http://mondoweiss.net/
This is not easy to watch, but it is the truth from which we turn our eyes daily that allows us to betray our own conscience.
The Goldstone Report chronicles the UN investigation into one event that... took place over one winter; it does not include the beginning of the genocide in 1948 and the literally hundreds of thousands of deaths that have taken place at the hands of Israel, with the consent of the US and with US weapons and finance.
Look upon the poverty, look upon the bodies of dead children, bullet holes through the chest, through the head. Understand just how hollow empathy and compassion look and feel through the veiled distance of photos and videography. What is the active process of faith when the overwhelming sense of powerlessness takes hold; where does the path begin from there to a better tomorrow.
In our name, for what? Get lost in the political, religious, ethical values and find yourself diving to the surface for a tree beneath which you might evade the glaring heat of scorching reality. There is only a voice - one - that is yours, it is mine - it is theirs. If we believe that this can be done in our name and that there is no spiritual retribution, then let us bury our shame in that belief and cry out in indignant rage that we carry forth the lie of the generations before us and burden the spirit of our children with the very same lie.
No. Let us swallow hard and speak the truth to those who might hear. Let us bear the fleeting glances of those who will not engage in even the conversation as to how our collective soul has lost its courage to stand. Let us cast our votes in the process of a lying democracy, because we must, albeit for the lesser of two evils. But let us not give in to the corporatocracy that feeds this warmongering machine of hateful profit.
Let us actively seek to change the system from within the system as we may, but understand that we must harden the spirit in preparation to stand one day with those who fall beneath the crushing weight of our silence today.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Faith does not, in any name, equate to Capitalism or Neoliberal Economics
The purpose of this post is not to challenge Christian belief, disbelief, agreement, etc. The primary purpose is to establish that ANYONE who CLAIMS to be a Christian and adheres to capatilist or neoliberal economic principles is a hypocrite. If the vast majority of Christians in the US would stand on the principle of social provision with common goods, we would have the majority necessary to bring about a necessary fundamental shift in the priorities, goals, actions, and results of our country. If we were a true democracy, if we were a true nation of humanitarians, we would not have capitalism or neoliberal economics as fundamental economic systems.
While this post started out as a way of using a Christian verse to illustrate a point regarding the priorities of the country, it has moved into a broader scope. To start with, however, Mathew 14:13-21 is a great way to illustrate the simple point that Jesus was not a capitalist.
This just happens to be a fun verse with which to make this point.
A secondary purpose of this post is to just open up the minds of objective, compassionate-minded people to consider the radical murderous campaigns of Zionist movements, both Christian and Judaic. Please don't get the concept of compassion in my case confused with pacifism, because not all progressive thinkers are pacifist and I apply this first and foremost to myself. I do not state this with pride, I state it with shame. I wish I could be innocent enough to set aside the defensive nature that rises with the indignation and rage that are associated with the fact that the US government murders without conscience in the name of democracy and humanitarianism. I wish I could turn the other proverbial cheek. I can not, and I believe that the world over sees that peace is the only answer, but war has been the overriding truth. But, as Michael Moore says "I'm not a chihuahua."
So, here we go:
Imagine Jesus, at verse 19 (above) inserting the capitalist concept of supply and demand! "O.k., we have five thousand people and we have five loaves of bread and five fish. Dude, we can make some serious dough here! Let's start the bidding mid-range and see how much we can get for them! We'll be rich!"
Or - let's go neoliberal. "We have a corporation that can come in, establish the market, manage the process, and we'll give the profits to the stockholders. The rest of the people can go out and fish, bring us their catch, while we give them just enough to eat to keep them alive, and sell the fish at a higher profit margin so that we'll make more money. If they won't work for the lowest possible wage, we'll build a processing plant across the Jordan where people are even more hungry than these; that way, we export our labor. Then, when we ship the processed fish back over, we'll tax the sales, thus paying for the factory with the people's money and we'll make even more profit! Socialize the costs, privatize the profits - they'll make me king! Once I'm king we'll send our army throughout the world, creating more markets, more slave labor processing plants (factories) and the stockholders will all get huge bonuses! If the countries throughout the world don't comply with our demands, we'll stage revolutions, kill innocent people, institute states of 'crisis' and 'emergency', call the people who fight against us 'terrorists' and 'insurgents', rape their women, imprison their children - what a plan - no wonder they call me God!"
