but Mean wins. Always.I invite you to consider that "Mean" and "Good" are but illusions. They are figments of Your imagination that You employ to make this contextual field called life more compelling and interesting. Yes, Mean Always Wins, if You will it to be so. But it doesn't really matter, because ultimately nothing really matters...except the Essence of You, resonating, for Now and Always, on the ripples of Eternity.
Well, if it's in Your head, it's in My head too. If You're sick, then I'm sick right here with You. The only sickness really, is not recognizing the Illusion for what it is. Susan Smith and her children are real, and so are all the participants of the Holocaust, but the events that bring them to mind are like acts in a play, that we collectively write and perform...for the sheer Fun Of It! Yes, the Universe is one big Game, devised for our own Divine Pleasure. This Pleasure exists on a Soul level of reality, not on the level of the conscious Mind. The Mind sees all of it as Horror, but the Soul can look beyond the Horror to see It from all other, different kinds of angles.
Look...Susan Smith's children and the murdered ones in the Holocaust are not what they seemed to be...they were like butterflies released from the chrysalis, able to return Home a bit sooner than the rest of us. They are stronger than we realize...We are stronger than we realize. We are spirits encased but momentarily in garb of flesh. We are in the world, but not of the world. WE ARE (simply) GOD.
I will respectfully disagree, Jess.
Name one good thing that has been created or maintained by cruelty or meanness. I think it is possibly because you view the power to destroy as being more powerful than the power to create. If cruelty and meanness always wins then nothing would exist. Everything would be destroyed or subverted to a hostile franchise. And this, we know is not always the case. There are educational systems that seek to create a critically thinking individual rather than a automaton of industry, and these could not have been created or facilitated through cruelty. Indeed it would seem that cruelty-sponsored educational systems would undermine the individual to the point of extreme debasing. Are there some educational systems like this? Yes, of course. But generally such educational systems are eventually torn down and replaced with more caring and kind educational systems that are in favor of teaching the individual self-empowerment.
Political systems are sometimes created or facilitated through cruelty. But these political systems destroy individual rights, undermine economic independence, and enforce slavery upon their peoples. They kill, maim, brutalize and terrorize their citizens. But generally such political systems are eventually torn down and replaced with more caring and kind political systems that are in favor of helping the individual to reclaim his or her individual rights, funding private enterprise and enabling the independent growth thereof, and releasing their peoples from the tyranny of debt.
Religious systems are sometimes created or facilitated through cruelty. They dominate the masses by thought control, insist upon dogmatic principles and terrorize those whom express otherwise. But generally, such religious systems are eventually town down and replaced with more caring and kind religious systems that are in favor of embracing changes in thought and cognitive diversity, are willing to free those that they can from dogmatic ritual and embrace the discovery of true spirituality in the face of hardships, and otherwise look forward to the engagement of the human mind in the complexity of its soul.
There are cruel systems in place throughout the world, but they are not "winning", and if they were, I would be questioning what exactly it is that they were winning. For the most part such systems are like cruel individuals, they are consumed by the negativity that broils within them and have less and less interest in the genuine goodness of man. Sometimes we forget our spiritual nature, but that does not mean that the spiritual nature is not present, or that it is not still acting on our behalf.
I can remember a story where a Buddhist would not leave his meditation spot, even when the rest of the village was fleeing from a warlord known for his cruelty. When the warlord's forces marched into the village, he remained where he was, quietly meditating in the lotus position. When the warlord thundered in himself on the back of a huge horse, he remained where he was, quietly meditating in the lotus position. The warlord did not like this monk that refused to move in the face of his power. He drew out his spear and held it to the monk's throat.
"Do you not realize that I can pierce your body with this spear and kill you, making all your meditations meaningless?"
The monk looked up peacefully and replied.
"Do you not realize that I can let you pierce my body with your spear and make all your killing meaningless?"
The warlord took his forces and left the village.
Icky. I am staying out of this conversation. All I can say is those poor souls, from Matthew, to the holocaust victims (some of which I will probably find in my heritage), to the 5 Little kids in the back of that car as it went down into the lake.
I don't understand your reasoning, Scott. From what you have written here, I am getting that you don't think other people's lifes matter. I am sure that Susan's children weren't having a lot of fun as the cold dark water engulfed them.What I am trying to suggest with these words is that morality isn't the whole picture. In the realm of the Transcendent, I believe there is no moral polarity--Good versus Evil will not have the same meaning it does for us humans in this contextual field called life/earth. This is going to sound amazing to many, and quite possibly cruel to many others, but I believe that we create our own reality/lives. Susan Smith's children and the victims of the Holocaust created their destiny, on a Soul level, because they wanted to experience those experiences. To be clearer, their Souls wished to have these experiences, even if their conscious Minds had no recollection of this.
