Category: Spirituality

The Power of Mystification

by kendunning, posted in Community, Economics, Personal Development, Science, Spirituality, Sustainability
Image: (c) Dazdraperma http://www.fotosearch.com

Mystification is the state we’re in after we’ve been mystified. According to Merriam-Webster online dictionary, to mystify is to: 1: to perplex the mind of; bewilder 2: to make mysterious or obscure. I venture most of us have been mystified at some time by the performance of a magician. When it is done for entertainment it can be enjoyable and leave us appreciative of the performer’s skills. Sometimes a teacher may mystify us as a means of introducing us to a subject. Once the teacher has caught our interest, they can proceed to instruct us in the discipline involved. Perhaps, this is the most common method of education in the natural world. However, the act of mystifying people isn’t always done with such a benevolent motive or positive results. Sometimes, in fact quite often these days, when we’re being mystified it is being done with a predatory motive.

First, it is important to understand that we, as human beings, all love to play. We love to be entertained. When I was young I was introduced to the axiom “Work before pleasure.” That guidance has undoubtedly sustained humankind throughout the centuries. However, it is often through play, during leisure time, that we reap the benefits of new ideas, creative thinking. We know that it is stimulation that leads our bodies, including our brains, to develop fully. Often during play, or leisure time, we follow the flights of fancy that one stimulation, or another, may have given birth to within us. Sometimes it is just a moment’s enjoyment. However, sometimes we find ourselves positively mystified by something we’ve experienced through our senses or within our imagination. I say “positively” because these are the times we are caught by an idea which we want to follow up on. An idea about how to do something in a more efficient manner, or about creating something. Possibly a tool, or perhaps a work of art. Sometimes mystification, followed up on, can lead us to positive, culture changing discoveries. I wonder if all new inventions and works of art begin with a person being mystified by something?

In fact, mystification has played such an important role in human development, I venture that we instinctively appreciate it and seek it out. In our earliest memories we find ourselves being mystified by about everything. To a very young person, even the actions of walking and talking are mystifying experiences. We are mystified, we learn, we accomplish. To our minds, in it’s most wholesome manifestation, mystification is akin to our bodies experiencing the aroma of a fine meal being prepared. First the tantalizing promise of a reality, then, with the application of disciplined effort, the realization of the promise.

As with a lot of things in the world, something which has utility in achieving good in the world can, with a little tweaking, become a tool for abuse. From a developmental perspective, a major problem with the way mystification is being used by industries today is that unlike the process in which it occurs within nature, as a part of process of benevolent development, within many industries mystification is being used as a component of an extremely predatory business model. There’s no developmental “payoff” included nor intended. Just an ongoing demand for exorbitant prices on the part of the industry.

Today, several industries utilize mystification routinely in their marketing and as a lever in their all too predatory pricing practices. Contemporary industries which strongly rely upon the public being mystified with their product in order to both attract customers and demand inflated prices include: communications technology: cellphones, computers, and related devices, many other high-tech industries, pharmaceuticals and many other medical devices and practices.

Which brings us to possibly the most culturally damaging effect this use (misuse?) of mystification is having in the world. Like the addicts who pay extortionate prices to illicit drug dealers for a fix, we are paying extortionate prices to the industries who have mystified us with their products and the short term satisfaction we often get with their use. I say “short term” because that’s what it is. Whether we’re referring to the instantaneous stimulation we get from video games and various electronic technology, or the promises made regarding what various synthetic pharmaceuticals can achieve (versus the lasting and more healthful results which can be obtained via natural healing methods). We’re apparently transfixed by these products, their complexity, their mystifying actions (and the promises our subconscious infers based in evolutionary history). So we keep paying, and paying and paying to access them. We pay extortionate cable fees, internet fees, game rentals, equipment costs. As far as pharmaceuticals go we often pay exorbitant costs for the product’s development (via government funding) and then the extortionate costs demanded for the product.

It must be noted these aren’t the only products which have managed to mystify great numbers of people resulting in demands for exorbitant prices for the products. Some others in the U.S. include professional sports/athletes and “superstar” entertainers. Also Las Vegas and other extravagant, mystifying gambling houses. All of these enterprises rely upon mystification in the marketing of their products.

So what? Isn’t it just the way it is that businesses charge as much as they can? What’s wrong with that? What are you, some kind of idealist?

There is a concept that is important to grasp. It is the concept of a body working in balance, in harmony, as opposed to a body in which the various components of the body are fighting with each other for vital resources. If an organ, or group of cells, within our physical body goes on a campaign of inordinate growth, that is often a case of what we call cancer. Left unchecked it will result in the demise of the body it is occurring within. What is important, vital, to grasp is that the same principle is at work when we increase the scale we are looking at. The same principle applies when we’re looking at families, cultures, nations. Balance and harmony indicate a healthy body. Whether that body is a person, tribe, town, city, nation or planetary culture. If some component of the whole begins working to acquire inordinate amounts of the vital resources required by all, that is a symptom of a condition of disease, and, left unchecked will result in the demise of the body it is occurring within.

