We Are Not Flawed

I took an American Philosophy class this semester.  The general theme of the class has been American pragmatism.  Pragmatism is a bit hard to explain so maybe I will explain it in a different post.  A lot of philosophers have twisted it and made it something else, like they do with most everything, but mostly they made it an ambiguous word like all the rest of our words.  Essentially though, pragmatism is considered to be founded by C. S. Peirce and then James and Dewey took it and ran with it.  Between those three men it is impossible to give any one of them credit, they were all amazing.  I personally would claim that no one is an American until they have at least surveyed the thought of these men.  Dewey though probably contributed the most to philosophy and American thought.  He also happens to have been a lot like Thomas Jefferson, especially when it comes to Democratic ideals.  This is not the same Dewey that invented the Dewey Decimal System, just to be clear. 

Basically Dewey was almost perfectly in line with Jefferson, Democratically.  I think Dewey considered Jefferson to be one of his personal heroes.  To these guys Democracy is a moral concept, in its methods, its ends and its foundation.  The problem is, even though we call what we have today a Democracy: It is not.  It has the potential, the ability, but as it is now: It is not a Democracy.  Only in name.  Even Jefferson way back then knew that the move from an agricultural to an industrialized nation was going to topple the Democracy he created.  I think Jefferson though blamed it on industrialization itself whereas Dewey knew it was more than that.  Dewey knew it was the unsettling and disruption of our local communities that was the problem.  For Democracy to work, all citizens must be active in its workings: ALL OF THEM.  We must all do our part.  We must all be well informed, educated, and active in making sure the government does not achieve power over it's people.  The duty of citizens of a democracy is making sure they themselves, the people, have the power over the government.

It should not be difficult for anyone to see, in modern America, that this is not the case.  We the people, do not have the power.  The citizens of this country are not informed, they are not educated and they most certainly are not active in the political process.  If that were the case, these things would not be happening.  I spend a great deal of my time attempting to get people to read books and it is nearly impossible.  They wish to remain ignorant for whatever reason.  This is the biggest issue we face; truly educating Americans.

A discussion was going on in class about this issue.  People almost always get this helpless feeling when they truly consider how far gone and out of control our government is.  While we were discussing this another student made a comment which was something to the affect of, "Oh well, humans are naturally flawed, we are by nature bad."  This was said to make an excuse for the behavior of our politicians, she didn't like it, but believes that is just how it is.  A shrug of shoulders; helplessness.  If you know me at all you know I called her on it.  We are not flawed.  The real flaw is allowing people to do bad things because of the belief that they are flawed by nature.  Raise a child to think something is wrong with it, and guess what, something will be wrong with it.  Tell a child he is stupid his entire childhood and he will grow up believing he is stupid and therefore be stupid.  Raise women to believe they are second to men, and guess what, they are second to men.  We have all been raised, in this Christian culture, to believe that we are all flawed.  It is a lie.

What we are is a collective group, a super organism of human beings, an American society with a whole lot of people with a whole lot of incorrect beliefs.  And since all of our actions directly follow from our beliefs, almost all of our actions are incorrect too.  When our actions are out of line, we must first look to our beliefs. 

This belief that we are all flawed is an enabling belief.  Holding that belief enables people who are doing things to harm others to continue doing those things because everyone turns their head simply believing that that is how it is.  It gets shrugged off, "Oh well, people are inherently bad," but nothing could be further from the truth.  From my perspective this idea, this belief, stems from the two thousand years Christianity has had its lies in our culture telling us we are all born in sin.  It is a lie.  If you believe this lie then you find it easy to just turn your head to atrocities and this is real evil.  I watch people do it every day.

Go look in the mirror.  Are you inherently bad?  I am not.  Do you have children?  Are you going to tell me they are inherently flawed?  Do you have brothers and sisters?  Are they flawed as well?  Inherently?  Try to tell me that I am inherently flawed and you and I will have an issue.  I don't know a single person flawed, not a single one.  I know some people who do some really fucked up stuff, but that is how they were raised.  They were raised to be that way and they too think it is okay because they can just say, "oh well, I was born flawed by nature."  No one ever taught them to open their eyes and see beyond how they were raised.  It is hard to do.  People's beliefs may be flawed, but their inherent human nature is NOT flawed.  Each and every one of us has the ability to be kind, caring, intelligent beings.  Each and every one of us has the ability to be informed, educated, and active in our community.  And people, who do this, do not do evil things to other people.  This in itself proves there is no inherent evil in human beings.

