How Democrats Can Appeal To The Left

I hear there’s a big blue wave coming, though I hesitate to expect too much after the way the big blue arrow fell limply from Clinton’s bow instead of hitting its intended target. I would suggest seeking higher ground, but anyone who considers himself a progressive already sits safely upon it.

I imagine the tsunami of hype will break meekly upon the shores of corporate influence; such has been my experience. I’ve watched enough waves crash on shore, one after the other, and watched the children get excited as they scan for what they believe will be the next really big one. But as I’ve aged I’ve come to realize it is a fool who tries to predict the next big wave while ignoring the tide.

I’d like to give some advice to the Democratic Party and their leadership, lest they lose the next election or ten, perhaps to even more absurd candidates such as Taz, M.T. Promises, or Snidely Whiplash. I know you’ve been working really hard to court those on your left, which, banning his stance on transgender use of bathrooms, would include Richard Nixon (come to think of it, I can’t say for sure what Nixon’s position on transgender bathroom use would have been). Nevertheless, I can see you don’t have a real good grasp on what really gets us excited (Bernie Sanders, single payer, peace), so here are a few pointers:

First off, the whole “Blue Wave” seems a little placid and calm. “Blue Tsunami” might be better, but maybe lose the blue all together and use warmer colors. Go for something a little more fiery and active, something like “Orange Crush” or “Red Scare”.

Tim Kaine is a real draw. Get him in front of the media as much as possible, as he’s John Lennon, Angela Davis, and Ralph Nader all rolled into one.

If you want to win our hearts, try using an affectionate nickname when speaking to us. If you come across us online, know that we find terms such as Russian bot and troll especially endearing.

We have a high regard for intelligence agencies, so please run as many former CIA agents as you can.

Why don’t you play up the Russian angle a little more? It sounds like something I’d like to hear more of, but there is so little mention of it.

Don’t admit any wrongdoing or personal failings, it just makes you look weak.

We progressives like to feel we are being protected, so maybe try throwing a few extra dollars into military spending.

Don’t mention climate change, it only depresses us.

Actively seek Bill Crystol’s and Madeline Albright’s endorsements. Their opinions are much respected within progressive circles.

Dig up Joe McCarthy’s corpse and fashion a mask from his skin that you wear whenever you are in front of a crowd or a camera. We need to know your commitment to neo-McCarthyism is legit and not simply a ploy.

Show us you learned as much from losing to Trump as you did from the WMDs fiasco.

Trod upon our faces with the iron heel of oligarchy.

Tell us there is no other option, that will surely rid us of our apathy and have us running to the polls.

Threaten to sue us if you lose.

Lastly, remind us that we need to get in line and support whatever warmongering corporatist deep-state candidate YOU choose for us. Tell us everything that matters to us doesn’t, and that opinions other than your own are dangerous conspiracy theories. Tell us children that we’ve had our fun and now it’s time to go along with mommy and daddy. Tell us all of this and more, just don’t pee on our leg and tell us it’s a blue wave.

Earth-2 News

Picture if you will an alternate Earth, one very much like our own yet with subtle differences. If readers of comic books and pulp sci-fi can do it, it shouldn’t be all that hard for you. Imagine a United States much like we know it, only one that was able to transition to the metric system sometime in the late 70’s. Maybe that will give you an idea of the fine distinctions we are talking about. Let us play out recent events on their planet in order to imagine our reality, not as it is, but as it might be.

Turn on the television and you will see the same stations, and yet there is something different. You turn to CNN and you gasp to realize you didn’t hit them during a commercial break. How often does that happen? You are shocked to find that they are ankles deep in a discussion about climate change, and their guests are neither Hollywood celebrities nor employees of the oil industry. The mere fact they are discussing global warming blows you away, the fact that they are doing so intelligently, listening to expert scientists in the field, leaves you uncomprehending.

You are amazed. You take it all in for a moment, feeling suddenly hopeful about the human race. And then…

You become bored. Oh, it’s not your fault, you have been conditioned that way. You have been trained to react emotionally rather than intellectually to important and even not so very important issues. You are trained to direct your anger towards someone and here the discussion is scientific and factual. Worse than that, you are not used to being given information in such dense packets. You keep waiting for a commercial so you can get back to your physiological routine of checking your cell phone or reaching for the remote. You find yourself brought out of your routine and feeling physically uncomfortable.

