just another day when it is clear that our world has lost its fucking mind

[NewHendoLib]

Caveat - we don't watch TV - I am an old geezer that doesn't get today's pop culture (movies, music), preferring fringe and indy stuff and ancient stuff we enjoyed when we were younger.

But I read here about the occurrence last night. I read on various sites that our president - gasp - spoke his mind.

What happened to thick skins? Irony? Satire? Sense of humor? Honesty? Decency? Humility?

We had a so called president that did nothing but throw incendiary words about at everything and everyone. Gets a free pass. Still does it - still free.

We have an authoritarian monster killing innocents. We focus on a video that shows those monsters getting killed. It becomes THE point, THE news.

Each day, when I leave my garden or hiking trail and take a peek at what is going on - whether from perusing here, or CNN, or elsewhere - what screams at me is that it is all about someone's grievance at something. Nothing makes sense - clear criminals walk free - our constitution no longer seems to work.

Oh yes, and while all of this is going on the world is melting. But humans apparently can't walk and chew gum at the same time. And someone is getting killed by a gun, senselessly. A country awash in a sea of guns, often owned by folks who should never get near one.

Back to the garden - I need to ponder something real.

Oh - and I am sure this post will cause some grievance somehow. Oh well....

edited to add, after perusing my OP title - maybe the world never did have a fucking mind to lose. Last night we finished watching Gandhi. Recently, we watched a tribute to Marian Anderson, and one on Rita Moreno. Senseless assassinations, senseless racism, senseless misogyny - it clearly has always been a patriarchal world that contains monsters, all through history. Often times, even religions have done the murdering. arggggh..... And now in our country we have our own cult of personality, led by a narcissistic madman.

This is why we can't have nice things.

[Walleye]

1. Very good. I am also sick of this grievance mentality

Life is tough. Everybody that is alive has difficulties. That’s why I always say I really don’t envy anybody. If they are a living human,they are miserable. Violence really does not inspire respect

[dixiechiken1]

2. Amen. To all of it.

Ours is a grievance culture. Victimhood is all the rage. There are things over which we should all be outraged and it's not my place to tell anyone how to feel about anything. But if every slight and every offense is always the hill upon which someone chooses to die, doesn't that lessen the impact of things that are/should be truly offensive, like war, poverty, hunger, etc?

Seriously, sticks and stones, man... sticks and stones. *smh*

[Hugin]

3. Ergo why I've lobbied since I was twelve to have "Homo Sapiens" reclassified as...

"Homo Solitum Callidus" or "Unusually clever man".

[Chainfire]

4. Well said.

It can be a burden to be a free thinker. Much easier to surrender your mind to talking heads, be a member of an extended family of followers. It can be such a comfort to have a big, strong, national leader who is incapable of failure to pin all of your hopes on. It takes a big burden away to have others to blame for your personal failures. Life is easier if you just surrender to the dark side.

That (mental) suicide is painless
It brings on many changes
And I can take or leave it
If I please

[PatrickforB]

8. Reminds me of that old song, the Pretender.

I'm gonna be a happy idiot
And struggle for the legal tender
Where the ads take aim and lay their claim
To the heart and the soul of the spender
And believe in whatever may lie
In those things that money can buy
Though true love could have been a contender
Are you there?
Say a prayer for the Pretender
Who started out so young and strong
Only to surrender

Remember?

[Evolve Dammit]

25. Great song. As true today as it was then. I haven't surrendered though!

[PatrickforB]

38. Nor have I!

It's been a long road, though.

[Evolve Dammit]

39. Agreed. I am way more "jaded" by the reality of our current situation.

[gab13by13]

5. Good post,

I just bought a book, "The Four Agreements," by Don Miguel Ruiz. I haven't started it yet, finishing A New Earth.

The Four Agreements are;

Be Impeccable With Your Word
Don't Take Anything Personally
Don't Make Assumptions
Always Do Your Best

Sounds like it fits in with your thread.

[Hugin]

11. Nice, very nice.

Number three hits me where I live, but, doable.

Thanks for sharing it.

[Upthevibe]

12. gab13by13.....

