"Dictators
and tyrants routinely begin their reigns and sustain their power with
the deliberate and calculated destruction of art: the censorship and
book-burning of unpoliced prose, the harassment and detention of
painters, journalists, poets, playwrights, novelists, essayists. This is
the first step of a despot whose instinctive acts of malevolence are
not simply mindless or evil; they are also perceptive.
Such despots know very well that their strategy of repression will
allow the real tools of oppressive power to flourish. Their plan is
simple: 1. Select a useful enemy -- an 'Other' -- to convert rage into
conflict, even war. 2. Limit or erase the imagination that art provides,
as well as the critical thinking of scholars and journalists. 3.
Distract with toys, dreams of loot, and themes of superior religion or
defiant national pride that enshrine past hurts and humiliations." -- Toni Morrison, No Place for Self-Pity, No Room for Fear: In times of dread, artists must never choose to remain silent. The Nation, 3-23-15
Richard Power is the author of eleven books, including most recently, "Cauldron Yoga, Gaian Poetics and the Way of the Ancient Future,"
along with the other four volumes of his "Primal Reality" series, all
of which are available in both softcover and Kindle versions via
Amazon.com.
U.N. Plaza and Market Street. San Francisco, November 2016.
“Freedom is what we do with what is done to us.” -- Jean-Paul Sartre
Altar. San Francisco, November 2016.
"Your own Self-realization is the greatest service you can render the world." -- Sri Ramana Maharshi
Richard Power is the author of eleven books, including most recently, "Cauldron Yoga, Gaian Poetics and the Way of the Ancient Future,"
along with the other four volumes of his "Primal Reality" series, all
of which are available in both softcover and Kindle versions via
Amazon.com.
Georgia O'Keeffe - Autumn Trees - The Maple (1924)
"I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way,"
said Georgia O'Keeffe, "things I had no words for."
"Leonard Cohen, who
died this week, was one of our greatest songwriters—Bob Dylan told Cohen
that he considered him his nearest rival—and is a figure of almost
cult-like devotion among fans. He began as a poet in the vein of Allen
Ginsberg and Frank O’Hara before releasing his first album, in
1967. Suffering from terrible anxiety, not much tamed by alcohol and
drugs, he conquered his fear of performing onstage after decades of Zen
practice. David Remnick sat down with Cohen
this summer at his home in Los Angeles to discuss his career, spiritual
influences, triumphant final tours, and preparing for his end. 'I am
ready to die,' Cohen said. He was already suffering from a number of
health problems. 'At a certain point, if you still have your marbles and
are not faced with serious financial challenges, you have a chance to
put your house in order. It’s a cliché, but it’s underestimated as an
analgesic on all levels. Putting your house in order, if you can do it,
is one of the most comforting activities, and the benefits of it are
incalculable.' Remnick’s Profile of Cohen offers a look into the introspection of the musician’s final days ..." -- Leonard Cohen: A Final Interview, The New Yorker, 11/10/16
"When they poured across the border / I was cautioned to surrender / This I could not do ..." -- Leonard Cohen, The Partisan
[NOTE: If you receive Words of Power via e-mail subscription, this video will not appear in the body of the message, you can either click on the You Tube link above to watch it there or view the embedded video in this post on Words of Power. Steal eight minutes from the madness of the world, and watch and listen to this for your soul's nourishment.]
Richard Power is the author of eleven books, including most recently, "Cauldron Yoga, Gaian Poetics and the Way of the Ancient Future,"
along with the other four volumes of his "Primal Reality" series, all
of which are available in both softcover and Kindle versions via
Amazon.com.
"Let your soul stand cool and composed before a million universes." -- Walt Whitman.
Super Moon. November 2016.
"Sanity
is a valuable possession; I hoard it the way people once hoarded money.
I save it, so I will have enough, when the time comes." -- Margaret
Atwood, A Handmaid's Tale.
Super Moon. November 2016.
"Our feelings are our most genuine paths to knowledge." -- Audre Lorde
"Skygazers
were heading to high-rise buildings, ancient forts and beaches Monday
to witness the closest 'supermoon' to Earth in almost seven decades,
hoping for dramatic photos and spectacular surf. The unusually
big and bright Moon will appear at its most impressive just as night
falls over Asia, but astronomy enthusiasts will be able to see Earth's
satellite loom large anywhere in the world shortly after sunset, weather
permitting.The phenomenon happens when the Moon is full at the same time as, or
very near, perigee—its closest point to Earth on an elliptical, monthly
orbit. It should appear at its most impressive at 1352 GMT. It will be the closest to Earth since 1948 at a distance of 356,509
kilometres (221,524 miles), creating what NASA described as 'an
extra-supermoon'."-- Sam Reeves, Skygazers gear up for extra bright 'supermoon', Phys.Org, 11/14/15
Richard Power is the author of eleven books, including most recently, "Cauldron Yoga, Gaian Poetics and the Way of the Ancient Future,"
along with the other four volumes of his "Primal Reality" series, all
of which are available in both softcover and Kindle versions via
Amazon.com.
