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TechnoratiThe Times They Aren't A-Changin' ... Yet
C'mon, admit it. No matter how cynical or radical you might fancy yourself to be, you expected things to change in a tangible way with Bush moving on out and Obama taking the reins. Yet now as reality sets in, it has become clear that it'll take a lot more than changing captains to evade that massive (albeit melting) iceberg looming dead ahead.
This isn't meant to lay the blame specifically on Obama himself. He seems like a genuinely decent person and his background supports that inference. Certainly he's a damn sight better than the last guy we had at the helm. And it's equally clear that there have been some alterations in the fabric of business as usual to give us some hope for the days ahead. But this "rearranging deck chairs" approach doth not a paradigm shift make.
It's understandable why some folks thought the waters might part with Obama's ascendancy. It's also evident why they have not, and why we've seen a kind of centrist-lite approach so far rather than the fireworks we were led to expect from a guy that "pals around with terrorists" and is an obvious clandestine socialist. Hah! If only.
Instead it's 1-2-3, what're we fightin' for, don't ask me I don't give a damn, next stop Afghanistan. Thou shalt not torture, sort of -- and hey, those investment banks could use another trillion or so, huh? And at least now when we remove mountaintops in search of coal and fire up those new nuke plants, we'll be doing it with the best of intentions -- and even pronouncing noo-clee-er correctly this time around.
Look, here's where the logic lesson leads: what's broken is beyond the capability of one individual, one cabinet, or one party to fix (assuming even in the best case scenario that the will was there in the first instance). The issues we face -- corporate control of governance, unsustainable consumptive lifeways, perpetual resource wars, the ominous clouds of ecological collapse -- are structural, systemic, and inherent in the foundational narratives that frame our lives. This is an apocalypse of our own making, thank you very much, and we fully intend to see it through to the end.
Listen, even if we had elected Martin Luther King, Jr., as our president, it'd be the same result. Jesus himself would be bogged down in committee, propped up by puppeteers, and bought and sold (if not outright blackmailed or threatened) by the same old moneychangers who run the show from behind the scenes. History shows what happens to purists and true believers who dare to assume the mantle and defy the gods of reason.
Why did we expect Obama to somehow buck this tide and chuck this baggage? The position itself isn't even set up to allow for the sorts of changes some had hoped (in their Bush-whacked hearts) to see happen. The so-called "leader of the free world" and ostensible most powerful person on earth sits on talk show couches just like recovering celebrities and Super Bowl MVPs do. He's on a need-to-know basis with the generals and technophiles whose expertise he must rely upon to make sense of the nonsensical. He tracks the polls with his media mavens, and hopes people like him just as we all desire.
But he cannot be the messiah (or the antichrist, just in case you're one of those types). The guy is merely president, the CEO of a very large corporation that happens to have a nuclear arsenal (did you ever wonder, by the way, when they list the "nuclear nations" on the planet whether there are in fact "nuclear corporations" out there too? Hmm...). To his credit, Obama basically came into office telling us this, that he would only be as capable of real change as our demands made him be -- both because the realities of governing are designed to dim the spark, and since it's our ire that provides the cover needed to play a good hand at the old bargaining table. In other words, if we shake the windows and rattle the walls, our well-meaning delegate might just get on a roll that'd be hard to stop.
Sorry O, but back to sleep we did go. In my town, the anti-war vigilers who had faithfully held a public street corner every Friday for over five years packed it in merely upon Obama's election (they didn't even wait for the Inauguration). Gas prices are creeping back up, banks aren't doling back out, and the war machine churns on and on -- but the order isn't rapidly fading. Maybe folks got tired from flipping off and waiting out the Bush cabal. Maybe this is just the honeymoon period and a chance to take a little break. Maybe the rookie will turn it up a notch any day now. Maybe there's something better on TV than this. Maybe I'll find a job tomorrow and be able to feed my family again. Maybe...
Funny thing is, there's actually a real paradigm shift going on and you won't hear about it on the evening news. It doesn't start at the top and in most ways isn't dependent upon what happens in Washington, D.C. (it might even be better off not knowing or caring). It's not apathetic, however, and in fact it's totally engaged. It speaks truth to power without even talking to it, and doesn't spend time criticizing what it doesn't want or need to understand. It sees that the waters around us have grown (global warming, and all that) and knows that the old roads are aging (it's hard to ride bicycles on those old roads). It's not calling any senators or congressmen and couldn't care less about winning or losing.
I really want to describe this effervescent movement to you. I want to be able to prophesize with my pen (er, keyboard) since I'm not sure if the chance will come again. Perhaps you already know about it anyway, or take part on some level? No one is in charge and it doesn't call itself anything, so it's kind of hard to know if you're in it, I guess -- anyway, the minute it gets labeled it's probably all over. Query: What did you eat today? How did you get around? With whom did you speak or laugh or share a thought? What did you contribute to make the world (and the future) a better place, even in a small way? What were you attached to that you let go of? How did you resolve a conflict? What part of your life did you take seriously and how did you take it back into your own hands? What in nature did you connect with? How did you strengthen the ties that bind?
Sounds more like a metaphor than a movement, doesn't it? More like consciousness raising than paradigms shifting, huh? But dig a little deeper, you dig? Add it up, crunch those imaginary numbers, and ponder the simple geometry of it. This is the only social movement in recent history that makes no demand, wants no power, and needs no master. It's been going on since the dawn of time and is finding a resonance and resurgence today. It's you. And me. No US -- just us. No THEM -- just thee. No WAR -- just like that. Seriously. No more or less than this. But that's a lot. More than enough.
