We each have a miniature John Bolton living rent-free inside our heads, ruining our peace and promoting world domination at every opportunity.
Hear me out.
The most common objection I hear when I advocate non-interventionist foreign policy can essentially be boiled down to something like, “But- but- but if we’re not controlling the world all the time, then the world will be out of our control!” The argument, as I understand it, is that if the US-centralized empire stopped waging endless wars, staging coups, inflicting siege warfare upon civilian populations, patrolling the skies with flying death robots, arming terrorist militias, and torturing journalists who expose US war crimes, the bad guys might win.
The thing I find funny about this argument, apart from the obvious, is that this is also the basic objection that the mind makes when the body is seated in meditation.
“This is all fine,” the mind interrupts constantly while the meditator struggles to find peace. “But there are tasks we must attend to, and there are wrong people on the internet who simply must be put in their place. Life is cold and hostile and we must protect and secure ourselves against it if we’re to be safe. You can keep sitting there doing that breathing nonsense if you must, but I’ve got plans, schemes and witty comebacks to formulate. The world simply cannot get by without my being there to control it.”
The best kind of meditation happens to be the same as best kind of foreign policy: you simply allow everything to be as it is. You sit without trying to manipulate or control any aspect of your experience. Since all mental suffering is ultimately born of the mind’s habit of trying to control life to protect and secure the interests of the illusory ego, the path to inner peace is therefore the same as the path to world peace: just allow things to be as they are.
In this form of meditation, you don’t try to force your mind to concentrate on anything in particular, or engage in any kind of manipulation at all. Thoughts come up about things that need to get done, and you just allow those thoughts to be as they are. Feelings come up about people who have wronged us in the past or stressful situations in the future, and you let them be, without getting involved. Everything which arises in your field of consciousness is given full permission to be as it is, without any mental interventionism.
When you sit in this way, the mind doesn’t really know what to do. It’s only ever existed in the context of conflict and control, so eventually it just lays down and relaxes, like a child throwing a tizzy who the mother just ignores.
It turns out that there is a deep and pervasive peace underlying everyone’s field of consciousness, and the only thing which keeps us from noticing it is our mental habit of continually fighting to control life in various ways. When we can relax and just allow our field of consciousness to be as it is, we notice ourselves beholding it with benevolent detachment, because the deep and pervasive peace underlying the appearance of all forms is in fact our true nature.
But it takes a leap of faith. It takes a decision to trust the world to handle its own affairs. It takes a conscious decision to honor the sovereignty of everyone and everything. Exactly as non-interventionist foreign policy would.
In exactly the same way that Trump’s National Security Advisor John Bolton argues that the “anarchic international environment” is so dangerous that any means necessary must be employed to bring it under control, we too have a shrill, mustachioed voice in our heads continually arguing that life must be brought to heel at any cost. But in both cases it is the agenda to control the world, and the inability to simply trust it, which is our real enemy. Our enemy is not a cold, hostile world which resists our attempts to control it, no: our enemy is the John Boltons, both within and without.
The natural, default position of both human consciousness and human civilization is peace. It is only by the most rigorous efforts to control and manipulate our world that we drag ourselves kicking and screaming out of that natural state. We will come to peace, both within and without, when we choose to trust the world and take that leap of faith into our true nature. The path to all peace necessarily follows this one unifying trajectory.
And until then of course the objections will continue. “What about the Russians?” “What about the Chinese?” “What about the wrong people on the internet?” But the thing about those objections is they’re quickly becoming irrelevant: humanity simply cannot keep doing things the way it is doing them. We are fast approaching a point where we will either sharply diverge from our current trajectory and make drastic, sweeping changes, or we will all perish due to nuclear war or ecological collapse.
One way or the other the sun will rise one day upon a world without any John Boltons, either in our heads or in Washington, DC. The only say we have in the matter is in whether this will happen because we chose to rid ourselves of the evil mutant death walruses who are driving us toward death and destruction, or because they succeeded in doing so.
_______________________
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56 responses to “Kill Your Inner John Bolton”
I agree that it is a bizarro-world we live in when the Powers That Be fool us into believing that if THEY don’t run the world, it will all break apart in chaos.
