Friday, March 3, 2006

Ego's Smallest Tricks

Maybe it is sometimes confusing to read this blog, I don't know for sure. Is the primary author of this thing a political observer, some kind of New Age psychologist, or just a tree-hugging fruitcake with shit for brains? Or a little of all three?

My other site deals with taking a holistic approach to psychological stress, conflict, and difficulties in relationships. I have written a book on the same topic, with an emphasis on enduring the psychological turmoil of a post-9/11 America. But working on Daily Rev has taught me that there's plenty of crossover between the realms of psychological exploration and political insight. The following, scribbled this morning on the subway after I had gotten my faceful of the daily news, is representative.


Ego's smallest tricks betray us. A Hallmark-card sentiment belies the complacency that will threaten to corrupt a court of law (Harriet Miers) or destroy the lives of millions (Katrina). A simple, grand-old-flag patriotism conceals and supports the blood-stained prejudice of the tyrant, whose malignant order will fill the cemeteries of a nation with young, blackened bodies and their grief-ravaged families. The playful passion for accumulation, better known as shopping, will turn the nameless, numberless poor around the planet into slaves. The softly-spoken words of a priest or a pedant will make drones of children; and grown men will become armed robots under the spell of that stinking breath of conditioned belief.

This is why I encourage you to hunt ego down within yourself, every day. When you find it, do not be merciful or compromising: slice its throat and watch Ego choke on its own blood as it struggles to make one last deal with your soul. This is the kind of killing that will renew your life, and extend its loving influence to the world.

No one needs to teach you who you truly are; you already know that, you already are that. Just do what the dead men in Washington have forgotten to do for themselves: kill the ego every day. For when ego is dead, the person is free.

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