By Judith Gayle | Political Waves
It’s been a hectic week politically, what with the minority party unified in chiseling its newest ‘cliff’ to send us over. Indeed, they’re almost gleeful in their refusal to raise the debt ceiling which would allow the US to pay bills it has already incurred. Talk of shutting down government has put politicos on high alert, re-thinking Obama’s options, which include minting a platinum trillion-dollar commemorative coin to cover the debt or simply paying out what’s owed, relying on stipulations of the Fourteenth Amendment’s directive that “the validity of the public debt of the United States … shall not be questioned.”
Understanding the utter chaos Pubs have in mind for America unless Obama hands over more money meant for public welfare in exchange for their cooperation, the lefties seem willing to embrace these non-traditional options, with Krugman urging the former and Pelosi approving the latter. The reality of a governing system too stuck to wiggle has finally sent us looking elsewhere for ways to break the loggerhead.
It turns out that 2012 gave us, according to a recent study, the most unproductive congress in history. Ever. (As well as the hottest year on record but neither is a surprise, I think.) Playing hurry-up-and-wait, Harry Reid has had to deal with 386 filibusters of proposed legislation. Those weren’t fully realized procedures, of course. Nobody took the podium, as Bernie Sanders did last year. They were merely threats to lock down the floor with obstruction, but they served the same purpose. One peevish politician is able to put the good of an entire nation — indeed, the well-being of over 300 million Americans — on hold indefinitely, and they do so regularly. (You can support the movement to fix the filibuster rule here.)
And now, here comes a New Moon in Capricorn, linking arms with some very powerful friends, all with the capacity to give us a harsh glimpse of the stripped gears and locked clockworks of this faltering system. Nobody blink. This is a new beginning in a new year in a new era — all in the no-nonsense sign of government, systems and authority. A New Moon echoing with the past while carving itself into the future.
We can agree that this is not yer great-grampa’s U.S. of A. No, not even yer grampa’s. It’s several levels more sophisticated and complex, head and shoulders more advanced in directing the unwashed hordes with a continual barrage of spin and hogwash based not on fact, but truthiness and cynicism. We’re more technologically advanced and more ethically challenged. Our populous is less well-read and more superstitious than in Grampa’s day, questioning the validity of science and the superiority of formal education. I suspect Teddy Roosevelt would have no trouble recognizing the big money and corporate influence that drives all this, or the lobbyists that own our political process.
Yes, the week was full, marked by musical chairs in the administration and flu symptoms across the nation. It was hard to know which story to track first: the largely manufactured deficit problem (that nobody worried about when Dubby and the neocons ruled the world) or the turf-war over guns. Here in the Pea Patch that sounded like a buzz of hysteria as persistent as a mosquitoes whine. Obama’s determination that the availability of assault weapons not be forgotten in the wake of Newtown pushed the gun control question into hyperdrive.
With the Vice-President in charge of an exploratory task-force on gun violence, Joe managed to really stir the pot. As the fates would have it, even while he met with the press to report on a contentious meeting with the NRA and other gun enthusiasts, reports of a new shooting at California’s Taft Junior High School broke, hitting the CNN tickertape at the bottom of the screen. Old story, different players: a sixteen-year old brought a shotgun to school, determined to deal with those who had bullied him in the past, and shot one, wounded others. Known to the school district, the kid had a history — and a hit list that the authorities had known about for years. Luckily, this time no one died; at least so far. The pro-gun lobby immediately distanced themselves from the situation.
I’d like to take a moment to offer a hearty “atta-boy!” to Piers Morgan, Larry King’s late-night replacement on CNN. King was famously temperate, keeping his opinions to himself. Morgan, not so much. He’s British, his background isn’t squeaky clean, he’s often annoying, and his full-throated disparagement of American gun laws and disapproval of radical NRA rhetoric have gotten him an abundance of vitriol. Alex “Tinfoil Hat” Jones spearheaded a movement, gathering hundreds of thousands of signatures for a White House petition to have Morgan deported. Rather than duck the question of gun control, Morgan went after it with a vengeance, inviting policy makers and gun advocates to the discussion.
Perhaps you saw that remarkable clip which has gone viral around the intertubes in an absurd moment of high paranoia and overkill. Was the specter of long-gone Charlton Heston looming over Jones’s shoulder, defying us to pull the weapon from his “cold dead hands” as he defended his constitutional right to bear arms? Those of us who dabble in Jones’s political material know that his response wasn’t a put-up job, nor was it at Morgan’s insistence. In my opinion, it represents that portion of the public who have lost their center on personal safety and civil liberty, hiding behind an antiquated misinterpretation of the Second Amendment.
