Kenoli's Comments--long reply

[J. Paul Everett]

Kenoli, et. al.,

Well, of course, we all have grief.  It's the existential condition of being
human and on this earth plane.  Nothing to be done but to deal with it
through friends, personal actions, counseling, living our lives, etc.
Beneath grief is a deeper well called "shame."  It, too, is largely
existential, often archetypal, and again part of the human condition.  All of
us, if we get even slightly introspective, will discover that.

The human condition arises from the fact that we aren't fully conscious (see
next paragraph) but think we are.  Hence, as Ouspensky pointed out in his
little tome "On the Possible Psychological Evolution of Man," we do not seek
to achieve what we already think we are, viz., conscious.  He postulates what
is called a state of "waking sleep," which is where most of us spend our
lives.

It may be that much of your antipathy towards our government comes from
projection of your own issues, as well as your inherent human existential
issues.  Some of it undoubtedly comes from actual actions by our government
agencies, both intentional and unintentional.  Few are truly conscious, in
the sense of Jesus or Buddha or Lao Tzu, etc.  Therefore, they make mistakes
and do actions that are, and are seen as, reprehensible, causing suffering.

This is not an exclusive province of the US govt., but of all governments and
human beings the world over.  Great suffering is caused by all governing
bodies the world over, many much more than ours by a great deal---I remind
you of Cambodia, Kosovo, the Holocaust, Nigeria, Indonesia, in fact the whole
subcontinents of Africa and central and south America.  Mexico, for instance,
is only now beginning to emerge out from under the power of the oligarchs.

Cultural customs and religions cause great suffering.  The caste system in
India and other countries in that part of the world causes great suffering
and loss.  My brother is an entrepreneur who raises money from wealthy people
and goes to India to invest (always a minority investor) in companies who
need help to become viable so as to help raise the economic level of that
country and make money for his investors and himself.  He sees great
suffering caused by the License Raj practices of the Indian government and
the caste system.  They are endemic to the current cultural milieu.

In my opinion, and I don't even dignify it by calling it my truth, because
I'm really leery of anything with the word "truth" attached to it as I
usually find out it isn't, our nation, governed by those we elect as well as
the bureaucracy that we don't elect and the judges that are appointed, has a
great mission in the world and that is to lead the way in showing how a group
of wildly diverse people can live in relative peace and freedom, with
economic security and opportunity for all.

And, I mean all, despite the manifest discrimination we rail against and work
against.  We have made great strides in the past 50 years.  WW II was a great
benefactor in breaking our society up a bit so movement could occur.
Discrimination is far less here than in most other parts of the world where
the rule of law isn't even part of their consciousness, nor can you rise in
that society without being born into the right class or caste or
circumstance.  There is no nation on earth, and I've been in more than few,
where I would rather live because conditions are "better."

My good friend, a Ph.D. psychotherapist from France, came here and became an
American citizen because "here I am allowed to think more freely than even in
my own country."  (Remembering that the bureaucrats of France caused AIDS to
be contracted from blood transfusions by hundreds if not thousands of their
own citizens because they would not use a US invented way of testing blood
but had to invent their own and it took more years, yes, years, before their
blood supply could be tested.)

Speaking about the archetypal natures of the two countries around wealth, he
tells me that in France, if you lose your fortune, you will not be allowed to
rise again because you have failed and that is unacceptable in that society.
In America, if one makes and loses a fortune, that is, fails, we cheer them
on to rise again and they often do.

America is for the underdog.  Look at our movies, how they portray the
Horatio Alger story all the time.  All the Rocky movies, the Karate Kid
movies, all portray the underdog who triumphs in the end.  It's our
archetypal story.  The only time when societal opprobrium will be heaped on
your head is if you stop trying.  That's the great archetypal sin in America,
not to try.

So, we do have faults, we do make mistakes, but we have the biggest heart of
any nation on earth.  I believe earlier in the OSList there was the editorial
from Canada about who rushes to all the disasters of the world.  The US.  Who
rushes to our disasters.  Virtually no one.

So, my view is that we are under attack from these terrorists not only
because of the Middle Eastern imbroglio and other real and imagined actions
of our country, but also (and mostly) because we represent freedom to think
our own thoughts, not just those of Christianity, or Islam, or Judaism, or
Hinduism, or Buddhism or any other "ity" or "ism."

Our women are relatively free--an anathema to these people.  WE ARE FREE,
also anathema to many who want to have power over everything you do or say.
How you live your life.  Where you can go, what you can say, what you can
become, what you are to believe.  The Russian people are just now coming out
from under that cloud of repression.  There are many, many places in the
world where repression because of race or religion or caste or tribe
(especially of tribe) is the norm, not the exception.

I have a friend who ran a pulp and paper mill in South Africa.  All the
hirees had to be from the same tribe.  If they weren't, the dominant
tribesmen who worked in the mill would literally meet the new person hired
from another tribe and kill him with spears.  That is a story he told me, I
wasn't actually there.  It may not be true but I suspect it is.  Joe Paul, of
Portland, OR, is going to Nepal? to consult because the business people there
are stymied by the need to hire all from the same caste.

So, we are imperfect.  I still celebrate this country, and choose to live
here, because we are on the right path, which is freedom for all to become
that which they choose to become.  In this process of living as a human
being, we will injure others, either through action or inaction.  No help for
it.  So, we should begin to forgive ourselves and others, work on our own
consciousness, and try not to project our inner hostilities onto other
systems, peoples and governments.  Unfortunately, no viewpoint is pure, free
of projection, and neither are these writings of mine.  It is the existential
human condition.  Free will is a boon and a curse!  :)

Sincerely,

Paul Everett

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