“We are all alike, on the inside.” MT

Flocking together...

By and large MT had some doubts concerning human intelligence and much respect for animals. He said: “If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve man, but deteriorate the cat,” and “It is just like man’s vanity and impertinence to call an animal dumb because it is dumb to his dull perceptions.”

Animals do display a lot more cooperation and understanding than we humans. For the most part predators are well known. Other animals have learned to steer clear of them but hang out with other less aggressive creatures, humans excluded. We’re a mystery to them and to ourselves. Sometimes we can be as peaceful as a new born lamb and on the spin of a dime turn into violent aggressors. It’s a puzzle, but more often than not our violent behavior is rooted in viewing others not like ourselves and this is particularly true when it comes to religion. MT wasn’t a fan and seemed to run along the same track as Krishnamurti who saw violence as having a lot to do with what we think.

He said, “Violence is not merely killing another. It is violence when we use a sharp word, when we make a gesture to brush away a person, when we obey because there is fear. So violence isn’t merely organized butchery in the name of God, in the name of society or country. Violence is much more subtle, much deeper, and we are inquiring into the very depths of violence.

When you call yourself an Indian or a Muslim or a Christian or a European, or anything else, you are being violent. Do you see why it is violent? Because you are separating yourself from the rest of mankind. When you separate yourself by belief, by nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence. So a man who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country, to any religion, to any political party or partial system; he is concerned with the total understanding of mankind.”

Unfortunately we d0 flock together like birds of a feather, and tend to forget we’re all basically birds.

“The secret of getting ‘ahead’ is getting started.”

And it might be worth adding: Use your own “head,” instead of someone else’s. This may appear to be self-evident, but isn’t. Too often, allegiances are used as a surrogate for thinking, with the inevitable result of surrendering one’s responsibility and freedom. This is true of any sort of allegiance: interpersonal, religious, political or communal.

The inherent delusion of giving over one’s responsibility into the hands of another is that ‘other’ will work in our behalf (and not their own). Rarely, if ever, does this delusion work to our advantage. Instead when reality sets in, we discover the flaw of our presumption. 

MT summed this up religiously: “I cannot see how a man of any large degree of humorous perception can ever be religious—unless he purposely shuts the eyes of his mind and keeps them shut by force.”

And politically: “All Congresses and Parliaments have a kindly feeling for idiots, and a compassion for them, on account of personal experience and heredity.” Or: “Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.”

Abdicating responsibility contains a copout. “Each of you, for himself, by himself and on his own responsibility, must speak. And it is a solemn and weighty responsibility, and not lightly to be flung aside at the bullying of pulpit, press, government, or the empty catchphrases of politicians. Each must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, and which course is patriotic and which isn’t. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide against your convictions is to be an unqualified and inexcusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let man label you as they may. If you alone of all the nation shall decide one way, and that way be the right way according to your convictions of the right, you have done your duty by yourself and by your country—hold up your head! You have nothing to be ashamed of.”

A rule of all life (physical or otherwise) is that for every action there is a corresponding reaction, of the same kind.

“When a fool is championed by other fools, he suddenly becomes a genius.”

The greater fool?

Of course, as King Solomon observed, “A fool is wise in his eyes.” So by that measure there are only wise people—those who think they are and those who really are. On the other hand Ben Franklin thought the matter boiled down to unexamined, loose “canonish” complaining and criticism. But true to form, MT had the best solution for ferreting out the true fool—“There’s one way to find out if a man is honest: ask him; if he says yes, you know he’s crooked.”

Political opinions and loyalties flit about on the winds of knee-jerk reactions to changing events, and with events changing so rapidly it’s hard to keep an accurate ledger of who fits where. One moment a fool is an enemy and the next an ally. It all boils down to who is telling you what you want to hear or not. With elections approaching, this phenomena of whimsy is particularly true. One might be fooled to consider our Vice President an ally of our President. The prior has long been considered as a loose canon by friend and foe alike, but within the past few days he has been especially vociferous with his expressed outrage (perhaps understandably) by stating that “we” will chase ISIS to the doors of Hell. I suppose the “we” he is referring to is someone other than the Washington crowd, regardless of political affiliation. But his heart-felt conviction falls prey to MT’s thoughts on unexamined rhetoric.

