G
Guest
Guest
The past week has been the culmination of shameful and disgusting acts, and has been deplorable to view as an observer of world events, which I have gradually become over the last seven years.
Two soldiers go missing (no-one knows exactly where!), and a country is systematically reduced to ruins, although the focus of these attacks are at the very best arbitrary, at worst cold-bloodedly ruthless.
In all conflicts it is those at the ground level who suffer most acutely; the poor, the disposessed, those who cannot afford a viable alternative. Some of these are proud; they love their country and so decide to take a stand rather than run. This may not be the correct choice, but it is at least understandable. Contrast this with the bellicose rhetoric of those who love war, yet only pull the strings, the Judeo-Christian axis of US/Israel/UK, and reflect. I know you all have already, 'tis I who is slow on the uptake. The shame settles like the smoke and dust of those ruined towns.
I am a UK citizen, but I am also a Welshman. I thought about this in depth today, wondering what it must have been like for those ancient Britons driven westwards by the conquering invaders, until we became but a shadow of a nation - a principality. Look at our flag - a clean pastoral scene with a whopping great red dragon superimposed on the top.
Is this what is coming to Palestine and Lebanon? They will lose their nationhood, and become principalities of an expanded Zionist state in the region. Bitterness will ensue, and conflict will be always hovering like a vulture, a spectre, awaiting its chance to emerge again.
As I watched and read, I reflected on the physiological reactions to viewing this conflict. At times I was shaking with rage, bewilderment and frustration, desperately clinging to my spiritual sense of purpose through my utter sorrow for the blameless and the sleepless of the region. If anger isn't channeled into positive action, it will fester. I thought of Harold Pinter and tried to calm down.
These feelings of impotent rage reminded me of something Aldous Huxley once said about the reaction to the rise of Nazism: In reacting to the threat, many people in many nations became almost their mirror image in their vitriol, their desire to prevail at all costs, and the emphasis on physical and mental rigidity in facing the enemy. What a knife-edge! With care and awareness one can skate this blade, but a slip will plunge you into spiritual darkness.
I also watched the faces of numerous American/Israeli political figures and listened to the tone of their voices as they stated their "party lines" - almost uniformly agressive in tenor, married to a steadfast refusal (inability) to even countenance any point of view contrary to their own. Then I remembered; they have been bought and paid for, and for them there is no going back, no metanoia. Indeed, their road to Damascus is trailed with blood, with words of spite spewed like vomit.
Meanwhile Labour MP Kim Howells steps out of the British political void and dares to say what any sane UK citizen has been saying all week. Bravo!
Now we need another 100,000 MP's to rediscover their guts and do the same. It will be interesting viewing the axis' reaction to Howells' statement. Tempering their manners with courtesies and gentlemanly conduct, masking the seething discomfort within, be it fear or hate.
I will never give in to fear, or hate, on any level, and my heart sinks for those in the middle east, and then I reflected on those who live there who frequent this site. How to talk to people about the issues we discuss on this forum is problematic at the best of times (with the exception of a few friends I have given this method up) - what must it be like for those caught in the maelstrom? It feels impossible enough in the UK, where outright hatred is reserved mainly for bars at closing time.
Where do we go from here? Onwards...with keen eyes, open ears and a nose for the truth, with the mind primed for those simple and karmic understandings which should stand us in good stead as we sail on through the blood of our extended family.
I need a cigarette...cheers for enlightening me, people. I wish we could form an independent state somewhere....
Two soldiers go missing (no-one knows exactly where!), and a country is systematically reduced to ruins, although the focus of these attacks are at the very best arbitrary, at worst cold-bloodedly ruthless.
In all conflicts it is those at the ground level who suffer most acutely; the poor, the disposessed, those who cannot afford a viable alternative. Some of these are proud; they love their country and so decide to take a stand rather than run. This may not be the correct choice, but it is at least understandable. Contrast this with the bellicose rhetoric of those who love war, yet only pull the strings, the Judeo-Christian axis of US/Israel/UK, and reflect. I know you all have already, 'tis I who is slow on the uptake. The shame settles like the smoke and dust of those ruined towns.
I am a UK citizen, but I am also a Welshman. I thought about this in depth today, wondering what it must have been like for those ancient Britons driven westwards by the conquering invaders, until we became but a shadow of a nation - a principality. Look at our flag - a clean pastoral scene with a whopping great red dragon superimposed on the top.
Is this what is coming to Palestine and Lebanon? They will lose their nationhood, and become principalities of an expanded Zionist state in the region. Bitterness will ensue, and conflict will be always hovering like a vulture, a spectre, awaiting its chance to emerge again.
As I watched and read, I reflected on the physiological reactions to viewing this conflict. At times I was shaking with rage, bewilderment and frustration, desperately clinging to my spiritual sense of purpose through my utter sorrow for the blameless and the sleepless of the region. If anger isn't channeled into positive action, it will fester. I thought of Harold Pinter and tried to calm down.
These feelings of impotent rage reminded me of something Aldous Huxley once said about the reaction to the rise of Nazism: In reacting to the threat, many people in many nations became almost their mirror image in their vitriol, their desire to prevail at all costs, and the emphasis on physical and mental rigidity in facing the enemy. What a knife-edge! With care and awareness one can skate this blade, but a slip will plunge you into spiritual darkness.
I also watched the faces of numerous American/Israeli political figures and listened to the tone of their voices as they stated their "party lines" - almost uniformly agressive in tenor, married to a steadfast refusal (inability) to even countenance any point of view contrary to their own. Then I remembered; they have been bought and paid for, and for them there is no going back, no metanoia. Indeed, their road to Damascus is trailed with blood, with words of spite spewed like vomit.
Meanwhile Labour MP Kim Howells steps out of the British political void and dares to say what any sane UK citizen has been saying all week. Bravo!
Now we need another 100,000 MP's to rediscover their guts and do the same. It will be interesting viewing the axis' reaction to Howells' statement. Tempering their manners with courtesies and gentlemanly conduct, masking the seething discomfort within, be it fear or hate.
I will never give in to fear, or hate, on any level, and my heart sinks for those in the middle east, and then I reflected on those who live there who frequent this site. How to talk to people about the issues we discuss on this forum is problematic at the best of times (with the exception of a few friends I have given this method up) - what must it be like for those caught in the maelstrom? It feels impossible enough in the UK, where outright hatred is reserved mainly for bars at closing time.
Where do we go from here? Onwards...with keen eyes, open ears and a nose for the truth, with the mind primed for those simple and karmic understandings which should stand us in good stead as we sail on through the blood of our extended family.
I need a cigarette...cheers for enlightening me, people. I wish we could form an independent state somewhere....