Letters to the Editor
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I Know We're Getting Off-Topic But Not Totally:
From Kaliope:
"You're conflating several issues, here, which is both morally and intellectually confusing... "
From Rumsfeld:
"Any kind of moral or intellectual confusion about who and what is right or wrong can weaken the ability of free societies to persevere,..."
From Brendan O’Neill at Spiked (a magazine that espouses critical thinking):
"[The] exclusion of adults - especially male adults - from photographs taken in wars, famines and natural disasters has been occurring for the past 20 years. In her interesting book What is a Child? Popular Images of Childhood, first published in 1992, the film and photography expert Patricia Holland argued that men are sidelined in order that the photo will elicit pure pity, rather than critical consideration, in the viewer:
‘Men are rarely visible in the iconography of disaster. It is they who signify culture, and whose presence tends to locate a picture in its geographical context. They are most likely to be fully clothed or to be engaged in some task. As the strongest group they are least likely to conform to the expected image of the victim and the most likely to be involved in attempts at reconstruction or resistance, confusing the clarity of the story, complicating a reaction of pity alone. Thus the community to which the suffering child belongs is visually bypassed, and the extent to which it is caring for its own children is rarely explored.’ [emphasis mine]
I'm reaching here, but it seems to me, it is the role of women that runs through all of this:
If New Age thought is allowed to warp women's thinking so "equality" as I've defined it (the sexes not doing the same things but ARE thought of as the same) does not allow men to fulfill their role (as "they who signify culture") to tell "who and what is right or wrong" - if "men are sidelined" - then "the ability of free societies to persevere" is weakened. Remember that the Forbes article didn't say women couldn't or shouldn't pursue careers, just that men shouldn't consider a career woman as a mate because it's likely things will fall apart.
I know - it's a stretch - but I'm throwing it out there as "food for thought" and to try to connect various strands that are hanging out there in the dialogue.
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Louis
I'm sorry if I misunderstood you. I didn't get the joke. I guess we have different senses of humor.
I will definitely do more to investigate the history of New Age elements. I have an aunt who is into this crap and it disturbs me too. She's a practioner, and she believes in what she's doing, and she really does it to be a healer, so I know for a fact that all practioners aren't con artists, at least not intentionally. What bothers me is the fact that she, who has PhD in the hard sciences, actually, has completely thrown reason out of the window. She thinks breathing excersizes can make her invisible (NOT KIDDING), and that it's possible to heal people over the phone. She's not doing it to feel better about herself, though. I think she's just made up this magical little world because she likes it better. Recently, she has gotten into morphology, which, as I'm sure you know, is related to eugenics. She's Jewish, but she refuses to see the connection. A friend and I are thinking about writing an expose on this, actually, specifically the organization she belongs to and her guru, or whatever, so your historical links will be quite helpful.
That being said, I am as skeptical of many of your sources as I am about her sources. I don't like Rumsfeld, I think he and Cheney, et al, are true fascists who are only hindered in their ambitions by relatively sane populace. I don't think wars are okay, but they are occasionally necessary. I don't think people should forget about those who die. I take your point about coverage being about women and children, and I agree with you (because there are plenty of men in this world whom I love) that men are undervalued in many, many ways. I don't think it's right that so many of our boys are dying in Iraq, especially since so many of them joined up and put their lives on the line for their people. I don't think they're expendable, and I think we should all be ashamed that we sent them to suffer hardship, tore them away from their families, and allowed so many to die. I think we, as a nation, should be horrified that people who wrangled their way out of serving their country when they were called are the ones who so easily sent these men and women over. My blood is boiling just thinking about it.
I also feel for the men, women and children of Lebannon who were just going about living their lives when this war started. They had no control over the situation, any more than those who went to work in the Twin Towers did. Tragedy is tragedy is tragedy. I agree with you: once we devalue on set of lives, we devalue them all ("No man is an island/ Entire to himself"). So I am not going to devalue the lives of innocent Iraqis, Lebanese and Israelis just because they happened to be born in the wrong place and time, any more than I would devalue the lives of our troops because they signed up for it.
