides is now making your dinner?  How about that?


On the subject of food, are you still eating things from the ocean?  You really shouldn't!  The pacific ocean is irradiated with nuclear radiation from Fukushima, and those who may still doubt that have only to check out Rense for an education.  Those people at the seafood corporations who knowingly sell radioactive fish to the public should be jailed for crimes against humanity, their business shut down permanently.  We know that'll never happen, and once again our silence is our tacit approval.

Simply unbelievable!

Human dignity shouldn't need to be legislated!
Whatever happened to those inalienable human rights guaranteed to us?

If nothing else, this spiritual evolution now underway is the next step in humanity's return to the divine.   Can we even experience divinity without dignity??  Great question, eh?  It might just be that before we see this evolution we might have to slap an "R" in front of it.  You didn't think the powers that shouldn't be were gonna just hand it over did you??

2000 some years ago a holy man named Christ showed up with one simple message, love one another.  Since then we've mostly been killing each other over how he said it.  Love one another, simple.  How did we ever get so far from that concept?  What has happened to us that we are so willing to endorse and endure wars of financial conquest as a way of life?

"I wanna know what became of the changes
we waited for love to bring."
                                           ~ Jackson Browne ~

Is life a miracle or nightmare, or something in between?  It depends entirely on ones perspective.  The universe rearranges itself to accommodate our picture of reality; so if you see life as a miracle, miraculous things are drawn to you.  If however, you feel life is out to get you and everyone cheats - that also will become your reality.  You literally have to believe it to see it. 

We all recoiled in disgust when a wealthy dentist recently killed and butchered Cecil the beloved lion as a trophy.  But what of the 30,000 elephants slaughtered each year in a mechanized and militarized ivory poaching operation?  (That number is correct, 30,000)  Where is the outcry for the elephants who are executed from helicopters for their tusks?  A recent National Geographic special actually planted decoy elephant tusks with tracking technology inside, into the illegal ivory "pipeline."  They soon discovered that the entire operation is being run by Joseph Kony, the psychotic leader of the African Lord's Resistance Army terrorist group.  All the poached ivory tusks, (many from baby elephants) are hand carried 600 miles to the Sudan where they are traded for weapons and ammunition.  The recipient of the Ivory being the very man who perpetrated the genocide in Darfur.  The same world which protested the killing of Cecil is silent over the yearly slaughter of elephants by terrorists.  We revile a greedy ego driven individual, but ignore the far worse crimes of governments.  We do not want to know.

Haven't we evolved far enough by now to see that our self-appointed leaders are leading us all into a nightmare-quality dystopian future?   The powers that shouldn't be, thru their media department, show us the future they envision with movies like The Hunger Games and The Maze Runner complete with multiple sequels.  They are embedding these ideas into our heads now, so that we won't be taken totally by surprise later.

Remember that chilling famous line from Star Trek?  "Resistance is Futile."

Anywhere you care to look in what's left of the natural world we see the recurring theme of violence.  The natural world is full of all kinds of violence, including armies which do battle, and one species making slaves of another.  We are expected to be better than that.  We are expected to overcome those primal instincts and create a world safe for our children.  Now, if you like you can certainly settle for the rule of violence but remember if you do, what you'll have is just existing, simply surviving; it's not in any rational way considered living.  Is that really all you want?  Is this really who we are?  Is a world without violence even possible?  Yes, most assuredly it is possible, but not with the status quo.  It's the thing about letting the psychopaths be in charge, we need to change that.  Tried it for a while now, you happy with the results?


Before any real change is possible we must come to understand that WE are the fuel that feeds the rapacious hunger of the matrix.  Without our silence and tacit approval they cannot continue business as usualWe must stop feeding the monster.  Simple as that!  Of course this won't be a piece of cake in the doing of it, because the matrix has made us dependent upon them for our day to day existence.  How about YOU, do you feel as though you are truly living; or are you just existing between paychecks?  Sad to say but true just the same; most humans will not change until the pain of staying the same becomes unbearable.  What say we maybe start sooner, say for an example, before we begin taking our frustrations out on those closest to us, that isn't what they signed up for!

"Where must we go,
We who wander this wasteland
in search of our better selves?"
                                ~ The First History Man ~

Even Gandhi, perhaps history's greatest advocate of non-violence, eventually came to understand that sometimes violence is the only way to stop a terrible evil.  I'd really like to hear what he might have to say about our world today.  Perhaps we need to take a lesson from the natural world.  When some animal is trying to kill you it's either fight or flight; if you can't fly or run away fast enough you must fight violence with violence.  The sole remaining option is to just quietly surrender to the inevitable.


What about the many millions of refugees fleeing Syria?  We see this massive human exodus spreading into central Europe on the lamestream media news.  How about some dignity for them?  Are they any less a human than the Obama's, & Assad's of this place?  Are they any less human than you & me?  Our fear of terrorism drains the dignity from our self image as we refuse to open our doors to the hoards  of refugees fleeing the war in Syria.

