Sunday 20 December 2020

Peace on Earth.

 

Peace on Earth.

It’s a week before Christmas and I am locked in at home spared the pains of shopping on credit cards and all the rest of holiday rituals. It gives me time to think about the Jewish baby that was born destined to spread a message of peace, love, and hope. The airwaves are ringing with songs about Santa, Rudolf, elves, and gifts. Amazon is predicting huge profits and folks dressed up like Eskimos are dreaming about a vaccine that will allow them to return to “normal” perhaps without jobs and homes but, what the heck. They can say Merry Christmas instead of Happy Holidays.

I call my wife “my gift from God.” I don’t give platitudes, I truly mean it. Yet in the fifty years or so that we have spent together, we probably sparred or had arguments at least every two days. When I asked her once what she hopes heaven will be like, she said, I hope in heaven there will be peace. Why ask for peace instead of living in peace I asked? And a new argument erupted.

I agree with the idea that peace is the most precious thing on earth and possibly the hardest to get. I have two cats at home and we love those little animals dearly. They have everything a cat could dream of and there is enough food, space, and comfort toys for 10 cats, but they fight. The stronger male hunts the female and chases her away from the good places, including the litter box. I get after him and my wife gets defensive on his behalf, so we fight.

I look around the world knowing that we live in the most peaceful time in history. It has been seventy-plus years since the last big war and the weapon manufacturers are not happy about it. Almost all fights I am aware of start because someone can make more money on fighting than on peace.

We exist in relative peace, yet there are wars all around us where people really get killed, children starve and homes are wrecked. Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Armenia, Yemen, Miramar, most South American countries, most African countries, large cities in the United States, all have small or large wars going on.

My friends and I go on vacation to foreign places, see the tourist places and take a tour to the safe areas of poor countries assuming that they are backward and need better political systems. We never see the truth. We only see what is shown to us. When we meet the poor people who came here as immigrants we see them humble, trying to learn our ways and survive here the best they can.

To truly “know” what the other people are like, we must go deeper.

There are billions of people who do not have our wealth and all that comes from having it. The poor can’t go on vacations but they see what we enjoy on TVs, and even on the screens of little smartphones. They know that living day to day, not knowing if there will be food tomorrow, is unnecessary. They “know” that they work hard but can’t be sure about the next meal, that their kids don’t receive education and there is no help when they get sick and die. They think that we also “know” it and enjoy feeling superior to them. They hate the fact that we have clean water and they don’t since our corporations polluted it.

In my day, I met many of those who were not lucky enough to be born rich. Many, including me, were born into poverty, often in rich countries. I also met people who were well off and lost it all, sometimes in wars. The poor are not stupid, not lazy nor greedy, they only want to live. They want their kids and aging parents not to suffer and die. In an attempt to save their lives they imitate those who do well and often become greedy lying cheats and the war goes on. You can’t find genuine love amongst the very rich. They don’t know if it’s not faked for a price.

I had the “privilege” to be around those who do not need to worry about food for tomorrow or even a pension for old age. I smiled and showered platitudes like the rest of them and pretended to be somewhat better than the unwashed masses. I studied the Christmas story theoretically but didn’t learn a thing. Powerful folks always wish to maintain peace while the underprivileged are a threat to them. The weak learn how to join forces and beat those who oppress them. When they do, they don’t stop and everyone changes places. The cards are shuffled and a new game begins. So how can we obtain “Peace on Earth?” Half of my Christmas cards this year mention PEACE.

Instead of trying to figure out how to cheat to get ahead of others, we could see where we can help, especially those who can’t payback.

People learn by imitating, even animals do. When we do the right thing, we feel good and others copy. It starts like a pandemic, in one little place, and spreads. It is slow in the beginning, but huge later on. Remember the song “we are the world we are the children?”

This year we have the opportunity to spend some time thinking and evaluating what we learned, even from an awful experience. We start with thoughts, go-to words, and perform actions.

My wish for this quarantine Christmas is that in some little mountain towns, like Bethlehem, the message of the divine baby will take hold and spread, infecting maskers and anti maskers alike. Little acts of kindness go around this world just as fast as wars.

Humans will now go through the most significant change ever. We must make it positive or destroy ourselves. Accept the teachings of the one named Emmanuel.

Joy and Peace for the new year.

Sunday 13 December 2020

The star of 2020.

 

 The star of 2020.

 

The year 2020 will be remembered in history as a time that the world changed. We remember the year 1 as the year of the birth of our Lord. Those who lived in that year remembered it as the year of the big star, which later became known as the star of Beit Lechem.

Beit Lechem (House of bread) was a tiny hamlet within walking distance from Jerusalem, itself an insignificant capital city of a strange little nation that worshipped one invisible God. In it was a temple with priests offering ritual sacrifices, and artworks that strangely didn’t include any reference to the physical attributes of that God. All other religions at the time had statues of Gods. The one visible sign in the temple was a light that always burned, called the eternal flame. There were people in Babylon who maintained a fire in a Zoroastrian temple and before that an Egyptian religion where God was simply “light” Ra was its name. There is a pyramid for Ra.

The star which led the three Magi (wise men) from Persia to Judea is really a conjunction of two bright planets visible from earth, and it’s very rare. The last one happened in the year 1226 before the death of the Catholic Saint Francis of Assisi. He changed the church, bringing it back to the Christian ideal of helping the poor and revering nature, instead of being money and power-oriented.

This year 2020, on December 21st, the Earth, Jupiter, and Saturn will line up and one brilliant light will be visible for about an hour in the South-West sky above the horizon. We, mountain people, may have to find a vantage point to see the historic phenomenon. (Perhaps from the parking lot of The Interpretive Centre.)  Depending upon interpretation, it should be visible for about five days before or after the winter solstice. It is three days after the Jewish holiday Hanukkah and three days before the Christian Christmas.

2020 will be remembered for many things. It is the first time that a sitting president of the USA is trying to challenge the democratic system of the Union, risking turmoil or even civil war. Also, that president was impeached and continued serving.  It is a year in which oil price-wars demolished economies around the world with low prices. 2020 saw some of the worst bush and forest fires, especially in California and Australia. Social rebellion and demonstrations achieved new levels, with the Black Lives Matter being the largest ever. A none white woman was elected to be US Vice President.  Canada suffered large demonstrations of First Nations protesting the government and corporations deciding who leads the aboriginal nations and make deals on their behalf. The gap between rich corporations, small businesses, and wage earners continued to grow at an alarming rate. The crucial event was and is COVID-19 arriving in the west soon after the year started.

It was politicized almost from the get-go with the political Left wanting to follow scientific and medical advice to reduce transmission and the political Right denying its severity, wanting to keep the economy from being set back.

Some countries in the far east and south took appropriate measures and controlled the spread of the virus to some great degree. They are now at the end of the year, mostly back to normal. They also suffered a minimal number of cases and only a few deaths. The richer countries were more worried about their economies and experienced more severe outcomes. Others ignored the threat and suffered a lot.

The virus attacked randomly but killed more people from the older generation and spread faster where more people live or work close to each other. In short order, the infected populations exhausted their ability to look after the sick or even deal with dead people.

Here in Alberta, an early short-term shutdown took the edge off the spread for a while, but forces beyond our control worked against us. The internet was effectively used to spread conspiracy theories claiming that there is no real threat, and the virus is a hoax. Being a strong right-wing society, many people chose to not follow the warnings and enjoy life as if there is no problem at all. The threat to older people didn’t motivate many younger folks to be cautious, and large numbers infected each other very fast.

