The Dryrot of Civilization
{My view on what much conservatism amounts to after all the propaganda and status quo authoritarian enabling mind control gimmicks are removed.}
Conservatism persist in defensiveness due to one overriding fact; It contours individual perception to exclude others and include exception for oneself; promoting insecurity, fear and its savior—opportunism.
No matter conservatism’s claims for respect, tradition and glory, it is driven by fear. Fear is the constant, and since fear is the opposite of love, or evidence of its absence, fear demonstrates a detached cosmological position; one in opposition to the full reality of Creation in the present moment. Conservatism is set up NOT TO SEE the overwhelming connections and relationships in existence itself. A relatively small set of assumptions come to fill this void of awareness in knowing, avoiding a basic openness to Life. Because of a conservation of ignorance (in effect) along with other qualities, conservatism, as a reactionary strategy for survival, is primitive, and condemns humankind to primitive action/reaction cycles of dysfunction repetition.
Conservatives may claim to be acting for the interest of truth, love, righteousness, or some glorious purified state, but one with only their perspective as valid. Yet attitude and behavioral reality will tell the true tale of individual identity. Many conservatives seem to spend much of their time pointing out the errors of liberals ways, every conceived angle at drawing out hypocrisy, and its emotional intent of dismissal of connecting ideas. Usually kinds of negative character insinuation and assassination, mostly contrived of ad-hominem rationalizations that very far from factual issues in context.(* note at bottom of post)
{My considerations of conservatism are motivated by its recent campaign of half a century, to alter the interpretation of freedom and responsibility to Life as a one way street, where conservatism defines the dialectic.}
But for conservatives reason to be?–Their own security interest, implying intrinsic insecurity issues. Security is represented to conservatives by conformity of idea and behavior, (tribalism; nationalism; self exceptionalism) heavily validated by appearance perception of surface “look”; both of word-concept use and of physical appearance. Conservatives are united in abstraction, yet this abstraction comes to denote “true” reality to them. Beliefs and faith are raised above reason, into an abstracted test tube of grand assumption.
Perhaps one reason why a little buzzword and posturing can quickly give one conservative credentials and apparent group bonding. Use the buzzwords and thought-terminating cliche’s and you are in. The look of conformity becomes the conservatives sign of security. (Some conservatives by action can be certain liberals, leftist, libertarians, just about anyone) Us and them are defined and seemingly clear. Most all conservatism seeks conformity to the “look” of an interpretation of abstraction, and then the reality of full being gets left behind.
These damned do’s and damned don’ts, go together as one, for cosmologically, the conservative is separated out of admittance to Creation as it truly is, by limits of what they believe, deny, ignore and discard. And all while they are not allowed to openly question to define factual parameters of full truth. We could say; the white light of full illumination is reduced to one select color for conservative ideologues. This one color is assumed to be the only true one. (Only my One God; Cut tax; anti everything liberal) From full illumination; if you are the one defining the broad spectrum of white light, including all, the conservative will say you are the same as they, you are biased to white light, only you are in error, since you are obviously not only for their concept.
The Other is to be doubted by ones own unknowing; Circular Reasoning
You are assumed by the conservative of being just like they, only you are wrong, and you then want to impose your idea of “full” light upon them (validating thought-terminating suspicion). I often call this contrapuntal reverse psychological pivot by conservatives, existential relativism; They pick and chose what to include and what not as far as reality is concerned, by the desired ends, usually saying their past assumptions validate now. We all do this in some ways, but for conservatives it is near permanent policy. It defines certainty, to exclude consideration of whole areas of life represented by the other spectrum’s of light and their reality as part of existence.
This separation identity of conservatives is an inherently insecure and fearful place to be, leading to a detached cognition of self; the alienated individual in perpetual search of connection. They must create psychological security blankets to comfort the dissonance within their perception. The rest of Life; its diversity and unknowns, become targets for blame. Illusion must stand in to be worshiped much as the obvious glory of a golden calf; It comes to define how conservative believers are different from others in glowing terms, none of which require extensive testing in reality.
Reality, instead, becomes filtered through conservative ideological prisms, to illuminate what they wish to see, and deny what they wish not to in their light. Conservatives are set up psychologically to be blind followers trusting in the symbols they worship, reality be damned. Unfortunately, this places the conservative in likely opposition to the very abstractions they regard as holy. A cosmological perspective that shoots oneself in the foot, and the heart.
