18: The Dysfunctional Thankfulness

[lying in bed]

K. (very softly) I can tell you are lost in thought.

E. (sighing) It’s what Big Water said about “I thank thee Lord that I am not like other men” – the cloaked neediness, the embryonic rise of totalitarianism.

K. (very softly) That military spirit of yours loves freedom and recoils at any threat of Dear-Leader-ism.

E. That’s true, but… I find it somewhat devastating to see, within my own hidden self, a root of potential despotism.

K. (silence)

E. The Earth has its tyrants who make no pretense of their savage
and ruthless polices of subduing the masses… but… there is a more subtle version of this evil… and I think Big Water was on to something very profound… there are millions and millions of people, the disdainful haughty, who consider themselves better, the “smartest ones in the room,” patrician and far above the plebs… and, in so doing, align themselves with anti-humanistic, totalitarian sentiment.

K. (softly) Some of these “superior ones” are just naïve and lack self-knowledge… they’re the ones Day Star warned about – those quite willing to manufacture a dependent class in order to feel good about themselves, and to keep themselves on top and employed with their so-called “public service.”

E. (sighing) There’s a hidden cancer in their “service”… but I need not so quickly condemn them. I find it very unsettling to witness, lurking in my own spirit, nascent leanings toward totalitarianism… rooted in pride. 

everybody's looking for something, some of them want to abuse you, some of them want to be abused...

Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This

everybody's looking for something
some of them want to use you
some of them want to get used by you
some of them want to abuse you
some of them want to be abused...

Eckhart Tolle, The New Earth

what looks like weakness is the only true strength

"Instead of trying to be the mountain, teaches the ancient Tao Te Ching, 'Be the valley of the universe.' In this way you are restored to wholeness and so 'All things will come to you'."

The ego is always on guard against any kind of perceived   diminishment. Automatic ego-­repair mechanisms come into   effect to restore the mental form of “me.” When someone blames or criticizes me, that to the ego is a diminishment of self, and it will immediately attempt to repair its diminished sense of self   through self-­justification, defense, or blaming.  

Whether the other person is right or wrong is irrelevant to the   ego. It is much more interested in self-­preservation than in the truth. This is the preservation of the psychological form of “me.”   Even such a normal thing as shouting something back when another driver calls you “idiot” is an automatic and unconscious   ego-­repair mechanism. 

anger as ego-repair mechanism

One of the most common ego­-repair mechanisms is anger, which causes a temporary but huge ego-inflation. All repair mechanisms make perfect sense to the ego but are actually dysfunctional. Those that are most extreme in their dysfunction are physical violence and self­-delusion in the form of grandiose fantasies.

A powerful spiritual practice is consciously to allow the diminishment of ego when it happens without attempting to   restore it. I recommend that you experiment with this from time to time.

don't fight it, just feel what it's like to be 'diminished'

For example, when someone criticizes you, blames you, or   calls you names, instead of immediately retaliating or defending yourself – do nothing. Allow the self-­image to remain diminished and become alert to what that feels like deep inside you. For a   few seconds, it may feel uncomfortable, as if you had shrunk in size.

perceive a sense of 'space' around the bad feeling, which instructs that you and the bad feeling are two different things

Then you may sense an inner spaciousness that feels intensely alive. You haven't been diminished at all. In fact, you have expanded. You may then come to an amazing realization: When   you are seemingly diminished in some way and remain in   absolute non-­reaction, not just externally but also internally, you   realize that nothing real has been diminished, that through becoming “less,” you become more.

'space' around the bad feeling helps one to perceive that 'Being', the true self, is separate from the ego, the false self

When you no longer defend or attempt to strengthen the form of yourself, you step out of identification with form, with mental self­image. Through becoming less (in the ego's perception), you in fact undergo an expansion and make room for Being to come forward. True power, who you are beyond form, can then shine through the apparently weakened form. This is what Jesus means when he says, “Deny yourself” or “Turn the other cheek.”