As with other aspects of what it is to be human, such as pleasure, mystification is a vital, important part of our lives. However, if we allow an inordinate amount of our personal time, energy, and material resources to be captured in a single minded pursuit of mystification, other vital areas of our lives, we ourselves, are going to suffer for it. We can become addicted to the experience of mystification while shunning the discipline it takes to make a positive experience of mystification a reality. On a cultural level, when we devote an inordinate amount of our resources to support our affinity for mystification, other professions making vital contributions to the sustaining of our lives, our communities, are going undervalued, or ignored. Farmers, teachers, janitors, construction workers, carpenters, plumbers, electricians, mechanics, store clerks, restaurant workers, sanitation workers, police, firefighters, healthcare workers of myriad disciplines, all these contributors to our personal and cultural wellbeing. These professionals, and more, will find, are finding, their ability to earn a decent living increasingly diminished. Diminished because we are allowing a few to acquire too much of what is needed for the good of the whole. In part because we are allowing ourselves, our time, our energies, to be inordinately captured by products which offer mystification, but little else.

The journey of knowledge from benevolence to instrument of oppression.

by kendunning, posted in Politics, Science, Spirituality

Through early human history we know, via centuries of hard work on the part of archeologists and anthropologists, that the subject of our spirituality and our spiritual reality occupied a great deal of our ancestor’s time and energy. Early humanity recognized that there is a spiritual aspect to our existence and some endeavored to understand it. The early explorers/discoverers in this field were called shaman, witches or witch doctors, sorcerers, seers, healers/medicine people, or prophets. They were, as far as we can tell, regarded with a mixture of appreciation, reverence and/or fear. As with the abuses that go on with every other area of specialization of knowledge and skill, some most likely tried to use their unique knowledge to bamboozle others into giving them an inordinate amount of the wealth and power to be had in their tribe/town/city/country.

As time went on, some began to organize the knowledge, myths and superstitions around our spiritual reality into collections of guidelines, doctrines; rules, even laws. The results were the origins of religions. Those occupying the seats of influence and power within the religions became known as priests or priestesses. Ceremonies were/are prominent features within the churches which formed around the doctrines. Often special titles, clothing, icons, utensils, and other paraphernalia became used as symbols of the authority of those who were deemed worthy, or sanctified, within the religion. Again, depending upon the variables at work at any given time/place, they could be regarded with appreciation, reverence and/or fear. And again, as with every area of specialization of knowledge and skill, some wielding the specialized knowledge within the religions saw ways to use the general public’s relative ignorance of the subjects at hand to distort the teachings and bamboozle the public into giving them inordinate amounts of wealth and power.

The tools and trappings of the religions became symbols of power. Gradually “what” was said was given little serious scrutiny as “who” said it become increasingly important. Truth was determined by the speaker, not the content. As time went on, the religious texts and doctrines came under periodic review by those wielding authority within both the religious and the political power structures of the time. Subsequently, the texts and doctrines began to be shaped to accommodate and to serve the aspirations and agendas of those in power rather than to reflect the original spiritual goals, revelations and understandings. The original goals, revelations and understandings which the original seers, saints and prophets had embraced.

In this process truth took a backseat to political utility. While the truth of genuine spiritual knowledge always points the way to health and well-being of all humanity and in fact all life, the goal of the editing taking place resulted in replacing that knowledge with material oriented to the establishment and perpetuity of the power and wealth enjoyed by those holding the reins of power.

In summary, the observations those adept at perceiving spiritual matters were of great importance to early humankind. As time went on the exploitative value of being seen as a spiritual authority became apparent to those with aspirations of power and wealth. Subsequently, religions, which sprang out of the original esteemed spiritual teachings, have too often became vehicles, directly or indirectly, supporting the subjugation of people and the accumulation of great power and wealth.

There is the proverbial saying that “power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely” Which expresses the observation that, as a person’s power increases, their moral sense diminishes. One does not have to look far in our world today to find proof that there is truth in this saying. Are there those, men and women, who are strong enough in their moral grounding that they can resist all temptation to abuse power, to attempt to increase and maintain their positions via the perversion of knowledge and systems? I believe such individuals exist. However, it seems that, if they have attempted to do so, they haven’t been particularly successful to date at gaining the worldly positions which would bestow the benefit of their wisdom upon us all. I imagine for such morality to exist in high positions of power, it requires more than one individual working together to reinforce such values in the face of the agents of greed and deception which would undoubtedly be aligned against them.

