Respect is something you give, unreservedly, not something you receive.
Every day I ride through the traffic, several thousand cars stretch neatly along either side of me. Lots of expensive cars, old and broken cars, taxis trucks and everything in-between, each one a brightly coloured bauble reflecting the morning and evening sun. And as I ride some cars pull over for me, either to acknowledge my presence or to create an empty space for me, small gestures which help a lot when picking through the cars.
It is my way to try thank those who do, with a thumbs up sign on my left and my left hand throwing a peace sign over my right shoulder. Left hand only of course, my right hand is reserved for the brake. I take joy in seeing these people make way, it validates my decision to use the biker lane every day, a small yet crucial part of the factors which I take into account. Knowing that many cars appreciate my right to pass between them supports me even when the bikers don't, in using the "biker lane". The small, friendly gesture is meant to encourage moving over again, a tiny thank you in the humdrum of tyres and engines. This is not unnoticed, and I'm honestly convinced that it ignites a spark in people which pleases them. Thank you.
Of course, I am only responding to them. It is they who showed kindness first. I merely acknowledge and return a simple sign of respect for my motorcycling folly. I've pondered this a lot over the last while, these many people who show me respect daily, with no other possible reward than a hand gesture. But they do, day in and day out a remarkably consistent number of people are kind, to me, for no apparent reason.
Maybe some wish they were me, maybe some curse my freedom from stuckness, maybe some don't even think of me at all, other than as a problem to be dealt with. That is fine too, because even in my problematic presence that same presence is respected. This is not about me, this is about them. They show me respect, every day, because that is THEIR nature. How could I have missed that? We are sharing a moment of human contact devoid of any triviality, or banality for that matter, they respect my passing, and I respect their awareness. They would never know me again, without my funny helmet, but even that is not a reason to disrespect me.
Traffic is mostly a murderous affair, with everyone being where someone else needs to be, and nobody where they ought to be ... traffic circles writ large. I love to think of that saying, you are not stuck in traffic, you are traffic, if you're in a car at least. In all that maelstrom you find basic human virtues screaming at you all the way to work, it took me 5 years to recognise it for what it was. 5 years to get over my own mental limitations. Not sure who is crazy anymore, me or traffic, but human life and human nature and inherent human goodness surrounds us, despite appearances, and literally begs for recognition.
Recognise
Acknowledge
Return
peace and love and respect
Monday, 22 September 2014
Wednesday, 6 August 2014
Duty
"A common and natural result of an undue respect for law is that you may see a file of soldiers, colonel, captain, corporal, privates, powder-monkeys, and all marching in admirable order over hill and dale to the wars, against their wills, ay, against their common sense and consciences, which makes it very steep marching indeed, and produces a palpitation of the heart. They have no doubt that it is a damnable business in which they are concerned; they are all peaceably inclined.
Now, what are they? Men at all? or small movable forts and magazines, at the service of some unscrupulous man in power? The mass of men serve the State thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies.... In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgment or of the moral sense; but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones; and wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that will serve the purpose as well." - Henry David Thoreau, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience
Now, what are they? Men at all? or small movable forts and magazines, at the service of some unscrupulous man in power? The mass of men serve the State thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies.... In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgment or of the moral sense; but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones; and wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that will serve the purpose as well." - Henry David Thoreau, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience
Saturday, 26 July 2014
Need input
Being a regular internet user is sort of like mentally staring over the garden fence at the information byway. Both natural curiosity and a longing for .... somewhere else, something else.
The other side of the fence.
Humans are not the only curious creatures, almost all plants and creatures have a natural curiosity about their environment which is as much self preservation as any "interest", but we are the only animals who are able to examine a fact without assuming it to be true. So, endless curiosity about things that have no real place in our lives ... perhaps. Disasters, wars, uprisings and all these other miracles of modern life, in your life, in your head.
Like a lake, with every splash creating ripples which touch every shore we are infinitely connected to each other. Each part making it's own splash, and affecting other ripples, creating a kaleidoscope of intersecting energies, ebbing and flowing and rippling and splashing endlessly. To claim that nothing affects me, or that something is irrelevant to me is only a matter of distinction, it is not deniable in itself.
How far can we extend our mental tentacles to absorb the ripples and whispers of the others who seemingly surround us? How far should we? And how does this affect us? Feeling the anguished wail of humanity wash over us, and it doesn't matter how far away from yourself ... your spouse, neighbour, countryman or foreigner ... all the same buzz which quickens the pulse for flight and invokes compassion similtaneously.
No denying that humanity is dirty, both in body and spirit, but we only see ourselves reflected anyway, so why not try find something more, while we're already at it? Something which seems new, to expand or strengthen ourselves. But we sit in the mud panning for little gold bits of glint, while all around us the forest sighs and laughs with the play of day.
We have relied on our intellect so long we don't know how to put it down, so used to sitting in the mud we forget where the clear water flows. Just a passing thought.
PS, the title isn't a request for input or comments directly, just a reference to that robot thing from the 80's Short circuit. ;-)
The other side of the fence.
Humans are not the only curious creatures, almost all plants and creatures have a natural curiosity about their environment which is as much self preservation as any "interest", but we are the only animals who are able to examine a fact without assuming it to be true. So, endless curiosity about things that have no real place in our lives ... perhaps. Disasters, wars, uprisings and all these other miracles of modern life, in your life, in your head.
Like a lake, with every splash creating ripples which touch every shore we are infinitely connected to each other. Each part making it's own splash, and affecting other ripples, creating a kaleidoscope of intersecting energies, ebbing and flowing and rippling and splashing endlessly. To claim that nothing affects me, or that something is irrelevant to me is only a matter of distinction, it is not deniable in itself.
How far can we extend our mental tentacles to absorb the ripples and whispers of the others who seemingly surround us? How far should we? And how does this affect us? Feeling the anguished wail of humanity wash over us, and it doesn't matter how far away from yourself ... your spouse, neighbour, countryman or foreigner ... all the same buzz which quickens the pulse for flight and invokes compassion similtaneously.
No denying that humanity is dirty, both in body and spirit, but we only see ourselves reflected anyway, so why not try find something more, while we're already at it? Something which seems new, to expand or strengthen ourselves. But we sit in the mud panning for little gold bits of glint, while all around us the forest sighs and laughs with the play of day.
We have relied on our intellect so long we don't know how to put it down, so used to sitting in the mud we forget where the clear water flows. Just a passing thought.
PS, the title isn't a request for input or comments directly, just a reference to that robot thing from the 80's Short circuit. ;-)
Friday, 4 July 2014
The Berenstained Bears
So i found a little gem online recently, the sort of thing you instantly dismiss, until you think about it for a moment or two, and then longer. Before you know it you can't sleep at night. I also discovered that there exists a theory called the Mandela Effect and a number of similar weirdnesses.
The Mandela Effect Website Says:
This website is for people interested in baffling but widespread alternate memories, including Nelson Mandela's death in the 1980s, long before his 2013 passing.
What happens if you discover that your memory is wrong? A fact or detail which you are sure about but it is shown to be different. I don't remember everything, but certain memories carry specific details, some things you can clearly remember thoughts and associations about. Enter the Berenstain Bears.
The Berenstain Bears were a tv show thingy, back in the day:
You recognise them, right?
But they're the Berenstain Bears, with an A.
Now if you were going to argue about it i'll pre-empt you: Yes, that's what i said too.
I remember them being Berenstein Bears, i'm sure of it. So was wifey, and a friend. And apparently a lot of other people do, too. But when anyone tries to check the facts, books buried in attics etc, clearly the Berenstain Bears. Personally i recall reading books of these guys, you don't make that sort of mistake, do you?
Anyway, follow the next two links to read the full story of the guy who discovered this, and perhaps some of the ideas you'll find interesting. In the second post he apologises for some of the conclusions at the end of the first post, he admits he was talking tripe. But he was confused, and so am i.
http://woodbetweenworlds.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-berenstein-bears-we-are-living-in.html
http://woodbetweenworlds.blogspot.com/2014/06/commenting-on-berenstein-bears.html
The Mandela Effect Website Says:
This website is for people interested in baffling but widespread alternate memories, including Nelson Mandela's death in the 1980s, long before his 2013 passing.
What happens if you discover that your memory is wrong? A fact or detail which you are sure about but it is shown to be different. I don't remember everything, but certain memories carry specific details, some things you can clearly remember thoughts and associations about. Enter the Berenstain Bears.
