Costa Rica Guy

My Final Word on Torture, Promise

December 11, 2014 by costaricaguy Leave a Comment

OK, you know what, I’m tired of talking and thinking about torture…

it’s torturing me.

So, this will be my final word on torture, promise!

It’s not that I don’t believe this issue is vitally important to us as a nation.

You see, I’m 54…

I’ve lived through Kennedy and King assassinations, the Vietnam war debacle, Watergate, Reagan’s Latin American interventions, the Iraq war and now this…

and out of all those, I believe this torture thing might be the worst moment of national disgrace in my lifetime.

But no one seems to give a damn.

I mean, there are a few nut-jobs out there, leftards like me, who are displaying outrage…

but the majority, especially the “moral majority” is collectively shrugging its shoulders in a big, SO WHAT.

And I really don’t get that.

In fact, one of the loudest voices of the right says that the torture was “morally correct” in order to protect innocent lives from barbarians.

But there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that it in any way accomplished that objective.

In fact, what went on seems so sadistic that I question whether those carrying it out even had this supposed patriotic motive of national protection.

I believe the whole thing reeks of a rogue operation hell-bent on extracting revenge for the horror of 9-11.

And that brings me to the salient point of this morning’s post…

How do you reconcile torture with the teachings of the man at the heart of the morally infused tenets of the ideology of the right…Jesus Christ.

Of course, you can’t.

So, how in God’s name can you on the right sit back and collectively yawn about something that Jesus himself would wholeheartedly condemn?

I just don’t get you guys. And I used to be one of you.

OK, maybe that helps. Maybe I can hearken back and glean some measure of understanding about your nonchalant attitude concerning this issue.

I realize that you think that America…er…the U.S.A. is a “christian nation” and anything done at its behest is consistent with christian morality…

But Christ was Middle Eastern and at the time he was roaming around like a barefoot hippie, teaching his message of love and forgiveness, “America” was indeed inhabited, but certainly not by “us.”

So, what makes you think that Christ would anyway condone anything I mentioned above concerning the historic happenings during my 54 years on this planet…

let alone the torture?

Based on my knowledge of your holy book, which is quite extensive by the way, he wouldn’t.

So, as we enter into another celebration of the birth of the man many seem to think founded our nation…

let’s take a moment to pray and consider what Christ’s view might be on the matter of whether it’s “morally correct” to waterboard, or rectal feed.

And with that, I wish…

a Merry Christmas to all and, on this subject, to all a good night!

Tortured Logic

December 10, 2014 by costaricaguy 1 Comment

It has now become painfully apparent that the CIA, in pursuit of Bush administration war policy, used torture as an accepted interrogation technique.

And lied, wilfully, to the American public about the full extent of said use.

Now comes the scramble, mostly on the right, to justify that…

to make it OK.

But many of us know that it’s not OK.

If it were, then why the painstaking attempts at covering it up when it was taking place?

I saw the Bill O’Reilly talking points clip in which he says, “it is morally correct to [use torture] to protect innocent lives from barbarians.”

He justifies the use of torture because he knows people who lost loved ones in the 9-11 attack.

Now let’s consider that for a moment…

We, meaning us in the U.S., aren’t alone on this planet.

We’re not the only ones who’ve lost loved ones in war.

In fact, there are many who’ve lost them at our very hands.

So, does that mean that the Iraqi version of Bill O’Reilly would be correct in saying the same thing…

that it’s “morally correct” to use torture against Americans?

No, of course in that case it wouldn’t be.

Well, then according to what tortured logic is it OK for us to use it?

There is strong evidence that torture does not “protect innocent lives from barbarians.” That the only thing it does is extract words out of the mouths of its victims in order to make the suffering stop.

Even Senator John McCain, a man who knows a bit about torture, said as much.

So, why then, did the CIA persist in its use? Why would they sacrifice our values for no real useful purpose?

Perhaps, retributive justice?

You see, back when this was going on, our collective anger at the rest of the world, especially the Muslim world, was at a fevered pitch.

We wanted blood.

It’s kind of like when Michael Brown’s stepfather yelled to the crowd, “burn this MF down!”

We were collectively yelling, “burn those entire MF’ing countries down!”

