Getting to the HEART of racism

This is a reply to a post made by "Topiltzin" on Wed Apr 4, 2007 where she/he quoted the below article. I have excerpted it from the original:

Combating White Racism Against Indigenous Peoples
By Thomas Ivan Dahlheimer
(...)
...If we're going to get to the roots of racism, we go beyond the point of colonization.

Before Cook sails to Hawaii, what brought him there? What brought Columbus to America? What sent the Spaniards to Central and South America? How did that happen?

Well it started back in the 1500s and it started in Rome. From edicts that were enunciated through the Papal Bulls. These were statements and pronouncements that came from the Vatican. And with these pronouncements, the world was divided up for European,
Christian colonizers.

What was actually happening at the time was that the monarchs of the Christian nations - the Brits, the French, the Italians, the Dutch - began to fight and war over land and natural resources. In seeking a way to resolve this bloodshed in Europe, they went to the Holy
Father.

This is at a period of time in Western history that predates the concept of secularization, there wasn't a division of the Church and the state and the Pope was the head of the world.

And so we had, for a period of a couple of hundred years, these Papal Bulls sought to prevent the fighting by dividing the world.

My favorite one is the Papal Bull of Pope Alexander the VI, it's called the Inter Caetera. When I read the translation of it, (it was written in Latin), it just stunned me. The Pope is saying here that he will sanctify the subjugation of the new world and its barbarous
nations.

So the blessing of the Pope was given, and the colonizer sailed out. It's important that we understand this to be the root of racism, because to this very day, the churches form a central part of the social system of the nation states that are Christian.

And so the Pope divided up the world. When you look at the colonies, especially in North, Central and South America, you can see this division to this very day.

{ends}
My reply:

An interesting take on things, except for one thing. You make it sound like the pope knew about "the new world" even before columbus sailed.

While I think it makes tons of sense what you're saying (statesmen always looking for ways to deflect the continuous building frustration of "the masses"), i see this view as yet another symptom, and not really "the root" or even near the heart of racism.

I mean, what moved columbus to go "off the end of the Earth" into the Unknown?

In my view (inviting additions), what it seems to boil down to is that all of these "explorers" were continuously seeking ways to continue getting their paychecks (in the context of their belief in their society), so that they could continue to escape the society they wished to escape, yet had no idea of how to do so in real terms.

Is that at all possible?

And no matter how "free spirited" their lost hearts might be, they were used, tooled, in a [i]meta[/i] way by the system in which they were products of. [b]Whether that system consciously understood the "fine tuning" of social control at the time (and honed it into a so-called "fine art" as today's social and cultural managers might well say) may be a moot point.[/b]

The fact is, as it seems to me anyway, that these "men of daring" --as a kind of radical within their formal positions, perhaps similar to university professors who play at radical ideas without being actually *from* (or having direct experience with) such intensities-- [b]were leashed.[/b] They were leashed and they were tooled to perpetuate the value system of the realm.

Others could probably articulate this better, but I'm the kind who tries to get the idea out into *some* kind of consciousness...even if i only have the idea "on the tip of my tongue" so to speak.

This is something i've been thinking about for awhile. The idea that all these adventuresome people had the balls to go into the Unknown, [b]but were consistently reined-in by their "betters" when it most counted.[/b] I think this is true of Lewis and Clark too, but i'm getting off the subject.

root and heart of racism
As to the root of racism, i have to agree with the crux of what the Lakota wisdom keeper, John Trudell says; that [b]racism has been a tool amongst quite a few other tools, to fool the implementer class [/b](those implementing Given policies, from nobles/middle classes "down" to peasants/working class) into believing that they were allowed "A Seat At The Table" of "Power" (really, tyranny, terrorism)...and thus get them to do the bidding of the kings/upper classes (who Play the Meta Game in dutiful ways).

Surely there are holes to poke in this theory, and that's why I want to post it here. What am I possibly missing?

To delve further, the HEART of racism, i see, is a NORMALized experience in the context of a severely alienation-oriented society. A society, a host of societies --perhaps civilization itself?-- organized for various forms of perpetual war. A society which uses its masses as [i]fuel[/i] to run the confined imaginations and constructs of a so-called "elite" machine (the machine characterized by the reduction of realities allowed to be viewed as Possible/Reputable/Valid).

