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While We Still Have Time

In spite of the grimness of the times in which we live, there is still hope. If you feel, like I do, that the usual discourse about matters of critical concern tends to be superficial, misguided, and false, then you might find some solace and inspiration here. I will try to offer insight and a holistic perspective on events and issues, and hopefully serve as a catalyst for raising the level of dialogue on this planet.

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Location: Madison, Wisconsin, United States

I was born in 1945, shortly before atom bombs were dropped on Japan. I served in the U.S. Army from 1968 to 1971. I earned master's degrees in Economics and Educational Psychology, and certificates in Web Page Design and as a Teacher of English as a Second Language. I followed an Indian guru for eight years, which immersed me in meditative practices and an attitude of reaching a higher level of being. A blog post listing the meditative practices I have pursued can be seen here.

Friday, April 20, 2007

Context, solutions

Dumb question of the weekThe Wisconsin State Journal had a big front-page headline on Tuesday: Why? This seems completely silly to me, because the real story of the Virginia Tech shootings is the tragedy of 32 people being killed. Why a crazy person would kill 32 people is little help to the parents, family, friends and classmates of the students and professors who were murdered. It won't bring their loved ones back, and it won't ease the pain of their loss. Indeed, as it turns out, students are complaining that the news media are making the situation worse. The Virginia Tech campus has been inundated with every manner of media vultures: TV news crews, newspaper and radio reporters, and photographers.

Silly though such a Wisconsin State Journal headline may be, it is a good hologram for what ails us. We live in a fragmented society. Everyone lives in their own little niche, and people are employed in little segments of our social system, where they perform tasks that serve the purposes and goals of their organizations. Thus we have NBC news parading the video and other materials sent them by the killer, completely insensitive to the trauma of the survivors and their families. NBC has its own purposes and goals: ratings, scoop, advertising revenue, ego payoff for news anchors and bread-and-circus show hosts like Matt Lauer.

At Virginia Tech, the campus police had and have their own purposes and goals. Within their own parameters and guidelines, they pronounced the dormitory shootings an isolated domestic dispute, and did not alert the campus to the likelihood of further shootings. They acted, or failed to act, based on limited information, with no knowledge that could have been gleaned from other isolated entities like the school counseling office, or the reported eight professors who formed a task force for dealing with the shooter.

The president of the university acted, or failed to act, based on the same limited information that the police had. Again, he had and has his own purposes and goals, parameters and guidelines.

The owner of the gun shop who sold the shooter his implements of murder also acted and acts in an isolated, fragmented manner, based on his chosen method of making a living. No other consideration was or is available to him. The same goes for the mail order gun dealer who sent the killer his Walther .22 caliber handgun.

In a mass social system, myriads of small entities act in their own self-interest for their own purposes and goals. Interacting, exhanging information with other entities, is a low priority relative to the main function of the organization.

How did we get to this point? From what we know about the development of civilizaiton, humans started out in small groups similar to gorilla and chimpanzee clusters. As we moved through the Stone Age, the Copper and Bronze Age, the Iron Age, "progressing" to the now Industrial Age, human society became more specialized and fragmented.

In a tribal society, everyone would know everyone else, and a psychotic and/or schizophrenic member of the tribe would be known to all, and the tribe would deal with the problem. We can laugh today at the methods used by traditional societies for treating mental illness, but psychiatrist Stanislav Grof has synthesized an analysis and treatment approach that draws on practices from the ancient past, including shamanism, the use of psychedelic drugs, and holotropic breathwork. A modern society would do well to pay more attention to Grof's and other spiritual-transpersonal approaches for treating mental disorders. The 32 students and professors at Virginia Tech might still be alive, as would the person who shot them.

Above all, though, maybe we could address the one element of our fragmented mass system that screams out its impunity from any responsibility whatsoever: the gun industry. I wrote about gun fanaticism and obsessive masculinity in three previous posts, drawing on my own experience with hunting and shooting: Enhancing your virility, A hunting story, and Masculinity, real and imagined. We may be a fragmented, compartmentalized society, but we can come together to control the guns. No other advanced industrial country has an out of control gun culture like we in "America" do. We can cure ourselves of this ill. Maybe the masculinity-challenged among us could get some of Stanislav Grof's therapy. They could get "official" therapies like the corporate pharmaceutical regimen. Something.

Whatever the treatments for gun-nuttery, one very clear, emphatic, simple thing we can do is stop listening to and heeding the noise made by the gun industry and its enabling gun fanatics. Enough! Gun nuts, you have had your day in the sun. It is time you got yourselves real lives. We know the consequences of your "freedom." It is time for "American" civilization to move on. While we're at it, we might want to retire our death-dealing president.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

The President of the United States - a photo essay

Bush showing his true colors

 


 


 


 


The “Republican thugs” engaging in the “Brooks Brothers Riot”, November 19, 2000, intimidating the ballot recounters in Florida

 


 


 


 


The power behind the throne

 


 


 




You'll pay for that remark

 


 


 


 


Casting the approving eye on Tom DeLay

 


 


 


 


Bush and his friend Kenny boy Lay

 


 


 


 


The leader of the free world

 


 


 


 


No one could have predicted that these two would be able to threaten the entire planet

 


 


 


 




Fake president bestows fake medal

 


 


 


 




Something up his sleeve   

 


 


 




Partners for a police state

 


 


 




It's all one big joke

 


 


 




September 11, 2001

 


 


 





A slight pause in reading 'My Pet Goat'

 


 


 


 





What, me worry?
 


