ON NOT BEING ABOVE THE WORLD

I've seen this in Buddhism, in Christianity and in Shamanism: a teacher claiming that the world is in a hell of a state, even (gleeful hand-rubbing) in crisis, and he or she stands for a new vision, rooted (in the case of Shamanism) in indigenous values.

It can be very alluring. It's a story as old as the hills. It makes you one of the good guys, it gives you belonging and it gives you purpose. It tells you who you are. It is hard to see through, until the teacher has too many one-night stands with the pupils.

But even after you've had your own crisis and left the teacher, you're probably still left feeling like you're one of the good guys in an unspiritual world. That one goes deep. It is foundational to the 'counter-culture' in which most of us here swim to some degree.

But it is a false identity. I'm sure I could do no better a job of running the world than those appointed to do so. It is fiendishly complex, with a down side to every decision.

The self-serving complacency of the counter-culture. That is one way of putting what I am railing against. No, your simple solutions for the world are not a product of your good-heartedness and insight, just naivety and a wish to be above the fray. The 'us against them' thing goes very deep. Anti-capitalist, anti-Tory, anti conventional medicine and conventional farming, anti the pharmaceutical and oil industries ..... the list goes on. It is self-serving and it is hokum.

Let us be with the world, like a good therapist would be with, rather than opposing, their client. See what it is that people are trying to achieve, and assume that people in positions of influence are there because they are competent and acting in good faith. Taking successful people down is not insight, it is envy.

When we look at the world from its point of view, with a consideration for facts, then we look with compassion, and we can be of real help. And it also opens our eyes to the real bad actors, instead of the imaginary ones. Some of whom may be very close to home, in spiritual guise.

 

                   ----------------------------------------------- 

Dr Patrick Moore was one of the founders of Greenpeace. He left in the 80s when the anti-capitalists and anti-humanists took over. He is a scientist, and here he argues against the nonsense of the climate 'crisis' and the lies surrounding it. He argues that higher CO2 is good for the natural world, judging by the past, and that it only plays a small part in global warming, which is itself also a good thing. CO2 is at a historic low, and humans are saving the planet by burning fossil fuels! Here he is in a recent interview.

 

                

                           -----------------------------------------------
In my happy place yesterday, high up on Dartmoor in the sunshine after a month of rain. 

The view over Burrator reservoir from Down Tor. 

 

Then the stone circle and stone rows I had not visited before. Half an hour curled up on the ground in the second circle, no-one else in sight. 

 

Finally, on the way back, a surprise fairy path, with cut roses at a small tor, and a gateway through thorn trees further down. And right at the end, a phone call from my son in London, ringing for no reason. He's never done that before, he wouldn't know how cheering it was for me.