So maybe the times are a-changin' after all, and this time we didn't even need to block up the hall. Life strategies on a sinking ship? Better start swimmin' lest you sink like a stone; our time, indeed, is worth saving. Mutual interdependence among ourselves and with the balance of life on the planet isn't a question of wistful longing or even a matter of choice -- it's simply about survival and the basic design of things. Not to polemicize this further, but pretending that we can blithely consumer forever and then pass the buck to the next generations just isn't going to cut it anymore (it never did, of course, but what's done is done). Business (and politics) as usual seem immutable but are actually circling the drain as we speak. Like the man said, the first one now will later be last.
The best part is that people everywhere are beginning to understand this and are taking steps toward manifesting that next paradigm, the one that remains unspoken but will soon announce itself and thus appear wholly self-evident. They (we) don't need to specify, classify, or codify it to get the job done and turn the page in our shared story. It's in the living, and in this sense we're all equally empowered to make it so. I would say that it's also blowin' in the wind as well, but that's a song for a different day...
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Dude open the shades its not that dark outside
Doing our own thing however lovingly intentional, is just not enough. Perhaps the commentators on this site stand on corners of their hometown protesting war and all it's accompanying evils. My bet is that they do not. Randall Amster bewails the fact that war protesters are no longer VISIBLE in his neck of the woods. If HE were out there perhaps THEY would still be out there. There are times when one gets worn down from the struggle toward a better more just society thus taking a breather and working on the personal makes a lot of sense. We need some time to rejuvenate after standing up to the critics for so long. I do believe the times are a-changing although not nearly as fast as they need to be. So take a breath or two then get back on the streets because that is where change is initiated.
I believe that the best street corner right now is the internet.
People will listen to you when they are ready, not when you are.
Sadly, it looks like nobody understood this article.
First of all, Amster is not an Obama apologist. On the contrary, he says that Obama has plenty of shortcomings, but even an ascended master wouldn’t be able to transform this country. So you can blame Obama, or blame the society. Both deserve the blame.
There will be no change until people change, and I agree with Amster that it’s coming. I don’t know how long it will take. It might take a while, but the change won’t be effected by angry people. It’s hard not to be angry if you are paying attention, but all angry people might do is start a revolution. Except, revolutions are violent, and even if successful, make for turbulent times.
I think the change is underway and is being effected by people who right now, instead of posting angry comments, are working in their gardens so that they don’t have to buy corporate food stolen from poorer countries. People who shop at local Farmer’s Market, for the same reason. People who look for sweatshop-free clothing, or fair trade coffee. People who talk to their kids. People who turn off TV.
You can write to your congressmen till the cows come home asking for green investments, you can protest against Exxon Mobil, or . . . you can ride your bike to work. You can go to Walmart and buy a lot of cheap plastic crap for your kids, or you might make ONE nice, non-toxic toy yourself. You can protest mountain top removal or . . . install solar panels.
Information is facilitating and accelerating the change. If you always had meat and potatoes for dinner, it wouldn’t even occur to you to request spaghetti, or arugula salad. Now you know that other people have it, and if it looks good, why not try it?
Hard times, and the gap between the rich and the “middle class”, not to mention the poor, are facilitating and accelerating the change. And I think it is especially true among young people, who have education, access to information, no job perspectives, and . . . a mountain of debt in the form of student loans.
So, protests - yes, but we all know how successful they usually are. But trickles will eventually swell into a river. For you, perfessers: "Gutta cavat lapidem, non vi, sed saepe cadendo." Anyway, we can do both - protest, write your congressmen, and . . . do your thing.
Yes, "We must be the change we wish to see in the world — Gandhi", and until the people work through their own consciousness ( raising ) issues, the prognosis is 'more of the same'.
The latin translation :
"A drop of water hollows a stone, not by force, but by continuously dripping."
What I believe you and many others have missed is the powerful spiritual ( and altruistic ) aspects of consciousness, which will nominally be ignored by the powerful ( which we mimic ) as irrelevant being too fuzzy and without form.
There is a deep spirit and connection in America like that never before seen in this world, as we do give generously to others in great need, out of that humane wholeness and courage to make a better world. This empathy for other's suffering is the true mark of an advanced morality, no longer concerned about mere local politics and materialism.
Indubitably, the good comes along with the bad in America, as the egregious death and suffering wrought upon the world is merely one errant portion of the building crescendo of life's abundant expression.
It is about _ c h o i c e , and we will eventually learn to do that better.
We've come to the edge of our river of consciousness 'milk and honey', and the 'horse will drink' when damn ready and no sooner. Thank you very much !
I am about as spiritual as any other agnostic, but I essentially agree with you. I believe that most people would make moral choices if they had the information about what their choices really entail and an alternative. I am talking about everyday choices that each of us make every day, like how much we drive, where we buy our food, what products we use, etc. If you knew that you can buy a cheap T-shirt only because a ten year old girl in a distant country works 16 hours a day, you wouldn’t do it, even if, all things being equal, you’d rather pay $5 for a T-shirt, than $20.