By this time those in high positions of worldly power have refined a method for the acquisition and retention of that power. This method can be clearly seen in the establishment of religious power/authority, and, with some examination, can be seen to be in play in other important and influential cultural arenas, such as the press (media) and education. It goes like this:

  • The practical, benevolent value of an area of knowledge is established organically by grass-roots adherents/practitioners.
  • As awareness of the area of knowledge grows, it attracts the attention of those who control the reins of political/economic power. Those in power assign agents/agencies to comprehensively study it.
  • The area of knowledge is evaluated for it’s utilitarian values, it’s potential economic value, and it’s potential as tool within the arena of political power.
  • On the basis of that evaluation an orthodoxy of the field of knowledge is proclaimed. That orthodoxy establishes tenets which may be manipulated by the power elite to increase and consolidate their wealth and power rather than merely reflect the content and/or goals of the original practical, benevolent knowledge.
  • Those who attempt to revive the original content and/or intent of the body of knowledge are given a derogatory label, largely ignored by the “system” at large, and often censored. Depending upon how much the powers-that-be deem to be at stake, those involved in the departure from the orthodoxy may find themselves aggressively persecuted.

As time went along the beginnings of what we call science today began to emerge. There had always been those opposed to the doctrines of the various organized religions for various reasons. The reasons could be trivial or substantial, true in nature or complete flights of fancy. But whatever the reasons, such opposition was often not viewed lightly by those in power within the religion(s). Penalties for expressing or acting in opposition to the religion(s) could result in anything from being looked at askance by other community members to being burned at a stake. Or any of numerous other penalties. To offer opinions or information which ran contrary to the official religious doctrines was to engage in heresy. And those who were engaging in systematic, methodical observations of our world, forming hypotheses which could be tested, the early scientists, were often the recipients of the disapproval, if not the wrath, of the religious authorities. Copernicus and Galileo are two of the more well known men of early science who suffered the displeasure of the religious authorities of their day.

In short, gradually the observations and persistent realities described by those using scientific methods could no longer be denied. The world is round, not flat. The universe does not rotate with the Earth at the center. The sun is the central celestial body in our solar system, etc., etc. Religions began to lose their self-proclaimed position as primary franchise holder on the truth. One might think this would be some cause for celebration; that new, more reality based, understandings of our universe, or our world, were coming into being. However, what was taking place was also a threat the authority, the power, the religions and their political associates enjoyed. Science was becoming a new, popular, authority among the people of the world.

What we are seeing in the world today is an all-out attempt by the elite powers-that-be, applying essentially the formula given above, to appropriate “science” in the same fashion that religion has been appropriated for centuries. The “ordained”, the “high priests” are being selected and introduced. The outliers, the new heretics, are being identified, censored, defamed. The orthodox doctrine, with big pharma at it’s hub, is being proclaimed and the call to worship is being spread far and wide.

Image: (c) solarseven http://www.fotosearch.com, Caption: Author

As we enter the new year…

by kendunning, posted in Building our future., Community, Covid-19, Economics, Mental Health, Politics, Spirituality
(c) AlexMax http://www.fotosearch.com

Who remembers this time last year? There were demonstrations going on in France, Hong Kong and other places. There was an international undercurrent of dissatisfaction with the extreme economic imbalance in the world. People, especially young people, were traveling internationally more than any time in history. Through the use of social media and face-to-face conversations (remember those?) people from around the world were exchanging ideas, sharing recipes, and generally getting to know one another more than ever before. Then, well, you know what then.

So much of what was going on contributed to a growing sense of commonality and unity among people around the world. It was a time to rejoice in new experiences, new friends, new awareness. But that was leading to a world population which was emboldened, more competent, less satisfied with being perpetually handed the “short end of the stick”. It’s easy to understand how those occupying the seats of economic and political power in the world might see such a thing as a thing to be feared, to be ended. And so it was.

There can be no question that many (all?) of the people who most likely saw their privileged positions as being threatened by an empowered, emboldened, world population have managed to increase their wealth dramatically as a result of the much touted, cleverly engineered, pandemic. You know the phrase: “we’re all in this together”? Beyond a shadow of a doubt it doesn’t apply to behavior between the economic elite and the rest of us since the advent of Covid-19. The meetings, the sharing, the elevation in consciousness of the common people of the world which was dynamic and ongoing pre-Covid, could not have been more effectively curtailed.

Now we’re entering 2021 with the same media propaganda inspiring fear of Covid-19, rumors and articles about a mandatory vaccinations, vaccines using DNA-altering CRISPR technology, vaccination certificates being proposed for many activities, social distancing, cell phone tracking, highly controlled visas for international travel, restricted or closed restaurants and bars, live music being forbidden. It reminds me a WWII movie in which the protagonist is on a train within Nazi Germany and is confronted by a uniformed, armed, soldier demanding “your papers”.

But it’s all for our own protection…isn’t it?

As we enter the new year, a time that often brings an assessment of one’s life and behavior, one important aspect we have to consider is our trajectory into the future. What is the organizing principle of our lives? Is it fear? Is it love? Is it money? Is it life itself? Are we an intelligent world community? Or are we a collection of livestock to be herded and managed? Why on Earth are common people being led to feel we are defying “authority” if we wish to simply conduct our lives in the most common of manners? Why are we accepting that our ability to carry on our businesses, our family relationships, our community activities, should be unilaterally dictated by a few in some “official” position or another? Especially since some, or all, of those few are materially profiting greatly from their mandates and proclamations.