The Berenstain Bears were a tv show thingy, back in the day:
But they're the Berenstain Bears, with an A.
Now if you were going to argue about it i'll pre-empt you: Yes, that's what i said too.
I remember them being Berenstein Bears, i'm sure of it. So was wifey, and a friend. And apparently a lot of other people do, too. But when anyone tries to check the facts, books buried in attics etc, clearly the Berenstain Bears. Personally i recall reading books of these guys, you don't make that sort of mistake, do you?
Anyway, follow the next two links to read the full story of the guy who discovered this, and perhaps some of the ideas you'll find interesting. In the second post he apologises for some of the conclusions at the end of the first post, he admits he was talking tripe. But he was confused, and so am i.
http://woodbetweenworlds.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-berenstein-bears-we-are-living-in.html
http://woodbetweenworlds.blogspot.com/2014/06/commenting-on-berenstein-bears.html
Thursday, 26 June 2014
The time has come again
Manifesto of the emigrant farmers By Piet Retief, 1837
Soon after the close of his correspondence with Lt.-Governor Stockenstrom, Piet Retief left this document behind when he joined other Afrikaners on the Trek from the Cape. This Manifesto purports to represent the real causes of the expatriation of himself and the colonial farmers.
Numerous reports having been circulated throughout the colony, evidently with the intention of exciting in the minds of our countrymen a feeling of prejudice against those who have resolved to emigrate from a colony where they have experienced for so many years past a series of the vexatious and severe losses; and as we desire to stand high in the estimation of our brethren, and are anxious that they and the world at large should believe us incapable of severing that sacred tie which binds a Christian to his native soil, without the most sufficient reasons, we are induced to record the following summary of our motives for taking so important a step; and also our intentions respecting our proceedings towards the Native Tribes which we may meet with beyond the boundary.
We despair of saving the colony those evils, which threaten it by the turbulent and dishonest conduct of vagrants, who are allowed to infest the country in every part; nor do we see any prospect of peace or happiness for our children in a country thus distracted by internal commotions.
We complain of the severe losses, which we have been forced to sustain by the emancipation of our slaves, and the vexatious laws, which have been enacted respecting them.
We complain of the continual system of plunder which we have ever endured from the Kaffirs and other coloured classes, and particularly by the last invasion of the colony, which has desolated the frontier districts, and ruined most of the inhabitants.
We complain of the unjustifiable odium which has been cast upon us by interested and dishonest persons, under the cloak of religion, whose testimony is believed in England to the exclusion of all evidence in our favour; and we can foresee as the result of this prejudice, nothing but the total ruin of the country.
We are resolved, wherever we go, that we will uphold the just principles of liberty; but whilst we will take care that no one shall be held in a state of slavery, it is our determination to maintain such regulations as may suppress crime and preserve proper relations between master and servant.
We solemnly declare that we quit this colony with a desire to lead a more quiet life than we have heretofore done. We will not molest any people, nor deprive them of the smallest property; but, if attacked, we shall consider ourselves fully justified in defending our persons and effects, to the utmost of our ability, against every enemy.
We make known, that when we shall have framed a code of laws for our future guidance, copies shall be forwarded to the colony for general information; but we take this opportunity of stating that it is our firm resolve to make provision for the summary punishment of any traitors who may be found amongst us.
We purpose in the course of journey, and on arriving at the country in which we shall permanently reside, to make known to the native tribes of our intensions, and our desire to live in peace and friendly intercourse with them.
We quit this colony under the full assurance that the English government has nothing more to require of us, and will allow us to govern ourselves without its interference in future.
We are now quitting the fruitful land of our birth, in which we have suffered enormous losses and continual vexation, and are entering a wild and dangerous territory; but we go with a firm reliance on an all-seeing, just, merciful Being, whom it will be our endeavour to fear and humbly to obey.
By authority of the farmers who have quitted the colony.
(Signed) P. Retief.
Source:
Chase, J.C. (1843). Natal, A reprint of all the authentic notices - descriptions - public acts and documents - petitions - manifestoes - correspondence - government advertisements and proclamations - bulletins and military despatches relative to Natal, with narrative of events at that settlement, in two parts: Part the first, from A.D. 1496, to A.D. 1837, Graham's Town: R. Godlonton, pp.83-4.
Source: http://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/manifesto-emigrant-farmers-piet-retief-1837
Soon after the close of his correspondence with Lt.-Governor Stockenstrom, Piet Retief left this document behind when he joined other Afrikaners on the Trek from the Cape. This Manifesto purports to represent the real causes of the expatriation of himself and the colonial farmers.
Numerous reports having been circulated throughout the colony, evidently with the intention of exciting in the minds of our countrymen a feeling of prejudice against those who have resolved to emigrate from a colony where they have experienced for so many years past a series of the vexatious and severe losses; and as we desire to stand high in the estimation of our brethren, and are anxious that they and the world at large should believe us incapable of severing that sacred tie which binds a Christian to his native soil, without the most sufficient reasons, we are induced to record the following summary of our motives for taking so important a step; and also our intentions respecting our proceedings towards the Native Tribes which we may meet with beyond the boundary.
We despair of saving the colony those evils, which threaten it by the turbulent and dishonest conduct of vagrants, who are allowed to infest the country in every part; nor do we see any prospect of peace or happiness for our children in a country thus distracted by internal commotions.
We complain of the severe losses, which we have been forced to sustain by the emancipation of our slaves, and the vexatious laws, which have been enacted respecting them.
We complain of the continual system of plunder which we have ever endured from the Kaffirs and other coloured classes, and particularly by the last invasion of the colony, which has desolated the frontier districts, and ruined most of the inhabitants.
We complain of the unjustifiable odium which has been cast upon us by interested and dishonest persons, under the cloak of religion, whose testimony is believed in England to the exclusion of all evidence in our favour; and we can foresee as the result of this prejudice, nothing but the total ruin of the country.
We are resolved, wherever we go, that we will uphold the just principles of liberty; but whilst we will take care that no one shall be held in a state of slavery, it is our determination to maintain such regulations as may suppress crime and preserve proper relations between master and servant.
We solemnly declare that we quit this colony with a desire to lead a more quiet life than we have heretofore done. We will not molest any people, nor deprive them of the smallest property; but, if attacked, we shall consider ourselves fully justified in defending our persons and effects, to the utmost of our ability, against every enemy.
We make known, that when we shall have framed a code of laws for our future guidance, copies shall be forwarded to the colony for general information; but we take this opportunity of stating that it is our firm resolve to make provision for the summary punishment of any traitors who may be found amongst us.
We purpose in the course of journey, and on arriving at the country in which we shall permanently reside, to make known to the native tribes of our intensions, and our desire to live in peace and friendly intercourse with them.
We quit this colony under the full assurance that the English government has nothing more to require of us, and will allow us to govern ourselves without its interference in future.
We are now quitting the fruitful land of our birth, in which we have suffered enormous losses and continual vexation, and are entering a wild and dangerous territory; but we go with a firm reliance on an all-seeing, just, merciful Being, whom it will be our endeavour to fear and humbly to obey.
By authority of the farmers who have quitted the colony.
(Signed) P. Retief.
Source:
Chase, J.C. (1843). Natal, A reprint of all the authentic notices - descriptions - public acts and documents - petitions - manifestoes - correspondence - government advertisements and proclamations - bulletins and military despatches relative to Natal, with narrative of events at that settlement, in two parts: Part the first, from A.D. 1496, to A.D. 1837, Graham's Town: R. Godlonton, pp.83-4.
Source: http://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/manifesto-emigrant-farmers-piet-retief-1837
Wednesday, 25 June 2014
Thursday, 5 June 2014
Sunday, 25 May 2014
The Lament of Hermes
“Do you know, Asclepius, that Egypt is an image of Heaven, or to speak more exactly, in Egypt all the operations of the powers which rule and work in Heaven are present in the Earth below? In fact it should be said that the whole Cosmos dwells in this our land as in a sanctuary.
And yet, since it is fitting that wise men should have knowledge of all events before they come to pass, you must not be left in ignorance of what I will now tell you.
There will come a time when it will have been in vain that Egyptians have honored the Godhead with heartfelt piety and service; and all our holy worship will be fruitless and ineffectual.
The gods will return from earth to heaven; Egypt will be forsaken, and the land which was once the home of religion will be left desolate, bereft of the presence of its deities.
