This year marks the seventieth anniversary of the theologian Paul Tillich’s famous book, The Courage to Be. Widely read in the days when an educated public read books, it is long forgotten. In it, Tillich surveys the history of anxiety and fear and their relation to courage, religious faith, and the meaning of life. His closing sentence – “The courage to be is rooted in the God who appears when God has disappeared in the anxiety of doubt” – became acclaimed as an astute description of the existential need to find a foundation for faith and courage when their foundations were shaking.
His writing profoundly influenced many, even when they didn’t wholly agree with him. This included Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who, commenting on Tillich’s death in 1965, said, “His Christian existentialism gave us a system of meaning and purpose for our lives in an age when war and doubt seriously threatened all that we had come to hold dear.”
I mention The Courage to Be not to engage in a recondite theological and philosophical analysis, which is the last thing we now need, but to contrast his call for spiritual courage with what we have been experiencing pouring forth from the mass corporate media for years There is a drumbeat of fear-mongering so intense and constant that it is almost comical if it weren’t so effective in reducing people to quaking, frightened children.
Primarily about Covid and the need to obey the authorities and submit to being jabbed with mRNA Covid “Vaccines” – the idolatrous religion of bio-security – this religion of fear goes much further and much deeper. Scenarios of fear have been rehearsed and produced for decades by the intelligence/IT/media giants on a multitude of issues, large and small. They are rooted in a spiritually nihilistic political propaganda campaign that is exponentially increasing fear, anxiety, and despondency on a vast scale, which is its intent. Fearful people are easily cowered and controlled. The elites know that regular people throughout the world are fed up with being subjected to violence and abuse in multiple forms, and if courage triumphs over their fears, they might join in worldwide solidarity and revolt, as they have been doing in various places recently. To prevent this, the authorities must use terror tactics to divide and conquer them. If people dare to rise up and even question the propaganda, they have been and will be called terrorists for doing so. Dissent is now equated with terrorism and thus it must be censored.
All this fear-mongering draws on people’s normal fears of “not to be,” meaning dead. It is of course understandable not wanting to be dead, but living in constant fear is a living death. Tillich, who suffered deep trauma as a chaplain in the trenches of WW I and was later dismissed from his teaching position in Germany when Hitler came to power, wrote that courage is rooted in the spiritual acceptance that underlying our individual lives is the power of Being, by which he meant God, and that fear and anxiety about our fates can be confronted only through the courage to accept in faith this foundational reality.
I think it is self-evident to anyone who glances at the mainstream media that fear is their staple. In just the last week or so, I have seen The New York Times, an official organ of propaganda if there ever were one but known historically as the Grey Lady for understatement, tell its readers in a hyperventilating style that anxiety about climate change has spawned a growing field of therapeutic treatment for sufferers, how deer in your back yard are infected with Omicron, how the Russians are coming, etc. This is the typical fear promoting propaganda that headlines all the media sites every day and has been doing so for years. Any casual observer can list them on a daily basis, from major to minor matters to fear.
Yet despite this constant, blatant propaganda, governments flip the truth and warn that anyone who questions this are conspiracy theorists intent on causing trouble and therefore must be watched and refuted. Just the other day the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a “Summary of Terrorism Threat to the U.S. Homeland,” saying:
The United States remains in a heightened threat environment fueled by several factors, including an online environment filled with false or misleading narratives and conspiracy theories, and other forms of mis- dis- and mal-information (MDM) introduced and/or amplified by foreign and domestic threat actors.
After twenty years of such obvious propaganda, you would think these people would be embarrassed, but they obviously are not and intend to propagate this bullshit for years to come. They and their media accomplices have taken their lingo lessons straight from Nineteen Eighty-Four.
