Flight, Fight, or Face?

I define "love" as: the experience of unconditional acceptance of what is.

Love is acceptance of what is.

"What is" is my definition of reality.

No one knows what "reality" really is.

We cannot accept what we do not know.

Therefore all human love is conditional (although Mother Teresa's love was clearly less conditional than Ted Bundy's).

The idea is to accept reality as unconditionally as we can (in fact this is what we're already doing!). The more we accept what is the more we love what is.

The more we accept reality the more sane we are.

Sane people accept what already exists. They may seek to change it in the future but they fully accept its existence in the present reality.

Insane people fear and hate what already exists. Their fear and hate changes nothing. Fear and hate only degrades the experience of the perfection of present reality.

Experience I define as being free of a survival identity.

Flight/fear and fight/hate are the primitive survival dynamics humankind has relied upon from long before the dawn of analytical thought. Acceptance is cancelled by fear and hate. Fear and hate are rejections of what is.

It is time for a third and vastly more evolved survival dynamic to be embraced, the lone alternative to fight/flight. That alternative is face--as in face reality. We can only face reality to the extent that we accept it. And to the degree that we accept and face reality so do we experience reality...and love it.

Experience and love are one.

If we seek to love life we must learn to accept life exactly the way it is. Flight and fight have had their day. We cling to them at our peril.

I once wrote:

Life is like the wind it's sometimes gentle sometimes rough
And anytime I hate the way it is well that's just tough
When I can allow what is to be I've found the way
When I can embrace the now I rise above the fray

An Expendable Primary Survival Identity

Human beings possess something unique to life forms on this planet: an expendable primary survival identity.

The primary survival identity is simply that which any living organism most considers itself to be and which dictates its behavior. For a squirrel the primary survival identity is "squirrel." For a frog the primary survival identity is "frog."

A squirrel that drops its primary survival identity and stops acting like a squirrel will not live long in the wilds. Ditto frogs, birds, etc.

The primary survival identity of a human being is the subjective ego or personality, the sum total of opinions we have formed about ourselves over a lifetime. We think the very essence of who we are is our ego/personality.

Unlike the other life forms, a human who drops his or her primary survival identity--the personality or ego--will not only survive but will take the next step in evolution, the greatest advance since the dawn of analytical thought.

The human race is currently trapped in a subjective mind maze akin to the computer-generated dream reality depicted in the motion picture The Matrix. We need to pull the plug on the illusion and discover the real objective world. To accomplish this we need to abandon our subjective egos and allow our objective minds to take over. This is the hardest thing in the world because we are convinced that our subjective personalities are who we really are. Abandoning our primary survival identity looks exactly like death. It isn't. It is the doorway to life.

I define "experience" as: being, free of a survival identity. Experience and Being are one and the same. They are, ultimately, absolute states.

The more objective the mind the greater the experience. The more subjective the mind the lesser the experience. An objective mind is an open mind. A subjective mind is only open to that which agrees with its preconceptions.

The Three R's of Conservatism

With 70 percent of Americans now disapproving of the way George W. Bush is doing his job, maybe a little soul-searching on the part of the now-disillusioned Bush supporter is in order. “How could I have ever voted for this guy?” seems a good starting point. More specific questions might include, “How could I have ever imagined Bush to be capable, honest, compassionate, Christian and in his right mind?”

But perhaps the essential question for the now-disenchanted Bush voter is this: “What if it’s not just Bush who’s imbecilic? What if it’s the entire conservative ideology?” Why does this political philosophy hold any attraction for me?

What is the conservative mindset? Conservatism resists change. Its history in this country is very revealing. Conservatism fought freeing the slaves, fought giving women the right to vote, fought organized labor, fought giving Americans with black skins the right to drink a coke at an integrated lunch counter, fought freedom of speech, fought environmental protection and fought for the imposition of its religious beliefs on every citizen. It continues to fight against many of these progressive issues.

A Supreme Court now dominated by five Roman Catholic male conservatives epitomizes the dark designs of the Bush presidency and the right wing movement. This gang of five has already begun to turn back the clock on decades of social progress.

It seems to me that conservatism appeals primarily to three groups: the rich, the rustic, and the religious.

