Archives for April 2014

From Storms to Sterling

April 30, 2014 by costaricaguy Leave a Comment

The small us is alive and well…

and wreaking havoc upon people and planet.

The proof?

Well, who can only but notice the change in the weather.

Yea, sure there have been storms forever…

but like this?

OK, I’ll admit there’s no hard evidence that global warming is causing an increase in the frequency of these massive F-4 and F-5 killer tornadoes…

but what if it is?

There’s certainly compelling evidence that it’s causing other anomalies, like floods, droughts and hurricanes.

And what does that have to do with the small us…you ask?

Well, I believe small us thinking, primarily by big oil and auto, among others, or those that benefit economically from the continued insatiable consumption of fossil fuels, leads the way in making sure that a country bearing a disproportionate share of the earth’s CO2 emissions…

does little to nothing about it…

rather than lead the world in clean fuel technology…

as it should!

And they have the likes of Fox News to help perpetuate this dangerous nonsense.

Don’t believe it? Check this out!

The point of this post is not about weather, but the general craziness that’s going on out there.

Consider the following recent headlines…

Owner of the L.A. Clippers, Donald Sterling, banned from the NBA for life after being caught on tape making racists remarks, basically admonishing his mixed-race mistress not to associate publicly with black people after she posed for a picture with Magic Johnson…
Former Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin telling an NRA audience that “water-boarding is how we baptize terrorists” AND getting roundly applauded for the absurdly anti-Christian remark…
An Egyptian court issues 683 death sentences in one fell swoop against members of the Muslim Brotherhood…
Man is arrested after throwing a banana at Barcelona’s Dani Alves during a soccer match…

Alves picked it up and took a bite before making his corner kick…

Score one big goal for Dani Alves!

Now, what do all these incidents seem to have in common?

small us thinking!

Because small us thinking always pits one group against another…

conservatives against liberals
Christians against Muslims
global warming advocates against global warming deniers
whites against blacks
blacks against whites
men against women
people against nature
capitalists against socialists
collectivists against individualists
nation against nation
tribe against tribe
people against people

It’s really kind of sad.

In the words of one of the poster-victims of the small us…

the late Rodney King…

Can’t we all just get along?

Sorry, Rodney, but it just doesn’t seem so.

I know I sound like the proverbial broken record, but, really, the answer is, in my opinion, the realization that we indeed are all…

in this planetary boat together.

From storms to Sterling, these small us views do threaten us all.

Isn’t it high time to get rid of them…for good?

To adopt a mindset that there really are no enemies…

except the mentality of the small us.

We’re all made of the same flesh and blood.

We all have the same basic needs…

and desires.

To be happy, live with dignity, free from oppression and exploitation…and small us generated hatred.

In the words of the one who probably wouldn’t agree with Palin’s remarks…

love your enemies…

Because by doing that, they might indeed stop hating you…

and killing you.

Terrorism just might cease to exist.

Now, I’m not quite so naive as to really believe that we don’t have enemies…

but I do believe that thinking of them only in that way just makes things worse.

Because the truth is that they’re not solely our enemies…

they’re people too…

just like us in more ways than you might be imagining.

The truth is that small us thinking will never solve the problems in our world…because it’s most often the source of them!

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Be The Change

April 23, 2014 by costaricaguy Leave a Comment

The Revolutionary Misfit site and the mindset of Impact Mindfulness is about recognizing the need for and implementing change.

Change in ourselves and in the world at large.

But there are serious barriers to the change we seek.

And those barriers have a lot to do with entrenched ways of thinking about the world and the U.S. role in it.

I am a frequent critic of Fox News.

That’s no secret as I have been vocal about it in my older blog, Costa Rica Guy.

I believe Fox News is one of the staunchest defenders of the status quo stream of thought …

a barrier to change…

and therefore a threat to humanity.

Wow…I realize those are some pretty strong words…

but nevertheless, I believe words that need to be spoken (or written).

I recently ran across a video from a few years back in which Bill O’Reilly was interviewing a young man who had lost his father in the 9-11 tragedy.