On the bio-security religious front alone, Kit Knightly of Off-Guardian has recently reported that the authorities have warned us that there is a vast underdiagnosis of heart disease that may stealthily be coming to get us (not from “vaccines,” of course) and that HIV testing and vaccines look to be the next big push, for there is now the claim that a new variant of HIV is spreading in Europe. President Biden declared in December 2021 that his administration was aiming to “end the HIV/Aids epidemic by 2030.” While Covid restrictions may be easing, the mRNA “vaccine push” is not, and their promoters will only find different germs to defeat with “vaccines” and tests to ease the fears of the propagandized public, so many of whom have been turned into hypochondriacs.
The promulgation of the fear of germs and disease and foreign and domestic “threat actors” is permanent. For anyone naively thinking that there will be an easing of this elite war of lies, I would suggest they rethink that assumption. The state of siege that is the Covid crisis will be followed by many more, and this germ warfare includes a vast array of foreign variants, led by Russia and China. We are in a permanent crisis and emergency engineered by the ruling classes to maintain their control.
This elite war against regular people has no end in sight. The elites know that people get worn down over time and lose hope; thus, they plan for the long haul and keep hammering away. Paul Tillich’s book is important because of its stress on the need for courage in the face of the fear-mongering. Without a spiritual foundation to sustain one for the long haul, depression will lead to despair or surrender. History should teach us this. The evil ones often win, at least in the short run, and each of us doesn’t have a long run. Our time is brief.
The great dissenters and rebels of the past, even when not overtly religious, kept faith with their comrades and causes because they felt a deep, unbreakable, invincible connection. It is called different names or none at all. Maybe faith is the best word. Faith in what? Some call it God, as I do. Words can’t explain it; I feel it. Others say nothing and just carry on, sustained by the invisible. Some call it faith in human solidarity. The names don’t matter. It is not about naming but experiencing. The poet D.H. Lawrence said wisely that we are transmitters of life, “and when we fail to transmit life, life fails to flow through us.” And he added in his inimitable style: “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. But it is a much more fearful thing to fall out of them.” It is not easy, but fear helps us fall out.
There were those who called Tillich an atheist because his philosophical explanation sounded too abstruse, which is true. But he made a fundamental point about how as human beings we participate in Being, which is the ground of our existence. We are part of something that is far larger than our puny selves – beings in the sea of Being. Who can deny that? His call to courage hit a resonant cord with believers, agnostics, and atheists alike. Not a poet but a German trained immigrant scholar who emigrated to the U.S.A., his language was steeped in heavy philosophical verbiage, yet it found a wide audience in its analysis of fear, anxiety, and especially courage because it was about fundamental truths. Courage is fundamental, as is faith.
The Spanish poet Antonio Machado put it less philosophically and more elegantly:
I talk always to the man who walks along with me;
– men who talk to themselves hope to talk to God
Someday –
My soliloquies amount to discussions with this friend,
Who taught me the secret of loving human beings.
….
And when the day arrives for the last leaving of all,
And the ship that never returns to port is ready to go,
You’ll find me on board, light, with few belongings,
Almost naked like the children of the sea.
We are children of the sea and courage keeps us afloat.
Humor also helps, for we are funny creatures.
It is not often that one escapes an unintended assassination attempt. I am glad to say that I have.
This is an example of the power of fear. Where I live, the winter has been quite cold and there was a recent ice storm with thick ice everywhere on top of snow. My wife was fearful of falling and so had bought hiking poles for herself and me as Christmas gifts. I said I didn’t want them and wouldn’t use them; that I wasn’t afraid, that I had faith in my ability to sustain myself. So I didn’t use them, which angered her. One day when the ice in the driveway and on the car was inches thick, she cajoled me into using the sticks to reach the car. She set them for me with their clips at the proper height, since they are adjustable. We toddled down the pathway to the car, setting one pole out ahead of the other in turn. I exaggerated my need for them, bending far over as if I were in great need of the crutches. Approaching the driveway, I extended my right hand pole out in front and it collapsed because the clips weren’t set tight and I went flying face forward onto the ice. She looked at me in fear, not sure if I was dead or hurt or if her fear had made her into an accidental assassin. She needn’t worry. It was funny.