O Egypt, Egypt, of thy religion nothing will remain but an empty tale, which thine own children in time to come will not believe; nothing will be left but graven words, and only the stones will tell of thy piety.
And in that day men will be weary of life, and they will cease to think the universe worthy of reverent wonder and worship.
They will no longer love this world around us, this incomparable work of God, this glorious structure which he has built, this sum of good made up of many diverse forms, this instrument whereby the will of God operates in that which he has made, ungrudgingly favoring man’s welfare; this combination and accumulation of all the manifold things that call forth the veneration, praise, and love of the beholder.
Darkness will be preferred to light, and death will be thought more profitable than life; no one will raise his eyes to heaven; the pious will be deemed insane, the impious wise; the madman will be thought a brave man, and the wicked will be esteemed as good.
As for the soul, and the belief that it is immortal by nature, or may hope to attain to immortality, as I have taught you, – all this they will mock, and even persuade themselves that it is false.
No word of reverence or piety, no utterance worthy of heaven, will be heard or believed.
And so the gods will depart from mankind, – a grievous thing! – and only evil angels will remain, who will mingle with men, and drive the poor wretches into all manner of reckless crime, into wars, and robberies, and frauds, and all things hostile to the nature of the soul.
Then will the earth tremble, and the sea bear no ships; heaven will not support the stars in their orbits, all voices of the gods will be forced into silence; the fruits of the Earth will rot; the soil will turn barren, and the very air will sicken with sullen stagnation; all things will be disordered and awry, all good will disappear.
But when all this has befallen, Asclepius, then God the Creator of all things will look on that which has come to pass, and will stop the disorder by the counterforce of his will, which is the good. He will call back to the right path those who have gone astray; he will cleanse the world of evil, washing it away with floods, burning it out with the fiercest fire, and expelling it with war and pestilence.
And thus he will bring back his world to its former aspect, so that the Cosmos will once more be deemed worthy of worship and wondering reverence, and God, the maker and maintainer of the Mighty Fabric, will be adored by the men of that day with continuous songs of praise and blessing.
Such is the new birth of the Cosmos; it is a making again of all things good, a holy and awe-inspiring restoration of all nature; and it is wrought inside the process of Time by the eternal Will of the Creator.”
http://www.philipcoppens.com/thelament.html
And yet, since it is fitting that wise men should have knowledge of all events before they come to pass, you must not be left in ignorance of what I will now tell you.
There will come a time when it will have been in vain that Egyptians have honored the Godhead with heartfelt piety and service; and all our holy worship will be fruitless and ineffectual.
The gods will return from earth to heaven; Egypt will be forsaken, and the land which was once the home of religion will be left desolate, bereft of the presence of its deities.
O Egypt, Egypt, of thy religion nothing will remain but an empty tale, which thine own children in time to come will not believe; nothing will be left but graven words, and only the stones will tell of thy piety.
And in that day men will be weary of life, and they will cease to think the universe worthy of reverent wonder and worship.
They will no longer love this world around us, this incomparable work of God, this glorious structure which he has built, this sum of good made up of many diverse forms, this instrument whereby the will of God operates in that which he has made, ungrudgingly favoring man’s welfare; this combination and accumulation of all the manifold things that call forth the veneration, praise, and love of the beholder.
Darkness will be preferred to light, and death will be thought more profitable than life; no one will raise his eyes to heaven; the pious will be deemed insane, the impious wise; the madman will be thought a brave man, and the wicked will be esteemed as good.
As for the soul, and the belief that it is immortal by nature, or may hope to attain to immortality, as I have taught you, – all this they will mock, and even persuade themselves that it is false.
No word of reverence or piety, no utterance worthy of heaven, will be heard or believed.
And so the gods will depart from mankind, – a grievous thing! – and only evil angels will remain, who will mingle with men, and drive the poor wretches into all manner of reckless crime, into wars, and robberies, and frauds, and all things hostile to the nature of the soul.
Then will the earth tremble, and the sea bear no ships; heaven will not support the stars in their orbits, all voices of the gods will be forced into silence; the fruits of the Earth will rot; the soil will turn barren, and the very air will sicken with sullen stagnation; all things will be disordered and awry, all good will disappear.
But when all this has befallen, Asclepius, then God the Creator of all things will look on that which has come to pass, and will stop the disorder by the counterforce of his will, which is the good. He will call back to the right path those who have gone astray; he will cleanse the world of evil, washing it away with floods, burning it out with the fiercest fire, and expelling it with war and pestilence.
And thus he will bring back his world to its former aspect, so that the Cosmos will once more be deemed worthy of worship and wondering reverence, and God, the maker and maintainer of the Mighty Fabric, will be adored by the men of that day with continuous songs of praise and blessing.
Such is the new birth of the Cosmos; it is a making again of all things good, a holy and awe-inspiring restoration of all nature; and it is wrought inside the process of Time by the eternal Will of the Creator.”
http://www.philipcoppens.com/thelament.html
Friday, 23 May 2014
Conscious
The Conscious Army
Love is the new religion of the 21st century
"On the surface of the world right now there is War and violence and things seem dark. But calmly and quietly, at the same time, Something else is happening underground. An inner revolution is taking place And certain individuals are being called to a higher light.
It is a silent revolution. From the inside out. From the ground up. This is a Global operation. A Spiritual Conspiracy. There are sleeper cells in every nation on the planet. You won't see us on the TV. You won't read about us in the newspaper. You won't hear about us on the radio. We don't seek any glory. We don't wear any uniform. We come in all shapes and sizes, colors and styles. Most of us work anonymously. We are quietly working behind the scenes In every country and culture of the world Cities big and small, mountains and valleys, In farms and villages, tribes and remote islands. You could pass by one of us on the street And not even notice. We go undercover. We remain behind the scenes. It is of no concern to us who takes the final credit But simply that the work gets done. Occasionally we spot each other in the street. We give a quiet nod and continue on our way.
During the day many of us pretend we have normal jobs But behind the false storefront at night Is where the real work takes place. Some call us the Conscious Army. We are slowly creating a new world With the power of our minds and hearts. We follow, with passion and joy Our orders come from the Central Spiritual Intelligence. We are dropping soft, secret love bombs when no one is looking Poems ~ Hugs ~ Music ~ Photography ~ Movies ~ Kind words ~ Smiles ~ Meditation and prayer ~ Dance ~ Social activism ~ Websites Blogs ~ Random acts of kindness...
We each express ourselves in our own unique ways With our own unique gifts and talents. Be the change you want to see in the world. That is the motto that fills our hearts. We know it is the only way real transformation takes place. We know that quietly and humbly we have the Power of all the oceans combined. Our work is slow and meticulous Like the formation of mountains. It is not even visible at first glance. And yet with it entire tectonic plates Shall be moved in the centuries to come. Love is the new religion of the 21st century. You don't have to be a highly educated person Or have any exceptional knowledge to understand it. It comes from the intelligence of the heart Embedded in the timeless evolutionary pulse of all human beings. Be the change you want to see in the world. Nobody else can do it for you.
We are now recruiting. Perhaps you will join us Or already have. All are welcome. The door is open."
Author Unknown
Love is the new religion of the 21st century
"On the surface of the world right now there is War and violence and things seem dark. But calmly and quietly, at the same time, Something else is happening underground. An inner revolution is taking place And certain individuals are being called to a higher light.
It is a silent revolution. From the inside out. From the ground up. This is a Global operation. A Spiritual Conspiracy. There are sleeper cells in every nation on the planet. You won't see us on the TV. You won't read about us in the newspaper. You won't hear about us on the radio. We don't seek any glory. We don't wear any uniform. We come in all shapes and sizes, colors and styles. Most of us work anonymously. We are quietly working behind the scenes In every country and culture of the world Cities big and small, mountains and valleys, In farms and villages, tribes and remote islands. You could pass by one of us on the street And not even notice. We go undercover. We remain behind the scenes. It is of no concern to us who takes the final credit But simply that the work gets done. Occasionally we spot each other in the street. We give a quiet nod and continue on our way.
During the day many of us pretend we have normal jobs But behind the false storefront at night Is where the real work takes place. Some call us the Conscious Army. We are slowly creating a new world With the power of our minds and hearts. We follow, with passion and joy Our orders come from the Central Spiritual Intelligence. We are dropping soft, secret love bombs when no one is looking Poems ~ Hugs ~ Music ~ Photography ~ Movies ~ Kind words ~ Smiles ~ Meditation and prayer ~ Dance ~ Social activism ~ Websites Blogs ~ Random acts of kindness...
