The Rabbit Hole of Hate

another beautiful creation from Hot Springs Wizard


freeacre

Sometimes, I have to admit, I feel pretty smug about how I knew the real estate crash was going to happen. I knew that if I got a re-finance loan, I had three years to pay off my bills, re-model my home, and sell it for a profit before the crash. I was tipped off way in advance by Mike Ruppert’s “From the Wilderness” and Matt Savinar’s “Life After the Oil Crash.” We not only read these sites. We were convinced. We took action. And, I am glad that we did. We have gone on to be guided by “Urban Survival,” “Of Two Minds,” “Survival Acres,” “Comrade Simba,” “Cryptogon,” etc. and now we are enriched by our tribal blogs as well.

But, I don’t feel so smug anymore. It’s getting pretty weird out there. I find myself negotiating the different alternative information sites as if I were walking a path salted with land mines. It used to be that one could turn to alternative sites and read one rant after another exposing how dimwitted, galling, manipulative, greedy, or otherwise heinous George Bush and his henchmen were. He was a third generation Nazi, a member of the Skull and Bones, cocaine-tooting, playboy, alcoholic, loser who happened to be President of the United States. And Carl Rove, “His Brain,” was a slimy, but clever, master-manipulator who had orchestrated the take-over of the military and Washington by rapture-driven, born-again, sheep with the IQ of a pet rock, over the last 30 years. And, Darth Chaney – don’t get me started. All that seemed to be pretty well documented and verifiable. We wondered if an election was going to be allowed at all, given that the last two had been stolen. We wondered if we were going to be rounded up and thrown into FEMA camps if we resisted getting chipped or if our firearms were confiscated. Oil had peaked. The trucks delivering food would be out of gas any day now. The electrical grid was deteriorating. We stocked up on batteries, kerosene lamps, solar radios, alternative heating, three years of firewood, and Amish dipper for the well, in case the pump goes out.

I’m glad that we have all this stuff. But, something is off. Timing, for one thing. The economic and real estate crash is happening, for sure. But, the Overseers keep coming up with new ways to prop it up and allow at least the façade of business-as-usual to continue. There are tent cities on the outskirts of most metropolitan areas. But, people continue to bet that “things are turning around.” I thought the lights would be out by now. But, it keeps on keepin’ on, and that is getting on my nerves. And another thing - the alternative sites are more shrill than ever.

Now that the cretinous Bush regime is out and Obama is in, the same, if not worse, screeds are being written about Obama on sites like Rense, Steve Quayle, or Truthseeker. He’s a fake, a phony, a Muslim, a closet Jew, a homo, a minion of Israel/Bilderberger/Illuminati, etc. They’re labeling him everything but what it seems they really can’t stand – he’s semi-black. Half black, raised by white relatives in Hawaii. But, even that level of black seems to be too much to bear for these racist fucks. Or, are they anti-Semite fucks? I object to the brutal policies of Israel, too. But, the vehemence with which many of these stories are written, the innuendo and the paranoia, belies the hatred that used to be reserved for the Ku Klux Klan literature of the 50’s. All that’s missing are pictures of pawn shop symbols and big noses. If they ever finish hating blacks and Jews, they’ll turn to the Muslims, Mexicans, or women’s libbers. There is no end to it.

Everywhere I turn there are just jaw-dropping, disgusting pieces that I avert my eyes from. I go to Huffington Post to see what the mainstream is doing and I see headlines about the size of Tiger Wood’s penis or Lady GaGa’s I-don’t’-know-what, political wankers, bulging underpants, or some hideous, tasteless abomination that somehow passes as “news” or “pop” culture. I go for news and it feels like I landed at Hustler Magazine. WTF?

You go to even straighter sites, like MSMBC or ABC or CBS, and it’s all a despicable corporate love-fest. You can hardly get more than a few headlines, since you spend all your time watching drug commercials and dodging flash ads about belly fat. It’s all about selling you something, or inducing some false sense of pride that makes you feel good about being a corporatist, errr Repubican, uh, American. They take it for granted that we all hang out at The Mall, work in some cubicle, and never miss an episode of American Idol (which I have never actually seen).

So, why do I keep turning to the internet? Good question. Let me assure you that my own irony has not escaped me. After all, I take some measure of pride in the fact that over the years, I have honed insults to the neo-cons and Overlords into a quasi art form. But, now I wonder if I am becoming part of the problem. I wonder if any of the fringe sites would ever be able to recognize good things when they see them. Or, maybe stop thinking in terms of good and bad, but rather, asking “What is the goal? And how do we get there? That way, maybe we could disagree without deciding that one of us should be rotting in hell. Could we maybe work out a few things?

How much is evil and how much is just simply wrong or in error? Wrong can be persuaded. Wrong can be taught. Wrong can be forgiven. Wrong can change. Wrong can be disagreed with, but also worked with. Wrongs can be healed. Evil, it seems to me, is not human. Evil is systemic, ruthless, without compassion, unable to be reasoned with and cannot be fought that same way that one can fight a person. Like Ran Prier said, “evil is like a forest fire.” You don’t petition it, you don’t lay down in front of it to get it to change its course.

Somehow we need to be able to tell the two apart. When we can’t tell the difference, we end up seeing evil everywhere. And, when one sees evil everywhere, they become afraid. And, when they become afraid, they become more susceptible to evil, even a minion of evil. And, then they bring on what it is that they fear.

The metaphysicians teach that these are days of transition. From the Age of Pisces to the Age of Aquarius, a procession of the equinoxes. The End Times, the Apocalypse. The Hopis, the Hindus, the Aborigines, the Taoists, the Egyptians, the Mayans – all have predictions of the end of days that will lead to something new. But, the Evil Ones, the Satanists, the Reptilians, the Corporatist vampires, the Money or Power driven Zombie Overlords as well as the hate-filled wing nuts would have it all end in debt, death and dissolution - because they have never been really free and alive in the first place.

It does seem to be shaping up as camps of good and evil. Yes, there is going to be struggle and loss and shortage and challenge and hard times. But, we can learn and help and protect and save and build and innovate and transform. The others are going to want to hate and kill and maim and intimidate and dominate. I believe that we as human beings are blessed with a natural capacity to discern light from dark, love from fear or hate. Our whole body is a receptor. Our minds can be confused. But, our bodies know. We can feel it if we cultivate the sensitivity to it.

So, I, for one, intend to work on becoming adept at recognizing hateful and fear-filled perspectives and agendas and avoid them. I am intending to throw what is left of my life’s energy into recognizing the good, the helpful, the productive, the caring, the comforting, the strong, the creative in the challenges before us. Let’s face it - we are all going to die. But, until then, we need to decide how we are going to live. This intention doesn’t mean that I will never get angry. Far from it. Anger can be good. It’s hatred that I’m having a problem with.

I am reminded of the line by Bob Dylan, “ Some say don’t hate nothin’ at all, except hatred.” When you hate, you keep whatever it is stuck in the same spot. If you forgive, you allow it to turn into something else. Forgiveness doesn’t mean condoning that which is wrong. It doesn’t mean being complicit, or denying, or allowing it to continue. It means setting yourself free from fear and allows for the possibility of transformation. In humans, it is one of our greatest powers. We just don’t quite get it yet. But, I am allowing for the possibility that maybe we will.