Think for Yourself

Random Thoughts and Concerns about The End of The World as We Know It
Part 2
Caution: Thinking for yourself may cause a sudden outbreak of independence.

Activist
The Activist, By Satyapriya, http://collectivelyconscious.net/

It starts like an itch. Something happens in our lives that causes us to question what we know. We open our eyes and seek the truth, and the more we uncover the hungrier we are for understanding. But the world isn’t perfect and there’s a lot of pain and deception. We have the burning desire to do more.

We read, a lot. We start protesting. Our family labels us as too negative, our friends start to pull away, and our spouses reject us. We are labeled as hippies, anarchists, angry kids, conspiracy theorists, and terrorists. We are beaten by the police and mocked by the news. Yet, we have become obsessed with spreading the truth. It becomes a very solitary journey.

Sandbox Rules
Sandbox Rules, By Neale Wade, https://confessionsofaliberalgunowner.blogspot.com

For me, a movie called The Matrix changed everything. In the 1999 movie, a computer programmer known as Neo suspects reality is quite different from the world he sees around him. After meeting a mysterious figure named Morpheus, Neo begins to understand how radically ominous and disturbing the situation is. Morpheus, a leader in a resistance movement seeking to liberate humanity, believes Neo has unprecedented potential as a recruit to his cause, but only if he’s willing to discard his comforting illusions and accept the harsh and eerie truth.

Shortly after I saw the movie, as I was accelerating onto the freeway in my non-politically correct car, I suddenly remembered something that happened when I was a child. My next-door neighbor and I were playing in my extra-large sandbox, where we had built roads and a couple of small towns. Naturally with police cars, fire trucks, dump trucks, and trips to town, there was far more to do than the two of us could manage at once. Like kids are supposed to do we took turns deciding what the cars and trucks were doing at any given moment, stopping at the stop signs, and going about daily life in the sandbox.

From what I remember it was serious stuff. Anyway, on this day my friend suddenly decided to cut across the open country with his car, not following the roads we had so carefully laid out in the sand. I was shocked and upset, and I remember trying to get him to follow the rules as he was supposed to. He didn't want to, of course, and eventually I let it go, ignoring his rude sandbox etiquette and accepting his failure to comply by our guidelines.

Beginning with that memory, I realized that as a child and for most of my life I was like Neo, one of those guys that followed the rules: All the rules! All the time! Growing up I obeyed my parents and went to church every Sunday. As an adult, I was always on time, took my job seriously, put in extra hours, and rarely took sick days. I was that guy that stands patiently at the corner, watching others march into the cross-walk ahead of me without waiting for the WALK sign, and sometimes despite the traffic.

Question Everything
Sandbox Rules, By Neale Wade, https://confessionsofaliberalgunowner.blogspot.com

In the days and weeks that followed, my new itch became tenacious as I began to reconsider my life and reimagine what it might have been like. Since that moment of awakening I began to question everything, including my life-long compulsion to follow the rules. I also began to envy those people marching into the cross-walk without waiting, because I realized that they were a better example than I was.

I’ve always been hyper observant of my immediate surroundings, and while I’ve always had “the wisdom to know the difference” I actively ignored “the things I could not change”. Since then I’ve become keenly aware of the greater world around me; and it’s not as I imagined it to be. Like Morpheus, Neo, and their band of nonconformists, we all have the potential to struggle for what we believe in, but only if we are willing to discard our comforting illusions and accept the harsh and eerie truth.

Similar to the movie, The Matrix, we live in a perceived reality created by politicians and bureaucrats’ intent on subduing and controlling the human population. Like Neo we have a choice between learning the truth or living blissfully unaware of the reality around us, but unlike the movie no one is coming to rescue you: If you choose the “red pill” you’re on your own! Now is the time to wake up, take a stand, and “change the things that you can”.

Expectations
Expectations, By Neale Wade, https://confessionsofaliberalgunowner.blogspot.com

You may be one of those people mimicking the ostrich, hiding your head in the sand and hoping for the best. Telling yourself that “No news is good news”, or “I’ll worry about this later”, or “If I don’t think about it, it will go away”, is not a mature attitude. Here’s a familiar modern-day parable to illustrate my point:

There is a flood on the way and a family believes God will save them. As everyone else is evacuating, a truck stops to help the family. They say, “No thank you, the Lord will save us”. As the water begins to rise, they move to the top floor of their house. Someone stops by in a boat and offers to take them to safety, but again they reply, “No thank you, the Lord will save us”. When the water forces them onto the roof, a rescue chopper comes to take them to safety, but once again they reply, “No thank you, the Lord will save us”.

Soon the water overtakes the home and the entire family perishes. When they get to heaven they ask the Lord “Why did you not rescue us?” and the Lord replies, “I tried three times; once with a car, once with a boat, and once with a helicopter.”

There is nothing wrong with putting our faith in God, but we need to be careful about putting God in a box. Deciding how He is going to rescue us is sure to lead to failure. Sometimes He feeds us from the harvest (grocery stores) and sometimes He expects us to do the work ourselves (vegetable gardens). God provides each of us with enough faith, but it’s up to us to put our faith into action.

This holds true for emergency planning and disaster management: Every individual should take responsibility for his or her preparedness. Don’t rely on others, such as the local, state, or federal government to do it for you and don’t put anyone else in a box. It’s not fair to expect your neighbor or family to come to your rescue. No one will have more interest in your welfare than you.

Like in the story of the Ant and the Grasshopper, I suppose there are people that just don’t care; but if you haven’t done any preparation you will not understand what’s required to provide for your family’s safety. Don’t assume that you will make it to your planned “safe zone”, and don’t assume that it will be intact when you arrive.