We each express ourselves in our own unique ways With our own unique gifts and talents. Be the change you want to see in the world. That is the motto that fills our hearts. We know it is the only way real transformation takes place. We know that quietly and humbly we have the Power of all the oceans combined. Our work is slow and meticulous Like the formation of mountains. It is not even visible at first glance. And yet with it entire tectonic plates Shall be moved in the centuries to come. Love is the new religion of the 21st century. You don't have to be a highly educated person Or have any exceptional knowledge to understand it. It comes from the intelligence of the heart Embedded in the timeless evolutionary pulse of all human beings. Be the change you want to see in the world. Nobody else can do it for you.
We are now recruiting. Perhaps you will join us Or already have. All are welcome. The door is open."
Author Unknown
Tuesday, 24 December 2013
A carping storm-crow
There's no other way to start with how i'm feeling than to guide you here:
http://joberry4.wordpress.com/2013/12/05/end-of-year-repost-from-2010-even-more-valid/
Yes, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 ... what i said earlier this year about this free trip around the sun. Bill Hicks reminded us that "its just a ride", but in some strange carnival and finding yourself on the haunted house ride when you were aiming for the love cruise.
I've been very quiet on here this year, not that i haven't had things to say, but saying them out loud ... well i'm a firm believer in: if you have nothing good to say, don't say it, so i don't. Of course we have different levels of communication available, and when you stop talking, only silence and screaming remains. This blog was always meant to be a means of converting my thought bubbles into readable prose, but my thoughts are too incoherent, mostly just vague feelings or emotions. Not all bad emotions to be fair, but unfocussed or worse, apathetic.
2013 has been a most unpleasant year all round, both personal and public, and i feel like a comrades runner metres from the finishing post, gathering the last reserves of strength, if only to fall on THAT side of the line, and not this side of it. The line in this case doubling as a start line for next year ... not really fair, when you look at it like that. This year i get a 3 week good behaviour breather ... almost unbeliebable somehow. So I'm allocating myself tasks, every day something to do, mowing the lawn, building a fireplace to rid some of the woodpiles that have accumulated through winter, and similar trivialities.
4 days later i write this next bit ... I need to finish it off somehow. So many thoughts and things i want to say "hey look here, this is cool" ... but i can't keep my head together enough for that. I'm off to fiddle with my stuff in my man-cave and play with my nothing box.
peace and love everyone who reads this.
http://joberry4.wordpress.com/2013/12/05/end-of-year-repost-from-2010-even-more-valid/
Yes, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 ... what i said earlier this year about this free trip around the sun. Bill Hicks reminded us that "its just a ride", but in some strange carnival and finding yourself on the haunted house ride when you were aiming for the love cruise.
I've been very quiet on here this year, not that i haven't had things to say, but saying them out loud ... well i'm a firm believer in: if you have nothing good to say, don't say it, so i don't. Of course we have different levels of communication available, and when you stop talking, only silence and screaming remains. This blog was always meant to be a means of converting my thought bubbles into readable prose, but my thoughts are too incoherent, mostly just vague feelings or emotions. Not all bad emotions to be fair, but unfocussed or worse, apathetic.
2013 has been a most unpleasant year all round, both personal and public, and i feel like a comrades runner metres from the finishing post, gathering the last reserves of strength, if only to fall on THAT side of the line, and not this side of it. The line in this case doubling as a start line for next year ... not really fair, when you look at it like that. This year i get a 3 week good behaviour breather ... almost unbeliebable somehow. So I'm allocating myself tasks, every day something to do, mowing the lawn, building a fireplace to rid some of the woodpiles that have accumulated through winter, and similar trivialities.
4 days later i write this next bit ... I need to finish it off somehow. So many thoughts and things i want to say "hey look here, this is cool" ... but i can't keep my head together enough for that. I'm off to fiddle with my stuff in my man-cave and play with my nothing box.
peace and love everyone who reads this.
Tuesday, 26 November 2013
The Problem is Civil Obedience
I reproduce this in full, every single word matters, every single idea.
The Problem is Civil Obedience
1970 from the Zinn Reader, Seven Stories Press
By Howard ZinnTranscript of my opening statement in the debate at Johns Hopkins. It was included in a book published by Johns Hopkins Press in 1972, entitled Violence: The Crisis of American Confidence. - Howard Zinn
I start from the supposition that the world is topsy-turvy, that things are all wrong, that the wrong people are in jail and the wrong people are out of jail, that the wrong people are in power and the wrong people are out of power, that the wealth is distributed in this country and the world in such a way as not simply to require small reform but to require a drastic reallocation of wealth. I start from the supposition that we don't have to say too much about this because all we have to do is think about the state of the world today and realize that things are all upside down. Daniel Berrigan is in jail-A Catholic priest, a poet who opposes the war-and J. Edgar Hoover is free, you see. David Dellinger, who has opposed war ever since he was this high and who has used all of his energy and passion against it, is in danger of going to jail. The men who are responsible for the My Lai massacre are not on trial; they are in Washington serving various functions, primary and subordinate, that have to do with the unleashing of massacres, which surprise them when they occur. At Kent State University four students were killed by the National Guard and students were indicted. In every city in this country, when demonstrations take place, the protesters, whether they have demonstrated or not, whatever they have done, are assaulted and clubbed by police, and then they are arrested for assaulting a police officer.
Now, I have been studying very closely what happens every day in the courts in Boston, Massachusetts. You would be astounded-maybe you wouldn't, maybe you have been around, maybe you have lived, maybe you have thought, maybe you have been hit-at how the daily rounds of injustice make their way through this marvelous thing that we call due process. Well, that is my premise.
All you have to do is read the Soledad letters of George Jackson, who was sentenced to one year to life, of which he spent ten years, for a seventy-dollar robbery of a filling station. And then there is the U.S. Senator who is alleged to keep 185,000 dollars a year, or something like that, on the oil depletion allowance. One is theft; the other is legislation. something is wrong, something is terribly wrong when we ship 10,000 bombs full of nerve gas across the country, and drop them in somebody else's swimming pool so as not to trouble our own. So you lose your perspective after a while. If you don't think, if you just listen to TV and read scholarly things, you actually begin to think that things are not so bad, or that just little things are wrong. But you have to get a little detached, and then come back and look at the world, and you are horrified. So we have to start from that supposition-that things are really topsy-turvy.
And our topic is topsy-turvy: civil disobedience. As soon as you say the topic is civil disobedience, you are saying our problem is civil disobedience. That is not our problem.... Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is the numbers of people all over the world who have obeyed the dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to war, and millions have been killed because of this obedience. And our problem is that scene in All Quiet on the Western Front where the schoolboys march off dutifully in a line to war. Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world, in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem. We recognize this for Nazi Germany. We know that the problem there was obedience, that the people obeyed Hitler. People obeyed; that was wrong. They should have challenged, and they should have resisted; and if we were only there, we would have showed them. Even in Stalin's Russia we can understand that; people are obedient, all these herdlike people.
But America is different. That is what we've all been brought up on. From the time we are this high and I still hear it resounding in Mr. Frankel's statement-you tick off, one, two, three, four, five lovely things .~ about America that we don't want disturbed very much. But if we have learned anything in the past ten years, it is that these lovely things about America were never lovely. We have been expansionist and aggressive and mean to other people from the beginning. And we've been aggressive and mean to people in this country, and we've allocated the wealth of this country in a very unjust way. We've never had justice in the courts for the poor people, for black people, for radicals. Now how can we boast that America is a very special place? It is not that special. It really isn't.
Well, that is our topic, that is our problem: civil obedience. Law is very important. We are talking about obedience to law-law, this marvelous invention of modern times, which we attribute to Western civilization, and which we talk about proudly. The rule of law, oh, how wonderful, all these courses in Western civilization all over the land. Remember those bad old days when people were exploited by feudalism? Everything was terrible in the Middle Ages-but now we have Western civilization, the rule of law. The rule of law has regularized and maximized the injustice that existed before the rule of law, that is what the rule of law has done. Let us start looking at the rule of law realistically, not with that metaphysical complacency with which we always examined it before.
