@charles I find this 'both sidesism' and 'othering' rhetoric of yours super boring, stale, and simplistic.
Of course 'othering' is not helpful to furthering civic collaboration and discourse in civil society.
But it is not 'othering' to see the urgent need to contain a deeply broken cult leader, his oligarchy and cadre of bad-faith actors, and prevent them from doing further damage to vulnerable people, the planet, the economy, and the already fractured body politic.
It's not 'anti-Trump' to say that. It's not 'taking sides' to take an uequivocal stance against the MAGA movement.
What is happening in the US should be deeply disturbing to Americans across the political spectrum. It's not a 'right' or 'left' issue.
This populist cancer is spreading across the planet, because the climate and biodiversity crisis and the rate of change is too much for many people so they are especially vulnerable to disinformation campaigns by populist leaders looking to enrich and benefit themselves. The playbook is out there, for anyone to read. It's amazing to me that we still fall for it, hook, line and sinker. (For example Bill Eddy's book "Why we elect narcissists and sociopaths and how we can stop", a politically agnostic book references the exact same word for word playbook of all the usual demagogues, from Mao to Pol Pot to Hitler to Mussolini to Trump - and not all of them are on the right.)
It's possible to take a strong stand against far-right populism and the manipulation of grievances of low-information populations most vulnerable to bots and bad information. It's possible to take a stand against the breaking of basic norms of leadership, against virulent and deliberate disinformation, dog whistles, bullying, insults and blame. Against threats, withholding and punishing of nations and states who refuse to comply with ridiculous demands. And the dismantling of a nation's checks and balances on the executive branch, and the the growing consolidating oligarchy influencing not just national but global power dynamics.
Perhaps there are many things about the US political system that have needed upending - and boy is this happening. But this is not happening because of any elevated aspirational reasons for re-creating or reforming a broken system. Rather it's happening for the benefit of a handful of wounded billionaires who don't give a fuck about the planet or the future because they've already built bunkers they can retreat to when things get dangerously bad.
And while the Democratic party has many problematic elements as well, they are nowhere in the same league as MAGA. There are many good-faith actors in the Democratic party, who still respect the norms of government process, who, <because> of this, are now being played and bulldozed and blocked by bad-faith actors who have no compunctions about steamrolling over the norms. Which is why MAGA is winning - when you don't care about the rules, you have an advantage over those who do.
You can frame yourself as being somehow above the for/against binary Charles, but I call BS. Since the pandemic, your following among the 'conspiritual' crowd has elevated, and I suspect you are hiding under the 'I refuse to other/take a side' rhetoric in order to appease them.
The "othering" rhetoric is boring, stale, and simplistic to you because you can't acknowledge that it is exactly what you are doing. Trump is not far right, and he is not your enemy. There IS a real cancer in our society, but it is not isolated with "populists" or "MAGA", it is in each of our own hearts and our inability to sit with our own fear and pain.
OK, well I guess we have to define what we mean by 'othering'. I see a distinction between 'calling out', 'setting limits' and even 'condemning in no uncertain terms' on the one hand and dehumanizing or demonizing on the other hand. I believe my intent was to do the former and I see othering as the latter. How well I did that is up for debate. I'm feeling particularly punchy today so my tone may not quite match up with my intent.
Trump may not be 'my' enemy, but it's clear to me that he does not have the best interests of the American people at heart. He can't even take care of his own team, as can be seen by the constant turnover in his previous (and likely this) administration, the way he fires and throws people under the bus on a dime when they don't offer him the level of loyalty he demands.
Amanda I loved your comment and critique, I won't go into detail, because I am going to write my own comment and don't want to repeat myself. However at the end you made some guesses about Charles' motivations. I think Charles, (and I know him somewhat) absolutely genuinely is attempting to live in the "II refuse to other/take a side" position. But I think the fact that he seems to have a special category for the "irredeemable" deep state, which is out of harmony with everything else he has said, that makes "not taking a position" feel off.
I appreciate both Charles' deep call to embrace the "other" and Amanda's deep call to take a stand and set boundaries. Reminds me of an action in "Redwood Summer" in the late 80's when a group of us signed up to chain ourselves to a logging loader at site where the forest was being clear cut. As I was taking in the rage of my comrades in relation to the logging community, I felt myself drop into a deep knowing of the humanity of the beings on the other side of this polarity, those whose job it was to cut and the load the trees. On our way to find the loader, we encountered a group of them. There were some among our group whose rage was palpable and viscerally felt by the loggers. The situation felt volatile. I found myself in conversation with some of the loggers tears running down my face, heart open, telling them why we were there. They did not repell me or attack. Something important and hard to describe happened inside of me in that moment. We never made it to the logging loader, that stand of old forest was cut. I don't know if what happened in me had any impact on anyone but me. But I count and I at least felt that my voice counted, that taking a stand was powerful and that my "adversaries" were not my adversaries in a deeper sense. Perhaps both Amanda's call to take a stand to set boundaries and Charles' call end the war internally and externally are both important. Despite appearances, not sure there is a conflict between these points of view. My heart tells me that both are needed, both are valuable, crucial contributions to our collective healing...
Respectfully, I don't think you've heard what Charles is saying. In what you write, I don't hear a deep and full comprehension of what you're critiquing. I hear your concern and passion, I honor your concern and passion, and I think your concern and passion may be clouding your ability to listen to what's before you (rather than hearing what you expect to hear). It's beyond me right now to offer a full response to the points you raise, and nothing I could say can achieve what true listening can. I imagine these words may provoke you; I'm sorry if they do. My intention is to earnestly and kindly invite you into a deeper listening. I think there's something there; Charles hears it, and I hear it too.
Wow, does this writer nail the big moment of our time. Charles, I have been foillowing you, off and on, for several years. Your equanimity has the best of you, and you've actually--it seems--effectively steeled yourself against the on-going suffering that Amanda so clearly limns, holding on to the purity past corruption shift that you hope for from very badly corrupted people. Who are you helping?
MAHA!!! There has been a 40% rise in cancer across all ages! It’s there for those that have the eyes willing to see it. The Truth shall be revealed. Unfortunately it’s the “my news sources are facts yours are conspiracy is the blinding eye that refuses to accept that those crying for democracy are in fact part of the demonic cult that is allowing this disease if corruption to spread. But gigs up , it’s time ✌🏿✌🏻✌🏾❤️
You are right on with your facts, and I would agree with 99% of your overall analysis. I'm also wondering if "calling BS" is helpful here. Can we not hold Charles in good faith while still critiquing what he is saying? As disappointing as his boosting of the "conspiritual" perspective has been, I see no reason to doubt his sincerity. We all have our blind spots.
Thank you Ami, for sharing this powerful essay in response to the unfortunate(to say it kindly) turn that Charles has taken over the last few years. Your words are powerful, poignant, and thoughtful. I believe that the essay you’ve shared is essential reading for everyone here.
I’m afraid to(though certainly will) admit that Charles has lost his way. Whether through naïveté, ignorance, or an actual acceptance of neofascism, I may never be sure.
There are a lot of valid points here, but I would still wonder about the idea that Charles is "gaslighting," because that assumes he is knowingly manipulating people. Of course, I am not inside his mind, so I don't know his intentions. I have chosen to give him the benefit of the doubt because I feel that what many describe as his "conspiritual" turn since Covid is really nothing new. In the Ascent of Humanity, he devotes entire chapters to criticisms of the medical system which, for all their insight, go too far. Charles being critical of vaccines and public health is nothing new, nor is his dabbling in conspiracy theories. Covid just brought these aspects of his perspective to light in a very visible and unfortunate way, and led to these things being foregrounded in his work in a manner which they hadn't been previously. Still, I have no reason to doubt his sincerity on these matters, no matter how strongly I disagree with his perspective, and no matter how much the money he received from the Kennedy campaign may have biased his thinking. And if we are to have any hope of getting him (or his readers) to consider another perspective on Trump than the one he has been promoting, we are not going to get very far by putting them on the defensive by accusing them of gaslighting.
Thanks for your excellent comment. I dont think I'm able to say the same thing and be as nice about it as you are. What's stale about CE is that he must pander to his base which has out and out Trump supporters. So he weilds his otherness dogma to avoid being truly principled. Or maybe he really believes someone as psychopathic as Trump is sincere about our health. In which case CE is even more deluded.
We can have compassion for migrants at the same time that we enforce the rules that we have for good reasons. Maybe we should make legal immigration easier. Less costly, and taking less time, but until then, unfortunately, the Biden administration allowed unprecedented numbers of people over our borders with no proper due process and sprinkled among the largely good people are horrendous criminals that no country would knowingly allow in any more than you would knowingly allow them into your home. Most of these migrants that the Biden admin allowed in aren't even from central America, they're just funneled through there because that's where our border is porous, not at New York harbor. If your compassion for one group of people puts another group of people in danger, then it isn't reducing suffering. So, again, we can feel compassion in our hearts at the same time that we do what keeps us safe. I have compassion for the homeless, lonely people on every corner of my city, but I am not taking them home with me to my family and children, whom they absolutely could pose a danger to.
I used to believe in open borders. I do not anymore. It's okay that there are vetting processes. Improve the efficiency of the vetting processes so it's easier for people to come here legally and soundly and safely! In the meantime, a course correction must be made, the pendulum must swing in the other direction after it swung so far the way it did the last 4 years. Somewhere in the middle of the pendulum swinging, it finds equilibrium, if only for a moment.
You're heard and understood sister (even if not agreed with). And if i may throw in my two cents, it seems to me that at the same time you might be missing the bigger picture of what is actually happening here and might have fallen into a trap (which i'll explain in a moment), so i respectfully invite you, if you can and want to, to look into this with me. I'd share with you a couple of very important essays (important in my view of course) on two specific issues that it seems like you (and others) might not be aware of. One is on the FACTS that are being deliberately censored regarding the ROOT CAUSE of immigration, and how exactly is immigration being used by the corporate-capitalist billionaire rulers of our society (both conservative and liberal).
These essays not only detail the FACTS that americans are never told about immigration, and not only show the MYTHS, lies and emotional manipulation spread by the billionaires' propagandists, but they ALSO go into the question of WHY americans are never told this.
Finally they suggest what can actually be done if one wishes to address THE ROOT CAUSE of the issue (clue: it is NOT by cheering and giving our power to the capitalist billionaires who created the issue to begin with, who then display it to you in a way that scares you to death, and who now pretend to be the ones who will protect you from the very phenomena that they themselves created.. See the essays below to understand exsctly how they created it to begin with).
And the second thing i'd like to bring to your attention is a profoundly important piece which goes into a much more fundamental issue, an issue which immigration is a subset of, an issue which encompasses immigration but is wider than it - The issue is how the ruling elite always always ALWAYS create frightening BOOGYMAN ENEMIES to scare you with. And exactly WHY they do that.
IMHO, this trick (the boogyman enemy trick) is the most important principle for every human on the planet to understand and be aware of (if we wish to be anything other than mere reactive automatons who are emotionally-manipulated by professional propagandists) because this principle is PRECISELY how the elite maintain their power over us and how they make sure that we are loyal to them. Yes, it is that important!!!
I'm mentioning this in a reply that deals with immigration, because immigration is a subset of this principle. Immigrants are very often used (by the elite and their narrative managers) as the boogyman enemy to scare us with and through which to elicit our obediance and loyalty to our oligarch rulers, because our rulers pretend to be the ones who care about us and will protect us from from the scary enemy who is coming to get us..
(immigrants are of course used by the ultra-rich not only for that boogyman enemy purpose, but are also used and severely exploited in other ways that are extremely profitable to the billionaire class. The essays below detail that).
The boogyman enemy trick is what our rulers use to keep us in line and loyal to them (as our so-called "protecters" from that "evil scary monstrous enemy over there who is coming to get ya"). Of course, often the boogyman enemy is not immigrants but some other scary foriegner (for example, their manufactured "muslim terrorists threat" and their manufactured "the red communist threat" are two of their favorite and most successful boogyman enemies, details in the essay below), but immigrants can also often function in that role for our rulers, and that is why i think it is profoundly important to be keenly aware of how this 'boogyman enemy' trick works (not just aware of it as a mere concept, but aware viscerally of how it operates within us and affects our nervous system and elicits from us the emotional reactions that our cynical rulers and their professional manipulators are aiming for). As well as aware of how it is being used against us to emotionally-manipulate us and keep us unwittingly cheering for our abusers, who are sold to us as our protectors, through the boogynan enemy trick. More details in the last essay below.
