By Judith Gayle | Political Waves
We can’t go on this way. Seriously. We can’t continue to dither over ridiculous things like a few measly billions of dollars while wasting upwards of 24 billion in these last weeks for no apparent reason other than the intransigence of a handful of people, few of whom understand democratic process nor care to. We can’t keep allowing ourselves to be sidelined back into archaic tugs of war — as Fe so aptly put it, signifying nothing — while the problems that endanger our future not only persist but escalate.
We are on the horns of a dilemma. How do we heal a soul-sick nation, clinging to an old paradigm understanding of nationalism and exceptionalism and unwilling to face the changes at hand? Even as a majority of Americans reject both the philosophy and the tactics of the hard-right — there’s the blessing, do not miss it — we are captive to their tantrums, at least for the moment. Economist Bob Reich calls our current congressional agreement a cease fire, describing the GOP’s dogged determination to carry on their war against modernity, populism and all things Obama. From what I read, we can trust that to be true.
Religious zealot and lawmaker Michele Bachmann has indicated that she finds the reopening of government “a very sad day,” presumably because the GOP got so little out of the bargain, but given her recent remarks and past record, we can assume she’s actually disappointed that Jesus isn’t presiding over Congress accompanied by a bevy of sword-wielding archangels smiting godless liberals.
Former House-speaker Tom Delay — recently of Dancing With The Stars fame, his sentence for money laundering during the Bush years overturned by a Texas Appellate Court — weighed in with an attempt to put an end to battles within the party regarding Texas Senator Ted Cruz, announcing that “real Americans” consider Cruz and the stalwart Baggers in the House of Representatives to be heroes.
“When you’re in a fight, people just don’t like the fight, so they’re going to respond negatively… It’s who wins and comes out of the fight that has long-lasting effects. And I got to tell you right now, out here in the real world, outside of New York and Washington, D.C., these people think Ted Cruz is a hero. They think that those Republicans in the House are heroes. And they think that Obama is destroying this country.”
That’s the problem with purists. Tone-deaf, they only listen to one another. Their insistence that all American people are just like them can be effortlessly refuted by the statistics, but they don’t choose to review them, hence their reputation for delusion (and their annoying habit of suggesting they speak for us all). The meme of moment on the right is that they would have won this congressional fight if the liberal media had fairly portrayed their cause to the public.
The attempt to burn down the village rather than allow it to be ‘corrupted’ by Obamacare shows their deep embrace of an alternate reality that is a mix of Libertarian detachment and End Times rhetoric, buoyed by Koch brothers money and spiked with the white exceptionalism favored by followers of John Birch. It’s as if all the lowest common denominators converged to pull us down into ruin.
Satirist Andy Borowitz did a riff on that burgeoning carbuncle of nihilism in the New Yorker:
Explaining his proposal to a visibly alarmed Crowley, Senator Cruz said, “Obamacare is like a parasite that needs a host to feed on. If you want to kill the parasite you kill the host, and in this case that means killing this planet. As long as there’s a planet Earth, the nightmare of Obamacare could always come screaming back to life.”
While he was not specific about how he would go about destroying the planet, Cruz said, “This is something that my colleagues and I have been working on for some time.”
Can all the “real Americans” out there shout AMEN? It would do little good to argue that the very concept of a typical American prototype is so antithetical to the principles of this diverse nation that it’s laughable, yet the appeal of such a shallow standard can’t be denied among those who quiver like a rung gong at the suggestion of — buzzword alert! — “leadership.”
“Ted Cruz is a leader,” Tom DeLay declared. “People in this country for years have been begging for leadership, and Ted Cruz filled the void of leadership.”
Much as they insist they have an accurate finger on the pulse of all Americans, another annoying Republican talking point has been that there is no leadership in Washington. Being on the progressive end of the teeter-totter, critical of national policy I consider authoritarian if not unconstitutional, I can understand why that might play with the right-leaning population, but to centrists — the majority of this nation, who don’t believe that Obama has waffled from trying to do what he promised — his leadership has been both consistent and measured, if not overtly productive.
Frankly, he could be Stormin’ Norman Schwarzkopf, hero of an earlier generation, and he still wouldn’t show up on the Republican radar as anything but a fraction of a citizen, unworthy of the presidency. No one on the liberal left (which conservatives deem an emotional aberration) has leadership qualities, especially the black guy who isn’t an actual American, although apparently a Canadian-born politician of Latin heritage is A.O.K.
