The quandary the left always finds itself in is the one touched upon in the last post. We are a group of independent spirits who believe in the rights of all and who honor ask that humanity honor the individual. We don’t expect everyone to agree with us and we don’t force people to do so with weapons. By nature we are desirous of peace and have compassion for other beings. We are the meek in the biblical statement: And the meek shall inherit the earth.
Although most of us are secular we show a greater morality, one born of compassion and love for our fellow man. We don’t need to tear down others to feel better.
Wow, it would seem we are the Christians following the path of Christ which by the way was his message. He didn’t tell people to worship him. And we are being martyred by the right wing who play on fear, anger, hatred and the darkness of men’s hearts. This is a dangerous game they play. But they don’t care. That’s the whole point, they don’t care about other people. “I’ve got mine, screw you,” should be their catch phrase.
So how do we fight them? How can we retain our ideals (which President Obama represents) and not be bullied and allowed to move the agenda of caring for each other forward?
Whether we like it or not the crazies are right about one thing – we do live in a predominetly Judeo-Christian culture. It was after all Christian religious zealots who founded this place and their desire for religious freedom really meant the brand of crazy Christian zealotry you found yourself most attracted to. Just as they had slaves working in their field they gave long detailed speeches on the meaning of equality and freedom for all (meaning white men). It is only through the compassion and higher minded idealists like Lincoln that our society moved forward and sadly, Lincoln paid with his life.
In the Christian tradition there is no spiritual warrior despite the invented version by way of Evangelic Christianity. Goodness, (represented by Christ) holiness and God (represented here on earth by Christ) choose self-sacrifice over gathering a militia and fighting the Romans or any such military option. It’s not the Jews or the Romans who murder Christ but the Christians who follow Christ’s command to not intervene, hide him or fight for him. Just as the Jews were murdered in the Holocaust, taken peacefully by the merciless Nazis. The Jews choose the path of kindness and disbelief. The level of evil was unimaginable. And I believe we are in a similar situation. I don’t think people realize the level of evil that seeks to oppose and destroy this world. The root of this evil is greed and selfishness. It is so deeply rooted in American culture and revered by those who identify with the right that it has become the shadow self of our culture and it has been leading us down the path of total self-destruction for the past 30 years. Fighting this trickster is difficult because on that side the only law is really the law of black magic so aptly stated by Aleister Crowley (I know some think he’s gray, but this law is the line that takes one to the dark side): Thou will is the whole of the law. Meaning one can do anything to anyone in anyway if they want to. The only thing that matters is the individuals own will. One could say Karl Rove and Dick Cheney are the best example of this ideology in action. It’s the whole, “The ends justify the means,” philosophy we as school children had come to understand as wrong, because it is wrong. But this notion, which has always been embraced by the dark side, Hitler, Pol Pot, Karl Rove, Dick Cheney (how many innocent Iraqi people have died during this war? We don’t even count them in our tallies which is horrifying), is a bully pulpupit one that leads to a bloody trail. How many of us protested the war in Iraq? I know here in Los Angeles I was at protests that had literally over a million people, bigger than any protest I’d ever seen, yet it was barely reported at the time. And if the media said there were a million people in New York double or triple that amount, which would be more accurate from my years of protesting and seeing how the media reports on the Lefts agendas to do horrible things like stop wars and eliminate Apartheid.
I personally would have no compunction about fighting these people hard and taking the chance to my own health. I’ve been knocked down by police at Anti-Apartheid protests and seen angry mobs loose control while being in the frightening middle of it. But I’m a parent now and it’s not fair to my daughter that I should have to put my life on the line to protect her rights as a human being.
So back to the central question of how to fight the darkness. Besides meditation, logic and being active in letting your Representatives know how you feel. I think we need to rethink the Christian paradigm. In ancient cultures there was always the way of the warrior, one who fought to protect his/her people and honor. There was no judgment made about who one was fighting, it wasn’t about having God on ones side (although I’m sure they prayed all the same) it was about very simple things like protecting resources so ones people didn’t starve, protecting women and children and elderly people from being slaughtered by an invading army.
But this path of the spiritual warrior was really over by the time of the Roman Empire which instead of acting in defense, took on the strategy of conquering everyone and making them Romans. In other words they took an offensive position as defense to their empire which is the model for all empires, ours included. But these empires collapse eventually, Portugal, Spain, Italy, England no longer can afford this stategy like a giant crazed amoeba absorbing everything in its wake until it bursts, this strategy wastes the resources of its people and often the lives of many soldiers and expands to the point of sustainability until it fractures and falls to pieces. Does this sound familiar to you? Yes, we’re there.
So how can one fight the evil bullies of this world without becoming one? This is the eternal quandary which has fractured and divided the left and given tremendous power to the right for years. Their unifying platform is self-interest at any expense. Ours is not so easily defined other than: Equality, justice and compassion for all beings. The later can be, and is, not just broad but interpreted in many ways with many factions fighting for equality and justice, asking for compassion and help for the less fortunate. Everyone on our side has a passion for one particular cause or another as there are so many ways people step on others.
The only answer I can think of is to not engage with the darkness, to do what’s right and fair allow the world to see how much better things are when goodness and compassion prevail and allow the self-serving to realize the sky didn’t fall and perhaps Medicaid and Medicare (government programs many of them use) really aren’t so bad. I mean Reagan talked the same nonsense about it being socialism, even communism back in the 60s and I think most people at this point would say he sounded like a paranoid nut job at that point (in retrospect.)
Best wishes,
Denise
