{"id":54018,"date":"2012-03-03T03:09:53","date_gmt":"2012-03-03T08:09:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=54018"},"modified":"2012-03-03T13:07:52","modified_gmt":"2012-03-03T18:07:52","slug":"the-walrus-politics-in-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/by-judith-gayle-2\/the-walrus-politics-in-america\/","title":{"rendered":"The Walrus: Politics in America"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

It’s been a confusing and manic couple of weeks for political followers, and I suppose that those who identify themselves as non-political have endured the confusion and mania as well. Friends and family report a kind of creeping paranoia going on out in the trenches; topics long settled have suddenly resurrected, assumptions making an “ass of you and me,” with rumors and whisper-campaigns off their leash. Folks are intruding their personal dysfunctions on each other, pulling on the emotional and physical resources of others like vampires and creating a kind of kinetic anxiety that acts like gravitational pull to suck us all back into old paradigm questions. It’s one more round of homework on the basics, and — oh, Lord! — I hope it’s the last.<\/p>\n

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Add the tornado that touched down a few miles from the Pea Patch, killing and wounding people and putting me off-line for a couple of days, and all I can say is, it’s good to see this week go. As I write, the winds have taken their mayhem into Tennessee and Ohio, threatening more of us. A bit perversely, there’s something comforting about how immediate these things are. It’s almost easier to put our backs into care-giving and clean-up than to wrap our brains around the hostile nonsense of the contraception wars. It was surreal to chew on the quandary, “Who should decide your health care choices, you or your boss?” as if that were a legitimate question.<\/p>\n

Unless we consider the church the ultimate seat of all things moral — a position it no longer enjoys in this century — then talking points on birth control should be less about religion and more about delivery of health care. What if the boss was a Christian Scientist, for instance? Would we get access to prayer-practitioners and faith-healing but not a penny for medicine or hospital care? If Roy Blunt — long-standing Boss Hogg of Southern Missouri, now that former-Attorney General John Ashcroft is in his dotage — and every single Republican Senator except Olympia Snowe had gotten their way<\/a>, maybe so.<\/p>\n

This is old territory. We saw discussion of this issue during the Dubby’s reign of corruption in the ’90s. We smelled regressive breakdown when pharmacists refused to fill prescriptions for contraception based on their religious preference. The left took umbrage to that, of course; I certainly did. Unfortunately, with the born-again Bush in charge, the bruised feelings of the religious were accommodated in preference to their secular job description, setting an unfortunate precedent. Wal-Mart and other big chains solved the dilemma by making at least one pharmacist per shift available to do the dirty work, but that didn’t drive a stake through the heart of this assault on modernity. Now we’re back at square one, debating the righteousness of belief system over civil liberty.<\/p>\n

Contraception has been dispensed in this country for 46 years, liberating generations of women to something more than household duties and child-rearing, yet what was once relatively affordable has now become costly and increasingly difficult to access. I didn’t want the first packet of birth control pills I was handed back in 1965, but better safe than sorry, I was told, encouraged to ingest levels of estrogen that would choke a horse. Not that pharmaceutical safety is any better these days, of course. But it’s thorny enough dealing with the corruption and dissembling within Western medicine without having to fight to get it in the first place. Seriously, I’m pretty sure the healthiest among us are uninsured, but that’s another post. The point is, medicine was more pragmatic and science more respected all those years ago, and something’s gone seriously wrong with that picture! The conservative war on women’s health and freedom will eventually fail, but not without a final throw-down between two different philosophies of human aspiration, between different levels of consciousness.<\/p>\n

It’s surely time for that conversation. It’s time for the lot of us to make choices between the realism of available resources to feed or educate our children in the coming age, or the intent of a religious tract written when desert sands spread out for hundreds of miles without a human presence and tribes needed every child to survive. It’s a war against modernity, a failing attempt of patriarchy to reestablish itself. It’s the kind of primitive thinking that this nation should long ago have outgrown.<\/p>\n

And it’s exhausting, decades into this culture war, to still be discussing such elementally inane issues, isn’t it? Too often it seems that those who have deliberately carved out a life of relative calm, practiced higher intent, and sought for honesty and authenticity, are surrounded by the feeble-minded and drama-addled, insistent and annoying. Well, stiff upper lip, my friends. That’s politics in America.<\/p>\n

