Reader's Comments

Re: I Was Wrong About Syria

I've long believed that it takes a disappointed idealist to REALLY understand politics! After all, a full-blown cynic couldn't even begin to imagine the ideals that a politician uses, natural as breathing, to camouflage his or her real motives and intentions; we need an idealist for that.

And I think, for similar reasons, that every pragmatist is, at heart, a disappointed idealist. We have pragmatists to thank for almost every effective action ever taken.

When I saw that Obama, too, has feet of clay (and yes, it took almost twelve months, mostly because where in Oz, we don't study the US scene as closely as you do or as we perhaps should), I immediately thought of JFK and the Cuban missile crisis, which, as an adolescent, I lived through in fear and wonderment.  How, I wondered then, dare the American president imperil the whole free world? It seemed the height of hubris and brinkmanship. What I, and many older people, didn't know then was the extent of the secret conversations, and deals even, between the opposing leaders.

Thanks for your insights into American politics!  They save me considerable efforts to research and understand aspects of American life which seem somewhat confusing or opaque from this (geographical and cultural) distance.:-)

Regards,
--Yahya

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Great analysis, Wade.

It's unfortunate that politics requires hiding one's agenda and holding the cards close to the vest.  It's like a giant game of chess, with unbelievably high stakes.

Politicians who aim for transparency and honesty end up being vilified and scorned.  Look at what happened to Carter.

I'm glad, however, that Obama played it well.  We certainly didn't need (or want) another war.

--Anonymous

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Great background information, Wade -- thanks.  It's easy to forget the media gives us very little factual
information and there's always WAY more going on behind the scenes. Don't we just love to get caught
up in the drama? Would be interesting to get your perspective on if/how/why the media is used to keep
people in a state of fear.  Who does that serve?  What's the point?  Politics aside.  If that's possible.

--Anonymous

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I was wrong about Syria too, but for different reasons:

Obama’s Backdown and the New World Order Project
http://www.globalresearch.ca/obamas-backdown-and-the-new-world-order-project/5349296

Much to my surprise, the bombshell that fell next did not explode in Syria: it exploded in London. For the first time in 400 years a Prime Minister was blocked from foreign adventurism by Parliament. And then an even bigger bombshell exploded in Washington. Obama caved in on his red line, in a humiliating backdown speech. Not only was the President left looking weak and indecisive, but the White House was apparently turning in its post-9/11 license to intervene at will.

--Richard K Moore
cyberjournal.org

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And, perhaps Obama is in the world of politics.  Strategies are difficult and we do loose some trust as they work the world they govern.

--Anonymous

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Re: Deep Nonviolence or Strategic Nonviolence?

How to “wade” into new territory without losing one’s nerve and winning the battle.

I am beginning to adopt and become enthusiastic about your passion and am making it my own as well.

A beautiful collection of material on nonviolence can be found at
New College of Florida

Check it out. I want to build such a resource center at Goddard College.

Let’s discuss.

--John Cloud

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Fascinating....only Sunday I reread Gandis passage on nonviolence. To live in truth, love and forgiveness - daily is a challenge in courage and not be lazy of spirit.

--Sharon Johnson

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Re: Manufactured Crises 

As always, you've given me much to think about - and thank you!

Overhearing two biologists talking, I was struck by the question: What media
did you grow those cultures in?

Biologist or consumer of culture, we need to ensure the media we ingest are nutritious, not toxic.

Regards,
--Yahya

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Excellent.

--Michael Larsen

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"The Apocaplypse is here and now and the Kingdom of Heaven is within, blooming without."

Have rarely seen a sentence that says so succinctly the Truth that I am perceiving...   We are experiencing the most extreme split in our view of the world that I have yet encountered in my lifetime.  On one hand, the fall and destruction of the human race and endangerment of the whole Earth - and - on the other hand, the rising up of those who have taken to heart the "be the change" you want to see.  If we indeed make a commitment to reach for humanity's potential and turn away from the disastrous habits that mankind has adopted through free will, we can open to our own potential and chart a completely different course.

It is a CHOICE and an INDIVIDUAL CHOICE that must be made by hundreds of millions if we are to succeed to become WHO and  WHAT we were meant to be.  For me this is the central spiritual challenge of all human beings.

Thank you for linking these several references together.  They help point to the examples of the extremes that we are being offered at this time among which to choose.  And to call yourself ready to do what is necessary in your own life to move away from Armageddon and towards being a worker that joins with others in actually creating "Heaven on Earth" is what is demanded of all of  us who choose to accept the challenge.

Many people reading this offering will not necessarily resonate to this spiritual paradigm, yet will be saying "YES" resoundingly to your post and to the gathering together of all of us who wish to become the ANSWER to the problems of the world.  To be the leaven in the loaf, to be the small group that Margaret Mead declared would always make the impossible possible and "turn the world around."

I myself love the reference that calls us to become an evolving Body of the Omega Human: "...Teilhard de Chardin’s Mystical Body of Christ evolving toward the Omega Point, our evolution into the Omega Human."

Makes me want to order Wheatley's book today and begin to read...  There are so many voices, growing daily, that support the Awakening of humanity!  I am profoundly grateful that I am linked to people, like yourself, who are taking seriously humanity's CHOICE to move beyond the Apocalypse.

linked in service,

--Marcella Womack

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Re: Friendship, “Therapy,” and Mystification

What immediately comes to mind are two lessons I learned throughout the years.  "to have friends, you have to be a friend."  "Friends are gold and not all that glitters is gold".  An important aspect of friendship is giving another our vulnerability and our being at ease with our own self.    It is one of those questions which is simple but emotionally complex.    There is a book "The Little Prince" which speaks eloquently to me about friendship, responsibility and taming.

--Anonymous

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Therapists are trained, among other things, to recognize transference and countertransference, and use them to further the work. With a friend or other person, it becomes an entanglement of the relationship.

The distance in the relationship allows more objectivity.

--Martin MacKarel

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Yes!! Dear you are absolutely right In the busy, modern world, spontaneous, natural human friendship is becoming less frequent.

--Aaron Surin