>
>
> The lines seem to become more blurred all the time, don't they?
>
> I doubt that Joni subscribes to any particular political party or
> group either here or in Canada. Joni strikes me as much too
> independent in her thinking to go along completely with any one
> philosophy or religion or train of political thought. She takes
> whatever truth she discerns in everything she learns about & forms her
> own ideas & opinions.
Surely this is the responsibilty of all of us? To make our minds up, to live
accoirding to
our conscience and not follow someone elses truth.
I don't subscribe to any particular belief or political ideology. Why? Because I have
never found one I agree with 100%! Besides which, I have come to understand what
personal
responisbility means therefore I have to stand on my own and not say'my party, my
religion, my parents, my society etc taught me this'. If we are to be accountable, i
woulkd be embarrassed to say 'well, that is what I was taught'. I'd rather hang for my
own
honest mistakes than because I didn't dare to question or think for myself. I also
think
it is difficult to be black/white about people and their beliefs. I have met left
wingers
who are just as rabid and immoral as any right woinger and right wingers who are
liberal
in ways one wouldn't expect.
Tonight there was a documentary about one of our comedians, Bernard Manning. My first
insticnt was to turn it over but we watched it. My view of him being a foul racist
homophobic mysogynist is now not so clear. The program was balanced in that the people
talking about him were pro and anti. He was shown making to most offensive jokes. But
this
man is one of the very few showbusiness people who do charity work for NOTHING! He has
been extrememly kind to people, obviously loves his family. Does not allow swearing
etc at
home yet evry second word is fuck or cunt when he is working. I find that mans manner
and
jokes offensive yet I cannot now say i found him to be in his entrirety.
Life can be evry simple when we do make things clear cut, bad or good, but we delude
ourselves by doing this and also hurt others in the process. The stuff wars and ethnic
cleanising and homophobia etc are made of. No one is all bad or all good. Yes even
those
who pride ourselves as being good and non agressive are lying to ourselves if we cannot
see the potential in ourselves for doing wrong or even committing something awful. To
say'he/she doesn't have an agressive bone in their body' is to delude ourselves and to
not
see that someone as a human being. Push enough and you will see that agressiveness.
Anger
and agressiveness are necessary parts of us in order for our survival, to pretend we
don't
experience these feelings is dangerous.
The more 'rabid' someone is about their beliefs, the more admanat they are in their
'rightness' the more afraid they are
Those people who have had to pull themsleves up from the gutter either physically
mentally
or spiritually usally have compassion and understanding. Thos who boast of having done
this and who sneer at those beneath them are lying. Those who look down upon others of
a
different belief system are also bullshitting themselves, more so than those who think
and
hterefore see thru them.
In the end, none of us knows what is right and wrong. Not one of us knows what TRUTH
is.
We can only formulate an approximation of it according to our meaning structures and
experience.We cannot be ojective, it is impossible. We assimaliate everything
according to
our meaning structures and eexperience. Even the physical world we do not see as it is
but
only as our brain and ist structures determine we will see it. It would seem that the
less
pain in your life and the less pain you cause others, the closer one is to Truth.
Just because people have different meaning structures and life experience from us does
not
make them bad and us good, or them stupid and us smart.
--
bw
colin
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.geocities.com/tantra_apso/index.html
