Modern robber barons followed by an army of subservient media, politicians, lawyers, chambers of commerce, professional associations, educators and religious leaders use this so-called Social Darwinism that Darwin never intended, to grow rich and fat or sadly, to just barely hold their own, by sucking the life out of everyone else, especially the poor who Jesus said you will have with you always, tho he meant the poor in spirit, the poorest in spirit being the blood suckers and their sycophants.
Look around, under stress the social Darwinist economic model has delivered the worst of all worlds, a system lacking in compassion during a crisis as schools, health care and social service are the first to be cut, yet unable to deliver the resilient wealth creation it promised.
The cachet of the cutthroat supports all the wrong incentives. It rewards unscrupulous behavior. It equates profits and real wealth, allowing many to survive or become rich without generating useful goods or services. For example, health insurance companies make obscene profits by denying care rather than providing it. It encourages quick fix, surfacey, short term thinking instead of long range in depth thinking; which in turn encourages the trend to dumbing down. It makes human beings into commodities, only “hands” without hearts and minds. It emphasizes quantitative approaches over qualitative, numbers over values. Because it’s more profitable in the short run to outsource to India, entire sectors of American engineering and computer science now lack home-grown expertise. This is cashing in our seed corn, our future, the basic R&D and trained professionals we will need, but cannot be quantified on a quarterly balance sheet.
The fact is that not only does this not work, it’s wrong – it’s not what Darwin found and it’s not what current science is finding. Social Darwinism fails in practice because it never succeeded as theory. When Darwin outlined the inexorable, cold and selfish mechanism of natural selection, he didn’t know enough to be comfortable applying it to human society. But now recent work in Biology and Social Science shows that natural selection in humans and indeed animals as well, favors traits like compassion and empathy, that in robust ape communities, for example, members diligently tend to their sick and wounded. Dog eat dog behavior poisons the trust and other traits and behaviors needed for success in complex human and animal societies.
Our system’s winner take all, zero sum adversarialism has reached a disastrous endpoint: suffocated by ideological polarization, fruitless partisan bickering, stifling parliamentary obstacles and the iron grip of moneyed interest, U.S. institutional paralysis makes us incapable of tackling the fine-grained nuances of the 21st century challenges facing our nation and the world – all because we’re using the wrong theory!
American commentators across the political spectrum misleadingly cast what’s going on in crude, outmoded, irrelevant liberal and conservative terms, as if it was all some kind of sports event; while the real, necessary discussion needs to be about our mistaken belief in Spencer’s interpretation of Darwin’s work. Unfortunately, because the powers that be own the commentators and benefit from Spencer’s version of Darwin, that discussion is not likely to happen.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Social Darwinism - Part I - The Rant
Isn’t it interesting that many of those who deny that evolution is real, is more than a theory but a scientific fact that, still accept Social Darwinism as a fact? It’s been reported that only 37% of Americans believe in Evolution. Half of those probably still believe the earth is flat. God, does this burn me!
All of America’s advantages and so-called greatness and being so called #1, and only 37% believe in Evolution! To me, that is a shame! Is it any wonder we’re slipping into third world status - # 37 in education, #54 in energy efficiency, #1 in prison population, #17 in pollution, #2 in executions, #1 in gun ownership?
No doubt, this majority of unbelievers are the same people who after eight years of Republican rule now blame Obama – who’s been in power for less than two years, for the deficits and the mess the country’s in. Let’s see what eight more years of Republican control of all three branches of government will do for us! These are the people so good at ignoring facts that they chose not to know that Clinton left a budget surplus and Bush left us a huge deficit, the financial crisis and two useless and un-winnable wars. Clinton only fucked Monica Lewinski, Bush and his supporters fucked us all.
Anyhow, Social Darwinism, the idea of survival of the fittest, that nice guys finish last, dog eat dog, eat or be eaten, is gospel with most of us, but especially with the people who don’t believe in Evolution. They’re quoting, and living by ideas rooted in evolutionary theory, while denying Evolution itself. How dumb, how stupid, how real, how totally maddeningly real. Even so-called liberals in the so-called liberal media – owned and run almost exclusively for profit without much thought for humanity or community, by the likes of greedy, selfish billionaires like Rupert Murdoch, are under the sway of the cachet of the cutthroat – the idea that there’s too much coddling going on, that as Scrooge said let them die and be done with it, that institutionalized harshness generates a more productive, adaptive, and wealthy society, that liberalism is idealistic nonsense.
