(midnight – this is a new feature, reprinting essays that well deserve another reading. From November of 2009. Note: may not be able to post comments, but the comments already in the essay are well worth reading. – promoted by Nightprowlkitty)
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As the Senate gets to work delaying and watering down Climate Change legislation, all of course for the sake of the greed of their American and International Corporate Owners, I am spurred to ask…..what will do more to save the Planet, Love or Rage?
We are after all activists because of Love. We love the Planet and we love our fellow human beings, we love justice and we love equality, and that is why we fight.
Or is it perhaps that because when we look around at all the greed, at all the torture and war, at all the hatred and intolerance…..we are filled with Rage. Filled with rage at all of it, because the more we investigate, the more we learn, the more of our own ignorance we dispose of as our eyes open to how the world really works….and especially how it is really run, how can we feel anything but rage?
When we find that it is mostly greed that is causing the worlds problems, greed and incompetence and the willful ignorance and in some cases petty malice that are preventing us from traveling down the road to the progress, justice, and equality that we seek, how can any feeling human feel anything but rage?
Sometimes the rage even drowns out the love, overwhelms it and pushes it into the background. And in the worst cases, the rage can shove the love right out of peoples hearts and they become the rage, and love is a forgotten memory. Sadly, this is the process that can turn a well meaning love filled activist into exactly what we set out to fight against. Unfeeling except for the rage, too focused on the fight to remember what we one is fighting for.
On the other hand, and I suppose this is the real question, can love alone change the worldly mechanisms, aspirations, and nefarious greed of those who would deny justice and equality to all beings? Or is rage necessary to activate the activist?
In what balance is it most effective to hold these two forces of activism, as we try top change the world we love so, but that so enrages us?
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comes most often when one has reached the point of utter despair. When there is no where else to go, no one to turn too. I believe it is only then, when we must reach deep inside to find our God, do we find our strength, our power. Often this awakening is proceeded by Rage. Rage is a powerful tool used to awaken the Spirit within. I applaud Rage. No Rage equals no growth, no change… in my world. (I would like to say I have reached Enlightenment, but no, a long way to go on that one. Probably take a few more lifetimes for me to be in bliss everyday.) I certainly see more clearly because of my rage. My Rage brought out my intense feelings for justice, truth, morality, and honor. I believe in the end we will win with Love, but to get there we must come to the point of rage.