Are you saying that there is no morality? That everything is acceptable on some level I am not understanding? So tying Matthew to the fence was not (on this cosmic level) an evil, cruel thing? and in fact he didn't suffer? or that his suffering doesn't matter?
It is misogynistic; my brother has some strange views about life, but considering the way my father is, its a miracle he's not a gung-ho male-chauvinist **** (insert expletive here). Fortunately, I think he's really trying to do something about them, unlike my father. And I have tried to point out that most of the girls that are his age that he can hang around with have some serious issues besides their "inability to philosophize". It was not much of a surprise to me when my brother informed me that most of the women his age have serious problems with alcohol, self esteem, and relationship addictions. And I hate to say that, because it sounds like I am stereotyping all women ages 21 to 25, but here in the DFW area, with its lack of public transportation resources and disturbing absence of anything really fun or meaningful for young adults.... I fear that a lot of young people have adapted their lives to weekend alcohol binging... err, partying, drug use and casual sex as a way of filling their lives. I am glad that my brother hasn't gotten into too much of that, though, and I think a large part of it might have been my urging of the free and open mind in his later education.
Andrei had just received the phone call I've always feared the most. The one that would tell me that loved one had died suddenly. [....] Mat died before he even reached the hospital. Andrei's anguished "why?" was resonated by most of the teenagers who gathered at our home to grieve during the first few days after the tragedy. Why Mat? Why the one who never had a critical word for anyone, the one who was so grateful for life, so accepting of the uniqueness and potential of everyone he met? "Why the very best of us?" they asked.
At odds with Andrei and the others, one young woman admonished, "Don't even ask that question. It doesn't have an answer that we could possibly understand." This teenager in white sneakers and red socks had put her finger directly on the pulse of the sacred mystery. We cannot know. But for human beings, the need to know goes hand in hand with restructuring our world after tragedy.
Tragedy brings forth the need to create meaning -to tell new stories - that can reweave the frayed ends of life into a coherent whole. Our ability to tell these stories is positively linked with recovery, according to the research of UCLA-based psychologist Shelly Taylor. Studying people whose lives had been disrupted by misfortunes that ranged from rape to life-threatening illness, Dr. Taylor found that those who readjusted well incorporated three coping strategies into their recovery: a search for meaning in the experience, an attempt to gain mastery over the event in particular and life in general, and a recouping of self-esteem after they had suffered some loss or setback.[size]
Dr. Taylor was awed by the remarkable resilience of human nature and the deep reservoir of strength that tragedy taps. She observed that, rather than folding in times of crisis, most people have the innate capacity to recover from monumental problems, readjusting to life not only as well as, but even better than, before the tragedy occurred. And the meaning we ascribe to these dark nights of the soul is central to how we emerge from them.
well you find what you look for. If you go to bars all the time looking for dates then you are going to meet people that drink...
Where else would you like him to go?
And I am not referring to casual drinkers... the purpose and intent of alcohol binging is to get piss-drunk, to forget who you are. This is the modicum of entertainment that many young adults have taken on themselves, and what is worse is that the media is sponsoring this idea more fully than ever before.
I seem to be the last of a dying breed, the philosophical youth. I would counter it will all my might, if I could, I would do everything in my power to see that an army of free thinking individuals stands upon the horizon of tomorrow. But here in the United States, where the public education system dumbs down its inmates; the government bans and disenfranchises ideas of political dissension as anti-American or terrorist threats, and where the economy is controlled not by independent businesses but by a central banking system with vested interests in maintaining the perpetual idea of free thought but never allowing it to blast off, I do not think this army of free thinking individuals will rise anytime soon.
Scott,No, nothing to do with patriarchy here. You ask some very cogent questions that I still grapple with. If we will our destinies into being, should we never appeal to a sense of morality, seeing morality as a relative and unstable thing that doesn't even hold up in the mirror of Eternity? I don't think this is at all the most constructive approach we can take.
If I were to subscribe to it....I would be absolved of all 'sin' or crimes because the 'victims' wanted to be victims. So how can you justify putting anyone in jail?
If I believed that other people that are in worse circumstances than I am in CHOOSE their circumstance then what right have I got to aid them? In fact if I use and abuse them I am being helpful....since it is in fact what they wanted. A step further down the road you lay out....If I abuse WORSE then I am hastening them on their fun journey. So dont' just rape....mutilate! I am doing what she wants.
