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Get Over Ourselves on July 4
This July 4, I wish we, as a nation, would get over ourselves.
We are not God’s chosen people.
God did not make us a shining city on a hill.
There is no God, and we have no special right to lord ourselves over the planet.
“Manifest Destiny” and other narcissistic ideas have swollen our heads.
President Obama was way off the mark when he recently said, “We must embrace America’s singular role in the course of human events,” he said.
We don’t have a singular role, not now, much less over the long course of human events.
When you examine the actual role the United States has played, it’s not one that has showered us with glory: from slavery and the genocide against Native Americans early on to brutal imperial wars over the last century and more. Starting with the Spanish-American War and the subjugation of the Filipinos and then through dozens of invasions and usurpations in Latin America all the way to Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya, U.S. foreign policy has piled the corpses high.
And the best aspects of the United States—not the fighter jets that fly over the celebrations today, nor the size of our economy, nor the “great American spirit,” nor our prowess in sports, nor any other excuse for the adolescent chanting of “USA, USA”—are the ones that are most in decay today: the promise of democracy, and the protection of our civil liberties.
With the Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court last year, which enables corporations to spend unlimited funds to elect or defeat candidates for office, any hope for real political democracy has faded. It’s a decision that has made a joke of the cherished idea of one person, one vote. And the Supreme Court just added to the joke with its decision last month to outlaw Arizona’s clean election law and to scorn any attempts to “level the playing field.” Even before these decisions, our politicians were for sale, rent, or time-share, and the concerns of a majority of citizens—for a living wage, for universal health care—would routinely fall to the ax of corporate power.
And if you broaden the concept of democracy to include economic democracy or a fair economy, we, as a nation, have drifted back into the Gilded Age, where the top 1 percent owns an astronomical amount of the nation’s wealth and income and where economic policy is geared toward letting them grab more and more.
As far as our civil liberties go, the government has taken many of them away. The First Amendment is in shambles, as the FBI and other law enforcement have been infiltrating domestic nonviolent protest groups, and the FBI has just loosened its rules for doing so. The Fourth Amendment is all but deleted, as the Supreme Court, in one decision after another, has given police more leeway to barge into our homes without warrants. The USA Patriot Act and the revisions to the National Security Act legalize additional intrusions by the Executive Branch. And the Military Commissions Act gives the President the authority to declare any person in the United States an “enemy combatant” and then throw that person behind bars.
On this Independence Day and for many a year, we’ve lost any clue about what it means to be independent: to be self-governing, and free from repressive rule.
If we have forsaken the ideals of America, the least we could is not to destroy the Earth in the process.
That means, first and foremost, not to blow it up with nuclear weapons. We and the Russians have 95 percent of the nukes in the world, and we need to move quickly to global nuclear disarmament.
And secondly, that means not to destroy the planet by poisoning the atmosphere. Global climate change is real, it’s here, and we’ve got to deal with it. The United States has been the biggest culprit in creating this crisis, and now we are the biggest laggard in responding to it.
The atmosphere is not our dumping grounds.
And just because we fly the red, white, and blue doesn’t make us exempt from doing the right and the urgent thing.
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75 Comments so far
Show AllFINALLY!!! Some straight, honest, factual talk, not pious, self-serving, egocentric propaganda on the Fourth of July.
Thanks, Matt.
JIm Shea
As I wrote on the Hedge's article, is US independence illegitimate because the American revolution resorted to violence?
Also, the violent origin of our country and all the people America has killed over the centuries hasnt deterred the Dalai Lama from seeking our help and refraining from ANY criticism of US imperial slaughter. Hmm, maybe the Dalai Lam knows something Matthew does not know. Maybe the American elites arent really all that bad and maybe America isn't either.
Or maybe all of this is just DNA-Planetary evolution-as-usual and nothing to get all worked-up about. Just life on a typical primitive planet in an infinite and eternal Cosmos.
Well, you will get no argument from me regarding your summation, Kataj. DNA being consciousness in chemical clothes, that is. ;-) Gotta translate the non material into matter somehow...Right?
