Lessons from a Tree and a Book

"What I hadn’t anticipated was the tree. I was too weak to think or write or call or even watch a movie. All I could do was stare at the tree, which was the only thing in my view. At first it annoyed me and I thought I would go mad from boredom. But after the first days and many hours, I began to see the tree." ~Eve Ensler
Why did I post this? Because it reminded me of an acquaintance, a certified genius with patents and everything, who wanted to join a study group centered on a book by Harry Benjamin called "Basic Self Knowledge". My acquaintance told me that he was instructed to read the book and report back as to what he had learned. He came back, made his statement, and was told "Read the book". He went home and went through it again, and came back and reported and was told "Read the book".
This is a true story, so here I will save us many repetitions and simply inform you that for whatever reason he persisted, whether through ego, spite, curiosity, or some motive more subtle, this scenario was repeated a total of 26 (twenty-six) times. Yes, it was a short book, as most go. But it was on his twenty-sixth repetition that this genius became aware that he had all along been projecting his belief about the book on to the words it contained. At that twenty-sixth reading his perception, his genius perception, cracked enough to see what his mind, as a belief engine with its mission to make itself right no matter what, was doing to him, who was not his mind. Returning to the study group and making this confession got him admitted to the circle, and he, and they, proceeded happily and curiously from there.
I'm hoping that this offers some small indication of why I am constantly harping about the danger of unexamined belief and the lack of critical thinking, of unskilled thinking, that is rampant on our stage today. And I hope that in reading this that you either caught or were tweaked by the line "his perception, his genius perception, cracked enough to see what his mind, as a belief engine with its mission to make itself right no matter what, was doing to him, who was not his mind." I point to that because in so many discussions, conversations, etc, the participants identify with their own mental state as if it was their being itself.
Why is that worthy of note, or of any importance? It's because if you think your thoughts are reality, are a one-to-one correspondence with the actual maelstrom or impressions you are being swirlied by, [sic] there is little hope of understanding that your mind, as magnificent as it is, is not the essence of yourself, however inseparable from that that it might be. The point is, that if you think your thoughts are yourself, there is not the perceptual distance available to you to have a larger perspective from which your impressions you use for navigating your life can be sorted out, ordered, evaluated, appreciated, or whatever. In other words, without that perspective of emotional distance, or impartiality about your thoughts as simply things, or serving suggestions if you will, you are--because of your identificational involvement--asleep and dreaming for all practical purposes.
Now that doesn't mean you are not intelligent, good, perceptive, able to hold a job or lead people or any such thing. It only means that there is a point of view possible to us which some don't cognize and take advantage of, at least consciously. As evidence we have an impersonal example of a genius who didn't get the meaning of a simple small book on account of his investment in his world view as real. And yes, there is more to it than that, but these lines are about that part of the lesson we might learn.

The root of American racism?

