Friday Reflection: The Ravages of Ego

The star Gliese, the "sun" around which an Earth-like and possibly habitable planet was recently found revolving (click graphic to learn more)

It was great to see Moyers back on the air Wednesday night, wasn't it? (if you missed it, you can watch it here). Yes, it was very painful to watch, but that's because it was so thoroughly and masterfully done. I thought the scenes with Beinart were particularly compelling: the old teacher, the Socrates of modern journalism, gently but firmly exposing and correcting the peach-faced stripling, one that the I Ching would refer to as "The Young Fool" (Hexagram 4):

Youthful Folly has success.
It is not I who seek the young fool;
The young fool seeks me.
At the first oracle I inform him.
If he asks two or three times, it is importunity.
If he importunes, I give him no information.
Perseverance furthers.

But let's turn off the TV, put down the newspaper and leave the knotted ball of conflict that the neocon tyrants have visited upon our world behind for a little. Congress will (one hopes) go on fighting the President; Condi will go on fighting her subpoena; Cheney will go on fighting himself; and McCain will continue to tell jokes and sing songs about the carnage that he helped to bring into the dawn of the 21st century. Let them go on; they are old men (most of them) being dissolved by time and dying further within, every day.

Or is it really time that kills us? Here's an alternative, from my supply of cheap, dime-store New Age fizzdom:

Time does not ravage us. Time is just a cosmic dimension, doing its job. Time does not degrade or destroy life; only ego does that. So if you would like to remain young and beautiful until the day comes for your transformation beyond time, then turn within regularly and kill ego. Kill it, and then discard its corpse, with the help of the cosmic presences (time included). Once you have focused upon your true enemy, then time becomes your friend, your ally in the life of form and the life to come, beyond form.


Everyday elimination:
Your body does it—
Why not your mind?

If you can feel falsehood and expel it,
Your thoughts will ring true.
If you can clear the code of hatred
That was written on your heart
Amid childhood ambivalence,
Then the quantum breath of love
Will fill you, extending outward.

Diderot told us that we will never be truly free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest. I would suggest now, that for each of us who turns within and rips the bowel of belief from the dead body of ego, and with it, chokes the voice of authority into stillness, and finally expels it—for each of us who does that within himself, we will more nearly approach the day of true freedom for all.

Monday with McKenna: Imagining Free Choice

Terry McKenna is back today, to touch on a theme that extends far beyond the boundaries of organized labor. For we live in a time of a corporate presidency and government-by-intimidation; the same union-busting, anti-labor, dehumanizing tactics used by the Wal-Marts and Nikes of this world are eagerly imitated in Washington—and being a U.S. attorney doesn't make you immune.

This Bushian hatred of humanity and cynicism toward any form of professional competence has reached such a demonic level of darkness that it must be ritually exorcised wherever it passes. At least that's what the Mayans think, and I can't question them there.

And now, Terry McKenna, on the Employee Free Choice Act:



This week, I want to highlight the Employee Free Choice Act. In case you haven’t heard or read about it, it’s a pro union measure that just passed in the House. If it becomes law, union organizing will become as simple as signing kids up for little league. And that sounds OK, doesn’t it? Of course, in doing so, the law also takes away from employers most of the tools* they have used over the past 30 years to prevent their employees from joining unions. As you might imagine, the White House is against it.

The bill’s intent is to reverse the decline of American unions. Is this a problem? For workers it is. For businesses, the decline has been a boon. Thus, it is an issue worth discussing. By the way, one of the reasons for the decline of unions is the decline of large-scale manufacturing. But this disappearance hardly explains all of it. As our economy manufactures lots of low wage service jobs in places like Wal-Mart and MacDonald’s, the failure of unions must be attributed to other factors.

So where is the debate on this important issue? That there is none is the problem. And there’s the rub. Not everything wrong in America can be tied to George Bush or the Republicans. In fact, our polity is unable to grapple with most of our problems. Thus, our polity is FUBAR.

And note, I am not pro-union, nor am I anti-union. Unions brought middle class prosperity to American workers after WW2. But as the dynamics of the world economy changed, American unions were unable to recognize the need for change and became an albatross around industry’s neck.

