Reactions

Searching for meaning
Searching for reason
Searching for something, anything
To believe in.

It sat in the corner of the tiny cage. Apparently the other mice had gotten hungry while we were out getting them food. There was a gaping hole in the stomach of a mouse. Exposed organs bubbling out of the body, fragments of white-tan bone broken and sharpened with the marks of starving teeth, and puddles of drying, rotting blood were all that was now left of this mangled creature. His once perfect white fur was now stained with reddish brown blotches of crusted over blood. The edges of his skin – just where his white fur came in contact with the crusty redness – took on the form of a black shell that was being cracked open while the chick is still alive, and nothing but red poured out. His body, ravaged and draping pieces of red and white cloth in the form of severed slivers of skin, no longer felt the pain of life. His body, with eyes staring into the void of the mysterious unknown realms of mortality, lied silent and perfectly peaceful, free from all the other mice. His eyes were still; an eerie stillness that gazed into nothingness.

The entire room filled with a choking stench of rotting flesh. There was a sour, moldy, peppery odor that clouded the air. I can still remember how it stabbed the back of my throat like tiny nails of nausea driving into my adams apple. I could hardly swallow which made breathing even harder. My eyes began to water as I gagged on the foul, despicable smell of decaying life. But the mouse lying there cannot smell the suffocating stench of his own squalor. No, he is not scampering around helplessly, aimlessly. He is just peaceful. Perfectly peaceful.

The other mice ran around, climbed on top of each other, picked at pieces of cardboard, and kept jumping to the top of the cage where they would hang on to the iron gate only momentarily before falling back down and trying again. Three mice in particular caught my eye. The first one was one of the mice that repeatedly jumped to the top of the cage, where he would wrap his tiny claws around the metal gating for a minute before falling back down to the bottom. The cage was about one foot tall, one foot wide, and two feet long. It was plastic and covered by a thin iron fencing at the top. It seemed that this mouse believed he could somehow defy gravity and push the iron gate upwards as he was falling down. Poor stupid mouse; he couldn’t even recognize his own imprisonment. He just kept jumping and falling, jumping and falling. What was the point of it all, I wondered. Maybe this somehow gives meaning to the mouse. Maybe, by relentlessly striving for something so far beyond his reach, he has something to hope for, and his mere hope is enough to make him want to continue his life.

The second mouse that caught my eye was one that had blotches of blood streaking down both sides of his face. It looked as if he smeared war paint on his face before jumping in with the rest of the violent mob to feed on our victim. He moved in unison with all the other mice in one great amoeba of mindlessness. The formation, consisting of all of them save the dead one, Sisyphus, and the third one which I have not yet explained, rubbed up alongside each other and huddled in with each other desperately. Every now and again as the mob passed by the silent carcass, the war-painted mouse would jam his nose inside the red pudding and satisfy his temporary desire. After having his quick treat of raspberry tapioca, he would quickly rejoin his friends and return to the herd and its circles of absurdity.

The final mouse that caught my eye seemed to find dissatisfaction with the restlessness of the other mice. He sat in one corner of the cage nibbling on tiny pieces of cardboard. He would take the paper towel roll and grab it with his little bird-like hands and drive into the cardboard incessantly like a squirrel spasmodically nibbling nuts. He just sat there. He was adorable. So seemingly content with what was given to him; if not content, somehow resolved to live contently in a cage. He was just chewing on tiny pieces of cardboard, using what was given to him and making the best out of it. As the other mice ran near him, bumping into him and crawling on top of him he just sat there and accepted the arrogance of the amoeba.

The room was silent save the clicking and tapping of the little bird-like mice claws scampering around the plastic box. I stood in complete awe as I watched scenes of human society be played out in front of me. My roommate then opened the top of the cage and grabbed the dead mouse. As he picked him up, the mouse’s body dangled flaccidly while still pushing out random bubbles of blood like a passed volcano still erupting tiny pools of lava on the scorched mountainside. He wrapped him in a blue recycling bag, tied it up, and took it outside to the dumpster. Poor mouse didn’t even get a proper burial. But then again, what’s the point? None really.