Let me make this darn clear: The Powers That Be do NOT have a monopoly on good ideas for how the world should work.
In fact, they have some of the worst ideas. And when their ideas all converge into the same plan, they endanger all of life on the planet.
They try to convince us that if they can’t control the leader of the United States, then the world will only see chaos. But believe me: I’d rather have Donald Trump as President than the oafish John Brennan. Trump’s main credit in this department is he showed the so-called “intelligence agencies” of the United States that they don’t have a monopoly on good ideas; instead; if there’s a bad idea for what to do, it would originate with them. And before anyone goes crazy, I’m not saying Trump is the best person on the planet to lead a national government; I’m just comparing him to one other, very stupid and mentally malignant individual.
My version of reality is that the world works best when there is equilibrium among all the people on the planet so that none has an unnatural leadership advantage over anyone else. This equilibrium would prevent stupidity and domination. But when one entity (a government) has a monopolistic right to use force upon anyone else within its borders, it makes it more dangerous for the “anyone else.” And it shows why those that gravitate toward government are the most sociopathic people on the planet.
“You Know Things’re Bad When John Bolton Gets Fired, and You Don’t Even Have Time to Celebrate” http://showercapblog.com/you-know-thingsre-bad-when-john-bolton-gets-fired-and-you-dont-even-have-time-to-celebrate/
Apparently President Trump reads Caitlin also because he just fired Mr. Bolton saying “His services will no longer be required”.
Of course you can trust us, we’re the Government !
https://youtu.be/eW-OMR-iWOE?list=PLrQu8dSg1bHbQ0fVv8CD8EFAk8hTInigg
Great insight on meditation. The noisy ego mind is like Br’er Rabbits tar-baby, punching it only mires you into paralysis. Don’t argue even with your own intrusive thoughts.
Bolton is a cartoon character…pitiable really. This article reminds me of Bugs Bunny, who always maintains his mischievous inner child, letting the incendiary raging, malicious villain, John “Yosemite Sam” Bolton destroy himself again and again.
Hello,
I would like to point out that John Bolton, the real one, has been muzzled ever since Donald Trump called him out as a war monger that would gladly see the entire planet at war.
A lot of people haven’t notice that the rabid dog suddenly stopped barking. Honestly, I think Bolton was neutered. When is the last time Bolton talked about intervention with Venezuela or Iran? Almost everybody has forgotten the two false flag incidents blamed on Iran – remember those limpet mines?
As much as people apparently love to hate on Trump, they don’t pay attention to results. By this time into the presidency of both Bush Jr, and Obama, we had started new wars. With Bush of course it was Iraq, with Obama, it was Libya.
I wish people would pay a lot less attention to what Trump says, or is reported to have said by our “media” and pay more attention to what he does, and in particular what he doesn’t do. So far, he appears to be a peace president, the genuine article. When has he made the case for war? He’s repeatedly made the case for peace in both Syria (when is the last time we bombed them) and Afghanistan (did you know the US is in the process of peace talks?)
I know that there are absolutely awful people in the Trump administration – haven’t you noticed they have no power, and they only occupy the positions to keep the Neocons and Israelis happy?
If Richard Wicks is right ( and very well could be) , then there may well also be some validity in the view that Mr Trump ‘plays’ a certain personality to deliberately stir up negative opinion on a scale designed to distract, but meanwhile the real Donald is working very intelligently and effectively behind the scenes. There ARE those who seem genuine and say that the public persona and the private persona are polar opposite.
All I can say is keep up hope and be suspicious. I’ve also heard that Trump has a public and private persona.
Whatever is going on with him in the oval office, it can’t be worse than having Bush Jr, John Kerry, Barak Obama, John McCain, Mitt Romney, or Hillary Clinton in that position. They’re all clones and all they did was take orders anyhow. They were meat puppets.
Something momentous is going on and good or bad, I don’t think it can be much worse than the course that despicable George W. Bush put us on. They’ve been turning us into the 4th Reich for 16 years.
Brilliant!
I hear the same thing from a good friend, “someone has to be in charge.” To which I say, “no, the world will get along fine if no one is “in charge.”” It is difficult to break through that thought, though.
I still refuse to do facebook and twitter; which causes me to miss some things like this:
https://therealnews.com/stories/calling-bs-on-the-bad-apples-theory-of-police-misconduct
Trump put Bolton in (again) precisely because he is a very scary guy. Heck, Trump himself is also a very scary guy. On the plus side, Trump did not bomb Iran in retaliation for their shooting down a drone. Neither did Trump deliver an airplane full of cash to the Mullahs as did our previous “leader”. Trump actually took a walk into North Korea to shake hands with Kim on his own turf. On the other hand Bill and Hillary sent Roger the musical bag man to play for Kim’s dad while their own administration enabled North Korean nuclear technology in the wake of releasing satellite (and ICBM) positioning technologies to the PRC, calling both “gifts” a good thing for America to do. Trump bad/Bill and Hill good?
John Bolton being sidelined by Trump allows the world to breathe easier — RT Op-ed
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/468020-trump-sidelined-bolton-war-washington/
…….. “But- but- but if we’re not controlling the world all the time, then the world will be out of our control!” The argument, as I understand it, is that if the US-centralized empire stopped waging endless wars, staging coups, inflicting siege warfare upon civilian populations, patrolling the skies with flying death robots, arming terrorist militias, and torturing journalists who expose US war crimes, the bad guys might win.”
..
Things are far worse than the above, Caitlin and Tim. The Americans of today are not nearly as ignorant as they used to be. Yes, “then the world will be out of our control”, but the reason that that is so alarming is that Americans FULLY REALIZE and, more importantly, FULLY SUPPORT that THEIR government has been “waging endless wars, staging coups, inflicting siege warfare upon civilian populations, patrolling the skies with flying death robots, arming terrorist militias, and torturing journalists who expose US war crimes”.
..
The bottom line is that justice-loving Americans DO NOT WANT TO SUFFER RIGHTEOUS RETRIBUTION FOR THEIR PAST CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR!
..
Therefore, The American People — American voters — will CONTINUE to support all of their government’s criminality IN PERPETUITY!
..
Put differently, they and their government are “all in” on the present arrangement, fully understand exactly why it has to continue — self preservation — and, therefore, it will.
..
Absolutely no meditation, medication or special food necessary for these tens of millions people. Nor for the, what, tens of people writing comments here who are ALREADY perfectly woke-folk.
..
Again, everybody’s already chosen their side and no argument, no matter how logical or moral, is going to change anyone’s voting behavior. In short, the Dark Side is winning, the Jedi are vastly outnumbered and Neo is pushing on a string that isn’t attached to anything.
It seems to be a personal matter and this is how probably we will be judge by God. Maybe we will not have change the world but we will not have endorsed in any way iniquity by, for example, voting continually for mainstream establishment political parties knowing it will perpetuate iniquity.
But we are in a time like no other before. We are in the return of the days of Noah just before the Second Coming of Jesus, which return could be any day now according to many prophecies.
We have to read this important article pointing to events in our near future:
http://frregisscanlon.com/index.php/2019/08/12/will-the-pope-and-bishops-save-us-from-a-chastisement/
I pray the Rosary to hasten the return of Jesus because I have really seen enough of all the bullshit.
The Evil Monster that is my government and employs Mr. Bolton and others to prey upon all of humanity!
https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/americas-lost-liberties-post-9-11/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNy8D_zqOmo
Ballad of the Dying Man – Father John Misty
Naturally the dying man wonders to himself
Has commentary been more lucid than anybody else?
And had he successively beaten back the rising tide
Of idiots, dilettantes, and fools
On his watch while he was alive
Lord, just a little more time
Oh, in no time at all
This’ll be the distant past
Ooh
So says the dying man once I’m in the box
Just think of all the overrated hacks running amok
And all of the pretentious, ignorant voices that will go unchecked
The homophobes, hipsters, and 1%
The false feminists he’d managed to detect
Oh, who will critique them once he’s left?
