The ego has a filing cabinet of folders each with some preconceived descriptor it is capable of assigning to an observation -- to another person, an event or an interaction. I have learned that freedom is freedom from this filing cabinet of preconceptions. Just letting observation or creativity be pure in origin. And it's hard as hell, but worth it when it happens.
Exactly. Any ideology brings with it the uber folder filled with its subfolders, each with instructions on how best to view or approach what one perceives in the world, thus essentially distorting perception from the get-go. It took 13 years for Catholicism to ring my realization bell for example -- the realization that this entire sin-and-go-to-hell stricture was just going to be a guilt saddle that clouded my mind. Perhaps had I been a sociopath, lacking empathy, it would've been necessary, but then, had I been a sociopath, it wouldn't have made a dent anyway.
1. No matter how cynical you think you are, you are not nearly as cynical as the people who run things are.
2. There is no such thing as law. There is only context. The longer form is that laws are for little people. Policy is for People Who Matter, because policy determines when the law applies and to whom.
3. Legalism breeds lawyers.
4. All games eventually degenerate into sociopath games, because cheating is the only way to beat a cheater.
Having worked at the world's main legal publisher, your laws check out
On games & cheaters: I finally accepted it's a prisoner's dilemma, thus bad people win in a bad society. I am old with a clean conscience I refuse to dirty, so I don't play
CJ>>"The learning continues, even as the conclusions crumble in the radiant light of the mystery, and I stare bewildered at a universe made of question marks."
Amen Caitlin! Similarly, I have so much to learn but not enough time to learn it in. Nevertheless, I'm learning from many independent and non-conformist thinkers (such as yourself) and am constantly growing in my own little way. Thank you for all that you do and impart/share with us!
Much that you say is true, but having lived in India for nearly five years and four African countries, most of them for more than four years, I have learned that blaming the West for the woes of developing countries is wrong.
For the trillions of dollars which have been poured into Africa in aid over the past half century, nothing has been achieved. People are poorer than they were and it is not because of the West. It is because of corruption and incompetence on the part of most if not all African leaders.
Those who gain power look after themselves, their family, their extended family and that is about it. The rest can go to hell.
When Zambia gained independence, a country where I have lived, it had an economy to rival Singapore and a solid infrastructure of agriculture, roads, industry and mining which was trashed in a decade by Africans, not the West.
Angola, where I also lived, has diamonds and oil and immense wealth, stolen by their leaders. A former President Dos Santos kept all his money, well, Angolan money in Brazil. Yes, the West and South Africa got involved in the terrible Angolan Civil War, and I was living there in the last years of that, but mostly the fact that developing countries have not developed is because of internal corruption, tribal divisions and plain old fashioned greed. Might is right.
When I lived in Malawi, the mining company for which I worked built a water treatment plant in the major town close to the mine. When the mining project had to close down, it took only a few years before some rich and powerful politician, took the equipment from the water treatment plant and set it up in his own factory producing water bottled in yes, plastic.
While the Presidents of Malawi, and I saw a few, were spending millions on their palaces - Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world - teachers had no equipment in their schools, hospitals little or no functioning equipment and the morgues filled up so fast they had to stack bodies in the street.
When I lived in India, Bombay, a cesspit for most of its inhabitants who still had to defecate in the street, the Indian Government was spending billions on their military, particularly the navy and space programmes. As Gandhi once said, it would not be difficult to provide flushing toilets for all Indians, it would just require the will of Government.
So, everytime someone blames the West for the poverty and suffering in less developed countries I can only suggest they go and live there and do some more research.
Had it not been for white supremacists, pillaging, murdering, torturing, and propagandizing those countries they would have had a different history and a different present. That’s not to excuse the leaders who have copied the invaders’ ways, but it is important that the current corruption be put in context. Otherwise, whites get away with saying those people are ignorant and can’t govern themselves.
Clearly you know nothing of African history. Before the Anglo-Europeans arrived the black supremacists were literally pillaging, murdering, torturing etc.
The anglo-europeans were looking to make money of course but they also built roads, sanitation facilities, electrical and safe water utilities, schools, hospitals etc.
It is not so much ignorance which destroys Africa but corruption and tribal divisions along with patriarchal elitism.
And to take the view that all wrongs were done by anglo-europeans is to be patronising and racist. Africans are and were more than capable of committing wrongs and often far worse.
I disagree with you. From the very get go, the colonising powers had ruinous effect on African development and hierarchy of who holds power and to whom they answer to. It is thanks to them we ended up with the people we have running things and it is self perpetuating. Any class of politicians with positive intent for growth and redistribution never gets into power and if they manage to the country may face destabilisation or a good regime change. The colonial power’s carved up the continent for their own ends and when they pretended to leave, left able lieutenants to run it. They then created the World Bank, IMF etc to manage the repression of African economy for the benefit of the colonising powers. It makes me laugh when I read or hear arguments implying that Western countries can no longer be held responsible for the under development of Africa. Yes, they can because they have never let us be. How else will they get our resources at bargain basement prices?!
Nothing the colonial powers did was worse than the tribal powers who also carved up the continent. Are you seriously suggesting Africa was some peaceful Utopia before the Anglo-Europeans arrived? It wasn’t. Far from it. Also bear in mind that Britain and Europe in their time had also been carved up by colonial powers. Indeed in Europe it was not just other Europeans but Asians, Arabs and others.Why the double standards?
Nothing happened in Africa that had not and did not happen everywhere.
When Africans invaded and colonised they killed the able young men, took useful females for themselves and enslaved the rest.
Heaven only knows what you are taking about. Because it may have been done before doesn’t neutralise the point I was getting across in response to your earlier comment. Going by your comment, we should just shug our shoulders at the on-going genocide of the Palestinians because it’s happened before. FYI, because something happened before doesn’t mean it has to happen again and be just waved on. I stand by my earlier comment more than ever because I don’t know where to put yours.
Firstly, the occupation and colonisation of Palestine by Zionists, Israelis and Jews is unique and cannot be compared to other colonisations.
For the following reasons:
1. other colonisations took place in past centuries and not in the 20th and 21st centuries.
2. No other colonisation was done with the purpose of setting up a religious state which would forever disenfranchise the native people.
3. No other colonisation was done with the policy that the native people were subhuman.
4. No other colonisation was planned and carried out with a policy of extermination or total expulsion from the land of the native people.
5. No other colonisation was done by a State claiming to be a Western democracy.
I totally condemn colonisation in this age. It cannot be condemned in centuries past because everyone did it and it was a part of human evolution and no doubt a necessary part.
I condemn any colonial ruler which inflicts the level of sadistic cruelty and bestial savagery on the native people as Israel does and more so when it is done in the modern age.
I believe conflating Israeli occupation of Palestine with colonisations in the 14th, 15th, 16th, `17th, 18th, 19th centuries is wrong and lets the Zionists off the hook. You cannot retrofit modern values, standards and circumstances to centuries past.
I believe condemning anglo-european colonisations in centuries past and ignoring Asian, African, Polynesian, Indian, etc. etc. etc. colonisations is racist and a distortion of human history.
Of course not all wrongs are of Anglo European causation. What you are saying has been presented relative to the North American indigenous populations also. Seems an unfortunate human trait but at the same time the culture or society that has the upper hand, just like the parent or the teacher, must take responsibility.
