Pip for President (P4P)... ahem, I mean Congress ;)

• Zeitgeist - The Movie (Part 1 of 3)
• Zeitgeist - The Movie (Part 2 of 3)
• Zeitgeist - The Movie (Part 3 of 3)

Think, learn, && act. It is time for good people to sew seeds of loving peace instead of terrorized war... for the harvest is coming && we must decide what we care to reap... before the wicked greedy few reap all of us && enslave our whole world. Stop war. Hold the crooked accountable. You need not struggle to believe more lies. Our leaders have not learned from their mistakes as they claim. Continuing to place illogical trust in them is not the only option. See to it that any of our living future is truly free, even if we must first endure instability to topple the institutions of control that we've grown so accustomed to. Things shouldn't be like this. Be courageous in supporting serious positive change all around. It matters. If peace is our goal, we must start over, not with foundations of mechanical war, but with new dynamic structures founded upon organic peace. This is the ideological contest, the challenge, the healthy competition. It's not simply another war with words. This is a philosophy... a perspective. Make peace!

I have begun reading a transcript of an awesome speech title Reason in Islam delivered by a great man of G-d. This activity prompted me to post this to my blog. It was one week ago that I first heard of and watched The Message (which was sent to me by a Muslim friend whom I love). It is part of a tragically clarifying vision here in the United States. The blood of hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of innocent people is on our hands. This isn't like some misguided guilt for actual historical black slavery that we did not commit. This is guilt for what we have allowed and enabled ourselves. Now, maybe this blood is not on our personal hands if we've never fought directly and have even subverted the war from here. The problem is that it continues. It continues in Yisrael as well. It is injustice. It is murder. Why can't we United Statesians put down our credit cards, spit out our steak for just a moment, put down our beers and wines... and look another person in the eye? How can we keep thinking being great means we can war? It doesn't! We are not a righteous nation when we allow such atrocities to be committed in our name, through our wealth and compliance! If our borders are threatened with violence, strengthen our defenses! Don't infiltrate and overthrow. Don't massacre and torture. Such means are deceptively justified for wicked greedy ends.

Repent before the G-d of Abraham for we have become the brood of vipers. The prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is reported to have said "The diversity of my community is a mercy from G-d." G-d's right hand has always been upon Islam. The same G-d of Avraham, Yitzchak, and Ya'akov. He is Allah. You are a pompous fool if you think Y'shua (Jesus) was the end of all revelation (or that only the second coming would follow as prophetic supernatural visitation). G-d has never been limited in the number of times He can reveal truths, wisdom, blessings, and favor upon people! It can be done in ways you can't imagine. What will become of you on Judgement Day when it is revealed that you bear responsibility for murdering people who were not demonic (as you had dreamed) but actually holier than you? People who understood the true nature and character of one creative G-d who wants no human to worship idols, who wants no human to suffer or be mistreated, who has always been timely in knowing what the people needed.

The blood of Islam is majorly on the hands of United Statesians and Yisraelis. We are "westerners." It's just modern cowboys murdering and thieving from the most current incarnation of "Indians" (Native Americans). Maybe it's moonshine and lemonade while rocking on the back porch. Maybe murder is in our blood more than truth, wisdom, humility, or faith. I'm just saying that the one true G-d wants both diversity and peace. If you are ever told that an entire people-group is your mortal enemy, don't believe it because it is not true. There are few and only relatively small cases of a people-group recorded to be so entirely savage that none wished for peace, that their children deserved the blame too, that all of their blood was relatively worthless! Neither throughout history nor today has any such idea been so destructive. It may have been necessary (even if still excessive) in the past but it has no place in civilized society today. It is an antiquated and savage notion itself. Whole peoples are not the same! Islam is diverse! I am diverse. You may not recognize me because I appear to be an extravagant white man who has played expensive video games, raced fast motorcycles, or snorted whatever drugs. I am not so simple. I am also part Jewish, Nipponese, Indian, and Muslim inside. I am from every place. I survive in the high highs and the low lows. I go fast and I go slow. If nothing escapes G-d's eye (and you claim to know this), how could you then think your oppression or destruction of whole peoples could be a just thing anymore? If you pay attention to the body and mind that you do have, you would know that each life is filled with complexity and equivocation. The fanatical absolutists of every race and people are the enemies of goodness. These are they who cannot accept unfamiliar truth and who blame other peoples for their own hatred, fault, and failure. We must stop the bleeding. We must attempt to persuade people to know that Muslims deserve premature death no more than United Statesians or anyone else does. Of course we should act reasonably to stop suicide bombers but we cannot murder kids and innocent civilians and think the response is justified for anything that has come before. Jews sticking Nazis in ovens is not justified either. Being reasonable includes restoring people's dignity. They are people too. You who keep dreaming black people or brown people or gays or atheists are animals compared to you, you have made yourself into the most dumb, deaf, and blind livestock of all. You lie to think you hear your "Good Shepherd" clearly. Turn from your sins.

