Many years ago (and many hard lessons to wake me up!), I believed (honestly I did!) that when I used my charge card that it was free to me!! Crazy, I know. I just paid the small amount required each month. Then the hard times started and I had no income. Oh, boy - I tried really hard to find ways to pay off the monthly charges, but to no avail. I finally filed for bankruptcy, and in the long years of 'waking up to myself' I realized the idea of becoming 'financially responsible'. And when I finally was able to once again get a charge card, my promise to myself was to pay the full amount when the bill arrived - leaving $0 to be paid the next month. It felt great, and still does! Even I felt the pull of spending with all the 'Black Friday' ads on TV, but I need nothing to feel fulfilled any longer. Spending is not the answer any more. It's self respect! Thanks for the great topic you wrote about. It brought up the sad past, yes, but it also affirmed the person I have become! As always, thanks, Eddy!
This really hit me: revolution of value entails a change in how we view what matters to us as Americans. We must put forward a more expansive understanding of American democracy. This will involve sacrificing the comfort of national innocence and the willful blindness that comes with it.
Willful blindness has gotten us here. Thanks for the dose of honest this morning.
i really wonder how far human beings have progressed....i saw gladiator2 the other day, and still remember the scene from the original where the people [in another republic on which america is based] cheer at the barbarism and the entertainment on offer..to some degree the shopping is just another form of entertainment designed to desctract.....some of the quotes here on this clip are just mindblowing to me, and how far things have changed ,when they take of the dream of "rome"..and how "fear and wonder" are things to keep the mob amused..and how little,humanity has changed and how things are just the same,and our much vaunted "civilization" is just wafer thin :(
LUCILLA: It's an idea, greatness. Greatness is a vision.
COMMODUS: Exactly. A vision. I will give the people a vision and they will love me for it. They will soon forget the tedious sermonizing of a few dry old men. I will give them the greatest vision of their lives.
------------------------
FALCO: Games. One hundred and fifty days of games.
GRACCHUS: He's cleverer than I thought.
FALCO: "Clever"! The whole of Rome would be laughing at him, if they weren't so afraid of his Praetorian.
GRACCHUSs: Fear and wonder, a powerful combination.
FALCO: You really think people are going to be seduced by that?
GRACCHUS: I think he knows what Rome is. Rome is the mob. He will conjure magic for them and they will be distracted. He will take away their freedom, and still they will roar. The beating heart of Rome is not the marble floor of the Senate, it is the sand of the Colosseum. He will give them death, and they will love him for it.
the only other thing that made my head burst was this one from twitter, which refers to the standard of education in america......people really have to ask questions about this,...that is, if they want america to be better...sadly, i think there is more interest in keeping it not, for their own reasons? :(
Wow, I didn't know that Martin Luther King had been thinking about this moral bankruptcy all those years ago. He called it. I don't like the imagine conspiracies but it really does benefit the richest among us to keep us at each others' throats and focused on material fulfillment rather than seeing one another as all in it together. I hope we can find our way to the alternative world you suggest, or this great experiment may indeed be doomed.
The Reagan era of "grewd is good" along with the "me generation" upended the essence of "the American dream." Instead, the American dream in every subsequent generation is to be rich and famous, and if you can't be famous, at least be rich.
People have omitted three important words from the scripture. God didn't say that money is the root of all evil. He said "THE LOVE OF money is the root of all evil." The love of money is greed. We will continue to be an accursed nation until we get right. Time is running out and too many are rushing us off the cliff.
Many years ago (and many hard lessons to wake me up!), I believed (honestly I did!) that when I used my charge card that it was free to me!! Crazy, I know. I just paid the small amount required each month. Then the hard times started and I had no income. Oh, boy - I tried really hard to find ways to pay off the monthly charges, but to no avail. I finally filed for bankruptcy, and in the long years of 'waking up to myself' I realized the idea of becoming 'financially responsible'. And when I finally was able to once again get a charge card, my promise to myself was to pay the full amount when the bill arrived - leaving $0 to be paid the next month. It felt great, and still does! Even I felt the pull of spending with all the 'Black Friday' ads on TV, but I need nothing to feel fulfilled any longer. Spending is not the answer any more. It's self respect! Thanks for the great topic you wrote about. It brought up the sad past, yes, but it also affirmed the person I have become! As always, thanks, Eddy!
Amen, our Brother!! Amen!!!
This really hit me: revolution of value entails a change in how we view what matters to us as Americans. We must put forward a more expansive understanding of American democracy. This will involve sacrificing the comfort of national innocence and the willful blindness that comes with it.
Willful blindness has gotten us here. Thanks for the dose of honest this morning.
i really wonder how far human beings have progressed....i saw gladiator2 the other day, and still remember the scene from the original where the people [in another republic on which america is based] cheer at the barbarism and the entertainment on offer..to some degree the shopping is just another form of entertainment designed to desctract.....some of the quotes here on this clip are just mindblowing to me, and how far things have changed ,when they take of the dream of "rome"..and how "fear and wonder" are things to keep the mob amused..and how little,humanity has changed and how things are just the same,and our much vaunted "civilization" is just wafer thin :(
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-mDh6LE9NQ&t=62s
LUCILLA: They care about the greatness of Rome.
COMMODUS: Greatness of Rome? But what is that?
LUCILLA: It's an idea, greatness. Greatness is a vision.
COMMODUS: Exactly. A vision. I will give the people a vision and they will love me for it. They will soon forget the tedious sermonizing of a few dry old men. I will give them the greatest vision of their lives.
------------------------
FALCO: Games. One hundred and fifty days of games.
GRACCHUS: He's cleverer than I thought.
FALCO: "Clever"! The whole of Rome would be laughing at him, if they weren't so afraid of his Praetorian.
GRACCHUSs: Fear and wonder, a powerful combination.
FALCO: You really think people are going to be seduced by that?
GRACCHUS: I think he knows what Rome is. Rome is the mob. He will conjure magic for them and they will be distracted. He will take away their freedom, and still they will roar. The beating heart of Rome is not the marble floor of the Senate, it is the sand of the Colosseum. He will give them death, and they will love him for it.
-------
-------
https://x.com/TizzyEnt/status/1863343522113307121
the only other thing that made my head burst was this one from twitter, which refers to the standard of education in america......people really have to ask questions about this,...that is, if they want america to be better...sadly, i think there is more interest in keeping it not, for their own reasons? :(
Wow, I didn't know that Martin Luther King had been thinking about this moral bankruptcy all those years ago. He called it. I don't like the imagine conspiracies but it really does benefit the richest among us to keep us at each others' throats and focused on material fulfillment rather than seeing one another as all in it together. I hope we can find our way to the alternative world you suggest, or this great experiment may indeed be doomed.
The Reagan era of "grewd is good" along with the "me generation" upended the essence of "the American dream." Instead, the American dream in every subsequent generation is to be rich and famous, and if you can't be famous, at least be rich.
People have omitted three important words from the scripture. God didn't say that money is the root of all evil. He said "THE LOVE OF money is the root of all evil." The love of money is greed. We will continue to be an accursed nation until we get right. Time is running out and too many are rushing us off the cliff.