If you knew that the coffee you drink enslaves poor people and devastates the environment, you’d pay a couple more bucks for shade grown, chemical-free, fair trade coffee. I think most people would anyway. And I believe that the main reason why “the powerful” dismiss it as “irrelevant and fuzzy” is not that they believe that people don’t care. It’s that they know that a lot of people don’t know it, which is true, but, thanks to the internet, it is also changing.
B E A,
Thank you. Of course morality as a force to judge and direct humanity, does require widespread and popular access and absorption of the facts and truth of so many matters hidden ( and purposely made harder to understand ) for way too long.
I am pleased to have reached an essential agreement, particularly about the choices and accelerating benefits of the internet as a means to bypass complicit corpowraith media outlets, and promulgate accurate information and framing of important moral issues
Perhaps not from your agnostic point of view, but more so for me, our agreement and connection is part of the signal or popular perception that is growing in waves, which is being amplified by our shared collective unconscious.
Consider the situation of twins raised apart, that take on bizarrely similar lives ( husbands and children's names and number and dates ), which is extremely baffling for scientists to grasp where the "communication" comes from. I perceive this as evidence of our vague collective consciousness & unconsciousness, which is better filtered and understood by identical twins.
I believe that the internet alone cannot explain the coming together of people, nor the flood waters of real change that are piling up behind the damn of our immature consciousness.
We appear to agree in the general goodness of people, when given unbiased information and not overly consumed by fear and jingoistic hate and false feelings of American righteousness -- in contrast to the facts
I agree that the elite and powerful dismiss much of today's world's complexity as beyond our common comprehension, and that they "must" careful groom the flow of information to their advantage to push through warmongering agendas and profiteerism. They see that scalar aspect of maximizing profit as their job, and don't see the relevance of all of the vectors of morality in their decision making process ( perhaps they think it is for the "market" to decide, or organized religions … ).
Impersonal corporate control of OUR media and OUR gov't will continue as long as the majority of the people are getting out of the system pretty much what they feel they deserve. That equation was many areas to tweak, and the consequences are quite caught up in the people's collective perceptions and chnaging expectations.
Obama has feed the people's growing expectations, and that activity will take on a life on its own.
I am quite optimistic -- regardless of much evidence to the contrary
Bring America Back !!!!.............Amster is a Hamsster !
****We did not expect a Messiah or a Saviour !
****We did expect a man of his word to fulfill each and every campaign promise, and the ideals to which he solicited our votes.
****For example, if Dennis Kucinich could've made it to the final ballot, and had been voted in, I am virtually certain our troops would be well on their way out of Iraq, and headed home.
**Kucinich would not back down, nor cave in to Big Oil,
Big Telecons, Big Meds.
**Kucinich, not able to convince Pelosi to Impeach Bush would most definitely have several very serious investigations and substantive inquiries ongoing into Team Bush and related crimes.
**I doubt that Kucinich would allow the same Neocon Right Wing War Mongers to remain at Sec of Defense==Obama just appointed another Repubby to Sec of the Army ! Where Obama has caved in to the military industrial complex, I think a gritty, gutsy, and mouthy Kucinich would be putting Middle America first, instead of the same old culture of corruption.
****In but 4 months, Prez Obama has demonstrated he is not deserving of our Votes again. More than obvious, He is giving us the third term of King George the Bush.
Barak Obama is a one term wonder, who lied to his constituency to get to Pennsylvania Avenue. No promise, No Hope, No inspiration, beyond mere words and empty rhetoric !
Amster is a Hamster.
A fine example of the hapless social dreamerism that Marx and Engels set out to combat.
If change was really coming, how many of you would have bothered to show up here anyway? 4 months so far 90% status quo. The next 3.5 years is anyone's guess on what percentage will be status quo. Take your pick.
The ineffable aspects of the American psyche, cannot be compartmentalized into mere numbers, as they're without form and aspects.
Of course Obysmal has broken promises without end, but he does still have the attention of much of America, whose sense of change is BOTH physical and emotional.
I see far too many people laugh at HOPE and FAITH as if they had no actual influence in our lives and future.
My belief is that massive socio-cultural changes are well underfoot, and inevitable -- and will out strip the merely physical aspects that are so much easier to categorize.
We are much more than our physical bodies, and each of us is connected to LIFE in ways scientists will likely ever be able to understand, as their world is that of form.
Is not the "political arena" also overwhelmingly a world of form?
Of course the "political arena" is part of our physicality and the world of forms
-- but it also more --
when our hopes, faith and dreams are stirred and actualized in our thoughts ( something ignoble bush the inferior never did ).
Because people's dreams and inspirations are acts of intention, they simultaneously invoke both the ineffable ( formless yearning ) and the various manifold forms of possible future existence.
[tptb] the powers that be select so we may elect.
It's much simpler than that.
Obama was a crappy candidate, and now he's a crappy President. The progressives had their shot at the bigtime, and they blew it.
It's actually even simpler than that.
Capitalism is a crappy system whose adherents are crappy people. Period.
The appearance of a distinction between so-called "progressive" capitalists and so-called "conservative" capitalists is illusory - a trivial stylistic construct which serves to delude the public into believing that the two-party system offers real choice.
"C'mon, admit it. No matter how cynical or radical you might fancy yourself to be, you expected things to change in a tangible way with Bush moving on out and Obama taking the reins."
How insulting!
"This isn't meant to lay the blame specifically on Obama himself. He seems like a genuinely decent person and his background supports that inference. Certainly he's a damn sight better than the last guy we had at the helm."