We all fall eventually, but in the meantime, worrying about it is self-defeating. It is a reaction to fear. Worrying is a form of preying on oneself (etymology: to seize by the throat with one’s teeth and kill), and it can be induced – and is – by the campaigns of fear that we are being subjected to.
The courage to be was Tillich’s way of saying that we are upheld by far more than we know. Call it Being, Tao, the Great Spirit, or God. Courage is contagious and will carry us on. It is what we need to resist the fear-mongers who are at our throats.
yeah, Joseph, a lot of what you describe is like a staged in the box socio-corporate-political framework. Am reminded of a Bruce Cockburn song “Let the Bad Air Out” and this stanza: “Traitors in high places take my money, tell me lies / Take a walk past Parliament, it smells like something died / They ask for trust, but somehow I’ve got serious doubts /
Open up the window, let the bad air out”
Perhaps helping to answer, at least in part, Eddy Minimum’s query: “The modern corporation is built on the British quest for American silver and gold. Spain used conquistadores to loot America, the British used pirates and private companies.” from a chapter “Piracy, Slavery, and the Birth of Corporations” in an excellent book by Jack Weatherford “Indian Givers: How Native Americans Transformed the World”. So the pirates in pinstripe suits are still at it.
Thank you Mankh….you said; “So the pirates in pinstripe suits are still at it.” I have 2 thoughts. Some researchers claim 5G transmission is harmful, apparently in many ways. So some people, many people view 5G as another corporate/political imposition on citizens. Then we have another corporation who is making ‘protective’ clothing for citizens to buy for protection against any harmful effects of 5G. Isn’t capitalism terrific ?
Then we have a socio/political condition where someone wants to go to war (for profits and domination). Another person objects and says we cannot have any more wars. The pro-war individual cries, ‘you’re discriminating against me personally’! This discussion lands in the courts and the issue is solved by literally a toss of the coin. Sounds silly? Objection is blocked. Communications are sabotaged. Letters to politicians and representatives. 10 years later some lame decision is made on the issue. During the 10 year period; 10,000 more insane decisions and acts are made. Citizens will be expected to accept and comply with any decisions made by all of our grand authorities, from dysfunctional parents, school teachers, incompetent business owners to local, regional, central politicians, sailors and junkies too! We accepted and even celebrate 245 years of fraud ! Are we a society of pathological liars ? Do we deny our own existence?
The state of CT general assembly voted to keep the Public Health and Civil Emergency. Note the second paragraph. States are keep these mandates to receive federal fund for “FEMA and SNAP”!!!! This is how a “faux democracy” republic installs and maintains tyranny.
“The Senate also passed a resolution the House passed last week declaring a new public health and civil emergency in the state by a 21-13 partisan vote. While the bill goes to the governor to sign, the resolution doesn’t require the executive branch’s approval.
The public health and civil emergency declaration was passed in order for the state to qualify for tens of millions in monthly federal FEMA and SNAP aid. According to the text of the resolution, declaring this emergency “is essential to the health, safety and welfare of Connecticut’s citizens that there continue to be declared public health and civil preparedness emergencies to enable state agencies to access crucial federal funds.”
“This elite war against regular people has no end in sight. The elites know that people get worn down over time and lose hope; thus, they plan for the long haul and keep hammering away. ”
As Justin Trudeau (aptly labeled “a duplicitous Ken doll” by Bret Weinstein) is currently proving and Ed points out above, this stuff is not stopping any time soon, maybe not ever if the current powers maintain their hold on the attention of many people. They will continue to tighten up the control and ramp up the fear, occasionally providing some temporary relief as a pressure valve, then move on another emotional front to consolidate the fear and control.
This is not something somebody cooked up recently. It is, some would say, the culmination of hundreds of years of planning and conniving to ensconce a few families in permanent and ultimate power over humanity. These people, whatever you care to call them, play the long game, across generations.
However, they are not all-powerful, and their tools in office around the world are often less than competent. But their patience has resulted in billions of people conditioned to look to them for guidance and to believe their otherwise obvious lies.
