Two concepts explain why the political and legal processes that surround us almost never get to the heart of the matter- “adversarial” and “consistency”! If you look at the mindset of politicians and lawyers you will see that these are foundational ideas.
Now, ironically,these two are at antipodes to each other- completely inconsistent lol.So adversarial means that you are arguing only one side of the equation as in a formal debate.Supposedly through two opposing parties offering completely opposite viewpoints,one is supposed to be able to clearly see the Truth! Really?! Think of the O.J. trial for example, which is not as unique as the lawyers would like to pretend.You put enough opposing information in front of people and what happens? They get confused.
That’s all!
As to “consistency” ,the argument is that the truth can be obtained by taking a few facts or alternatively masses of data and logically extrapolating from those facts or ” crunching the data” and then you can see the truth emerging! Ever seen that at work lol?! Try looking at all the Commissions and committees investigating the Canadian medical system as it continues to degrade itself and you’ll see how well that works!
The metaphysical flaw here is to believe that Reality is some logical structure that can be taken apart and reconstructed when in fact Reality,itself,is full of contradictions and inconsistencies.(C.F. Jellalludin Rumi)The most potent instrument we have for detecting it is inner vision(basirat) intuition
and discernment- not logic.So,with these two concepts at the heart of the processes,no surprise that we are deeply mired in confusion-especially at the societal level!
Category Archives: Politics
Epistemology 202
If you carefully watch the Congressional hearings you will notice an underlying assumption-that if you get the facts precisely right and then use impeccable logic to elaborate from those facts .you will get to the Truth of the matter and be able to convince people of it.That is SO wrong in so many ways! Amongst others,it ignores the importance of the inner- the intentions,the unconscious bias,the ideological bias and the level of awareness(also an inner element of the Reality).False Epistemology =false conclusions.So don’t be surprised if they get to the wrong conclusions! It is totally predictable
Efficiency!
If there is one word to summarize what is ruining our lives it is….EFFICIENCY!( We can include in that term cost-cutting as a financial form of efficiency).Efficiency,so touted by our politicians,economists and other management intelligentsia, is causing people to be more and more stressed out and overwhelmed at their workplaces.Efficiency is causing our foods to be contaminated with artificial fertilizers and pesticides and OGMs.Efficiency is causing our construction materials to be more and more contaminated with cancerogenic ingredients.And efficiency is causing us to abandon our children to commercial day-cares and our elderly to old peoples homes.Interesting that not a single Democratic candidate including the hallowed Bernie Sanders is bringing this up.That is because they are all socially conditioned by materialistic philosophies-Socialism/Marxism being just one amongst others.All of them value measurable results-another form of so-called efficiency.All of this is killing our hearts,ruining our relationships and creating a greedy,egocentric society!
American Politics in a Nutshell
Once again,the American politicians and journalists and even, may I say, intellectuals have it wrong! The intervention of foreign powers in U.S. politics is NOT the real problem.It is miniscule in impact compared to the real problem!The real problem in American democracy is the intervention of American corporations and monied lobbying groups of various sorts –not only in electoral politics but in all instances of government actions.That is what is deviating the government from truly serving the people! That is why our food is full of carcinogens as are our construction materials,that is why our air is polluted and the medical system is gouging the people and the workplace is becoming more and more stressful and dangerous(C.F. recent reports of injuries at Amazon-just one case amongst many.) Russia and Ukraine have nothing to do with that at all!
Now ,perhaps, at the time of the founders,foreign intervention(i.e. The British monarchy trying to get a foothold back in America) was the problem.Although even there one could argue,correctly I believe,that it was foreign intervention,specifically that of the French and the Germans,that allowed the American Revolution to succeed( I believe Macron proudly pointed that out to Trump lol)! Salaams,Ibrahim
An Alternative Enquiry
(credit given to the Byzantine Emperor interviewing Abu Suyan lol)
High Priest,Rabbi or Imam;” Is this man (Trump) known to have had good character before his presidency
Congressional representative: Not at all.He was elected despite his bad character-well-known to the public.
High Priest,Rabbi or Imam: Was this man known to be a man of his word who could be trusted?
C.R. Not at all. He made many promises to many people including his business associates and friends and wives that he never honored
HPRI.Was this man known to have felt bad and apologized when people were hurt by his behaviour?
C.R. Not at all.He seems to be oblivious to other peoples’ pain.
HPRI If this man proposed a business deal to a relative of yours,would you feel obliged to warn them about his past behaviour.
C.R. I definitely would
Consensus of the panel of spiritual authorities -after consulting with each other for five minutes: Then this man is not suitable to be your leader and we would encourage you to remove him from office as quickly as possible and also as a preventive measure to seriously revise your entire electoral process.
Gavel down,Judgment rendered
The Democrat Illusion Incarnated
House Judiciary Committee impeachment hearings.