Well, the idea of survival of the fittest and the cachet of the cutthroat are not even Darwin’s. They are Herbert Spencer’s. He coined the phrase, “survival of the fittest” in 1864, and it has been used ever since to justify the worst abuses of capitalism: child labor, substandard wages, union busting, monopolies, no regulation of any kind, caveat emptor – buyer beware. If you thought all these rights of capital were tamed, look around you, they’re back, every one of them, bigger than ever.
Modern robber barons followed by an army of subservient media, politicians, lawyers, chambers of commerce, professional associations, educators and religious leaders use this so-called Social Darwinism that Darwin never intended, to grow rich and fat or sadly, to just barely hold their own, by sucking the life out of everyone else, especially the poor who Jesus said you will have with you always, tho he meant the poor in spirit, the poorest in spirit being the blood suckers and their sycophants.
Look around, under stress the social Darwinist economic model has delivered the worst of all worlds, a system lacking in compassion during a crisis as schools, health care and social service are the first to be cut, yet unable to deliver the resilient wealth creation it promised.
All of America’s advantages and so-called greatness and being so called #1, and only 37% believe in Evolution! To me, that is a shame! Is it any wonder we’re slipping into third world status - # 37 in education, #54 in energy efficiency, #1 in prison population, #17 in pollution, #2 in executions, #1 in gun ownership?
No doubt, this majority of unbelievers are the same people who after eight years of Republican rule now blame Obama – who’s been in power for less than two years, for the deficits and the mess the country’s in. Let’s see what eight more years of Republican control of all three branches of government will do for us! These are the people so good at ignoring facts that they chose not to know that Clinton left a budget surplus and Bush left us a huge deficit, the financial crisis and two useless and un-winnable wars. Clinton only fucked Monica Lewinski, Bush and his supporters fucked us all.
Anyhow, Social Darwinism, the idea of survival of the fittest, that nice guys finish last, dog eat dog, eat or be eaten, is gospel with most of us, but especially with the people who don’t believe in Evolution. They’re quoting, and living by ideas rooted in evolutionary theory, while denying Evolution itself. How dumb, how stupid, how real, how totally maddeningly real. Even so-called liberals in the so-called liberal media – owned and run almost exclusively for profit without much thought for humanity or community, by the likes of greedy, selfish billionaires like Rupert Murdoch, are under the sway of the cachet of the cutthroat – the idea that there’s too much coddling going on, that as Scrooge said let them die and be done with it, that institutionalized harshness generates a more productive, adaptive, and wealthy society, that liberalism is idealistic nonsense.
Well, the idea of survival of the fittest and the cachet of the cutthroat are not even Darwin’s. They are Herbert Spencer’s. He coined the phrase, “survival of the fittest” in 1864, and it has been used ever since to justify the worst abuses of capitalism: child labor, substandard wages, union busting, monopolies, no regulation of any kind, caveat emptor – buyer beware. If you thought all these rights of capital were tamed, look around you, they’re back, every one of them, bigger than ever.
Modern robber barons followed by an army of subservient media, politicians, lawyers, chambers of commerce, professional associations, educators and religious leaders use this so-called Social Darwinism that Darwin never intended, to grow rich and fat or sadly, to just barely hold their own, by sucking the life out of everyone else, especially the poor who Jesus said you will have with you always, tho he meant the poor in spirit, the poorest in spirit being the blood suckers and their sycophants.
Look around, under stress the social Darwinist economic model has delivered the worst of all worlds, a system lacking in compassion during a crisis as schools, health care and social service are the first to be cut, yet unable to deliver the resilient wealth creation it promised.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Abundance
“For faith is always given what is treasured, and what is treasured is returned to you.” What is my treasure? What is being returned to me? What am I putting out? It’s scary to think how often I condemn when I might forgive, censure when I might praise and thereby reduce the possibilities of my own experience. The Universe is infinite, holding much more than we humans can experience. Dogs hear more, cats see more; microscopes and telescopes expand the capacities our limited sensory equipment. Yet I know, as perhaps you do too, that there is still much more out of reach. Even at the most mundane level, I still cannot count the grains of sand on the shore, leaves on trees, or blades of grass. There is amazing abundance! Celeste Frazier says it takes ten billion snowflakes to make a snow man.