Thanks to the First Amendment, you are free to disagree. Alex Jones, who called Morgan a “red coat,” gets his say as well, no matter how overblown. A Florida Atlantic University professor has insisted that the children at Sandy Hook were murdered not by the shooter but by the administration as a ploy to establish gun control. As repugnant as that is, he gets his say too. Responding to the petition to deport, White House press secretary Jay Carney reinforced that truth. “Let’s not let arguments over the Constitution’s Second Amendment violate the spirit of its First,” said he. Somebody has to question private ownership of military ordinance, our sorry lack of oversight over who buys or sells such weapons and/or oversized ammo clips, and the underfunded state of mental health availability for our fragile, often armed, neighbors. It might as well be Morgan, having the edge as a visitor to this country, and in this instance, I’ve got his back.
As a gun owner, I agree with the 74 percent of NRA membership that approves mandatory background checks for all gun purchases and heartily oppose the sale of assault weapons and outsized ammo clips, but here where I live, I’m a voice crying in the wilderness. Obama doesn’t want my neighbors’ hunting rifles, but the NRA spent millions during the last presidential campaign to brainwash the locals into believing that is ALL he wants: a compliant public, unable to defend themselves from his socialist, fascist plans.
Frankly, I’m still surprised that the nation can witness the ‘bullet-riddled bodies of school children’ (a Biden mantra, these last days) and still defend the purchase of a weapon that with legal modifications can deliver up to 900 bullets a minute. But we all know our Second Amendment rights, by golly, and rarely, if ever, think about the billions being made by the weapons industry that plays us all like harps, and the eager palms being greased over at the National Rifle Association. That’s capitalism, they’d tell us, and it’s a pretty good gig, if you follow the money.
This whole Second Amendment conversation is a perfect example of why the two parties are locked in opposition like bloated Sumo wrestlers. As romantic as it sounds, and remake of Red Dawn aside, most people are not making plans to join paramilitary organizations. The militias provided for in the Second Amendment were in lieu of a standing army; indeed, they were first used during Pennsylvania’s Whiskey Rebellion of 1794, in which militia from four states were called upon to establish Federal authority in the collection of taxes on moonshine. That was when the new government became known as “revenewers” and American militias came into service to Federal authority, but even then there was debate over whether the amendment sought to deter tyrannical government or to suppress insurrection.
Let’s make that bigger: there are two separate ways of looking at the world. One seems to rely on violence rather than cooperation. The people who insist on being armed live in a dangerous world, whether literal or figurative. In that world, they chastise, punish and attempt to kill off those things that threaten them, comforting themselves that they have taken individual response against danger and prevailed, fancying themselves superior to fears they have yet to face. Others of us see common threat differently, feel that coming together to promote common defense and welfare can limit and control murderous options that threaten the safety and stability of our neighborhoods. So there’s the question. How dangerous is your world?
Who’s the antagonist in your personal storyline? For instance, do you see the founders’ insistence on separation between church and state as insulating religion from the interference of government, or do you consider that a protection of public policy from the influence of religion? Do you think that government was established to curb your desires and control your ambitions, regulate your personal property and limit your opportunity? Or is it an institution that regulates for the common good, assuring strong infrastructure and broad public domain for the well-being of all citizens.
Clearly, there’s middle ground in the conversation. One could believe in government as an organizing body but consider it out of control and extreme. Perhaps it’s our constitution itself, with its inherent protections, that keeps us always hopeful that progress can be made, democracy can be served. I’m quite sure that is why we are so protective of it as superior to other documents that define governance, at least so far. We are still proving that case.
Yet now, the corrupting influence of big money and erratic, unstoppable violence threaten the nation, and if we get quiet, it should come as no surprise. So long as we use violence to achieve our goals, so long as we believe that vengeance is righteousness and might makes right, we are lost in a debilitating loop of confrontation and competition. The future is not a zero-sum game. It must be a win/win scenario for the world’s people, subject to the climate and sustainability concerns of our global conditions if we are to re-balance ourselves and survive as a species. Money and violence keep us from having that most basic of conversations.