How about the millions killed in ethnic cleansing campaigns across the globe, who speaks for them?  Why are the impoverished of this world not accorded the same basic dignity that we westerners demand with our entitled attitudes and commercialized mindsets?  Why does the world turn a blind eye on such atrocities every time?  We don't want to know because it's painful in a way no pill can diminish; and we don't wish to feel that pain, so we turn our attention elsewhere, America's got talent.

Are we truly living, or just existing & surviving?

In our search for dignity we're assured to not find much when we look at how society treats the elderly.  Not long after they're ushered out of the workforce we begin the marginalization of the aging members of society as if they're just old & in the way.  We disregard their knowledge and experience, ignoring their opinions as if they were children.  Despite being one of the ten commandments we often dishonor our parents by quietly shuffling them off to care centers when dealing with them becomes difficult. We're Increasingly discovering that a great many of these elder care facilities leave a lot to be desired when it comes to dispensing dignity.


If we would increase & defend dignity, then few tools are as powerful as unconditional love and radical forgiveness.  We must delete the "us vs them" virus from our hard drives then replace it with something life affirming with room for all, nobody excluded.  If we're looking for justice in this world as well as some dignity; at the end of the day it's just us.  If we do not accept the mantle, then who?  If not now, when? 

Although the concept of unconditional love might seem a tall order at first blush for some, we must remember it requires us to detach the person from their deeds.  Unconditional love becomes possible when we choose to disapprove of the deeds yet hold love in our heart for the person despite their words or actions.  We can also embrace radical forgiveness in such cases by agreeing with the universe that our total understanding isn't required before we can forgive.  The details are never as important as the forgiveness.

We try our best to insulate our children from the real horrors of this world.  We attempt to protect them from being exposed to the things which make our souls sick, but is this really helping or hurting in the long run?  Shielding our offspring from the reality of this world only results in sending young adults into it totally unprepared for what awaits them.  Yes, they are our children but they are also our last best hope of turning things around; which is why the great shining lie bombards them with meaningless social media and anything they can think of to distract them from what is going on.  The matrix gave them a fake culture which encourages them to go extreme and ignore the political stage upon which the puppet theater plays out.  It's working!  So, where will our children acquire a sense of dignity?  Bottom line here is that if we do not impart our children with a sense of dignity they might never acquire it themselves.


Some will no doubt take the stance that against such a powerful force as what we call the matrix, no defense is possible.  For them I suggest spending a night with a few starving mosquitoes in the room to learn a lesson in perspective.  Imagine several billion hungry, angry mosquitoes.  "They" are literally standing on the shoulders of rest of the world; and if we could just get everyone to heave-ho at the same moment, the matrix would crumble.  Without all of us supporting and feeding it the matrix cannot exist.

I know, its easy to say, but much harder to accomplish.  True that!  Does that mean we shouldn't even make the attempt?  We have to start somewhere, might as well be here and now because this Titanic nation is going down with psychopaths in control and all we can manage is to fight over the seating arrangements as the band plays on.

Corruption is the first and perhaps worst destroyer of dignity there is.  First it tempts and tests your integrity; next it goes for your honesty, eroding everything in its path just a little at a time.  Corruption whispers to us that "Its not selling out, its buying in!" and when everyone else is doing it the pressure & temptation increase.  We call it compromise instead of giving in to corruption, we tell ourselves we're keeping our eye on the big picture and the long run ... giving in to corruption (among other things) eventually leads to self-loathing & self destructive behavior which inevitably gives dignity some company up on that shelf. 

"Nothing but undeveloped, un-evolved, barely conscious
pond scum, totally convinced of their own superiority as they
scurry about in short, pointless lives."
                                                             ~ "Bug" from Men in Black ~

  As the pace of life is artificially stimulated to move faster than we can keep up with;
shortcuts to success become more tempting even if it means betraying some of our own standards and values to do it.  That's how the matrix gets us, and feeds on us; all while putting us into sensory overload and future shock.  I remember how it was when America went into Vietnam.  Citizens filled the streets by the thousands in cities across the land protesting, again and again.  You don't see much of that anymore; even though the crimes are a hundred fold worse than they were back then.

 Don't you ever wonder why? 

The residents of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) gave us all a profound cautionary tale when it comes to human dignity.  Did they forsake their dignity when they destroyed their environment, or was it later, when they turned to cannibalism to survive?  Will we be able to learn from their mistakes in time to avoid their fate?  Or is it too late?

The city of San Francisco is busy these days getting ready for the world's attention come super bowl 50 in February.  Naturally this includes sweeping up the homeless and getting them out of sight.  I would just imagine any homeless person you might happen to meet already feels a great lack of dignity every day above ground.  How do you suppose they feel about being considered a blight to be removed for appearance sake?   They say character is revealed by how we treat those who can do nothing for us, and they're right.

We currently have at our disposal perhaps the perfect weapon with which to change things up; the internet.  Instead of using it to organize ourselves against our common enemy, we watch porn and cat videos.  Instead of using the internet to educate and empower ourselves; We use it as escapism to better avoid all those things we don't want to know.  The things we do not wish to think about.