So you change the channel. Out of habit, out of conditioning. Without any conscious decision-making guiding you, you switch to FOX. And again you are surprised to find something different than what you expected. You had prepared yourself to feel a sick feeling in your stomach. Indeed, you notice it there now, even though there was nothing to trigger it other than the FOX logo, to which, you realize, you have been conditioned like one of Pavlov’s dogs. But you notice there is not the usual attacks coming from the hosts, but instead they are asking their guests to explain themselves more fully. Yes, the host still leans right, but he is respectful and thoughtful. Again, the cognitive dissonance becomes too great and your hand works the remote without the slightest conscious awareness of it doing so.

You are on MSNBC. At least you think it is. But there’s something wrong, something very, very wrong. It has been all of twenty seconds now and you haven’t heard them say Russia. You get the feeling you would get if someone opened their mouth to say something but never did, only stood there with their mouth open, awkwardly. It’s like trying to dance to a song in 5/4 rhythm, it just throws you off entirely. But soon they switch to a story you are familiar with, and it gives you something to hold on to. You relax as you see Mark Zuckerberg sitting in front of a congressional committee, and you realize this world isn’t so very different from your own.

But it is. You see, when the congressmen ask Mr. Facebook what he is doing to keep fake news off his platform, he does not acquiesce but instead rises to his feet in protest. “It is not my job to limit what my fellow citizens can and cannot read,” he says. “God knows I am no authority figure, nor am I aware of any person or entity which should be entrusted with such a great responsibility. You ask me to censor what the average person wishes to share with his friends and family, and I consider that a betrayal of their trust. I have invented, or rather, taken credit for inventing, an incredible tool of communication for the average person, so that they need not rely on media that is concentrated in the hands of a few. I consider my responsibility to my users’ freedom greater than any obligation I owe to you.”

And thus you spend your morning, flipping out of habit from one channel to another. You quickly notice there is no mention of President Trump because the media on this Earth never made Capitalist Trump into a hero and role model. Indeed, the entire 2016 presidential campaign was covered with a focus on issues rather than ratings.

Yes, Earth-2 is in many ways similar to our own. One important distinction, however, is that the tremendous tools for propaganda are in the hands of those who wish to use them for good rather than evil.

Can you imagine that? Those who now control the propaganda machine can, which is why they are doing everything they can to silence those voices that would weave a narrative other than the one they have been busy spinning since the dawn of television. The arrival of the internet and social media has given unprecedented opportunity for ordinary citizens to share information and research issues and this has the giant media interests scared. And because the giant media’s role is to support the interests of undemocratic forces (corporations and the Military Industrial Complex), it has them worried too. They are doing all they can right now to ensure that they control the narrative, but it is a struggle exactly because the internet provides alternate voices. But if they have their way, dissenting voices will soon be silenced and the powerful opponents of democracy and freedom will sleep more soundly. We must do everything possible to make sure this does not happen.

It's Time To Take The Keys From Dad

There is nothing quite so difficult as having to become the adult in the relationship with an aging parent. Sad as it is, there comes a point where you are going to have to take the keys away from them. There will come a time when they can no longer stay in their own home, and it will be up to you to make that decision. They have become not simply a danger to themselves, but to others as well.

It’s hard because not only will you have to be an adult yourself, but a part of you will feel you are betraying those who did so much for you. You will have to fundamentally change a relationship you have known all your life. You have spent your entire life looking up to them. You appreciate the sacrifices they have made for you and all the wonderful things they have done for you. You know you would not be the person you are, that society would be worse off for them not having existed, and yet you must tell them it is time for them to relinquish control. The house they built with their own hands is so in need of repair it is a safety hazard. The pipes are broken, their bills are not being paid, their house smells of urine, their refrigerator has food that is seriously out of date, and they are no longer able to hold a sensible conversation. Sad as it might be, it slowly dawns on you that you must relieve them of their responsibilities.

The same applies to political parties. But it has to be done. You have to be the adult, because Daddy D. isn’t who he used to be. You’re going to have to have the talk sooner or later, so it’s best that you visualize it now in preparation for the real thing.

You knock loudly on the door, knowing he likes to pretend he didn’t hear anything. His hearing has been horrible for a long time, but you suspect he sometimes feigns deafness in order to avoid conversation. So you do the one thing you know that will get his attention: you say you’re from Publisher’s Clearinghouse, because the only thing that will get him to open the door is the thought of unearned money.

“I’ll be right there, I’m on the phone,” you can here him say. This worries you, because usually the only people who call him are shady characters trying to get him to wire money. There are a lot of crooks in the world, and as doubtful as your dad is of people, he always seems to fall for the very worst scams.