After he removed the dead mouse, I re-opened the cage to give them some food. We had fruits, vegetables, bread, and uncooked pasta. As I crumbled it into their cage, they flocked to it like a stampede, driving claws and teeth into each other in a scurry to fulfill themselves. After feeding the herd, I placed a piece of bread in front of my little buddha, which he greatly appreciated. But the others never seemed to be satisfied. They attacked each other and viciously tore into the food, eating and storing as much for themselves as they could. I thought it was ironic that my offering of food led them to violence. I came to diminish the need for violence by giving them what they initially killed for, and now they seemed as if they wanted to kill each other even more. I couldn’t tell if it was the greediness of the mice or if it was truly a need that they were seeking to fulfill.

But then I looked again at the mouse in the corner. He still just focused on what was in front of him, neglecting to pay any attention to the violently vicious voraciousness of the others. He took his bread and ate it, all alone.

I reached into the cage and grabbed the adorable little mouse and as I grabbed him he curled into a tiny ball in the palm of my hands. Maybe my body gave him a warmth he could not find inside the cage. Maybe he was just scared. Whatever the case, I took him downstairs and went outside. I walked across a field of tall grass towards an abandoned house. The house was burnt long ago and now sat there purposeless as some piece of historical landmark. I sought to make a purpose out of it. I cracked open the door and released my friend just inside the door. As I opened my hand, he darted off my palm into the darkness ahead of him, thinking he had finally attained freedom – if he only knew. My friend, we are never free. Freedom from the herd is all we can achieve while we are here, and that is all I could give him. After doing this I headed back up to the room that still reeked of death, took my little Sisyphus out of the cage, and brought him across the street to the empty house. Maybe now that rock won’t feel so heavy.

Karl Marx: The Economic Nostradamas

"How long, not long. 'Cause what you reap is what you sow"

"Sell a man a fish, he eats for a day; teach a man to fish, and you ruin a wonderful business opportunity" (Marx).

The economic system of the United States of America was established according to Adam Smith’s conception of capitalism, which he set forth in his book, The Wealth of Nations. In The Wealth of Nations, Smith explains how the national economy benefits from each individual pursuing his own ends. As individuals work to store up wealth for themselves, and then, subsequently, redistribute that money into the economy, they help the economic prosperity of the nation while also enjoying their own individual prosperity. But because a laissez-faire market could always possibly lead to monopolies of business and disparities in social status’, Adam Smith assures his reader that the wealthy class will indirectly balance out class disparities by redistributing his wealth in the economy through consumption. He calls this indirect redistribution of wealth the invisible hand. In his book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Smith writes, “the rich … divide with the poor the produce of all their improvements. They are led by an invisible hand to make nearly the same distribution of the necessaries of life which would have been made, had the earth been divided into equal proportions among all its inhabitants” (Smith).

However, while the United States were beginning to espouse Adam Smith’s economic philosophy, Orestes Brownson, a New England Transcendental philosopher, foresaw grave problems with capitalism. He claimed that because capitalism transfers all work labor into commodities, such as material objects or money, the owning, or corporate class of society actually benefits more so than they would in a slave-trading society. He believes this is the case because while in a slave-trading society the owning class were obligated to pay the entire living expenses for all their slaves, in a capitalist society, where labor is returned to the laborer in the form of money, the owning class is obligated to simply pay the laborer a minimum wage, which many times is not enough for one person to live off of, let alone support a family. Orestes Brownson writes, “wages is a cunning device of the devil, for the benefits of tender consciences who would retain all the advantages of the slave system without the expense, trouble, and odium of being slaveholders” (Brownson).