In this scenario, the perpetually kept off-balance "citizenry" is kept as a kind of guard dog to the Social Order --while the "elites" (nobles to princes), in their youthful indoctrination stage are kept as a kind of handler. And I do mean *kept*; because the way the thing works is that even the "elites" are manuvered to *believe* in the Given Way Of Doing Things. And they are threatened if they don't follow along in this dogma as well! (i.e. haven't you heard of threats to kick rich kids out of their family wills, or to send them to military boarding schools, or even psychiatric facilities?)

Having said all of that, I hesitate to throw yet another coercion upon them, such as calling them "clinically psychotic"; i can see the value of arting such intensity, yet i question the value of reproducing the Given social order in any shape or form...even tho it may well be important as a phase in our contentions.

Wasase says fight, phuncah-delcized says PHIGHT! (self-published widely in indymedia networks)

The Onkwehonwe author of ~Wasase: indigenous pathways of action and free-dom~ has kept a posting on hiz website calling to fight. What this may mean is explored in this sharing of a recent ish-you of a phuncadeliah zeen (with phight scenes)



To fight. To fight. What might fight mean to you? A whole array of intensity comes to mY mind.,,.

For Onkwehonwe and other indigenous folks who are being systematically challenged and pressured by military-types of war-style strategy, such could mean many things related to physicality. Or so says our general programming and encult-uration. ...And so says the continuing pressures that show us other human beings --who are still allowed the illusion of privileges-- the actual truth when it "really matters'.

Those of us not yet backed up against walls (in our heads or elsewhere), not yet having *reality* revealed to us, we feel in our hearts that there are ways to intervene, to interact with each other that bring out the hidden sistah and brothah; that loved human spirit we aren't usually able to truly deeply perceive, nor led to autonomously believe, or even wildly see ...that iz, as "reputable' and irrefutable,,,

So deep haz our general conditioning and socialization/domestication been!

So hyaar comz this 40 plus yr old white red/black/grey/cosmic mutt audio and bibliophile sayin there's wayz beyond perpetual Us v. Them, wayz we can still attend, ways we can still rend and defend

=--even on the offensive (or, in *cruciaL aRtz vernacular::"ophensive").

To *phight* from many angles, like this one, a "philiah" (psychiatric jargon for *love*) angle; jujitsu the professional (i.e. psychiatrick) labels and holier-than-thou chain-of-command, beyond the dark ages "fight' and into light ages phight. PHIGHT.

O' course, the stealth mental "health" planted in our heads says NO and *if you know what's good for you YOU'D BETTER conform! ,,,,,WELL IS IT NOT SO? Some narrative over-voice be TELLIN you you better move on to something *more serious*! Not somethin like THIS!

Thus, legions of folks/pholks are to be tooled by Same Old Again mind-set. Whole populations politricksterized in wayz they cannot, 'for the life of them" see and relate to. "All we can do" we're told over and over in classic repetitionist push is FIGHT as smashers, killers, crushers, blood spillers! You know what i'm sayiN

So how to relate, to bridge --as severe alienation continues? =--Only with guns and human stupidity???? =--Only in "Tried and True' truths??? Only in politricks (politics)??? Must ya'all FOREVER do as your told, even amongst your claimed alternative?

So follows a buncha art(e), along with an action i'm doin' NOW, wearin' a part; meant as a seedin', for y'all to taste as input!


an actual scene
earlier in the day, hair wildly tied-in with a real DEER ANTLER, and reddish-pink ribbon, carryin' neon green sign sayin' :::*TO POSSIBLY INSPIRE OUR HEARTS*:::and just as i exited my caveship, there he was, a soldier in blackn'white machine. Drove by, turned around, and i? i thot sure he'd stop me....but nope....musta read my sign!

:}

Then o'er to the drum circle o' strangers, listenin' then sit-dancin' then jumpin and chicken- & daffy duck-dancin and more; and phinish'n me art(e) zeen too. Then jumpin inta their bizness and speakin, reflectin a bit o tha intense-ities i've been feelin', then articulatin --==--"You folks must get a lotta weird folks here." And then it was a joke, you know? And they liked it, cuz here i waz, crazy but articulatin', and tellin' about us all bein' descendants of tribes!

WoW, a small, tiny step after too long not doin.

