Ichabod! Here
we are entering the second year of the Presidency of Donald Trump. It is at
long last become evident to most Americans that something is so far wrong that
there is a sense America is irrevocably broken. Below I've written what I regard
to be the reason I think that is the case and I have included what I regard as
the only means to begin to remedy the situation.
The first full
year of the Trump Administration has been, for lack of a more technical
description, a disaster such as one might expect when a semi-truck collides
broadside with a
honey wagon. The Donald Trump Administration stinks to high
heavens and the so called level headed ones lauded by the msm in his
Administration are hard core
neo-liberals hell bent on keeping the promise of
endless
war profits. That promise was made at the beginning of this century.
They have done their best.
While the
Trumpster has spent the year making us laugh, worry, and curse his every word
and gesture the old war machine has been relentlessly keeping on keeping on.
War is not expected to end anytime soon as the wealth generated from the
endless war program to date has been astronomical.
It's worse
than first imagined. The Trumpster's Dumb Show has provided a smokescreen to
enable those who promised endless war to get on with their bloody plans.
We've plodded through Afghanistan, Iraq,
Libya, Syria and Yemen. Now Iran and Korea, all three of them, are waiting for the next shoe to drop. The President's
'sane level headed' staff have seen that this program continues, and have seen
to it that now the Trumpster agrees with them.
Obviously it
is the Republicans and the Democrats who are responsible for the state of the
nation. It's obvious because they hold all the authority to make official
decisions. The American people put them in charge and they did to the nation
what you see today and read about in the news. It is all their doing. They have
proven themselves to be unfaithful stewards of the public welfare.
Unless of
course you like it this way and believe it or not some do like it this way.
Those people would be the corporate donors. If you voted Republican or
Democratic you have no cause to complain, you helped them. One conclusion I
have come to is that if a candidate takes corporate donations he does not get
my vote. Period.
Corporations
are legal people. However they cannot
vote and they ARE NOT citizens. But even though they are ineligible to vote
they are allowed to affect and interfere with the outcome of elections in the
United States. Does that seem right to you?
Should someone with the status of a foreigner (in so far as citizenship
and voting rights goes) be allowed to contribute to candidates? Are only American
corporations allowed to donate? What
would be the difference between an American corporation that cannot vote
affecting the election process and a foreign corporation that cannot vote
affecting the election process?
With all the
talk of election fraud and foreign players and palace intrigue the greatest
influence on the outcome of U.S. elections happens to be from those who cannot
vote. How is it this is not reported in the corporate media as a big part of
the reason the U.S. is in such a socially discontented condition today?
Frankly I
think we the people are fundamentally screwed. No one in their right mind
believes any change for the good can come from a society controlled by those
who take donations from corporations. Our voting habits have indicated we will
choose one of these loathsome sell-outs over a good decent candidate from a
third party anytime. This is due in part to the corporate influence over the
news. But it is also due to the simple-mindedness of the electorate who
election after election keep making things worse for themselves.
If any change
for the good is to come from the past the past must become the past. Goodbyes
must be said to Republicans and Democrats, goodbyes to corporate election
thieves. Adios assholes!
Only the people can make it happen and all they have
to do is decide never to vote for a candidate that takes money from someone who
wants political favors but is unable to vote themselves. That is the cause of
the current miasma that has sickened social life on Main Streets all across the
nation. Corporate people who cannot vote are affecting the outcome of our supposedly free elections. Why is that not considered insanity?
That's the
first step. Stop letting people forbidden to vote from influencing our
elections. If that doesn't make sense then nothing makes sense. But I suggest
it makes every bit as much sense as forbidding Russian nationals from
influencing our election. Neither is
allowed to vote. Why should only one be allowed to influence the outcome of the
election? (rhetorical question) The
Republican and Democratic solution to this would be to let the foreign
nationals also interfere in order to keep the donations rolling in. Crazy situation isn't it? That's why we're in
the mess we're in.
But that is
only the window dressing. We need to
change our minds about how we go about relating to other people and the
environment. This society we find ourselves embedded in is designed to drive us
to distraction with one thing after another. The Trump Administration along
with the news media and the Republican and Democratic lawmakers are examples of
how that works.
So, if that is
the case, and I do think it is the case, the most significant thing we can do
to regain our normal perspective is regain a sense of what it is that we are as
creatures. Only as we have a clear sense of what it really means to be a human
after all the gimmicks are removed can we come to our senses.
The status quo
regards us as having value only insofar as we are consumers of products.
Everything in the electronic media encourages us to consume products endlessly.
But the production of novelties has resulted in increasing the sense of wanting
more which in turn wants more and more and more. The satisfaction from making
purchases, which passes for happiness, is almost always short lived.
If Mankind is
to help itself I think it needs to take a few giant steps back from the center
of the media whirlwind and allow itself to get in touch with the voice inside
of it. The voice is the real you and speaks from within you. By filling your
thoughts with all the babble of the
media your real self is banished and those media driven concepts which have
ruined American life simply take over your thoughts, and of course they ruin
your state of mind as well.
"All that
we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it
is made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain
follows him, as the wheel follows the foot of the ox that draws the carriage." The quotation is attributed to the Buddha and
is the first verse of the
Dhammapada the translation is by F. Max Muller.
Here's the secret. The goal in
correcting society is achieved by one person at a time coming to change his or
her mind. As long as we understand
ourselves as being in a slugfest for survival with everyone else we will always
have cause for fear and enemies. That is the condition a materialistic understanding of
human nature produces. Dog eat dog, get what you can before you die because
when you're dead you're dead. As long as one holds to a materialistic understanding
of his being the solution hoped for will be very difficult if not impossible
for some to find. A correct and redeeming approach to life is fundamentally
achieved by how we view our selves as humans being. (not a typo).
So, things being as they are, many want
to change the world and society, and remove political tyranny. It's a good plan.
But if we are going to succeed we first have to change our mind. If we do not
rebuild society with a changed mind that has produced a renewed recognition
within ourselves about what it means to be humans we should not waste our time.
So what do you
do?
Well take time
everyday to be alone.
Actively
INTEND to inquire into the nature of your being.
Above all
limit your media input the way you limit your intake of poison.
Continue to do
this daily.
Most importantly this is personal work.
Most of it will be done alone.
The reason for this is when you hear your own inner voice that is not manipulated by media content the answer you arrive at will be yours alone.
That is of most importance.
The first
positive effect you will notice is that your attitude has softened and you will
also notice a diminished frequency of internal arguments going on inside of
yourself. The reason for this is that by removing the media input you will also
be removing all the contradictory and perplexing foolishness the news provides
to fill your mind with. You can drive yourself nuts trying to find a way to make it
all make sense. It's like giving a kitten a ball of yarn, except it's not funny.
It's time to
take a deep breath and reconsider if you want the present conditions to exist
next year.
The first step is to get a grip on yourself.
The second step is
don't ever vote for a candidate that takes corporate donations.
That's how we
got into this mess.
I hope the ideas presented provide the way to make the
best of the future that awaits.
The zeitgeist really does seem to have revealed a 'now or never' moment in the second decade of the 21st century.
Ichabod! The
glory has departed.