He finally opens the door, and the smell of musty ideas escapes. The gloom inside is almost palpable, because every one of the curtains have been closed tight. He doesn’t like the neighbors prying into his business. (It’s so sad. You remember when he was on good terms with the neighbors, remember when he loved spending time in the outdoors, remember him as the open and caring and loving person he once was).

“Hi, Daddy D,” you say brightly, attempting to bring some cheer into his miserably unhappy life. He is unhappy, no doubt ever since a gang of ruffians called lobbyists took all the fight out of him. Once he was your strong protector, now he isn’t real thrilled about getting out of his chair. He never once came to visit you in Michigan or Wisconsin.

“Oh, it’s you,” he says, disappointed you’re not a stranger holding an oversized check with more zeroes than the skies over Pearl Harbor on December 7^th.

“Yes, it’s your loving daughter,” you say. But his hearing is bad and he doesn’t seem to acknowledge much of anything you say. At this stage of life, it seems he is no longer interested in anyone else’s opinions. Instead, all he is capable of doing is reciting from his list of petty complaints and reminiscing about the old days and prior triumphs. He blames everything, absolutely everything, on your mother. But you know better. You bore witness to the constant bickering, both sides were to blame. It seemed they were so involved in tearing at each other, they didn’t have time for you kids. Again, the sadness overwhelms you when it sinks in just how far the mighty have fallen. He once had time to walk your sister to school when a bunch of racists tried to keep her from attending. He was so brave and caring…once.

You let yourself in and follow his slow and unsteady steps to the kitchen. It is around the table that such a discussion will need to take place. But you notice it is covered in unpaid bills and scratched-off lottery tickets—it’s even worse than you thought.

The houseplants are all dead. You can see this even in the gloom of the house. So you go to open up some of the curtains, let some sunlight in, but he screams shrilly as the first hint of light enters. “No,” he cries, his voice cracking at the strain of such intensity working its way through such frail vocal cords.

“Why, what’s the matter?” you ask.

“Russians!” he says.

“Dear sweet Jesus,” you say to yourself. You knew he was losing it, you’ve just never allowed yourself to admit it until now. Now that you have made the commitment to do what must be done, you finally allow yourself to see what you should have a long time ago. Dementia has set in. He needs the kind of care only professionals can provide.

This strengthens your resolve, and you grab him by the arm, guiding him to a chair at the table. You sit across from him, engage in pleasantries, all the while working your way towards what you need to say.

“I heard you got in an accident.”

“Wasn’t my fault,” he says. He’s not going to make this easy for you.

“I heard you crashed into Syria. What the heck were you even doing in that neighborhood, anyway? You promised you’d only drive to get to your doctor’s appointments and to get groceries. Syria is nowhere near your doctor or the supermarket.”

“I got lost,” he admits. Then, recovering his defensiveness, “but it was Syria’s fault. He was trying to run down a group of kids. I crashed into him to save them.”

“He was parked, dad.” God, this is going to be hard. But you realize now that you made the right decision. Sometimes the hardest part is seeing things for what they are. Once you do, the right response seems obvious. There is no doubt in your mind now.

“He was driving like a maniac,” says dad, getting riled up.

“That’s what you said about Libya. And Iraq.” He’s going to kill someone if you don’t take away his keys. You know that now. You are the adult, and it falls upon you to take the power to harm others away from him. Besides, he’s going to kill himself and anyone who’s foolish enough to get in his car. It’s because you love him that you have to do this.

“Dad, I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask for your keys. I know this really nice lady named Jill. She’s a really good driver and she’ll take you where you need to go.”

“What?”

“I said you can’t drive anymore.”

“I can’t hear you,” he says, fumbling with his keys.

“I said you can’t drive anymore.” You love him dearly but he is seriously starting to piss you off.

“Dad,” you continue, “we’ve found a nice place for you to stay. You won’t have to take care of anything, there will be nice people to make sure you’re properly fed. You’ve got plenty of money, don’t worry about that.”

In fact, he’s got money coming out his ears. It makes you start to wonder how he got so rich working a government job. But you push such thoughts down because you really don’t want to know.

You stand up from the table, make your way towards dear old dad, and are about to grab the keys from his hands, when all of the sudden there’s a knock on the door. A sly grin slides across your dad’s face, and you wonder if he hasn’t got one over on you. You go to the door and two police officers stand there.

“Police, ma’am. We received a phone call that the house was being broken into by a suspect identified as a Russian. We were informed he has a few accomplices, specifically anyone willing to call into question the decision-making abilities of the inhabitant of this residence.”

