Disasters and Talents: a parable

When emotions rule alone,
Destruction.....destruction

-----Lauren Olamina Bankole, Parable of the Talents

If readers of this blog have taken a cursory look at my profile they will see that I am somewhat a fan of science fiction and mysticism. It is interesting because I am a student and a scientist. I am a sci fi fan because in such writings I often find a more objective portrayal of our current reality than in the news. It often speaks to someone with a mystical bent and it includes science even if at time the science is often wrong. Writer Octavia Butler is one of my favorite sci fi authors. I recently read the sequel to her Earthseed series Parable of the Sower. It is titled Parable of the Talents.

Parable of the Sower details a young woman's philosophical journey and loss of everything meaningful growing up in dystopian California. Talents is about her work to fulfill the destiny of what she discovered on the journey. By paying attention to objective reality, she discovers that standard organized religions do not and cannot work because they are not life affirming. They do not better the lot of man because they deny god. Sounds crazy that religions deny god right? For her god is just plain and simple change. Most people can't handle this. For the few than can imagine this intellectually, it's still difficult to incorporate in our practical existence. The idea that we must work hard on one direction but always be prepared or willing to change because someone (god) isn't going to come and rescue us from all of life's ills is a difficult one. However it is a necessay concept to put into practice for future existance. It reminds me of a saying by a real life group that experiment in science and mysticism called the

cassiopaeans. They say that:

"Life is
religion. Life experiences reflect how one interacts with God.
Those who are asleep are those of little faith in terms
of their interaction with the creation.

Some people think that the world exists for them

to overcome or ignore or shut out.

For those individuals, the worlds will cease.

They will become exactly what they give to life.

They will become merely a dream in the 'past.'

People who pay strict attention to objective reality right and left,

become the reality of the future."

---The cassiopaeans http://signs-of-the-times.org/signs/signs.htm

Getting back to the story:
After discovering that mankind's destiny is to move beyond the earth and populate the stars, the heroine begins to work on herself and help others who choose to develop their talents even if she doesn't know exactly how to begin getting to the stars and she isn't sure she is doing the right thing. It shows that what allows for our evolution is nurture of our talents within the bounds of objective reality here and now on earth. She practices the idea that:

"Chaos is god's most dangeros face
Amorphous, roiling, hungry
Shape chaos,shape god
Alter the speed or direction of change
Recombine the seeds of change
Transmute the impact of change
Seize change, use it, adapt and grow."

Thus Talent picks up where Sower left off so you get to see her struggles to fulfill the destiny in post-acpocalypse California. Here the US has sold the last of it's space shuttles to finance its wars. The average person cannot read much less imagine realistic space travel. The nation is a shell of itself after environmental(due to global warming), nuclear( due to wars) and biological (plagues of pox) catastrophies. The resulting social upheaval makes the recent events in New Orlearns due to hurricane Katrina seem like heaven. There is also the election campain and eventual presidencey of a warmongering christian fundamentalist Texan who knows how to manipulate people's perceptions with his lies. In this society, not so vastly different from ours I must say, it is mostly the wealthy that have a measure of real living; everyone else is just trying to survive. Rape, murders, witch burning (so there are slight differences), kidnapping and actual slavery are rampant. Yes slavery ! and it ain't just blacks. Everyone is vulnerable to enslavement except for the ruling elites or corporate heads. The Texan's goons are the most efficient slavemasters. Their acts comitted in the name of returning the nation to its great christian past are unconstitutional. The blinded believers, including the heroine's brother refuse to believe the horrible acts are commiteed by these christian leaders and their friends. Sadly like we see in today's USA nominally led by a christian fundamentalist Texan, when you're rich and powerful enough and most of the populace is kept scared about natural and man made disasters such as hurricanes and terrorists, the constitution is just something written on a piece of paper. People disappear without anyone knowing.

The book was informative because it shows how easy it is to enslave others or allow ourselves to be enslaved when disasters are happening all around you. The first trap is looking outside oneself be rescued. Such a situation is ripe for manipulation by anyone claiming to have a sure shot solution because we become vulnerable to burying our talents by believing lies. It prevents us from paying attention to objective reality and as such we set ourselves up to become what the cassiopaeans would call a "dream in the past". Lauren Olamina in Talents warns:

"Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought
To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears.

To be led by a fool is to be led by the opportunists that control the fool

To be led by a thief is to offer up your most precious treasures to be stolen

To be led by a liar is to ask to be told lies
To be led by a tyrant is to sell yourself and those you love into slavery."