As December arrived, the government was left with two choices. Do nothing and be like the US or shut down. Shutting down for the Christmas period was the worst time for little businesses and all Alberta’s working people and the faith communities. Now people face personal economic devastation unless the government steps in with serious monetary aid. Not taking action when there was time was the most costly choice.

The government tried to blame the advice of the chief medical officer, a woman named Dr. Hinshaw, but recordings leaked of her giving advice that may not have been followed. A political disaster that can’t be hushed left us scared and at each other’s throats.

Humans will survive the year 2020, but what happened once could happen again or things can change and improve above what we can imagine. There is a star bringing a feeling of hope. We could blame China or a smart lady Doctor, or we could replace peoples’ losses and wages as Japan, Norway, Germany, France, England, and Italy do. (80% - 100%.) It is up to us.

What do I wish for O Lord? A world where no child, white, yellow, brown, red, or any colour will suffer. There is no child who through selfishness and greed caused our problems. Let them not suffer for our mistakes.

Overall, I see that 2020 has been good to teach us things we must learn. The star of Christmas may be a sign in the heavens that a change for the good is coming.

Here is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment.

 

Monday 7 December 2020

Aliens coming to Earth.

 Aliens coming to Earth.

A friend asked me a question. If the earth was visited by humanoid aliens who possess the technical ability to come here, what would they think about us, our politics, economy, and above all religions. My friend obviously believes that people advanced technologically would not believe in Gods. The educated intellectuals look down on religious people since there is no scientific proof of God.

I imagined a story of an alien describing us. He said: The Earth humans are physically a copy of us, but mentally deficient, perhaps not yet fully developed. They aren’t cognizant of their powers other than physical manipulation of material matter. I will elaborate later under “religion.”

Humans are extremely competitive. They all but exterminated the other large species on the planet, keeping only those that they can subdue and raise as food. It seems as if they are trying to do it with each other. Only in their case, they want the labour, not the flesh of each other. Many enjoy hurting others. They named the action “sadistic.”

Through military might and later regulated economy some rose above others, harnessed mass followings, and compete for complete domination of the planet. They have a serious problem understanding that they are all components of one big body or machine. In other words, they don’t see how interconnected they are. For an unknown reason, they are mostly motivated by selfish individualism, even when it hinders their chances of survival.

Humans have learned how to harness artificial power to do some work they need to be done. They are doing it in the most wasteful ways, completely unaware that in a short time they will run out of the resources they must have. They depend on future inventions, but have no plan that will see them safely survive on the only planet available to them. Their idea of time unrelated to speed, energy, and space is unique amongst beings similar to us.  

They made themselves dependent on exhaustible food supplies and waste more than what they use. It seems as if some human groups are wasting all they can while others are fighting for the scraps and are stressed to the point of extinction for lack of basic needs.

The people, as they call themselves in their most universal language, do not realize that the most abundant resources on Earth are finite and take time to regenerate. They show no concern over depleting the air, water, and soil of their planet. Their machines allowed them to overly exploit the most important elements that they require for physical life and they show no sign of concern.

Weapons production on Earth is an enormous industry. From primitive to nuclear, they produce enough to kill themselves many times over. All of their weapons are meant for wars amongst themselves, and none could provide defence from attack originating outside the Earth. I could conquer their world with the craft I am in if I wished.

Humans are divided by skin pigmentation and what they call religions, which reflect their views of a supreme being called God, Spirit, or messengers from such. Some small groups have other variations. The religions seem to be connected to economic aspects and mixed or used by the most powerful amongst them.

One God messenger or “Son of God” gave them directions of how to be more like we are, but they never developed the proper language to fully explain his teachings. Another “Prophet” managed to unite some major religions seven hundred years later. Each time the religions became attached to some groups or races and rejected by others leading to wars.

Their education is severely rudimentary and available most readily to higher classes or what they assume to be a more worthy race or tribe. There isn’t a central theory that unites all humans.  

They have a reasonably primitive way to pass knowledge to later generations called writing. As they were discovering their world, they found other humans who evolved on distant continents. They forcibly converted those “other tribes” to their ways of thinking and religions. Improved war technologies helped spread hostile microorganisms and destroyed cultures with better spiritual ideas that could have propelled humanity towards using the “spiritual” powers as we do. That knowledge existed in their holy books for a thousand and a half years, but they do not use it.

The Earth humans have an inkling that they are related to the central supreme power they call God, but can’t figure out how. They can’t know him without imagining seeing him. They don’t understand that human eyes are not the right tool for doing it. They don’t even follow the commandment not to try to make an image of God. They think in words, and words are images.

Earth’s humans must find new, more accurate words to convey the power of “belief” or “faith”. There is a way to communicate with God without words, pictures, computers, and so on.

As I said in the beginning, this is how I assume an Alien describing humanity to his brethren using our language. Yes, the secret is in the language.

Since we are (hopefully) locked up avoiding contact with others, I see an opportunity to think deeply about philosophical questions that perhaps we never considered before. Enjoy.

 

 

 Here is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment.

Human Aliens - Bing images

Sunday 29 November 2020

Seniors fighting for their lives.[

 

Seniors fighting for their lives.[

Nights of White Satin.

It was 1968, and I was driving the old Chevy Nova from Pincher Creek towards the mountains. On the radio, a song, “Nights in White Satin” by the Moody Blues was playing. I was making the biggest decision in my young life. In a while, I would turn 18 and could leave Canada without my parents and go back to Israel. I had friends there, did the tests to get into the Air Force, and economically would have been ahead. My $1.25 an hour here was not hard to beat.

It was evening time and I could see the mountains getting closer, under a full moon. The beauty was overwhelming. My first Christmas in Canada was amazing. A family I didn’t know invited my dad and I to celebrate with them. The Prime Minister of Canada was a Nobel Peace Prize winner. So beautiful, kind, and well-meaning people and, in my future, there was a Canadian girl I was to spend the next fifty years with and I stayed. I never went back, even for a holiday. Canada was my country and Alberta was my province.

Shortly after Canada started Universal Health Care, I was able to go to University at minimal cost and I had religious freedom that was not available in Israel. I had lots of struggles but no regrets until 52 years later in the unforgettable year of 2020. I studied and worked as hard as I could for my place in the new world. To me, the beauty of the place and the people was most important until I heard an American politician say, “It’s the economy stupid.” I am still not fully convinced, but things have changed since 68.

The oil-based economy attracted new people to the province. The good-hearted kind peace-loving hard-working mostly rural people of Alberta became a minority in their own home. New people arrived with intentions of making a quick buck and leaving. Investors came to rip profits and not even stay in the province. They wanted all our services but didn’t care to invest in the future of a province that they just wanted to use. Some only wanted us to propel them into political careers or gain job experience and go home. Home for many of them wasn’t here.

My wife and I paid our dues, worked our hours, and saved for retirement, intending to spend it locally.  Being “snowbirds” never was a choice. Contributing work and treasure to the community was always a budgeted item. We missed the actual point in which Alberta changed.

Just like millions of others, I was disturbed by the steady rise in the gap between the rich and the poor. It didn’t look sustainable. At the same time, I became very aware of how the rising inequality steadily contributed to a rise in conditions endangering the wellbeing of humankind upon our planet.