This does not mean, of course, that you invite abuse or turn yourself into a victim of unconscious people. Sometimes a situation may demand that you tell someone to “back off” in no   uncertain terms. Without egoic defensiveness, there will be power behind your words, yet no reactive force. If necessary, you can also say no to someone firmly and clearly, and it will be what I call a “high­-quality no” that is free of all negativity.

the great Spirit Guides speak of God's apparent weakness as strength

If you are content with being nobody in particular, content not to stand out, you align yourself with the power of the universe.   What looks like weakness to the ego is in fact the only true strength. This spiritual truth is diametrically opposed to the values of our contemporary culture and the way it conditions people to behave.

Instead of trying to be the mountain, teaches the ancient Tao Te Ching, “Be the valley of the universe.” In this way you are restored to wholeness and so “All things will come to you.”

Similarly, Jesus, in one of his parables, teaches that

“When you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place so that when your host comes, he may say to you, friend, move up higher. Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

be content as 'nobody' until your own burgeoning competence unavoidably elevates you

Another aspect of this practice is to refrain from attempting to strengthen the self by showing off, wanting to stand out, be special, make an impression, or demand attention. It may include occasionally refraining from expressing your opinion when   everybody is expressing his or hers, and seeing what that feels like.

J. Robert Oppenheimer, physicist, The Manhattan Project: “When we deny the EVIL within ourselves, we dehumanize ourselves, and we deprive ourselves not only of our own destiny but of any possibility of dealing with the EVIL of others.”

Each person must enter into the depths of one's own "heart of darkness." We cannot escape an existential responsibility to know ourselves. There can be no true spirituality without and until such alarming and discomfiting process is accepted; to do otherwise, to ignore, is to cling to a brittle and fragile self-image of the "good person," rooted in pride. We have a choice. We can agree with ourselves to allow this sacred introspection, or a "time of detention" will demand it of us upon crossing over into "the real world."

a tribute to David Kenyon Webster, a member of the famous Band Of Brothers

David Kenyon Webster
2 June 1922 – 9 September 1961

An English literature major at Harvard University, Webster interrupted his studies to volunteer as paratrooper. He was part of the D-Day invasion and was wounded. Later he rejoined Easy Company.

“From a wealthy and influential family, Webster could have arranged an officer's commission stateside, but he wanted to be a ‘grunt’ to see and document the war from a foxhole. By most accounts, he did not like what he saw and had great disdain for Germany's audacity in creating the war.” (Wikipedia)

There is a noteworthy vignette in Band Of Brothers, sometimes referred to as “Webster’s Mini-Speech.” Near the end of the War, with German soldiers surrendering in their hundreds of thousands, we find the defeated Axis troops, marching in formation toward detention.

The Allied soldiers, transported in trucks, pass these vanquished. Deeply moved by the futility, the stupidity, of what he’s witnessing, Webster, aback a truck, stands to deliver a stinging oration to these members of the National Socialists Party:

David Webster: [beginning to shout at a passing formation of Nazi prisoners] 

“Hey, you! That's right, you stupid Kraut bastards! That's right! Say hello to Ford and General fucking Motors! [i.e., as opposed to the German horses.] You stupid fascist pigs! Look at you! You have horses! What were you thinking? Dragging our asses half way around the world, interrupting our lives... For what, you ignorant, servile scum! What the fuck are we doing here?"

David Webster’s diatribe is not about being German. I’m German, and I agree with Webster. It’s about being “ignorant, servile scum.” It's about being a boot-licking order-taker, with no quarter given to the whispering directives of the soul. It's about being human.

The socialists, the totalitarians-at-heart, since World War II, have tried to explain away what happened in Hitler’s Germany as an aberration, the result of one evil man, a one-time occurrence that could never happen in the good old USA where we’re much smarter, much more sophisticated. However, the truth is, you have to have serious leanings toward being “ignorant, servile scum” to believe or promote this kind of propaganda.

