Forgiveness and the Dog-Eat-Dog World

Once a person accepts the fact that it’s a dog-eat-dog world, that you’re on your own without help or support and all you have is what you can take and hold, it’s easy to see how the next step is a suspension of civility and morality. 

After all, what do civility and morality get you? Both are a charade, a joke, a lie designed to keep people docile while they’re being fleeced. Smart people see through that! Smart people will pretend to be civil and moral, but they know it’s a dog-eat-dog world, that you’re on your own without help or support and all you have is what you can take and hold. Smart people know that winning is everything and all’s fair in the service of victory.

Smart people know that the facts are irrelevant.  In fact they know there’s really no such thing as ‘facts.’  The so-called facts are trumped up by Eastern Establishment so-called scientists. Global climate change is a trick to rip people off, take their freedom and give more power to the bureaucrats in Washington. Same’s true for the so-called facts about violence and gun ownership. The truth is guns don’t kill, people kill.

So these smart people, most of whom support the current Republican Brand, know it’s ok to make stuff up, twist the so-called facts and lie to win and to support their belief in the dog-eat-dog reality enshrined in their party’s ideology.  After all, only ideology is True. To compromise that Truth, to negotiate with the others, is treason.

It’s vital, now more than ever, that people who do not believe in a dog-eat-dog theology masquerading as political thought, assert the alternative. Doing this is consistent with the ideas about forgiveness that I posted yesterday. “Thus we do not deny what (our own and) other bodies do, but we do deny the ego’s interpretation, which would be that sin is rampant, either in ourselves or others.  The change we want to effect (is) in our minds (and it) is to see ourselves and others as expressions of love or calls for love, not sin and evil.”

Thus, those believing in the dog-eat-dog theology and that sin is rampant are scared and are calling out for love. They want to believe in a loving alternative to the ego, but they just can’t. It is up to those of us who see the ego for what it is, to give them the love they’re calling out for, and to do so by asserting the alternative to the ego’s world, a world reflecting spirit’s compassion, inclusiveness, joy, community and innovation—a world that works for everyone and everything.

Projection Makes Perception

Because projection makes perception, if I choose to see my brothers and sisters as sinless, then I will see the sinlessness and innocence in myself.  In other words, the way I see you comes from the way I see myself.  What I have judged real and important in my mind is what I will see as real and important outside me, in my body and the world.

“It is to this alone (this inner decision about value) that I respond, however much I seem to be impelled by outside happenings,” says the Course in Miracles. “We seem to be affected by what is outside us; but in truth we are affected only by the mind’s decision” for (either) the ego or spirit, says Ken Wapnick. This means that what I experience as a body in the world is my decision - my choice to be with ego’s nightmare of evil and original sin or with spirit’s compassion, kindness and brotherhood.

“I choose to see what I would look upon, and this I see, and only this.  My brother’s (humanity’s) sinlessness shows me that I would look upon my own. And I will see it, having chosen to look upon my own,” says The Course. “On a practical level,” Ken says, “this does not mean we should feel guilty because we see murder, pain, death, and sickness all around us. Remember that perception is an interpretation. It is not what our eyes ‘objectively’ see that is at issue, but the interpretation of what our eyes see. 

“Thus we do not deny what (our own and) other bodies do, but we do deny the ego’s interpretation, which would be that sin is rampant, either in ourselves or others.  The change we want to effect (is) in our minds (and it) is to see ourselves and others as expressions of love or calls for love, not sin and evil.”

Returning Home

After all the political ranting this week, I wanted to end the week on an up, spiritual note. The following is from the Course in Miracles.

Ken Wapnick says: “The ego tells us that God abandoned us.  He created us in bodies and then left us in this world to fend for ourselves, suffer, and finally die.  The ego never tells us the truth, that we abandoned God, nor the ultimate truth, that there was no abandonment at all for how could Love leave Itself?”

And from the Course: “Everyone here has entered darkness, yet no one has entered it alone.  Nor need he stay more than an instant.  For he has come with Heaven’s Help within him, ready to lead him out of darkness into light at any time.  The time he chooses can be any time, for help is there awaiting but his choice.

“And when he chooses to avail himself of what is given him, then will he see each situation that he thought before was means to justify his anger, turned to an event which justifies his love.  He will hear plainly that the calls to war he heard before are really calls to peace.  He will perceive that where he gave attack is but another altar where he can, with equal ease and far more happiness, bestow forgiveness.  And he will reinterpret all temptation as just another chance to bring him joy.