And on that topic, I will confess to an uneasy feeling of revulsion whenever I hear or see Ted Cruz speak. In fact, the first time I heard his voice, the vibration set off my Bullshit-o-Meter to the point of hackle-rising and I had to run to the TV to see the pouty, choir-boy face that went with it.
I remember blogging, tongue in cheek, regarding allegations that George W. was the antichrist years back, suggesting that such a slick customer could not reside in the consciousness of a bumbling little man infamous for Bushisms like “putting food on your family” and allowing your gynecologist to “show his love.” I argued that Uncle Dick Cheney was more the sort, heart as calcified as an olive pit.
But now, here comes a glib, posturing huckster of a politician that more than meets those oily prerequisites, and the faithful don’t even notice. I suppose being blindsided is the whole point, though. Given the faux-Christianity practiced almost exclusively in the United States these days — although we must not discount ongoing damage done by repressive missionaries, especially in Africa — the Christ/antichrist question is really what all the fuss is about, from my point of view.
Having promoted the punishing, judgmental patriarchal prototype of godhood from antiquity to overrule the more compassionate persona revealed through Jeshua bin Joseph, some of us are allowing a (returned) Christ-spirit to grow within our consciousness while others of us are behaving as would the antichrist, seeking to mask our intent, manipulate with fear, and dominate without remorse. We become the vision we follow, we magnify what we fear.
I can’t say too often that I agree with those who say we need a new version of God/dess, a new understanding of how that mythos operates in our lives, because it cannot help but define us. That traditionally expresses as the thing outside of us from which we seek approval and assistance and even when we drop religion like a hot rock, we can’t shake the notion that something out there has power over us. That is where we find a dovetail to the “leadership” talking point, loosely translated as the rule book to which all things must conform. Leadership, both political and religious, equates to being told what to do, what to want, what to believe by those who are “worthy” (or have convinced us that they are).
The faithful are looking for something to be given to them, questioning their own worthiness while all the while projecting, politically, the liberals — along with the poor that Jesus loved so dearly — as undeserving “takers.” How can they fail to notice that this right-leaning rhetoric doesn’t reflect well on the very essence of Christianity? A recent op/ed in our little bitty newspaper repeated a sign on one of the local churches: Go “right” or get “left” behind. Made me fighting mad, but how do you fight that kind of ignorance? I’d have had to fight an entire congregation AND a political party and they STILL wouldn’t have gotten the point.
There is little virtue or growth in being told what to do and doing it for fear of everlasting damnation, but there is plenty of empowerment in learning to hear our own ego-speak, in finding the courage to battle fearful thoughts and projections, in learning to examine our internal dialogue and trust our instincts. As we carve away those attitudes that impede our authentic growth, we step into the worthiness that eludes so many today, the lack of which is the cause of so much sorrow. And as we surrender all that has blocked our access to Spirit, we become miracle workers.
Allow me a segue: I’ve seen a few miracles in my time. I’ve gone hunting them. Back in the 1970s, I was given to understand that miracle energy — that which ACIM calls a “change in perception” — occurred when the vibratory rate supported it. Those who meditated and practiced a vital connection with Source were seen to influence events, refining their ability to achieve what we would call the miraculous. I’ve witnessed people sitting Samadhi change the course of dire circumstance and/or illness.
Traditional churches that do not allow for individual alignment with higher power, however, require the whole of a congregation, believing in tandem and raising a collective energy field, in order to feel that touch of the miraculous. I’ve been to extraordinary tent meetings, auditoriums full of hand-raising, praise-shouting healing sessions in which one could literally feel the sparks of Spirit in the ethers, tickling the hair on your arms like a restless wind. That — and the advent of 24/7 cable TV programming — was how the evangelical movement gained, and held, power.
When we experience such an event — led by a charismatic leader, and attributed to something outside of ourselves that demands a particular belief system — we often stop looking for the portion of that magnificence that lies within us. The fundamentalist religious community is vibrating at a particular rate common to themselves, awaiting their leaders to tell them which Bible verse to read or what Jesus said about this or that, yet they do not take responsibility for their own revelation, for the elevated consciousness of Christedness that resides within them begging to be born and nurtured. They have been trained not to trust their own desires, as born sinners. They have been convinced they are unworthy of the power within them.