When in all the nations of the world the rule of law is the darling of the leaders and the plague of the people, we ought to begin to recognize this. We have to transcend these national boundaries in our thinking. Nixon and Brezhnev have much more in common with one another than - we have with Nixon. J. Edgar Hoover has far more in common with the head of the Soviet secret police than he has with us. It's the international dedication to law and order that binds the leaders of all countries in a comradely bond. That's why we are always surprised when they get together -- they smile, they shake hands, they smoke cigars, they really like one another no matter what they say. It's like the Republican and Democratic parties, who claim that it's going to make a terrible difference if one or the other wins, yet they are all the same. Basically, it is us against them.
Yossarian was right, remember, in Catch-22? He had been accused of giving aid and comfort to the enemy, which nobody should ever be accused of, and Yossarian said to his friend Clevinger: "The enemy is whoever is going to get you killed, whichever side they are on." But that didn't sink in, so he said to Clevinger: "Now you remember that, or one of these days you'll be dead." And remember? Clevinger, after a while, was dead. And we must remember that our enemies are not divided along national lines, that enemies are not just people who speak different languages and occupy different territories. Enemies are people who want to get us killed.
We are asked, "What if everyone disobeyed the law?" But a better question is, "What if everyone obeyed the law?" And the answer to that question is much easier to come by, because we have a lot of empirical evidence about what happens if everyone obeys the law, or if even most people obey the law. What happens is what has happened, what is happening. Why do people revere the law? And we all do; even I have to fight it, for it was put into my bones at an early age when I was a Cub Scout. One reason we revere the law is its ambivalence. In the modern world we deal with phrases and words that have multiple meanings, like "national security." Oh, yes, we must do this for national security! Well, what does that mean? Whose national security? Where? When? Why? We don't bother to answer those questions, or even to ask them.
The law conceals many things. The law is the Bill of Rights. ;'~ fact, that is what we think of when we develop our reverence for the law. The law is something that protects us; the law is our right-the law is the Constitution. Bill of Rights Day, essay contests sponsored by the American Legion on our Bill of Rights, that is the law. And that is good.
But there is another part of the law that doesn't get ballyhooed- the legislation that has gone through month after month, year after year, from the beginning of the Republic, which allocates the resources of the country in such a way as to leave some people very rich and other people very poor, and still others scrambling like mad for what little is left. That is the law. If you go to law school you will see this. You can quantify it by counting the big, heavy law books that people carry around with them and see how many law books you count that say "Constitutional Rights" on them and how many that say "Property," "Contracts," "Torts," "Corporation Law." That is what the law is mostly about. The law is the oil depletion allowance-although we don't have Oil Depletion Allowance Day, we don't have essays written on behalf of the oil depletion allowance. So there are parts of the law that are publicized and played up to us-oh, this is the law, the Bill of Rights. And there are other parts of the law that just do their quiet work, and nobody says anything about them.
It started way back. When the Bill of Rights was first passed, remember, in the first administration of Washington? Great thing. Bill of Rights passed! Big ballyhoo. At the same time Hamilton's economic pro gram was passed. Nice, quiet, money to the rich-I'm simplifying it a little, but not too much. Hamilton's economic program started it off. You can draw a straight line from Hamilton's economic program to the oil depletion allowance to the tax write-offs for corporations. All the way through-that is the history. The Bill of Rights publicized; economic legislation unpublicized.
You know the enforcement of different parts of the law is as important as the publicity attached to the different parts of the law. The Bill of Rights, is it enforced? Not very well. You'll find that freedom of speech in constitutional law is a very difficult, ambiguous, troubled concept. Nobody really knows when you can get up and speak and when you can't. Just check all of the Supreme Court decisions. Talk about predictability in a system-you can't predict what will happen to you when you get up on the street corner and speak. See if you can tell the difference between the Terminiello case and the Feiner case, and see if you can figure out what is going to happen. By the way, there is one part of the law that is not very vague, and that involves the right to distribute leaflets on the street. The Supreme Court has been very clear on that. In decision after decision we are affirmed an absolute right to distribute leaflets on the street. Try it. Just go out on the street and start distributing leaflets. And a policeman comes up to you and he says, "Get out of here." And you say, "Aha! Do you know Marsh v. Alabama, 1946?" That is the reality of the Bill of Rights. That's the reality of the Constitution, that part of the law which is portrayed to us as a beautiful and marvelous thing. And seven years after the Bill of Rights was passed, which said that "Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech," Congress made a law abridging the freedom of speech. Remember? The Sedition Act of 1798.
So the Bill of Rights was not enforced. Hamilton's program was enforced, because when the whisky farmers went out and rebelled you remember, in 1794 in Pennsylvania, Hamilton himself got on his horse and went out there to suppress the rebellion to make sure that the revenue tax was enforced. And you can trace the story right down to the present day, what laws are enforced, what laws are not enforced. So you have to be careful when you say, "I'm for the law, I revere the law." What part of the law are you talking about? I'm not against all law. But I think we ought to begin to make very important distinctions about what laws do what things to what people.
And there are other problems with the law. It's a strange thing, we think that law brings order. Law doesn't. How do we know that law does not bring order? Look around us. We live under the rules of law. Notice how much order we have? People say we have to worry about civil disobedience because it will lead to anarchy. Take a look at the present world in which the rule of law obtains. This is the closest to what is called anarchy in the popular mind-confusion, chaos, international banditry. The only order that is really worth anything does not come through the enforcement ... of law, it comes through the establishment of a society which is just and in which harmonious relationships are established and in which you need a minimum of regulation to create decent sets of arrangements among people. But the order based on law and on the force of law is the order of the totalitarian state, and it inevitably leads either to total injustice or to rebel lion-eventually, in other words, to very great disorder.
We all grow up with the notion that the law is holy. They asked Daniel Berrigan's mother what she thought of her son's breaking the law. He burned draft records-one of the most violent acts of this century- to protest the war, for which he was sentenced to prison, as criminals should be. They asked his mother who is in her eighties, what she thought of her son's breaking the law. And she looked straight into the interviewer's face, and she said, "It's not God's law." Now we forget that. There is nothing sacred about the law. Think of who makes laws. The law is not made by God, it is made by Strom Thurmond. If you nave any notion about the sanctity and loveliness and reverence for the law, look at the legislators around the country who make the laws. Sit in on the sessions of the state legislatures. Sit in on Congress, for these are the people who make the laws which we are then supposed to revere.
All of this is done with such propriety as to fool us. This is the problem. In the old days, things were confused; you didn't know. Now you know. It is all down there in the books. Now we go through due process. Now the same things happen as happened before, except that we've gone through the right procedures. In Boston a policeman walked into a hospital ward and fired five times at a black man who had snapped a towel at his arm-and killed him. A hearing was held. The judge decided that the policeman was justified because if he didn't do it, he would lose the respect of his fellow officers. Well, that is what is known as due process-that is, the guy didn't get away with it. We went through the proper procedures, and everything was set up. The decorum, the propriety of the law fools us.
The nation then, was founded on disrespect for the law, and then came the Constitution and the notion of stability which Madison and Hamilton liked. But then we found in certain crucial times in our history that the legal framework did not suffice, and in order to end slavery we had to go outside the legal framework, as we had to do at the time of the American Revolution or the Civil War. The union had to go outside the legal framework in order to establish certain rights in the 1930s. And in this time, which may be more critical than the Revolution or the Civil War, the problems are so horrendous as to require us to go outside the legal framework in order to make a statement, to resist, to begin to establish the kind of institutions and relationships which a decent society should have. No, not just tearing things down; building things up. But even if you build things up that you are not supposed to build up-you try to build up a people's park, that's not tearing down a system; you are building something up, but you are doing it illegally-the militia comes in and drives you out. That is the form that civil disobedience is going to take more and more, people trying to build a new society in the midst of the old.
But what about voting and elections? Civil disobedience-we don't need that much of it, we are told, because we can go through the electoral system. And by now we should have learned, but maybe we haven't, for we grew up with the notion that the voting booth is a sacred place, almost like a confessional. You walk into the voting booth and you come out and they snap your picture and then put it in the papers with a beatific smile on your face. You've just voted; that is democracy. But if you even read what the political scientists say-although who can?-about the voting process, you find that the voting process is a sham. Totalitarian states love voting. You get people to the polls and they register their approval. I know there is a difference-they have one party and we have two parties. We have one more party than they have, you see.
