What is reality really? Many will say they are certain about what they
mean when they use the term, but are they? Reality has many forms, and it
is as complex or as simple as the person who defines it. A key to
discovering what each reality may be, can be found when one looks long and
hard at context for any particular belief.
There are many aspects from several different disciplines involved but
each is reducible to basics. Life is almost never clear to us - each
thought we have, each person that we meet and get to know, each event that
we encounter, large or small - will affect what we choose to see and how
we live. This is about what we are, what we would like to be, and how
others often tend to see us.
Part of the reason we have so much trouble in life is that we often fail
to grasp much beyond the basic high points in any situation. Life is
overfilled with information and events - there simply isn't time to give
much more. This fact tends to reinforce a world that will always be in
black and white.
When we try to find the world of living color - we discover that it has to
be more than just smearing color on a pre-printed view of life: A whole
new interpretation is required. A few have found their way, and some have
found much more; but for most people there's still a missing link - a part
that's very hard to locate, because strictly speaking it's not visible.
That element is context.
Take trust for instance. That's the glue that holds the world together,
without which we could never have a world that works on any level. We trust
what we buy in a grocery store to be what it says it is, and that it has not
been poisoned or contaminated. In several places there are still communities
where a handshake is a promise, and trust is something that remains
inviolate. Today among the many billions of bodies that now inhabit the
earth, especially in our mega-cities, trust is often nearly impossible to
find.
Trust remains one of our oldest and most necessary touchstones, for the
kinds of lives we say we want to live.
Yet trust is part of many worlds as well, the personal, the public and the
political. In the personal world it's viewed as most important. In the
public eye it's often seen as something flexible, conditional, depending on
degrees of separation and balanced by the stakes of a given situation.
Ronnie called this "Trust but verify" And then there's the purely
political version. In that world trust is nearly non-existent. Think about
the campaign promise, the promise of a "Morning in America" that
turned into national debt beyond belief. All politicians use it to massage
their messages, to smooth the path that leads to office and to riches; and
sometimes 'trust' can take them on, to much much more.
The nightmare that we're living in right now is what happens when trust is
nothing but a word, containing nothing but a ticking clock that will one day
find that moment when it will finally have to stop. That will be because the
public will no longer buy that empty word, and will instead begin to ask for
proof of promises that can no longer be fulfilled.
Truth is yet another of those necessary things that keeps the global gears
in motion. But this is not a simple thing, like love the concept by its very
nature defies description. Still no one can live without some degree of it
within their lives. How can we 'know' when simple truth is present? Forget
the formal texts, ignore the weighty definitions that are everywhere for all
to see. Listen to that mind's eye view of what you hear is saying, then run
that by your heart, and chances are for a time at least, you'll know when
truth is present.
Again with truth, the personal is uppermost. The public version is far
less delicate and the political application should come with major warning
labels.
Whenever any politician lies, it's more than just not the telling of the
truth. This involves instead a construct, a fabrication from which some
major gain is to be expected, by the politician, and not by the unwary
constituent toward whom the particular untruth was directed.
One of the most basic things about the truth is that we live or die by how
we come to judge the circumstances that surround it. The warning sign that
tells us that the bridge is out. The glowing report that promises the
investor that all is well and that the future is secure, that your
retirement is intact, that your insurance policy is not a fraud. Truth is
extremely important. So why, it might be asked, is it so difficult for
people to believe that what they've been given as a truth is nothing but a
lie?
Because sometimes the truth can be too graphic: "For the great enemy of
truth is very often not the lie -- deliberate, contrived and dishonest --
but the myth -- persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic, Too often-we
subject all facts to a prefabricated set of interpretations. We enjoy the
comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought."
And therein lies the rub! Politicians say that we love change, but that's
because it works for them. Most people intensely resent change, because it
is unnerving. If you're living on the street and you've just won the
lottery, you probably welcomed change. But if you're someone living on a
fixed income, you are not thrilled when all your costs are seen to rise with
every passing month-because that 'change' is not a welcome thing. So it all
depends on where you are, as to how much change or how much truth you can
really take.
In politics the question becomes, how to measure truth? Where are you really
at any given moment? There are two important questions here. Can you trust
the situation that you see as yours, and is there any truth in the picture
that is being painted for you, by the leaders of your world? The answers
must pass through that slightly damaged lens that is your life
experience-because usually that's all that any of us have, to gage the
reality of what we see as life.
In the case of this government what we know, is that everything they've said
has been a lie: from who they were, to who they are, and finally to what
they seek to be, at our expense. That would be one thing if it were only
politics. But this is something far more dangerous. These people have lied
not only to those who put them where they are; they've done it with a
vengeance, to steal the world while no one's looking. They're counting on us
to believe in all that has been so long dead. Their message is cloaked in
flags and military conquests.
They speak of courage, of freedom and democracy in the face of evil enemies that would come to kill us in our beds, if it were
not for those, who fight for us against the hated foreign enemies.
Never will they ever allow even the thought that maybe those that we are
killing by the thousand are just people like ourselves: People who clearly
are resisting our invading armies: just as we would, if the situation were
reversed. The Bush cabal has much to gain and they're counting on us to be
pliant once again-stupid really, because that America that they have
pictured for us has been dead for over half a century. This is the NEW
America where there is no longer trust, or truth or honor, at least not when
it comes to any politician I can think of.
And finally betrayal! It's one thing when those we love betray us, another
to be betrayed in business, or by a drifter selling dreams for promises of
wealth. It's another when an entire people are betrayed, a way of life, and
a nation that was once-but is no longer. Betrayal is a cowardly despicable
act; no one claims to do it well. But betrayal is what these lying, thieving
creatures are engaged in now. Look beneath the packaging, unwrap the truth
they're keeping from you and see them as they are. Look at what they said
they'd do.
Bush was going to unite us; he was for compassion, smaller government, a
better, safer, cleaner world and peace. What has he done? He's almost split
the world in half; he is a hater, a warmonger, a liar and a thief. Nothing
that he has promised has come even close to true. Add to that-that he will
not stop, even as his Armageddon nears throughout the Middle East, he will
not alter course-no matter what the price. This stupid evil child who says
he talks to god will never see reality, no matter how many lives it costs
the world, for him to stay his course. The only thing that matters to this
administration is full control of everything that lives.
The proof is in the facts that no one will permit to surface, in that
investigation that is not taking place-surrounding 911. The reason is
simple. As he said himself: 'If the people knew what we have done, they
would lynch us in the streets.' But the real question now is what will you
do about your version of Trust, Truth & Betrayal?
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