Separation of Peace and Egos
First, I want to make it absolutely clear that this is NOT directed to anyone here on this site. It is however a problem many people in the movement tend to ignore. Mostly I'm going after hardcore "peace activists". Those that are trying to create a cult through the cause. Remember folks, capitalism is weird. When I wrote this I sent it to a friend and he hasn't returned any calls since. He's what I call a "Neo-Hippie". Anyway, enough explaining myself. -------
I was going to post the second installment of quotes before something smacked me square in the nose, that's right folks just like a wet squirrel. There's a fight within our ranks which basically revolves around the basic statement: "I am more devoted to the cause than you are!!" A lot of so-called "activists" are making this claim and actually thinking it to be not only truth but an affirmation to their own "superiority". Against such ideals I must protest. We do not have an elite. If we are to remain a peaceful people we must never have an elite class. Dismiss those that claim to have superior devotion as fools. They have no peace in their hearts. Their judgement is blinded by their narcissism. They only care about how they are perceived by those that follow them. False prophets. Nothing more than one man trying to use a noble cause for his own prideful benefit. Liars indeed. With their spiteful remarks they prove their lack of devotion to any form of peace whether it be freedom from military conflict or that of their own mind.
What difference can it possibly make to that which has a peaceful mind if one man spends 1 minute more than another in pursuit of peace? I charge you with contempt of mankind if you have such a notion. You will not help us in any way, shape, or form. So go join the other side publicly as you have done privately in your own heart. We not only do not need you but you will do irreparable damage to our cause, and faith in that cause. This cause must be based on love, and purely. Not spite, nor pride. Check yourselves. I remember a great man said, "Remove the plank from your own eye before removing the splinter from anothers.". The struggle that is based on personal power is doomed to failure. If we continue to judge another based on our own cynicism and jealousy, we might as well give up. The end result even with our victory will not be what we had hoped for. It certainly will not be a world in which I want to live.
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Reply to separation of Peace and Egos
I wish, or maybe some do, all these groups could communicate, figure out what they agree on, and presemt a 'united front' that would get some national coverage. Even the Gray Panthers have a progressive agenda on many subjects. I recently saw a great interview/documantary on the Inuits working internationally to stop global warming and proving it will end their way of life and therefore destroy their human rights. They presented a petition not a lawsuit and have an interesting non-confrontational non-conflict approach. I contribute to the Union of Concerned Scietists and they lobby congress and inform government officials of scientific findings and solutions.
Even the Consumers Union is involved in political and environmental issues now. This represents a huge amount of people. But the politicos have a united front and we don't. Gotta give someone a ride I promised so have to go. handyman.
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Reply to separation of Peace and Egos
I just signed on to this site and this is the first post I read. I hope this is the correct way to reply. It happened to fall in with one of the subjects I'm interested in.
Remy-you're right on target with this subject. I am an old-line (ex)hippie and this is one of the things that screwed us up. People were doing something I used to call 'who's hipper than who'. This is serious stuff. People with money and power do not give it up easily. If you threaten their power or their money they WILL hurt you. It also could be the other side trying to create divisions. People must be dedicated to the cause, not their own 'image'. There are many more things to always or never do. I am hoping people will be open to hearing them from someone who saw it happen. The things I'm seeing on Free Speech TV are making me hopefull for the first time in many years. WE CAN'T AFFORD TO SCREW THIS UP. We may never get another chance. Never underestimate the enemy. The Black Power people had a saying: Keep your eye on the prize. Be well, handyman42
Welcome to the community my
Welcome to the community my friend, and thanks for the validation. I thought I was going crazy there for a minute. One thing: Once a hippie, always a hippie. Love and Peace my brother.
Separation of Peace and Egos
Thanks for yours and Arche's validation. If I am a hippie, I am an evolved hippie. I am calling myself a Utopian-Pragmatist. I desperately want to get involved in a dialogue on how to "get our world back". In truth we never had it. The military-industrial power brokers were always in charge. I want to talk about actual strategy. I don't know yet if this is the place to do it.
People talk about getting America back to what it used to be. When I hear this I am reminded that the playwright Arthur Miller once said "This should have been the country that showed the world what a country could be, but there were ghosts about that we couldn't lay our hands on." So I don't want to get America back to what it used to be. I want to make it what it's never been yet. I want to make it what it should have been. When was it the "greatest country in the world" for Black people or Native Americans?
That's the utopian part. As far as the pragmatist and strategy part-I believe don't hit them at their weak points, hit their strong points. One idea of many: George Bush has a strong following among Christians. But does George Bush act like a Christian?
Jesus healed the sick and fed the hungry. Does George Bush heal the sick and feed the hungry? There's much proof he does the opposite. Jesus said "By their works ye shall know them." What are Bush's works-flag draped coffins, maimed Iraqi children and Katrina victims? Jesus said "Inasmuch as ye do this to the least of these my brothers ye do it unto me." Does tax breaks for the rich live up to that? And what about the commandment he violated: Thou shall not bear false witness. It's not enough to say you're a Christian, you have to act like one. There's plenty more but the point is if you can cause him to lose credibility with the Christians he loses a real source of strength.
