The magazine wanted to know what we thought of their Shell Oil ads.
"In general my opinion of National Geographic is high, my opinion of all mainstream oil and energy companies is low.
I think we have not evolved the consciousness we need to be effective guardians of the planet as our dwelling place.
Since our destructiveness so far outpaces our consciousness through human history we need at this profound point not so much an evolution but a revolution of consciousness. That starts with clarity of information, a more dimensional understanding of life, passion for collective and individual ideas, and an open-ended search across all disciplines, arts and cultures for visions and other perspectives we have never known.
We ourselves and political leaders in Washington and elsewhere ignore the welfare of the planet and especially of other planetary species and lifeforms at the expense of human life and the human future."
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Monday, October 11, 2010
MoveOn.Org asks what we want and wish
My answer to MoveOn.Org is below.
"What do you take away from the news recently? What are you excited about? What do you want from MoveOn?
If you have any thoughts you'd be willing to share, please reply to this message or drop me an email at: jruben@moveon.org"
-0-
Dear Justin Ruben -- I'm glad you asked.
--My main frustration, edging into despair, concerns how the "others" have taken control of the public perception. Obama came into the presidency of a diminished and confused country. He seemed such a light that a great number of us -- even those who opposed him -- thought or wished that he could wave some wands of personal power and make us and our country better. We would have been glad to see the wands but our wiser selves already could see this was not thinking but magical thinking. So, just as in a family dysfunctional to the point of ruin, the blamers screamed loudest.
Whoever had worked the hardest to save the family most often became the villain. That almost could be considered emotional physics -- if you scream at the only clear-headed one you get a double payoff: you deflect blame or responsibility from yourself, you "win" by attacking the one who made you uncomfortable, the one who was trying to see and reveal the truth as a possible pathway to better life.
--So we got the tea parties, and a Republican party which rather smoothly transitioned and nurtured its moral corruption from the Bush presidency into a status of being pained and aggrieved about the mess we're in that they can deny they created themselves. They now yelled loudest and more effectively (give the devil his due)about the mess.
--We have to look at the battered public. What is the effect on a people of a ruling government (Bush's) which lies continuously and successfully to bring about a disastrous war that destroys a sovereign country, kills and maims thousands of its own military, along with hundreds of thousands of civilians in the invaded country? What can we think about the trillions of dollars spent on this destruction, money coming from the pockets of ordinary people who generally cannot imagine numbers even in the millions, who all of a sudden face the alien concept of trillions? People who know the tax numbers on their pay stubs represent money siphoned by a government which generally lies when it declares they have a voice and which, in effect, colludes with the richest tier of citizenry to protect the riches of the richest from taxation.
--We Americans have laughed and joked always about "politicians" and the wrong-headedness of those who govern. We all more or less know that it is an unusually exceptional man or woman who can, upon being voted into office, hold to the same moral principles of his or her campaign. Yet, because of the high-flown phrases and the litany of "American" ideals written and spoken we never quite give up the hope, the hope that -- through some happenstance -- the ideals will become a form of reality.
--We had a light in Obama, which to some of us, had an additional brightness because he was a man who -- in general terms of what we have seen as normal -- could not have been elected.
--We miscalculated the perfidy of Congress, which certainly can be considered as corrupt and implacable as most authoritarian governments. We miscalculated the power of overt and hidden racism. We miscalculated the "ethos" of the high profile Republicans.
--We stepped off a cliff. We hoped. We acted as a dysfunctional family in that we would not, could not, look at the truth of a tough reality as it unfolded. We were like a traumatized child who has to be brought carefully and caringly to a point where the terrible thing can be looked at -- only when we can do the hard work of seeing without blinders can we do the hard work of moving on.
--So we blame. We yell. We are angry. We see that hope seems to slip away. We see the days in succession taken by the forces of the status quo, the forces of raw power without compassion.
--Dilemma: If Obama or any of his kind emphasize the horrific state they encountered in Washington and in corporate America, they are drowned out by cries of lack of patriotism. The dark side translates all such talk into being a criticism of the American public. Very effective. How can it be said that most of us are good and valuable and deserve representation without sounding like the dark side which has co-opted these words? It reminds me of the hopelessness I felt when anti-abortion forces began to sing "We Shall Overcome." Good and meaningful words become almost obscene. America actually needs a revolution. The entrenched stasis and corporate twinship of Congress has to be stopped. How can it be done? How to find the words? How to find the actions? How to find the passions? How to find the vision? How to wake up the fearful? How to lead? How to "Fix It?" How to move on? We have to look at these questions with all our mental capacities and imagination and passion. We have to climb out of the deflections and wrangling and stand on another ground. We have to help Obama get back to his light, to regain his ground. We have to tend, with passion, to our own lights.