Our educational system today in the US, crafted by totalitarians to purposefully dumb-down a populace, with a view toward making it more “ignorant, servile,” and illiterate, is probably only 10% as good as that of Germany in pre-War days.

German society was the most cultivated and cultured, the best educated and most sophisticated, from that day to this. Never in history - certainly not since ancient Greece - had so many intellectual and artistic luminaries dominated: Beethoven, Brahms, and Bach; Einstein, Mach, and Braun; Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, and Kant -- we could go on for some time here. And to suggest that what happened there could never replicate itself in the United States - here, in our "dumbed-down" little educational system - is just wishful, shallow-thinking, a dysfunctional denial of the seeds of Evil that reside in the dark recesses of every human heart.

analyzing the “ignorant, servile scum”

What’s really bothering Webster? It’s the mindless servility. It’s the self-disrespect. It’s the unwarranted deference to authority. He saw those hapless soldiers – even in defeat, even when Dear Leader was kaput – still wanting to march in their little goose-stepping ways, so neatly, so obediently, like f****** good little boys. This made him want to shout and spit nails.

Webster was witnessing the end of line of socialistic-totalitarian sentiment. This is how it all ends, when power-grabbing and "I'm better than you" burns itself out. But, it seemed so sophisticated, so reasonable, in earlier days. Were they not the smartest people, with others so beneath them, not even deserving a modicum of civility? Well, "if we are better, if we have no duty to treat others in a civil manner" – as our Dear Leaders preach to us today – "then we have a right to rule over others, and oppress them."

Having drunk the kool-aid of this totalitarian party-platform, which is now accepted in our country in certain sectors, they stupidly follow each other over the dystopian cliff into perdition. They didn’t believe the message of Hayek and his “Road To Serfdom.” The lessons of history don’t apply to them, because they’re better and above. And in this “ignorant, servile scum” mentality, they carve out one more rise-and-fall in the sordid story of humankind.

therapy sessions for recovering “ignorant, servile scum”

How will you, if you're a totalitarian, feel someday when you meet David Kenyon Webster? I’m sure he’ll be too polite to say it to your face, but we’ll know what he’s thinking.

The apostle Paul spoke of living in the presence of, being surrounded by, a great host of witnesses, those who have gone before us, those who have endured the insanity of this world and have done well. But the totalitarians at-the-gate will never allow this kind of sentiment. For them, it's a power-haircut, they're all that is, they're against anything they can't control, and to direct any thought of deference toward those who might teach us something is too humbling for them. Why would they? -- they're the smartest people of history.

the mirror of Dorian Grey

Many years ago I had to look in the mirror and admit that I’d been selling out my own soul to various infallible gurus. I'd been a goose-stepping good little boy, denying my own judgment, disrespecting my own thoughts, ignoring my own counsel, in favor of some ******* Dear Leader in my life.

Are you willing to enter that kind of scorching self-evaluation? Who do you take orders from? – be it in a religious, political, or some other “ignorant, servile scum” promoting ego-organization.

I’m reminded of Jesus’ warning concerning those who inhabit the Dark Realms – an assessment which has been corroborated by thousands of afterlife reports. He spoke of two psychological profiles: those who (1) “weep and wail” and those who (2) “gnash teeth.”

The first group are the “goose-stepping, ignorant, servile scum” who live in a mindset of guilt and self-loathing, following some infallible Dear Leader. They “weep and wail” in a “victimhood” state of mind, thinking themselves unjustly treated: “Didn’t I live like a good little girl, trying so hard to keep all the rules, and never missing a goose-step? And now this happens to me. It’s so unfair.”

The second group are those who think they’re “better” and “above.” They want to reduce your personal freedoms because you're too foolish and incompetent to govern your own life, and so you need their supervisory services just to get you by. And later, in the Dark Realms, they'll “gnash teeth,” that is, they'll want to fight. They’re belligerent because they deserve to win, because they’re so much smarter, and, because you're so stupid, they have a moral obligation to rule over you. They're just trying to help.

