Quotable Quotes

I have here in my hands a wonderful book called “A Miscellany of Women’s Wisdom” compiled by Jane Lyle (Running Press, Philadelphia copyright 1993 by Inklink).  I’d like to just quote a couple of things from it, and if the publishers ever want me to take this down then by all means just let me know.

This book is filled with many gems – some I approve of heartily, some I really disagree with, but it’s a very entertaining read in any case.

“I’ve dreamt in my life dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas; they’ve gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the colour of my mind.” (Emily Bronte 1818-1848)

Here’s a stirring song sung by the women chain-makers of Cradley Heath, England, when they went on strike in 1910 to win a better life for themselves:

Rouse, ye women, long enduring / Beat no iron, blow no bellows / Till ye win the fight, ensuring / Pay that is your due.

Chorus:  Through years uncomplaining, / Hope and strength are waning, / Your industry / A begar’s fee, / And meagre fare was gaining. / Now a Trade Board is created, / See your pain and dearth abated, / And the Sweater’s wiles checkmated / Parliament’s decree!

Rouse, ye women, rouse, around you / Towns and cities cry, “God speed you,” / Rouse, shake off the fears that bound you / Women, rouse. Be true.

At length the light is breaking, / the Sweater’s throne is shaking, / Oh, do your part, / With all your heart, / A sweeter world in making! / Stand together, strong and splendid, / In your Union till you’ve ended / Tyranny, and with toll blended / Beauty, Joy and Art.

“It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.” (Dolores Ibarruri, known as La Pasionara 1895-1989)

………

 

Libya is a man!

It’s so fascinating to watch Libya right now, with Gaddafi on the run in his own country.

“Libya IS my father.  He is Libya,” states his son Saif al-Islam.

Well then, if Gaddafi IS Libya, then we know several things about this north African country.

Let’s see, what can we say about “Libya”?  Well, Libya used to be quite good-looking.  It used to look very natty in its military uniform, way back in the days when the country charmed itself into being subjected to its own brutal dictatorship.  But as Libya aged it began to look crazier and crazier.  These days, Libya is very strange-looking and it’s definitely a crappy dresser.  It always favours gold in its look – gold, rich brocades, and more gold.  Gold-braided cap, heavy gold chains.  Libya has been literally draping itself in riches in order to broadcast its prosperity.  Meanwhile, the majority of real Libya has been struggling to survive.  The two Libyas have certainly existed in a dire state of disconnect, side by side.

For decades, Libya papered itself with photographs of its own slack-jawed face.  People who openly loved it were favoured with plum jobs and nice houses.  People who openly criticized it were simply killed, often in public as a disincentive to other disgruntled people, often having been tortured.

Libya’s kids sure are interesting.  They are a mish-mash of education, militarism, belligerence, civility, and rage underneath some very good-looking faces.  Meanwhile, the real Libya’s youth would dearly love to smash those fake Libya faces underfoot, once and for all.

Libya is a strange place of vivid contradictions:  sea shore and sand dunes, oil wealth and poverty, propaganda and rebellion, ancient tribes and modern cities, a formerly handsome, dashing ruler but with a sadly broken mind, a country of both peaceful and violent tendencies.

In a perfect imitation of the see-saw effect of such contradictions, Gaddafi alternately makes gestures of peace, and then threatens to turn Libya into a living hell.  Two of his sons recently made conflicting phonecalls to the NTC, one right after the other.  “I would surrender if it would save more bloodshed,” suggests one. “Nobody is giving up, we’ll fight right to the death,” insists the other.  These two vastly different phonecalls coming close together on the same day from the same family group provides a perfect summary of the historically fractured Libya.

Right now, Libya is on the run.  And Libya had to run without its precious cap.  Upon recently seeing the said cap on the head of a freedom-fighting youth, Libya had an apoplectic fit of rage.  Efforts of family members to prevent him from seeing that eventually came to naught – he saw it.  Finally.  And this explains the sudden change of heart from his peaceful gesture of a few days ago.  Not the cap!  No!

So, Libya has a bare head now.  It’s had to run using only the bumpy back roads.  Libya’s been having a very rough ride; Libya is hiding out.  Libya is starting to realize that it will need to hide out for the rest of its days, unless some of those days are spent in jail.

“We aren’t women, we are not giving up!” Libya spits today in a sudden, unexplained insult to half the world’s population.  No – one thing’s for sure:  Libya is no woman.  Libya is a man!  Running away, skulking on back roads, keeping its head low, refusing to face its enemies, instructing phantom fighters safely from its hiding place.  No woman indeed.

Libya needs to calm down now.  Libya is saying some very unfortunate things and this will only get worse.  Libya needs some meds!!  And soon!  Libya can’t get that image out of its mind, of that kid wearing its cap and gold chain.  Can’t get that cap off his head!  Can’t tear that chain off his neck!  Must get a grip!  Libya’s kids are getting pretty worried about their dad by this point.

Among all these contradictions, one thing’s for sure:  for “Libya” the man, this will definitely NOT end well.

But for the rest of Libya however, for the real people of Libya sans the babbling maniac who thinks that he’s Libya, for the actual citizens and their current government, getting rid of the fake Libya was the best thing they have ever done in their entire lives.

Long live Libya.  No, not THAT Libya.  The real one.

No integrity!