It’s 2021. Best wishes to you and yours.

Time to shed the dysfunctional personal and cultural patterns the way a snake sheds a skin it has outgrown.

by kendunning, posted in Building our future., Manifesting our Future, Personal Development, Science, Spirituality, Unified Field
Image (c) AlexMax http://www.fotosearch.com

I woke up in the middle of the night, my mind filled with thoughts of how disorienting, how contradictory, how hostile, the world can seem right now. Around this genuinely beautiful world there are people of all ages, genders, educational levels, people with sometimes vastly different experiential realities. We all want to live, we all want to love and be loved. I also believe that, if we are in touch with our core, innate being, all of us genuinely want to be contributing to a world which, in return, sustains us with the material requirements of a whole and healthy life.

However, many of the prevalent societal models humans are endeavoring to live within (all?) contain some degree of short-sighted, ultimately non-survival oriented reactions to the challenges we all mutually face in this world. Reactions which can and do become internalized, and go on to become manifest within the lives of people attempting to formulate a healthy life within our respective cultures. Short-sighted, ultimately non-survival oriented reactions which, in truth, stand in the way of our achieving the criteria needed to be genuinely whole, healthy individuals. Whole healthy individuals which, in turn, are needed to constitute whole, healthy communities…and cultures. Collectively, around the world, there are many cultures filled with, being run by, people caught in such ultimately self-defeating reactions. Reactions which are in their nature, circular, self-reinforcing, and which we need to escape… in order to save ourselves.

How do we know if such ultimately self-defeating, short-sighted reactions to the world, are widespread within the culture, the society, we live within? Does the culture have extreme poverty? Is there an extreme imbalance of wealth within the culture? Are the emotions jealousy, anger, envy, fear, hatred, even contempt toward one another common within the citizens? Does a person have to work long hours every day and still find themself unable to afford a decent material livelihood? Do people spend time and energy judging each other’s worth/value as human beings based on either superficial physical characteristics or what amount to culturally imposed inequalities of wealth and education? Is one’s ability to compete with the others within the culture seen as more important than one’s ability to cooperate with others? Is depression, apathy, isolation a common experience among many of the citizens? Is complacency common among others? These feelings and behaviors are all symptoms of ultimately self-defeating mental/spiritual reactions to our world. Reactions often reciprocally fueled by, and resulting in the emotions listed and italicized above.

In reality, there are so many combinations of emotional/behavioral, individual and cultural self-defeating reactions, thinking and behavior patterns, one could spend one’s entire life studying them, categorizing them, and still not encounter all of them. In an infinite universe, there are probably infinite ways to get it wrong. However, ultimately, having a detailed understanding of all of the errors possible in understanding and behaviors still doesn’t necessarily mean we are equipped to “get it right”. It’s time to rein in our worldwide busy-ness with all the self-defeating, nihilistic reactions which occupy us. The people of the world need to all stop, take a deep breath, and ask ourselves “how is this working out for me”. In the vast majority of cases, for the genuine health and well-being of most lives, it isn’t. Most people in the world are economically “treading water”, if that, while a relative few are hoarding the resources needed to revitalize the cultures of the world.

That being said, what’s needed right now among the people of the world isn’t primarily the assignment of blame. What is needed is correction. Which, in a strictly material sense, is a simple matter. However, within a human psyche writhing with various obsessions with personal wants, desires and grievances, it can be anything but simple. It will only be when we learn to think substantially in terms of “we”, instead of limiting ourselves to “I”, that humankind will have a chance at achieving a harmonious world that supports all humankind. A world in which our ongoing, innately present, desire to enjoy our lives and to realize all of the incredible potentials which are present in every human being can actually become manifest.

The goals of “making a killing”, or putting all of those ________________ (fill in the blank) in their places, or of being the first and/or the only at anything, need to be shed like a snake sheds a skin which has become too small. We need to look at the world with fresh eyes, realizing that poverty, sickness, hunger, homelessness anywhere is decreasing the health and the well-being of the entire world. We need to devote enough of our time, energy and resources to lifting up, healing, educating, the downtrodden to bring this world into stability and vitality. Prophets and sages have been saying this, in myriad ways, for centuries. It’s time we listen and take it to heart. They have been right all along. With all the knowledge and resources we as a species possess in this world, it does appear that all that is missing, all we need, is love.

