"Even in a time of elephantine vanity and greed, one never has to look far to see the campfires of gentle people. Lacking any other purpose in life, it would be good enough to live for their sake."
Garrison Keillor, The Prairie Home Companion
I linked to this latest video from Chris Hedges last night, but did not feature it because I had several personal things to do. The first part of Hedges description of the reaction of the status quo to Occupy Wall Street in particular describes the credibility trap quite well.
The one percent cannot answer or even genuinely acknowledge what OWS is protesting, because it endangers the shaky underpinnings of a fearful but still very powerful elite who have slithered their way into an unsustainable position of power without the people fully realizing what has happened.
And today I receive an email from a regular patron of Le Cafe, a member of the invisible community of those who care for the things of the mind and of the Spirit, which provides an insightful commentary on Hedges and what he has to say, and why he is so frightening to our naked Emperors of money and power. He prefers to remain anonymous, like the many who live quiet, gentle lives, tending the campfires against the gloom and the darkness.
And now I know how my wife feels such welcome joy when the girls surprise her by cleaning the kitchen while she is out. The work for today is done, and I can enjoy my coffee and a good book in peace.
Have a pleasant weekend.
From a reader:
"The Hedges video is superb. He is referring to this article, as I’m sure you’re aware: Why the Occupy Movement Frightens the Corporate Elite
The article indicates that he has far better answers than anyone else at this point in my opinion. The Elite have significant weaknesses. They are psychologically stunted, adolescent and in effect if not actuality sociopathic, as you have made clear with your posts and links. And corporations are artificial, fictional people, created by the state, which can be as “easily” undone as done, a stroke of the pen.
So long as people see themselves as things, “labor”, metabolic lumps without meaning, we are lost because the Darwinian model, which is the bastard progeny of Materialism, prevails.
Nihilism is an appropriate description of the world, the point being that those who have bought into this worldview have no underlying motive to act unselfishly, and not for immediate gain or sensation. They sometimes, perhaps often, lose themselves in alcohol, drugs, TV, pornography, greed, the lust for power, or suicide to escape. Terminal violence is easily justified if we are simply disposing of things.
I think I know that you understand this through your lens of Christianity. I also have a very strong belief, knowledge in God, but “He” is far less well defined and far more powerful and all-encompassing, truly incomprehensible, in my world than Christian dogma would describe. Nor are we apart from "Him". In my humble view, we will not find our way successfully through this travail without a thorough reexamination, and new understanding of, both politics and faith, and the true nature of the human condition.