His name was Jeremy and O’Reilly had him on the show for the sole reason of attacking him for signing a petition against the war in Iraq.

Jeremy made the “outrageous” claim that perhaps the U.S. had been partly responsible for creating an environment in the middle east that would give rise to a group like Al-Qaeda.

And that invading Iraq would only exacerbate the situation.

O’Reilly, who is known for his sometimes violent on-air meltdowns directed at guests who dare to disagree with his world-view, had one of his worse (and scariest) moments.

O’Reilly claimed that Jeremy had a “warped view” of this world and of the U.S.

And that Jeremy’s father would certainly be ashamed…

even though O’Reilly didn’t have a clue about the geo-political views of Jeremy’s deceased dad.

Now, I’m pretty sure that O’Reilly has heard of a fellow named Kermit Roosevelt, Jr.

Kermit was the grandson of President Teddy Roosevelt. He was also a CIA agent who orchestrated a coup d’etat in Iran that overthrew the democratically elected Mohammad Mosaddegh (who nationalized the oil industry) and replaced him with the U.S. (and British) choice of Mohammad Rezâ Šâh Pahlavi, aka, the Shah of Iran.

And if you’re as old as I am, you’ll remember that this action didn’t sit too well with Iranian citizens, who ultimately deposed the Shah himself in a revolution that culminated in the taking of 52 American hostages for 444 days.

Now, I don’t think Jeremy was specifically referring to those incidences when he drew out O’Reilly’s rage…

but they are historic facts.

The U.S. has done things in the middle east that have pissed people off. It’s not that they “hate our way of life” as many on the right like to say…

It’s that we have screwed around in their affairs, usually for oil-related reasons, in ways that have made life difficult for some people…

generally the poorest some people (who also happen to be the majority).

In much the same way that the U.S. screwed around in the affairs of almost every single country in Latin American!

Yea, they’re pissed too. I know. I frequently hear about it from my neighbors.

But if you dare mention any of this on the O’Reilly show, you’ll be violently dismissed as a left-wing nut job…

and probably have your mic cut.

Why is that?

OK, here’s my point…

Change will only come when we can discard O’Reilly’s gospel of the status quo…

the one that suggests that “America” is somehow singularly (well, perhaps along with Great Britain and Israel) endowed with some absurd notion of manifest destiny to rule the world with it’s brand of capitalistic-fueled consumption.

It’s a view imbued or infused with religious notions.

And O’Reilly is as intolerant with this quasi-religious notion of “the way things are” as is Al-Qaeda with it’s radical Islamic views.

Intolerance breeds intolerance.

Maybe O’Reilly would have done well to shut up himself and listened, really listened, to what Jeremy was trying to say?

American-style capitalism and consumption is NOT a right bestowed by god.

I’m afraid nothing is going to change until the majority can get that notion out of their collective (and extremely hard) heads.

Not holding out much hope for O’Reilly, however.

But for you…

yes I am.

To be the change starts with that muscle upstairs!

It’s not un-American to embrace truth…

and change.

Listen, it’s NOT the intent of this blog to convince anyone that “America” is bad…

However, it is the intent of this blog to encourage people to open their minds about how it’s possibly true that certain American notions of the way things are…

really aren’t at all.

In impact mindfulness parlance, we call that removing impact blinders.

And unless and until the majority of folks in the biggest and richest country in the world can do just that…

the change this blog seeks just ain’t gonna happen.

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The Church of Universal Connection

April 19, 2014 by costaricaguy 2 Comments

If you read much of my stuff, you might get the impression that I’m a bit down on organized religion…

and “the church.”

You’d be right about that impression.

Why is that you ask?

Doesn’t the church do a lot of good?

Yes it does. Many lives are rescued from the brink by the loving and nurturing environment of the church.

As long as, once indoctrinated, they faithfully tow the dogmatic line.

But that belies a more insidious problem.

For example, I posted something to the Facebook wall the other day about evolution. A close family member, who is an evangelical church-going christian, vehemently protested…

saying that he was in fact, disturbed.