The vicious and disturbing actions of ISIS do stimulate passions of retribution quite the same as following 9/11 and just as Saddam Hussein did prior to our invasion of Iraq. That too was an unexamined act that ripped apart the fabric of a largely Muslim country and lead to the mess we have today. It was a nasty tyranny that needed correction but it’s debatable if the invasion was thoughtful.

Saddam, you may recall, was a member of the Ba’ath Party which eventually aligned themselves with the Sunnis. Our elimination of Saddam wreaked the delicate balance of Iraq but was good news for the Sunnis since it left the country in disarray.  Oh, and let us not forget that it was only due to our support of Saddam against Iran (largely a Shia nation) that Saddam prevailed. That war began in 1980, lasted for eight years and resulted in at the very least, half a million and possibly twice as many troops killed on both sides; at least half a million became permanent invalids, some $228 billion were directly expended, and more than $400 billion in damages. 

Now we come to today and ISIS, the Sunni terrorist organization which grew out of the assorted rebels fighting in Syria against the Bashar al-Assad regime (Shia) with the backing of Iran (also Shia). Their stated goal is to establish a non-geographic caliphate and governed by Sharia law. So to examine Biden’s “follow them to the gates of Hell” becomes a very sticky wicket. By eliciting the support of Iran and Assad against ISIS makes us allies of previous arch enemies.

For the uninformed, we need to take a look at this wicket. While Muslims are found on all five inhabited continents, more than 60% of the global Muslim population is in Asia and about 20% is in the Middle East and North Africa. However, the Middle East-North Africa region has the highest percentage of Muslim-majority countries. Indeed, more than half of the 20 countries and territories in that region have populations that are approximately 95% Muslim or greater. There are roughly 1.8 billion Muslims in the world, and the percent of Sunni Muslims in the Islamic faith is roughly 85-90%. Thus, around 1.5 billion of the total 7 billion people of the world population are Sunni. If ISIS is successful in recruiting a mere 1% from this vast pool, it would result in a force of 15,000,000 fighters; not an insignificant contribution.  

The bluster of Mr. Biden, while emotionally appealing (and fuel for the hawks), makes his bombastic pronouncement somewhat daunting. Boots on the ground? Mission creep? This is all sounding like déjà vu: remnants of Vietnam which was also a costly debacle. According to a new study by a Harvard researcher, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq cost U.S. taxpayers $4 trillion to $6 trillion, taking into account the medical care of wounded veterans and expensive repairs to the forces depleted by more than a decade of fighting. 

It is hard to argue the case that we did not create this mess. We did. And to now to rush willy-nilly into the Middle East fracas without thorough examination will undoubtedly  bankrupt us financially, morally and physically. With the pressure to reign in fiscal spending, the glaring question is, how to battle ISIS and at the same time slash spending. And far from an unimportant footnote, we must remember the alliance between Russia, China and Iran all of whom share a common interest in limiting the political influence of the United States in Central Asia.

So who’s the greater fool? The ones who profess wisdom (but have none), or the ones who swallow their unwise bait like a fish caught on a hook? What a mess!

“The trouble isn’t that there are too many fools, but that the lightning isn’t distributed right.” MT

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

We have met the enemy...

I debated the title. The candidates were the one above,

“Locking the barn door after the horse is gone,” and “A card laid is a card played.” 

The application of these candidates concern what the whole world seems to be struggling to understand: why so many from prosperous Western nations are joining ISIS? The pundits have many theories but the one that makes most sense is the combination of disillusionment, disenfranchisement and injustice, in a socio-economic system that is growing increasingly fragmented and unfair.

MT, as many know, was not a fan of organized religion but he more than likely would side with Pope Francis who offered his own perspective: “Today in many places we hear a call for greater security. But until exclusion and inequality in society and between peoples are reversed, it will be impossible to eliminate violence. The poor and the poorer peoples are accused of violence, yet without equal opportunities the different forms of aggression and conflict will find a fertile terrain for growth and eventually explode. When a society—whether local, national or global—is willing to leave a part of itself on the fringes, no political programs or resources spent on law enforcement or surveillance systems can indefinitely guarantee tranquility.”

