On a deeper level, the birthers might have a point: Obama is a world citizen and leader, challenged, like Lincoln once was, to forge a union in a world torn apart by special interests.
Don Juan warned: “I am convinced that for man to survive now, his perception must change at its social base.” –From The Art of Dreaming
What don Juan meant was that we must arrive at the awareness that everything is an interconnected web of energy. Quantum physicists have arrived at this truth. Fritjof Capra writes in The Tao of Physics:
“In ordinary life, we are not aware of this unity of all things, but divide the world into separate objects and events. This division is, of course, useful and necessary to cope with our everyday environment, but it is not a fundamental feature of reality. It is an abstraction devised by our discriminating and categorizing intellect. To believe that our abstract concepts of separate ‘things’ and ‘events’ are realities of nature is an illusion…”
“At the atomic level, then, the solid material objects of classical physics dissolve into patterns of probabilities, and these patterns do not represent probabilities of things, but rather probabilities of interconnections. Quantum theory forces us to see the universe not as a collection of physical objects, but rather as a complicated web of relations between the various parts of a unified whole.”
The shamans and the physicists agree: we are all one. The survival of our interconnected, interdependent world requires that we achieve union and balance with all the parts of our one world, human and non-human. Our current world play pits our social perception of the world as separate, disconnected objects against this deeper perception of reality as an interconnected web of energy. As don Juan states, we must arrive at this deeper perception for our very survival.
In a world of separate objects, the industries of nuclear power, oil, and natural gas are free to take the position that incidents and policies in each of these industries have limited impact upon the world and should be unregulated and left alone. From this perception we are asked to believe that radiation in the oceans will not affect marine life, and certainly not human life. In the oil industry, despite dead sea turtles and dolphins showing up on our shores, it is argued that drilling is safe, and the moratorium on new drilling leases is now lifted. The natural gas industry is currently on the march to push for homegrown energy, despite the devastation to the environment and drinking water through hydraulic fracking as evidenced in Pennsylvania and brought to light in the movie Gasland. The moratorium on fracking in New York expires in June and that industry is emboldened now to start fracking in Upstate New York—in my own backyard!
Congress is stalled, as I write, over issues like eliminating the Environmental Protection Agency and clean air standards, an agency and laws seeking to set limits on destruction to health and the environment. This is the power and pressure of interests caught in an old world perception of separate objects, free to only consider themselves and their own needs and desires. The battle cry of these special interests is: “We must satisfy the demand!” The religious fervor of this dictum raises it to the level of the eleventh commandment.
But what does this dictum really mean? Is the suggestion that, since the modern world demands more and more energy to run, that we absolutely must, at all costs, meet this demand for our very survival? If my appetite demands more and more food, should I keep feeding it? And if I do, how will that affect my resources, the resources of my environment, and how will it affect my health? If a child demands more and more toys, should we simply supply them because they are demanded? Since when is demand synonymous with must-be-met?
If the human population’s energy appetite is outpacing its means and negatively impacting the health of the planet, perhaps it’s time to set some limits. Of course, behind feeding the demand is the true culprit: there’s big bucks to be made feeding the insatiable big baby with its voracious appetite. Is it not time to become adults and set some reasonable limits?
In comes Obama, chiding Congress to start behaving like grownups. Frankly, however, I see Obama as a work in progress. I think he has caved to the old world perception in granting new oil leases for drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Obama has to go beyond the Clinton doctrine of compromise. You cannot compromise with evil.
The Republican party is now possessed with evil energy. Evil is an elemental energy and has its rightful place as part of our comprehensive whole, one world. Energetically dark and light energy are the building blocks of the universe, however, their influences and interactions must be in the proper balance. The value of the preponderance of evil energy in the Republican dominated Congress at this time is its insistence upon change. It presses Obama, with its destructive energy, into a firm and definite response. As the I Ching points out: “A compromise with evil is not possible; evil must under all circumstances be openly discredited.” –From The I Ching, translation by Richard Wilhelm, Hexagram #43
Obama and the Democratic response to absurd Republican separatist interests are finally discrediting the evil interests that are pushing their own agendas, i.e. the Koch brothers. Mother Nature herself is using her own evil energy to force needed change upon us all. Evil energy must be responded to–directly faced by taking right action–or it will continue to devastate and destroy to awaken us.
Lincoln suffered a similar fate as Obama. He attempted to compromise with the slave industry by first insisting that slavery could not be allowed in new territories or states, but could continue in states where it was already established. From today’s sensibilities this was an absurd attempt at compromise, but nonetheless, Lincoln offered it in an attempt to preserve the union, an old world order needing radical change. Ultimately, he was forced into civil war because, with the refusal to compromise, a divided house could no longer stand.
Like the slave industry of a foregone era, the Republicans of today will not compromise. It’s all or nothing. They are forcing Obama to evolve here, to take a stand behind right action. Nature is showing us that we have no other alternative to survive. As don Juan stated, survival depends on our changing our perception at its social base. The Republicans are helping Obama to arrive at this necessary place, which is crucial to our survival. Nature is showing us we have no time to waste because continued compromise just wastes valuable time and invites greater destruction.
We must stake our claim now in a world of interconnected, interdependent energy. In that new world, nuclear energy and fossil fuels must be abandoned. Energetic sources such as wind, solar, geothermal and hydropower must be turned to, as these are Mother Nature’s natural gifts to us that do no harm to her. We must become responsible adults, limit our appetites, and focus on real hunger and needs. Greed must be tempered, the big baby put to bed.
On a personal level we are charged with facing our own greed in the context of our own lives. We must each accept necessary, healthy limits, and shift to a life of balance where we consider all the parts of our interdependent selves. As well, we need to become astute participants in the true nature of reality, not just observers, because a genuine shift in our perception, at its social base, as don Juan insists, is now necessary. This is how we support our President. Let’s not leave him out there as the only one-world citizen.
Remembering when the sun revolved around our flat earth,
Chuck
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