“Finally, however, (we will) realize there is something wrong with this life of attack-defense, and we can choose again; (choosing forgiveness instead). Forgiveness shows us that God’s Will is One and that we share it. Forgiveness undoes the false perception of conflict by ending the dream that you and I are (only bodies) separate, kept apart by thoughts of guilt and judgment, pain and sorrow. True perception reveals a world washed clean of sin, as we remember our shared interest of finding the peace of God and returning home, (together).”

Deserving

To me, a part of the dog-eat-dog, rugged individualism, non-compassionate, so-called ‘conservative’ ideology, is the idea of deserving—of deserving to be healthy, wealthy and wise. 

The non-deserving, people who for varying reasons such as sin, corruption, laziness and poverty, are actually being treated fairly when they suffer; it’s punishment for their wickedness.

These men, women and children don’t deserve the support of the community of descent, well-behaved, hard-working, law-abiding citizens. They chose their path, cut corners, chiseled, and broke the law so they deserve their fates. Unlike the big banks, corporations and so-called ‘job creators’ who do the same things but deserve our support no matter what they do. The wicked, sinful, poor, lazy and corrupt individuals and their families deserve their fates; they made their beds, let them lie in them!

Never mind that some of these flesh and blood men, women and children were abused as children, born autistic, have cancer or a mental illness, were wounded in battle and have PTSD. That’s too bad for them.  They are not our concern, because they are undeserving. We have enough to deal with just taking care of our deserving selves, friends and neighbors. Besides, God himself has put the mark of Cain on these people. Who are we to intervene?

Bush the second made a pretense of concern for the undeserving by tacking ‘compassionate’ in front of his so-called ‘conservatism.’ The current Republican brand doesn’t bother with that pabulum, and more and more clearly articulates that the undeserving are in fact clearly and obviously undeserving and should be left to their just deserts.

Shit (From a previous post)

Iraq may be preparing a request to retain our troops ‘a bit’ longer.  Alright!  Wow, we’re #1!  Nothing succeeds  like success. We’re the best hired gun in town.  And why not?  These countries don’t have to do anything to get our blood and treasure; we’re just there for them, in a way we’re not just there for our own people.  We’re happy to give and sacrifice because they are so appreciative.  They need do nothing, just fuck things up and count on us to go in there and bail them out. 

My god, you’d think they were American banks, Wall Street, or corporations!  There’s no free lunch for you and me, and especially the poor people who need it, too bad for them and us it’s their own fault, after all as John Calvin pointed out, if they were good, god would smile on them.  But the biggest banks, corporations, industries, well, alright, they get whatever they need, obviously they’re good and god smiles on them.  After all, we have the best government money can buy.  That’s the way it’s supposed to be, too, right?  I mean after all, if the rich and powerful can’t get what they want, the rest of us be damned, in this the greatest capitalist democracy in the world, what are things coming to?

Shit, I wish that rant made me feel better.  It did in a way.  But my heart breaks when I see our noble experiment, the US of A, becoming, no being, the very things we really don’t want to be, the very things we wanted to shun when our country was founded and the noble experiment begun.  It hurts when I think of us as just another empire doomed to sink beneath the tides of history.  I thought we were better than that.  Obviously we’re not.  Our shit does stink.  I’d like us to acknowledge that, that our shit does stink; that we’re just another failed and failing nation state if - if we keep on as we have as if our shit doesn’t stink.

Come on, folks, smell it; rub your face in it; if it looks like shit, smells like shit and makes you want to flush it down, it is shit!  But everything that lives shits, so why not us?  It’s OK to take a crap, but please, let’s not pretend it isn’t crap or that our crap is golden.  As I said two days ago, we can do better.  But first we have to quit deluding ourselves and see our shit as shit.

Abstractions vs. Flesh and Blood Human Beings

Two things I’ve been meaning to talk about: abstraction vs flesh and blood human beings, and the person with his finger on the nuclear trigger. Both of these of course, highlight reasons not to support the current Republican brand. Just want to be up front about that. A caveat first: note that I’ve specified the current Republican brand. And further, there are people within the Republican Party, who are working to change both the substance and the image of the current brand.

The person with his finger on the nuclear trigger: this is about who you want to entrust with the power for nuclear war; which of the two candidates is best qualified to make the decision to start a nuclear war—the so-called business man or the President?   The President has had his steady finger on the nuclear trigger for nearly four years. He may only have been a Senator before, but at least as a Senator, he had a sense of foreign policy and treaties and nuclear arms limitation. Compare that to the so-called ‘job creating’ corporate raider, ‘business man’ (as if running a business, seemingly any kind of business, is comparable to running a nation).