But we ignore this abundance and take it for granted. Because our treasure centers on our narrow self interest, what we can experience directly with our limited senses, which tends to focus us on a limited, non-infinite universe, we think we hear scarcity and competition when, in fact, the call from the universe and spirit is to be more. The “uncomfortable squirming” we feel, Celeste Frazier says, is not because there is not enough, the universe and spirit are infinite and abundant, but because spirit is seeking to break free through us. Spirit Itself is compelling us to expand. God is moving through each of us, but unless we are attuned, open and forgiving, with our egos and bloated nothingness out of the way, we will not allow God to be fulfilled through us. It is for me and you to allow God. That’s quite a shift. But try it and see. Act as if your are a unique way that God is expressing, and there is more to be revealed through you.
But we ignore this abundance and take it for granted. Because our treasure centers on our narrow self interest, what we can experience directly with our limited senses, which tends to focus us on a limited, non-infinite universe, we think we hear scarcity and competition when, in fact, the call from the universe and spirit is to be more. The “uncomfortable squirming” we feel, Celeste Frazier says, is not because there is not enough, the universe and spirit are infinite and abundant, but because spirit is seeking to break free through us. Spirit Itself is compelling us to expand. God is moving through each of us, but unless we are attuned, open and forgiving, with our egos and bloated nothingness out of the way, we will not allow God to be fulfilled through us. It is for me and you to allow God. That’s quite a shift. But try it and see. Act as if your are a unique way that God is expressing, and there is more to be revealed through you.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Guilt Blocks Light [Rock breaks Scissors]
Light is blocked by guilt and linking the future to the past, the Course says. “Guilt remains the only thing that hides the Father, for guilt is the attack upon His Son. The guilty always condemn, and having done so they will still condemn, linking the future to the past as is the ego’s law. Fidelity to this law lets no light in, for it demands fidelity to darkness and forbids awakening. The ego’s laws are strict, and breaches are severely punished. Therefore give no obedience to its laws, for they are laws of punishment. And those who follow them believe that they are guilty, and so they must condemn. Between the future and the past the laws of God must intervene, if you would free yourself. Atonement [at-one-ment – being at one with our and everyone’s reality as spirit] stands between them, like a lamp shining so brightly that the chain of darkness in which you bound yourself will disappear.
“Release from guilt is the ego’s whole undoing. [To be free of the ego and one with spirit, stop doing things that make you feel guilty] Make no one fearful, for his guilt is yours, and by obeying the ego’s hateful commandments you bring its condemnation of yourself, and you will not escape the punishment it offers those who obey it. [Cause and effect, be in an ego place, experience ego results.] The ego rewards fidelity to it with pain, for faith in it is pain. And faith can be rewarded only in terms of the belief in which the faith was placed. [Again, cause and effect, be in an ego place, experience ego results. If you always do what you always did, you’ll always get what you always got.] Faith makes the power of belief, and where it is invested determines its reward. For faith is always given what is treasured, and what is treasured is returned to you.”
“Release from guilt is the ego’s whole undoing. [To be free of the ego and one with spirit, stop doing things that make you feel guilty] Make no one fearful, for his guilt is yours, and by obeying the ego’s hateful commandments you bring its condemnation of yourself, and you will not escape the punishment it offers those who obey it. [Cause and effect, be in an ego place, experience ego results.] The ego rewards fidelity to it with pain, for faith in it is pain. And faith can be rewarded only in terms of the belief in which the faith was placed. [Again, cause and effect, be in an ego place, experience ego results. If you always do what you always did, you’ll always get what you always got.] Faith makes the power of belief, and where it is invested determines its reward. For faith is always given what is treasured, and what is treasured is returned to you.”
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Summer Solstice
Yesterday, 6/21, is considered the Summer Solstice in the USA; other parts of the world consider 6/23 the Solstice. The Summer Solstice is the time of the year when the Northern Hemisphere of our planet is closest to the sun and is therefore the longest day of the year. It is celebrated as the day of greatest inclination toward the sun.