Everybody needs to be prepared for emergency situations. Whether you believe climate change is man-made or another natural cycle, you can’t deny that horrible things have happened in the past and will happen again. You don’t have to be a prepper or a survivalist to recognize that a little planning on your part can save your family’s lives.

If you are prepared when a disaster strikes, you will be better able to help yourself, and you will be better able to help others. Let the authorities concentrate their efforts where it is needed most, like the search and rescue of those who ignore this message.

Threats
Kinds of Threats, By Nancy and Hank Spurlock, Private email

The steps you should take to meet your preparedness goals will depend on the types of emergencies or disasters that you think are possible for your area. The types of emergency items that you will need and the quantity to be stored will depend on how you plan to respond to the emergencies or disasters and on how long they are expected to last.

Here is a short list of the kinds of emergencies or disasters that might threaten your survival. This list gives a basic idea of the kinds, magnitudes, and durations that disasters are likely to involve. It can be used to estimate how long a siege to prepare for and how many provisions to store.

Natural threats; such as hurricanes, tornados, and earthquakes, etc.:

Definition: Hurricanes, tornados, and earthquakes are natural events that result in the loss of life and infrastructure. The effects of these kinds of disasters are immediate and relatively short term.

Results: Probable loss of utilities and services. Probable shortages of food, water, and medications. Possible loss of shelter and transportation.

Assumptions: Utilities and services are unavailable for one to two weeks. Outside aid is unexpected for three to seven days. Local fire, police, and medical services are reserved for emergencies. Prices on all items would increase for the duration.

Risks: High probability of flooding and/or fire. High probability of injured and unprepared neighbors. High probability of desperate looters, con-artists, un-met medical needs, and disease.

Supply threats; such as resource shortages, thug rule, and financial crisis, etc.:

Definition: Resource shortages may be a natural or man-made event that result in reduced levels of every day essential items. Thug rule is a man-made event that results in difficult living conditions.

Financial crisis is a man-made event that results in loss of purchasing power. The effects of these kinds of disasters are disorderly and can last indefinitely.

Results: Possible loss of utilities and services. Probable shortages of food, water, and medications. Possible forfeiture of shelter and transportation.

Assumptions: Utilities and services may be intermittent or unavailable. Outside aid is intermittent or unexpected. Local fire, police, and medical services are reserved for emergencies. Prices on all items would increase for the duration.

Risks: Low probability of flooding and/or fire. Moderate probability of injured and unprepared neighbors. High probability of desperate looters, con-artists, un-met medical needs, and disease.

Technological threats; such as CME event, EMP-attack, and Cyber-attack, etc.:

Definition: A Coronal Mass Ejection is a natural event that may result in the loss of the electrical grid and other electronic equipment. An Electro-Magnetic Pulse is a man-made event that may result in the loss of the electrical grid and other electronic equipment. A Cyber-attack is a man-made event that results in the loss of computer data and resources. The effects of these kinds of disasters are immediate and possibly permanent.

Results: Probable loss of utilities and services. Probable shortages of food, water, and medications. Possible loss of shelter and transportation.

Assumptions: Utilities and services may be unavailable for months. Outside aid is unexpected for weeks. Local fire, police, and medical services are unavailable for weeks. Prices on all items would increase for the duration.

Risks: Low probability of flooding and/or fire. Low probability of injured and unprepared neighbors. High probability of desperate looters, con-artists, un-met medical needs, and disease.

Thermonuclear threats; such as nuclear accident, nuclear war, and nuclear terrorism, etc.:

Definition: Nuclear war and nuclear terrorism are man-made events that results in the loss of life and infrastructure. The effects of these kinds of disasters are immediate and permanent.

Results: Probable loss of utilities and services. Probable shortages of food, water, and medications. Probable loss of shelter and transportation.

Assumptions: Utilities and services may be unavailable for months. Outside aid may be unexpected for weeks. Local fire, police, and medical services are reserved for emergencies. Prices on all items would increase for the duration.

Risks: High probability of flooding and/or fire. High probability of injured and unprepared neighbors. High probability of desperate looters, con-artists, un-met medical needs, and disease.

Failed State; such as loss of territory, erosion of authority, and lack of services, etc.:

Definition: A failed state is a man-made event in which authority has disintegrated to the point where the basic conditions and responsibilities of the government no longer function properly. The effects of these kinds of disasters are disorderly and can last indefinitely.

Results: Probable loss of utilities and services. Probable shortages of food, water, and medications. Possible loss of shelter and transportation.

Assumptions: Utilities and services may be unavailable or intermittent. Outside aid may be unavailable or intermittent. Local fire, police, and medical services are reserved for emergencies. Prices on all items would increase for the duration.

Risks: Moderate probability of flooding and/or fire. Low probability of injured and unprepared neighbors. High probability of desperate looters, con-artists, un-met medical needs, disease.

Health Threats; such as biological agents, chemical agents, and hazardous materials, etc.:

Definition: Toxin contamination is a man-made or natural event using a poisonous substance produced within living cells or organisms. Toxicant contamination is a man-made event using a synthetic substance produced using artificial processes. The effects of these kinds of disasters are disorderly and relatively short term.

Results: Probable loss of utilities and services. Probable shortages of food, water, and medications. Possible loss of shelter and transportation.

Assumptions: Utilities and services may be unavailable or intermittent. Outside aid may be unavailable or intermittent. Local fire, police, and medical services are reserved for emergencies. Prices on all items would increase for the duration.

Risks: Low probability of flooding and/or fire. High probability of injured and unprepared neighbors. High probability of desperate looters, con-artists, un-met medical needs, disease.

Response
Response, By Neale Wade, https://confessionsofaliberalgunowner.blogspot.com

There will be an initial window of time in which very few people will realize what has happened. While this is probably true in many different types of crises, most people simply won't believe what's happening until it's too late. It doesn't mean they are stupid or slow, it's just human nature. To stay ahead of the panic and confusion it is vital to process and accept reality as quickly as possible.