It’s true. Politics is the process of persuasion, arm-twisting and influence that leads to consensus and the establishment of national policy, and America is a young nation. Politics has little to do with governance, by the way, which is the nuts and bolts process of delivering that policy. Governing is a different level of activity; saner, if you will, which is perhaps why the right-wing is so poor at it. The persuasive part of this, gone increasingly absurd these last few years, drives the engine, but we have to live with the result of each established policy, strung together like a chain that either links us together for the common good or binds us together as a form of indenture. It’s in our best interests to take our place in the debate, no matter how weary. And, yes, to keep your contraceptives, don’t blink! There is immaturity asserting itself in a system that’s too broken to guarantee sanity.<\/p>\n

I don’t think most people get that politics is that place where the lava spews up out of the ocean to carve a bit of rock, where the iceberg bobs just above the water line. It’s the visible part, obscuring all that lies below, which is much more substantial — sometimes dangerous — than it looks. Politics is the internal conversation we have about who we are and what we’ll codify into law; in a democratic nation, that means at the will of the people. In short, politics is the very canary in the coal mine of consciousness. It isn’t separate from us — it IS us. And the sad truth is, these days we dare not look away lest the children steal the car and, as Obama would have it, drive it into a ditch.<\/p>\n

Don’t believe for a moment that Ol’ Roy’s attack on contraception is about religious liberty. It’s about patriarchy and power. It’s about the kind of politics that not only allows Missouri native Rush Limbaugh to call women demanding birth control sluts, but applauds it. This mentality of white male supremacy makes even so unlikely a sexist as wimpy old Ron Paul remark that it isn’t access to contraceptives that’s a problem, it’s women’s misunderstanding that they need them. Stunning to be having such a conversation in 2012, isn’t it!<\/p>\n

Blunt’s failed amendment is the kind of radical claptrap that justifies Matt Taibbi’s speculation<\/a> that the Republican brand is shot to hell and may never recover. I suppose it’s a no-brainer to understand that males of fragile self-image might want to rewind history to a time when women had limited choices, but what’s the deal with women who think it is somehow appropriate, on an overcrowded planet with massive environmental problems, to give away power over one’s own body and future in order to breed like fruit flies? Yesterday, Eric likened women’s acquiescence — and the general ennui of many citizens in the face of this radicalized assault — to terror in the face of freedom. That may be a new idea to some of us, but it’s right as rain.<\/p>\n

Let’s explore that from a spiritual platform, and pick up the threads of last week’s discussion<\/a> on ego. First I’d like to clarify my comments, as a reader objected to my blaming human ego for many of our problems, asserting that it is a natural sense of self we are all required to develop, a karmic balancing of our identity; and yes, in some ways it is. If we look at the astrological wheel, we can chart natural progression from the thrust of I AM energy found in the Aries signature, accommodating growth into the WE ARE energy found in the Leo 7th House, and taking a morphic journey from simplistic in the 1st house to complex in the 12th.<\/p>\n

Our understanding of self evolves within the expanding limits of our human ego, which is the bit of our mentality that keeps track of who we think we are, and in my opinion, it’s better to have too much of it than not enough. Especially working with children, it’s best to have some to lose. Life experience is designed to grind off the rough edges of a bloated ego, whittling it down to size, so perhaps more is better, but I have real concerns whether ego can bloom into self-esteem without rigorous confrontation.<\/p>\n

Any conversation I have on this topic must bring me back to A Course In Miracles, <\/em>which <\/em>identifies ego as the small part of consciousness that was responsible for our “flight or fright” response, gone rogue. ACIM<\/em> tells us that when we allowed fear to define who we were, rather than remaining confident in our own divinity and position as the beloved child of The IS, we gave over our authenticity to a false voice that is — you may not be surprised to learn — insane. It separates us, it promotes paranoia, it lies to us and fights for predominance over that quiet Voice that resides within, urging us toward forgiveness, love and peace. Ego wars with reality, even — and perhaps especially — within us, in order to survive. Relieving it of its power to create and bind us in chaos is a matter of recognizing its error, policing its activity and returning it to its rightful position as a small part of our larger self-description. In our quest to know Self, ego must not be the stand-in for our authentic persona.<\/p>\n