Sarah Palin, as an example, could cavalierly and seemingly jokingly, describe parts of the United States of America as being inhabited by not real Americans (other party members concurred). She is quite possibly oblivious to the danger and horrific perversions of perception, and ensuing action, that can flow from detached ideological implications; echo’s of communist or fascist purification. Yet she is thought by some, still, as being the heir to the conservative throne. Astoundingly detached from the reality of her own belief and definition, as she hopefully is, and not advocating domestic purges of thought and freedom of belief by who knows what means? For how must unreal Americans, with their implied un-American ways, be respected? What does this say of her eager followers?
These inner deceptions serve to empower political and attitudinal superiority complexes, behind ideological forms worshiped as being infallible. An example?; “Cut taxes!” as an answer to most all economic and social ills. The alienated individual construes a parasitic relationship depleting their own resources. All dependent upon separation ideology, which to the alienated from the Whole conservatives, is as obvious as the sun rising in the morning. (Apparently, since the economic meltdown, Alan Greenspan has admitted an ideological mistake regarding “free markets”.)
That Hostile World Where Nothing is Fair
Others and the environment become threats to a conserved identity. Life. Life is denied its full presence in the individuals spirit. Instead, that spirit becomes, or falls under the rule of exclusion and exceptional-ism. Where the individual explains how existence is flawed somehow, and a certain set of belief’s, or ideological impositions patched over the perceived wound, come to exclude a perceived threatening reality from view. While conservative notions are being promoted as holy or a sacrosanct embodiment of proper character traits, the universe of otherness is now seen as solidly and essentially hostile.
The definition of “their” God as the only one, or property as the right to posses Creation, come to manifest inherent conflict scenarios with others, even other conservatives with their own sets of one and only’s, that define the superiority of the conservative mind-frame in its adherents view. The Whole of the Universe becomes separated and categorised by detached minds evaluations of Creation as being outside oneself. This now perceived cosmologically mandated superiority allows all manner of trespass and horror to be visited upon “non-believers” in the name of what is right and holy.
Humans will administer destruction, claiming to be as God in action. We may be facing a “clash of civilizations”, where various conservative dysfunctions come empowering alienated energy from the face off of whose God is the right, One God. Imagine, destroying Gods children and Creation over whose idea is the right one. Utterly insane. Yet for some religious conservatives? Part of a Plan. Someone told them so.
Whether it was the Pharaohs insisting that the human form be conceived only in a distorted perception for a thousand years, or other conserved “holy” notions, conservatives cannot tell the difference between reality and distorted fantasy when it comes to pivotal perceptions of Life’s integration. This leads most all conservative movements to be pseudo-scientific at best, cheery picking from scientific cause and effect assumptions to select out support for their cause. It is not a coincidence that conservatives are generally against liberal education, and many against the natural law established in theory by science. Yet we outside conservative isolation abstraction delusion, can see natural law as an extension of the Laws of Being; be they instituted by God or whatever the True Cause is, God included.
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Conservative belief systems come to rot out wholeness perception, and ones own connection to The Whole, from the inside out, much as dry-rot in wood. Moisture, or in the conservative case, alienation-passion, energy which once served the tree well in connected context, now serves to destroy the amputated from the whole relationship awareness wood.
Fungus, in this metaphor including the many and varied forms of separation ideologies, seed conflict and otherness inside the individuals soul. And as in wood, a board with dry rot may look strong and true from the outside, but upon stress, can disintegrate to evidence the alienation that severed the connecting links. In human mind-frames, humanity and the environments seem more detached, loosening bonds to Creation itself; perhaps to the very Origin of Life in the individuals cognition. Yet, what is it that the conservative believes is heir birthright? Strength of character!
The Big Divide and Conquer
For political ends of opportunistic social engineering, conservatism can establish “natural” hierarchical orders in human consciousness that “let” humans feel they are better or otherwise endowed, and need not consider their relationships to others, especially to the more poor, the more weak, or those of other societies. What you can get away with, usually legally, but not always, becomes its own sanctification to the “free” individual.