Where to start? One of the gems of knowledge we already have has come to us via Abraham Maslow. With his hierarchy of needs, he gave us a blueprint of how to go about it. Some of the hierarchy, particularly those pursuits nearer the top, are pursuits which are more dependent upon our own, individual, efforts. However, particularly the issues present on the first two tiers, the most basic issues relative to human life, are issues which ultimately require our cooperation with one another to fully achieve. If we encourage a competitive culture, even the attainment of meeting those requirements is always tentative within our lives. And if our attainments are tentative, they are continually taking time and energy from us in order to work at reinforcing and protecting them. Time and energy which we then do not have to devote to the higher, more uniquely human and at the same time more divinely miraculous aspects of our being.

Will it take another extinction event, another re-boot of humankind, for us as spiritual beings to realize the folly of ignoring our own interconnected, spiritual reality?

by kendunning, posted in Community, Environment, Manifesting our Future, Mental Health, Personal Development, Science, Spirituality, Unified Field
Image (c) AlexMax http://www.fotosearch.com

We are all energy beings. We are manifested in a manner which presents as material and solid, however, when physicists take a closer look, that appearance begins to be revealed as a manifestation apparently constructed out of nothingness. We’re all energy beings. As such we live within, and are a part of, an energy field. We’re all, at our most basic level, all made of the same stuff. That same stuff is all around us and extends into the infinite universe we live within. We are, quite literally, inseparable from the universe we live within. One universe, many planets, many stars, many galaxies, many dimensions. All within the one, the all. And we have the privilege, the blessing, of being conscious, alive, to experience it.

Beyond a doubt, the experience of consciousness within such a stellar and magnificent reality can cause some aberrations to take place in our minds. We love it, some want to own it, some want to somehow grasp onto the very small piece of it closest to us and control it. As if that were possible in the crude, brutal ways it is usually attempted. We are in a dance, a dance of energy, light, motion, love. To do anything other than try to flow with it, to appreciate it, and to care for aspects of it we have the ability to work with, is hubris. It is the lack of humility, the overestimation of, or presumptuousness as to our place within our reality that creates a lot of problems for us.

Some look around and think because of the color of my skin, or hair, or eyes, or my height, or my physical strength, or my keenness of intellect, I am wholly superior to others. Or that because they happened to be the first human to begin living in a particular valley, or on a particular hill, they therefore own the whole of it. Our desire to own, to somehow freeze the ongoing flow of time and life, and make it our own, has led us to form collectives, cabals, with agreements to abide by certain rules and documents and to live as if those rules and documents truly represent some kind of divine right. Again, such hubris.

Innate within us, within us from the moment of our creation, is a connection to the Universal Creative Spirit, which is, in fact, the universe, the all. Within that connection is guidance. When we still our minds, access that guidance, we know what we should do, and we know what we should not do. We know that each and every one of us, each individual, is ultimately no greater, nor lesser, than any other. In a move that has shown itself to have the potential to be both a blessing and a curse, in all of this wondrous creation, for reasons we may not (cannot?) fully understand, we have been given free will. I guess the Creative Spirit, which flows within and around us, and of which we are all an integral part, didn’t want a bunch of puppets.

We know there have been other civilizations before this one. Civilizations lost in time, we occasionally find artifacts which testify to their existence. One of these prior civilizations, Atlantis, from the stories which have been passed down to us, brought it’s destruction upon itself through it’s hubris. Too much knowledge in too specific a focus. Not enough appreciation of the whole of the system they (we) exist within. In their manipulations of the material world, they lost sight of, lost appreciation of, the spiritual. In their ability to play with aspects of the stuff of creation, they lost humility. They went out of synch with the universal dance they were a part of, and were washed away as the will within universe didn’t see fit to alter the greater in deference to the lesser.

What more obvious way to love, to honor the Universal Creative Spirit, call it God, or not, than to love and honor the creation? After all, the creator and creation are one. We are, in fact, of God. When we forget that we are only parts of a whole, and that none of us has any greater claim to the whole than any other of us, then, again, we get into trouble. In the past that trouble was always, relative to the totality of human existence and the planet, relatively local stuff. We fought with stones, axes, swords, guns and relatively localized explosives. As time has gone on we have become increasingly capable in our ability to wreak destruction upon the materialized reality we are a part of. However, to want to do so is symptomatic of mental and spiritual illness, always. It is symptomatic of people cut off from, in denial of, the foundational spiritual reality which we all live within and are all a part of. To engage in the deception of, the destruction of others, is to engage in self-deception and self-destruction. To engage in cooperating with, nurturing, building, healing, appreciating others, is to manifest those things in our world, to manifest them as resources for, aspects of, ourselves.

We have free will. History shows us the Universal Creative Spirit, because love is it’s essential nature, also will wipe the slate and start again if necessary. When the hubris of the creation has led to a denial of love. Humankind has reached a level of functioning that allows individual men and women, and groups, to engage in activities which affect all human life, all life itself, upon the entire planet. We have free will. We can engage in constructive, loving, nurturing activities, or we can engage in activities which are designed along narrowly perceived avenues of immediate benefit to a few, but which ignore the effects of such behaviors upon the conditions affecting well-being of the larger whole. Conditions which will, ultimately, bear upon all.