I have lived alone for some years now and I appreciate the opportunity to talk with like-minded people, but us getting on line and 'preaching to the converted' or agreeing on what assholes 'they' are only has limited usefullness. There are many thousands of talented intelligent people out there who long for a better country and a better world. I believe, I have to believe, between us it's possible. One thing I have to thank George Bush for is he gave away the game. He made it so obvious what's been going on all along that everyone can see it. (Of course there's none so blind as those who will not see).
If I could draw I would draw a cartoon of God and Satan hovering above a polluted nuclear wasteland. There would be dried up oceans and skeletons of people with their hands around each others necks, children with toys in their hands. Only roaches and mutated rats are still alive. God is saying to Satan: "I guess you were right all along. This free-will, children of God, stewards of the Earth design didn't work out. And you know the funniest thing about it? Most of them thought they were going to heaven. Can you believe it? Oh well, back to the drawing board."
I realize I've made a lot of religious references here. I'm not really a religious person. I just draw on the symbolism.
Yours in hope and activism, handyman42
You're right
I think it all comes down to Conservative Christian "patriotism". The first thing that needs to happen is we need to somehow convince these people that dissent is a form of patriotism. Jesus used it. He blasted the lawmakers and Pharisees time and again. I don't know how to make them see. The only thing I can think of is to do what they've done and cram the Gospels down their throats til they can no longer deny what Jesus really stood for. It's ironic that they are victims of the same type of propaganda they spew. They're told Jesus was this way and this way only and their interpretations are non-existent because they never really read and thought about it. So after years of brainwashing how do you break that? There is no way possible that you could come away from reading the Gospels and think that Jesus would support Dubya. Unless of course somebody read and "explained" it to you. I think Jesus holds the key. There are already 1,000,000,000 people who atleast claim to follow him. That could really be quite a majority in our favor if we can educate them on the things he said and break the stranglehold currently inflicting damage in his name. Without the typical mind numbing brainwashing of course. I read the first few chapters of Mathew last night and came across the ever ignored, "Love your enemies, pray for those that persecute you." commandment he made. I couldn't help but think, 'does he mean love Osama Bin Laden? What about Satan?'. It's my best guess that he meant just that. There's nothing to say he didn't, just to give a small hint at where we stand. When I get off on a subject....
I agree wholeheartedly. Dubya did open the window. If Dubya ever murdered a hooker I bet he'd sit there for oh, 7 minutes or so with a blank look on his face. He doesn't seem to even try to cover up his mistakes. While terrorists are getting smarter our leadership is becoming very very stupid. Luckily the American people are getting smarter. Maybe God did want Dubya to be president though not for the reasons he thought. ;o) Given all the imcompetence and the contempt for those who don't blindly support him I must say I'm disappointed in the people's lack of motivation. Not to impeach him, (which won't happen I'm sorry to say) but to just stand up and be heard. Then again I'll never be fully satisfied.
I think you should draw the picture you're talking about. Even if you have to use stick figures. I guess that wouldn't work with the fact that some detail is necessary blah blah blah... You know what I mean. It's a valid point to make. To me any time I'm heard makes it worth the time. Well that and I love to write.
One last thing I know I've probably bored you half to death with my ranting. It's apparent we need a leader for the movement otherwise we're not going very far. As well as Cindy Sheehan has done, she's still not a bona fide leader. I think that's what we're looking for here. Hoping maybe some day someone will come through the door and take charge and then lead us unto the promised land. Though we can put a pretty impressive march or protest together all the groups that are involved are only that until the march is over, which is why it doesn't work. There are no organized, and constant messages being sent to Congress or Dubya. We must attain the kind of persistance that King and Ghandi had. The lovely people of the 60's had it and were more than willing to flaunt it. But of course they had a strong leadership. They were bloody well organized even to the point of a rock festival that brought half a million of them together for 3 days of Peace and music. They not only sent a message to the government in hopes of stopping the war in Viet-nam but also the world. Plus the music was beautiful. I see absolutely no reason why (with a proper leadership) we can't do it again. And now I KNOW I've bored your 3/4 to death, so I'll stop.
L & P
You're not boring me at all.
You're not boring me at all. I live in a real conservative area. People who vote Democrat keep it to themselves. My little (half) joke is I went to a coffee shop with a book on evolution and the waitress looked me up and down to figure out if I was dangerous. I don't have many people to talk to about these things. In fact I was just wondering if I was some kind of manic-depressive with childish utopian daydreams and to stop thinking about it and just assume the country and the world are toast when I got your message which energized me anew. I have a 10 year old grand-daughter who is a dear sweet child and I owe it to her to do what little I can. We, including myself have got to resist despair. I've been watching a lot of TV, FSTV and others and seeing a lot of accomplished, intelligent, astute people who believe what we do only they say it better.
