For such an obnoxious blow horn that is a very self aggrandizing
and pretends he is more enlightened than countless others he takes the time of belittle…
He’s is nowhere near Enlightenment!
He makes up his ultra right wing projections about Buddhist Politics 501…
Yet,
he makes it painfully obvious he does not ‘grok’ even Buddhism 101.
One could not be further from Loving kindness of humbly transcending of one’s ego.
I won’t reprint his ‘drivel’,
but those that have enough morbid curiosity can google search
Buddhist Politics 501
~
Here are my antidotes to L Ron’s ultra right wing wacko mis beliefs
I’ll lead off with my life long political journey.
I voted for Ronny Reagan.
I bought into his ‘trickle down’ theory…
43 years later only proves how wrong I was to be duped into this
woefully flawed agenda.
The rich got richer, the poor became homeless and the middle class
is just one paycheck from homeless…
also, hindsight is 20/20:
After the deinstitutionalization movement began in California in the 1960s
when Reagan was the governor,
many state mental health hospitals closed,
forcing many folks who needed a lot of care onto the streets.
Without those facilities,
many mentally ill people ended up in jails and prisons
which are not set up to provide safe, compassionate care for brain illnesses.
But in 1981,
when President Reagan deinstitutionalized the mentally ill
and emptied the psychiatric hospitals into so-called “community” clinics,
the problem got worse.
———————-
Since then I voted independent…
I discovered that I was not satisfied with ether party…
I found there was a conundrum…
The conservatives were not conservative and enough
and the liberals weren’t liberal enough…
Expecting someone to come along and be
greater than the sum of both parties combined…
That’s the least we should accept!
When Harry Brown ran in 1996,
I registered as a libertarian and voted that way until Harry’s death.
From then on, I was back to independent…
Voting from my conscious as influenced by the
mindful loving kindness aspects of my spiritual Path.
I feel that a True Spiritual Path should not be so heavily ‘attached’
to any particular political party…
The main objective would be better inline with ‘the Practice’
that dedicates their every action to the betterment of all humanity…
and all beings, including the Earth.
Current conservatives believe that global warming is a hoax
and we should allow the rich to exploit all the resources now
and let our children’s children fend for themselves later.
~
When one identifies with a particular ‘label’,
then a certain amount of bias filters out at least some critical thinking
at the expense of welfare of the entire human condition.
Although I can tell that your well researched writing begets
the privilege of ‘a voice of authority’, of which I respect….
However,
I also see how your attachment to political labels
blinds you to what the big picture of Spirituality is.
Even though you may be Enlighted, or at least
way beyond my place of the ‘map’…
The conventional mind is subject to the diversions of bias.
Note that the Bahai Faith encourages their followers to NOT
vote, donate to, or support any particular party…
They encourage their followers to use critical thinking and to
vote independently for whomever candidate is closest
to their visions of higher human consciousness.
~
Buddhists are not encouraged to vote, support or donate money
to any particular political party
like the huge amount the Christian Churches do.
This further distorts and distracts followers from seeking
their own true connection with ‘divinity’ or
a deepening understanding of the ineffable concepts of ‘God’.
I can’t see how anyone that is still capable of any shred of critical thinking
can get behind a candidate that openly
lies, cheats, is a convicted felon, raped a woman in a department store
then did everything he could to slander her…
both offenses he lost in court…
It’s like the church has now declared that ‘god almighty’ himself
now commands that all these unmoral characteristics
are the new standard of christian morality…
And,
To the glee of the misogynistic men of the church are delighted that,
according to the churches adamant support and naming this offensive person as
the 2cd coming of Christ… for chirst’s sake…
now they can have affairs with porn stars and playboy models
whenever their pregnant wife’s seem to disguising for their selfish sexual pleasures…
The combination of ‘church and state’
has been a bane to humanity since it was created
to be such a devastating farce.