For sure there are many interlocking pieces that contribute to the fog but when the fog clears the answer boils down to what we don’t want to admit. In a previous post (Misery is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.) I suggested, “Not only do the fortunate have an obligation to share the fruits of labor, there is a necessity to do so, and the proof is bursting in evidence throughout the world.” MT echoed this with his own clarity of vision: “The silent colossal National Lie that is the support and confederate of all the tyrannies and shams and inequalities and unfairnesses that afflict the peoples—that is the one to throw bricks and sermons at.”

To quote Pogo: “We have met the enemy and he is us,” which perfectly sums up the foibles of mankind and the nature of the human condition. If we were more attentive to insuring civil equality than insuring inequality we might find a much more compassionate and efficient way of conducting our affairs. “Economic inequality is not simply unfair—it has dire consequences for virtually every major problem facing our society.”

“Loyalty to petrified opinion, never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul.”

MT wasn’t big on inflexible, dogmatic minds, and was suspicious of points of view, and institutions, that didn’t pass the litmus test of examination. He figured if an idea was valid it would pass the test, and if it didn’t, then move on down the road.

He said, “In religion and politics, people’s beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten second-hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the questions at issue but have taken them at second-hand from other non-examiners, whose opinions about them were not worth a brass farthing.”

As far as he was concerned, religion was like marriage: easy to get into and hard to get out of. While he cherished his marriage he pointed out that in many cases, “It is easier to stay out than get out.” One may enter as a matter of curiosity, hope and unknowing, but was kicked out because of the opposite. Stagnant beliefs were no better to him than stagnant water: neither moved and both stank. In his words, “A man is accepted into a church for what he believes and he is turned out for what he knows.”

A most peculiar human tendency occurs when closed-minded people profess to be open-minded. His view was that traveling far and wide opened those closed minds and exposed a person’s honesty and genuine nature: “Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime,” and “the gentle reader will never, never know what a consummate ass he can become until he goes abroad.” 

While quick to expose pretenders and the self-righteous, along with the current Dali Lama, he embraced kindness. They lived in different times but said essentially the same thing: “This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.”

Misery is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.

Sorry MT for the plagiarism but your wisdom is too sublime to avoid. Besides, according to one of your colleagues, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” and my rhetorical reconstruction is intended as flattery. Yes, I know you employed the word “Age” rather than “Misery” but the switch fits the point of my post: happiness and misery, the summation being—You can’t build happiness on the back of someone else’s misery.

In today’s conventional wisdom, that notion is contradicted with clichés like Makers and Takers, or more aptly Winners and Losers. Both of these expressions assume that happiness does indeed come about when built on the backs of those denied. But that illogic overlooks the integral union of necessity pointed out by Martin Luther King, Jr., “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” or to reconstruct his notion: Winners/Makers must be the force that leads to justice for all, and if not then chaos will prevail.

This latter point should be apparent but alas it’s not. Instead the cliché prevails that somehow, unexplainable, the fortunate can deny those who enabled their fortune and live happily ever after. Or to use your vernacular: It just ain’t so. Not only do the fortunate have an obligation to share the fruits of labor, there is a necessity to do so, and the proof is bursting in evidence throughout the world. Makers and Takers implies an untruth: that those who enable fortune are unnecessary. Without one, the other ceases to exist and to deny this rather obvious point, misery of the denied will, and does, lead to misery of all.

Fear and familiarity.

A good nights rest.

According to the American Indian author Vine Deloria Jr. “Religion is for people who’re afraid of going to hell. Spirituality is for those who’ve already been there.” There’s some truth to this observation so long as you’re of a mind that it’s better to make the best out of the “what is” rather than to dwell on the fear of the “what might be.” As far as anyone knows, there haven’t been many who’ve visited and returned from the mythical bowels of hell and reported on the weather (even though sometimes it seems like a few demons reside in Washington).

There’s a downside to living in fear of suspected fire and brimstone as a consequence for not toeing the mark. MT captured the essence of the tradeoff succinctly: “The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.” And he links that fear together with one of the “Thou shalt not’s”: giving false testimony against ones neighbor. It’s always tricky to remember the twists and turns we invent to cover our backsides—“Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.” The mental fatigue of remembering how to untangle that web is tiring. MT’s sapient formula for getting a peaceful nights rest is this: “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.” 

So there you have it. Tell the truth and sleep well, or do the opposite and have a sleepless night in the hot place.