I was just reading an article by Dr. Gary Kohls, who points out that a corporation has no ethical obligation, by its nature, to human rights or well-being. It is in effect a sociopath. It’s only ethical obligation is to its shareholders (though these days I would have to add “stakeholders”, a deceitful term meant to lead us to believe that a corporation is something it is not), and that obligation is to maximize profits.
It is a sociopath which has now been granted “personhood” by the corrupted SCOTUS, and its profits given the gloss of “speech”. This was done to legalize the bribery of politicians and facilitate the descent into fascism.
While individuals are many and the corporations are few, the great international corporations, in reality only only legal and economic constructs without life, are elevated to conscienceless, sociopathic persons which working together have the loudest speech, and who can drown out any number of individuals as long as this game is played.
But of course, a corporation is composed of little people employed by the corporation. And little people need jobs. And some little people are also sociopaths, and want to be large people who rule the little people. For many years we have all been conditioned to be little people who need jobs and/or want to be big people who rule little people.
And this brings me again to an idea I have had for a while, that the downfall of the republic may have started when the concept of a corporation was allowed. I’m sure at the time it seemed innocent enough (and admittedly, I have not researched how or where it started).
The argument may have been along the lines of, “The business owner needs to be insulated from the consequences of the actions of the business. Otherwise he will not take the necessary risks needed to innovate and make the world a better place.”
We see the result of that idea today. Corporations drown out the speech of the citizenry. Giant pharmaceutical firms are fined millions for causing the deaths of thousands, a minor and temporary loss of “speech”. But always they are fined less than the profits gained by killing, by negligence or otherwise, their victims, who are effectively silent in the cacophony of loud voices. And always, the little big persons who run the corporations walk away unscathed.
But the little people who want to be big are always concerned about what might happen if the regular little people figure out what is going on, and band together against the sociopaths, real or constructed.
If that happens, well then they have a real emergency on their hands.
Eddy, thanks for speaking on this. And I wouldn’t know what to say while there is little unity of understanding among citizens as I can determine in my region. The jab, another round of new war threatening by the violence junkies and drunks. Just like a bad movie or rotten restaurant food, if I don’t like it, I get up and leave. I’m not sure how to leave the planet yet.
Hi Joseph. I do recommend you “get up and leave” if you live in a highly populated area, especially if the state and local governments have shown their willingness to impose draconian restrictions and maintain them even when the evidence points to their counterproductive nature.
I don’t see how the US or the world in general is going to avoid potentially catastrophic supply chain problems in the coming years, but if your government is exacerbating the problem by excluding workers who do not submit to injurious and odious regulations, including any type of health or other passport in order to participate in commerce, you have a serious problem in your location.
If you cannot change the facts on the ground, you need to change your location if you can.
I’m not sure what signs people can be waiting for if they do not recognize the need to prepare for coming general shortages. Even if you can’t move to a better, lower population area, you can prepare to weather at least some of the ramifications by storing food, acquiring means to purify water and back-up energy sources, and learning to grow your own food if you don’t already have the skills – and this is by no means an exhaustive list.
I have been expecting this type of crisis for a few years now, and have done some of the things I think need to be done, but not all by any means. I am in the process of relocating to the Ozarks from northeast Ohio. That location has the advantage, from my perspective, of low population density, a warmer climate, a relatively less oppressive government, and a high percentage of freedom-oriented people, many of whom are prepared to some extent.
It may not be the perfect answer, since as you say, almost the entire inhabited planet has gone mad, but leaving the planet is not a viable option. And a better answer, for those who can manage it, might be to stand up to the power, as the Canadian truckers have done.
But I’m 67 years old, and though healthy, I have certain limitations which make extended street demonstrations difficult or impossible for me. Plus, the political situation is not the only existential threat I see coming.
Our just-in-time supply chain works well during good times, but it is extremely fragile, and has been made more precarious by the actions of governments. Those who want to preserve the lives and freedom of their families need to achieve some degree of sovereignty over the necessities of life.