--One specific. I'm most disappointed in Obama's lack of a planetary vision. Sure it seems almost square to use the term. But the days of planetary considerations as a non-debatable necessity are already upon us, have been for some time. These thoughts cannot be secondary, or relegated to "when we can get around to it." I am disappointed in Obama's lack of consciousness about the position of humans in relationship to other living beings. The future of humanity cannot be effectively considered without acceptance of the planetary network of life -- animal/plant/water/microbial. We are not ON this planet; We are OF this planet. If the network cannot live we cannot live. We protect commercial interests and their destroy/kill/wipeout practices -- "America is business." Is it? New ideas, new concepts can arise. Otherwise we choose death, not just for the "others" but for ourselves. We have to unmire our feet from the sticky mud of the status quo -- If not now, when?
"What do you take away from the news recently? What are you excited about? What do you want from MoveOn?
If you have any thoughts you'd be willing to share, please reply to this message or drop me an email at: jruben@moveon.org"
-0-
Dear Justin Ruben -- I'm glad you asked.
--My main frustration, edging into despair, concerns how the "others" have taken control of the public perception. Obama came into the presidency of a diminished and confused country. He seemed such a light that a great number of us -- even those who opposed him -- thought or wished that he could wave some wands of personal power and make us and our country better. We would have been glad to see the wands but our wiser selves already could see this was not thinking but magical thinking. So, just as in a family dysfunctional to the point of ruin, the blamers screamed loudest.
Whoever had worked the hardest to save the family most often became the villain. That almost could be considered emotional physics -- if you scream at the only clear-headed one you get a double payoff: you deflect blame or responsibility from yourself, you "win" by attacking the one who made you uncomfortable, the one who was trying to see and reveal the truth as a possible pathway to better life.
--So we got the tea parties, and a Republican party which rather smoothly transitioned and nurtured its moral corruption from the Bush presidency into a status of being pained and aggrieved about the mess we're in that they can deny they created themselves. They now yelled loudest and more effectively (give the devil his due)about the mess.
--We have to look at the battered public. What is the effect on a people of a ruling government (Bush's) which lies continuously and successfully to bring about a disastrous war that destroys a sovereign country, kills and maims thousands of its own military, along with hundreds of thousands of civilians in the invaded country? What can we think about the trillions of dollars spent on this destruction, money coming from the pockets of ordinary people who generally cannot imagine numbers even in the millions, who all of a sudden face the alien concept of trillions? People who know the tax numbers on their pay stubs represent money siphoned by a government which generally lies when it declares they have a voice and which, in effect, colludes with the richest tier of citizenry to protect the riches of the richest from taxation.
--We Americans have laughed and joked always about "politicians" and the wrong-headedness of those who govern. We all more or less know that it is an unusually exceptional man or woman who can, upon being voted into office, hold to the same moral principles of his or her campaign. Yet, because of the high-flown phrases and the litany of "American" ideals written and spoken we never quite give up the hope, the hope that -- through some happenstance -- the ideals will become a form of reality.
--We had a light in Obama, which to some of us, had an additional brightness because he was a man who -- in general terms of what we have seen as normal -- could not have been elected.
--We miscalculated the perfidy of Congress, which certainly can be considered as corrupt and implacable as most authoritarian governments. We miscalculated the power of overt and hidden racism. We miscalculated the "ethos" of the high profile Republicans.
--We stepped off a cliff. We hoped. We acted as a dysfunctional family in that we would not, could not, look at the truth of a tough reality as it unfolded. We were like a traumatized child who has to be brought carefully and caringly to a point where the terrible thing can be looked at -- only when we can do the hard work of seeing without blinders can we do the hard work of moving on.
--So we blame. We yell. We are angry. We see that hope seems to slip away. We see the days in succession taken by the forces of the status quo, the forces of raw power without compassion.