Gas and/or electricity services may be affected making heat and light unavailable, so alternatives are required. Non-portable radios may be affected making news unavailable, so battery powered radios are recommended. Telephones and cell phones may be affected making communications difficult, so battery powered two-way radios are required. Banking services may be affected making withdrawals difficult, so keep cash on-hand. Gas stations may be affected making re-fueling difficult, so stored fuel for vehicles is required.

Situational awareness should begin at your property line or your sight line, whichever is greatest. Perimeter security should include locked gates, locked doors, and locked and covered windows. Perimeter defense should include a loaded rifle; Home defense should include a loaded shotgun; Personal defense should include a loaded side arm.

Bug-out supplies should be maintained in your home and stationed for a quick exit. A bug-home bag should be maintained in your vehicle(s). Extra batteries, portable solar panels, and power blocks should be kept ready, and extra gas for vehicles should be kept on-hand.

Note that operating a backup generator at your location may not be recommended. In some scenarios, it will attract attention and signal that you have fuel, power, lights, supplies, and comforts worth taking.

Leadership

Leadership Styles, By Alan Murray, http://guides.wsj.com

Ideally, leadership is less about the needs of the leader and more about the needs of the people. Leadership styles are not like suits, to be tried on to see which fits. Rather, they should be adapted to the demands of the situation, the requirements of the people involved, and the challenges facing the community.

The author of the book “Primal Leadership” popularized the notion of “Emotional Intelligence,” and in his book, he also described six different styles of leadership. The most effective leaders can move among these styles, adopting the one that meets the needs of the moment. They should be part of the leader’s repertoire.

Visionary: This style is most appropriate when the group needs a new direction. Its goal is to move people towards a new set of shared dreams. Visionary leaders articulate where a group is going, but not how it will get there; setting people free to innovate, experiment, and take calculated risks.

Coaching: This style focuses on developing individuals, one-on-one, showing them how to improve their performance and helping to connect their goals to the goals of the group. Coaching works best with individuals who show initiative and want more development. But it can backfire if it’s perceived as “micromanaging” which undermines the individual’s self-confidence.

Affiliative: This style emphasizes the importance of team work, creating harmony in a group by connecting people to each other. This approach is particularly valuable when trying to heighten team harmony, increase morale, improve communication, or repair broken trust. You should not use this style alone, since its emphasis on group praise can allow poor performance to go uncorrected.

Democratic: This style draws on people’s knowledge and skills, and creates a group commitment to the resulting goals. It works best when the direction the group should take is unclear, and the leader needs to tap the collective wisdom of the community. This consensus-building approach can be disastrous in times of crisis, when urgent events demand quick decisions.

Pacesetting: In this style, the leader sets high standards for performance. He or she is obsessive about doing things better and faster, and asks the same of everyone. This style should be used sparingly, because it can undercut morale and make people feel as if they are failing. More often than not, pacesetting poisons the climate.

Commanding: This style of leadership, the classic military model, is probably the most often used but the least often effective. Because it rarely involves praise and frequently employs criticism, it undercuts morale and job satisfaction. It’s most effective in a crisis, when an urgent turnaround is needed. Even the modern military has come to recognize its limited usefulness.

Of course, those who strive for high-authority positions are attracted to power. But in the end, for most people that isn’t enough to make the high stakes of leadership worthwhile. The underlying assumption is that you can lead and stay alive, but let’s face it, to lead is to live dangerously.

Thug Rule
Leadership Styles, By Alan Murray, http://guides.wsj.com

While leadership is often depicted as an exciting and glamorous endeavor, one in which you inspire others to follow you through good times and bad, such a portrayal ignores leadership’s dark side: Arrogance often poses as authoritative knowledge, snuffing out curiosity and the eagerness to question. Callousness portrayed as the thick skin of experience, shuts out compassion for others.

Originally, the term “tyrant” was a descriptor for a corrupted form of political regime based on personal rule. Regrettably, modern language and thought have effectively expunged the word “tyrant” from our lexicon, diminishing our ability to assess many of our enemies.

Unfortunately, this simple definition is now thought to be unsophisticated. It puts a lot of emphasis on the individual leader, whereas the “more correct” approach is to seek explanations in large impersonal forces, ranging from contests of ideas and economic systems or the sureness of the masses.

Today, we are discouraged from embracing a “great man” view of history because this assigns responsibility to an individual for political outcomes, and there seems to be a widespread allergy to accountability. Hence leaders say, “mistakes have been made”, rather than “I made mistakes”.

Often described as a cruel character, a tyrant is an absolute ruler unrestrained by law or constitution. A tyrant defends his or her position by oppressive means tending to control almost everything in his or her greater environment. They are pupils of Niccolò Machiavelli, and expend considerable energies to avoid being hated by most their subjects. They are feared, to be sure, but they buy the servility or docility of their populations through economic welfare and propaganda.

Their personal rule is maintained for their personal benefit. They are violent narcissists, and their will trumps all law, positive and natural. One characteristic of a tyrant is that they have little hope, and another is that they are perennially insecure. Their lives are ruled by the desire, and the need, to hold on to power. It’s a preoccupation that is always immediate.

Thus, their future is irrelevant because the present is perennially at risk: Meaning their only preoccupation is their own wellbeing and survival, no matter what the costs may be. A tyrant is therefore a “soul distracted by fears”, with enemies not only in front of him or her but on every side. The tyrant’s life is constantly at risk.

Malaise
Turning, By Dan Baer, Parish presentation

Regardless of your opinion on Brexit, the Presidential election, cabinet picks, or any number of political or social issues, one thing is certain; many people in our country and around the world are experiencing a deep sense of malaise and uncertainty about the direction of nations, economies, cultures, and the whole planetary community.

