What are you optimistic about?

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[maryw]

Happy New Year, peeps.

In response to the title of this thread, I'm posting an article someone just e-mailed me. It's by Robert Brezsny, author of Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia.

Thousands of things go right for you every day, beginning the moment you wake up. Through some magic you don't fully understand, you're still breathing and your heart is beating, even though you've been unconscious for many hours. The air is a mix of gases that's just right for your body's needs, as it was before you fell asleep.

You can see! Light of many colors floods into your eyes, registered by nerves that took God or evolution or some process millions of years to perfect. The interesting gift of these vivid hues comes to you courtesy of an unimaginably immense globe of fire, the sun, which continually detonates nuclear reactions in order to convert its body into light and heat and energy for your personal use.

Did you know that the sun is located at the precise distance from you to be of perfect service? If it were any closer, you'd fry, and if it were any further away, you'd freeze. Here's another one of the sun?s benedictions: It appears to rise over the eastern horizon right on schedule every day, as it has since long before you were born.

Do you remember when you were born, by the way? It was a difficult miracle that involved many people who worked hard on your behalf. No less miraculous is the fact that you have continued to grow since then, with millions of new cells being born inside you to replace the old ones that die. All of this happens whether or not you ever think about it.

On this day, like almost every other, you have awoken inside a temperature-controlled shelter. You have a home! Your bed and pillow are soft and you're covered by comfortable blankets. The electricity is turned on, as usual. Somehow, in ways you're barely aware of, a massive power plant at an unknown distance from your home is transforming fuel into currents of electricity that reach you through mostly hidden conduits in the exact amounts you need, and all you have to do to control the flow is flick small switches with your fingers.

You can walk! Your legs work wonderfully well. Your heart circulates your blood all the way down to replenish the energy of the muscles in your feet and calves and thighs, and when the blood is depleted it finds its way back to your heart to be refreshed. This blessing recurs over and over again without stopping every hour of your life.

Your home is perhaps not a million-dollar palace, but it's sturdy and gigantic compared to the typical domicile in every culture that has preceded you. The floors aren't crumbling, and the walls and ceilings are holding up well, too. Doors open and close without trouble, and so do the windows. What skillful geniuses built this sanctuary for you? How and where did they learn their craft?

In your bathroom, the toilet is functioning perfectly, as are several other convenient devices. You have at your disposal soaps, creams, razors, clippers, tooth-cleaning accessories: a host of products that enhance your hygiene and appearance. You trust that unidentified scientists somewhere tested them to be sure they're safe for you to use.

Amazingly, the water you need so much of comes out of your faucets in an even flow, with the volume you want, and either cold or hot as you desire. It's pure and clean; you're confident no parasites are lurking in it. There is someone somewhere making sure these boons will continue to arrive for you without interruption for as long as you require them.

Look at your hands. They're astounding creations that allow you to carry out hundreds of tasks with great force and intricate grace. They relish the pleasure and privilege of touching thousands of different textures, and they're beautiful.

In your closet are many clothes you like to wear. Who gathered the materials to make the fabrics they're made of? Who imbued them with colors, and how did they do it? Who sewed them for you?

In your kitchen, appetizing food in secure packaging is waiting for you. Many people you've never met worked hard to grow it, process it, and get it to the store where you bought it. The bounty of tasty nourishment you get to choose from is unprecedented in the history of the world.

Your many appliances are working flawlessly. Despite the fact that they feed on electricity, which could kill you instantly if you touched it directly, you feel no fear that you're in danger. Why? Your faith in the people who invented, designed, and produced these machines is impressive.

It's as if there's a benevolent conspiracy of unknown people that is tirelessly creating hundreds of useful things you like and need.

There's more. Gravity is working exactly the way it always has, neither pulling on you with too much or too little force. How did that marvel ever come to be? By some prodigious, long-running accident? It doesn't really matter, since it will continue to function with astounding efficiency whether or not you understand it.

Meanwhile, a trillion other elements of nature's miraculous design are expressing themselves perfectly. Plants are growing, rivers are flowing, clouds are drifting, winds are blowing, animals are reproducing. The weather is an interesting blend of elements you've never before experienced in quite this combination. Though you may take it for granted, you relish the ever-shifting sensations of light and temperature as they interact with your body.