What is lack of integrity?  It is making these types of things part of your daily routine:  Trying to get out of paying your fair share; trying to take something without asking or paying for it (that’s called stealing); having a vendetta against another person whose done nothing to you, and expressing this vendetta at every opportunity; listening to somebody whom you know is giving you ill advice because you think there’ll be some advantage in that for you; hoarding all that you can, avoiding generosity in the process; adhering to bare principles even if it causes visible, obvious harm to people; trying to make yourself seem more important than others; pushing ahead of other people every chance you get; bumping into line ahead of people who were there first; making  a deliberate effort to screw somebody up, just for the fun of it (this includes a lot of hackers without ethics); vandalizing property, just for the fun of it; deliberately aggravating another person or people, just to enjoy and absorb their negative reaction; starting conflicts for the sake of conflict; prolonging conflict when solutions present themselves, i.e. ignoring sensible solutions to end conflict; acting aggressively towards others; TAKING CREDIT for the work of others, trying to shut out other people in the process; lying or deliberately “bending the truth” to suit yourself;  keeping information to yourself which would help another or others, for selfish reasons; causing damage to your surroundings or to faraway environments, just to make money; causing damage to other people for your own pleasure; using cocaine or other chemical drugs, or else helping others to use those drugs; deliberately making the life of another person more difficult; blaming other people for your failings and shortcomings and failures and bad luck …

I’m sure that if you are one of the people I’m talking to, you can certainly add to this list – just draw from your own daily life.

What happens to people who have no integrity?  Well eventually they always come undone.  The more that other people develop and cultivate integrity in their lives, the harder that those without integrity will fall.  It’s only a matter of time.  The process is speeded up when more people take up integrity around you.

If you are dishonest, a cheat, a liar, or just all round a horrible person (and you know who you are), then other people recoil from you.  If you come near other people physically, they automatically stand back from you, taking as much distance as they can.  It’s like you stink – you smell bad.  People can tell that you’re rotten, there’s a certain aroma about you.  Of course, when people recoil from your stench, you are very quick to blame others for this.  You pick fights with strangers, both online and offline.  You yell at strangers on the street for getting in your way.  You are always worried about money, finances, resources, no matter how much you have.  You always worry about losing everything you have (with very good reason – because eventually, YOU WILL).  You don’t know what “peace” feels like.  You are living an inner war, which manifests itself in the war-like way you live your life and interact with others.

You sign a contract and then do the opposite of what you promised, because you don’t know any better.  You tend not to see the good in people – instead you see the bad.  If you hear negative gossip about somebody, you instantly believe that it’s true, because you wrongly believe that everybody except you, sucks.  You are running your life according to some secret plan which was given to you by another person.  You are therefore constantly scared of giving up too much information.  You smile at other people when you are really thinking, “what assholes”.   You rarely say “thank you” or “I’m sorry”, if ever at all.  You assume that other people are in your service, whether they know it/ like it or not.

You wake up each day feeling worried, stressed out, and nervous – or else just completely numb, feeling nothing.  You see things like African child brides, or refugees, and you just shrug and feel nothing for them, thinking “What a bunch of losers”.  You own guns.  You are willing to fuck up another person’s life, for money.  Anything for some money.

What a terrible life you lead, and that’s all at your hands.  Because of your complete lack of integrity, you are living in misery and everybody around you is infected by your misery.  Children cry in your presence.  Animals run away from you.  Babies scream when they look at you.

Get it, do you recognize yourselves now?

A little bit of poetry

A little bit of poetry to soothe the tired soul

You can take my money

Obliterate my career

Destroy my reputation

 

But you still can’t take ME

 

You can downsize my job

Foreclose on my house

Shut down my food stamps

 

But you still can’t have ME

 

You can give me drugs

Let me drink my life away

Encourage me to gamble

 

But I still have ME

 

You can mesmerize my mind

And that of my child, too

Fill my head with bad ideas

 

But I still have ME

 

You can turn me against my neighbor

Blind me to suffering

Make me fear for my existence

 

But that still leaves ME

 

You can titillate my senses

Show me blood and gore

Let me hear about the horror

 

But down deep, is still ME

 

If I can find me,

Then I can find the world.

The world is full of “me”s

 

Just waiting to find eachother.

Lessons from Cairo – Mubarak ignores the law

Sometimes, nobody wants a solution except for outsiders.  Picture the Roman Coliseum in the middle of a gladiator spectacle.  Would anybody have listened to the human rights crusader at that point?  “Stop it!  Stop that right now!  Somebody is going to get hurt.”

No, the participants and the spectators would have silenced the crusader right on the spot.  They have different reasons for wanting silence however.  The Emperor wants the show to go on – good show!  The gladiators want to concentrate on their fight without distraction.  Nobody’s interested in what the human rights crusader has to say, during a gladiator battle.

Same goes for Cairo, Egypt right now.

A representative of the Muslim Brotherhood (sorry brother, I did not catch your name) went on to CNN by telephone last week saying this:  “The Egyptian Constitution says that in case of government failure, power gets handed over to the chief of the Egyptian Supreme Court.”  Wow, I thought – what a great solution!  It’s all written down.  It’s right there in their constitution.  What is a constitution, but a contract between a government and its people?  Well, according to this contract the government has failed and so Mubarak now needs to step down and hand over the keys to the top lawmaker in the land.

This makes sense – hand over control to the law, in times of lawlessness.  Makes a hell of a lot of sense doesn’t it.  Let the law handle it.  Let the law step in.  But wouldn’t you know it, CNN proceeded to studiously ignore this legal solution proposed on their show.  They had Arab, and western and Israeli guests on … politicians and educators and pundits galore weighed in.  And it seemed that none of them would touch this “constitutional solution” with a ten foot pole.

The cynic in me likes to think that this is because they recognized a good solution when they heard it, but no way was this solution going to be coming from the Muslim Brotherhood.  No way!  Not those guys.  So, on and on it went.  The cynic in me thought, well, the media want this conflict to continue, don’t they – great story!  So why should they help to resolve it?  That’s why they ignore the solution when it’s right in their face, I figured.

But there was also another part to the solution which nobody seemed to get – except for the remaining 95% of Egyptians.  “Be nice!  Be polite!  Don’t be so rude!  He isn’t leaving unless you stop being so rude first.”  Yes, the average cabbie on the street got it – but the reporters on the ground didn’t.    “Mubarak is a good man, but we need our comforts – we need food, and a job,”  said the wise Cairo cabbie on CNN.  That was the primary sentiment among most Egyptians, while the young folk were  getting their yayas out at the square.