So you are saying that groups called indigenous are like children? I reject that. History clearly demonstrates that the only future any of us have in a healthy form is assimilation into the broader community. When groups, indigenous, religious, racial, cultural, whatever the source, fail or refuse to fully assimilate into the broader community they create problems for themselves.
We see this in Australia although the same problems exist in Canada for the same reasons. Most of the people here when the British arrived in 1788 assimilated. Most Australians with aboriginal ancestry are fully assimilated into the modern world and the broader community and they have the same lives and outcomes as anyone else. Their ancestors made that choice and took responsibility.
A minority still struggle and terribly because they remain locked into tribal/clan systems in communities riven by tribal, clan and family divisions, and violently so. They are not fully integrated and assimilated into the modern world and have not taken responsibility for themselves or their future. They have a mendicant mentality. To be fair to them, a lot of do-gooders in the West encourage this and are horrified at the word, assimilation, when this has clearly demonstrated itself to be the answer to a better life.
Nope. Not what I am saying at all. I am saying the people in the position of power and control generally must take responsibility for events that occur under their domination.
Furthermore, what is a good or bad life is very subjective and it seems that the dominant group values itself and assumes life better for assimilated others although the assimilated may not. It is all a matter of subjective perspective.
Just pondering again what you have said here. No-one in any position of power has total control over anyone. We all have the ability to take responsibility and to make the best of our situation.
That is what humans must do when they get a job, go to school, study in university, get married. There are always other people with greater power but never with total control.
Assimilation means adapting to your circumstances so your life will be as productive and fulfilling as possible. What is wrong with that?
The English were colonised violently a dozen times but they got over it and made something of themselves, no doubt improved by their experiences. How do you think they would have fared if they said everytime, no, I reject that, I will never assimilate, I will never learn from these invaders????
And nothing is ever totally subjective. Perspective requires a balance of both subjective and objective and the combination of those qualities are present in the healthiest humans and the best survivors.
There have always been dominant groups and people in the lives of humans. The obsession today with what is called indigenous completely ignores the reality that the problems they face still, were faced by anglo-europeans barely a century ago. Why is that ignored?
All we do know is that a healthy human must adapt to survive and thrive and that is why assimilation is the most sensible approach, whether for a colonised people, a spouse, an adopted child or a migrant. The same human experiences are a part of every human life.
I find it patronising to paint what is now called indigenous as little more than helpless children and to retrofit modern attitudes and values to the past when life was very different, for everyone, a century ago, let alone many centuries ago when many colonisations took place.
To a certain extent you are right. BUT what IF no Western powers had been there in the first place?
I was born and grew up in Sri Lanka.
Before ANY white settlers arrived it was a Country which had a very pluralistic society. Tamils in the North/Catholic missionaries/Buddhists and Arabs.
The Portuguese arrived first mostly settling on the Coast/then the Dutch/then the English.
The English took over Tea Estates (managed them with a whip) importing Tamils from India, keeping them in slave conditions. No school, no toilets and just enough to eat.
Just before Independence English gave extra Powers to the Buddhists which then became extreme and decided Buddhism was the major religion of the country. This is still causing wars.
I would say that the Rulers of many of these Countries without a doubt learned from their European masters.
" It is because of corruption and incompetence on the part of most if not all African leaders." - and that suits those who "pour trillions of dollars" just fine. In fact, that's what's required so the "givers" keep the choke hold on those they "help".
The corruption comes from within. When Malawi politicians leave Parliament House with their boots full of cash, that is not being done by the givers.
When a politician takes water treatment equipment out of a plant which provides safe water to a city and sets it up in his own factory which bottles water, that is not a Western choke hold.
When a President creams off the wealth of his country and puts it in a South American bank account that is not the fault of givers.
When a well and water pump is set up in a village so women do not have to walk for hours to get water, and the local chief takes the parts for his own personal well, that is not the fault of the West.
You are confusing aid money with the endemic internal corruption at work in African countries. The aid money keeps coming in because aid agencies are businesses, corporations, and they want to keep their jobs even though it achieves little to nothing of benefit.
"that is not being done by the givers." - absolutely. The givers know full well where that cash is parked and that this particular figure along with the others are now under their full control. That's the mechanism. Keep them corrupt while ostensibly "helping" them.
Don't try to tell me dollars or euros cannot be found and traced to any bank in the world. The givers could arrange it so it is not stolen to a destructive degree but that would be against their ultimate goals. They want them bad, they need them on the hook.
It is not as organised as you think and none of it could happen if the cultures/societies were not as corrupt and tribalistic as they are.
If I had my way I would end aid to Africa tomorrow, barring crisis aid, although even there, when I was living in Malawi there were terrible floods and the corporations and aid agencies were sending food and goods to the affected areas and the Government was stopping the trucks, unloading it all onto their trucks and taking it away. Sorry but none of that is the fault of the West.
Malawi has had some terrible famines caused because the Government sold off their grain supplies and pocketed the cash personally.
I do not believe aid is effective. I believe it is destructive. It turns people into mendicants and encourages even greater corruption.
And your comment indicates you have little or no understanding of how things work in such places, nor how international banking functions either.
The problem with blaming everything on the West is that you will never be able to understand or even see the real problems and you are turning those who live in developing nations into helpless fools, which is just another form of patronising racism.
You have an important point. There's an intricate play of destruction. A substantial component does come from within, it's not only from western sources. You're on to the problem here: "If I had my way I would end aid to Africa tomorrow". The idea is that we should end interventionism. It's been going on for centuries. To deny either source won't bring understanding. Trying to discern exact causation is complicated. Things are rarely one way or the other.
No I am not. Just to clarify, I am perfectly well aware of the corrupt practices of some corporations, to lesser and greater degrees depending upon country of origin, in developing countries.
I am also well aware of the flaws and failings of aid agencies.
I sought to make one point, that it is wrong, racist, dishonest, etc., to blame the West for the problems in developing countries and there is enough home-grown flaws, failings, corruption etc. in these places to create the sort of chaos and failure to thrive that we see.
The position some take that it is all the fault of the West is simplistic, erroneous and a digression from realities on the ground.
I worked with a nurse who had immigrated from Nigeria with her family and she basically told me the same story. Her brother had started some kind of business (sorry, I don’t remember what it was) and was soon bankrupted by the local government with fees , permits, etc and his property and business was confiscated. Appalonia told me this wasn’t unusual so people didn’t start businesses.
Par for the course. Even at the village level the chief has total power and people are not free to plant what they would choose. Everything is controlled.
We lived in Lilongwe and there were quarters for the servants in the same road and they established wonderful gardens for fruit and vegetables which the renting agents, Africans, ripped out because they said they had no right to have gardens because the land did not belong to them. So depressing.
We also lived in South Africa and until the last decade or so, the utilities actually worked. Safe water, telephone connections, regular electricity, no longer happens under black African Governments. Same principles, look after self, then family, perhaps extended family and bugger the rest.
The Government allows blacks to take farms from whites and then they fall into disrepair. It is not that black Africans are not competent or capable but that they function in a totally corrupt and tribalistic society where might is right and those with power serve only themselves.
It is not about East or West, north or south. It is about capitalism and power. It is extremely difficult to maintain high moral standards in a world that rewards you for depraved and selfish actions and behavior. We have to find another way, that’s an existential demand. But maybe your misanthropic approach is correctly defining the outer and absolutte limits of a failed, stupid and suicidal species , and so are we all doomed! I have grandchildren and I cannot live the rest of my days with that perspective. I prefer the hope that Caitlin among many represents.