Your comment is IMHO a good example of how extremely effectively this trick works for the predatory billionaire ruling class to emotionally-manipulate us, to elicit in us the fear they need, and how effectively it manufactures our unwitting loyalty to them and our support for their rule over us.. As can be seen from the energy of your comment, the boogyman enemy principle is arguably the most important weapon in the billionaires' arsenal to manipulate us and rule over us, and it literally never fails to achieve its desired effect on the majority of people..
Okay, now that i described what i want to share and what i think is worthwhile to consider, then here are the essays detailing the two points i mentioned above. First, the set of essays on the facts and myths regarding immigration and why we are not told these.
And second is the essay i mentioned above, regarding the boogyman enemy principle/trick (a trick which immigrants can be, and often are, used for) and how this trick is being used by our rulers to emotionally manipulate us, control us, and ensure our obedience and loyalty to them (as our saviors and protectors from that evil scary boogyman enemy who is coming to get you) https://www.pdrboston.org/oppressors-need-bogeyman-enemies
Amazing reply!!! Heart-centered, penetrative and sees right through the tricks played on us by the hierarchical ones who gained the world but lost their soul
One part of this that is rarely discussed is the U.S.’s role in making these countries into “shit holes” as Trump called them. There is a great hypocrisy regarding violation of borders when the U.S. has repeatedly, overtly and covertly, “intervened” on the affairs of the counties in Central America. These cross border incursions have been going on for more than 100 years. The U.S. backed support for repressive regimes in these countries has made it impossible for any populist’s movements to secure better conditions for the people thus making these countries places from which people are desperate to flee. A wholistic approach that acknowledges and accepts responsibility is required. Otherwise, it just keeps the “shit” out of sight until it invariably spills into our country.
This is a great point, and one that Charles has raised in other articles under the general concept of 'everything is connected to everything else'. We need to ask why so many people want to leave their countries, as most people prefer to stay in the land and community in which they were born and raised if there is not a strong reason to leave. The same intervention you describe has occurred in countries such as Afghanistan, Syria and Cambodia over the years, causing terrible social destruction and driving refugee movement to Europe, Australia and other wealthy regions, as well as the rise of political and religious extremism. It is unlikely, for example, that there would be a theocratic Islamist government in power in Iran now if the US hadn't conspired to overthrow the democratically elected president Mossadegh back in the 1953 and replace him with the corrupt Shah.
Yes. We’ve left our “tracks” in countries throughout the world. It is part of the Western mindset of winners and losers. The evolution of a mindset of cooperation has not yet begun.
"The evolution of a mindset of cooperation has not yet begun".
At least not within the ruling "elite" as far as I can tell. And that is my main contention with Charles´s article: while I agree that we need a mindset of interconnection and cooperation - and a lot of people who follow Charles´s work are probably in it - I just cannot see it, even remotely, within the "elite" that are still running things.
Because they operate out of their wordview which, as has been commented on earlier, needs a bogeyman, an "othering", an "us - the good guys" vs "them- the bad guys" mentality. And I honestly don´t see how the "elite" is going to change their worldview because that would need a lot of self-reflection and second-guessing on their behalf on how they acquired that mindset and why they need to sustain it.
I understand and share your worries. The ruling mindset is clearly the opposite of cooperation. But, a critical mass of ordinary people have throughout history emerged to tip the scales. If you divide the number of billionaires in the world into the number of people in the world the ratio is approximately 3,000,000 to one. Looked at from this perspective, who has the power?
"I have compassion for the homeless, lonely people on every corner of my city, but I am not taking them home with me to my family and children, whom they absolutely could pose a danger to."
Many of the countries from which our recent immigrants have come actually need their citizens back! I don't say it is easy, the deportation or the return, and of course I am making a generalization. But the draining of citizens from struggling countries to the US and the West has not been good for either side of the move. Let's try for the huge course correct that is now needed.
Why are states entitled to particular individuals choosing to live there just because they were born there? I take your point about "brain drain," but that is a phenomenon of global corporatism/capitalism tipping the scales in favour of the hegemonic power and its allies and trading partners. Individuals should not have to suffer in inescapable poverty under corrupt political rule if they can find other options to improve their lives. Most people are not in a position to challenge the power of international financial interests and the corrupt political collaborators whose activities leave the so-called "Third World" more or less permanently in debt. But they may be in a position to move somewhere else and make a contribution to a better world there. Who are we, as residents of the nations which benefit economically by accident of birth from "Third World" exploitation and impoverishment, to tell those born under such conditions that they can't do what most of us would probably do if we were them?
I agree with your points. I am partly wanting to consider that when we remove limits to our immigration, there may be negative consequences to those struggling countries too. Let's keep our eyes on and do our best for both ends of the flow. The reasonable limits we put on our immigration can help to keep focus on the countries from which people want to emigrate.
I keep hoping that the new multipolarity we are experiencing can begin to affect the imbalances of international finances as well. I am not suggesting that this will happen soon...and yet I am hoping that as we see the geopolitical shift (barely perceptible), we can also encourage a geofinancial shift. For example, can BRICS or maybe China's Brick and Road Initiatives help to encourage a geofinancial shift, bit by bit?
I have good West African friends, some of whom have come to live in the US and some of whom have decided to stay in their home countries. I pray for all sides of this question -- and keep hoping that the Africans in Africa can gain enough wherewithal to build their own countries to some more satisfying level. I can see some of that happening -- but so very little and for so very few of the folks there.
I do believe this is a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem, so anywhere in the vicious circle we can shift the flow, it would be helpful.
The strongest ones with the most determination are definitely the ones who came here. They didn’t want to leave but there’s very limited ways for them to earn money in their countries of origin. And being able to feed their kids whom they left behind in the care of the grandparents is the driving force that keeps them working here. They would love to go back and be with their kids and their family, but that’s not an option if they want to keep their kids fed and be able to send them to school. I don’t know about the other countries, but in Honduras, there’s no free public education past the sixth grade. Beyond 6th grade the parents have to pay.
Thank you for this dear Charles. Fully with you. And I think it's important to remember that trump and his NeoCon Zionist billionaire Oligarchs (which he filled his AIPAC administration with) runs a bulldozer not only through american politics but LITERALLY runs a bulldozer over the lives of human beings (see https://substack.com/@caitlinjohnstone/note/c-90113262, but of course these are the inferior human beings, the ones who didn't have the "correct" religious label placed on them at birth, the ones not chosen and elevated and favored and given lands by a fake tribalist hebrew "god"). And the infantile messiah already told us the profound anti-life ugliness that he and his zionist billionaire oligarchs plan to build after they bulldoze, ethnically-cleanse and ERASE people's lives - luxury resorts for the ultra rich and for the chosen ones, after the undesirable indigenous civilization has been "cleaned out" (his words), bulldozed away and erased. See https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/trump-reveals-plan-for-the-ethnic
IMO, the only difference is that, unlike the evil of the democratic party, trump is just a more honest form of evil because he is not hiding how greedy, ruthless, murderous, abusive, merciless, bullying and anti-human is the american billionaires’ corporate-capitalist empire, whereas the right-wing capitalist democrats wear a caring mask and dishonestly talk about love as they screw humanity for billionaire profiteering and control
In my understanding, the global corporate-banking oligarchy operates through BOTH its wings, both the fake left and the fake right. Both through the liberal democrat leadership (who act in very iliberal ways) who use inauthentic slogans of love and caring (which they don't mean) to advance billionaire profiteering & domination, as well as through the oligarchy's other wing- the fake "populist" billionaires right (who are sold to their propagandized worshippers as "anti-elite" and "pro-freedom" while IN REALITY are tyrant elite oligarchs who work diligently to concentrate the planet's wealth in the hands of the 0.1%, to incite you to HATE HATE HATE anyone who isn’t aligned with their global empire, and to build the digital technocratic prison of humanity for the sole purpose of the domination of the few over the many.
In terms of the psychology that drives the two wings of the empire - unlike the inauthentic love slogans of the fake "left", the other empire's wing - the fake "populist" billionaire right - are inciting their half of the population through a God-ignorant childish mentality that views "greatness" as DOMINATION, power over, force, subjugation, profiteering by crushing others to benefit oneself, and the US (light) vs THEM (darkness) sectarian tribalist mentality
The tragedy, IMHO, is that most of humanity has been herded (using the oligarchs' algorithms) into partisan enclosures/echo-chambers, where we are taught to cheer for one or the other wing of the global oligarchy and to view the other half as 'the evil ones'. Very few seem to recognize BOTH halves of the elite, and very few seem to want real freedom from empire and dignity for all humans, but most seem to just want that the empire be under the right management, the management of "our billionaires" (not “their billionaires”), seem to just want the domination of the one wing of the oligarchy that they learnt to identify with
“Both sides” talk obscures the fact that one side has the likes of Marjorie Taylor Green, and the other, Bernie Sanders. It’s a false equivalence and dangerous AF to conflate such wildly different political approaches as merely two wings of the same empire.
One of the illusions that Trump voters fell prey to is that he is for the little guy—and that will be proven horribly misguided soon enough.
Just one bit of proof: in 2023, USAID purchased more than a million metric tons of food from US farmers and, right now, they are left holding the bag.
Another ironic difference, “our” billionaire, Bloomberg (despite his past party affiliations) decided to fund the climate group at the UN after Trump
pulled out of the Paris Agreement.
The GOP is fueled on victim hood/vengeance and hatred of the poor/nonwhites. Dems tend to just be dumb and distracted by virtue signaling. But at least they have virtues connected to the real world—as opposed to the right wing Christians taking over our government and theNew Age conspiracy peeps who pretend they can manifest the New Earth by consuming it whole (while electing a climate denying felon as president).
If you’re interested, checkout my essays for fortifying antidotes to the madness of the political moment. 🙏🏼💔🇺🇸
duality is a concept, used in this case (this Substack) to equivocate for extreme cruelty. Compassion, empathy and discernment are the path forward. Wisdom plays by no rules and certainly not according to mentally mushy spiritual lingo.
Is it possible that the billionaire elites are also part of the big Us of interbeing?
You’ve seen through the left/right illusion of separation. What about the up/down? Can we practice radical inclusion and compassion with our oppressors? Should we?
I haven’t answered these questions for myself yet. Curious to hear any thoughts and opinions.
Thanks brother. Yes, I've also thought about this and have indeed already posed that question to myself too. I'd like to point out two things, please be sure to read both, as they're both very important. First, yes I do sincerely have deep compassion for our DEEPLY WOUNDED AND UNCONSCIOUS oppressors (and yes, i realize that the strong language used in this comment might have made it hard to see) AND at the same time i think that DEEPLY UNCONSCIOUS, WOUNDED, HEART-DIVORCED AND IMMATURE abusers, murderers, thieves, manipulators, oppresors, deceivers (who operate from a tribalist anti-unity and domination mentality) should NOT have power over humanity in any way, shape or form!!!
IMHO, having love and compassion for another does NOT mean being a doormat for their deeply unconsious and abusive behavior.
And the second very important point i want to clarify, perhaps even more important than the one above, is that IMHO the main issue is NOT the character of the oppresors but rather the main issue is the unintelligent system (of class domination and exploitation) that we live under, which FORCES even good people to oppress others (and yes, not all ultra-rich persons are bad or corrupted. Some want to do good, but are incapable of doing so under a system of class domination. More on that in this very very important essay, please do read it https://johnspritzler.substack.com/p/why-have-no-rich-and-no-poor
So to answer your question directly, i don't think up/down is an illusion at all. Yes, some ultra-rich are trapped in the class domination system too and are not bad people, but that doesn't change the fact that the system is set up for the domination of the few over the many and for the PROFOUND ABUSE of the "lower" class by the ruling class. Please d9 read the extremely important essay i linked above to see numerous examples of exactly how the upper class treats the lower class like DIRT!!! You won't be told these things in the ruling class' propaganda media, the very wise essay i linked lays it all out in detail. Please read it in full. It is very important
The class domination and abuse system is the problem, not any particular person..