The “victims” and the “elites” cannot enter Summerland. Not yet. They have “unfinished homework to hand in.” They need to access the “true self” and imbibe of the common humanity, a sense of the tremendous potential of each human being “made in the image.”

With the liberation of a concentration camp, Easy Company searches for food in a nearby village to distribute to the starving zombie-like inmates. David Webster (portrayed by Eion Bailey) angrily confronts the town baker who objects to donating his storehouse of bread. With the camp but a mile or so away, and with excuses of exculpation threadbare, Webster, pistol brandishing, comes close to abruptly ending the conversation.

They’ll be no rationalizations on the other side; at least, none convincing. In elitist-and-victimhood Germany, no one had any idea of the pandemic atrocities; and in the Shadowlands, no one has any idea that Dear Leaders were unnecessary, that whisperings of the soul might have directed us, leading us, into all truth.

And let's be very clear. The "Allies" will yet liberate all strongholds of darkness and dysfunctional ego -- no matter what your local Nice Young Man pontificates.

The Band Of Brothers of our world, though incredibly noble, are but forerunners of a vast host of Liberators who do not take kindly to the thought of ever losing any good thing; so much so, that a certain song speaks of their steel-resolve with "rest assured."

'we are the world, we are society'

Very often, Krishnamurti would caution his audiences against blaming others, seeing ourselves as "above." It's not easy to stand down as there’s much aspersion to cast. Right now, we witness the world marching toward totalitarianism, to a degree not seen since the days prior to World War II. Many of us are angry, and we want to believe that if we could just get rid of “the bad guys,” the ones causing all the trouble, then life would be good for all of us “good guys.” But this is illusion.

The seeds of evil, not always unsprouted, reside within each of us. If sufficiently provoked, if blinded to the light within, each person is capable of any atrocity, any brutality, and more, that we’ve seen in history.

In other words, “We are the world. We are society.” We are not exempt, as we too reflect the human condition, and we take the vectors of perdition with us wherever we go. And until we learn to “go within” to access the inner light, there will be no peace and happiness; not on an individual basis nor for the world.

See the Krishnamurti page and especially his "summary" discourse.

Editor's last word:

Essentially, there are but two economists in history, Adam Smith and Karl Marx; all others become their disciples. Smith’s ideas focus upon the glory and strength of the individual, while Marx’s philosophies would concentrate power with an elite group.

The difference is stark, shattering, world-shaking. With Smith and Marx we see two great opposing camps of thought leading us, in terms of end result, either to the enshrinement of personal freedoms or a dark 1984-society of totalitarianism.

In my article on Cultism I suggested that a spirit of autocracy, and its concomitant diminishment of human dignity, infects all aspects of society. Once we become attuned to this disease, we will see it, literally, everywhere.

For example, the “individual versus the group” is reflected in views of spirituality versus religiosity. Spiritual teachers such as Eckhart Tolle advocate an awakening to the “true self” within, a direct link to God and Universal Intelligence, with third-party mediators finding no place in the process. Contrast this emphasis on sacred personhood with the stultifying doctrines of Big Religion which attempt to sell the notion of original sin, the essential depravity of humankind, and the primacy of church leadership.  

In education, in principle, we find this same battle. See my article on “Teach Your Baby To Read” for an introduction to educators who understand the importance of reaching each child on an individual basis; as opposed to typical large-group school settings, which are designed primarily to further a political agenda of indoctrination.

What is behind this incessant drift toward elitism and totalitarianism? Eckhart Tolle’s works explain it to us. It is the needy “false self” clamoring for significance, as it attempts to mollify the inner malaise of “I do not have enough because I am not enough.” This psychological and spiritual dysfunction is the root of all evil in the world.