Oh, in no time at all
This’ll be the distant past
What he’d give for one more day to rate and analyze
The world made in his image as of yet
To realize what a mess to leave behind
Eventually the dying man takes his final breath
But first checks his news feed to see what he’s ’bout to miss
And it occurs to him a little late in the game
We leave as clueless as we came
For the rented heavens to the shadows in the cave
We’ll all be wrong someday
Oh
Father John Misty – When the God of Love Returns
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVLRBZ1k6ns
When the god of love returns
There’ll be hell to pay
Though the world may be out of excuses
I know just what I would say
Let the seven trumpets sound
As a locust sky grows dark
But first let’s take you on a quick tour of your creation’s handiwork
Barely got through the prisons and stores
And the pale horse looks a little sick
Says, “Jesus, you didn’t leave a whole lot for me
If this isn’t hell already then tell me what the hell is?”
And we say it’s just human, human nature
This is place is savage and unjust
We crawled out of the darkness
And endured your impatience
We’re more than willing to adjust
And now you’ve got the gall to judge us
The spider spins his web
The tiger stalks his prey
And we steal fire from the heavens to try to keep the night at bay
Every monster has a code
One that steadies the shaking hand
And he’s determined to accrue more capital by whatever means he can
Oh, it’s just human, human nature
We’ve got these appetites to serve
You must not know the first thing about human beings
We’re the earth’s most soulful predator
Try something less ambitious the next time you get bored
Oh, my Lord
We just want light in the dark
Some warmth in the cold
And to make something out of nothing sounds like someone else I know
Father John Misty – Pure Comedy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RzEvSxmkzU
The comedy of man starts like this
Our brains are way too big for our mother’s hips
And so Nature, she divines this alternative
We emerged half-formed and hope that whoever greets us on the other end
Is kind enough to fill us in
And, babies, that’s pretty much how it’s been ever since
Now the miracle of birth leaves a few issues to address
Like, say, that half of us are periodically iron deficient
So somebody’s got to go kill something while I look after the kids
I’d do it myself, but what, are you going to get this thing its milk?
He says as soon as he gets back from the hunt, we can switch
It’s hard not to fall in love with something so helpless
Ladies, I hope we don’t end up regretting this
Comedy, now that’s what I call pure comedy
Just waiting until the part where they start to believe
They’re at the center of everything
And some all-powerful being endowed this horror show with meaning
Oh, their religions are the best
They worship themselves yet they’re totally obsessed
With risen zombies, celestial virgins, magic tricks, these unbelievable outfits
And they get terribly upset
When you question their sacred texts
Written by woman-hating epileptics
Their languages just serve to confuse them
Their confusion somehow makes them more sure
They build fortunes poisoning their offspring
And hand out prizes when someone patents the cure
Where did they find these goons they elected to rule them?
What makes these clowns they idolize so remarkable?
These mammals are hell-bent on fashioning new gods
So they can go on being godless animals
Oh comedy, their illusions they have no choice but to believe
Their horizons that just forever recede
And how’s this for irony, their idea of being free is a prison of beliefs
That they never ever have to leave
Oh comedy
Oh it’s like something that a madman would conceive!
The only thing that seems to make them feel alive is the struggle to survive
But the only thing that they request is something to numb the pain with
Until there’s nothing human left
Just random matter suspended in the dark
I hate to say it, but each other’s all we got
The tiny little difference between ‘attending to tasks in the world’ and John Bolton’s murders is that one of those really needs to be done – you can’t sit gazing at your navel all the time, you do have to feed and protect yourself, too, at the very least – and the other one (Bolton’s murders) actually shouldn’t be done at all, and is, in fact, a monstrous crime. Comparing meditation and FP is comparing apples and oranges – FP is permanent, and meditation is an episodic practice. If your only kind of interaction with the world consists of meditation, you will die, and you will also be utterly useless to everybody else. This is not a good advertisement for anti-interventionism. The argument ‘intervention is bad because all action is bad and we should all spend our time doing nothing and leaving things as they are forever’ will not convince anyone to become an anti-imerialist, since the people who will consider the premise sensible are far fewer than those who would consider the conclusion sensible. Such an argument will, however, give hawks an excellent pretext to caricature anti-imperialists as extremely lazy, passive and utterly unreasonable people that no normal citizens with common sense should agree with or take seriously.