Actually, i think the dear and obviously nice man known as the Dalai Lama is a bit over rated. I haven't actually read or heard him say anything that was new or hasn't been said, over the past thousand years or so. His humility and sense of humour is refreshing as religious leaders go - i mean, just compare him to the pope.
But i have never percieved anything original or creative in his words. When he speaks about anger he seems to believe, as most all western theologians do, that it is not an acceptable emotion and needs to be denied or suppressed. That is evidence of a lack of true understanding of basic human dynamics and balance.
And we have that 'celebacy' going on here as well. I will leave it at that.
Have you been to any of his week-long teachings where he speaks for 6 hours a day? Have you read any of his scholarly (non-popular) texts? Or are you judging him based on the sound byte quotes that occasionally drift through mainstream media?
The Dalai Lama has never said that anger should be denied...quite the contrary...he says that it should be acutely observed as it rises internally. What he says over and over again is that in order to be effective, we do best if we take note of our reactive anger as it rises internally, take note of what the energy of anger tells us about circumstances or ourselves, let the anger pass, and then deal with the situation that inspired the anger from an informed and effective place of clarity and kindness...because the energy of anger when dumped into the external world stirs up and attracts negative emotions from those that we dump it on...resentment, rage, fear, submission, competition, etc... Effective clarity and kindness on the other hand, (characteristics that we can access if we just let the anger rise up, teach us, and pass away before reacting), tend to attract more positive emotional responses and cooperation. The use of anger as a weapon simply causes others to raise their weapons in kind. We're smart enough to dismantle this immature and dysfunctional reactivity that ripples through our modern world.
Thank you mister_moose (someone watched captain kangeroo!)
I am an energy healer and psychologist of twenty years. Repression and denial of anger and rage is the biggest cause of all the labels they love to give to people. And i have seen and worked with thousands. That is a rough estimate.
Observation is passive and non energetic and doesn't balance anything. I use an energy process. Observation and using only analysis and yes, even meditation, is still an indication of fearing natural emotions. I know what of i speak. He isn't an expert in human emotions. He is a celebate in the first place. That is his choice, however that means a large part of his human experience - a very earthy and real part, is missing.
Anger does not create violence. Violence is the response of a person or nation that feels inadequate and powerless. The D.L. is not a therapist any more than a priest is. But they all tell people ways to avoid feeling and releasing on an emotional level.
I went to one day of his program and was bored. Sorry. But please don't give advise in an area i have had tremendous success in. Not meaning monetarily, since that isn't my goal. But helping people heal their lives and become empowered and whole. Yes, i have cards and letters in boxes. But i see with my own eyes and directly experience the deep transformations. And the people i work with aren't flatliners or blissed out. That isn't the goal. They become more awake and alive. Human beings are feeling beings. Not detached observers of their own experience. In fact, that is the opposite of having an experience.
And these people come from the full spectrum of the social sector, including vetarans. Sorry, i don't mean to sound snarky at all, as that isn't my style. But this is something that i know intimately well and i am passionate about it. And i have worked with way too many people who went to many programs and read self help books and listened to 'religious' leaders and other therapists and taken medication. There is too much cultism out there, which actually includes the cult of the pharmaceuticals. And it is all about avoidance and fear of basic emotions, based in all organized religions.
peace to you.
(Bunny Rabbit)
I have an M.A. in Clinical Psychology and an M.A. in Counseling Psychology. I've been a practicing psychotherapist for decades, specializing in psychotherapy from a Buddhist perspective, drawing from my 4 decades of committed Buddhism practice.
"Observation and using only analysis and yes, even meditation, is still an indication of fearing natural emotions."
This is absurd and only shows your ignorance about the mind and emotions. And it's clear that you know nothing about the Buddhist psychology of mind. You are blowing air.
Btw, it isn't "celebete"...it's celibate.
Well, i suppose you are right and i know nothing.
And by the way, your rudeness and general attitude speaks volumes of how well your process works. Your personal attacks are less than mature. I have no further time for you.
However, you are far superior to me with your proof reading and spell checking.
Adios.
The US was allied with the Soviet Union against the Nazis. By your logic, I guess Stalin wasn't that bad, huh?
