Planet Waves FM: The Revolutionaries that Aren’t

8 thoughts on “Planet Waves FM: The Revolutionaries that Aren’t”

1. Revelation 12:12 “Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.” Sometimes I think I see this in these fear driven people. In my church there is a picture of St. Michael driving the devil down to earth. The serpent has a sad and very fearful look in its eyes. I think a lot about how much these people are driven by fear. I know my first impulse often when I am afraid is to strike out. M. Scott Peck is a psychologist who discusses evil in his book The People of the Lie. It wouldn’t surprise me to see that some of the people or wannabe people in congress might fit Scott Peck’s definition of evil people. If I recall it was more or less a pathological investment in protecting ones own self-esteem at any cost. One person with this condition that springs to mind is Sarah Palin. Evil people tend to take hostages in their relationship. People who are weaker and easy to manipulate. A pair, for example, might be Cheney and Bush.

   From Wikipedia:

   Evil

   Peck discusses evil in his book People of the Lie: The Hope For Healing Human Evil[3] and also in a chapter of The Road Less Traveled.[2] Peck characterizes evil as a malignant type of self-righteousness in which there is an active rather than passive refusal to tolerate imperfection (sin) and its consequent guilt.[2][3] This syndrome results in a projection of evil onto selected specific innocent victims (often children), which is the paradoxical mechanism by which the People of the Lie commit their evil.[3] Peck argues that these people are the most difficult of all to deal with and extremely hard to identify.[3] He describes in some detail several individual cases involving his patients. In one case which Peck considers as the most typical because of its subtlety, he describes Roger, a depressed teenage son of respected well off parents.[3] In a series of parental decisions justified by often subtle distortions of the truth they exhibit a consistent disregard for their son’s feelings and a consistent willingness to destroy his growth. With false rationality and normality they aggressively refuse to consider that they are in any way responsible for his resultant depression, eventually suggesting his condition must be incurable and genetic.

   Some of his conclusions about the psychiatric condition he designates “evil” are derived from his close study of one patient he names Charlene.[3] Although Charlene is not dangerous, she is ultimately unable to have empathy for others in any way. According to Peck, people like her see others as play things or tools to be manipulated for their uses or entertainment. Peck states that these people are rarely seen by psychiatrists and have never been treated successfully.

   Evil is described by Peck as “militant ignorance”. The original Judeo-Christian concept of “sin” is as a process that leads us to “miss the mark” and fall short of perfection.[3] Peck argues that while most people are conscious of this at least on some level, those that are evil actively and militantly refuse this consciousness. Peck considers those he calls evil to be attempting to escape and hide from their own conscience (through self deception) and views this as being quite distinct from the apparent absence of conscience evident in sociopathy.[3]

   According to Peck an evil person:[2][3]

   Is consistently self deceiving, with the intent of avoiding guilt and maintaining a self image of perfection
   Deceives others as a consequence of their own self deception
   Projects his or her evils and sins onto very specific targets (scapegoats) while being apparently normal with everyone else (“their insensitivity toward him was selective” (Peck, 1983/1988, p 105[3]))
   Commonly hates with the pretense of love, for the purposes of self deception as much as deception of others
   Abuses political (emotional) power (“the imposition of one’s will upon others by overt or covert coercion” (Peck, 1978/1992, p298[2]))
   Maintains a high level of respectability and lies incessantly in order to do so
   Is consistent in his or her sins. Evil persons are characterized not so much by the magnitude of their sins, but by their consistency (of destructiveness)
   Is unable to think from the viewpoint of their victim (scapegoat)
   Has a covert intolerance to criticism and other forms of narcissistic injury

   Most evil people realize the evil deep within themselves but are unable to tolerate the pain of introspection or admit to themselves that they are evil. Thus, they constantly run away from their evil by putting themselves in a position of moral superiority and putting the focus of evil on others. Evil is an extreme form of what Scott Peck, in The Road Less Traveled, calls a character disorder.[2][3]

   Using the My Lai Massacre as a case study Peck also examines group evil, discussing how human group morality is strikingly less than individual morality.[3] Partly he considers this to be a result of specialization, which allows people to avoid individual responsibility and pass the buck, resulting in a reduction of group conscience.