We are 7.5 billion people now and still growing, all these people need to be fed and have a chance at a decent life, and yet Earth’s energy and material resources are finite. The planet and its atmosphere cannot sustain our modes of energy production, resource extraction, and waste disposal much longer; it’s quite possible that some of the damage and processes we have set in motion are irreversible.

Not only are species rapidly being lost because of this frenzied and wasteful generation, but hundreds of indigenous languages, along with hundreds of human cultures, will be extinct by the end of the century unless serious action is taken. The loss of these cultures, many of them still attuned to the natural rhythms of the seasons and the land, tragically reflects the discord and disconnect between our twenty-first century global system and the billion-year-old rhythms of earth.

And, even with a global economy and a United Nations, nationalism, which is really an expression of a deeper phenomenon, tribalism, remains a powerful force in the World. Biologically and evolutionarily we are being pulled perpetually toward our respective tribes: The people who look like us, speak like us, comport themselves like us, and live like us. Meanwhile, the danger of tribalism is massively exacerbated by the threat of nuclear war.

The environmental situation and the military situation are existential threats for humanity. The alarm bells are ringing and the solutions are complex but one thing is certain; any solution to problems of this magnitude must begin within each one of us. What needs to happen within the perceptions, the minds, and the hearts of people themselves must enable us to participate in what Judaism calls Tikkun Olam: The repairing and healing of the world. What Catholics might call participation in the Kingdom of God.

Perception
Turning, By Dan Baer, Parish presentation

When periods of cultural or political transition and tension grow intense, sometimes leading to crises, or when the shape of the future is obscure or altogether opaque we tend to look backward at the clearer past. When people endure disillusionment, people often hope for a return to the way things were. Alas, they never will be. The most we can hope for is that the best elements of the past can be reclaimed, perhaps even improved upon, as the new situation unfolds.

Perception shapes reality. Imagine yourself watching as people pour through a plaza in Paris, laughing, eating ice cream, carrying shopping bags, and taking selfies with the Notre Dame Cathedral in the background. As you watch the tourists casually taking pictures around this building, you realize that in some sense this building is emphatically not the same building that stood here 600 years earlier.

Yes, the cut stone that you see before you are the same stone that was dug out of quarries and chiseled by masons in the thirteenth century, but an object is not just what is. An object is observed and perceived, and the Notre Dame Cathedral beheld by people in the twenty-first century is not the same object beheld by people in the fifteenth century. For most people in the fifteenth century it was a marvelous veneration of their deity made manifest in architecture. To many people today it is an impressive example of European architecture and an essential photo in their travel albums.

Perception shapes reality. The Hetch Hetchy Valley, 180 miles east of San Francisco, that John Muir perceived in 1912 was in some sense not the same place as that was perceived by those who sought to dam and fill it as a reservoir, to provide water for San Francisco and other communities.

It’s notable that Muir used religious imagery to drive home the stark contrast in perceptions when he writes: “These temple destroyers, devotees of ravaging commercialism, seem to have a perfect contempt for Nature, and, instead of lifting their eyes to the God of the mountains, lift them to the Almighty Dollar. Dam Hetch Hetchy!”

Circumstances have a devilish way of narrowing our perception of reality and ourselves.

Imagine living in a blighted inner-city neighborhood where many of the young men carry firearms. You try to sit down with any one of them and explain how crazy the situation is, that they don’t have to be in a situation where so many people carry weapons, that as a group and as a community they can choose a better life together.

Yet, plagued by suspicion and the threat of violence, the fellow tells you that he needs to protect himself and his family. In his mind, it is not just unrealistic for him to not carry a weapon, it’s a matter of survival. He is experiencing circumstances that make it deeply challenging for him to perceive, or even to imagine, a different kind of neighborhood and community.

Imagine a classroom debate over whether the United States was justified in dropping two atom bombs, and almost a third, on Japan toward the end of the Second World War. If the issue is framed in a certain way, using justifications like “the war had to be brought to an end,” or that “huge numbers of American soldiers would have died in a ground invasion,” then of course it seems like the lesser of two enormous evils.

But step back and ask yourself a question: How in God’s name did humanity arrive to a moment in history when the decisions to design, test, and actually use weapons of this magnitude were even made? Those bombs obliterated every person, dog, cat, bird, tree, flower, and caterpillar for miles. To simply say, “Well we had to do it,” means to remain steadfastly in a dark room unlit by imagination.

Imagine the abortion debate as another example. Most people with whom you might discuss the issue operate from heart-felt principles, meaning their thoughts on the matter and all justification of those thoughts proceed from an a priori position. The position is either that human life is sacred from conception or that human freedom and self-determination of the mother should be inviolable.

Seeing life from the experience of others can be challenging. But learning to appreciate the perceptions and perspectives of an autistic child is vastly more challenging than learning, for example, to appreciate the flavor of green olives. Things happen in households with autistic people that are never shared publicly, and often it’s not because they’re offensive or shameful, but because they’re so strange that most people just couldn’t process what a parent might describe.

Imagine an autistic child who several times a day experiences a spike of anxiety, his eyes widen and he begins to furiously talk in semi-coherent statements, and if it was really bad he might strike himself on the head or bite his hand. Finally, you realize that he thinks when the refrigerator hums, it’s because of him: He truly believes that there is a connection between what is happening in his mind and the refrigerator motor “deciding” to turn on.

For centuries “normal” people have written off different-thinking people as demoniacs or psychopaths, but the prevalence of autism today encourages and indeed even forces us to try to empathize, as challenging as that can be. Perhaps we can view the prevalence of autism as a way for Nature/God/Universe to stretch and exercise our ability and willingness to empathize with others. If we can make sense of an autistic person’s behavior based on his perception of his environment, shouldn’t we be able to make sense of a person’s political views based on his perception of his world?

