Tag: Economics

Some observations about immigration and the nature of the culture in the United States.

by kendunning, posted in Building our future., Community, Economics, Government, Immigration, Mental Health, Political Corruption, Politics, Sustainability

If the people in a country don’t like the living conditions which that country’s culture, religion, political system, attitudes, and values have produced, and they leave that country and come to the United States looking for conditions less challenging to their lives, they should strive to understand and honor the positive values, governmental structure, laws, and cultural aspects that make the U.S. a better choice. A great many do, however, unfortunately not all. Too many have other ideas.

Too often it seems the good and generous nature of very many (most?) lifelong U.S. citizens is seen as a weakness to be exploited. Too many immigrants bring the fear and predatory practices they saw and learned in their country of origin here with them and exercise them. Essentially working to recreate the conditions that they fled in their country of origin here in the U.S. Not exactly though; in a way that they feel they are the “winners”. The “losers” are the American people and the American culture. It seems many Americans have been conditioned to the belief that tolerating these incursions is somehow noble.

How did this conditioning come about? That’s an easy one: from the predatory, egoistic, callous practices that have been being foisted upon the American public by other lifelong Americans for decades now. The corporate and private profiteers and their accomplices and minions in the media, in government, in educational and religious institutions. All the repetitions that American adults and children are exposed to of the messages that greed is good, look out for number one, lying/cheating/stealing/manipulating are just what has to be done to get rich. You know, the messages that show up over and over again in movies, music and television. Also attitudes nurtured within increasingly cutthroat competitive practices of all kinds: academics, sports, business, and playing fields across the nation. If tolerating these conditions is noble when they are being acted out by lifelong U.S. citizens, why is it any different in regard to immigrants?

We have allowed our nation to develop a culture of predation, distrust, callousness, and avarice to the point that when people carrying those attitudes immigrate, in whatever manner, into our towns and cities, a whole lot of people hardly give it a second thought.

Right now avarice and callousness are being extolled everywhere from the gangsters in our towns and cities, the CEOs and Boards of Directors of our largest corporations, all the way to the halls of Congress and the White House. But don’t think for a minute that this is something new and exclusive to President Trump, it isn’t. It’s been going on in successive Presidential administrations for decades. I tend to think that it’s been going on so pervasively for so long that President Trump doesn’t understand what can be so offensive to so many American people by his being so brazen about it.

I imagine in the social circles that U.S. Presidents and CEOs of large corporations run in such brazen attitudes have been flaunted openly for some time.

In the meantime, the common citizens of the U.S. have been reeling under the ever-increasing economic austerity that the demand for increasing wealth by the wealthiest and politically influential (the two go hand in hand nowadays) imposes.

Don’t get me wrong, we don’t need socialism or communism. We don’t need, I hope, to tear the entire system down and start developing a new culture from the ashes. We need people to get in touch with their innate, internal spiritual being in it’s fullness and realize the benefits, the necessity, of loving our neighbor as ourselves. We need individual thoughtfulness about what a good, healthy society actually is and requires. To restate something I’ve seen; we need to love people and use wealth, not the other way around. When enough of us see the truth of this and actively practice it in our day to day lives, being careful not to encourage or support the current widespread corruption and greed, maybe we can tip the scales toward a sustainable culture.

Why do we go to such lengths to conceal, misrepresent, and repress our awesome spiritual reality?

by kendunning, posted in Mental Health, Spirituality, Personal Development, Community, Politics, Science, Psychology, Sustainability, Metaphysics

First I want to say that I realize that there are many causes for disease, both physical and mental, within human beings. However, it seems often our “science” has developed tunnel vision to only consider those causes which it can weigh or otherwise measure with currently existing technology. The reality that the human spirit exists and along with every other aspect of our being, has it’s own qualities and responds in certain ways to certain stimuli, or input, seems to have been dismissed. Why is that?

One of the biggest challenges facing humanity today is that of realizing and being able to accept the full spectrum of functioning which we are capable of.  More accurately stated: not only capable of but are actively engaging in. However, which we too often, with our “educated”, external validation dependent mentality, spend time and energy actively questioning and/or denying the reality of. 

Why do we, as a society, spend so much time, energy and resources working to contain our conscious functioning within the narrow boundaries which so many who claim to be the “authorities” within our culture delineate for us? The boundaries that the teachers, the priests, the ministers, psychiatrists and psychologists, even our own loving parents and others, way too often tell us are the limits of sanity, of reality. That anything beyond these delineated boundaries constitutes fantasy, dreams, and/or delusions? This determination to define “normalcy”, to define reality and mental health within narrowly delineated boundaries has within many, if not all, of Western societies, been taken so far that “we” have developed systems of classification which claim to “authoritatively” define for us exactly what type of mental illness we suffer from if we claim, or admit to, conscious experiences outside of these boundaries. 

Beyond a doubt the main driving forces behind all this effort at preventing our realizing our own innate abilities and reality are greed and fear. 

I’m going to speculate that the origin of all this fear lies in the experiences of people in positions of worldly power who lusted for greater wealth and power, engaged in hurtful behaviors toward others, and found themselves experiencing the natural, unpleasant, spiritual/mental consequences of doing so. They naturally, and desperately, wanted the uncontrollable, sometimes frightening experiences to be unreal.  The people around them which they relied upon for counsel, sensing the dire nature of their distress, also being aware that if they responded in a manner unacceptable to that powerful person they themselves might suffer some dire distress of a bodily nature, began to invent, to conjure, explanations for what was taking place which absolved the powerful person of any personal responsibility in them.  Explanations that placed the blame upon some fault, some physiological disease affecting the mind, or the workings of some malevolent spirit, some external entity, possibly an evil sorcerer in the employ of a rival.  The latter reasoning likely led to more hurtful thoughts and behaviors toward others which ultimately served to exacerbate the unpleasant spiritual/mental experiences the “patient” was having. 