That Christed energy which is universal consciousness is not dependent upon a religious philosophy, but rather a willingness to practice compassion, forgiveness and unconditional love in all things: political, religious, scientific, artistic, economic. All things! This energy cannot unfold in a closed, guarded mind-set but will easily bloom to an open, unthreatened one.
Much like our current politics, the fatal flaw in fundamentalism is that it creates an either/or tension that is neither productive nor realistic, and must eventually be found wanting. But meanwhile, it gives the Great Mystery that encompasses all of creation a very bad name, making those who aren’t willing to accept its man-made tyranny of rigid thinking left to cynicism and faithlessness. Read that baby, bathwater, yadda — keeping us from opening to a genuine experience of Spirit that quietly steals our breath at its beauty, that quickens our heartbeat in its presence and forever changes the magnetic makeup of our personal essence and our planetary future.
In the last decades we’ve endured a kind of hallucination about why we’re here on the planet, coinciding with the end of an era. There have always been movers and shakers, elitists and racists, those willing to throw anyone under the bus to get ahead, but in these last years when fundamental religion and naked corporatism have joined hands, the options that allowed for a middle ground experience — some might call it a middle class — have declined to the place where our inability to get our needs met has turned many of us to either lethargy or desperation.
If Darwin was right and only the strong survive, then the process going on right now — in religion, in politics, in social consciousness — is a fight between exploitation of the weak for power and profit versus the commonality that allows us all to have a place at the table and a share in the future. Overcoming the smaller vision requires individual responsibility of a different nature than that proposed by our Libertarian friends, who see responsibility to self in the meager terms defined by Ayn Rand, or those of literal Christianists, bound by a philosophical interpretation that grants them exceptionalism and implied safety based on their obedience to unquestioned dogma.
While this “wake up game” is hardly a new experiment here on planet Terra, it has reached a fever pitch, coming at a time when critical decisions must be made for the continuance of the species. The channelers tell us that we’ve made more progress than we think, that the outcome is assured and would be hastened if only we would stop focusing on all that’s wrong and attend to all that’s right. Perhaps it’s so.
Perhaps we’re unable to see the forest for the trees. Climate change is no longer at question, neither is the obvious link to pollutants and environmental toxins. There is every indication that if the people themselves had their way, corporations would have to radically change their ways and the marketplace would have to adjust.
Those who use religion as a seat of power and control are quaking in their boots, thanks to the new Franciscan Pope whose populism and humility might even rescue Christianity’s reputation in this century, and the tumble of Republican influence on all but those few rural strongholds, mostly elder, who are ruled by the inevitable passage of time and tide.
There is every indication that the consciousness of this world is begging to push forward into a better version of itself, birthing a new thing from the ashes of the old, but those few individuals keep pulling us back into the warfare of competing belief systems, strategically placed and backed by the dark energies — as Eric pronounced them — of superstition, fear, conflict and deception. But where once that front was solid, now it’s more like Swiss cheese, asking onlookers not to notice the many glimpses of Light peeking through.
No matter what our political inclination, we need to reframe our efforts from internal warfare to remediation of all that is unfair, unwieldy, unworkable rather than a competition with opposing elements. We need to acknowledge the spark of Spirit in all religions while modeling tolerance and lovingness as the larger portion of our own. We need to view our brothers and sisters through the collective lens of family, of non-separation.
We need to cover — as was recently suggested for the conflicted Mr. Boehner — all those with whom we have differences, no matter how severe, with loving Light and compassion because that has the capacity to lift their consciousness into a new understanding of self and purpose. There is another name for that: miracle. We can author that with our collective intent and mindfulness.
If we are to bring peace into our world, we know it is not so much about a cessation of warring as it is about an embrace of peaceful intent, while competition always brings us back to who is “best,” who “wins” and who is a “loser.” Yet A Course In Miracles tells us that the Universe of which we are each an integral part supports only win/win scenarios for all of us.
That is how beloved we are to the divine, that is what love requires from each of us in return. Anything that does not bless all parties in any transaction is an illusion which we must not give our power to, nor support with our fears. Anything else is the nihilism that we are seeing all around us, pretending that austerity and fierceness are the true way of the world. To prove it wrong is the miracle awaiting us, and the most loving thing we can do.
Trust your digestion has improved, be dear, and that the reality of that is not too stressful — thanks for a recap of the Jupiter/Saturn dance [expansion/contraction.] The business of growth often seems to include a few steps forward, then at least one back, if not more. Progress has not … has NEVER … followed a straight line forward, no matter how hard we try to make that happen. But yes, I do believe we’re getting there, slow but sure, especially staring down these cautionary tales all around and getting a good, sobering look at ourselves!
Sounds like you’ve charted your course, Salamander, and all I’d add is agreement that YOU are the person who will create an energy field open enough to draw others with like mind, and that would certainly be useful to you. We meet ourselves, wherever we go. As you find your way forward in your career, keep an eye on the political issues that need your support and encouragement and keep faithful to them. These things only change as we PRESSURE them to change and that requires our constancy. By the time you feel ready to take on a more political persona, then, perhaps enough will have changed to make us all a little more comfortable with reality.
Oh, and the Dems? They’ve been losing steam since Jimmy Carter got whupped. I know they don’t seem able to give the progressive wing of the party much of what it wants — or support the country in what it needs, in my view — but they’ve also been cleaning up messes made by Republicans cycle after cycle for generations, seldom able to move the ball too far ahead and losing ground, unable to keep hold of their own center; somewhere far to the left of their current position, now.
Bill Clinton didn’t help, with NAFTA, revisions to welfare and the end to Glass-Stegal, so don’t blame the latest crew of lefty’s for our situation: we came by it honestly and over the years, always a bit timid in the face of the kind of zealotry the Pubs have shown themselves comfortable with and too eager to nail down a pay check.
Welcome, Amnesian.M. I’m glad you found something here that helps. You won’t stumble over much dogma here at Planet Waves, a very diverse community that includes many spiritual disciplines and philosophy’s. And we try not to make life harder than it needs to be, if you know what I mean!
Gosh, Marymack, big questions. I’m putting together a list of links and whatnot for next weeks piece, looking at some of the alternative movements. There are lots of little cultural and political experiments going on in this nation and they are giving us an opportunity to see how things could go differently — then it will be up to us to back those that capture our imagination. That really IS the definition of evolvement … changing our minds and opening to a finer, more effective model. Once we have a really great idea, we can grow it until it easily crowds out an older version. Alternative energy is doing that now, even though we don’t hear much about it due to the lobbying money that snuffs out news of its growth, but it’ll get there one of these days. Solar is doing especially well.
As for ACIM, it depends on what your retreat will demand of you, Mary. If it is somewhat solitary, I’d suggest that you find some of the books by Marianne Williamson — A Return To Love is a good one — and read about how ACIM works in a persons life. Williamson is very inspirational and give lots of ideas to try on. That would be a gentle first step.
Course, itself, CAN be done alone — although I believe it’s better experienced within a group, especially at the start, so you can chew on the concepts and share ideas. It is also a process that is experiential, in that one is asked to USE the daily affirmations with others in order to flex some spiritual muscle and get a clear picture of the way Course asks us to move through the world. Finding out about it is good for a retreat — using it, and committing to a years affirmation, is better for a more normalized situation.
Essentially, ACIM is a method of breaking the hypnosis of our culturization, beginning to remediate our separation from one another and God, and teaching the practice of radical love and forgiveness; you can see how it might help to have plenty of others around for such an experiment. On the other hand, I would never tell you NOT to begin working with the material, no matter the circumstance — I’ve been at it for over 35 years and I’m just getting started.
Thanks for the comments, Yeti and GaryB — and thanks for playing, all of you. Always a joy to blend some energy on this level. Make a grand week for yourselves!
@nilou
You’re right that the people I meet change depending on the way I shift my thinking. Even with the people I already know, it’s as if different parts of themselves started to manifest.
@Judith Gayle
Thank you for your comments. Indeed, I feel unease with the political system as it is, it’s not very satisfactory. After being offended by the decisions of the Democratic Party between 2006 and 2010, I voted for the Green Party in 2010 and 2012. The Green Party has candidates who don’t take corporate contributions (it’s a rule in their party). But of course, the media rarely pays attention to them, most people aren’t ready to vote for them, and the electoral system is structured in such a way that it doesn’t make room for multiple parties.