Trust me, I am not a nihilist and fail to see how you gained that impression. I have great faith in the nobility of spirit of human beings. I think the current fad of hating the West and dumping all blame on the West for everything is dangerous and destructive. Human nature is human nature and there is nothing about anglo-europeans which is, or was worse than anyone else. Indeed, because of the Christian ethics they were often more enlightened. Not always as the Spanish atrocities in South America reveal.
You might need to study Chinese history and rethink that. Capitalism has existed in every single human culture since Homo Sapiens appeared. Capitalism is merely gaining profit and power from goods. In stone-age societies, the reason why the best hunter or strongest man became the chief, leader, king, or whatever, is because he had powers which could be bartered and bring profit.
Stone-age humans bartered with other tribes, often their females, and everyone did it. European, Asian, African, Indian, Polynesian, everyone.
Your take on capitalism is far from scientific. Trading is one of the species specific characteristics of Homo sapiens and other humans. But it isn’t capitalism, and will exist as long as humans is about. I know that the most comprehensive analysis of “western” societies and economics namely Marx and “The Capital” isn’t on the curriculum at western universities. But you have to take a deep dive into Marx before talking qualified about Capitalism. But don’t bother it is fun to learn new things!
Trading is capitalism which has morphed into a political system of power, and in the US with almost cult-like qualities.
Capitalism is merely trading in the extreme and where it is largely unregulated, like it is in the US, unlike other developed nations, it become fascistic.
Marx certainly had some interesting ideas and opinions on Capitalism but he also was mistaken in seeing Capitalism as one thing when it is not. The scientific system of enquiry made and continues to make, the same mistake with religion.
Regulated Capitalism, managed, moderated, monitored Capitalism is different to unregulated Capitalism which becomes in essence a religion, something else Marx hated, and a system of power domination of others.
Capitalism rides on the back of the human instinct and capacity for trading, buying and selling, anything and everything in order to make a profit. The issue is not making a profit but how much profit is made or demanded to be made.
i cant help but wonder how the greed of world powers has figured thru the ages in building this system favoring , advantaging corruption .i see meddling & bribes & coups & setting up the faire tale, "golden paved roads"World Empires shining city on the hill of freedom & Justice. , in reality a hypocritical Western set of ideals are actually liedeals. it makes it hard to believe the decks weren't stacked. we all have opportunists in our midst ☮️🙏
The greed of world powers is no different to the greed of this or that tribe, kingdom, clan or group. Human nature is what it is. The function of any tribe, clan, system, group is no different to what people now condemn in what they call Western culture. It is racist to claim that it is.
Which is why as humans developed they strove to establish rule of law and principles which would help protect the weak and establish civilized behaviour. Principles of justice, human rights, democracy and common human decency. Sure they may be flawed in practice and erratic in application but developing them was still a critical part of human evolution which drew upon all human achievements.
This idea that there is something called Western which is separate from all other humans and cultures is a modern invention and a dangerous one.
What we call Western, the modern world, rides on the back of human development over thousands of years and the achievements of all humans and groups. The European world was a backwater when the Arab Muslim world was at its heights, leading the way in mathematics, science, medicine, literature, and as the Western world began to develop further, it drew on all of those avenues of learning.
The Muslim/Arab worlds also drew on Indian/Hindu knowledge and ancient Egyptian, Greek, Sumerian, Mesopotanian and more.
What we call the West today is not an entity but a level of development representing the achievements of humanity across thousands of years.
No-one disputes the fact that all humans have skills. The smartest colonists learned from those skills. Indeed, while the Saxons hated their Roman occupiers and colonisers they also learned from them.
No doubt colonisation was a critical part of human evolution and transferred knowledge and skills around the world.
Indeed if the Europeans had not reached South America and colonised such places the Irish would not have had potatoes, the Italians tomatoes, the Indians Chilli and none of us would have chocolate and coffee.
To Roslyn Ross, I am glad that several friends here have posted answers to your comments. What you are saying is nothing new - except that you still speak the pejorative language of colonialism, with the colonising gaze of the coloniser. Out of context and very patronising.
You presume to 'know' because you have lived in the "third world" and working for a pillaging mining company at that! Mining companies are notorious for stealing, and/or poisoning the water where they operate. Maybe your mining company atoned for it by giving the 'natives' a water treatment plant... !!
Quoting you ".....trillions of dollars which have been poured into Africa in aid over the past half century..." Really? You have no idea at all how the so-called aid works. It is certainly 'aid' for the coloniser and bribes for the collaborator class that they have installed and keep in power, so as to go on pillaging.
You go on to say "Angola, where I also lived, has diamonds and oil and immense wealth, stolen by their leaders", without realising the irony of your words - has it escaped your reasoning that the colonisers were there to steal the diamonds and oil?
You say all this at a time when Western countries deeply rooted in colonial practices and systemic racism are once again invoking the dehumanising language of colonial oppression to justify violence as Israel does in Gaza; vilify refugees as Trump does in xenophobic terms of " poisoning the blood of Americans".
I think you need to do some critical thinking with your research.
Patronising is when people condemn colonisation by anglo-europeans and ignore it when it is done by Africans, Indians, Polynesians and Asians.
You said: You presume to 'know' because you have lived in the "third world"
I presume to know nothing. I merely offer insights from lived experience and a lot of research.
You said: and working for a pillaging mining company at that!
The mere fact you make such a silly statement reveals your prejudice and lack of facts. In places like Africa there is more pillaging by locals than by mining companies, most of whom are accountable under international law and environmental regulations. No mining company works anywhere today without employing archaeologists and environmentalists.
You said: Mining companies are notorious for stealing, and/or poisoning the water where they operate. Maybe your mining company atoned for it by giving the 'natives' a water treatment plant... !!
Sorry, but you just get sillier. International mining companies are accountable under international law and held to account by often rabid environmentalists.
And the water treatment plant was nowhere near the mine. It was in a large town many kilometres away and was a contribution tot he community.
You said: You have no idea at all how the so-called aid works. It is certainly 'aid' for the coloniser and bribes for the collaborator class that they have installed and keep in power, so as to go on pillaging.
And your experience on the ground would be what? It is Africans who have investigated and reported on the destructive nature of foreign aid.
You said: You go on to say "Angola, where I also lived, has diamonds and oil and immense wealth, stolen by their leaders", without realising the irony of your words - has it escaped your reasoning that the colonisers were there to steal the diamonds and oil?
Now I am getting depressed. You really have no idea what you are talking about. Firstly no-one was colonising. The Angolans threw out the Portugese after 500 years. Yes there were many corporations, including a lot of African ones, working in Angola.
MY POINT WAS THAT THE COUNTRY HAS ENORMOUS WEALTH WHICH DOES NOT BENEFIT THE PEOPLE BECAUSE IT IS STOLEN BY THEIR POLITICIANS.
You said: You say all this at a time when Western countries deeply rooted in colonial practices and systemic racism are once again invoking the dehumanising language of colonial oppression to justify violence as Israel does in Gaza;
The genocide in Palestine HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH COLONIAL PRACTICES IN CENTURIES PAST. It has to do with the racist, fascist nature of Zionism.
Those who conflate anglo-european colonisations centuries ago with what Israel does in Palestine in the 20th and 21st centuries are letting the Zionist state off the hook.