   Though the topic of evil has historically been the domain of religion,[3] Peck makes great efforts to keep much of his discussion on a scientific basis, explaining the specific psychological mechanisms by which evil operates. He was also particularly conscious of the danger of a psychology of evil being misused for personal or political ends.[3] Peck considered that such a psychology should be used with great care, as falsely labeling people as evil is one of the very characteristics of evil. He argued that a diagnosis of evil should come from the standpoint of healing and safety for its victims, but also with the possibility even if remote, that the evil themselves may be cured.

   Ultimately Peck says that evil arises out of free choice. He describes it thus: Every person stands at a crossroads, with one path leading to God, and the other path leading to the devil. The path of God is the right path, and accepting this path is akin to submission to a higher power. However, if a person wants to convince himself and others that he has free choice, he would rather take a path which cannot be attributed to its being the right path. Thus, he chooses the path of evil.

2. Good evaluation of the rebound effect of the 60’s happening now. However; I think you need to back one cycle further of these planetetary configurations to the 20’s/30’s in Germany/Italy. Because what we are seeing is a re-packaged re-named version of Mein Kamp. Today’s rascisms and class war are masked in different nomenclatures, and are probably even masked in the subconscious minds of the people….btw what planet rules the sub consious? This subconsious racist/class war is what the massacre in Norway was all about. Different faces/names/words: but still the same agenda repackaged.

   And another thing is at the same time as Italy and Germany were turning Facist; Russia/Stalin were repressive in the same fashion. They all met at the bottom of the Circle of Life; only one moved left on that circle and the others moved to the right. I think there should be a new word developed for that place they both met at….any ideas???

3. The reason there’s no protests in the streets now is because the Boomers and Gen Jones folks remember the assassinations; the front-man always gets killed off. Younger generations were taught this and they see that 60’s period from the lens of history so they feel it changed nothing in the greater scheme of things. After all, those folks who were in power are still rich and in power so why put yourself out there to be injured or killed?

   That’s where the alleged apathy comes from; it is actually a fear of being targeted and things haven’t gotten bad enough yet for them to feel they have nothing to lose.

4. Amazing conversation! That greed gene Gary was talking about is one I have been talking about for years. I believe it is tied to survival genes and it scientists could ever separate that greed gene from the survival one, humanity would be way better off.

   I would postulate also that part of the desire to “harm Grandma” is encoded in our American hypercompetitive society. In this culture, we firmly believe every-man-for-himself….pull-yourself-up-by-your-own-bootstraps. Americans really believe that if you are poor it is because you didn’t work hard enough. It is easy to blame the victim and not help them because that allows you to continue on with your own “me-me-me” ideology of individuality. Americans do not have a collective mind-set at all. It rarely comes out because for the most part, we have internalized the idea that anyone can “make it” if they just work hard enough. We have the belief that caring for anyone else means giving up something for ourselves.

   We have been sold the idea that there’s scarcity and we all want “our share” of the pie. The only reason there might be scarcity is because the richest people are greedily keeping resources for themselves that they can never spend in their own or even their grandchildren’s lifetimes. What drives a person to want to amass more than they will EVER be able to use? I feel it is tied to the culture of death. Males cannot give birth and as Starhawk used to say (paraphrasing here) that is the missing piece for males and as such, they wish to control both women and assets because they have seen that women gravitate to males with the most assets. It also comes from males not being able to create life so they create wealth instead. I target males because in this society, males, especially white males, are the ones who are amassing the power and resources to such an egregious degree and at the expense of all other males and females.