I agree more with the ideas of the Green Party than the Democratic Party, but I know that the Pluto in Virgo generation is pretty conservative, so I can only expect so much from them. So I’m voting for the Democratic Party until the Pluto in Libra generation is in power. And then despite everything, the Democratic Party stands for a few things that will ensure my survival. The Tea Party is absolutely against my interests.
Indeed, in many countries such as Tunisia and France, there is tension between people who advocate the old, and people pushing for the new. And yes, I did notice that evangelical Christians have more in common with puritanical Muslims than they care to admit.
I am not giving up, but I am being cautious in my pursuits. My family and my community support my desire to be a natural scientist.
When it comes to politics however, I know I live in an area where people are cautious about change due to the shutdowns of 1995 and 2013. I understand this, but I hope I can bring about necessary reforms while keeping in mind that people have different ways of being.
But I have to wait until I am much older. In my previous lifetime in the 16th century, my rise to power was way too premature, and it was ultimately my downfall. I am not surprised why I’m facing certain challenges in this lifetime such as dealing with a tight Sun square Saturn aspect making sure that every single position I attain in life was hard-earned.
Dear Judith,
In the midst of all this crazy, your piece is a balm that I will read and re-read again. thank you for the clarity and language that points us all forward.
A couple of things, if it’s OK here … I’m a life-long campaign-type worker, grew up in a Red family-neighborhood and found my way to blue dogs and now somewhere without a label, perhaps libertarian … but maybe not. Anyway, rather than get hung up on labels, I wanted to ask you to throw in on where one might go to invest energy in changing our election system, as you described so beautifully, one (wo)man/one vote, airwaves are ours to support the election system, corporations no longer running the show. Ideas?
Also, I am headed to a retreat for, perhaps, months and thinking this might be the perfect time to both knit and read ACIM. Is this a DIY process, would you say?
thank you again for this piece. I will re-read and let it truth wash over me and cleanse me.
mmary
Holy Smokes I’ve been blow’n away! I’m 22 years old and feel SO strongly about what this article means, yet I have hardly had enough time on Earth to learn the vocabulary of this cold political game. A departure from dogma and preaching is the very thing that will help me gain my center on these sore points of society and self.
Thanks Judith,as always,for pointing out the glimpse of sunshine through the clouds. However, as founder of the National Olive Pit Endeavor NOPE (currently hijacked) I object to any reference that would associate our organization with the antichrist dick. Thank you.
Perhaps an example of the Saturn-Jupiter alchemy to consider would help. Jude, you mention the shift that took place 10 months ago on 12/21/12. That Winter Solstice chart had Saturn at 8+ Scorpio and quincunx (150 degrees) Jupiter at 8+ Gemini. The quincunx aspect puts two planets into a situation where they have nothing in common; not element (here we have Saturn in Water and Jupiter in Air), nor mode (Saturn in Fixed mode, Jupiter in Mutable mode) nor gender or receptivity (Saturn in Feminine sign, Jupiter in Masculine sign). This causes tension between the planets and requires adjustment between them.
On 12/21/12 Pluto was at 8+ Capricorn (also a feminine sign but Cardinal and in Earth) and sextile Saturn and also quincunx Jupiter. Combined, the three planets (one outer and two cultural or middle) created a Yod pattern, putting double pressure for adjusting on Jupiter. The U.S. Sibly chart has Uranus at 8+ Gemini and Uranus relies on shock as a means for breaking through. If Jupiter’s job is to expand and blend (among other things) then being conjunct Uranus in the U.S. chart could manifest as a government shutdown (among other things).
With Pluto sextile Saturn, a relatively easy (compared to a square) transformative energy is passed from Pluto to Saturn, and if Saturn = Republican Party, then the “spectacularly self-destructive” situation we presently see happening to this party could be (one of) the manifestation of the shift that was indicated 10 months ago. Still, it is Jupiter (= Democratic Party) in the position to make major adjustment, as required of a double quincunx.
The Yod pattern would bring on the crisis and the need to act. With Jupiter (conjunct the U.S. Uranus) at the apex of the yod (the point), it would be the Democratic Party’s job to “shift” or adjust as suggested in the 12/21/12 chart. Think debt ceiling and sequester among other things as manifestation of this pattern. This pattern would repeat in March 2013 (see Spring Equinox chart) but without the U.S. Uranus involvement and would be spread out over “time”.