I don't think Rothschild was arguing that our independence is illegitimate. He was saying that Americans shouldn't be so full of themselves when we've allowed our government to shit on the best things we have to offer. We're just another country. Why is that so hard to swallow? People from other countries wave their flags here and there, but I don't hear them constantly boast that their country is God's gift to the world. Where do we get off thinking that?
Nah.
Sure there's DNA involved, why not? But people with basically the same DNA help each other and make war on each other, and engage in altruism or in larceny from day to day depending on circumstances.
There is no genetically pre-determined and circumstance-independent will to violence.
Maybe the Dalai Lama just knows on which side his bread is buttered.
¡ FABULOUS article Matt ! I could have not said it better myself. To bad more of us gringos are not educated to the real truth you write about...the horrible truth that "they" try to hide from us.
Nice fireworks.
I'm thinking a first step in getting over ourselves is to abandon this strange founding fathers fetish.
Other countries are writing new constitutions, thinking today especially of Ecuador's, which granted rights to eco-systems. We are so last century, or make that several centuries.
I suggested something similar on this website a year or two ago - and, boy, did I stir up a hornets' nest. The idea that the US Constitution might be imperfect, and not Holy Writ delivered by the wisest men ever to walk the earth, really upset Americans of all political stripes. And yet, the evidence is overwhelmingly that the US Constitution and its system of government are, to use a current phrase much in use, "not fit for purpose. OK, I'll get my coat now.
Secretary: The birth of any entity is often a product of the conditions (and ideological mood) of its time. If you read Chris Hedges' article, paying particular attention to his comments about the deans of law schools, and what they let pass in terms of the evisceratiion of significant laws (those intent upon maintaining a viable check-balance between government branches), along with a similar attack on important civil liberties... would you really trust a climate like this one, where every principle has been co-opted, every sane initiative sold out to the highest bidder and replaced with its false equivalent, in which to rewrite The Constitution?
Look who controls the Dominant Conversation, or who funds the think tanks. Consider who benefits from the divisive messages broadcast 24/7 across hate radio's dark spectrum, along with the pro-business/pro-war views echoed ceaselessly across the MSM.
Do you honestly think that in this culturally bankrupt hornet's nest, that whomever would be tasked with drawing up a New Constitution could get it better? We'd end up with rule by Christian Theocrats, an outcome already making enormous headway under the guise of privatizing this or that, granting funds to churches to stand in for the abject abdication of compassion as seen in WHAT our government is foremost prepared to fund. Hint: Money clubs (i.e. Wall Street) and the MIC. Head Start be damned!
Are you arguing with secretarybird? I read and rearead his/her comment but found nothing in it to suggest a modern rewriting of the Constitution. Did I miss something? Anyway, I'm not sure the 18th Century was any nobler, or gifted with greater moral capacities than ours today. Perhaps you're just expressing the same despair as secretarybird but in a different way?
No need to speak and run. Open and open-ended intelligence should be the standard here on CD and we should all try to uphold it.
It has always struck me as the 'American Bible'. Don't mess with its sacredness or you'll be staring down the barrell of a gun.
It was colored by the mindset of that particular time and place. Obviously it didn't 'work' in the long run, because people figured out how to undermine it........Of course, many will say it is not the fault of the writers. And i would agree, they did a heck of a job. For a bunch of rich caucasian men. ;-)
But they weren't all knowing. Heck, i will bet you that the 'founding fathers' didn't even know about quantum mechanics or post modernism. And they probably didn't even have computers or figure that the u.s. would become the global empire of all time.
