Category: Philosophy

experience is unconditional.

i heard this guy, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, say that in a video in Edger’s essay Been a Long Time Coming.

it was like someone hit a bell and the clarity and simplicity of its sound keeps reverberating in my head.

experience is unconditional. how simple: that which happens to us happens.  

what, then, are the mechanisms that condition our experience?

i’ve been thinking about this in the context, of say poking fun at Sarah Palin (she doesn’t seem to realize Africa is a continent).

Is it dismissive or disdainful when I label 59 million people who voted (a second time) for bush as stupid?

i wonder how our reactions to those of others might condition experience and the ensuing interactions among us. what am i filtering out that makes it near impossible for me to understand teaching creationism as science? it isn’t so much that i mind another view point, but come on. it is religion. not science. or is it?

Coming down to the last few days before the election, we have seen the hatred and ignorance from the right with respect to marriage equality and equal rights in general…and California’s Proposition 8, Florida’s Proposition 2 and Arizona’s Proposition 102 in particular.  And we have heard from the supporters or equal rights, even though there may seem to have been few of them amongst our political leaders.

One group hasn’t been heard from so much:  the children.

I’m not talking about GLBT kids, though some of them may be.  The right wing…and even some people supposedly on the left…like to talk about the purpose of marriage being the protection of the family…and by their definition that generally means having children.

Are we hearing the voices of those children?  Do we even acknowledge that they are there.  Maybe we should listen to their voices, or at least see their words.

Part One

All visions have to start somewhere, and since this is a vision of how to get from where we are to where we want to be, I will start this one with where we are. We are starting a new century, for one thing. Though we have certainly not started it well. Unless of course we realize that in order for a new world to be created, the old one must be ‘destroyed’ to make way for it. In which case, George Bush and the Republicans (past and present) have done a simply bang up job of starting the century right by ‘destroying’ nearly every aspect of the old, American dominated world, by destroying nearly every aspect of the structure of America . They have destroyed our economy, which once led the world. They have overstretched and destroyed our military might, which once ruled the world. They have destroyed America’s moral reputation, which once the world looked up to. They and their cohorts at Fox News have destroyed American journalism and any notion of a truthful and “free” press. They have destroyed our educational system and decimated the notion that we are technological world leaders. They have destroyed infrastructure through neglect, using the moneys for it in their destructive war. In addition to attempting to destroy the very concept of  science, they have destroyed, or tried to destroy, the concept of environmental protection. They have destroyed eight of the precious years we had to fight Climate Crisis. In fact about the only thing they have not destroyed are the industries and services geared towards serving the very wealthy, Ferrari dealerships, for instance, are doing very well!

In the construction industry, when a structure has suffered major damage, as the structures of America have under the “stewardship” of the Republicans, you are faced with a choice. You can rebuild the structure as it was….or you can build a new structure in its place, on the remains of whatever parts of the foundation are still solid.

When it is obvious, as it is now, that the structure collapsed of its own weight, because of bad design or ill-thought out additions, the answer becomes obvious. Build a new, more sound structure.

You can’t get where you want to go ….unless you know where you want to go. Everyone knows now that there must be change, and again we can thank the Conservative Movement and its monumental failure under Bush for driving that point home in unequivocal, unmistakable, undeniable real world terms.

So where do we want to go?

It takes a vision, to paraphrase Hillary. And to achieve effective and implementable change, it takes a vision that is broad enough to become a shared vision. But among the many things the Republicans have destroyed is the ability to even describe a vision, without some FoxNews type smearing of any and all Progressive visions. Thus Obama has not been able to fully articulate where HE wants us to go, what his vision is….and still be electable. Thus until after the inauguration we will not know where he wants to take us. We will not know where we agree and disagree. Until then, our task is to attempt to articulate our vision, and to try to be as clear as we can in this muddied and still fearful political environment. As Obama then articulates his, we will know where to support, where we need to try to bend it to ours, and where we need to oppose.

Over the last decade of renewed Culture War, one of the successes of the Conservatives has been (as I mention above) the smearing of the very word Liberal, let alone a true Liberal/Progressive vision of the world. Our attempts at vision have been labeled “soft on…’ and ‘unrealistic.’ Now however, their ‘hard’ vision of using force to solve every problem has led us here, to their version/vision of ‘reality.’ Which as even they (the non-delusional parts of they, at least) must admit, just plain does not work, AND has some truly morally reprehensible and downright vicious (torture) aspects. They have set the narrative, and their one true achievement has been to discredit our narrative. Heck, they don’t even really believe in having a vision, in their world, Real Men (Real Americans) Don’t Think. They have smeared even the concept of vision and imposed their ersatz philosophies instead, all centering around on central premise…I’ve Got Mine. That is what passes for their vision, what they have attempted to destroy our vision for. Even though ours….works.