By the Summer Solstice the aspect between Saturn and Jupiter was nearing a trine (shared element of water) which would then join forces in a grand trine with Neptune and Chiron in Pisces, spread over “time”, through to the Fall Equinox in September. Little bites, some nutritious, some not, some digestible, some not, moving the process of evolution along.
The Fall Equinox (chart), now in force until the next Winter Solstice in December, would explore the relationships between the Jupiter, Saturn aspects with inner planets, primarily the Moon and Venus. Whatever the outer (universal) planets symbolically exchanged between the middle/societal planets (Jupiter/Saturn), is now filtering down to the personal level of consciousness. Most of that comes through the form(s) of family/home (Moon in Taurus) and values/$$ (Venus in Scorpio) and this too inches us along the evolutionary path. Imperceptible as it may be, we really are making progress.
be
If Jupiter is code for expand and blend, and Saturn is code for concentrate and solidify in astrologese, (as numbers are for math and colors are for sight) then look at U.S. politics in government speak as Jupiter = Democrat and Saturn = Republican in this particular era. These two planets are individual yet each is 1/2 of a whole; their cycle begins with a conjunction and ends with a new conjunction and is repeated ad nauseam throughout time.
Time being the operative word, is a concept of the 3rd dimension we have all been living in (through). It allows comprehension in (relative) small bites which provides easier digestion of the whole. What we digest should be nutritious as well as digestible, and time is a tool for honing (Saturn) the knowledge (Jupiter) of what can be digested as well as being nutritious. Time is also the tool to explore what is digestible but not nutritious, whereupon Saturn can reject it and Jupiter can learn from it.
Even with the tool of Time, sometimes the bites we take are too big and get stuck or if they get this far, they can make us sick to our stomachs. And even if they are good for us, they get rejected (puked up you might say). And so it is with U.S. politics.
A single Jupiter-Saturn cycle takes about 20 years to complete and so-many cycles make up a grander cycle and this grander cycle (in Time) is determined by element. So many 20 year cycles in earth signs, then a new grander cycle begins in air signs, and so on. We are just past half-way through the last 20 year cycle in Earth (tangible reality) and on our way to begin a new 20 year cycle in an air sign which will begin the new grander cycle in Air (Communicate). Our time is just a pin-point in Time; just a speck, albeit an important speck or pin-point in Evolution.
It helps to understand this cycle business when dealing with our thoughts and feelings on personal levels as well as societal-cultural levels. We are expanding and contracting, digesting and puking up, in order to move along (in Time) the process of evolution. This Saturn-Jupiter cycle is a mid-point between the personal (inner) planets and their cycles, and the outer (universal) planets and their cycles. The Jupiter-Saturn part of the process picks up stuff from the outer (universal) planets and incorporates it. Then it distills it (to a certain point) and releases it to the personal (inner) planets. It works in reverse too; inner to middle to outer.
I want to thank you Jude, as always for your way of seeing things, but also thanks to your readers who have commented as they too help me see where we are as a whole in the process. At the moment I’m recouping from a too-big bite of a nutritious but not easily digested personal pin-point in time. I know the drill though. Puke it up and take it in smaller bites and it will be good for me in the long run. Keep your eye on Jupiter and Saturn; where they are within their own cycle, who they are communicating (aspecting) with and what their present (and future) sign tells you about how well they expand – blend -solidify – concentrate, and it will prepare you for the phase you (we, all of us together) experience as we evolve.
be
Ted Cruz: I’ve never seen video of him or heard him speak, but I got the same read on him just from seeing his picture on Planetwaves. His face was so disturbing I just wanted to scroll past it. How could anyone trust this creature?
This is a politically unsatisfying time for all of us, Salamander, our heart’s not reflected in most of what we see around us. This is, IMHO, a healing crisis, the dis-ease spiritual and the miracle needed is human evolution. That typically occurs slowly, one person at a time but the miracles I’m pointing to today CAN behave like points of evolution, changing everything in an eye-blink, Hundredth Monkey-like, although that requires the whole of our attention and intent to open to inspiration, not close ourselves in self-protection. It also requires the evolution of our understanding of authority, i.e., God/dess or whatever we consider to be the origin of All That Is. The Bible tells us that God created man[kind] in His image. Seems to me just lately we’ve created God in ours, more’s the pity, and we’re using Him to mask our ambitions and justify our fears.
