A new direction

My previous post made its way to the front page of Smirking Chimp, where it elicited a lot of comments. I wrote a general reply, and a reply to the one comment on the original version. I am reprinting them below, because they mark the direction that I want to go in future explorations. I hope readers find them helpful.

Link to original comment

States of consciousness

This has been an interesting exercise. I didn't expect my post to be placed on Smirking Chimp's home page, but once there, I knew it would get a lot of reads.

Some of the comments have been gratifying, while others are pretty much template remarks that appear after every other post on this site. What I find consistent among them is the egotism and rage of the writers. This is something I have observed ever since I started reading Smirking Chimp.

The egotism and rage comments fall into two categories. One is the cynic, defeatist, disempowered and disempowering type. All is hopeles, the "powerful" will rule forever, resistance is futile, assimilation is inevitable, and on and on and on.

The other category is another form of cynicism, except that no one - other than the ego-centered rager - is doing enough, all others are dishonorable, especially anyone holding office. Thus we get that Nancy Pelosi is "an arrogant lightweight and more concerned about herself than anything else." Such mindreading capacity. Such keen insight into the character of another. The world truly needs such talent. Not.

We are all part of the world predicament, and can do much to make it better or worse. If you do little more than sit at a computer and rage away, you harm yourself, and are not in a state of consciousness to be of help to others. In this hectic, overly tasked life that is modern day "America," it is a great challenge to live a balanced life. For some, the challenge isn't even conceivable. In every city in this country and on almost every college campus there is some kind of meditation group, Tai Chi class, Yoga class, outdoor organization, or even a book club. If you find that cynicism is not leading to inner peace or harmony, you might find one of these groups or activities helpful.

None of us is "better" than anyone else, and hating Bush, Nancy Pelosi, everybody else, and ultimately yourself will not make this delusion true. The yogic ideal is to be beyond attraction and repulsion. I find Bush revolting, so I haven't attained any great state of being. But I don't hate him. Mostly I laugh when I see him on TV, but I can only handle about 30 seconds before I have to change the channel or walk away when it's a more public television set. There are times when I feel compassion for him, realizing the long path of suffering he has paved for himself.

We have a difficult road ahead, impeachment or not. Global Warming is a much greater challenge than the impeachment of an international pariah like George W. Bush. In the days ahead we will all need to be the best persons we can be in order to face this and other environmental and social problems. Hating will not get us anywhere.

Let there be no mistaking my belief that the Bush criminal organization should be brought to justice, and I believe it will. In a few years, though, it will seem a luxury to have raged about what will then be seen as a petty concern. We have very serious work to do to save life on this planet. It won't be done by raging cynics, though we might find a few trying to run the show. I live in Madison, Wisconsin. This type exists here in spades, and left unchallenged can ruin any attempt at making the world a better place. We have our work cut out for us.

Nov 11 2006 - 3:35am |

Link to original comment

It didn't occur to me to compare Bush to Clinton. Since the comparison has been made, a bit of background is in order. The label "conservative" is something I always put in quotes because it is an assumed identity, and usually a fake identity. Mostly they are common criminals, pretending to have a belief system.

The impeachment of Bill Clinton is no justification for the impeachment of George W. Bush. Bush's criminality is a stand alone phenomenon, comparable to the world's worst criminals in both intention and action.

As far as "deserving" the death "penalty," one has to assume two things. One is that death is a penalty rather than the inevitable end to all temporal incarnation. The other is that death is something to be "deserved." To deserve death is to be human, since it comes to us all eventually.

Then there is the presumption of qualification to pronounce death on someone else. This presumption is commonly referred to as murder. No matter how you cut it, presuming the "right" and power to take another person's life is to presume the power of murder. This is the same presumption that George W. Bush has made many, many times over, whether it was in his youth blowing up frogs, executing prisoners in Texas, invading Afghanistan and Iraq, or in enabling the September 11, 2001 attacks. I would much rather see him endure civilized punishment, such as life in prison at hard labor. For him any labor would be hard labor, but clearing brush would certainly be a nice twist.
11/10/2006 11:24 PM