Astonishingly the new president in the first first month declares that the COURTS and FREEDOM OF THE PRESS are among his and the 'American people's enemies.' These are the two realities that most check America from ever coming under some kind of autocratic rule. It might be hard to imagine a more unconstitutional attitude.
This has also driven Americans to, with clear and self righteous conscience, suck every material comfort and amusement from the earth that we can and given license to take far more from nature than we need simply because it's there. These attitudes have often been supported by formal education emphasis and much of formal religion.
To control and manipulate everything we can for maximum short term pleasantness, amusement and comfort is the unspoken and irresponsible goal of Rationalistic Consumer Materialism. This leads to a pernicious disrespect for the natural care of the planet, diminished relationships built of mutual trust and honesty and to a belief that 'more for me and mine is always better'. Success of human life really has come to be measured by material wealth and political power. This stands opposed to actual deepest human need and development. It ignores the demands of the human soul.
So we overtly, even if irrational, adore the wealthy and materially powerful no matter the compromised ethics and character that often, with exceptions, necessarily characterize the most 'achieving' humans in a Consumer Capitalistic society. These materialistic values are still strongly active across all economic and most education levels, even though they work against our having more safe, healthy and less anxious lives
Our point of view, our world view, at this point is not really religious or ethics based and it is failing to give a serious damn about future generations or citizens who are in or on the edges of poverty, or the health of the planet. And we , in much collective denial of this threatening situation, still claim to so greatly love our children and future generations. Our collective behavior and materialistic values might give us pause.
Much of this is unconscious so most of us have truly not let ourselves know better. Ignorance and lack of awareness is the key root of our worst sins and the demands and capacity to change from these destructive long developed norms are fully present and pressing at the door. We have soulful learning to do that is more than what is in our typical history books. There is an urgent need to 'know our true selves' . This includes our darker unconscious motives that run unchecked as well as unknown potential good and neighborly compassion we can trust are also in the depths of human hearts.
The present daily images of ignoring common facts, creating ones own reality, material extravagancies and a self possessed President hold all these unsavory often unconscious factors up before us like a giant mirror . It says to us all, "This is who you are now or where you yearn to go. Is it time yet to change some of your ways and expectations for successful human living? Is your way any longer effective or productive for sustainable quality human life? It is up to you. "
This complex evolutionary web is not just the fault of one or other side of the present political spectrum, and certainly not just the president. Because it is an evolutionary process there is no value in assigning blame. It is simply what it is. What is important is that individuals 'be aware' of the situation, name and own it for what it is. “Conservative” and “liberal” are equally important mindsets and practices , both essential for healthy personal and collective life. The continuous political fighting likely is only a distraction from the real threats we all face but remain the unaddressed elephants in the room.
.
There is reason for a collective HOPE in this present complexity, HOPE of a religious or archetypal nature as all deeper human hopes I think must be. That hope can include that the narcissistic irrational chaos and over materialized self aggrandizing images associated with our white house symbolize a last crazed seizure of an enshrined crass materialism called Consumer Capitalism.
Humans have the capacity, and it must happen for our species to survive, to adapt to new evolutionary conditions as we pass through major eons or epochs of development. (Presently the planet and other life would be safer without us being here. This is a recent development due to human technology and unchecked consumerism. A more alert and responsible form of intelligent consciosness may be required now by evolution. And evolution would do just that if human consciousness fails its immediate task.)
No world view- religious, scientific or other, in its most developed form is ever eternal . Eventually, perhaps major shifts occurring every 2000 years, a long held effective world view becomes ineffective and obsolete for pressing new times. The presently weakening world view of America and the West is the result of global evolution reaching a one sided and unbalanced state where the planet is threatened with chaos. We seem to now be at the cusp of such a necessary change in epochs.
A deeply grounded HOPE which seems needed and reasonable to anticipate is for a major rebalancing shift in American human consciousness; a newly evolved perspective that will lead to truly higher ground where Sacred- Human love may make a quantum leap. Such a posdible transition of eons is never one that existing traditional moral codes, religions or political parties can take sole credit for. Instead a whole nation or a large diverse culture can come to realize they can experience and participate in nothing less than the natural movement of a frightening but redeeming God factor in their midst.
My opinion is the present societal situation developed over decades and longer does not have a 'one side is right' solution. It is much larger and we all , including our forebears, have had a hand in its historical development. I suspect it is the natural evolution of the materialistic frame of mind which was necessarily at the heart of the European Renaissance(Age Of Reason)and scientific mindset ( which gave us all the dazzling advancements of science and technology.) The atmosphere of that Renaissance was America's strong matetialistic beginning and , though once brilliant and essential, has led over time to our present Consumer Capitalistic materialistically possessed society.
Our first American powerful elites were mostly Deists, not church going Christians, which set them free from literally taken traditional religious dogma. This freedom to explore the material world was necessary for science to flourish( But religious fundamentalism has now re-surged in many forms worldwide and is a scientific step backward and something that inadvertently nurtures our dominant Rational Materialism world view.)