A sickness came over the land at a time when the economy was overdue for one of its cyclical crashes, particularly damaging for Alberta’s oil-based economy. As often predicted, the oil economy was temporary. Some here tried hard to extract money from our oil, but the world changed. Now the vultures are fighting for what is left. It served to highlight what is the nature of us, the people.

The pandemic disproportionally ravaged the old people like me. Being an old-time Albertan, I expected a united effort to save our lives, but the opposite happened. In July dozens of people began public demonstrations against the most effective way to save our lives, wearing masks. An acquaintance told me, against all evidence, that I can wear a mask, but he is not going to and all will be OK. He backed his idea up with some conspiracy theory cooked up by his money-hungry political organization. Others were commenting on social media that we should be happy to give up our lives for the economy. They were fighting for what they think is “freedom.”

I expected my government to be the voice of reason. The Premier came on with a story about a small business owner begging that her business will not be destroyed. He didn’t say that the government will help and we will all fight together; he sacrificed us, the most vulnerable. No lockdown and no help to those economically affected. No enforcement of wearing masks either. This is the guy who a year ago told Rex Murphy that he wants the Federal government to fight environmentalists in the woods to allow pipelines on their lands. Freedom to risk my life is not as important as the freedom to make money on selling oil to China while providing a few temporary jobs.

What makes sense to me is, we all take action to face the threat. We must use our savings from the good times and borrow if necessary. When the danger passes, we will all start paying back, starting with those who can afford the most and going down. Canada overall is doing it, and now the rest should join in. If we save our small businesses, who mostly volunteer to help, we will soon have a robust economy again.

I don’t feel comfortable complaining a lot. I never expected the world to be perfect. Some seniors are talking about fighting for their lives. I don’t. We would destroy what we worked hard to build. We care about people, even those who fight for their freedom at the risk of our lives. We care about future generations that will happen far after we are gone. Yet, we are not the “do nothing” generation.

We are leaving a much better world to new generations than that which we received. The biggest problem for most is to have enough work. There is an abundance of food and all else if distributed equally. Now please consider letting us live the rest of our lives in peace, enjoying what we have worked and paid for.

A government is not a charity, it is insurance for all the citizens.

Here is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment.


 [AMP1]

Monday 23 November 2020

God’s law or natural order.

 

God’s law or natural order.

Here in Canada the year is divided into two parts and people have no choice but to adjust. We can escape the winters by travelling to a warmer place, but the plan is unsustainable for most folks. Even if we could all fly to warmer places and have winter homes, the world would change because of the garbage we spew out of the exhaust pipes doing it. It’s winter than summer and we must learn how to live with it. The world is perfectly designed and built to sustain us and all that we need. Most human bodies also are made to survive and thrive on this earth.

When you get old, if you will, you can’t remember when things happened. Life is divided into sections between life-changing events. 1945 the war was finished. Around 2000, the twin towers were destroyed in New York, and in 2020 a noticeable pandemic killed many people and caused havoc with the economy. Inadvertently the conditions exposed significant problems and forced humans to reevaluate how we treat each other and the planet. It’s amazing that it happened just at the right time. Is there a mind of the universe causing events? (God?)

We assume that all of nature is built like us and around us. Not long ago we were sure that the universe circled around the earth and that humans were the central figures in creation. Now people believe that all things just happen by chance and miraculously sustain our species. I have no problem with that. Only my theory assumes that we have a prominent role in determining what happens. It is not our brains that cause the future to happen; it is our understanding. We have the gift of life to learn and what we learn determines the future of our universe.

When I say “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” I assume that my will is influencing Him. Otherwise, why would He tell me to pray? Why did the Son of God say that what belongs to the Father belongs to Him and through Him to us? There are many more examples.

I am not convinced that the brain is the mind, and the mind is the soul. Frankly, I am sure it is not. I watched a murmuration (flock) of starlings perform an aerial show. I saw a school of fish doing underwater acrobatics and studied Leaf-Cutter ants build complex social orders and hives that dwarf our cities from a hundred years ago in complexity. Try to follow the biological formations, trees and even grasses, noticing the order that keeps them alive. We are not even touching what is outside of the earth in this article or the microscopic dimensions that we are made of. The universal mind or even my subconscious mind is by far more advanced than our present-day technology. We can influence the universe and our own existence with something that we crudely named “faith” or “belief.”

It is wonderful that the human-animal advanced so far ahead of all other life forms on this planet. For thousands of years, we expressed knowledge that we, through prayers, magic, meditation, and other tools of faith, have influenced the way things are. Could we be completely wrong? If we are I am sure we would have found out by now.

Unlike animals and plants, we have a problem that we can’t solve. As the story goes, people got close to challenging God for dominance over creation when they tried to build the tower of Babel. It’s just a story, but is there a grain of truth in it. Ask any good liar and he will tell you that the best lies have some truth in them. Our problem is that we fight against ourselves. In the tower of Babel story, people were split up to speak many languages; perhaps formed into various races.

When the collaboration was destroyed humans were no longer a threat to the universal mind and went to spend the next few thousands of years learning what they/we should have figured out long ago. Selfishness and competition can propel us to greater effort, but we will slow each other down. If we want to go forward, we must do it like the starlings who by all flying together aware of each other create an impossible formation.

That is achieved in nature by forming little groups, often seven individuals, co-ordinating the groups into larger groups, dividing the goals amongst many, and so on. It can’t be achieved by one group dominating the others. It is an expression of the Universal mind through collaborative action.

Now when I see nature forcing us to work in “bubbles” “cohorts” and so on, I am reminded of the natural order. I see us being forced to wear protective devices to protect others. It is becoming very obvious which people make efforts to help others and which don’t care. I see governments leading their people to help each other and reopening their economies safely (like New Zealand) while others do the opposite and suffer the consequences. (Like the USA.)

We don’t know how many species similar to ours have formed civilizations that lived, died, and disappeared in the vast universe. We know of some in the human past. Now we are facing a crossroad which demands attention with possible lethal consequence.

All I can do is advocate for the direction which makes the most sense to me, and I do. It is not the most popular direction where I live, but I am not here to win a popularity contest. The two-thousand-year-old solution I am proposing is not my own either. Do on to others as you would like them to do to you. The “others” are our offsprings, many not yet born. Yes, work harder now to save the unborn. Sounds familiar?

Happy Thanks Giving to our American friends.

Monday 16 November 2020

How to break a contract.

 

How to break a contract.

If we take a newborn baby and leave it outside, it will die. It’s a complete human being; it can’t survive on its own. We are born into a contract with our society. The first part of life we spend on growing and learning how to be human. We accumulate information and physical strength and go on to learn how to be useful. In most cases, the parents raise us, and society steps in to help.

When we are mature enough they train us to do our share, pair up and reproduce, giving some time to bring up the young. Another obligation is to take care of those who can’t take care of themselves. The sick, handicapped, and most importantly the old, often aging parents. This is the social contract. It is like a cheese sandwich. You must eat the bread on both sides to enjoy the cheese between them.

If we break the contract, it is the end. People will not have a reason to have and raise children, will not trust that they will be taken care of, and try to take care of themselves. A few will succeed, but there will not be enough abled bodies to take care of the rest. The social order will collapse. Some people will use others to care for them, but those others will not be blind to what faith awaits them. They are human also and will use all of their abilities to change an unfair contract. For every action, there is an equal reaction. When there is no other option there is war.