Yet…
You passionately feel like:
“The modern left has essentially lost its mind,”
:-O
Are you that out of touch with reality…
or just
Blinded by your attachment to labels?
———————————————————————
I certainly agree on many aspects of this ‘501’ article,
that there are many self-defeating agendas that in which
if either party dominates…
They will roll with their own agendas…
Instead of intelligently working towards a solution that
transcends each of their agendas but
includes the parts that are indeed helpful
for the betterment of all humanity.
Which brings me to the obvious conclusion that…
A lot of work is required to someday formulate a helpful plan
for sustaining humanity and towards the
improvement of the human condition.
Being stuck with an attachment to ether party
is a self-defeating perspective.
As an independent thinker and voter…
I can see your point as a ‘staunch right winger’ as you say…
I can agree with you assessment of the ‘welfare’ state.
It’s absurd to pay $20 an hour in California
for an entry-level fast-food job.
Like you mentioned,
This sort of nonsense just encourages people to stay stuck in entry level jobs
that were never meant to be lifelong careers.
Instead of overpaying for these jobs,
it would make much more sense to offer paths to career upgrades…
Offer special training, schooling…
whatever it takes for people working up the career path
to have an easily assessable financial and creatively rewarding career path.
On the issue relating to forcing the rich to pay their fair share
to be akin to the Buddha’s teaching of not stealing…
is quite a reach.
And it ignores his main ambition
to liberate all beings from unnecessary pain and suffering.
Instead of nit-picking about how one feels it’s wrong to
demand that the rich pay their fair share…
instead,
we need more well thought out intelligent ways to bring humanity
towards a more sustainable society that can indeed improve the condition
for all humanity.
Being attached to labels keeps people from seeing a problem with
how so few people, the rich,
own so much while most of humanity struggles to just get by.
The bias of label attachment filters one’s perspective
and then comes up comparing things to what the Buddha teaches…
This is a far cry and quite the biased projection.
You mention your concern that the left will become an authoritarian ruling party….
Are you not familiar with the Heritage foundation’s Project 2025 agenda?
Authoritarian rule is one of the biggest ambitions!
We have a candidate that does not believe in the rule of law nor
the aspects of constitution…
He maintains that the 2020 election was stolen,
yet
he’s the one that is responsible for Jan 6th insurrection.
I feel your concerns are misplaced.
Again,
Attachment to labels blinds those who can only see through those filters.
~
We all need to drop attachment to labels, name calling and party bias rhetoric
and put our minds together with a strength of Diversity that has the potential of being
a force for the betterment of all humanity
that is greater than the sum of the individual parts of the political spectrum
The chaos of the conservatives have rendered our government to be at best…
A self-defeating mode of representation.
Regarding:
The Evils of Democratic Governments
A big problem we have today is the results of when
Reagan got rid of the law that required politicians to tell the truth
and the media to not spread false and misleading propaganda.
Since then,
Lying, cheatings, misinformation and misleading the mentally vulnerable masses
causes the average person to simply have no clue what is right or wrong…
so they ignorantly support agendas they normally would never support.
So,
your concerns with Hilary’s belief that it ‘takes a village’…
You assume that the village will be forced to good
for the betterment of all humanity…
While we have witnessed this year,
The conservatives have changed and abolished a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court
in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States
protects a pregnant woman’s liberty to choose to have an abortion
without excessive government restriction.
Very recently,
the extremely conservative 6 out of 9 supreme court,
which includes 3 justices that were appointed by trump…
Again,
They went against the constitution and has enabled
corrupt and lawless presidents like trump full immunity….
“Like a King”.
Along with going against what our country was founded on…
“Separation of church and state”.
The conservatives are working real hard to change this country into
a christian nationalist nation.
But oddly…
They do not want a president that actually goes to church
each Sunday of his life.
When they do succeed in converting our country into a
Christian nationalist nation…
It will become very hard for others like you did,
to learn about other religions and spiritual traditions other than…
Christianity.