For those persons; the physicians, wizards, sorcerers, priests, astronomers, or whatever other title they went by, this became a source of perpetual income and purpose in life.  As long as they didn’t declare something which displeased the powerful person they were in service of.  They became well versed in the plants, the rituals, the incantations (vibration and frequencies) which could cure, or alleviate the patient’s symptoms, in regard to many illnesses.  But if, in the cases of disease rooted in spiritual origin they hinted that the powerful person’s own corruption of spirit; greed, lack of compassion and empathy, egoistic or sadistic impulses might be behind it all, they might suffer a fate similar to that of John the Baptist, Jesus and other saints and prophets around the world.  In these cases, even if the healer recognized what was going on, the preservation of the illusion of an as yet undiscovered material/worldly cause was essential. And, as stated above, this also preserved the life and the privileged position of the healer.

Let’s jump forward twenty or so centuries and what do we find?  It seems that in some ways not much has changed.  The props and terminology have gotten much more sophisticated. What used to be conjuring has become “science”, and ties, clipboards and white lab coats have replaced long dark robes and papyrus scrolls.  Superstition has become religion and silk robes and great stone cathedrals and churches have replaced animal furs and stone alters in the woods.  At least for the most part.

What hasn’t changed is the avoiding, the repressing, the denial of the knowledge of and reality that we live in a world in which our spiritual reality is not just a part of our reality; it is our primary reality. It is the foundational reality in which much causation of the occurrences in our world, both wonderful and horrible, are to be found.  We determine much of our own present and future by the spiritual values and attributes we embrace, glorify and act upon: even if we deny the existence of the spiritual aspect of our being. 

Further, there are people, men and women, who value and seek worldly power and riches regardless of the spiritual perversions and corruptions they engage in to acquire them, who are violently opposed to facing this reality.  So much so that they are strong supporters of any doctrine, “science”, and/or statements which serve to reinforce the denial and obfuscation of this foundational reality.

This has some profound implications for the folks who try to do good in the world, to be kind to others, to be fair and honest in their words and dealings. Folks who may find themselves marginalized within society by their inability to participate in the corruption and wrongdoings that are pervasive in so many of the worldly institutions, corporations, governmental bodies, and powerful individuals. If they speak out about their realizations regarding our wonderful spiritual reality, they are not only voicing something antithetical and repugnant to those embracing corruption, they are also threatening the incomplete worldview which those individuals strive to keep themselves convinced of.

If those individuals who recognize the reality of the spiritual nature of our existence have consciously experienced visitations by benevolent beings, or profound epiphanies regarding the nature of events in the world, they may find themselves subject to the same censure, ostracization, diagnosis, and/or persecution that, over the past few centuries, men and women who have dared to speak out about such things have too often found themselves subjected to. 

I want to reinforce that there are physical and mental illnesses that occur for other reasons than spiritual corruption.  There are individual healers; doctors, physicians, nurses, and others who have not, intentionally or inadvertently, spent their lives in the service of denying our spiritual reality.  We have much to be thankful for to the dedicated men and women who have developed genuine, beneficial, treatments and cures in honest efforts to help humankind. 

There are also individual priests and ministers in churches around the world whose genuine purpose and endeavors are aimed at improving the human condition and the alleviation of human suffering through better understanding of and alignment with our foundational spiritual reality.  Individuals who have accomplished much good in the world.

However, when it comes to the larger scale, pervasive, institutional practices in these areas, I cannot think of any that have not been infected by the corruptions and perversions that have proliferated so pervasively within the men and women who lust for great worldly wealth and power. As a general statement, science is not immune from tunnel vision, manipulation, and abuse. And because a thought construct is a religious belief or tenet does not mean that it inherently aligns positively with our spiritual reality.

We can rejoice in the truth that reality cannot be repressed indefinitely. No matter the sophisticated tools and techniques that are employed by those who intentionally or inadvertently seek to repress it, reality will assert itself. We can rejoice in the truth that we live in a reality founded and existing within a Divine Creative Spirit, God, and that love, wisdom, compassion, and kinship are primary values innately present within it.

In fact, truth, compassion, wisdom, love, cooperation and similar positive values are the only values that offer humankind a sustainable future in which we can realize the full potential of our lives and our spiritual heritage.

Capitalism, Socialism, and …

by kendunning, posted in Building our future., Community, Economics, Environment, Health, Innovation, Integrity, Mental Health, Personal Development, Psychology, Spirituality, Sustainability

I spend a fair amount of time on Facebook.  Maybe more than I should, however, it is an international public forum and it is interesting reading, watching, and becoming aware of the various perspectives on the world that people share.  There is one theme that shows up frequently which is someone either extolling the virtues of capitalism vs socialism or someone else extolling the virtues of applying socialistic methods to some particular aspect of our society.  Healthcare for instance.  And there are those that condemn capitalism and presumably are promoting socialism, but maybe, if they don’t explicitly declare that they are, maybe they aren’t.  Maybe they’re just fed up with the suffering that capitalism can leave in it’s wake. 

What we are seeing today is that capitalism has become infected with the “greed algorithm”.  Socialism has become infected by authoritarianism and the micromanagement of individual lives. 

What I rarely have seen is someone extolling the third option.

G.K. Chesterton is quoted as saying:  “The problem with Christianity is not that it has been tried and found wanting, but that it has been found difficult and left untried.”  That seems to be a common obstacle to humanity getting it right.  The right thing is often not the easiest thing.  It can require greater thoughtfulness, skill, patience, commitment.  The right thing can also require more mutuality, trust, personal responsibility.  There was a time when these virtues were commonly extolled.  So what happened?  When did so many people allow entitlement, self absorption, or greed take the place of what are obviously essential traits?   But I suppose that they’re only essential traits if humanity wants to survive in the long run. 