Call Americans un-American and simply disregard them. Or, the whole tax issue, for instance, has been used as a hammer to break individual connectivity and establish surety in alienation and entitlements to privileged disconnection. Me keeping mine is seen as a holy cause mandated by disconnection rationalizations. These have the same consequences as pollution does when ignored as a consequence to ones own actions; Humans suffering under opportunism’s temptations will seek out cognitive dissonant assuaging rationalizations to not only release their own guilt, but project it onto others.
Liberals are the usual targets for conservatism’s continuous frustration in abstraction fruition, along with any other community or more communal/connected conceptions toward beingness. Liberals become the whipping boys of conservative dysfunction projection. Currently, moneyed interest spend fortunes on having liberalism negatively described across the print, air and other mediums. Democracy being the obstacle to conquer, being it is inherently in their way.
The corporation is a perfect match with psychotic patterning, because it separates the lone self out of Whole Context. Now fantasy of self importance and special privilege can reign. The economic conservatives attacks on unionization is to deny democracy any foothold to delusions of grandeur. Real democracy must continuously be diminished, corralled, and put into a manipulable good frame for corporate interest. They have succeeded quite well at contouring individualism’s narrative to this character proof of success and winning equals happiness, to the extent of burying our environments and resources under their delusion.
Until now, possibly too late for civilization and the earth, many conservatives denied pollution and global warming until it comes to pressure them in their own lives. They may acknowledge pollution somewhat now on the global scale, but many still seek exception for their industry or activities. They will refashion pseudo scientific “data” to prove it was not their fault actually. Usually that everyone is equally (and possibly more!) to blame. It is sad that currently one third of evangelicals are aware enough to be opposed to pollution, while other conservatives are telling them such a belief is a liberal plot to dilute their faith.
-Cutting off the Bleeding Heart
Being on the same side of an issue as a liberal is seen as likely problematic. One reason many conservative are known as being reactionary; They are inherently fearful and reflective/defensive, feeling the universe (via the list of issues others seem to create for them) is somehow trapping them into a corner, from which they lash out at those who are not like them. The Dry Rot of Civilization is an ongoing tragedy, spreading spoors from which our world may not survive. We are enduring the denial delusions of conservatism on pollution, hierarchical effects on human consciousness, power corruption, conflicting conservative paradigms, and the accumulation of all their empowered dysfunction cycles.
Conservatives do not seem to comprehend how Creation cannot be divided up and conquered, or parceled out without dire consequences. Yet for many, their identity in the surface nature of property is about all they seem to have. Some live in complete denial of how competition on the global scale, has not only created those presumed winners and losers, as many seem to believe, but may have sealed the fate of humanity by the accumulated bank debt tab of the planet. A universal tax we all must pay for them over all their “winning”. If I believe I am winning if I get the most money or most stuff, or otherwise access to survival and goods for myself, what I prove is how disconnected I am to real Life.
If winning is having all the money I want, whether by heredity, by hard work or winning a lottery, I am insane as far as real Life is concerned; living in my consumptive deficiency mindset, projected into conceptions of what I need, while being motivated to disregard the implications of the impact of my thoughts and action. Again; psychotic alienation rationalization. Yet for many, this wish to be psychotic is now part of the actualization of “The Good Life”, “success and happiness”. Most in the modern world now seem somewhat wed to separations ways of being, which ultimately are not just psychotic in effect on interpreting the world, but suicidal.
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That very materialist “having” consciousness, is threatening humanity with loss of its permission to exist. We are not now sure if humanity and life on earth as it has been, will survive our accumulated manipulations of the environment. Yet one can go to conservative writings and other media expressions, and hear all this character “proof”, so much tied in with being a have and not a have not. Also witness the shame and accusation listed up for the conservatives favorite excuse, liberalism. Having self worth (mistakenly, in a dinosaur/comet sort of way) being the description of Darwinian like success of the individual in competition. A “successful” ideology which completely seems to ignore connection and consequence.
A situational dependent perspective seems to stand in for having a responsible and accountable soul. To what reality is that soul sold? Yet cumulatively, that area so much conservatism lives in constant denial of, cumulatively, this “achievement” dominator psychology may well create a permanent death notice, but for us all.
