~!93!~ I happen to believe that the gods take care of those who take care of themselves. I would suggest not depending on the gods, fate, karma, etc. to take care of Bush. We, as citizens of this country, have to decide what we want and how we are going to get it. Yes, given the past history of second-term presidents, Bush may be in for a rough ride in his second term. But some of that rough ride will come about because of vigilance on the part of those who didn't vote for Bush. We need to keep the pressure on. In a way, the presidential election can be seen as only a warm-up for political and social activism on a grand scale. Yet please remember that politics has to happen first at the local level. That is why and how organizations like MoveOn.org, TrueMajority.org, etc. were able to be so effective. It is the grass roots that count the most, if one can get them effectively organized. Karl Rove was able to get out the evangelical Christian vote because of the Republican's grass roots efforts at their churchs. (Spreading around a lot of fear and loathing didn't hurt either, but that is another story!) Ever since the days of the Moral Majority, the Republicans and conservatives have been working to develop a coalition at the grass roots level, first electing people to offices like school boards and town councils. As the organization built, eventually they were able to get conservatives elected to state office. And now they have control of the White House, the Senate, and the House. So now it is our turn, if we choose to take it. But we have a lot of work ahead of us. And we will lose a lot of battles. One of the things I think we, as progressives and socially-conscious activists, need to do is develop a unified agenda that appeals to the hearts and minds of the American people. And this agenda will need to include a spiritual and ecumenical component. For example, I think we need to include those Christians, like the Sojourner folks, who don't believe God is a Republican or a Democrat, and that truly believe that taking care of the less fortunate, taking care of the environment, being socially conscious, are the actual messages of Jesus, not the war-mongering and butchery that currently passes for belief amongst many of the fundamentalist conservative evangelical Christians. I believe that it is in the area of having a unified belief system that can unite people, no matter what their religion, that the Democrat party has failed. I don't feel that a purely secular humanist approach will cut it anymore. We are in the throws of a transition between world view paradigms. As such, we are in for a long period of Hegelian oscillation between thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. In this time of change, many people are feeling lost, feeling they are without a clear and firm ethical or moral code to follow. So of course, they are vulnerable to the messages of certainty and strict moral code being disseminated by the vanguard power brokers of the old belief systems, whether these are based on a strict interpretation of the Bible, the Koran, or the Torah. In the philosophy of Thelema, we call the transitions between world views the progression of the Aeons. In our current time, we are considered to be in the period of progression between the Aeon of Osiris, the paternal and strict father who is also the sacrificial god (as well as the Sun that dies and is reborn daily), and the Aeon of Horus, the crowned and conquering child (the Sun/Son whose light is unceasing) who is to (hopefully) grow up in a nuturing and empowering family. As a symbol for the new Aeon, Horus is crowned both in the sense of seeking the highest in human potential and well as crowned in the sense of having the responsibility for him/her-self. Thelema advocates the idea that we are each to find and discover for ourselves who and what we are, rather than depending on a strict paternal moral code to tell us who we are.The conquering part is not warfare such as we are now experiencing in Iraq. Rather, I see the conquering aspect of Horus as having to do with overcoming the outdated and destructive ideas/ideals of the past that still threaten to destroy mankind. So, on one level, the "war" we now fight, as progressive social activists, can be seen as between conflicting moral and ethical codes. On the one hand, we have the conservative world view, where the ethical values are based on the idea of a family structure centered around the paternal father who enforces a strict moral code. On the other hand, we have the progressive world view, where the ethical values are based on the idea of a family structure centered around the needs of the children, who are to be nutured and empowered. Unfortunately, a lot of this takes place at an unconscious level, particularly on the conservative side. So, in order to begin any sort of dialog about our moral values and ethical codes that form the basis for our world views, I think we need to make conscious the process whereby our world views are formed. Light, Life, Love, Liberty, and Laughter! Perry ~!93!*!93/93!~
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Imagine all the bad karma bush has created the last 4 years with his lies etc for invading iraq who even his own father refused to do knowing the carnage that would take place over 100000 innocent iraqi men women children being killed many more maimed for life untold being killed killed maimed each day Bush is in the 20 year presidential hex cycle Maybe the forces of the universe will take care of bush seeing that no one else has been able to * Be Aware! * Be Alert! * Learn! * Grow! * Take Action! * "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" Edmund Burke, British statesman and philosopher (1729-1797) "In Germany they came first for the Communists and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me--and by that time no one was left to speak up." Martin Niem�ller (1892-1984) [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> $9.95 domain names from Yahoo!. Register anything. http://us.click.yahoo.com/J8kdrA/y20IAA/yQLSAA/XgSolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> ----- / o o \ ===OO=====OO============================================= (4)Portals (2)News Wikis (2)Conferences - No BuSHIT! Start here: http://pnews.org/ (On Internet since 1982) http://pnews.org/PhpWiki/ (West Coast News Wiki) http://g0lem.net/PhpWiki/ (East Coast News Wiki) ========================================================= FIGHT THE RIGHT! ================== Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rhetoric-list/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
