History Repeats

The Republican Party dominated the early 1900s politics. Their laissez-faire hands-off approach to economics was based on limited government, free trade, tax cuts, reduced government spending, privatization, and no social service programs. It was all about personal responsibility, and the overarching ideal was Darwin’s theory of survival of the fittest. If you were poor or of ill health, that was your problem. There was no social security, disability, or social services. Life was bleak if you were poor. Muckrakers, investigative journalists, and photographers brought awareness of the suffering of the masses. The Robber Barons, Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Vanderbilt, to name a few, were prominent men who amassed immense wealth by creating monopolies of ownership and treated their workers like slaves. Anyone who criticized them was fired, and some were put in jail.

The economy crashed. Like the game Monopoly, there are only a few winners, and everyone else loses. Life just isn’t fun when a few have all the money and everyone else is poor. When Franklin D. Roosevelt, FDR, swept most states with his New Deal, he reversed that trend, investing heavily in social services and making a government that regulated the economy. The Dust Bowl exacerbated the economic collapse, and the new Democratic government subsidized farms to leave their fields fallow to have the land rest.

His New Deal was so popular he was elected for four terms. The Republicans hated him and have wanted to dismantle Social Security, social services, farm subsidies and government oversight ever since.  

It’s been a100 years. We have forgotten. So, history repeats itself. Now with a more cynical edge. The stakes are higher. If you are caught protesting, the government can now freeze your assets, deport you, or put you in a jail – a secret jail constructed in Gautama.  This is a nasty government. It’s no longer about just not taxing the rich, it’s about dismantling the safeguards that protect people’s rights.

FDR was elected by 57% of the people. 39% were for Hoover. 39% is about the same as today. These are the m*aga, the capitalist-christian idealist who believe in no monitoring or control by the government, no gun regulation, and religion taught in schools. Basically - government, don’t tell us what to do! The idea is that life is so much better when the government stays out of the way and people do whatever they want.  Well, just check out history to see how that went.

Are we doomed to go through this cycle every 100 years? Do the stakes get higher and higher, where eventually, we end up living in the story Star Wars, blowing up planets?  I’m getting tired of the ultimate evil power taking over. Isn’t there another storyline? It seems like humanity is just not imaginative enough to consider another way. We will keep going around and around with this same projection. And indeed, our imaginations form reality. We have invested so much of our fantasies into doomsday scenarios that now we are creating our worst fears.

It may be that we must repeat this cycle- the capitalist taking over the socialist society, things degrade because the economy can’t thrive in an unstable society, then social stability is reclaimed, democracy is made better, money flows, greed grows, then the capitalist takes over again.  The only way to step out of this circular drama is for people to really understand history and the cost of this repeating pattern, then vow not to repeat it. Perhaps it needs to be so bad that it is burned into people’s minds that it’s a terrible idea to let the wealthy few control a government. But history has shown how bad it can be, and yet here we are again. History is either not being taught, or we don’t understand how the events of the past relate to today.

If the public applied knowledge of history, they may realize it’s not the government that is the problem—it’s the people who run it. Only then might we stop attacking our own systems like an auto-immune disease and start being a healthy society. Until then, we may be stuck on a merry go round of forgetfulness.

Dr. Seuss taught me how to be a good human

I read so much Suess

My brain talks in rhythms  

It takes a bit to get used to

I can say whatever do-dissimes

 Which is a made-up word

Of course, I know

But in Mr. Suess's world

Everything is a go

This leader we have now

Or what-ever he thinks he is

Can get out of hand

With his palm full of schiz

 He’s tired, he says

Of the simple democracy

So he creates some havoc

Some Ooblick and controversy

 The country is divided

With the butter side up and butter side down

Fighting for what?

A Christ? a crazy? A capitalist clown?

 He wants to take countries

For his private retreats

Even though there are people

There in their homes and streets.

 The star belly Sneetches

With their stars upon their visas

Have the dumb and complacent

Letting them do whatever they pleases.

 Did we not learn from Suess

On how not to be a Zax?

Who are stubborn as heck

And don’t listen to facts

 Or how to avoid a war

With our buttery bread

It’s not about butter

It’s about what’s in your head

We’ve read them all

I do believe

Or maybe it’s just been

the lefties and me

 All the rest of the nation

Have only listened to

 The ranting Rush Limbaugh

And the deceptive Fox news

We need more Dr Seuss books

in every school, home and hollow

To read to our nation’s children

So we’d know better who to follow

Dr Seuss Rap-

The Tao of the Times

In China in the early 700s B.C., political and social conflict was raging. The Chou dynasty, driven from its seat by Western invaders, felt its authority crumble, and the Chinese people fought amongst themselves instead of unifying to defeat invaders. Within this hotbed of social disorder, Confucius and Lao-tzu emerged. Confucius lectured on social, moral, and political righteousness to quell the storm, while Lao-tzu did very little and tried to leave. On his cart, drawn by a black bull, he was stopped at a mountain pass and requested by the gatekeeper to write down his wisdom. This was the birth of the Tao Te Ching. This book of wisdom and divination poetically describes the indescribable, what it is to be human. It is The Way that it points to the underlying patterns of nature.