History is full of examples where some people tried to break the contract and failed. When Hitler began thinking about saving money by ridding Germany of unproductive people, he took some small steps over a long time. The education system was slowly changed, a propaganda machine was developed, and unwanted people were demonized and blamed for things they could do nothing about.

Slowly the unwanted were removed from highly visible positions and described as cheater, losers, stealers, and subhumans. Handicapped people were killed “mercifully” and their deaths were assigned medical names. Even soldiers maimed in the battle of Stalingrad were euthanized and the telegrams to families stated their brave sacrifice, (I was told.)

Here I have been observing a slow movement towards making life more difficult for the labour force for years. The quality of healthcare is diminishing (Not the service) and there is a push towards a two-tier system. Soon expensive modern treatment will not be available for the common people who can’t afford it.

Education is dwindling and becoming less effective for those who can’t afford private schools. Higher education is now out of reach for many, while the institution that provides it is filled up with higher-paying foreign students. It is obvious that we have moved towards “efficiency” meaning saving money, instead of investing our tax dollars in our needs. The saved money is not showing up to support the growing need for helping the elderly, who lately are severely under attack by COVID-19.

Instead, there are conspiracy theories circulating telling people that the present pandemic is a hoax propagated by drug companies and others. They claim, amongst other things, that the medical profession is blaming the pandemic for unrelated deaths which would normally occur, anyway. Those are of questionable quality and meant to confuse the less intellectual crowd.

Presently Canada spends a third less than other western nations on senior care per capita. We also have Health Care, which doesn’t supply needed medications and related services. Our population is forced to use the most expensive polluting transportation option, namely private vehicles. If we try to fix the problems, we are told that we can leave. It doesn’t have to be that way.

The kids who can’t afford good daycares or schools are the future. The patients waiting while getting sicker to get care are the workforce, often those who feed and take care of us. We built the care homes, private and government-run and we pay a lot more than what we get to keep them open. The people in them, miners, farmers, teachers, mothers, and grandmothers are those who raised us trusting that they would be cared for when they get close to the end.

Now they are packed like sardines, have only half of the care time that a senior gets, let’s say in Germany, and left to die alone in filth if there is a pandemic. The homes are not regulated and inspected properly, and our leaders are working day and night to reduce what is spent on them. The hospitals are earmarked for the same “to reduce taxes” but not for you and me. My taxes only go up either directly or by the government squeezing municipalities and schools to the bone.

I was told by a medical practitioner that patients in long-term care facilities are often left to die, even if they want to live. We don’t let people have abortions or commit suicide, but we let people die if they are old and catch a virus because we failed to take steps to avoid it. Humm… I wonder.

On remembrance day we say, “those who gave their lives” and so on. I have seen wars and knew people who lost their friends. I can tell you that in most cases people sacrifice for the social contract they have with those around them. That is the human way.

Some people are brainwashed to think the economy is all that matters, but they are wrong. The economy is what we hire the government to look after, without breaking the more important social contract. If we break that and lose our humanity, we are doomed.

Thank God that women and young people are taking on leadership positions. Perhaps they will do what the men failed to do and save the human species. There is more to life than profiting from other’s existence.

Here is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment.

Monday 9 November 2020

The Don is gone.

 

The Don is gone.

Through my window, I watched the Turtle Mountain. Slowly little snowflakes started their way down towards the yet green lawn until all was a blur. Slowly turning my gaze to the computer, I noticed breaking news. For the last few days, people in the US were counting ballots and nothing changed. They were stuck at the same numbers of electoral college votes. The President raged that they should stop the counting where he was losing and count harder where he expected to win. If he didn’t win, he said, the election would be viewed as stolen from him. First, he said that he won and as more votes were counted his win, like the mountain, became blurry.

Now four days later a new president is elected. The country and the world are celebrating. I must admit that I wasn’t expecting a worldwide celebration. Surfing through websites, I realized that this may be one of the occasions when the earth exhibits a measurable increase in human happiness. Some scientists measure this kind of phenomenon. How can one man scare so many people for so long? As the US president, he can destroy the world.

I go back a few years to explain my feelings. I remember a reality show named “The Apprentice.” I never watched it, but I remember the host who later became president going through a room full of people saying to some “you are fired.” At the time I wondered if the rich b----- knew what it meant for people to lose their livelihood, but it was just a show. Later I learned a lot more about that person, how he abused women, fired his friends, cheated on his taxes and so much more. Here was a master who could play on people’s evil, selfish emotions, fears, and hate better than anyone.

Evil people from history look like characters from stories, and we expect them to lose by the end. I met many of their victims. This guy looked as if there will be no end to his story. In a short time, he changed the greatest country and the world to his benefit and made people forget what we used to know as morals, values, and honour.

I remember him treating people like garbage, threatening with violence, calling his ex-girlfriends ugly, pushing heads of states out of his way, and so much more. It puzzled me how come he is not concerned with the next election, but he wasn’t. He was bred and raised to lie, bribe, and cheat so convincingly that he always got away with it according to his niece Mary Trump.

The statement I remember most profoundly was “I love the uneducated.” Why would he say that? Looking back now, I understand. Most people are uneducated, and their labour provides the worst liars with power and wealth. They are defenseless, but believe that they are smart. Consequently, those who are not ashamed to take advantage of them do. The uneducated and simple-minded try to please those who exploit them expecting some payback. There is only payback while they can still be used, but they don’t know it.

God, the universe, or Karma as others call him, is never short of ways to destroy our world. A large solar storm, a big volcanic eruption, a meteor, or a tiny virus can do the job. It looks like all of those things happened before. We live by the grace of God under his protection. All of what we know can be gone and a new world can begin again without us. All that we consider beautiful can be gone very fast and something else can take its place. So why are we still here? Why is one evil man able to destroy us?

The ancient writers of our most revered texts pondered that question and came up with conclusions. We are sons and daughters of God, the creator, but can only destroy ourselves slowly. It takes time to build superweapons or use up the atmosphere of the earth. There is time for humans to consider what they do, time for what the bible calls repentance.

We are presently at one of those stages when we must make critical choices, and we just did. It seems like we bought more time to consider what we are doing. New Arms Control treaties will be negotiated, we may change our main energy supply sources and perhaps avoid the destruction that an unknown virus can unleash upon us. I remember a famous line that said, “We live to fight another day.”

Another winter is coming and I expect it to be a long one. People will make a choice if to be alone, untouched, or risk sickness and death. By now, most conspiracy theory believers can see for themselves that there is a real danger even in a mild pandemic such as COVID-19.

People who make a living from oil are witnessing proof that humans are able to change the weather and don’t have many years for a smooth transition to other energy sources. Those who wish to save money on the poor and give it to the rich are waking up to a new reality. The poor seem to have an ally above our immediate reality.

I have been living in the best country in the world and have many more benefits than I ever expected, so I can’t complain. However, there are billions of people who could be much better if selfishness, lying and cheating were better managed. The US latest elections give me hope.

God is not destroying us, only giving us warnings and time to mend our ways. If we win, we will eventually be in his true image. If we lose, well, he will let us hang ourselves. The first step is to get rid of liars and demonstrate love and sharing. After that, the lines get blurry like the contours of Turtle Mountain in a snowfall. We can’t cheat on his tests.

Here is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment.

Monday 2 November 2020

Divided we die, United we stand.

 

Divided we die, United we stand.