Thanks Eddy…get up leave. Yes, I would like to do that…., unfortunately this is easily to contemplate. Not so easy to do. Yeah, I’m 75…, I’ve been frustrated for at least 72 of those years and I’m serious !
Who’s afraid? That’s the question I keep asking myself, or rather it is probably more likely it is this sense of self which deep down already knows it doesn’t exist. Descartes got it wrong by assuming he was who he thought he was. He simply begged the question by assuming those thoughts were his.
I’ve been living in a prison of my own creation for the last ten years. I have been working diligently to “make it mine”, adding my own personal touches to make it as comfortable as possible just like any other prisoner would in any other prison around the world. In the last few years, I’ve suddenly realized that I’m in solitary confinement in a Supermax maximum security prison affectionately, patriotically and euphemistically referred to as the US.
I can’t think of anything more repulsive, embarrassing, or shameful than being exposed as a fraud, yet this revelation has become the most effective means of liberating me from this charade. I no longer identify with this fraudulent persona anymore. It isn’t real. It doesn’t exist as anything other than a silly idea.
When people would tell me that they’re bad with names, I would jokingly add that if no one said my name, I’d eventually forget it as well. I don’t know who I am anymore, but just like your observation into nomenclature, it really doesn’t matter what I know. My knowledge is useless. It is just a superfluous mediator blocking or separating me from reality.
Along with my mind, I’m losing my sense of self. At first, I would awake in the middle of the night not knowing where or who I was. It was terrifying. On a number of occasions, I would scramble out of bed, and as there was no recollection, immediately trip over some piece of furniture. Crumpled on the ground, I would eventually regain my bearings, but more and more, it is evident that they’re no longer mine.
I recently read someone’s observation that in 50 or 100 years, no one will give you another thought. No one will remember you. All your family, friends and acquaintances will be gone. I am the exception. No one thinks of me now. I have no family, friends, or acquaintances. No one knows me, or who I am.
Being or existence is the Symbol, Metaphor, copula, icon, image, mediator, medium, etc. which is contingent between transcendent or ultimate reality and the things which objectively exist. Whoever we are, for God only knows what reason, we’re placed into this position of contingency like a verb between the subject and direct object of a sentence.
We are not these things which objectively exist, but we identify so closely with them, that we become conflated with them. As closely related as identification is with identity, identification is not identity. When I stop identifying with the identity which has been created but is essentially nothing more than an abstract construction of the mind, I am freed from this prison cell.
The paradox is that I have to become acutely aware of this prison cell before I can escape from it. The ramifications of this revelation may inspire terror to most tyrannical governments around the world. What happens when those who are seeking complete control suddenly discover that the unwashed masses are all disappearing without a trace? What happens when it becomes impossible to identify a countless multitude?
What happens when those being tracked by Google, Facebook, the CIA, NSA, etc. begin disappearing one after another? What happens when countless people become as enigmatic as God?
“The spirit breathes where it will. You hear its voice but cannot tell where it comes from or where it goes, so it is with everyone who is born of the spirit.” John 3:8
Thank you Shnarkle Von Barkle…you thoughts are interesting, though I don’t think I could follow them completely. And it doesn’t matter if I don’t understand your thoughts. Something ‘felt’ very interesting! Can the individual liberate themselves from their prison? Is there a method, a knowledge required after becoming aware of this imprisonment?
Thanks for a wonderful article. I picked up a used paperback copy of “The Courage to Be” at a Salvation Army bookcase years ago, and it remains unread (by me) in my library. I tend to collect books faster than I can read them, so I guess it’s time to actually read it. As I do, I’ll be comparing it to Erich Fromm’s “To Have or To Be”, which has always a touchstone in my approach to life.
Again, thank you.
Ed, thank you for another wonderful article on a key aspect of the way to courage in the face of growing tyranny. The experience of the last two years has helped me understand the nature and importance of faith in God.