The third option is free enterprise accompanied by social consciousness, a sense of fairness, and a commitment to a healthy society as determined by the physical, mental, spiritual health of the people.  It seems to me that G.K. Chesterton’s observation can apply equally to this reality.  And, actually, such a reality is in keeping with the values which Jesus taught, and Siddartha Gautama. It is a fact that in order for our lives to have a context in which we as human beings can achieve our fullest potential, we need to have a harmonious, supportive, environment.  Not one free of challenges, problems to solve, mountains to climb.  But an environment in which we see each other as allies, as partners in life.  The challenges, problems and mountains are ever present naturally within both our external, and internal, environment   

If we as individuals and as a species cannot learn the art and science of living harmonious, healthful, vital lives concurrently with others doing the same, we are condemning ourselves to perpetual war, competition and all the physical, social, environmental, plagues that accompany such a misbegotten, diseased culture.     

While we are as children within an immense and wondrous universe, that doesn’t mean we must act immaturely.

This…

by kendunning, posted in Building our future., Community, Economics, Environment, Government, Gratitude, Health, Integrity, Mental Health, Personal Development, Politics, Psychology, Science, Spirituality, Survival, Sustainability, Technology

Sometimes things are a matter of perspective, but oppressing the human spirit is always a losing proposition.

by kendunning, posted in Building our future., Community, Economics, Mental Health, Oppression, Politics, Psychology, Spirituality, Sustainability
(c) mrdoggs http://www.fotosearch.com

There has been a lot in the news the past few months about the Epstein files, Pizzagate and other similar tales of sordid human abuse and trafficking along with the apparent connection between these things and an unspecified number of the wealthy and politically powerful people in the world. It can make one wonder why people who have so much would engage in such horrible activities. The beginning of this post is addressing one logical connection from a psychological perspective. A lot of this post is not pleasant, but it reflects a reality in our world. A lot of people would rather ignore this reality, but doing so is like ignoring a rabid animal in the midst of our cities and towns. We don’t need to obsess about it, but we should be aware. Awareness is the first step toward protecting ourselves from the human predators which exist in both low and high places.

Sometimes things are a matter of perspective.  For instance, to someone who has been taught, one way or another, to be afraid of the world, afraid of the natural processes in the world, afraid of the other people in the world, it might seem the most natural thing on Earth to strive to accumulate as much wealth and power, to try to control everything it is possible, in order to protect oneself from the threat of, well, “the other”.   From such a perspective empathy, compassion, sympathy, or pity toward the general population of the world may well seem to be feelings and thoughts to be strictly avoided.  Anything that opens a person up to “them”; the dangerous masses which they perceive as a blight on the Earth, or as waiting outside the gate to swarm them, to take what they have, one way or another, acquired; makes the general population of the world something to be held in contempt, feared, and any feelings of empathy or compassion toward the general population a disease to inoculate themselves against.  This logic tends to lead things toward to a self-fulfilling prophecy which only escalates the division, contempt and fear which now builds on both sides of the great imbalance.

How does one inoculate themself against essentail, life oriented human emotions?  How can such a hardened shell be built?  Further, how can such an inhuman condition be maintained? We know, and can see in the behavior of healthy infants that he feelings of empathy, compassion, sympathy are some of the most innate, natural emotions for humans, It can even be said that the development of these emotions is a significant part of what differentiates us from many other species. However, the solution to this dilemma is one that humanity has seen in world time and time again, war after war.  The answer is trauma.  Experiencing repeated, profound trauma; emotional, psychological, physical and/or chemical trauma, either acutely or chronically, and it can cause the physiology of such human emotions to experience shut down..  This is not uncommon among soldiers coming home from prolonged or extreme combat situations. Today one name that assign to such numbing or cut off from one’s emotions is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD. 

If, deep down inside, you have not been taught, by instruction or experience, to be fearful of the general population. If you are someone who has experienced love, caring and being cared for, these are feelings that a healthy person doesn’t want to lose the ability to feel. A healthy person wants to freely care about others and be cared about in return.  Victims of PTSD seek treatment.  Seek to get back in touch with feelings of empathy, compassion and love. They seek to get back in touch with the blessing of calm serenity down deep in their soul. 

But what if a person can’t remember ever knowing those feelings? What if they have been so traumatized, or otherwise injured, by psychological, emotional, physical and or chemical abuse at an early age? Or even prenatally (such as with prenatal alcohol exposure), that they have been incapable of feeling empathy or compassion as long as they can remember? Would people who have been living in a sub-culture which holds empathy and compassion for the general population in contempt actually go so far as to engage in behaviors, even rituals, to emotionally and psychologically cutoff themselves and/or their offspring from these emotions? There is significant evidence that they not only would, but that this is not all that uncommon in some of the most avaricious individuals and organizations in the world. I know this is hard for many people to believe; people who love their children and the children of their neighbors. It certainly is distasteful and something that many people, if not most, do not want to contemplate.

That, by the way, is a protective factor for those engaging in such inhuman treatment of their own children and too often the children of others. A strong aversion or resistance on the part of people in the general population to seeing, hearing about, or thinking about such behaviors provides the perpetrators with a kind of invisibility. Healthy people who do not want to contemplate such aberration seem quick to accept that any allegations of such behavior is a fabrication of people who themselves must be psychologically disturbed.