Only America could create such a hypocrisy, sell the world that it stands on Christian values, convince the stupid (I intentionally use the word 'stupid' over the word ignorant, because ignorance denotes innocence and everyone knows that the hypocrisy of which I speak is absolute truth and they buy into it anyway with dollar signs for pupils in their greedy eyes) people of the country to pledge allegiance to their own slavery, while voting for the murder of people throughout the world if they won't do the same.
As a country we pray by day, murder by night - in our sleep (impressive!), export our labor, import the goods, increase the price, pay the dividends to the stockholders, create new markets on speculation of 'new market economies' that we create throughout the world, and call it 'democracy' and 'humanitarianism'. And here's what's even better - we've taken the concept of separation of church and state, freedom of religion, etc., and used it to divide ourselves, thereby creating the environment wherein we can point fingers at one another while all buying into and contributing to the same murderous hypocrisy. Hallelujah!!!
Meanwhile folks, our Christian and Judaic Zionist facist principles spread throughout the world, waging absolute war on Islam and any other nation that even thinks about implementing true democracy or utilizing their own resources to serve their own people. Our least favorite humans amongst all are the indigenous peoples of the world. We are assisting the Israelis in doing to the Palestinians what we have done to the Native American Indians - but Israel is even more overt and outspoken in their intentions - in the words of Moshe Dayan in the early 1970's - "You [Palestinians] shall continue to live like dogs, and whoever wishes may leave, and we will see where this process leads." – Moshe Dayan
"When we have settled the land, all the Arabs will be able to do about it will be to scurry around like drugged roaches in a bottle."
– Rafael Eitan (1929-2004) served as Chief of Staff of the IDF, and later as Knesset member and government minister.
Read the Goldstone Report and find out how these statements have come to fruition through the policies and procedures of the generationally genocidal government of Israel, which is empowered in spirit and in fact by the United States of America.
You see, the belief is that whether the coming of Christ is the first or the second time, it is prophecy. And the warmongering people of the world justify and rationalize genocide based on this prophecy. Read 'Gaza in Crisis', Illan Pappe and Noam Chomsky for excellent information on the process that has taken place over the past century to accomplish these goals.
Read 'Lords of the Land' by Idith Zertal and Akiva Eldar for the history of the illegal and murderous settlement process.
Here are the arguments - and they are base, at best.
1) If you don't like it, you can leave. This is America, son. If you don't support our government you're just not patriotic. You just need to Shut Up!
Imagine my response:
"Dissent is the highest form of patriotism" Thomas Jefferson
“Some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony, but we must speak. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak. And we must rejoice as well, for surely this is the first time in our nation’s history that a significant number of its religious leaders have chosen to move beyond the prophesying of smooth patriotism to the high grounds of a firm dissent based upon the mandates of conscience and the reading of history. Perhaps a new spirit is rising among us. If it is, let us trace its movements, and pray that our own inner being may be sensitive to its guidance, for we are deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness that seems so close around us.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
2) Other countries are more oppressive and religion has a history of genocide.
Imagine my response:
I don't care. This is my country as well as anyone's and I am not of any religion - better yet, faith - that is beneath consience and compassion. I believe in peaceful dissent and, if necessary, peaceful revolt. When our government stands, as it will, in its murderous stance against its own people - better even, consider this already accomplished as our government states within its proclomation of hypocrisy that the people of the world are the people of America - then we must stand for ourselves. We can no longer be a nation that stands because it is divided. Indeed, we must become a nation that stands because it is united. We must lay aside labels, filters, partisanship, religion, and most of all CONSUMERISM, and we must stand on the principle of human value.