One of our greatest strengths and greatest weaknesses in the '60's is we didn't have leadership. Not really organized leadership anyway. So they didn't have anyone to knock down but every group and a lot of individuals were 'doing their own thing.' Trouble was it was confusing and much less effective than it could have been. The Vietnam war ended in '75. I was there in '63 and there were people there before me. So if we had an effect on ending it it took 15 years. I don't want to see that happen again.
One of the dumbest things we did was the 'don't trust anyone over 30' mantra. Even though we didn't really follow it it must have alienated lots of people who could have helped us tremendously. People with skills, experience, contacts, character and perspective.
Things like demonstrations etc. are fine but we will need more than that, particularly because 'they' probably have plans about how to deal with it. For example we can use 'their' methods to capture people's imagination and dedication, only we can use them to educate people instead of getting them to buy things. As much as I hate terrorists I even learn from them. Media reform is the beginning. What that media says is the important thing. As far as discrediting Bush's Christian credibility there are Christian conservation groups and Christian peace groups. If they can put out the message of opposition and get publicity it would have impact. Even one of the leaders of one of the big conserative Christian groups admitted he's now convinced that global warming is happening and human activities are at least accelerating it.
Not Jerry Falwell, the other guy. Can't remember his name at the moment.
Again there are many groups that are sympathetic but they're not in communication with each other (yet). But these days we have unprecedented communication abilities and we should coordinate our efforts. To get back to leadership, it seems to me the only way to have leadership and organization without giving the other side targets to knock down is to have people in the backround creating the message and different spokespeople to publicize it. That way if they come down on the spokesperson the real leadership is still there.
As far as the cartoon goes I was hoping there would be someone who is a cartoonist who would read the message and pick up on the idea. But the principle is visuals have a lot of impact. For example I was thinking that some years back there was a news story about a lot of cattle being led into into a slaughterhouse between two 4 or 5 foot plank fences. One of the cows suddenly reared up and got over the fence and tried to escape. Eventually she was caught but instead of being returned to the slaughterhouse she was adopted by a couple with a small ranch. If I remember correctly there was news footage and newspaper pictures of her climbing the fence. Can you imagine what it takes for a cow to climb a 4 or 5 foot fence? I always wondered what spark of realization made her do that and not be led to slaughter like the others. I keep meaning to try to find a pictue of it but somehow never get around to it. (If anyone knows where to find it please reply). Anyway now that I've found FSTV I thought a picture of that with the words Jump The Fence above and Free Speech TV below would be a great message. Alternatively it could be a billboard for PETA saying 'Don't eat cow. It's bad for your health and it pisses off the cow.'
Well, that's enough from me for now, Be well, handyman.
I guess the cow decided to live
Can't blame her, her alternative was getting her throat slit. It's a good metaphor for us I think, with of course the slaughterhouse being the system, the man with the knife being the media, and the fence being the barricade in our own minds. A picture being a thousand words it would be powerful. Heh, irony. The cow figured out something most humans can't.
I think this site could be the neutral turf for the groups. They could all be represented here. That's what they need really. Let them speak to each other on what appears to me to be very common ground.
As far as the cartoon I wish I could draw too. If I can find an old phone number or an email address I'll get in touch with whom I think is the best artist ever, though biased I am. I think he gave up art for marriage and I don't know where he stands politically anymore but maybe with a little persuasion, (mostly "please man" and "c'mon") I think he'd create a little something.
Demonstrations are a good thing. Personally I think that some of us should get our heads busted open by a few cops. Isn't it sad that that seems to be the only thing that will bring attention to the issue? That's the only thing the media will show. We need more radical tactics. Bend the laws a little bit. Don't get me wrong. Please people do not actively seek a head pounding by your local tommie. You're no good to yourself if your brains are laying on the street.
I've been racking my brain trying to figure out how to get Noam Chomsky on Fox news, so to speak, maybe with Sean Hannity, wouldn't that be nice? (To see Noam, a truly wise man humiliate the likes of Hannity, a complete moron blind neo-con would be precious) But that's not my point. To get our message out... I don't know how. We're the majority now and we still can't get attention. I guess it'll take time. Eventually more and more people will turn against these Corporate news channels. I still see war glorified as if it's an honorable endeavor with such programs as "War stories with Oliver North" and "This week at war" on CNN. I think I got way off topic and I'm not entirely sure this is a reply to what you've said Handyman. Once I get off on a rant I find it very difficult to stop.
On a sidenote. My computer clock recently reset. It now wants me to believe it's Thursday January 6th, 2000. I wish it were. Unfortunatly it's not.
Welcome Handyman42
It's nice to see a FSTV viewer in our community!!