Orestes Brownson could not have been more accurate. In the United States, as of 2005, the top ten percent of the nation’s wealthiest people retained roughly fifty percent of the nation’s wealth (USCCB). The working class, who produces the products that the owning class prospers from, works as much as a slave would, but they are only given a wage in return for their work, while the slave was given living quarters as well as food. As made clearly evident in the United States, the minimum wage does not provide the laborer with enough capital to afford living quarters and food – possibly one or the other, but not both, especially if one has a family to support (USSCB). Moreover, not only has United States capitalism created extremely wide gaps between the working and corporate class within America, but United States capitalism has also birthed extreme disparities of wealth between the United States government and the majority of all other nations in the world. Because modern capitalism works on a global scale, the working class within the United States is not the only group being exploited; the majority of third world nations also experience great poverty as a result of capitalist exploitation.

Similar to Orestes Brownson’s warnings of capitalism, Karl Marx also recognized these problems inherent in capitalism. However, Marx diverges from Brownson by claiming that the conflicts produced by a capitalist economy are necessary conflicts that must be endured for the development of a truly free society. To understand this, one must understand Karl Marx’s conception of history. Marx stated, “the history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggles” (Marx). He believed that the movement of societies through time is built upon certain conflicts that lead to a progression of a new social order – one whereby more people are free (by freedom I mean the capacity to live a self-sufficient, fulfilling life), and there is less reason for conflict to be birthed. As developments towards universal freedom progress, the cause for conflicts are slowly dissolved until society reaches the culmination of universal freedom – a freedom that can only be achieved through the implementation of socialism. Marx writes, “revolutions are the locomotives of history,” because he understands that until an economical system is established that provides for all people the expenses necessary to live a complete, healthy life, revolutions will continue to occur (Marx). And it is rightly so that these revolutions do continue; for, every human has the right to a living wage – no one person has more dignity than another, and therefore no one person, by storing up excess wealth, should be permitted, however indirectly, to prevent another from living a healthy life. This is why conflicts start, and this is why revolutions occur. It is a constant striving towards universal freedom.

Yet, I have heard countless times before how ‘America is the land of the free;’ we are referred to by many as the ‘pinnacle of democracy and freedom.’ This issue must be addressed before proceeding because only by understanding the contrasting conceptions of liberty can one understand what Marx means by universal freedom in a socialist society. Here in the United States many people believe that liberty is unbridled economic opportunity; the ‘America Dream’ is built upon this notion, which suggests that anyone can climb the social ladder and become wealthy overnight. However, Marx’s conception of freedom is drastically different. Marx claims that freedom is the ability for all people to live decent, self-sufficient lives. Freedom is the end of inequality. Freedom is the ushering in of an economic order that provides for the whole population and not just for those blessed with the opportunities to succeed. Freedom can only be arrived at universally; while one nation may have freedom in a capitalist society, it comes at the expense of other, third-world nations. In the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America, it states that America is the land of “liberty and equality” (Declaration of Indepencdence). However, economic liberty and universal freedom are wholly incompatible. If there are x amount of dollars in an economy and ten percent of the population have the liberty to control fifty percent of the wealth, there is an inevitable and unavoidable disparity and inequality. Thus, capitalism can never usher in total freedom in the Marxist sense.

Because there is the unavoidable inequality inherent in capitalism conflicts begin to arise in response to the inhibited freedom and opportunity of the working class. Marx refers to the initial stages of conflict as the alienation of the worker. Marx writes, “the alienation of the worker in his product means not only that his labor becomes an object, an external existence, but that it exists outside of him, independently, as something alien to him” (Marx). This alienation of the worker in the Marxist sense is very similar to Orestes Brownson’s criticisms of capitalism insofar as the laborer is detached from the products that he produces. Marx writes:

In the social production of their life, men enter into definite relations that are indispensable and independent of their will, relations of production which correspond to a definite stage of development of their material productive forces … [and] at a certain stage of development, the material productive forces of society come in conflict with the existing relations of production. (Marx).

Because the laborer works to produce something that another, wealthier person benefits from, the worker becomes alienated from his work; this detachment of the worker from his work is the seed of conflict.