Do whatever it takes to exact justice on those who had the gall to attack us on our own soil.

That anger was understandable, both in the Brown case and in the 9-11 one.

But it doesn’t justify lawless action…and that’s what torture is.

Why?

Because torture offends common human decency. We just don’t treat other human beings that way…regardless of the circumstances.

There were times when it was commonplace…but we recoil at those barbaric times. In fact, just hearing about what was done in those “dark prison” dungeons is revolting, isn’t it?

If you say not, then you need to go see a professional about that.

I’m pretty upset about this torture report. What upsets me even more deeply is the reaction, or lack of reaction, of many towards it. It’s as if it really doesn’t matter.

We got rough with some bad guys, so what?

You see, the “so what” is, IMHO, that the very fact that some would justify torture as being OK when it comes to us…but a horrible war crime when committed by anyone else…points to a serious problem in the American mindset, at least the one held by around 150 million of us…

This idea of America being so “exceptional” that the rules just don’t apply to us.

That’s a dangerous concept for anyone living outside of our borders.

One that might make them not like us all that much…

perhaps even want to destroy us.

In fact, it’s a mindset that makes the world a more dangerous place for all of its inhabitants.

The very fact that we think the rules are suspended when it comes to us, lends to a mindset that devalues other people.

That the idea of “all men being created with inalienable rights” really only means, all “American men.”

But we know that’s not true, right?

At least I hope we do.

This torture report could potentially be the dawning of that realization.

The dawning of the concept of The Big US.

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The Rotten Core of Conservatism

December 8, 2014 by costaricaguy 2 Comments

Cenk Uygur is passionate in his critique of conservatism.

And perhaps his passion got a little out of control recently.

Cenk went on a tirade during a recent broadcast of his show, The Young Turks…

He called conservatives a bunch of pussies.

Because, he says, they tend to always react from fear.

We did witness a good deal of fear-mongering in the recent elections, so in that light, Cenk has a point.

But, I believe his analogy is faulty.

At least in the schoolyard sense, I would equate conservatives more with the bullies who tend to taunt others with that derogatory term.

A “pussy”, in that sense, is a kid who won’t stand up for himself. He lets others run over him…call him names…embarrass him in front of his peers.

He just won’t fight.

Growing up as a skinny, awkward kid in the rural south, first with hair too long when it wasn’t cool (at least, not in my neck of the woods), and later with friends too black when that wasn’t cool either, I know what it feels like to be called one of those.

And like bullies, conservatives aren’t afraid of a fight, especially when the outcome is pretty much predetermined. In fact, they love it a bit too much.

Their ideology may be in part motivated by fear, but it’s not fear that marks the conservative mindset…

but isolation.

Wait a minute? How can you call free trade loving conservatives isolationists?

Because in reality conservatives don’t want free trade…at least not the kind that puts all trading partners on equal footing.

They want free trade that benefits the stronger trader…them.

Which is exactly what free trade generally does.

CAFTA has done worlds of good for Walmart in Costa Rica, but not so much for the potato farmer on the slopes of vulcan Irazu.

So, I reiterate my point…

What marks the conservative ideology is a desire for isolation, often masqueraded as patriotism, or nationalism.

That is, they want to live in a world where they are isolated (and protected, which is where I believe Cenk was coming from) from all those who might harbor different opinions on the matter of what life really should be about.

And they are more than ready to fight anyone who dares to take issue with the core belief.

In that sense, they are a bit like ISIS, but with a different core motive.

And what is at the core of this isolationist worldview? What’s really at the rotten core of conservatism?

The idea that private property…the right to create it, accumulate it, hoard it and do anything necessary to protect it…

is sacrosanct.

In the conservative mindset, private property takes precedence over people and planet.

Other ideologies, or world-views, that elevate people and planet over private property rights, are dismissed as communistic, socialistic, or simply nonrealistic utopian hogwash.

That’s why a person who identifies him or herself as conservative will spew such venomous hatred towards a President who was the first to take action for all people to have the right to affordable health care.

How dare you take away a few dollars from me to make sure someone else can be healthy!

Even though doing so is not really going to have one iota of impact on my own health or lifestyle.

Doesn’t matter!