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Honouring others’ sovereignty is not the same as utter isolationism and ‘allowing things to be as they are’. John Bolton is one of those things that are as they are. You need to intervene, among other things, to prevent others’ sovereignty from being violated; this is what US imperialists lie that they are doing, but it is also the justification for your writing your articles. If you really want to ‘allow things to be as they are’, you should stop writing.
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‘Our enemy is not a cold, hostile world which resists our attempts to control it … It is only by the most rigorous efforts to control and manipulate our world that we drag ourselves kicking and screaming out of that natural state.’
.
If you don’t control and manipulate the world, you won’t get food, you won’t get water, you won’t get shelter, you will be bitten by poisonous snakes and you will die. If you just sit and wait for nature to feed you, you will starve. That’s just the most basic fact of life. Every single thing you do in order to live is a form of ‘controlling and manipulating the world’. Even other living beings survive only inasmuch as they, in their own way, control and manipulate their environment. There is nothing unnatural about that, and there is nothing natural about constant navel-gazing or general ‘trust in the world’.
What’s FP?
Saw this meme somewhere.
“I am in a really good place spiritually right now, so please fu@% off.
Namaste. ”
Absolutely brilliant.
Greed kills. It’s a mental disease and it’s contagious.
amen.
Agree with most of this, but:
“The natural, default position of… human civilization is peace.”
Please name a single civilization which wasn’t ecocidal and genocidal.
Please name a single civilization which didn’t seek total control of all people within its reach, especially seeking the total destruction of all “primitive”, “uncivilized”, “savage”, natural ways of living, like the First Nations or the Aborigines.
And after you fail at that, please name a single civilization which didn’t do all it could to destroy the entire natural ecology and replace it with a desert. Why is what used to be called the Fertile Crescent now an arid waste instead of the forest it used to be? Why is Arabia endless sand instead of the oak savannah it used to be? Of course the global desert being generated by modern civilization needs no further comment here.
It’s civilization itself which is the great catastrophe, the great destroyer.
You answered your own question. So-called “primitive” cultures had a better handle on living in harmony with their environment and often, with each other. If we fail to learn from them, we will wipe out whose left of that world and ourselves as well.
The Arawaks.
“As muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone, it could be argued that those who sit quietly and do nothing are making one of the best possible contributions to a world in turmoil.” – Alan Watts
Thank you so very much for crystallizing my thoughts and feelings on this subject with such wonderful clarity and succinctness.
Koo-koo-kachoo!
https://youtu.be/UKIs1J_nB4A
What do you wanna bet Bolton and others like him share at least one grave reality: they cannot burst into spontaneous, joyful pure laughter.
Again I will quote Sir Thomas More in his book “Utopia”:
“Therefore I must say that, as I hope for mercy, I can have no other notion of all the other governments that I see or know, than that they are a conspiracy of the rich, who, on pretence of managing the public, only pursue their private ends, and devise all the ways and arts they can find out; first, that they may, without danger, preserve all that they have so ill-acquired, and then, that they may engage the poor to toil and labour for them at as low rates as possible, and oppress them as much as they please; and if they can but prevail to get these contrivances established by the show of public authority, which is considered as the representative of the whole people, then they are accounted laws; yet these wicked men, after they have, by a most insatiable covetousness, divided that among themselves with which all the rest might have been well supplied…”
This is the way the elites “manage” and “control” the world.
9/11, that sad event that we will commemorate next week, was a very good example of all the ways and arts the elites can find out, reminiscent of a protection racket.
I have really really seen enough.
Fortunately, many prophecies are pointing to the very near Second Coming of Jesus and I pray the Rosary to hasten His Glorious return because I am fed up of all the bullshit.
Thanks for the More quote. Right on!