But if a person is someone who is seeking a state which allows them to have sufficient psychological and emotional comfort while engaging in inhuman behaviors toward others, then they don’t seek treatment for the lack of experiencing empathy and compassion. Quite the contrary, they go to sometimes great efforts to seek, establish, reinforce and maintain it.  They seek out ways to inflict the emotionally disabling effects of PTSD upon themselves. One way is expose themselves to other people’s trauma.  Vicarious traumatization can inflict the same effects as first-hand trauma. Also, it is less life threatening. How does one expose themselves to such experiences of other people experiencing trauma?  Today it isn’t all that hard to find both fictional and actual written accounts and photos as well as audio and video recordings of people experiencing trauma.  There are movies, books, and documentaries which show the horrors that exist through either natural disasters, or more often by human beings committing inhuman acts toward other human beings.  Video footage from wars or videos of people who are in the process of experiencing a violent, cruel death in other ways. There are even “underground” film makers who plan and produce such films. These are all resources that assist to emotionally/psychologically and spiritually numb a person to the natural human reactions to suffering and death.  The literature informs us that watching children experience such horrible abuses can hold even a higher degree of sought after trauma than watching adults go through them. Reportedly, this is because children’s emotions are purer, more intense.  A healthy human being feels an affinity, a natural, protective feeling toward children.  But if you’re someone seeking to make yourself into someone devoid of such affinity for people in general, caring about children is just one more avenue of unwanted emotional access to your mind, your feelings. 

It seems that just as with building tolerance with a drug addiction, vicarious traumatization isn’t enough after a while.  Like a drug addict with increasing tolerance, the person needs more intensity in the traumatic realities that they are witnessing. What is known about this phenomenon informs us that some find themselves moving on to the real thing.  Another thing that we can know from the literature on human spirituality and sometimes by our own experiences, is that the positive aspects of the human spirit can be very resilient. To a mentally, emotionally healthy person this resilience of feelings such as love, empathy, caring, is indicative of the beauty of the human spirit.   But to someone seeking to not feel those aspects of the human spirit this natural resilience must seem something like the recurrence of disease. Such feelings are contrary to being able to abuse others, to take from others the things that others need to sustain their lives.  For some, if not all, abusers, there is reportedly a measure of perverted satisfaction the person also takes from inflicting mental/emotional/spiritual or economic suffering upon others. There is a likelihood that people who are participating in inflicting such horrors and abuses upon others are sometimes members of families or other groups who have been engaging in such behaviors over many generations. Lineages of people who have been honing, and profiting from, their ability to act inhumanly toward others.

We are all social beings, it is a deeply rooted part of being human. Why would it be any different for even the most ego driven, spiritually perverted, among us?  We know individuals engaging in such abusive, heinous behaviors sometimes (often?) form groups; cabals, covens, (corporations?) whatever name they have found that most satisfies the needs of their egos.  Together they engage in such behaviors, sometimes making a ritual out of it. Some have a desire for elaborate settings and costumes in their efforts. I assume this partially serves to convince themselves that they are doing something more sophisticated than the grotesque, inhuman perversions are engaging in.  Often it seems wealth and power are significant aspects of their goals.  Wealth and power can become a narcotic. One which is used to soothe the pain of the emptiness which results from being divorced from the true, ultimately inescapable, essential human spiritual reality.  The knowledge of the fact that there is a pervasive human spiritual reality, that it encompasses all people and has love, mutuality empathy and compassion as integral aspects of it, is an aspect of our reality that those who engage in such horrific behaviors have somehow had inadequate introduction and/or education in. As for the innate awareness of our spiritual reality which all have to some degree, it is this which the abusive behaviors, the rituals, are effective in obfuscating. In the 1960s “Do your own thing.” became a popular phrase. A wise woman who I had the privilege of knowing shared with me the perspective that the phrase is ridiculously unnecessary. Why? Because: try to stop doing your own thing. None of us can, it is as impossible as a thing can be. Likewise, ultimately, we can never separate ourselves from the universal creative spirit that we are all a part of and dwell within.

That is a part of the tragedy accompanying those who are engaging in inhuman activities toward others. Ultimately they are going to have to deal with fully realizing and reconciling those activities as beings within and part of the Divine Creative Spirit. We sometimes can judge ourselves more harshly than others might. What about when the offenses are as grievous as those referred to previously? I think it was with full realization of this that, when experiencing horrible torture and abuse on the cross, Jesus prayed to God and asked: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Today we are facing a world in which people have the free will to engage in denial, contempt for, and perversion of our innate spiritual reality. It’s almost as if two separate realities have emerged: the reality of the predators (abusers) and the reality of those being preyed upon. But to see these two aspects of the socio/economic reality of our world as separate realities is an illusion. It is all taking place within the reality of the Divine Creative Spirit and the laws of our spiritual reality will always ultimately assert themselves. In the meantime, how do we as human beings trying to successfully have lives within this reality deal with such heinous offenses against the minds, bodies and spirits of our brothers and sisters?

One obstacle we face in any efforts to curtail or remedy the occurrances of predatory abuse taking place is the those who are the most “successful” (at what are ultimately suicidally destructive predatory/parasitic behaviors) have realized the need to maintain public personas that inspire respect, sometimes even admiration. In part this is defensive camoflage, but it also is often necessary for abusers to put in place to be able to access their victims or the positions of power they need to carry out their abusive schemes.  History shows us though that sooner or later awareness of the reality around the abuses taking place, abuses experienced by the target popuations and their loved ones begins to grow. When this happens whatever illusions the predatory abusers have put in place to try to conceal their true practices are gradually seen through.   Oppression of the human spirit is a losing proposition. 