Eliza Byard (@EByard), 11/19/16. This is how the future voted.
This is what people 18-25 said in casting their votes.
We must keep this flame alight and nurture this vision.
There
were 25 debates during the presidential primaries and general election
and not a single question about the attack on voting rights, even though
this was the first presidential election in 50 years without the full protections of the Voting Rights Act. Fourteen states had new voting restrictions
in place for the first time in 2016—including crucial swing states like
Wisconsin and Virginia ... We’ll likely never know how many people were kept from
the polls by restrictions like voter-ID laws, cuts to early voting, and
barriers to voter registration. But at the very least this should have
been a question that many more people were looking into. For example,
27,000 votes currently separate Trump and Clinton in Wisconsin, where 300,000 registered voters, according to a federal court, lacked strict forms of voter ID. Voter turnout in Wisconsin was at its lowest levels in 20 years
and decreased 13 percent in Milwaukee, where 70 percent of the state’s
African-American population lives, according to Daniel Nichanian of the
University of Chicago. -- Ari Berman,GOP Attack on Voting Rights Was Most Under-Covered Story of 2016, The Nation, 11/9/16
There are no adequate words for what happened on election day 2016. It is an abomination born of a travesty. Unthinkable, unspeakable, insane. We are going to step beyond electoral politics in this post, but before we do, for the historical record: Hillary Clinton, the first woman major party candidate for President of the United States, running on what Sen. Bernie Sanders called the most progressive party platform in history, won the popular vote nationally, but because of the Electoral College, which, ironically, is a gimmick that the Founders concocted to appease the slave states, victory was handed to a man who credible news sources have documented as a self-professed debaser of women whose first wife accused him of rape in sworn testimony, a racist, a billionaire who paid no federal income tax for many years, someone who fact checkers have proved was saying something false 91% of the time during the campaign, someone who according to one Oxford research psychologist scored higher than Hitler on a psychopath test. (All of these statements are hyperlinked to credible sources, and as further documentation I have included citations below.)
Yes, something bad has happened. And something very strange is going on. So now, life is calling for more from you and I than ever before; life, the Earth, our future are all of one voice in calling for us to become new (again), to declare ourselves (again), to choose love and liberation (again), to make yet another stand. In alignment with life, the Earth, our future, we are invincible.
The Patient Has to Want to Get Better
After eight years of healing treatment from a kind and gracious doctor, the patient has decided not to pursue another four years of healing treatment from the next doctor on duty, the patient would rather die then get better. After four more years of these treatments, the patient would have been strong enough for more aggressive medicine, the patient would have begun to remember more about life before the onset of the illness, and remembering more the patient might have wanted to get back to health and have a future, but no, the patient has apparently chosen its disease over healing, the patient has effectively chosen to die. The patient has refused further treatment, and chosen a different physician, a charlatan, a con man. The patient would rather keep on smoking the crack of anti-science, anti-nature, anti-woman, anti-color, anti-life. On the path of recovery, whether from physical or psychological afflictions, the patient has to want to get better; and there is now irrefutable evidence that this patient wants to die. How tragic.
Fight or Flight?
"Fight or Flight. The instinctive physiological response to a threatening situation, which readies one either to resist forcibly or to run away." -- Oxford Dictionary
There is no good choice. Flight? There is nowhere to run from planetary climate collapse, or global great depression or the next world war. There is nowhere to hide. Fight? Well, there have been many deeply disturbing examples of what to expect. Too many.
These are just two of many incidents that send a disturbing message. And there are related messages that are just as disturbing, for example, the acquittals of George Zimmerman and the Bundys. In America today, it is is dangerous to stand up and say two plus two equals four, but not so dangerous to abuse peaceful protesters, or murder unarmed African-Americans, or seize government buildings IF in the name of extreme right-wing causes.
What to Do, What to Be
So if you don't want to give up on the life of the patient, because after all your life and the patient's life are inextricably interconnected, what's your plan?
There is a Trumpster Fire plan for the first 100 days, it is horrific, and with the Zombie Cult and their Death Eater Overlords in control of House and the Senate, at least some of it will be executed.
Whatever your own plan evolves into, as the shock begins to wear off, and the painful reality of what lies ahead of us comes into full measure, here are a few suggestions from my own new plan.