You look back at your dad and you see the sly grin blossom into a manic smile. He might have full-blown dementia, but that doesn’t mean this is going to be easy. Nevertheless, it has to be done. Too much is at stake.

The Beast

The Beast

I am going to speak the truth that is in my heart and you may judge its truth by the way it resonates in your own heart, though at first the rubbish that has accumulated in your mind may make you resistant to it. I wish to speak to you of Russia and Syria and violence and fear. I will cut across the narratives that are pushed at you by media whose interest is not to inform you so you can form your own opinion but to form your thoughts so your opinion is theirs. That is what the media does, it is not your friend, it is the most conniving of enemies. It is the marketing tool of the oligarchs who profit from war.

The media is interested in profit, and well-rewarded are those who sell the news to you. The news itself is merely an appendage of a much larger profit-seeking system whose goals are only ever accidentally or secondarily to the benefit of the human race. It is a system that sees everyone and everything in competition with each other and seeks in that situation to get for itself all that it can. It is composed of individuals who either see the world the same way, learn to see it in that way in their pursuit of professional goals, or else are compelled to work for it through shear self-preservation. It is a system that has taken on a life of its own and has no interest other than profit for itself regardless of the eventual cost to humanity or the planet. In pursuit of profit and victory-through-competition it is deadly efficient and cunningly wise, but beyond such limited goals it is utterly blind. It is focused right now on Syria and on Russia. It sees nothing but triumph in this limited arena, regardless of the big picture.

This is not to paint either Russia or Syria as noble entities defying the terrifying force of the dominant predatory institutions of the world. They are what they are. Whether humane or self-serving in and of themselves, they are now the chosen target of the largest beast of the jungle. Should they be consumed by the beast, it shall grow that much stronger, with little or no competition left in the fight for survival. Its primary objectives accomplished, it will set its eyes on other targets and suppress the average human being on this planet with greater impunity.

Profit is its only objective, and it will use any tool available to gain it. And feasting upon it, it will never be sated, it will only want more. When it gazes at a country like Russia or Syria, it does not see a people, a culture, a history, or a unique facet of the human race. It only sees Russia in terms of its assets, its mineral wealth and its capacity for crop growth. While lacking the hatred of Hitler’s view of Russia, it nonetheless has all the lack of empathy of a homicidal psychopath.

The dominant system has no patriotic ties to any nation, its only concern is profit. Though it may use the military of particular nations, it does not do so for the benefit of those within that nation. Though it may claim that it works in the interests of a particular people, that is merely the narrative spun by the marketing department of the beast.

The essential story it spreads is that war is not a tool it wishes to use but is, sadly, always necessary. The truth is that war will always be required because their goals cannot be advanced without the use of force. Strength is needed when taking not only more than it needs but all that it can carry. And when it can carry no more, then it needs to enlist the unwilling help of others to carry it for them. You see, when those who are taken from no longer wish to carry what is being plundered from them, others need to be employed to force them to do it.

The beast wishes to divide everyone and everything. Its existential enemy is the idea that people are cooperative by nature. Its dystopia is a world run by democratic principles where individual people feel as if they have some input. Spiritual notions are to it like holy water sprinkled at a vampire. Truth is its kryptonite, it attempts to keep it in lead-lined boxes. It doles out in fancy boxes free gifts to everyone something it calls truth but does not bear resemblance to it once the wrapping paper is taken from it.

Those who comprise the beast are essentially a death cult. They do not see the world as a living thing but as dead capital. They do not see trees, they see lumber sales, do not see humans but only labor and consumers. They do not see the beauty of nature but only raw materials. In the end one must choose whether to see the world through a spiritual or a material perspective, and they have chosen the material. Everything is an object, even living beings. Ancient cultures were rooted in nature, saw spirits in the rivers and the trees and the animals. Those within the death cult see only possessions to be gained. They do not see the transcendental interconnectedness of all things, they see only how big a pile they can make for themselves of the things, mere things, that surround them.

And seeing no interconnectedness, they view all who oppose them as enemies to be extinguished or subjugated. They cannot conceive of the idea of coexistence, can only perceive of conquest. When it cannot be accomplished through economic means, then force is required. Always is it spun by the marketing arm as something other than conquest, but the beast does not see through human eyes. It does not view war through a moral lens but as a way to advance an agenda.

And the beast is NEVER the one to pay the cost of war. That price is paid by its victims, those who fight and are damaged by the sins in which they must partake, it is paid by those who are honest enough to do real labor and pay their fair share of taxes. No, the beast profits and grows richer through war.