All so very true, Caitlin. But my composure slipped – I could NOT stop smiling at the walrus reference. Poor Bolton – not to be able to see himself as others see him – or is that a blessing – for him.
I think Ol’ John kinda gets his nuts off lookin’ in the mirror.
Yeah, I kinda do myself, I s’pose.
the default position is, everyone playing a role in harmony with others and getting equal respect and reward for the role.
but NO, the arrogant (and dumb by definition) ones can’t have that!
anyone who believes s/he or her/his tribe is fundamentally superior to others is the enemy of humanity. let’s extinguish the enemy, within and without!
it’s always a lot of fun to see how we come from seemingly different directions but reach the same conclusion!
The best times of my life were spent in the close company of tens of thousands of other individuals, and I had absolutely zero control over any of them. And the one thing that almost all of the people in those crowds would have agreed about was that nobody controlled them. Ah, now those were the days! 🙂
What most who criticize meditation do not understand is that meditation and the calm detachment it develops is the ideal basis for effective action in the world. Those whose action comes out of a disturbed and identified state often make a mess out of their shallow and hasty efforts to “fix everything”. Wise decisions and actions come from a quiet mind and heart. When U Thant was Secretary General of the UN, he meditated for an hour every day before beginning his work. As work piled up over time, he quit this practice. His decisions and efforts became much more erratic and unproductive after dropping morning meditations. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi said “do less, and accomplish more”. Many found this a very paradoxical statement. However, it is actually a way of saying you will be much more efficient if your mind is not disturbed by a host of feelings and scattered ideas.
Mike,
Your post has highlighted the call to action Caitlin’s essay espouses. “Wise decisions and actions come from a quiet mind and ( kind?) heart.” Wow. Inspirational. The ego and its Machiavellian agendas to control one’s environment for comfort to me causes so much pain and suffering. Thanks again.
Well written Caitlin and well said Mike.
My suspicion is that the aim to avert fascism in the world cannot be acheived by this transcendental conscness alone which Caitlin speaks so eloquently about. I believe in the eternal truth of SOME ideas, one of which is the COMMUNIST HYPOTHESIS, the eternal truth of which opposes itself in the face of the perennial field of human bondage and exploitation that we see in the capitalist world. Non-dual consciousness which if one remains committed to changing the world, is only the first element of a process which must engage in the real world using such eternal ideas such as communism
My suspicion is that the aim to avert fascism in the world cannot be acheived by this transcendental conscness alone which Caitlin speaks so eloquently about. I believe in the eternal truth of SOME ideas, one of which is the FREEDOM HYPOTHESIS, the eternal truth of which opposes itself in the face of the perennial field of human bondage and exploitation that we see in the communist world.
There is an inconsistency between “a decision to trust the world to handle its own affairs” and “because we chose to rid ourselves of the evil mutant death walruses who are driving us toward death and destruction”. The first is a passive choice that means our probable extinction. The second is an active choice that means our survival and liberation from slavery. I believe the second choice is the correct one. Identify sociopaths (like Bolton, Biden, Obama, Bush, Cheney, Clinton, etc.), and disqualify them from leadership positions.
The old saying is that the list of people who want to hold leadership positions is actually the list of people who should never be allowed to hold a leadership position.
I love your work Caitlin, and this article proves to me that you’re not just hacking at the branches of evil like most, you’re really digging down to its roots. I was going to suggest this type of approach in response to your earlier call for help, but I see that you’re already onto it. Huge kudos!
Unfortunately, you’ve also described an adult that was severely abused or neglected as a child. And, until we take responsibility as individuals to either get them the help they need, or if untreatable, to put them where they can do little harm, they will continue to rape, murder, and pillage our homes and those of others.
Everyone with a heart thinks that evil comes from terrible abuse and neglect. There is another scenario, and it’s called ENTITLEMENT. I’m certainly not saying that an evil mutant death walrus had an enviable childhood, but plenty of people have not had enviable childhoods and do not turn into John Boltons. The entitlement of (in particular) white males needs to be seriously questioned and understood as a huge factor in creating sociopathy.