Your philosophy seems too close to the patriarchal standard we have just pulled ourselves away from.
what about the past and future thing? is there in this system you are talking of?I'm not sure about conceptions of time that might be specific to Kashmir Saivism. I know that the system now referred to as Hinduism teaches a cyclical concept of time, where Brahman conceives a universe, sustains it, and ultimately destroys it, only for the cycle to be repeated indefinitely. The lengths of time employed (yuga, I believe is the term) are immense, as in billions of years.
I love Touching Spirit Bear, Ben Mikaelsen's YA novel about Circle Justice.
it is amazing to me to see how people's memories are so selective. So is mine? Are my memories real or not?You might be interested in exploring the films of the great French director Alain Resnais if memory is a theme that concerns or appeals to you. The vagaries and tricky beauty of memory are major motifs in this artist's work. Some pertinent films include Hiroshima mon amour, L'année dernière à Marienbad, Muriel ou Le temps d'un retour, and Je t'aime, je t'aime.
The night before last, somehow I got off on some website that had pictures of lynchings on it. Page after page.
Do you know people used to make postcards out of those pictures?
and as horrible as the lynched people were...they were dead. They couldn't suffer anymore. What horrifies me about those pictures is the people in the crowd.
How can people have that evil in them and it not show? How can you know looking at people walking down the street what HORRORS they harbor in their souls?
I think about those men...torturing women and boys....and men....and then going home and making love with their wifes...playing with their kids...going about their lives as if nothing happened...
I feel sick just thinking that there are people right HERE...it hasn't been that long that that kind of thing happened...
we like to think we have come so far...that we are so civilized.
There are moments of brilliance in life - where good will, kindness and peacemakers have gifted the human race with grace, but they are few and far-inbetween.
Well-said, Del - you make some good arguments here and I absolutely understand and mostly agree with you, I swear. I particularly agree with you about the role of religion in pacifying the masses, in a sense.
These are your words, however, that touch me the most...I only have a quibble with the exception at the end. I submit that the good only seems 'few and far in-between' because of media sensationalism and the like. Unless we make a major effort on a daily basis, we only get the sensational news, the meaningless sound bytes, and good news without controversy doesn't sell. Therefore we're left with a perception that the world is going to hell in a bucket.
I would argue that the vast majority of the world's population aspire to a life that is full of good will, kindness, peace, and grace (if they still have the capacity to aspire - those that don't aspire just want food and shelter); however, a small but terrorist/fascist/??? minority seek to undermine that ideal state. What scares me is how LOUD these voices can be and how the voices opposed to them appear to remain silent. Is that a news reporting bias? Am I just being naive?
-Lynne
Thank you, Lynne. You're absolutely right - I thought about that line 'few and far inbetween' as well after I wrote it. I was thinking about social/poliitcal events, but you're correct, in everyday life, the majority of the people just want to be happy and live peaceful lives and don't even think about being ugly or mean (except in petty mundane ways) to their neighbors.
As for the LOUD ugly and evil minority groups - it is a media bias, I think. They're out to make money and need people drawn in to buy newspapers, magazines or to make ratings for their advertisers, so the more they can sensationalize something, the better. But, at the same time, it doesn't hurt to know such groups exist and where they're coming from. Forearmed is forewarned.
injest, you do bring up an interesting subject! One that not many want to talk about! Even if it is an important one, I guess that too many (even us all) are afraid to discuss this. It is about danger?
When I bring up that more than one million gays were murdered in the WWII in the gas chambers only because they were gay men, nobody even here... replies to that! So, I am very surprised since there are gay men here on this site! Also, it is a surprise because non-gay persons here on Bettermost are usually more thoughtful!
Why do we even TO-DAY do a blind eye to such murderers letting these kill us?
Why do not many talk about islamics now bringing in their slave women into the USA, Canada, France, England... why? Only such talk seem to be in Quebec right now... in order to educate us about such evil, plus to try to find ways to get those slaves to free themselves from such muslim thugs!
Why are we so blind? Because we are afraid to be still free persons?
Awaiting replies from you and from all,
hugs!!
Thanks delalluvia, and thanks injest!!
Delalluvia, all the persons murdered by those WWII gas chambers, you do not know that many countries sent gay men to be such killed as such in Germany? That to me is a blind eye! Even to-day!
Injest, I agree with you that there are organisations, but not enough; so we, in general, do have a blind eye!
For instance, we purchase in big stores products made to-day by slaves, yes? We do not care less if children are murdered neither nor starved, not that much, because such a child works in those cheap-labour camps! The general population keeps doing a blind eye to slaves markets!
How to correct that?
As for who the Nazis killed, yes they killed 6 million Jews, the remaining 4 million were gays, the mentally challenged and other undesirable ethnic groups such as Romanian gypsies.