Yes, Secretarybird, but not quite so bad today since there's the whole "god" question to yell about. I wish I knew how the people of Ecuador got to the point of overwhelmingly accepting their new constitution. What happened? For some inspiration today, I thought you'd appreciate just the table of contents, which should warm your heart and fire up your intellect. (you can find the whole in Spanish and this unofficial English translation) at Political Databases of the Americas at georgetown.edu)
Republic of Ecuador
Constitution of 2008
Constitucion de 2008
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Last Updated / Última actualización: January 31, 2011
CONSTITUTION OF THE REPUBLIC OF ECUADOR
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
LEGISLATIVE AND OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE
Published in the Official Register
October 20, 2008
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREAMBLE
TITLE I: CONSTITUENT ELEMENTS OF THE STATE
Chapter one: basic principles
Chapter two: Female and male citizens
TITLE II: RIGHTS
Chapter one: Principles for the enforcement of rights
Chapter two: Rights of the good way of living (buen vivir)
Chapter three: rights of priority persons and groups
Chapter four: rights of communities, peoples and nations
Chapter five: rights to participation
Chapter six: rights to freedom
Chapter seven: rights of nature
Chapter eight: rights to protection
Chapter nine: responsibilities
TITLE III: CONSTITUTIONAL GUARANTEES
Chapter one: guarantees of the legal and regulatory framework
Chapter two: public policies, public services, and public participation
Chapter three: jurisdictional guarantees
TITLE IV: PARTICIPATION AND ORGANIZATION OF POWER
Chapter one: participation in democracy
Chapter two: legislative branch of government
Chapter three: executive branch of government
Chapter four: judicial branch and indigenous justice branch of government
Chapter five: Transparency and social control branch of government
Chapter six: Electoral branch of government
Chapter seven: public administration
TITLE V: TERRITORIAL ORGANIZATION OF THE STATE
Chapter one: general principles
Chapter two: organization of the territory
Chapter three: decentralized autonomous governments and special systems
Chapter four: system of jurisdictions
Chapter five: economic resources
TITLE VI: DEVELOPMENT STRUCTURE
Chapter one: General principles
Chapter two: participatory planning for development
Chapter three: food sovereignty
Chapter four: economic sovereignty
Chapter five: strategic sectors, services and state enterprises
Chapter six: labor and production
Section four: Democratization of inputs
Section five: commerce and fair trade
Section six: savings and investment
TITLE VII: THE GOOD WAY OF LIVING SYSTEM
Chapter one: inclusion and equity
Chapter two: biodiversity and natural resources
TITLE VIII: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Chapter one: Principles governing international relations
Chapter two: international treaties and instruments
Chapter three: Latin American integration
TITLE IX: SUPREMACY OF THE CONSTITUTION
Chapter one: Principles
Chapter two: Constitutional Court
Chapter three: Amending the Constitution
TRANSITORY PROVISIONS
Chapter one: nature of the transition
Chapter two: elections
Chapter three: institutional transition
REPEAL PROVISION
TRANSITION SYSTEM
FINAL PROVISION
I guess they are the american version of some holy patriarchy or something. I never did understand or resonate with it. We are definitely extremely several centuries ago.
Washington never told a lie. He told his dad he cut down the cherry tree......Wait...I just got something new here....
It is like the Garden of Eden story - rewritten for the New Land. This 'First Man' of these United States, the new 'Adam', when asked by the 'Father', what he did in the 'garden'..............Did you do such a thing or not, regarding a fruit tree no less...........He told the TRUTH.
Unfortunately Rothschild did not mention that God's alleged chosen people have no right to use their exalted status to disenfranchise and to harass and to intimidate the Palestinian people.
Oh, there is more than enough choseness to go around!
Indeed...seems that god especially favors whatever race, sexual orientation, and class a believer is a member of. Everyone else goes to hell. And just like with bullying, once everyone else has been dehumanized as the "unchosen", permission is granted to treat them inhumanely.
Oh Matthew. ( hope you read this ) You remind me of why I love Americans. And I really do. :blush:
Your self deprecation, questioning and belief that personal change is possible for everyone and that social change is possible is sweet.
America is an Enlightened country. It really is. :kiss:
Mr. Rothschild,
I totally agree with you that we Americans must get over ourselves. American exceptionalism is a tired concept used to manipulate us to accept all types of abuse our government uses to attain their agenda. An agenda ordinary Americans are quite ignorant of. The truth of our behavior should be shocking to the American people. Lies and deception rule.
I have to take issue with you about your statement."There is no God," It has not been proven that "God" does not exist. The problem is using "God" to advance agenda's that are ,dare I say evil. The truth of our history in these United States was born of blood...and continues to this day. However, we must wake up , remove the veil , see the reality of our actions and leave a country that our Grandchildren can be proud of.