A long time ago I learned the saying, “United we stand Divided we fall.” It’s a true statement. Human beings are separate from each other, yet completely dependent on each other. The whole world of humans is built with all parts related, independent, yet needed for the survival of the whole mechanism that produces and sustains what we call life. The living things exist in a conflict between competition and co-operation, neither able to exist without the other.

I am writing these words a few days before the USA presidential elections. By the time you read it, the world will change to some degree. The people of the US care very little about what Canadians think, but we care a lot about the direction that the big neighbour will take. It has great consequences for us. I feel like a child listening to his parents shouting at each other about having a divorce. Like that child, I try to think about what I should have done to prevent it, knowing that I could not do a thing.

I remember a story of a survivor whose entire village was exterminated in a war. He could not forget the cries of a little girl crying, “tell them to stop mom, I will be a good girl.”

People don’t want to know what’s going on, finding it depressing. I understand. Reality is what the mind conjures from signals that enter it through the senses. However, there is no way to ignore that which everyone agrees is reality.  

The only superpower left in the world is controlling the destiny of men and women. The empire is in crisis and its direction is being set by a process called democratic elections. It is a faulty process, but it is what it is, and I don’t even have a vote.

A few days ago I saw a video clip. In it was a parade of golf carts showing support for a political ideology. People advocate that stream or political party, thinking it is for fiscal responsibility and moral values. One of the golf carts moves closer to the camera and an old man shouts, “white power” pumping his fist as he went on. Later, the president retweeted that video. It is clear what they are truly all about. I am “white” and I am ashamed. A few years ago, I was actively campaigning for that political movement. Sadly, they changed.

I sit here in a tiny mountain town in Alberta, contemplating what my world became and how it may develop. Those whom I admired, people who built vast enterprises, companies that provided jobs and needed services, lost their luster. One of them became the president, building his political power empire on hate and selfishness and fake financial prowess. Some of my friends don’t look and don’t see, but I do.

I like to think I am safe here, one hour drive from the restless sleeping giant, but I know I am not. In a week or a month from now, our neighbouring country could be engulfed in a civil war. It will not be a fight between disadvantaged black people and white folks, it will be between the haves and have nots. When people fight, they lose their rational thinking ability and only fight to win. Soon after they fight for fallen comrades, food, and water. When I heard the president say to his volunteer militia “stand back and stand by” I felt as if I fell into an icy lake. Fear. The stories of the second world war survivors who lived the “brown shirts” takeover in Germany come back.

The hate and inconsideration popularized in the last four years now is evident all over the world. Dictatorial regimes are flexing their muscles and the people are forced into a rebellious mode. There are hot spots everywhere and the weapons manufacturers’ stocks are going through the roof. It is not the world I lived in for most of my life. It is a dangerous minefield. Now politicians are creating reasons for people to hate each other and say that they are the only ones who can restore order.

Another possibility comes to mind. If the most critical election ever failed to bring about change, we will have more of the same. Years of work by scientists, social experts, and environmentalists will be reversed and protections of consumers, working people, animals, and water will be removed.

In my little world, the paradise I enjoy can easily be destroyed. Here is a probable scenario. Destroy the public health care in Canada, (a move favourable to the insurance companies next door,) and remove our excellent example from the sight of our neighbours. Next, increase the size of servings in our foreign-owned fast-food franchise outlets and increase their marketing budgets. In a few years, the Canadians who knew social healthcare will be gone mostly from overweight problems and voila. We can be replaced with workers who do not demand what we have here today and the rich Canadian resources will be traded on the commodities markets without consideration for us the workers who produce the wealth.

To me, there is a need for balance or there will be chaos. Yet the world of humans has been going on for a very long time. Everything is competing with everything else, forming relationships, and overall improving. We don’t win gold medals without training hard first.

What is important is where do we wish to end up and taking the first step towards it. The road will be long and there will be ups and downs. I ask God, What is tomorrow going to be like, and he answers: it depends upon what you do today.

So… whatever comes today, I try to find others who aim for what is good and stand united with them. I watch those who want all for themselves and see them falling. United we stand, divided we fall.

Sunday 25 October 2020

1968

 

1968

When we are young, we believe in immortality and feel invincible. The future is ours and the world will provide, or God will. That is how I was in 1968, the year that changed the world. It was my first full year in Canada and I paid only a little attention to the news.  I never guessed that in Ontario a baby was born who will later purchase an election in Alberta, the province I helped build, and try to take away my health care, possibly gamble with my pension, and remove the protection I receive from the RCMP. 

In 1968 there was no internet and the news came from three TV stations, radio, and newspapers. Most of us were only slightly aware that there was a pandemic which was named The Hong Kong flu. It was brought over by the American conscripted soldiers returning from Viet Nam. It was not over before killing 100,000 Americans and many Canadians who were not involved in that meaningless war that the US lost. 

I was very busy learning English, finding dirty low-paying jobs available to newcomers, and assimilating into my new environment, so I missed a lot of the news. I didn’t miss the hundreds of thousands of people demonstrating in the US, the country which I left the year before. I saw the young black students being escorted into schools, other students being shot, and so much more. The entire world was watching the American Gandhi, the Noble prize winner Dr. King, and he was shot. I remember Robert Kennedy on the news telling that the great man was killed and a little while later the young Kenedy was assassinated as well. 

1968 was the year of change. I was in the US in 67 and it was a great place, the America that people dreamed of. You couldn’t tell that it had all the problems it did until violence and huge demonstrations began, but there was no internet yet. Now we are witnessing a worst situation but many people are covering their eyes and denying what is happening. 

I remember the book “1984” by Orwell. He wrote it after witnessing the rise and eventual fall of the Nazi Party in Germany, the horrible outcome of the Soviet experiment in totalitarianism under Stalin, the rise of Fascism in Spain, and the rise of Communism in China under Mao. It was a prediction about a world in which governments have full control of the people, and people have no say about their faith. President Kenedy said that people must have a peaceful way to express their concerns. In 1968 we saw what happened when they don’t. Now we are seeing it across the world.

I have hope. I have been close to death for a long time now, and it doesn’t scare me. Time after time something comes up and I wake up on a sunny morning able to enjoy life. The message I get is that I may be destined to see with my physical earthly eyes an appreciable change. 

In the summer I watched a caterpillar grow, feed, and thrive. One day the crawly friendly creature was gone and in its place was a cocoon attached to a branch. A little google search thought me that the caterpillar is completely dissolved in the cacoon and that no physical aspect of it remains visible. One nice day the cocoon was opened and empty. There was a beautiful butterfly nearby possibly emerged from the cocoon. It could fly amongst the flowers, tease the cat, and mesmerize my human eyes, creating a story in my brain. 

The brain never sees the light. It creates a reality based on the messages that the sensory organs send it. What is inside the cocoon never sees light also until it flies as a butterfly. The butterfly will breed or create other caterpillars that will end up being butterflies. That is the physical side of the wonderful creature. What about the life force that animates it, I wonder? I call it the soul and I know that it exists but is not visible to the human eye. Does it also go through a complete transformation? Since it is not visible what could it be doing? The cosmic mind's thoughts are what we perceive as matter. There is a way more to “life” than what the eyes can see or the brain recreates in pictures. 

I am an old man now, closer to the end than the beginning. I worked hard to set things up so I will enjoy old age and I do. I need the support of the medical profession. That is what I paid for over long, hard years. My ex-roommate is sick. His kids set up a Go Fund Me page to help cover his extra expenses. He is on a waiting list and surgeons will operate on him after they do the private surgeries which offer more profits. The list will be shorter since those with money will go first.

