I’ve Been Thinking…

The quandary the left always finds itself in is the one touched upon in the last post. We are a group of independent spirits who believe in the rights of all and who honor ask that humanity honor the individual. We don’t expect everyone to agree with us and we don’t force people to do so with weapons. By nature we are desirous of peace and have compassion for other beings. We are the meek in the biblical statement: And the meek shall inherit the earth.

Although most of us are secular we show a greater morality, one born of compassion and love for our fellow man. We don’t need to tear down others to feel better.

Wow, it would seem we are the Christians following the path of Christ which by the way was his message. He didn’t tell people to worship him. And we are being martyred by the right wing who play on fear, anger, hatred and the darkness of men’s hearts. This is a dangerous game they play. But they don’t care. That’s the whole point, they don’t care about other people. “I’ve got mine, screw you,” should be their catch phrase.

So how do we fight them? How can we retain our ideals (which President Obama represents) and not be bullied and allowed to move the agenda of caring for each other forward?

Whether we like it or not the crazies are right about one thing – we do live in a predominetly Judeo-Christian culture. It was after all Christian religious zealots who founded this place and their desire for religious freedom really meant the brand of crazy Christian zealotry you found yourself most attracted to. Just as they had slaves working in their field they gave long detailed speeches on the meaning of equality and freedom for all (meaning white men).  It is only through the compassion and higher minded idealists like Lincoln that our society moved forward and sadly, Lincoln paid with his life.

In the Christian tradition there is no spiritual warrior despite the invented version by way of Evangelic Christianity. Goodness, (represented by Christ) holiness and God (represented here on earth by Christ) choose self-sacrifice over gathering a militia and fighting the Romans or any such military option. It’s not the Jews or the Romans who murder Christ but the Christians who follow Christ’s command to not intervene, hide him or fight for him. Just as the Jews were murdered in the Holocaust, taken peacefully by the merciless Nazis. The Jews choose the path of kindness and disbelief. The level of evil was unimaginable. And I believe we are in a similar situation. I don’t think people realize the level of evil that seeks to oppose and destroy this world. The root of this evil is greed and selfishness. It is so deeply rooted in American culture and revered by those who identify with the right that it has become the shadow self of our culture and it has been leading us down the path of total self-destruction for the past 30 years. Fighting this trickster is difficult because on that side the only law is really the law of black magic so aptly stated by Aleister Crowley (I know some think he’s gray, but this law is the line that takes one to the dark side): Thou will is the whole of the law. Meaning one can do anything to anyone in anyway if they want to. The only thing that matters is the individuals own will. One could say Karl Rove and Dick Cheney are the best example of this ideology in action. It’s the whole, “The ends justify the means,” philosophy we as school children had come to understand as wrong, because it is wrong. But this notion, which has always been embraced by the dark side, Hitler, Pol Pot, Karl Rove, Dick Cheney (how many innocent Iraqi people have died during this war? We don’t even count them in our tallies which is horrifying), is a bully pulpupit one that leads to a bloody trail. How many of us protested the war in Iraq? I know here in Los Angeles I was at protests that had literally over a million people, bigger than any protest I’d ever seen, yet it was barely reported at the time. And if the media said there were a million people in New York double or triple that amount, which would be more accurate from my years of protesting and seeing how the media reports on the Lefts agendas to do horrible things like stop wars and eliminate Apartheid.

I personally would have no compunction about fighting these people hard and taking the chance to my own health. I’ve been knocked down by police at Anti-Apartheid protests and seen angry mobs loose control while being in the frightening middle of it. But I’m a parent now and it’s not fair to my daughter that I should have to put my life on the line to protect her rights as a human being.

So back to the central question of how to fight the darkness. Besides meditation, logic and being active in letting your Representatives know how you feel. I think we need to rethink the Christian paradigm. In ancient cultures there was always the way of the warrior, one who fought to protect his/her people and honor. There was no judgment made about who one was fighting, it wasn’t about having God on ones side (although I’m sure they prayed all the same) it was about very simple things like protecting resources so ones people didn’t starve, protecting women and children and elderly people from being slaughtered by an invading army.

But this path of the spiritual warrior was really over by the time of the Roman Empire which instead of acting in defense, took on the strategy of conquering everyone and making them Romans. In other words they took an offensive position as defense to their empire which is the model for all empires, ours included. But these empires collapse eventually, Portugal, Spain, Italy, England no longer can afford this stategy like a giant crazed amoeba absorbing everything in its wake until it bursts, this strategy wastes the resources of its people and often the lives of many soldiers and expands to the point of sustainability until it fractures and falls to pieces. Does this sound familiar to you? Yes, we’re there.