We really don’t know that much about Bolton’s childhood. You can’t judge someone by the size of his Daddy’s bank account. Most abuse is psychological, and well hidden. I think what needs to end is the delusion that we can raise responsible compassionate adults if we just punish our children hard enough.
the international walrus ‘keep our water safe’ consortium objects to your associating us with the likes of John Bolton or other wanna be/look like a walrus people.
Sincerely
Keep It Simple Sam
(not to be confused with my uncle!)
ps–we’ve been here a long time and seen a lot–like to keep that way
Of course, what you’ve described is also the description of adults who have experienced severe childhood neglect and abuse; they will always exist, but if we don’t fulfill our personal responsibility to put these things out of their misery, then these things will continue to claim its victims, letting them live amongst us as the deadly vipers that they are is insane.
“Kill the inner John Bolton”. Ha ha ha ha ! Brilliant. But as you know Caitlin, and you allude to this, the inner version is best dealt with by ignoring it, by withdrawing the support of consciousness. It/he then withers away. Is there an equivalent treatment for that outer, worldly individual?
We the public can ignore the nonsense he talks, but it would take a decisive action from the President to remove him. This will happen only if there’s a major political miscalculation by JB. Mind you, megalomaniacs invariably miscalculate at some point.
My mother told me that if I can’t say something nice about someone, say nothing at all. So I’ll say nothing about the low life yellow bellied draft dodging war mongering evangelical Christian chicken hawk who hid in the National Guard during the Vietnam war.
And I did go to Vietnam and I have come to believe that as the Confederate soldiers said about their war, “It was a rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight.” That is true of any war that i know of; we have plenty to do with our lives and money than attack other countries for the benefit of the country that shall not be mentioned lest I be called anti-Semitic.
Keep up the good work Caitlin.
Thank you Caitlin Johnstone, that was deeply useful (and funny!)
I’m meditating on peace and wisdom for Mr Bolton. Inner peace and deep wisdom…
🙂
http://www.johndayblog.com/2019/09/political-changes.html
I am re-posting a couple of Bernie Sanders stories that I sent out February 2016, when he was becoming a major threat to President Hillary.
He’s still the Democratic candidate with the best chance of beating Trump. Everybody knows that, even the billionaires.
I’m including more on the proposed political framework of Murray Bookchin , “Libertarian Municipalism”.
How to look geeky when getting arrested in Chicago in 1963, for protesting segregation. Yeah, Bernard Sanders demonstrates. (Hey, is that Bill Buckley with the cigarette and detached look of superiority?)
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-bernie-sanders-1963-chicago-arrest-20160219-story.html
Murray Bookchin was an Eco-Anarchist, really the prototypical Eco-anarchist, by the time he moved to Burlington, Vermont in 1971 to work with his commune on the nuts and bolts of how humans can live and work and eat together with responsibility to nature, so as to live sustainably and in harmony, without dominating each other or nature.1971 was probably the peak of that sort of post-scarcity (also his term) type of adaptation. You know how things were by Reagan’s second term, a lot damned different.
Murray Bookchin (65 y/o @ the time) wrote this critique of a younger Mayor Bernard Sanders of Burlington in 1986, recalling the 1981 Sanders campaign which got him elected, and contrasting it with performance in office, which involved a lot of caving to wealthy people and their interests, and being accessible, still autocratic, though also fairly kind.
He was not a Socialist. He had run on “Burlington Is Not For Sale”, and was mainly reduced to getting a better price for it.
Sanders is older now, and Bookchin died 10 years ago at 85. We are all at a different phase of our lives than ever before. We’re moving into a world which is at least partly of our own making, and we have learned from experience.
http://mosquitocloud.net/murray-bookchin-the-bernie-sanders-paradox-when-socialism-grows-old
Here is Murray Bookchin’s Libertarian Municipalism in a nutshell, from Murray.
Perhaps the greatest single failing of movements for social reconstruction — I refer particularly to the Left, to radical ecology groups, and to organizations that profess to speak for the oppressed — is their lack of a politics that will carry people beyond the limits established by the status quo.
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/murray-bookchin-libertarian-municipalism-an-overview