Friday, October 13, 2006

Be the Person You Were Meant To Be

Because Christians believe they are born in a condition of sin, they feel somehow conflicted about living a good life without the guidance of a higher authority. Christians therefore can become susceptible to the predators in society hiding in the trappings of politicians and clergymen, who tell them if they surrender their lives to them, if they follow their directives, if they vote for them, they will protect them and watch out for their well-being.

Christians are often fearful, and fear prompts them to surrender their lives to people who lie to them and tell them they will be safe in their hands. Their faith in a supernatural being makes them vulnerable to exploitation. The Republican Party professes to have God on its side and uses fear to recruit the frightened and the confused. The party then uses their votes to enrich the life of the wealthy.

Thousands followed Dubya because he purports to be a man of God when nothing in his life except his words gave evidence that he was. He is just another exploiting snake oil salesman preying on the frightened. Millions turn their free will over to churches that make decisions for them and promise bliss on earth and heaven in the afterlife while fleecing them and taking advantage of them and their families, all for a price. Looked at straight on, church and politicians are really businesses that need income to survive.

Without the innate belief in their own original sin, without its accompanying paralyzing fear, these people could accept the responsibility for their own lives, see with their own eyes, understand and interpret with their own minds what is best for them and for humanity generally, and make very good, even enlightened decisions.
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No one needs a middleman, a broker to lead a good life. That is why we have a heart capable of compassion and love. Yet we see that the world needs changing.


Most agree that the world is a mess, and most fret that the individual can do nothing to make the world a better place, but they are misguided. Most believe that one person cannot make a difference. One person can make a difference. One person has always been the catalyst for change. Alexander the Great started as just a man and conquered the entire known world. Jesus changed the world without writing a word or traveling the world. . Mahatma Gandhi developed civil disobedience and gained freedom for his country and its millions. Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Idi Ami and George W. Bush instilled great evil on humanity. One person can make a difference.

Cindy Sheehan is doing what no one else could do … awakening the nation to the evil that is George W. Bush and the lies his Oil Field Wars are based on. Her only question to Bush is, “What is the noble cause my son died for?” And since he has no answer for her, he runs but he cannot hide. Cindy made a difference and so can everyone. How?

People look at the world and think the mess so overwhelming they become paralyzed and believe that nothing they do will make a difference. The world is changed one small act of love and compassion at a time. People must cooperate not compete for power over their fellows. We all live on the same planet, we all want to live the good live and the good life is a life of helping others. To the degree that we help others, we are correspondingly human. The only valid index of the good life is how much we help other people.

Each person must decide what kind of world he wants his children to live in and then do what he can to start shaping that world. Other people will start doing these small acts of compassion and love and shortly the world that the individual have influenced will become that better world. Then these small acts combine to create the most powerful force on each … an idea whose time has come, and then the world is changed for the better.

Cindy Sheehan has changed the world for the better and thousands are following her lead because they believe her behavior will make a better world by withdrawing from Iraq. She is one person. You are one person. You can make a difference but, to do so, you must act, you must do these small acts that you believe will make the world better for you, your children and your grandchildren and their grandchildren. The capitalistic culture of competition must give way to the older tribal culture of cooperation that for thousands of years has enabled indigenous cultures to create sustainable lifestyles that do not destroy the planet or their fellows. Capitalistic cultures can no longer be allowed to thrive at the expense of cooperative cultures and the natural resources of our planet.

The Iraq Oil War is one example of how the US has used its power for aggression by invading a weak sovereign state for its oil (despite the lies the Bushites will tell us) because the US consumes more oil than it can produce. Bush used the power of the US to depose the democratically elected leader of Haiti. He is threatening war with Iran because Iran may be building nuclear weapons which we possess by the thousands. Power cultures use violence to achieve their goals and destroy sovereign states and their people in order to get what they want. Power cultures’ morality is might makes right. Bush invaded Iraq not because the invasion was moral or legal, it was not, but because he had the power to.

People are not born sinful just because religion says they are. People are born good, capable compassion and love. If they become evil, one reason is the corporate power elite exploiting them, using them, enslaving them. If each person knows he is a creature with compassion and love, then he believes that others are like him, and he learns to cooperate, to share and not to violently strive for power over his fellows

Each of us must know that there is something so sacred within us that we cannot allow it to be trampled on by anyone or anything, and, when it is, we must resist with every ounce of our being and allow the love and freedom within to flourish and bloom.

People must rebel against the slavery that our society tries to impose on us. Rebel against a condition you feel is unjust and limiting. Albert Camus’ words apply now more than ever, “What is a rebel? A man who say no, but whose refusal does not imply a renunciation. He is also a man who says yes, from the moment he makes his first gesture of rebellion.”

Become a rebel by living the thinking life.

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