To a conservative what matters is the right to my stuff…period!

And they will blow the world apart to protect and pursue that perceived sacrosanct right.

But the idea of an individual right to “own the world” is running into some problems these days.

The planet that we all have to live on is rebelling against that notion…as well as are more and more of its inhabitants.

The truth is that this assumed “right” flies in the face of certain facts about our world, some of which only recently have become widely apparent…

That all people are connected on this planetary ship, which tends to undercut the conservative, neoliberal, Ayn Randian bent towards absolute individualism, or the idea that the individual person is an island to him or herself and should be free to pursue property (they call it, happiness) to the uttermost limits, as long as he or she is not directly interfering with anyone else’s concomitant right.
The conservative masses tend to blindly tow the ideological line that all actions (imperialist wars and interventions, police brutality, unfair trade deals, etc.) in pursuit of the conservative ideal are “good” because they either protect or spread the ideology from or to the unwashed masses. But we now know that all such actions haven’t been good and in fact have unleashed death, destruction and despair throughout the globe.
We are now facing the reality of an exhaustible amount of resources in our world, not nearly enough to facilitate the insatiable pursuit of the conservative “property first” ideology. And this coupled with the frightening reality that such pursuit has potentially unleashed uncontrollable environmental forces that could spell the end of us all.

You see, it’s not the collectivist, utopian ideologies that have it all wrong…even though, I neither believe that anyone has it all right.

It’s actually the conservative one that’s completely unrealistic.

It’s the conservative one that’s threatening humanity.

And we should all be frightened about that.

But unlike the schoolyard pussy, we, like Cenk, need to do something about it.

You see, like Cenk, I once was a conservative myself.

I personally know full well how they mask the rotten core of conservatism in religion, and with ideas like “pursuing the American Dream”, along with the patriotic idea of “supporting the troops” without question…which plays right into the hands of the property-driven military-industrial complex.

Nowadays, I truly believe that the conservative ideology is at odds with pretty much everything I consider true about our world.

It’s certainly at odds with the foundational pillars of Impact Mindfulness.

Therefore, I plan to devote the rest of my life towards combatting this dangerous ideology.

The universal truth is that People and Planet should always take precedence over property…period!

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The Argon Conclusion

December 5, 2014 by costaricaguy Leave a Comment

Try to imagine what it will be like to go to sleep and never wake up…now try to imagine what it was like to wake up having never gone to sleep.

― Alan W. Watts

I’ve never been all that wild about birthdays.

Nevertheless, I guess what occurred on December 5th, 1960 at Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital in Greensboro, N.C. was indeed a fairly momentous occasion…

one that was definitely…against all odds.

But what’s really the big deal about celebrating it every 365 days?

The traditional concept of a birthday each year serves as a constant reminder of the seemingly negative impact of time on my life…

each one drawing me closer and closer to that final…

celebration.

Kind of morbid, don’t you think?

Well, that is, unless and until you consider what “birth” really means.

We speak of birth in all sorts of contexts…

the birth of a nation…
spiritual birth…
and rebirth…
the birth of an idea…

The launching of any thing new into our conscious existence can be spoken of as a “birth.”

Maybe the term “birth” is just a semantical construct we’ve developed to help us make sense of things that really don’t make any sense to us at all?

Are the things our limited minds see as being “new” really as old as the universe itself?

Consider the element called argon. The air we breathe is made up of 1% argon. But the thing about argon is that when we breathe it in, our bodies don’t absorb it…we just breathe it right back out…

and it floats along until the next respiratorily-oriented creature gulps in the 400 million or so molecules that had passed through our own system.

In fact, the argon molecules that you are breathing in right now are perhaps the same ones…

that Ghandi breathed in and out…

and Genghis Kahn…

and Christ…

and the T-Rex.

So, what’s the argon conclusion…er…my point, you ask?

Well, maybe this idea of an annual birthday celebration is perhaps a bit too time constrained.

It also tends to mark our seemingly singular existence as something separate from everything else.

A predominantly western concept that really flies in the face of reality.

So, why should I wait a whole 365 days to celebrate something that is actually re-occurring all the time?

I mean, am I the same fishy “thing” that breathed in symbiotic fluid for nine months until making that short trip down that slippery slope called the birth canal?