I urge you to keep it simple, both your plan and the message articulating your plan.
I urge you to consider two areas as paramount issues on which you will focus your time and energy: leaning forward on the Climate Crisis and the Sixth Great Extinction, and protecting and expanding the rights of women. The Standing Rock Sioux and Planned Parenthood deserve your support.
And as your first and foremost priority I urge you to tend to your own deep self-care, and sharing your self-care skills, for example yoga and meditation, with others.
Because the road ahead may be long and hard, it is certainly scary.
In the indeterminate time that stretches out before us from this crossroad, I will be quietly focusing on these three areas exclusively, in my writing, speaking and meditation, and for the foreseeable future, I will have nothing more to say about electoral politics or any other realm except as it relates directly to one of these three areas of focus.
If ... When ...
The election of 2016 was a portal, if we had been able to pass through it, this nation could have begun to self-correct its course, to get back on track, to truly gain traction to arrive at its appointment with the future, but we were taken down from behind, and that portal has closed on us
A great opportunity has been lost. Much trouble lies ahead. But another portal will open, perhaps sooner than later, and probably in some unexpected way. We must be ready to step through.
Meanwhile, our overriding imperative is to survive, and to abide. And in the process of surviving and abiding, we must continue to make our lives themselves into bold expressions of love and liberation.
Bearing Witness
Here are two excerpts from worthy attempts to articulate the unspeakable and make sense of the insane from the day after the election. I have included links to the full text of each.
The election of
Donald Trump to the Presidency is nothing less than a tragedy for the
American republic, a tragedy for the Constitution, and a triumph for the
forces, at home and abroad, of nativism, authoritarianism, misogyny,
and racism. Trump’s shocking victory, his ascension to the Presidency,
is a sickening event in the history of the United States and liberal
democracy. On January 20, 2017, we will bid farewell to the first
African-American President—a man of integrity, dignity, and generous
spirit—and witness the inauguration of a con who did little to spurn
endorsement by forces of xenophobia and white supremacy. It is
impossible to react to this moment with anything less than revulsion and
profound anxiety. There are,
inevitably, miseries to come: an increasingly reactionary Supreme Court;
an emboldened right-wing Congress; a President whose disdain for women
and minorities, civil liberties and scientific fact, to say nothing of
simple decency, has been repeatedly demonstrated. Trump is vulgarity
unbounded, a knowledge-free national leader who will not only set
markets tumbling but will strike fear into the hearts of the vulnerable,
the weak, and, above all, the many varieties of Other whom he has so
deeply insulted. The African-American Other. The Hispanic Other. The
female Other. The Jewish and Muslim Other. The most hopeful way to look
at this grievous event—and it’s a stretch—is that this election and the
years to follow will be a test of the strength, or the fragility, of
American institutions. It will be a test of our seriousness and resolve.-- David Remnick, An American Tragedy, New Yorker, 11/9/16
I
see no way to stop this at first, but some of us will have to try. And
what we must seek to preserve are the core institutions that he may
threaten — the courts, first of all, even if he shifts the Supreme Court
to an unprecedentedly authoritarian-friendly one. Then the laws
governing the rules of war, so that war crimes do not define America as
their disavowal once did. Then the free press, which he will do all he
can to intimidate and, if possible, bankrupt. Then the institutions he
will have to destroy to achieve what he wants — an independent
Department of Justice as one critical bulwark, what’s left of the FBI
that will not be an instrument of his reign of revenge, our scientific
institutions, and what’s left of free thought in our colleges and
universities. We will need to march peacefully on the streets to face
down the massive intimidation he will at times present to a truly free
and open society. We have to hold our heads up high as we defend the
values of the old republic, even as it crumbles into authoritarian dust.
We must be prepared for nonviolent civil disobedience. We must
transcend racial and religious division in a movement of resistance that
is as diverse and as open as the new president’s will be uniform and
closed. And,
impossible though it may be, we will have to resist partisanship. The
only way back to a free society, to a country where no one need fear the
president’s wrath or impulses, is to unwind the factionalism that has
helped destroy this country. We have to forge a new coalition on right
and left to resist fascism’s reach and cultic power. In a country which
just elected and re-elected a black president — whose grace feels now
almost painful to recall — it is surely possible. I will leave you with these words about what has now happened to America. Someone saw it coming a long time ago: The
alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the
spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages
and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a
frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and
permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries, which result, gradually
incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute
power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing
faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this
disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of Public
Liberty. That was George Washington’s Farewell Address. -- Andrew Sullivan, The Republic Repeals Itself, New York Magazine, 11/9/16
