This Day In History ... Big Ideas Clash
This Day In History
Breach The Capital With Reacuring Protestors
I have safely made it to my 40's without voting, ever—that I know of. Though there was that one year that I was drunk and high, all year. I am better now
What my political views were and still kinda are (but I'm a nicer guy now):
- governments and lawyers are professional criminals
- Presidents are mass murders.
- 99% of legislation is passed by politicians in hotel rooms some in exchange for a series of $5000 campaign donations or another type of booty (including power, vote trades, and actual, 'booty').
- Voters do have a choice, and that choice is from the choices they gave you.
- Government is not your friend
I pride myself on my ignorance of current events in politics. The more I am oblivious to the TV media and politics, the more of my own real life I get to live.
You may say that I am a selfish bastard. I don't have much of an argument for why I don't vote, except that I won't consciously take part in their criminal activities for any reason. They steal from us as a matter of course; they waste the money they stole, then put millions of us in cages, and the rest in servitude to their city codes and welfare plantations.
I Was A Tolstoy Fanboy For Peace On Earth
I've read much Tolstoy. Not the fiction, the non-fiction. I read his illuminations on the Gospels, the tirades on politics and the Orthodox Church, and even many of his letters during his later life. And I fell in love with that big brain behind that big long silvery beard.
I so wish I could go with him all the way and pay no taxes, swear not in court or to state, no borders, resist not evil all the way ... I find, though, I can't entirely agree with him on many points.
The spirit of it, yes! I love the heart of his last years. Here is a good quote from brainpickings.org that touches on aspects of my thoughts on him.
Tolstoy's letters issue a clarion call for nonviolent resistance — he admonishes against false ideologies, both religious and pseudo-scientific, that promote violence, an act he sees as unnatural for the human spirit, and advocates for a return to our most natural, basic state, which is the law of love. Evil, Tolstoy argues with passionate conviction, is restrained not with violence but with love "_
If you want to explore his more radical works, I would start with My Confession, to get a good context, and it is an incredible book. Then maybe check out, My religion.
They banned Tolstoy's later books in many places because they were so controversial. And I think they still are.
Gandhi And Tolstoy And Big Ideas And Peace And So Forth
I read a book called 'letter to a Hindu' which, forgive me, I'm a little rusty on the story, but through that book, Gandhi & Tolstoy developed a friendship.
When you study Gandhi and read Tolstoy's later religious works, you start to think maybe Gandhi and Tolstoy were strickly on the same page. That maybe Gandhi was carrying out Tolstoy's concept of the Commands of Jesus.
Once again, I'm just going from the top of my head tonight, but I heard Gandhi named the town where the families would stay while the men were in prison "Tolstoy." I think it is still called that.
** I'm rusty on that story, but here is a little context: more from brainpickngs.org**
In 1908, Indian revolutionary Taraknath Das wrote to Leo Tolstoy, by then one of the most famous public figures in the world, asking for the author's support in India's independence from British colonial rule. On December 14, Tolstoy, who had spent the last twenty years seeking the answers to life's greatest moral questions, was moved to reply in a long letter, which Das published in the Indian newspaper Free Hindustan. Passed from hand to hand, the missive finally made its way to the young Mahatma Gandhi, whose career as a peace leader was just beginning in South Africa. He wrote to Tolstoy asking for permission to republish it in his own South African newspaper, Indian Opinion. Tolstoy's letter was later published in English under the title A Letter to a Hindu.
The Cure To All Cures?
I wish I could go with Tolstoy's views, so powerfully expressed. I wish I could go with Gandhi's ideas so beautifully displayed for the world to see. But to be honest, I think it's these types of people who are a big part of the problem. They believe there is a cure to end all cures. Now, while I think Gandhi and Tolstoy's ideas are something I can snuggle up to at night, (and I still do)
... But, like Tolstoy and Gandhi—Can you think of anyone else who has had big ideas that were the cure for humanity?
I won't name them all here, but there are some like Marx, there are some like Lennon, and Frued .. and let's not forget, Mr. mustache, Hitler. Some good and some bad. Some thought they could wrap their packaged solution up tighter than the others... But all using the same method—a cure to end all ills; which, for some of these big thinkers, became more so a cure to end all cures but theirs.