So no, I have no hate in my heart to our oppresors. I have seen the immature, frightened, predatory, selfish and life-destroying capitalist dog-eat-dog mentality operating in myself too and i don't think i am superior in value in any way to those at the top of the class pyramid. Again, the up/down system is the issue, not the people trapped in the system (yes, even the deeply unconscious, wounded, unhealed right-wing capitalist billionaire abusers who internalised the DOMINATION values of the unintelligent and abusive system of class inequality that they impose on us).
I have deep compassion and want the best for those wounded ones as well. They are trapped like us, AND they should not have power over us.
The class domination system is the problem, not any particular person
Whoooaa, powerful comment. Especially in the last four paragraphs you hit the nail right on tne head and identified exactly the heart of the dysfunction. Spot on!!
This is exactly why I don’t vote or pay taxes. I do however caress the earth on the daily and try try try to hold compassion for myself and others. Thankyou for your deep thoughts
" (---) very few seem to want real freedom from empire and dignity for all humans".
I´ve been wondering alomg the same lines like why so few people do not question their beimg ruled over in the first place. Why do I need to "elect" anyone that I do not know personally and thus cannot trust, to reign over me? Under the guise of "democracy" of course.......
You said to Charles in your opening post , that Charles might not be seeing the bigger picture, lol ....
Obviously you don't get there is an element that must be woven into whosoever fabric is doing the weaving. The element of compassion. It's a physical sensation woven into the fabric of who you are. Its Our Divine intelligence that needs to be fully illuminated
Thanks brother. I think you might be confusing with my reply to Serina above, where i did say to her (not to Charles but to her), that she might be missing the bigger picture. That was an entirely different comment and not addresed to Charles.
Yes, however what I said still holds water , meaning I don't believe your getting what Charles is recommending as a solution. The element of the Divine consciousness has to be woven into the fabric we weave...
In reading what you shared I believe your thinking might be absent of that element?
I hear you and understand. I believe i did get what Charles is saying and i fully agree/aligned with him and with you on that. I assure you it is not at all absent from my heart (even as i understand that the strong language in my comment might make it hard to see that). I addressed and elaborated on this exact same question/concern in my replies to others earlier so with your permission I won't repeat it here again. Thank you very much for the care and concern. Really appreciated 🙏
Having read this far, the politically engaged reader may be trying to understand this article through the lens of “Which side is Eisenstein on?” As in foreign affairs or any other domain, that lens collapses complexity and nuance. Both Trump-as-hero and Trump-as-villain leave a lot out. Same for “Eisenstein supports Trump” or “Eisenstein is anti-Trump.” Stop it.
So basically Charles spent a year+ running the Kennedy campaign, took in several hundred thousand dollars doing it, lectured us all about the need to vote for Kennedy, then participated in the capitulation of Kennedy to Trump, and then wrote a couple pieces about how Trump is not that bad and encouraged us not to vote for team blue before the election, and now wants to position himself above it all? Whatever. Stop it yourself.
This is a brilliant article, Charles. Thank you for taking the brave stands that you do here against dehumanizing and destructive policies. It seems that you are moving towards the kind of moral clarity we all need in this moment, and no doubt your reflections will help countless others.
I would gently challenge you asking that we "stop it" with the "Is Eisenstein for or against Trump?" question. Of course, I take your point that we cannot be "against" another human being, for important spiritual reasons. If you need to overstate your case to bring that point home, it's constructive as a contribution to the conversation. Still, I would argue that we can firmly support or oppose a particular individual having particular power, because that person will use the power they have to implement the agenda they want to implement. I always return to the example of Desmond Tutu praying daily for P W Botha, the unrepentant South Africa president under Apartheid. Tutu vigorously opposed him politically, bringing international boycotts and divestment to bear in order to overthrow his rule. And yet, he knew the importance of maintaining love in his heart for Botha, and for remembering that Botha too was a child of God. He then went on to chair the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in order to do what we could to stop the cycle of retribution which may have been inevitable without it.
So yes, we should not be "anti-Trump" in terms of hating Trump the human being and child of God. But no, we shouldn't be shy about opposing him politically, and doing what we can to limit or take away the power he is using to harm others and the planet.
"Tutu vigorously opposed him politically, bringing international boycotts and divestment to bear in order to overthrow his rule".
If they could have found a way to actually talk and listen to each other about why they are opposing each other, there might not have been a need for further external action.
Marshall Rosenberg (non-violent commnication) aimed to help people identify their unmet needs and find connection with each other, even in hostile situations and in conflict-ridden areas around the world.
Here, Rosenberg aslo talks about an "enemy image" and gives an example of a mediating between a Muslim tribe and a Christian tribe in northern Nigeria.
This is a very white position. You may not be white, but this is what strikes me. On one side, people are dying and being violently oppressed. People with privilege see this all as some sort of mediation challenge. These issues are desperately urgent for so many and I'll bet Tutu tried to meet with Botha. It took moving mountains to end South African apartheid. It took action.
I love the example that you give here about Tutu and P. W. Botha. The question I ask if how meaningful is it to 'oppose' someone? This implies that they are solely an agent for harm with no redeeming qualities. I see a lot of narcissism, vengefulness and ignorance in Trump, and I also see courage, determination and some quite sensible thinking in some areas. I am incredibly grateful that he has backed RFK Jr to take a role in reforming the public health system, that he is overturning vaccine mandates and that he seems to be pushing for a negotiated peace in Ukraine. I am also horrified by his talk of removing Palestinians from Gaza, removing environmental protections and oversight of the financial sector, and worried about the influence of Elon Musk and other oligarchs, even as I'm grateful for his work in standing up for free speech. Overall I don't think any political party or leader anywhere represents my values, and so I accept them for who they are, resist and discourage the bad things they put forward where I can and try to promote and spread the good.
Also, realizing I didn't answer your question, "how meaningful is it to 'oppose' someone?"
Again, all we have to do is look at South Africa. Tutu and Mandela's coordinated political opposition to apartheid and those who kept it in place led to the country transforming from an authoritarian state of racist segregation into a functioning democracy (granted, an imperfect one). That's a real and important difference, and yet, it doesn't have to mean demonizing the perpetrators. After all, Tutu led the Truth and Reconciliation Commission with the idea that those who were ready to acknowledge what they had done needed to be forgiven and re-embraced by society, and Mandela even invited his former jailer to be a VIP guest at his inauguration.
Redemption is always possible, and Trump is of course not wrong about everything. Heck, even Adolf Hitler founded Volkswagen, and there's nothing wrong with quality German engineering. Still, on balance, I think it would have been better for the world if Hitler had never come to power and the Holocaust and WWII never happened, even if we would have missed out on those cool 60s hippie vans. I think it's possible, and indeed morally essential, to decide whether on balance, the harm being done outweighs whatever marginal goods can come from a person rising to power. Many who see the intransigence of the establishment can be tempted to love whatever wrecking ball comes its way, but it's also important to remember that the "solution" is quite often worse than the problem. Charles himself even writes about this in "The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know is Possible":
“How many revolutionaries have recreated, in their own organizations and countries, the very institutions of oppression they sought to overthrow?”
Many of us are so desperate for a revolution that we're tempted to think that Donald Trump will bring it about, or at least clear the ground for it. Of course, there is opportunity in every crisis, but counting on Donald Trump's rising to power being a stepping stone to something better is a dangerous game to play, IMO. I'm horrified to find out, for example, what he's up to with the migrants he's sending to Guantanamo as we speak.
I think I should have distinguished between opposing a person and opposing their policies and actions. I think your example demonstrates the value and importance of resisting cruel, destructive, wrongheaded policies. To me, this is different from opposing a person, even if the effect is the same in a practical sense. I take seriously the importance of maintaining compassion and reverence for all people, even ones who I see as ensnared in fear-based thinking and behaviour, for both spiritual and pragmatic reasons. I see Trump as someone who thrives from fighting and being attacked and demonised, yet it also brings out his worst, as it does with most people to be honest. I think there would be more value in going after the bad policies he introduces without couching this position in terms of how bad a person he is. This won't affect him directly, but it creates a space for changing people's minds. Doing this actually has a chance of changing Trump's mind, because among other things I think he is quite sensitive to public opinion and wants to be admired and liked.
Also it acknowledges the fact that he was just elected president by a convincing majority of Americans (personally I would have preferred that RFK Jr, Cornel West or Jill Stein have been elected ahead of either him or Kamala Harris, and the US electoral system is corrupt and anti-democratic as hell, but it is what it is). A more profitable line of resistance would be, for instance, to accept that he has some kind of mandate for reducing wasteful government expenditure (and Bernie for one was smart enough to observe that this is a positive goal), but to point out where cutting programs will do more harm than good, environmentally, socially but also economically. I'm all for resistance to unjust or stupid policies, and sure a time can come when the people will rise up in a groundswell to demand the resignation of a leader who grossly breaches their trust, but I don't believe now is that time.
The general thrust of everything you are saying makes sense. The only major difference in what you and I are saying is tone. While I do not give Trump the benefit of the doubt, I am trying to give Charles the benefit of the doubt. I do see a certain degree of movement towards sanity in this article compared to some others he's written recently. I don't think anybody who made a mistake was ever shamed into admitting it, so I'm trying to give him a chance to see it for himself. I appreciated what Lissa Rankin said below: he would be surprised by how many people would forgive him if he admitted he messed up. And, I still value his books and his work has still had a net positive impact on my life, so I do not want to get too much into this "take a stand or lose me as a reader" business - though I do admit that I take his recent writing far less seriously than I used to. I do find his turn in the last few years disappointing, especially given the amount of money he received from RFK's campaign and how much I believe that has influenced him, but I also believe he is a complex individual who has a good heart beneath all of that. I wonder how much his hands are tied in terms of what he can say at this point by the money he took from RFK's campaign as well. Of course, it was a foolish decision to trust RFK Jr., but I tend to believe Charles was hoodwinked rather than cynically collaborating. I could be wrong, and if I am, I agree with the conclusion of your article. It would be very sad.
Charles, How did you manage to become such a total schmuck? This is one of the stupidest, most ignorant pieces of sell-out "writing" I have ever read, only rivaled by your other recent essays. Canine diarrhea smells better than what you poop out of your whore's ass. How is it that you keep hoodwinking your followers with your useless phony spirituality and endless moral equivocations?
Congrats Charles: You just supported a Fascist takeover of America by global oligarchs driving us toward techno-feudalism, permanent chip-in-the-brain enslavement, and you made good money on it as rfk bootlicker. I am so sorry I once believed in you and helped you build an audience.
As for Charles' readers: You need to shake yourself out of whatever hypnotism keeps you fixated here. Rejoin the progressive spiritual Left, embrace authentic class solidarity, wake up from this trance. The global Fascist oligarchy is happy if you die and will accelerate your destruction and take profit from it as you go down. Charles will keep telling you how this is all okay, because maybe they have good hearts or don't know what they are doing. This is bullshit. They know exactly what they are doing.
Charles had some kind of midlife crisis and sold out whatever ideals he once kind of had. Sort of like America in a nutshell.
This failure of Charles’ to even whisper a denunciation of the regime that he is, in a 3rd-degree, a part of, is incredibly harmful.
You’re correct, Daniel, in that they absolutely know what they are doing. It saddens me to realize that Charles, too, knows what he is doing. What is currently taking place- the techno-fascist takeover, the obliteration of the already decaying structure of a nation and global ecosystem- deserves an immediacy in objection and condemnation that Charles so coyly refuses to utter.
One absolutely can both take a side and hold love in their heart at the same time. Charles chooses not to, and we need to believe what he reveals with that choice.
Hello, Daniel. Could you post a list of suggestions of who the most interesting thinkers and alliances are on the progressive spiritual Left (and/or voices for compassion and wisdom who have not been tainted by the conspiracy-oriented and neo-fascist alt-right discourse that has been emerging and colonizing spiritual communities over the past decade or so?) Much appreciated.
I'll add a few here, Rebecca Solnit and Joan Halifax have been very strongly outspoken against this regime. Both long time Buddhist practitioners. There was a very good program through the Upaya Zen centre a number of weeks ago that you could find online. Here's part of it. https://www.upaya.org/video/embracing-interdependence-and-purpose-in-uncertain-times/
Rob Brezsny, astrologer comes to mind.