In the absence of honest discussion, I’ll take the stage with my platform. Here are the issues as I see them:

1. The average worker has little power in a negotiation with his employer.
2. Benefits for workers create explosive future liabilities for employers. Even more so for older and retired workers.
3. Young new hires do not need a living wage, but as they approach age 30, they do.
4. All workers need a health insurance plan and a retirement savings plan.

So what has this to do with unions? Nothing or everything. The American system chose to rely upon employers to provide #4 and as a result, we end up with #2. Unions solve #1, but when they secure #3 and #4, they help create #2.

And then we have the dislocations caused by global trade, outsourcing and immigration. So, for American laborers who hope for #3 and #4, they may be competing against illegal immigrants who are willing to live packed into a shabby rooming house, and paid almost nothing. For more on that, check out Bob Herbert's column in today's New York Times. Just think of a drywaller, or house painter who formerly earned a fair wage, and who now finds his trade full of low paid former Mexican peasants. In fact, it’s hard to find a non-Hispanic drywaller or house painter, except at the very highest end of the trade.

If the new law passes, we can expect aggressive efforts to unionize, and if successful, we should see a real challenge to the Wal-Mart business model. But then we can expect to see even more of #2.

The alternative is to scrap the employer benefits model. This is starting to filter into a lot of discussions, but as we can see from President Bush’s health care proposal, we don’t always see good ideas coming along with it. Here’s my:

A. Implement a single payor health plan, funded by employer contributions and a monthly premium for all employees and retirees. Premiums for employers and workers will be uniform across all industries and all ages;
B. Mandate that all employers fund a 401 k with at least a 3% match for all employees and consultants (even if paid via a 1099);
C. Mandate a living hourly wage minimum for all workers age 30 and over. I’d pick $15 per hour.

And that’s it.

Oh, there should be no need to change the union rules if we do this, because workers would be well protected. But if we don’t, then we should pass the new law, and hope for the best.
_______________________

*Re the tools employers use to stop unions, I’ve seen this in my own workplace. Some 14 years and two employers ago I was engaged in a three day simulation of a union organizing campaign. We were line-managers in the claims operation of a large insurer. We were first lectured on labor law, then assigned roles and made to act out an attempt to sign up workers (I had a simple part as a claim examiner). In our roles, we attended union organizing meetings, and then company meetings designed to program us against the union. Then we voted. The sessions were so intense that one of the pretend union organizers almost had a break down.

The bottom line here is that in the current system, employers have learned how to exploit labor law to their advantage. The NLRB-sponsored election timeline gives the employer a distinct advantage in breaking a union organizing effort. For workers who don’t have a saleable skill (and that is typical of most workers who would benefit from a union) they are scared to death of losing the job they have. Both sides play hardball, with the workers in the middle. It’s no wonder that unions lose most elections.

—T. McKenna
_______________________

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In this context, I am often reminded of what Socrates meant when he described himself as a "gadfly" to the Athenian state: he understood that he was actually helping his society this way. In the same way, to be a gadfly to corporate America is to help it to become better, more responsive to human needs and planetary values. As the Bushies and their lapdog media have shown us, any idiot can sit in the choir and sing the tune that's played by power; but it takes creativity and compassion to make the music of dissent—the healing dissonance from which all true growth arises.

"Fora Bush"

"He's a disaster...everywhere he goes he causes disaster..."--Brazilian protestor

Can there now be any question about the hatred this man has spawned, all around the world? Can Congress continue to treat him as if he actually has a scintilla of leadership in him? The people of South America, it is clear, are not fooled. Nor should we be any longer.

But I'd like to close out the week with a few thoughts on the Mideast, in the context of our look at Jimmy Carter's book. Like Carter, we have had plenty of criticism of Israel in this space, yet it cannot be denied that Israel is a democracy. In fact, their democracy may be more vibrant than ours has been these past few years. In his book, Carter talks about the loud and raucous debates that commonly broke out in the Israeli parliament, and the pleasure that even Begin took in these demonstrations.

Their press can be a real pain in the ass to the powerful, too. That, after all, is what a free press is all about. Today, one of their newspapers reported that Olmert had planned the invasion of Lebanon months before there was any attack made on his soldiers; so that it is now clear that the Israeli government did not respond to a provocation, but simply consummated a plan that had been on the drawing board for a long time (does this sound familiar, America?).