Will it take another extinction event, another re-boot of humankind, for us as spiritual beings to realize the folly of ignoring our own interconnected, spiritual reality?

The Assault Upon Our Democracy

by kendunning, posted in Community, Economics, Oppression, Personal Development, Politics, Psychology, Spirituality, Unified Field
Graphic: Copyright: lightwise / 123RF Stock Photo

As we enter 2021 the United States is filled with a citizenry which, on the whole, is more troubled, fearful, angry, and poorer than they ever have been in the last 75 years. A citizenry which is increasingly homeless and hungry. A citizenry which is increasingly being “ruled”, not governed, by a cabal composed of the wealthiest who have managed, over the past 60+ years, to shape the thinking and culture of the nation to their liking. Joe Biden was certainly correct when, in his speech on Jan. 6, he stated “…our democracy is under unprecedented assault…”. However, he is sorely inaccurate in his assignment of the source of the assault merely to those who were demonstrating, and rioting, at the Capital Building.

While the demonstration and riot did manage to achieve a graphic display of the dissatisfaction which is widespread in the U.S., as far as preventing a fulfillment of the results of the last election, it was a misguided, futile effort. The pervasive and, at this point, long standing threat, the primary threat to American democracy: which is on the verge of dealing a fatal blow to the American experiment in democracy, is the dissemination of inaccuracies, lies, propaganda, which those occupying the highest positions in both government and industry have been increasingly engaging in since the end of the Second World War. It is impossible for a healthy democracy to exist without a steady flow of honest, accurate information for the people, who are at the heart of the system, to base their decisions upon. As we enter 2021 we must face the fact our democracy is crippled in this regard by five realities:

  1. Our “representative government has in reality become a government/industry amalgamation which routinely cries out “national security” to prevent the citizenry from gaining access to critical information. Information essential to any genuine effort at democratic government.
  2. The corporations deeply entrenched in governmental function are so obsessed with being at the “top of the food chain” in a predatory corporate culture, lying to the public is simply standard operating procedure.
  3. The governmental agencies which have been originally tasked with the protection of the interests of the public, have been co-opted by the industries the public expects them to be regulating. Their proclamations are little more than corporate PR.
  4. The “mainstream” news media (the fourth estate) has been monopolized by large corporations and, collectively, have become little more than conveyors of propaganda disseminated under the guise of “news”.
  5. Our government is increasingly populated by self-serving politicians who: have learned how to manipulate the system for personal gain, are increasingly dependent upon the wealth of corporations and certain wealthy individuals to obtain office, employ professional speech writers who expertly write speeches which divert, manipulate and placate the public. Speeches which they have no compunction against delivering. The U.S. has not yet had a President which does not fall into this category during the 21st century.

So yes, Joe Biden is entirely accurate with his claim of an unprecedented assault being waged upon our democracy. However, his assigning the primary source of that assault to those who engaged in the misguided actions in Washington, D.C. on Jan 6th is just more diversion and manipulation. It is more misinformation, which is, in fact, the true assault upon our democracy.

The key to dismantling this monstrosity of a manipulative system is simple and easily available to every individual in the U.S. In fact, every individual in the world. It is love. It is having love for all of humankind. It is basing our speech, our actions, our systems on the reality of that love. We must embrace the reality encapsulated in the “Golden Rule”: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” and genuinely and thoughtfully apply it in our lives. We are all an important part of an interdependent system. When we realize that, “One for all and all for one.” becomes much more than an interesting motto from a book.

Arrogance, Abuse and Denial in 2021

by kendunning, posted in Building our future., Community, Economics, Environment, Politics, Spirituality, Unified Field

The twentieth century was rocked by devastation stemming from the arrogance shown by Adolph Hitler and the Nazis, along with the Japanese Empire of the day. It would be easy to believe, and I think many do, that a nation which played such an important part in defeating these two arrogant, abusive, murderous regimes would have an innate immunity from taking such an attitude itself. Yet somehow, it has happened. The behaviors of many American industries and the United States Government in relation to the people of many other countries, and, in many cases, to the citizens of the U.S. itself, demonstrate at least an equal amount of arrogance as that shown by the leaders of Germany and Japan prior to WWII.