Shambhavi Saraswati is a strong activist who teaches from non-dual Shaiva tantra and Dzogchen Buddhist lineages.
I'm looking for these people as well. Many have been very disappointing, so far.
This is a question I'm living as well and trying to figure out in my own body/mind, especially as it concerns non-violence in the face of what I feel coming.
As you may know I have worked me entire career advocating for system change and evolution beyond the limitless growth, extraction and exploitation form of Capitalism that has reigned this nation and the global economy. And part of that requires fundamental redesign of government. However, the current regime is not about making government more efficient but rather getting it out of the way so the corporatocracists and oligarchs can do as they will. We will all suffer. This is a very dark and dangerous time, with madmen megalomaniacs at the helm. There is no sanewashing or bullshitting that is going to make any this less destructive.
“We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must - at that moment - become the center of the universe.”
"... Charles bizarre inability to say the obvious truths about Trump."
That's it exactly. What the hell? Why is that so hard and not incredibly obvious to anyone reading this? And why is it tolerated and not called out? Reading these comments I feel like I'm in another world.
James Hillman, the maverick Jungian psychologist, once skewered Americans for romanticizing naiveté. He used the popularity of the movie Forrest Gump as an example. Your attempts at crunchy equanimity smack of naiveté, but you don't have the excuse of being an idiot. I'm not buying into your bullshit attempts to be fair and partial. It seems like you're still trying to cover your ass for having lent a hand. Face it. Your New Age persona--who you want to believe you are and who you want the world to think you are--is interfering with seeing yourself as you truly are and what you have done. Start with feeling guilty, as you should. It's nice that you recall how people of color have been discriminated against, even though I sense that you want to equate DEI and Affirmative action with that, just as Elon Musk wants to accuse the South African government of "racism" for pondering land reform that might restore land to Black South Africans from whom land was stolen. Shame on you. You're not as pristine as you would have us believe. What's worse, despite your empty speech on "the Shadow", you actually think you are pristine.
I am glad for the bulldozer but yes, also wary of the dangers of new forms of corruption, and view Trump with a lot of skepticism. (Yet I am also very happy about some of the changes that are being implemented.) I have a tendency to get overinvested in politics and ideas and far-away things which I have learned from chinese medicine is typical of my "wood" type and can have effects on my body. Now that I'm in my 40's some of these physical things are starting to manifest. So I try to walk the line of staying informed and not getting too agitated about things that are beyond my control, and putting the fate of the world on my own shoulders where it does not belong.
I'm at my best when I am steadily working toward a vision in concrete ways in my own life. I have a wonderful family and a large homestead to care for so there's almost limitless ways for me to make a difference on the daily. This is how it should be! It's not healthy or normal that so much of our attention (be it anger/frustration, or love/compassion) be directed mostly outside our actual spheres of influence. I think this is a huge part of the imbalance that we have right now. Specifically on the love/compassion front, I don't think it's normal or humanly possible to be directing so much of that energy to the macro. Healthy feminine nurturing is biologically appropriate at the micro/family level. Take it to the macro and it becomes totally out of whack and manipulative as we have seen.
The government/corporate state needs to get out of people's lives. Both in trying to control us with force, and trying to control us with "care" and "compassion." People's skills, of all types, have atrophied under this model that's been in place for over a 100 years (Christopher Lasch traces it to the Civil War). The government's care has created a sad, dependent, entitled people that cannot survive on their own without permission or handouts from their overlords. These are not the type of people that can be part of the dynamic cooperative work that needs doing right now. I increasingly worry that there's not enough stable, healthy, mature adults to care for all the adult children with so much baggage. I'd love for people to live here and work the land with us. But if I get bogged down by people's addictions, drama, and dependencies, that's going to drag me down and prevent me from staying afloat myself.
So anyway, it's a bit of a rambling comment but that's what comes up for me when I read what I perceive as an overemphasis on an abstract compassion. I feel like a bigger part of the answer to the problem we're in is a decentralization that gets this unholy government/corporate/bureaucratic borg out of people's lives, and lets us flourish again and learn to have real relationships with each other unmediated by these outside forces. It's hard to imagine what it even looks like because we've been living with it for so many generations.
In my own life, it was necessary that I clear out everything and stare at a blank canvas for awhile, in order that I could proceed with my intention to rebuild a new way, such that there is space for the innovative, imaginative and creative to enter. It felt brutal and is quite literal right now in the depth of winter, where I look out at a white sky that meets a white lake that meets the white ground in one great whitewash. We call it a snow day here - because there is no going anywhere with my car today. It's part of a months long liminal time and space that I must be with, 'the between' of what was and the beautiful future and world I know is possible! I, along with so many others around the world, must pause and be patient as our lives transition!
In order for the renewal of a nation to occur, the same process must happen. And while no human deserves the fear of survival to occupy their life, we must enter into a limimal space and be there in the discomfort of that not knowing - the uncertainty, before we can step into the new. A Great game of Chess is being played; the Great Turning is now. On some days, just a pawn is moved and other days, the knight makes a bold move out of nowhere. We might choose to trust that Guidance is involved and that there are well-meaning intelligent folks doing some incredibly good work that can't be witnessed at this time. Or not. The energy dial is under your control to choose what frequency or radio station you will tune into. Put together, as we raise our vibe, or tune our dial to what energizes us and brings us more elevated emotions like joy, care and love, we will change the world in the direction we want to see it go, not just for ourselves, but for all our fellow Earth inhabitants.
What you have written about the profound corruption of the reigning institutions is so disingenuous.
Today, my friends (biologists, conservation wildlife specialists, land-management laborers who keep fences, roads, ditches and gates in working order) got fired from our local Forest Reserve due to a Musk order. The Fish and Wildlife Service that manages the Forest Reserve stewards many similar refuges across the country, where endangered species and threatened soils and waters and waterways are protected and restored. What is it about the people who give their life and sweat to the USFWS that makes you feel there is profound corruption? How are they supposed to be funded ? How is the work they are doing not relevant to future generations and values?
SImilarly, funded seed, crop work and soil conservation grants in agriculture (also my community) is being shredded. Bring on the dust bowl, the mono-crop, the mechanized, computerized, laser robo-farm. You have lost your way, Charles.
Well, Charles, you've done it again. Not sure why I thought you might have found your way out of your previous political delusions but after reading the following paragraph, I knew my hope was unwarranted:
"That will depend on the values and allegiances of the builders. If they do not embody humanistic values and acknowledge basic moral truths, then their constructions will be every bit as ugly as what they have demolished, or even uglier."
Please tell me where and when you have seen examples of "humanistic vales" And acknowledgements of "moral truths" from Donald Trump and Elon Musk. What ideals do you admire in this wholesale grab for money and power?
Are you not seeing, not hearing what is being done? I honestly cannot understand what has happened to someone who's thoughts and opinions I used to trust and value. Your credibility is gone.
My guess is that Charles understands the need for immediate socioeconomic collapse and knows that Trump is the fastest way to it. The sooner the collapse, the greater chance we have at mitigating the climate crisis which could very well cause our extinction in the next couple hundred years. Best case scenario he's using his platform to play 4D chess. Another case is that he is attached to a specific version or feeling of hope which is preventing him from realizing the actual circumstance.
Well, if that's the case then why doesn't Charles say that? Why do you need to explain that for him? I understand that the economic status quo is the death of the ecosystem but the current bulldozer has no intention of arresting the destruction other than what it brings to his own benefit. Trying to rationalize that this current administration as beneficial even unintentionally is lunacy
I'm not advocating for it, just trying to make sense of Charles bizarre inability to say the obvious truths about Trump. He could simply be grifting or caught up too. I think the current administration is much less competent and will accelerate collapse. It's the only thing I see as positive.
Also possible that he is just responding to the demographic of his readers which are trending right and is trying to slowly bring them back to heart centered choice without losing them
Well, he's certainly lost a lot of us that aren't on the right so not sure that was a wise strategy. I certainly have no reason to follow this nonsense. Beyond disappointing.
Please kindly supply more detail explaining what you are referring to when you say:
"Let us not be deluded. Yes, the institutions that Trump is dismantling are irredeemably corrupt. They have maintained a regime of lies and secrecy that goes back at least two generations. Under the cover of those lies, they have perpetrated crimes so heinous and pervasive that their shock value alone makes them hard to accept as real."
I am not aware of all of this corruption and all of the pervasive and heinous crimes. Thanks.
Mike Benz, a former government insider has the receipts - it's worse than you could ever imagine: 15 minute clip re USAID from Mike Benz on the Joe Rogan podcast:
Perhaps you should have sent your substack to Elon Musk. Trump’s “win” has resulted in an unelected wealthy cyber hacker dismantling our government from within, and rearranging it as he pleases. I doubt that it is love in his heart that is motivating this blatant attack. Meanwhile people with very little experience other than blind subservience to a narcissist are at the head of massive governmental departments such as defense, security, intelligence, education and justice. It is breathtaking and will be near impossible to build back.
@charles I find this 'both sidesism' and 'othering' rhetoric of yours super boring, stale, and simplistic.
Of course 'othering' is not helpful to furthering civic collaboration and discourse in civil society.
But it is not 'othering' to see the urgent need to contain a deeply broken cult leader, his oligarchy and cadre of bad-faith actors, and prevent them from doing further damage to vulnerable people, the planet, the economy, and the already fractured body politic.
It's not 'anti-Trump' to say that. It's not 'taking sides' to take an uequivocal stance against the MAGA movement.
What is happening in the US should be deeply disturbing to Americans across the political spectrum. It's not a 'right' or 'left' issue.
This populist cancer is spreading across the planet, because the climate and biodiversity crisis and the rate of change is too much for many people so they are especially vulnerable to disinformation campaigns by populist leaders looking to enrich and benefit themselves. The playbook is out there, for anyone to read. It's amazing to me that we still fall for it, hook, line and sinker. (For example Bill Eddy's book "Why we elect narcissists and sociopaths and how we can stop", a politically agnostic book references the exact same word for word playbook of all the usual demagogues, from Mao to Pol Pot to Hitler to Mussolini to Trump - and not all of them are on the right.)
It's possible to take a strong stand against far-right populism and the manipulation of grievances of low-information populations most vulnerable to bots and bad information. It's possible to take a stand against the breaking of basic norms of leadership, against virulent and deliberate disinformation, dog whistles, bullying, insults and blame. Against threats, withholding and punishing of nations and states who refuse to comply with ridiculous demands. And the dismantling of a nation's checks and balances on the executive branch, and the the growing consolidating oligarchy influencing not just national but global power dynamics.
Perhaps there are many things about the US political system that have needed upending - and boy is this happening. But this is not happening because of any elevated aspirational reasons for re-creating or reforming a broken system. Rather it's happening for the benefit of a handful of wounded billionaires who don't give a fuck about the planet or the future because they've already built bunkers they can retreat to when things get dangerously bad.
And while the Democratic party has many problematic elements as well, they are nowhere in the same league as MAGA. There are many good-faith actors in the Democratic party, who still respect the norms of government process, who, <because> of this, are now being played and bulldozed and blocked by bad-faith actors who have no compunctions about steamrolling over the norms. Which is why MAGA is winning - when you don't care about the rules, you have an advantage over those who do.
You can frame yourself as being somehow above the for/against binary Charles, but I call BS. Since the pandemic, your following among the 'conspiritual' crowd has elevated, and I suspect you are hiding under the 'I refuse to other/take a side' rhetoric in order to appease them.
The "othering" rhetoric is boring, stale, and simplistic to you because you can't acknowledge that it is exactly what you are doing. Trump is not far right, and he is not your enemy. There IS a real cancer in our society, but it is not isolated with "populists" or "MAGA", it is in each of our own hearts and our inability to sit with our own fear and pain.
OK, well I guess we have to define what we mean by 'othering'. I see a distinction between 'calling out', 'setting limits' and even 'condemning in no uncertain terms' on the one hand and dehumanizing or demonizing on the other hand. I believe my intent was to do the former and I see othering as the latter. How well I did that is up for debate. I'm feeling particularly punchy today so my tone may not quite match up with my intent.