So today, I feel more united with the Israeli people than I ever have. Yesterday, I mentioned that the people are not represented by thugs like Olmert and his ilk. The BBC report mentions another Israeli news source, which did an opinion poll on Olmert. This survey found that 2% of respondents said they trusted the PM. Two per cent! Shit, that makes Bush seem like Barack Obama by comparison!

This is the wisdom of the people; the same grassroots insight that we are seeing evidenced in South America and even here. Next weekend, we will mark the 4th anniversary of the Iraq War, and organizations like UFPJ are gearing up for nationwide protests and events that will reveal once again the depth and breadth of public discontent with this tyrannical regime in Washington.

I truly hope it's as non-violent as it is enormous in its scope and expression. I've been roughed up by cops in my younger days, and I can tell you that it's a lousy, dehumanizing experience. Oh, and it hurts, too. But more to the point, it detracts from the message of public protest and civil disobedience, which is to assert the people's will for peace and true democracy on the smug power of corporate government.

According to most polls, nearly three-quarters of Americans are now either partially or totally disgusted with the Bush tyranny. In Israel, well above 90% have had enough of the murder and slavery practiced by the Olmert regime. In his book, Jimmy Carter describes clearly much of what has so enraged the Israeli people against their government:

In addition to cutting off about 200,000 Palestinians in Jerusalem from their relatives, property, schools, and businesses, the wall is designed to complete the enclosure of a severely truncated Palestine, a small portion of its original size, compartmentalized, divided into cantons, occupied by Israeli security forces, and isolated from the outside world. In addition, a network of exclusive highways is being built across even these fragments of the West Bank to connect the new Greater Israel in the west with the occupied Jordan River valley in the east, where 7,000 Jews are living in twenty-one heavily protected settlements among about 50,000 Palestinians who are still permitted to stay there. The area along the Jordan River, which is now planned as the eastern leg of the encirclement of the Palestinians, is one of Palestine's most lucrative and productive agricultural regions. Most of its inhabitants were forcibly evicted in 1967, and the Israelis have not allowed these original families to return.

The people know that their security is not furthered by tyrants; it is only endangered the more a tin pot corporate junta like the Halliburton presidency or the apartheid paranoia of the Olmert regime is allowed free reign.


Joseph Wilson spoke for many of us in his interview with Keith Olbermann in the wake of the Libby verdict, when he mentioned the "abuse of the public trust" that is the common element to all these depredations by corporate, fundamentalist governments against humanity and justice. This week--in South America, in Israel, and here in America--the public is raising its voice and demanding an end to that abuse of its trust, and a calling to account of all those who, for the sake of power and profit, betray the responsibility that comes with public service.

Becoming the Enemy: The American Police State

Here's what happens in a society where habeas corpus is dead and journalists are oppressed:

An Egyptian court has sentenced a blogger to four years' prison for insulting Islam and the president.
Abdel Kareem Soliman's trial was the first time that a blogger had been prosecuted in Egypt.

He had used his web log to criticise the country's top Islamic institution, al-Azhar university and President Hosni Mubarak, whom he called a dictator.

Think it couldn't happen here? Think again—it has happened, and it is happening.

''For the first time in American history, the executive branch claims authority under the Constitution to set aside laws permanently -- including prohibitions on torture and warrantless eavesdropping on Americans. A frightening idea decisively rejected at America's birth -- that a president, like a king, can do no wrong -- has reemerged to justify torture and indefinite presidential detention.''

Undermining checks and balances here at home and acting unilaterally abroad have made us less safe, said Mr. Schwarz. Some of the actions the U.S. has taken ''have so hurt our reputation,'' he said, ''that Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo Bay have become in many eyes more the symbol of America than the Statue of Liberty.''

AI tells the story of a Gitmo detainee who has been denied the protections of habeas corpus.

Amnesty International is deeply troubled by yesterday’s ruling by a federal judge dismissing Guantánamo detainee Salim Ahmed Hamdan’s habeas corpus petition, on the grounds that the Military Commissions Act, signed into law by President Bush on 17 October, strips the federal courts of jurisdiction to consider such appeals.