Many of us need to step back from our abstract, fanatical ideological hate and blame for a moment and think about what’s at stake here. We’re going to elect the person who can start a nuclear war! Which one of the two candidates do you really think has the skills, temperament, experience and background to be trusted with that awesome challenge?

Abstraction vs flesh and blood human beings. There are millions of real, flesh and blood people, millions of them, with flesh and blood just like yours and mine, badly hurting and needing our help and support right now, in spite of the Federal budget deficit and pledges not to raise taxes. Wouldn’t you want help, support and compassion if you were one of them?

Shakespeare had Shylock say, “if you prick me, do I not bleed?” Not only are these real people bleeding; they suffer, often silently, in agonies of shame, pain and self-loathing. They hunger, they love, they care, they want the same things you and I want: peace, joy, good health, opportunity, family and community. They want these things, need these things, deserve these things now, simply by virtue of their humanity, the humanity we all share.

Abstractions and ideologies feel nothing, want nothing and suffer not. In fact, abstractions such as political ideologies, especially current Republican brand ideologies, deny our humanity, are not real, not human, have no compassion and no humanity. A commitment to extreme political ideologies, instead of compassion for our brothers and sisters and the planet, is a betrayal of our own humanity. There, but for the grace of God, go I.

Abstractions have a place. Extreme political ideological abstractions such as those espoused by the current Republican brand also have a place, just as mosquitoes, snakes, spiders, death and disease have places. But please, please, those of you who support such hurtful, blameful abstractions over flesh and blood people, be aware of what you’re doing and the impact your beliefs have on your fellow, flesh and blood human beings right now.

Shun the Current Republican Brand!

In his column in the Sunday Herald, Leonard Pitts, quotes a plank from the 2012 platform of the Republican Party of Texas: “We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills, critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome Based Education which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.”

“So presumably,” Pitts goes on to say, “if a child is of the ‘fixed belief’ that Jesus was the first president of the US, or that 2+2= apple trees, or that Florida is an island in an ocean on the moon, educators ought not correct that student, lest she change her ‘fixed belief,’ thereby undermining mom and dad. Republican Spokesman Chris Elam says the statement’s ‘inclusion (in the platform) was an oversight.’”

There’s so much wrong with the kind of thinking embodied in, “We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills, critical thinking skills…undermining parental authority,” that I’m nearly speechless…nearly, but not completely. Here are a few of the things that are wrong:

Most parents can’t do the homework, use a computer very well or function in the world students inhabit today, so why is ‘parental authority’ so important? Oh, I get ‘parental authority’ has a place and I’m gad my parents exercised theirs when they did. But to trade off critical thinking skills in favor of ‘parental authority’ is suicide for a democratic society and its economic well being. If all we want is students that obey authority without thinking, our school systems are indeed in great need of reform.

But besides, does it have to be either critical thinking or ‘parental authority’? Can’t it be both/and, both critical thinking and ‘parental authority?’ My parents managed to do that.  What sort of mind and ideology sees it as either/or, as a need to trade off one for the other, and then choose ‘parental authority’ instead of critical thinking? An ayatollah in a madrasah would. A citizen of Nazi Germany would. A totalitarian dictator fearful of his people arising would. Is that who our Republican leaders have become? Is that who the people who keep electing them are? With thinking like this, it seems these people don’t want to just “take the nation back,” they want to take it backwards; back to some imaginary fantasy time when things were better.

I know I recently wrote about the need for both Democrats and Republicans, and as you can see from above, I’m a both/and guy. But each day brings a new revelation of Republican craziness.  The brand is tarnished and getting more tarnished daily. Like any other product or activity it will continue as it is and get even more so until people demand a change or stop buying it. No matter how much you hate Obama, or a disappointed in him, please try and see that the alleged danger he poses, is nothing compared to the danger the current Republican brand poses.

As Pitts’ column highlights, along with so many other news stories, the real danger the current Republican brand poses is not at the presidential level, but in the House of Representatives, the Governor’s Offices and in the state legislatures. The craziness and danger will continue until Republican constituents demand a change.  The current Republican brand must be shunned, no matter what, at all levels.

“Remember when Republicans were grownups?” Pitts asks. Agree with them or not, you never thought of Bob Dole, George H.W. Bush, Gerald Ford, even Richard Nixon as less than serious, substantive adults, susceptible like all serious, substantive adults, to logic and reason.”  Compare them to Michelle Bachmann and Rush Limbaugh. Shun the current Republican brand. This is not business as usual, this is putting out the fire before it burns the house down.