The beast as it exists now is a hodgepodge of selfish interests that have found it useful to act together so that each may grow more wealthy and powerful. It is the accumulation of all who have more than they will ever need and yet need more. The beast is the existential enemy of humanity and the environment because concepts such as the environment and humanity do not exist in the mind of the beast or those who serve it.

The beast lives within Russia and Syria, too. Those beasts must also be faced, but not by supporting the still greater beast. We must oppose the beast where we find it, must oppose first the beast that causes the most damage. We must oppose the beast that destroys in our name and only then can we help the Russians and the Syrians find ways to combat the violence and greed that attempts to speak for them.

The beast wants to drain the last spark of humanity in you, because it is antithetical to the beast and its vision. The beast wants you to feel helpless and hopeless so that you will bow before it. Surely there is something within you that urges resistance.

A Spiritual Death

“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.” Martin Luther King, Jr.

The task has fallen upon me to make the announcement that our spiritual death is now upon us. Unfortunately, the warning Martin Luther King uttered 50 years ago fell on barren soil. We have become a spiritually dead nation, and a nation that is spiritually dead learns too late it cannot exist without a spiritual dimension to life. Though there be few now present to pay their last respects, the time will soon come when the world will rue its passing

Our spiritual emptiness is obvious to anyone who cares to regard the situation plainly. You merely have to turn to any source of mass media to see all the evidence you need of a society that glorifies idiocy and vice over wisdom and virtue. Our heroes are the violent, the vain, the arrogant, and the selfish. Those shining and stellar examples of spirituality we might exalt in our society are forgotten or given paltry lip service for their sacrifice and martyrdom. When was the last time you heard Mahatma Gandhi’s name mentioned on television or elsewhere? When was the last time you heard, in school or on radio, an uninterrupted speech of Martin Luther King? What’s that you say, we no longer have time to sit and listen for an hour to the greatest spiritual leaders of the last hundred years? I rest my case. What have we done in the last week/month/year that is more important? Our spiritual doom is here.

Why, do you ask, has not one of more importance than myself been appointed to make such an important announcement? It is precisely because we have reached the time of spiritual death that there is no one of note to proclaim spirituality’s passing. Those whom our society reveres as religious or moral leaders are too spiritually lacking to admit that such a thing has come to pass. Our religious leaders are as far from spirituality as the Scribes and Pharisees of Jesus’ day or those who condemned Socrates to death.

Some may still believe that spirituality is alive and well, but it is only because its lifeless corpse has been grotesquely paraded and puppeteered by those who see fit to use it to sell agendas or narratives.

Conservatives push a religion of stone masquerading as spirit, not a living breathing religion but one of rules that shackle spirituality. The spirit is quite dead in such churches and the rules once set down to guide us towards beauty and truth and love for our fellow humans are now weapons of punishment and subjugation. Their dead laws now tower over us like giant carved idols, blocking out God’s light from ever shining upon us.

They call themselves Christians, but they put their faith in the worldly rather than the spiritual. They speak of prayer and spend their time chasing profit. They reject the all-conquering power of love in favor of walls and weapons. They do not see the God of love that reveals Himself in Scripture but only the god of punishment, judgment and power. In the image of this god they fashion themselves, and wrap themselves in cloaks of righteousness as they walk past those who hunger and thirst, the strangers and the sick, those without clothing and those in prison.

Liberals are little better, practicing in smaller ways judgment and hatred while mouthing the words tolerance and love. They have mistaken their unwillingness to make moral judgments as the highest virtue, when in truth an unwillingness to provide any standards at all is just as deadly as making simplistic and absolute ones. Both absolute tolerance and intolerance spring from a lack of spiritual maturity and an unwillingness to make thoughtful and principled decisions.

Liberalism has failed us and it is in the absolute unwillingness of liberals to accept this that can be seen their inability to see the world as it is. Born in the 60’s, liberalism was the twin sibling of progressivism and radicalism. So closely was the resemblance that many viewed them as interchangeable. But there were unmistakable differences for those willing to look honestly. Liberalism was the sibling who was always said the right thing to her parents but never did any of the actual work. Sadly, liberalism was the easier path, and thus the one most traveled.