Everyone thinks, believes, and behaves as they do for a reason; each of us has a responsibility to listen, and this should not be the kind of listening where as someone shares their view we are already preparing a counter-argument. It needs to be a deeper listening, a listening to the fears and sorrows that inform a person’s attitudes and behaviors. It needs to be a kind of listening properly understood by Vietnamese Buddhist Thich Nhat Hanh, which he expressed as Right Mindfulness. Thich Nhat Hanh taught that it is the practice of mindfulness that unites the Buddha's doctrines into a comprehensive, interconnected path.

Messages
Turning, By Dan Baer, Parish presentation

The reality in America right now is that millions of left-leaning people watch nightly news personalities lampoon the Republican party and conservative politicians, while millions of right-leaning people listen as talk radio hosts skewer the Democratic party and liberal politicians.

Conservative AM talk radio listeners relish listening to their hosts during the day just as liberal television viewers plop down in front of Comedy Central and HBO in the evening, and for the same reasons. In both cases, tens of millions of people are engaged in a cultural phenomenon that may have already compromised America’s role as a leader of the free world.

It’s sometimes disheartening to speak with people who represent either of the regrettable political “sides” in this country: Liberals whose knowledge of the bible or religious community is woefully misinformed and narrow, who rail against “Red State xenophobia”, and conservatives who liken the urban centers on the coasts to Sodom and Gomorrah or who label gay and feminist subcultures as degenerate and ungodly. Depending on which camp you find yourself in, you might laugh at “the other side” for their ignorance; but human beings can be driven to extreme behavior very easily if the message and delivery are strong enough.

Messages matter. Recently a 28-year-old man, Edgar Welch, marched into a pizza restaurant in Washington DC, convinced by a false news story that a child prostitution ring was being operated out of the restaurant. The rifle he was wielding contained live bullets, although fortunately none were discharged.

Messages matter. In the 1994 Rwandan genocide against the Tutsis, hundreds of thousands of people were chopped up by machetes, which was in significant measure fueled by messages disseminated over radio broadcast.

Messages matter and perceptions have real-world consequences. Everyone has a responsibility to resist the dangerous temptation to reduce “the other” of the other side to her or his most dislikable qualities.

It’s interesting to look squarely at what happened during this last presidential election. While the left-wing media increasingly turned Donald Trump into the incarnation of everything the liberal mind abhors, the right-wing media increasingly turned Hillary Clinton into the incarnation of everything the conservative mind abhors. Both wings reduced the “other”, meaning the candidate and that candidate’s supporters, into every undesirable characteristic imaginable.

In truth, what we’ve witnessed in this country in the last months directly offends the spirit of the story in Acts of the Apostles 2:5-12. This is the scene where Peter, finding himself leader of the very earliest Christian community, speaks with tremendous presence and charisma in his own language to people of many nations and tongues and yet all of them hear his words in their own languages. It’s a story in which the angels of invitation, welcoming unity and solidarity drive away the wicked spirits of estrangement and division: Really, it’s the Holy Spirit manifest.

Zen
Turning, By Dan Baer, Parish presentation

The proclivity to reduce the other to his or her most undesirable characteristics can quickly become outright scapegoating, and what is scapegoating? It is the movement of responsibility and blame solidly onto a target, the destruction of whom will spell liberation from the original tension. This thought about scapegoating brings Christ to mind for two reasons.

First, Christ made himself the terminal, the absolute, scapegoat. All that is wrong with the world has been reconciled ultimately in his self-sacrifice: There is no one to blame anymore. You might also be reminded of the story of GK Chesterton (the historicity of which is in question). A newspaper in London posed the question, “What is wrong with the world?” and of all the letters people wrote in, Chesterton’s was the most memorable and the most succinct. They asked “What is wrong with the world,” and he responded, “Dear Sirs, I am. Sincerely yours, G.K. Chesterton.”

There is no longer anyone upon whom to foist blame. You must move into a mystical perspective to capture what’s being conveyed here: All blame, all guilt, all wrongdoing has been taken up on the cross and it is no longer ours to condemn and destroy.

Second, Christ comes to mind is because of an observation made by the non-Christian Marxist philosopher Slavoj Žižek who imagined Christ’s crucifixion as the actual death of God himself. If you really reflect on this notion that God didn’t die with Nietzsche’s famous words, but died on the cross, you find yourself not thinking atheistically but living in a nontheistic universe.

In such a universe, without God, you find that you’re at a crossroads. Either there is no God, no goodness, and no hope, or goodness and hope begin with you alone: Since there is no longer any God or higher power, who can you expect to somehow bail you and the world out if it gets bad enough? The initiative to transform the world can only come from you, and paradoxically, God’s death is what made this into an existential imperative. The theologians in the room might accuse Žižek of plagiarism, but the point is that the transformation of the world has its basis now solidly in the heart and will of each person.

Enlightenment
Turning, By Dan Baer, Parish presentation

A hero in any intellectual hall-of-fame is the German Jewish philosopher Martin Buber. One of the best-known quotations of Buber’s is “All real living is meeting.” When we watch the news, listen to the news, and read the news, we are being informed but we are not meeting the other. When we watch YouTube videos, and read Internet commentaries, and click through links to other sources of information, we are being informed but we are not meeting the other. Continually soaking our minds in news, commentary, and online media does not do nearly enough to deepen and transform our perceptions of the world, which, for all mortal beings are admittedly woefully narrow.

The work of Tikkun Olam, transforming the world, must begin within the heart of each individual person, and for each person at some point this entails confronting and being prepared to let go of aspects of who and what we are. All of us have in our minds and hearts a multitude of images, or more specifically affect-laden images, that arouse in us strong feelings and emotions, but it’s important to recognize that just because we value something, doesn’t mean that what we value is truly good.