In the interest of full disclosure:

I was married for twenty-four years, from March of 1969 until some time in 1993.  We got married because there was a pregnancy and there was going to be Hell to pay with the in-laws.  So I agreed to run off to Miami, OK, to get a quicky marriage…and to spend at least the next 18 years of my life raising our daughter, who was born in August of that year.

In 1992 I began my transition from male to female.  Lawyers were contacted.  Papers were filed.

I quote myself from Sexual Disorientation (poor form, I know):

Me:  Personally, I was married to a woman for 24 years.  Then I had a sex-change.  Now I cannot marry a woman.  Go figure.  Aren’t I still me?

Me, again:  Follow-up thought:  Then again, in many states, I can’t marry a man either, but such is life for transsexual people.

cross posted from The Dream Antilles

You know it’s one kind favor, I ask to you

You know it’s one kind favor, I ask to you

See that my grave is kept clean

It’s a simple enough blues.  It was initially sung, I think, by the legendary Blind Lemon Jefferson in 1927 under a pseudonym.  It was so popular that he re-recorded and re-released in 1928.

It’s been recorded by BB King, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Canned Heat, The Grateful Dead, Mike Bloomfield, Keiji Haino, Diamanda Galás, Meindert Talma & the Negroes, Lou Reed, Furry Lewis, Chrome Cranks, the Dream Syndicate, Thelonious Monster.  And, of course, by numerous, numerous others.

It’s been in my head for two days.  I heard BB King’s latest version of the song yesterday on NPR while I was driving home.  I can’t seem to turn it off.  “One kind favor I ask of you/one kind favor I ask of you…”

Join me in my head.

Perhaps as penance for something I did in a past life, I am prone to perusing the back pages of Daily Kos.  Like Diogenes looking for a human being among his fellow Greeks, I search for those who might learn that hatred starts small and begins with the words we use.

I seek to teach.  Mostly I discover people who are unwilling to learn.  I find people who are so invested in their juvenile attempt at humor that they can’t stop to learn why it is juvenile, why it is demeaning, not to its supposed targets, but to those whom it actually hits, and as the conversation progresses (I refuse to give up the hope that everyone can learn not to hate), I get to learn how deep and varied their hatred actually is.

I find pseudo-intellectual  analysis of why only the so-called normal people deserve equality in this society.  Upon challenging their reasoning, I often find the same people have a very low opinion of education.  I ask questions that don’t get answered.  Apparently, those questions do have an effect, however.  You’d be amazed at the number of times people assume that the questions I ask must be asked in anger and respond in kind…and never answer the question.

And I find hatred, both the small and the large of it.

I’ve been doing a bit of research to understand the mission of Docudharma (gotta love that name!) and I happened on the wiki which gave the number one goal as to (paraphrasing) bring the power back to the people through the Congress, as a counterweight to the power of the Executive, which we can all agree has become excessive.

In that light, I’d like to harp on one of my pet “projects”, which happens to line up with the goals and objectives of the group who sponsors the website www.thirty-thousand.org.

Please follow me across the jump to get to the full (full?) flowering of this rant.

Also available in teal.

I was browsing the ‘net looking for political videos when I saw a couple that use fear to try to sway opinion.  The first, from the political right, is a McCain campaign ad against Barack Obama.

None of what is in the ad is even remotely true; it uses fear and lies to try to cement in the minds of voters that because the Democratic presidential candidate has an Arab-sounding name, he must therefore be a terrorist or someone with ties to terrorists.  The second ad is a creation of the left, used against Republican John McCain.

Now, most if not all of what is in this video is undeniably true; McCain supports and promotes the lies and imperial policies of the Bush-Cheney regime, and his dictatorship would continue them on what perhaps would be an even larger scale.  Nevertheless, the video still uses fear in an attempt to dissuade voters from casting their ballots for McCain.

Webster’s Dictionary defines terrorism thus:

the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion

Just some food for thought.  Enjoy Columbus Day.

Originally published in Free Inquiry

Every society has the criminals it deserves.

-Albert Camus, “Reflections on the Guillotine”

My sister must have been terrified the night that her junkie boyfriend beat her to death in that filthy motel room. Terrified and disoriented, she would have been struggling to understand what was happening to her. Beating a human being to death is apparently not an easy thing to do. According to the coroner’s testimony, it took about five minutes for her to die. What was she thinking, in those five minutes? At what point in that five-minute period did she suspect she might die in that squalid room? At what point did she know she would die there and then?

I would lay awake at night, for months after her death, unable to turn off the endless broken loop playing in my brain that kept repeating these questions. More than answers, I wanted revenge: hard, bloody-fisted revenge, bitter and uncompromising Old Testament revenge. More, I wanted to stand before those in power, point my finger at all the world’s death rows, and scream at the top of my lungs, “Kill them all, and let God sort them out!” I was slowly going mad with my ache for revenge.

But-but-revenge is not justice.