Insane Politics
Are you so Insane that you are Stuck Choosing the Same Politics and Expecting a Different Result?
A good friend of mine from the military who was very clear that when we divorce ourselves from learning from what reality is trying to teach used this expression often:
Insanity means doing the same thing and expecting a different result
This is a saying from Rita Mae Brown, a Civil Rights Campaigner. She must have frustrating struggles in her life to come up with such an insight into the obvious. Yes, it is obvious, and yet I see people, me included, falling into this trap often. We do the same thing & expect different results and are somehow surprised when things don’t get better. How very, very odd. And, how very, very human. To me the slice of insanity that bugs me the most is how our political attitudes are stuck in this trap. I cannot speak for the whole world but here in Canada we have made into Idols, eg. Given God like status, to politically correct and “accepted” norms which clearly no longer work. But heaven forbid you say anything contrary to what “we all know is good and honourable”… it can get you fired or worse. Quite frankly, although I did not live through the Spanish Inquisition, it has a bit of a religious zealousness tone to it all: we “know the truth” and will help you too see “the truth” – even it means burning you at the stake to do so. In effect, at the psychological level, it appears that our atheist culture and political parties have turned “religious” in that they consider their ideologies more real that the real world.
Here is what a member of Extinction Rebellion, Roger Hallam, says about the political class in England. I think what he says applies to Canada. Like him, I am not against any particular mainstream party – I am against them all because all of them want to keep BAU [business as usual] going in some shape or form.
Like other interviews I’ve done with members of the political class, this one again shows their psychotic inability to see that the real world trumps the political world. The contemporary British Establishment is a cult that believes in two extreme worldviews: Vulgar Utilitarianism: the complete inability to see the value in doing anything because it is good in itself. Everything is a function of the question “does it work?” – which practically results in a chronic short- termism, and the notion that ends always justify the means (e.g., it’s okay to lie if it will take you into “power”). Absolute Post-modernism: the complete inability to see that some things are objectively real, such as the laws of physics. Everything is seen as a “point of view” and a “belief,” apart from the belief that everything is subjective which is insisted upon with rigid dogmatism. The reason the political class is taking us to civilizational collapse is because it cannot think straight. It has lost its moral compass and any analytical intelligence. It exists in its own closed world. Worst of all, it cannot feel emotion – the entry point for a change in one’s worldview. When did you see a political or media figure cry about the betrayal of our youth, our country, our world? The political class is DEATH itself – there can be no compromise with it. It is never going to save us in the time we have left. We can only save ourselves through a political revolution which puts ordinary people in power through assemblies – not because “it will work,” but because it is the right thing to do. https://rogerhallam.com/the-british-establishment-is-a-cult/
So what are you and I to do to stop the insanity where our political class is supporting and actually acceleration the support of a socio-economic system which is heading us straight to collapse? Well, in terms of politics, absolutely do not expect a main stream party to do anything that will actually save us, they are stuck in BAU. To be honest with yourself you must vote for some non mainstream party, and, of course, walk the talk by living simply, living lightly on Mother Earth. Or, as Roger Hallam says:
HOPE DIES, ACTION BEGINS
Now by Hope dies what he and I mean this: hope dies that BAU can continue. Hope dies that any establishment political party can avert the coming disaster. Hope dies that there is any easy way out. However, because we act, we give birth to a new hope – a hope is a completely different world. A completely different socio-economic and value system. We hope for what does yet visibly exist, we hope but more importantly we act. That action gives our lives meaning and purpose and a good reason to get up in the morning and say: “Thanks for another great day. Thanks for the gift of life. Thanks that I can be of service to others. Thanks that I can smile and laugh and make my life matter.” When you and I can do that, we stop being insane. We become sane and can live without regret and perhaps, just perhaps, have the gravestone like Jack Williams, of whom Harry Truman said: “This is the greatest epitaph a man can have.”
He done his damnedest.
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