There's more. You can smell odors and hear sounds and taste tastes, many of which are quite pleasing. You can think! You're in possession of the extraordinary gift of self-awareness. You can feel feelings! Do you realize how improbably stupendous it is for you to have been blessed with that mysterious capacity? And get this: You can visualize an inexhaustible array of images, some of which represent things that don't actually exist. How did you acquire this magical talent?

By some improbable series of coincidences or long-term divine plan, language has come into existence. Millions of people have collaborated for many centuries to cultivate a system for communication that you understand well. Speaking and reading give you great pleasure and a tremendous sense of power.

Do you want to go someplace that's at a distance? You have a number of choices about what machines to use in order to get there. Whatever you decide -- car, plane, bus, train, subway, ship, helicopter, or bike -- you have confidence that it will work efficiently. Multitudes of people who are now dead devoted themselves to perfecting these modes of travel. Multitudes who are still alive devote themselves to ensuring that these benefits keep serving you.

Maybe you're one of the hundreds of millions of people in the world who has the extraordinary privilege of owning a car. It's a brilliant invention made by highly competent workers. Other skilled laborers put in long hours to extract oil from the ground or sea and turn it into fuel so you can use your car conveniently. The roads are drivable. Who paved them for you? The bridges you cross are potent feats of engineering. Do you realize how hard it was to fabricate them from scratch?

You're aware that in the future shrinking oil reserves and global warming may impose limitations on your ability to use cars and planes and other machines to travel. But you also know that many smart and idealistic people are diligently striving to develop alternative fuels and protect the environment. And compared to how slow societies have been to understand their macrocosmic problems in the past, your culture is moving with unprecedented speed to recognize and respond to the crises spawned by its technologies.

As you travel, you might listen to music. Maybe you've got an MP3 player, a fantastic invention that has dramatically enhanced your ability to hear a stunning variety of engaging sounds at a low cost. Or maybe you have a radio. Through a process you can't fathom, music and voices that originate at a distance from you have been converted into invisible waves that bounce off the ionosphere and down into your little machine, where they are transformed back into music and voices for you to enjoy.

Let's say it's 9:30 a.m. You've been awake for two hours, and a hundred things have already gone right for you. If three of those hundred things had not gone right -- your toaster was broken, the hot water wasn't hot enough, there was a stain on the pants you wanted to wear -- you might feel that today the universe is against you, that your luck is bad, that nothing's going right. And yet the fact is that the vast majority of everything is working with breathtaking efficiency and consistency. You would clearly be deluded to imagine that life is primarily an ordeal

I largely concur (although I know that those who labor to grow my food, make my clothing and etc. do not really do so "tirelessly").

One other thing he got wrong: gravity really is my enemy. 

[Michael]

You really need to get a puke emoticon Michael.

Just for you Jana:

 




 

[Daniel]

Hey, thats what a patient of mine did to me on New Years Eve!  Nice way to bring in the new year!

Dan

[Michael]

YUCK!!!  Damn.  We gotta get you a better gig Dan...

[Jana]

Gee thanks Michael you are a miracle worker.
Hopefully I won't have to use the little blue man much this year.
Afterall it shows a radical degree of unacceptance to have everything make you want to 

[Jana]

I consider it prudent to hide 2 tower conversations under an optimistic subject title, you never know who is watching.
The phenomena of rule by fear (or tyranny) is possible by keying into bonding patterns and the paranoia of the need to belong. Threaten the borders of a country or individual then they quickly circle the wagons and resort to aggressive defense or offense. The neocons where counting on this with their Twin Tower mission. Personally I think they must be incredibly stupid to think they could get away with it, it is the utter stupidity of blind power.

"Bonding patterns are often characterised by an incredibly high level of 'not seeing' or 'not noticing' on both sides, yet identifying  the underlying vulnerability is essential if you are to understand a bonding pattern."
http://www.growingaware.com.au/BONDING_PATTERNS_INTRO.htm

[Michael]

I consider it prudent to hide 2 tower conversations under an optimistic subject title, you never know who is watching.