Ultimately, the shadow that falls across the face of government is guilt. Those who would not dare live without their guns, constantly aware of their vulnerability and requiring defense against attack, live in a world of their own making, a place where protection is always necessary. We — all of us — carry the dark guilt of a nation with a long and murderous history in defense of its geopolitical ambitions. We essentially eliminated the inhabitants of this continent to take it from them; we developed economic stability on the backs of the imprisoned; and we continue to strip away both resources and human potential for profit at a savage rate. As we project decades of buried guilt about that onto our neighbor, we will surely find him a very dangerous guy — and we really really need that AK-47.
It seems so obvious to me that what this nation suffers is a mask of pretense behind which we hide our communal guilt. George Bush told us they hated us because of our freedom. How lame is it that ANYONE believed such pap? Even then we knew better, but even now, we can’t talk about it. We need to tell one another the truth.
Guilt is the result of self-judgment, and we project it outside of ourselves rather than own it. Until we accept the fact that our enemies are well-earned, until we are able to forgive ourselves, find our ethical underpinnings and refuse war in favor of peacemaking, our children will continue to suffer institutionalized violence.
We will have to face our shadows — so transparent now, if we will only look without blinking — if we are to put an end to the fear that drives us. We will have to forgive ourselves, and one another, if we are to thrive. We will have to love one another if we are to heal ourselves. First though, we have to lower the mask.
Great stuff Jude. Look forward to your planned articles, especially the one on whistleblowers.
be
Still looming, the question: is government our friend? Some of you don’t think so, and I can’t fault you. For those who find the government frightening in its authority, let me just say that I haven’t always considered government my friend and even today we’re not best buds. BUT I refuse to push it away from myself as something dangerous and threatening, over which I have no influence. Essentially, government is US, and we need to own our part in allowing it to victimize us. As well, it’s up to us to change it. Nobody is coming to the rescue — we’re it. And attacking it won’t do much but put the smallest minds out there on high alert and defense. It’s not minds we need to change, it’s hearts. We need to change the system WITHIN the system, as much as pressure leadership from without. Grassroots is always what works. For instance, it put a stake in the heart of DADT. Grassroots changes at an alchemical level.
Synchronistically, I had thought to focus in another area this week: whistle blowing. There is way too much punitive energy coming out of the Obama Department of Justice on issues dear to progressives hearts — whistle blowing, marijuana, severe prosecutions that seem mean-spirited; plenty more. I truly believe M L King’s supposition, that “the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.” I hear the Prez believes that as well, and sometimes I wonder which of us is the most impatient with that process.
As to the sad news of a brilliant kid offing himself, here’s the greater meaning, Al — it appears to me that Swartz has been turned into the poster child for an antiquated and dangerously open-ended 1986 law called The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, that can be … is … easily abused. Few of us knew about it until now, but this tragedy has even so immovable an institution as MIT backing up, taking a hard look at itself. I doubt that the techy’s will let this topic go without some activism and flag-flying, putting the country on alert.
And — connecting the dots — this leads to another article I have planned on the continuing War on Terror, which needs not just a facelift but a complete makeover. The drones are WOT inspired, Gitmo’s continued presence is as well. Lack of transparency in security areas, assassination lists, yadda. We need to revisit the entire zeitgeist of perpetual, unending war that makes these things not only “necessary” but possible. The WOT is not so much a description of attitude on international policy as a LEGAL description. As long as we remain ‘at war,’ anything goes.
Astrologically, the larger issue is the Pluto/Uranus square, explosive and transformative energy that — like that moral arc — will take its sweet time, but will pick us up and put us down elsewhere. If we want a part in deciding where that will be, we’d better take our duty as citizens very seriously in the coming months, not only contributing our energy but continuing to expand our confidence in, and dedication to, a better future for us all.
Thanks for playing this week, dearhearts — blessed be, each of you.
Judith, you must have read about the Jan 11 suicide of Aaron Swartz by now. I would almost describe that as a case of the US government hounding a political activist to death: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/12/aaron-swartz-heroism-suicide1. Do you see this reflected in astrology? Any greater meaning?
“The Second and Third amendments originated as restrictions on what we would later create and come to call a Military Industrial Complex, a permanent war machine, a federal tool of abusive power.
“The militias of the Second Amendment are meant to protect against federal coercion, popular rebellions, slave revolts, and — no doubt — lunatics who try to mass-murder children.
“The descendants of those militias that we call the National Guard are meant, in contrast, to recruit ill-informed young people who imagine they’ll be rescuing hurricane victims into endless occupations of oil-rich lands far from our shores.