It’s only the bad guys of fiction who sense that they’re evil; most of the evil in the real world is committed by people who think they’re engaged in good. Our perception of reality and ourselves is shaped throughout our lives by personal and cultural images and narratives that we must always be ready to let go of in the interest of bettering the world. We must exercise the willingness to surrender things that bring us pleasure if those things are ultimately contrary to the Good. In fact, we must work for a future that we will not live to see.

Are we willing to honor future life the way we might honor God? A common image in Buddhism is that of “the other shore”; the shore of enlightenment. It teaches that if we can just traverse the sometimes-tempestuous waters of desire, sentimental attachments, and self-centeredness, we can arrive at this shore where peace, joy, and goodwill reign perpetually. And yet any Zen master will tell you, once you reach this shore, you will realize you were on it all along!

We, as Christians and more importantly as human beings, are already in a wonderful reality; we have only to see that we are and that we always have been.

Turning
Turning, By Dan Baer, Parish presentation

Like kenosis, metanoia is one of those exotic terms in Christian theology that comes from Greek; the word signifies a genuine change of mind and heart, a conversion. And what is conversion: The word literally means “to turn around.” It brings two things to mind: one is a bumper sticker I see from time to time in Berkeley (naturally), that says, “Don’t believe everything you think.”

It’s funny because when we see this bumper sticker, we think to ourselves, “Exactly! Wouldn’t the world be a better place if people started questioning their own thoughts and judgments and perceptions!” But the sticker doesn’t say, “everything they think,” but rather it says, “everything you think.” That means me. That means you.

Charles Dickens’ best-known character, Ebenezer Scrooge also comes to mind. It took a powerful experience of seeing the innocent Tiny Tim die to shake Scrooge’s mind to its foundations, to effect metanoia.

The spiritual turning that is metanoia can end tragically, as happens in Matthew 27:3-5, when Judas realizes the implications of his betrayal of Jesus, and publicly confesses what he’s done, but alas, his conversion is too late. The destruction, of himself and his former friend, had been done. Contrast this with St. Paul, who, after fiercely persecuting the earliest Christians, underwent an experience of metanoia, a conversion of such power that he would go on to almost single handedly spread the Faith across the Roman Empire. For Judas, conversion and realization came too late, and all was lost, but with Paul, conversion proved not the conclusion but the beginning of a project that would alter the future of civilization forever.

The challenges facing our country and the world are enormous. While any challenge can be met, and overcome with human ingenuity, the great danger is either the lack of or the unwillingness to exercise foresight. Judas Iscariot did not exercise foresight and, even after the realization of the gravity of his mistake, he lost everything. There is a lesson in this for humankind today. We can hope that we go the way of Paul, whose conversion came not at the end but in the middle of his life. 

It’s too bad the message of the Book of Revelation is overshadowed by colorful images of the Four Horsemen and Beasts and Dragons. Perhaps the most meaningful single line in that book, found in chapter 21, reads, “The one who sat on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.” Isn’t this what we are invited to do; to renew ourselves and in doing so renew the world?

Lately I’ve been thinking about Genesis 3:9. Adam and Eve have eaten of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and they are hiding in the Garden, and God asks, “Where are you?” It’s the first question God asks of man, and the question does not issue from a place of judgment or suspicion but from a place of care and concern.

The man and woman are in danger of losing themselves to apathy, the attitude that at its root essentially says, “The world doesn’t really matter. The future doesn’t really matter. I don’t really matter.” But when a Deeper Voice asks each one of us, “Where are you?” the question conveys a definitive statement: “You do matter, and you need to turn toward the world, to engage with the world, to renew the world.”

The future does matter, and it's up to you.

Fear
5 Sure-fire Ways to Overcome Fear and Anxiety Today, By Mark Tyrrell, http://www.uncommonhelp.me

My guess is that the person credited with the phrase “You have nothing to fear accept fear itself” has never seen a spider. To me it doesn’t matter if they’re big or small, fat or skinny, hairy or smooth, black, red, white, or blue. I’ll admit I have serious concerns about sharing my personal space with spiders. Well, spiders and needles … and maybe big vicious dogs with teeth and attitude, and of course zombies that can jump and run like athletes.

Nature, we are told, equips us with all sorts of instincts to help us survive. However, some of them just get us into trouble; and this is especially true regarding our responses to fear. It's true that we live in a very different world than the primates who evolved these responses, but often what we do when we're afraid doesn't even make sense in nature.

Humans have developed vivid imaginations, so we can project into the future and make plans, however, a side effect of being able to imagine positive futures is being able to imagine the many ways things might go wrong. Properly controlled, fear is a useful tool; after all, there may be actual spiders, zombies, or muggers lurking in the dark, but uncontrolled fear thrives when we imagine the worst.

No wonder whole lives can be ruined by fear and anxiety. Fear may be real, but you can learn to control your fear! Over the years, I’ve learned to live peacefully with spiders (who respect my personal space). It takes practice to calmly analyze the threat, identify alternative approaches to resolving it, and take courageous and constructive action.

Unfortunately, fear is such a powerful emotion that it is often exploited through fear-mongering.

Example: The threat of terrorism is real, but the fear of terrorism is exploited by the media and our government to initiate and support limits on our freedom. Don’t be that anxious, chronic, worrier who misuses imagination, making upcoming events feel like catastrophes waiting to happen, and fixing it by convincing yourself that you didn’t really need those freedoms anyway.

History has shown that mistakes are made when nations act out of fear, and the same is true for individuals. Don’t let FEAR stand for Forget Everything and Run, it should stand for Face Everything and Rise. Once you have faced the issue and composed yourself, you can resolve the threat in a rational, long lasting, and constructive way. In any disaster, as in daily life, don’t let fear take control of your future!