Trump may not be 'my' enemy, but it's clear to me that he does not have the best interests of the American people at heart. He can't even take care of his own team, as can be seen by the constant turnover in his previous (and likely this) administration, the way he fires and throws people under the bus on a dime when they don't offer him the level of loyalty he demands.
Hi, Amanda, I finally finished this today ... I think you may resonate and I think it's important. https://open.substack.com/pub/momentoftruth/p/why-cant-we-see-are-we-afraid-to?r=4uba8&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
Thanks for letting me know! I look forward to reading it.
True. And apologizing for any of it, especially the side that's paying you is called pandering or selling out.
I think Charles should definitely reflect on this.
Amanda I loved your comment and critique, I won't go into detail, because I am going to write my own comment and don't want to repeat myself. However at the end you made some guesses about Charles' motivations. I think Charles, (and I know him somewhat) absolutely genuinely is attempting to live in the "II refuse to other/take a side" position. But I think the fact that he seems to have a special category for the "irredeemable" deep state, which is out of harmony with everything else he has said, that makes "not taking a position" feel off.
It's hard to take a position against... when you are being paid by that side. The idea that the media is "bought" works for individuals as well.
I wrote this about all of that ... https://open.substack.com/pub/momentoftruth/p/why-cant-we-see-are-we-afraid-to?r=4uba8&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
Thanks, I'll look forward to reading your comment.
To all the MAGA followers of Eisenstein: you do know that "Amanda" is a dude in a dress, right?
I appreciate both Charles' deep call to embrace the "other" and Amanda's deep call to take a stand and set boundaries. Reminds me of an action in "Redwood Summer" in the late 80's when a group of us signed up to chain ourselves to a logging loader at site where the forest was being clear cut. As I was taking in the rage of my comrades in relation to the logging community, I felt myself drop into a deep knowing of the humanity of the beings on the other side of this polarity, those whose job it was to cut and the load the trees. On our way to find the loader, we encountered a group of them. There were some among our group whose rage was palpable and viscerally felt by the loggers. The situation felt volatile. I found myself in conversation with some of the loggers tears running down my face, heart open, telling them why we were there. They did not repell me or attack. Something important and hard to describe happened inside of me in that moment. We never made it to the logging loader, that stand of old forest was cut. I don't know if what happened in me had any impact on anyone but me. But I count and I at least felt that my voice counted, that taking a stand was powerful and that my "adversaries" were not my adversaries in a deeper sense. Perhaps both Amanda's call to take a stand to set boundaries and Charles' call end the war internally and externally are both important. Despite appearances, not sure there is a conflict between these points of view. My heart tells me that both are needed, both are valuable, crucial contributions to our collective healing...
Beautiful story. And I align with what you're saying <3
Respectfully, I don't think you've heard what Charles is saying. In what you write, I don't hear a deep and full comprehension of what you're critiquing. I hear your concern and passion, I honor your concern and passion, and I think your concern and passion may be clouding your ability to listen to what's before you (rather than hearing what you expect to hear). It's beyond me right now to offer a full response to the points you raise, and nothing I could say can achieve what true listening can. I imagine these words may provoke you; I'm sorry if they do. My intention is to earnestly and kindly invite you into a deeper listening. I think there's something there; Charles hears it, and I hear it too.
OK, I'm listening: So what is it that you think that I am missing or haven't listened to?
Wow, does this writer nail the big moment of our time. Charles, I have been foillowing you, off and on, for several years. Your equanimity has the best of you, and you've actually--it seems--effectively steeled yourself against the on-going suffering that Amanda so clearly limns, holding on to the purity past corruption shift that you hope for from very badly corrupted people. Who are you helping?
MAHA!!! There has been a 40% rise in cancer across all ages! It’s there for those that have the eyes willing to see it. The Truth shall be revealed. Unfortunately it’s the “my news sources are facts yours are conspiracy is the blinding eye that refuses to accept that those crying for democracy are in fact part of the demonic cult that is allowing this disease if corruption to spread. But gigs up , it’s time ✌🏿✌🏻✌🏾❤️
You are right on with your facts, and I would agree with 99% of your overall analysis. I'm also wondering if "calling BS" is helpful here. Can we not hold Charles in good faith while still critiquing what he is saying? As disappointing as his boosting of the "conspiritual" perspective has been, I see no reason to doubt his sincerity. We all have our blind spots.
Point taken. :-) I agree that 'calling BS' is maybe not a helpful frame.
I believe that when there is gaslighting, sometimes calling BS is totally appropriate: https://momentoftruth.substack.com/p/charles-eisenstein-rfk-jr-donald
Thank you Ami, for sharing this powerful essay in response to the unfortunate(to say it kindly) turn that Charles has taken over the last few years. Your words are powerful, poignant, and thoughtful. I believe that the essay you’ve shared is essential reading for everyone here.
I’m afraid to(though certainly will) admit that Charles has lost his way. Whether through naïveté, ignorance, or an actual acceptance of neofascism, I may never be sure.
I finished this today. At least is it an attempt at clarity. Charles is not the only one who seems to have lost his way. https://open.substack.com/pub/momentoftruth/p/why-cant-we-see-are-we-afraid-to?r=4uba8&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
There are a lot of valid points here, but I would still wonder about the idea that Charles is "gaslighting," because that assumes he is knowingly manipulating people. Of course, I am not inside his mind, so I don't know his intentions. I have chosen to give him the benefit of the doubt because I feel that what many describe as his "conspiritual" turn since Covid is really nothing new. In the Ascent of Humanity, he devotes entire chapters to criticisms of the medical system which, for all their insight, go too far. Charles being critical of vaccines and public health is nothing new, nor is his dabbling in conspiracy theories. Covid just brought these aspects of his perspective to light in a very visible and unfortunate way, and led to these things being foregrounded in his work in a manner which they hadn't been previously. Still, I have no reason to doubt his sincerity on these matters, no matter how strongly I disagree with his perspective, and no matter how much the money he received from the Kennedy campaign may have biased his thinking. And if we are to have any hope of getting him (or his readers) to consider another perspective on Trump than the one he has been promoting, we are not going to get very far by putting them on the defensive by accusing them of gaslighting.
Excellent piece, thanks for sharing! ♥️
Thanks for your excellent comment. I dont think I'm able to say the same thing and be as nice about it as you are. What's stale about CE is that he must pander to his base which has out and out Trump supporters. So he weilds his otherness dogma to avoid being truly principled. Or maybe he really believes someone as psychopathic as Trump is sincere about our health. In which case CE is even more deluded.
We can have compassion for migrants at the same time that we enforce the rules that we have for good reasons. Maybe we should make legal immigration easier. Less costly, and taking less time, but until then, unfortunately, the Biden administration allowed unprecedented numbers of people over our borders with no proper due process and sprinkled among the largely good people are horrendous criminals that no country would knowingly allow in any more than you would knowingly allow them into your home. Most of these migrants that the Biden admin allowed in aren't even from central America, they're just funneled through there because that's where our border is porous, not at New York harbor. If your compassion for one group of people puts another group of people in danger, then it isn't reducing suffering. So, again, we can feel compassion in our hearts at the same time that we do what keeps us safe. I have compassion for the homeless, lonely people on every corner of my city, but I am not taking them home with me to my family and children, whom they absolutely could pose a danger to.
I used to believe in open borders. I do not anymore. It's okay that there are vetting processes. Improve the efficiency of the vetting processes so it's easier for people to come here legally and soundly and safely! In the meantime, a course correction must be made, the pendulum must swing in the other direction after it swung so far the way it did the last 4 years. Somewhere in the middle of the pendulum swinging, it finds equilibrium, if only for a moment.
✌️
You're heard and understood sister (even if not agreed with). And if i may throw in my two cents, it seems to me that at the same time you might be missing the bigger picture of what is actually happening here and might have fallen into a trap (which i'll explain in a moment), so i respectfully invite you, if you can and want to, to look into this with me. I'd share with you a couple of very important essays (important in my view of course) on two specific issues that it seems like you (and others) might not be aware of. One is on the FACTS that are being deliberately censored regarding the ROOT CAUSE of immigration, and how exactly is immigration being used by the corporate-capitalist billionaire rulers of our society (both conservative and liberal).
These essays not only detail the FACTS that americans are never told about immigration, and not only show the MYTHS, lies and emotional manipulation spread by the billionaires' propagandists, but they ALSO go into the question of WHY americans are never told this.
Finally they suggest what can actually be done if one wishes to address THE ROOT CAUSE of the issue (clue: it is NOT by cheering and giving our power to the capitalist billionaires who created the issue to begin with, who then display it to you in a way that scares you to death, and who now pretend to be the ones who will protect you from the very phenomena that they themselves created.. See the essays below to understand exsctly how they created it to begin with).
And the second thing i'd like to bring to your attention is a profoundly important piece which goes into a much more fundamental issue, an issue which immigration is a subset of, an issue which encompasses immigration but is wider than it - The issue is how the ruling elite always always ALWAYS create frightening BOOGYMAN ENEMIES to scare you with. And exactly WHY they do that.
IMHO, this trick (the boogyman enemy trick) is the most important principle for every human on the planet to understand and be aware of (if we wish to be anything other than mere reactive automatons who are emotionally-manipulated by professional propagandists) because this principle is PRECISELY how the elite maintain their power over us and how they make sure that we are loyal to them. Yes, it is that important!!!
I'm mentioning this in a reply that deals with immigration, because immigration is a subset of this principle. Immigrants are very often used (by the elite and their narrative managers) as the boogyman enemy to scare us with and through which to elicit our obediance and loyalty to our oligarch rulers, because our rulers pretend to be the ones who care about us and will protect us from from the scary enemy who is coming to get us..
(immigrants are of course used by the ultra-rich not only for that boogyman enemy purpose, but are also used and severely exploited in other ways that are extremely profitable to the billionaire class. The essays below detail that).
The boogyman enemy trick is what our rulers use to keep us in line and loyal to them (as our so-called "protecters" from that "evil scary monstrous enemy over there who is coming to get ya"). Of course, often the boogyman enemy is not immigrants but some other scary foriegner (for example, their manufactured "muslim terrorists threat" and their manufactured "the red communist threat" are two of their favorite and most successful boogyman enemies, details in the essay below), but immigrants can also often function in that role for our rulers, and that is why i think it is profoundly important to be keenly aware of how this 'boogyman enemy' trick works (not just aware of it as a mere concept, but aware viscerally of how it operates within us and affects our nervous system and elicits from us the emotional reactions that our cynical rulers and their professional manipulators are aiming for). As well as aware of how it is being used against us to emotionally-manipulate us and keep us unwittingly cheering for our abusers, who are sold to us as our protectors, through the boogynan enemy trick. More details in the last essay below.
Your comment is IMHO a good example of how extremely effectively this trick works for the predatory billionaire ruling class to emotionally-manipulate us, to elicit in us the fear they need, and how effectively it manufactures our unwitting loyalty to them and our support for their rule over us.. As can be seen from the energy of your comment, the boogyman enemy principle is arguably the most important weapon in the billionaires' arsenal to manipulate us and rule over us, and it literally never fails to achieve its desired effect on the majority of people..
Okay, now that i described what i want to share and what i think is worthwhile to consider, then here are the essays detailing the two points i mentioned above. First, the set of essays on the facts and myths regarding immigration and why we are not told these.
https://open.substack.com/pub/johnspritzler/p/illegal-immigration-to-the-us-myth
And here https://johnspritzler.substack.com/p/censored-the-truth-about-mass-migration
And here https://www.pdrboston.org/illegal-immigration-what-should-we-
And here:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ueNWlMyUNy4
And second is the essay i mentioned above, regarding the boogyman enemy principle/trick (a trick which immigrants can be, and often are, used for) and how this trick is being used by our rulers to emotionally manipulate us, control us, and ensure our obedience and loyalty to them (as our saviors and protectors from that evil scary boogyman enemy who is coming to get you) https://www.pdrboston.org/oppressors-need-bogeyman-enemies
Amazing reply!!! Heart-centered, penetrative and sees right through the tricks played on us by the hierarchical ones who gained the world but lost their soul
This is a truly excellent comment! I suggest you use it as a comment on other relevant posts too.