I struggle with a huge case of cognitive dissonance because in the face of full spectrum evil running amok, we're barely raising a whimper of protest, even as our quality of life continues eroding before our dumbstruck eyes.  We don't want to know, so we continue our daily pantomime, going thru the motions and pretending all is well.  If we were to acknowledge the things we ignore, it would then require us to re-assess our lives, & ourselves.  We do not want to know.  Is this really who we are?

We become so obsessed with the acquisition of money it makes us sick, and kills us years before our time.  We behave as if money was the most important thing in the world, it's mass insanity.  We are in need of a broader perspective and a better set of values and the good news is that they are available right now in massive quantities; we have only to reach out and claim them, use them.  It's really a simple matter; will you have more of the same old status quo, or perhaps something a bit more evolved, and enlightened?

Pick one !
Because for those who don't want to know; 
We're locked in a bit of a death spiral here.

This time of year I really enjoy just sitting out on the back deck in the early evening, discussing the day's events with the cat.  Again tonight I am deprived of that quiet commune with nature; the beast next door is at it again; verbally abusing his wife.  I keep waiting for her to find her voice, or his shotgun; or for him to stroke out at the height of his rage.  I know the scene next door will be repeated many thousands of times around the world before dawn.  Our evolution seems far away tonight, and somehow less likely.

Guess I'm just having a hard time accepting that this is really who we are.


© 2015 full re-post with permission only 





Bob Dylan ~ "Dignity"


 Jackie Greene ~ "Silver Lining

Jackie Greene ~ "Grindstone"

Warren Zevon ~ "Ain't that pretty at all"


6 comments:

  1. “You can resolve to live your life with integrity. Let your credo be this: Let the lie come into the world, let it even triumph. But not through me.”
    ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

    2 Timothy 3

    1 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.

    “Do all the good you can,” the Methodist saying goes, “in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.”

    Gandhi also explains that someone who cannot use violence to defend themselves or their family is a helpless coward and a "worm."
    In his own words from the text Between Cowardice And Violence
    "...He who cannot protect himself or his nearest and dearest or their honor by non-violently facing death may and ought to do so by violently dealing with the oppressor. He who can do neither of the two is a burden. He has no business to be the head of a family. He must either hide himself, or must rest content to live for ever in helplessness and be prepared to crawl like a worm at the bidding of a bully ...[When violence] is offered in self-defense or for the defense of the defenseless, it is an act of bravery far better than cowardly submission."

    "We are irritated by rascals, intolerant of fools, and prepared to love the rest.  But where are they?"  ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960

    “What I cannot love, I overlook.”
    ― Anaïs Nin

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. PJ
      A nice handful of wisdom you've dug up as a side dish for dignity.
      Many Thanks!!

      Delete
  2. "Those that hate Me (the God of the living), love death."

    I don't have to wonder who provides the new programming which glorifies "walking into extinction hand in hand" as an honorable goal.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. messianicdruid~
      I guess I figure that since I wrote nothing about hating, either death or god; that the quote you offer has nothing to do with anything.

      Labeling that which we don't understand or agree with as programming is old, and lame; especially when what is offered is intended to inspire thinking outside of one's comfort zone; to recognize options exist which embrace a certain dignity.

      Just speaking my truth with no need or desire to convince you of it

      Which has more dignity: opting out of a raw deal & fixed game,
      or continuing to play that game knowing you are the pawn?

      Blessings & thanks for sharing

      It isn't about hate & death,
      It's about love & dignity
      Or did you just look at the pictures?

      Delete
  3. Maybe the woman next door is practicing even-minded indifference while her husband rages on for his own reasons (as he lowers his own self dignity). The best way to handle verbal, emotional, mental abuse is the realization that these things cannot really hurt anyone if the person is strong and grounded. A person simply does not believe the lies or take them personally. As far as destroying the earth, controlling others, and creating physical harm, that's way different and must be stopped; Yes, opt out! Flight / change direction , or fight !

    ReplyDelete
  4. It can be extremely difficult to leave an abusive partner. The trigger and process of separation threatens to cause the abuse to escalate, especially when fueled by alcohol and or drugs. This was my experience. He blacked out one night and it didn't sink in to his memory, just how he had tried to suffocate me, for two weeks. That was it for me. I finally got the courage to have him locked out. He then began stalking, kept harassing and vandalizing, terrorizing, disrupting, stealing mail finding out where I was moving to, etc. for 8 of the longest months it took to sell that home. Messing with me on the way to work. It was a form of torture, being stalked and alone. I reported every incident and took photos. One morning I found two tires had been slashed on my car. The constant barrage of continued abuse resulted in his being one charge away from a stalking charge. It was never going to end. Because I cared about his kids who I did my best to help raise, and not wanting them to lose him, I opted to take the advice of my local cops and the court system, and leave the state entirely, to avoid his surely getting a stalking charge and ending up in prison. It was one thing for me to lose everything I'd worked for, career, friends, home, belongings, and to start over alone with shell shock issues in a new state. I was able bodied, albeit reeling and despite struggling with lifelong cognitive health issues, I got the hell out of there with my life, but still suffer from the nightmares and shame 15 years later. I can't imagine what it must be like for this poor woman you try to help, and with this type of health issue, or for those with shared biological children with abusive partners.

    ReplyDelete