The River

Monday, June 25, 2007


Most people are oblivious to the plight of the Iraqi people, not because they have no compassion, but because they have to work to find the information. Those of us who do work to seek out this information have an obligation to share it.

-- stretchedmind


commenting on Mike Whitney's Information Clearinghouse article Iraqis to Bush: “You have left us with nothing”

I have a blog. I'm sharing it.

posted by Bruce at 10:14 AM
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Comments:
I'd say -- and he or she might be a terrific person -- stretchedmind doesn't know what work is.
# posted by Blogger Mike Golby : 12:42 PM
 
There's an interesting discussion on Whitney's post about culpability. I think the "what's wrong with the people of "x" country"? tack is wrong, as it leads one to collective thinking and tribalism, and that's what rulers are so good and exploiting and manipulating.

Some very dark and powerful people rule this world. It has nothing to do with democracy and freedom and freely formed public opinion. Global players whack each other, manipulate and play their dark power games. It's all about who can jerk the people around the best.

Religion, politics and media are all bent on keeping people in the dark, on the bus with the blinds down, so the show can go on. I think it is hard for many to get the truth, because you have to resist conformity. And it goes so deep, that that conformity will have you screening out, for example, what the U.S. is doing in Iraq, or other past and present crimes, from the monstrous like Vietnam and South America, to all the everyday ripoffs people face, such as the lack of universal health care in this country, as Michael Moore is pointing out (bless him). People want to get on with their lives. Can you blame them? (Ok, there is maybe 20 or 30 percent of the people that are so far gone that they actively support crimes past and present. This article might explain it.

Then there's the fact, more felt than anything, that Iraq was allowed to happen and the ongoing crimes are allowed to go on. By the powers that be, the very dark powers on the world stage.
# posted by Blogger Bruce : 2:01 PM
 
actually I was thinking "Central America" when I typed "South America" but it still applies either way
# posted by Blogger Bruce : 8:26 AM
 
That's a great article Bruce. Thanks for surfacing it.

I used to be a Mormon, and there was a saying which was often quickly applied whenever anyone had questions about what crap was going on. The saying was, "It's not the church (which is wrong), it's the people (who are imperfect in carrying out divine revelation)."

I thought about that for a while. Studied diligently. Prayed honestly. Agonized socially. And the answer was that 15 old white men controlled the lives of millions of people, people who by and large wanted to make the world a better place.

We have to get beyond this human need for hierarchy. Is that possible?
# posted by Blogger MarcLord : 7:43 PM
 
exactly right.

Corruption is killing us and it's completely ignored because you're not supposed to be able to do anything about it due to the hierarchy structure. It's part of the air you breathe from birth. And it can't be questioned. As with your example, the structure (church, etc.) is right, but the people are wrong (sinful). I say it's the other way around, which is why I also say we lose every time we bemoan the stupidity, or shallowness, or what have you of the American people, or the "x" people.

Nothing short of a major revolution in thought -- and yes, spirtuality -- will change any of this.
# posted by Blogger Bruce : 10:30 AM
 
Agreed.

These questions are straight out of Rousseau and Locke, shoulders which the Founders got a boost from. They did a great job with their revolution (well-organized, sustained, determined) and their spirituality (un-organized, internal, egalitarian). But they lived when the aphorism "The king's grip is strong, but his arm is short," still held. So they were able to make a code which allowed people lots of leeway but still provided hierarchy with fences.

Shifting, unreliable fences, but enough to keep those who love dominion patient for a temporary time in power. The King's grip is strong again, his arm is infinite, and the fences are tightening. The Founders couldn't have gotten away with it in today's world, and their system was wholly inadequate to protect a fast-dying Commons.

The Open Source movement and certain other movements which have recently been proving successful against aggressors share key attributes. Using the King's own "reach" technologies, they use dispersion itself as a force-multiplier. The King is aware this is happening, but can't stop it without engaging in counterproductive levels of effort or closure of communication loops crucial to the ongoing operation of corruption.

At the moment the counter-plan seems to be to use relatively few examples, no matter how farcical to illustrate that the grip is strong, the reach is long, and it will stop at nothing. Guilt or innocence is completely beside the point, though I suppose persecuting innocents may have a perversely deterrent effect.

It's unclear what the effects of these strategies will be, but the Catholic Church used to take similar measures, and its terror tactics eventually provoked a sweeping response of the kind I think you might mean.
# posted by Blogger MarcLord : 1:58 PM
 
And Marc, we so know it's coming, don't we? After all, no sooner do I read your last comment than I run across this:

"Change is taking root. I think that the part of humanity that resists change is terrified by it, because it is so clearly unstoppable. The Earth herself has joined the struggle. All the surveillance, all the war, all the repression, are the last desperate attempts by a dying order to hold onto power.

The revolution is coming, and when it does, it will come like water: soft, flexible, yielding - but unstoppable in its power."

link
# posted by Blogger Bruce : 3:08 PM
 
God, that's good! Wish I'd written it. Where ya find it (don't bother, will google it down).

And you know, Bruce, I empathize with the people trying to hold back the change. I really do. Something tells me the future we face will literally test my faith as a human being, and for my children's sake I hope I can figure out how to be equal to it.
# posted by Blogger MarcLord : 3:32 PM
 
same here.

See above, I left the a "link" that you musta overlooked.
# posted by Blogger Bruce : 3:57 PM
 
"I empathize with the people trying to hold back the change."

yes, you have to, or the revolution ain't happening. Do the leaders really think they are going to escape justice? I don't.
# posted by Blogger Bruce : 8:35 AM
 
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