The Four Agreements is an awesome book!

I bought it several years ago.

[c-rational]

14. Great books both. I first read the Four Agreements about 10 years ago and still refer to it.

Another good saying apropos this discussion is the use of Socratic speech, or using the three sieve test:

Is it truthful?
Is it necessary?
Is it good?

[RestoreAmerica2020]

33. Interesting.. reminds me of a Zoroastrian blessing I came across while watching

..the movie ' Bohemian Rhapsody,” a biopic on the British about the life of Freddy Mercury. A scene in the movie showing his father blessing him with a simple prayer: good thoughts, good words, good actions. Yes, simple daily prayer, pero mas difficult to put in practice.msay by 10 am back to my ole cynical self. Anyway, searched for more information on Zoroastrian, its origin-- 1st article I read was by Rabbi Hurvitz... here are a few excerpts:

Freddie Mercury and ‘good thoughts, good words and good deeds’
Rabbi Mitchell M. Hurvitz/AP News
March 1, 2019

In the movie, we are told up-front that Freddie’s given name came from his Farsi parents, Farrokh Bulsara.

His family’s religion was Zoroastrian, and they had been victimized by religious persecution.

I happen to be giving a presentation this Sunday at the Zoroastrian Temple in Nyack, N.Y. I was asked to do so because of an article I published a few years ago documented how much modern Judaism owes to Zoroastrian influences.

Many scholars will assert that we Jews learned our monotheistic theology from the Zoroastrians, that we discovered the theology of universalism enmeshed in core Zoroastrian dogma.

Our Jewish notion regarding Universalism, is that God’s law is universal, and no matter the particular faith of another, if they adhere to basic moral principles then they are leading a “holy” life.

Judaism also began to develop its own theology of “heaven and hell” after its contact with Zoroastrianism.

The pre-exilic Biblical books are absent of “afterlife” references, and the early Israelite theology was simply that we came from dust and would return to dust.

However, with our first exile to Babylon 2600 years ago, and the new immense exposure to the religion of the Persian Empire, Zoroastrianism, the “Jewish” afterlife stories become normative for us.

The Zoroastrian dogma of a “final accounting” is ultimately completely assimilated into early rabbinic Judaism with the teaching that “personal and individual immortality is always offered to the righteous.”

In the movie, I was wonderfully reminded of the parallelism of Judaism and Zoroastrianism.

Freddie’s father had raised his son with the often stated teaching: “Good thoughts, good words, good deeds.”

According to Zoroastrianism belief, Zarathustra founded their faith in the region of Afghanistan. Zarathustra wrote the Gatha, a collection of hymns that is contained in the Avesta, the Zoroastrian book of sacred scripture.

The primary teaching of Zarathustra was the “the importance of good thoughts, good words and good deeds

[Joinfortmill]

35. Thank you very much.

[Archae]

6. We need to let the authorities deal with the problems.

Obviously, sometimes they don't.
Donald Trump and his brats (except Barron) should be in jail.

They probably will be, as the old saying goes, "The wheels of justice can grind slowly."

But getting all worked all out of shape, about things we really can't affect, just raises our blood pressure and gets us all worked up.

I have a friend who is a die-hard Foxbot, he gets all hyper at times about "The Biden criminal family," while talking up the Trumps, I change the subject as quick as I can, I know damn well I can't make my friend change his opinions.

So I go about my life, day to day, and concentrate more on local (as in Green Bay and Milwaukee) news stories, and express some disgust at stories from other states or countries where an outrage has happened.

[PatrickforB]

7. 'This is why we can't have nice things.'

I liked your post.

Maybe getting rid of the billionaires with confiscatory wealth taxes would help! I know it would make me feel better!

Get rid of the shareholder primacy doctrine that ecourages sociopathic behavior by corporations, and replace it with a shareholder approach to corporate governance. That would help the rest of us quite a lot.

And just think, if Congress actually wanted to do the right thing, we would have universal healthcare that is NOT confusing and doesn't have some kind of 'donut holes.'