Cloud Atlas
Cloud Atlas, By David Mitchell, Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2004

Cloud Atlas is an audacious, dazzling, pretentious and infuriating, story that weaves history, science, suspense, humor and pathos. It has a non-linear structure with six loosely related narratives that take the reader from the remote South Pacific in the nineteenth century to a distant, post-apocalyptic future.

Like a symphony, each story is unique with its own rising, action, climax, and conclusion, and yet they are all connected through common themes. It also explores the idea of an eternal soul that reincarnates through time and space in different parts of the world, no matter of race and gender; as it is reborn and rejoins other souls, to remedy wrongs from the past.

The movie opens in Hawaii under a starlit night sky. A lone, elderly man with a deep scar on his face is sitting by a camp fire, mumbling in an accent tongue that at the same time seems transformed into a futuristic hybrid. He mentions how the night wind is full of the voices of their ancestry, and that he wants to tell his story.

As the movie proceeds to interconnect the six individual narratives, each character tells his or her own tale, and each of these stories is read and understood by the characters and people of the future. The same actors play multiple characters across time, usually seen with a repeating birthmark, reinforcing the interconnectedness of the story lines and all human life.

Our actions, the movie is saying, don’t just affect our present: They are shaped by mankind’s past and will in turn shape mankind’s future. This theme is underlined by the events in each narrative.

Cloud Atlas is an epic story of humankind, demonstrating how the actions and consequences of our lives impact one another; throughout the past, present and future. It connects humanity, or more correctly it connects essentially everything, using one core idea; the value of the connections between fellow human-beings.

The movie closes on an off-world colony under a starlit night sky. The elderly man with the deep scar on his face has just finished telling his story to his numerous grandchildren on an alien planet. The night sky is filled with stars, as they leave the camp fire to return home.

Sonmi-451
Cloud Atlas, By David Mitchell, Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2004

Overall, the recurring message of Cloud Atlas is how the forces of good wage their eternal battle with the forces of evil. Within the individual stories, the evil force that the hero is fighting against is a form of imprisonment rooted in some kind of prejudice. What allows each hero to prevail over his oppressor is, in nearly every case, a recognition of himself in the other.

The actions of one individual, standing up against an oppressive corporatocracy, takes strength from the past with effects reaching far into the future. Once our heroine finally learns the horrible truth, she is shocked and heartbroken, and says: "No matter if you are born from a tank or womb, we are all purebloods. Everyone has feelings, everyone deserves a humane life”.

She grows strong, stands up with dignity and grace and sparks a revolution. She makes up her mind that the system is intolerable and must end, and what supports it must be torn down. She wants to fight, even if she must sacrifice herself, to let people know the truth. Recognizing that this is the moment they have been waiting for, she is brought to a satellite link to make a public broadcast of her manifesto, while others sacrifice themselves for a better future.

"Our lives are not our own. From womb to tomb, we are bound to others, past and present. And by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future."

“To be is to be perceived. And so, to know thyself is only possible through the eyes of the other. The nature of our immortal lives is in the consequences of our words and deeds that go on apportioning themselves throughout all time.”

This story line is being recorded, as part of a final interview with an Archivist, who seems confused by her words and asks her if she believes in an afterlife. Knowing she will die soon, she says, "I believe death is only a door. When it closes, another opens".

The Archivist reminds her that it isn’t an interrogation or trial, he just wants her version of the truth. She responds that, “Truth is singular. Its versions are mistruths”.

Stories
Cloud Atlas, By David Mitchell, Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2004

The Archivist asks why our heroine didn't report an infraction, she responds, “I couldn’t”, explaining that it was because, “she trusted me”. When the Archivist suggests that her actions violated the law, she responds, “That's true”, but justifies her transgression by explaining, “She was my friend”.

The Archivist asked if she had planned to sacrifice her life for the cause, and she answers, “If I had remained invisible, the truth would stay hidden. I couldn’t allow that”. Then he asks her, “What if no one believes this truth?”, and she responds, “Someone already does.”

As our heroine is taken away for execution, the Archivist seems shocked and affected by her sincere and honest story. It's like he has realized something, deep inside his soul, and we hear his voice-over as he notes to himself: "This movement will never survive, if you join them you and your entire family will be shunned".

Their movement does succeed, and our heroin is worshipped as a goddess. The haunting music of an orchestral sextet is heard again and again across the film, and the rebellious speech at the conclusion eventually becomes scripture to the people of the future.

Message: Villains insist the "natural order of the world" must be protected, which is just another way to rationalize oppression of the weak, while the truth of heroes leads to revolution. It’s not just our words and speeches that resonate down the ages, it’s also our stories.

Repertoire of Contention
Repertoire of Contention, By Lisa Wade, Facebook

To register an objection to something about the world, protestors need to engage in an action that other people recognize as a form of protest. Strikes, rallies, and sit-ins are all recognizable ways to stake a political claim. The sociologist Charles Tilly argued that this is a society’s “repertoire of contention.”

WAMC, Albany N.Y., recently took my worry on the air: One radio minute from me worrying that mass murders have become part of the "repertoire of contention."

According to the Harvard School of Public Health, mass shootings have been on the rise for decades, and have increased even further in the last five years. Is what we’re seeing just an increase in violence, or a new behavior recognized as a way to express a political objection? To the horror of almost all of us, mass murder may be becoming a recognizable form of protest for the violent few.

Activists have a stock of actions to draw from when they want to make a statement. A culture’s repertoire of contention constantly evolves, and not always in ways we like, and perhaps mass murder is joining ours. Dylann Roof wanted to register his discontent with racial equality, Robert Lewis Dear stormed a Planned Parenthood center over his opposition to abortion, Omar Matteen killed to express his disgust for homosexuality, and Gavin Long communicated his sense of rage and helplessness in the face of black death by killing police.

We may never know why some resort to violence. But in these cases, each of these men wondered, “What can I do to get my point across?” And mass murder came to mind.