What we are trying to do, I assume, is really to get back to the principles and aims and spirit of the Declaration of Independence. This spirit is resistance to illegitimate authority and to forces that deprive people of their life and liberty and right to pursue happiness, and therefore under these conditions, it urges the right to alter or abolish their current form of government-and the stress had been on abolish. But to establish the principles of the Declaration of Independence, we are going to need to go outside the law, to stop obeying the laws that demand killing or that allocate wealth the way it has been done, or that put people in jail for petty technical offenses and keep other people out of jail for enormous crimes. My hope is that this kind of spirit will take place not just in this country but in other countries because they all need it. People in all countries need the spirit of disobedience to the state, which is not a metaphysical thing but a thing of force and wealth. And we need a kind of declaration of interdependence among people in all countries of the world who are striving for the same thing.
The Problem is Civil Obedience
1970 from the Zinn Reader, Seven Stories Press
By Howard ZinnTranscript of my opening statement in the debate at Johns Hopkins. It was included in a book published by Johns Hopkins Press in 1972, entitled Violence: The Crisis of American Confidence. - Howard Zinn
I start from the supposition that the world is topsy-turvy, that things are all wrong, that the wrong people are in jail and the wrong people are out of jail, that the wrong people are in power and the wrong people are out of power, that the wealth is distributed in this country and the world in such a way as not simply to require small reform but to require a drastic reallocation of wealth. I start from the supposition that we don't have to say too much about this because all we have to do is think about the state of the world today and realize that things are all upside down. Daniel Berrigan is in jail-A Catholic priest, a poet who opposes the war-and J. Edgar Hoover is free, you see. David Dellinger, who has opposed war ever since he was this high and who has used all of his energy and passion against it, is in danger of going to jail. The men who are responsible for the My Lai massacre are not on trial; they are in Washington serving various functions, primary and subordinate, that have to do with the unleashing of massacres, which surprise them when they occur. At Kent State University four students were killed by the National Guard and students were indicted. In every city in this country, when demonstrations take place, the protesters, whether they have demonstrated or not, whatever they have done, are assaulted and clubbed by police, and then they are arrested for assaulting a police officer.
Now, I have been studying very closely what happens every day in the courts in Boston, Massachusetts. You would be astounded-maybe you wouldn't, maybe you have been around, maybe you have lived, maybe you have thought, maybe you have been hit-at how the daily rounds of injustice make their way through this marvelous thing that we call due process. Well, that is my premise.
All you have to do is read the Soledad letters of George Jackson, who was sentenced to one year to life, of which he spent ten years, for a seventy-dollar robbery of a filling station. And then there is the U.S. Senator who is alleged to keep 185,000 dollars a year, or something like that, on the oil depletion allowance. One is theft; the other is legislation. something is wrong, something is terribly wrong when we ship 10,000 bombs full of nerve gas across the country, and drop them in somebody else's swimming pool so as not to trouble our own. So you lose your perspective after a while. If you don't think, if you just listen to TV and read scholarly things, you actually begin to think that things are not so bad, or that just little things are wrong. But you have to get a little detached, and then come back and look at the world, and you are horrified. So we have to start from that supposition-that things are really topsy-turvy.
And our topic is topsy-turvy: civil disobedience. As soon as you say the topic is civil disobedience, you are saying our problem is civil disobedience. That is not our problem.... Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is the numbers of people all over the world who have obeyed the dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to war, and millions have been killed because of this obedience. And our problem is that scene in All Quiet on the Western Front where the schoolboys march off dutifully in a line to war. Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world, in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem. We recognize this for Nazi Germany. We know that the problem there was obedience, that the people obeyed Hitler. People obeyed; that was wrong. They should have challenged, and they should have resisted; and if we were only there, we would have showed them. Even in Stalin's Russia we can understand that; people are obedient, all these herdlike people.
But America is different. That is what we've all been brought up on. From the time we are this high and I still hear it resounding in Mr. Frankel's statement-you tick off, one, two, three, four, five lovely things .~ about America that we don't want disturbed very much. But if we have learned anything in the past ten years, it is that these lovely things about America were never lovely. We have been expansionist and aggressive and mean to other people from the beginning. And we've been aggressive and mean to people in this country, and we've allocated the wealth of this country in a very unjust way. We've never had justice in the courts for the poor people, for black people, for radicals. Now how can we boast that America is a very special place? It is not that special. It really isn't.
Well, that is our topic, that is our problem: civil obedience. Law is very important. We are talking about obedience to law-law, this marvelous invention of modern times, which we attribute to Western civilization, and which we talk about proudly. The rule of law, oh, how wonderful, all these courses in Western civilization all over the land. Remember those bad old days when people were exploited by feudalism? Everything was terrible in the Middle Ages-but now we have Western civilization, the rule of law. The rule of law has regularized and maximized the injustice that existed before the rule of law, that is what the rule of law has done. Let us start looking at the rule of law realistically, not with that metaphysical complacency with which we always examined it before.
When in all the nations of the world the rule of law is the darling of the leaders and the plague of the people, we ought to begin to recognize this. We have to transcend these national boundaries in our thinking. Nixon and Brezhnev have much more in common with one another than - we have with Nixon. J. Edgar Hoover has far more in common with the head of the Soviet secret police than he has with us. It's the international dedication to law and order that binds the leaders of all countries in a comradely bond. That's why we are always surprised when they get together -- they smile, they shake hands, they smoke cigars, they really like one another no matter what they say. It's like the Republican and Democratic parties, who claim that it's going to make a terrible difference if one or the other wins, yet they are all the same. Basically, it is us against them.
Yossarian was right, remember, in Catch-22? He had been accused of giving aid and comfort to the enemy, which nobody should ever be accused of, and Yossarian said to his friend Clevinger: "The enemy is whoever is going to get you killed, whichever side they are on." But that didn't sink in, so he said to Clevinger: "Now you remember that, or one of these days you'll be dead." And remember? Clevinger, after a while, was dead. And we must remember that our enemies are not divided along national lines, that enemies are not just people who speak different languages and occupy different territories. Enemies are people who want to get us killed.
We are asked, "What if everyone disobeyed the law?" But a better question is, "What if everyone obeyed the law?" And the answer to that question is much easier to come by, because we have a lot of empirical evidence about what happens if everyone obeys the law, or if even most people obey the law. What happens is what has happened, what is happening. Why do people revere the law? And we all do; even I have to fight it, for it was put into my bones at an early age when I was a Cub Scout. One reason we revere the law is its ambivalence. In the modern world we deal with phrases and words that have multiple meanings, like "national security." Oh, yes, we must do this for national security! Well, what does that mean? Whose national security? Where? When? Why? We don't bother to answer those questions, or even to ask them.
The law conceals many things. The law is the Bill of Rights. ;'~ fact, that is what we think of when we develop our reverence for the law. The law is something that protects us; the law is our right-the law is the Constitution. Bill of Rights Day, essay contests sponsored by the American Legion on our Bill of Rights, that is the law. And that is good.
But there is another part of the law that doesn't get ballyhooed- the legislation that has gone through month after month, year after year, from the beginning of the Republic, which allocates the resources of the country in such a way as to leave some people very rich and other people very poor, and still others scrambling like mad for what little is left. That is the law. If you go to law school you will see this. You can quantify it by counting the big, heavy law books that people carry around with them and see how many law books you count that say "Constitutional Rights" on them and how many that say "Property," "Contracts," "Torts," "Corporation Law." That is what the law is mostly about. The law is the oil depletion allowance-although we don't have Oil Depletion Allowance Day, we don't have essays written on behalf of the oil depletion allowance. So there are parts of the law that are publicized and played up to us-oh, this is the law, the Bill of Rights. And there are other parts of the law that just do their quiet work, and nobody says anything about them.
It started way back. When the Bill of Rights was first passed, remember, in the first administration of Washington? Great thing. Bill of Rights passed! Big ballyhoo. At the same time Hamilton's economic pro gram was passed. Nice, quiet, money to the rich-I'm simplifying it a little, but not too much. Hamilton's economic program started it off. You can draw a straight line from Hamilton's economic program to the oil depletion allowance to the tax write-offs for corporations. All the way through-that is the history. The Bill of Rights publicized; economic legislation unpublicized.