Wanted ta go inta this here University environ with all that. But ended up (right now!) jus' wearin some strange outfit that isn't THAT strange, except for the green neon askin passerby "HOW DEEP IS YOUR ART?"

Tiny, "nothing", "hardly radical" if you wanna believe, but a PROCESSIN' to me.

Especially in the context of *knowing too much* (opposite of "ignorance is bliss"), of fearing so much; needin' to get back inta the spiRit of thangz, revvin up for some possibility springz!


2nd scene
gOOd therapeufinicky with b'ful lovely dude (in 20s) and we hung out and experienced much magick! Ohmy! (see the zeen) Hiz HEART ticklin my worn out old one with not-yet-too-beaten-down. Such magickal thingz that were happenin!

Took a good easy time and then got o'er hyaar, and now postin...and wonderin'...hmmmm...maybe? Maybe i'm makin waves in spirit'd dir-ectionz?! To students on their last week b-4 testy sprintin? How to art them in wayz that they might take with em?

(i've been long experimentin')(back in '03 over 20-plus places and cities!)(and before that? oh,...heh...before that! back in '93 and '95 hoooooooooo0ooooooooooo; chances chances taken to roustabout anglez, hoooooboiii! but now phine-toonin')==see some here::
www.angelfire.com/folk/magixnartz/flouggindex.html


What if
EVERY thing we do iz processin' YET ALSO *arting ourselves too*?

What if
You could reach behind the PAIN to the HEART of the hidden SANE?


...Now, the terrroristic powers, they are tryin to block any arisin' yet b'twEEn all o' us on the streeeet? OooO, possibility is EVERyWHERE, up to our imagin ationz! Open your eyez and see, there is SO MUCH possibility ==to PHIGHT with our hearts in full gear, to see our daily interaction as phight, dear!

Is your depth deep enough? How to know?

How about your fear? So pick and steer your own style!

So sit back and look and see if any o' this aids in your outlook, adds to what you'r already doin' or even more!


((the pre-seed-ing and phollow-ing is called "surreal" by otherz; i's call such an angle on the confrontational nonviolent tactics of da cruciaL aRtz---not martial))

Hear more of the depth insights of the Onkwehonwe author: www.taiaiake.com Compare and contrast with what you know!

Moved? perhaps you "should" join open-ended seeding discussions at www.anti-politics.net and other favorite intanet spaces


links with full art peices (8):
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2007/05/358984.shtml'
http://la.indymedia.org/news/2007/05/198356.php

Calling symptom of racism central to problems is superficial

Racism is a symptom. It is not the root, or even close to the heart --to the challenges oppressed humanity faces (in my view). Symptoms of a deeper problem don't mean they are not worthy of taking on indepth. Such just means that if we really want to understand the "bigger picture" situation and get to solving such, we're going to have to look deeper.

Decades, if not centuries, have been spent attacking racism (i.e. from slave revolts to abolitionists and up to now). Yet the root (or heart) of the matter of *authoritarian hyping against difference* --exploiting our fears in the same manner that racists do-- remains fully intact! And we see this proof every time national or local media come out: hyping the national or local prejudice and frustrated fears against others who are not allowed CONTEXT to their actions--across the board.

But those on the Left (and Right, etc.) wings of colonization don't point this out. Why is that? Because they're playing games too, in order to maintain the larger picture of colonization. They're utilizing hype to manipulate their target audiences towards actions that they believe "Are The Way To Go"--despite centuries, now, of continuing this with the same old superficiality still completely intact! And, each time this same old crap--fear and hatred of indigenous folks, Chinese, Irish, Italians, Germans, Blacks, women, etc. etc. etc.--has reared it's ugly head, various persons representing colonization have come in and said that "we will help you" if you "just follow us."

I got to responding to a Leftist thinker (named Chris D.) over on the infoshop.org site awhile ago who sounds pretty articulate and had the courage (?) or naivity (?) to bring his internalized (?) value system into anti-authoritarian territory. What follows is an excerpt which takes on his orientation to racism as central to "the revolution". We're talking about leaders and the necessity, in his mind, to categorically "respect" black reform-oriented "leaders" because of their experience and status as Black. Why cannot we respect people based on the actual *merit* of what they say?? (What a curious manipulation we're apparently getting stuck in with this thing called "respect"):

Chris: The abject failure of so many movements in U.S. history to overcome the obstacles of whiteness suggest that this is a question worthy of special attention.

oingO: We need to look *behind* this "failure" and see it for what it is: the routine method of elites courting "leaders" to "join with them"; cooptation. Alienated from their "followers" as leaders usually are, it's quite easy to "convince" them into a continuing heightening of cooptation.