As of this writing, within the U.S.:

  • There is a higher percentage of citizens imprisoned than within any other country.
  • Many of the prisons are being privately run for profit (slave labor).
  • The attention and the energies of the Government are being inordinately spent in the service of the wealthiest small minority of citizens.
  • Poverty, homelessness, and hunger are widespread and on the rise.
  • For decades the U.S. has been spending trillions of dollars not on infrastructure and well-being here in the U.S., but on destroying lives and infrastructure around the world. Often further enriching the already economic elite in the process.
  • There is a nationwide infatuation with stock prices and “profits” rather than genuine well-being.
  • Millions cannot afford routine healthcare.
  • Citizens are routinely and grievously fed information which is an outright lie, and if it is not an outright lie, often it is partial information presented in such a way as to mislead those exposed to it. This is done by the elected officials within the Federal Government, the CEO’s of many major industries, and too often by spokespeople for various governmental agencies.
  • The press, the “fourth estate” has too often become little more than parrots of the misinformation put forward.
  • For an elected official or other prominent business or entertainment personality to be linked in an incriminating manner to people engaged in human trafficking has become so routine it hardly raises an eyebrow.
  • The pursuit of money has come to be apparently accepted as an excuse in and of itself for grievous abuses of people and our environment.
  • “United we stand, divided we fall” has come to be replaced by “fuck you, I got mine”.

When faced with the abuses and the increasing cries of outrage, millions of Americans apparently accept it all with a complacent “it can’t happen here” attitude. Today, too often, being a proud American has come to mean being an arrogant American. To say this trend doesn’t bode well for the well-being of the U.S. is a horrible understatement. If the U.S. stays on this trajectory, the U.S. has nowhere to go but down.

I was born in the U.S., raised in the U.S., and live in the U.S. I have traveled a lot around the country. I have witnessed and experienced love, stimulating intelligence, positive human thoughts and attitudes and just plain human decency everywhere I have been. I cannot believe the greed, the callousness toward human life, the short-sightedness toward our environment and well-being, which are too often embodied and grievously displayed by those in prominent positions within government and various industries, and which are prominent within many of the ongoing policies and practices within the country, truly represent the heart and soul of the American people.

America desperately needs a reorganization of it’s operating principles. We can no longer sustain a country organized around what is good for mega-corporations and the wealthiest 1%. We need to prioritize the nation around what is good for human life, all human life. This includes fair wages, fair prices, affordable health care, affordable education, secure housing, clean water, nutritious food and a healthful environment.

The timeless observation of Hannah Arendt.

by kendunning, posted in Community, Covid-19, Personal Development, Politics, Psychology, Spirituality

In this post I am referring the reader to another article. It is a well-written examination of the events of the past year, which are still ongoing, as characterized by the observations of Hannah Arendt of Adolph Eichmann during his trial in Jerusalem .

LINK:

The “Curious, but Quite Authentic, Inability to Think“

The Enjoyment of Life

by kendunning, posted in Building our future., Enjoyment, Spirituality

I tend to focus a lot on the looming threats to humanity in my articles, especially recently when there is no shortage of material. However, looming threats are not what lead us to long, enjoyable lives. It is the appreciation of our own lives, the others around us, and the myriad wonders we have to enjoy in our world that elicit our desire for life. It is those life affirming things we should be, in the long run, spending the majority of our time and attention on.

I hope, in this unprecedented time of isolation for so many people, you are making the time and finding the pathways to listen to and play music, have dinner with friends, spend time with a loved one, take a walk, take a drive to a place of beauty. engage in those things which spark your desire for life.

Covid-19: Who should we believe?

by kendunning, posted in Building our future., Community, Covid-19, Healthcare, Psychology, Science, Spirituality, Trust and betrayal.

In the video linked at the end of this post, doctors and scientists from around the world all say the same thing: the pandemic, as reported in the media by and large, is a fraud and the vaccine is dangerous, don’t take it. That summary is blunt and lacks the full authority and other details to be found in the video itself. It is not meant to be an introduction to the video and falls far short of doing justice in that regard. Please watch the video. There are two links in case one has been cut off. (Which presents it’s own question. In this land of “free speech”, why are presentations that call a worldwide vaccination program into question being pulled, not by their authors, from publicly accessible websites?)

So why not just post the video and skip the writing? Because I feel a need to say something about the larger question, which is: Is it really possible that enough of the world’s leaders, enough world media, and enough of the world’s highly placed medical authorities are working together to attempt such a large scale manipulation of people around the globe? I think most people are going to have the knee-jerk response to that question of “no, it’s unthinkable”. That is certainly an understandable response born of years or decades of repetitive presentations which, directly or indirectly, tell us that such a thing is unthinkable. Presentations within schools, colleges and by the media, along with maybe some wishful thinking. After all, who would want such a thing to be happening in our world? Certainly not me.

But here we are, with conflicting information flying around us. With experts in the fields associated with the events around Covid-19 (Covid) putting forward statements that absolutely contradict what seems to be the worldwide assumption: that Covid is a genuine, deadly pandemic, that it infects millions, has killed hundreds of thousands, and requires worldwide vaccinations if we ever want to be safe again. Yet, with so many outspoken, qualified, doctors and scientists, from many countries, with nothing to gain and a lot to lose by doing so, with their professional reputations and livelihoods on the line, telling us it just isn’t so, who are we supposed to believe?