So how can one fight the evil bullies of this world without becoming one? This is the eternal quandary which has fractured and divided the left and given tremendous power to the right for years. Their unifying platform is self-interest at any expense. Ours is not so easily defined other than: Equality, justice and compassion for all beings. The later can be, and is, not just broad but interpreted in many ways with many factions fighting for equality and justice, asking for compassion and help for the less fortunate. Everyone on our side has a passion for one particular cause or another as there are so many ways people step on others.

The only answer I can think of is to not engage with the darkness, to do what’s right and fair allow the world to see how much better things are when goodness and compassion prevail and allow the self-serving to realize the sky didn’t fall and perhaps Medicaid and Medicare (government programs many of them use) really aren’t so bad. I mean Reagan talked the same nonsense about it being socialism, even communism back in the 60s and I think most people at this point would say he sounded like a paranoid nut job at that point (in retrospect.)

Best wishes,

Denise

I’ve Been Thinking…

Readers Questions & Comments…

Sorry I got carried away there with conversing with Jahavahaa. He is obviously a very intelligent man with a lot of insight.

Anyway, there have been some really interesting posts that I haven’t gotten to. Also I’ve noticed more and more overlap in the dream journal. Have you guys noticed this as well? 

OK, so here goes. The first from:

I dream of Israel too

Hi Denise, well written. I too am Jewish and cannot believe Israel’s mismanagement of world opinion by its behavior in Gaza. I’ve seen more antisemitism this winter than I have ever witnessed in my life. Will there be any sympathy when the cards fall karmically in Israel? I kind of tend to doubt it. Instead people round the world will be cheering, “Good! Filthy Jews, die!” It is almost as though non-Jews are writing the policy in Israel and attributing it to us in order to get us all killed! Hitler in his wildest dreams could not have come up with a more efficient plan to make Jews and Jewry look bad 😦 I too have dreams of Israel before she misbehaves in the world theatre. Tell me what this dream from four nights ago means, because it has me terrified: I was here in New York, among tall buildings, and the sky was a very deep, strange, unreal twilight blue. People were pointing with smiles of wonder up at the sky, so I looked. Odd military aircraft were streaking by overhead and all had the Mogen David symbol on them. These were firing missiles down at America. I saw F16s appear and fire back, but deliberately off-target so as not to hit any Israeli aircraft. I asked, “What is going on, why are Israeli jets firing at America?” And a voice from someone in the crowd yelled, “Israel is attacking America!” People began to run screaming in all directions. I continued to look up at this bizarre sight of Israeli jets firing odd streaming missiles through the sky, and American jets either deliberately missing them, or having their return fire shunted aside almost supernaturally. Nothing the US fired touched so much as one Israeli warplane. It was like the US had its hands tied behind its back. Now: a large bridge was prominent in the dream, and among the people fleeing, I saw a man who resembled Ted Kennedy, and thought to myself, “Senator Ted Kennedy; what is he doing here?” I woke up having a very bad feeling off this dream. PS, any commenters who call me a self-hating Jew, Israel is now a shanda fur die goyim. If you really are Jewish, pro-IDF folks, you know exactly what the phrase means. Read it and weep.

Hi I dream of Israel too,

You are so right about all of it. It really is upsetting because in order for Jewish people to always have a safe haven (which is why the UN championed the formation of the state after WWII) the Israeli government really must try extra hard to peacefully co-exist. Yitzhak Rabin was heroic and if only the current group of politicians would take their cues from him and continue his work then not only would Israel be safer but the whole world would be as well. The majority of Israeli and Palestinian people want peace. And both sides deserve this, both sides are human beings who bleed, feel pain and want only to be free and safe.

From what I heard about editorials in Israel, most papers slammed the Israeli government for their actions. So you and I are not the only Jewish people who find their actions repugnant. It’s really the American people who don’t get a balanced, even handed account of things who get upset about this. And a lot of Christians because Israel figures into their final days scenario. They need an Israel so Jesus can come back. But if Israel were to continue the way it was behaving (and I’m not sure what exactly is going on there right now, it’s been out of the news) it wouldn’t be long before one of its neighbors was pushed by its people to drop a nuke on them. Personally, I really don’t want that to happen! So I think if anything you are a self-loving Jew. You want Israel to be a better place with a better government, same can be said for being an American and pointing out our flaws so that we can fix them.