The Raw Resource of Conservative Belief Has Its Cash Value
The cognitive dissonant driven rationalizations of conservatism can be used by manipulators interested in their own short and long term opportunism. The “have’s” had to create a numerical base amidst poorer people to keep up in democratic institutions, so they found other people of faith as an easy recruiting ground, being that they are easily mislead by cause and effect rationalizations from a trusted source, over their own abilities at critical evaluations of surface realities. Conservative followers do like to be told what is right by someone whom their belief claims knows. Trust the experts and authorities to do the thinking for you. You are excused from Life. The followers excuse.
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Then things such as banning abortion become political recruiting fodder, once again, a surface approach to the problem of pregnancies that are not wanted. The real solution in having pregnancies wanted and not a materialist “force” approach. Yet so called people of faith, and or moral voters, are easily seduced by surface association. However, to change reality one need be the change. The answer is not political nor one of law, but one of being.
Notice the conservative movement is geared toward the surface essentially, emotionalizing it above the rule of reason, conveniently manipulable by opportunist needing number of voters in a democracy to have their own way, while “seeming” to be the representative of the good. If changing the attitude of a mother to be is the good, the spiritual answer, then that answer does not come about trough prohibition. Prohibition, instead, perpetuates the disaster.
Prohibition becomes more likely to increase worse forms of abortion and empower worse kinds of opportunistic interest to get involved with illegal abortion. Most often, resisting evil succeeds at the illusion of momentary surface effects to the positive, while in the actuality of whole context, evil is empowered by both recognition and affirmation of its effectiveness. This is how the good within us, if focused on the surface alone, can come to empower the bad. Conservatism is widely surface orientated in act, assumption and action, decomposing civilisation from its “pure” perch in the inside–out.
We see many conservatives engaged in these counterproductive pursuits that do something on the surface while perpetuating the dysfunction forward indefinitely. Seeking to enforce morals on the surface, while not being accountable to the connections that are the strings that create a problem is patently irresponsible.. Then being against things on the surface that are treatable, such as controlling pollution, or collecting tax to address real material issues, because they then see this as interfering with a “divine” like right of the individual to act for oneself and NOT be held to account by society for repercussions. Again, irresponsible psychotic thinking.
Both these twist of the conservative mind into opposite convolutions of reason, are valuable to those delusional opportunist of separation and self gain, who believe (at least subconsciously if not fully aware) that they thrive at the expense of the Whole. Their lifestyle seems unable to exist without the use of The Commons to serve them; They need the poor to serve and to clean up after them; They need pyramid schemes of property to lift them up above the rest into “success” and “achievement” conceptions of self grandeur; They need human life to have an UNEQUAL value, in order to validate receiving more, no matter the consequences; They need to defeat liberal institutions such as democracy and equality of a right to be; They need deny and divert responsibility and accountability for their actions.
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In the 2008 election, Sarah Palin could describe certain Americans as “real”, because in the buzzword color coded concepts of conservatism, only their way is the right or true way. If in the abstract, they believe, and I’ll pick a color as an example, that red is the true color, other colors are obviously not red and so not true, or are otherwise misguided. Instead of the full spectrum of white light; where all colors are “true”, myopic conservative conceptual paradigms box the individual and humankind into narrow fields of comprehension. This misses the full depth and breath of reality, as well as of God or even country. Yet they cannot see their error, but assume otherness in others is evidence of others error.
Most conservatives will cover their alienation ideologies with high sounding moral or ethical platitudes. Otherwise, they will point out it was always “like this” or it is only “natural” to use others and the environments, as evidenced in the natural world, by our conveniently anthropomorphic selective appreciations of Alpha societies. This attempt to narrate the “successful” individual as being detached, and now somehow above the always enmeshed Laws of Being, must go on day and night to keep reality from raising its connected to all head. Until, and this is our rub as well, it may well be too late to save life as we have known it.
The question now becomes; Can those who are inbred with alienation grow a connective and interrelated Heart to humanity and the Universe? Or in other words; Can unconditional Love succeed in perception of identity in human consciousness?
The answer
YES
Why?
Unconditional Love can conqueror any alienation and separation ideology if It is allowed to reattach the flow in.
The healthy wood of civilization depends on healthy trees drawing water from Life to grow.
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So What Now?
We, humanity, need to declare three kinds of World War; A War on Poverty, A War on Pollution, and a War on Alienation. Then treat these as the real threats to Life on earth that they are. The one power to make these “wars” victories? Love unleashed.