So obviously, this is a very hard thing to ask people who are misbehaving to do – stop!  It doesn’t normally have the desired effect, does it.  If teenagers are busy at trashing their hotel room, what happens if the manager approaches their room and asks them to quit it?  Does that work?  Has that ever worked in the history of mankind?  No, it hasn’t.  So just try telling the Egyptian protesters to quit it and be nicer.

Yes, we would be asking the young Egyptians to do something HARD.  Stop it and go home, the matter is in the hands of the law now.  Yes, they are pissed off, so politeness is a lot to ask.  But – think about what they are asking their leader to do.  They are asking him to quit in a haze of humiliation.  His effigy has been hung, rude and clever signs drawn up in English for the reporters to consume.  Newsflash:  you can’t humiliate an Arab into doing what you want.  Oh sure, you can scare him off like they did in Tunisia.  But if he can’t be scared off, due to a strong army and U.S. backing, then you’re stuck.  Different strategies are called for.  Sticking out your tongue and saying “I hate you!” isn’t going to do it.

So, after two whole days of everybody ignoring the solution proposed by the Muslim Brotherhood rep on CNN, I tweeted my proposed solution:  Mubarak, step down graciously and put the matter into the hands of the law, and protesters, stop being so rude and hateful towards him.  For all I know, I was just tweeting into the wind, twittering into the abyss.  I have no idea.  But the fact that matters are still not resolved over there means that nobody heard me.  Oh well.

Now, back to our original scenario of a gladiator fight and the human rights crusader hilariously trying to stop it.  Who plays the part of the Emperor, you ask?  Why, that would be the people in media who want this protest to continue to its ugly conclusion.  I’ll call them, um, Media Ghouls … half-dead, sinister, dried-up old men whose job is to ensure a supply of gruesome violent stories for the public to consume.   These are the “spectators” of Cairo.  Every television network, every cable company, every daily newspaper has at least one Media Ghoul. Even Al-Jazeera English has one of them on board.  The rest of the staffers are none the wiser.  These Ghouls are the folks who do NOT want a solution to this stand-off in Egypt.

Well, if the Ghouls win and have their way, here’s what is going to happen in Cairo.  The government will continue to make concessions except for the KEY step of Mubarak stepping down.  Given these various concessions, the rest of the country would then turn upon the protesters:  “We want our country back!”  The citizens are thus effectively divided.  Then, out would come the water cannons and some nifty new American technology – the cluster taser, tossed into a crowd tasing dozens at a time; the ear-splitting sound cannons; and various other cool non-lethal “crowd dispersant tools”.  This would, of course, predictably cause mayhem, chaos, and violence, which would in turn allow the army to come in with their guns.

That is how the Ghouls want this thing to end.  This is why the Ghouls did not pick up on the solution discussed during the interview with the Muslim  Brotherhood.  This is why Mubarak continues and does not resign – he is being told by the  Ghouls to stay right where he is, so that the bloodiest outcome imaginable will come to pass.

By the way – the Media Ghouls have friends in politics.  One particular former US president is among them.  They have friends in banking – one of them helps to run the IMF.  They have friends in multinational chemical and pharmaceutical companies.  Their friends run the weapons manufacturing companies.  This group of people think that they control the world.  They will stop at nothing to maintain control.   They don’t care who dies – just like the ancient Roman Emperor didn’t care which gladiators died either.  They don’t care who suffers and they do some ridiculous logistic, ethical back-flips to justify their damaging policies all over the world.

The Ghouls are the same ones who didn’t want Aristede to return to Haiti.  The Ghouls are the people who sit on and squash every uplifting news story that comes along which might lead to ACTUAL CHANGE.  The Ghouls are the ones who make sure that any pure original voices are silenced as quickly as possible.

These Ghouls do NOT want you growing your own food.  They do NOT want you to be healthy – they want you to keep taking medications and drugs and alcohol.  They do NOT want people to band together.  They divide people up every chance they get.  They decide what information you hear, and they decide what opinions you get to have.  They have charted a future course for our world involving TONS of conflicts and wars.  They envision scenarios where many people are slaughtered.  These Ghouls are the face of evil in our world.  What can stop them?

Well, it’s up to the people to take a stand.  Sometimes, taking a stand means thanking your leader for years of service, asking them politely to bow out in a dignified manner, and going home when he says “OK, I am quitting right now, here I am handing over the keys in a ceremony”.

Here’s the best part of what’s happening in Egypt right now.  Provided that we do not have mass chaos, violence, and slaughter in Tahrir Square, provided that the sensible solution proposed is actually taken up by all parties, then we may be looking at a new phase in human society unfolding.  And believe you me, the Ghouls don’t want this!

The way that governments are run in the western world is funny.  Nothing really ever gets done.  People are fooled into voting for the puppets of the Ghouls, because the media shoves fake polls down their throats for months ahead of time.  Every second year is an election year, in some places, rendering the government tantamount to useless.  In most western governments, representatives yell at one another and do stupid tricks rather than govern the country.  They spend millions of dollars on “attack ads” which tell the people nothing important.  Acrimony and bitterness always rule the day.  The whole thing is just a huge charade and that’s the way the Ghouls like it.

But hey – maybe there’s a better way?  Maybe competition has no place in politics.  Maybe elections should simply be the people deciding who are best qualified to do the job, and nothing else – not a gladiator battle.  Can you picture a government run under the principles of COOPERATION rather than conflict?  Can you picture a functioning government consisting of a coalition, rather than warring parties at eachother’s throats?

Well, if you can’t, then maybe Arab nations can.  They did complex works of art before the rest of the world was drawing in pencil. And maybe, once again, they are going to invent something new – a new way of doing democracy.  Maybe the Arabs are going to show us how it should actually be done, rather than the way that we westerners are currently doing it.  Maybe a new day of “cooperative democracy” is being born in Egypt.

At this point, all we can do is sit and watch them do it, and hope that the well-meaning Egyptian protesters get to live, to see their grandchildren flourish in the new world that they have created.