Insult two.
"It's understandable why some folks thought the waters might part with Obama's ascendancy."
Insult three.
"This is an apocalypse of our own making, thank you very much, and we fully intend to see it through to the end."
Insult four.
"Listen, even if we had elected Martin Luther King, Jr., as our president, it'd be the same result."
Unbelievably insidious insult number five.
"The position itself isn't even set up to allow for the sorts of changes some had hoped (in their Bush-whacked hearts) to see happen."
Incredibly insulting excuse number six.
"In other words, if we shake the windows and rattle the walls, our well-meaning delegate might just get on a roll that'd be hard to stop."
Insult number seven. Does he think we're stupid?
"This is the only social movement in recent history that makes no demand, wants no power, and needs no master. It's been going on since the dawn of time and is finding a resonance and resurgence today. It's you. And me. No US -- just us. No THEM -- just thee. No WAR -- just like that. Seriously. No more or less than this. But that's a lot."
Insult number eight. He must think we're stupid.
"So maybe the times are a-changin' after all, and this time we didn't even need to block up the hall. "
Insult nine.
"The best part is that people everywhere are beginning to understand this and are taking steps toward manifesting that next paradigm, the one that remains unspoken but will soon announce itself and thus appear wholly self-evident."
Ten.
Why are these insults rather than illusions & self-deceptions? There is no difference between this and the Beatitudes -- blessed are you who are taking steps to manifest that next paradigm . . . i.e., oppression will worsen, you will have even less power, but your hopes will grow greater rather than, horrors! be brought to bear on reality.
It's hard to believe that this is the same guy who composed The Amster Dance!
· Yr Obd't Servant
What is The Amster Dance? A Google search told me it was either a dance group in Amsterdam or a hamster dance...
The times they were (originally) changing back in the early '60s, when Dylan wrote the anthem. We know how that worked out. Some cultural shifts toward a more liberal society, but tacking further and further starboard, politically, as each decade wore on. Navel gazing hasn't panned out.
I can eat locally and organic, drive a Prius, bicycle or walk, hug trees and commune with nature from here to eternity, and we'll still have the same power structure in Washington making all the same arrangements for perpetual war on the world for profits, power and fulfilling the American Dream. That paradigm shows no signs of shifting anywhere but straight into hell, with all of us aboard the Titanic. And this, whether I "make the world a better place," resolve some petty conflict in my life, or otherwise prove how personally enlightened and peace-loving I am. Obama and none of the princelings with real power will notice I exist.
Each of us "doing our part" has pretty much been reduced down to recycling. It hasn't made that much difference.
You progressives must be in a bummer of a mood. I don't blame you. Like the author said, your country voted Republican, then Democrat, then Republican, Democrat etc...
...and nothing changed! How can that be? The author says that it takes more than changing parties? When did you change parties? The same two parties have been in a coalition in power since before you were born, so now there are more side A than side B to the coalition? Woop de doo!
Do you not think that, like having single payer(it is great, by the way), the democracies of the world might have a thing or two to teach you about say, democracy?
Lesson 1: if you want x, vote for members of parties that want x.
example:
If you want single payer, do you vote for:
A) the Nazi party
B) the Democratic party
C) the Green party
If you chose B, you would be wrong. The Democrats have never supported single payer.
If you chose A, you get half marks. The Nazis were as big on health care as they were on the trains running on time, unfortunately they also had a penchant for crossing other countries borders with tanks and planes (kinda like the Democrats vis a vis Pakistan).
The correct answer is C! Suprisingly, if you elect people that want, say, single payer, like the Green party, they vote for it!
Another excuse - Obama basically lied his way into office.
This guy's part of the PROBLEM.
"Listen, even if we had elected Martin Luther King, Jr., as our president, it'd be the same result. Jesus himself would be bogged down in committee, propped up by puppeteers, and bought and sold (if not outright blackmailed or threatened) by the same old moneychangers who run the show from behind the scenes..."
The more Obama betrays, the more desperate and pathetic lengths the apologists are forced to go.
This is truly offensive--as well as the usual demands that it is our responsibility. It is as bad as Obama scolding us that it us who have to not only pay for, but further sacrifice while he serves the man:
" This is an apocalypse of our own making, thank you very much, and we fully intend to see it through to the end."
No, it is not.
Randall Amster is not being an apologist for Obama here.
I do think that each of us has a responsibility to do what we can. We're not responsible for what others do, but we are responsible for what we do. In that sense, I doubt that many of us can absolve ourselves of all involvement and responsibility for the society in which we live. As such, we all have a hand in what's going on.
You do realize this is a representative democracy, right?
Surely, you would agree that our politicians and corporations are vastly more responsible for the actions of the American government than the average person?
"C'mon, admit it. No matter how cynical or radical you might fancy yourself to be, you expected things to change in a tangible way with Bush moving on out and Obama taking the reins."
The good doctor underestimates the cynicism of others. I like to think of myself as a progressive, yet I voted a straight republican ticket in the last election. I thought Obama was a decent person, but I knew he would change things very little, which in our desperate situation is worse then not at all.
Amerikans from the top of society to the trailer parks have come to embrace empire and the benifits it brings them. They are proud to have larger houses, cars, televisions and children (read - 'obese') then any other society in the world. They will will not be ready for real change - which will involve giving these things up, until the whole rotten house of cards comes tumbling down. Hence I see people like my own representative - Michele Bachman - as a real angent of change. She is completely insane. We need more people like her in DC!