Fascinating! You can see all the elements of “The Democratic Illusions”( I am tempted to call them “delusions” at this point but will abstain for fear of being accused of “horribilizing” lol).Four academics in front of us elaborating on the constitutional elements of the case It’s the
Brain Trust!- indicating what our society values most- brain power! Harvard,Standford,Yale – the whole ‘meguila’ as they say in the vernacular lol.I can’t help wondering how this would be if instead we respected spiritual wisdom and had instead a high- ranking Sufi sheikh,Orthodox Priest Hasidic Rabbi and Buddhist teacher( Dalai Lama? Golstein/ Kornfield) on the podium.I dont think it would take them long to arrive at a consensus lol
An hour or two at most!
The Supremely Foolish Court
The Supremely Foolish Court(yes,that’s the same court that stated that billionaires could spend as much money as they wanted on election campaigns because spending money is part of their constitutional right to Free Speech! I’m not joking!)meets today to consider gun control laws which are already insane in the U.S. but could potentially get even more insane.If you look carefully at the process you will understand why they are “Supremely Foolish”. They start with a set of principles designed at another period of time for another set of problems.Then they elaborate and extrapolate from those principles via their admittedly outstanding cognitive functions(the inheritors of Aristotle no doubt lol) .And from that you are supposed to arrive at Truth! The entire epistemology is wrong! But very few people,especially politicians,lawyers and journalists,can see it.We need men and women of wisdom and vision not Professor Nimbus,hypercerbral types if we ever want to have a just society.You can’t do that simply through brain power!
Trump ,Marx and the Ikhwan
An odd analogy,I know, but Trump is somewhat like Marx! He sees many of the problems clearly(the swamp in Washington,China cheating on trade,an over-priced medical system) but doesn’t seem to really know what to do about them.So like the Marxists,he ends up making things worse rather than better.There are still people, almost 200 years later, who believe in Marx because of the accuracy of his insights.I hope they will catch on quicker to Trump lol,preferably before the next election!
The other thing they have in common is that they are both materialists! Marx was a dialectical materialist.Trump is a pure materialist.So they both believe that you can solve problems from outside /in.Wrong! The mystical way teaches us that problems need to be solved from inside out.
While I am on it, there is a third type of materialist out there -the religious materialist, incarnated perhaps most clearly in the Islamist movement particularly with the Ikhwan Muslimeen(Muslim Brotherhood). They, too, believe in solving problems outside/in,My spiritual teacher,Sheikh Nazim, used to take them on directly-this was before some of their offshoots like Al Qaida and Isis.”You do not understand our religion properly” he would say.”Your idea of an Islamic state is false.We get the governments we deserve(so true! Look at the U.S.A. lol) If you want a better government,help the people to improve themselves” These words ring loud and clear so many years later!
The State of the Nation (cont’d)
American Election campaign.It’s hopeless folks! The politicians,even the best of them, are blind to many of the most pressing issues.I’ll mention a few here just so you understand:1)There is an epidemic of Alzheimer’s Disease,Cancer, Auto-Immune disorders and Autism.The most you’ll get from these politicians is a proposal to increase funding for Research.That will,of course, just increase funding for more toxic chemical treatments and more surgical interventions.Misses the point totally about the causes of these diseases and the need for prevention.2) The issue of increasing workplace tension because of the obsession with efficiency.Not a single word about it.Instead the entire focus is on the trade war with China and Economic Growth.3)The question of 5G, pesticides,cancerogenic chemicals in all the new construction materials. Again not a word about it.Only about energy conservation through better insulation(read more toxic indoor air) and newer light bulbs( many causing a host of symptoms that have never even been investigated!) and electric cars(ever studied the noxious effects of EMFs .The electric cars may well be worse for us than the petroleum-driven ones!(On a more personal level,both me and my brother,even more,suffer more from the EMFs in cars than from the petroleum byproducts of combustion!)4) The ineffective.overly costly,maddeningly slow Justice System.They can’t even get the Trump accusations in front of a judge in a timely,effective manner.Should be a priority ,no?Imagine the ordinary cases like yours and mine.The system is broken folks and it’s going to get worse before it gets better.Voting in progressive candidates may improve things but only very slightly if not insignificantly.Remember Obama! How much did that improve any of those above-mentioned issues.Not at all.
The Apocalypse!
Sheikh Nazim was right!There is only one way out for humanity-following a Rightly-Guided leader! The guidance of our democratic society-follow your desire,follow your opinion,follow your wife(who is equally lost) lol is not going to work!Global warming,5G,cancerogenic pesticides and construction materials,economic crises,wars of greed and nationalism etc.,etc. will get us long before that.So we are awaiting a Divinely-Inspired one-the Messiah.But cataclysmic events that make Hurricane Dorian look like child’s play are likely to occur before that.Sorry New-Agers! Your dream of an Age of Enlightenment is a wishful chimera.So hold tight! God help us all.