Applying this notion of progress through conflict to capitalism, it becomes evident to see how the laborer can become detached from his work. Marx states, “the development of Modern Industry, therefore, cuts from under its feet the very foundation on which the bourgeoisie produces and appropriates products. What the bourgeoisie therefore produces, above all, are its own grave-diggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable” (Marx). Marx states this because the worker in capitalism is given only a meager wage in return for what is, essentially, slave labor. For example, according to several human rights organizations as well as the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the minimum wage is far from a living wage. The minimum wage is $5.15 per hour as of May 2, 2007, and this is less than five hundred dollars above the poverty line. In no way does this provide the contemporary worker with a living wage. Because the minimum wage does not offer enough money to the worker to ‘save’ money, their family becomes victim to an endless cycle of poverty. He also writes, “in bourgeois society capital is independent and has individuality, while the living person is dependent and has no individuality” (Marx). In a capitalist economy, the corporate class reaps profits through the exploitation of the laborer, and this is the beginning of conflict, which is, subsequently, the beginning of revolutions.

But what is both most significant and most commonly overlooked is that fact that the revolutions arising out of conflicts must be natural processes. They cannot be forceful implementations of socialism, because doing so would be no more than authoritarian dictatorship. Although capitalism has inherent, inevitable problems, it cannot simply be passed over. What capitalism does is produce the necessary federal capital needed to implement and sustain a socialist economy. Thus, the problems with Russian Communism were the result of the misapplication of Marx’s theories. Rather than moving through democratic capitalism and the conflicts it produces, the Russians simply moved from a feudal economy to one of socialism.

Marx was an extremely insightful, intelligent man who understood the movements of history. Over one hundred years ago, he foresaw the problems that capitalism would cause. Furthermore, he understood what reactions it would cause and what governmental institutions it would lead to – socialism. When we examine the politics of the world today, Marx’s ideas resonate with fervor. For example, in Latin America, Socialist presidents have been elected in Chile, Bolivia, Brazil, and Venezuela, while Argentina, Ecuador, Peru, and Uruguay have radical leftist presidents with socialist agendas. What is going on here is a fundamental phenomenon of Marxist theory: in our global economy, the United States is now becoming the bourgeois while third world countries is the proletariat. As United States capitalism built capital through the exploitation of Latin America (through imbalanced programs such as the IMF and the World Bank, as well as through sweatshop factories), the workers of Latin America became increasingly detached from the products of their labor. As a result, a conflict between Latin America and the United States has been birthed; citizens of Latin America are now responding to that conflict by democratically electing socialist presidents who establish programs that return wealth to the laboerers. Marx once said, “democracy is the road to socialism,” and as these countries elect socialist presidents they are working towards the universal freedom Marx proclaimed. Even within the cities of the United States reactions to capitalism are beginning to gain speed, as the Green Party, which holds a close relation to socialism, and the radical leftists, which have socialist programs, are gaining more and more popularity. It will not be long before United States capitalism falls as a result of breaking the own legs that which it stands tall upon.

Marx’s socialism is not an idea that seeks to help people out from within capitalism. No, it is a response to the injustices that capitalism births. It is the transformation of an unjust system. It is a movement towards universal freedom. As the workers of South America elect Socialist leaders, they are working towards a more universal freedom – one that values not only the dignity of the corporate class who redistributes wealth in capitalism, but also the dignity of the worker who produces this wealth. Thus, what we see in our political world today is the new revolution; the revolt against what is unjust and exploitative. What we are seeing is the movement Marx foresaw – the movement towards universal human rights and freedom, which can only be achieved by a rebellion against capitalism.

Milita

"The strangest thing to me ... so far away,
yet you feel so close, I'm not going to question it any way."
- Pearl Jam "Come Back"


Something somewhere deep inside
Resuscitates a suffering mind
- As incarnate dreams of pure design
Take me beyond the realm of time.

A strange and silent touching release
Flowing out from Beauty's eyes
- As an energy deliv'ring peace
Embracing me and stopping time.

