Do we need "a" reality? Carl Roger's prophesy of contemporary Canada!

Carl Rogers essay near the conclusion wrote "we are wiser than our intellects, that our organisms as a whole have a wisdom and purposiveness which goes well beyond our conscious thought. ...men and women, individually and collectively, are inwardly and orgasmically rejecting the view of one single, culture - approved reality. I believe they are moving inevitably toward the acceptance of millions of separate, challenging, exciting, informative, individual perceptions of reality. I regard it as possible that this view like the sudden and separate discovery of the principles of quantum mechanics by scientists in different countries _ may begin to come into effective existence in many parts of the world at once. If so, we will be living in a totally new universe, different from any in history. Is it conceivable that such a change can come about?" Roger's concludes his essay

"..that if nations follow their past ways, then, because of the speed of world communication of separate views, each society will have to exert more and more coercion to bring about a forced agreement as to what constitutes the real world and its values. Those coerced agreements will differ from nation to nation, from culture to culture. The coercion will destroy individual freedom. We will bring about our own destruction through the clashes caused by differing world views."

mms://64.41.121.56/saybrook.edu/NeedReality1.wma

He goes on to offer hope: "But I have suggested an alternative. If we accept as a basic fact of all human life that we live in separate realities; if we can see those differing realities as the most promising resource for learning in all the history of the world; if we can live together in order to learn from one another without fear; if we can do all this, then a new age could be dawning. And perhaps -- humankind's deep organic sensings are paving the way for just such a change."

mms://64.41.121.56/saybrook.edu/NeedRealty2QA.wma

I had an experience in listening to this - that it mirrored the disciples at the feet of Christ listening to the master. My response to first reading the quote and then listening to Roger's deliver the essay at a conference - I was struck by the polarization that he concludes would occur. The message mirrors what has happened in Canada's election. On the one hand a message of values that the world has abandoned - and how the described "zealots" want to make life where everyone is in agreement to the leaders demands versus those who appreciate the amazing diversity and wonder of everyone's powerful unique perception of reality and being able to honor and listen to each other.

Now as I hear the words that the state will have to apply more coercion to have people comply and give up individual rights in order to implement thier agenda I can understand the needs for prisons. When we hear and cheer for the death of Osama Bin Laden - we are allowing a precedent to be set that it is okay to seek out and kill another human being because their ideas may be contrary to our own. The years ahead with a "strong and stable majority government" should be looked at with sceptism and foreboding as to what lengths the "authority chooses to unleash on the masses" of oppressed people - blind to their oppression.

To be subversive is a calling Jesus had .... will you join him on the journey?

Mark Twain’s Early Protest against the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

Mark Twain’s Early Protest against the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan


A holy moment.
The more we learn from history and the stories from previous generations, the more I can see how far the human condition is “off the mark” of living in right relationship with life in all aspects. Thanks for this revelation.

Serious political commentators of the past are often recognized and as youth and children we are encouraged to read their age appropriate materials. Mark Twain - Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn disclose the inquisitive - trials of youth but why at a young age did I not want to know more of the wisdom so eloquently offered by Samuel Clemons?

In old age so much to remember - so much unknown. Such a shame for me to admit.

Thank you for the enlightenment.

http://www.phnet.fi/public/mamaa1/twain.htm

Truth is more of a stranger than fiction.
Why shouldn't truth be stranger than fiction? Fiction after all, has to make sense.

Are we living the sacred myths

Pondering here in the hills; are we living the sacred myths. Why did President Obama decide to ride into Afghanistan as a messiah of peace on "palm sunday" as in the christian story of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on his counter protest to the Romans and elite "taliban and rulers of what we want believe as the oppressors"?
In Canada the RCMP used the Easter long weekend to apologize to the mother of the innocent man killed by taser at the Vancouver Airport. Is this an example of the Roman soldier at the foot of the cross proclaiming they had killed an innocent man?
The unveiling events in Russia and Poland - have connections of which story of the Polish people will be allowed to be told. When someone comes along and trys to restate or reframe the actual story - the result often is termed 'tragic irony' and somewhere the truth is lost or changed for either the powerful or the underdog.
The one truth that I encountered this weekend was the statement "war is a lot simpler than life!" Are we only taking the easy way out of our "existential pain" by continuing a societal suicide?
As the holy fool I see strangely in the darkness. May we find ways to live in peace which is harder and lonelier but the right work of all.