You state that "It has not been proven that 'God' does not exist." That would certainly be a pretty good trick since it is impossible to prove a negative. The responsibility would be upon you to prove to us that God or some kind of god does indeed exist.
I would recommend a movie here....It is flawed and not a great work of art, but i found it entertaining enough and it addresses the issue of not being able to 'prove' a negative, which is not the most typical topic in american movie fare.
"Contact". Written by the late Carl Sagan. Starring Jodie Foster. It came out in the late nineties. Just an addition to the thread here.
MLALLY: For those of a naturally spiritual inclination the proof of God, a universe designed with Divine Order in mind, is all around us. Its metrics do not easily conform to the test-tube linear graphs preferred by science, and those of a more pragmatic, materially (earthbound) oriented mindset.
So placing aside the "proof" element, I, too, disliked the way Rothschild brought up a casual dismissal of God altogether; and I think you're on the balll in pointing out that the problem is how agendas, tied to the alleged patriarchal god, are framed and used to bamboozle the masses. In my estimation, there is no clearer sign of misuse of religious/spiritual authority than to see churches rally for war, and promote the premise of a foreign enemy chiefly on the basis of ideological differences.
Kurt Vonnegut mocked this juvenile tendency in human beings by joking that "the world is divided into teams that carry out God's will." Religion, as team, or morphed into a team-style sports identification, has become the new opiate of the peoples.
Yes, indeed Sioux........
All of the human made creations you speak of do not negate that there is more to reality than one can reproduce in a laboratory. What you find foolish here are the creations of immature minds. Perfection is a notion that presupposes stagnation, therefore, in an ever expanding universe, or multiverse, as we are beginning to discover in certain quarters, perfection not only doesn't exist. It is an impossibility.
Also, your judgement of what the meaning of benevolence is, sounds rather provincial and as limited as the conjurings of those whose ideas you recognize as immature thinking. And your definition of power? You don't even define your terms for being such a scientific type of person. And to quote a fabulous scientist, "Imagination is more important than knowledge". I just threw that in for the hell of it. Try measuring that in a laboratory sometime.
We are however in the realm of politics and not metaphysics so for the purposes of this discussion we should be asking ourselves what the notion of God, or the sense of a divine presence has to contribute to our civic life. More provocatively does it have anything to contribute or is it an arcaic retrograde sentiment that impedes our moral development? In the realm of politics I see only human motivation, human action and human consequence. Along side it I see a kind of transcendent alternative which says that if the world were just it would be different. If we follow that sense of justice wherever it leads I think it draws us away from loyalty or endorsement of any government. In fact I think we call our sense of a demand for justice divine because we can't believe it would actually emanate from anything in our miserable, greedy, and vicious little souls. I am however convinced that organized religion of any type does have its locus right there. There must be something better but it is not in us therefore we call that divine. I feel it but I'm still wrestling with whether it too is an illusion, whether it can better our lives as we live it, or whether it calls on us to live a different life.
"I have to take issue with you about your statement."There is no God," It has not been proven that "God" does not exist."
This negative backwards tit-for-tat "logic" that god-believers commonly use to deflect rational inquiry, that wouldn't pass muster in any logic class (but that is commonly found in the discussion of kindergarteners), doesn't hold water when we begin to think about applying it to the vast numbers of gods that humans are and have been willing to defend to the death (...of those who don't believe, don't obey, or don't pay) in order to justify a false sense of superiority and delusional "divine rights". These so called "divine rights" have been a license to kill and oppress in the interests of power and profit for approx. 1,500 years.
There is not the slightest fragment of evidence that the literary trope known as the xtian "god" (or any "god") exists or has ever existed...though that hasn't stopped believers from harassing, torturing, imprisoning, conquering, legislating against, even killing countless millions...while irrationally justifying all of it with this bizarre and convoluted tale of a benevolent and omniscient sky fairy for which no proof exists. The numbers of deaths that god-believers have caused and are still causing as a result of this belief, and the vast numbers of people's lives destroyed by god-believers, imo...places the onus of responsibility re: "proof" squarely on those who say that these things are done in the name of their "god".
