So I've discovered the best way to make coffee: Every time you make a pot, make just a little more than you actually need, and after you've poured your last cup, leave the warmer on for a couple of hours so that the bit that's left over evaporates down to about a tablespoon of rather thick coffee syrup. Then, the next time you make coffee, leave that syrup in the pot for a nice extra kick... of course there are people who like Turkish coffee, which is actually worse as they enjoy stirring tablespoons of coffee grounds in such coffee syrup and drinking, I mean chewing, that. But my way works a little better for me as I feel that I can do without the resulting Turkish heart-attack.
Anyway, I've received a couple of emails from friends and family who are worried about my spiritual well-being, due to my whole 'ashamed to be an American' thing a few posts back... they seem to think that because I said this, it means I am suffering from some sort of disillusioned stupor of the spirit... anyway it struck me as funny that anybody would think that, and it got me to thinking about it. I've never really strongly identified my sense of self with my country, so the idea that finding out about all sorts of really bad things we've done would affect me on a level where I'd feel personal shame or responsibility is ludicrous. I don't believe in Patriotism... at least not in a way beyond waving flags about and letting off firecrackers on the 4th of July. (That's more all about firecrackers being neat-o.) I did not go to the moon, much as I'd like to, and I did not kill any American Indians in the 1800's. I am proud to be a part of the country that landed on the moon, and ashamed to be an heir to a bloody conquest, but I did not myself do those things. I am ashamed of my ignorance and naïvety, but that is true of all humans, or at least it should be. If that shame were to bruise or destroy me, I'd have needed a thicker skin before ever leaving the womb.
What I believe is that Patriotism without responsibility, without questions, without thought, is blind and stupid, and paradoxically, un-American. Or actually not so paradoxical... Patriotism without responsibility is un-American. I think it's only a paradox in the minds of Far Right Christian Conservative Republicans. Love of Country does not equal Love of Government. Love of Country, right or wrong, does not equal Loyalty, or Justice, or Honor, or even (gasp) apple pie. That would actually be closer to fascism, or Little Bo Peepism (You know, because of the sheep). I tend to think that Jefferson, Lincoln, or Washington would be quite shocked at the state of modern American affairs. I'm not saying I'm some sort of genius political thinker, because any idiot can see that what is going on is insane, if they take the time to try. Anyway, here's one of my favorite Einstein quotes regarding patriotism to bolster my weak argument, and I think we can all agree that he was some kinda smart guy:
"He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder."
"Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!"
-That's right, A. frikken Einstein said that.
Of course, he did write that whole letter to Teddy about using the bomb, so that's where overthinking yourself will get you.
Anyway, I'm not really trying to convince anybody that I'm right; people tend to hold on to their beliefs in such matters whatever cases are presented to them, and I am no great convincer. I just want people to stop worrying about me, and my supposed bruised and battered soul... these are my beliefs and I'm doing okay. Whatever I'm going through here is probably not as horrific as some imagine. Make that definately not. My few and recent soapboxy angst-ridden anti-occupation posts are just there so I can have something to write about... well, mostly. I do feel very strongly about this stuff, but I'm still sitting in my caravan, perusing the internet, eating and sleeping, and planning on having a grand old time in Thailand someday to shake the middle-east out of my skin.
Well, considering I've spent the last half-hour reading other Einstein quotes on the internet, I'm going to end with one which speaks very well about the current bloody mess in the middle east, from Iraq to Gaza, to many other parts of the world even, because the odious term 'Peacekeeping Force' has always simultaneously amused and enraged me:
"Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding."
-A. frikken Einstein
He who has ears, let him hear. He who has big monkey ears and is our President, let him remove his fingers from them, as well as from various other orifices in his body.
Actually, my views on spirituality are very similar to my views of patriotism. In fact, I can even use the same phrasing, more or less. Membership in (any) religion or church does not equal love of God, and subscription to books of questionable origin does not equal a spiritual life.
God gave me two things; My brain and my conscience. That book was handed down over hundreds of years by dusty old men who had more interest in power than God... the pharisees were replaced by the priests, Hell-O! The Emperor wears no clothes. That verse in Revelations that so many preachers use as 'proof' that that book has come down to us direct and unchanged... it goes something like "And the guy that takes away from the words of this book will be slow-roasted over the Bar-B-Q pits of the 7th level of Hades, and the guy that adds to the words of this book will wish his mother never kissed his father" ... anyway, note that it doesn't say it won't be changed, just that the guy that does will be really really sorry. And one constant of the human condition is that we are used to being really really sorry. And even if it does in fact indicate that it was never altered to suit greedy old men, well that's a ludicrous thing to claim with a straight face and it is a perfect phrase to add in to keep the people docile. {Um... weapons of Mass Destruction? Bah, lie now, spin later!} And there is much evidence out there that the works included in that book are fairly arbitrary and incomplete. All those annoying apocrypha that keep coming to light... who do you think chose the ones we are left with and buried the stuff they didn't like in clay jars out in the desert somewhere? The "Muscles" Marinara of the early Vatican "family", that's what!
Anyway, again, not trying to convince. I just figure that if God didn't want people to use rational thought, he wouldn't have given them minds, and if he wanted people to follow blindly the man at the pulpit, or more to the point, accepting the hand-me-down from the Papacy which was around centuries before any other sect got it hands on that book along with interpretive skills, he wouldn't have given them the ability to make his own moral decisions.
Posted by: messiestobjects | Friday, July 07, 2006 at 03:05