I haven’t the slightest difficulty understanding why a rich conservative would support George W. Bush. After all, the single accomplishment of his disastrous presidency — other than tilting the federal judiciary rightward — has been the tireless care and feeding of the wealthy. As a ne’re-do-well who has devoted his entire adult life to capitalizing on his last name, we can only imagine the largesse awaiting Bush in 2009. He will be handsomely compensated for eight solid years of tax cuts for the rich and carte blanche for corporations (“Welcome, thou good and faithful servant, into the reward of thy true Lord.”). The conservative rich are understandably the truest advocates of conservatism: they like things exactly the way they are; the only change they seek is more money and more power.

As there are not enough billionaires to elect a government directly, the rustic and religious voters must be appealed to in order to swell the conservative voting ranks. The rustic conservative should not be defined as strictly rural but as a comparatively unsophisticated voter residing anywhere (unsophisticated does not mean stupid but “ingenuous; naïve; inexperienced” [Dictionary.com]).

This group is more influenced by simplistic argument and the sight of a candidate attending a NASCAR race or an NRA convention than by any deeper consideration of that candidate’s political philosophy. This is the “Bush as the guy you’d like to have at your barbecue” mentality. The rustic voter is also more likely to be unyielding in his or her beliefs; more bigoted and resistant to other points of view. Thinly disguised appeals to racism, blind patriotism, and inflammatory issues like abortion and immigration reform are the demagogic tools employed to sway this electorate. These are the voters who actually take Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter seriously. These are the working poor and struggling middle classes who doggedly support the party of the rich-voting entirely against their own interests, like a non-wealthy homosexual voting Republican.

The religious conservative, like the rustic, is also understandably persuaded by the candidate who appears to share their beliefs (in this case religious prejudices). As Sinclair Lewis famously warned, “When fascism comes to America it will come wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.” The conservative sales pitch to this group rests on the laughable claim that conservatism is the sole depository of family “values;” Christian “principles;” governmental “integrity;” etc. It promises legislative support of the conservative Christian agenda (abortion, stem cell research, public school teaching of creationism, etc.). But what sort of “Christian” behavior do we observe once the right is in power?

The left holds violence as an act of last resort. The right, and particularly this administration, sees violence as the first tool to reach for. From gleefully signing death warrants to ordering bombing raids, this “Christian” president runs to shed other people’s blood. Bush, indefatigable apologist for the affluent, is the anti-Robin Hood: he steals from the poor and gives to the rich. Christians should ask themselves very carefully which ideology their avowed Savior, a true bleeding heart of compassion, would likely embrace: liberal or conservative. Jesus is said to have cautioned, “By their deeds you will know them.”

So the question remains: how can so many Americans continue to be drawn to conservatism? Here’s my theory. The rich (the true elitists) are in control of this country and probably always have been. To remain in power they must rely on suckering the rustic and the religious masses into believing that conservatism sincerely cares about them and their “values.” Mainstream media is owned by billionaires and the billionaire advertisers who keep them in business. The media is the all-powerful persuader of the masses (taking control of radio and TV stations is a top priority in any revolution). Owned by the rich, the conservative message prevails. And let’s have no more nonsense about a “liberal media.” To the extent it ever existed, it has long been supplanted by a super-rich right-wing propaganda machine. When is the last time you heard a liberal voice on widely syndicated talk radio?

Ted Turner once said, “Everything you see, hear, and read is controlled by basically five corporations.” In other words everything we see, hear, and read is basically what a handful of billionaires want us to see, hear, and read. The American people are not stupid. They are being deliberately misinformed. They are being willfully kept in the dark. They are being played for suckers. The result is an ineffectual clown sitting at the most powerful desk on Earth.

We all need to wake up to the fact that we are not living in a democracy but a plutocracy. We have been brainwashed into believing that unregulated capitalism is synonymous with democracy. It isn’t. In Monopoly, the one with all the cash holds all the power. We average Americans are not equal and we are not free. We are de facto slaves of the rich.

Dear Osama...

I had a dream that the following communication fell into my hands. I read it and woke up screaming…


TOP SECRET: CLASSIFIED!

TO: Osama bin Laden
Tribal Areas
Pakistan

FROM: George W. Bush
Leader of the Free World
Washington DC


Dear Mr. bin Laden,

It’s been some time since we’ve heard from you. I trust you are well and taking good care of those kidneys!