 We can see that process taking place in some of the major societal upheavals of the past two hundred and fifty years. The American revolution, the French revolution, the Communist revolutions in Russia, China and Cuba and many more are some extreme examples of what can happen when an abused population becomes activated against the abuse and abusers.  However, we can also learn from these events that the revolutionaries in all these cases themselves were not immune from the sickness of mind and spirit which had so pervaded those who they were rebelling against. It’s not that revolutions with just causes always result in a new, more equitable, enduring better world.  What we can learn from these events is that regrettably, too often put in a position to be able to see a way to grab them, human beings are too often all too quick to be infected with a lust for wealth and power.  Too often a repeat of the culture of “haves” and “have nots” is what emerges and the cycle begins again. 

This is something that has happened so often in human history one might believe that it is an inescapable human failing.  It isn’t.  One criterion that is always in place when such repetition occurs is that the people involved are ignorant enough of the true nature of our spiritual reality that they are susceptible to becoming overly enamored of the enticements of material pleasures.  It’s not that material pleasures are categorically bad or evil, they aren’t.  But just as an individual can overindulge in the pleasures of life and lose sight of taking care of their spiritual and physical health in the process, the same can happen with groups of people, with cultures. The mindset, the spiritual disease, of craving unlimited acquisition without proper regard for the wellbeing of others can be as contagious as any physical disease that there is.  As we can see by conditions in the world today, it can become a pandemic which infects even the people who are most negatively affected by it.  It shouldn’t be too surprising though, the predators actively seek to encourage a “prey aspiring to predator”, attitude among the general population.  They use the media to portray extravagant wealth as the key to a happy life, the key to heaven on Earth.  They want the general population to envy them, idolize them, to want to emulate them. To be infected with an obsession with materialism.  They desire that the general population be perpetually blinded to the reality that there is any other way. Particularly a way that nourishes and sustains the life and spirit of all who work at it. A way that does not require inhumanly preying upon the lives of others in order to truly enjoy the wonders, the blessings of life on this planet.    

It is such a profound truth that it bears repeating:  Oppression of the human spirit is a losing proposition. Ultimately that is true for every person on Earth or anywhere else.  A human spirit may be crushed, but like what looks like dead, dry grass after a drought, give it some love and care and it will spring back, vibrant, vital, dynamic. If, by design or default, you work at oppressing others, you are working toward your own eventual demise.  If you are successful at oppressing others you are defeating yourself because the actions involved in the acquisition of extravagant wealth do not honor nor uphold the true conditions of our spiritual reality.  You are not honoring your own spiritual reality. We are all interconnected and ultimately the quality of our future, of anyone’s future, is tied to the quality of everyone’s future.

The illusion that the material world is all that there is, is often the jumping off place to engaging in all manner of behaviors offensive to and counterproductive of a healthy spirit.  There are people who believe that when it comes to spirituality, we are physical beings who are maybe, or maybe not, in search of a spiritual aspect to our lives.  That is exactly the opposite of our reality!  We are spiritual beings who are incarnated in an effort to establish a physical reality for ourselves.  Why?  If for no other reason because it can be very enjoyable.  But to, by design or default, tacitly agree to accept suffering tomorrow for some pleasure today is an idiot’s bargain.  Especially when it is unnecessary.  With wisdom and proper regard for one another we can have heaven on Earth without putting the wheels in motion to have to suffer farther “down the road”.  All it takes is some wisdom, maturity, humility, occasionally patience, and the willingness to put in the work. The mental and physical work to make it a reality.  It doesn’t even require slaving away to put the work in. It just requires including putting some work in conscientiously and regularly.  As Jesus said: “My yoke is light and my burden is easy.”  He wasn’t talking about a yoke we put on to serve him.  He is referring to the yoke we put on, as he did, to righteously work within our divine spiritual reality. To truly be doing the best for our own happiness and wellbeing. Part of our task is that we do have to put in the work to get to know ourselves, our spiritual reality, as well as our physical reality (which is a creation of our spiritual reality). 

We have to realize that we must speak and honor truth, always.  We need to recognize and embrace the central role that love occupies in a healthy spiritual reality. No more half-truths and manipulative myths.  It also includes educating ourselves around what keeps us physically healthy (because our body is our temple).  Overindulging, as a habit, doesn’t work to keep us healthy.  Think of it as we’re working to learn how to live with enough awareness and love to prevent the heaven we occupy from becoming a hell.  At this point in time, it is not hard to see that we haven’t been doing the best job of it. Especially when we realize that we are our brother’s, and sister’s, keepers.

(c) Alex Max, http://www.fotosearch.com

. 

Alien Invasion: Something we need to worry about or something major defense contractors want us to worry about?

by kendunning, posted in Building our future., Economics, Government, Political Corruption, Politics, Psychology, Science, Technology, UFOs, UAP
Artwork Created by Microsoft Copilot

In 1965 I had the opportunity to travel from Indiana to New Mexico with a group of 14 Explorer Scouts and two Scoutmasters. Our final destination was the Philmont Scout Ranch in northern New Mexico. We were going to spend a number of days hiking in the mountains. We weren’t a wealthy group so we were saving money along the way whenever possible. One of the money saving things we did was to camp along the way rather than stay in motels. One night we were in Lubbock, Texas and had gotten permission to camp in one of the city parks. It was mid-August, the air was warm and the sky was clear. I loved to look at the night sky, in those days there was far less light pollution. We were sleeping on the ground, without tents, in a clearing with tall trees maybe 50 meters to my left and to my right. When it happened I think every other member of the group had gone to sleep.

A circle of yellow light which seemed to be the bottom of a craft appeared moving from right to left. It was maybe 50 meters above the treetops. I would estimate it to be approximately 20 meters in diameter. It made no sound at all. It was moving smoothly but it wasn’t moving particularly fast. At just about the same time that the first craft reached the perimeter of trees to my left, two more such craft appeared to my right. They were the same size and shape, with the same illumination, as the first craft. They were side by side, also moving smoothly and silently. The appearance and passage of all three craft took about 10 to 12 seconds. Even though the bottoms of all three circular craft were illuminated with a yellow light, they did not light up the trees nor the ground. I was in awe. I turned to a friend who was sleeping next to me, shook him, and asked him if he saw that! But he was sound asleep and there was no response. The next morning, I think I told him, and only him, of what I had seen. Decades later I did an online search and found an article in the Lubbock paper about the event. I wasn’t the only observer of what had happened.