Our politics — even the mess we’re looking at now — reflects us, our thought and value systems, badly in need of repair. That isn’t just here in this nation, it’s across the globe. Who would have thought we’d be wrestling questions of modernity, much as we find in Africa and the Mid-east? Who would have thought we’d come within a hairs breadth of electing a woman president and yet pass laws limiting her access to birth control and family planning? Who would have thought the most scientifically innovative nation in the world would be the one to halt the necessary research and development, decline the oversight and regulation, that would bring climate change into balance? We have more in common with repressive, unenlightened humanity than we think we do.
Again, reflecting our own worship of the almighty buck, as long as politics is driven by money and lobbying, we will remain unsatisfied with the process. Imagine a public funded campaign scenario, the airwaves once considered the property of the people providing equal time for all candidates to explain their position. Imagine politicians not influenced by the need for huge donations or beholden to corporate entities, able to articulate a political vision not channeled through the filters of privileged doners.
If we truly CAN imagine such a system, value it and support it, we can have it but it will take the majority of us, and for some — those who work within the current system and, as you mention, Salamander, don’t trust change — that would be biting the hand that feeds it. That’s just one example of where our clarity of thought becomes schizophrenic and sends a mixed message to the Universe, which supports our manifestation based on our feeling-infused thought system.
Yes, the Dems are such creatures, as well, but they do at least value the things most progressives hold dear, even if they don’t think them possible in this political system. Changing the system seems entirely too frightening, I guess — but since the Pluto/Uranus energies are shaking the systems down to their very foundation, change is inevitable. The channelers say that as that happens, leaders will step up — perhaps one day you’ll be one of them.
I also think that — 10 months in — we’ve forgotten that we took a Shift not long ago that changed everything. We lost a good many of our absolutes, collapsing our old paradigm notions without replacing them and leaving us feeling vulnerable. So many of us were expecting some kind of Disney’esque changes on 12/21/12 that we can’t help but be disappointed that we got chaos instead — much like those of us who thought Obama a hard-left’er find him more Clinton’esque, moderate and triangulating. But chaos is the inevitable residue of crumbling systems and if the spiritual sites are to be believed, we now have our fate in our OWN hands, those seeking control of us no longer as empowered as they once were and the process of democracy awaiting our collective activism to shift it — hopefully — upward, into a new design. You may well represent the new designers, Salamander, so please do not be discouraged with the process — it needs your enthusiasm and sensibilities.
Thank you, nilou, for your suggestions and advice. I especially appreciate your mention of resonance, which is how we draw to us those with whom we have mutuality. This is where we can test, learn and reflect our truth. There are others out there who do not — will not — find commonality in our point of view and, Salamander, that requires only a smile, a nod of the head and a Namaste [the Divine in me beholds the Divine in you] to show respect. We are not here to convince everyone that we are right. We are here to try on that point of view, wear it with love, compassion and harmlessness and see if it fits for the long run. If not, we are free to evolve it into a fresh new understanding … again and again … as directed by our Source and inner wisdom. That is how we polish our Soul.
Ahhh, I thank you and bless you back, DivaCarla. A resonant Namaste, for sure!
Salamander, thank you for your response. With the clarity, focus and sense of purpose your writing reflects and the care and concern you show for those around you, all I can think to add is ‘lots of love to your elbows’! Just keep on keeping on! Also, my experience suggests that when you articulate a point of view that resonates with others even if you don’t know who or where they are, eventually, they will find you and you them; and whilst you can send love and light to all there are more effective and joy-filled ways of spending your days than battling Titans! And trust good luck! all best, nilou
@nilou
Thank you for the suggestions. I do have areas of common ground with people in my community. Where I live, it is acceptable for a woman such as myself to pursue any career she wishes to do. Where I live, working for government is seen as a good thing as well, especially since I can adequately describe the greatness of the work I want to do. Where I live, it is possible to get a government job in the natural sciences, even if I wish opportunities were more abundant than they are now. Where I live, there is an adequate social safety net for people who need help to get through a rough period, and for people to afford the basics of life (affordable public universities, expanded medicaid etc.). Both my community and my family support my desire to be a natural scientist.
However, I am concerned about the industries the State I live in tends to attract, such as the biotech industry (which thrives on the patenting of life) and defense contractors (which pushes for war as the first choice, rather than the last). Also I think more caution is needed regarding contracting, considering that there is less accountability, and it costs more to taxpayers than government work.
