“Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that numbers of people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to war, and millions have been killed because of this obedience. . . Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty” : Howard Zinn
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Under the influence of politicians, masses of people tend to ascribe the responsibility for wars to those who wield power at any given time. In World War I it was the munitions industrialists; in World War II it was the psychopathic generals who were said to be guilty. This is passing the buck.
The responsibility for wars falls solely upon the shoulders of these same masses of people, for they have all the necessary means to avert war in their own hands. In part by their apathy, in part by their passivity, and in part actively, these same masses of people make possible the catastrophes under which they themselves suffer more than anyone else. To stress this guilt on the part of the masses of people, to hold them solely responsible, means to take them seriously. On the other hand, to commiserate masses of people as victims, means to treat them as small, helpless children. The former is the attitude held by genuine freedom fighters; the latter that attitude held by power-thirsty politicians.” : Wilhelm Reich, The Mass Psychology of Fascism
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“…..if by a liberal they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, their civil liberties.. if that is what they mean by a “liberal” then I am proud to be a liberal. “: John F. Kennedy
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“A society whose citizens refuse to see and investigate the facts, who refuse to believe that their government and their media will routinely lie to them and fabricate a reality contrary to verifiable facts, is a society that chooses and deserves the Police State Dictatorship it’s going to get.” — Ian Williams Goddard
Dzień dobry.
Mam na imię Judyta i jestem młodą Polką.
Uwielbiam pańskie książki, choć zazwyczaj wcale nie interesuję się ani religią ani magią..
Uczę się aktualnie języka hiszpańskiego i angielskiego, niestety ..
Nie jestem w stanie przeczytać tego, co pan pisze na swym blogu, choć bardzo bym chciała. Tak jak nie wiem czy i pan odczyta to, co piszę ja. Jednak gdyby tak się stało.. Gdyby byłaby taka możliwość.. Bardzo proszę o przetłumaczenie tej strony na język Polski.
Byłabym niezmiernie wdzięczna, tak jak inni Polacy, pańscy fani, którzy mają ten sam problem..
Pozdrawiam serdecznie i biorę się za czytanie Bridy:)
Laws are very imposing designed to prohibit and not allow (except taxes). They are always there to protect somebody from something or somebody; read the apparent weak from the apparent strong . The problem with many laws is that one party often ends up being punished and punishment is so degrading. Life rules and wise upbringing of the children are perhaps a better tool – like open doors for elder and women, not hitting anybody especially children, stopping at red light (but why stop if there are no cars in view?), not wishing for something that is not yours (teach them to enjoy working for it and to decide if they really want and need it), and teach the respect for people, nature and the belongings we truly need. The most important teaching is to question GREED; greed is the absolute main reason why we need laws.
Society tends to complicate things it kills the lust in people and take away their sense of responsibility.
If we obey our instinctive intuition, which is our most accurate navigator, there would be no need whatsoever to obey any other rule. I believe that all humans, bar none, know the difference between what is right and what is wrong, what is good for them and what is not.
Love & obey your instinct, Paul
An unjust law is one based on popular religious beliefs (when justice’s eyes are supposed to be blind): laws that take away rights away from minorities, with no true benefits to the majority for those laws being there, and no harm done to the majority should those laws not be in place.
So true and… sad what wrote Howard Zinn.
and…the fact that by not wanting to notice things, because it’s easier this way, we are too “obedient” many times.
love
Agnieszka
Joseph Campbell said somthing like this: “…The mind is a secondary organ to the human being… It is the mind that creates the systems and philosophies and organizations by which we live….” He goes on to say something like the heart being the fundamental center of human existence and that, within nature, are we in a unity with our world.
The point here is that all systems, liberal or conservative, monolithic fascism or anarcho-syndicalism, are creations of the mind inevitably missing the breadth of the human experience.
It says somewhere that true religion is to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly before the divine.
I agree that materialism and consumerism becloud human consciousness and we are led like sheep to one automobile to another, one suit of clothes to another. I agree with George Carlin that the apparently free choice we have in our American society is shallow: Coke or Pepsi, Burger Kind or McDonald’s. A reconsideration of Marxism is probably in order in terms of enslavement of the consumerate.
Yet it comes back to the power of the mind to befuddle our senses to the extent we no longer apprehend the quickening of life around us. It is like Thomas Pynchon’s “V”, who, piece by piece replaced her body parts with prosthesis. We are like that with cell phones, the internet, HDTV, etc., etc. The real world around us is something else.
How to ignite the masses, then, with a movement grounded in the heart, that is the question. Singing and dancing come to mind, celebrating what it means to be a human being and feel real emotions. Cf. Rob Brezsny’s truth and beauty lab at: http://FreeWillAstrology.com.
I don’t have any answers but I would love to dance with you.