When I see some young political opportunist destroying our health care “to save money” which he didn’t earn, (I did) I get upset. He is stealing our savings and openly giving it to those who have more than enough, often not because they worked harder. I and the older generation of Alberta citizens are the real investors who formed Alberta into a great place. 

We are old-style people who have hope because we truly believe in God’s justice. If it exists or not remains to be seen but I wouldn’t fool around with it. There is a God, and he is watching. 

Dear leader: Keep our medical professionals and don’t mess around trying to get more profits from the poor essential workers. Help the poor and disadvantaged and follow the old teachings. That is the real meaning of being “pro-life.” Those who do that don’t get kicked out of Jesuit universities. 

Here is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment.

Sunday 18 October 2020

Music and History in the making.

 

 Music and History in the making.

There are various ways by which civilizations dispose of the bodies of those who died, and often their artistic images outlast their physical remains. Sometimes the burial monuments are preserved for their artistic value. We form our opinions about past civilizations by studying their art and creating stories around the artifacts. 

Up to mid-eighteen hundreds, only visual art could be preserved, and then humans developed specialized equipment to preserve sound. The Phonograph and soon later the Gramophone were invented. No longer only the high society could enjoy the best musical performances like operas, symphonies, and concerts. A hundred years later I arrived on earth and was part of the first generation of sound consumers using “vinyl” records to reproduce the art of music. A kid like me didn’t need to be born rich to go to operas and concerts. I could save my money and buy a “45” record and listen to the most popular music. Millions of us did.

For the first time in history, we had a way to gauge the effect of music and songs on culture. In 1963 I purchased a recording of The Browns singing the song Three Bells, or as many called it Jimmy Brown.

There’s a village hidden in the valley

among the pine trees half forlorn 

and there on a sunny morning

Little Jimmy Brown was born. (Bells ringing.)

The song goes on describing the second time bells ring for Jimmy Brown when he meets his love” and a third time when he passed away. “Then the little congregation, Prayed for guidance from above, Lead us not into temptation, Bless this hour of meditation, Guide us with eternal life.” The old system where people were bred to work, reproduce, and die was changing. In Quebec, Canada, the Habitants realized that they were slaves of the rich and refused to slave away for an hour of meditation and promises of eternal love. They demanded equal wages, unionized, and got it. The “quiet revolution replaced the Duplessis era.”

In 1968 I bought another 45 record named “Master Jack” by Four Jacks and a Jill. In 68 the world was going wacky. The US looked almost like a war zone with people fighting in the streets. African countries were gaining freedom from Colonial powers and music was breaking all the old rules. Master Jack was recorded in South Africa where people were fighting against apartheid and started with the words  “It’s a strange, strange world we live in Master Jack.” It thanked Master Jack for teaching but said that “I want to see the world through my own eyes and I will never come back.” It sold millions of copies and the world changed some more. Master Jack, the British Empire, has no more colonies. Humankind was freeing itself from servitude for the privilege of staying alive. 

The ”seventies” were not easy, people worked hard and got rewarded accordingly. Many of us poor people joined the middle class and social programs took care of the most vulnerable. There was an outcry about the costs which proved to be “fake news”. We Canadians were paying much less per capita than our equals next door. Those of us who benefited from higher education worked, innovated, and made our province into what you see today. 

The last 45 vinyl record I remember purchasing was “Don’t cry for me Argentina” from the movie Evita. Here was a beautiful young woman from modest beginnings who made her way to the top. She had friends in high places and used her extraordinary skills in public relations to hand Argentina over to the elite, trusting that she would be able to help her people. She died young, and another took her place, ending up being the first female president of the country. That approach didn’t work. The two beautiful women should have focused on organizing the poor people to use their numbers for gaining rights, freedom, and equality. I have witnessed the power of an attractive young woman telling people to each organize five friends to protest injustice, and it worked. 

The world now is in turmoil, and people have enough of being used. People are scared to lose the world to the greed of a few. A pandemic arrived, miraculously at the right time, to expose how much those who benefit most don’t care about those who give them the wealth. 

For the time being, the governments are using the fear to prevent social action, but it gives the masses time to absorb their situation and plan for the future. 

Here I see our “elected representatives” trying to reduce and demoralize our social medical program. If we lose that the working people will once again be enslaved to their employers who will provide group health insurance that you lose if you don’t have a job.  So far the conflict is less on the streets and more on the internet, but this may change. Young people are aware of what awaits them if they don’t fight for their rights. 

Now music is on electronic devices, carried easily in a pocket, and entering the brain through headphones.  It is not the romantic music that my grandparents so admired and my mother sung to me when I was a baby. The music I hear is disturbingly loud and very emotional. It gives away the mood of the huge number of people who now inhabit the earth.

If you talk to some people, you hear that our big problem is that we have too many people. Yes, we do if we sit back and not act. Poor, uneducated people multiply fast. If you ask the billions of individuals they all want to live out their lives as comfortable as possible. We don’t have too many candidates willing to give up life, so a few greedy people will have more. We must prepare for “post-capitalism” now.    

Here is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment.

Sunday 11 October 2020

When to step on the brake?

 

When to step on the brake?

I was so tired as I have never been before. Another great effort and a few thrusts with my great big black wings raised me up into another air stream where I could coast for a while, but the air stream highways were not behaving in a normal way. Again I plunged in a downward vortex, speeding towards the scorched earth below. There was nothing green and familiar. There were no other ravens in sight or any other living birds.

Pain… burning my lungs, hurting my muscles, eyes dry and my cry was raspier than normal. I must have left the river I was following and now I was flying above a human city all black and dead. Nothing moved. My long fall was going to crush me to the ground, I didn’t care, but I heard the familiar swish of my wings and I was again rising to where the air was not so poisonous. A tall metal frame rose to meet me. It used to be one of the human skyscrapers once shiny with glass. I grabbed onto a beam and rested. There was nothing around that I could eat. A strange way to end life, even for an old raven.

I had a thought that persisted and I hung on to it. It’s a dream. Only a dream. I moved and felt my familiar bed and blinked. On the opposite wall, I could see the door frame and through it the hallway night light. Thank you, Lord, I heard my human mouth whisper. It was only a dream.

I know that we always dream, but since that night I never had another dream that I can remember. I never realized how important this blue water world is to a human, or even a to a raven, until I had that dream of the end of it. There was a strong emotional reaction in my brain. Before this, I believed that we would not be stupid enough to destroy our only planet, but now I believe it.

Humans began existence as a single cell organism around four billion years ago according to science. Some religious scholars estimated Adam and Eve starting “life as we know it” at creation less than twenty thousand years ago. It doesn’t matter when, what matters is until when. In both cases, we were given intellect, consciousness, and free will. Each of us can choose to end life at any point and figure out how to do it.

Nature is built around “natural” selection. The fittest reproduces and others disappear. The old testament glorified those who won wars, but we see some hints of compassion and cooperation in some ancient books. Still, competition is the driving force. Also, the idea of ethics and morality has seeped in. Cities and countries took advantage of the weak and were told to repent or be destroyed.

Two thousand years ago a powerful religion was created advocating sharing and cooperation as the solution for human misery. It was named Christianity and took over the world, gaining more followers than any other theory of governing.

In recent history, people harnessed competition to be the driver of growth. It worked like a charm and soon altered Christianity, but the basics remained in human consciousness.

