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Thursday, March 8, 2012

Kony 2012, Yanks & Their Dirty Oil



Most likely you are by now familiar with the Kony 2012 video on YouTube. Just in case you haven't...

I was informed by my Pakistani friend this morning that the video is all a conspiracy. It’s not really about young people trying to save lost children in Uganda from the warlord Joseph Kony. It’s about the American empire and their lust for oil.

Again.

Uganda, it seems, has a lot of oil. That’s why the yanks want to go in there.

Here’s my take. The way we talk about the world tells us a lot about our deepest belief structures. We see the world not as it is, but as we are. It’s not that the world is an illusion, as some new age and India philosophies mistakenly claim (call it what you like, you still die if you step in front of the bus). It’s that our judgments are so heavily distorted by what lies buried in our psyches.

Maybe Kony 2012, or the American government’s interest really is about the oil. But the fact is there is not a shred of evidence for this at this point in time.

As I have stated often on this blog, I am no fan of conspiracy theories. They are mostly projections, emerging from unresolved anger at not getting what we want as children – and especially our fathers. Most such theories have little evidence to support them, and are based on incredibly implausible scenarios. I mean, how have they kept the 400 000 NASA employees involved in the faked moon landings quiet after so many years? Impressive!

One of the things I liked about WikiLeaks documents is that they show that many diplomats – yes, even some evil Americans – have genuine concern and compassion for human beings, although they are often constrained by complicated systems and protocols.

Consider this. The capacity to rape and kill is biologically built into human beings. “Kill it or fuck it” is the prime drive of testosterone. But let us not forget that compassion is also an innate human quality. The discovery of mirror neurons confirms this. When we see another human being feeling sadness or joy, mirror neurons in our own brains fire. We feel their pain and happiness. This is also the reason we are able to ‘enjoy’ a movie, story, or empathise with a great play on the sporting field. When the player scores, we score with him. When he gets smashed, we feel it just a little bit. In a sense, we ‘love’ him as our experience merges with his.

So what are we to make of human beings? Are we just a bunch of fuckers and killers, or are we compassionate and loving?

The answer is that we are all these things. The choice we have is in the beliefs and attitudes we are willing to develop as we experience life and in turn, the worldview that we create from this choice.

Of course in reality it is not so simple. The human mind is a swirling ocean of psychological forces pushing and pulling each other. Our conscious thoughts are deeply affected by our personal biographies. The loving embrace of your mother or her scolding rejection imprint themselves into your consciousness. What is more, your pain and joy do not die with you. They are contained both within your personal consciousness field beyond death, and they form part of the human collective oversoul. The pain, fear and love of the ancestors is carried with you. This much I have seen again and again.

This is why it is so important to do an inner journey, and commit to a spiritual path that allows you to see who you are, who we are at a deeper level. In this way you can become more ‘enlightened’ about what drives you, and what drives the human species. Such wisdom grants us the capacity to be more truly responsible for who we are, and to become spiritually mature.

Your worldview also determines the kind of consciousness field you carry through your life. You cannot heal, and your 'light' can never shine while you carry with you anger, blame and a sense of being a victim. By believing that you are disempowered... you disempower yourself. And the truth is you make the world a slightly worse place just by existing. You become part of the problem, not the solution. A shadowy part of the darkness.

So when I look at the Kony 2012 video I note that my innate reaction is one of gratitude that there are still young people in the world who are willing to do something to make the world a better place. They are driven by compassion, and I can understand why. It is to be expected. And I note the reactions of those who look at the same video and find cynical judgment rise within them, and equally understand where they come from. For all of us have created the 'world' that we experience.

Marcus

2 comments:

  1. As you yourself have often said Marcus, it's the intention behind what you do that matters as much as the thing itself - particularly when intervening in a complex world. We can get it wrong, there can be unintended consequences, people can misunderstand. But if we come from compassion and presence, what will come out of it will be good on balance.

    In this specific case, the Kony video and its presence in social media has alerted a lot of young people particularly to issues that they knew nothing about, and awakened their compassion. See this story in the 'Guardian' the other day, for instance: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/08/kony-film-web-video?INTCMP=SRCH

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  2. There's no doubt there are both good and bad applications of social media, Simon. I'd like to think the Kony 2011 video is one of the good, even though it simplifies matters a great deal.

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