You know the enforcement of different parts of the law is as important as the publicity attached to the different parts of the law. The Bill of Rights, is it enforced? Not very well. You'll find that freedom of speech in constitutional law is a very difficult, ambiguous, troubled concept. Nobody really knows when you can get up and speak and when you can't. Just check all of the Supreme Court decisions. Talk about predictability in a system-you can't predict what will happen to you when you get up on the street corner and speak. See if you can tell the difference between the Terminiello case and the Feiner case, and see if you can figure out what is going to happen. By the way, there is one part of the law that is not very vague, and that involves the right to distribute leaflets on the street. The Supreme Court has been very clear on that. In decision after decision we are affirmed an absolute right to distribute leaflets on the street. Try it. Just go out on the street and start distributing leaflets. And a policeman comes up to you and he says, "Get out of here." And you say, "Aha! Do you know Marsh v. Alabama, 1946?" That is the reality of the Bill of Rights. That's the reality of the Constitution, that part of the law which is portrayed to us as a beautiful and marvelous thing. And seven years after the Bill of Rights was passed, which said that "Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech," Congress made a law abridging the freedom of speech. Remember? The Sedition Act of 1798.
So the Bill of Rights was not enforced. Hamilton's program was enforced, because when the whisky farmers went out and rebelled you remember, in 1794 in Pennsylvania, Hamilton himself got on his horse and went out there to suppress the rebellion to make sure that the revenue tax was enforced. And you can trace the story right down to the present day, what laws are enforced, what laws are not enforced. So you have to be careful when you say, "I'm for the law, I revere the law." What part of the law are you talking about? I'm not against all law. But I think we ought to begin to make very important distinctions about what laws do what things to what people.
And there are other problems with the law. It's a strange thing, we think that law brings order. Law doesn't. How do we know that law does not bring order? Look around us. We live under the rules of law. Notice how much order we have? People say we have to worry about civil disobedience because it will lead to anarchy. Take a look at the present world in which the rule of law obtains. This is the closest to what is called anarchy in the popular mind-confusion, chaos, international banditry. The only order that is really worth anything does not come through the enforcement ... of law, it comes through the establishment of a society which is just and in which harmonious relationships are established and in which you need a minimum of regulation to create decent sets of arrangements among people. But the order based on law and on the force of law is the order of the totalitarian state, and it inevitably leads either to total injustice or to rebel lion-eventually, in other words, to very great disorder.
We all grow up with the notion that the law is holy. They asked Daniel Berrigan's mother what she thought of her son's breaking the law. He burned draft records-one of the most violent acts of this century- to protest the war, for which he was sentenced to prison, as criminals should be. They asked his mother who is in her eighties, what she thought of her son's breaking the law. And she looked straight into the interviewer's face, and she said, "It's not God's law." Now we forget that. There is nothing sacred about the law. Think of who makes laws. The law is not made by God, it is made by Strom Thurmond. If you nave any notion about the sanctity and loveliness and reverence for the law, look at the legislators around the country who make the laws. Sit in on the sessions of the state legislatures. Sit in on Congress, for these are the people who make the laws which we are then supposed to revere.
All of this is done with such propriety as to fool us. This is the problem. In the old days, things were confused; you didn't know. Now you know. It is all down there in the books. Now we go through due process. Now the same things happen as happened before, except that we've gone through the right procedures. In Boston a policeman walked into a hospital ward and fired five times at a black man who had snapped a towel at his arm-and killed him. A hearing was held. The judge decided that the policeman was justified because if he didn't do it, he would lose the respect of his fellow officers. Well, that is what is known as due process-that is, the guy didn't get away with it. We went through the proper procedures, and everything was set up. The decorum, the propriety of the law fools us.
The nation then, was founded on disrespect for the law, and then came the Constitution and the notion of stability which Madison and Hamilton liked. But then we found in certain crucial times in our history that the legal framework did not suffice, and in order to end slavery we had to go outside the legal framework, as we had to do at the time of the American Revolution or the Civil War. The union had to go outside the legal framework in order to establish certain rights in the 1930s. And in this time, which may be more critical than the Revolution or the Civil War, the problems are so horrendous as to require us to go outside the legal framework in order to make a statement, to resist, to begin to establish the kind of institutions and relationships which a decent society should have. No, not just tearing things down; building things up. But even if you build things up that you are not supposed to build up-you try to build up a people's park, that's not tearing down a system; you are building something up, but you are doing it illegally-the militia comes in and drives you out. That is the form that civil disobedience is going to take more and more, people trying to build a new society in the midst of the old.
But what about voting and elections? Civil disobedience-we don't need that much of it, we are told, because we can go through the electoral system. And by now we should have learned, but maybe we haven't, for we grew up with the notion that the voting booth is a sacred place, almost like a confessional. You walk into the voting booth and you come out and they snap your picture and then put it in the papers with a beatific smile on your face. You've just voted; that is democracy. But if you even read what the political scientists say-although who can?-about the voting process, you find that the voting process is a sham. Totalitarian states love voting. You get people to the polls and they register their approval. I know there is a difference-they have one party and we have two parties. We have one more party than they have, you see.
What we are trying to do, I assume, is really to get back to the principles and aims and spirit of the Declaration of Independence. This spirit is resistance to illegitimate authority and to forces that deprive people of their life and liberty and right to pursue happiness, and therefore under these conditions, it urges the right to alter or abolish their current form of government-and the stress had been on abolish. But to establish the principles of the Declaration of Independence, we are going to need to go outside the law, to stop obeying the laws that demand killing or that allocate wealth the way it has been done, or that put people in jail for petty technical offenses and keep other people out of jail for enormous crimes. My hope is that this kind of spirit will take place not just in this country but in other countries because they all need it. People in all countries need the spirit of disobedience to the state, which is not a metaphysical thing but a thing of force and wealth. And we need a kind of declaration of interdependence among people in all countries of the world who are striving for the same thing.
Thank You informationclearinghouse.info
Thursday, 21 November 2013
Wednesday, 13 November 2013
Sacred Water
Bit of a long movie, includes the ickiman, but is worth the time and effort to watch.
Simply: water is an information medium, holding specific patterns related to their environment. We're 90% water, so we also resonate, both on a particle level and as a whole, holographically. Any conclusions you may draw from that should keep you busy for a while.
Most importantly it re-inforces the fractal, illusory nature of reality, a healthy reminder of who we are.
peace & love
Sunday, 6 October 2013
Star Trails
Thank you to photographer Lincoln Harris for these beautiful images.
Seen @ http://www.1000notes.com/post/62928468045
Seen @ http://www.1000notes.com/post/62928468045
Friday, 20 September 2013
Sunday, 15 September 2013
Awake
Shake dreams from your hair my pretty child my sweet one
Choose the day and choose the sign of the day
The day's divinity
First thing you see
Saturday, 7 September 2013
Reboot
WAKE .... blurry light .... sounds assaults the silence ... texture ... blankets ... warm ...
*blink*
As consciousness returns to the form, senses slowly filling, pulsing and breathing with the life breathe and blood .....
*stretch*
Awake now, stretching neck and straining eyes to take in the room, blue sky and treeline out the window, the books, all those colours and sizes, such a peaceful texture to look at. Breathing slowly, mind awakening and remembering and soonfloods the feeble body with it's stories ... enough ... wait.
*breathe*
Lie still .... pain? Yes ... there ... gently shift weight ... ok ... lie still. Breathe relax wait ...
Life becomes basic ... eat sleep poop repeat. nothing more complex than a newborn babe lying helpless. The drugs don't help ... the agony of being alive. Pain ... that klaxon that drowns all thought and feeling ... pain ... the excruciating helplessness .... pain ... that primeval driver of man and beast.
*wait*
Days and days ... doctor .. hospital ... again. Blue sky out the ward window, i saw clouds too. Waiting ... for ever and ever until the end of time, the end of a list ... almost there.
*awake*
Can't sleep can't think ....can't feel ...numb... alive but still as death ... wait.
*repeat*
_________________________________________________________
So the "routine procedure" that "may cause some pain" became 2 weeks of hell, returning to hospital for a more serious operation which i am now in recovery from. The private health system which i'm lucky to be allowed to use, left me a dry barren husk of a man, right now hardly able to walk to the bathroom.
I was assaulted by the anethatist in pre-op, something i have followed through in reporting, and has left me even more scared of hospitals than ever before. The illogical routines of ward life, the banks of forms to be filled out ... it has been a most traumatic time for me.
Except for the perpetual kindess of the nursing staff, the entire ordeal was completely unsettling, of the 2 nights i spent in hospital, the most i had was 3 hours sleep, after taking 2 sleeping tablets ... which were of course denied the 2nd night, because 3am is too late when they wake everybody up at 4am ... only to switch lights off again at 5am.
Home and still showing the origional symptoms for which i was promised i would be cured, i have a week to fully recover myself. At this point it seems an impossible task, but i have the most amazing support while bedridden, and that is a real blessing, delivered by a real angel.