Changing gears a bit (since that was all pretty "preachy"), let me explain that I'm not usually so focused on religion. I think religion has been an essential component of human development and that there may well be one G-d or none or many gods existent. According to the relatively consistent character of most that has been recorded in each of the Tanakh (the Torah, Prophets, and Writings), the New Testament, the Qur'an, (and I'd imagine also the Talmud, Apocrypha, Kabbalah, etc.) there seems to be a great likelihood that a single G-d has created all things and has participated throughout humanity's history. Maybe there are scientific explanations for everything and maybe it was merely smart leaders who wrote persuasive books to guide, control, and govern others with. I can't say for certain. I can say that things keep changing. A burning bush that was not consumed would be a spectacle we have seen in many movies and games now. Our ability to see and interact with imaginary depictions of anything is constantly increasing. Anything appearing to be supernatural is met with significant measures of skepticism and faith. I think it possible and plausible that people have needed the absolute concepts of a single G-d, salvation, eternal paradise, damnation, etc. to survive the regular despair and chaotic inexplicability of life. People so easily forget the crucial lessons and return to a metaphorical modern version of prostrating themselves before wooden statues and desecrating all that is holy. Maybe people will increasingly need less faith in absolutes of all forms as more reason is brought to bear on every problem... or maybe Allah will reveal new scriptures to a prophet yet to be recognized and this will affect some momentum or balance. I think it is "up in the air." As long as the question remains this way, neither clearly nor perfectly true or false, right or wrong, etc., then people continue to have relevant free will to choose according to their conscience. These choices are meaningful even in the midst of tumult. They may eventually be reviewed and judged with perfect hindsight. None of us can perfectly know but we can believe what we choose and we can be open-minded towards the need to change our minds and we can do whatever else to improve everyone's situation.

Regardless of if you're religious or not, United Statesian or not, certain or not, etc., please do whatever you can to stop warring against any Muslims. It is a crazily stupid thing we (in the United States) have primarily done (and continue to do). It is a bitter genocide. Blunt war cannot stop too soon! We have powerful technology. Demand expertise, exquisite precision, and accountability from military endeavors. Diversity (not Christianity or United Statesian English or wealth or pride or anything else) is the greatest strength and blessing of the United States... just as it is with Islam! Each are comprised of great peoples from every other nation, people, language, tribe, culture, and religion. Nobody can ever rightly war against entire peoples again. It is not right now!

Stopping war, murder, and torture are the immediately next concerns of my political campaign. The highest priority remains diminishing government power. I think all other widespread ills of humanity are the result of too much centralized, deadly, unchallenged, and unaccountable power (as has historically been wielded abusively by almost every government). I feel so passionately that everything will be so much better when murder is finally voluntarily abandoned... but then the major root cause is governments. I wish to remedy the heart of the problem so that all blood can flow more freely. I pray my struggle not be in vain.

I recently watched a documentary called Peace, Propaganda, and the Promised Land which highlights a great deal of injustice in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the imbalance in reporting on it.

Of course it's bogus to allow the U.S. media to ignore the history of the conflict and sanitize all the language to make us sound neutral, to make Israelis sound familiarly human and westernized as though they only retaliate in self-defense, and to make the Palestinians all sound like stupid worthless animals and hateful irrational terrorists. The media ignores the context horribly.

I think the whole conflict is a terrible problem with no simple solution. The relatively obvious answer seems to be to have Yisrael withdraw from the occupied lands, relinquish the settlements, and grant Palestinians autonomy... restoring their dignity... but I can see that their brutal eradication of Palestinians can be an overwhelmingly aggressive maneuver as a small component of a much larger defensive strategy. The massacres of civilians, human-rights violations, and greedy motives are impossible to completely justify though. I don't believe that the ends always justify the means.

If Islamic extremists from all the surrounding areas and nations remain bent on complete extermination of Yisrael, then that provides a larger context for Yisrael to want to control more of the territory nearby forcefully. I totally hate the murder on both sides and the systematic dehumanization of the Palestinians in the United Statesian media and psyche. I wish the Palestinians could at least be relocated rather than murdered and molested. At best, I wish both sides would stop aggression and Yisrael would withdraw from all occupation by abandoning their colonization through settlements. I can see that the threat is on their doorstep but they have overwhelming military might and are habitually cruel in their conquest. Of course it's not all Israelis that are this way or think the occupation is necessary for their protection. Lots are totally striving for peace too. The ongoing oppression by those who feel justified in instigating, renewing, and escalating the violence just exacerbates the situation and is consistently horrendous.

