There is such a vast difference in perspectives, available for us peoples, that will be determined by, depending upon who and what we prefer to believe, which or what sources of information that we chose to take in to inform us. Speaking only for myself, as a person that wants to know ALL perspectives rather than only ONE view, I will read, watch and listen (up to a point at least) all sides and aspects, in order to come up with the overall picture upon which I will decide where the greatest truth lies. Granted, there are many people that are much more dualistic, who, rather than seek any balance, do their very best to exclude all information that does not support their 'preferred' viewpoint. Those at the extremes of our seeming polarization are the best examples of that, the 'right' and the (wrong ?) 'left' ... In looking into this matter deeply, I really believe that the so-called far left liberal view, that the right so hates, does NOT really exist at all except in the minds of the right and those they can convince of that by their caustic rhetoric. And that rhetoric primarily comes from those think tanks funded by that side who supply those views to the media outlets that only the faithful right follows ... very loyally and well indoctrinated I might add. Where others do seek truth, with compassion for ALL, via much more peaceful methods, in doing so, they are not so narrow minded and stuck in their way, which they would feel compelled to defend, thus they are the opposite of the conservative right, they are the liberal left. Compassion and liberalism are very much related. Fear of other leads to much more defensive conservatism. Thus where the right feels threatened by the left because the left would insist, at least (more likely) ask, that the right consider a wider perspective, the right closes down even more in resistance to the request and sees the left as a real threat to their cherished and preferred viewpoint ... thus because they have only one acceptable viewpoint, based upon their dualistic outlook, they are compelled to 'fight off' the threat which is the left. That is why they have such a piss poor concept that is completely exaggerated as regards to the lefts motives and actions ... and they express those views with such regularity, that they convince themselves they are true, at the same time that the left, being more liberal, may accept that determination as possible without even critically looking at the view. Well I have looked at all of this extensively and given it much thought, my determination is, I believe, really much more fair and balanced than FOX will ever be ... and I have determined just what I am saying here, that the far right determines what they call reality, based upon what their unseen 'leader/authority' types cook up and handout to them for that very reason and purpose, to find those supporters for certain aims and outcomes that could be achieved in no other way except complete forceful domination of a dictatorial nature ... thus we have this society that has been duped into believing it is free and balanced, as those 'leaders' have told us, the same leaders that have divided us in the very first place ... Divide and Conquer ... what better way to do it, than to have the people do it themselves, by convincing them that there are good valid reasons to divide and fight over ... Folks, there is ONE God that we are all a part of, and our purpose here on earth is to eventually realize our true relationship, as a natural diversity of an infinite range of equals yet opposites ... and as like male and female, both 'sides' are needed to be 'creative,' which comes from cooperative and compassionate LOVE ... the alternative is what we seem to have now, competition to a fault, with such extreme polarization that the division that exists (in our minds only), seems to be nearing an outright battle (only words so far) ... which would bring destruction ... not only to the 'weaker' side, but ultimately to ALL. People should give all of this more thought before we reach that point of no return that seems to loom ever closer at the rate that we are going down this factious and destructive path. Peace, j. ( This article was generated from a comment I made at http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977114920 ) For further insight to my views, there are free downloads available at http://www.spiritcalls.us Thanks, j. |
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Comments: 45
Blessings and best wishes - S.
They are both too busy jockying around to get re-elected and romancing large donations to that end.
Large donations require favors and favors they give. Both parties. There is NO consideration for what is Constitutional or good for the People they are supposed to represent becaus they don't represent the People only the big dollars that keep them in office.
I have seen this processs more and more as the years have gone by. It has come down to a time when the People need to step in and elect a leader that will get us back to the Constitution and a government of and for the People.
We have a choice. We don't have to elect a President that represents the Far Left or the Far Right. I don't like all of the Socialist ideals of the left and I don't like the Corporate ideals of the Right. We can elect the one man who is and always has been a Constitutionalist.
Col George, I see your view as very balanced, much like my own in that regard, and I agree with the rest of your sentiments about the next leader ... I hope he "gets" it.
In some sense there is no final TRUTH or PERFECT SOLUTION in any existential setting where there is a problem to be analyzed. Percepts and Concepts are ever changing in our existing WORLD and UNIVERSE where ALL 'things and thoughts and behaviors' of us human ENTITIES are ever interacting among multifarious other ENTITIES of great diversity.
