[Sosfbay-discuss] spiritual progressives

[Tian Harter]

Roy wrote:

>>At the bookstore in downtown Mountain View, in the window,
>>there is a new DVD of Noam Chomsky. The title is "Rebel
>>Without a Pause." I'm thinking 'some gullible child is going
>>to get the impression Noam Chomsky never slept."
>>    
>>
>
>
>Or is a dawg with no feat.  (freudian clip there)
>
>(don't get me wrong, I do like a lot of what Chomsky says)
>
>For me, all that biblical stuff happened long be fore the revolution
>  
>
>>our founding fathers signed on to. I've heard it said that WW II
>>was the most clear cut case of an evil dictator running the show
>>in known history.
>>    
>>
>
>
>I'm sure you know this, but who's writing the history?..how come there was 
>no interest until oil was at stake? and even once the war was in progress 
>our business were still doing business with Germany? Some thing's rotten in 
>Denmark for sure with this noble cause routine.
>
>  
>
Yeah, but re-writing history is a big project. In terms of world
records, six million bodies is a lot. In percentaget terms how
does that compare with the 10% of Americans that died in
the Civil War? I don't know. I'm sure there is some historian
that is very certain about the truth, but for me that is arguing
about how many (spiritual term for war criminal ghosts here)
can dance on a pinhead. My father still remembers WW II, but
he is a member of a rapidly dwindling minority at this point
in time. I know plenty of people that don't have their facts
straight on Vietnam. What are we (meaning the they that
will be living here after you and I are gone) supposed to
remember about that time anyhow? How do you know?

>> When I try to put things into perspective, I
>>remind myself that there are many more people in India then
>>there are in Israel, even though their countries are about the
>>same age, as democracies go. I'm thinking that when democracy
>>play by play gets more sophisticated, the announcer will be able
>>to bring up statistics on war crimes and border violations and
>>so forth between countries as they parade across the national
>>stage. It'll be interesting to see how they factor in the different
>>religions and how spiritual they really are, as measured by
>>American eyes. I'm sure they will do a good job, if enough
>>ratings points are at stake. I'm hoping having lower stats for
>>war crimes is better, but you never know with these Republicans.
>>    
>>
>
>When you say democracy in the above sentences I'm hoping you mean 
>capitalism..yes?
>  
>
Ummm... I've learned a lot more about bargaining from
Indians than I have from Isrealis. Haggling price with an
Indian shopkeeper is fun, if you have goods on the table.
I would say they could teach us a thing or two about
marketplace democracy, meaning the one dollar one vote
as a medium of exchange kind. When I think of spiritual
politics, I think of my friend with the "WHAT WOULD KALI DO?"
sticker on her car. I'm sure that it uses less gas than a lot
of cars with "WWJD?" on them...

Isrealis are better at "playing politics with god". I remember
being told about people in Israel who get paid to pray and
study theology by business people in other parts of the world
that don't have time to do it themselves. Never heard stories
like that about anywhere else...

Neither of them really strikes me as being a 'democracy'
in the way I understand the term. They could both get there
though...

>  
>
>>Seems to me that the Isrealis haven't been trying to develop
>>good karma for the day when the truth comes out. Ever heard
>>Allison Weir talk about how they make the American media give
>>us a false impression about what is going on over there?
>>    
>>
>
>
>Allison has been one of many who have been instrumental in opening my eyes 
>to what it was that I was smelling.
> >
>  
>
>>You could fit all of the above on a bumper sticker. You just
>>couldn't expect the guy in the car behind you to read it at
>>65 MPH. Especially if he was following at a legal distance.
>>    
>>
>
>
>For that matter I could have it put on a grain of rice :-)
>
>  
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Yeah, but that would requre MUCH more sophisticated
technology, and would almost guarantee nobody would
ever read it. I would call the writing of such "praying",
except for the unspiritual chemicals you would probably
be forced to use, and the fact that if you used photoprocesses
you wouldn't be thinking about the meaning of the words
during the writing...

>  
>
>>For spirtiual politics, consider this peice that got forwarded to
>>me via a quaker. It is so concretely political I'm lost trying to
>>find a disconnect in it, except that the author doesn't like Bush:
>>
>>http://www.fcnl.org/smith/stateofunion06.htm
>>    
>>
>
>
>Good Article. What gets me is how everyone wants to pin this all on Bush 
>and his regime. Basically it's a class warfare and imperialism together. 
>Bush has pushed it to limits that are unacceptable to some who found lower 
>levels of it acceptable before. So what do we do. Go back to acceptable 
>levels?  Not for me. I found it unacceptable before Bush and will most 
>certainly find it unacceptable after. So will those who the opportunistic 
>predatory nature of US "capitalism" has in it's sights.
>  
>
There is a term that I'm told the Native Americans had that
translates to "left behind". The idea is that when you weren't
strong enough to move on to the next hunting ground, you
were left behind to finish out your few remaining days with
plenty of privacy. In our modern world, "left behind" has become
a synonym for "forgotten". All that ink used to print pictures
of the President and his words guarantees he won't be forgotton.
Every now and then I go visit my grandparents graves. I'm painfully
aware that those fine people will be forgotten when the people
that knew them are gone. I'm utterly certain that they were much
more moral role models than the jerks in the current Administration.

Unfortunately, we can't "leave behind" the political system.
It will always be about yesterday and tomorrow, and how we
(meaning the people alive now) build a bridge between them,
or don't.

>Hey.. did you pick a pic yet?
>  
>
Yup, and I've been giving out the flier with that picture in it.
People like it a lot better than the previous one!

>>--
>>Tian
>>http://tian.greens.org
>>Latest change: Added my favorite moment from the State
>>of the Union Adress last month. When I told my dad
>>I had a favorite moment in that speech, he said "It's not
>>possible to have a favorite moment from Bush." I didn't
>>want to try and explain it was only my favorite turd.
>>
>>___________________________________________
>>    
>>
-- 
Tian
http://tian.greens.org
Latest change: Added my pictures from Aimee Allisons kickoff event.