violence
I met a Vietnam vet on the bus yesterday. He had really incredible green eyes -- if he hadn't been worn down entirely by unspeakable horrors and governmental betrayal decades on the street and years of turning to any substance that would numb it all out, I can only imagine what light would have shown there.
Anyway, we talked for a bit and I realized something. At least I think I did.
There was an immense energy that hit the planet in the 60's -- that's documented. So here's, in general terms, one half of America really seeking to tap into this and expand their consciousness, and the other half-or-so is having their consciousness actively stripped away and brainwashed into killing machines, which INEVITABLY fucks up anything that might have been accomplished, on a mass scale, with the expansion side. If we agree that everything has its shadow which must be honored in order for actions in the light to achieve anything, then SHIT there would've been a huge shadow to deal with after that transformation anyway. Let alone if we hack at our teenagers' minds until they can do nothing but kill without remorse and FUCK WE'RE RIGHT BACK THERE and --
The scary thing is, there are more instruments available for consciousness-stripping than there used to be. I realized that when I looked through Post Secret, and a card showed a group of teenage boys playing video games and said, "What Iraq was like for me."
There are also more instruments available for disengaging from what's around us. There was a protest going on yesterday, and I wanted to get a closer look to read the signs, but I couldn't miss the bus, so I turned around to someone if they knew what it was about, but of course the iPod blocked that. then it happened again. and I thought, "hmm, it's hard to tap into these cosmic connections between humans if basic connection is marked as a thing of the past, isn't it?"
But Cosmic = huge, so. Bigger than any barriers we put up, really. Still..it felt lonely, not being able to share the interest. Then the bus came.
When this vet was telling me some of the things he's been through, all I could manage to say was, "...so the government that sent you over there in the first place won't give you anything?"
"These new boots," he said. "And a sleeping bag."
Paradoxically, we also have more ways to connect than we used to, if we don't defeat their purposes by using them to the exclusion of other ways. This is what I've come to focus on:
Yoko Ono suffered through her soul mate's murder. He would still be here if not for one single violent soul.
And she still believes in peace.
That helps me believe, too. Oh, and there's something that people who like to be dismissive of fairy tales don't tell you, or realize, or something: BELIEVING IS HARD WORK. And it's essential to all action. But if we can find a way to do it now --
then we're gonna make some serious change.
Anyway, we talked for a bit and I realized something. At least I think I did.
There was an immense energy that hit the planet in the 60's -- that's documented. So here's, in general terms, one half of America really seeking to tap into this and expand their consciousness, and the other half-or-so is having their consciousness actively stripped away and brainwashed into killing machines, which INEVITABLY fucks up anything that might have been accomplished, on a mass scale, with the expansion side. If we agree that everything has its shadow which must be honored in order for actions in the light to achieve anything, then SHIT there would've been a huge shadow to deal with after that transformation anyway. Let alone if we hack at our teenagers' minds until they can do nothing but kill without remorse and FUCK WE'RE RIGHT BACK THERE and --
The scary thing is, there are more instruments available for consciousness-stripping than there used to be. I realized that when I looked through Post Secret, and a card showed a group of teenage boys playing video games and said, "What Iraq was like for me."
There are also more instruments available for disengaging from what's around us. There was a protest going on yesterday, and I wanted to get a closer look to read the signs, but I couldn't miss the bus, so I turned around to someone if they knew what it was about, but of course the iPod blocked that. then it happened again. and I thought, "hmm, it's hard to tap into these cosmic connections between humans if basic connection is marked as a thing of the past, isn't it?"
But Cosmic = huge, so. Bigger than any barriers we put up, really. Still..it felt lonely, not being able to share the interest. Then the bus came.
When this vet was telling me some of the things he's been through, all I could manage to say was, "...so the government that sent you over there in the first place won't give you anything?"
"These new boots," he said. "And a sleeping bag."
Paradoxically, we also have more ways to connect than we used to, if we don't defeat their purposes by using them to the exclusion of other ways. This is what I've come to focus on:
Yoko Ono suffered through her soul mate's murder. He would still be here if not for one single violent soul.
And she still believes in peace.
That helps me believe, too. Oh, and there's something that people who like to be dismissive of fairy tales don't tell you, or realize, or something: BELIEVING IS HARD WORK. And it's essential to all action. But if we can find a way to do it now --
then we're gonna make some serious change.