THE real issue for us -- I suggest -- is how we can learn to stay always at that outer edge of current 'understanding' with the best information we can garner at the time, and to learn how to SHARE that information and those then NEW concpts and percepts with any and all of our human colleagues. We need vigorously interacting fellow persons as we ever proceed to seek out viable TRUTHS and improving BEAUTIES!
THE great challenge in an ever evolving Universe and this bounding WORLD (i.e. EARTH) of ours, seems to be to be available ALWAYS to learn from one another KNOWING that minds that are imaginative, signal gathering and filtering all the time are operative in each and every one of us. THe GREAT CALL is to honor -- as best we can -- the differences of the tentative TRUTHS that exist among and within ALL of us, knowing that differences (sometimes radical) among all of us -- Rights, Lefts, Citizens of 'this or that Nation, believers of this or that persuasion exist. All of us humans are striving creatures of our common GOD.; seeking ever to become better and better as we continually reach out to better identify the spirituality we know exists. A child must learn intellectually and emotionally through time and experience to get on that path of ever improving one's self. This too is an adult human challenge. To bring our young to ever new realizations. We're not doing a good job of that lately in our WORLD.
WE can lose perspective when complexity gets awesome and information is withheld. The need for 'extreme openness' is always to be sought. Secrecy is a grave danger when used for nefarious purposes, such as it seems currently being used. The pursuit of unattainable FULL TRUTH is the name of the game to be played out in a rich-with-experience LIFE.
The adventures of seeking out the BEST solution available basis for good and productive actions are what our human behaviors should be all about. The traditional ideas of the 'greatest good for the greatest number' is a fine way to think and design actions. Seeking out the solution, carefully, to a tough and very complex problem with the 'greatest PEACEFUL 'good' always in mind, provides a partial solution to the impossible problem of finally finding and using the non-existent perfect solution. IN MY OPINION! LIFE is a PROCESS, and not a STEADY STATE CONDITION as we sometimes say in engineering terms. Things and Thoughts everywhere are always in (inexplicable) motion.
Dick
Good article.
Anywho, good article.
I think the vast silent majority are probably much more balanced than the ones I complain about here, but they are so silent in comparison with the very vocal (print wise anyway) that get so much attention seemingly everywhere now-a-days.
I will check out the link as I know there seems to be a problem looming around that issue.
The whole political thing interests me mainly as a witness - I'm curious to know when the words I received about US presidential stuff will come to pass - that the first female president will be Hispanic, but before she comes into office we'll have a black male president. Who knows? Just curious.
"I don't belong to an organized political party, I'm a democrat" from a comedian who's name escapes me
"look! I represent both icons of the republican party. I'm riding an elephant and i'm a big fat white guy who's afraid of change." -Peter Griffin
I believe that to many americans are one issue voters and don't look at the broader policies of their candidates and that is one of the main reasons the country is in the state it is in.
We have met before. Back then I was writing as "Son of Publius." I dropped that because I viewed it as too confining. Now I wonder if what I viewed as confining was actually liberating! It may just be a case of the grass always being greener, though... The surest prison there is, is a prison we create for ourselves, eh?
If ever a nation was made and foolish, blind to its own interest and bent on its own destruction, it is our United States. There are such things as national sins, and though the punishment of individuals may be reserved to another world, national punishment can only be inflicted in this world. Our United States, as a nation, is, in my inmost belief, the greatest and most ungrateful offender against God on the face of the whole earth. Blessed with all the commerce we could wish for, and furnished, by a vast extension of dominion, with the means of civilizing both the eastern and western world, we have made little other use of both than proudly to idolize our own "thunder," and rip up the bowels of whole countries for what we could get. Like Alexander, we have made war our sport, and inflicted misery for prodigality's sake. The blood of Native Americans is not yet repaid, nor the wretchedness of African Americans, who's ancestors were shipped to America against their will, and who even after a bloody civil war and two constitutional amendments that lead to full citizenship have still been brutally oppressed, yet requited. We have provided support to tyranical dictators and corrupt governments, based in our desire for resources and our fear of communists. Of late we have enlarged our list of national cruelties by our butcherly destruction of the sovereign nation of Iraq in violation of the United Nations Charter, a treaty, signed, ratified, and in full force. These are serious things, and whatever a foolish tyrant, a debauched cabinet, a trafficking legislature, or a blinded people may think, the national account with heaven must some day or other be settled: all countries have sooner or later been called to their reckoning; the proudest empires have sunk when the balance was struck; and our United States, like an individual penitent, must undergo our day of sorrow, and the sooner it happens the better. As I wish it over, I wish it to come, but withal wish that it may be as light as possible.