And into the mystery I fell and fell -
Like a touch of something pure divine
Unto me had cast a spell,
She built a memory where I can hide,
where we're together, in frozen time.

Time For a Celebration!! We've Got Exploration and EXPLOITATION!!!

(A paper I typed for Caribbean Lit...Just something to think about)

Exploration and Exploitation:
The Other Legacy of Columbus

As the desire to discover new maritime trade routes became an increasingly significant priority for thirteenth century Europeans, countless explorers sought to capitalize on the possibility of wealth and prominence promised by their respective kings. It was during this period of economic expansionism in which the Europeans, by chance, stumbled upon the “New World” – what is now referred to as the Americas and the Caribbean. On many voyages to the “New World,” Christopher Columbus traveled up and down the coastline, naming the places he saw and settling where he believed could be opportunistic for the Europeans. Because of Columbus’ extensive exploration, he is now revered as a prolific icon of Western ingenuity, romanticized from every angle. But what is often consciously ignored in the history books we educate our children with are the long-lasting detrimental effects of colonization that which the indigenous people of both the Americas and the Caribbean were violently forced to suffer.
To understand the magnitude of devastation caused by colonialism it is essential to consult the primary texts written during this period that recount both the questionable motives of Columbus and the specific impacts of his colonization. In Columbus’ journal, which describe his various encounters with different places and persons, the superficial motives are made very apparent: his obsessive quest for gold, his perception of the natives as nothing more than possible labor workers, his hope to “save” the natives through Christianity, and, finally, his love of the “fertile” geography that could potentially be extremely helpful to the European economy. But Columbus obviously doesn’t recognize his motives as selfish or oppressive to the natives; rather, he believes them to be divinely justified – that the ultimate purpose in life is the spread of Christianity. He also believes them to be politically justified in the sense that it is right and just to spread the seeds of civilization. But a Dominican monk, Bartoleme de Las Casas, illustrates how this “justified” invasion of the “new world” ultimately caused irrevocable damage to the natives – their culture, their land, their dignity.
Each time Christopher Columbus arrived in on a new island he first took notice of the geography of the land and possible benefits with which it could serve Europe. He notes, “they are all extremely verdant and fertile,” and, moreover, he claims that “[his] eyes are never tired with viewing such delightful verdure, and of a species so new and dissimilar to that of our country, and I have no doubt there are trees and herbs which would be of great value in Spain” (Columbus 11). In each of his descriptions of a new island Columbus encounters, he continually takes note of the “verdant,” “fertile” land. But Columbus is not making these observations simply because he has powerful affections of beauty that he can not suppress; Columbus takes note of the landscape with the hope of “selling” it to the king of Spain, who will make Columbus a governor of a province if he believes it to be worth his while. This is precisely why Columbus makes a remark about a particular aspect of the land’s potential use for the Europeans; for example, when he discovers an aloe tree he states, “I discovered also the aloe tree, and am determined to take on board the ship tomorrow, ten quintals of it, as I am told it is valuable” (12). As Columbus explored new regions of land, he shed away his innocent observations and gilded everything he saw in terms of how beneficial it could be for Europe.
But beyond evaluating the landscapes in measures of potential benefit for Europeans, Columbus also evaluated the native people in the same light. He did not attempt to understand their culture before he arrived at the conclusion that the natives were a primitive people in need of Christianity and civilization. For example, when he arrives on his first island he states, “they could be much more easily converted to our holy faith by gentle means than by force” (6). He later states, “the people are ingenious, and would be good servants and I am of the opinion that they would very readily become Christians” (7). Not only does he make observations about the natives as being potentially good servants and easy converts, but he then explicitly states how he will take action on these thoughts: “I intend at my return to carry home six of them” (7). Columbus also notes to the king that he “could conquer the whole of them with fifty men, and govern them as [he] pleased” (8). These inhumane words and actions are justified to Columbus because the indigenous people are “uncivilized” – they are naked, they have no noticeable religion, and their weapons have not advanced beyond simple javelins and spears – which is why Columbus believes that the natives “seemed to take great pleasure in serving us” (9). For Columbus, it is natural to think that an uncivilized person would find great joy in serving a member of civilized society, because regardless of the toil, labor, and suffering they would undergo they would nevertheless be a part of the “advanced” society. Columbus arrives at the various islands and perceives the people as either potential servants or converts, and this mentality foreshadows the next several hundred years in both the Caribbean and throughout the Americas.