“The United States remains in a heightened threat environment fueled by several factors, including an online environment filled with false or misleading narratives and conspiracy theories, and other forms of mis- dis- and mal-information (MDM) introduced and/or amplified by foreign and domestic threat actors.”
I was glad to see this quote included in your article, as I just yesterday watched the latest Dark Horse Podcast, and Bret Weinstein went over this ground, which indeed indicates that the great worldly powers are facilitating a broad attack on any information which does not serve the narrative.
(For those unfamiliar with The Dark Horse Podcast and Bret Weinstein, you may recall a story a few years ago about a liberal professor of evolutionary biology being drummed out of his tenured position at Evergreen State College by the woke mob – though he did win a substantial settlement in court. That was Bret, and it also included his wife, also a professor at the college, Heather Heying, who is part of the podcast as well.)
Coming from a liberal viewpoint, it is interesting to see the way they have reasoned their way through this manufactured crisis, admitting their early errors and discovering the enormity of the perfidy of the “left” Democratic Party and their abandonment of liberal values in the quest to undermine traditional national sovereignty in favor of service to globalist king-makers and money masters like Klaus Schwab.
By the use of the above terms, the state can at any time identify anyone saying anything not aligned with their chosen narrative as a terrorist. in combination with the NDAA of 2012, as signed by Barack Obama, anyone so designated by the government has no right to habeus corpus or any recourse to fight the charge of terrorism and related indefinite incarceration or assassination.
So, yes, while the current medical psyop is apparently winding down, we can expect more to come, whether by an escalation of the alleged climate crisis narrative (which is becoming more difficult to sustain as cold and snow records continue to fall) or the HIV/AIDS “pandemic” to which Biden referred recently, pledging to end it by 2030, or via a new and more scary bug, real or imagined.
We can expect them to dance as hard as they can to avoid “all hanging from nooses”, as HRC predicted they would be if Trump were elected in 2016.
Absolutely essential grounding for the courage and fortitude we need and will need to keep sustained in our struggle against the dark forces.
Thank you for your words of encouragement and resistance.
Donagh
I first read The Courage to Be in a college religion course. That book and Tillich’s Dynamics of Faith have been in my belongings with moves and meanderings for decades. Both have been essential re-reads in this recent Fear Campaign. Thank you, Ed, for bringing Tillich’s work to the Light with your excellent piece. We need Tillich’s precision to cut through this bullshit pseudo-science/pseudo-pandemic.
Joseph, glad you appreciated the Trudell bit, and Gary, yes, you are tuned-in to what i consider Trudell’s thesis statements. And good observation wrt to “data mining”, have also heard mention a la cyber colonization b/c seems most of the lands have been colonized to some degree.
Lovely column, Edward. Over the years I have often been torn between Tillich and Barth on our (humanity’s — both as individuals and as a whole) relationship to the Divine. After reading your thoughts, Tillich may be back in the lead.
Fear is so powerful.
But I would like to add — so is conformity. The pressure to conform surrounds us, surrounds me. It takes so much energy to resist it. It also takes self confidence, which I sometimes lack, and which — alas! — I tend to replace with arrogance, which is not the same thing at all.
God bless you and your writing, Edward!
“We are in a permanent crisis and emergency engineered by the ruling classes to maintain their control.” – sadly I could not agree more Ed. Per usual, one crisis can be expected to morph into the next, quite seamlessly in order to maintain the necessary levels of irrational fear needed to maintain control.
However, just as fear acts as a contagion – so it appears does the simple act of “resistance.” Who would have ever imagined even a brief month ago that we might find ourselves inspired in our collective resistance by a group of truck drivers who have decided to simply refuse to submit to that – “emergency engineered by the ruling classes to maintain their control?”
The wellspring that each of us finds that allows us to overcome our fear and embrace our courage may differ, but the act of reaching out our hands to the persons next to us, to unite in resistance, is an act of both individual and collective faith that no tyrant can easily put back in the bottle and contain.
Thank you. So true. So helpful. I also escaped an MGH assassination attempt. Only 400 out of 80,000 employees did.
