stupid and frightened people

During election season, i reluctantly learn more about politics than i ever want to know -- it's called "being a responsible citizen."  When i see some people continuing the fear-mongering and hate-encouraging on a constant basis, by those who theoretically have "lives" and no professional axe to grind, i begin to wonder about their mental health (and if they need to lower their glucose).

This is the image that got me started this morning:

The funny thing is, the people who really get their panties in a bunch over sharing with those less fortunate SO OFTEN describe themselves as Christian -- you know, the self-described followers of that World Teacher who said that it was virtually impossible for a rich man to enter heaven....

Furthermore, they have a tendency to belong to the struggling working class -- NOT the 1% which is the legitimate target of tax-raising pushes.  Yet, for some inexplicable reason, these people WHO WILL NEVER BE RICH THEMSELVES tend to IDENTIFY WITH THE VERY RICH and their point of view.  What are they thinking with?  Extreme wealth is not associated with work ethic in most cases -- it's inherited, or wheeler-dealered, or ... virtually-stolen on a huge scale.  Even people like Bill Gates, who has created his own fortune, had dirty little business tactics which helped him get there.

As Raymond Chandler, one of my favorite writers of his genre, said in "The Long Goodbye":  "A man doesn't make your kind of money in any way i can understand.  ...  There ain't no clean way to make a hundred million bucks.... Somewhere along the line guys got pushed to the wall, nice little businesses got the ground cut out from under them.... Decent people lost their jobs.... Big money is big power and big power gets used wrong."  THERE'S NO DOUBT ABOUT THIS -- it is FACT.  Those who defend the system of tax-evasion by the very rich, on the nebulous excuse of hard work and entrepreneurial spirit, are either profiting politically/professionally from the racket, or seriously self-deluded and are the first victims of the scam.

Also to be found on FB this morning is this little gem, which i've seen often before and "shared" myself in the past:

...Self-explanatory and highly illuminating -- unless you've drunk the koolaid.

According to certain esoteric sources, the money- and power-protecting crescendo we're seeing these days is a last-stand of desperation from those cosmic forces which are resisting being dragged into a more evolved era.  They'll use any tool they can to delude and trick the altruistically-undeveloped among us to make things more difficult, causing them to go against their own best interests -- and this is what fascinates me in a horrified sort of way.  MOST of the victims i'm referring to are NOT stupid.  How are they able to so easily fall prey to those who want to exploit their fears?

It's not your slice of 'umble pie that is being targeted by the cosmic forces of generosity -- it's part of the pie of the nursery-rhyme king ... who certainly isn't going to go hungry without it.

time for a little more "woo"

I'm occasionally troubled by the attitudes of "friends" on Facebook.  Some get very wrapped up in one or another group ideology, and seem to lose their humaneness.  Others seem to feel privileged to rebuke complete strangers for being too sensitive about some very loaded subjects.  There are those who can't be happy, and must always have something to complain about, however small.  Then there's the ... never mind, you get the point.

Is it the anonymity of the internet which encourages people to express themselves in ways they wouldn't dream of, face to face?  Is this the "real person" behind the facade they present to the everyday world?  Are some displacing rage they actually feel in a different direction, toward targets unable to effectually give them the response they might otherwise expect?  Or is it self-hate to which they are reacting, trying to justify their choices, to themselves, by making virtues of either vices or plain necessity?

In whatever case, i pray for something which i really have no hope of seeing -- that they would all take a quiet hour and examine their hearts. 

A young man i know complains of his bad karma.  It's no wonder -- bad karma it truly is, and all of his own creation.  Whether religiously-inclined or not, most of the people i know believe in some kind of repercussion from their behavior, be it heaven/hell, the self-approbation/condemnation of a rational humanist, good results in the Judgement Hall of Osiris -- whatever.  Myself, i believe in both lifetime and afterlife rewards. 

I believe that emanating hatred earns you hatred, and hostility, hostility.  You know, the old "as you sow, so shall you reap" thing.  A little understanding and compassion toward others goes a long way.  "Judge not, lest ye be judged," and "forgive us commensurately with how we forgive others"....

Conversely to what disheartens me on some social websites and forums, i also see much good ... and more is possible.  Goodwill is just as contagious as nastiness.  As long as i'm in a quoting mood, there's this one:  "Smile!  it'll make everyone wonder what you're up to" -- remember that?  :-)  Smiling is contagious.  I even read once that the physical act has a mental response, in increased cheerfulness, and it seems to bear out in practice.

Do YOURSELF a favor, and cultivate cheerfulness and compassion -- it pays more than you might expect.

Sunday is a good day to bring up spirituality

All of the paleo/ancestral bloggers who pride themselves on their science-based writings seem to maintain a strong stance against "woo."  This is an expression designed to pour scorn on anything that hints of the esoteric, something which could be true but is unprovable by means of a clinical trial -- or at least a mathematical model.  If you can't measure it, it ain't there.

Bullshit.  I won't even bother to list things that we couldn't measure a few years ago.

I'm neither impressed nor bullied into yea-saying by all the "scientific disbelief" (i watched "Shanghai Express" again last night...), nor the contempt of the spirituality-bashers whose only instruction was amongst the kind of fundamentalist groups which can quote the entire bible and UNDERSTAND not one word of it.  in fact, the bible is mostly sociology, not spirituality; my favorite reading in that department is Patanjali.

The notion of "God" as some old white guy with a beard, crowned and sitting on a cloud, IS bullshit -- no argument there.  Yes, i do realize that this vision was put forth in the middle ages to educate the illiterate and put an imaginable form to that which is formless.  And alternatively, expressing it as "something out there" is a little on the wishy-washy side; you don't want to upset your mother who is a pious ____ (enter denomination of choice), even though you think she's completely deluded -- but what the heck, she doesn't have too many years left, and if it makes her happy....

I've seen WAY too much in my 56 years to believe that it's all "material."  From personal experience, i KNOW that "there are more things in heaven and earth ... than are dreamt of in your philosophy."  "Evidence-based" isn't the same as "science-based." 

I'm not trying to convince you, though -- you can believe any ol' thing you want, i really don't give a damn....

...Unless you try to tell ME what I should believe -- that's when we bring out the big guns (metaphorically speaking).  I can quote till the cows come home.  Wait -- i've already done that.