That said, let’s go back to the question of why we would be afraid of freedom. Over many years as a seeker, some things resonate for me and stay filed in the front of my brain. One of those things is something called The Michael Material. This channeled information produced, among other things, a list of classifications for soul age. At the time, this was a crucial piece of information for me, putting perspective on so much about which I was confused. In order to embrace this information, of course, one has to accept reincarnation, and the credibility of the channeling is, as with everything, a matter of personal discernment. Although there are multiple channels now sprung up from that original material, the classic Michael offers us explanations of five soul ages, and various levels of incarnational exploration. The question of fundy influence has seemed to me, these many long years we’ve fought its rise, fully explained by the Michael Material.<\/p>\n

Rather than reproduce too much information in this piece, I’ll link those of you who would like to read further<\/a>, the mottos assigned each of the five soul levels, revealing:<\/p>\n

Infant: Lets not do it.<\/p>\n

Baby: Do it right or don’t do it at all.<\/p>\n

Young: Do it my way.<\/p>\n

Mature: Do it anyplace but here.<\/p>\n

Old: You do what you want and I’ll do what I want.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I suspect you’ll find yourself somewhere there; I’m quite sure you’ll find your neighbor, your relative, your friend, your enemy — your congressperson. Open the link to see what each level of experience is seeking. Each stage courts a specific revelation of self, each relates to its environment differently, seeking its place in the cosmos. The younger souls are the thorn in our sides:<\/p>\n

Baby souls have a need for structure and tend to live according to beliefs based on dogma, such as religion. Baby souls, focused as they are on bringing people together under the umbrella of civilization, see others, sometimes simplistically, as being \u201cjust like me.\u201d They can become confused and upset when those \u201cother me\u2019s\u201d act differently than expected.<\/p>\n

Young souls are success oriented and set high standards of personal achievement. Young souls are learning to impact the world, and see others as \u201cyou\u201ds they can impact.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Those of us who are frightened senseless to experience the world without permission — who desperately cling to rules that keep us from doing things that terrify us, that take solace in being loved BECAUSE of our obedience, not despite it — are baby souls. Young and baby souls are those we call conservative. Religion, law enforcement, military; very specific levels of authority and rules make these souls feel safe from what they might discover in themselves. As a recent AlterNet article mentioned, the heart of the conservative is not calm: it’s in crisis. They would not need so much reassurance, forgiveness, or justification if it were not.<\/p>\n

We cannot disdain our brothers and sisters, their superstition or absolutism, because we were once them. How did we learn what we know now, how did we sensitize to so many issues? Experience is the best teacher, of course, and failure the harshest taskmaster. Who knows which we were: inquisitor or victim? Life is a long progression of growth and awareness, which is why judgment is so unwise. Who can say which little piece we’re working on, which level we’re attempting to complete, which part of this amazing project we’ve been assigned? It is our responsibility to shine light on darkness, not to damn it.<\/p>\n

Essentially, liberals will win this round. Modern women will not go without birth control. Mandated contraception is just another wrinkle in the health care debate, the controversy similar to “big government standing between you and your doctor,” ignoring the insurance provider as the actual “death panel” that doles out pennies on the dollar. This is another piece of the ignorance that demands the government keep its “secular, socialist” hands off Medicare without the intellect to realize Medicare is not only single-payer coverage but socialism at its best and most necessary. As long as we require our health coverage to come at the largess of our employer, there is an unnecessary — and corrupting — layer of intrusion between us and our health care provider.<\/p>\n

As the 2012 energies influence our awareness, we will all take a bump up; maybe we’ll even get to skip a stage or two, who knows? That’s what radical shift does. And that’s what we need to keep foremost in our minds when we regard those who oppose us politically; this energy is all fluid, in motion, seeking higher ground. Me, I’d like to drop Roy Blunt on his pointy little head, but I get the feeling I’d wake up in the morning with a hell of a headache. We can’t throw the baby souls out with the bathwater without hurting ourselves. Truly, my dears — in this grand experiment we are each one the walrus and “… we are all together.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves It’s been a confusing and manic couple of weeks for political followers, and I suppose that those who identify themselves as non-political have endured the confusion and mania as well. Friends and family report a kind of creeping paranoia going on out in the trenches; topics long settled have … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1744],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54018"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54018\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}