P.S. the latest: the media have now released some more inflammatory material designed to keep things rolling in Cairo towards a bloody conclusion. It seems some “leaked cables” have linked Suleiman to Israel, which is designed of course to ensure that the protesters will not accept him. Mubarak (oops spelled it wrong up there) is apparently still refusing to step down. Each concession made by the Egyptian government will further divide the people. The protesters are just pawns being played in a bigger game, but they don’t realize it yet. The people who think they run the world would NEVER allow the common people to displace one of their puppet leaders – that would set a very bad precedent. So we are on a shaky road down to an unknown conclusion. If the law was employed as it should be, if Mubarak would only hand over power to the Supreme Court Chief as the constitution dictates, then all would be resolved peacefully. But for some reason he refuses to do as the law demands he do. This must be because he is listening to the wrong advisors. Mubarak must ask himself, should he keep listening to these Ghouls, or should he do what’s best for his people? Everything will come down to that decision.

Wisdom’s headstand

I titled this blog based on my experience in discussing life and wisdom with an elder who really surprised me the other day.  In fact, my conversation with her has changed the way that I look at life, and especially the way I see older people now.

Some of the conventional wisdom, especially “new age” nonsense, was basically stood on its head during our talk.  This tiny old lady named Dora set me straight on a lot of misunderstandings about life.  What she spoke seemed to be the truth, in the way that our ears recognize what is right even when our brain is saying “No, no way!”

One thing I’ll say about Dora – she sure is crabby!  But there is truth even in her crustiness itself.  She’s more than earned it.  I go over there at least once a month.  Each time, she allows herself to show her impatience with the likes of me and my “stupid” questions.  But she clearly loves my visits.  The way that Dora utterly accepts herself and her perpetually shitty mood, is also truth, at least to me.  This is why I can’t get enough of talking to Dora.  She’s delightful and about 95 years old, although she won’t tell me her age.

The other day I went over there for coffee, armed with what I felt were pretty important questions about life, wisdom, and peace.   I was well-prepared for Dora’s special brand of wisdom, as I had thickened my own skin and steeled my self-esteem, ready to take that predictable assault on my self-importance.  It seems I need that, sometimes – like everybody else.  We settled in and she regarded me with a frown.

“Dora, how does one attain inner peace?”

“What the hell do you mean by inner peace?!” she said.

“Well, I mean ‘enlightenment’, or ‘access to universal wisdom’.  Like what the new-age gurus teach us is the ultimate goal of meditation.”

As usual, once she understood the question, the first thing Dora did was to roll her eyes and shake her head, snickering.  How stupid I was to ask such a thing!

“Oh, man, where can we start.  Lord Tunderin JEEZ-us sake.  You want to know why I always stay the same inside, no matter what happens to me, is that it?”

I was stymied for a response … I hadn’t meant her.  I didn’t mean “Dora how can I be more like you?”  It never occurred to me that Dora had inner peace, not by the way she scoffed at me but still was always glad to see me.  I never would have thought her to be enlightened.  No guru would approve of her outbursts, I was quite sure.

She took my silence to mean a “yes” and proceeded to let me in on her secret.  As she started, I could see a real rant developing and I dared not interject.  Once, I interrupted her while on a rant and had an ashtray thrown at my head for my trouble.  I think she missed me on purpose, though.  She had a harsh, but effective, way of imparting her lessons – I never interrupted her again.

“Everybody’s always wanting a shortcut!  Always wanting to find everything there is to find, right now already!  Always wanting to know all that there is to know, like wisdom’s a stupid plastic toy made in China!  JEEZus Keeeee-rist, you kids really burn me sometimes.  You want wisdom from me, so that you can go and sell it, right?  You want to write a book, is that it now?  Write a book and make lots of money off of Dora’s words.  I know you.  I know you!  Fuck off, you little bugger.  Now listen.  I can’t show it to you.  I can’t teach it to you.  All right?  I can’t make you understand.  That’s the answer to your question.”

She sat back with a rare, smug smile on her face.  “More coffee dear?”  She got up from her chair in an agonizingly slow step-by-step crawl which involved grasping the arm of the chair with both hands, and yelping with pain.  I did my usual thing and half got to my feet, to help her, but as always, I was waved off.

“Don’t think I could go and get a pot of coffee for my guest?  Think I’m USELESS, do ya?  Quit insulting me and sit the hell back down.”

Fifteen minutes later, I had a cup of coffee and a piece of dried-up, rubbery chocolate cake without any icing.  I hadn’t had the heart to tell Dora that I didn’t need “more coffee” since I hadn’t had any yet.  Her way of offering anything was always to say, “More coffee?” and she’d often come back with tea, or on one memorable occasion, juiceboxes.

We settled in after Dora made four or five trips to the kitchen and back, refusing any offers of help with simply a thunderous, threatening glance in my direction if I so much as moved a muscle during the entire process.

“OK, Dora, I’m sorry but I really did not understand your answer at all.”  I waited for the cursing to flow my way.  But this time, it didn’t.  Something very different happened … Dora got a peaceful look over her face for a change.  I wondered if she’d wet her pants or something, she suddenly just looked so content, and …. blank.  She looked just like the Dalai Lama with a half-smile and her head cocked to the side.  This was the most surprising thing that had ever happened yet at Dora’s.

“My dear, nobody’s ever asked me that before.  You made me think!  I love you for that.  You made me remember about my gifts – sometimes I forget.  So many ridiculous people around, sometimes you forget.  So listen.  Wisdom comes with age, and you’re too young yet.”  She sat back as if she’d just given me a golden egg to pass to the world.   Now I was getting a bit afraid.  Dora wasn’t making any sense.  I always knew the day would come, when Dora wouldn’t be here anymore to have “coffee” and verbal abuse with me.  I dreaded that day and now, was it here?  Would my next phonecall be to Car 87 to come get Dora?