When human beings forget to listen to themselves, they become more susceptible to external influence. Its never too late to relearn to listen to your soul. The answer to any situation is compassion.
Everything points to the fact that a new age is indeed awakening; tough times are thus likely to lie ahead.
These will be times of extreme individualism and involve the painful overthrowing of all old structures. If nothing else, for the mere sake of change.
I do not believe that mildness or sympathy will provide a “solution”. If the pendulum has turned we will simply have to see this through.
It is time to for all of us “put our money where our mouths are” and fight for what we believe in. But we’d be wize to adapt our tactics to the new forces rising. Defeat is not an option.
We are the creators of our world. We are the Martin Luther Kings the J.F. Kennedys of our generation, sleeping perhaps, as yet unrealised, but each one of us holds the seeds of change in our hands, hearts and voices, whether through raising the next generation, creating powerful art or finding new ways for our society to be. We each have the power to create something better when we stop believing that it is enough to just accept what we are fed by others and that all our problems can be answered by someone else’s effort, finding yet another dogma or acquiring yet more stuff.
The joy of life is that it is simple in its complexity, yet we insist on making it complicated.
Love and blessings
Rebecca
Hia ! paulo !!
that was nice ! throwing some perspective to this qeek’s question !!
paulo !! u’r attempts / efforts are very good, but it seems humanity is getting drowned in the terrible onslaught of crass materialism !! they are so many things to ‘consume’, so many new, newer things on offer, that humanity as a whole has forgotten itself, it’s lofty possibilities and is standing transfixed, eyes firmly on materialism ! it seems shocks are required to shake it out of its transfixed; and look around shocks are on their way !! the oil price shock, US & Co again preparing some war !! things are sad ! humanity is headed for a bitter pill, hope u and people like u are around to help it recover, people in high places, people in high positions ( like u ) would have to lead the way byshowing all that it’s possble to live happily even when one is not living a rich life.
love
aditya
Howard Zinn:
I agree with him. This is curious that one person accept to go and kill his own brother for boudaries, he’s not a slightest involved whith their drawing lines.
Wilhelm Reich:
“Solely” is too much, as hell in his name. This would be good for people to be ill-treated, just to show how strong they are!
Our own work is not so hard enough?
But ok that passivity or activity create responses, influencing the light to grow; or the shadow to win a time.
No, John, this is not what they call a “liberal”. They will find the right name, when they will really act, instead of finding one.
Ian Williams Goddard:
That’s true. Opening my radio, it’s in myself: I know that I’m probably listening to lyers. Then I observe the way they manipulate the city. By inviting a person that is close to the government party, the wooden-tongue enters the scene.
As an example, promises are not respected, before the people could really feel the “manque” of it. Then, the governement lives up to the promise, choosing that very good moment. Because, when Men are obtaining something they wished for a long time, they calm down.
During the struggle, government had time to establish the fear, organizing a repressive police, playing the victim, pretending to do the best Thus provoked manifestation is up to distress the economy down, and give more excuses to the governors to say that people are not patient. Make tham feel guilty.
Since people don’t understand, that a few men decided to make us pay all on earth. Even the water we drink, though everything is free, on the beginning.
Anyway, by inviting the opposite party, journalists always use the point that the left party has not done his work, whan it was sitting in the power’s chair. Inevitably, and constantly, the media tries to show us, that this left-party is always divided, having problems.
But what he’s curious is that the members of it, don’t disallow that recurrent idea.
Despite of that, their solidarity is really to put in doubt, leading me to wonder if that party is not simply a fictive one.
It stays as an old elephant from the past, but not walking: merely at the image of those elephants, you could admire in front of the asiatic temples. Their static posture shows us the honouring past he has, but condemned to be admired, not along to act anymore.
This is socalit party here in France.
If I followed their bad thought, I could tell, that the elephant could shade his offspring. Either for protecting it from the sun, or either by pride, to disguise the wildlife, new ideas are also needing to be watered.
Dear Thelma,
You wrote:”I still feel the loss of John F. Kennedy, of Robert Kennedy, of Martin Luther King and wonder how the World could be different.”
Yes, sometimes, I’m thinking the same point, But the joy of fighting for the light, becomes stronger.
The harder for me is to learn how to be detached, stopping the will of “control”.
Accepting my care, and the way that I have to travel. Just because I partly choose that way. Following the signs, listen to the voices, looking at an animal jumping to that path, and not another, walking with great (wo)men.
Although I could presently feel I’m not doing the best of myself, I’m questioning.
I did not find the key yet, as for expressing myself in what I wanted so much.
My mother claimed that in life we were not doing what we pretended: she was right, although her reducing words were not divine’s one, they were despite themselves. She was talking about social security, arguing it was better to have a job, even if it was not guided by our inner-part, than living like a bohemian.