Before we knew there were races in this Nation, as colonists, it was a matter of economic identity which kept indentured Europeans and African slaves in the same category. It was the fear of rebellion that motivated the legislation of an artificial distinction between members of a homogeneous group. It was one of the most brilliantly heinous tactics employed by the landowner class to divide and conquer, as the bonds of sameness between imports from the two continents grew, due to that economic sameness.
This was perceived as a great danger by those who relied on the system of indenture and slavery for their agricultural profit. Think of the relief, the savings in time, money, and especially the sense of security if that potentially rebellious class could be brought into a condition of severely policing itself. The scenario in the video is a perfect example of the exquisite extent of the success of that single move: that was the granting of legal superiority of whites over now legally inferior blacks. The identical economic situation of an entire class or humans had been divided by a totally artificial device into an autoimmune control system. And thus a heretofore new racism was birthed. The landowners had achieved their cause of self-protection in a kind and degree that perhaps even they had not realized the deadly extent of. And thereby we all lost, even to this day.
This loss is tragically pointed to by the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King by, as current evidence points to, the CIA. And they, as minions of one of the richest families on Earth, rated fifth worldwide, the Bush family, did the deed in their highly polished covert manner. This is not conspiracy theory.* This is what the evidence reveals. What was Dr. King's crime? He realized what the root cause of the need for his work in racial equality was: the poor people, the laborers in the fields and their support system of trades had been maliciously and deliberately set rabidly against itself in order to provide safety for the landowner class.
On the basis of this realization he shifted gears to campaign for the reunification and re-empowerment of the class upon which the landowners, industrialists, and most and by far importantly, the bankers depend on for their ease, comfort, exceptionalism, and privilege. Because of his already proved record at unifying and reinstating the dignity of part of the lower class, this set off every alarm klaxon and flashing red light in the back rooms of Wall Street and the .1%. This was (and still is) the greatest threat to the monied establishment which has ever come about in this Nation, and perhaps the world. It was an unforgivable crime of astonishing scope and consequence and had to be punished, severely, as soon as possible.
The unification of what are speciously called "races", that being a primarily economic invention legislated from many directions into the privilege/squalor dynamic for the purpose of the safety of a small class of people, is the greatest danger to the current financial control system ever conceived through the agency of clear vision. It attacks the policing power of a great portion of an economic class over its other half. And that policing power is so subtle and insidious that most who have it don't know they have it, never mind notice that they are exercising it. The clerk in the video was oblivious to the fact that she was doing what she was doing to one of her own, one who worked most likely harder than she did due exactly to the policing privilege the clerk unconsciously enjoyed.
This is why it is up to, primarily, the so called white folks to realize that all this time they have been duped into suppressing, demeaning, and even brutalizing our own allies. And this is happening because, if you are white, just like you inherited your religion, your politics, and how we hold a fork or drive a car, we inherited our emotionally charged and unconscious, very unconscious, privilege. And with that goes our very unconscious exercising of our police powers against our own allies who we were legislated into suppressing just as much as others were legislated into policing Jews or any other minority used to take your attention off what is behind the curtain you are not to look behind.
~~~~

*After four weeks of testimony and over 70 witnesses in a civil trial in Memphis, Tennessee, twelve jurors reached a swift unanimous verdict on December 8, 1999 that Dr. King was assassinated as a result of a conspiracy, the NY Times reported at the time. The King family, who filed the civil suit, was awarded $100. They donated the minuscule amount to charity.

The root of American racism?

Before we knew there were races in this Nation, it was a matter of economic identity which kept indentured Europeans and African slaves in the same category. It was the fear of rebellion that motivated the legislation of an artificial distinction between members of a homogeneous group. It was one of the most brilliantly heinous tactics employed by the landowner class to divide and conquer, as the bonds of sameness between imports from the two continents grew, due to that economic sameness.

This was perceived as a great danger by those who relied on the system of indenture and slavery for their agricultural profit. Think of the relief, the savings in time, money, and especially the sense of security if that potentially rebellious class could be brought into a condition of severely policing itself. The scenario in the video is a perfect example of the exquisite extent of the success of that single move: that was the granting of legal superiority of whites over now legally inferior blacks. The identical economic situation of an entire class or humans had been divided by a totally artificial device into an autoimmune control system. And thus a heretofore new racism was birthed. The landowners had achieved their cause of self-protection in a kind and degree that perhaps even they had not realized the deadly extent of. And thereby we all lost, even to this day.

This loss is tragically pointed to by the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King by, as current evidence points to, the CIA. And they, as minions of one of the richest families on Earth, rated fifth worldwide, the Bush family, did the deed in their highly polished covert manner. This is not conspiracy theory.* This is what the evidence reveals. What was Dr. King's crime? He realized what the root cause of the need for his work in racial equality was: the poor people, the laborers in the fields and their support system of trades had been maliciously and deliberately set rabidly against itself in order to provide safety for the landowner class.

On the basis of this realization he shifted gears to campaign for the reunification and re-empowerment of the class upon which the landowners, industrialists, and most and by far importantly, the bankers depend on for their ease, comfort, exceptionalism, and privilege. Because of his already proved record at unifying and reinstating the dignity of part of the lower class, this set off every alarm klaxon and flashing red light in the back rooms of Wall Street and the .1%. This was (and still is) the greatest threat to the monied establishment which has ever come about in this Nation, and perhaps the world. It was an unforgivable crime of astonishing scope and consequence and had to be punished, severely, as soon as possible.

The unification of what are speciously called "races", that being a primarily economic invention legislated from many directions into the privilege/squalor dynamic for the purpose of the safety of a small class of people, is the greatest danger to the current financial control system ever conceived through the agency of clear vision. It attacks the policing power of a great portion of an economic class over its other half. And that policing power is so subtle and insidious that most who have it don't know they have it, never mind notice that they are exercising it. The clerk in the video was oblivious to the fact that she was doing what she was doing to one of her own, one who worked most likely harder than she did due exactly to the policing privilege the clerk unconsciously enjoyed.

This is why it is up to, primarily, the so called white folks to realize that all this time they have been duped into suppressing, demeaning, and even brutalizing our own allies. And this is happening because, if you are white, just like you inherited your religion, your politics, and how we hold a fork or drive a car, we inherited our emotionally charged and unconscious, very unconscious, privilege. And with that goes our very unconscious exercising of our police powers against our own allies who we were legislated into suppressing just as much as others were legislated into policing Jews or any other minority used to take your attention off what is behind the curtain you are not to look behind.

~~~~

*After four weeks of testimony and over 70 witnesses in a civil trial in Memphis, Tennessee, twelve jurors reached a swift unanimous verdict on December 8, 1999 that Dr. King was assassinated as a result of a conspiracy, the NY Times reported at the time. The King family, who filed the civil suit, was awarded $100. They donated the minuscule amount to charity.

What so we worship

The Gods of this Nation are money and convenience. We are not a civilization, we are an economy run for the fatness of a few. From the death of 100,000,000 Native Americans at our hands and our 400 treaties with them, all broken by us, to the false wars and their economic reasons, to the out-costing by corporations that destroy lives, property, and our very narrow range of livable environment, it is all about pathological greed. 

And where does that come from, that greed? It comes from the same place as addictions and aberrant behavior: lack of being loved as a child and the lack of feeling worthy of being loved. We are not going anywhere until we grow up and decide that we matter as humans, not as economic, political, religious, or racial units. The values we hold as American and flaunt to the world as our magnanimity originally were meant only and solely for white men with money. Everything we have today as social justice has had to be wrenched from their hands by activism and even death. 

That holds for everything from freedom from slavery to women's rights, both ideals yet mostly unaccomplished. There are more slaves today in human trafficking and debt and prisons than we ever have had in the history of the world. The illusion of a peaceable America is an economically based ploy to keep the public in debt and quietly on the edge of just enough not to go to the streets and make demands. The manipulation of this balance point has been the true art of the ultra rich who have, proportionally, more wealth than any ordinary person is capable of even vaguely imagining. 

That wealth is enough for them to be in ridiculous luxury even if they gave away enough of it to feed all the hungry and educate all the ignorant. But that is exactly what cannot happen if they are to remain masters of the Race. It is exactly what we must do ourselves, as lovers of our own humanity and that of others if anything is to ever change, if we are to ever become a civilization or humanity instead of a global labor pool squabbling amongst ourselves, diverted from the actual enemy.