The phenomena of rule by fear (or tyranny) is possible by keying into bonding patterns and the paranoia of the need to belong. Threaten the borders of a country or individual then they quickly circle the wagons and resort to aggressive defense or offense. The neocons where counting on this with their Twin Tower mission. Personally I think they must be incredibly stupid to think they could get away with it, it is the utter stupidity of blind power.

Well yeah, the topic of 911 is WAY divergent from the optimism of this subject title.  When I started a few years ago taking the idea of an inside job seriously, and did the 911Truth web-circuit, and bought Crossing the Rubicon - and actually read most of it, and discussed it with some respected friends, I was shaken like I've rarely been shaken in adult life.  But things have settled down a bit since then I guess, and the stories and explanations, while still all too compelling, no longer compell me quite as much.  I still wake up mornings with a pervasive dread, and have some rather grim ideas about our future, but then again, I don't really trust stories as such...no matter how persuasive or compelling.  I'll take it one day at a time, and be as prepared as is practical.  And I am preparing btw...

If you want a really big picture scenario, I recommend this book, but be warned...it is grim reading:

Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil

[Jana]

One really wonders how these people can still be in power at this point in the game. I mean what do they have to do, nuke LA or what? 

Isn't there a failsafe system that can actually get a rogue out of office, even if they do have the greatest military power at their backing...won't impeachment simply take too long, and then who runs the country while things are all tied up. You know those guys are not going to go quietly...we can expect another neo-con terrorist attack anyday now. What are they scheming...personally I think they should all be hanged by their thumbs naked at Ground Zero.

If you look at Silverman in the Martial Law 9/11 movie he practically is gloating on screen about how they had to "pull" building 7 despite casualties. Silverman should be hung naked also, along with all those CIA and FBI operatives that laid those explosives. Bohemian Grove should be bombed...Yale university should be shut down, and the entire conspirators sterilized so no further progeny of evil get produced.

I think that they were only able to carry off this hugely flawed plot, because of the enormous scale of it. But these badboys have the entire US resources at their disposal to play with. It is like a huge joke they played on the American people, they the fools in this comedy of errors make US citizens and the entire population of the globe look like Gomers. Dim wits...altho I knew immediately that Bush had done it when I heard he was down talking to some highschool girls, only Alex Jones has really made me see the condition America is in. What are we doing, what am I doing, what are we here for...the responsiblity is ours, can we rise to the challenge reality presents to us.
The US is going to need the help of the entire world on this one.

[Michael]

I thought you might like this Zaadz blog entry Jana: The Spiritual Psyche's Shadow: Gurus, Cults and Aliens

I'm optimistic because there haven't been any more terrorist incidents comparable or worse than the ones on 9/11 in the years since.  I really expected there would be, including nuclear and biological.  Things are better than I expected.

[jimtzu]

January 3, 2007

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. --In what has become an annual tradition of prognostications, religious broadcaster Pat Robertson said Tuesday God has told him that a terrorist attack on the United States would result in "mass killing" late in 2007.

"I'm not necessarily saying it's going to be nuclear," he said during his news-and-talk television show "The 700 Club" on the Christian Broadcasting Network. "The Lord didn't say nuclear. But I do believe it will be something like that."

Robertson said God told him during a recent prayer retreat that major cities and possibly millions of people will be affected by the attack, which should take place sometime after September.

Robertson said God also told him that the U.S. only feigns friendship with Israel and that U.S. policies are pushing Israel toward "national suicide."

Robertson suggested in January 2006 that God punished then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon with a stroke for ceding Israeli-controlled land to the Palestinians.

The broadcaster predicted in January 2004 that President Bush would easily win re-election. Bush won 51 percent of the vote that fall, beating Democratic Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.

In 2005, Robertson predicted that Bush would have victory after victory in his second term. He said Social Security reform proposals would be approved and Bush would nominate conservative judges to federal courts.

Lawmakers confirmed Bush's 2005 nominations of John Roberts and Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. But the president's Social Security initiative was stalled.

"I have a relatively good track record," he said. "Sometimes I miss."