This is not original, though it bears repetition: “The opposite of Love is not hate, as too many believe. It is Fear. Hatred is but a derivative of Fear. It is secondary. Love simply Is. Love begins with love of self. This does not mean that one should be ruled like ego like some narcissistic psychopath. If you are unable to love yourself, whatever your faults and your occasional slips, then how could it be possible to love others?
How do you know when you have fully come to love yourself? Simple, again. If you truly love yourself, you will realize that you a part of the whole. That Whole is One. One is All and All is One. That Whole is equal to yet greater than the sum of its parts. I call this Metaphysical Realism.
Being simple in nature,words do not much matter. Just remember that love IS. It can be likened onto light. When our spirits live in Light, the darkness of Fear dissipates into the ether.
Some people have said humans contain everything that makes up the universe. I have no idea what they are talking about and if that’s true, I wonder what the process was/is? What do other animals contain; the same stuff but in different proportions. I don’t want to offend anyone here, but whenever the word god is used, I would require an explanation or a definition. I generally do not ask for an explanation for fear of insulting people. Sometimes I do ask.
Do we substitute the word god due to not knowing how to explain? Does the word god define a stage of human development, consciousness development…, seeing, knowing beyond the ordinariness of it all? The fear of not knowing…., yes viruses, boogiemen war after war, leave one start another…, have a drink of insanity! Locally we have town councilors making decisions purely from their fear, which they have no desire to look at and learn from. Simply react with no independent direction, no conscious activity whatsoever! I have fear. I fear fearful people even more. I feel surrounded by base ignorance in this town that boasts of their grand college, a center for indoctrination to carry on this insanity we are presently experiencing and profits $$$ being their god! How dare they call this learning and education !
G’day Joseph,
People like Jiddu Krishnamurti, David Bohm, Ken Wilber and Werner Heisenberg, did their best to explain how we are ‘universal beings,’ but as usual and always, words and numbers are not up to the task.
Just be.
Exactly as a child does before it’s head is filled with concepts.
Yes…Johnny…, a child is ruined everyday of the week.
In response to Joseph’s wondering, a quote from John Trudell, “Our bones, flesh and blood are made up of the metals, liquids and minerals of the earth, and everything on this planet is made up of the same things.” & Thanks for the article, Ed, good rousing reminders; yeah, fear goes back a ways “Psalm 9:20 – “Put them in fear, O Lord; Let the nations know that they are but men … if they aren’t Christians.” And in my recent book “Moving Through The Empty Gate Forest” i included some of the etymology: “The word-root [of “experience”] gives essential insight: ex- “out of” and per- “to try, risk.” In other words, one gains experience out of or from trying things, taking risks. Memorizing the map is an exercise; walking the Path is an experience. The word “fear” is from the same root, “to try, risk.” Is this to say that all experiences are fearful? No. Yet look at how many decisions you make — whether to move forward or not, whether to act or not, whether to feel or not — are from a place of fear, or, from a place of enthusiasm/love/trust/ intuition/careful planning. Courageous people aren’t necessarily fearless rather have the ability to act in spite of any fear. One who is experienced knows by repeated “to test, try, learn by practical trial or proof.”
Mankh – I have found a certain rootedness in John Trudell’s observation that we are “literally” made up of “the metals, liquids and minerals of the earth” – a reminder that we ourselves are simply forms of Mother Earth. This simple truth makes it difficult to place oneself, or humanity as a whole, on a pedestal above all other life forms on earth.
John’s observation that “they are mining us” referencing capitalism’s endless exploitation of humanity, of our bodies, hearts and souls, has become even more literally true today, rather than simply metaphorically true, as the massive online “data mining” of every aspect of our lives and behavior has become a staple of clandestine Silicon Valley efforts to track and then predict our every thought and behavior.
Finally, I take very seriously John’s observation that life – “isn’t about ‘freedom'” – “it is about ‘responsibility.'” Our responsibility to the earth, to each other, our responsibility to all life. Thanks for sharing your thoughts Mankh.