THERE IS NO PAST COLONIAL VENTURE WHICH DID TO THE NATIVE PEOPLE WHAT ISRAEL DOES TO THE PALESTINIANS. THERE ARE NONE WITH SUCH A POLICY.
By all means prove me wrong.
You said: I think you need to do some critical thinking with your research.
Critical thinking is good advice you should take. First, find out what you are talking about before forming and voicing opinions. You clearly know absolutely nothing about how mining companies now have to operate around the world, nothing about how Africa works and nothing about the history of Palestine and its oppression.
"I have learned that it is possible to awaken from the egoic delusions which are responsible for most of our suffering, and begin moving harmoniously on this planet with an open heart and eyes full of wonder."
Well, yeah, but in my experience that's the easy bit. The tricky part is to learn to integrate that realisation into your day to day functioning within a society predicated on assumptions of separateness and ego-conflict. If you want to be a hermit - no probs. But if you want to continue to fight for what you believe in - while not losing sight of the fact what you believe in is ALSO an egoic delusion - you've got to cultivate an intrinsic detachment that doesn't give rise to apathy.
If you learn that trick be sure to post the answer here ;).
Personally I just flip constantly back and forwards between occupying and acting from my ego and 'recharging' in egolessness. Of course that involves giving up attachment to personal authenticity or a 'True Self'.
And let's face it, suffering is just a sharp highlight amid the rich flavours of existence. Why would you want to 'transcend' the human condition? What would art be without suffering? Socialist 'realism'?
"I have learned that the self is an illusion and the way most people perceive things like thought, time and separateness is not truth-based, driven instead by wildly inaccurate assumptions about the most fundamental aspects of human experience."
Are they really assumptions?
To be human is to be a living organism that is both integrated with and emergent from its environment and which has 'separated' itself from it with its struggle for individual survival and drive to reproduce. Maybe to call Oneness the 'Truth' and separateness an 'illusion' is to impose yet another dualism that immediately negates Oneness. Maybe reality can't even be described, much less captured, within language and concepts such as 'truth' or 'illusion' (much less Greek dualistic logic with its law of the excluded middle).
To invoke the catuṣkoṭi -
Oneness is not true
Oneness is not untrue
Oneness is not both true and untrue
Oneness is not neither true nor untrue
"I have learned that everything is stunningly beautiful, and that any failure to perceive beauty anywhere is a failure of perception by the beholder."
Now that IS true.
It's not just beautiful, it's an awe-inspiring ongoing miracle of creation, destruction and renewal.
Anyone who doesn't believe in magic isn't paying attention.
"I have learned that the more I learn, the more mysterious life becomes."
I've always been amused by Scientism fan-boys - e.g. the New Atheists - who talk about a 'God of the gaps' as if it's an ever diminishing space of ignorance that will inevitably be filled by the implacable progress of scientific knowledge.
Maybe in a universe of infinite mystery finding answers only proliferates the questions. You'd think even worshippers of Science with a capital-S would have learned that from when early 20th century physicists solved their two 'final' mysteries of black body radiation and the photoelectric effect. But no, I guess even those who've renounced their omniscient God prefer a universe of certainties that fits neatly within their own ontological framework.
Seems to me knowledge and learning are also forms of grasping by the self in its attempt to define itself within and against the cosmos. But what would I know? I still have a lot to unlearn.
Remember the four horsemen of the apocalypse? Things are just getting started. When I was a kid, 70 years ago, the sun was yellow, it is now a pale white. ("Behold a pale horse.") If the prophesy is correct, it has another three stages to go until things settle out. ("As above, so below."). It goes to red, then black, then back to yellow. Which describes a variable star going through the mini-nova process. I am sure our psychopathic "owners" are busy reducing the population now, but they needn't bother, as it will happen anyway.
Robert Reynolds, I agree. Caitlin reminds us from time to time - that even with knowing the ugly truth - one has to get in touch with the beauty that is still possible. To open our hearts to the alternative of harmony, corporation among nations, loving kindness to one another. A concept of no-self to explore, which in turn will make the empathetic distress we feel for the plight of the Palestinians to progress into compassion. Compassion leading to wisdom will demand nothing less than justice for the oppressed.
If you want to understand why America is what it is today it is all very well recorded in such books as Diana Johnstone's The Queen of Chaos, The Misadventures of Hillary Clinton.
"Starting in 1950, the United States built an economic trap for itself from which it now seems unable to escape. The trap was given a name by Dwight Eisenhower in his farewell speech as President on January 17, 1961: the military-industrial complex (MIC)."
"Trapped" is the keyword here as it is trapped in its endless corruptions and caught in a vortex of decline that appears unstoppable.
Where there is no contrition there is no salvation.
The maw of of the empire has a voracious appetite. Presidents pretend they have great power; where they are on the treadmill spinning their lies without a clue of what to do.
Provoking the war in Ukraine was the stupidest act in the history of man as it laid open the rotten viscera of empire and its crimes against humanity.
Thing is, those that drive the MIC drain of blood are never the ones who are elected and accountable. It is shadowy lawyers, it is institutional shareholders from Wal Street, it is Executives.
Once you have a society where the unlected MIC murders any elected official that tries to stop forever wars, you need a civil war to ever get out of it. Or you need to invite the russians/chinese/whoever to invade your country and destroy the rabble that control it.
"Provoking the war in Ukraine was the stupidest act in the history of man" Not even close.
How about when Genghis Khan sent emissaries to the Sultanate in Baghdad. The Sultan had the emissaries killed. Genghis' troops conquered and destroyed the Sultanate, which has yet to recover.
Not even close as war now has magnitudes and consequences never seen before and affecting the whole world. We are now in WW lll and the only question now is how much further is it going to escalate? Biden provoked the war in Ukraine and could have stopped the genocide in Gaza. His infamy is going to be very enduring. What happened 800 years ago is only of passing interest.
This is beautiful Caitlin. Thank you for sharing these most important lessons learned. It reminds me of a sacred tradition (Hadith) from the Prophet Muhammad: “God is beauty and He loves the beautiful.”
To see the beauty and majesty in all things is to see with eyes untainted by hate.
This opened my heart, fed my soul, stirred my consciousness, and made me smile. You are a prophet of universal truths. Thank you from the heart and soul.
The ego has a filing cabinet of folders each with some preconceived descriptor it is capable of assigning to an observation -- to another person, an event or an interaction. I have learned that freedom is freedom from this filing cabinet of preconceptions. Just letting observation or creativity be pure in origin. And it's hard as hell, but worth it when it happens.
Yes very worth it. If only it could happen more often.
This is why I avoid ideology.
Exactly. Any ideology brings with it the uber folder filled with its subfolders, each with instructions on how best to view or approach what one perceives in the world, thus essentially distorting perception from the get-go. It took 13 years for Catholicism to ring my realization bell for example -- the realization that this entire sin-and-go-to-hell stricture was just going to be a guilt saddle that clouded my mind. Perhaps had I been a sociopath, lacking empathy, it would've been necessary, but then, had I been a sociopath, it wouldn't have made a dent anyway.
Finster's Four Laws:
1. No matter how cynical you think you are, you are not nearly as cynical as the people who run things are.
2. There is no such thing as law. There is only context. The longer form is that laws are for little people. Policy is for People Who Matter, because policy determines when the law applies and to whom.