So they made concessions on their greater obligations in return for a hard line on the secondary moral issues. Their sin was not arrogance as the conservatives’ was, but hypocrisy, of pretending to be opposing but secretly capitulating on all issues of substance. They were a willing co-partner in most injustices perpetrated by conservatives, never confronting evil head-on but always willing to find a compromise position. Retreating time and again from the battle that was thrust upon them because they knew they had personal positions of safety they could retreat to. Busy pursuing their own interests, they were content to utter token proclamations in support of those who suffered most keenly from an inherently unjust and unspiritual society. They supported the rights of blacks and moved to the suburbs. They supported the rights of women even as households found it necessary to have both parents working full-time where once a single forty-hour workweek could provide. They called themselves environmentalists and built their new houses on what was once woodlands and prairies. They considered it the pinnacle of virtuousness to be the (slightly) lesser of two evils.

While conservatives killed truth by oversimplification, liberals broke its back by twisting it into unnatural positions. War became humanitarian intervention, NAFTA was passed to help the average worker, and super-predators were locked away to help those in the inner city. Because class could not be spoken of, race became the issue that could neither be denied nor dealt with. So contorted were the stories they told, it forced those looking for something of substance to turn to the simplistic narratives provided by conservatives.

But while the damage they did to truth was immense, the single greatest sin of which the liberals are guilty is the sin of war. La Rochefoucauld once said hypocrisy is a tribute that vice pays to virtue. Once liberals at least pretended to pay tribute to the idea of peace, but now they are the greatest champions of foreign intervention. When Donald Trump asks for hundreds of billions of dollars in military spending, the Democrats’ reply is to give him more than he asked for. They constantly demand Trump take a tougher stance with other nations and only applaud him when he orders missiles to be fired. The only hypocrisy that yet remains to liberals is in their justifications for war, which they insist are always fought for the noblest of reasons.

We are now left watching the Pharisees and Sadducees bicker between themselves, dominating every aspect of our lives while the most urgent issues facing humanity are forgotten. They no longer seek the truth, they only wish to blame the other while profiting as much as they can from their positions in government. The last spark of earnest debate or principled position is an ember long grown cold.

The good news is that there is yet hope. For we are talking about the realm of the spiritual and the idea of rebirth is quite natural in such a realm. What dies is the individual but the spirit lives on. The ego dies, that is all, releasing the spirit in the way that the phoenix emerges from the ashes. Renewal is possible, but it requires repentance and reawakening.

Whether or not you believe in a higher power is immaterial. What is important is that you accept the mindset required to bring about real and fundamental change, which is realistically what is required for our society if it is to keep from falling into the abyss. Such change is not easily made. Like an alcoholic, or a drug addict, or anyone else with a behavioral problem that is ruining his or her life, there is a general method by which one climbs from the hole that has been dug. It will require genuine humility, an acceptance that the path that we have been walking will only lead to death and destruction, not merely for ourselves but for countless innocent people who share our planet. It will mean letting go of many beliefs we have clung to quite dearly, acknowledging that they have been hurting rather than helping us.

It is our goal if we are to be saved to once again find our spiritual dimension and the virtues that spring from such a perspective. A spiritual world-view requires sacrifice and commitment, it means placing spiritual considerations above physical and selfish concerns. It means seeing beyond our increasingly narrowing perspective, questioning our most basic of assumptions and reconnecting with the world in meaningful ways. We must step outside the moment and the cultural assumptions that have accumulated and solidified themselves around us like a prison. We must rediscover those great thinkers and great works that have guided and motivated humanity in all its noblest aspirations. We must once again embrace those virtues that were essential in creating and sustaining societies: non-violence, frugality, charity, honor, humility, service.

The key to our own liberation is within our grasp, but first we must free our hands of the unnecessary burdens we have been carrying. We must let go of all that our media and institutions tell us is important. Letting go is an act of faith, and an act of faith is what is required if we are ever to leave he road to ruin we now walk.

The Media Is Not Dead, It Is Undead

Spy poisoning: why Putin may have engineered gruesome calling card

Read the above article if you must, but read it carefully. Read them all, but read them not as a letter from a loved one but as information passed on from a stranger whose loyalties and motivations are suspect. Or worse, from someone who has lied to you in the past. Maybe not on unimportant matters but on those issues that matter most.

Read what is written, and ignore the headlines that are thrust at you from every angle. The game they play is to give you so much information you skim along the surface rather than plum the depths. So when you encounter an argument, engage with it or disregard it. Read carefully, noting as you go how much is mere speculation. Like every other article on Russia and whatever they are being accused of on a particular day, the careful wording is always the same, as in the article above: "insiders (unnamed) say", "suggesting", "probably", "many theories. The most obvious is", "One former senior Foreign Office adviser said:” (another anonymous source from an intelligence agency), etc. It's important that you note this now, because in a month or two this will all be referred to as absolute fact without any additional evidence presented. And it will be strung together with a myriad other articles that do not bear up to a careful read as an indication that so many different assertions cannot all be wrong. In short, assertions soon become incontrovertible fact, and if you dare question what was once an assertion you are labeled a conspiracy theorist, an idiot, and a Russian Troll.