“Um, well, I do know that wisdom comes with age.  I was just wondering if you could share with me the secret of inner wisdom, inner peace.  There are so many people who want this, they go to classes.  They twist their bodies into impossible shapes, and then hold it.  They buy books, they watch Oprah, they go to lectures and seminars and symposiums, always looking for a way to feel happy inside.  And they never seem to find it, although they do spend a lot of money looking for it.  There’s a whole industry sprung up around trying to find happiness.  If they ever do find it, then a lot of people would be out of a job!”

Dora took a deep, deep breath and sighed a long sigh.  She smiled again and this time, I saw a part of Dora which I’d never seen before.  I saw past all the crusty crabbiness, the cursing, the impatience, the eye-rolling and I saw the real lady inside.  She looked at me with crystal-clear eyes, showing a sharp intelligence and some amusement.

“Young people are mostly anxious, because they are learning.  You can’t avoid this.  Youth is full of anxiety and that’s the way it was meant to be.  They are supposed to be wanting to know things.  If they had inner peace, then they wouldn’t try to learn anything.  Bit of anxiety never really hurt anybody.  As long as they know they’ll be fed, and somebody is there to look after them, they’ll be fine.  The older you get, the less anxiety you’re supposed to feel.  That’s because you are learning, you learned how to learn and now you just learn.  The more you learn, the less anxious you are supposed to feel.  It doesn’t always work that way though, and that’s because of money.”

She sat back and let me digest her words.  I silently had a bite of cake and a swallow of bitter, lukewarm coffee.  She never offered me sugar or milk, for some reason, and I never dared ask for it.  But this gentle lady here, I bet she’d get me some sugar, I reasoned.  No!  Don’t spoil the moment.  Just sit and listen, and hope that I remember what she says.

Dora went on.  “Money makes people anxious when they aren’t supposed to be.  So that spoils the whole process of wisdom.  There’s nothing that anybody can do about that, until people stop teaching their kids that money is the most important thing.  Until then everybody will be stuck in a state of anxiety.  And this is the way that the money-people want it.  They want everyone to be anxious.  This serves them well.”

Dora always referred to “money-people”, an amorphous, undefined group of people who were apparently running society, when railing against the sad state of the world.  “But Dora, how can we change this?  Is there any way to change the way people look at money?”

“Well,” she said slowly, “there is.  But that’s not what we’re talking about right now.  Right now we’re talking about wisdom.  Listen, money never got to me.  I never subscribed to money-anxiety in my lifetime.  I always knew there’d be enough.  I always knew we’d eat.  I never doubted that I’d be fed.  So money never affected me.  Do you want me to tell you how things would be, if we were NOT ruled by money?  Do you want me to tell you about this ‘inner peace’ thing you asked about?  Or do you wanna talk about money?”

She said the last word with a snarl of the Dora whom I was used to.  So I knew how to respond.  “No, Dora, not talk about money, let’s talk about the way it should be, the way it’s supposed to be, instead.”

She sat back and rocked in her chair, smiling at the ceiling.  “Well OK then.  Nobody ever asked me before.  It’s nice.  The answer?  It’s simple, my dear.  You have to wait.  You just have to wait.”

“Oh Dora, please forgive me, but wait for what?”

“For inner peace.  You have to wait.  You can’t just  get it.  You can’t just take it.  And you definitely can’t learn it.  You only have to wait.”

Now it was my time to sigh.  “Dora, I still don’t get it.  Forgive me.  I don’t know what you mean.”

“Child, nobody can teach anybody else how to be peaceful inside.  Nobody can give it to anybody else.  Those ‘gurus’ you mentioned are either stupid, or they’re lying.  Either they know this already, or they don’t.  I don’t care which.  Some people come across inner peace and happiness at a relatively young age … others have to wait a very long time.  Some people never, ever find it and they die without it.  It all depends.”

She stopped, regarding me carefully and with a great deal of amusement, knowing what question I would ask next:  “Depends on what, Dora?  What does it depend on?”

“It depends on trouble.”

She smiled again, enjoying my confusion.  She knew she was being obscure and unclear, and she was doing it on purpose.  But I didn’t mind.  This was normally how our discussions went – lots of anticipation, a great degree of mystery, right up until the very end, prolonging our visits as much as possible.  Here was vintage Dora.  We fell into our usual routine of questions and answers.

“What kind of trouble, Dora?”

“Any kind of trouble.  The more trouble a person gets, the sooner they get to realize that none of it changes them inside unless they choose that.  Do you understand, dear?”

“Um, maybe sort of.  But not really.  Life is full of trouble for everyone, but hardly anybody seems to be happy.”

“Well that’s because of money, but we’re supposed to be talking about a world where money is incidental, not primary.  Let’s go back to our imaginary world by thinking about, oh I don’t know, how about Africa.  Look at an African person and try to imagine their troubles.  They don’t sit and dream about money.  If they have food, they are happy.  If their children eat, they are happy – that’s all it is.  Some Africans kids at age 14 are already a LOT more wise and peaceful inside, than any western modern adult.  So you need to imagine Africa when we are talking about this.”

“OK Dora – I am imagining Africa now.  So, in this Africa, some people have inner peace and some don’t, is that right?”

“Yes – you got it!  Those Africans who have plenty of trouble achieve inner peace sooner than others who have led easy lives.   That’s because trouble makes you learn and it makes you strong, and able, and flexible.  Once you learn that you really have no control, only then will you have complete control.”

“OK, Dora so we have to accept that we are not in control, is that it?”

“Well, that’s part of it, an important part.  But it’s not the answer, it’s only a symptom of having the answer.  People who have inner peace have long ago stopped trying to control their environment.  But that’s not what gave them peace and happiness – that’s what happens once they’ve attained peace and happiness.  See?  It’s a symptom of being there.”

“OK, I think I see.  So you get inner peace and happiness once you’ve had enough trouble?  Assuming that you don’t have anxiety about money?”