3. Legalism breeds lawyers.
4. All games eventually degenerate into sociopath games, because cheating is the only way to beat a cheater.
Having worked at the world's main legal publisher, your laws check out
On games & cheaters: I finally accepted it's a prisoner's dilemma, thus bad people win in a bad society. I am old with a clean conscience I refuse to dirty, so I don't play
Feral Finster, seems like you need a little dose of optimism in your life...hope you are able to find it somewhere at least some of the time...
Hi Chang
While I believe FF is correct, I’m offering him some Delectables to hopefully inspire some joy in him 😁
May you continue to long learn, Catelin!
I have also learned a few things.
I know that there are so many people who respond to Caitlin’s writings who think as I do.
And that is sustaining
CJ>>"The learning continues, even as the conclusions crumble in the radiant light of the mystery, and I stare bewildered at a universe made of question marks."
Amen Caitlin! Similarly, I have so much to learn but not enough time to learn it in. Nevertheless, I'm learning from many independent and non-conformist thinkers (such as yourself) and am constantly growing in my own little way. Thank you for all that you do and impart/share with us!
Hello Chang, Thanks for this. I share your sentiments.
Thank you Caitlin, that is stunning.
Much that you say is true, but having lived in India for nearly five years and four African countries, most of them for more than four years, I have learned that blaming the West for the woes of developing countries is wrong.
For the trillions of dollars which have been poured into Africa in aid over the past half century, nothing has been achieved. People are poorer than they were and it is not because of the West. It is because of corruption and incompetence on the part of most if not all African leaders.
Those who gain power look after themselves, their family, their extended family and that is about it. The rest can go to hell.
When Zambia gained independence, a country where I have lived, it had an economy to rival Singapore and a solid infrastructure of agriculture, roads, industry and mining which was trashed in a decade by Africans, not the West.
Angola, where I also lived, has diamonds and oil and immense wealth, stolen by their leaders. A former President Dos Santos kept all his money, well, Angolan money in Brazil. Yes, the West and South Africa got involved in the terrible Angolan Civil War, and I was living there in the last years of that, but mostly the fact that developing countries have not developed is because of internal corruption, tribal divisions and plain old fashioned greed. Might is right.
When I lived in Malawi, the mining company for which I worked built a water treatment plant in the major town close to the mine. When the mining project had to close down, it took only a few years before some rich and powerful politician, took the equipment from the water treatment plant and set it up in his own factory producing water bottled in yes, plastic.
While the Presidents of Malawi, and I saw a few, were spending millions on their palaces - Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world - teachers had no equipment in their schools, hospitals little or no functioning equipment and the morgues filled up so fast they had to stack bodies in the street.
When I lived in India, Bombay, a cesspit for most of its inhabitants who still had to defecate in the street, the Indian Government was spending billions on their military, particularly the navy and space programmes. As Gandhi once said, it would not be difficult to provide flushing toilets for all Indians, it would just require the will of Government.
So, everytime someone blames the West for the poverty and suffering in less developed countries I can only suggest they go and live there and do some more research.
Had it not been for white supremacists, pillaging, murdering, torturing, and propagandizing those countries they would have had a different history and a different present. That’s not to excuse the leaders who have copied the invaders’ ways, but it is important that the current corruption be put in context. Otherwise, whites get away with saying those people are ignorant and can’t govern themselves.
Clearly you know nothing of African history. Before the Anglo-Europeans arrived the black supremacists were literally pillaging, murdering, torturing etc.
The anglo-europeans were looking to make money of course but they also built roads, sanitation facilities, electrical and safe water utilities, schools, hospitals etc.
It is not so much ignorance which destroys Africa but corruption and tribal divisions along with patriarchal elitism.
And to take the view that all wrongs were done by anglo-europeans is to be patronising and racist. Africans are and were more than capable of committing wrongs and often far worse.
I disagree with you. From the very get go, the colonising powers had ruinous effect on African development and hierarchy of who holds power and to whom they answer to. It is thanks to them we ended up with the people we have running things and it is self perpetuating. Any class of politicians with positive intent for growth and redistribution never gets into power and if they manage to the country may face destabilisation or a good regime change. The colonial power’s carved up the continent for their own ends and when they pretended to leave, left able lieutenants to run it. They then created the World Bank, IMF etc to manage the repression of African economy for the benefit of the colonising powers. It makes me laugh when I read or hear arguments implying that Western countries can no longer be held responsible for the under development of Africa. Yes, they can because they have never let us be. How else will they get our resources at bargain basement prices?!
Nothing the colonial powers did was worse than the tribal powers who also carved up the continent. Are you seriously suggesting Africa was some peaceful Utopia before the Anglo-Europeans arrived? It wasn’t. Far from it. Also bear in mind that Britain and Europe in their time had also been carved up by colonial powers. Indeed in Europe it was not just other Europeans but Asians, Arabs and others.Why the double standards?
Nothing happened in Africa that had not and did not happen everywhere.
When Africans invaded and colonised they killed the able young men, took useful females for themselves and enslaved the rest.
Heaven only knows what you are taking about. Because it may have been done before doesn’t neutralise the point I was getting across in response to your earlier comment. Going by your comment, we should just shug our shoulders at the on-going genocide of the Palestinians because it’s happened before. FYI, because something happened before doesn’t mean it has to happen again and be just waved on. I stand by my earlier comment more than ever because I don’t know where to put yours.
Firstly, the occupation and colonisation of Palestine by Zionists, Israelis and Jews is unique and cannot be compared to other colonisations.
For the following reasons:
1. other colonisations took place in past centuries and not in the 20th and 21st centuries.
2. No other colonisation was done with the purpose of setting up a religious state which would forever disenfranchise the native people.
3. No other colonisation was done with the policy that the native people were subhuman.
4. No other colonisation was planned and carried out with a policy of extermination or total expulsion from the land of the native people.
5. No other colonisation was done by a State claiming to be a Western democracy.
I totally condemn colonisation in this age. It cannot be condemned in centuries past because everyone did it and it was a part of human evolution and no doubt a necessary part.
I condemn any colonial ruler which inflicts the level of sadistic cruelty and bestial savagery on the native people as Israel does and more so when it is done in the modern age.
I believe conflating Israeli occupation of Palestine with colonisations in the 14th, 15th, 16th, `17th, 18th, 19th centuries is wrong and lets the Zionists off the hook. You cannot retrofit modern values, standards and circumstances to centuries past.
I believe condemning anglo-european colonisations in centuries past and ignoring Asian, African, Polynesian, Indian, etc. etc. etc. colonisations is racist and a distortion of human history.
Of course not all wrongs are of Anglo European causation. What you are saying has been presented relative to the North American indigenous populations also. Seems an unfortunate human trait but at the same time the culture or society that has the upper hand, just like the parent or the teacher, must take responsibility.
So you are saying that groups called indigenous are like children? I reject that. History clearly demonstrates that the only future any of us have in a healthy form is assimilation into the broader community. When groups, indigenous, religious, racial, cultural, whatever the source, fail or refuse to fully assimilate into the broader community they create problems for themselves.
We see this in Australia although the same problems exist in Canada for the same reasons. Most of the people here when the British arrived in 1788 assimilated. Most Australians with aboriginal ancestry are fully assimilated into the modern world and the broader community and they have the same lives and outcomes as anyone else. Their ancestors made that choice and took responsibility.
A minority still struggle and terribly because they remain locked into tribal/clan systems in communities riven by tribal, clan and family divisions, and violently so. They are not fully integrated and assimilated into the modern world and have not taken responsibility for themselves or their future. They have a mendicant mentality. To be fair to them, a lot of do-gooders in the West encourage this and are horrified at the word, assimilation, when this has clearly demonstrated itself to be the answer to a better life.
