Our Real Enemy

What fascinates me most is the direct parallels of ISIS dogma and fundamentalist Christianity which I witnessed first hand as a child. (We sang "I'm in the Lord's Army" regularly after all.) They are two sides of the same coin...Ideological brothers. 

Reason, nuance, compassion, Open Minds...these are the best, most sustainable weapons against religious fanatics. Britain, Germany, France have all now approved airstrikes and War is now necessary, yes. When faced with a bully, you have to punch back. We must take a stand against ISIS but it will not win us a victory. 

We will only win when religious fanaticism is rooted out of the hearts of humanity. I'm not sure that is even possible. But until we all, Republican, Democrats, Socialist, People of Faith, People of no Faith… until we ALL embrace reason, dialogue, compassion and take a stand against the religious/political fanatics amongst us, we will have to face the madmen these fanatics inspire. 

Syed Rizwan Farook
Robert Dear
Eric Robert Rudolph
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev
Ashin Wirathu
Timothy James McVeigh

Reason, Nuance, Compassion, Humanity, while not as sexy as bunker busting bombs, are the arms we must now take up and fight this growing threat. It is the only hope of victory we have.

If they have no bread, let them eat cake.

Most of my friends roll their eyes when I start spouting off about the French Revolution, a time when money and power were aggregated at the top of the society. Let the eye rolling commence! 

Wealth will only trickle up. It never trickles down. It is time we end our 35 yearlong experiment with, as George Bush Sr. called it, "Voodoo Economics". It has failed and if we don't turn away from it, the consequences will be dire. We are already seeing some of the societal instability that comes from wealth inequity. Riots.... Debtors’ prisons. Some would say, "Good, let the revolution come!"  I would never advocate violence.  Revolutions are bloody business. Ask Anastasia and her sisters. 

It is essential that to maintaining our stable society that people from all points on the political spectrum must start talking about Wealth Inequality.  Workers who can keep a roof over there heads, have access to healthy food/water, educate their children and can get access to healthcare don’t storm the Bastille. I think we can still back away from the precipice and preserve the American Dream for all. It will take cooperation from all political parties but time is running out.  ‪#‎MarieAntoinetteNeverSawItComing....But we do.

Religion

 

I was reading a blog by Mark Morford of the San Francisco Gate.  I love reading his column and always enjoy his perspective. The premise is that religion is the root of all evil in humanity and will ultimate be our undoing


Of course, this got me to thinking. 

It's not the religion.  It's the people. The natural instincts of humans toward “us vs. them”.   At one time in the savannas of Africa that instinct served us well for survival. In fact, our closest relatives in the animal kingdom, chimpanzees have been known to murder in anger (not just kill for food) and go to war with other groups over territory.  If every church were eliminated from the planet tomorrow.  We will still war over natural resources, find ways to alienate each other.   The highly enlightened progressives vs. the ignorant rednecks.  The patriotic Americans vs. the Socialists.  Civilized society vs. barbarism.  Us vs. them in many forms would still be with us.  It is ingrained in our animal brains, our DNA.

More specifically, Orthodoxy poisons the well of religion. Devout Buddhists are slaughtering ethnic Muslims in Myanmar, Orthodox Jews throw rocks at people driving on the Sabbath.  We all know what A-holes orthodox Christians can be.  Animal rights people throw blood at people that don’t agree with them.  If you even hint that you support vaccines or circumcision, “Crunchy Moms” are all over you like white on organic rice.  Ultra-right wingers – D*cks!  Ultra-left wing...wear you down with debate till you cry "Uncle".  Orthodoxy in any dogma (religious or no) is bad news.  Our minds tend toward dogma but we are evolving

From the dawn of human civilization, we have had the mystics and prophet pointing us in another direction and using organized modes of worship to attempt to show us how to rise above our lizard brains.  We corrupt them that is what we do.  It hasn't been that long in our evolution that we branched off from our monkey cousins.   But I will be willing to bet that the great Apes don't have a concept of human (for want of a better term) rights, of the sanctity of life or spirituality.  So, we are evolving into mindful beings.

Mindfulness, ceremony, gathering together in prayer, community, being called to higher form of consciousness, seeing the divine in all human beings and all living things will help us combat our "natural" tendency to split into different clubs…can help call us to the better angels of our nature.  Organized religions aren't necessary for that but they can help.