The right of all detainees to challenge the lawfulness of their detention is among the most fundamental principles of international law. That any legislature or any judge anywhere should countenance such stripping of this basic protection against arbitrary detention, secret custody, torture and other ill-treatment is shocking and must be challenged.

A related police state tactic is to employ journalists as government spies, and imprison those who don't play along. Josh Wolf is just the tip of the iceberg here, and there is every indication that these two trends—killing habeas corpus and imprisoning non-compliant bloggers and journalists (Wolf couldn't even get a holiday furlough—drug dealers get better treatment) will coalesce in a nexus of tyranny that will mark the end of this nation's experiment in democracy.

It is time again to demand that Congress stop its circle-jerk of complaining, fighting, walking on eggs, and dilatory campaigning, and get to work in deadly earnest—as if the most dire constitutional crisis in this nation's history were happening right now. Because it is.

Mending the Dick Cheney Heart

In my transient passages through corporate America and my distant observations of corporate government, I am occasionally reminded of the oft-spoken lament of Commissioner Gordon of the Batman TV series (the old one with Adam West, one of the funniest shows ever on the tube). Contemplating the criminal genius of the Penguin, Riddler, or Joker, the Commissioner would mutter, "if only that mind could be used for good, and not evil..."

Take a look at some of the dramatis personae of our post-9/11 world, and you get the same impression. Dick Cheney: very smart guy. Saddam Hussein: also intellectually gifted. Don Rumsfeld: sharp as broken glass. I'm betting even Osama's pretty smart, though I don't know that much about him. Every one of them is, of course, black-hearted, soul-dead, bloodsucking evil.

These psychotic and murderous tyrants have one common trait: a tumor-like sense of supremacy that is based exclusively on their intellectual grasp of people and events. So when Time Magazine proclaimed earlier this month:

SCIENTISTS HAVE EXORCISED THE GHOST FROM THE MACHINE NOT because they are mechanistic killjoys but because they have amassed evidence that every aspect of consciousness can be tied to the brain.

I had to wonder what kind of a devil's bargain had been made, especially considering that there is another stream of research that tends toward a different, more holistic conclusion. If we are going to conceive of our brains as "machines," as Time Magazine would have it, or of our hearts as mechanical pumps, then cynical tyrants like Cheney and Hussein will continue to dominate us.

Now the brain is no more at fault in this than is my cat: the problem is a matter of perspective, or how we use (and abuse) the physico-psychological tools we are born with. To declare brain the King of Konsciousness is to misuse it, because then it is no longer an organic part of a living whole, but a separate and distant tyrant of the body. This is how every tyranny is started and perpetuated: through a declaration of supremacy—the same kind of supremacy-speak that says, "my country, right or wrong," and "dissent is treason."

So if we're going to rid the world of tyranny, we will have to clear it out wherever we find its ideological substrate. At the same time, we will have to affirm a more truly modern and quantum view of ourselves and the universe: that feeling is as valid as thought; that a poet can see reality as clearly as a physicist; and that the organic unity of being is a more practical metaphor on ourselves and the universe than some anatomical hierarchy. If we can reach for such an understanding, and teach it to our children, then science will be deepened; thought itself will be given the freedom that comes with equality; diplomacy will more frequently be considered over war; and tyrants, when they appear, will be easier to recognize and dispel.

Dick Cheney's heart is physically rotting not because of age, poor diet, or inadequate medical care: it is rotting from neglect, from a deeply cynical subjection. Demons are not born; they are made through the deviant belief in supremacy: one species' supremacy over Nature; one country's supremacy over the world; one man's supremacy over his nation; or one organ's supremacy over the bodily whole. If enough of us can overcome that belief, and keep those who are poisoned with it away from positions of leadership, then we may reach the day when Commissioner Gordon will never have to wonder again.

Monday with McKenna: Call Out the Squirrels, the Nuts Are All Around Us

For a long time now, we've been discussing the psychopathology of the foul tyrants who have governed us these past six years and driven hundreds of thousands of people to death or to a living hell. The only thing we've occasionally been confused about is the precise diagnosis: we have offered psychosis, psychopathy, dependent personality disorder, and my own diagnostic entity, neuropia. On Sunday, Frank Rich offered his theory, which in turn echoes Terry McKenna's offering for today (Terry always sends me his Monday piece on Saturday morning, before the Sunday papers are out).