Folks, evolution is science. Science is not something we believe in…science gives us facts about our world that were previously unknown. To deny those facts based on religion…or based on the idea that the facts contradict what your religious text of choice might say, is both absurd and…

perilous.

The idea that the sun revolved around the earth was once a religiously inspired concept that, thankfully, was disproved by science.

Take the more current example of climate change.

It seems the most staunch deniers continue to be evangelicals…

or big business republicans with a financial stake in perpetuating denial.

Even while the scientific fact of global warming is already wreaking havoc before our very eyes.

What do they need Noah to reappear before they can “believe in it?”

So, in the sense that the church helps hurting people…

I’m all for it.

In the sense that it creates mindless dogmatic robots…

whose chief concern is what happens in the afterlife…

as opposed to improving the condition of people and planet in this reality that all of humanity confronts…

I’m dead-set against it.

I wish I’d studied science, but I went for business (and law) instead.

Here’s my advice to young people…DON’T (please don’t) study business…

study science.

Why?

Because it helps us understand the world as it is…it helps us to find the truth.

And armed with that scientific knowledge, we can truly begin to change things for the better.

Business, on the other hand, teaches us to make or manage money (and law to keep possession of it)…and money is at the root of most of our current problems.

Money and religion, that is…

Now, having said that, do I believe science explains everything?

NO!

I believe it does, or potentially can, explain things such as the origin of the universe from a physical perspective.

I saw an interesting video on YouTube in which Neil DeGrasse Tyson described the folly in the idea that anything unexplained by science is proof of religion, or the existence of god.

NDT says folks that want to play that game are backing themselves into a smaller and smaller corner since the realm of the scientifically unexplained is shrinking rapidly.

Nevertheless science cannot explain, at least I haven’t heard a satisfactory explanation as of yet…

as to why GOOD exists.

In other words, why is it within our unique human capacity to sacrifice ourselves for the good of others?

There seems to be some force beyond ourselves that “sometimes” compels us to do that…

and it is a mysterious force indeed.

One that, I will even go so far as to say, is, or emanates from,…

god.

So, if I were to start a church (don’t worry I have no plans to do so)…

it would be along the following simple lines:

The congregation would meet, maybe once a week, and figure out how to do some good.

How to have some impact.

How to make life better for someone else, probably with a focus on those less fortunate than we.

And then we would go about doing those things.

A church of impact…

The church of universal connection…

One that recognizes our sameness and strives to actually improve the overall human condition.

With no dogmatic beliefs or rules whatsoever.

Now there’s a church I could readily join the ranks of.

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Visible Hands

April 17, 2014 by costaricaguy 2 Comments

They are led by an invisible hand to make nearly the same distribution of the necessaries of life, which would have been made, had the earth been divided into equal portions among all its inhabitants, and thus without intending it, without knowing it, advance the interest of the society, and afford means to the multiplication of the species.

Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, 1759

What are the underpinnings of capitalism and the idea of a laissez-faire free market economy?

Well, if you mean the U.S. version of it, the writings of Adam Smith would be a good place to start.

Smith’s theory presupposed a market in which people freely bargaining for property in the pursuit of their own selfish ends would be guided by an invisible hand to produce results that would benefit society as a whole.

And this would just happen wholly unbeknownst to the market participants themselves.

Meaning, they would not have to, nor need to, carry out any altruistic motives whatsoever…

in fact that would just muck up the works.

Actually, maybe Smith didn’t mean that at all, but that’s what Milton Friedman, the high priest of modern capitalism, would certainly tell us that he meant.

In fact, the place to which Smith’s reference of an “invisible hand” is most often referred, The Wealth of Nations, is usually taken entirely out of context, since Smith was referring exclusively to the potential evils of foreign trade to the British economy.

Nevertheless, how exactly has this invisible hand idea been interpreted and what are the implications?

What even is this invisible hand?

God?

Now many freedom loving capitalists seem to hold fast to the notion that capitalism is indeed a god-ordained system.