Did the dramatic evolutionary jumps that led to the sentient being that I am now occur on December 5th of each year until the present one?

I don’t think so.

My birth and death occur in every instant…in one form or another.

In fact, that process will continue long after this molecular construct that I can look into the mirror and acknowledge as me becomes dust in the wind.

Birthdays can be depressing as we get older.

They bring thoughts of shedding that mortal coil…

But, perhaps, the coil is not mortal at all.

Maybe the coil is part and parcel of this great and vast universe that has no beginning and no, at least foreseeable, end.

Nevertheless, it’s pretty cool to have your existence acknowledged by folks, some of whom you barely know, once a year.

And to have an excuse to go out and burn a few brain cells.

Your birth, according to traditional usage, was a physical event that occurred once against astronomical odds of it ever occurring at all…

in that sense, sure go ahead and celebrate it.

The fact that we exist at all on this tiny blue planet in the midst of the trillions of others in this vast solar system…

is against astronomical odds.

But don’t delude yourself into believing that these markings in time called birthdays are all pointing towards the end to everything that can be called you…

Granted, there will be a corollary event one day, much more likely, certain even, to occur than was your birth…

But that “event” simply marks another beginning.

To what?

Well, only the universe knows.

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The Misguided Message of Tony Robbins

December 3, 2014 by costaricaguy 8 Comments

I can remember it almost like it was yesterday…

It must’ve been 1996 and I was getting ready to go to work at the law firm in Charlotte, N.C.

The TV was on and this infomercial appeared on screen with this dude with sculptured hair, big, brilliant white teeth and a deep, booming voice…

it was Tony Robbins.

He was raving about his CD audio program, Personal Power, which he claimed was guaranteed to transform your life.

He captured my attention, as Tony is an expert at doing, and I ended up ordering the program.

I was about to finish the executive MBA program at the University of S.C. and I’d been offered a management position with a company in Myrtle Beach.

It was a bold move to step outside of the career I’d studied so hard for and spent the last 7 years working in…

and I knew, once you leave the legal profession, it can be hard to ever come back.

So, I felt I could use exactly the type of motivational kick in the pants that Tony was offering.

That was the start of a relationship with Tony that bordered on cultish obsession.

After that initial experience walking the beach with my walkman blasting Robbins’ distinctive voice against my eardrums and into the cerebral cortex…

I embarked on an all-out Tony Robbins immersion phase that lasted the better part of a decade.

I attended his one day business seminar, twice to be exact. One of those was his last event, for which I chartered a private plane, so that my entire Live Oak staff could attend the event in New York City.

I did his signature Unleash the Power Within event, a three day affair that includes the famous fire walk experience.

During that event I signed up for Date with Destiny, which is the first of a series of three events that Tony calls, Mastery University.

I did all three.

I was at the famous last Life Mastery event on the big island of Hawaii when the planes hit the twin towers on 9-11.

All in all, I guess I spent around $25,000 during this Tony Robbins life phase…including extensive travel expenses, as Tony’s events were always held at the swankiest and most expensive hotels.

So, I believe I speak with some level of experience when I write this morning about the misguided message of Tony Robbins…misguided, at least, in my opinion, holding the worldview that I do today.

Now, granted, my worldview has shifted…dramatically.

Back when I was doing my Robbins thing I was a devout fundamentalist Christian. I never really had trouble reconciling that fact with what Robbins taught.

After all, God wanted me to succeed, right?

I do remember often praying for Tony’s salvation.

Did I ever actually meet him? Actually I did, a couple times, but only to briefly shake his hand and tell him how much his life had meant to mine.

And it did…Tony’s teaching did change me. It released me from many of the doubts about myself that had held me back.

But it also caused me to fixate on that aspect of life that Tony claims we all must deal with…

becoming financially free.

That means having enough money to do what you want, when you want, where you want…etc., etc.

I see now that Tony has written a new book about, take a guess,…

money.

I caught him on Maria Forleo this morning being interviewed about the book.

One of the events in Mastery University was called Wealth Mastery. In it Tony divulged investing secrets of the mega-rich. Seems now Tony has decided all those “secrets” are a bunch of hooey and the best thing to do is put your money in low cost market index funds…yawn!