This is a hard thing to say so I’m just going to say it. I could use some help. As you’ve no doubt heard, my poll numbers are tanking. There’s even a growing call for my impeachment! Early in my first term I wasn’t all that popular but that stunt you pulled on 9/11 really gave me the boost I needed! It allowed me to, among other things, invade Iraq, suspend habeas corpus, spy on anybody I please—and convince a terrified American public that these actions made them safer. It allowed me to prudently conduct the people’s business by helping the rich get richer via my War on Terror®. My WOT® uses up a lot of expensive weapons and equipment that need replacing by the good hardworking folks at Lockheed, General Electric and Martin Marietta (to name but a few). Dick’s friends at Halliburton have sure appreciated all the contracts we’ve funneled their way. The oil and coal and gas and lumber and chemical industries have also been thankful for the hands-off approach my administration has employed to help them out during this trying period. Naturally the poorer citizens of our nation have had to make tough patriotic sacrifices via cuts to their sundry social programs, letting their devastated neighborhoods in New Orleans stay devastated, etc. etc.

Now Mr. Laden you know good and well we didn’t try all that hard to catch you. We need you on the loose to keep our people on edge. When most of our fine citizens saw those twin towers coming down and your crazy Arab preacher routine (no offense) they were ready to use the Constitution and the Bill of Rights for toilet paper. Let’s face facts. What you did was good for me. I hit the Trifecta: a blank check to attack Iraq and all the stuff I just mentioned—and I returned the favor. I let you get away safely to the tribal areas and you remain the Number One Boogie Man to the American people. And don’t forget, not only did I let you go, I’ve also helped you by playing Number One Boogie Man to your followers: slaughtering hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, giving Israelis the permission and the cluster bombs to blow the Palestinians to kingdom come, torturing Muslim prisoners, etc. etc. Don’t tell me that this hasn’t helped Al Qaeda’s recruitment and fundraising efforts!

Anyway that’s the good news. The bad news is I’m in a death spiral in the polls. It seems the American people have stopped being scared out of their wits by you and your organization. They just don’t seem to appreciate that we are at war! They’re starting to pay way too much attention to the unusual way Dick’s been running the executive branch.

There’s only one thing I can think of that could turn this sorry state of affairs around. As that dirty magazine publisher Larry Flynt once put it, “After 9/11, the American People would have rallied behind Ronald McDonald.”

Exactly.

Now I’ve done my part, Osama. It’s your turn. Laying low in some cave has gotten old. You don’t want to be known as “Has-bin Laden” (joke). You need to do something! God’s Chosen People® have warned us that if we don’t bomb Iran they will. With our numbers this low and those damned Democrats running Congress we need some serious cover and justification to accommodate them. Are you reading me? Now don’t overdo it. We don’t want a dirty-bombed city or a major port nuked. Business is business, after all. Maybe the Statue of Liberty (it’s French anyway) or perhaps Hollywood. Maybe New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward (that’s another joke—even you couldn’t do any more damage to that place).

In short we need to “hear” from you soon! Just remember, you need me as much as I need you.

You have to admit we make a pretty good team!

Cordially,

[SIGNED]

George W. Bush

The End of Babel

Anyone who is among the living has hope--even a live dog is better off than a dead lion. -Ecclesiastes 9:4

Do you agree with the following sentence?

The survival of the human race is more important than anything else on Earth.

What does this statement mean? It means that the continuation of the human species is more important than freedom, liberty, custom, heritage, country, religion, private property, privacy, etc. There is absolutely nothing more vital than the survival of human kind.

Four thousand million years of Earthly evolution has produced a creature capable of going from horse and buggy to space shuttle in less than one hundred years. For all its faults, Homo sapiens represent the crowning achievement of our little blue planet.

Yet our days as a species may well be numbered. The twin threats of thermonuclear war and environmental collapse pose an unprecedented threat to our survival. We may be the very first species to annihilate itself; to self-extinct. This doesn’t say much for the most advanced life-form on Earth does it?

The twin threats are rooted in ignorance (the source of all fear) and this fear is expressed as violence and greed. Thermonuclear war is the inevitable folly assured by continued reliance on fighting as the way to solve problems. The “good war” (WWII) simply ushered us into a nuclear nightmare. From stone clubs to intercontinental ballistic missiles, the same primitive flight/fight animal survival psychology has dictated human behavior across the millennia. The citizens of the nuclear club nations (that’s us, Americans) are basically saying: “In order to protect my country I am willing to risk terminating the entire human race by using nuclear weapons.”). This is sheer madness. For fifty years now we have been standing at the brink of doomsday. I’m not just talking about a deliberate nuclear attack (the least likely scenario). Remember Murphy’s Law: what can go wrong will. Accidents happen. Is it worth the risk? Crazy people say yes.