Consequently, ever since I have had no reason to doubt the existence of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs), Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs), or whatever name or acronym they may be referred to by. It is a fascinating and important subject. The past few decades there have been many good documentaries produced on the general subject of extraterrestrial (ET) visitation to Earth. I have grown to particularly appreciate Dr. Steven Greer’s efforts to bring honest, authentic information on the subject to light. One theme that Dr. Greer comes back to frequently is the theme of how those in political power and the corporate media in the U.S. are making something of an effort to villainize extraterrestrial beings. It’s not uncommon to find adjectives such as “terrifying” or “frightening” used in connection with possible ET sightings. And more to the point of this post, it’s not uncommon to see the word “invasion” used in regard to such sightings. Finding articles which speculate about, or warn of, an extraterrestrial invasion is not difficult.

But here’s the thing, it is also not hard to find pictures of ancient cave art which is believed to depict alien beings. I linked to one example, or just do a search on “ancient cave art alien beings”. There are also quite a number of renaissance paintings which depict a UFO in them. Or, again, do your own search on paintings which depict UFOs. There are reports of people either sighting UFOs or having an encounter with the occupants of UFOs from just about every, if not every, continent going back decades if not centuries. The point is that metallic UFOs and alien beings with large heads and large dark eyes are nothing new. There is no question that the intelligence behind the UFO phenomena obviously has a much greater understanding of technology and physics than we do. Or maybe I need to add more than any people are readily admitting to. That is an important distinction for a reason I’ll get to. If there are people here on Earth, today, who possess the knowledge and skill to build and operate such craft, it is a relatively recent development. I would estimate no older than the mid twentieth century at the most. (I realize that raises the question of what did I see in Lubbock, Texas?)

Which brings us to a very important question. Why would beings who have outclassed us technologically for centuries wait until we might have the means to defend ourselves against them to try to invade us? Does that make any sense? These beings obviously possess the intellectual faculty to think logically. They undoubtedly have been able to watch the ongoing development of technology here on Earth. Those who have been studying the UFO phenomenon for decades state that there was a significant increase in UFO activity following the detonation of nuclear devices on Earth. I don’t think we Earthlings possess any propulsion technology that would come as a surprise to them. Nor any weapons technology for that matter.

But if we can be made to believe that some extraterrestrials have done exactly that: picked this point in time to decide to invade Earth, then the weapons industries can ask for billions of dollars, or rubles or yuan or pounds or Euros to protect us. And you know what? They’d get it. At least from the folks controlling the biggest military spenders among governments today. That is some significant motivation to those who are only interested in how such actions affect them and not the world at large.

Consider all that as context to the reality that according to people such Bob Lazar, Dr. Steven Greer, David Grusch, and others, we do have back engineered alien technology from crashed UFOs and possibly other sources. We do have craft which are being produced here on Earth using that acquired technology which look and act almost identical to the alien craft. And despite all the emphatic statements to the contrary, there are people within the halls of government within the U.S. and I suspect Russia, China and others who are aware of this.

If tomorrow a small fleet of UFOs, UAPs shows up over a major city on Earth and begin firing laser weapons or directed energy weapons, or sonic blasts, or electromagnetic pulses (EMPs) or a combination of these things, who do you think the people in the city are going to think is attacking them? At that moment I doubt if there will be much consideration given to whether or not the attack is coming from alien beings, or is a “false flag” attack by zealous, callous, profiteering defense contractors as a part of a high-tech sales pitch to the world. A “sales pitch” intended to frighten populations and motivate them to cry out for protection from their respective governments. At that moment, in the heat of the attack, the corporate media outlets around the world will pick up the narrative of an “alien attack” and those controlling the situation will run with it all the way to the bank.

There is another element involved which people who lust for control over others would be attracted to, that is the willingness of frightened people to give up any human rights or freedoms they may have at that time for a promise of protection. That is an important topic for another time, another post.

As hard as it may be to believe, the “invasion” scenario described above is a very real possibility that humanity should be aware of.

Liberty

by kendunning, posted in Building our future., Community, Economics, Government, Law, Oppression, Personal Development, Politics, Spirituality
Photo by Ken Dunning

I am writing again on the subject of liberty as opposed to the general concept of freedom. I feel the importance of realizing the difference between the two, and the primary, essential nature of liberty, cannot be overstated. Without the existence of liberty in our lives, any other freedom is conditional upon being allowed by the agreement of our oppressors. How can I say this? Because if we do not have liberty we are, by definition, oppressed. And if we are oppressed politically, economically, or militarily, we do not have liberty.

Some might consider this too fine a point, but it really isn’t. In fact, it is a monumental issue when we really get into the details of it. In the preambles to both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States, the Founders made it clear that “liberty” was a primary value that they sought to secure in the new nation. They do not write that they were seeking “freedom”, if they had meant freedom they would have written “freedom”. They knew about freedom. But they didn’t, they wrote that they were seeking to “…secure the blessings of liberty…”

What is the difference between liberty and freedom? Liberty is a specific type of freedom. It is the freedom from unjust oppression. The type of unjust oppression which many of the Founders, or their parents, had experienced at the hands of the monarchs, the aristocracy in Britain and which was still be waged upon the colonists in the land that would become the United States of America.