Nope. Not what I am saying at all. I am saying the people in the position of power and control generally must take responsibility for events that occur under their domination.
Furthermore, what is a good or bad life is very subjective and it seems that the dominant group values itself and assumes life better for assimilated others although the assimilated may not. It is all a matter of subjective perspective.
Just pondering again what you have said here. No-one in any position of power has total control over anyone. We all have the ability to take responsibility and to make the best of our situation.
That is what humans must do when they get a job, go to school, study in university, get married. There are always other people with greater power but never with total control.
Assimilation means adapting to your circumstances so your life will be as productive and fulfilling as possible. What is wrong with that?
The English were colonised violently a dozen times but they got over it and made something of themselves, no doubt improved by their experiences. How do you think they would have fared if they said everytime, no, I reject that, I will never assimilate, I will never learn from these invaders????
And nothing is ever totally subjective. Perspective requires a balance of both subjective and objective and the combination of those qualities are present in the healthiest humans and the best survivors.
There have always been dominant groups and people in the lives of humans. The obsession today with what is called indigenous completely ignores the reality that the problems they face still, were faced by anglo-europeans barely a century ago. Why is that ignored?
All we do know is that a healthy human must adapt to survive and thrive and that is why assimilation is the most sensible approach, whether for a colonised people, a spouse, an adopted child or a migrant. The same human experiences are a part of every human life.
I find it patronising to paint what is now called indigenous as little more than helpless children and to retrofit modern attitudes and values to the past when life was very different, for everyone, a century ago, let alone many centuries ago when many colonisations took place.
To a certain extent you are right. BUT what IF no Western powers had been there in the first place?
I was born and grew up in Sri Lanka.
Before ANY white settlers arrived it was a Country which had a very pluralistic society. Tamils in the North/Catholic missionaries/Buddhists and Arabs.
The Portuguese arrived first mostly settling on the Coast/then the Dutch/then the English.
The English took over Tea Estates (managed them with a whip) importing Tamils from India, keeping them in slave conditions. No school, no toilets and just enough to eat.
Just before Independence English gave extra Powers to the Buddhists which then became extreme and decided Buddhism was the major religion of the country. This is still causing wars.
I would say that the Rulers of many of these Countries without a doubt learned from their European masters.
I could go on and on..............
Following on from this:
NO way did the Arab Traders threaten the Govt.
All they were interested in was trade NOT so the UK
" It is because of corruption and incompetence on the part of most if not all African leaders." - and that suits those who "pour trillions of dollars" just fine. In fact, that's what's required so the "givers" keep the choke hold on those they "help".
The corruption comes from within. When Malawi politicians leave Parliament House with their boots full of cash, that is not being done by the givers.
When a politician takes water treatment equipment out of a plant which provides safe water to a city and sets it up in his own factory which bottles water, that is not a Western choke hold.
When a President creams off the wealth of his country and puts it in a South American bank account that is not the fault of givers.
When a well and water pump is set up in a village so women do not have to walk for hours to get water, and the local chief takes the parts for his own personal well, that is not the fault of the West.
You are confusing aid money with the endemic internal corruption at work in African countries. The aid money keeps coming in because aid agencies are businesses, corporations, and they want to keep their jobs even though it achieves little to nothing of benefit.
"that is not being done by the givers." - absolutely. The givers know full well where that cash is parked and that this particular figure along with the others are now under their full control. That's the mechanism. Keep them corrupt while ostensibly "helping" them.
Don't try to tell me dollars or euros cannot be found and traced to any bank in the world. The givers could arrange it so it is not stolen to a destructive degree but that would be against their ultimate goals. They want them bad, they need them on the hook.
Looks like you're still believe in ideals.
You are still conflating and confusing the issue of aid money and corruption within the society.
Stealing a water treatment facility has nothing to do with the West.
It is not as organised as you think and none of it could happen if the cultures/societies were not as corrupt and tribalistic as they are.
If I had my way I would end aid to Africa tomorrow, barring crisis aid, although even there, when I was living in Malawi there were terrible floods and the corporations and aid agencies were sending food and goods to the affected areas and the Government was stopping the trucks, unloading it all onto their trucks and taking it away. Sorry but none of that is the fault of the West.
Malawi has had some terrible famines caused because the Government sold off their grain supplies and pocketed the cash personally.
I do not believe aid is effective. I believe it is destructive. It turns people into mendicants and encourages even greater corruption.
And your comment indicates you have little or no understanding of how things work in such places, nor how international banking functions either.
The problem with blaming everything on the West is that you will never be able to understand or even see the real problems and you are turning those who live in developing nations into helpless fools, which is just another form of patronising racism.
You have an important point. There's an intricate play of destruction. A substantial component does come from within, it's not only from western sources. You're on to the problem here: "If I had my way I would end aid to Africa tomorrow". The idea is that we should end interventionism. It's been going on for centuries. To deny either source won't bring understanding. Trying to discern exact causation is complicated. Things are rarely one way or the other.
All very true.
Are you familiar with Perkin's "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man"?
No I am not. Just to clarify, I am perfectly well aware of the corrupt practices of some corporations, to lesser and greater degrees depending upon country of origin, in developing countries.
I am also well aware of the flaws and failings of aid agencies.
I sought to make one point, that it is wrong, racist, dishonest, etc., to blame the West for the problems in developing countries and there is enough home-grown flaws, failings, corruption etc. in these places to create the sort of chaos and failure to thrive that we see.
The position some take that it is all the fault of the West is simplistic, erroneous and a digression from realities on the ground.
I worked with a nurse who had immigrated from Nigeria with her family and she basically told me the same story. Her brother had started some kind of business (sorry, I don’t remember what it was) and was soon bankrupted by the local government with fees , permits, etc and his property and business was confiscated. Appalonia told me this wasn’t unusual so people didn’t start businesses.
Par for the course. Even at the village level the chief has total power and people are not free to plant what they would choose. Everything is controlled.
We lived in Lilongwe and there were quarters for the servants in the same road and they established wonderful gardens for fruit and vegetables which the renting agents, Africans, ripped out because they said they had no right to have gardens because the land did not belong to them. So depressing.
We also lived in South Africa and until the last decade or so, the utilities actually worked. Safe water, telephone connections, regular electricity, no longer happens under black African Governments. Same principles, look after self, then family, perhaps extended family and bugger the rest.
The Government allows blacks to take farms from whites and then they fall into disrepair. It is not that black Africans are not competent or capable but that they function in a totally corrupt and tribalistic society where might is right and those with power serve only themselves.
It is not about East or West, north or south. It is about capitalism and power. It is extremely difficult to maintain high moral standards in a world that rewards you for depraved and selfish actions and behavior. We have to find another way, that’s an existential demand. But maybe your misanthropic approach is correctly defining the outer and absolutte limits of a failed, stupid and suicidal species , and so are we all doomed! I have grandchildren and I cannot live the rest of my days with that perspective. I prefer the hope that Caitlin among many represents.
Trust me, I am not a nihilist and fail to see how you gained that impression. I have great faith in the nobility of spirit of human beings. I think the current fad of hating the West and dumping all blame on the West for everything is dangerous and destructive. Human nature is human nature and there is nothing about anglo-europeans which is, or was worse than anyone else. Indeed, because of the Christian ethics they were often more enlightened. Not always as the Spanish atrocities in South America reveal.