--Dilemma: If Obama or any of his kind emphasize the horrific state they encountered in Washington and in corporate America, they are drowned out by cries of lack of patriotism. The dark side translates all such talk into being a criticism of the American public. Very effective. How can it be said that most of us are good and valuable and deserve representation without sounding like the dark side which has co-opted these words? It reminds me of the hopelessness I felt when anti-abortion forces began to sing "We Shall Overcome." Good and meaningful words become almost obscene. America actually needs a revolution. The entrenched stasis and corporate twinship of Congress has to be stopped. How can it be done? How to find the words? How to find the actions? How to find the passions? How to find the vision? How to wake up the fearful? How to lead? How to "Fix It?" How to move on? We have to look at these questions with all our mental capacities and imagination and passion. We have to climb out of the deflections and wrangling and stand on another ground. We have to help Obama get back to his light, to regain his ground. We have to tend, with passion, to our own lights.
--One specific. I'm most disappointed in Obama's lack of a planetary vision. Sure it seems almost square to use the term. But the days of planetary considerations as a non-debatable necessity are already upon us, have been for some time. These thoughts cannot be secondary, or relegated to "when we can get around to it." I am disappointed in Obama's lack of consciousness about the position of humans in relationship to other living beings. The future of humanity cannot be effectively considered without acceptance of the planetary network of life -- animal/plant/water/microbial. We are not ON this planet; We are OF this planet. If the network cannot live we cannot live. We protect commercial interests and their destroy/kill/wipeout practices -- "America is business." Is it? New ideas, new concepts can arise. Otherwise we choose death, not just for the "others" but for ourselves. We have to unmire our feet from the sticky mud of the status quo -- If not now, when?
Monday, October 4, 2010
U.S. Army Wants to Defy German animal welfare laws
In defiance of Germany's animal welfare laws the U.S. Army is trying to get permission to attack pigs and other animals as "training exercises" for combat medicine. An example of these attacks is one soldier who shot a pig in the face with a high-powered rifle, then poured gasoline, set it on fire, and bragged about keeping it alive for 15 hours.
In my posted reply to this proposal I wrote: "Why add to the already tarnished image of the U.S. military by seeking to conduct cruel and deadly trauma so-called training exercises on animals in Oberpfalz -- exercises already denied by German officials who are trying to hold the U.S. army to the same moral standard practiced within their country.
The image and public relations of the U.S. Army still includes -- internationally -- suspected cavalier killing of civilians, mistreatment of prisoners, torture and other violations of internationally accepted standards of decency.
It illustrates further hubris and imperalism for the U.S. Army to insist on violating animal welfare laws in a sovereign nation."
PETA said "Oberpfalz officials have already denied the Army's previous application because they determined that this training would violate Germany's animal welfare law, since effective non-animal methods--which are already used by the German military--are available. Germany's own Armed Forces has written to PETA, stating: "[T]he armed forces do no animal tests for training purposes. For training exercises the soldiers learn with really good models and the doctors don't need animal experiments." The US Army's Alfred V. Rascon School of Combat Medicine at Fort Campbell also does not use animals in its trauma program . . . Clearly, animals are not needed to teach trauma management skills."
To take action:
https://secure.peta.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=3307&autologin=true&c=weekly_enews
In my posted reply to this proposal I wrote: "Why add to the already tarnished image of the U.S. military by seeking to conduct cruel and deadly trauma so-called training exercises on animals in Oberpfalz -- exercises already denied by German officials who are trying to hold the U.S. army to the same moral standard practiced within their country.
The image and public relations of the U.S. Army still includes -- internationally -- suspected cavalier killing of civilians, mistreatment of prisoners, torture and other violations of internationally accepted standards of decency.
It illustrates further hubris and imperalism for the U.S. Army to insist on violating animal welfare laws in a sovereign nation."
PETA said "Oberpfalz officials have already denied the Army's previous application because they determined that this training would violate Germany's animal welfare law, since effective non-animal methods--which are already used by the German military--are available. Germany's own Armed Forces has written to PETA, stating: "[T]he armed forces do no animal tests for training purposes. For training exercises the soldiers learn with really good models and the doctors don't need animal experiments." The US Army's Alfred V. Rascon School of Combat Medicine at Fort Campbell also does not use animals in its trauma program . . . Clearly, animals are not needed to teach trauma management skills."
To take action:
https://secure.peta.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=3307&autologin=true&c=weekly_enews
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