The main point is that these people—Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney, and quite of few of the supporting characters—don't need to be debated: they need to be studied. Preferably in a high-security facility with padded cells inside and electric fences outside. If you think I'm kidding, check out Kucinich's piece at HuffPost today, which includes some of the brutal details about where the destruction delusion has led us.

So now on to Mr. McKenna. Terry, as he often does, draws on history to reinforce his own comparative diagnosis. Here it is.

Despite what Republican sources argue, the Iraq debacle is very much like the affair in Viet Nam. They may not be identical, but the political fallout is very much the same. The war is George Bush’s albatross. Isn’t it embarrassing to watch the president on the nightly news (or in media outlets such as the Daily Show). He mixes an air of arrogance with the look of a deer caught in the headlights.

Things seem to be moving fast now. Iraq’s so called unity government is neither a government nor an agent of unity. Prime Minister Maliki is a fraud – according to insiders, either part of the Shiite power grab, or an incompetent, or perhaps a fool. Yet the US president goes forward with statements like the following regarding his recent meeting with Iraq Prime Minister, Maliki (this was issued November 30th):

"My consultations with the Prime Minister and the unity government are a key part of the assessment process. And that's why I appreciate him coming over from Iraq so that we could have a face-to-face visit. The Prime Minister and I agree that the outcome in Iraq will affect the entire region. To stop the extremists from dominating the Middle East, we must stop the extremists from achieving their goal of dominating Iraq. If the extremists succeed in Iraq, they will be emboldened in their efforts to undermine other young democracies in the region, or to overthrow moderate governments, establish new safe havens, and impose their hateful ideology on millions. If the Iraqis succeed in establishing a free nation in the heart of the Middle East, the forces of freedom and moderation across the region will be emboldened, and the cause of peace will have new energy and new allies."

You just can’t take George Bush seriously anymore.

The extremists are already emboldened. Our presence has given them 3 ½ years to work out the best way to use home made bombs to destroy American armor. Now they know. City warfare has always been tough and resident fighters ALWAYS have a tactical advantage - that’s why armies almost never attack cities by direct force. In WW2, the Germans opted for siege tactics against Leningrad. Stalingrad on the other hand was attacked directly and the early result made it a vast graveyard. When cities are entered, if fighting continues, it ends in desperate house to house warfare. The US is not prepared to either starve (siege warfare) or to fight house to house in Baghdad, so there is nothing left for our army to do. We can’t ask for a do-over.

We are in the current mess because of an over-optimistic sense of what success in war can achieve. And it’s odd how war continues to have a hold over the hearts and minds of men – for history demonstrates that even when you win, the aftermath is rarely what you hoped for.

Let’s take a brief look at our own history. I’ll start with the Civil War – our prior wars are all more or less special cases. The Mexican War was a war over territory that Mexico only lightly held – so when Americans began to develop a new society out west, the chance for an insurgency was just about nil.

On to the Civil War. Yes, the North won, and the slaves were freed. But in the South, the aftermath was an insurgency that destroyed the new freedmen’s governments. After reconstruction was ended in 1876, a succession of laws were passed in each state that re-enslaved blacks with a second class citizenship that provided no civil rights at all. It took another 100 years for descendants of the freed slaves to receive justice.

Ok, one down.

Then we have the splendid little war against Spain in 1898. We won in a matter of a few months. Spain was humiliated and never again participated in world affairs. But the liberated territories – Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines have fared little better since. Cuba was ostensibly freed in 1902, but with US intervention and a series of tin horn dictators, Cuba remains to this day a poorly managed economy full of people who fortunately still don’t hate Americans. The Philippines on the other hand is even worse off. It was not freed until after the Second World War, then it was led with a heavy hand by its own succession of dictators. Its current government may be less a dictatorship, but life in the Philippines is not easy. Ethnic tension abound, so too tensions between Muslims and Christians. White visitors today are subject to the threat of kidnapping.

Puerto Rico is at least a more benign commonwealth. Not quite a US state, but definitely part of the US. For most of the last century, its citizens were poor. In recent decades, the economy has modernized and gained benefit from the presence of US businesses operating from Puerto Rico because of unique tax advantages.