One part of this that is rarely discussed is the U.S.’s role in making these countries into “shit holes” as Trump called them. There is a great hypocrisy regarding violation of borders when the U.S. has repeatedly, overtly and covertly, “intervened” on the affairs of the counties in Central America. These cross border incursions have been going on for more than 100 years. The U.S. backed support for repressive regimes in these countries has made it impossible for any populist’s movements to secure better conditions for the people thus making these countries places from which people are desperate to flee. A wholistic approach that acknowledges and accepts responsibility is required. Otherwise, it just keeps the “shit” out of sight until it invariably spills into our country.
This is a great point, and one that Charles has raised in other articles under the general concept of 'everything is connected to everything else'. We need to ask why so many people want to leave their countries, as most people prefer to stay in the land and community in which they were born and raised if there is not a strong reason to leave. The same intervention you describe has occurred in countries such as Afghanistan, Syria and Cambodia over the years, causing terrible social destruction and driving refugee movement to Europe, Australia and other wealthy regions, as well as the rise of political and religious extremism. It is unlikely, for example, that there would be a theocratic Islamist government in power in Iran now if the US hadn't conspired to overthrow the democratically elected president Mossadegh back in the 1953 and replace him with the corrupt Shah.
Yes. We’ve left our “tracks” in countries throughout the world. It is part of the Western mindset of winners and losers. The evolution of a mindset of cooperation has not yet begun.
"The evolution of a mindset of cooperation has not yet begun".
At least not within the ruling "elite" as far as I can tell. And that is my main contention with Charles´s article: while I agree that we need a mindset of interconnection and cooperation - and a lot of people who follow Charles´s work are probably in it - I just cannot see it, even remotely, within the "elite" that are still running things.
Because they operate out of their wordview which, as has been commented on earlier, needs a bogeyman, an "othering", an "us - the good guys" vs "them- the bad guys" mentality. And I honestly don´t see how the "elite" is going to change their worldview because that would need a lot of self-reflection and second-guessing on their behalf on how they acquired that mindset and why they need to sustain it.
I understand and share your worries. The ruling mindset is clearly the opposite of cooperation. But, a critical mass of ordinary people have throughout history emerged to tip the scales. If you divide the number of billionaires in the world into the number of people in the world the ratio is approximately 3,000,000 to one. Looked at from this perspective, who has the power?
They're lining up the prisoners
And the guards are taking aim
I struggle with some demons
They were middle class and tame
I didn't know I had permission
To murder and to maim
You want it darker
We kill the flame
-Leonard Cohen
"I have compassion for the homeless, lonely people on every corner of my city, but I am not taking them home with me to my family and children, whom they absolutely could pose a danger to."
Many of the countries from which our recent immigrants have come actually need their citizens back! I don't say it is easy, the deportation or the return, and of course I am making a generalization. But the draining of citizens from struggling countries to the US and the West has not been good for either side of the move. Let's try for the huge course correct that is now needed.
Why are states entitled to particular individuals choosing to live there just because they were born there? I take your point about "brain drain," but that is a phenomenon of global corporatism/capitalism tipping the scales in favour of the hegemonic power and its allies and trading partners. Individuals should not have to suffer in inescapable poverty under corrupt political rule if they can find other options to improve their lives. Most people are not in a position to challenge the power of international financial interests and the corrupt political collaborators whose activities leave the so-called "Third World" more or less permanently in debt. But they may be in a position to move somewhere else and make a contribution to a better world there. Who are we, as residents of the nations which benefit economically by accident of birth from "Third World" exploitation and impoverishment, to tell those born under such conditions that they can't do what most of us would probably do if we were them?
I agree with your points. I am partly wanting to consider that when we remove limits to our immigration, there may be negative consequences to those struggling countries too. Let's keep our eyes on and do our best for both ends of the flow. The reasonable limits we put on our immigration can help to keep focus on the countries from which people want to emigrate.
I keep hoping that the new multipolarity we are experiencing can begin to affect the imbalances of international finances as well. I am not suggesting that this will happen soon...and yet I am hoping that as we see the geopolitical shift (barely perceptible), we can also encourage a geofinancial shift. For example, can BRICS or maybe China's Brick and Road Initiatives help to encourage a geofinancial shift, bit by bit?
I have good West African friends, some of whom have come to live in the US and some of whom have decided to stay in their home countries. I pray for all sides of this question -- and keep hoping that the Africans in Africa can gain enough wherewithal to build their own countries to some more satisfying level. I can see some of that happening -- but so very little and for so very few of the folks there.
I do believe this is a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem, so anywhere in the vicious circle we can shift the flow, it would be helpful.
The strongest ones with the most determination are definitely the ones who came here. They didn’t want to leave but there’s very limited ways for them to earn money in their countries of origin. And being able to feed their kids whom they left behind in the care of the grandparents is the driving force that keeps them working here. They would love to go back and be with their kids and their family, but that’s not an option if they want to keep their kids fed and be able to send them to school. I don’t know about the other countries, but in Honduras, there’s no free public education past the sixth grade. Beyond 6th grade the parents have to pay.
https://open.substack.com/pub/johnspritzler/p/illegal-immigration-to-the-us-myth?r=ql8jy&utm_medium=ios
Please see John Spritzer’s article to gain a much deeper understanding of the roots of the immigration problem.
Thank you for this dear Charles. Fully with you. And I think it's important to remember that trump and his NeoCon Zionist billionaire Oligarchs (which he filled his AIPAC administration with) runs a bulldozer not only through american politics but LITERALLY runs a bulldozer over the lives of human beings (see https://substack.com/@caitlinjohnstone/note/c-90113262, but of course these are the inferior human beings, the ones who didn't have the "correct" religious label placed on them at birth, the ones not chosen and elevated and favored and given lands by a fake tribalist hebrew "god"). And the infantile messiah already told us the profound anti-life ugliness that he and his zionist billionaire oligarchs plan to build after they bulldoze, ethnically-cleanse and ERASE people's lives - luxury resorts for the ultra rich and for the chosen ones, after the undesirable indigenous civilization has been "cleaned out" (his words), bulldozed away and erased. See https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/trump-reveals-plan-for-the-ethnic
As for DEI that you mentioned, I highly recommend this profound essay that breaks down exactly how both factions of the billionaire ruling class (both conservative and liberal) are using it to divide-and-rule us https://open.substack.com/pub/johnspritzler/p/trump-is-attacking-dei-the-liberal
As for immigration, here is a very detailed account of the FACTS that americans are never told (neither by the liberal nor conservative propagandists) and exactly WHY americans are never told this https://open.substack.com/pub/johnspritzler/p/illegal-immigration-to-the-us-myth
IMO, the only difference is that, unlike the evil of the democratic party, trump is just a more honest form of evil because he is not hiding how greedy, ruthless, murderous, abusive, merciless, bullying and anti-human is the american billionaires’ corporate-capitalist empire, whereas the right-wing capitalist democrats wear a caring mask and dishonestly talk about love as they screw humanity for billionaire profiteering and control
In my understanding, the global corporate-banking oligarchy operates through BOTH its wings, both the fake left and the fake right. Both through the liberal democrat leadership (who act in very iliberal ways) who use inauthentic slogans of love and caring (which they don't mean) to advance billionaire profiteering & domination, as well as through the oligarchy's other wing- the fake "populist" billionaires right (who are sold to their propagandized worshippers as "anti-elite" and "pro-freedom" while IN REALITY are tyrant elite oligarchs who work diligently to concentrate the planet's wealth in the hands of the 0.1%, to incite you to HATE HATE HATE anyone who isn’t aligned with their global empire, and to build the digital technocratic prison of humanity for the sole purpose of the domination of the few over the many.
In terms of the psychology that drives the two wings of the empire - unlike the inauthentic love slogans of the fake "left", the other empire's wing - the fake "populist" billionaire right - are inciting their half of the population through a God-ignorant childish mentality that views "greatness" as DOMINATION, power over, force, subjugation, profiteering by crushing others to benefit oneself, and the US (light) vs THEM (darkness) sectarian tribalist mentality
The tragedy, IMHO, is that most of humanity has been herded (using the oligarchs' algorithms) into partisan enclosures/echo-chambers, where we are taught to cheer for one or the other wing of the global oligarchy and to view the other half as 'the evil ones'. Very few seem to recognize BOTH halves of the elite, and very few seem to want real freedom from empire and dignity for all humans, but most seem to just want that the empire be under the right management, the management of "our billionaires" (not “their billionaires”), seem to just want the domination of the one wing of the oligarchy that they learnt to identify with
“Both sides” talk obscures the fact that one side has the likes of Marjorie Taylor Green, and the other, Bernie Sanders. It’s a false equivalence and dangerous AF to conflate such wildly different political approaches as merely two wings of the same empire.
One of the illusions that Trump voters fell prey to is that he is for the little guy—and that will be proven horribly misguided soon enough.
Just one bit of proof: in 2023, USAID purchased more than a million metric tons of food from US farmers and, right now, they are left holding the bag.
Another ironic difference, “our” billionaire, Bloomberg (despite his past party affiliations) decided to fund the climate group at the UN after Trump
pulled out of the Paris Agreement.
The GOP is fueled on victim hood/vengeance and hatred of the poor/nonwhites. Dems tend to just be dumb and distracted by virtue signaling. But at least they have virtues connected to the real world—as opposed to the right wing Christians taking over our government and theNew Age conspiracy peeps who pretend they can manifest the New Earth by consuming it whole (while electing a climate denying felon as president).
If you’re interested, checkout my essays for fortifying antidotes to the madness of the political moment. 🙏🏼💔🇺🇸
I finished this essay today on Eisenstein and spiritual bypass. https://open.substack.com/pub/momentoftruth/p/why-cant-we-see-are-we-afraid-to?r=4uba8&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
Yes clearly your lifes trauma has led you to the bee in your bonnet & need for duality.
duality is a concept, used in this case (this Substack) to equivocate for extreme cruelty. Compassion, empathy and discernment are the path forward. Wisdom plays by no rules and certainly not according to mentally mushy spiritual lingo.
Is it possible that the billionaire elites are also part of the big Us of interbeing?
You’ve seen through the left/right illusion of separation. What about the up/down? Can we practice radical inclusion and compassion with our oppressors? Should we?
I haven’t answered these questions for myself yet. Curious to hear any thoughts and opinions.
Thanks brother. Yes, I've also thought about this and have indeed already posed that question to myself too. I'd like to point out two things, please be sure to read both, as they're both very important. First, yes I do sincerely have deep compassion for our DEEPLY WOUNDED AND UNCONSCIOUS oppressors (and yes, i realize that the strong language used in this comment might have made it hard to see) AND at the same time i think that DEEPLY UNCONSCIOUS, WOUNDED, HEART-DIVORCED AND IMMATURE abusers, murderers, thieves, manipulators, oppresors, deceivers (who operate from a tribalist anti-unity and domination mentality) should NOT have power over humanity in any way, shape or form!!!
IMHO, having love and compassion for another does NOT mean being a doormat for their deeply unconsious and abusive behavior.
And the second very important point i want to clarify, perhaps even more important than the one above, is that IMHO the main issue is NOT the character of the oppresors but rather the main issue is the unintelligent system (of class domination and exploitation) that we live under, which FORCES even good people to oppress others (and yes, not all ultra-rich persons are bad or corrupted. Some want to do good, but are incapable of doing so under a system of class domination. More on that in this very very important essay, please do read it https://johnspritzler.substack.com/p/why-have-no-rich-and-no-poor
So to answer your question directly, i don't think up/down is an illusion at all. Yes, some ultra-rich are trapped in the class domination system too and are not bad people, but that doesn't change the fact that the system is set up for the domination of the few over the many and for the PROFOUND ABUSE of the "lower" class by the ruling class. Please d9 read the extremely important essay i linked above to see numerous examples of exactly how the upper class treats the lower class like DIRT!!! You won't be told these things in the ruling class' propaganda media, the very wise essay i linked lays it all out in detail. Please read it in full. It is very important
The class domination and abuse system is the problem, not any particular person..
So no, I have no hate in my heart to our oppresors. I have seen the immature, frightened, predatory, selfish and life-destroying capitalist dog-eat-dog mentality operating in myself too and i don't think i am superior in value in any way to those at the top of the class pyramid. Again, the up/down system is the issue, not the people trapped in the system (yes, even the deeply unconscious, wounded, unhealed right-wing capitalist billionaire abusers who internalised the DOMINATION values of the unintelligent and abusive system of class inequality that they impose on us).
