Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin, North End, Boston

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Sunday, November 6, 2022

YOUR SUNDAY MOMENT OF ZEN



"Chose your leaders with wisdom and forethought.


* To be led by a coward is to chose to be controlled by all that the coward fears.


* To be led by a fool is to be led by the opportunists who control the fool.


* To be led by a thief is to offer up your most precious treasures to be stolen.


* To be led by a liar is to be told lies.


* To be led by a tyrant is to sell yourself and those you love into slavery."


--Octavia E. Butler



9 comments:

Les Carpenter said...

To be led by a trumpublican is to experience all of the above mentioned. We learned that up close and personal on J6 2021.

Dave Dubya said...

This author is new to me. The lady gets it.
From Wiki:
"In Dawn, protagonist Lilith Iyapo finds herself in a spaceship after surviving a nuclear apocalypse that destroys Earth. Saved by the Oankali aliens, the human survivors must combine their DNA with an ooloi, the Oankali's third sex, in order to create a new race that eliminates a self-destructive flaw in humans—their aggressive hierarchical tendencies."

It's been my conviction that our species' failure to evolve from the dominant, over-reactive, primitive fight-or-flight amygdala in authoritarian personalities will assure our self-destruction.

At the very least it enabled history's tyrants from kings and emperors to dictators and Republicans.

Humanity is easily trapped and exploited in their dungeons of fear manufactured by authoritarian leaders.

Mike said...

I just saw this the other day. It's right on point!

Les Carpenter said...

Perhaps the only spiritual path that might save us is Mayayanna Buddhism. Einstein once remarked that if there was a relgion that would work with science it would be Buddhism. Turns out he was right.

Dave Dubya said...

Les,
Einstein was a real "Einstein". He also favored democratic socialism.

Nothing triggers the white fright in American fascism like "Socialist Buddhists".

"COMMIES!"

White Nationalist Christians (NAT-Cs) would rather punish people they hate than get along with their fellow human beings. They would rather ignore their Savior's commands than help the poor and heal the sick and injured.

So here we are.

Read Aldous Huxley's "Island" for an idea how sane and compassionate a socialist Buddhist society would be.

Les Carpenter said...

Indeed Dave D. American Capitalist Cons no doubt disapprove of Thich Nhat Hahn's concept of engaged Buddhism specifically and Mahayanna Buddhism generally i'm sure.

However for some mysterious reason I'm growing in optimism. The Buddhist path will win the day in the end. Or, If not, there may not be an inhabitable planet left to live on.

White Nationalist Christians seem to be motivated more by othering those who view life different than themselves and tend to lean towards greed and ignorance rather than kindness, peace, compassion, and love. It of course is diven by great fear over changing demographics in America and their reified belief in White Superiority over other races and cultures.

Tough and more troubled times await us.

Anonymous said...

The country has already failed the first one which leaves the rest up for grabs.

Anonymous said...

So Les wants to trade a Christian nation for a Buddhist nation? Why can't we just leave religion out of government?

Les Carpenter said...

Les is powerless to change a thing. But Buddhism is not a mono theistic top down "religion" as is Christianity. It simply is, IMO, far more enlightening than the hypocrisy rampant in the Nationalist Cristian Right.

Have a fine day.