So, in what manner do I believe Tony to be misguided?

You see, I don’t believe a focus on attaining financial freedom is a sustainable concept, not on personal, nor planetary, levels.

Tony taught me, or so I interpreted his teaching, that I had to fix myself, especially from a financial perspective, before I could fix the world.

I just no longer believe that’s true.

I believe a focus on fixing the world is what fixes the self.

That is, a life where impact is the motivation, rather than self-interest (especially rather than economic self-interest), is what will give our lives meaning and fulfilment.

Tony tells us there is nothing wrong with money, with having things.

Oh, but I believe that there definitely is.

You see, the world can no longer sustain the wealth of a whole bunch of Tony Robbins wannabes.

Tony is an entertainer and in our society entertainers make a lot of money. And Tony has indeed made a lot of money…some of it off of me!

And his message basically is, hey, if I can do it, so can you.

That might be true, but it doesn’t make it a good thing…not on a personal or a planetary level.

This world simply doesn’t need more rich people…it needs more impact minded people.

People who couldn’t give a flip about absolute financial freedom, but who care passionately about absolute human freedom.

That is, the freedom that comes when all people on this planet can live lives of health and dignity.

Right now, we’re far from that and as the rich keep getting richer and the poor poorer…with many of those rich taking the very advice Tony is peddling…

that level of human freedom is becoming more and more elusive for millions upon millions that inhabit this planet.

I admire Tony Robbins. He has done a lot of good for a lot of people.

He always ends his books and seminars with a call to impact and that’s a good thing.

But, you see, I believe rather than leave that for the end…

it should come at the beginning.

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A System that Breeds Apathy

December 2, 2014 by costaricaguy Leave a Comment

Our society is currently based on a system that breeds apathy and complacency.

How?

I can best use myself as an example.

For the longest time I was convinced that money was the answer for everything.

If I could just make enough of it, well, then everything would go right with my world…the world.

How much was enough?

That’s a question I could never seem to answer to my satisfaction.

I did make some money…by some standards, a lot of it.

Did everything go right?

No, it didn’t.

And then something happened to me.

The realization began to dawn that money wasn’t the answer.

That money could not bring happiness…

to me, or…

to the world.

The indigenous cultures that our western capitalistic-minded ancestors displaced…

in their insatiable quest for land, gold and slaves…

knew very well that money wasn’t the answer. In fact, they didn’t even use it.

They knew that happiness comes from being part of a tribe consisting of individuals who don’t frantically seek their own well-being…

but the well-being of the tribe.

But we dismissed them as savages and just, well, kinda brushed them out of the way of our development.

Now we’ve reached a point in that development where it’s becoming apparent that something’s wrong with this system.

That something’s wrong when your life is reduced to a constant need to produce just enough of those little green papers adorned with pictures of dead notables…

to barely eek out a living.

The thought of taking care of a tribe,

well, that becomes a preposterous idea.

I’ve got to take care of me…and I’ve got my hands full just doing that!

Leave the taking care of others to people who have the whereabouts to concern themselves with that sort of a thing.

Leave that to the 1%’ers who we often see trumpeted in the media for giving back…

when in reality only a handful give a tiny fraction back in order to salve their aching consciences….

aching because of the gross luxury of their existence…

while some have nothing but a hole to shit in.

I saw a bunch of right-winger Facebook posts the other day admiring Donald Trump for giving 25 grand to the marine who was held in Mexico.

Trump giving $25,000 to that guy is like me giving 25 cents to a beggar on the street.

While both acts are laudable, they’re not worth going viral about.

We need more compassion than that to save this world.

After this dawning of my impact consciousness I began to feel the pains of the problem we all face when considering a life of impact…

How do I make a living?

Ah, the paradox of our system.

The answer to that question can be so daunting that we just give up on the notion.

We become apathetic once again…

We’ve got to fight against that inclination.

We, the 99%, are the ones who are going to change things for the better.

I can assure you that we cannot afford to leave it to the Donald Trumps of this world. The system works too well for them.

We can’t be apathetic and kid ourselves that we can leave it to the ones who are the very source of the problem.

The time to act is now.

Let’s get busy!

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