I’m not sure if that’s what Smith was getting at. But certainly he was referring to some sense of an ethereal goodness that would serve as an unseen market governor.

That is, some force of good has to be working behind the scenes, guiding the market forces to work for the good of the whole.

That indeed does sound…good…at least in theory…but how has it worked out in visible practice?

How has the invisible hand been doing?

The results?

Not so stellar.

My quandary is not necessarily with the idea of a free market. It’s with the idea of the invisible hand that supposedly directs it.

You see, the underlying force that is driving this market along is self interest…

greed.

Friedman would readily agree with that.

Now greed…isn’t that one of the 7 deadly sins?

Doesn’t sound like good to me.

So a market that is driven along by greed is supposed to just deliver, how mysteriously, a good result for us all?

We can look around and see clearly that it hasn’t in many respects.

Oh yes, it delivers a superb result for some, an increasingly smaller sum, but others are left in the dust.

No, not just “left” there, but often put and/or kept there.

So, does that mean the answer lies in capitalism’s opposite…

a market that isn’t free?

No, because in those cases Marx’s collectivist control always tends to turn out even more corrupt and evil than Ayn Rand’s notion of individualist free reign.

Maybe the answer does not lie with “the system” at all.

How can goodness prevail in a system where people strive to take advantage of one another…in the midst of a zero-sum game?

So that the bounty of the winners is just supposed to somehow inure to the benefit of the losers?

Or, “trickle-down” as they tell us.

No, I believe goodness prevails with people doing things that go against their self-interest. It prevails when people look after one another and our planet…

the source of the resources without which the “system” has no chance of operating either efficiently…

or at all.

To coin a phrase, it occurs when people are “impact mindful”, not self-interest driven…

not greedy.

I think it’s time that we stop putting our faith in the system…

in the invisible hand…

and start putting it in our own visible hands.

The system has already wreaked it’s havoc on people and planet…

and it is people, you and me, visible hands, that must pick up the pieces and try to put it all back together.

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All Things Being Unequal

April 11, 2014 by costaricaguy Leave a Comment

I’m gonna break with my new blog guideline of not getting too current event-y by addressing the feud that has recently erupted between Stephen Colbert and Bill O’Reilly.

Well, we all know it’s always existed, simmering beneath the surface of Colbert’s papa-bear parody…

Bottom line: they don’t like each other all that much.

OK, so here’s my take…

O’Reilly seriously (well, I guess seriously) believes there is something seriously amiss in “America.”

And he blames it all on a progressive push for equality.

An idea championed by our current Commander in Chief along with all those ideologues on the radical left.

According to O’Reilly, Colbert’s true progressive agenda…

behind the facade of pretending to be O’Reilly’s bombastic alter-ego…

is equality…

the insidious idea that is tearing our country to shreds.

You see, in O’Reilly’s worldview there is a distinct and entirely unequal cultural stratification…

it is just the way things are supposed to be.

You have those such as O’Reilly himself…the cultural elite…

recently, to Bill’s chagrin, progressively degraded as those loathsome 1%’ers…

Then you have that great big bulge in the middle known as “regular folk”…

a pretty big group, so big in fact that O’Reilly only has to rely on about 50% of them to keep him in his coveted elite position…

And down below them are those low-class thugs who must be kept in their places in order to serve those above.

That’s just the way it’s always been and that’s the way it is.

Equality is, what did Bill call it, an opium-lased dream, or something like that??

Or a socialist idea at best.

Bill is very adept at reinforcing his point with airtight analogies such as his inability to beat his fellow Irishman, Shaquille Rashaun O’Neal, in a friendly game of one-on-one.

That certainly justifies or explains the widening income inequality gap??

OK Bill we’ll all admit with ya that people are not equal.

They’re not equal in physical strength and stature, looks, intelligence, education, experience and a whole host of other factors.

But they (we) are all equal in the following senses…

-in the sense of those inalienable rights our declaration speaks of…

-and in the sense of a right to not be exploited…

-and to live with dignity…

-and to have the same opportunity regardless of the circumstances in which one begins…

-and to be able to live our lives the way we please, as long as it doesn’t interfere with your ability to do the same.