Thankfully, the sun is going down on a world that god-believers thought they owned and controlled, and not a minute too soon - though they won't go quietly or peacefully...on this we simply need to look to history's long river of blood by the hands of god-believers for proof. We inherit from them a ravaged and degraded Earth, runaway human corruption, suffocated and infantilized minds, legions of psychologically wounded and deluded people, and endless violence....the natural result of building a society based on a psychotic belief.
Visualize a rational post-religious era, free from the god-believer's superiority complex that permeates every arena of our modern global culture and that causes so much destruction on such a vast scale.
In scientific terms describe Consciousness and how it evolved from matter. Describe what form of matter Consciousness is.
The truth is it can not be defined using any scientific theory. Scientists have no real idea how it came about and the theories of such range all over the map, are mutually exclusive and are as varied as the various beliefs in some type of super natural god.
It is something APART from the physical universe which can not be defined by Science. It is not a physical thing that somehow evolved out of those first bits of matter created.
Visualize a purely Physical Universe operating under the laws of physics and no other. A universe begins and a Universe ends. A world where there can be life is swallowed up in a Supernova. A planet of millions of species is struck by an asteroid wherein all life destroyed.
In such a universe why should we the Conscious beings even be concerned with what GW Bush does or the Roman Catholic Church does, or Josef Stalin does, or Hamas does, or the State of Israel does? It makes absolutely NO DIFFERENCE because in a Universe running only on mechanistic laws as men of science proclaim , these actions are all functions OF that Universe. There is no "good" there is no "evil" . There no right or wrong. There just is. What each of us do in our daily lives has no meaning
Why even debate issue? What purpose does Consciousness serve? If it only inevitable that it will arise from physical matter then whatever beings with it do is inevitable not so?
Why would you even care what other people choose to believe in such a world?
"In scientific terms describe Consciousness and how it evolved from matter. Describe what form of matter Consciousness is.
The truth is it can not be defined using any scientific theory. Scientists have no real idea how it came about and the theories of such range all over the map, are mutually exclusive and are as varied as the various beliefs in some type of super natural god
"
Yes, scientist cannot at this point in time, define consciousness. That does not prove the existence of any gods.
"It is something APART from the physical universe which can not be defined by Science. It is not a physical thing that somehow evolved out of those first bits of matter created.
"
Just because you assert this does not make it true.
"Visualize a purely Physical Universe operating under the laws of physics and no other. A universe begins and a Universe ends. A world where there can be life is swallowed up in a Supernova. A planet of millions of species is struck by an asteroid wherein all life destroyed.
In such a universe why should we the Conscious beings even be concerned with what GW Bush does or the Roman Catholic Church does, or Josef Stalin does, or Hamas does, or the State of Israel does? It makes absolutely NO DIFFERENCE because in a Universe running only on mechanistic laws as men of science proclaim , these actions are all functions OF that Universe. There is no "good" there is no "evil" . There no right or wrong. There just is. What each of us do in our daily lives has no meaning
"
What do you mean by it makes no difference? In the grand scheme of things, many things make no difference. That does not mean that they must then have been deliberately planned by someone. Shit happens. Deal with it.
"Why would you even care what other people choose to believe in such a world?
.."
Why would you even care what other people choose to not believe in such a world?
>>Why would you even care what other people choose to not believe in such a world?
Because I do not LIVE in such a world. Others suggested that this is in fact the world we live in. Apparently this includes yourself. If such the case then my thoughts are merely a consequence of that evolution of that universe no more "right" or "wrong" then the moon is "right" and the sun is "wrong" . A "falsehood" or a "truth" merely exist.
>>What do you mean by it makes no difference? In the grand scheme of things, many things make no difference. That does not mean that they must then have been deliberately planned by someone. Shit happens. Deal with it.
I never said that they did. Deal with it.
>>Just because you assert this does not make it true.
Why does this concern you? If Consciousness is simply the inevitable consequence of that physical universe where physical mattered somehow evolved to Consciousness then there is neither a lie or a truth.
>>Yes, scientist cannot at this point in time, define consciousness. That does not prove the existence of any gods.