“To comply with the Second Amendment we must end federal control over the National Guard, regulate such state militias and police forces well, regulate their weapons well, and deny such weapons to all others and for any other use.”
http://warisacrime.org/content/wait-just-goddam-second-amendment
Judith, I am always inspired by your insights and ability to express the complexities of illusion with such clarity. Thanks for continuing to bring the Higher awareness to a world that so hungers for your fresh and revealing perspective.
In Grace, Gratitude, and Loving Oneness,
Kyra
Thank you very much Judith for following up with a reply to my personal question. It gives me a feeling and I hope others as well of walking in your shoes, where you and this passion are coming from, so that we may all move along more quickly in this rapid evolution.
I had a dream last night about driving in the dark and constantly wondering whether my headlights were on. Headlight–“denotes logic and reason; a light on the subject. Usually refers to one’s eyes and may be associated with one’s clarity of perception.”- “In Your Dreams” by Mary Summer Rain. This is what you do Judith and it is kicking in for me/us now. Continue on proud Sag/Centaur!
It might be naive to believe the government intends no harm to the citizens. We’ve killed over 50,000 children since 9/11, in the name of security in Iraq and Afghanistan. If the leaders have no qualms about doing such things, a reasonable person might think it’s best to keep a few arms in the house. I don’t believe that people wanting the right to keep arms has anything to do with the gun, symbol or otherwise. Most of us are here because our ancestors fled tyranny and religious persecution. We shouldn’t forget. The Indians were not saints either. We have written records from the Jesuits that detail the capture of my husband’s great grandmother from her tribe. She was made a slave in another tribe, and later adopted. Forgiveness all around, yes, long overdue. But are we there yet? Not hardly. It isn’t just America, it is everyone world-wide. It is every culture. The people I know who are buying guns are not in any kind of militia, but gut instinct is screaming, BEWARE.
Big warm hug to you Jude for sharing your answer from GaryB. I totally get what you’re saying and so appreciate your honesty. Be, thanks to you for your lovely way of tying things together so eloquently.
It’s a joy to come to this site and look forward to finding humanity in so many forms, with hope and healing to help us through some of the darkness.
Many hugs…
You are perfectly imperfect just as you are Jude, especially because of the spew, and I mean it as Joseph Campbell said it in The Power Of Myth. He was speaking of Tonio in Thomas Mann’s Tonio Kroger in a letter Tonio had written about his love of his hometown people.
“And then he says, “the writer must be true to truth.” And that’s a killer, because the only way you can describe a human being truly is by describing his imperfections. The perfect human being in uninteresting – the Buddha who leaves the world, you know. it is the imperfections of life that are lovable. And when the writer sends a dart of the true word, it hurts. But it goes with love. ”
So glad you are seeing the platform too!
be
I’m thinking the wind of change is finally at our back, GaryB. I’m keeping that as my organizing thought for this New Moon and for this new era. When I look around, it’s evident to me that we’ve got more than just a toe-hold now on these necessary changes; we have a platform, as more and more of us reject competition in favor of collaboration. Obviously this is going to require the majority of us to not only recognize the problem but embrace the solutions and those who use guns/money like a narcotic, defining their physical reality and limiting their spiritual potential, will continue to make it difficult. But those of us who accept the old paradigm limitations of being “unable to change anything this big” have missed the gathering energy that is propelling us now. As was given to us in Illusions: Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah, “Argue for your limitations and they’re yours.” Each of us is that powerful!
By the way, kiddo, you’ve been on my mind for awhile now. We left a conversation unfinished, or at least — I did. I never answered a question you posed about how I feel when I write these essays. It was a big question, somewhat personal and defied a short answer, but it has remained with me. So, I’m going to try to be brief with a reply, here (and you know that’s not my style 😉
If you saw my natal chart you’d understand that it’s impossible for me NOT to feel damn near everything, and intensely. I was born ultrasensitive, empathic and an intuitive. In order to make my way through the world, I’ve had to learn how to manage all that emotion, channel it into something productive without hurting myself — and, of course, I learned how to do that BY hurting myself.
As a Sagittarius, I have something of a fail-safe in that Centaurs are just no good at repressing themselves; what they stuff down comes up almost immediately to spew all over their hooves and the shoes of anyone standing nearby. Although it hasn’t always made me the most popular kid in the room, it’s saved me countless times. I’m grateful.
But the feelings remain the same: intense, profound, passionate. We learn by doing, by trying and failing, by sniffing out what doesn’t work. Because I can see that, so clearly, everywhere I look, it’s my calling to point people to it, help them notice and connect those dots … and that’s an amazingly frustrating challenge, since so many choose not to look at all.