EXACTLY where did 'Capitalism' come from?
Read the Opium wars in China.
This was not from the East.
You might need to study Chinese history and rethink that. Capitalism has existed in every single human culture since Homo Sapiens appeared. Capitalism is merely gaining profit and power from goods. In stone-age societies, the reason why the best hunter or strongest man became the chief, leader, king, or whatever, is because he had powers which could be bartered and bring profit.
Stone-age humans bartered with other tribes, often their females, and everyone did it. European, Asian, African, Indian, Polynesian, everyone.
Your take on capitalism is far from scientific. Trading is one of the species specific characteristics of Homo sapiens and other humans. But it isn’t capitalism, and will exist as long as humans is about. I know that the most comprehensive analysis of “western” societies and economics namely Marx and “The Capital” isn’t on the curriculum at western universities. But you have to take a deep dive into Marx before talking qualified about Capitalism. But don’t bother it is fun to learn new things!
Trading is capitalism which has morphed into a political system of power, and in the US with almost cult-like qualities.
Capitalism is merely trading in the extreme and where it is largely unregulated, like it is in the US, unlike other developed nations, it become fascistic.
Marx certainly had some interesting ideas and opinions on Capitalism but he also was mistaken in seeing Capitalism as one thing when it is not. The scientific system of enquiry made and continues to make, the same mistake with religion.
Regulated Capitalism, managed, moderated, monitored Capitalism is different to unregulated Capitalism which becomes in essence a religion, something else Marx hated, and a system of power domination of others.
Capitalism rides on the back of the human instinct and capacity for trading, buying and selling, anything and everything in order to make a profit. The issue is not making a profit but how much profit is made or demanded to be made.
Ukraine's short history is similar.
i cant help but wonder how the greed of world powers has figured thru the ages in building this system favoring , advantaging corruption .i see meddling & bribes & coups & setting up the faire tale, "golden paved roads"World Empires shining city on the hill of freedom & Justice. , in reality a hypocritical Western set of ideals are actually liedeals. it makes it hard to believe the decks weren't stacked. we all have opportunists in our midst ☮️🙏
The greed of world powers is no different to the greed of this or that tribe, kingdom, clan or group. Human nature is what it is. The function of any tribe, clan, system, group is no different to what people now condemn in what they call Western culture. It is racist to claim that it is.
Which is why as humans developed they strove to establish rule of law and principles which would help protect the weak and establish civilized behaviour. Principles of justice, human rights, democracy and common human decency. Sure they may be flawed in practice and erratic in application but developing them was still a critical part of human evolution which drew upon all human achievements.
This idea that there is something called Western which is separate from all other humans and cultures is a modern invention and a dangerous one.
What we call Western, the modern world, rides on the back of human development over thousands of years and the achievements of all humans and groups. The European world was a backwater when the Arab Muslim world was at its heights, leading the way in mathematics, science, medicine, literature, and as the Western world began to develop further, it drew on all of those avenues of learning.
The Muslim/Arab worlds also drew on Indian/Hindu knowledge and ancient Egyptian, Greek, Sumerian, Mesopotanian and more.
What we call the West today is not an entity but a level of development representing the achievements of humanity across thousands of years.
What you forget: You may know African History but before the US/EU was born.
Sri Lankan Tamils knew that water was sparse in the dry months.
SO what did the Tamils do?
They built (tanks) reservoirs to capture the water........then they built canals to water their crops in the dry months.
When the Dutch entered the arid north they were AMAZED.
What the Northern Sri Lankans understood also was storms.
They built high buildings made of mud///higher and higher they went. Higher buildings attracted lightning and more water.
Europe was in it's infancy/USA was NOT born.
No-one disputes the fact that all humans have skills. The smartest colonists learned from those skills. Indeed, while the Saxons hated their Roman occupiers and colonisers they also learned from them.
No doubt colonisation was a critical part of human evolution and transferred knowledge and skills around the world.
Indeed if the Europeans had not reached South America and colonised such places the Irish would not have had potatoes, the Italians tomatoes, the Indians Chilli and none of us would have chocolate and coffee.
I think you have to go back into OLD History.
Opium wars in China.
To Roslyn Ross, I am glad that several friends here have posted answers to your comments. What you are saying is nothing new - except that you still speak the pejorative language of colonialism, with the colonising gaze of the coloniser. Out of context and very patronising.
You presume to 'know' because you have lived in the "third world" and working for a pillaging mining company at that! Mining companies are notorious for stealing, and/or poisoning the water where they operate. Maybe your mining company atoned for it by giving the 'natives' a water treatment plant... !!
Quoting you ".....trillions of dollars which have been poured into Africa in aid over the past half century..." Really? You have no idea at all how the so-called aid works. It is certainly 'aid' for the coloniser and bribes for the collaborator class that they have installed and keep in power, so as to go on pillaging.
You go on to say "Angola, where I also lived, has diamonds and oil and immense wealth, stolen by their leaders", without realising the irony of your words - has it escaped your reasoning that the colonisers were there to steal the diamonds and oil?
You say all this at a time when Western countries deeply rooted in colonial practices and systemic racism are once again invoking the dehumanising language of colonial oppression to justify violence as Israel does in Gaza; vilify refugees as Trump does in xenophobic terms of " poisoning the blood of Americans".
I think you need to do some critical thinking with your research.
I would just apologise if I have been too blunt because English may well be a second language.
Patronising is when people condemn colonisation by anglo-europeans and ignore it when it is done by Africans, Indians, Polynesians and Asians.
You said: You presume to 'know' because you have lived in the "third world"
I presume to know nothing. I merely offer insights from lived experience and a lot of research.
You said: and working for a pillaging mining company at that!
The mere fact you make such a silly statement reveals your prejudice and lack of facts. In places like Africa there is more pillaging by locals than by mining companies, most of whom are accountable under international law and environmental regulations. No mining company works anywhere today without employing archaeologists and environmentalists.
You said: Mining companies are notorious for stealing, and/or poisoning the water where they operate. Maybe your mining company atoned for it by giving the 'natives' a water treatment plant... !!
Sorry, but you just get sillier. International mining companies are accountable under international law and held to account by often rabid environmentalists.
And the water treatment plant was nowhere near the mine. It was in a large town many kilometres away and was a contribution tot he community.
You said: You have no idea at all how the so-called aid works. It is certainly 'aid' for the coloniser and bribes for the collaborator class that they have installed and keep in power, so as to go on pillaging.
And your experience on the ground would be what? It is Africans who have investigated and reported on the destructive nature of foreign aid.
https://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/spiegel-interview-with-african-economics-expert-for-god-s-sake-please-stop-the-aid-a-363663.h
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/8/2/dambisa-moyo-foreign-aid-is-corrosive-to-democracy-in-africa#:~:text=Dambisa%20Moyo%2C%20a%2
You said: You go on to say "Angola, where I also lived, has diamonds and oil and immense wealth, stolen by their leaders", without realising the irony of your words - has it escaped your reasoning that the colonisers were there to steal the diamonds and oil?
Now I am getting depressed. You really have no idea what you are talking about. Firstly no-one was colonising. The Angolans threw out the Portugese after 500 years. Yes there were many corporations, including a lot of African ones, working in Angola.