I never said it did.
Hi GW. Just a thought here. I would assert to people on this thread (which is refreshing to be honest)......Tell me about how you build a house without being conscious of doing so. Or even having the thought and the desire or impulse first.
This is for anyone who cares to answer. In other words, does a house just show up and then you say, "wow, a house got built. How magical!" I think i am being pretty clear here. Consciousness preceds matter.
People get ill from stress, which is not material. But it creates imbalances within the immune and nervous systems of the material/physical body.
The assumption that matter creates non matter is ....................amusing to me.
People should find out about quantum mechanics and the fact that everything is energy in the first place. Gosh. You can see Brian Greene on CSPAN even!!! ;-)
Energy exists without matter. Matter doesn't exist that has no energy. Energy is never created or destroyed. Matter is. Consciousness is energy being aware of its existence.
My two cents here.
rita
"It is something APART from the physical universe which can not be defined by Science. It is not a physical thing that somehow evolved out of those first bits of matter created."
That's just more religious speculation. Just because you experience a split between consciousness and matter doesn't mean that this split is real. Consciousness is matter, and matter is consciousness...the split is of your (and society's) own making.
GW & READY to Transform: Thank you for your efforts. I really find it a complete exercise in futility to explain (or argue for) the Great Mystery, the things that cannot be measured (and mean so much), with those that demand concrete forms of "proof." That need suggests a vacuum where a soul should reside. I presume it merits its own form of inner hell.
As for the quite false allegation that we humans attribute to the Divine what we can't actualize in ourselves... bah humbug! The Higher Laws have been revealed by masters of every background. Have you noticed what happens whenever good ideas become institutionalized? How the very nature of the institutional structure causes hierarchy, power struggles, and egos to latch onto personal privileges... often at the expense of the whole? The design plan CRIPPLES human beings from attaining higher, more balanced forms of expression!
I've pointed out that any article about women's rights or violence (most notably rape on a collective scale) directed at women routinely warrants few forum responses. This is important because it speaks of a gap in understanding, the one that constantly presupposes that human nature, as evidenced by our world at war in too many places, has shown its full hand. The persons who seem so cynically certain of this "fact" can't conceptualize what it's meant that many groups have been banned from participating in the development of the institutions that largely contain (or certainly profoundly influence) our lives.
Just a look at the picture that accompanies today's article on the lack of female representation in Afghanistan JUST MIGHT pierce through the ideological defenses a lot of CD posters hold.
When a system is designed with only a portion of its members' needs, viewpoints, and identities in mind, then that system will be insufficient, if not asymmetrical. IT does not represent, nor can it speak for the whole. Just as heart studies were ONLY conducted on men, with results falsely generalized to fit women, it is impossible to speak about HUMAN nature until those groups (and I would include persons of color, the very poor, Indigenous persons etc.) that have long been marginalized are called back to the decision-making tables and NEW designs drawn up, and allowed to evolve. ONLY then could we begin to frame our arguments around the theme of HUMAN nature!
I am reminded of Khans inability to think in three dimensions. People who cannot or will not conceive outside of the physical realm are just as limited. it likely trying to define three dimensions to a 2 dimensional being.
One thing science can not take away from me are my experiences. i KNOW what I have experienced in the realm of that "great mystery". No scientist does or can so can not define it by formula therefore claim it can not exist.
This is not logical.
Siouxrose In case you still follow this thread I find this interesting.
Apparently some believe that thought and consciousness evolved from matter and are the result of chemical and physical interactions.
it a known fact that the movement of the planets through the heavens affects the physical world. Yet in the next breath claim that the movement of the same can not affect how humans interact.
This is inconsistent. If thought and consciousness are merely parts of the physical world and have evolved from it, then they must be affected by it.
Yeah, I have to agree that the line about "there is no god" was one part of Rothschild's piece that especially appealed to me. Especially in this context: I'm sick and tired of US politicians invoking God when they have nothing else of substance to offer, the same way they invoke Country, Flag, the American People, and other meaningless bullshit.
Believe in gods/God if you want, but let's talk about changing the fucking world, not waiting for something or somebody supernatural to do it for us.