-and to expect that those who govern us will do so with the aforementioned senses in mind

-and not “stack the deck” to the favor of Bill’s cultural class.

I don’t think Colbert’s disguised progressive agenda is to make us all NBA stars on the level of Shaq…

It’s possibly to simply make sure that the senses in which we ARE equal are respected…

or at least paid a little more attention to.

And he does so in a humorous way that does get people’s attention…

it certainly has O’Reilly’s.

That’s what the Revolutionary Misfit idea of “we’re all in this boat together” is similarly trying to convey.

You know, that Big US thing that this blog often harps about.

The concept of The Big US is not about diminishing the distinctions that make the human mosaic so colorful and interesting…

But to make sure that we’re all working together to save the sinking ship.

A sunk ship tends to clarify one sense in which we are all equal…equally dead.

O’Reilly thankfully admits that the ship is indeed sinking…

or leaking profusely.

But I disagree with his premise that striving for less inequality is what’s causing the cultural chasms to develop in the hull.

I would go so far as to say that his ideological notion of all things being unequal is exactly why those chasms are there…

and growing.

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A Corrupting Motivator

April 8, 2014 by costaricaguy 1 Comment

What’s the best way to get people to follow your blog?

Bribe them!

We call that in Costa Rica…chorizo!

Costa Rica just kicked out the affluent political party that had dominated the scene for a long time…

they got their collective asses stomped…

Why?

They were addicted to chorizo and the ticos got tired of feeding it to them.

But bribes work wonders…sometimes…or, at least, for a time.

Until people wise up.

I see a lot of sites out there promising an awful lot of goodness to their followers.

Bribing their followers with tall tales of economic ecstasy.

Sites in which the author or guru has met with some degree of monetary success and wants to teach you how to do the same.

After all, money IS the key to happiness…right?

Funny, but Revolutionary Misfit kinda goes at it from an entirely different angle…

a “revolutionary” angle.

By suggesting that you forget about money.

Or, at least change the way you think about it.

That money is not the KEY to anything…good.

Well, someone will argue, with a whole lot of money I can do a whole lot of good.

Problem with that is that money is the way our society generally rewards greed…

and…

When men and women are rewarded for greed, greed becomes a corrupting motivator.

John Perkins, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

Corrupting in what way, you ask?

In terms of what men and women are willing to do to people and to planet in order to acquire it.

But wait, we do NEED money…to live…don’t we?

No, we need food, water, clothing, shelter and perhaps human interaction to live…not money.

The proof comes in the fact that the majority of the earth’s population LIVES without any money at all, or so little of it as to almost equate, in U.S. terms,

…to nothing.

But money buys us those things we need, doesn’t it?

Unfortunately, the current system IS set up that way.

At least for the time being.

But changing the way one thinks about money means that while we may “use it” to acquire things we truly need…

we shouldn’t try to use it as the vehicle to acquire…

happiness.

But that seems to be what many well-intentioned sites tell us.

Do it this way or that way, and the river of money induced happiness will flow right past your place.

You can control your destiny.

By being one of those rare economically successful online entrepreneurs.

The problem, at least the one that has at times played out in my life, is that the more that money finds its way into your life…

the more control it exerts.

That is the premise of Perkins’ book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man.

That the more money flowed into the coffers of 3rd World countries, the more that money exacted its degree of control and influence in those countries.

And the same is true in our very own lives.

That’s why this site doesn’t propose to teach you how to make money.

And I fully realize because of that, far less people will pay attention to it…

sadly.

No, it proposes to suggest that you live your life for another reason altogether.

That is, unless and until you take charge by realizing and doing what you were put here for…

you’ll never truly be happy.

And that is to make an impact…

a dent in the universe…

to be a happiness promoter…

not an economically incentivized happiness pursuer…

Then and only then will your life be as it should be…

above and beyond the corrupting influence of money.

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