The Warrior -- Carlos Casteneda

Michael Herman mherman at globalchicago.net
Sun Oct 14 16:45:24 PDT 2001


perhaps this is where we disagree, paul.  i don't feel that my life is
in real danger or that the small slice of the species that has
accomplished the events of 911 is going to gain any real control over
me.   i expect that they will be subdued soon enough, with or without
military force, though obviously faster with it than without it.  i also
expect that their buddies will be quicker to help us if we can subdue
them without attack than if we attempt to subdue *by* attack.  unlike
hitler and others, these guys aren't actually out conquering territory,
gaining control for themselves.  they seem to fight out of
desperation rather than out of accumulated power and a march to
conquest.  so we can target and attack these people, but until we attack
poverty and hunger and consumption and armament and the other things
that divide us, i think we will continue to punch ourselves silly.

this all has me wondering now about perceived danger and how often we
punch ourselves silly in organizations, rather than stepping back into
open space.  has me wondering anew about what we can do to invite and
encourage people to break those cycles in organization, if perhaps
that's really all we can do, invite and encourage... and hope.

m



"J. Paul Everett" wrote:

> In a message dated 10/14/01 1:53:01 PM, mherman at globalchicago.net writes:
>
> << are you saying, with this humor, that punching back is the *only* response
> possible?  ...or the only response that is not optional?  ...or the only
> response
> that is to be expected?  have you never ducked, dodged, blocked or stepped
> away?
> must we always collapse into punching? >>
>
> Hi, Michael,
>
> No, of course not!!  I've ducked, dodged, weaved, ran, stepped back, etc., in
> my 64 years of life but the "other" wasn't out to kill me, either.  That was
> my qualifier--my life wasn't in real danger.  Nor was my freedom or that of
> my family or children or wife, especially that.  I wasn't in danger of being
> sent to a concentration camp or a gulag or a killing fields or...........I
> was relatively safe.
>
> When it gets unsafe in a meaningful way, and the "other" is bent on my, my
> family's or culture's destruction because they want me dead or imprisoned or
> in their control or ????-----, for whatever imagined reason, then, it's time
> to punch back.  Power over others and their future is a deep sickness which
> many people have.  We don't have to accede to that in order to have some
> mythical "peace".  I, for one, will punch back.
>
> Paul
>
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