"If you're not idealistic when you're young, you don't have a heart. If you're not nihilistic when you're old, you don't have a brain." - Sydlitz
Well when this wise teacher you call him shows up to to steer your world away from disaster I sure hope you aren't decieved by him?
Myself, it's just another closer to my journey being completed through your world.
Life is good. What an experience! It's always best to forgive.
"He seems like a genuinely decent person".
"Genuinely decent people" don't murder people. Nor do they become President of the United States either.
We now have Blackbush. A facade. A lie.
The sooner we admit it, the better.
I agree with Mordechai, Blackbush will be a one-termer.
The murder, looting, spying and injustice continues with no end in sight.
Don't say you didn't hear about it beforehand...
There is a wise teacher, very soon to appear on the scene, who recognizes the deepest problems of humanity, who knows what's truly needed to steer our ship away from disaster.
He isn't a religious leader and doesn't preach dogma (similar to what a poster above mentioned - Jesus 2,000 yrs ago didn't come to found religions, mankind created them), although he is awaited by many different faiths.
He is a teacher, an educator in the "laws of life", come to point the way, to offer advice. He is different in that he presents guidance, help as an "elder brother" of humanity, that will look out for and protect the poor, the downtrodden, the masses....but as he says and will say, it's our action that will make the difference: "man must act and implement his will". He comes to help us release ourselves from fear and divisions.
Sharing will create the needed social and economic justice, to end hostile global tensions among nations and save our world.
www.WakeUpMankind.org
Why should Maitreya wait for a drumroll? Real wisdom doesn't need a great marketing plan, it will ripple out through society on its own power.
Americans don't need the inevitably disappointing guru, newage hypocrisy, or pretentious ignorance. As a culture, we Americans lack awareness and balance. Bring on ideas and wisdom. Leave behind the charismatic superstar.
Maybe we need to suffer before we can understand the wisdom of caring for each other and the ugliness of building empires. The ideas and information are all around us if we just want to find them and make the effort to look.
Treat others the way you'd like to be treated by them.
If I was Maitreya, I'd want somebody to knock me off the pedestal and tell me to just communicate whatever ideas I had to offer minus the hoopla.
The opening paragraph of the article is complete BS. The good Professor can't see the forest for the trees. This is not about any single individuals, but the entire system is corrupt. Many thought Bill Clinton was the candidate for change and look what happened.
If the basis for any democratic process, the electoral system, is rigged and corrupt, how can we expect democratic outcomes? Depending on how one defines "Democracy", it is a stretch to describe our system as democratic. Since money is legally equated with free speech, we have the rule of monied interests for monied interests. Even worse, when we have the corporate monied interests determining policy and when that policy results in the theft of public goods, resources and money, it is Kleptocracy.
The best part is that people everywhere are beginning to understand this and are taking steps toward manifesting that next paradigm, the one that remains unspoken but will soon announce itself and thus appear wholly self-evident.
If only.
Sioux Rose
MORDECHAI: When the stinking corpse falls over, out of it emerges new life. The US in its overtly corrupt present form is that corpse... and hopefully what emerges will be a lot more aesthetic and enlightened than maggots. It's the law of things, that out of death comes rebirth, out of the ashes, the Phoenix. My concern is the amount of pain and suffering that may accompany the processes that eventually summon the resurrection.
It is true that within the confines of America we are not all that privvy to the developments in other lands, and in that case, the writer is correct. There are many initiatives underway. Yet in American many persons who believe that if they train their minds to ONLY focus on positive thoughts, they will own the power to manifest their desires. And I have seen this mental law of attraction work. My ethical problem with it is that it's so very selfish. Most people just focus on what THEY want, so it becomes an exercise of ego. It is far more difficult to bring about social justice on a grand, collective scale. The foibles and long-nourished negative elements of human nature are not overcome through magical thinking. The work of consciousness-raising in the style that asks people to become better citizens, to truly care about others (including animals and ecosystems) and live more simply is not so sexy, nor does it aid the merchants who own the media and have as their driving mantra the need to sell more stuff. Thus this message is seldom heard.
When Christ spoke of "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and all else will be added unto you," the truly spiritual person recognizes that premise as first cause, and it speaks to the well-being of the inner life or spirit within. Too many equate fiscal comforts with their well-being. In my view the richest person is the person who feels peaceful and at home with little, and always recognizes the sacred in every breath, every bite of food, and every blessed miracle that crosses his or her path. It could be the song of an owl, or the massive force of the wind; but we are all sharing a world of inordinate wonders and many forget to take in the magnificence of what that ultimately means.
Rose. I see a problem with your logic. Yes, it is sound logic but it doesn't mention the tennacity of those willing and able to destroy hope in the bud so that people remember who the boss is and resign themselves, once again, to continued profit tyranny. You know that the corporations, who own our government generally and the CIA specifically, always let the hope thing grow a certain amount before crushing it. It's cruel but effective. However, if people are warned to steel themselves against the coming reversals, then we can change things. The only way the paradigm shift will take, so to speak, is to have an extremely well funded international organization that owns a strong media and watches the corporations (i.e. the CIA) for hope destroying actions. We can't use violence but we can and must use publicity with facts. Since the rich assholes never quit trying to milk us or kill us, we must never quit watching and exposing them.
there IS a point during metamorphosis, the "oh fuck" moment when the larva dissolves. wer'e there.