“That’s it!”  Dora’s grin was the same as a delighted five year old, pure, wide, and innocent.  “You’ve got it now.  Can you see now how this could never be taught to anybody?  How can you teach somebody to be still on the inside?  How can you teach somebody to be old?  That only comes once you’ve learned again and again, that no matter what happens to you, you are still alive.  You are still here.  No matter how much trouble others cause you, none of it needs to change you.  No matter what life throws your way, you can still stay you.  You can still always be the same you, no matter what. “

“But Dora, the new-age gurus always say that you need to ‘let go of your ego’ and that the ‘ego’ is the you, the personality, the self-identity.  They are always telling people to let go of that.”

“Well, then they are worse idiots than I thought.  How can somebody abandon their inner personality?  That’s ridiculous and by the way, it’s also impossible.  I guess they love to waste everybody’s time.  No – that’s wrong.  Because no matter what, you always have to hang on to you.  You have to remain you no matter what experiences, what troubles, you have.  The older you get, the more troubles you have.  The more troubles you’ve had, the more peace you get on the inside.”

“So wisdom comes with life experiences then, right?”  I was slightly disappointed and I felt deflated.  All that for nothing?  After all, “Wisdom comes with experience” is a common phrase, something that you hear all the time.  And this entire discussion only led to that?  I felt ripped off, like I’d been led down the garden path at my own expense.  I felt myself frowning, and Dora noticed.

“There there, don’t feel too stupid now,” Dora laughed.  Then she began to cough and sputter, her eyes watered, and I sprang to my feet to assist her.  Typically, she waved me off and continued to sputter.  “Ooooh, my, that’s funny!  That’s hilar-i-ous, my GOD!  Buzz off, and let an old lady laugh, would you?”

So I sat silently, feeling hurt, and I let her laugh and cough and sputter and cry, until she was done.

“There now, I haven’t had a good laugh like that in ages!  Thanks for that, dear.  Yes” – she cleared her throat and tucked in -  “wisdom and inner peace, and all that good stuff that people are trying to buy, it just all comes in with age.  That 14 year old African kid, who’s already had his life threatened, who lost his parents and who takes care of his little brother all on his own, who has seen things that no human should ever have to see – this kid is exactly the same as a little old man who’s seen it all.  And believe me, now that this kid has survived all of that, nothing will ever phase him.  Nothing will ever bother that kid again.  No matter what happens to him, no matter what life throws him, he will always be exactly the same on the inside.  Do you see?  He is a happy person.”

“OK, Dora, forgive me, but I don’t know why this can’t be taught.  Can’t we just imagine that we are that wise, happy kid in Africa?  Can’t we put ourselves in his shoes, and enjoy that same inner peace that he has?”

“Oh,” Dora sighed heavily again, “I guess you still don’t get it.  Why am I surprised?  Why do I even bother?  Jeeez.”  She snorted in my general direction with her usual impatience.  But I waited, because I knew that we were onto something important, and I didn’t want to set her off.

“The type of certainty that this 14 year old African kid has, is the same type of certainty that you get with old age, over here in the land of plenty.  When you are old, your friends maybe have died.  For sure your parents have died, maybe even some of your kids have died.  People have come and gone.  Babies have been born.  Maybe you lost everything, maybe you lost your house or all your money at some point.  Then maybe something good happened, and you were right back where you’d started again.  It all happens, over time.  You see?  Old age brings a  set of experiences which could never have happened to a younger person already.  It is only this set of life experiences, of troubles, which could ever give you that complete sense of certainty that you will always be here, no matter what. “

“Oh, I think I see – you can’t teach certainty.  It can only happen on its own.  If you try to teach an anxious person not to be anxious, usually that doesn’t work, right?  The anxious person could only be self-taught in the ways of anxiety.  Our inner life is our own.   Only I can know myself on the inside.  Nobody else could ever know me in that way.”

“Only I can know myself on the inside!  That’s nice.  Sweetie, you got it.  Nobody knows the exact words to say to bring you peace.  That’s because each of us is unique, everybody has had a unique set of life circumstances.  So, nobody really knows how to reach you, or anybody else.  Only you can reach yourself.  This absolute certainly of who you are, that stillness, that inner quality which leaves you the SAME inside no matter what happens, this can only come with age.  Because only with age can you collect all of those experiences which will teach you the one lesson – that you are still here.  You are still alive, despite it all.”

I waited for the punchline, which I could sense was coming.

“And that’s why I said, that you have to wait.  That’s why I said that I can’t show it to you, or teach it to you.  That’s why I said that you’re too young yet.   And that’s why I thank you, for reminding me about my gifts.  My gifts …. the loss of my son, he died twenty years ago from cancer.  The loss of my husband.  That criminal who fooled me on the phone and took $500 of my money.  Those neighbours who ganged up on me.  My colleagues, way back when I was nursing, who gossiped about me.  These are all my gifts.  But sometimes you forget.  These gifts of mine, they give me peace and they’ve made me happy.  Thank you my dear, for reminding me that I am happy.”

Dora closed her eyes and leaned back her head, which was always my cue to leave.  She was tired, but she was still going strong, I could see.

“OK Dora, well, thank for chatting.  I’ll be back soon.”

“Good-bye dear.  Thanks for giving me my gifts again,” she said without opening her eyes.

I let myself out.

Why headlines are false teachers

Headlines enter our heads and shape our thoughts, ideas, values, and beliefs.  We get headlines on previews of the t.v. news, on iGoogle news gadgets, in paperboxes as we go by.

In a striking example of a false headline we have the recent Guardian story:  Don’t you know who I am? This fabricated headline resulted from an incident at a recent women’s dinner when Obama joked, after the seal fell off of his podium, “That’s OK, these people all know who I am.”  There was a round of laughter.

The facts of the story show the President being witty and humerous, while the headline seems to suggest he had a lapse in identity or perhaps was begging to be recognized.

This false Guardian headline was thrust at me on my iGoogle home page with the news widget’s top three stories.  This headline is completely false.  Worse, it is misleading and it created a false image in the minds of all who saw it.