But beyond all other preoccupations Columbus had during his voyages throughout the Caribbean, his main obsession was his quest for gold. But because the native cultures did not view gold as highly as the Europeans, Columbus had many troubles finding it. One cannot help but laugh when reading the descriptions of Columbus’ arrival and departure to and from every island, because they illustrate his undying determination to find gold, despite the fact that he perceives gold in a much more advantageous light than the natives do. He arrives at the islands, confronts the natives, “and strove to learn if they had any gold” (7). Likewise, as he leaves the islands, he repeatedly states, we “proceeded on [to the next island] in search of gold and precious stones” (7). But although Columbus’ dreams of finding gold are left unfulfilled, he still manages to get permission and funding from the King of Spain to continue exploring and settling in the region; this is because Columbus successfully persuaded the King that the land was fertile and that the natives could be easily conquered, converted, and put to work, which would be very helpful to their kingdom’s wealth.
So what were the results of Columbus’ sales-pitch of the Caribbean? The King bought the idea and immediately began colonizing the various islands, using force when both necessary and unnecessary. The effects of this colonization are recounted in Bartoleme de Las Casas’, Brief Account of the Devastation of the Indies. In this essay, Las Casas vividly describes the inhumanity that the natives were forced to suffer simply because they were different, and therefore perceived to be inferior. Though Las Casas was also a Christian hoping to spread his faith, his message was not tainted by the material desires for gold, land, and free labor – these are the things he spoke out against. He describes how the Spanish settlers “immediately behaved like ravening wild beasts, wolves, tigers, or lions that had been starved for many days” (Las Casas 2). Las Casas claims this violence has been a continuous trend: “the past forty years, down to the present time … they are still killing, terrorizing, afflicting, torturing, and destroying the native peoples, doing all this with the strangest and most varied new methods of cruelty, never seen or heard of before” (2). This inhumanity wrought upon the natives by the European settlers was a relentless force of devastation and oppression. Las Casas states, “with the infernal actions of the Christians, there have been unjustly slain more than twelve million men, women, and children” (3). Later in his essay Las Casas explicitly confronts Columbus and his men’s materialistic greed that is robbing the indigenous people of a culture once rich (no pun intended) and thriving: “their reason for killing and destroying such an infinite number of souls is that the Christians have an ultimate aim, which is to acquire gold, and to swell themselves with riches in a very brief time and thus rise to a high estate disproportionate to their merits” (3).
After describing in vivid detail many of the specific types of torture, Las Casas concludes by describing the sadistic, genocidal “final solution” done to the natives: they sent the “men to the mines to dig for gold, which is intolerable labor … [they sent] the women into the fields of the big ranches to hoe and till the land, work suitable for strong men. Nor to either of the men or the women did they give any food … [and eventually] the milk in the breasts of the women dried up and thus in a short while the infants perished” (5). And furthermore, “since the men and the women were separated, there could be no marital relations” (5). Las Casas describes for us how brutal the European invasion to the Caribbean actually was; it transformed itself into a mass genocide for all who were unlike the Europeans, and because of this, the indigenous cultures have very little to hold on to. It is important for people living in the present to never forget the detrimental effects of Christopher Columbus’ seemingly justified and innocent excursions to the new world, because history has a way of always repeating itself, and if we let ourselves be blinded by overshadowing motives such as spreading faith (or democracy, which sounds quite familiar) or helping to advance other civilizations we may lose sight of the underlying effects that completely transform, or, more radically, wipe out a culture rich and thriving in its own respect.