I find it difficult to reconcile Randall Amster's long term optimism about a growing atomized, inner-directed peace movement, a "paradigm shift..... that speaks truth to power without even talking to it..... the only social movement in recent history that makes no demand, wants no power, and needs no master" with professor Amster's simultaneous observation that the antiwar vigil folks in his community vanished from their regular street corner spot right after the 2008 election returns came in. In the words of Frederick Douglass:
"If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters."
Amster is absolutely right about transcending the politics of personality - that neither MLK nor Christ himself, if elected president/CEO of the USA, could effectuate the fundamental structural change needed all alone. He's also right about team Obama being a damn sight better than the Bushies, but tragically enmeshed with the same old money changers who've been orchestrating things behind the scenes for years. Yep. There's a great big iceburg dead ahead.
My source of remaining optimism is a belief that Barack Obama is giving centrist-lite a fair chance for his first year or two, setting the stage to tack back towards the progressive left in the second half of his first term while there's still (hopefully) just enough time to pull off a major course correction. If Gates and Petraeus can't extricate us from both Iraq and the Af/Pak quagmire, and if Geithner and Summers can't make the Wall Street investment house masters of the universe restart the economy, well, at least Barry gave incrementalism a legitimate try.
If that's not the game plan, then Obama will likely be a one-termer, and whatever Neanderthal cretin or grinning shill the GOP nominates will grab back the tiller of our floundering ship of state. That's what I see blowing in the wind.
Bill from Saginaw
Oregoncharles
" ...neither MLK nor Christ himself, if elected president/CEO of the USA, could effectuate the fundamental structural change needed all alone."
You are probably right about that, but MLK, Jesus Christ, or even Ralph Nader, or Cindy Sheehan would at least be up front and leading the "fundamental structural changes needed.." They wouldn't be actively supporting the destructive paradigm as is Obama. Remember, Obama was hired by the empire. The empire knows what it's doing, trust that.
Can anyone just accept that Obmama is a shill, like most politicians? So he has some good qualities - so did Hitler and Ted Bundy for that matter. so what. Look at what they did!
Bill From Saginaw "My source of remaining optimism is a belief that Barack Obama is giving centrist-lite a fair chance for his first year or two, setting the stage to tack back towards the progressive left in the second half of his first term while there's still (hopefully) just enough time to pull off a major course correction."
Although I liked the way you pulled from under Amster the illusion that privatized practices are "setting the stage" for a struggle, I find your closing peculiarly aligned with that same fallacy: a "hope" for the future without a realistic underpinning for thinking that your hope is likely to be fulfilled. It seems more of the "give the guy a chance" mentality that says the progressivism is just around the corner, after he's nominated, elected, his first 100 days, 2 years, first term, whatever. There's nothing wrong with hope, just as there's nothing wrong with Obama's pretty speech in Cairo this morning, but (as I think you'll agree) hope of improvement becomes the despair of reality when you give any miscreant chance after chance as he/she continues to screw up. (I believe that's called enabling behavior.) At the very least you could give us some feel of how passivity today "sets the stage" for a bolder pattern of action tomorrow. How exactly does that work, except in the realm of wishful thinking?
Sioux Rose
JERRY: Solid insights. It seems that Bill is allowing a similar psychology to that which defined the Iraqi war/occupation as progress through a series of "surges." That time was needed to know the score, like a football game where the ref must periodically stop the game to call the moves and remind spectators what's going on. Soon another "strategy" is drummed up just to keep the game going and the fans consumed with the belief (or should I say strained possibility) that this new set of maneuvers will lead to a "win."
You know, we astrologers understand something that has a core fundamental truth to it; and that is, HOWEVER anything begins defines its course. Thus to start a war on false cause and then use lie after lie, pseudo-strategy after pseudo-strategy aided and abeted by all the "expert" testimony articulated through glowing reports of manufactured progress still ultimately destines that operation to the trajectory upon which it was launched (i.e. the factors that generated it).
Obama is a product of a corrupt system, yes; and it's one that has let in the moneychangers and the warriors. However, he has some choices within that system. It dawned on me that the only persons today who receive "seats at the table" are either direct emissaries of the Mars rules establishment or its bi-polar twin, that in tribute to Mammon. Pretty much only those who bow down before one of these two altars gets press time or financing, and it's gotten so bad that the media has convinced a great number of people that catering to these two powerful forces is what nations do, is the stuff of norms and "business as usual." It takes a lot of massaging of the public's collective conscience (and consciousness) to arrive at "the banality of evil," but the U.S. has indeed entered that blackhole. Regardless of which team is playing ball, the same interests are being served and they are truly ungodly, armed, and dangerous to the sustainability of life for most.
The realistic underpinning for thinking my hope will be fulfilled (of a more progressive second half of Obama's first term) is my reading of the dreary lay of the military and political landscape in Afghanistan/Pakistan, and my equally dismal assessment of the likelihood that bailing out Goldman Sachs, Citibank, and the big time AIG credit default swap policyholders with trillions of federal dollars will be reciprocated by those same high rollers reviving the domestic economy and forestalling a painful global financial reckoning.