In May, Robertson said God told him that storms and possibly a tsunami were to crash into America's coastline in 2006. Even though the U.S. was not hit with a tsunami, Robertson on Tuesday cited last spring's heavy rains and flooding in New England as partly fulfilling the prediction.

[Jana]

I am optimistic because some CIA agent hasn't bopped me off yet since I started to talk about the greatest political scandel of all time. It is not up to me to solve Americas problems, I am a kiwi afterall, but I find it an interesting intellectual exercise to work out the next chess move, and determine what I myself am going to do in future also.

The POO Master is both an idealist and a pragmatist...you both hold the vision of the ideal (absolute) and then you get down to dealing with the mess of the relative without being naive (accept both light and dark as reality). The reason why the neocons got out of hand is because people naively assume Goodwill from authoritarian figures because humanity is NOT individually sovereign yet...we are programmed from day one to be SHEEP.

I will read Crossing the Rubicon and also 9/11 and American Empire: Intellectuals Speak Out by David Ray Griffin (Editor), Peter Dale Scott (Editor)?but I don't want to waste my time figuring what happened, more rather the psychological aspects and figuring out a solution. I have the feeling that permaculture might have answers to political rot. You can use horticultural and metaphors of nature to explain and find solutions to any question in life.

Here is my permaculture, permanent cultural solution:

First immediately chop out the rot (impech Bush and arrest all conspirators), take it to the lab (supreme court) and classify its species-type...labeling corruption for what it is. Investigate why the rot become established in the first place. Change the growing conditions to reflect this new knowledge: change the soil (constitution), watering (federal financal legistlation), nutrition (structures and laws of Government) and surrounding plants (international relations).
Take the rot out of the garden so it doesn't continue to infest (Neocons sent to Siberia). Dump on a heap of compost and establish a green-cover crop...(invest in alternative energy and earth friendly industry). Have your garden be the pride of the neighborhood and win prizes for excellence at the local agricultural show (reestablish integrity and good will in the international family). Give away the surplus to others less fortunate to recover karmic standing and increase world mental-emotional health...(reparations for sins committed).

[maryw]

"I'm not necessarily saying it's going to be nuclear," [Robertson] said during his news-and-talk television show "The 700 Club" on the Christian Broadcasting Network. "The Lord didn't say nuclear. But I do believe it will be something like that."

I don't mean to be -- morbidly flippant -- but the sentence "the Lord didn't say nuclear" had me laughing. It sounds like someone doing a parody of Robertson . . .

[Jana]

Problem is we are psychic...some of us see this kind of thing coming.
I saw LA bombed by a Nuke in 1991 a few weeks before coming to the states, at the time tho, that very night the LA riots were occurring so it could have been that which I picked up on. It can be ordinary people that see things tho, not necessarily the certified psychics.

[maryw]

Hi Jana -- Every now and then I've wondered if I have psychic faculties -- if so, they're pretty limited. But I used to have recurring "storm" (particularly tornado) dreams as a child, and as I grew up I noticed these dreams seemed to occur a few days to a week before some disturbing event in my life or in a loved one's life. Closer, more threatening storms seemed to "predict" larger tragedies; more distant storms seemed to indicate smaller squabbles. I did have a very frightening storm dream a couple of days before 9/11 -- with a tornado basically right on top of me. Since then, though, I've had hardly any storm dreams. So maybe we're in the clear. At least for the next week or so ... 

[jimtzu]

"I'm not necessarily saying it's going to be nuclear," [Robertson] said during his news-and-talk television show "The 700 Club" on the Christian Broadcasting Network. "The Lord didn't say nuclear. But I do believe it will be something like that."

I don't mean to be -- morbidly flippant -- but the sentence "the Lord didn't say nuclear" had me laughing. It sounds like someone doing a parody of Robertson . . .

he doesn't need to have anyone parody him, he does a good job of himself     i've been watching tv preachers for years for the entertainment value  we used to keep a book of some of their wacky quotes that we called the "god log".  it's been a while, i'd like to check it out.  i remember seeing diagram heaven on the white board one time, a grid of cubicles hierachally arranged of course.