What do you think Colin Powell (or Condoleeza Rice) is doing? They're "Black" but they learned, like every other minority (including whites) to *subordinate the depth of their own experience* to the allowances of the profession. Whites have to do this too. Whites have to *subordinate their individualities* and individual experience (and intuition) to the Given value system, or they don't move "up".

Like Noam Chomsky shows, persons have to *internalize* the Given *values*, period, or they don't move up in their careers (in the media or wherever).

And the New York Times, today, discusses this a bit on the topic of secretary of state (?) Rumsfeld just picking a new military chief in the psy ops community--viewed as a non-mainstream part of the "service". The generals are "seething", but they know they'd better find a way to fall in line, or they won't move up.

Whiteness helps, yes. But it ain't foolproof if they don't know how to, or don't want to play the game. Look at every "independent" that runs for president (for a quick reference); recall how the Green Party candidates are kept out of the debates, and how Ross Perot (the *billionaire*) had his character quite fully assasinated. The color of his skin may've gotten him as far as he did, but when *it truly counted*? Nope.

So it, by itself, is not the only thing to look at, and I see the Left wing of colonization simplifying this as a way to apparently *deflect* the reality that the depth of the problem is much broader than simply 'race'. Racism is a symptom, and so is sexism, and class, and hatred of "radicals" and so-called "traitors" (like Philip Agee), and so on.

The onus of the problem, I think is either something along the lines of *strategy* where there is *NO* racial solidarity amongst whites except as a tool.

There is no real solidarity amongst peoples who are well-colonized and subordinated to the whims of the social engineers.

The origins of this? Fear is the one I've come up with. Alienation leading to FEAR, and for a society that has been at constant war for the last thousand or so years (in so-called "peacetime" or not) that FEAR has become institutionalized.

To overcome this FEAR, we're not going to do it by only continuing our trenches and racial lines. That is one way, but at the same time we're going to have to follow our intuitions to reach out and build bridges of understanding.

Charles H. King, an Atlanta, GA Black lawyer (author of _Fire In My Bones_) used to hold discussions on something that made a lot of sense to me. He had a way of doing things where he'd point out and we'd realize how MOST OF US are afraid of peoples who are different from us, and that we act in racist ways all the time, or at least when our loved ones are concerned.

I attended one of his forums back in the 1980s, which was being attended by mid-level management types and persons who a local Black newspaper thought ought to attend (I got a "scholarship" to go, myself). Here's the story he gave, and I thought it was quite reasonable to see what he was saying:

"You're with your loved ones in a car in a winter blizzard in unfamiliar territory and your car breaks down. You leave to go find help at some homes you saw a ways back. You come to two homes equidistant away and one, you see, has a black family and the other has a white family. Which one do you go to first?"

Generally, you can see his point, depending on your race. If you're white and you happened to grow up surrounded by blacks, you'd mess with that generalization, but you can see what i'm getting at. And it's true if we replace it with ladies or gays or whichever group we can think of.

The point he made was NOT to demonize people for holding ignorant fears and beliefs, because you want to keep a bridge with people, and try to evolve their thinking. So, not to villify being racist (aka being imperfect), but to take responsibility for our fears and ignorance, and act constructively in the future.

But see the colonizer mentality (Left, Right, and often beyond) doesn't allow us to have any grey area approach whatsoever. Their rigid belief/ideology is playing a game, a meta game; a game of hype, of reinforcing our divisions, while calling for cosmetic sleight of hand. And so our imperfections are *reduced down* to expediency and what passes for political "pragmatism".

Curious ideas, eh?

taking the rise of Politically Correct (PC) ndnz by the hornz

Following are several exchanges i've been having at a certain forum on tribe.net (i say this openly, as a kind of invite to you to come over and speak your mind, heart, or intuition (etc.). i go by "touchahcity" over there, so look me up, and art yourself the best you can!


My post that perhaps started growing intensities towards me, posted on "nativeamerican (the real deal)" tribe (thread started by someone by the name of "Mr.Funbags") :

Here, i'm responding to jess, a poster who was angry towards "Mr.Funbags'" naive, "well educated" innocent-like post, after i inserted myself in and sought to directly engage "Mr.Funbags" as he spoke about a state-backed vision of his (employing "mountain bike trails, permaculture", development-style activities, and "friendly" Public Relations-like missionary toolings, apparently). i am still in communication with "Mr.F", tho do not know him personally.

Re: further...
Mon, March 12, 2007 - 10:51 AM
jess, i see your analysis (based in race) as muddying things up more than such has to.

For instance, if we see that people in this world are largely deeply domesticated and that the context is that many of us are "well groomed" products of a *chain of command* society, then we gain clarity in how colonization and genocide works, and can better meet, avoid, or ju-jitsu it. And then we avoid getting bogged down in the powerless-feeling hysteria where the same old song of "tit for tat" of human stupidity prevails.

Race is certainly a part of truth (but really an expedience for propaganda purposes); but to *get to the grist* of the mind-set and psychology of how human beings work against each other, you can see that it ain't only a 'white' (or Apple Indian) thang. And you start to see how "the race card" is a game played by statecraft to keep *all* victims of formal values and attack weak and divided, and incapable of adequately responding with our intelligence.

Anyway, i *let* your sharp words graze my heart and i thought about what you said for perhaps too long. i feel your blast and thought of your sharing as if a spear thrown between my virtual feet. i am honored that you, a partial (?) or full (?) indigenous person would expend such energy towards me, even tho i was physically shaking when i attempted my original response to you (thankfully, the great mystery intervened and some button i pushed on the keyboard succeeded in highlighting and erasing the entire post "in one fell swoop"!),,,,

... And such "spiritual nudity" is the way i let myself be around aboriginals, i claim. Perhaps you will one day know this if/when we meet in person.

Your power aided me in my claimed path. And as your vibe soaked in, it got together with my other desires and it got summarily ju-jitsu'd ('cruciaL aRtz' style) back to the heavenish soar i seek. i'll say the rest in the art i upload onto this site, soon. (should be there by the time you read this)

Engineering of Opinion toward Soviet-style Psychiatry--The Artist's Way pages 36, 43-49, 51

(published in several indymedia sites)
We are systematically moved to think in ways of seeing things which, if we understood, we would realize are against our own interests. Chomsky calls this "engineering of opinion". In the context of "Oppositional Defiant Disorder" now being deployed upon many many children, the term and ideology supposedly encapsulating creative "crazy-*makers*" spells Soviety-style psychiatry in the USA. That is, containment and suppression of dissent.

"...Nobody is ordering them to do anything. The indoctrination is so deep that educated people think they're being objective."--Noam Chomsky


The following excerpts are taken from a most interesting forum (big on critical thinking to say the least) where I vaguely remembered this topic, then searched, and finally found this most interesting critique of a few aspects of the widely popularized "artist's book". Whether your knee jerks in agreement or grey area wondering, perhaps you'll find "food for thought" in this critique!

Excerpts from various posts found here (slightly edited for clarity, here) :
http://anti-politics.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=436&highlight=artists

Seen further down the thread:

"I'm making a warning that _The Artists Way_ (by Julia Cameron) is fooling people, neutralizing our intelligence, creating a confusion, pandering to our emotional weaknesses and exploiting our trust (of established authority), while promoting what all propagandists do--giving us something meaningful while at the same time making war and programming our intelligence in a certain, rigid, fear-stuck way."

Seen further up in the thread:

"The problem with this book... is that a value system is making covert war upon another value system [which has been kept so off-balance that it is seldom unable to adequately articulate itself], one which has been warred on systematically for hundreds of years. The author's method fits snugly into the pattern of authoritarian activity, and whether she knows it or not, is manufacturing the consent of some victims to make and perpetuate this war on other victims.

"One group, those labeled "crazymakers", poses a threat to that order, and must be marginalized and made war on, via all the tricks at the disposal of the state--including using "well educated" folks as uncomprehending tools to implement its interests.[1] (Were the "bad" group to somehow get together in meaningful ways and articulate itself instead of only reacting [angrily/powerlessly] in a vacuum as any victim of state-originated attack is supposed to do, that would be *too threatening* [and has to be suppressed via the therapeutic jargon perpetuated uncritically in this book])

"The other group, that which is being helped a little, has been identified as a group that can be "reasoned with", since they hold (or have internalized) the values of the dominating paradigm. The state's architects and strategists don't necessarily "like" this group as fellow human beings (they are, after all, a militatry-centric organization), but this group [of artists, or persons who see themselves in such light] is an important resource, and thus is valuable (and may be allowed to continue to "thrive") for now.

"Notably, those being labeled "crazymakers" are not "making" crazy. They are humanly responding to pain that we mutually find as human beings living in this system. But their way of expression is more willful, and more distrusting of "The Way Things Are". Basically, the "crazymakers" are more something like "crazysurfers" or "crazyfeelers" because they are still angry at what is happening."

[End of excerpts.]

To continue with the above a just a bit for a little more affect:
"...Whereas those being hyped-up to respond to their symptoms of dis-ease within the ideologically correct/therapeutic value system, are Good and Normal, and Appropriate!"

Do take a read of the original critique at top and see if you agree in any way. Perhaps this will be something interesting and inspiring to those of us who are learning to question the "corral" of "normal" in the art "ghetto" today? (I'm not exactly optimistic, but thought I'd pass this by anyway)


NOTE to above excerpts:
[1] Check this out on "a good education" which discusses George Orwell's suppressed intro to his famous novel _Animal Farm_:
http://www.chomsky.info/interviews/20051207.htm
excerpt:
"...Nobody is ordering them to do anything. The indoctrination is so deep that educated people think they're being objective. Actually this is a point that Orwell made. You and everybody else has read Animal Farm, I'm sure, but you and everybody else hasn't read the introduction to Animal Farm. There's a good reason for that: because it was suppressed. The introduction was found 30 years later in Orwell's own published papers. The introduction to Animal Farm says look this book is a satire on a totalitarian state but I'm going to talk about England, Free England. In Free England it's not that different. Without state coercion unpopular ideas can be suppressed and are. And then he described how. He didn't go in much details but he said partly it's because the press is owned by wealthy men who have every reason not to want certain ideas to be expressed. But the more important reason, he said, was because of a good education. By the time you've gone through, you know, Oxford and Cambridge and here you could say Harvard and Princeton and so on, and even less fancy places, you have instilled into you the understanding that there are certain things that just wouldn't do to say, and that's what a good deal of education is. So the people who come out of it - and there are many filters, if people go off and try to be too critical there are many ways of discouraging them or eliminating them one way or the other. Some get through, it's not a uniform story. There are plenty of journalists with integrity and honesty. And many of them, some personal friends, will give a much harsher picture of the media than I do, because they have to live with it. But the basic points that Orwell made are fundamentally correct. The more educated you are the more indoctrinated you are. And you believe you are being free and objective, whereas in fact you're just repeating state propaganda."--curiously despised institutional analyst, Noam Chomsky

See also:
http://bostonphoenix.com/archive/features/99/04/01/NOAM_CHOMSKY.html
or search "good education" + Chomsky on your favorite search engine.

NOTES:
"Oppositional Defiant Disorder" is a pseudo-scientific hype game now being implemented in the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual-IV" (the psychiatric bible). See this source for a punch in your reality:
http://www.ask.com/web?q=what+page+is+%22oppositional+defiant+disorder%22+on+in+the+DSM%3F&x=50&y=35&qsrc=0&o=0&l=dir


Poo-poo at the likely outcome of seeding children with the notion that their unarticulated rebellion is illness? Perhaps there are grey areas to truly explore, yet if you were a upper-echelon strategist of *engineers of opinion*, would you have your workers in PR making obvious moves?

To radically understand the evil of the empire: bigotry, alienation, and manufacture of consent

by orrior of the cruciaL aRtz

summary
This article is inspired by the recent news of a new "nonlethal" laser ray weapon that the u.s. has developed, allegedly to be used on all who violently oppose u.s./nato imperialism-type aggressions. Shared here is from an informal confrontive (non-pacifist) ""cruciaL aRts"" perspective; controversial to traditonal politics for sure, yet offering input to thinking through the continuing intensity.

article:
One thing we know is that we are to be kept off-balance. We are to be kept afraid, divided, and feeling powerless.

Another thing we know is that the u.s. media constantly engineers opinion about how "stupid" people are, while never empathizing or giving contexts to such people's actions.

We also know that bigotry about the alleged "stupidity" of people prevails within all the support and implementation structures of society. Every "well educated" person pretty much has a conception which, at the bottom line, mirrors prevailing managerial beliefs about the "lumpen proletariat"; aka "the masses".

By now you **should** have heard of Noam Chomsky's trenchant analysis of the alienated bigotry of what he calls 'social and cultural managers'. In crucially repetitive form, he's mentioned the all-too-separated prejudice of Walter Lippmann (see, for example, _Public Opinion_), Reinhold Niebuhr, George Kennan, and Harold Lasswell, all leading figures of influence in the public relations industry. He's quoted them at length, and analyzed their ideas.

But the momentum of much of our politics --at least the euro-centric variety (re: Left, Right, and post-left)-- as well as of our organized response to all of this continues to be stuck in trenches. Stuck in rigid camps of 'Us v. Them'. No **radical** empathy allowed. Just mobilize mobilize mobilize!

We do not have to buy into this way of thinking, which First Nations thinkers have called "dark ages ruling control forms". We can activate our intelligence in unprecedented ways! We can "walk in the others' moccassins" and at the very least avoid demonizing those who have no sense; who are so alienated from the rest of humanity that they fully believe that the u.s./nato route of pre-emption and other aggressions, are valid. Keep our resistance consciousness and intellectual self-defense awareness intact, yet not be tooled, either!

You think like they do, and you might come up with the "pragmatic" view of a "leading" technologically-"advanced" Great Society working in an "impossible situation" to streamline the world into civil and sane being.

If you are being groomed to be an elite implementer of foreign or domestic policy, you will likely share such a conception. You won't be encouraged to focus on the **why's** and psychology of a world-travelling tourist populace so empty at home that it wants to "fill up" that emptiness by leaving the Great Society and starting anew elsewhere. Neither will you think through the insanity of reducing whole populations --in the "third world" and so on-- to accept the "fate" of our patronizing hand and mind-set.

So divorced from empathy for themselves and the power they **ought** to have if their Great Society was so Great and advanced, that they are unable to truly empathize with anyone else.

So this seems to be the crux of the thing. And fighting such hellish fire with more hellish fire cannot solve the problem! What we need to do is activate our radically empathetic, visionary intelligence, AND get back in touch with our ancestral values of making and holding meaningful extended families and villages!

Consider what a Jewish couple did when harrassed, for months, by an official in the kkk. I saw the article in an old "Reader's Digest" and tho it's usually full of b.s., there are of course gems every once in awhile too (how would it be so popular if it didn't have "Laughter, the best medicine", after all?). The story showed how the couple's perserverance in responding with unconditional love-type responses broke down the severely alienated kkk official, and finally, bridged with him as a human being.

Amazing, you ask?

This is just one example of putting our powers into action.

The pivotal truth, though, is that it may be easier to reach fellow human beings informally than formally. That is, reaching each other on the street, in our neighborhoods, etc. as human beings seeing the value of keeping connections with other human beings, even if we heatedly disagree on the "issues" (even the "issues" are often tainted with barriers in language, but that's another article).

Now, mind you, I'm not saying that **we** should go out of our way to try to reach "the worst offenders" (though this isn't a bad idea, considering their influence); I'm saying that we should be real, we should realize the value of reaching out to those who we *feel like* reaching out to/with.

I don't think this is ideological. Anyone is free to **realize the value** of such things, or not.

Can such work? How do we know for sure? If we can mobilize the best and most meaningful of who we are as human beings, maybe we'll have as much power as the couple who bridged with the kkk official.

True, the political police have been instructed, most likely, to block "all challenge before it can build momentum" (as Chomsky says in the preface to _Necessary Illusions_; see www.zmag.org/chomsky/ni ). But what if we persisted anyway? What if we got it in our heads that being *radically excellent* and *radically beautiful* with each other was worth RISKING OUR LIVES FOR?!

What is life if you force yourself to live the hellish? (and no, i ain't trying to push dogmatic religion, either; for me, life is a spritual path, where i may interpret all input into the heavenish i desire!)

(Some may call this naive and idealistic, but my praxis is based on first-hand experience in some of the heaviest of circumstances)

Your thoughtful input invited!