In other words, Barack Obama knows full well a big, dangerous iceberg looms dead ahead. He'll give Gates, McChrystal, Geithner, and Summers one good chance to clean up the mess of their own making before tossing the old crew overboard, and pinning all our hopes upon far more drastic, last resort emergency measures. Obama is a pragmatist, not an ideologue. He has no desire or death wish to go down with the ship. I think that's a realistic scenario.
As to your second question, no way do I advocate passivity today. Agitation today plows up the ground, which sets the stage for bolder action tomorrow.
Bill from Saginaw
Sioux Rose
BILL!!!!! My Goddess! If he had any intention to do the right thing he would not have chosen someone like McCrystal, a hired assassin. Ditto in rerouting the U.S. economy from the Iceberg collision! You do NOT bring in those who engineered that "product" that is essentially packaging NOTHING (i.e. what people OWE, as in the ABSENCE of funds) and selling it as SOMETHING to manage the fiscal equivalent of hitting an iceberg. They caused it! If you found out that a MAFIA hit man killed your wife and stole from your home would you hire him and his buddies to do the clean-up? Obama is an insider. He is there to make it look like something is being done to keep the pack/masses quiet! It's a similar sinister strategy to that of appointing this commission or that major study group as a device for purposely delaying meaningful change or owning the actions required to implement policy changes that a majority of the public wants, or WOULD want were they actually informed about the ACTUAL goings on! You must be a sports fan. I just hear your loyalty to your team here, and your intelligence is being blinded by your need to hold as sacrosanct remnants of an old political ball game. This ain't your father's democrats or republicans playing anymore! These are DANGEROUS persons! They smile, shower and look refined in their business suits but their agenda is worse than lots of people locked up in legal or illegal prisons.
Yes, Sioux -- they're cold hearted reptilians in suits, that have little use for mammals ( other than as slaves and food ).
Oy, please tell me I'm not witnessing the shape-shifting reptiles conspiracy theory on Common Dreams...! I still can't figure out if it is genuine psychosis or just a remarkable breed of idiot that is responsible for the continued promulgation of this hilarious delusion.
You're not.
The human brain is composed of layers, the primitive earlier reptilian forms evolutionarily morphed into mammalian, with the addition of our cortex and cerebellum ( the location of mammal's higher thought and morality ).
People deprived of emotional connection when very young, can be permanently scared in the loss of empathy and expression of feelings. Being bottle feed by nannies that don't care, being treated as worthless, and left alone too much -- makes for a psychopath in training.
Similarly, but from one's own intention, people can choose to act like they're stuck in the 'terrible twos' the rest of their lives -- in terms of consciousness, they never elevate above the 3rd chakra of egoic thinking ( what's mine is mine; what's yours is mine ).
Reptiles have no compunction to eating their own babies, and being cold blooded without emotion is quite similar to CEOs way of doing " it's just business " ( see movie Godfather ).
Oregoncharles
Excellent points. Many progressives said the same thing about Clinton after his betrayal began to sink in. My dyed in the wool Democratic friend admonished me, "Give him a chance! his hands are tied. Just wait for his second term, then we'll see him show his true colors." .... which he did, as we remember. They just weren't the colors we hoped to see. The scandal actually helped Clinton. When Republicans attack Democrats, progressives rally 'round even stronger. That's what keeps the two parties strong. It's a symbiotic relationship.
Obama will likely be a one-termer, and whatever Neanderthal cretin or grinning shill the GOP nominates will grab back the tiller of our floundering ship of state. That's what I see blowing in the wind.
You got it!
This old Indian didn't expect any change at all. Life is a series of cash registers in all directions no matter where you live.
Even Jesus did not go about trying to solve the problems of Israel, or Rome. He didn't even start a Religion or Church. Seemed to be peeved at the Mammon Worshipers & Religious types the most. What Jesus did was warn people.
Of course they turned him into a business, into Corporate Religion & Politics. Turned him into something they have sell, too.
Gonna start telling them if they ever knock on my door, 500 dollars to come to your church, plus some extra money for some spiffy duds.
Life is weird. Bizzare. Strange.
Life is good. What an experience! It's always best to forgive.
I think a few good hammer blows to our teetering culture would rapidly cause the collapse of today's so called world order. A really nasty plague, nuke war, super volcano or asteroid would easily finish us off. It seems more likely that we'll warm the planet into oblivion over the course of the next century and all the rest will take care of itself. As the coastal cities struggle against the rising tide and pour more and more of their shrinking resources into flood control projects , other countries better situated for the climate change ( Russia , Canada) will take over. Then the resource wars over water and energy will ignite and the warming will glow radioactive and billions will die quickly.
That's right, very good, throw in that towel and accept the role corporate America has designated for you. We are all helpless. We are all doomed. Resistance is futile. The end is nigh. We have an excuse to quit trying now!
Like an abusive parent, the planet is saying "I'll give you something to cry about".
Except in this case we brought it on ourselves.
First sentence in paragraph 7:
"Why did we expect Obama to somehow buck this tide and chuck this baggage?"
Who are we? The 47% who voted for McCain-Palin? How about the millions who did not vote at all?
Who expected Obama to go after the corporations, create single payer, or end militarism? And many who did not vote for him are happy that he is not doing these things or cannot do these things.