Does this look familiar? It's a paraphrased quote that I believe every American should be familiar with, and I didn't change much.... Sadly, instead of this, we choose to teach our children that our president cannot tell a lie. That's a very foolish thing to do!
P.S. Jerry, I owe you an answer to a question. The center point of my sphere model relates to the (=) in your equation because the center of the sphere is the point where all elements represented have the same value (ironically zero, all and nothing). I would also point out that a sphere is a three dimensional as opposed to a dualistic two dimensional representation, eh? Representing our political environment as a line with right and left is unreasonable in my opinion. Oh, since I'm dredging up the virtual equivalent of the ancient past, the point of reference is in John Knight's article "Why We Are Foolish."
If ever a nation was made and foolish, blind to its own interest and bent on its own destruction, it is Britain. There are such things as national sins, and though the punishment of individuals may be reserved to another world, national punishment can only be inflicted in this world. Britain, as a nation, is, in my inmost belief, the greatest and most ungrateful offender against God on the face of the whole earth. Blessed with all the commerce she could wish for, and furnished, by a vast extension of dominion, with the means of civilizing both the eastern and western world, she has made no other use of both than proudly to idolize her own "thunder," and rip up the bowels of whole countries for what she could get. Like Alexander, she has made war her sport, and inflicted misery for prodigality's sake. The blood of India is not yet repaid, nor the wretchedness of Africa yet requited. Of late she has enlarged her list of national cruelties by her butcherly destruction of the Caribbs of St. Vincent's, and returning an answer by the sword to the meek prayer for "Peace, liberty and safety." These are serious things, and whatever a foolish tyrant, a debauched court, a trafficking legislature, or a blinded people may think, the national account with heaven must some day or other be settled: all countries have sooner or later been called to their reckoning; the proudest empires have sunk when the balance was struck; and Britain, like an individual penitent, must undergo her day of sorrow, and the sooner it happens to her the better. As I wish it over, I wish it to come, but withal wish that it may be as light as possible. (Thomas Paine)
Clearly, the British generally believed themselves to be the "good guys," too! Was Thomas Paine a prophet?
The turn of events in my country have not really scared or angered me, they have just made me sadder and sadder. It is a country out of balance. I have always felt that the world in general was always getting a little better every day. The thing is, it should get exponentially better, like a snow ball rolling down a hill. I feel it has been shedding more snow than it has been accumulating lately.
However, groups and mediums such as Gather and a little charity, and less spite may get that snow ball growing larger again.
I also see that you well understand the (=) sign ... so few do, sad to say.
And as I was reading that first long comment I could not help but think it was such an outstanding piece that it should be spread over the whole world ... I even thought you yourself had written it ... because I know you are capable of that kind of brilliance.
But then I saw the longer version and was not at all surprised that it was by Thomas Paine, one of my very favorite people. And ... it is so true, as it surely does apply to this nation as 'you' modified it ... sadly to say.
We had one of the golden opportunities of history after 9-11. The world briefly held its breath. Then our President asked Congress for $40 billion for the Pentagon, and our Democrats and our Republicans in Congress complied. The world exhaled. The path was chosen, and it was the same old, same old, business as usual. Since then leaders around the world have acted accordingly.