While this post started out as a way of using a Christian verse to illustrate a point regarding the priorities of the country, it has moved into a broader scope. To start with, however, Mathew 14:13-21 is a great way to illustrate the simple point that Jesus was not a capitalist.
This just happens to be a fun verse with which to make this point.
A secondary purpose of this post is to just open up the minds of objective, compassionate-minded people to consider the radical murderous campaigns of Zionist movements, both Christian and Judaic. Please don't get the concept of compassion in my case confused with pacifism, because not all progressive thinkers are pacifist and I apply this first and foremost to myself. I do not state this with pride, I state it with shame. I wish I could be innocent enough to set aside the defensive nature that rises with the indignation and rage that are associated with the fact that the US government murders without conscience in the name of democracy and humanitarianism. I wish I could turn the other proverbial cheek. I can not, and I believe that the world over sees that peace is the only answer, but war has been the overriding truth. But, as Michael Moore says "I'm not a chihuahua."
So, here we go:
Matthew 14:13-21 (English Standard Version)
Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand
13Now when Jesus heard this,(A) he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. 14When he went ashore he(B) saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick. 15Now when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, "This is a desolate place, and the day is now over;(C) send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves." 16But Jesus said, "They need not go away;(D) you give them something to eat." 17They said to him, "We have only five loaves here and two fish." 18And he said, "Bring them here to me."
19Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, and taking the five loaves and the two fish,(E) he looked up to heaven and(F) said a blessing. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. 20And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over. 21And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children
Imagine Jesus, at verse 19 (above) inserting the capitalist concept of supply and demand! "O.k., we have five thousand people and we have five loaves of bread and five fish. Dude, we can make some serious dough here! Let's start the bidding mid-range and see how much we can get for them! We'll be rich!"
Or - let's go neoliberal. "We have a corporation that can come in, establish the market, manage the process, and we'll give the profits to the stockholders. The rest of the people can go out and fish, bring us their catch, while we give them just enough to eat to keep them alive, and sell the fish at a higher profit margin so that we'll make more money. If they won't work for the lowest possible wage, we'll build a processing plant across the Jordan where people are even more hungry than these; that way, we export our labor. Then, when we ship the processed fish back over, we'll tax the sales, thus paying for the factory with the people's money and we'll make even more profit! Socialize the costs, privatize the profits - they'll make me king! Once I'm king we'll send our army throughout the world, creating more markets, more slave labor processing plants (factories) and the stockholders will all get huge bonuses! If the countries throughout the world don't comply with our demands, we'll stage revolutions, kill innocent people, institute states of 'crisis' and 'emergency', call the people who fight against us 'terrorists' and 'insurgents', rape their women, imprison their children - what a plan - no wonder they call me God!"
Only America could create such a hypocrisy, sell the world that it stands on Christian values, convince the stupid (I intentionally use the word 'stupid' over the word ignorant, because ignorance denotes innocence and everyone knows that the hypocrisy of which I speak is absolute truth and they buy into it anyway with dollar signs for pupils in their greedy eyes) people of the country to pledge allegiance to their own slavery, while voting for the murder of people throughout the world if they won't do the same.
As a country we pray by day, murder by night - in our sleep (impressive!), export our labor, import the goods, increase the price, pay the dividends to the stockholders, create new markets on speculation of 'new market economies' that we create throughout the world, and call it 'democracy' and 'humanitarianism'. And here's what's even better - we've taken the concept of separation of church and state, freedom of religion, etc., and used it to divide ourselves, thereby creating the environment wherein we can point fingers at one another while all buying into and contributing to the same murderous hypocrisy. Hallelujah!!!