We think that we can actually fix this place, and us. And, that might be the worst idea we've ever had.
We think we just need to pick the best big idea, but the problem is the idea of a big idea(or stated differently complete idea). It is seeded in religion also because basically, it is a religion, faith in progress.
Like Uncle Like Nephew
I'm just starting to get into this creep with big ideas, Edward Bernays (Sigmund Freud's nephew).
I've known about him for years. But I am just now starting his book called Propaganda. We don't use that word anymore because it got a bad name when the SS used his ideas with astounding success... we call it marketing or 'PR' (Personal Relations) now.
The Washington DC Drama
I had some friends that went to this Washington DC rally. I heard it got crazy, and I was anxious about them. So I checked in. I asked about the Breach of the capital, and he said:
it was stormed (meaning, the Breach happened) before we even arrived. They stormed it so quickly—Sticks to high heaven — too few people there already, too little resistance from cops, it's all bs
That made me think of this Bernays creep. I remember a story—maybe I'll end up reading it in this book—But, the story was about some play or opera or something that he was hired to propagandize (Market). The show had problems getting an audience, so they reopened it, and he hired people to fill up the seats to standing room only. After this display, the play did fantastically.
The appearance of a hit was made, so it became a hit.
Once again, that is off the top of my head, so the names and places may differ, but it doesn't matter for the point. I can point to many PR campaigns like this.
This is a normal thing. You can actually look around and find crowds for hire for your opening, event, or even rally, even a protest. And they will hire the people to ACT like your DEAL is a BIG DEAL.
That's why I call Bernays a creep. He did all kinds of disgusting things with human psychology, and they still do it today—every single day.
Edward Bernays, Propaganda Protests?
I'm not saying this whole thing was a propaganda stunt. That would be crazy. I think there were propaganda stunts within the actual rally. But, I think over the coming days—if you look somewhere other than the propaganda machines, the corporate news, that is—you'll probably run into a lot of this that was faked.
It is a normal occurrence now. Bernays showed it could work, and it has been working for decades. If they do it for broadway openings, why not do it for political dramas? Of course, they do because there is immense power and money involved.
Here is a very early example:
Fake Protestors At Washington DC Ralley?
I Bet the guy in the buffalo head has one of those big ideas driving him. Or, maybe he was paid to represent a guy like that.
Confusion As A Strategy
Since I don't keep up with the news, I have to rely on friends. I have some progressive friends that give me one side of a story. Some democrat friends give me the NPR side, and then my Trump friends that give yet another. What is shocking is that the sides of the story can literally be the complete opposite story of events or 'facts' (We must use that term loosely these days).
I Don't Have An Idea, But Less Confusion
I'm not one of those people, like Tolstoy, or Gandhi, Or Lennon, Or Marx, who has an idea that will fix the world. I don't think we can fix it. I don't think we should fix it. Most likely, the people breaking the world the most are the very ones that believe it can be fixed the most.
I don't have a lot of ideas for the world. I do have many ideas for myself, for my family, and the people around me. , i.e. For my life. And that is where the solutions lay. Within each day. For each one of us.
There are so many solutions to so many problems that reveal themselves to me every single day. Sometimes the solutions even seem miraculous, almost like there is a purpose to it all. That someone or something above all this rioting has a truly Big Idea.
And I pretty much leave it there. If I start thinking, I know what that 'Big Idea' is, or that it is all written down in some ancient script, and furthermore, I can understand it all; How quickly I can start thinking that I have the Big Idea to end all ideas.
But if I stay out of those Big Ideas and look only at making my life a little better, and my family' and my friends and the strangers I pass on the way.
Suppose we all started thinking of smaller ideas and living in smaller worlds (the small world of our own life, that is). Then we really could upend Washington DC. By doing the one thing that would scare the living shi$ out of them ... not Give A F#$% about them. Not think of them. Not watch them on the TV.
That's not much of an idea. It will only go so far. It is not meant to be passed in a Bill on the floor of congress. It is meant to help now and then.
Thanks for reading. I'm Ezra Vancil a Texas Songwriter and Performer and sometimes writer and artist. You can check out more at www.ezravancil.com OR go to my more music-focused Steemit Blog @ezravancil for more videos and music stuffs.