”The need to be right is the sign of a vulgar mind.” Albert Camus
I wrote that heading a handful of days ago and I am serious about it, because I have no idea what is going on. Wait, don’t jump to any conclusions regarding intelligence. I am not a stupid guy and can probably hold my own with most. Something being incomprehensible is not the same as unintelligible. I understand, but is incredibly stupid.
Sure, power and money have always been the Aces to burn the rest of the deck. I realized that my concern is with the news, the events and its causes these first months of the Divine Empire. It’s funny, I’d initially be shocked by the behavior, then quickly moved to its consequences.
Long before this, I focused my writing on feelings and their comprehension. I have always been quick to grab for the Buddha to “make things right.” I like going inside feelings and looking for triggers. For better or worse, sometimes worse, I have made it my life’s work, apologies for the unintended melodrama.
Everyday, we are fed new facts, each one wagging its own tale of bogus uprightness. Their purpose is to create a maize for your mind, while the cheese rots in a corner, due to continuous distraction. Well, I am here to tell you I finally smelled the rotting cheese.
I don’t know about you, but these times have taken a pretty stiff emotional toll on me and I am being gentle. I never expected news to have the strength to jackhammer my comfort and peace of mind. Sure, I have always gotten pissed off at some political maneuver or another and I couldn’t make sense of it.
A handful of days ago, a U.S. warplane dropped a bomb on a children’s school in Iran and killed at least 175 little girls and nobody seems to give a shit. Those are stats on one school and at least a half dozen others have been incinerated. Do you know the name of a single, little corpse? To me, the world should have come to a screeching halt, because children are not war targets. Apparently, their lives don’t matter and no one seems to have lost any sleep over it either. Our erudite Secretary of War has said that we are not abiding by the “stupid rules of engagement.” This war is costing the US, you and me, one billion dollars a day!
The bulk of the following paragraph has been sitting around for a while: You must write about this idea that no country is as smart as we are. The Iranians are a very sophisticated culture and they have prepared for this moment brilliantly. They are now doing the rope a dope, letting Israel and the US waste their most sophisticated weaponry and then Iran will move in the heavy guns.
I think we pay virtually no attention to the fact that there are cultures in the world today that have a long, sophisticated history. Here’s the deal, you don’t have to speak English to be smart. Yes, it sounds like a stupid statement, except the problem is it is a tried and true misperception. Iran’s Persian history is extraordinary and they have been citizens of the world for hundreds of years. Our imperial disdain is going to catch us this time.
Bullies don’t know how to take a punch.The above resurrected paragraph is a strategy playing right into it. Iran has a very sophisticated network of missiles and other munitions. While the US and Israel show off their destructive hardware, Iran is waiting for them to dissipate their offensive and defensive weaponry. It is going to happen and has already begun. Arrogance is its own form of stupidity and boy, are we showing off! Iran is just feeding honey to the bear.
I can’t believe I am writing like I have any idea what I’m talking about, because I do not. However, I am entitled to my opinion. It seems most all views are myopic, ignoring world history, with the sole concern of justifying illegal activity. I really started this off with the motivation of sharing how much emotional difficulty I am having at present and that hasn’t changed. Trying to explain what is going on does nothing to ameliorate the emotional and spiritual gumbo between my ears and in my heart.
It has made me look in places with closed doors, rocked loose by a display of inhumanity I have never experienced in my 80 years. Maybe, in the past, you could lay it off on incompetence, but nothing like this. Between us, it has been torturing my soul.
The idea of democracy is a fucken myth. It thrives on the basic principle that we are all equal. Here is one definition, “political, social, or economic equality : the absence of hereditary or arbitrary class distinctions or privileges.” Now, check out this recent bit of news from the New York Times::
“In the 2024 US federal elections, billionaires exerted an outrageous influence. 300 of them spent nearly one-fifth of the $16 billion spent to elect candidates during that cycle.” Long ago, this so-called democracy was sold to the highest bidder(s).
All of the above wasn’t even close to the vicinity of where I was at around 23 years ago, looking down from the plane window at this breathtaking jewel in the Pacific. Something was touched deep inside me, where the spirit lives. I couldn’t name it, but I knew it. This place has embraced me in unimaginable ways.
I’ve had no where to turn in the midst of what is going on today. I was losing, feeling my essence being whittled away, day after day. After all these years of living here, I have never asked her for anything. When she silently spoke me back then, I never thought of it in terms of it being a beautiful, open-armed embrace. She was here for me in ways I did not understand back then. In order for me to survive and thrive, it is that spirit I needed to reconnect with.
I am working on it.
LISTEN TO IT HERE: