And I include myself in that.
Ever hear of Picher, Oklahoma? It's a mining town in Oklahoma that produced over 50% of the lead and zinc used in World War II. They dug up lead and zinc ore, took out what was easiest and cheapest to extract, and dumped the remaining stuff in big piles. There was still lead and zinc in the remains, and it just blew across the Oklahoma prairies, contaminating everything.
They dug the mines so deep that they hit an aquifer. To keep the mines from flooding, they pumped the water out. When they closed the mines, they quit pumping out the water. It filled the mines, contaminating the entire aquifer with lead and zinc.
They dug the mines so close to the surface of the ground that they could see tree roots in the ceilings. They did this under the city. The ground collapsed into the mines, shockingly.
In the vote about whether to close the school before the town was officially disbanded, 6 people voted against closing it. 6 people wanted to stay in the town, where they couldn't breathe without getting poisoned, where they couldn't drink without getting poisoned, where they couldn't walk down main street because it had SUNK INTO THE FUCKING GROUND.
On the way to work today, I heard a Diane Rehm show about Aids in Uganda. One dude was pissed at Obama for not following through on a campaign promise to give them $50 BILLION dollars to fight the epidemic. He's only giving them $10 BILLION. They need a lot more.
In Uganda, they figure for every new patient that comes in for treatment, there are 2 or 3 new infections they don't know about. They're losing the fight, badly.
I got pissed. We're fuckin' broke as a country, we don't provide free AIDS treatment to our own citizens, and a dude is going to bitch because we're only giving $10 BILLION? To fight a disease that is primarily spread by men not keeping their dicks in their pants? In another country? REALLY?
The mature, responsible course of action would be to have all the people with AIDS stop fucking people without AIDS. They would need to stop fucking people without AIDS on their own, make the right choice, and then stick to it. And not have babies. It's a huge sacrifice to ask people to make, and it's not fair. But it's the only sure method we have to stop the spread of the disease, to get it under control.
Will people make the smart choice? Hell no. We won't even move out of a poisoned town. We can't be relied on to make sacrificial decisions and stick to them. Some people can and do, for some things, some times, but even they can be counted on to do something selfish and stupid once or twice in their lives, in some area.
Isn't that great?
See, this is one of the primary motivating factors in my pursuit of the Great Work. I'm sick and tired of being stupid. I want something better.
And so far, it's working. I've got "powers" I never had before. I've moved through the Seven Planetary Spheres, and I'm knocking on the gates of the Eighth. Things are going fucking great in that department. I'm developing the abilities that would enable me to handle whatever the universe throws at me and still be able to accomplish a predetermined goal. I'm getting the power to overcome obstacles, or to just tell them to go away and have them slink off to some quiet corner of existence and stop bothering people. It's slow Work, but I've made some progress. I've got a ways to go still, but I'm getting there.
But I still do stupid things. I don't know if it's the meat suit that makes me stupid, or if my soul is somehow retarded or what. I don't give a shit. I just want the stupid to end. Make it stop, God, make it stop. But he won't. Oh no, he just sits there grinning and knowing and loving and shit. I really hope all this crap we wade through between birth and death is just a pre-school, a prep-realm and that when we die, if we pass all the exams and demonstrate understanding and practical application of the lessons of this world that we get to land a job as a Power or something. I really want the "stupid filter" taken off. I want to see the best course of action, and also to want to take that course, to choose it and stay with it, no matter what.
I believe anyone can do anything they set their minds to. I just want the power to set my mind to the right course of action. Is that asking too much, god damn it? I think not.
Head for the Red: The ongoing adventures and insights of a magician's attempts to accomplish the Great Work.
What I like about your rants, RO, other than their entertainment value of course, is that they reveal you actually care deeply about the world.
ReplyDeleteYou talk a grumpy game, but we all know there's a softie in there somewhere.
Sidebar: International aid is a sticky issue. To guarantee it's being spent well, the First World has to be way too paternal and hand the money/aid out itself... But refusing to send any aid at all (because so much of it is diverted by gang lords and corrupt politicians) looks too callous and is politically dangerous.
Hence we are left with sending the wrong kind of aid to people who won't use it anyway. That and some over-hyped concerts. It's not a good situation.
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ReplyDeleteIt's telling that the roots of what is now our common Hermetic Tradition: The Babylonians and Egyptians both had a special place for royalty. Christian and Muslim Hermeticists found their way into the royal courts of Sultans, Caliphs, Princes, and Kings. See the traditional roles of the Brahmin caste for more information ;) A lot of shepherding of humanity, and herding the masses, etc.
ReplyDeleteI personally like to think of humanity as the late larval stage of development in a sentient being. As such, I don't expect much.
Me too. Me too. Seriously.
ReplyDeleteYes. Yes and yes and yes.
ReplyDeleteRO I think we've all be in that position to cry in the bathroom, or quietly in bed, or whatever for humanity. Even the more proactive bits of mainstream religion, let alone groups like the masons, have only eliminated fractions of the suffering in the world, and then only temporarily.
ReplyDeleteWe can only do so much, the important thing is that we keep trying.
Don't buy the hype, "AIDS" in Africa is a scam to funnel in money to elites. They REALLY need mosquito nets, malaria drugs, clean water, food, not to be hacked to pieces by roving gangs, etc..
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