There is a place where liberty and freedom become mutually exclusive. That is when someone wants to claim the freedom to infringe upon the liberty of others. In other words, they seek to exercise some sort of political, religious, military or economic power, which they have used their freedom of some sort to acquire, to oppress another’s ability to reasonably engage in life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Such actions of oppressing other, vulnerable, people seem to be a very common occurrence in the world when some individual(s) or group(s) are allowed to acquire an inordinate amount of political or military power or economic wealth.

The inherent conflict with the stated intentions of the Founders can be made to appear non-existent when people are led to conflate liberty with freedom. Redefining longstanding, traditional terminology seems to be a common ploy in the efforts by special interests to unjustly impose their agendas upon others. Two other recent examples are the redefining of “pandemic” and “vaccine”.

We in the United States are fortunate that the Founders of this nation cared about liberty as a primary value. We do not honor them, or ourselves, when we allow liberty to be redefined and abused in order to allow some to pursue their overly self-serving dreams of wealth and power. All too often this is defended in the United States by the phrase “It’s a free country.”

But if we can recapture, rekindle the desire for liberty for all so clearly expressed by our nation’s Founders. If we can thoughtfully work to make it a reality, with thoughtful expression and thoughtful restraint we can achieve the great nation that the Founders dreamed of and fought for. But not if we allow a false allegiance to unbridled freedom lead us down the path of our own worst impulses.

This essay is dealing exclusively with the role that the importance of liberty played in the birth of the United States. The fact that it was a primary value within the hearts and minds of the Founders of this country, does not in any way indicate that I do not know that many other people in other countries have also dreamed of, worked and fought for, liberty in their nations. Liberty is not something that one people or nation can hold a franchise on. In fact, it is only when many people around the world can realize a fair and just existence of liberty within their lives and their nations that such liberty may be truly secure for any of us.

Do Not Conflate Liberty with Freedom

by kendunning, posted in Community, Economics, Government, Oppression, Politics, Spirituality, Sustainability

In the U.S.A. there is a great travesty taking place within our thinking and within our expressions.  That is the conflation of “liberty” with “freedom”.  They are not the same and they were not when the Founding Fathers of the United States fought for the blessings of liberty. Not freedom, liberty. 

Liberty is the freedom from oppressive restrictions upon one’s way of life.  This in no way states nor implies the freedom to do whatever one wants to do.  Oppression is the unjust infliction of hardship and constraint upon a subordinate group.

Some freedoms, including unbridled freedom in the marketplace, are what enable some to acquire an inordinate amount of wealth and power which then enables them to oppress others.

In order to preserve our liberty, We the People must predominantly agree our liberty is a precious thing to be preserved.  As Liberty is a paramount value in the United States as expressed in both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, if any subgroup decides otherwise and acquires and exercises the means to subvert the value of liberty within our culture, for one citizen or the entirety of the citizenry, they are violating that paramount freedom. They have entered into actively subverting the values and principles that the United States was founded upon.  They have set upon overturning our nation, our culture, and our lives.   When this occurs it is usually being engaged in by individuals or groups who have been acquiring inordinate amounts of wealth and then using that wealth to acquire (buy) inordinate political influence.

It’s not that capitalism is inherently bad.  It’s that the men and women practicing it must recognize the implicit social compact necessary to preserve our essential liberty:  they should not take too much.  They should not “drain the economic well”.  This is important to ensure that the average citizens of the U.S.  do not become impoverished and economically enslaved.  But impoverishment and economic slavery is happening pervasively in the U.S.A. and elsewhere in the world.

Sacrificing the American peoples’ hard-won liberty for the freedom of unbridled predatory capitalism is a travesty and a grievous insult to all of the men and women who have worked and fought to establish and preserve liberty for us and future generations. 

Empaths vs Logicians: A conflict which requires resolution for sustainability.

by kendunning, posted in Building our future., Community, Economics, Environment, Mental Health, Personal Development, Politics, Psychology, Spirituality, Sustainability
c-alexmax-www.fotosearch.com

When the Empaths (I feel strongly that…) within society find themselves intensely opposed to what the Logicians (logic tells us that…) within a society are proposing, that society is facing an existential problem. The same is true when the situation is reversed. How long the society may have before it suffers serious, if not irreparable harm, may vary but is a function of the intensity of the conflict.

Why does such a conflict weigh so heavily for the health of a society? Because both our feelings and our intellect exist for the primary purpose of counseling us on what pathway we should take in any given situation. To fail to give adequate consideration to either aspect of our innate guidance systems does not bode well. That is true whether the “we” is more accurately an “I’; an individual facing an internal conflict between their feelings and intellect, or an entire society in which the people more oriented toward a feeling/emotional experience of the world are at odds with the people more oriented toward an intellectual/logic related experience of the world. Such a conflict on either the intrapersonal or interpersonal level is an expression of the plight addressed by the axiom: “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” (Paraphrasing the Biblical reference Mark 3:25).

To put this in simpler terms, when the “warm and fuzzy” of an issue finds itself intensely opposed to the “cold and objective” of an issue, or vice versa, it does not bode well. Something significant is being missed (overlooked or ignored) most likely by the people on both sides of the issue. One thing that can be counted on if both sides are working in good faith, is that both sides of the conflict are, to a greater or lesser extent, grounded in reality. Another thing that can be counted on is that if those on both sides of such an issue would calmly sit down and the Logicians would try to empathize to understand the strong feelings of the Empaths, and the Empaths would try to see the reasoning of the Logicians, the chance for the best possible outcome becomes a possibility. In all likelihood when such an agreement is able to be worked out neither side is going to find their original position completely vindicated. However, neither side is going to find their original position completely invalidated either. The scales may tip more one way than the other, or not.

