PuffHo Religion Section Wishes We Go Not W/ Bang, But Whimper

Moving Beyond the Pathology of History: Why We Need a Shift in Human Consciousness

What we need is a crowbar big enough to pop the collective human head out of its collective ass. (The obvious alternate take is "First, we need something resembling human consciousness.") Fancy it up w/ your hippie bullshit all you want, the world is interested in common-sense (if not final) solutions.

As Arnold Toynbee has well argued, many civilizations have risen and faded away, and others (like our own) have been transformed through something akin to a hybridization. But there is yet to be a civilization that undergoes that death-and-rebirth process that we have come to know to be the essence of individual transformation, as manifest through the experience of those who have completed it: the prophets, enlightened individuals and mythic heroes. In light of such a conception, it is appropriate that we hope that the decaying structure of Western Christian Civilization learns to die well, so that the regeneration of our social body may take place in the best of possible conditions.

Choices here: An affectless "What ever," or a bitterly sarcastic "Yeah, right." And whatever amorphous crap she's typing (Our emphasis. And really: What the fuck?) must be completed by "the prophets, enlightened individuals and mythic heroes." Mysticism, myth & what not: Feudalism & fascism. At least now we realize why there's a constant refrain from reactionaries that "The Left"/hippies/multiculturalists do hate everything decent & good (Xian & Western). Because of hippie-dippies in the PuffHo. Thanks, Huffer.

The reactionaries are still fooling themselves if they think any one who could or would type this paragraph, for example, is a threat to anything but rationality. (Therefore, no threat to reactionaries at all. Especially as reactionaries are all for those gypsies, tramps & thievesprophets, enlightened individuals and mythic heroes.)

You may rightly say that with so many shadows and challenges and with the avalanche of avarice accosting us, how can we ever deal with them in such a way that our higher humanity, our required human, is not compromised? We can either undergo a progressive deactivation of the conditioned and pathogenic personality wrought by present civilization, the way of the excellent therapist, or we can find the ways and means to the emergence of a more profound awareness in which the experience of being and the felt meaning of life have their foundation, and which, in spite of constituting our true nature, lies ordinarily, in our so-called civilized condition, in a darkened, or veiled condition -- as if asleep. With regard to methods, probably both are appropriate here: the release of old conditions and the discovery of ways into the light.

We made it to "higher humanity" before our eyes glazed over & our hair began to hurt, but our case is not typical, & your results may vary. (Is there a conjunction or two missing above, or are we an idiot for thinking it should at least ... connect, for lack of a better word?)

What actually drew us to this drivel (Moth to the flame, baby!) was the first sentence (unfortunately not backed up w/ more apocalypticism but w/ the Koom-buy-yah crap in the above dose) an at least semi-precious gem in a pile of poop.

How can we not hope for such a collective death-and-rebirth when the commercial interests of the powerful devastate our environment, our values, our quality of life, our education, our culture, and even life itself? And can we not hope that the destruction of life and the mind may at least serve to stimulate awareness and thus accelerate a regenerative process, in the same way that diseases, by stimulating the organism's defenses, can become the indirect cause of their own cure? Funny as it may sound, it was not at all absurd for the Sufi E. J. Gold to write during the 1980s in a humor magazine, "As Brother Rabbit said, maybe civilization is nature's way of telling us to slow down."

No, not absurd at all. Indeed, self-described "scholar, philosopher and researcher in human capacities," please do hope in one hand & crap in the other. Then let us know which piled up faster.

While typist Houston seems to hate Western Xian Civ as much as we do, as she is on a higher spiritual plane she's unwilling to deal w/ it as righteous, justified hate, as we do every day). Admittedly, our contempt extends to humans & almost all their constructs; we got an impression that hippie-dippie crap ("the Sufi") is, like, OK, man, w/ her. Like. Look at her work w/ "cultures." All over the world. My.

Not only has my experience working with individuals, groups and cultures over the last four decades and in over 100 countries nurtured my trust in the intrinsic goodness of humans and in the individual's possibility of leaving behind destructiveness, but it has also nurtured my hope in collective transformation ...

Sweet blood of Juses, what planet has she been visiting? Not one w/ which we have any familiarity.

Enough, let's let The Dictators sum up, w/ hippies, higher spiritual planes, vomit, & fear of aging, all in one number. Don't forget to wipe your ass!