MY POINT WAS THAT THE COUNTRY HAS ENORMOUS WEALTH WHICH DOES NOT BENEFIT THE PEOPLE BECAUSE IT IS STOLEN BY THEIR POLITICIANS.
You said: You say all this at a time when Western countries deeply rooted in colonial practices and systemic racism are once again invoking the dehumanising language of colonial oppression to justify violence as Israel does in Gaza;
The genocide in Palestine HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH COLONIAL PRACTICES IN CENTURIES PAST. It has to do with the racist, fascist nature of Zionism.
Those who conflate anglo-european colonisations centuries ago with what Israel does in Palestine in the 20th and 21st centuries are letting the Zionist state off the hook.
THERE IS NO PAST COLONIAL VENTURE WHICH DID TO THE NATIVE PEOPLE WHAT ISRAEL DOES TO THE PALESTINIANS. THERE ARE NONE WITH SUCH A POLICY.
By all means prove me wrong.
You said: I think you need to do some critical thinking with your research.
Critical thinking is good advice you should take. First, find out what you are talking about before forming and voicing opinions. You clearly know absolutely nothing about how mining companies now have to operate around the world, nothing about how Africa works and nothing about the history of Palestine and its oppression.
We love you Caitlin and Tim.
We are kindred spirits separated only through illusion.
"I have learned that it is possible to awaken from the egoic delusions which are responsible for most of our suffering, and begin moving harmoniously on this planet with an open heart and eyes full of wonder."
Well, yeah, but in my experience that's the easy bit. The tricky part is to learn to integrate that realisation into your day to day functioning within a society predicated on assumptions of separateness and ego-conflict. If you want to be a hermit - no probs. But if you want to continue to fight for what you believe in - while not losing sight of the fact what you believe in is ALSO an egoic delusion - you've got to cultivate an intrinsic detachment that doesn't give rise to apathy.
If you learn that trick be sure to post the answer here ;).
Personally I just flip constantly back and forwards between occupying and acting from my ego and 'recharging' in egolessness. Of course that involves giving up attachment to personal authenticity or a 'True Self'.
And let's face it, suffering is just a sharp highlight amid the rich flavours of existence. Why would you want to 'transcend' the human condition? What would art be without suffering? Socialist 'realism'?
"I have learned that the self is an illusion and the way most people perceive things like thought, time and separateness is not truth-based, driven instead by wildly inaccurate assumptions about the most fundamental aspects of human experience."
Are they really assumptions?
To be human is to be a living organism that is both integrated with and emergent from its environment and which has 'separated' itself from it with its struggle for individual survival and drive to reproduce. Maybe to call Oneness the 'Truth' and separateness an 'illusion' is to impose yet another dualism that immediately negates Oneness. Maybe reality can't even be described, much less captured, within language and concepts such as 'truth' or 'illusion' (much less Greek dualistic logic with its law of the excluded middle).
To invoke the catuṣkoṭi -
Oneness is not true
Oneness is not untrue
Oneness is not both true and untrue
Oneness is not neither true nor untrue
"I have learned that everything is stunningly beautiful, and that any failure to perceive beauty anywhere is a failure of perception by the beholder."
Now that IS true.
It's not just beautiful, it's an awe-inspiring ongoing miracle of creation, destruction and renewal.
Anyone who doesn't believe in magic isn't paying attention.
"I have learned that the more I learn, the more mysterious life becomes."
I've always been amused by Scientism fan-boys - e.g. the New Atheists - who talk about a 'God of the gaps' as if it's an ever diminishing space of ignorance that will inevitably be filled by the implacable progress of scientific knowledge.
Maybe in a universe of infinite mystery finding answers only proliferates the questions. You'd think even worshippers of Science with a capital-S would have learned that from when early 20th century physicists solved their two 'final' mysteries of black body radiation and the photoelectric effect. But no, I guess even those who've renounced their omniscient God prefer a universe of certainties that fits neatly within their own ontological framework.
Seems to me knowledge and learning are also forms of grasping by the self in its attempt to define itself within and against the cosmos. But what would I know? I still have a lot to unlearn.
Dawn must be getting very close because it’s getting dark as hell😱
Conversely, the light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train.
Remember the four horsemen of the apocalypse? Things are just getting started. When I was a kid, 70 years ago, the sun was yellow, it is now a pale white. ("Behold a pale horse.") If the prophesy is correct, it has another three stages to go until things settle out. ("As above, so below."). It goes to red, then black, then back to yellow. Which describes a variable star going through the mini-nova process. I am sure our psychopathic "owners" are busy reducing the population now, but they needn't bother, as it will happen anyway.
Caitlin, that’s one of the most beautiful things you’ve ever written. Thank you
A lovely post, Caitlin, thank you. I need to read something like that from time-to-time to keep me sane.
Your moral strength and endurance is an inspiration to many.
Robert Reynolds, I agree. Caitlin reminds us from time to time - that even with knowing the ugly truth - one has to get in touch with the beauty that is still possible. To open our hearts to the alternative of harmony, corporation among nations, loving kindness to one another. A concept of no-self to explore, which in turn will make the empathetic distress we feel for the plight of the Palestinians to progress into compassion. Compassion leading to wisdom will demand nothing less than justice for the oppressed.
My mistake. It should have been " co-operation".
Many thanks for your very kind and thoughtful reply, Indu. I picked up your meaning from your initial post.
Caitlin,I have learned that you have a great mind, heart and pen. Thank God!
If you want to understand why America is what it is today it is all very well recorded in such books as Diana Johnstone's The Queen of Chaos, The Misadventures of Hillary Clinton.
"Starting in 1950, the United States built an economic trap for itself from which it now seems unable to escape. The trap was given a name by Dwight Eisenhower in his farewell speech as President on January 17, 1961: the military-industrial complex (MIC)."
"Trapped" is the keyword here as it is trapped in its endless corruptions and caught in a vortex of decline that appears unstoppable.
Where there is no contrition there is no salvation.
The maw of of the empire has a voracious appetite. Presidents pretend they have great power; where they are on the treadmill spinning their lies without a clue of what to do.
Provoking the war in Ukraine was the stupidest act in the history of man as it laid open the rotten viscera of empire and its crimes against humanity.
Thing is, those that drive the MIC drain of blood are never the ones who are elected and accountable. It is shadowy lawyers, it is institutional shareholders from Wal Street, it is Executives.
Once you have a society where the unlected MIC murders any elected official that tries to stop forever wars, you need a civil war to ever get out of it. Or you need to invite the russians/chinese/whoever to invade your country and destroy the rabble that control it.
"Provoking the war in Ukraine was the stupidest act in the history of man" Not even close.
How about when Genghis Khan sent emissaries to the Sultanate in Baghdad. The Sultan had the emissaries killed. Genghis' troops conquered and destroyed the Sultanate, which has yet to recover.
Not even close as war now has magnitudes and consequences never seen before and affecting the whole world. We are now in WW lll and the only question now is how much further is it going to escalate? Biden provoked the war in Ukraine and could have stopped the genocide in Gaza. His infamy is going to be very enduring. What happened 800 years ago is only of passing interest.
This is beautiful Caitlin. Thank you for sharing these most important lessons learned. It reminds me of a sacred tradition (Hadith) from the Prophet Muhammad: “God is beauty and He loves the beautiful.”
To see the beauty and majesty in all things is to see with eyes untainted by hate.
This opened my heart, fed my soul, stirred my consciousness, and made me smile. You are a prophet of universal truths. Thank you from the heart and soul.