I am not saying that people do not do stupid things.  I am not saying people are not ignorant.  Stupidity and ignorance abound, but it wasn't born in us.  It is not inherent.  Both stupidity and ignorance have a cure.  Those things were created by the culture we live in.  Evil is not an inherent human trait.  The term evil was created by religion.  It invokes fear.  Fear was a tactic to reign in congregations.  Believing that we are evil, on the other hand, is actually quite immoral.  But being stupid and ignorant is not the same thing as starting war merely for profit, wrongly imprisoning people, raping people, murdering innocent people, being outright greedy etc etc.   These things happen as much as they do, quite literally because people have come to accept it to be the way it is, which means we allow it to happen.  These things happen because we fail, as a society, at being democratic.  People unfortunately believe that is just how people are so they turn the other way.  And yes it seems to be so, that people are bad, but only because that is our collective belief.  It is not because we were born that way.  It does not have to be this way. 

The reason our government is out of control is because we collectively allow it to happen.  It is not because human beings are somehow naturally wrong or evil.  Find me an evil baby; find me an evil child that was not raised to be that way.  Find me an adult who, confronted with an upright human, does not lower her eyes in shame.  I was raised in horrible circumstances, I was raised to be an animal, and yet here I stand as an adult and I do not harm anyone in any of my actions.  I am aware of my beliefs and their affect on those around me.  There is nothing wrong with me whatsoever.  I used to harm people but that was what I was taught to do.  I live more Christ like than any Christian I know. 

It is organized religion that tells us we are wrong, dirty, and evil.  What is crazy is that the girl who made that statement in class is just like me in that she can't stand Christianity.  But there she was upholding a Christian belief.  It is difficult to realize just how fully we are indoctrinated by the culture we are raised in.  The unlearning of it requires years of work.  My girl friend was not raised a Christian either, yet as a woman, she has still been raised to be secondary to a man.  She does it quite naturally, without even thinking about it, because that is how she believes it is, that is how she was raised to believe it is.  This girl in my class was not raised Christian and yet there she was talking about how all humans are flawed in their nature.  The beliefs we are taught as children are the most difficult to realize, to become aware of.  Yet awareness is the key.

The biggest part of educating oneself is unlearning what culture and society has taught you to belief.  Being aware of what your beliefs actually are and how they affect the world around you is the baseline of education.  There is a huge difference between making a mistake because you did not know better and purposefully harming another.  When the first happens, we hope to learn from our mistake, when the later happens it is because the rest of us let it happen.  When our government harms other people, including its own citizens, the blame ultimately rests on us.  That is Democracy.  Every time a soldier dies it is our fault.  Every time a police officer assaults a citizen, it is our fault.  Every time a drone kills innocent people, it is our fault.  Every time another terrorist joins the ranks because we are bombing them for oil, it is our fault.  Every time our government takes another freedom from us, it is our fault.  The blame rest nowhere but on our own shoulders.

Until we look in the mirror, take responsibility for our own actions, nothing will change.  It is not because we have a flawed nature.  It is because we do not question our beliefs. 

You see, people are not flawed, people are mostly ignorant.  Not only in beliefs but also ignorant of their potential.  Corporations have infiltrated our government and they did it by keeping the population fat, uneducated, and entertained.  No one is educated so virtually no one sees this, or even thinks it's true.  But it is true. 

The only way to correct this problem is to become fully engaged in the Democratic process.  To become educated.  Not a public or college education, but a real education as to what is going on in life.  A true education is to become aware.  It is our duty as citizens. 

Who Am I?

It is no secret that I like to read a lot. My life improves, in comparison to when I am not, significantly more on a day to day basis when I am reading. Significantly.  I am living proof that reading saves lives; that removing ignorance literally saves lives. Sometimes people smirk about this statement, but that is because they don't read and thus cannot possibly know.  That is by definition, ignorance.  It is just like high school still with some people.  You see this not only applies in my own life, but because I am a human being my actions affect those around me. This month alone I have finished several books; all of which greatly enhanced my understanding of what is going on around me, my understanding of myself, and most importantly my understanding of those whom I care about. Because when I learn, it gets given back to those around me through my actions without me even having to be conscious of that affect. My actions are simply better actions because they are based on my beliefs, which are formed by what I know.  Reading is simply the best way to acquire knowledge.  But this reading business, I think only applies to non-fiction. I am not saying that someone couldn’t learn from reading fiction, or that someone couldn't learn by some other way, but I am saying that in terms of self-improvement; reading non-fiction is the greatest good. Hands down.  Read a book!  It changes life.      