We are the product of the conflict between two fundamental theories. Co-operation and empathy versus predatory competition. Do we starve people into working for our benefit or do we care for the least amongst us, trusting that all human life is beneficial?

So far, our drive towards populating the earth and conquering nature to serve humans excelled. The competition proved to be a substantial driving force useful in many ways. Where there is no competition there is stagnation. The problem is that we did not set a high limit shutoff safety device.

The race towards power derived from winning drove most of the benefits from human’s work and world resources into a few hands who have no sympathy for the majority of less competitive people. Hunger and sickness are used as a driving force.

When a pandemic hit, the world was thrown into a backspin. The few who own most wealth (1%) naturally devastated the many with no consideration for their wellbeing, and everyone took sides.

President George Bush summarized the situation preemptively. “You are either with us or against us.” Those who struggle to survive realized that being with “them” means the looming end of many lives of people whose labour is no longer needed while forgetting that they are also the consumers.

The rich countries failed to win wars against poor countries. All we can do is keep people sick to sell medicines, keep people poor, and use trillions of dollars to bomb them, and destroy the environment, settling our future generations with paying to fix it. We are also good at pretending that we are not, but COVID exposed our weaknesses.

Right at this moment, authoritarian regimes are using the rich private sector players against our liberal democracies to their advantage with China and Russia at the top of the list. We need to restrict private greed’s reach and power over governments. In the post COVID era, the “free world” must take charge, unite efforts and work towards shaping our world to be the haven of humanity that it was designed by God or nature to be. It is too late to always play the assumingly safe center position.

I see two shadows passing on the ground and lift my gaze to the sky above. Two ravens are dancing the mating game above the green mountains. They trust that we humans will keep this gift we call world safe for their hatchlings, and ours. Will we have the guts to do it or will we sell out to selfish, greedy short-term profits. Will we build a better Christian world or avoid conflict and lose the world?

Here is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment.

Monday 5 October 2020

Fake News and alternate realities.

 

Fake News and alternate realities.

When I was little the place to learn the news was the barbershop in town. Another place was the garage where the guys were waiting for their vehicles talking about the news. In the evening the men would come home and tell their wives the news, and thus public opinion was formed.

When I went to school additional news became available from newspapers and a few people even had radios. The mass media began to generate public opinion. Media became regulated and forced to express opinions and counter opinions. I remember clearly that time, but shortly after the regulations were removed. For a while, we had rules regarding presenting provable facts, and that changed. The market and self-regulating were assumed to do the job, but didn’t. People quit believing the news.

Fast forward a few years and advertising became an industry. Now the whole civilized world was connected, and the “professionals” understood more about human nature and how it could be manipulated. The Nazi party in Germany, the Communist party in the USSR, and the Fascists in Italy understood it sooner than others, but the rest followed closely behind. Coca Cola did as well.

By the time I become an adult marketing, statistics, and mass media were established and corporate entities could manufacture consent legally and efficiently. What we thought was “democracy” changed into a race of who can purchase most influence, and the people didn’t even notice. All major aspects of our lives fell victim to manipulation, often for monetary gain or political power.

Soon after, the age of Artificial Intelligence dawned, and people’s emotions became hackable. A small fraction of people with the right kind of knowledge can influence the masses while only being checked by similar groups competing against them. The folks who are manipulated don’t even know the name of the game they are playing.

I get irritated by people around me who become emotional about their families and brag about their kids while disregarding the future of the world. They wish to have the economic benefits that come from the “throwaway society” and the eternal economic growth while knowing that their kids will pay the price. It is not the monetary debts that will kill our kids and grandkids, it is the ecological debts that will do it. The quick profits from genetically modified foods, expanding carbon pollution, and eroding democratic systems are the enemy. Yet the highly politicized voting public is eager to face off against each other, each claiming that the other is fake news.

The field of marketing and shaping public opinions grew mostly with minor consideration for ethics. The business side paid for the discoveries and growth. People were the product, and later personal information became a commodity. Lying is now a strategy and opposing it is called fake news.

Just recently the masses have been introduced to something called alternate reality. It has been discussed in physics and philosophy, and in the hands of the less intelligent people became a tool for lying. The concept existed for thousands of years, yet now under the heading of Quantum Physics made a comeback. We can prove in modern laboratories that the most minute particles of reality are subject to human thought. Bang, we have objective reality, time, and space, behaving differently when observed or acted upon by human thought.

Alternate realities existed forever and still exist in primitive cultures. It is not some popular figure spewing lies pretending it is truth; it is the hardcore reality upon which religions and past civilizations were built and thrived. It is an alternate reality.

The Hellenistic Greek culture that we mimic, was living in what we call an alternate reality. Their reality comprised a model in which individuals didn’t exist separately but as a part of their family. Our capitalistic rugged individualism mixed with that culture where Gods were real, at the beginning of the industrial age that later became the technological era.

Now I watch some rich and famous people destroying the world for short personal gains. They claim that anyone who opposes them is fake news or that their alternate reality is different than the rest.

I believe in alternate realities. We don’t see reality as it is, and Lord help us if we did.

What I do know is that if I jump in front of a moving truck to grab a pile of money, my wonderful life will end. I refuse to follow those who regularly lie regardless of how big a reward they offer. They can show me money and power, tell me that foreigners are cheating or whatever they want. They can tell me they are my friends and try to bribe me. I am not jumping in front of moving vehicles or off a tall building.

I trust news that matches my reality as I see it without incredible explanations. I see someone messing up; I want them to clean it. A person is speeding around people, slow down. Someone selling dangerous goods, stop it. Cheating on taxes, prove that you didn’t. Careless about spreading contagious disease, pay for treatment, and damages. I think in simple terms. You break you pay and the rest is fake news.

I am old now and I know some simple facts. You get more flies with honey than with a hummer. You lead by good example. Children of thieves steal easily, and those who receive give help to others. You want power if you don’t enjoy working. You seek respect if you don’t act respectfully. Cheaters suspect all others of cheating. Lazy people try to force others to work more for less and so on.

Yes, there is fake news and alternate realities exist, and we can tell which is what if we are honest about it. 

Here is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment.

Monday 28 September 2020

Give me Liberty or give me death.

 

Give me Liberty or give me death.

Give me Liberty or give me death, are words attributed to Patrick Henry before the American war with England. It is a phrase that stuck in my mind for many years. Is it true?

People often surveyed soldiers who regularly risked their lives, why did they do it. Many fighters on all sides of conflicts said the same thing. We are fighting for freedom, democracy, king, or freedom of religion. Humans fought against fascism, communism, opposing religions, colonial domination and lately wearing masks.

I was raised amongst the first generation of Israelis. Their families and communities were exterminated since they were living in countries that were not their own. There was no hesitation amongst them. You have to fight viciously to be free or you die. Freedom ahead of life.

Now I see a big conflict coming, (so far peacefully,) for equality of minority groups in their own countries. Some are actually the majority but feel like minorities. People are not demanding special privileges, only equal treatment. Those who had privileges are fighting to keep things as they are. Others who have nothing left are begging for their lives to be spared. People first want life and second, they want freedom. Life and freedom get mixed up.

People used to shout “no taxation without representation.” Others wanted freedom from tyranny of ruling elites, churches, or slave owners. Workers wanted freedom to organize and fight for better living conditions. Many fought to be free from others using them or forcing them to assimilate into a stronger group. Its always either fighting for freedom or fighting to subjugate others.