The best and the brightest of achievers need to take their eyes off of seeing how big a house, boat, plane or how many of these they can have, or where to hide their money, and instead come to the aid of Life. The illusory luxury of waiting on mythical markets to magically fix everything is long gone, except in the delusional of course. For some, their self obsession with competition, with its often insecurity cosmological/psychological motivations, have blinded the eyes of their hearts to the common heart of humanity, and then to Life. As was said; “They know not what they do.”
We, humanity, need to spend our time, not thinking of how to prevent consulting adults from marrying, in other words, denying Love its place. But instead, serve Life by promoting love where it is and leaving our opinions out of others lives that are not causing harm to us. How we get seduced to act against the interest of Love is the mark of how mislead we are. Instead of seeking ways for political and social self interest to keep up their never-ending turf wars, leading countless lives to death, horror and ruin, while the planet burns, we need acknowledge our common interest and act from those implied by Life’s Higher Causes. Conservative/reactionary turf causes will likely send the future to the cosmic dust bin.
Love is the only answer.
If I let it.
Love happens.
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*NOTE
I began this post in response to a conservative argument I came across on WordPress, where the individual explained the truth behind our economic predicament; That it was all Obama’s, Pelosi’s and Harry Reid’s fault. They even have an acronym of some kind about this “cause”, POR (?); I imagine off of some talking point positions by some right wing group. I think its ultimate logic depended upon the time associations with these three and economic or political events. They had a chart that makes it all true.
Anyway.
I remember the last several years. I remember who it is who seeks to strip The Commons of most regulation so predator/donor/opportunist can do what they wish. I remember what the rising cost of oil did. Not by theory, but by my own life; I started driving much less. I also cut drastically back on home improvement projects and other spending.
The money evaporating out of our pockets has certain obvious credit. Thanks to the policies that had Ronald Reagan take the solar collectors off the White House, helped insure oil was the one and only fuel unless one wants to go nuclear with a passion. Thanks to the party of, and policies of conservatives, we all were pumped dry in ways that withdrew money we no longer had from being exchanged amongst ourselves. It went to places like China and Saudi Arabia, as well as to folks like Bush and Cheney who coincidentally profited off of the sufferings of the rest of us. Hey. That is how predatory and anarchy capitalism will do ya. I mean success.
These compounded, meant we were all holding back to some degree, and that put the most pressure on or weakest links, who no longer could make their payments. Transportation cost went into everything we bought, so companies could recoup their loss. (Individual Americans get no such cost of living prerogative to pass it on. Should have been born a corporation, for they have more rights and less responsibility. Some half of corporations pay no taxes.) That, and places like the home improvement center who began to see me much less. They and the restaurants I could no longer afford to go to, and on and on.
But Obama and Pelosi and Reid? I remember reality. Conservatives continually seek out those who have difficulty in determining reality from theory, or via cognitive dissonance or temptation, are looking for bagged and tagged scapegoats. Just another reason they (the activist reactionary culture war conservatives) seem to have such a distrust of scientist in general, and all those names the keep calling intellectuals, artist and nonconformist.
I also should disclose that since 9/11/01, I had my lifelong dismay at conservative thought inhibition conditioning, pushed to action by the incidents of that day; Where one disassociated and alienated conservative group attacked a presumed other one that seems to it to be its Nemesis. The American empire hegemony being promoted by power interest in the USA (neo-cons as example) are reactionary conservatives in politics and action.
On that day I had to do something in my own way to expose the ongoing “sins of the fathers” delusions being promoted by conservatism’s crippled perception of reality and Life, or be one who sat by and did nothing as the world was literally burning. And by the way, I also did not know who exactly our adversary was, and that I might be called upon to also defend our country physically if need be. I think many men had this impulse when a REAL threat becomes evident.
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5 DISASTROUS DECISIONS THAT GOT US INTO THIS ECONOMIC MESS
By Joseph Stiglitz, Vanity Fair
We are at a dangerous moment. Behind the debates over future
economic policy is a debate over history — here are the
major mistakes that got us here.
http://www.alternet.org/workplace/111709/
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http://www.truthout.org/123108A
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Thoughts on the current state of epistemological considerations.