 
I recently moved into my own apartment, almost exactly a month ago. Probably funny to you, but I was most excited to finally unpack my books and line them out on top of my dresser. Like an athlete who has her trophies, I have my books. I have read so many life changing books and I like to think just being in proximity to them helps keep them in my mind. They had previously been being stored on the floor in the back seat of my car. Until the first of November I had been practically living out of my car, my plans had been to live out of my car in Madison WI. It was going to be the most amazing summer of my life, but my plans changed and now I am back in school. I was pretty much homeless, but don't get me wrong, I had places to sleep. I have a lot of friends, I know some amazing people, so I had places I could go. And when the weather and environment is nice I always have a tent in my car.  But as for "me" having a place, I did not. Moving into this apartment is the first time in my life that I have ever lived alone. I have always held the philosophy that as a human being the most significant and important aspect of life is being social. We evolved to be the most social animals on the planet; why would I want to live alone?


Along the way I learned that one of life’s lessons is; nothing is permanent and nothing ever stays the same, including me. Most people do not know how to handle my unpredictableness. Just because something I do today is the way I have always done it, does not mean that tomorrow I might not need to do it a different way. I love change; you could almost say I crave it. Living alone is something I feel I need to experience in order to complete my overall life experience. There are things I will learn by living alone that I would not be able to learn otherwise. But here lies a problem with semantics; this is where our language fails. We are already caught up in a duality that in actuality is not a duality. It just seems that way because of a limitation of the mind (the way it thinks) and a limitation to our language (it is ambiguous). We cannot communicate experience through language. But you see, my experiences must always change, but when I ask, "Who am I?" Well, that never changes.


When I moved in, I put a book on my coffee table. Well, I am not even sure you would call it a book, it looks more like a pamphlet. It is a mere 16 pages. The title of the book is Who Am I? It is a Krishnamurti style book, where a person asks a question and then someone else answers the question. The person answering the questions was Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi. Big name huh? If you don't recognize the structure, it is Indian, you know from the country India. The writing is from around 1902. The questions and answers all revolve around self-inquiry; Who Am I?


A friend of mine came to visit a couple of weeks ago bearing gifts. The greatest gifts a person could ever receive: Books! One of the books was called Hidden Treasure by Gangaji. Gangaji is an American woman who was given an Indian name.  She was given the name by her spiritual mentor, who also happened to be a student of none other than Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi. I cannot say that it surprises me any more when I run into coincidences via books. It happens so much anymore I just expect it. I may not be able to actually predict the ways, but I know for sure that it will happen. This is how it works once you become a seeker. The same thing happened to Gangaji but how that works is a different matter.  Gangaji was raised in a small Mississippi town and she lived what I would call the typical ignorant American life, the same most of us Americans have lived.  Including me.   Mind altering parents, indoctrinated in racism, sexism, religion, the whole works; the typical ignorant American childhood. It wasn't until about halfway through the book though that she brought up the pamphlet that has been sitting on my coffee table Who Am I?


Gangaji did what I have been talking about doing with Krishnamurti writings. She Americanized the writing. I had been considering Americanizing Who Am I? She took the concept that Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi was teaching and contrasted it with her life, giving it American language, an American story. She expressed the natural fear of letting go of one’s idea of one’s self in American terms. She made it something an American can more easily understand because those guys spoke very deeply which is something I find most do not think is important so they don't like to do it. But anyways, this book, Who Am I? has been on my coffee table for a couple of weeks and every time I sit in my living room it is there staring me in the face.


This was a vow of mine that I made six years ago. I had finally gotten brave enough and decided I did not care what the answer was any longer, I just wanted to know who I was. Not the person my parents had raised me to be, not the person school told me I should be, not the person Christianity told me I was supposed to be; I wanted to know the real truth; Who Am I? I have pondered and thought about it for years now; Who Am I? If my family and all those organizations had actually wanted me to be what I was meant to be, what would that be? If they wanted me to be my very best what would that be?


As you have probably already guessed this pamphlet though is very deep. I'll give you an example, these quotes are from Who Am I? "The Self is that where there is absolutely no 'I'-thought. That is called 'Silence'. The Self itself is the world; the Self itself is 'I'; the Self itself is God; all is Siva, the Self." Here is another beginning with the question asked, "What is non-attachment? As thoughts arise, destroying them utterly without any residue in the very place of their origin is non-attachment. Just as the pearl-diver ties a stone to his waist, sinks to the bottom of the sea and there takes the pearls, so each one of us should be endowed with non-attachment, dive within oneself and obtain the Self-Pearl." You can probably see why, most people I know would not even attempt this book, it is written strangely to American minds and because most are afraid to really have to look deeply within themselves they never give it a thought. I on the other hand, for better or worse, decided to be fearless with such things.   Gangaji's interpretations of his writings are much more clear, but still yet ambiguous.


Having both these books, at this time in my life, naturally helped me to realize more clearly...