Meanwhile folks, our Christian and Judaic Zionist facist principles spread throughout the world, waging absolute war on Islam and any other nation that even thinks about implementing true democracy or utilizing their own resources to serve their own people. Our least favorite humans amongst all are the indigenous peoples of the world. We are assisting the Israelis in doing to the Palestinians what we have done to the Native American Indians - but Israel is even more overt and outspoken in their intentions - in the words of Moshe Dayan in the early 1970's - "You [Palestinians] shall continue to live like dogs, and whoever wishes may leave, and we will see where this process leads." – Moshe Dayan
"When we have settled the land, all the Arabs will be able to do about it will be to scurry around like drugged roaches in a bottle."
– Rafael Eitan (1929-2004) served as Chief of Staff of the IDF, and later as Knesset member and government minister.
Read the Goldstone Report and find out how these statements have come to fruition through the policies and procedures of the generationally genocidal government of Israel, which is empowered in spirit and in fact by the United States of America.
You see, the belief is that whether the coming of Christ is the first or the second time, it is prophecy. And the warmongering people of the world justify and rationalize genocide based on this prophecy. Read 'Gaza in Crisis', Illan Pappe and Noam Chomsky for excellent information on the process that has taken place over the past century to accomplish these goals.
Read 'Lords of the Land' by Idith Zertal and Akiva Eldar for the history of the illegal and murderous settlement process.
Here are the arguments - and they are base, at best.
1) If you don't like it, you can leave. This is America, son. If you don't support our government you're just not patriotic. You just need to Shut Up!
Imagine my response:
"Dissent is the highest form of patriotism" Thomas Jefferson
“Some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony, but we must speak. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak. And we must rejoice as well, for surely this is the first time in our nation’s history that a significant number of its religious leaders have chosen to move beyond the prophesying of smooth patriotism to the high grounds of a firm dissent based upon the mandates of conscience and the reading of history. Perhaps a new spirit is rising among us. If it is, let us trace its movements, and pray that our own inner being may be sensitive to its guidance, for we are deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness that seems so close around us.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
2) Other countries are more oppressive and religion has a history of genocide.
Imagine my response:
I don't care. This is my country as well as anyone's and I am not of any religion - better yet, faith - that is beneath consience and compassion. I believe in peaceful dissent and, if necessary, peaceful revolt. When our government stands, as it will, in its murderous stance against its own people - better even, consider this already accomplished as our government states within its proclomation of hypocrisy that the people of the world are the people of America - then we must stand for ourselves. We can no longer be a nation that stands because it is divided. Indeed, we must become a nation that stands because it is united. We must lay aside labels, filters, partisanship, religion, and most of all CONSUMERISM, and we must stand on the principle of human value.
A Smile on Dying
Nicholas Sterner (100):
A flower saw a woman cry
perhaps an angel, loneliness
who for a gesture of pure good will
returned a tear of sweet caress
If this is all that we might give
a moment's smile of tenderness
a vessel empty we might fill
a restless heart may soon well rest
A flower saw a woman cry
perhaps an angel, loneliness
who for a gesture of pure good will
returned a tear of sweet caress
If this is all that we might give
a moment's smile of tenderness
a vessel empty we might fill
a restless heart may soon well rest
Indigenous
It is wonderful to... (100):
It is wonderful to see people defend their land,
as troubled as it may be, with such passion
and to speak of its beauty even when it has been portrayed in darkness
And isn't it common that the beauty of a country is most often reflected most purely in the eyes of its most humble citizens?
It is wonderful to see people defend their land,
as troubled as it may be, with such passion
and to speak of its beauty even when it has been portrayed in darkness
And isn't it common that the beauty of a country is most often reflected most purely in the eyes of its most humble citizens?
Mourning Lullaby
The city awakens,... (100):
The city awakens as the sun goes down,
urban America on the horizon
The echo of the machine
The soundtrack of humanity
against the backdrop of sacrifice bereft of conviction
Sleep, America, fall
The cries of the dying world
are the lullaby of the mourning
The city awakens as the sun goes down,
urban America on the horizon
The echo of the machine
The soundtrack of humanity
against the backdrop of sacrifice bereft of conviction
Sleep, America, fall
The cries of the dying world
are the lullaby of the mourning
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