Trump’s America – courtesy of NYT “The Two Americas of 2016“
‘‘It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.’’ – Mark Twain
Imagine being born and raised in a world of humans where, most of the time, everyone looks just like you. Imagine being taught incessantly that all fundamental absolute truths are found only in just one book alone, and that your parents, teachers, and preachers are the authoritative interpreters of what this book is saying is sole truth. Imagine being taught all your life that those who disagree with the absolute truths, as interpreted by the religion you were born into, or dare offer a different view of this world are sinners and “God haters” or, even worse, misguided and possessed by demons who are trying to steer you – specifically – away from this truth. Imagine growing up in a community where education and learning new things is only acceptable up to the point where such learning could now potentially disagree with the beliefs and truths of the community – and, if it disagrees with community truths, then it is a lie, plain and simple. Imagine growing up in a community where you are taught that only your community knows what is true and good, that only your community is civil and righteous, and that all other communities and physical/cultural ethnicities are less than you, because they are caught up in sin and destined for hellish destruction. Imagine growing up in a community where you are subtly and innoculously taught to fear ever going astray from community’s doctrines of belief and faith, lest you be eternally damned for it.
If you can imagine this, then you can understand the fundamentalist communities that make up a great majority of this planetary world of humans. If you can imagine this and live in the United States, then you can understand the beliefs and the plight of the majority of white rural Christian Americans. You can understand that political, religious, and capitalist charlatans have played upon this community mindset for decades, distorting their understanding of American history and why their communities have fallen from middle class prosperity to near third world poverty. You can understand why they insist defiantly on believing that it is outside forces and people who have put them into the social economic place they now find themselves. If you can imagine the world from the heartfelt believed fully in perspective of white rural Christian Americans, then you can understand why they refuse to see the rational self-evident facts of life, and why they are so staunchly resisting even the temptation to see another’s truth. The only way I know of to “possibly” reach these people – until they themselves are willing to change their views – is to somehow help/guide them into seeing you as a friend and not a threat, and to somehow help/guide them into seeing the struggles of others in a directly “self”-personal way. Until then, there is no other successful way to address the virulent fundamentalist nationalist supremacist mindset of a good majority of present day United States citizens.
Clinton’s America – courtesy of NYT “The Two Americas of 2016“
The Confederacy mindset is alive and fully well in today’s United States of America, and an asymmetrical second Civil War may be on the verge of happening. Like in the 1800’s, the Founders “democratic experiment” may be under a survival test, yet again, here in the 2000’s. Throughout the world, there is battle going on between fundamentalist nationalism and democratic globalism. But, more specifically here in the United States, the battle is still about the unaddressed issues fought over during the first American Civil War. Until the white population of the United States of America actively embraces #TruthandReconciliation, like Africa and Canada has done, and embraces #RestorativeJustice, then this cycle of white fundamentalist nationalism and supremacy will continue on unabated here in the United States, and no constructive change for the better will happen. That is until – ultimately – demographic changes take over, rendering the white population of America so minor in numbers that they are now forced to change their views about their place in this world. I hope that it doesn’t have to come to this to see an American Enlightenment that rivals the European Enlightenment that birthed forth our nation!
Thomas Jefferson wrote, “The legitimate powers of government extend to only such acts as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say that there are twenty gods, or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.” – in Notes on the State of Virginia, 1784
#Resist #ResistTrump #Indivisible #UnitedWeStand #WomensMarch #NationalPopularVote #maga #inhisimage #inhislikeness
#Alllivesmatter in the United States when America begins to fully embrace its history and its constitution, and when #WhitePrivilege ceases to have meaning in U.S. society.
#BlackLivesMatter #LGBTQ #NativeAmericanLivesMatter
1 Comment
Joseph T Farkasdi · July 21, 2017 at 1:21 pm
Do you know the difference between physical reality and fictional reality? Let’s find out: Does the United States exist as a physical reality? Is there a God that involves himself in the affairs of humans on this planet? Are there different races of human beings presently on earth? Is money a tangible reality? Do corporations actually exist? Is there an immaterial eternal “self” that is the real you? All of these are examples of human invented fictional realities, that we collectively believe to be true, but have no actual basis in physical reality itself. Their reality exists only in our belief in the stories we tell ourselves. The way to peace on earth and to ending suffering begins with understanding this crucial difference between what is self-evidently real and what we choose to believe as being real even without evidence*. Suffering exists because of our insistence upon fictions as a species upon this planet.
* Consider this – just because somebody said that somebody important said so doesn’t make it actually so, especially without any evidence to it being so. And the more fantastic the claim, the greater the need for evidence, for it’s more likely to be false.
Because of our shared belief in our collectively imagined realities, they exert a force through our behavior as a species. In turn, physical reality itself is affected and even changed by our actions. This is the power our accepted fictional realities have within this world. But, they are still imagined, still a fiction, never the less. This does not change, regardless how much we individually and collectively believe in them. For example, good and bad (some say “evil”) don’t actually exist. What brings about good and bad events in this world – and from this the ways we experience suffering as a species – is not from any perceived entity that is outside of us. Rather, we produce – individually and socially – our human experience of suffering, and this occurs through our persistence on mistaking our imagined realities for the physical reality itself. Thus, we act accordingly and suffering occurs, good and bad happens, and imaginary beings get blessed or blamed for our direct actions or inactions within this world. Knowing the difference between fiction and physical affords us the opportunity to question, to pause, and to observe – to know what really is in this moment and what is the unhealthy stresses of our belief.
“The history of humankind on this planet began 70,000 years ago, with our species’ Cognitive Revolution. In contrast, the earliest written myth about ourselves, human Sapiens, was penned to clay only a mere 3,600 years ago, during our Agricultural Revolution – the rise of nation city-states. Just think about that for a moment.” – Joseph T Farkasdi
#human #sapiens #abriefhistoryofhumankind
Let’s get the #NationalPopularVote in place before #Trump #TrumpPence 2020!
#Resist #Indivisible #UnitedWeStand #WomensMarch #maga #inhisimage #inhislikeness
#Alllivesmatter in the United States when America begins to fully embrace its history and its constitution, and when #WhitePrivilege ceases to have meaning in U.S. society.
The United States desperately needs #TruthandReconciliation and #SocialJustice starting today!