1. Thinking, our ability to think, is merely another sensory aspect of our biological make up. Like sight, smell, taste, touch, emotions, intuition and the like. Thinking is no different in abstract terms. Thinking, what we think, t is not the summation of our identity. My thoughts are not 'me' they are only a part of 'me.' This is an important internal distinction but the learning of it must be actually experienced. Merely thinking about it does not acquire the necessary internal recognition such that it affects our over all actions. The language is tripping me up in explaining this because it would have to be worded differently for different people. There is not a universal way to explain spiritual matters. Obviously these sensory abilities are all different, but abstractly they are all the same. They are also often quite wrong. I shouldn't have to make an argument about people's thinking being wrong, it is everywhere in abundance. 

 
 

2. Realizing that thought is just one aspect of experience is part of the maturity process of a human being. Krishnamurti, Sri Ramana Maharshi, and all the rest, were merely attempting to get people to grow up. There is much more beyond what they taught. But stop here and think, don't blow past this point. These men are still to this day considered some of the greatest minds of the spiritual life, and all they were trying to do was get people to open up their minds. They are hailed as being 'great' but in actuality they were simply mature. When 99% stop short of the finish line, these were the 1% who kept running. They were not greater than me or you, they were not smarter, they were not geniuses or special in any way; they simply kept running when everyone around them gave up. 

 
 

3. Not you or I, will ever be happy until we quit thinking. HaaaHa! Here is that duality. Quit thinking? How the fuck do you do that? Well, it is like everything else in life, you practice it, learn about it, practice it, learn about it. No one, never not one single person ever got good at something without practicing it; intensely and immensely. The best in the world are the ones that practiced the most. The problem with this is, here in America, at least where I live, no one even knows about this at all. No one knows that the way to real love with one’s self and another human being; is beyond thought. Everyone wants to think love is this, or love is that. Label it this way, and call it that. But to actually do it, requires thoughtlessness because you just do it. If you are thinking, you are not loving. Weird huh, to say it in those terms, but that is exactly how it works.

 
 

4. The problem with both of these books, and Gangaji clearly mentions this, is that language does not suffice; it cannot suffice. One must experience it for one's self. It cannot be taught from one human to another human through language, that is, how to actually be spiritual. And that is the primary reason that there is so much suffering in the world, people do not even know what to seek, or that there is a more mature way. Who speaks Chinese that doesn't know there is a China? Who becomes a good cook that does not have a fire? So when you look in the mirror, it is up to you. The books, the advice, the words of others will only suffice if you are seeking what they have. I know so many people who think they know, they think because they have jobs, material possessions, families and on and on; they think they are mature adults. But if all those people, with all those things, were actually mature adults, all this fucked up shit going on in the world would not be going on. The majority rules.  

So here we are, back to the duality. We must think, but not think. But you see it is not actually a duality. It is something you can do at the same time, 'think' and 'not think'. You will have to experience it for yourself, before the words make sense, or maybe you would put it in your own words and say it a different way. But either way, words won't do. It will be your actions that rule the day, it will be what you actually do, that matters. This is the meaning of life.


Whatever circumstances I might find myself in, there is a core 'me' that is unchanging, that is silent, that is everything and nothing. This language probably sounds crazy or odd or maybe you are willing to admit that you just don't understand it, but that changes nothing. It is part of being a human being; it is the part they don’t teach you in school, on TV, or at work. Your family didn't teach it to you because they didn't know about it themselves; trust me, if they knew they would have taught it to you. Religion does everything it can to prevent you from doing this, because if you do it, religion goes away. You can literally research historically and accurately just how many have died to keep Catholicism alive, the mother of Christianity. You can see for yourself how many died to keep Christianity alive. To keep the teachings of Mohammed alive is no different. The founder of that religion was a murderer same as the Christians. What could the founders of either of these known about love. It literally kept the populations down by forcibly sustaining ignorance. It is not some crazy thing I am talking about. Come visit me if you wish. I am a normal human being with my head on my shoulders. I can tell you what books to read but I would advise you to be like I am and not buy everything you read in books. I pick and choose just like anyone else. But it just happens I didn't buy what society sold me.

Luckily for me what would seem to you horrendous like life events; forced me out of the box. I wanted to know the truth, not what I thought it should be, but what it actually is.  To observe without thinking.  So I sought it with all my heart. And if you start seeking it too, you will find the way.


The trick is to never think you have found it.   You might think this is too deep, or silly, or even irrelevant, but if you ever want to be happy in life, you will have to face this down.  It is one thing to pretend to be happy, to lie to one's self, it is another to actually do the thing. I would highly recommend reading her book.  Her writing is very straight forward, it is not some spiritual high talk.  It is a woman's perspective on becoming mature, the story of her maturity into a woman.  Pretty awesome.  Hope I meet her some day.