It'll be different with me

Saturday 28 June 2008

What is that strange prideful thing about humans that makes us think that it'll be different with me? Women in potential romantic situations with men are maybe the ones who most indulge in such ridiculous thinking. I think it's the same sort of thinking that goes on with people in groups, where it's easy to fall into thinking that it's your group that has it most right.

My heart goes out to people who go into politics thinking, somehow, it'll be different with me. It's easy to berate politicians, but I think most of them are idealists wanting to make a difference. But what happens when the structures are corrupt? The political, social and religious systems that chew people up and churn them out with their idealism shredded.

I think it'll be different with me is really just a failure to face the hard slog of your own reality. We want to keep insisting that the way we are doing things now is the right way. Even though the evidence is overwhelming that the way we do things in the West is killing our spirits and the earth. It's different with me means that we can keep going and buying our little bits of consumer plastic to try to fill the void, because ... well, it's out there that's the problem. And I'm just one person. And I really want this. And it's sitting on the shelves and it's already been made, so I may as well just buy it.

That Jesus dude never concerned himself with trying to infiltrate the structures. He just got on with loving the unlovable and feeding the poor-in-whatever, doing what his heart needed to do. He didn't seek a seat on the Sanhredrin.

7 comments

  1. That Jesus dude didn't concern himself with the systems and what the systems dictate to people.

    I agree with you about possibility of many of the people that go into politics being those that think they can improve things and even with those that go in for the right reasons find themself caught up in the uncontrolable wave that moves them to do things they could have never dreamed of doing. I just think the dice are loaded when it comes to systems of all shapes and sizes because the dice are loaded when it comes to power, and systems operate by power.

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  2. It just makes me sad, Kent, that idealistic people get suckered in.

    The dice are totally loaded, aren't they. And so are all the bases. Maybe it's time for some change ... of the subversive variety, of course :)

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  3. thought i would drop by your blog via my own blog which you dropped by via erin's blog. and from reading one post i can see we're going to get along just fine...

    i have often wondered about such things. we have an election coming up this year in the states and the big question is "who are you going to vote for?" people always look at me funny when i say "no one." i'm not interested. it doesn't matter who gets elected, they're not going to represent my interests of demolishing the current paradigm and ridding ourselves of things like money, time, calendars, corporations, overcrowded metrolpolitan centers filled with unaware people... the list could go on.

    and i have wondered, "what IS the answer?" do people simply need to be educated? or do we need a cataclysmic meltdown? have we run too far to get home?

    i quite agree with you. it doesn't matter who is in charge of our flawed system, the system is still flawed. i often think that one of the greatest mistakes in history was the pilgrims bringing england and english living with them when they came over instead of learning native american ways of survival and living in harmony with the land around them.

    we had a chance at new life and we brought the old bullshit with us and proceeded to spread it all over the world.

    the most maddening thing for me is that it could all be done NOW. we could all stop, this instant if we chose, and we could do something else...

    ummm, yeah. more than i was expecting to say. sorry about getting word vomit all over your blog on my first visit.

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  4. Hey Jon. All word vomiting is most welcome here :)

    Yes, it is maddening that it could all be done NOW. NOW NOW NOW. I battle that often too. But yet, sometimes I wonder if that maddening aspect of it all being able to be done NOW is not also a product of the way we humans in the West think? I can't really say how exaclty that is, but sometimes I suspect it. Τhe way to change just seems to be a way that
    ... βε ριγητ βαψκ

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  5. LOL OKay that was so weird. In the middle of typing my comment to you, I inadvertently hit some keys which got me typing in Greek. Had to shut down and re-enter.

    Which is probably appropriate really, because it's all Greek to me, how to effect the changes that we desperately need. It is a problem so large that only God can effect the change, mereckons :)

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  6. sorry for the time lapse. i flit in and about. hope you don't mind fresh discussion on older topics?

    i quite agree with you that it is a problem so large that only god can solve it. but how does god usually effect change? through people. you know this. i know you know this.

    what if people were willing to plan a change? kind of like building a monumental new edifice. it takes time and womanpower. a change of this size would probably outlast my lifetime. probably a couple of generations if you're looking to making a smooth transition and detoxing everyone from mass-produced food and things. to moving away from the NOW mindset when it comes to results. NOW is important i think in terms of living and acting within each moment. but sometimes the moment is not about immediate results. sometimes the moment is about planting seeds. the next moment is about tending them. the final moment is the harvest.

    if people who know that this kind of a world is possible would be willing to join together to create a viable alternative to the current paradigm, i think that many people would be more than willing to help out. in fact, i think it may be what some have been waiting for their whole lives. gnawing at them.

    but many would want to kill them for abandoning the ship that others would rather be on. "what's happening to all the labor? why the disruptions in production and profits?"

    shit, i suppose i could type like this for hours. sorry. sometimes my fingers get ahead of my brain. (yes, i'm talking about you.) sorry, one moment.
    (don't point at me like that.)

    sorry. gotta go. the little one's acting up...

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  7. "in fact, i think it may be what some have been waiting for their whole lives. gnawing at them"

    ____________

    Preach it, brothah. (And make me laugh the rest of the time)

    I'm just watching the television and they're talking about the Murray River in South Australia and how it is collapsing around our ears, dying before our eyes, caught up in bureaucratic red tape. That area is one of the food bowls of this country so it's not exactly a small thing.

    Then 20 minutes later, they're talking about consumer sentiment being down and the economy and blah blah blah fucking blah and the juxtaposition of those two things makes me want to scream.

    Yeah, I reckon change is on the air, dude. I really do. I think that it is a worldwide thing, I think it's something that has to be orchestrated, and I really think God is the only one that can do it so we all play in tune - whatever that means for each one of us. I think we all need our own oil to be able to hear that, you know?

    Scary times, huh. Exhilarating at the same time

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