I have deep compassion and want the best for those wounded ones as well. They are trapped like us, AND they should not have power over us.
The class domination system is the problem, not any particular person
Whoooaa, powerful comment. Especially in the last four paragraphs you hit the nail right on tne head and identified exactly the heart of the dysfunction. Spot on!!
Yeah those last four paragraphs. Hit. Hard.
This is exactly why I don’t vote or pay taxes. I do however caress the earth on the daily and try try try to hold compassion for myself and others. Thankyou for your deep thoughts
" (---) very few seem to want real freedom from empire and dignity for all humans".
I´ve been wondering alomg the same lines like why so few people do not question their beimg ruled over in the first place. Why do I need to "elect" anyone that I do not know personally and thus cannot trust, to reign over me? Under the guise of "democracy" of course.......
Hey I gotta stop ya 👂 hear...
You said to Charles in your opening post , that Charles might not be seeing the bigger picture, lol ....
Obviously you don't get there is an element that must be woven into whosoever fabric is doing the weaving. The element of compassion. It's a physical sensation woven into the fabric of who you are. Its Our Divine intelligence that needs to be fully illuminated
Can you say something about that?
Thanks brother. I think you might be confusing with my reply to Serina above, where i did say to her (not to Charles but to her), that she might be missing the bigger picture. That was an entirely different comment and not addresed to Charles.
Yes, however what I said still holds water , meaning I don't believe your getting what Charles is recommending as a solution. The element of the Divine consciousness has to be woven into the fabric we weave...
In reading what you shared I believe your thinking might be absent of that element?
I hear you and understand. I believe i did get what Charles is saying and i fully agree/aligned with him and with you on that. I assure you it is not at all absent from my heart (even as i understand that the strong language in my comment might make it hard to see that). I addressed and elaborated on this exact same question/concern in my replies to others earlier so with your permission I won't repeat it here again. Thank you very much for the care and concern. Really appreciated 🙏
🙏 thank you for the clarification 🙏
Having read this far, the politically engaged reader may be trying to understand this article through the lens of “Which side is Eisenstein on?” As in foreign affairs or any other domain, that lens collapses complexity and nuance. Both Trump-as-hero and Trump-as-villain leave a lot out. Same for “Eisenstein supports Trump” or “Eisenstein is anti-Trump.” Stop it.
So basically Charles spent a year+ running the Kennedy campaign, took in several hundred thousand dollars doing it, lectured us all about the need to vote for Kennedy, then participated in the capitulation of Kennedy to Trump, and then wrote a couple pieces about how Trump is not that bad and encouraged us not to vote for team blue before the election, and now wants to position himself above it all? Whatever. Stop it yourself.
It was mind twisting. I wrote about it myself as I was so stunned by the BS. https://momentoftruth.substack.com/p/charles-eisenstein-rfk-jr-donald
At this moment, it is time to actually take a side. And if you have not, you really have. And not the side of compassion.
https://open.substack.com/pub/momentoftruth/p/why-cant-we-see-are-we-afraid-to?r=4uba8&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
Exactly.
This is a brilliant article, Charles. Thank you for taking the brave stands that you do here against dehumanizing and destructive policies. It seems that you are moving towards the kind of moral clarity we all need in this moment, and no doubt your reflections will help countless others.
I would gently challenge you asking that we "stop it" with the "Is Eisenstein for or against Trump?" question. Of course, I take your point that we cannot be "against" another human being, for important spiritual reasons. If you need to overstate your case to bring that point home, it's constructive as a contribution to the conversation. Still, I would argue that we can firmly support or oppose a particular individual having particular power, because that person will use the power they have to implement the agenda they want to implement. I always return to the example of Desmond Tutu praying daily for P W Botha, the unrepentant South Africa president under Apartheid. Tutu vigorously opposed him politically, bringing international boycotts and divestment to bear in order to overthrow his rule. And yet, he knew the importance of maintaining love in his heart for Botha, and for remembering that Botha too was a child of God. He then went on to chair the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in order to do what we could to stop the cycle of retribution which may have been inevitable without it.
So yes, we should not be "anti-Trump" in terms of hating Trump the human being and child of God. But no, we shouldn't be shy about opposing him politically, and doing what we can to limit or take away the power he is using to harm others and the planet.
"Tutu vigorously opposed him politically, bringing international boycotts and divestment to bear in order to overthrow his rule".
If they could have found a way to actually talk and listen to each other about why they are opposing each other, there might not have been a need for further external action.
Marshall Rosenberg (non-violent commnication) aimed to help people identify their unmet needs and find connection with each other, even in hostile situations and in conflict-ridden areas around the world.
Here, Rosenberg aslo talks about an "enemy image" and gives an example of a mediating between a Muslim tribe and a Christian tribe in northern Nigeria.
https://inquiringmind.com/article/2101_4w_rosenberg-interview-with-marshall-rosenberg-the-traveling-peacemaker/
This is a very white position. You may not be white, but this is what strikes me. On one side, people are dying and being violently oppressed. People with privilege see this all as some sort of mediation challenge. These issues are desperately urgent for so many and I'll bet Tutu tried to meet with Botha. It took moving mountains to end South African apartheid. It took action.
I love the example that you give here about Tutu and P. W. Botha. The question I ask if how meaningful is it to 'oppose' someone? This implies that they are solely an agent for harm with no redeeming qualities. I see a lot of narcissism, vengefulness and ignorance in Trump, and I also see courage, determination and some quite sensible thinking in some areas. I am incredibly grateful that he has backed RFK Jr to take a role in reforming the public health system, that he is overturning vaccine mandates and that he seems to be pushing for a negotiated peace in Ukraine. I am also horrified by his talk of removing Palestinians from Gaza, removing environmental protections and oversight of the financial sector, and worried about the influence of Elon Musk and other oligarchs, even as I'm grateful for his work in standing up for free speech. Overall I don't think any political party or leader anywhere represents my values, and so I accept them for who they are, resist and discourage the bad things they put forward where I can and try to promote and spread the good.
Also, realizing I didn't answer your question, "how meaningful is it to 'oppose' someone?"
Again, all we have to do is look at South Africa. Tutu and Mandela's coordinated political opposition to apartheid and those who kept it in place led to the country transforming from an authoritarian state of racist segregation into a functioning democracy (granted, an imperfect one). That's a real and important difference, and yet, it doesn't have to mean demonizing the perpetrators. After all, Tutu led the Truth and Reconciliation Commission with the idea that those who were ready to acknowledge what they had done needed to be forgiven and re-embraced by society, and Mandela even invited his former jailer to be a VIP guest at his inauguration.
Redemption is always possible, and Trump is of course not wrong about everything. Heck, even Adolf Hitler founded Volkswagen, and there's nothing wrong with quality German engineering. Still, on balance, I think it would have been better for the world if Hitler had never come to power and the Holocaust and WWII never happened, even if we would have missed out on those cool 60s hippie vans. I think it's possible, and indeed morally essential, to decide whether on balance, the harm being done outweighs whatever marginal goods can come from a person rising to power. Many who see the intransigence of the establishment can be tempted to love whatever wrecking ball comes its way, but it's also important to remember that the "solution" is quite often worse than the problem. Charles himself even writes about this in "The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know is Possible":
“How many revolutionaries have recreated, in their own organizations and countries, the very institutions of oppression they sought to overthrow?”
Many of us are so desperate for a revolution that we're tempted to think that Donald Trump will bring it about, or at least clear the ground for it. Of course, there is opportunity in every crisis, but counting on Donald Trump's rising to power being a stepping stone to something better is a dangerous game to play, IMO. I'm horrified to find out, for example, what he's up to with the migrants he's sending to Guantanamo as we speak.
I think I should have distinguished between opposing a person and opposing their policies and actions. I think your example demonstrates the value and importance of resisting cruel, destructive, wrongheaded policies. To me, this is different from opposing a person, even if the effect is the same in a practical sense. I take seriously the importance of maintaining compassion and reverence for all people, even ones who I see as ensnared in fear-based thinking and behaviour, for both spiritual and pragmatic reasons. I see Trump as someone who thrives from fighting and being attacked and demonised, yet it also brings out his worst, as it does with most people to be honest. I think there would be more value in going after the bad policies he introduces without couching this position in terms of how bad a person he is. This won't affect him directly, but it creates a space for changing people's minds. Doing this actually has a chance of changing Trump's mind, because among other things I think he is quite sensitive to public opinion and wants to be admired and liked.
Also it acknowledges the fact that he was just elected president by a convincing majority of Americans (personally I would have preferred that RFK Jr, Cornel West or Jill Stein have been elected ahead of either him or Kamala Harris, and the US electoral system is corrupt and anti-democratic as hell, but it is what it is). A more profitable line of resistance would be, for instance, to accept that he has some kind of mandate for reducing wasteful government expenditure (and Bernie for one was smart enough to observe that this is a positive goal), but to point out where cutting programs will do more harm than good, environmentally, socially but also economically. I'm all for resistance to unjust or stupid policies, and sure a time can come when the people will rise up in a groundswell to demand the resignation of a leader who grossly breaches their trust, but I don't believe now is that time.
These are my thoughts, though you may not agree. https://open.substack.com/pub/momentoftruth/p/why-cant-we-see-are-we-afraid-to?r=4uba8&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
The general thrust of everything you are saying makes sense. The only major difference in what you and I are saying is tone. While I do not give Trump the benefit of the doubt, I am trying to give Charles the benefit of the doubt. I do see a certain degree of movement towards sanity in this article compared to some others he's written recently. I don't think anybody who made a mistake was ever shamed into admitting it, so I'm trying to give him a chance to see it for himself. I appreciated what Lissa Rankin said below: he would be surprised by how many people would forgive him if he admitted he messed up. And, I still value his books and his work has still had a net positive impact on my life, so I do not want to get too much into this "take a stand or lose me as a reader" business - though I do admit that I take his recent writing far less seriously than I used to. I do find his turn in the last few years disappointing, especially given the amount of money he received from RFK's campaign and how much I believe that has influenced him, but I also believe he is a complex individual who has a good heart beneath all of that. I wonder how much his hands are tied in terms of what he can say at this point by the money he took from RFK's campaign as well. Of course, it was a foolish decision to trust RFK Jr., but I tend to believe Charles was hoodwinked rather than cynically collaborating. I could be wrong, and if I am, I agree with the conclusion of your article. It would be very sad.
Charles, How did you manage to become such a total schmuck? This is one of the stupidest, most ignorant pieces of sell-out "writing" I have ever read, only rivaled by your other recent essays. Canine diarrhea smells better than what you poop out of your whore's ass. How is it that you keep hoodwinking your followers with your useless phony spirituality and endless moral equivocations?
Congrats Charles: You just supported a Fascist takeover of America by global oligarchs driving us toward techno-feudalism, permanent chip-in-the-brain enslavement, and you made good money on it as rfk bootlicker. I am so sorry I once believed in you and helped you build an audience.
As for Charles' readers: You need to shake yourself out of whatever hypnotism keeps you fixated here. Rejoin the progressive spiritual Left, embrace authentic class solidarity, wake up from this trance. The global Fascist oligarchy is happy if you die and will accelerate your destruction and take profit from it as you go down. Charles will keep telling you how this is all okay, because maybe they have good hearts or don't know what they are doing. This is bullshit. They know exactly what they are doing.
Charles had some kind of midlife crisis and sold out whatever ideals he once kind of had. Sort of like America in a nutshell.
This failure of Charles’ to even whisper a denunciation of the regime that he is, in a 3rd-degree, a part of, is incredibly harmful.
You’re correct, Daniel, in that they absolutely know what they are doing. It saddens me to realize that Charles, too, knows what he is doing. What is currently taking place- the techno-fascist takeover, the obliteration of the already decaying structure of a nation and global ecosystem- deserves an immediacy in objection and condemnation that Charles so coyly refuses to utter.
One absolutely can both take a side and hold love in their heart at the same time. Charles chooses not to, and we need to believe what he reveals with that choice.