By the way - my favorite old show is Perry Mason. And we like the old Sherlock Holmes shows with Jeremy Brett, and the old Hercule Poirot shows with David Suchet. Really good, quality TV. Cause you're right. Today's TV 'choices' seem to cater to the lowest common denominator.

[gab13by13]

9. I'm a Bennie Hill fan.

[Escurumbele]

10. This is what is going to take to shut these assw%##s, for Biden to call them out

and show in front of the World how hypocritical they are, he can pick from thousands of stupidities the buffoon spewed out during his vacation at the white house.

Democrats can still be civil while calling them out. We need to put an end to political correctness from Democrats, repubs don't do it, we can also do it and be more civil about it.

[Joinfortmill]

34. This.

[hay rick]

13. The wall-to-wall hand-wringing over Biden's Putin remark is symptomatic...

of "journalism" that has been hijacked to serve an oligarchical corporate agenda.

Our democracy has stopped working and now it's difficult to even keep up a pretense.

[NewHendoLib]

15. Thank you all for your responses. Hope lies in DUers

[MyMission]

16. On so many levels

I don't watch tv either, and also get my news and info from DU and on line sources.
I notice even on line, certain headlines and themes are repeated and highlighted while others are buried, minimized or ignored. Talk about losing one's mind, it drives me fucking crazy.

I also find peace and sanity in my garden, but haven't been able to do much so far, between rain and cold and appointments on my days off. Got seeds I'd hoped to start indoors, but haven't managed that yet either. Maybe today. I worked for Greenpeace in the 1980's, and follow environmental news which is very concerning. Melting indeed. Here's an article about the ice shelf collapse, in case others missed it. Changing weather patterns = climate change. This world is too fucked up overall to take responsibility, take action. While many are advocating for green energy, buildings, lifestyles, many can't or won't be bothered.... although with inflation and less availability of products and merchandise, many may be forced to consider their consumption and will reduce, re-use and recycle. We're still in deep shit with the environment.

Unexpected collapse sends a massive slab of ice into the ocean.
A massive Antarctic ice shelf that covered an area about the size of New York City or Rome just collapsed into the ocean. Scientists warn that while they do not expect significant impacts as a result of this event, melting ice in this historically stable region may be a foreboding sign of things to come.
https://www.livescience.com/antarctica-conger-ice-shelf-collapse

The political stuff is always concerning, with a radical right wing that has been waging a war against a modern, liberal society for decades, taking it up several notches with tfg. And now an authoritarian (who likely worked to destabilize various governments in the world) is trying to conquer and or annihilate a democratic country by force.

On a lighter note, and yet somewhat related, I didn't see much posted about the March madness NCAA tournament. I only mention this because 2 NC teams (Duke vs Tarheels) will face off in the final four. I don't follow basketball, but work in a store with sporting goods and college logo stuff and see a lot of fans, so I pay attention during the playoffs. It's provided a nice diversion. Thanks for providing a rant I really repeated to!

Hope you can enjoy your day.

[NewHendoLib]

17. Hi friend! Already am.. just mowed the lawn, about to

Bring some plants out of the garage, transplant some tomato seedlings, then to Briggs for the first batch of straw bales.

Hope your day is a fine one. Yes, that game on Saturday will be epic!!!

[CrispyQ]

18. An entire segment of our adult population behaves worse than junior high spoiled brats.

A common trait I see among most of them is a refusal to admit when they're wrong or when they've made a mistake. To them, that's a weakness. So much so, that they often double down when they should change course.

This weekend I asked a cousin of mine, who identifies as republican & who I'm very fond of, "Weren't you embarrassed or ashamed of how the republican senators treated Judge Jackson?" He said it was "unfortunate." That's the same exact word he used when I asked him what he thought of the January 6 event—"unfortunate." I'm sure he would have used a stronger, uglier descriptive if it had been democrats doing it.

[Joinfortmill]

32. I hear you.

[AncientOfDays]

19. The solution

I've found the solution is to ignore the blame and focus on fixing the problem.

Worked for me in marriage - though it took a bit to convince.