Bohemian was her ancestors, but she rejected their path, nevertheless I was not conscious about that.
By writing, I learn.
Perhaps something is missing, because there is something that is too powerful. Something that takes too much energy for a principle, that just needs to balance.
That’s why, I don’t understand how it is dazzling, but it’s the common period right now. For years, each july and august are months during which I’m compelled to live strongest energies.
Maybe the work to complete during the whole year. :)
But I’m on my way, a coward tightrope walker, that learn to become brave again.
I know where my heart is, and a few person, as within the visible than in the in-visible, that are really helping me to walk above the chasm.
And it could have been written somewhere, that it would be easy.
Fortunately, it doesn’t exist, but in lazy mind.
Love to you.
Dear Sibila Maria India,
I agree: we are walking between two opposite currents. Yet, we had to cross the face of the fear to perform to.
Gandhi is a model for me, among ther things, because he never flew into a temper. Maybe he did sometimes, alone in a place, but I couldn’t have ever heard it. :)
He was measured, conducing his energy to prompt movements, making energy bend to what he wanted to see concretly accomplished on earth.
This is quite difficult to renounce to the soul of the wrong revolution.
But verily, it seems to occure we’re just on our way, more numerous than in the past.
Wishing well.
I think all 3 blogs by Thelma ,Siblia maria India and Hillegarde are on to it …these rulers of the world need a good shrink ..for goodness sake ,but i agree with Thelma its hard when you think about issues all the time like starving children ,some parents constantly tell there children eat it because there are children starving in the world ,but they don’t do anything else like encourage them to help out or sponsor a child from overseas ..I made my girls one year go and wrap presents at a shelter on xmas eve for the homeless .They where grateful for what they received that year .We should not make them feel guilty but we should encourage them to take responsibility and also become aware ..Blessings Tania
Dzień dobry.
Mam na imię Judyta i jestem młodą Polką.
Uwielbiam pańskie książki, choć zazwyczaj wcale nie interesuję się ani religią ani magią..
Uczę się aktualnie języka hiszpańskiego i angielskiego, niestety ..
Nie jestem w stanie przeczytać tego, co pan pisze na swym blogu, choć bardzo bym chciała. Tak jak nie wiem czy i pan odczyta to, co piszę ja. Jednak gdyby tak się stało.. Gdyby byłaby taka możliwość.. Bardzo proszę o przetłumaczenie tej strony na język Polski.
Byłabym niezmiernie wdzięczna, tak jak inni Polacy, pańscy fani, którzy mają ten sam problem..
Pozdrawiam serdecznie i biorę się za czytanie Bridy:)
Never ever forget how easy it was for Hitler to manipulate and control the masses. The are many “Hitlers” in this world, some are quite obvious, many are sleepers…and they are the most dangerous of all. And never underestimate the power of the media… none of them are impartial!
The “Apathy” of the masses gives these types great power, which of course they abuse to their own ends. The answer is the same as it was for a previous recent thread, “SAY NO!”, and do not play their game. We as consumers and voters have the entire worlds future in our hands. We cannot blame others if we vote for someone who doesn’t keep his/her promises, and we just sit back and accept it without questioning their integrety and requiring…. no demanding… that they keep their part of the agreemnet.
And…how many times have we donated money or our time to a cause without first looking deeply behind the scenes? Donations are very very often misused by governments and often never reach those for whom the aid was intended. This also gives the “Hitlers” of this world great power.
Who has benefited from the Iraq war for example? GB & DC, both of whom have a deeply vested interest in the oil business…and the people of the USA voted these types to power… you just can’t help them.
Oops sorry, I guess I should have been on speakers corner today.. sorry Paulo..
Speak out and say NO when you mean NO and not YES, Love, Paul
I still feel the loss of John F. Kennedy, of Robert Kennedy, of Martin Luther King and wonder how the World could be different. It seems that society gives more importance to materialism. I have seen young people with a soul full of dreams for a fairer wolrd and they end up by doing what the former generation has done, just in order to survive. I have read that the rulers of the world make decisions about the food, the medicine, the monetary system all over the world. Then, I think, why there are children that are starving and we, everyday, try to …diet? LOVE, THELMA
As see it we live in a very, very exciting time. There is an outpour of spiritual energy which is affecting everybody everywhere – to wake up and become conscious. This involves an opening of the heart on the collective level and by an worldwide amount of people experiencing this everywhere, a new way of being in the world is growing forth. So many people are becoming aware of being asked inside – what do you dare? What is the dream you cary? Are you going for it? Are you called to be part of the problem or part of the solution? We do need to have conscious, responsible leaders and we need to learn to lead ourselves to be conscious, responsible and caring as well. It starts with ourselves…
Keep going on I love the energy in your blog…gives me good vibes.
Love
All Ways
Hildegarde