 


 


 




Bush knew

 


 


 


 


 



Catapulting the propaganda
 


 


 


 


Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumsfeld, and George W. Bush - a triumvirate of pure evil

 


 


 


 



It's all a barrel of laughs

 


 


 


Iraqi girl killed during the Shock and Awe campaign

 


 


 


Bush with Katherine Harris, the Florida Secretary of State who employed various means of vote fraud to guarantee his 2000 presidential appointment

 


 


 


 


Former U.N. ambassador John Bolton with his Patron George W. Bush

 


 


 


 


Short eyes Congressman Mark Foley with friend George Bush

 


 


 


 


Anti-gay homosexual preacher Ted Haggard with friend George W. Bush

 


 


 




Bush kissing male prostitute and fake journalist Jeff Gannon

 


 


 





Pope John Paul in disbelief
 


 


 


 



Bush with fellow savior of mankind Paul David Hewson, also known as “Bono”

 


 


 


 




Bush apparently unaware he is reading upside down

 


 


 


 




Bush being greeted by former pro football quarterback Bernie Kosar and Ken Blackwell, the Ohio Secretary of state who is suspected of widespread vote fraud in the 2004 election, enabling George W. Bush to continue in his occupation of the office of President of the United States of America. Read about him here: http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2007/2553

 


 


 


 




Bush with the corrupt and incompetent “viceroy” of Iraq Paul Bremer

 


 


 


 




Bush preening at Walter Reed Army Hospital

 


 


 


 





The lie that started the invasion
 


 


 


 


 





The conquering hero

 


 


 


 


Is it love or infatuation? Or maybe something else. Bush is closer to his Saudi friends than he is to the American people.

 


 


 


 


The approach

 


 


 


 


Zeroing in

 


 


 


 


Bush giving surprise massage to German Chancellor Angela Merkel

 


 


 


 


 



Get away from me!
 


 


 


 




Here's to you America

 


 


 


Bush with friend Jack Abramoff

 


 


 



The front man

 


 


 



Bush lying about the invasion of Iraq

 


 


 




Bush with Supreme Court Nominee Harriet Miers

 


 


 




Bush being honored for his heroic service in the Texas National Guard

 


 


 





Bush lying on Tuesday, January 28, 2003, in his State of the Union speech

 


 


 


 



Man of the people

 


 


 




The coalition of the killing having a laugh

 


 


 




“We don't torture”

 


 


 





The torture team

 


 


 





Kissing cousins

 


 


 


 



Crook and crookeder

 


 


 





Not so quick there, self-deluding one

 


 


 


 


Strange bedfellows

 


 


 


 


Strolling in the meadow

 


 


 


 


Born to be wild

 


 


 


 


Bush clearing brush at his ranch

 


 


 


 


This is what results when you ignore warnings and only help those who vote for you.

 


 


 


 




Too busy for New Orleans

 


 


 


 



Feigning concern


 


 


 


 



Brownie, you're doin' a heck of a job!

 


 


 


The oaf with kindred spirits

 


 


 


 


The great explainer

 


 


 




Playing war hero again

 


 


 


 


The Commander in Chief of all U.S. forces

 


 


 


 


Bush looking hapless during his Surge speech, January 10, 2007

 


 


 


 


Partners in crime

 


 


 


 


Ulp!

 


 


 


 


Who am I? How did I get here?

 


 


 


 


Cognitive dissonance as a way of life

 


 


 


 


Stupefaction

 


 


 


 


The deserter

 


 


 


 


A presidential salute

 


 


 


 


The double salute

 


 


 


 


Tougher than tough

 


 


 


 


Bush being scolded by Pope John Paul

 


 


 


 


A study in contrast

 


 


 


 


The unhappy crook

 


 


 


 


Rage and/or surprise

 


 


 


 


The deciever

 


 


 


 


Bush with convicted Ohio fundraiser Tom Noe

 


 


 


Just what is that mysterious bulge in the back?

 


 


 




Random lying

 


 


 




Leave no stone unturned

 


 


 


Arrogance personified

 


 


 




War is funny

 


 


 




A lifetime of impulse control (or lack of same)

 


 


 


 




Looking for weapons of mass destruction

 


 


 


 




Bush after “choking on a pretzel”

 


 


 


 




The happy couple

 


 


 


 




Freudian slip, or Déjà vu?