Oh, and your dream! I interpret it to mean that Israel is being self-destructive and putting the US at risk by their behavior. The fact that we made a show of trying to shoot them down, but it wasn’t in earnest, illustrates well, how we’ve dealt with the crisis going on in Gaza. I think your dream may also have a premonitory warning against terrorist backlash as well — the fact that it took place in New York where the biggest attack of the kind here happened. The dream was telling you that the actions of Israel aggressively endangered the US.

As for the reference to Senator Kennedy, perhaps because he’s a very liberal political figure and is in the process of dying, he too isn’t another reiteration of the theme of your dream. (Sorry for the unintended rhyme.) 

(And for the non-Jews if your interested in Yiddish here’s a link that explains the meaning of what I dream of Israel too wrote: http://www.treppenwitz.com/2007/03/a_shanda_fur_di.html)

Next from Tranquilsleep444:

tranquilsleep444

Just as you predicted, Denise. CNN’s leading headline right now is to brace ourselves for a rough week. From cnn.com: “Market braces for ‘terrible,’ ‘awful’ news” Investors this week will face a large batch of company report cards, in what is shaping up to be the worst quarter for corporate profits in a decade, CNNMoney reports. Investors will also digest reports on housing, consumer confidence and leading economic indicators. “Everyone is bracing for the GDP number to be pretty terrible, but the bigger surprise could come with the housing numbers, which are also expected to be awful,” one analyst says.

Hi Tranquilsleep44,

Hopefully you’re having some tranquil sleep because you either didn’t get involved in the stock market or pulled out in the nick of time! I didn’t see this story, but will look for it on line. All I’ve seen so far is mostly political news about the Republican block on Obama’s proposal which I talked a little bit about before news of this came out. It was in the inauguration chart that they would try to peck him to death with stupid details and find every little way they could to give him trouble. But then it doesn’t take a psychic or a chart to figure that one out! 

From the info you posted, chances are good a chill will be sent down the spine of investors and we will see another plunge. This is just logic. The astrology showed this period through March as being particularly bad. Hopefully, it will get better.

Maybe it will take a few months for Obama to get a stimulus package through the house and senate. Or perhaps there will be a series of bills that finally change things enough for us to start seeing that the worst of the storm finally starting to clear by then.

Let’s hope so!

From Hope and a Plan:

hopeandaplan

Hi Denise, Since a corporation that reincorporates as another incarnation changes its astrological fate could a married couple renew their vows and change their relationship dynamic? Thanks!

Hi Hope and a Plan,

The answer to that is yes, if the couple legally re-marries. If it’s just a renewal of vows then it will have a chart, but more related to the 5th house, or just a sort of renewal of the romance. It won’t change the chart of the marriage.

However if the couple re-marries then the new chart eclipses their old one, and sets the tone for their future together. It’s interesting because I’ve seen people get divorced after being married a long time, and then end up getting re-married. And they definitely have a different dynamic, although of course, being that they are the same people it doesn’t erase their past. Also when it comes to couples there is also a mid-point chart that wouldn’t change. So the psychological, personality stuff remains the same, but with the change in marriage time and new chart it effects the way the couple deals with those issues.

And from Marlene:

Marlene

Hi Denise, What will become of the GOP/Ultra Right Wingers over the next decade? Will they shrivel up and blow away, become more prominent or change for the better ? Will they realize their agenda turns the majority of people away? Will Limbaugh,Coulter, O’Reilly and their ilk become less relavant or better yet, marginalized?

Hi Marlene,

This is an excellent question and one I have been asking myself for awhile. I have the feeling that they will end up being marginalized, but not immediately. It will happen more over the next couple of years.  They will end up crawling back into the holes they slithered out of, but I doubt they will go peacefully. And their zombie followers will follow them back into the minority of voices.  

I think people will get tired of their B.S. and bashing. Many people who listen to these idiots are patriotic and want the country to do well. If they see the country going in a better direction I’m sure they will loose interest in the nonsense and ridiculous theatrics of Limbaugh, O’Reilley and Coulter. And those fans who were more on the fence will fall of and see the good in this very exceptional man we have as our current president. I also feel that the rise in more centrist and left leaning media will help restore balance to those who have been brain washed by the theatrics of the Karl Rove Neo-con playbook.

There are still so many great comments and questions to get to and I promise to do so.

Best wishes and many blessings to all,

Denise

Readers Questions & Comments…