As individuals, we too, have our moments of greatest inclination to the light. The light is always there, but we are not always inclined towards it. We stumble around, asleep, forgetting that the light is always there for us to turn to. We get pulled down by the weight of the world, forgetting that we are first spiritual beings having an earthly experience. We have what Celeste Frazier described as “holographic experiences” of lack, limitation, poverty and struggle.
None of these experiences lasts, because they are temporal conditions, not states of being, nightmares, not waking reality. We are spiritual beings having a human inclination. The inner spirit is not turned around by circumstances and conditions. The Rabbi Jesus, who in the Course called himself the great example rather than the great exception, knew this. He was able to access the consciousness of oneness, the Christ Consciousness, as we all can, and was able to say, “I am the light of the world.” When we incline to the truth and the light, we know we too, are the light of the world, more than the conditions that surround us.
The ‘resistance’ we experience in this earthly temple is the light seeking to expand Itself through our human existence. When we understand this, allow it, cease resisting the resistance and incline to the light, not only do we feel better, we are fulfilling our destiny and life purpose. We are God in the flesh. God must become more of Itself. Each bit of negativity and resistance is actually an opportunity to become more attuned to the spirit within and go where it is leading us. God as light waits for us to incline to it. Like the father of the prodigal son, God prepares a celebration each time we come home, come to ourselves – each time. Not one time, not at the end of our lives, not in ‘heaven’, but right now, each time you and I choose to incline to the light, the light welcomes, blesses and renews us. Each time, right now.
As individuals, we too, have our moments of greatest inclination to the light. The light is always there, but we are not always inclined towards it. We stumble around, asleep, forgetting that the light is always there for us to turn to. We get pulled down by the weight of the world, forgetting that we are first spiritual beings having an earthly experience. We have what Celeste Frazier described as “holographic experiences” of lack, limitation, poverty and struggle.
None of these experiences lasts, because they are temporal conditions, not states of being, nightmares, not waking reality. We are spiritual beings having a human inclination. The inner spirit is not turned around by circumstances and conditions. The Rabbi Jesus, who in the Course called himself the great example rather than the great exception, knew this. He was able to access the consciousness of oneness, the Christ Consciousness, as we all can, and was able to say, “I am the light of the world.” When we incline to the truth and the light, we know we too, are the light of the world, more than the conditions that surround us.
The ‘resistance’ we experience in this earthly temple is the light seeking to expand Itself through our human existence. When we understand this, allow it, cease resisting the resistance and incline to the light, not only do we feel better, we are fulfilling our destiny and life purpose. We are God in the flesh. God must become more of Itself. Each bit of negativity and resistance is actually an opportunity to become more attuned to the spirit within and go where it is leading us. God as light waits for us to incline to it. Like the father of the prodigal son, God prepares a celebration each time we come home, come to ourselves – each time. Not one time, not at the end of our lives, not in ‘heaven’, but right now, each time you and I choose to incline to the light, the light welcomes, blesses and renews us. Each time, right now.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Father's Day
Yesterday was Father’s Day. I don’t have any kids, but I was a kid. I’m quite comfortable and grateful for my life and glad I don’t have kids. Every blue moon I sometimes wonder what I’ve missed; but most of the time I’m deeply grateful, as is my wife, that I do not have children. When we were first married, 41 years ago, we tried furiously to have kids. It didn’t work out, so we didn’t have any. Adoption didn’t resonate for us.
Thinking back on my childhood, I’m extremely grateful to my mom and dad for how I was raised. There were plenty of difficult times and lots of negative judgments on my part. But basically, my parents were descent people who had kids and did the best they could. My dad modeled things that were good and strong, and things that weren’t so good and strong, but mostly things that were good and strong. I credit him and his wife for giving me an excellent send off! Some of who they were, a lot really, is alive and well in me today. It’s more than a mere physical, genetic or cultural heritage, its something deeper, a vibe in my core, my beingness.
