Tag Archives: war

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It’s chaos, be kind

A quote by the late author Michelle McNamara.

Since I heard it first mentioned by her comedian husband, Patton Oswalt, it’s been like a fishhook, it won’t let go of me.

It’s chaos.
Mayhem, disarray, havoc.

We can argue, and you can “yes but you are so negative,” and “can’t you see the positive things for a change,” …whatever, whatever. I, however, don’t need any more arguments or justifications. Really. When I look just a bit outside my comfort nest the chaos already starts. It becomes frighteningly more chaotic the more and further I look.

Admittedly, there is an immeasurable amount of beauty and wonderful stuff and there is an unfathomable amount of chaos. I don’t even mean the natural state of the universe. I mean the chaos man has created and perpetuates with his mind and ego in the name of anything from religion to power, greed, expansionism, exhibitionism, survival and primeval urges.

All right.
So in my little world, there is no chaos, nor in the worlds of those I associate myself with. I also pot-believe in the critical mass that has swung the scale already in favor of the unchaotic good.
Wonderful blinkers. My head is dug so deep in the sand.
I am such a recluse, living in my mountain wilderness or coastal stilt-log cabin. There, in the natural grandeur and peace, I deal with very different chaos, — not the human annihilating one.

No matter how head-deep-in-the-sand or reclusive I might be, eventually, the energy of chaos will vibrate me out of my oblivion into the contrasting stark reality of now’s chaos.
Eventually, the noise of chaos is even in the water that I drink and sixty percent of my body is high on chaos. Even my virtual world of earphones and screen vibrates to the chaos.

Inescapably I am confronted with chaos and there are times when I even become the personification of chaos. Chaotic is my name, not caring is my game.

To muster the ability and counter chaos with kindness is a remarkable achievement of evolution, of understanding and self-control. That is a deed worthy of headlines, prizes, accolades, and it’s own ‘Noble laureate.’ (Different to the Alfred Bernhard Nobel laureates, — notice the twist in spelling.)

“In the beginning, Man created God.”
Jethro Tull, Aqualung.

It was an ingenious, resourceful idea that has not been surpassed by anything since.
There it suddenly was: this glorious, omnipotent deity. Someone to lump everything onto, blame and exploit. We can now  rinse our hands in ‘innocence.’ We are faultless and ‘It’ is the best-advertised problem coated in the irresistible flavor of a fail-less solution. A marvelous finguck excuse.

It was God. It is God’s doing. It is God’s will. It is for God. My God is the real deal, not yours.
(Replace God with any name that your God is.)
God, God, God.
OMG.

Since then, whenever it was when we created God, we have been spinning and regurgitating this very frigging broken record. Fervently and aggressively we climb onto pulpits and continue to pronounce God’s eternal life by sacrificing even our own lives and others’, — creating ridiculous chaos in the name of a deity we have enthroned and can dethrone any time, — evading responsibility and absolving ourselves in front of this artificial altar instead of taking ownership, accountability and most of all, being kind.

Some interesting people have had words around this subject: Carl Sagan, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Stephen Hawking, Michio Kaku, Stephen Fry, Brain Greene etc. etc. and me and you.

The crucial, pivotal moment in one’s own life is when — without the influence of anyone else and brought on by an incessant lifelong pondering, — we realize that God is not the faulty one but that we are entirely the only ones responsible (for all the chaos) and therefore better start practicing to ‘be kind.’

“It’s chaos…”
Kim Jong-un and well-known others, Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Yemen, Somalia, DRC, Isis, Rohingya, refugees, on&on&on. Discord, suffering, and war on an astronomical scale on our tiny earth.
Chaos on the planet: in countries, in tribes, families, businesses, amongst lovers, in the traffic, at concerts, on the sidewalks, — chaos inside you and me.

“be kind”
Kindness incorporates all attributes of caring, compassion, allowance, understanding, even respect towards everyone and everything. Acting from a basis of kindness enables us to respond in a manner appropriate to the circumstances. The alchemy of kindness converts chaos and aggression into caring.

I got the message to be kind, loud and clear, — did you?

As always, this blog voices my personal thoughts and ideas on subjects and does not mean to offend.

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Who do I salute?

We are clueless and lost and come up with nothing to resolve the issue.
It is the fiasco in the Middle East I am talking about.

Like so many of us, I just don’t want to hear about it anymore.
I am so disillusioned with ‘Talks’ and ‘Coalitions’ and statements of more aggression and increased military action.

I am absolutely stumped that ‘an eye for an eye’ is all the ‘intelligent’ world can come up with to root out this evil that is invading our ‘free’ world.

Endless criticising without proposing a solution is as frustrating to me as any loudmouth shouting.

There are statesmen puppets that will do what their puppeteers decide. Other leaders think they gain stature by tough talk and muscle flexing and violent action. Others again only know how to follow the lead dog(s) or are driven by pain and loss and retaliate in blinding hurt.

But what if psychologists could analyse the weak spots of these offending fanatic fundamentalists and come up with proposals to swing them our way by using subtle means?
What about a ‘propaganda coalition,’ where instead of destructive bombs we drop irresistible temptations on our enemies. With every item we drop we could suggest, – in every language, shape and size, – how good our world is and how screwed up theirs is. We could encourage them to defect and welcome them with open arms, give them jobs, use their skills and will-power and create an awesome future for all of us instead.

In our hatred we think that extermination is the answer. I am sure it is a good feeling to retaliate with all the might of our insane destructive devices. But, we are not solving the issue. The problem is in the minds of those people. We need to address their mind. We have to entice them, weaken their belief and wean them off the breast they falsely believe leads to a blissful world.
We have to work on the psyche of our enemy. How better to do it but to bombard them with information and objects that are certain to sway them in our direction. You cannot tell me that a soldier of the evil forces does not sit down sometimes dreaming of another life: a life of security, enough food, family, fun, peace and happiness. But, we drop bombs and shoot and act like the madmen they are just with a different uniform.

The combined knowledge of humanity: from China to Russia, India, Europe and America can surely come up with a way to defeat this enemy. With so many experts and lateral thinkers a psychological solution, a ‘propaganda assault,’ – bombs filled with sweets and chocolate and delectables and perhaps some wine too, books and notes and electronic devices capturing the imagination of our adversaries, – would surely win us this war?
Those embittered ones left behind will have a broken back and no more power to affect anything.
Why don’t we influence the minds of our foes so they can’t sleep anymore and they are left with one desire: to cross over into our camp and enjoy our lifestyle and our freedom.

Those who get this right are the ones I salute and respect. The rest of the fighting force, – no matter how skilled and versatile these modern gladiators are, targeting lives with their deadly machinery, – they don’t impress me one iota.

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seeds of chaos

As long as we sow the seeds of war, – violent abuse and hate, and create abject poverty, – because of greed, power-lust and blinding self-righteousness, – we feed the hunger of the evil monster and reap the chaos.
Hardly do we have to point fingers and mention names of individuals, leaders and countries. We know which ones to send to another planet given the chance, so that we can live prosperous and peaceful lives without their distorted interference.

I have to refer to one laureates’ acceptance speech at a well known banquet a few years ago:
“we will not eradicate violent conflict in our life times”
“the imperfections of man”
“our limits of reason”
“we lose ourselves when we compromise the very ideals we fight to defend.”

Is there then a reason for leading a ‘just war?’

That the world can be changed by one individual is unlikely. That it can shift from its apparent inertia by many that are moral however, is possible.

“Our moral compass must be love.”
~Marthin Luther King Jr~