The book shows that our responsibilities are to multiply our talents or lose them if we bury them. To not bury our talents means working HARD on being truly human and being of service to others. It means not holding on so tightly to one thing (beliefs) that in the end it proves to be worthless. When we do this we look for external saviours and we become their slaves. The story shows how people with nothing discover that they have much to give and can be of service if they develop their talents. Also you see how being concerned with serving self is slavery because when we seek to serve only self we end up as fodder for those further up in the hierarchy of self service. We become become "echos of ourselves" or a "dream in the past." Lauren says:

"Beware:
All too often we say what we hear other say
We think what we're told to think
We see what we're permitted to see
Worse! We see what we're told to see
Repeitition and pride are the keys to this
To hear and see an obviouslie

Again and again and again

may be to say it almost by reflex
Then to defend it because we've said it
And at last to embrace it because we've defended it
because we cannot admit that we've embraced
and defended an obvious lie.
Thus, without thought, without intent

we make mere echoes of ourselves

and we say what we hear others say."

Nowhere is this more evident that in today's society led by the spin of a bunch of christian fundamentalist and corporate heads who control our leading fool.

Katrina and 911 part II

I previously talked about the fallout from hurricane Katrina. This week it seems our president is trying to make amends and cover his a***. I don't believe it for a minute because it is eerily familiar. It's like when the disaster occurred on 911 and he began his claims about the poor Iraqis suffering under Saddam "soon to nuke us" Hussein as an excuse for war. In a similar vein the Katrina debacle is being used to conduct military operations against American citizens on American soil. After 911 so powerful these neo-cons have become that even the fourth estate has acquiesced. I found it interesting that so many well known media people, those most in a position to highlight what has been happening to this country, were marginalized, retired or just died under mysterious (Hunter S. Thompson) or not so mysterious (Peter Jennings)circumstances. Even with the slight rumbles being heard from conventional media people you've gota ask questions. Below is the latest from retired Tom Brokaw. It's also interesting he was only able to say this after leaving his job.

"Our national leaders and their hired guns create fears and exploit them," Brokaw said. "Politics always has been a rough business, but now it's a cold, take-no-prisoners attitude."

This is exactly what the events of 9/11/2001 created, the "take no prisoners attitude" with the result being Katrina like situations. Not only have these so called leaders shown total irresponsibility, they just don't give a hoot. Our government declared war on American civil liberties disguised as war on terror. With Katrina,this phase of the war is called better disaster preparedness with military involvement. What is the truth of that fateful day in September four years ago? What is the truth of what is happening now? Could it be that there is also a major issue with the state of our nation's finances. Are our brazen leaders aware of how people will behave when they can't afford food as meteors, hurricanes, earthquakes and tsunami's are approaching? Is all this stuff including draining our treasury and increasing militarization on American soil preparation for this? Is it something else and are other nations involved? I am afraid events during this administration's rule is already like many past events which clearly pointed to a conspiracy but is too muddled with emotional reactions,lies and manipulations to make heads or tails of. We may never get to the bottom of it all but there are hints at one or two places to look.
Note the following concerning a group of people caught celebrating the event at the towers burned:http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/ We can sort of call them Arab terrorists even if they're most likely Israeli spies.

Mysterious 911 moving van operator reportedly back in theUS After the Israelis were detained for several months in Brooklyn as terrorist suspects, they were quickly deported to Israel. After the FBI questioned Suter on September 11, he fled the United States on September 14, 2001. The FBI was due to question Suter again before he fled the country. Later, Federal law enforcement agents discovered pipes, caps, explosive chemical materials, and traces of anthrax at the Weehawken warehouse. Suter's name and those of some of his moving employees
turned up in a CIA database of foreign intelligence agents. Suter's name also appeared on an FBI 9-11 terrorism suspect list. "Suter ran the Weehawken, NJ-based moving company on 9-11 when a number of Urban Moving Systems vans were spotted around north Jersey before and after the hijacked planes struck the World Trade Center. One Urban Moving van was seen at Liberty State Park in Jersey City as the first plane hit the towers. The five occupants, all Israeli nationals, were seen videotaping and celebrating the attack and were dressed in
Arab clothing. The five were later arrested near Giant Stadium in East
Rutherford, NJ. One of the Israelis told police they were at Liberty State Park to "document the event."

So 9/11 speculations continue, our rights diminish and we become further enslaved as the USA marches on to third world status and the whole world burns. We can look forward to more Katrina like events and I don't mean just the natural disaster part. Though there's more of that to come too considering our regards for environment. The question is who gains the most or is seeking to gain the most in all of this?

Katrina and 9/11 part I

We just had another 9/11 anniversay and we are still primed to mistrust an Arab or muslim looking person. Meanwhile our nation and the earth in fact, continue falling apart as evidenced by Hurricane Katrina. The Privateer put it succinctly when it says:

"The facade is washed away". What is left is devastation made much
worse by a desperate government need to "control" the situation and worse still, by their attempts to control the perceptions of those involved in it and witnessing it.

