He Is Still Dangerous

Perhaps you've seen reports on this story, which is currently playing out in Columbus, Ohio.

Carla Hale, Gay Teacher, Fired From Catholic High School After Being 'Outed' By Mother's Obituary

Carla Hale, a beloved teacher at Bishop Watterson High School, was fired because of her sexuality. She was a teacher who cared for her students and treated each one with respect. The school, however, did not reciprocate that respect in its treatment of her. Discrimination and injustice is something that we all have a duty to fight in today's society. It's unfair that someone who cared so much about her students and her job should lose them on the basis of something she cannot even control.

Read more about this story here.

What follows is my take on the dynamics of the situation:

Whether they know it or not, the people who fired Carla Hale are reenacting what the Pharisees did 2000 years ago to the itinerant carpenter, whom they claim to follow and whose authority they have appropriated and assigned to themselves.

He's the guy who refused to condemn the adulteress; the guy who supped with tax collectors and sinners; the guy who preached love for all and said "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath" when questioned about allowing his followers to ignore a "law."

Yep. That guy - the one they nailed to a cross to protect their positions of power and influence within a stagnant social structure clinging to the past and peddling a snake oil security at the cost of one's personal integrity and worth - the very items "that guy" declared to be the essence of the good news - that you, and in fact all people, are worth God's love (Matthew 10:31).

The posturing of those who fired Carla Hale reminds me of one of my favorite scenes from the movie "Jesus Christ Superstar." The Scribes and Pharisees stand upon and protect a flimsy scaffold amid the ruins of the temple as they sing sing "He Is Dangerous!" and "This Jesus Must Die!"

It is no accident, of course, that the scene opens with an overhead shot of buzzards soaring and the Scribes and Pharisees are dressed in black robes.

Link to source

Drone Warfare

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I just finished reading "The Social Conquest of Earth" by Edward O. Wilson. Since then, Wilson's observations on the biological underpinnings of human nature and social structure have rattled around in my head.

Then, yesterday a friend posted the following on her Facebook page:

Discussion at my house today centered on junior high and how it starts at 7.35am. Freddie said.... I don't want to get up that early. It doesn't matter, that's the way it is, i said. And then she said, "Why do adults get to be in charge? I don't want to be a puppet. Why do kids have to be mindless drones?" and I laughed my head off. "Remember dad's last job?" I asked. "Remember how clockiing in one minute late got him a write-up, and he had 7.5 minutes for break? We're all drones. Only the people in charge get to make the rules. You want a job? Want to drop out?" Welcome to Monday...with a new resolve to stay in school. :)

Her post resonated with those rattling, Wilsonian thoughts and inspired me to write the following:

We become drones when we accept without question the "truths" our tribal leaders feed us to maintain their positions of power and influence, even when those "truths" don't square with reality.

Such "truths" offer safety and assurance to all who willingly abandon intellectual freedom and personal worth, both of which are considered dangerous, sinful, or criminal transgressions against the tribe's very essence.

People who avoid becoming drones come to recognize that they have individual integrity and worth with or without the blessings of the tribal leaders, even as they play the tribal game.

This is painful.

Once recognized, these individuals become outcastes who can never return to the mindless safety of the tribal hive-mentality.

Yet there is an upside, and it is of great value.

Whenever the rules of their particular tribe demand sacrificing truth to myth, these outcastes discover that they are free to find another tribe or none at all with only a minimal amount of guilt and pain. They know that they are simply playing one version of a game played by countless similarly constructed social groups, so they are also free to choose to retain their position within the tribe.

Now, however they play with access to the complete rule book, not just the rules their self-serving leaders have parceled out to them.

So, a resounding Yes!

"Welcome to Monday...with a new resolve to stay in school."

The Social Conquest of Earth

I recently finished reading "The Social Conquest of Earth" by Edward O. Wilson.

The book is long, and so is the video linked below. The reward, however, is worth the price of admission, which is a considerable investment of time and attention.

Like all transformational ideas, however, what Edward O. Wilson has to say cannot be boiled down to a 60 second soundbite for easy consumption by the masses.

Those willing to pay the time-price will come away with a deeper understanding about the origin of and the dynamics which drive the conflicts in today's world. Those unwilling to do so will remain willfully enslaved by the dogmas and ideologies which require conflicts to justify their continued existence.

Edward O. Wilson “The Social Conquest of Earth”
from The Long Now Foundation on FORA.tv

Cold Dead Hand vs. Cold Dead Brains

Last week on Funny or Die, Jim Carrey released a music video called "Cold Dead Hand." The video presents a satirical view of those who blindly follow the NRA as it shills for the gun manufacturing industry while claiming to represent hunters and sportsmen.

Watch Jim Carrey's original "Cold Dead Hand" video by clicking here.

Shortly after its release, FOX "News" went apoplectic over Carrey's music video. Click here for the FOX response.

Those capable of critical thought will immediately recognize that the commentary from the propagandists at FOX is an ad hominem diatribe comprised entirely of opinion with neither substance nor factual support for what is said about Carrey. That, of course, is to be expected from FOX.

This is Jim Carrey's response to the FOX attack dogs.

Since I released my “Cold Dead Hand” video on Funny or Die this week, I have watched Fux News rant, rave, bare its fangs and viciously slander me because of my stand against large magazines and assault rifles. I would take them to task legally if I felt they were worth my time or that anyone with a brain in their head could actually fall for such irresponsible buffoonery. That would gain them far too much attention which is all they really care about.

I’ll just say this: in my opinion Fux News is a last resort for kinda-sorta-almost-journalists whose options have been severely limited by their extreme and intolerant views; a media colostomy bag that has begun to burst at the seams and should be emptied before it becomes a public health issue. 

I sincerely believe that in time, good people will lose patience with the petty and poisonous behavior of these bullies and Fux News will be remembered as nothing more than a giant culture fart that no amount of Garlique could cure. 

I wish them all the luck that accompanies such malevolence.

Click here to view one of the many online postings of Carrey's response.

Having read Carrey's words, I'm quite sure a lot of folks won't like them. They'll say he's doing the same thing as the talking heads on FOX and simply attacking them. There is one critical differences, however.

Carrey clearly  states that his harshly worded response is his opinion; FOX packages its rant as "News."

The inability of many people to recognize that difference is the secret behind the success of FOX "News."

Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes have profited greatly by pandering to those who lack such understanding, but  they do so at a tremendous cost to the nation. The FOX formula of disinformation, deceit, and diatribe is the engine which drives the ultra-partisanship and inflexibility in today's America that renders political compromise almost impossible.