It's seemingly unrelated history, but just as our government falls into the hands of a madman and we see our country teetering on failing while we fight amongst ourselves for what it means to be an American, it is important to remember that humanity has had many cycles of unrest. Just putting it in perspective gives us a bit of spaciousness around our current trauma. Secondly, the advice of the Tao Te Ching is timeless. It resounds true no matter what time we are in. And that it was created within the throws of political upheaval gives it all the more validity.

The Tao concerns itself not only with the well-being of individuals but also with the methods by which consciousness could evolve and the subsequent harmony within social groups. Lao-tzu’s advice for dealing with pillage, tyranny, and slaughter was to do nothing. It seems that inaction in such circumstances would be dangerous. However, Lao-tzu’s version of inaction is peculiar and has more to do with the individual's deep well-being and understanding of the true nature of things

“The Sage does not boast; therefore, he is given credit.

He who acts - harms, and he who grabs- lets slip.”

In a nutshell, force defeats itself. Every action produces a reaction, every challenge a response, and off we go on the merry-go-round of drama. Lao-tzu describes nature as having a law of inertia where the tendency is to continue to be what it is. Interference with the natural state creates resistance. Human society is also a natural state, and any ruler who tries to act upon it ultimately creates a situation that results in the opposite of what was intended.  

Indeed, we can see that we are on a political pendulum. The farther it swings one way, the harder it swings back the other way. Instead of trying to change the world, perhaps we should concentrate on quelling the swing. We can rail against all that is going on or try to calm ourselves, find connection, and develop simplicity. This tactic might create more results than any soapbox we can yell from. Indeed, our environmental issues would ease if we chose simplicity, and our social issues might cool if we chose connection and caring.

“Use straightforwardness for civil government.

Use surprise for military operations.

Use non-involvement to take the world.

How do I know this?

The more taboos there are in the world, the poorer the populace is.

The more crafts the people have, the more exotic things are produced.

The more laws are promulgated, the greater the number of thieves.

Therefore, the sage says I contrive nothing, and the people are naturally civilized.

I am fond of tranquility, and the people are naturally upright.

I have nothing to do, and the people are naturally enriched.

I have no desire, and the people are naturally simple.”

 One of the statements that struck me was about taboos. It feels like the politically correct movement has created a lot of taboos as well as the politically right. On one side, we can’t say he or she, but on the other side, we can’t say global warming or even Covid. We can’t talk about the bible, and we can’t do rituals that aren’t’ our own because of cultural appropriation. It’s a world of Taboos. But strangely, it's not about sex, violence or drugs. You can do that as much as you want and post it all over social media. I wonder about social media and how much it has contributed to our current situation.

Lao-tzu had a hands-off approach because, from his perspective, fighting begets more fighting—case in point Palestine.  I think Lao-tzu would recommend something more like how Gandi handled the resistance to English occupation or how Martin Luther King handled racism – by not complying.

And we just had Buy-nothing-day. This day would make Lao-tzu happy. Promoted by the magazine Adbusters, it has become a holiday of the hip. I had such a good time not buying anything that I might make it a week-long event or even incorporate it into my lifestyle. It’s a release of time, energy, and money – a genuinely Taoist take on subverting the powers that be. If Tesla's sales went down, E=pie Musket would take notice. If people refused to work for Prump, he would be powerless. It’s a matter of everyone getting sick of these clowns and not feeding the alligators.

But how long does it take to get people to shift their views? Well, when Dollar Stores closes, and McDonald’s isn’t cheap anymore, then we’ll see real change. Until then, the Worldwide Wrestling Washington will continue to surprise and entertain us with their theatrics of distraction.

But as a hippy in the woods, I’m getting on the cart of keeping it simple. It’s one of the hippy values – simplicity, less is more. Another hippy value is seeking your truth and enlightenment. There was an experiment in Washington where 2,500 meditation masters came and meditated in D.C. On that day, crime dropped by 25%. This type of action could create real change. If we were all working on our enlightenment, there might be a soothing of the hysteria, a shift in consciousness. It’s not just woo-woo; it’s in the science of quantum physics and all the sacred books of the world. The kingdom of heaven is within.

But to calm our minds, we must work on it and stop fanning the flames. Each of us must find our peace and joy by seeking holistic wisdom in this time of craziness. I hope humanity resist the knee jerking responses and chooses instead to think carefully about how to create the real change we hope to see in the world. For like the yin-yang symbol shows, one extreme begets the other. The only way out of the paradox is for each one of us to understand and embody balance in body, mind, and spirit.   