Similarly, as Celeste Frazier wrote in SOM yesterday, “whatever is in God is in us. That’s an awesome thing to know. And sometimes we are daunted by that idea. The single drop of water has the same qualities as the ocean from which it came. It’s easier for us to see it our gene pool as we inherit all of the good and bad qualities from our family members. Yet all the attributes and qualities we inherit from God are the Good [and only the Good] – and I, for one, am grateful for it.” Me, too!
That’s why I want to get my bloated nothingness out of the way, resign as my own teacher, and know that it is not I, but my father in heaven who doeth the work.
Thinking back on my childhood, I’m extremely grateful to my mom and dad for how I was raised. There were plenty of difficult times and lots of negative judgments on my part. But basically, my parents were descent people who had kids and did the best they could. My dad modeled things that were good and strong, and things that weren’t so good and strong, but mostly things that were good and strong. I credit him and his wife for giving me an excellent send off! Some of who they were, a lot really, is alive and well in me today. It’s more than a mere physical, genetic or cultural heritage, its something deeper, a vibe in my core, my beingness.
Similarly, as Celeste Frazier wrote in SOM yesterday, “whatever is in God is in us. That’s an awesome thing to know. And sometimes we are daunted by that idea. The single drop of water has the same qualities as the ocean from which it came. It’s easier for us to see it our gene pool as we inherit all of the good and bad qualities from our family members. Yet all the attributes and qualities we inherit from God are the Good [and only the Good] – and I, for one, am grateful for it.” Me, too!
That’s why I want to get my bloated nothingness out of the way, resign as my own teacher, and know that it is not I, but my father in heaven who doeth the work.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Remission
Today, Celeste Frazier’s Daily Guide on remission in the SOM (Science of Mind) Daily Guides had an interesting resonance for me. I had my prostate removed on March fourth and my first PSA on June three was good, but not perfect. I guess I am, as the friend Celeste wrote about today, “almost in remission.” It’s funny, but until I read Celeste’s guide, I hadn’t thought of myself as being in remission from cancer. In fact, I don’t and didn’t think much about cancer. I don’t think there’s much denial in my attitude, some, but not much. After all, I dealt with it, after nearly three years of “watchful waiting,” I dealt with it. My prostate’s gone now and my sex life is changed and I’m knowing that the cancer’s gone, too. I am not the condition. I am not in remission. As Celeste wrote, “wholeness is not in remission,” and I’m wholeness – as we all are.
“Remission means the reflection or scattering of light by a material. The light of [my] spirit is reflecting itself in [my] body temple. In theology, remission means the forgiveness of sin. Sin comes from the Anglo-Saxon ‘syne,’ which means missing the mark. Let us forgive ourselves for missing the opportunity to be present with our divinity. We sometimes think that we are forgiving another, but all forgiveness is self-forgiveness.
“Remission also refers to the reduction of a prison sentence. How often have we imprisoned ourselves by some restraint of our own magnificence! We are not trapped, but free. We are not bound, but infinite. We are not constricted, but limitless. God simply is in, through and around us.
“I am grateful that my spiritual discernment is ever-present. It is my security in the midst of surrounding fear. It is m refuge in a dangerous state of mind. It is my haven in the midst of warring ideas. This power – this beautiful, loving presence – is my light, my life. I am grateful. I run from any limiting idea, leap deep into my faith, and find myself safe in my authentic self.” Amen!
“Remission means the reflection or scattering of light by a material. The light of [my] spirit is reflecting itself in [my] body temple. In theology, remission means the forgiveness of sin. Sin comes from the Anglo-Saxon ‘syne,’ which means missing the mark. Let us forgive ourselves for missing the opportunity to be present with our divinity. We sometimes think that we are forgiving another, but all forgiveness is self-forgiveness.
“Remission also refers to the reduction of a prison sentence. How often have we imprisoned ourselves by some restraint of our own magnificence! We are not trapped, but free. We are not bound, but infinite. We are not constricted, but limitless. God simply is in, through and around us.
“I am grateful that my spiritual discernment is ever-present. It is my security in the midst of surrounding fear. It is m refuge in a dangerous state of mind. It is my haven in the midst of warring ideas. This power – this beautiful, loving presence – is my light, my life. I am grateful. I run from any limiting idea, leap deep into my faith, and find myself safe in my authentic self.” Amen!
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