Tag: buhdylosophy

The weird turn pro.

And the going is starting…well, continuing at an accelerated pace…to get weird. And will get weirder. We are in a time of great change…on every level. It is a fact that every generation, every era, thinks that it is in the midst of some existential crisis, and lol, in a way they are correct. All of the event and the decisions made in response to their crises have led to…now. And to the confluence of events that we are facing today, in our era.

But our era IS different, if for no other reason than that this is the first truly global era…and in the fact that we are facing a truly global set of circumstances. The conflict of “good” vs “evil” has always been with us, but we are in an era where a true decision between them must be made. And NOT just on the individual level.

Though if course that is where it always begins.

Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, said the protests were a result of public resentment of the “brute force” employed by China to maintain control of the region for more than 50 years.

“I therefore appeal to the Chinese leadership to stop using force and address the long-simmering resentment of the Tibetan people through dialogue with the Tibetan people,” he said in a statement issued from his base in India.

“I also urge my fellow Tibetans not to resort to violence.”

Societies undoubtedly need stability to function. It is essential for a healthy society or system to be able to plan and prepare for the future on many different essential levels. But there comes a time when stability becomes stagnation. And even worse, when the stagnation is preserved and used solely to further the interest of those who have learned to become successful parasites on society.

Preserved at any cost. By any method. Even to the point of killing its host.

Which is precisely what is happening now. The forces of todays Status Quo gained power during one existential threat, the arms race of the Cold War. In attempting to preserve their power at any cost, they have perpetuated a culture of war. Their de facto partners, the oil companies, have lent their weight to the effort. Not only are their goals of creating a status quo that benefits each of them the same, they are also in a partnership to use the weapons and influence of the Military Industrial Complex to invade a sovereign but relatively weak country to steal its oil. Again the cost just do not matter to them, nor do the consequences.

Not the cost in human life and suffering.

Not the cost to the economy and well being of their puppet government.

And not the costs to the planet and all of her peoples.

There is no doubt that blogs are the most egalitarian form of mass communication ever to come down the pike. The only thing even close to comparable was when printing presses became practical and cheap enough for one person to own and operate. And we know what happened then…

The work of Tom Paine and his fellow pamphleteers can easily be said to have changed the world. By distributing revolutionary thoughts and ideas to a country full of rebellious souls starved for them. Starved for change…starved for a change from monarchy and despotism. Starved for a new kind of freedom.  

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company… a church… a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past… we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you… we are in charge of our Attitudes.”

Charles R. Swindoll

The only thing that never changes….is that everything always changes. However the rate of change undoubtedly fluctuates. If we look back at history we can see many periods and many points where the various conditions that normally cause slow and steady change suddenly converge and cause massive and rapid change, at least on the historical time scale. We seem to be in one of those periods right now.

But this time, unlike in the past, the change that is occurring as we speak is not limited to one culture or region. It is by its very nature, a planetwide phenomenon.

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That was a motto of one of my teachers in life. One interpretation is respecting and acknowledging the past, as we push forward to create the new world that the future holds. And when possible, addressing and correcting it. As I have said many times, in different ways, the future depends on all of us silly humans finding a way to live together and work cooperatively to make a better world.

A step is being taken in that direction now.

It may seem small, in light of everything else we are going through, but I think it, and all efforts like it…. is vital to walking forward in the right way..

Hat tip to mishima…

It is difficult to convey the deep emotion many Australians feel about the apology that is to be made to those indigenous Australians now known as the Stolen Generations, this Wednesday at 9am, as the first act of the newly elected Australian parliament. The national excitement around the event is palpable, with thousands heading to Canberra for it, and public screens being erected in most major cities for the live, national broadcast of the event.

America will never be the same, nor will the world.

This is why we fight so hard to prevent tyranny. This is why so many millions or billions of humans have died fighting for freedom. This is why the American Revolution was fought, this is why the Founders worked so hard on a solution to tyranny.

Because as we have seen, as has been proved again…as if it needed to be ….destruction is SO much quicker ad easier than construction. It is easily accomplished by a small amount of people who are focussed upon it. So much has been wiped out or reversed in such a small amount of time. Decades of progress, and in the larger picture, centuries, of a slow building of the consensus of human beings on how human beings should conduct themselves.