Hello, Daniel. Could you post a list of suggestions of who the most interesting thinkers and alliances are on the progressive spiritual Left (and/or voices for compassion and wisdom who have not been tainted by the conspiracy-oriented and neo-fascist alt-right discourse that has been emerging and colonizing spiritual communities over the past decade or so?) Much appreciated.
I'll add a few here, Rebecca Solnit and Joan Halifax have been very strongly outspoken against this regime. Both long time Buddhist practitioners. There was a very good program through the Upaya Zen centre a number of weeks ago that you could find online. Here's part of it. https://www.upaya.org/video/embracing-interdependence-and-purpose-in-uncertain-times/
Rob Brezsny, astrologer comes to mind.
Shambhavi Saraswati is a strong activist who teaches from non-dual Shaiva tantra and Dzogchen Buddhist lineages.
I'm looking for these people as well. Many have been very disappointing, so far.
This is a question I'm living as well and trying to figure out in my own body/mind, especially as it concerns non-violence in the face of what I feel coming.
Starhawk is still very good. Sherri Mitchell, the Indigenous author. I myself am a spiritual and resilience teacher and author and recently wrote this about Eisenstein, FYI: https://open.substack.com/pub/momentoftruth/p/why-cant-we-see-are-we-afraid-to?r=4uba8&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
I just finished this, Daniel. https://open.substack.com/pub/momentoftruth/p/why-cant-we-see-are-we-afraid-to?r=4uba8&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
As you may know I have worked me entire career advocating for system change and evolution beyond the limitless growth, extraction and exploitation form of Capitalism that has reigned this nation and the global economy. And part of that requires fundamental redesign of government. However, the current regime is not about making government more efficient but rather getting it out of the way so the corporatocracists and oligarchs can do as they will. We will all suffer. This is a very dark and dangerous time, with madmen megalomaniacs at the helm. There is no sanewashing or bullshitting that is going to make any this less destructive.
Amen to all that. My thoughts are here: https://open.substack.com/pub/momentoftruth/p/why-cant-we-see-are-we-afraid-to?r=4uba8&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
“We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must - at that moment - become the center of the universe.”
Ellie Wiesel
This is exactly the time to pick a side.
My thoughts: https://open.substack.com/pub/momentoftruth/p/why-cant-we-see-are-we-afraid-to?r=4uba8&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
"... Charles bizarre inability to say the obvious truths about Trump."
That's it exactly. What the hell? Why is that so hard and not incredibly obvious to anyone reading this? And why is it tolerated and not called out? Reading these comments I feel like I'm in another world.
I'm glad to see there are a few folks in here calling it out and pushing back.
https://open.substack.com/pub/momentoftruth/p/why-cant-we-see-are-we-afraid-to?r=4uba8&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
James Hillman, the maverick Jungian psychologist, once skewered Americans for romanticizing naiveté. He used the popularity of the movie Forrest Gump as an example. Your attempts at crunchy equanimity smack of naiveté, but you don't have the excuse of being an idiot. I'm not buying into your bullshit attempts to be fair and partial. It seems like you're still trying to cover your ass for having lent a hand. Face it. Your New Age persona--who you want to believe you are and who you want the world to think you are--is interfering with seeing yourself as you truly are and what you have done. Start with feeling guilty, as you should. It's nice that you recall how people of color have been discriminated against, even though I sense that you want to equate DEI and Affirmative action with that, just as Elon Musk wants to accuse the South African government of "racism" for pondering land reform that might restore land to Black South Africans from whom land was stolen. Shame on you. You're not as pristine as you would have us believe. What's worse, despite your empty speech on "the Shadow", you actually think you are pristine.
It is not naive to lead with hope rather than outrage.
I am glad for the bulldozer but yes, also wary of the dangers of new forms of corruption, and view Trump with a lot of skepticism. (Yet I am also very happy about some of the changes that are being implemented.) I have a tendency to get overinvested in politics and ideas and far-away things which I have learned from chinese medicine is typical of my "wood" type and can have effects on my body. Now that I'm in my 40's some of these physical things are starting to manifest. So I try to walk the line of staying informed and not getting too agitated about things that are beyond my control, and putting the fate of the world on my own shoulders where it does not belong.
I'm at my best when I am steadily working toward a vision in concrete ways in my own life. I have a wonderful family and a large homestead to care for so there's almost limitless ways for me to make a difference on the daily. This is how it should be! It's not healthy or normal that so much of our attention (be it anger/frustration, or love/compassion) be directed mostly outside our actual spheres of influence. I think this is a huge part of the imbalance that we have right now. Specifically on the love/compassion front, I don't think it's normal or humanly possible to be directing so much of that energy to the macro. Healthy feminine nurturing is biologically appropriate at the micro/family level. Take it to the macro and it becomes totally out of whack and manipulative as we have seen.
The government/corporate state needs to get out of people's lives. Both in trying to control us with force, and trying to control us with "care" and "compassion." People's skills, of all types, have atrophied under this model that's been in place for over a 100 years (Christopher Lasch traces it to the Civil War). The government's care has created a sad, dependent, entitled people that cannot survive on their own without permission or handouts from their overlords. These are not the type of people that can be part of the dynamic cooperative work that needs doing right now. I increasingly worry that there's not enough stable, healthy, mature adults to care for all the adult children with so much baggage. I'd love for people to live here and work the land with us. But if I get bogged down by people's addictions, drama, and dependencies, that's going to drag me down and prevent me from staying afloat myself.
So anyway, it's a bit of a rambling comment but that's what comes up for me when I read what I perceive as an overemphasis on an abstract compassion. I feel like a bigger part of the answer to the problem we're in is a decentralization that gets this unholy government/corporate/bureaucratic borg out of people's lives, and lets us flourish again and learn to have real relationships with each other unmediated by these outside forces. It's hard to imagine what it even looks like because we've been living with it for so many generations.
Thanks for this Courtney :). I could not agree more.
Thanks Sama! We should talk soon.
In my own life, it was necessary that I clear out everything and stare at a blank canvas for awhile, in order that I could proceed with my intention to rebuild a new way, such that there is space for the innovative, imaginative and creative to enter. It felt brutal and is quite literal right now in the depth of winter, where I look out at a white sky that meets a white lake that meets the white ground in one great whitewash. We call it a snow day here - because there is no going anywhere with my car today. It's part of a months long liminal time and space that I must be with, 'the between' of what was and the beautiful future and world I know is possible! I, along with so many others around the world, must pause and be patient as our lives transition!
In order for the renewal of a nation to occur, the same process must happen. And while no human deserves the fear of survival to occupy their life, we must enter into a limimal space and be there in the discomfort of that not knowing - the uncertainty, before we can step into the new. A Great game of Chess is being played; the Great Turning is now. On some days, just a pawn is moved and other days, the knight makes a bold move out of nowhere. We might choose to trust that Guidance is involved and that there are well-meaning intelligent folks doing some incredibly good work that can't be witnessed at this time. Or not. The energy dial is under your control to choose what frequency or radio station you will tune into. Put together, as we raise our vibe, or tune our dial to what energizes us and brings us more elevated emotions like joy, care and love, we will change the world in the direction we want to see it go, not just for ourselves, but for all our fellow Earth inhabitants.
Appreciate this reflection.
What you have written about the profound corruption of the reigning institutions is so disingenuous.
Today, my friends (biologists, conservation wildlife specialists, land-management laborers who keep fences, roads, ditches and gates in working order) got fired from our local Forest Reserve due to a Musk order. The Fish and Wildlife Service that manages the Forest Reserve stewards many similar refuges across the country, where endangered species and threatened soils and waters and waterways are protected and restored. What is it about the people who give their life and sweat to the USFWS that makes you feel there is profound corruption? How are they supposed to be funded ? How is the work they are doing not relevant to future generations and values?
SImilarly, funded seed, crop work and soil conservation grants in agriculture (also my community) is being shredded. Bring on the dust bowl, the mono-crop, the mechanized, computerized, laser robo-farm. You have lost your way, Charles.
It's terrible what they are doing. I just wrote this essay, which makes three on this mess that has ventured into dangerous territory. https://open.substack.com/pub/momentoftruth/p/why-cant-we-see-are-we-afraid-to?r=4uba8&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
Well, Charles, you've done it again. Not sure why I thought you might have found your way out of your previous political delusions but after reading the following paragraph, I knew my hope was unwarranted:
"That will depend on the values and allegiances of the builders. If they do not embody humanistic values and acknowledge basic moral truths, then their constructions will be every bit as ugly as what they have demolished, or even uglier."
Please tell me where and when you have seen examples of "humanistic vales" And acknowledgements of "moral truths" from Donald Trump and Elon Musk. What ideals do you admire in this wholesale grab for money and power?
Are you not seeing, not hearing what is being done? I honestly cannot understand what has happened to someone who's thoughts and opinions I used to trust and value. Your credibility is gone.
I thought Charles was done with politics & I was relieved. But the damage was done. https://momentoftruth.substack.com/p/charles-eisenstein-rfk-jr-donald
My guess is that Charles understands the need for immediate socioeconomic collapse and knows that Trump is the fastest way to it. The sooner the collapse, the greater chance we have at mitigating the climate crisis which could very well cause our extinction in the next couple hundred years. Best case scenario he's using his platform to play 4D chess. Another case is that he is attached to a specific version or feeling of hope which is preventing him from realizing the actual circumstance.
Well, if that's the case then why doesn't Charles say that? Why do you need to explain that for him? I understand that the economic status quo is the death of the ecosystem but the current bulldozer has no intention of arresting the destruction other than what it brings to his own benefit. Trying to rationalize that this current administration as beneficial even unintentionally is lunacy
I'm not advocating for it, just trying to make sense of Charles bizarre inability to say the obvious truths about Trump. He could simply be grifting or caught up too. I think the current administration is much less competent and will accelerate collapse. It's the only thing I see as positive.
Correct.
Also possible that he is just responding to the demographic of his readers which are trending right and is trying to slowly bring them back to heart centered choice without losing them
Well, he's certainly lost a lot of us that aren't on the right so not sure that was a wise strategy. I certainly have no reason to follow this nonsense. Beyond disappointing.
It's the vaccines. Several of his friends and former collaborators trace it back to that.
Interesting! Thanks for sharing.
I have been sharing this here. Just completed it. Hoping to bring clarity to the situation, which involves so many spiritual & wellness teachers & influencers. https://open.substack.com/pub/momentoftruth/p/why-cant-we-see-are-we-afraid-to?r=4uba8&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
Please kindly supply more detail explaining what you are referring to when you say:
"Let us not be deluded. Yes, the institutions that Trump is dismantling are irredeemably corrupt. They have maintained a regime of lies and secrecy that goes back at least two generations. Under the cover of those lies, they have perpetrated crimes so heinous and pervasive that their shock value alone makes them hard to accept as real."
I am not aware of all of this corruption and all of the pervasive and heinous crimes. Thanks.
Exactly - these sound like MAGA talking points to me. Trump draining the swamp. Yada yada.
Mike Benz, a former government insider has the receipts - it's worse than you could ever imagine: 15 minute clip re USAID from Mike Benz on the Joe Rogan podcast:
https://www.jrepodcast.com/clip/the-deep-dark-secrets-of-usaid-with-mike-benz/
Full episodes:
https://www.jrepodcast.com/episode/joe-rogan-experience-2272-mike-benz/
https://youtu.be/rrJhQpvlkLA?si=--qvnMFqz492u1sw
https://foundationforfreedomonline.com/author/mikebenz/
https://momentoftruth.substack.com/p/charles-eisenstein-rfk-jr-donald
I just finished this one: https://open.substack.com/pub/momentoftruth/p/why-cant-we-see-are-we-afraid-to?r=4uba8&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
Yep. It’s a shell game.
Perhaps you should have sent your substack to Elon Musk. Trump’s “win” has resulted in an unelected wealthy cyber hacker dismantling our government from within, and rearranging it as he pleases. I doubt that it is love in his heart that is motivating this blatant attack. Meanwhile people with very little experience other than blind subservience to a narcissist are at the head of massive governmental departments such as defense, security, intelligence, education and justice. It is breathtaking and will be near impossible to build back.
https://open.substack.com/pub/momentoftruth/p/why-cant-we-see-are-we-afraid-to?r=4uba8&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true