Thank you for this.
It is a fine poem.
They all are. Thank you, moonraven!
Excellent article. The only thing I disagree with is that there is no God. I believe in God and that's my right, and there's a good description of present-day America in Revelations, so I don't see how we could possibly be God's chosen people -- or second chosen people (Israel being No. 1, of course).
Okay, now that that's out of the way, I have a certain bone to pick with a certain Alexandra Pelosi and her comments on Maher a little over a week ago, and it dovetails nicely with this article. In her remarks regarding immigrants wanting to come to the U.S. -- still -- is opportunity, and that Americans don't understand is that we have a lot to be grateful for. She was not comparing the U.S., of course, to countries that have embraced social democracy (a condition which the elite is trying to change) but the third-world countries, most of which -- I firmly believe -- might not be third-world countries (in the common description of that status) at this point in time, to the degree they are, were it not for our illustrious interventions over the years. She also brought up that "indoor plumbing" comparison again as one of the things we should be grateful for. In an Al-Anon meeting once devoted to the term "gratitude" someone, indeed, talked about how spoiled we are in the U.S. and we should be grateful for what we have, like indoor plumbing, the right to vote and freedom. This person, again, was comparing our present situation with third-world countries.
I could have argued, of course, had I the chance, of all the people in this country that are living in a "third-world" and that are persecuted and/or prosecuted on a daily basis because they are poor. And what about people who speak out about these endless wars and other injustices in the U.S.? Our behavior towards them becomes more reprehensible by the day.
So those are a few of my thoughts on this good July 4th, 2011, which I discovered this morning was simply another "military-appreciation" day. NPR was in good form in this regard this morning. If I didn't know better I would have thought they were acting as the advertising arm of the armed forces this fine day -- but that couldn't possibly be the case, right?
This is America's 235th birthday. That's a very short time to go from new country to dying empire. In fact it might be a record. Unfortunately, by the time the U.S. Empire dies it may take the rest of the planet with it.
Just a few thoughts. I am very, very tired of the phony flag-waving holidays. If you're into fireworks, of course, officially many municipalities and cities have canceled these fun outings because they can't afford them. Not D.C., though, nope. Emperor Obama is having a barbecue this evening with military families (pre-screened for dissenters, I'm sure), complete with a fireworks display.
I happened to see that Bill Maher show. I find him more irritating and sophomoric than not, however i will watch now and then.
She is Nancy Pelosi's daughter and it was nauseating. I couldn't really watch it all, to be honest. She needed to point out indoor plumbing as something great in the u.s.a. I mean, it was pathetic. She is obviously a political operative. Why expect anything else?
Same here. I screamed at Ms Pelosi through the TV set - alarming my husband!
I got the feeling that even Bill Maher wasn't too impressed with her. Nauseating is exactly right!
SAMALABEAR: Excellent post. And a spot-on assessment of NPR this morning. I finally had to turn it off and put on some music, lest I barf up my breakfast.
The only thing I would add to your post is that so many Americans are completely oblivious to the fact (and refuse to consider it, for that matter) that their lifestyles and things they "should be thankful for" are dependent upon a system of empire, war crimes, and corporate exploitation around the planet.
Don't have cable, ergo don't watch Maher.
But based on your description of Alexandra Pelosi, it's further proof of the old adage that the rotten fruit doesn't fall far from the blighted tree.
OK, maybe I tweaked the adage a bit.
There are a lot of two-word slogans for the mythologies used to inspire the evils of empire and excuse the theft of other peoples' rights and property... over their dead bodies:
* manifest destiny
* chosen people
* master race
All involve the invocation of the supernatural -- a God who is usually, it seems, more powerful than any God that cares about peace or the pain of the poor.
One that needs no God:
* global capitalism
Well done, evoR!
"There is no God, and we have no special right to lord ourselves over the planet."
Well. I'm glad we got that straightened out. If there is no God, then we may have no special right to lord ourselves over the planet, but we have no special duty not to do so, either. In the absence of God, there are neither rights nor duties. In the absence of God, all things are permissible. Fact-value distinction, and all that.