All of this , for good and ill, is our foundation, all of us. And we have finally run into the downside of what has become a one sided unworkable approach to life and human meaning and development. Phrases that describe this situation are Consumer Capitalism and Rational Materialism and are America's basic worldview in most aspects in our post modern culture. The downside of these mindsets gone too far and outgrown for new times include the consistent physical deterioration of the planet and its complexities along with wealth and power outrageously accumulated for a small percent of the population.
Our first American powerful elites were mostly Deists, not church going Christians, which set them free from literally taken traditional religious dogma. This freedom to explore the material world was necessary for science to flourish( But religious fundamentalism has now re-surged in many forms worldwide and is a scientific step backward and something that inadvertently nurtures our dominant Rational Materialism world view.)
All of this , for good and ill, is our foundation, all of us. And we have finally run into the downside of what has become a one sided unworkable approach to life and human meaning and development. Phrases that describe this situation are Consumer Capitalism and Rational Materialism and are America's basic worldview in most aspects in our post modern culture. The downside of these mindsets gone too far and outgrown for new times include the consistent physical deterioration of the planet and its complexities along with wealth and power outrageously accumulated for a small percent of the population.
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| Isaac Newton- Renaissance Scientist |
This has also driven Americans to, with clear and self righteous conscience, suck every material comfort and amusement from the earth that we can and given license to take far more from nature than we need simply because it's there. These attitudes have often been supported by formal education emphasis and much of formal religion.
To control and manipulate everything we can for maximum short term pleasantness, amusement and comfort is the unspoken and irresponsible goal of Rationalistic Consumer Materialism. This leads to a pernicious disrespect for the natural care of the planet, diminished relationships built of mutual trust and honesty and to a belief that 'more for me and mine is always better'. Success of human life really has come to be measured by material wealth and political power. This stands opposed to actual deepest human need and development. It ignores the demands of the human soul.
So we overtly, even if irrational, adore the wealthy and materially powerful no matter the compromised ethics and character that often, with exceptions, necessarily characterize the most 'achieving' humans in a Consumer Capitalistic society. These materialistic values are still strongly active across all economic and most education levels, even though they work against our having more safe, healthy and less anxious lives
Our point of view, our world view, at this point is not really religious or ethics based and it is failing to give a serious damn about future generations or citizens who are in or on the edges of poverty, or the health of the planet. And we , in much collective denial of this threatening situation, still claim to so greatly love our children and future generations. Our collective behavior and materialistic values might give us pause.
Much of this is unconscious so most of us have truly not let ourselves know better. Ignorance and lack of awareness is the key root of our worst sins and the demands and capacity to change from these destructive long developed norms are fully present and pressing at the door. We have soulful learning to do that is more than what is in our typical history books. There is an urgent need to 'know our true selves' . This includes our darker unconscious motives that run unchecked as well as unknown potential good and neighborly compassion we can trust are also in the depths of human hearts.
The present daily images of ignoring common facts, creating ones own reality, material extravagancies and a self possessed President hold all these unsavory often unconscious factors up before us like a giant mirror . It says to us all, "This is who you are now or where you yearn to go. Is it time yet to change some of your ways and expectations for successful human living? Is your way any longer effective or productive for sustainable quality human life? It is up to you. "
This complex evolutionary web is not just the fault of one or other side of the present political spectrum, and certainly not just the president. Because it is an evolutionary process there is no value in assigning blame. It is simply what it is. What is important is that individuals 'be aware' of the situation, name and own it for what it is. “Conservative” and “liberal” are equally important mindsets and practices , both essential for healthy personal and collective life. The continuous political fighting likely is only a distraction from the real threats we all face but remain the unaddressed elephants in the room.
.
There is reason for a collective HOPE in this present complexity, HOPE of a religious or archetypal nature as all deeper human hopes I think must be. That hope can include that the narcissistic irrational chaos and over materialized self aggrandizing images associated with our white house symbolize a last crazed seizure of an enshrined crass materialism called Consumer Capitalism.
Humans have the capacity, and it must happen for our species to survive, to adapt to new evolutionary conditions as we pass through major eons or epochs of development. (Presently the planet and other life would be safer without us being here. This is a recent development due to human technology and unchecked consumerism. A more alert and responsible form of intelligent consciosness may be required now by evolution. And evolution would do just that if human consciousness fails its immediate task.)
No world view- religious, scientific or other, in its most developed form is ever eternal . Eventually, perhaps major shifts occurring every 2000 years, a long held effective world view becomes ineffective and obsolete for pressing new times. The presently weakening world view of America and the West is the result of global evolution reaching a one sided and unbalanced state where the planet is threatened with chaos. We seem to now be at the cusp of such a necessary change in epochs.
A deeply grounded HOPE which seems needed and reasonable to anticipate is for a major rebalancing shift in American human consciousness; a newly evolved perspective that will lead to truly higher ground where Sacred- Human love may make a quantum leap. Such a posdible transition of eons is never one that existing traditional moral codes, religions or political parties can take sole credit for. Instead a whole nation or a large diverse culture can come to realize they can experience and participate in nothing less than the natural movement of a frightening but redeeming God factor in their midst.
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