Religious Exclusivism - The Root of War - The Great Divide - A Call for Tolerance

The most essential defining aspect of the human being, that which separates us from all other animals on this planet, is our vast sense of wonder; for reasons unknown, we are equipped with a mind capable of envisioning another reality beyond the one we perceive each and every day. The conception of this higher, perfect reality has resulted in the formation of countless spiritual beliefs and religious institutions that mankind has developed over the course of history. But from where does this sense of spirituality arise? Surely it cannot be our brain, our senses, or any other part of our physiological nature, because these faculties are almost identically mirrored in other mammals, particularly those of the Primate family. So what is the explanation of the ineffable “divine” infusions people have continually experienced over time? Alvin Plantinga has reflected on this question, and has proposed that these spiritual affections, or moments of wonder and revelation, is a “natural,” “cognitive faculty” that has the capacity to evoke in someone the “sense of divinity;” to better explain this he uses Thomas Aquinas’ idea of the “sensus divinitatis” (173). The sensus divinitatis is the catalyst for any evocation of spirituality one may encounter during life…

But as mankind evolved through the years people began organizing together according to their particular idea of what the divine may be – hence, religions are formed. These religions have, for throughout history, been as diverse as humans themselves: Egyptian spirituality, Greek and Roman Paganism, Ancient Eastern practices of Pantheism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity and Judaism, Islam, Native American spirituality, and innumerable forms of Agnosticism. When setting the undeniable fact of mankind’s desire to practice faith (made evident by religions) alongside the idea of the sensus divinitatus, we can come to one conclusion: People have something within them that has the capability of encountering the divine, which has led to the formation of countless religions throughout history.

In no way am I objecting to the formation of religion as a result of sensing “something out there;” but what is far too often overlooked is the simple fact that everyone cannot be right. The formation of organized worship is a beautiful part of life; the greatly diverse ways in which people cultivate their affections of something so greater than themselves is a beautiful part of life. But what is a sad, inevitable effect trailing right behind the formation of religions is a sharp little word called EXCLUSIVISM (“only we are right”). As people have organized religions to cultivate their affections of the sensus divinitatus, they have also cultivated their arrogance with the notion that only there religion can be right (the exclusivist mentality).

Can we not see that something is obviously within all of us that perceives the divine; and can we not also see that mankind cultivates these manifestations of the divine based on the customs, traditions, and values of his/her particular culture… Can we not see that, regardless of the way in which the story is told, we are all telling the same story of God(s), the afterlife, the ways we can earn salvation, etc.

In our world today wars are tearing families apart, destroying opportunities for children, causing thousands and thousands of people to die. Racism, prejudice, and discrimination thrive, and they thrive so well because of Religious Exclusivism. If we use our reason, we can quickly recognize that everyone senses the divine. If we take that reason just a little farther, we can quickly recognize that different cultures cultivate the manifestations of the divine in different ways. Either there are many gods in this great cosmos and each god is assigned to a particular place, or there is one god manifesting itself in all people. All knowledge of the Divine is pure speculation. Sure, we may be able to sense a “presence,” but anything more than that is …well, how wars begin.

In leaving, I ask all to practice Tolerance across the globe in a sympathetic understanding towards different expressions of faith, culture, and art. We are losing the brotherhood of humanity as a result of our blind reason – because we think different is wrong – and if we do not come together shortly, all hope for a brighter tomorrow will be swallowed by radiation as mankind presses on in the great divide.

A Storm Awakens Activism

Buried in the Bayou

She was dark and nameless; her clothes were maimed; her heart barely beats.

Arriving after nightfall, welcomed by broken signs and stuttering stoplights, companioned with my friend and an obsolete map, the flood waves washed upon our minds still in full effect. Eerie tales swelled within the darkness of a city once lit; diving into a strange reality, we sought to swim through the remaining currents of disaster.