Thanks Mankh…about John Trudell’s quote; I wouldn’t doubt him for a minute. I also know someone might ask; ‘well, how did all this stuff come about’ ? How was it put together to make various forms, and life forms. And do you know what? I don’t know how necessary it is to have the answers to questions concerning thousands and millions of years ago. I think…, we need to focus on the present time. I also think we have a dilemma, one that has been ignored for 245 years ! No real communities, for the most part, no real collective activity. I’m glad some truckers found a common bond. Our indoctrination systems teach, demand blind obedience to all authorities, while we destroy what life needs. We all know this. Here we are; know thyself, know thy common oppressor. Where does it go ?
Joseph “Everything you’ve learned in school as ‘obvious’ becomes less and less obvious as you begin to study the universe. For example, there are no solids in the universe. There’s not even a suggestion of a solid. There are no absolute continuums. There are no surfaces. There are no straight lines.”
Buckminster Fuller
Einstein claimed there is no matter, only energy.
Thanks Art….yes, somewhere, a couple of ‘somewhere’s have stated everything is made of vibrations, many appearing at close intervals to be solid forms, vibrations? Is the entire universe a huge musical tune? Vibrations changing intervals, durations, always vibrating, moving. People with a knowledge of music terminology might have gained insight into this…, unless they didn’t.
Thank You Ed,
Great article, I’ve read your work a few times over at Global Research and it’s always enjoyable and inspiring. My experience with “the great god, the living IT” (my name for such things)(my how we get lost in the label’s) is we are all one and will likely remember that on our death day and yet like so many things in life we are also individuals in that same breath. It seems to me that it is never “God” that abandons us but us who abandon god (simply forgetting, the birth place of fear) I am a simple, ordinary man with no formal education, this is my experience, when I have chosen to be connected those experiences were at times, profound. When I succumb to my ignorance I become numb to the beauty of the world. Again I am both the lost and found, grateful for those rare experiences that spur me to remember my courage and faith.
This fear of the fearful is becoming a serious problem with me. I cut the cable almost 20 years ago, and figured that would be enough to protect me from the propaganda. No such luck. Fearful people are dangerous. They can’t think straight, and they desperately need everyone around them to help and protect them, much like someone drowning will take anyone close enough down with them.
When that fear lies just below the surface, the fight of flight response kicks in, and lately I’ve noticed that most people seem to be opting for the fight option, or a flight option that necessitates being run over in the process.
Shnarkle, good morning. I am speaking to myself as well as writing to you. When is fear simply a thought that we dwell on and when is fear actually justified? As I am typing, I know there are numerous reasons to be fearful, yet while I sit here, there is no reason to be fearful at this moment. Oh, I can let my mind wonder as I already have. The earth seems like it is saturated with violence of so many forms. All these military ships polluting the oceans and the minds of humans, wondering what is happening and might happen. Relaxing the mind occasionally is healthy. I spent some time yesterday, in the cold, standing on the frozen salt marsh and simply observing the trees in the woods. Looking at trees is relaxing to me. I looked out at the frozen bay, the ice forms. It quieted my mind for a while; the noise made by humans, the gross incompetence, superficiality, the feelingless intellectualizing that displaces our deeper feelings and the Fear of feeling one’s self and emotions that are real and felt by every human being and perhaps every living being on this planet. Perhaps the planet itself is feeling sadness, rejection, deprived, fear. My fear of the common headlines, reading about fines paid by pharmaceutical companies for fraudulent claims and bad products.
I once read a story written by an anthropologist speaking about a specific indigenous culture. By the time a young person is 12 years old, that person knows the name of and can identify every living plant, animal, insect in their immediate environment. I’m 75 years old and cannot identify or name very many trees or plants or insects. I’ve been near trees all my life! There are Trees ! We learn obedience to authorities and fear is set into motion. So… how do we put this fear into perspective. I cannot offer the best advice on this matter. Look at trees, birds and other varieties of the natural world.