The First World War needs only a few sentences. A horrible affair that the US had no reason to join. The aftermath was a communist Russia, an unstable central Europe, and eventually the Nazi era and a Second World War.

So what about the Second World War. Wasn’t that a just war? Perhaps. But the notion of war being just is always problematical. My retort is: so what!

Let’s discuss the operation in Japan separately from that in Germany. Since Japan attacked our Pacific fleet, the war was as justified as any. But the years following Japan’s defeat are the story of a prosperous Japan surrounded by an Asia ruled mostly by dictators. Liberated China fared no better under communist rule than it did under the Japanese military – millions died anyway. We fought two “hot” wars - in Viet Nam and Korea. Only in the ‘90s did Asia wake up to her potential. So, however justified our effort, the following 60 years suggests that the war in Asia was a waste of lives and treasure.

The War against Germany was also a victory. And if we consider Nazi brutality, who can argue against the fight. Western Europe did prosper in the aftermath, but Eastern Europe suffered under Soviet era communism. And to this day, the former Yugoslavia has never stabilized. And if we think of the victims of Nazi brutality, sadly, most were dead by the time of liberation. I am not arguing against our having gone to war, but if a successful aftermath receives a rating of 4 stars, the results of our WW2 victory gets only 1 ½.

Of course, we already know that we should never have invaded Iraq. But even going forward, we must not forget that a so called victory (in a decade?) may be as troubling as the chaos of retreat. Much better to wall off the Kurds, make some deals to protect any other peaceful communities and then get out.

By the way, the story of the Southern insurgency is rarely told – so try this new book. Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil War by Nicholas Lemann. It's also available as a CD (spoken book).

—T. McKenna

Calling Townhall to Account

I posted a piece about neurosis and the corporate mindset to my Daily Kos diary. It is meant to open a thread on a theme that we intend to take up here over the coming weeks, about the infestation of a corporate consciousness into both our public and private lives.

Anyway, if you'd like to have a little fun to start the week, head over to the neocon punditry center, townhall.com, and take a look around. There are a number of mindless, pointless articles with the lamest possible headlines ("Cheney, Saudi King discuss trouble spots"; "Why Gays Cannot Be Pro-Choice"; "Bad Credit is a Way of Life--It Shouldn't Be!"); along with the obligatory picture of a Democrat looking shrill or silly. But, wouldn't you know, there is nothing of substance about what's going on in the world.

Such as any discussion of civil war in Iraq. Apparently, even the neocon press is beyond the point of questioning or denying that there is now a civil war in progress, although they probably still imagine that a civil war features a gray army and a blue army clashing on a broad meadow.

Nor is there any discussion of General Karpinski's comments about Rumsfeld's written endorsement of torture. I'm sure that once they awaken from the sting of the initial reports, they'll get all shrill and remind us that the General is merely recounting a memory of having seen such a document, and after all, Rummy's been sacked, so what's the point of hacking on about it?

I also couldn't find, even with their search engine, anything at townhall.com about the duration of this Iraq War--that it's lasted longer now than WWII. As Tony Snow would remind us, it's only a number.

The day of reckoning will come for all the war criminals in Washington. But we will also have to recall who in the media used their influence to endorse or disguise the crimes, for they are complicit in every useless, agonizing death. This is no longer a left wing-right wing / red state-blue state issue. The results from the polls three weeks ago showed us that. This is now an issue of a free people holding those people accountable, in both government and the media, who defaulted on a public trust. The next generation, and the one after that, are going to want to know what we were doing when the foul corporate windbags were playing the mouthpiece to tyrants and liars, and why we weren't able to stop them.

No one would dare expect government to be flawless; being responsible will do. And certainly no one would expect journalists to be perfect; to question and to seek truth would be plenty enough for us to accept. But a program of pathological lying, unquestioningly repeated and broadcast by a bought-and-paid media, comprises an attack on every citizen of a democracy.

This is why I disagree with Ms. Pelosi, and many Democrats, about impeachment. We need it--not so much to punish the criminals, but to expose them and their allies in the media; so that we will the more readily recognize them in time when they come back, telling us oily lies and conspiring in the deaths of half a million innocents, through fear-mongering cloaked in the sibilant whispers of a sacred arrogance.