The terrifying part is that once protest tools become part of the repertoire, they’re diffused across movements and throughout society. It’s no longer just civil rights activists who use the sit-in techniques; any and all activists do. If mass murder has become an obvious way to make a political point, we can expect more, and more, in the future.

Home Grown Terrorism

Homegrown attacks rising worry in U.S. as Islamic State weakens abroad, By Joseph Ax, www.reuters.com

The online message is clear: Supporters of Islamic State who could not travel overseas to join the militant group should carry out attacks wherever they were in the United States or Europe.

Recently, a Bangladeshi immigrant followed those instructions when he tried to set off a homemade bomb in one of New York's busiest commuter hubs. This incident illustrates the difficulty of stopping "do-it-yourself" attacks by radicals who act alone. While harder to stop than attacks coordinated by multiple people, whose communications are more easily monitored by law enforcement or intelligence agencies, they also tend to do less damage. Fortunately, the bomber was the person most seriously wounded when his bomb ignited, but did not detonate, in an underground passageway; three others sustained lesser injuries.

For now, they tend to be less organized and less deadly, because you're dealing with more amateurs. Do-it-yourself attacks are on the rise in the United States, according to research by the Program on Extremism at George Washington University. The United States has seen 19 attacks perpetrated by Islamic State-inspired people since the group declared a "caliphate" in June 2014. Of those, 12 occurred in 2016 and 2017, almost twice as many as in the two preceding years. You're going to see continued numbers of plots and, unfortunately, attacks.

The NYC subway bomber, who has been charged with terrorism offenses, began immersing himself in Islamic State propaganda as early as 2014, three years after he arrived in the United States as a legal immigrant. Court papers say his computer records show that he viewed ISIS videos urging supporters of the group to launch attacks where they lived. Experts said the success of Western allies in retaking most of Islamic State's territory could inspire more attacks out of anger or vengeance.

It is easier for trained, battle-hardened ISIS fighters to travel from the Middle East to Europe than for them to reach the United States. That helps explain why U.S. attacks have largely been the work of "self-made" terrorists. In these recent cases, we've seen very few indications that there was any type of direct training. While a single individual or two can create a lot of damage, they're not able to wage sustained terrorist campaigns.

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, no group has been as successful at drawing people into its perverse ideology as ISIS. Through the internet terrorists overseas now have access to our local communities, to target and recruit our citizens.

Self-directed perpetrators are the hardest for investigators to identify. Their ranks appear to include bombers, such as the recent and previous attacks in New York attackers, and in Manhattan; and the Uzbek immigrant recently accused of killing eight by speeding a rental truck down a bike lane. While this type of attacker is typically less destructive, there are important exceptions. Like the Oklahoma City bomber, the man who gunned down 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando last year.

National security analysts generally divide such perpetrators into three broad categories. Some attackers act at the direction of a group; others have limited contact with a group but act largely on their own; a third type has no communication with a group but engage in violence after being radicalized by online propaganda.

More Things to Think About

More Things to Think About, By Unknown, Source Unknown

Not everyone will survive. Ouch.

Your stealth will be your wealth.
Gold and silver may be useless if a world currency is established.
Their use may even be criminalized.
Accurate news will be hard to come by.
Paranoia may keep you alive, but don’t give in to fear or panic
The more prepared you are the better your chances.
You will have very little time to bug out unnoticed.
The minute you bug out your chances of reaching your retreat destination are slim.
If you must leave your home, where will you go and what will you come back to?
If things do turn around will you have anything to start over with?
You might be safer in a group than trying to go it alone.
The unscrupulous of society will exploit any situation to the maximum extent.
Life will become cheap.
Train by doing something every day in “survival mode”.
Don’t think you will be able to kill a rabbit and read up on your Kindle what to do next.
Gear without training is useless. Start training now.
The more you can do without, the less you must carry.
Take an alternative approach to food and diet and learn to prepare what you eat.
Exercise your Second Amendment rights while you still can. Train to use fire arms.
Having the ten-dollar version of a tool is better than no tool at all.
Keep an admin binder with all pertinent documents and survival how-to instructions.
Read the survival blogs, watch YouTube, and download what you can.
Assuming electronics are still viable, make backups of all critical data, photos etc.
No matter what the problem is, beware of any government takeover fix.
If you require special medical attention it may be under government supervision.
Ultimately, a too-powerful government will be the biggest threat to your survival.
Big governments or smaller fiefdoms promoting “might makes right” will not be OK.
A rural retreat won’t save you, even if you manage to get there.
The federal government has you in their crosshairs, as does the United Nations.
You may not be tough enough for what’s coming, but then again you might.
Survival is easy for armchair quarterbacks.
Some who survive long-term, might not be the ones you expect.
Free time will become a thing of the past.
In a time of plenty, it’s impossible to imagine the reality of true scarcity.
Most survivalists and preppers are overly optimistic when it comes to how much food to store, what scenarios to plan for, and their ability to survive off the grid.
Stored food runs out, eventually.
Do you have a cache to store your valuables and is that viable?
You’re kidding yourself if you think your hidden caches won’t be found by others.
Or, you’ll forget where you hid them, in-spite of maps indicating their locations.
Growing your own food is a bigger challenge than you ever thought possible.
A green garden can be spotted from miles away, endangering your food and your family.
Desperate people will be able to easily identify the plants found in the typical backyard garden.
A TEOTWAWKI event will change the way you, your children, and grandchildren live. Forever!
You won’t know if you’re ready for TEOTWAWKI until you’re in the middle of it.
After that, it will be a case of day to day survival.
There’s nothing wrong with preparing for natural disasters, but ...
If you’re not ready for man-made disasters you’re not ready.
Tough times will threaten even the best of marriages and other close relationships.