Over my years, a whole 38 of them, the question always arose as to how my family got into the positions it did. How did I end up where I did not want to be? How the problems on the micro or macro level never seem to get resolved and we repeat and repeat mistakes.
There was a time that I thought, maybe this might be the first generation that does not live through a major war. It was pretty clear after 9-11 that dream was out the window.
I studied multiple disciplines that examine human behavior. Western disciplines assume rationality and this faulty assumption shapes our societal views. Eastern disciplines assume delusion.
While this diary won't win any friends, Kossacks you are just as delusional as those you rant against, just the yin to their yang.
In the series of the OPOL is a hero or a goat thread, I made the following personal bullet points.
1)I am a liberal
2)I am doing fine
3)I am not angry
4)I think general strikes are violent
5)You don't fight for Peace
Apparently some people, and I think at the least a vocal minority if not a majority vocal or not, see these points as mutually exclusive.
Cherrycoke wrote
You call yourself a liberal, you live in the United States, and you are not angry? And you think calling for a general strike is violent? Words fail me
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Yes believe it or not, you can be a liberal and not angry. I realize this is hard to believe but it is possible. As the Nobel Peace Prize nominee Thich Nhat Hanh says Happiness is available help yourself
I find it interesting that some of those that recommend anger have Buddhist sounding screen names.
TocqueDeville wrote.
I am so happy for you (15+ / 0-)
Really. But it's not working fine for me and tens of millions of other Americans.
We are deeply concerned about the direction of our country. We are concerned about the threat to our way of life by the rise of corporate hegemony. We are concerned about the radical changes in our weather and the threat that poses for life on Earth, for posterity itself.
We are concerned about the threat of over reaching government power and intrusion into our privacy.
And, last but not least, we are concerned about the Democratic party being compromised by these same corporate forces who are trying to reinvent the American experience for their benefit.
But if it's working fine for you then congratulations. But I would suggest that your satisfaction is an illusion. I would bet that, regardless of how you perceive yourself to be in control of your life, there are forces acting upon your life that you would not prefer.
There is no place to escape the consequences of greed, quest for the world's resources, the killing and exploitation of the poor peoples of the world, or the global environmental crisis.
Perhaps you only think your health insurance will cover your next illness. Or that Iam's pet food is safe. Or that global warming won't be so bad in your neck of the woods.
Or that since you have nothing to hide, no one will take you from your home in the middle of the night.
Many, if not most, of the Americans effected by the thing I list above thought they were fine too.
But good luck. Being fine.
It is not tens of millions that things are not going well for, it is billions. This is no different than it has ever been.
I am not "in control" of my life. I never said that. I said I was fine and not angry. There are horrible problems and dysfunctional systems that greatly add to suffering. I have focused my diaries on my profession, health care, and it is atrocious, but I am not angry. I do my best to not feed the dysfunction and provide some relief to my clients/patients. I don't have health insurance because I don't care for the medicine it would provide. I get sick, injured, dead, so be it. I am not fearful of that.
I don't fear the government because what is the worst they could do to me? Jail, torture, death, so what? I would sit with my dharma brothers of Burma.
Everann wrote
One thing... (22+ / 0-)
it was, in many cases, righteous fury, that brought about the birth of this nation, that brought about the end of slavery, when less confrontational means ran their course.
Buddhist monks operate from a different premise and it's no mistake that the most peaceful of priests are also the originators of the most disciplined and powerful martial arts.
A time for peace, a time for war, wisdom would be knowing when the time for either is the right one.
Just a thought.
I have trained in a Zen temple and am a martial artist. My current sensei grew up in Japan right after the A-bombs as did the Zen masters (now gone)I follow. Killing is easy, choosing not to and the willingness to die to uphold your vows is a bit more difficult. The most powerful arts teach building fearlessness and healing your attackers, not killing them.
Lastly, general strikes are violent. They are passive aggressive but still aggressive in that they are actions intended to inflict suffering on another group. The problem is that they are like economic cluster bombs. They injure those that they are trying to serve. Any meaningful strike, if it is not meaningful and just a statement there is little point, sends economic shock waves through the system. Those holding on to the bottom rungs of the economic ladder are the ones that get kicked off. If it is true that nearly half of Americans are two paychecks away from losing their homes and/or bankruptcy, how many of those would lose their jobs if commerce was to come to a halt?
Am I not to treat my patients? If I don't strike, am I not a good liberal?
On a personal level, if you want Peace find peace and stop fighting.
On a political level, if you want to win over the vast majority of Americans stop fighting.
As it is, the fight forces people to take sides. This is what those in power want. They want the fighting because they are above it. Bush can kill with our armies because he is always protected. He feeds off the internal society fight and it makes his "if you are not with us you are against us" theory work. They live for our struggles.
So stop struggling and they will have no reason to exist.