Examine Our Head-Hearts

Madame:

Not just where that kind of thinking was going to land her, but in what condition, eh?

The time is perhaps fast approaching when our choices—and our lack of making mindful ones—will lock our descendants (and maybe us) into a misery cycle.

We have forgotten, if we once knew, what “some Einstein” once reminded us: “Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.”

Dear readers and those whom you know, we must break this cycle we are in, for while we fixate on cultural wars or other diversions of the moment that we emotionally expend great divisive energies on, plutocrats and their allies are cementing up their control.  To break the cycle, one must first recognize its properties--

It starts like so:  Begin—or have it whipped up by demagogues—with an emotion, not thought, then make it an ideology so ingrained it becomes part of self-identity, a core of being.  Then pick and choose things from the world, sometimes barely related or even false, to reinforce the belief.  Ignore all contradictory evidence.  Interpret everything through a narrow prism.  Never reconsider or weigh against new evidence.  Toss in religion if you can to make it seem as if heaven is on your side and that those who disagree are on the side of the devil and evil.   Stop listening with a calm spirit, an open mind, and a confident, generous heart.  And loudly, bitterly, viciously attack—verbally, in writing, even physically—those who disagree with you.

Once you have examined that process, realize that—while it may have those practitioners more “guilty” of it—the most important thing is to understand it is used to inflame all “sides.” 

And then ask yourself.  Who benefits? Who benefits from Americans being diverted and bitterly divided? Who benefits from the political process becoming dysfunctional? Who benefits from unlimited money in the political system?  Especially when that money flows to all supposed “sides?”

And then ask yourself, in the last 30-40 years, who has REALLY been getting better off, and most especially who has been getting dramatically better off?  Not who you might BELIEVE is better off, but what the impartial evidence demonstrates inescapably.

And after you answer that, ask yourself concluding questions:

“Do I want to keep giving them the power?  Do I want to keep giving them the money?  Do I want to keep giving them control over my and my loved ones’ futures?  Do I want my life, our life, this life, to be defined by them and limited by them?”