There are some questions I think everyone should be asking, the answers to which are available within information, which is not disputed, which has been put forward as of this date. Here they are:

The first question is: Can we trust the numbers of Covid “cases” and deaths which the those in positions of governmental authority in the U.S. are putting forward. Numbers which the mainstream media by and large passes along unquestioned? The numbers which those in the positions of governmental authority are basing the lockdowns, the restrictions upon personal movement, and recommendations around vaccination on?

My response is no, we most certainly cannot. The reason I say that is because the numbers and the manner in which they are presented seem designed to deceive the public into believing the reality of the presence of Covid-19 (if it actually exists) is worse than it is. I inject “if it actually exists” because, as you will see in the video, there are some very knowledgeable people who are not convinced that it does. Some very knowledgeable and qualified professionals state the virus has never been isolated. However, if we assume for the time being that it does exist, and that it is resulting in actual illnesses and deaths, is it actually responsible for the numbers of illnesses and deaths the media are attributing to it? Again, the answer is clearly no.

Concerning the reported “cases” of Covid, in the U.S. the reality is that the PCR test being used to supposedly establish incidents of exposure to the virus is notorious for false positives. So in that alone we see an exaggerated figure being put forward. The second criticism I offer relates to a somewhat more subtle psychological ploy being used in reporting the number of “cases”. It is that the exaggerated number of presumed exposures to the virus is being called “cases” at all. In fairness, I have found that within the specialized world of the CDC the presence of a pathogen in a person warrants it being termed “a case”. However, in the day to day world of the average person a “case” of a disease commonly means someone is actively symptomatic, actively ill. Calling people who have no symptoms, are experiencing no ill effects, from a virus “a case”, while maybe defendable in a court of law, in fact, leads people to believe that things are worse than they are. If we had used this method with any other flu or disease that has shown up in the past, we would have seen numbers way higher than the numbers of active illness we used to define those outbreaks. It is a fact that relative to any potentially pathogenic virus that comes along, our body’s immune system will immediately begin defending us and, as is the case with Covid-19, the vast majority of us simply will not become actively ill. Why intentionally put forward a such a large and anxiety provoking exaggeration? What is there to gain?

Regarding the reported number of hospitalizations from Covid, what I have learned is some, or all (?), hospitals are testing people who may have been admitted for reasons entirely unrelated to Covid and, if the test is positive, that hospitalization is reported as a Covid hospitalization. Again, why? Why distort a number in a manner which will predictably increase anxiety and fear in the population at large? What is there to gain?

Concerning the reported Covid deaths, Dr. Deborah Birx, in explaining how the government is accumulating and reporting this number said they are taking a “very liberal” approach to death reporting and Covid-19. People who die with Covid (meaning the virus is reportedly present in their body) but not from Covid-19, are being counted as a Covid death. Again, if this method of reporting had been used with any flu in the past (as with the “cases” reporting) we would have seen greatly increased numbers of fatalities from any incidence of flu. Is this an accurate way of determining Covid deaths? The answer is clearly “no”. Which again begs the question, by implementing this clearly exaggerated method of reporting, what is there to gain?

So the second question: What is there to gain and by whom? The answer to this question doesn’t take long to answer, there are hundreds of billions dollars to gain. Not millions, not billions, hundreds of billions. But only if “we the people” believe we are facing a ferocious disease which threatens the very fabric of humanity. Because if we don’t believe it, we aren’t going to keep trotting ourselves out to the testing centers. We aren’t going to tolerate our businesses, our restaurants and bars, being closed down for weeks on end. We aren’t going to tolerate our schools being closed. We aren’t going to just accept the additional economic and emotional hardships the restrictions and lockdowns impose. And, maybe most importantly, we aren’t going to line up for the vaccinations in the numbers we will if we believe the mainstream narrative.

If we didn’t believe the narrative so far, Jeff Bezos and the other billionaires who are reaping windfall profits wouldn’t be the recipients of all that money. Big Pharma wouldn’t have received the billions in funding to develop a vaccine and they wouldn’t be looking at billions more in future sales. Wealthy real estate investors wouldn’t be looking at the properties coming available due to defaults on loans which they’re now looking at. And these are just the Covid related profitable situations I know about. How many are there I don’t know about…yet? So are there people with something to gain with what is taking place with Covid? Yes, big time. But again, only if we believe what those in positions of governmental authority and the media keep telling us.

Which brings us to our third question: Who should we believe? The many doctors and scientists from around the world who, with nothing material to gain and everything to lose, are telling us, essentially, that we’re being manipulated, lied to? Or the people who are looking at windfall riches if only we keep believing, keep feeling the fear the media has done such a effective job of creating and maintaining?

Finally, there is the question stated in the beginning of this post and implied in all of what is above: Could it be possible that people in key positions of government, media, and medical authority, in many countries, could all be brought on board to facilitate such an abuse of the general citizenry of the world? It would definitely be a first in recorded history. However, if the past 100 years should have taught us anything, it’s that we’re living in an age of “firsts”.

Links to video:

The Question on Everyone’s Mind…

The Question on Everyone’s Mind…