I think the U.S. wants to dominate the area to take control of the oil and is using Yisrael's supposed defenses against terrorism as a pretext. This greed is wicked and is the only thing that deserves to be murdered brutally. I hate it. I wish substantial progress towards peace could be made and that the U.S. would stop blindly supporting Yisrael even when they are wrong.

In other news, I recently saw the movie, Proof, with Gwyneth Paltrow and Anthony Hopkins, for the first time. Please be warned that the following contains spoilers.

Proof was a strong movie and I identified with Paltrow's character, Catherine, powerfully. I was brought to fitful tears several times by her moving performance and how distressingly her situation resonated with my own memories, fears, and hopes. The dialog was generally smart and cutting. I thought the ending was cheap though. It's like smart people are only really worthwhile or great if they "achieve" in some common way... like some breakthrough that will bring fame and fortune. I don't think the average masses can be relied upon to ever properly recognize or appreciate greatness. They are, rather by definition, undistinguished and undiscerning. They are generally wasteful and pompous and banal and couldn't know intellectual greatness if was in front of their nose. They only worship the celebrity icons in movie stars as heroic but are fearful of the truly brilliant minds... or they're at least nonplussed because smart people aren't usually so beautiful to look at and average people judge every book by its cover while claiming they do not and should not.

It vexed me to see a movie with such powerfully intellectual content (of course the mathematics still needed to be dumbed down somewhat to keep the audience's attention) and it dealt with eminence, mental deterioration, insanity, dreams, obligations, expectations, loneliness, and many other issues so wonderfully but then has this happy ending where she's going to become a celebrated and wealthy mathematician in her own right. On one hand, attaining validation and accolades from her peers in the great math departments is totally happy and fine... but it was played up to this point where that success seemed to become the only proof that she was great. I thought her character was great even without notoriety. I think smart people deserve to be recognized as great... and we know it... but it's this weird situation where it's almost impossible for normal people to do it.

Take my presidential campaign here for example. I obviously want to lead people with honesty and integrity, courage and respect, a commitment to truth and justice, solving problems, being fair, promoting freedom, autonomy, individuality, creativity, research, wisdom, and love. The average person is so afraid of change that they expect (demand?) more lying politicians. Lies are considered just necessary "diplomacy" and "appeal" to accomplish the "greater good" through governance. The masses do just want to mark their X in one of two boxes every four years and then dust off their hands in pride at their supposedly tremendous accomplishment of their duty to uphold democracy. That is, if they even participate that much. They want to be deceived and ruled and think their optional bit of contribution is sufficient. So dumb!

Anyway, I think smart people are of great value whether or not they are ever recognized and appreciated in any traditional, fiscal, or emotional way. I think it's a great burden on all the gifted minds out there to only be measured by the metrics of the masses when their relatively simple-minded measurements always fall short. We hit their uncomfortably low ceilings when testing our intellectual capacities. I think it should be obvious that it takes enormous perceptive skills to recognize massive complexity in others and average people just aren't up to it. They can't ever be. They're only good and celebrating things very close to average because they can understand them. Let me go on another rant.

Let's look at the concept of stupidity for a moment. I think stupid people are fascinated by the concept of stupidity because they need to lie to themselves to think that they are not that stupid. They love to watch America's Funniest Home-Videos or retarded bumbling protagonists on just about every mainstream show ever syndicated (Married With Children's Al, Simpsons' Homer, Family Guy's Peter, Futurama's Fry, etc. and I'm sure there's a million other examples but I just don't watch enough TV to come up with better more modern examples at the moment). I'm not saying these shows are all bad. They have a great deal of humor, wit, and sex appeal. Sometimes they're quite clever or deal with difficult topics (which may fly right over the heads of a substantial portion of their audience). Average people love MTV's Jackass movies, Backyard Wrestling, COPS, and Darwin Awards. I think most people identify greatly with stupidity and laziness but then they also want to distance themselves from it too by saying they would never be *that* stupid (when observing the most extreme examples). I don't think stupidity is all that funny. I think it has always been a cancer. The more people care to learn and pay attention to what's going on in themselves, in their families and communities, in their state and country, and in the rest of the world and universe around them, the better everything gets. If average people are so scared of being stupid, why doesn't that motivate them to transcend average? Of course this would only raise the actual level of "average" so most people couldn't actually transcend it but the desire to improve would generally be able to accelerate with efficiency (as it should).

So I thought Proof was a great movie in every way except for the ending... which was tawdry. Maybe I'm just jealous that Katie was going to be recognized as brilliant and I'm not... yet ;) ... or maybe I'm just trying to convince myself that recognition and typical achievement don't matter nearly as much as everyone makes them out to... but then there's still the obvious truth that influence and progress become monumentally more possible with increased appeal and attention. I must try to be happy with or without them so I resent the reinforcement that external appreciation is the only right measure of worth.

P.S. A good friend also sent me this sweet link: Free Hugs!