For me, each weak argument shouted with great arrogance and confidence and lacking any convincing evidence does not strengthen the overall narrative that is pushed so very hard but does the opposite. I ask myself why serious journalism isn't being done on an issue that is so very important to get right. I wonder why it is that questioning the official narrative is not answered with cogent arguments and undeniable facts but instead with attitude and arrogance. And most of all, I question why each and every article plays upon our lower mental functions rather than our higher ones. If, in fact, Russia poisoned a Russian traitor, is that something that need be responded to immediately? If revenge is a dish best served cold (as some use as a rationalization for why Putin would revenge himself on someone whose relevance has long passed), should we not wait to find the appropriate response to such an action? And more importantly, shouldn't we get the facts right before making an assertion and acting upon it? Is there anything to be lost by getting it right, and would we not be doing a service to the general public and the notion of an informed citizenry to make sure they are in accord because they had the appropriate facts?

What I see is exactly the opposite. We are supposed to unquestioningly accept what anonymous sources from intelligence agencies tell us, and the press passes that off as journalism. It is the job of journalists to question, to be skeptical and to dig for the truth. What I am witnessing bears no resemblance to that. It has all the hallmarks of propaganda, how can you call it anything else? And yet American media smugly point out the flaws of the Russian media as though it were acting out the Biblical parable of the speck and the beam. The difference between Russian media and American media is that Russia shares American media with its citizens in order to show just how absurd it’s become. When was the last time American media has done likewise?

I’m going to make a suggestion to you, and you will at first find it ridiculous. Then I will give you my reason for it and if you find anything ridiculous in it, please share. My suggestion to you is that you watch RT. I don’t suggest that it has no bias, it is just infinitely more intelligent than any other news source you will likely encounter in the United States. Why is that? Because here we have been busy purging our media of anyone who has objected to either war or the propaganda required to make a country go to war. On what television station, newspaper, or radio program can you hear the thoughts of any of the prominent politicians and journalists who opposed either the Iraq War or the justifications used to support it? Phil Donahue, Chris Hedges, Jesse Ventura, Greg Palast, Pat Buchanan, Dennis Kucinich, Noam Chomsky, and many others. They have been purged from our media in a way that would make Joseph Stalin blush. They were the ones who got the story right, who should have been lauded and promoted, instead they have been silenced and marginalized. So where does one go to hear from those who have been banished from U.S. media for the crime of being right? RT. Meanwhile, those who got the story absolutely wrong are now pushing the Russian narrative with all the certainty and bullying they once used to push the Iraq War. Does anyone remember how Joe Scarborough was trying to get to the right on Bill O’Reilly on the issue? Does anyone remember the conservative Arianna Huffington’s appearances on FOX News? Does anyone care that the same think tank operatives that pushed for the Iraq War are now pushing for unfriendly relations with Russia?

What frightens me the most (besides nuclear war, of course) is that the mainstream media that gets every story wrong is in lockstep with those in the government who wish to silence independent journalists who dare ask questions of the official narrative. The brightest and most questioning minds of the day are being subjected to censorship on many levels, especially if they happen to express an anti-corporate or anti-militaristic viewpoint. The media is not simply dead, it is undead, and its only drive is to suck the brains from the skulls of the living. It is an active agent for oppressing the American people and, by extension, the world. A new media must arise that relies on journalists with integrity and a track record of investigation rather than propaganda. Sure, there are a lot of fake stories being pushed out there, but if you allow honest and open debate, the trustworthy will in time make reputations for themselves that will set them apart. But they will never be the big-name multi-million dollar salaried individuals working for mega-corporations we have now. Nobody makes $30,000 a day telling the truth.

MLK, Your Message Lives On

On Sunday, we commemorated the story of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Today we are asked to remember another man who preached non-violence in the face of hatred and brutality, a man who also paid the ultimate price for his faith and his convictions and his love of humanity. April 4 marks the 50^th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Because the occasion demands it, I feel the need to speak more boldly than I am accustomed. Something deep within me calls for it. The message that Dr. King shared calls for it. I feel compelled to speak, if not for Dr. King himself, then for the message he shared. In invoking the words and message of a great man, I consider it not flattery or arrogance but obligation that motivates me to do so. His memory dispels timidity, because his courage was great and demands courage of others. And so I will do all in my power to reflect not only Dr. King’s thoughtfulness but to carefully blend and balance it with a boldness appropriate for the situation humanity faces.