As for greed, every tribe on earth insists on its “right” to do as it pleases within its own borders. Stalin slaughtered untold millions to consolidate power. Pol Pot annihilated multitudes of his fellow Cambodians; Kim Jong IL dines on fifteen-course meals while his people starve, Brazil watches while a New Jersey-sized area of its precious rainforest is logged or burned every year, etc.

Babel still thrives today. We remain hopelessly divided by language, culture, religion, and border. Every tribe on this planet, from pygmies in the African jungle to the People’s Republic of China claims the “right” of national “sovereignty.” Every clan wants to be independent from every other; autonomous; free agents—and be able to behave as they please. This nationalistic nonsense is the cause of every war ever fought on earth.

Imagine each “sovereign” nation as a single survivor assigned to one area of a small rubber lifeboat. Adrift on the unforgiving sea each survivor has the right to do just as he pleases within his defined area. If a survivor decides to start stabbing at the rubber raft with a sharp-pointed object then that is his “right,” as long as he does so within his legally established space. Tolerating this dangerous behavior is as insane as the behavior itself.

“Give me liberty or give me death!” Those oft-venerated words of Patrick Henry are utterly mad when applied to the entire human race. If we are all dead then “democracy” and “freedom” and “liberty” and “fair play” and “God” don’t mean a damned thing. Who cares what you died for if there’s no one left alive to care on your barren radioactive planet?

It’s really very simple. As long as humans are alive there is hope of eventual global sanity. When every human is dead there is no hope at all.

Rather than risk killing off humankind to preserve our particular country or cause, we must have faith that eventually the truth will out. That’s because the truth is and always will be the truth...and one day it will manifest. A lie will always be a lie. And the only creature capable of receiving the truth on this planet is Homo sapiens. This is why humankind must survive at all costs—even if that means individual liberty must be sacrificed for a few hundred years.

The human race needs to be managed. The human race needs to be managed firmly.

Here’s what my admittedly distasteful theory proposes:

A World Government established with the ultimate aim of nurturing a planetary population who share a common language, common race, common purpose, and a common sense of ethical responsibility. In order to achieve this desirable state the steady eradication of all countries, borders, cultures, traditions, languages, religions, will be necessary. This Herculean task will take generations to fully accomplish.

The immediate aim of the World Government (initially a coalition of the super powers) will be to eliminate the twin threats to human survival: thermonuclear war and environmental collapse. Abolition of all nuclear weapons and preservation of natural resources will be a top priority. Resistance will be crushed. Petty tyrants like Kim Jong IL will be speedily neutralized and his disaster of a country occupied and liberated. The deforestation of the rainforests and all life-threatening pollution will cease.

The formation of this government will be motivated by the unequivocal realization that this course alone will prevent the self-annihilation of humankind.

I don’t know if this will happen or how this will happen or how many hundreds of years it will take. I only know that I have become convinced that we no longer have time for all the fragmented, ignorant, primitive, and insane peoples of the world to "grow up" and lose their entrenched tribal identities. Not to mention their individual egos…

What if the majority of citizens in the United States, the European Union, China, Russia, and Japan simply stopped cooperating with the comparative handful who “rule” them? I think it’s more likely the global revolution required will come from the masses at the bottom. Those at the “top” are far too addicted to their power and privilege to change. The internet seems a good starting point to start mobilizing. And pain is a good teacher.

Imagine someone who has had countless drunk driving citations, caused untold death and destruction behind the wheel, and yet who continues to be allowed to operate motor vehicles of ever-increasing size and complexity—culminating in a monster rig carrying a doomsday cargo which, if spilled, could destroy all human life. This person insists that it is his “sovereign right” to continue to have a license. Should he keep his permit? Or should it be taken away whether he likes it or not?

The human race needs to have its license revoked. The stakes have just become too great to allow this endless folly to continue. The human race must be forever deprived of certain rights: the right to blow up the world; the right to befoul the world for profit; the right to terminate the lives of everyone on the planet for any “reason” whatsoever.

What the majority of the human race needs is fresh water, a reliable food source, education, health care, and the opportunity to contribute the best they have within them for the betterment of all humankind.

I remember reading Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World when I was sixteen and being horrified at the total control the World Government held over people. Now, even though I probably would be among the first to die, I see this system as our only hope for survival. The doomsday clock is ticking and we simply do not have the luxury of tolerating the foolishness of Babel any longer.