[Picaro]

20. Good stuff

Well said. I completely agree. We are in one of those “two steps back” eras that I noted during my lifelong readings of history. As the centuries passed these times have become increasingly bloody.

[Joinfortmill]

31. 👍

[Snackshack]

21. Agreed

My Uncle who was in the Vietnam War used to say that “We are 99% Animal and 1% Human… that 1% keeps phucking us up.”

Every time I see the beginning of True Detective season 1 and hear this monologue by Matthew McConaughey I can’t help but to think there is some truth to this. Ignorance really is bliss.

“I think human consciousness, is a tragic misstep in evolution. We became too self-aware, nature created an aspect of nature separate from itself, we are creatures that should not exist by natural law. We are things that labor under the illusion of having a self; an accretion of sensory, experience and feeling, programmed with total assurance that we are each somebody, when in fact everybody is nobody."

-Rust Cohle.

[gab13by13]

23. Ekhart Tolle has a slightly different take,

Humans are unconscious, they are controlled by their ego. We need to be raised to new spiritual consciousness We have the wrong impression of who we are. Our thoughts are not who we are, those voices in our head are our ego, "we" are the being, the entity, observing, listening to those thoughts.

Yes, the Buddhists also agree, material things are not real, are fleeting. We are No Thing.

You should read Tolle's, The Power of Now, and A New Earth, they are in the same ballpark.

[Joinfortmill]

29. He's good.

[Snackshack]

36. Thank you.

I will look into that.

👍

[Joinfortmill]

30. Most folks aren't ready for that yet.

I'm 73 and just beginning to figure some of it out.

[H2O Man]

37. +1

I just borrowed your Cohle quote to post on facebook.

Season One of True Detective is one of the very best things I've had the pleasure to watch.

[sarcasmo]

22. We live in an Uber sensitive society. Don Rickles couldn't exist in this environment.

[Evolve Dammit]

26. Listen up hockey puck...!

[llmart]

24. I am so glad I read your post today.

I agree with what you said 100%. We see a lot of that even here on DU - people getting outraged over the most insignificant thing or one DU'er trying to outdo the other DU'er in the "I'm more liberal than you are" contest.

Too cold yet here for gardening but I have started yard cleanup and am outside more and more each day. I, too, do not watch a lot of TV but when I do it's usually not mainstream channels except for PBS. I do read a lot though.

[Joinfortmill]

27. Amen

[liberal N proud]

28. Last night demonstrated how easy it is to manipulate people

That one moment has the entire country focused on two actors and their stunt.

What can be done while everyone is distracted?
What evil could be perpetrated?

The American public is gullible

[XacerbatedDem]

40. Loved your post! I don't garden but do go for walks at a park with a pond, an old bridge...

and about 100 geese. It helps to calm me down, and reminded me of this poem.

The Earth I Know

When I walk with thee,
I blend into your nature
As if the grass before me
Takes root in my flaming heart;
As if the autumn trees,
Roiling in the breeze,
Dance brightly within every fiber of my being;
As if even the firmament above,
Clouds white upon a cerulean blue,
Take on a human hue
To wrap its lavish arms
Around my very soul…

Such is the earth I know.

When I look at thee,
I dissolve within
The essence of your beauty
That sets my spirit quivering;
For in your hallowed majesty
Displayed so eloquently
I find myself overcome with awe;
An emotional turbulence far beyond
My ability to respond
To such splendor and magnificence
These humble eyes you show…

Such is the world I am thrilled to know.

When I live in thee
Each day is full of meaning.
Experiences follow me
Whatever path I roam;
Experiences devoted to eliciting
The complexities of my soul;
Whether I can let go
Of the burdens of this life
And find a way to reunite
With the love
That surrounds my every pore;
Your kiss, whichever way the wind may blow…

Such is the planet that helps me grow.

And when I come to sleep with thee
As at last my journey’s done,
I’ll make my bed so easily
Amongst the ancient mud,
Ashes to ashes and dust to dust,
A part of your stoic history,
So happily
To have joined with you as one,
For all time… immortal…
As deep within your fair caress
Shall I finally find my rest
And surrender to your precious flow…

Such is the Earth I will forever know.