The events of 9/11/2001 ushered in a more intensive phase in the way in which the elite manipulate and control the populace via control of our perceptions. The goals of the neo-cons at one time just goals, was accomplished that day. In the midst of suffering, disbelief, denial and urge for someone to do something about our crazy world (read: environment, disease, poverty), there is a lockout on basic rights for mainly the muslim or arabs. There was a reduction in the rights of everyday Americans as well. We were however, distracted by fear of those same Arab/Muslim terrorists who could get us at anytime because they hate our freedoms. By implication they were also jealous of American wealth. Mr President, do you think they still want to get us now that we have very little freedoms left to hate and as the New Privateer Global Report newsletter details, little wealth as well?

Before I go into the issue of wealth keep this in mind:

Just as the Iraq War has been a Petri Dish for the neoconservative foreign policy agenda, rebuilding the Gulf Coast in the wake of Hurricane Katrina could prove to be the mother of all testing grounds for a passel of active Heritage Foundation's domestic policy initiatives.

This stuff is about more control by the neo cons and their policies.Now to get to the facade of American wealth. You need to subscribe to get the full report but you can get free sample here. I would advise anyone interested in the state of our economy and the social crisis that is bound to result, that is happening now (review the hurricane Katrina gulf coast situation) to subscribe while they can. Some of the current report below:

....The 26-nation NATO alliance said it too had received a request for
aid from Washington. A statement from Brussels (NATO Headquarters) said that the United States has asked for NATO relief support in the form of food rations (yes - FOOD rations) for the thousands of people evacuated from the Gulf Coast.

According to European diplomats, badly needed foreign aid has been delayed for many days by backlogged US federal agencies. This includes a complete portable Swedish water purification system with its own energy supply, a full German cellular telephone network and two Canadian rescue ships. Canadian doctors and specialised emergency personnel have been held at the border.Still They Came - Even The Poor

Bangladesh, one of the world's poorest countries where millions of people live on a monsoon and flood prone delta, has pledged $US 1 million to Katrina's victims and offered to send its specialist rescuers to inundated areas.

We got used to images of these things happening "over there" i.e Iraq. Our good fortune is part of the reason acording to the neo-con "they" attacked us. Their government could only exploit the people and harbor terrorist so we were saving these people from their governments. Can you see how brutal it gets when ones life, way of life is on the line, look at New Orleans. We also saw how callous and indifferent government and the wealthy elite can be when it's not their house, or job that is threatened. When the neo cons speak of the greedy and evil governments in poor countries exploiting their people, they are really describing themselves. Who is going to save us from our evil leaders? We better get up to the challenge ourselves because it's about to get worse. Consider the Iraq war and the present hurricane induced energy crisis. That can and will impact the economy resulting in further societal breakdown. In the meantime the wealthy elites will look on from the safety of their presidential jets, helicopters and big houses (a la the Bush in the gulf coast) while making plans which may result in more disasters.

The White House has told US refiners to postpone all their scheduled maintenance in a drive to maximise petrol and diesel production in the wake of hurricane Katrina. This is, potentially, a deadly dangerous move. The entire system is now labouring under a "diminished capacity". To throw maintenance out of the window in what now remains of the rest of the US refinery system - already working flat out trying to cover for the lost output of the refineries missing in action - is to expose the remainder of the system to more and possibly full production breakdown. If any more US refineries suffer a full breakdown, the US eastern seaboard is cruising towards a systemic crash.

By this order, one which no politician would dare to make in an even "semi-free" society, the Bush Administration hopes to have enough refined oil in hand at the end of this period to keep prices down. We in this position precisely because of Bush's fight against terrorists. Note we are not free for no leader in even a "semi-free society" would dare what ours do. The Privateer asks:

Do you remember the message as the government ramped up spending in the wake of 9/11? It went along these lines: "Money is no object - FREEDOM has been attacked".

Our fate in the long run may not be much different than those who suffered Katrina or worse the citizens of Iraq. Money is no object now in rebuilding New Orleans. Why? Is it because Carl Rove infamous for patronage, lies and manipulations will be in charge? See http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/15/politics/15bush.html for more details.

Anyway, more from the privateer:

The official estimate is that the war in Iraq and Afghanistan has cost $US 300 Billion. Now, so far unofficial estimates are claiming that the "final" cost of the Katrina devastation could be another $US 300 Billion. With just under three weeks to go in fiscal 2005, the increase in US Treasury debt for the year
stands at $US 571 Billion.

There is also trillions in national debt. As for Katrina recovery:

Mr Bush signed an Executive Order on September 8 which permits FEDERAL CONTRACTORS rebuilding in New Orleans and elsewhere in the Gulf States to pay below the "prevailing" (read minimum) wage. This "accomplishes" a number of things. It ensures that only those firms "approved" by Washington DC will get the contracts.

Keep in mind that many of Katrina's victims were stuck because they were too poor to get out. Their jobs, if they had any were minimum wage. Then keep in mind that it's the favorite companies of Bush and pals that reap the profits, companies like Blackwater security, The Shaw group, Halliburton et al. Some concerns about it was even published in the NY Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/17/national/nationalspecial/17memo.html