Fifty years ago, someone tried to kill the message Martin Luther King Jr. shared with the world, a message of the redemptive power of love. Speaking in the language of violence and hate—the only language some know—he (or they) sought with physical violence to erase the spiritual message of love Dr. King bore witness to.

I wish to tell you today, from the bottom of my heart, that they have failed. Oh, the wound was deep, the pain inflicted upon the movement and countless individuals was great. It was incapacitating for a time, but in the end it only served a higher purpose. It showed the stark contrast between hatred and love, showed how absolutely ugly and destructive the one was, how necessary the other. Martin knew the price, and was willing to pay it, was willing to stand for love and for justice. Such was the beauty of his message that even the threat of death was not enough to silence him. In putting an end to his life, they sought to steal the narrative of peace-through-love and turn it to their own, a narrative of hatred and violence. But they could not erase what had been said, and in the final analysis, the fatal shot was but the exclamation point of King’s life.

It is said that the message does not die with the messenger, that the spirit lives on, lives among the community and each individual that has taken it to heart. Dr. King’s message did not die. I know that because of the miraculous feeling I have at the core of me. It does not speak of hatred, of bitterness or hopelessness. It speaks of a love that will in time conquer all. And as Dr. King once shared that message to his followers, I now share it with you who sought to silence it, who even today seek to silence it. I share it with you who feared to embrace it, who fear to emerge from the nest and take flight and live out your spiritual destiny. I share it with you who shuddered in fear at the price that was paid by our heroes and might in some lesser degree be asked of us. I share it with those who seek the safety of the herd though they see that the truth of Dr. King’s message was not mere words but words made flesh, words acted out for us by someone who saw and understood more clearly than us the beauty and truth of those words.

This is the message I share with you today, a message that is an answer to the darkness and doubt that is in your heart. It is a message to all those who have acted contrary to the teachings of Martin Luther King, or have failed in picking up the baton he so heroically carried for as long as it was given to him to carry. It is a message to all who hate and doubt and fail to act when deep in your heart you know action is required.

I say to you today that I do not hate you, because I know you have acted through pain and hatred, and such black emotions will never be cleansed except through love.

I do not hate you, because in your redemption will be proven the immensity of the power of love.

I do not hate you, because King’s message cannot be shaken so easily.

I do not hate you, because the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.

I do not hate because though he did not get there himself, Dr. King saw the Promised Land and we even today march toward it. However hard the road, no matter how often we have stumbled, the way is yet clear. It becomes clearer the further we walk. The contrast between the path of hatred and violence and the road to salvation, one we could once convince ourselves was not so clear, becomes starker the further we travel, until the difference will soon be as obvious as Heaven and Hell. We will live in love, or we will perish in hate.

I do not hate you, because my eyes have seen a glory and my heart has felt a truth too powerful to be stopped with violence.

I do not hate you, because all the pain and violence that have sprung from hatred have only gone to prove its futility.

I do not hate you, because you have killed the messenger but you did not kill the message to love your enemies and to do good to those who hate you.

I do not hate you, because hate is your message, not his.

I say to you now as Dr. King said then “I love you. I would rather die than hate you.” Because love will build our future, while hatred will only destroy.

I love you, because hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.

I love you, because I am aware of a power great enough to cause the blind to see and the deaf to speak, a power that can cleanse the sinner and set him on a righteous and caring path.

Even to those who ignore Dr. King’s message or limit it or abuse it by using it to sell automobiles, I say I do not hate you…though I do not have to like you. I am not obliged to accept your version of reality, but I am obliged to treat you as I would desire to be treated. I can disagree with you and dislike what you do to me and others, but I need not hate you, can still find ways to love you. The road will not always be smooth but it will be lit by love.

I love you in a way you cannot understand...but will, because you did not kill the message, could not kill the message, because the man was greater than you can as yet appreciate. And love is far greater than you can yet comprehend. It is the task of all those who have taken to heart Dr. King’s message to deliver it to you. Not merely in word but in deed, to show through our lives and our capacity to love that love is the only answer. Erich Fromm said: “Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence.” Martin Luther King said the same thing, only much more eloquently. Not only with his words, but through actions that shine across the span of a half-century. That light still shines today.