Dear Friend and Reader:
В There’s a lot going on to be pretty crazy mad about: economics, foreign policy, the environment. Not only now, but over the last year, the last eight years, hell, the last thirty or forty years. As I was writing “Blowing the Roof Off the House of Cards,” it dawned that I was coming close to self-parody. In writing about manufactured outrage, I was naming the outrage a distraction from the true crimes being committed in the name of saving our economy. Yet, there I was writing to encourage outrage about manufactured outrage. I must have been channeling the editorial board at The Onion.
Just what is the manufactured outrage about? Why are we so drawn to it? Did it begin with Clinton, followed by eight years of Cheney-Bush. Since Neptune entered Aquarius nearly ten years ago, it seems so. Now night after night, we watch and listen to news about the latest bailout scandal at AIG, served up with a pinch of blame, a scoop of moral indignation, a cup of schadenfreude, served on a platter of outrage. We have come to expect outrage to accompany and maybe even replace thinking.В The problem is who is really thinking these thoughts? Are they our true thoughts and feelings? Are they being created for us so we don’t have to do either?В
Media-manufactured outrage is a way for us to remain passive and unproductive because it gives us a false impression that we’re expending energy doing something. We’re not. We’re just getting angrier. Something is being played here and its not violins.
If we hold steady in our enchantment with the outrage and fear generated over this financial crisis, we’re no closer to the truth of why it happened or finding solutions native to our authentic selves and our real needs.В We’re grinding the gears to fuel our day and our thinking. В We’re still spinning and not going anywhere.В We will continually fight with each other while the actual national Treasury and our real treasure — our juicy and playful creativity, and subsequently our resourcefulness, gets drained dry.В And that could be the real crime.
The heart of our current political and economic crisis swirls around money, security and wealth, also known as abundance. Venus, the planet of love and money, is going retrograde in Aries until roughly after we’ve filed our federal and state taxes. It’s a good time to ask:В What is money to you? In fact, just what do you value?
Everyone has a different story about money. For most, it gives shelter, food,В something to wear, and let’s hope enough to maintain your health. For some money is a form of power in the world. That power manifests in money’s ability to fill the gaps, the pieces missing. For others, it creates a hole that can never be filled with what money can buy.
What is it that you value? A house? A car? A good date? The right color paint for your house? Enough gas for your car? The right clothes and makeup to attract the right mate?В Do your current values match what you have earned or possess? How much do you actually need? Are you finding that what you’ve got now is less than you need, value or deserve? How does that make you feel? В
There was a point in my life where I thought having the perfect pair of shoes (cultural pun not intended) would grant me sexual attractiveness, the right turn of the ankle, the perfect hemline that would add the illusion of length to my legs. The works. I ached for the surface of attractiveness but not the soul. Those pairs of shoes I longed for, most of them hurt my feet, and none of them brought me to me. I learned as I got older that my sacrum was far more important than my hemline; that I valued my knees because without them I couldn’t dance, and if I couldn’t dance, my soul would wither.В It took getting past worrying about the appearance of inadequacy to understand that ‘adequate’ means alive to my life.
Don’t mistake this piece as an excuse for the shenanigans. Ohh, they’re there alright, and there have been crimes committed. The onus falls on We the People to put the fax line at our Congressperson’s office to good use, and from there continue to build and re-build our lives. The point is we don’t have to keep spinning our wheels in anger as much as the news — which I hope you know is suspect — would want you to.В Anger can be a clarifying tool. Habitual anger and outrage, too easily manufactured, becomes an addiction and a distraction from getting to the bottom of the crimes committed at the top.
The taxes we pay go to the salaries of our elected leaders and the bonuses of those financial predators at AIG, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch and a long line of others. In reality, we’re the boss. Everyone else in this scenario needs to fess up to their mistakes like big kids and move on to fix them. That’s what we’re paying them for, and they better get to work at it like right bleeping now.
In the meantime, I need a way to work off this anger, soВ I’m going to dance class.