The final media punch to the President is the current assertion that one of his “failings” is that he’s been “a poor communicator” during his presidency.  Ho, that is rich!  His finer moments have never reached the public since he boldly went where no man has gone before, and pissed off all the powerful people.  The media have been screening all of his good stuff out.  And now they have the audacity to suggest that he’s been too quiet.

So, being me, and dazzled by the accumulation of evidence that a huge smear campaign against Obama is underway and that this election is being pushed as people wanting to “send Obama a message”, I decided to list for myself all of the powerful groups to whom he has given the finger, in the carrying out of his duties:

1.  People who make $250,000 or more, by proposing to repeal their tax cut.  Gee, I wonder if this group of people has any power?

2.  Israeli hardliners, by taking the position that no settlement building should be done during peace negotiations.  Again – powerful folks.

3.  Teacher’s unions, for daring to suggest that not each and every teacher is flawless and wonderful.

4.  Peace activists, humanitarians, and anti-war groups, for continuing to fight rather than abruptly withdraw from the overseas operations started by Bush/Cheney; and by not closing down  the Guantanamo Bay prison – because nobody wants to take the prisoners and there’s nowhere for them to go.

And I’m sure there are more that I don’t know about.

To all of these powerful people, President Obama says, “Yes it’s a dirty job and it’s unpopular, but I have to do it this way.  And I’m prepared to pay the consequences, because what we’re in the middle of doing is that important.”

To me, this is the epitome of courage in the face of great adversity.  I applaud the President.

Well hopefully people will be strong enough to trust their hearts, rather than the headlines or the polls or early results.  Don’t let somebody else take your choice away from you.  If you let the false teachings of carefully designed and often fabricated headlines enter into your consciousness, when making such important decisions as who will run your government, then you are going to deserve whatever you get.

DEMS KEEP BOTH HOUSE AND SENATE!

In what is being described as a “miracle on capitol hill” the Democrats retained control of both Congress and the Senate in yesterday’s election.

“The latest polls showed Democrats surging in all five swing states,” explained Nancy Pelosi, “but people didn’t hear about those polls.  We knew, though.  People all over the U.S.A. were coming around to a reasonable point of view.  We knew we’d pull it off.  I never had any doubt in my mind.”  Pelosi retains the position of Speaker of the House, in defiance of every U.S. pundit and columnist.  If she ever had any doubt that she could win, there’s no sign of that now.  All over Democrats are singing the same tune:  “I told you so”.

Crucial polls showing a late Democrat swing were ignored by both press and pollster alike.  “If we saw late polling results favoring Democrats in one of the crucial states we made the decision not to report on it,” admitted an anonymous source at Reuters.  “Those instructions came down from the top.”

“Friday afternoon, the day of the bomb scare, we were told to drop all of the election coverage and just do terror.  Many of us felt that this wasn’t right, given the proximity to the election, so we had a newsroom revolt of sorts,” admits Anderson Cooper of CNN.  “That political panel you saw on Parker Spitzer?  That was thrown together in five minutes after their taping started – not bad, eh?   Spitzer threatened to walk if he didn’t do some election coverage.  I guess the guys at head office must like him.”

In fact, the thwarted “terrorist attack” is being credited for this political upset.  All over the U.S.A., rookie candidates were firmly rejected in favor of the status quo.  As one woman from Milwaukee put it:  “We were so scared that everything would blow up – so you know, in those conditions, it’s better to go with the devil you know.  Yeah, I was mad – but then I got more scared than mad and I realized, this is no time for a rookie in Congress.”   Incumbents swept back in on a strong anti-rookie trend, thwarting the political dreams of the ultra right fringe.

Will this spell the end of the Tea Party?  “No, I don’t think so,” muses a sartorial Wolf Blitzer.  “The fringe element is here to stay.  After all, this is the U.S.A. and there’s always a good dose of insanity here.  It’s part of who we are.”

Democrats lost only a total of three congressional states nationwide, in what is being described as an unprecedented rejection of the predictions of polls and pundits alike.

the social utility of kindergartners dying

we have a fascinating situation unfolding in China.  Various single men have taken turns carrying out deliberate, planned attacks on children in kindergartens.  There are no guns available there so knives and machetes are used.  Once again this series of gruesome crimes seems designed for media exploitation.  There seems to be no other reason for these individuals to have carried out these crimes.  It is purely “death cult” food, for consumption by the masses.  Typical of the deliberately planned horrific violence that we are all used to hearing about periodically (for example the carefully plotted beheading in Winnipeg on a bus a few years ago), these crimes are not random.  They are planned, and designed to serve a purpose.

But the Chinese government has, for once, done something helpful – in banning media follow-up by refusing to allow journalists to visit these sites.  Without follow-up stories (interviews of horrified parents, teachers, other children) these events wither away and die on the press.  And that’s a good thing for everybody – including the victims, the victims’ families, and the rest of these villagers, not to mention the Chinese population and the rest of the world.

It’s a good thing because there is ZERO social utility in reporting on this type of crime.

What makes this situation so fascinating and unique, is that the international media (which by now we must assume is following very particular directions in what type of stories to dig up) has tried very hard to put forward this story, but again, without follow-up being permitted to happen the story died quite quickly.  But what was so fascinating were the reasons put forward for why the Chinese government should STOP trying to suppress this story of innocent 5-6 year olds being cut down in front of their peers.

The reasons put forward by the press as to why they should be allowed access include:  “so that people will know what has happened”.  This is nonsense because the argument contains its own conclusion – this whole debate (which I created) is around WHY people should know and this is not answered, only re-stated.  The media also wants this story because they must “warn other Chinese parents”.  One wonders what Chinese parents or any parents could learn from this story?  Don’t send your child to school or anywhere else at all until they are grown!  What nonsense.  Should parents learn that “bad things happen and there’s nothing you can do about it”?  Well that’s more like it.  That’s the real reason that media are screaming for access to this story – because it is an ideal example of horror.  And the ancient death cult which is trying unsuccessfully to get real a foothold now, relies heavily on real-life horror stories as fuel.  Well, too bad this fire was put out and it can’t be used by the death cult.  What a waste, eh?