I think it’s acceptable for government workers to purchase scientific instruments and lab glassware from private companies, I have no problem with that. But I think military plane production should be in the government sector, due to the numerous instances of unaccountability and ineffectiveness of defense contractors.
I think the military is an institution that helps people develop spine and assertiveness, but I think war should be a last resort instead of a first resort.
I am not pursuing politics right away, I feel like pursuing politics would be an individual act in disharmony with my family (only my mother would support me on this), and my community (while I live in a liberal state, things tend to move slowly because people are cautious around any change. I myself feel the need to be cautious. I understand how the government shutdowns of 1995 and 2013 make people careful about the implementation of any change).
My concern right now is how to look out for my interests, which I have narrowed down to three, while harmonizing my interests with the public interest as much as possible.
My priority right now is to get a meaningful job, and get the professional experience I need to help people come up with sensible policies around the environment when I am much older. I’m aware that the type of profession I do influences my way of thinking, and I want to help deal with water quality and water quantity issues to the best of my ability.
I also need to develop more knowledge about the economic system in order to come up with a viable alternative that is more in harmony with human behavior and the environment than the current system. But I know I may face significant amounts of detractors there (from people who were taught to believe in capitalism to people who make money off the stock market etc.).
Judith, you are a goddess.
Judith: Thank you reaffirming the value of ‘the miracle’. I think it is perhaps time for us all to envision some new models and modes of leadership.
Salamander: Thank you for your comment, and especially your questions. If none of the parties out there are able to represent you, perhaps you should start your own? Perhaps, also the idea of ‘thinking globally and acting locally’ may be helpful, especially if you think of ‘locally’ in the first instance, as yourself; then maybe you could consider finding and/or building/creating networks of the like-minded and like-hearted.
I think the Democratic Party squandered their chances between 2006 and 2010 by supporting right-wing policies such as bank bailouts, and bashing the left-leaning members of the party. This provided a vacuum for the Tea Party to fill in 2010, sadly.
While moderate republicans (ie 1970 Nixonians) are entering the Democratic Party, where can the old-time democrats from the time of FDR go? The Democratic Party makes it difficult for left-leaning candidates to win primaries, and of course, they block ballot access for third party candidates, especially the Green Party candidates. And then there is a winner take all system instead of instant runoff voting in most jurisdictions…
I was glad to see the Democratic Party stand up for government, I need a political party who can respect the work I want to do. But just when the shutdown ended, Obama now proposed a reduction in corporate taxes (as if corporations barely paid taxes already) and a reduction in funding social programs. Is he appeasing the Tea Party Republicans again, or is he just doing the bidding of the corporations who fund his campaign, or is he just following his convictions, considering that he admires Reagan and George Bush I? George Bush I scares me more than George Bush II because he implemented a globalized economy that promotes a social and ecological race to the bottom. As a result, countries do not have the freedom to come up with an economic system that does not require a stock market (especially since nowadays, currencies are sadly dependent on stock market fluctuations).
George Bush II’s presidency, however, unintentionally exposed the corruption that existed in the political system all along. It has been there before him, and it’ll be here after him. It was difficult to come to terms with this during my adolescence, but I know it’s reality.
I’m going to be honest, I feel lost. I admit that so long as the Pluto in Virgo generation (which includes people like Eric Cantor and Barack Obama) is in power, the Green Party doesn’t stand a chance. But if the Democratic Party keeps on throwing social programs under the bus in favor of more corporatism, can I honestly vote for them with a conscience? Obviously, I’d never vote for the Republican Party, for their treasonous ways, and their contempt against the natural sciences are apparent. But I am really on the fence regarding the Democratic Party.
Ok, I am convinced the Democratic Party supports the idea that women and minorities can succeed in America (the Republican Party wants women to be in the home. As a packed 10th houser with Sagittarius planets, I cannot live like that), and the Democratic Party believes in having programs of war and programs of peace at the same time. The shutdown proved that the Democratic Party respects the USGS and NOAA more than the Republican Party does, and I need politicians who can support the career I have.
However, I am not sure if the Democratic Party still supports programs like Social Security. On the State level, I am convinced the Democratic Party supports social programs, but at the federal level, I am not sure it really does.
How do I heal in the face of all of this? How do I reach out to others with different points of view? How do I demand respect for my point of view while honoring other points of view? Sometimes, people do not meet me halfway.