In a related note: Yesterday's national news reported that a poll showed that 50% or more of Americans would support the use of torture in the name of "national security." Is this the "we" you might be referring to? How does such a question even get into a national poll? (Free speech, I guess.) Perhaps the next poll question should be, "Would you support the return of chattel slavery if it were not racially restricted?" AP: Fifty-two percent of Americans believe that . . .
over 50% of Americans are pro-life.
... and more than 60 per cent believe this:
“Christianity: The belief that a cosmic Jewish Zombie who was his own father can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and drink his blood and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in all humanity because a rib-created woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat a piece of fruit from a magical tree.”
... and when things get really bad, the believers get to float up in the sky feeling rapturously high, while the rest of us here first experience and then go to hell as we die.
[I did not author the definition of Christianity, but it was posted, I think, on CD by some astute soul with a great sense of humor and take on the belief-system "reality" of more than half of us in this country alone.]
/cm
Well, I dunno, Dr. Amster; it sounds pretty that we're doing all these wonderful things on a personal level but I can't but wonder whether it all adds up to a progressive "movement" that grows while the regressive forces in our world grind along in their dominating way. When peace as a demand becomes peace within oneself, what happens to a peace movement? You say this (for now) invisible movement will someday declare itself, but can you envision the mode of this declaration? At some point won't it have to speak out and even go into rebellion against the entrenched forces of injustice and war? If not, it all reminds me too much of the song about "Pore Judd" in Oklahoma, where this meaner-than-anything bastard allows himself to be manipulated and pacified by being presented with the picture of a Judd (lying peacefully in his coffin) who was the friend of all people and every little bird and bee, loved everything and everybody, but he just "never let on." And back to my question: how is this privatized heaven-on-earth ever going to "let on" and join the struggle without which I don't think anything approximating that heaven can ever come to the mortal precincts?
What you said.
Also, I'm not buying that Obama is more to be pitied than censured. The straw man argument that no one person can undo decades of systematic and progressive corruption is true enough-- but it doesn't really account for Obama's decidedly reactionary, right-leaning approach to civil liberties and his perpetuating Amerikan militarism, imperialism, and exceptionalism.
Obama wasn't forced or overwhelmed by circumstances into outsourcing the US Treasury, now a division of Goldman-Sachs. There are plenty of highly qualified economists, and even businesspersons, who AREN'T Wall Street banksters. And Obama wasn't forced to populate his administration with neoliberal Clintonista hawks, etc.
THOSE choices reflect Obama's predilection for serving wealth and power at the expense of We the People and the rule of law; IMO, he's clearly CHOSEN to go with the flow and avoid any conflict with the entrenched plutocracy and its corrupt institutions.
I'm not sure what it is about them perfessers-- present company excepted, Dr. Rose!
This piece could've been written by David Michael Green.
· Yr Obd't Servant
I would even deny your straw man argument.
As a government employee, I know there there is a hell of a lot of good change that can be done strictly at the executive and administrative level. All it would have taken is the right appointees in the cabinet departments. Existing legislation - plus the President's authority as commander in chief of the entire military, gives the executive department all the authority it needs to effect enormous change. It takes NO legislation to effectively ban MTR Mining, declare CO2 a controlled-pollutant in the Clean Air Act, dismantle the war machine, close bases, radically change foreign policy, crate a living minimum wage, and make workplaces far more union friendly, just to give a few examples.
And we aren't talking about the bully-puplpit effect yet. A few properly worded TV speeches could instantly put millions in the streets - and assure that none of his opponents dare assinate him or attempt a coup. The events in Venezuela - particularly in the spring of 2002 are the model.
The "make him change" argument is an absurdity. Can you imagine a weird alternate history where King or Gandhi kissed the asses of the powerful - telling their would-be followers that they won't do anything until the some vaguely defined clamor from the poeple "make" them do it. And, what exactly will be the organizational mechanism and criteria to "make him do it"? Considering the seamless supression of the ability to communicte and popularize dissent by the media with police backup, exactly what form would this "making him do it" take? We already had protest actions - and a bunch of arrests in house and senate chambers - all memory-holed by the mass media. Will riots "make him do it". Yeah, sure...
Sioux Rose
O.S.: Totally right-on.
YOS: I have some trouble with them perfessor fellers, myself. Seems like they got just as much taste for that Kool-aid as the rest of folks, maybe more. And didn't a friend of mine say Ph.D. means piled higher and deeper?
Tell it like it is, Mr. Amster!
Well, yeah... Tell It Like It Is; another popular song from a while ago.
There's a fine line between denial and transcendence. Can we say that the border is crossed when we don't care about the lives of others?
"Don't Worry Be Happy" from Bobby McFerrin became an American anthem of denial.
3 Little Birds from Bob Marley, with the words, "Don't worry about a thing. Every little thing is gonna be alright" was about transcendence.
The former Bob was coming from relative luxury, the latter Bob from poverty.
As Americans we have a heavy burden of responsibility to educate and advocate for change that cares more about the lives of others. Of course these others include Iraqis, Afghans, Pakistanis, Sudanese, Congolese, all human beings, all life and the planet as a whole living organism. It's in the everyday things with our everyday people and places, and it's in the big picture that we never see face-to-face. We're involved and we're responsible. We Americans, as a whole and as individuals, must make a better effort to care what happens to others. Apply the work ethic to improving our collective situation on this planet and divorce it from empire building of any sort. As a culture, we'll probably get the kind of collapse we deserve. It may not be velvet.
I agree. Well said.