I never thought I’d agree with the Chinese government on anything, but there you have it.  There is ZERO social utility in this story, and there are ZERO logical reasons put forward by the international media for why they need/want this story and why they should be allowed to report on it.  There is ZERO logical foundation for the argument that “people need to know about this”.  In fact, ZERO compelling reasons were put forward for why people should know about this.  In reality – nobody at ALL needs to know about this.

It seems that these perpetrators died for nothing then, because they will not be held as martyrs of the death cult after all.  They will be held as exactly nothing because of the power that the Chinese government holds over the media there.  They died in vain and now we can SCORE ONE FOR THE GOOD GUYS who are fighting the death cult.   Thanks China!!

why the good guys always ultimately win

Human literature and allegory is filled with stories of the good guy winning. Good triumphs over evil. Crime never pays. The cavalry is coming. Never fear. This archetypical pattern is set in stone which has evolved over millennia.

There are logical and biological reasons for why this is the truth.

Let’s work it through, step by step.

We will leave aside situations where the “good guy” and the “bad guy” keep changing places and fight each other eternally. In other words, let’s not go to the Middle East on this analysis. The Mid East doesn’t fit this analysis, but that doesn’t mean that the analysis is not sound. It means, rather, that the Mid East is not sound. The Mid East is unique in its population-wide psychosocial disease process and so we will use an example from everyday life instead.

Perpetrator vs victim – we are all familiar with this relationship. Let’s narrow the example to be: perpetrator vs victim-who-fights-back. You can extrapolate this example to entire populations. The example of perpetrator vs victim-who-fights-back applies to any victim who fights off the invader or attacker. Iraq invading Kuwait does not fit, because Kuwait did not fight back. But perhaps you can draw an example from your own life – you are bullied and then you stand up for yourself. Or, you are abused at work but then you take steps and leave. Or, you are in an abusive marriage and you flee – or you battle your abusing spouse using the law.

The “good guy” is a victim who is righteous and doing nothing wrong by fighting back. The “bad guy” in this type of scenario is always the person who is carrying out something morally, ethically, and often legally wrong, against the victim.

Let’s look at some of the personal characteristics which are the hallmarks of each of these parties. The victim who effectively fights back always has HEART. The person proceeds from a place of WHOLENESS. All of the various aspects of the person are on side, with a common goal and a common set of actions. This means that the instinct for self-preservation which runs very deep, acts hand in hand with the intellect which is thinking of the best defence. The instinct and the intellect work together to cause effective physical action, which eventually always vanquishes the bad guy.

In this scenario where a victim fights back, it is almost 100% of the time the case that the victim or “good guy” will win. This is because the WHOLENESS and HEART, which provides conviction and strength and courage, is much, much stronger than the self-splintered, weaker, uncertain, fearful foe which is the “bad guy” or perpetrator.

Perpetrators of harm have many reasons for doing what they do. The real estate developer hiring people to kick folks off their land and out of their homes, does it for money. So does the impoverished person who is given $20 by somebody to “go bug the hell out of that person over there”. In both cases the actual perpetrator is hired to do the dirty, unethical, “wrong” deed by somebody else. They can only carry out these deeds if they splinter off a part of themselves. For money, they must put aside ethics and morals. For money, they must ignore the fact that what they are doing is inherently, essentially WRONG. They must have tunnel vision and ignore many facts and conclusions. They might even have to ignore their instincts if the deed carries some danger along with it.

Perpetrators may also carry out their wrongful acts for revenge or in grief or jealousy, or out of pain. Here, the instincts are skewed by rage or pain, and sometimes this crooked perpetrator is carefully cultivated by unscrupulous “leaders” who wish for certain conclusions that will lie in their favour. The intellect is operating only on a limited basis, because the intellect is that part of the human being which designs and holds to ethics and morals. That part of the intellect needs to be shut off for the perpetrator to do the deed.

The hallmarks of doing something wrong to another human being are that this action is always fraught with fear. Fear of being caught, fear of suffering repercussions, fear of negative effects of the deed, perhaps even fear of going to hell after death, in the religious. Another hallmark of doing something bad to another person is that inevitably there will be self-loathing attached to the act, especially when the battle is done and the “bad guy” has lost to the “good guy”. But self-loathing also comes in much earlier than that – it permeates the act, before, during, and afterwards. The wrongful act is almost always soaked in the self-loathing of the perpetrator.

But the greatest advantage that the “good guy” or victim-who-fights-back has over the “bad guy” is CERTAINTY. When you are defending yourself you have 100% certainty that what you are doing is RIGHT. Because you are righteous in your certainty, this gives you strength. You don’t falter when things go sideways because you have such golden, firm certainty that you can shrug & roll with it. You just adjust your game.

The “bad guy” or perpetrator of harm, however, holds no such certainty at all. In fact, being uncertain lies at the centre of all negative, harmful acts. It is the very nature of such acts. The original reason for doing this act is negative (while on the contrary, the original reason for defending oneself, i.e. self-preservation, is positive).

The important part of uncertainty is that when things go wrong, or not as planned, then the uncertain perpetrator normally flees the scene. When things happen which are unexpected and unaccounted for, the “bad guy” instantly gives up. This is why the good guy always wins. This is a very real phenomenon. There are many reasons for this. The reasons are social, psychological, and logical. The perpetrator is splintered in many pieces – guilt is suppressed, fear is suppressed, part of the intellect is suppressed. The act is done in a moral vacuum without any psychological back-up (i.e. “what I am doing is not OK”). When things go wrong the fear becomes front-and-centre and it then takes over, causing the perpetrator to stop, give up, flee, or surrender.

But when we act from a place of WHOLENESS with our HEART and our entire being intact, such as when righteously defending ourselves, we are much stronger than the enemy we are fighting. And that’s why righteousness always wins. This is the way it has always been, and this is the way that it will always be. So the legends are indeed correct.