I have great enduring frustration that all the suffering around us did not need to happen (although, broadly, perhaps it did) and when I write these essays, it is with intent to prevent whatever sorrow I can by giving the readers’ virtual-shoulders a shake. There is an easier way, all we have to do is choose it. My prayer — and intent — with each essay is to make that evident, and it’s probably no surprise that I ask help from Holy Spirit with each writing.
What I always end up feeling, GaryB — and thanks for asking — is the powerful Vision of what we truly are and all that we must surely, eventually express buried in the burdensome sludge of limited consciousness and emotional repression. Again, I feel it all. It’s mine to do and I’ve learned how without hurting myself, which is why I keep showing up each week.
Thank you, be, for scouting out the trail we’ll take to soften these harsh edges. There was channeling back in the 80’s — the Michael Material — that spoke to soul level in people, nations. We were/are a young nation. The young ones like their rules, they like to feel safe by sticking to them, define themselves by opposing them and they like to paint their circumstance in absolutes. We’re moving beyond that, now, maturing. That natal Uranus of ours must take a leap, too. I’m counting on it. So much, now, does in fact appear “conscious” — and not just for the few. Blessings, as always, on your contribution, enlarging our understanding.
Thanks be,
Well thought out and refreshing! –just like the wind that has shifted from the Sumos wrestling in the hog slop to a fresh ocean breeze!
Giving us a choice between church and state viewpoints, or whether we see government as personally restrictive or providing shared benefits, brings clarity to the problems we Americans have struggled with for a long time Jude. Thank you for that. Comparing Democrats and Republicans to”bloated sumo wrestlers” locked in opposition is not only funny to envision but so dead on. I thank you for that too. But when you say we must face our shadows and forgive ourselves and one another, I defer to the USA’s Sibly birthchart for some understanding of the why and how of that .
There is the Sun square Saturn aspect, the Neptune square Mars aspect, the Pluto opposite Mercury aspect, among others. I can see the “mask” of denial in all three of these examples; they describe parts of the “shadow across the face of government”,and what you call our dark and buried guilt. GaryB wonders if the wind shifts in these new beginnings offer any hope of relief from the duality apparent in your examples and those symbolized in the Sibly chart. Well, there are transits and there are progressions in astrology that offer some opportunities to do so.
The inherent problems this country was “born with” are described in the relationships between symbols just as in our own birthcharts. Right now there is much emphasis on the U.S. Uranus at 8+ Gemini; primarily the transiting Jupiter (understanding, increase) in the long effective winter solstice who is conjunct him . Transiting Jupiter linked to transiting Pluto and Saturn are pushing hard to arouse natal Uranus at the same time progressed U.S. Sun is squaring him. Transiting Chiron is also squaring natal Uranus and all of these “aspects” have different agendas. The thing about Uranus in the US chart is he’s purely mental in his mode of operation. Breaking Through is his stock in trade but when in Gemini he will do it through communication.
Fortunately, this past birthday the U.S had a solar return that has been lending a helping hand; Venus in the solar return chart exactly conjuncts (same degree) the natal US Uranus, and with her power of attraction she is drawing attention to what he represents in the USA. In your paragraph about “who’s your antagonist”, we can see Uranus in the role of those who feel government personally restricts them, for example, in their right to own guns. Uranus demands freedom and shuns any laws that try to (as he sees it) prevent that. Because he is in Gemini (with solar return Venus as translator) he is quite vociferious (and tricky) in stating his “rights”. In the U.S. Sibly chart Ceres at 8 Pisces squares him. She symbolizes the grieving mother and at this time the progressed US Sun (consciousness) and transiting Chiron (learn through pain and heal) join her in Pisces. Picture the sweaty sumo wrestlers here.
Even so, those Americans who see government as a provider of shared benefits opposed to those who feel personally restricted by it seem to have the greatest number, as proven by the re-election of Barack Obama as President. They (and even some among those who wear the mask) are on the side of natal Ceres and progressed Sun and transiting Chiron in Pisces and they seem ready and willing to take on natal Uranus and transiting Jupiter and solar return Venus. In fact it probably will be a lot easier to deal with Jupiter and Venus as they represent a “conscious” level as opposed to the “unconscious” level natal Uranus operates from.
There is hope for change and that love will bring us together; hope that we will face our shadows albeit one at a time, and in so doing eliminate the fears that drive us. Let the healing begin.
be
Brilliant Judith!
Do the winds shift in this “new beginning in a new year in a new era”? or is it a long slog where all they have to do is outlast us?