Yours & truly,
Fe Bongolan
San Francisco
Instead of revolution, I am hearing people talk about a shift in the way people are thinking and living all over the world. Two short videos perfectly encapsulate what I am hearing; the first is about our information age and the second is about the revolutionary change in people around the world:
See this one first: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljbI-363A2Q
See this one second: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hL_VTdxvWac
The second one starts out seemingly doom and gloom, but it changes mid video and you see the shift that is happening.
So yes, revolution IS being spoken about, but it is a revolution of the spirit, not of torches and pitchforks. At least where I live. Having said that, I think anger has a place in it because anger is energy; that energy can be channeled carefully to make changes. Bottled up anger does make sickness so using it is better than bottling it up but using it to make positive changes instead of violent ones works best.
I don’t know but I doubt it since the honest and competent are too far down the totem pole. The Peter Principle has been active in government for as long as I can remember (I’m retired federal), and it appears to be true of private industry as well.
My theory about the money is that we must no longer have enough gold to actually cover everyone paying off their credit card and mortgage debt, which China holds. The other thing is that our congress doesn’t think the average American can be responsible for any amount of money without oversight. Remember what Hillary said when health accounts were being considered – “we can’t let the people have that much money! We have to keep it here in Washington where we can watch it!” and she was serious.
also I guess I better retract the revolution statement before the men in black show up at my door. What I hear from everyone are complaints, followed by it will lead to revolution talk. I don’t know of any serious planning stage action, just angry talk. Real angry. The anger has to turn, as you state.
Upnote, see if you can get your paws on this movie made in 1976, Fun With Dick And Jane, with Jane Fonda and George Segal. It’s about an executive couple flying high when the husband loses his job, reality sets in, slowly/quickly about all sorts of values; oh what fun! And, timely, though note the date of the film, 33 years ago. They say fashion repeats on this cycle, roughly…
Fashion, just another word for values – why do you think there was such a fight over skirt length?! 🙂
Toodles…
musicman: you and I are on the same page philosophically about anger. there’s only so much before it expends itsself, tna then that energy has to turn somewhere for nourishment, so sayeth the body.
kristenB: Thank you for sharing the painful realizations. I can only hope we’re entering into a period of true evaluation, examining what hasn’t been examined so that we can find its true worth. This is not to say that this was your experience, but may that period find us doing more than counting the number of toys we have when we die. We might be dead because we’ve worked to have so many toys.
fontanelle: Stay cool, my sister. Unfocused rage is dangerous behind the wheel. Good thing you’re a defensive driver.
Patty: I read one economist who said instead of the bailout, we should have given every American $40,000 to do with as they needed. That sounds like a great idea, given the rare number of nimcompoops who got that shitload of money for doing nothing but gamble away our money. Will we be rewarding the competent and the honest any time soon?
All the people I have talked to are talking revolution, and I mean some are in their 70s and saying it. It’s about survival and saving the country.
The farmers had a difficult time getting the money to buy seed and fertilizer this winter (borrow in winter, pay back in the fall). What will next winter bring? I was at a banquet last night with some older folks who were talking about how the Japanese persevered during WW2, and others they knew of who boiled grass to eat when the food ran out. I asked the farmer sitting next to me what will happen if inflation kicks in next year. He said, “starvation.” This farmer is a democrat. Some were republicans – a mixed group, none fearful, but all well aware of what the future could look like.
Hey Fey,
Good points. I had to pause to figure out the meaning of self parody, a concept that doesn’t come easy to a girl who spent most of her youth vying for a pair of jeans with an upside down triangle on them. As the Saturn return nears, I have all but given up wondering where the bleep some adults were during my yourth to boost up my obviously superficial sense of self worth. And about angry, even in the small town of Becket, Massachusetts you get road rage. Today, a man driving his family honked and angrily motioned at me too hurry up as I was going about 7 miles under the thirty five mile an hour speed limit (trying to get a sense of where things were in this new town). Whew! This man actually had the gall to clap and sneer as I pulled over at the earliest moment to let him and his family pass by. As they passed, I locked eyes with the little girl sitting in the back seat. Her big brown eyes looked out from an expressionless face. Seems like her dad wasn’t interested in taking the little extra time on a Sunday drive to find out more about her insides either. They had a really nice car. But maybe it was a coincidence.