   In my women’s studies, we learned that in every culture, females are free until puberty and then the controls set in. Why is female fertility so frightening, so threatening that it must be controlled? Why because allowing females agency in regard to their fertility would mean that males could never be sure their resources are going to support children of their own genetic line. Women always know their babies are of their genetic line but men have no such certainty. Even now, studies have shown that 15% of all children are being raised (these are not step children or adopted children) by males who are not their biological fathers. This is because a woman will marry the low testosterone male because he tends to be a better father to her offspring, less likely to stray sexually, and is a good provider. Yet these same women fuck the high-testosterone, alpha males to get their stronger genes for their babies. This is why male sperm has been shown to actually kill other male sperms off. Say a woman fucks her husband and then goes to fuck her lover. The husband’s sperm will actually kill off the newcomer’s (the lover’s) sperm. It was amazing to see it on film.

   The real question is, why do women (within the family and socially) go along with and even promote the fertility controls? What benefit does any woman have in helping to continue the bondage her fellow females will endure? The answer remains elusive on that one.

   I do believe the folks in power want a melt-down because the ones at the top can weather it and it will strike such fear and will demoralize (not to mention starve into submission) so many people that they hope a violent revolution will not happen. They think that hungry, tired, overworked serfs will just die and lose all fight they might have had. Keep us squabbling about stupid stuff like gay marriage and birth control and fighting over the crumbs they leave us; that will allow them to continue exploiting us, dividing us, and conquering us. I am afraid they may be right; based on the lack of real energy in the duped masses. They don’t truly fear losing consumers in America because two HUGE middle classes are growing in India and China, both of whom are dying to be able to buy-buy-buy like Americans have. Those corporate masters don’t need us to consume anymore because they know those two larger populations are poised to become the consumers of the future. Americans are now the throw-away people, useless except as puppets and cheap labor when they get done with us.

5. And let’s not forget another important event in this stellar line up…

   (cue Marilyn Monroe’s voice ) …” Happy Birthday Mr. President……” on August 4th, I believe.

   Eric and Gary, this discussion was another fabulous learning experience, thank you both so much.

   As a thought experiment I invite anyone interested to try this on: take all of your views, opinions, beliefs, thoughts about the current state of Washington gridlock, and examine how passionately you believe you are right about what you think is going on. Now put all that off to the side for a moment and imagine whatever you feel is the absolute worst about the “other” side.

   Now, for a moment, just as an experiment, can you imagine that you and your adversary are almost the same to the degree you are both absolutely certain that your views are the correct ones for the situation? And because each side believes so passionately that they are “right” and that the other side is out to destroy their world, it is no wonder we are like rutting moose locked in mortal combat and willing to have both die rather than let the other side “win”.

   A useful question to ask is “Who benefits?” And what it looks like is that the mega corporations and mega banks are the ones who once again are the ones who will come out on top, no matter how badly this goes… as Gary said, if you’re rich enough, you can wait out the storm.

   Let’s not forget too that a lot of those who are stirring this pot are deep believers that bringing on the end of the world is their ultimate service to their religious beliefs. They are fully willing to leave this world in a ruin because they have been promised a better one in the next. (please insert the appropriate fundamentalist religion of choice here).

   All this stuff is polarization in the extreme and what I see taking place is the building up of energy, especially the energy of righteousness in opposition to escalating fear. The stakes are getting really dangerously explosive. When the next election cycle comes around, I won’t be surprised if we don’t start seeing more gun violence towards political figures… it is getting really scary. I was young when both JFK, MLK and Bobby got shot… I can remember how that felt in our nation… even though I did not understand it as a kid, I sure as hell felt the fear that gripped the adult world back then.

   I agree with Gary that both sides of this debate seem willing to engage in scorched Earth politics. This escalation is another reflection of many of the other unsustainable trajectories we humans have gotten ourselves into by thinking our tribe is right and the others are “wrong”. As long as we lock ourselves into believing that polarity games are the only way to go, we are doomed to repeat these same stupid destructive patterns over and over again.