"We the people" chose to follow the deadly path of vengeance! There is no doubt in my mind as to where that path leads. And, that's not the source of ALL our ills. We have chosen to place all of our faith in our Federal government, greedily asking it for all we can get. We have failed to continue the dialog that our founders started, the (+=-) path between Federalism and anti-Federalism. Here is a quote from another old time American idealist, an anti-Federalist:
"This power, exercised without limitation, will introduce itself into every comer of the city, and country — It will wait upon the ladies at their toilett, and will not leave them in any of their domestic concerns; it will accompany them to the ball, the play, and the assembly; it will go with them when they visit, and will, on all occasions, sit beside them in their carriages, nor will it desert them even at church; it will enter the house of every gentleman, watch over his cellar, wait upon his cook in the kitchen, follow the servants into the parlour, preside over the table, and note down all he eats or drinks; it will attend him to his bed-chamber, and watch him while he sleeps; it will take cognizance of the professional man in his office, or his study; it will watch the merchant in the counting-house, or in his store; it will follow the mechanic to his shop, and in his work, and will haunt him in his family, and in his bed; it will be a constant companion of the industrious farmer in all his labour, it will be with him in the house, and in the field, observe the toil of his hands, and the sweat of his brow; it will penetrate into the most obscure cottage; and finally, it will light upon the head of every person in the United States. To all these different classes of people, and in all these circumstances, in which it will attend them, the language in which it will address them, will be GIVE! GIVE!" (Brutus; Dec. 27, 1787)
It sure looks as though "Brutus" was correct. We're not quite to that extreme yet, but with each passing administration we get closer. Clinton used federal mammon to put "100,000 more cops on the street." George "Big government is not the answer" Bush has brought us the PATRIOT Act, unsupervised wire tapping, No Child Left Behind or as I call it "No Child Left Without A Bureaucrat," the Department of Homeland Security, and our "War on Terror." I'd say he trumps all others. It was Truman, who created the Department of Defense (the Pentagon) and the Central Intelligence Agency. It was Eisenhower who, using a National Security argument, convinced a skeptical Congress that we should build the (eighth wonder of the world) Interstate Highway system. Would we be arguing about energy independence today, if it had never been built? There was also the later disgraced Nixon who brought in the War Powers Act. Johnson brought us our "War on Poverty," and Reagan our "War on Drugs." The list goes on and on. Watching a Republican partisan attacking a Democrat over his or her love of Federal programs is like watching an alcoholic berating a drug addict.
While I don't by necessity have a problem with Federal programs, I think we would be better off if we would at least look for other potential solutions for our problems. Actually, I think we would be better off if we viewed Federal solutions as our last resort instead of looking there first.
I would add that when any people chooses to become totally dependent on an army (whether that be a traditional standing army or a police force) for their security they have set themselves on a path that leads to the destruction of their LIBERTY. Why? Because doing so requires that some citizens be set apart with different sets of rights and privileges. The key to breaking the cycle of dependence lies in our Second Amendment, which was adopted at the insistence of anti-Federalists. As far as I'm concerned, it's not REALLY about guns.
P.S. Jerry, you can call me "Noah" if that appeals to you. That's what my friends call me! That invitation is intended for others, too. Hey, it will save you a trinity of key strokes, (M) (.) ( ). (smile)
P.P.S. Happily, that "outstanding piece" has been spread over the whole world in its original form. It doesn't only belong to "we the people" anymore. I am inclined toward believing it will outlast us!
Meaning that IF we turned that GIVE ME around to Let ME GIVE YOU ... then the burden would be less for everyone and the gain (profit) would become creative as in a SYNERGY !
But people that always look to the extremes miss out on the nuance of the more or less invisible point of BALANCE in the center ... that is where God/Spirit will best be found ... and that is about compassion based upon love ... a far cry from (the opposite actually) what generally takes place in this rather hellish world.
Thanks Rose and Angela for being here ...
Perspective is not so much of HOW we view the world around us as much as it is
FROM where we do it.
Thanks Patry and back at-cha ...
Isn't it ironic that we wanted to break away from Britain and then followed right in her footsteps anyway. It gave me chills reading the comparison M Noah portrayed here.
I think the main problem in politics, and every other sense, is that the "we" became "me" and upset the aple cart, so to speak, like one wheel wating to go one direction and the other wanting to the other, rather than working together to get the apples where they need to be. Like you said about male/female, it takes both to make the marriage work.
Our goal is to bring the Global HeartMind together for peace, but that's like putting the cart in front of the horse. We must fix the wheels on our own cart before we take the apples to the rest of the world. How can we offer Democracy to the world, if we can't even seem to agree what it is on our own soil.
Thanks Jerry, this was a great read.
Which inspires the analogy of both wheels rotating in opposite directions in order to turn on a Z-axis (segway transporter works this way to achieve zero-radius turns).
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Gigantic g
Liz, last things first, yes I love it, have never been afraid of bats, even old ones :-), but I better quit because I just keep digging my hole deeper ...
Yes also on the sad state of affairs of our world ... but I really think that everything is on track and that those most in need will eventually be woken up also ... maybe when it hurts too much to ignore, more will seek relief and hopefully find it in the truth that will set them free ... the highest truth is the brightest light ... keep it shining my friend.
There is where our truth lies, I belive, within each one of us.
I am starved for relationships like these.
YES!
So it should be no surprise that I want to befriend you all!
Thanks you, friend!