The bottom line the world doesn't have to be men against women, blacks against white, Arabs against Westerners. Some people benefit from these disputes, but it's not you, me or anyone we know and love.
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Kaliope:
Your aunt is a believer - just like my ex-wife. She thought she could cure cancer and AIDS with her hands, walk through walls, and heal people on the other side of the world by chanting. And, keep in mind, this is a woman who, at work, managed accounts and budgets worth millions.
New Agers are pretty much split into two groups: believers (tragic) and con men (criminals). The Self-Help And Actualization Movement (S.H.A.M.) is split into two ideologies: victimS (you aren't responsible for what happens) and empowerment (you're totally responsible for what happens). Needless to say, I'll gladly tell you anything you want to know on the subject.
Unfortunately (because it's woo-woo stuff) sources can be sketchy - you're dealing with weirdos and criminals - but it's out there and can be nailed down. Also unfortunate is the fact the media (print, TV, online) is complicite - because it sells:
Mysteries of the Unknown, Silvia Browne on Montel, Oprah's various New Age obsessions, and stuff like that.
Newspaper articles that ask "Is Homeopathy Fake?" when they know it's just water.
Director David Lynch trying to get Transcendental Meditation, specifically, in inner city schools.
The way nobody asks Scientologists hard questions about the people they've killed, or the lives they've destroyed, and their political ambitions.
On to politics:
I was in the Navy but I started off hating Bush and Co. like everyone else. Total Michael Moore fan. But then, I checked Michael Moore's "facts" online and - lo and behold - none of it held up. None of it. (And it didn't take much for it to start cracking open.) That started an odessey that continues to this day.
Now I see Bush and Co. as necessary in a dangerous time when most people I know can't find meaning. I don't feel sorry for the troops - I share their mission. And yes, dying people anywhere is tragic but I know we're fighting terrorists who don't care nearly as much about them as we do. They hade amongst the innocent, forcing us to do the unthinkable to kill the bad guys.
The Left to me, now, is just silly. They are "the believers". They forget what Bush said about what we're doing and claim he's stupid because of soundbites. WMD is a stupid. All of it. They don't get that we're fighting ourselves while people are trying to kill us. Dissent may be the highest form of patriotism but it's not the highest form of citizenship. And in war we need to be citizens. Not stupid, not gullible, but serious about what we believe in.
I'm an American. A flag-waver. I love my family, friends, country, other Americans of all stripes, and how sympathetic we are to the issues of the world - the way we're willing to air our bullshit in public (which doesn't help when the enemy is listening). I don't want to lose this war. I don't want to stop fighting. I don't want us to pull out of Iraq - I want our soldiers to feel they lost their buddies for something good, and right, and important.
Bush knows that. That's why I like him. He's a politician but, I'm sure, he's not as cynicle as people say and the bogus shit that's thrown at him hurts me. To stand up to all this pressure is amazing - but necessary. (I admire him, actually.) I laugh at him, at times, but more because he's funny than stupid - yea, laughing with him, not at him. Other people may not get that but that's their problem: Democrats are losing elections and not realizing that's not what elections are for.
O.K., I'm rambling. I'm touched by your post. It's one of the few that seems to come from the same place I'm trying to live in. I'm tired of the racists (black or white, Mexican or whatever) I'm tired of the "spiritual" folks (religious or not) and I'm tired of misandry and mysogeny (I like real men and women). But I don't hate anyone.
What I like is critical thinking. It's the only thing that seems to bring me real pleasure, post-divorce. I needed it, to figure out what just happened to me, and it did it. But it's also opened the door to the threat of the New Age - and it is a threat. People are dying for it. It's warping people's minds. Words with no meaning are part of our vocabulary. "Wellness". "Holistic". And, yes, "Self-Actualization."
I'm already self-actualized: I'm me.