Life becomes so simple sometimes ... moments of clarity. I know what i have to do next, and it frightens me a lot, but i know it is what i must do, and i know that i must enable the next reality. This life is taking its toll on me, but perhaps there is still some time to take something back ... to wrestle from the gods of fate and luck some modicum of happiness, and purpose that is purely for myself. I know what it is, but now i have no idea how to reach it, only some understanding of the challenges involved.
Lofty, given my current precarious position, but hope springs from where it's darkest.
peace and love to everyone
*blink*
As consciousness returns to the form, senses slowly filling, pulsing and breathing with the life breathe and blood .....
*stretch*
Awake now, stretching neck and straining eyes to take in the room, blue sky and treeline out the window, the books, all those colours and sizes, such a peaceful texture to look at. Breathing slowly, mind awakening and remembering and soonfloods the feeble body with it's stories ... enough ... wait.
*breathe*
Lie still .... pain? Yes ... there ... gently shift weight ... ok ... lie still. Breathe relax wait ...
Life becomes basic ... eat sleep poop repeat. nothing more complex than a newborn babe lying helpless. The drugs don't help ... the agony of being alive. Pain ... that klaxon that drowns all thought and feeling ... pain ... the excruciating helplessness .... pain ... that primeval driver of man and beast.
*wait*
Days and days ... doctor .. hospital ... again. Blue sky out the ward window, i saw clouds too. Waiting ... for ever and ever until the end of time, the end of a list ... almost there.
*awake*
Can't sleep can't think ....can't feel ...numb... alive but still as death ... wait.
*repeat*
_________________________________________________________
So the "routine procedure" that "may cause some pain" became 2 weeks of hell, returning to hospital for a more serious operation which i am now in recovery from. The private health system which i'm lucky to be allowed to use, left me a dry barren husk of a man, right now hardly able to walk to the bathroom.
I was assaulted by the anethatist in pre-op, something i have followed through in reporting, and has left me even more scared of hospitals than ever before. The illogical routines of ward life, the banks of forms to be filled out ... it has been a most traumatic time for me.
Except for the perpetual kindess of the nursing staff, the entire ordeal was completely unsettling, of the 2 nights i spent in hospital, the most i had was 3 hours sleep, after taking 2 sleeping tablets ... which were of course denied the 2nd night, because 3am is too late when they wake everybody up at 4am ... only to switch lights off again at 5am.
Home and still showing the origional symptoms for which i was promised i would be cured, i have a week to fully recover myself. At this point it seems an impossible task, but i have the most amazing support while bedridden, and that is a real blessing, delivered by a real angel.
Life becomes so simple sometimes ... moments of clarity. I know what i have to do next, and it frightens me a lot, but i know it is what i must do, and i know that i must enable the next reality. This life is taking its toll on me, but perhaps there is still some time to take something back ... to wrestle from the gods of fate and luck some modicum of happiness, and purpose that is purely for myself. I know what it is, but now i have no idea how to reach it, only some understanding of the challenges involved.
Lofty, given my current precarious position, but hope springs from where it's darkest.
peace and love to everyone
Friday, 30 August 2013
My Weak Week
I wasn't going to say anything, because this week was going to be a quiet and restful one. I've been given two weeks off for a medical procedure and recuperation, and was looking forward to a week of peace and quiet.
Of course, after a horrendous hospital stay, the first day home, my son broke his wrist by punching a wall. infinitely preferable to the other kids face, things being as they are. He was rather badly provoked, punched in the face and then laughed at by the whole class. Fustrated and rightfully angry, he made a very painful mistake. 2 hours worth of surgery and a day later and he is home now. I''m quite proud of him, he behaved really well while in great pain, and kept his humour and spirit up the whole way through.
It highlights of course the abominable treatment they suffer at schools, the complete lack of moral values or social conscience. Alcoholics and drug addicts have become the norm amongst the school kids, as are broken families and abuse. I really don't think much of these rainbow nation values that destroy the good kids with no help for the bad.
While my son was being taken for xrays, we noticed that the geyser was leaking through the kitchen ceiling, so we switched that off, and phoned the relevant people. The scheduled electricity maintenance by city power went wrong, so have a fried connection box and was without power for 2 days.
Strange days indeed, no one dead and nothing that sleep can't solve. Wishing all of you a much more peaceful and utterly loving time.
Of course, after a horrendous hospital stay, the first day home, my son broke his wrist by punching a wall. infinitely preferable to the other kids face, things being as they are. He was rather badly provoked, punched in the face and then laughed at by the whole class. Fustrated and rightfully angry, he made a very painful mistake. 2 hours worth of surgery and a day later and he is home now. I''m quite proud of him, he behaved really well while in great pain, and kept his humour and spirit up the whole way through.
It highlights of course the abominable treatment they suffer at schools, the complete lack of moral values or social conscience. Alcoholics and drug addicts have become the norm amongst the school kids, as are broken families and abuse. I really don't think much of these rainbow nation values that destroy the good kids with no help for the bad.
While my son was being taken for xrays, we noticed that the geyser was leaking through the kitchen ceiling, so we switched that off, and phoned the relevant people. The scheduled electricity maintenance by city power went wrong, so have a fried connection box and was without power for 2 days.
Strange days indeed, no one dead and nothing that sleep can't solve. Wishing all of you a much more peaceful and utterly loving time.
Friday, 23 August 2013
Sometimes You Have to Pay a Heavy Price to Live in a Free Society
By Bradley Manning
The following is a transcript of the statement made by Pfc. Bradley Manning as read by David Coombs at a press conference on Wednesday:
August 21, 2013 "Information Clearing House - The following is a transcript of the statement made by Pfc. Bradley Manning as read by David Coombs at a press conference on Wednesday:
The decisions that I made in 2010 were made out of a concern for my country and the world that we live in. Since the tragic events of 9/11, our country has been at war. We’ve been at war with an enemy that chooses not to meet us on any traditional battlefield, and due to this fact we’ve had to alter our methods of combating the risks posed to us and our way of life.
I initially agreed with these methods and chose to volunteer to help defend my country. It was not until I was in Iraq and reading secret military reports on a daily basis that I started to question the morality of what we were doing. It was at this time I realized in our efforts to meet this risk posed to us by the enemy, we have forgotten our humanity. We consciously elected to devalue human life both in Iraq and Afghanistan. When we engaged those that we perceived were the enemy, we sometimes killed innocent civilians. Whenever we killed innocent civilians, instead of accepting responsibility for our conduct, we elected to hide behind the veil of national security and classified information in order to avoid any public accountability.
In our zeal to kill the enemy, we internally debated the definition of torture. We held individuals at Guantanamo for years without due process. We inexplicably turned a blind eye to torture and executions by the Iraqi government. And we stomached countless other acts in the name of our war on terror.
Patriotism is often the cry extolled when morally questionable acts are advocated by those in power. When these cries of patriotism drown our any logically based intentions [unclear], it is usually an American soldier that is ordered to carry out some ill-conceived mission.
Our nation has had similar dark moments for the virtues of democracy—the Trail of Tears, the Dred Scott decision, McCarthyism, the Japanese-American internment camps—to name a few. I am confident that many of our actions since 9/11 will one day be viewed in a similar light.
As the late Howard Zinn once said, “There is not a flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people.”
I understand that my actions violated the law, and I regret if my actions hurt anyone or harmed the United States. It was never my intention to hurt anyone. I only wanted to help people. When I chose to disclose classified information, I did so out of a love for my country and a sense of duty to others.
If you deny my request for a pardon, I will serve my time knowing that sometimes you have to pay a heavy price to live in a free society. I will gladly pay that price if it means we could have country that is truly conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all women and men are created equal.
Wednesday, 14 August 2013
Pain is a feeling too
People are afraid of themselves, of their own reality; their feelings most of all. People talk about how great love is, but that’s bullshit. Love hurts. Feelings are disturbing. People are taught that pain is evil and dangerous. How can they deal with love if they’re afraid to feel? Pain is meant to wake us up. People try to hide their pain. But they’re wrong. Pain is something to carry, like a radio. You feel your strength in the experience of pain. It’s all in how you carry it. That’s what matters. Pain is a feeling. Your feelings are a part of you. Your own reality. If you feel ashamed of them, and hide them, you’re letting society destroy your reality. You should stand up for your right to feel your pain. ~Jim Morrison
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