   The only way out of this is to find the middle ground that exists outside of the polarity drama, but all the power brokers that benefit from this kind of chaos and fear are never going to promote or support such radical alternatives. We are collectively being sucked into the false story that there will be winners and losers and we have to fight with everything we’ve got to make sure we come out ahead. This will never get us what we want because if there are “winners” in a polarity battle then there are losers who will want nothing more than their justified revenge in the future… nobody wins, except those who thrive on discord.

   To me, THIS is the (re)evolutionary knife edge we are now collectively dancing upon. Will we find a way to put duality/polarity aside and find a way to address the stark reality that in the end what we all need is actually quite simple: food, shelter, security, meaningful work and a hope for a better future. What 9-11 tore from us was our (false) sense of security. What witnessing the earthquakes and tsunamis did to us collectively was the same. The global economic great recession has taken away, for many of us, our hope for the future and sadly, in too many cases, we have lost our homes and for some, the ability to feed themselves… just look to the hell that is brewing in Africa once more. All of these losses build up a tremendous reservoir of negatively charged energy that will need to be discharged somehow. I think we will start to see more uprisings as we go forward as this energy will need to be released. There is too much at stake now. We NEED to learn how to create that third Way, between the pillars of right and wrong, or we will be truly screwed. I think this is our greatest evolutionary edge and challenge now. And given that most of the power and wealth is currently being held by those who are VERY invested in keeping the polarity dramas going, it is really hard to imagine how we will get out of this mess.

   This is our wake up call. I think many of us believed that this Uranus Pluto square was going to bring us an eruption of some kind, but I think most of us probably believed that whatever we cherished as “our” view of the idealized future would then be the one to rise up from the ashes… and we’d be vindicated. If anything, this current debacle in Washington is revealing the potential for something quite powerfully unexpected and we need to pay attention and work even harder for creative, sustainable, holistic solutions…. the ones where at first, nobody is happy…. then perhaps, over time, we can all get to that place that Rumi talks about, out beyond the place of right-doing and wrong-doing…. the field that beckons us always.

6. Yes you two are!!

   ha!

   it’s weird I had never thought about the ‘cycling’ of the personal planets before. I mean, I follow them around the chart, you know day by day, but until you started mentioning the significance of the Venus cycle here on PW, and then today Mars, wow. and all the mythology & astronomy makes it even richer.

   this conversation has a wealth of knowledge in it, a great re-cap or tutorial of pertinent aspects of American history/econ/govt., with the twist of astrology.

   mm. interesting times. I’m up with my best friend this am with my best friend whose Aries mom is dying at the moment. or transitioning. I think she’ll be free & leaving behind before the release of mars 28+II …

   anyway, good stuff guys,
   peace.

7. well — check out McCain:

   http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/mccain-erupts-conservatives-are-lying-to-america/2011/03/03/gIQAUm2HdI_blog.html?fb_ref=NetworkNews

   at the bottom of the article it says, “UPDATE: Interestingly, a source close to McCain is now clarifying to Chris Cillizza that McCain wasn’t actually attacking the Tea Party in general — he was just indicting the political process overall.”

   but still, glad to see a republican openly telling the tea parties they’re in “fantasyland” if they think they’ll pass a balanced-budget amendment to the constitution.

8. Hi Eric,

   In addition to the Mercury station, isn’t next week also Lughnasadh? And isn’t Neptune retrograding back into Aquarius this week — once again crossing over the highly sensitive Pisces point? And isn’t Mars in that dangerous last degree of Gemini, as you mentioned? Next week is quite a special moment, in my humble opinion.

   I totally agree with your anti-60’s thesis. Take a look at this piece. I’ve been trying to make the same case the same thing more or less since 2008, in part because I agree with many of the insights you’ve shared here at Planet Waves.

   http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Columns/2011/07/22/Barack-Obama-The-Democrats-Richard-Nixon.aspx