When I was little I fought for freedom with all my tiny might. I remember being only knee-high and fighting my dear mom not wanting to eat what she set up before me. She took the spoon, and I shouted no, I will eat by myself. The next fifteen years or so I spent in a war for freedom. Parents, teachers, older friends, all made an effort to have me do things and I mostly fought back. By the time I was eighteen, I realized the truth.

I was free to do all that I could afford to do, but I was fully shaped by society. Now it was a race for the common carrots on the stick and I was in it for the rest of my natural life. Just like the rest of us, I towed the line, received rewards, suffered punishments, and enjoyed the little options that I could freely choose.

I always sympathized with those who had less power. Kids fight for freedom but often learn that conforming is saving them a lot of hardship. It’s a question of education. Young adults are a different story. They often discover better ways of doing things but are forced to conform to fit into the existing social order that their elders have set up. I’d like them to know that there are many options to improve society and that they have the power to do so.

What is most important in a human’s life? Some will say having various experiences. They often dismiss everyday life for passing well-advertised experience. Others pick a cause and fight for the freedom to do so. There are many who feel endangered and fight for life itself. All living things do that. However, we encounter situations when people sacrifice their own lives for others.

People make a great effort to have and raise children. Commonly they say that when they will get old the children will look after them. People do whatever they can to position the young generations to get ahead. We used to honor the old but we gave it up.

Now I am getting emotional. As we left the farms and the old family-owned businesses, the kids moved. Our daughters became career women and we built ourselves safe jails for seniors. Governments tried to save money and the end of life period evolved to just physical care often less than desirable.

I watched relative after relative get old and coerced to go to a Senior Care facility. They have to chose “life” or “freedom” and the family and doctors chose life. Save lives is our generation’s motto.

Last winter I passed by a gazebo in our local Seniors home. I saw a senior lady I know so I stopped for a talk. She is very old and well educated. She shivered in the winter weather trying to have a cigarette. In her late eighties, she knows smoking doesn’t kill her and if it did it would spell freedom.

I watched the seniors in Ontario care homes dying in misery and neglect. Some day, if I live long enough, it will happen to me. I will remember the words, “give me liberty or give me death.” My family will do what they can but there are no options that I would like available. I will join my crowd of babyboomers and pray to God to take me. Perhaps I will try to hide behind positive thinking. It can not work.

There is no way for an adult to become a toddler in daycare and not feel that their freedom was taken away. “Life” can become a curse instead of a blessing.

I think that the most important responsibility of a society is:

Protect and lead the population and provide the necessities of life. That includes protection from members of society who subjugate others with economics or by force.

We must consider all human beings to be ourselves and set up a system that takes care of all, or we will be the victims of inequality. (check the theory of Interconnectedness. By David Bohm).

A few will cheat and lie, circumventing the system, while others will pay with additional suffering. Life changes unexpectedly. I recommend, “Love each other as yourself” but who knows what is right?

          Here is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment.

Sunday 20 September 2020

How do we want to live our lives?

 

How do we want to live our lives?

I didn’t ask to spend my retirement years in crisis. The people of earth didn’t either. A hundred-year pandemic, looming threat of the globe warming, a possible deadly conflict between world powers, or possible internal fight in an empire situated on our doorstep, but we have it all.

All of us chose how to live our lives and try to make the best of it. Sadly, we are not born equal. Some are handed everything by the virtue of being born. You can be a white son or daughter of a rich family born with a perfectly healthy body and believe that God favoured you in some way. You will spend your life in leisure competing with a few others as lucky as yourself in isolation from the filthy masses. They are not as worthy as you. You can also expect that most people will try to behead you if they can. In time, they probably will.

Another option is to live life doing the minimum and trying to escape the misery of being poor and viewed as a useless human being. Often you may find yourself intoxicated and resentful of what life handed you. In your mind will be a story of being cheated by life. You will be defending your hurt ego unsuccessfully. About half of humanity is born disadvantaged with very little prospect of getting ahead without fighting.

Most people are not privileged or useless for society. They possess the ability to function and contribute, able to produce what they need, procreate, and shape the world to allow them to exist. They compete with each other in every possible way for a place closer to the top. Those who are not concerned with the plight of others have a material advantage. Others slow down to help the needy, which often is viewed as a weakness.

Human society has been experimenting with options of how to organize itself for optimum success since pre-history. Originally people followed nature and organized what we call “the law of the jungle.” Those who could enslave others did. Women suffered most. Sarah “gave” Abraham her Egyptian slave girl to impregnate. The father of Islamic people, “Ismael” was born.

As humans became oriented to logic and thinking, philosophies of governing advanced. After thousands of years of evolution, we witnessed the birth of Christianity, which introduced what today we call the political left. Under that theory, human society is accepting responsibility for all its members.

A person who is believed to be the son of the creator started a movement based on being considerate and fair. He preached helping the poor and disadvantaged until it hurts, advocated community, emphasized the importance of beliefs, and talked about nonmaterial spirituality being more important than all material things.

As history progressed casts and classes became less rigid and the common people on the “left” (of the British parliament) realized that they were human as much as the privileged few. Slaves rebelled, peasants rose, a middle class was born, and some excelled in learning. Some of the privileged joined them, and democracy handed them some power through governments. The most populous Christian religion, Catholics, even promoted the notion that a woman, the mother of the Saviour, is a powerful spiritual entity.

Now, modernized society witnessed signs of a new order where the filthy masses no longer were the property of the privileged but a power to be reckoned with. At the beginning of the twentieth century, many people knew that privilege and entitlement were not ordained by God, yet those who had power and privilege disputed the idea.

While the “left” aspired to Christian ideals of equality and compassion achieved by change and reform, the “right” also built a case for being on God’s side. Northern European Protestantism believed strongly in pre-destiny. What could be a better sign that God favours people than their wealth and success here on earth? The far-right movement unabashedly maintained racial superiority, patriarchy, and hate of weakness of any sort. They wanted freedom of the market to rule, small government, no tax on accumulated wealth, and little regulations hindering an individual’s ability to profit or even wage wars.

The two theories were both tried and failed. Fascism disappeared for a time with the fall of Nazi Germany and Communism all but disappeared with the fall of the Soviet Union. Both still exist and work hard towards world domination. The Right gets power by financing elections, and their candidates are selling the assets and resources of democracies to what used to be the communists. BC sold its coastal real estate and Alberta sold oil sands to China. (Lookup International Democratic Union.)

The human animals will only survive into the future by co-operation. The Christian message of doing it by “love” is competing with the authoritarian idea of forcing people to work. Selfish goals can only be gained by force. People are not willing to give up much for a few to gain from it.

Now the “right” and “left” are pretty even around the world, holding each other by the throat. Democracy is widespread, forcing both to campaign for votes and mass support. In China, authoritarianism is making the economy function well, while in the West people are divided, unable to decipher which is real and which is fake news. Lying is no longer considered a sin.

The “left” is enjoying the support of the intellectual class and removed itself from the religious base no longer popular. Now there is talk about going back to the original Christian teachings without interpretations.

 

Mankind tried all the ways we can envision. We became selfish groups fighting for power and wealth. We see the ugly end on the horizon. Will we accept the teaching of love and work together to obtain a heaven on earth? Only God knows.

A new Human.

  A new Human. Some time ago I was listening to a past American president's campaign speech. He was threatening harm to people who did...