New Profile

My name's Travis, and I work in the bulk department at the North Coast Co-op. I’d like people to think about the fact that most of our food comes from other places. Most of the crops that are produced in the United States are cash crops. They are things like soybeans, corn, and wheat, which are used mostly as feed, and a large portion of it is exported to other countries as feed for cattle and pigs.

A lot of these things that we take for granted are components of staple groceries like cereal. Also, components (of processed food) come from other places. So, the politics of food is that any instability, not just in those places but also now here, really affects the price of food.

People should know that food prices are what are called, in economic terms, very sticky. That means that when they reach a certain price point, and people are buying them because food is a necessity, then the price doesn’t really go down. It doesn't matter if you produce that item cheaper. Like, for example, corn. It is so incredibly cheap to produce. The USA produces so much corn that we actually sequester more carbon in our corn fields than the Amazon rainforest does - that's the scale of our corn production, and we're not eating that corn; we're sending that corn to Brazil and Asia for cattle and pig feed. So, corn is very cheap, but if I went to the store to buy an ear of corn, I’d pay $3 for it. It doesn't matter that it’s produced for $0.05 an ear. 3$ is what people are going to pay for it. It's what the farmers, the wholesalers, and all the people who are taking their cut off of that one ear of corn are getting for it. So once the price goes up, it doesn't really go down.

 People can do a lot of things to insulate themselves - like beans are really easy to grow. They grow quickly. If you can produce more of your own food, you create protection for yourself.  Another option is the Farmers Market because the farmers are actually defending our food stability in this area, which is geographically isolated. Our farmers are super important because it's even more expensive to get things up here than it is to get them in other places, like big ports of landing.

 People should really look into what they're eating and where it's coming from because the vast majority of our food is not produced in the United States. People would be wise to wake up and realize that the ease at which we've accessed food and the wide availability of food is not really going to be there in the future. You're going to have to pay a lot more money for that variety, and it's going to hurt. We should be thinking about what we can do in our community to insulate ourselves as much as possible. As individuals, we need to consider our habits of what we eat and what we buy.

My name is Joshua. How I feel I can contribute to making a difference is, first and foremost, following my joy. Really looking within myself to find joy, peace and kindness. Once I'm able to do that, I'm able to extend that to offer it to the world around me. Maybe it’s just as simple as walking into a store and smiling at someone. I feel that music makes a huge difference in my life, and the biggest reason is that it brings me so much joy. It's fun. It's play. The way I feel makes the biggest contribution to my community, my family, the world and beyond. It's really finding what brings you joy.

The Year of the Snake

Symbology makes our lives rich with meaning. We can live without it, but the world becomes gray and mundane without symbolism enrichening our everyday lives. So, it is the Chinese year of the snake. Let’s unwrap the symbology of this powerful animal to illuminate what it means to us individually and collectively.  

The snake’s brain is the same as the deep interior of a human brain, where all our impulses, feelings, and intuition are generated. Snake thinking is a sense of knowing or urge we don’t understand with our rational thought.

In our personal lives, this year will be a good time to acknowledge something you have avoided, or else it will bite you. This year will either be easy or rough, depending on your rapport with yourself. Those who have listened to their deepest calling will be in their flow. It will be as smooth and joyful as a snake in the sun. But if you are repressing your desires or not able to articulate them, your year will be like an anxious snake, striking out at shadows, feeling out of sorts, until you come to terms with your true nature. The calling may not be what you think. It is not drinking, smoking or fucking; it’s the development or expression that you really need.

On a global or national level, this snake energy is embodied in the current crazy administration we have. We have not been true to the whole, but rather shoving what we don’t like away. Now, the national cobra uncoils and bares its teeth. The subculture of hate, racism, capitalist gluttony, and white-bread thinking that has always been here is now completely out in the open. It’s been embedded as institutional bias – the I’m-not-racist-or-sexist-but-I’m-not-giving -you-this-raise-or- loan kind of existence that we have had forever. The snake has emerged and is in full view. This is a time of reconning and clarity, the only way to deal with the subterranean snake. When we accept our deepest urges, they stop biting us in the ass.

My friends of color say that subconscious racism is much harder to deal with than the in-your-face racism because subconscious racism is denied. It’s gas-lighting racism. I’m not racist; it’s just you.

So now we have a clear view of the problem on the national level. This is national healing. It is the deeper meaning of snake; the venom is also the anti-venom. Those who thought that having a KKK millionaire as a leader was a good idea will eventually see that it is not. Therein lies the healing of our country because as long as white male dominance is considered a good thing, it will continue to be acted out in every small town in America, persisting like snakes in the grass - no matter who we have for president.  