And so we did, companioned with our new friend - an eager old mentor; a black panther activist shaped in the sixties - and we ventured into the underground of a city still in shambles. Straying from the typical route of service trips that keep in groups and firmly buckle into safety, we opted the side street, following the example of the greats Che Guevara and Lincoln Steffens. Well, what we saw was unpleasant to say the least. The eyes of the homeless child naked and parentless have tattooed my heart with sympathy for those forgotten by this fucked up system.

One day the movement will organize behind my words and justice will prevail - until then i take

notes in my journal...

So here are my scribbles from the ride home from New Orleans...

Something is Lacking

She bombarded the beaches of the gulf coast, engulfing those structures of man looking vainly into the face of the ocean;

She mounted the monuments of man’s prominence…

Their pride was raised but now is razed – piles of artifacts – the broken pieces of people’s lives – scattered and buried for miles.

The sweeping torment of morality attempted to awaken the world, asking accordance of all to allow the eyes of another to transform this world – to begin again –

But here I walk past casinos, strip clubs, a fully thriving tourist town;

yes … here I walk through neighborhoods of rubble, streets of silver-lined shiny signs that homeless infants hide behind –

they crawl upon the mounds of time – pick through history for a piece of saving grace –

They stumble over symbols of all little they had…

When did we decide

To fix our finances

Before feeding our kin?

When did we begin

To open businesses

Before housing our friends?

When will suffering end?

How Strange Within We Are

The Unknown Loved


Sporadic confrontations with familiar hesitation;
Uncertainty
Overwhelming me...

A choice to transcend this illusion
Or depend upon delusion;
A mind encumbered by reality
Recedes,
A burden of mortality
Feeds and feeds
On beings diseased.
We are beings diseased.

The end exists and we await
Ignorant to where we’ll take.
We awake in need of medication:
Faith for daily preservation.
Beyond reason the void is silent,
Beyond reason the void is violent:
Peeling back the corners of existence,
Mystics and monks even met with indifference.

Between her legs she breathes,
Salivating,
Itching to swallow man’s peace;
Baiting men with faith:
Her illustrious disease;
Promising eternity,
And a comforting grace.

Think about meditation to transcend the natural boundaries of existence. Get where... the individual may only know himself. Get nowhere. Get questions, then skepticism, then faith, and then we die.

The East Awakens

A peice of writing I wrote for a class in school. A hindu dancer came to our class and performed for us, and I must say, it was pretty fuckin exotic. Something sweet's in the air in the East.

Exoticism’s Dream-Dancer

Impatiently waiting for class to begin, I recede within my mind and attempt imagining the harmony and grace of the great Hindu dance. Sure, I’ve seen them on the television, but experiencing this firsthand would be something else. I begin to imagine a young lady swaying her bodily motions to the crying of the sitar; rapidly, almost spastically, rearranging the focus of her deep stare that seemed to be reaching out beyond reason Then suddenly the reverie vanished deep into the vaults, and was replaced by the image of the lady: beyond the beauty of the dream-dancer, dressed in the colors of fire. Although fully aware she had attended the same school I was currently attending, I nevertheless fell into the strange haze of exoticism – feeling almost entirely encompassed by this foreign culture because of a single person. And then the dance began…

Sitars speaking to foreign gods, voices crying for salvation, ankle-bells jumping frantically, and all the while amidst this auditory chaos the dream-dancer finds peace. A harmony of her soul seemed to sit like a smoky fog surrounding each movement of her body. Her being became enveloped in grace, captivating my every thought, and luring me into the mysteries of the East.

There is something remarkably transcendent about the way in which the Hindu dance experience presents itself. For five minutes or so (although all focus of time was buried beneath a heavy intrigue) I became removed from myself, completely fixed upon the fire-dancer and her insurmountable beauty and balance. When I returned to the realm of my own understanding I reflected upon dance as a means of praise, and in doing so, a shred of discontent began swelling within me, longing to be part of a culture saturated with something other than greed. Now she’s gone.