Bless you. Thank you for sagely writing about values.
Values come into play in nearly every decision from sunrise to sunset, but receives little play in a world where grade inflation, basic needs go unmet and no one feels safe.
I grew up in an illusion spun by my parents, both teachers, that values, ethics were important (well, that was my take on their constant and incessant echoing of the weird 70’s news), only to slowly discover between 1987 and 2007 that they had no idea what the word meant nor where they fell on any spectrum.
My outrage drove me to drive across the country and tell them so, face to face. To ask them, what the fuck were their values? I just asked them to tell me straight. They couldn’t. They didn’t even know what I was talking about, yet they could judge me and snipe at me and unconsciously exert their values on my life. I heard about twice a day how they wanted me to be “happy” and how they “loved” me, but only if my life resembled their fantasy. So, the discussion was meant to show honor, I dropped my life at that moment to address issues, and agree to disagree.
What I got was entirely shadow, more lies, the final revelation of truth I had always known in my bones, and an attempt by my father at physical abuse of me as an adult.
So, one much be prepared to walk away, even from “family.” However, with a clear set of values, that will change through time and space as awareness blossoms ever further, one can make it through. And, finally, help others near and far via the simple example of living with integrity.
PS I totally agree regarding the rise of cancer in our times resulting from sublimated anger. More information, faster and greater flow, increasing awareness exponentially, has overwhelmed folks with anger as they notice all the inconsistencies. Not to say that hypocrisy is not part of the path of integrity, but rather the flow and volume creating situations beyond ability to deal. Cancer is nothing more than cells gone wild, forgetting their true purpose. How apropo of our times! Alice Bailey discusses this era from a century ago as being of 3 major illnesses, one of which is cancer.
From a zen buddhist newsletter recently:
“Fear is the cheapest room in the house. I would like to see you living in better conditions. –Hafiz”
Something has definitely shifted…….
Pluto in Saggitarius lead us all to experience the radicalisation and transformation of religious ideals as a point at which groups of people could unite against a common enemy and pour out anger and venom as a catharsis…….!! This was sold as a package by political agencies worldwide…….with hugely nepotistic vested interests……. like a car dealer with a recycled second hand model to pitch. And while everybody was busy singing “Hallelujah”…..while feeling empowered by their choice of group surge…. layered skillfully on top of poor self-esteem…….. the plunder of the global financial booty box was completed……!!
Now as Pluto begins to root itself in Capricorn….we begin to see the advantages of a reasoned discourse. Socrates…..and that other dude…..Plato….made a play for logical debate…. by hanging around on street corners in Greece……during the Age of Aries more than 2000 years ago. Having spent the in-between times…..affectionately known as the Age of Pisces…… studying genocide…..martyrdom……and all things related to a gruesome death…..the human race would appear to have learned absolutely jack-shit about how to debate an issue……look at all of the possibilities….and move forward with a decision that reflects an enlightened view of our future……!!!
Johnny Rotten……he of the Sex Pistols….who later became John Lydon….as himself….. in Public Image Limited….sang that “anger is an energy…” and “may the road rise with you….”
I personally happen to think that sublimated anger…is one of the deep seated causes of cancer……and should be vented in such a way as to transform itself into positive action……where the road most definitely “will rise with you…”
However…as a means of addressing a serious social dysfunction……..it is akin to trying to heal a flesh wound…with a welding torch….!! Whoops!!
The Age of Aquarius would seem to be arriving just in time to facilitate communications….. increased use of technology to improve our group work…..and perhaps a wider understanding of the Zen Buddhist approach to no-thingness that says…
“things only reverberate around ….for as long as they need to…..”
It is only experience…instinct…. and intuition….. that leads me to relate a Zen monk to an Aquarian uncle….!!
PH