My inner snake hissed in my ear that we need to let this cosmic play (because it is an archetypal drama) have its day. Let it unfold as it will. Evil always burns itself out because it’s based on a lie. The amount of lies this administration is teetering on is like the emperor having no clothes with a maxed-out credit card.

In this world war between capitalism and democracy, we are called to hold the fibers of our community together while the battle for truth ensues at the top. And if you listen to your snake brain, it will lead you to your highest potential. Perhaps our highest potential is (in this time of cruelty) being kind, open, and compassionate, which is not as easy or simple as it sounds. As a hippy, keeping the ideals of freedom, peace, and love within my network is my contribution to the truth.

In the end of this cycle, when degradation leads those who voted for the situation to have a true realization - then the snake will shed its skin. In the meantime, it will be very uncomfortable, so keeping our families and our communities intact as the national threads are torn and stretched is our duty to our country and our ideals. Listen for your call, be willing to look deeply into yourself, be clear on what is yours to do or what is not yours to do, and keep our inner snake senses keen.

Living in a dystopian sci-fi

This life has become very surreal. It feels like the beginning of a novel – An omen of a planetary alignment spreads across the night sky, as the Dick-tator takes office with his cronies of greedy billionaires aiming to suck the system dry.  This is the opening of my novel – or am I living this?  

T-rump taking his presidential oath on Martin Luther King Day, along with the death of Jimmy Carter, just made the symbolism even more dystopian. Carter was one of the few presidents who cared and put his heart and soul into bettering the world. The Re-pug-blicans hated him. My first inkling that history wasn’t unbiased reporting was in my high school history book. When we got to Jimmy and Reagan years, it said Carter was terrible and didn’t do anything, didn’t even free the hostages, but Reagan was sooo wonderful because he got the hostages released. The hostages were released the day Reagan was inaugurated. He hadn’t done anything. As I remember, the Reagan years were horrible; history is a fantasy.

Even the music was bad.

Ugg Journey.

My real concern is the breakthroughs in science – anti-gravity, energy generated by nothing, and AI. It’s wonderful, but not if used for the wrong reason. My friend is working on nano-chip technology that can be inserted into the brain. She is intending it to be used to help with dementia. But I’m thinking, Oh no, don’t let microscoff get a hold of this. The book Feed is all about teenagers with microchips in their brains and how they can’t live without the endless rain of stimulation from the feed.

We have shown ourselves to be humancentric in our developments, making the world nicer for humanity but terrible for the rest of life. What happens when we have infinite energy or can fly around, or can insert nano-chips in our brains? Will we conduct ourselves with humility and grace, refraining from using this power when it is destructive – It looks like not.

Everyone is all about AI, even though we have seen Terminator and Matrix. What we don’t realize is the environmental impact of AI. It’ very costly in energy and water. An example - to have ChatGPT write an email is the same amount of energy as driving a two-ton truck half a mile. It’s no mistake that microscoff is the backer of trying to restart the nuclear power plant, 8-mile island, that melted down in the 1990s. Also, the only nuclear plant in California was slated to be shut down but now, plans have changed. Coal plants in West Virginia were supposed to be decommissioned but are now kept running. AI is a hungry beast.

Then there is the huge amount of infrastructure for computers - 26.5 MILLION feet of warehouses are used to create AI, and we haven’t even begun. It is calculated that to make the capacity of the human brain, it will take a computer the size of Texas and eight stories high. I guess it depends on whose brain we're talking about, but regardless, the techies are planning on paving the world for their AI creatures. And here is the really freaky thought - what happens when AI watches The Matrix? How stupid can humanity be? Make the machines that can learn and show it the dystopian sci-fi of how to make us into batteries.

Is this the Twilight Zone?

For some, this horror story will dissipate when the Democrats take the house in two years. For me, it’s a bigger issue of our humanity. Are we capable of holding power in a good way? Enrico Fermi, the father of the nuclear age who helped develop nuclear fission, was vocal about the responsible use of power and was against the making of the atomic bomb. He made the power, but did he stop it?

It is like Frankenstein’s fanatic obsession with the power to create life – it became his downfall. Scientists are screaming about AI and global warming. We’re listening, but, like Frankenstein, we are compelled by the power of creation.

We are trapped in the storyline of the movie Don’t Look Up. We know it’s coming, yet we can’t unite, control our curiosity and think logically. Instead, we hand the keys of our government over to the greedy and cruel.

There is a dark, Russian fantasy called The Ghost Drum with a line that stuck in my mind like a prophecy - He named himself Czar, and the people let him do it.

For every person on this planet, the question will be - the red pill or the blue pill? The problem is that half have taken the red while half have taken the blue. Were just not in the same reality.

simple yet fun