That being said, it is conceivable that one side may be completely right and the other completely wrong IF one side is not being completely honest. Or, if one side is attempting to further a covert agenda. If either side is pursuing special interests of some kind that also stands to confound the situation. Further, if the special interests are overly represented in the outcome, the outcome will not have the authenticity, the same potential, to produce the degree of favorable outcome it would have if that weren’t the case. If both the feelings and intellect, when expressed in authentic form, are working toward the wellbeing of the “whole”, any efforts to artificially distort those efforts, one way or the other, will distort and/or warp the authenticity and the effectiveness of the outcome. The “whole” will not be honestly nor optimally served. Whether the “whole” in question is an individual or a society.

For those who have been heavily indoctrinated in the pre-quantum physics illusion of separation and individualism, the proposition that a society may be a single interconnected organism and that all the citizens within that society are to a significant extent, as cells within a body, may seem subversive to some egocentric agenda or another. However, having said that, don’t conflate “interconnected” with “the same”. While all people share, to a greater or lesser extent, many common characteristics, we also have aspects to our authentic selves which, when taken altogether, are unique to us as individuals. That’s why over regimentation of a society is ultimately doomed to failure. But just as over regimentation does not create a viable society for human beings to live within, neither does anarchy. If we want healthy, viable societies, the recognition and honoring of the basic, mutually shared aspects of our lives is the bedrock upon which the basic structures of a healthy, vibrant, viable society, one which also provides room for the diversity so necessary to a healthy society, must be built.

When we know enough about ourselves and our mutuality, and we find the viable balance wherein we are honoring both the mutually shared aspects of our being and the more individual aspects, we will be a lot closer to being able to create the wonderful, viable lives within a wonderful, viable society that we have the potential to create. Until then we are allowing the illusions, the fears, the hatreds, the perversions, the distortions which in large part, if not in totality, are birthed by the lies and abuses which we have too often inflicted upon one another, control our present and our future.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Public Health in the U.S. An overdue overhaul of a corrupted system.

by kendunning, posted in Community, Economics, Healthcare, Medicine, Politics, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Science

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is increasingly having the allegation leveled at him that he is destroying the Public Health system in the U.S. What is actually happening is that he is destroying the carefully and insidiously crafted illusion of a public health system that has been incrementally foisted upon the American public by profiteers. Profiteers from within a healthcare system which only exists with the trust of the public it is meant to serve. Yet increasingly the true recipients of the benefits served up by the system is becoming an issue.

One thing that I have seen over the past 7+ decades is that over that time there seems have been few, if any, originally honorable, originally beneficially effective public agency or elected office that have been immune from being usurped and turned to the service of corrupt profiteers if enough money is involved. Most, if not all, of the public officials, elected or appointed, who are at the forefront of the currently ongoing attempt to smear RFK Jr. and his efforts at reform have in the past and/or are currently directly or indirectly benefiting significantly from the vast sums of money that the corrupt profiteers are spending. Spending to keep their sordid, immensely financially profitable, businesses and schemes untouched by reform. Corrupt profiteers who influence or control so much of the health and medical and related industry in the U.S.

Over my lifetime I’ve witnessed the E.P.A., the C.D.C. and much of the medical industry as a whole go from admired, honorable, public services to agents of aforementioned profiteers. Profiteers who engage in practices which create and sustain widespread chronic illness in the American population. Apparently because that is how the most money is to be had.

Right now the E.P.A. is engaged in challenging the verdict from a Federal Court Case in the 9th District Court in California that ruled that fluoride presents an unreasonable risk to the health of children. If I hadn’t witnessed part of it taking place, E.P.A. attorneys working to allow the continuance of the insertion of one of the most toxic substances around into public water supplies, I would have a hard time believing that allegation. I happened to be able to view, via Zoom, the closing arguments. The Judge stated that the videos of the proceedings would be made available on the Court’s website. But again, as happens so often when there are people whose covert interests and methods wilt in the light of public scrutiny, somewhere in the process, there was an intervention and they have been censored.

If you’re still under the hypnotic illusion that “fluoridation is safe” check out the work done by Phyllis Mullenix regarding fluorides effect on cognition and Jennifer Luke’s discoveries regarding fluoride and the pineal gland. Also the information regarding fluoride’s carcinogenic properties brought forward, some decades ago, by Dean Burk an American biochemist, medical researcher, and a cancer researcher at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute and the National Cancer Institute. An issue most recently brought forward by William Marcus, M.D. who at the time worked at the E.P.A. He has had to pay dearly for his breaking lockstep with the “orthodox” litany that “fluoridation is safe”. There is so much more. Look into fluoride toxicity and the thyroid and the kidneys. Look into how fluoride renders bones and teeth more brittle.

But as horrible as the criminal fluoride scam being run on the American public is, it is only one of the issues involved with the usurpation of American medicine. The issues being most ardently defended/protected by those profiting from the involved practices, are the dangers, toxicity, of the COVID vaccines and other vaccines which RFK Jr. is exposing. Dangers due to the presence of mercury and aluminum. And, in extreme cases, dangers engineered into the vaccines to serve some covert agenda of those manufacturing them. These abuses of the public trust have been going on, with knowledge by at least key people in the pharmaceutical industry. And undoubtedly people working within agencies, such as the C.D.C., who American children are encouraged to trust via direct education to that effect and indirectly through their “white hat” portrayal in movies and other media.

I venture a lot of the people whose efforts are essential to keeping this ugly, perverted system alive really have no idea of the current nature of the system they’re serving. They are still seeing the efforts going on within those agencies as being what it was, at least what the public believed it to be, at the time of the agencies’ creation. That being said, not knowing and not wanting to know are two very different things. Willful ignorance and the best interests of the American public are diametrically opposed when it comes to the issues RFK Jr. is exposing within the American healthcare system.