The Wild Reed

Monday, August 12, 2019

Photo of the Day

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Guruk Seascapes, from Dawn to Dusk
• On Sacred Ground
• Port Macquarie Days
• Town Beach

Image: Michael J. Bayly.

Sunday, August 11, 2019

Marianne Williamson on What It Will Take to Defeat Donald Trump

We will not defeat the president with a political argument.

We will not defeat the president with an economic argument.

We will not defeat the president with a purely rational argument.

We will defeat the president with a moral argument.

Like the space between Goliath’s eyes, it is the one area where he has no defense. He cannot defend himself morally or ethically because he doesn’t recognize morality and he doesn’t recognize ethics. He cannot fight what he cannot see.

It has been the lack of ethics and public morality in our politics that has left us vulnerable to such a one as he, and it will be the retrieval of ethics and morality that will repair the damage he has done and cast the meanness of his politics from our midst.

But a moral argument cannot be made by someone who doesn’t understand moral arguments any more deeply than to recognize that the president’s politics are immoral. It is the articulation of a moral politics, both philosophically and in terms of policy, that form the crux of my campaign, my qualifications, and what I offer the country as a potential president.

‬The hope for this country lies in the embrace of a politics that does not flow like bile from the power of an amoral economic system, but from the power of deep humanitarian principles at the core of our democracy. This speaks not just to changes in Washington but to changes in our hearts as well.

These are spiritually revolutionary times.

Rehearsal is over.

The time of change is now.

– Marianne Williamson
August 11, 2019

Sunday, August 04, 2019

Dad

I begin the long journey back to Australia this afternoon to be with my family at a very sad time.

My dear dad, Gordon James Bayly (pictured with me at right earlier this year), is in the last days of his life, and about to embark on his own very special and profound journey to the next life.

As I write, he is receiving hospice care at Emmaus Nursing Home in Port Macquarie, the coastal town where my parents have resided since 2002. I plan on being in Australia for a month. Thanks in advance for your love and support.

Above: Dad - May 23, 2019.

UPDATE: Remembering and Celebrating Dad

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Australian Sojourn – April-May 2019
• Happy Birthday, Dad (2018)
• In Coogee, a Very Special Birthday Celebration
• Happy Birthday, Dad – 2017 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009
• Congratulations, Mum and Dad
• Catholic Rainbow (Australian) Parents

Related Off-site Link:
“He Wasn't a Superhero But He Was a Hero” – A Prince Named Valiant (February 21, 2011).

Thursday, August 01, 2019

Caitlin Johnstone: “Status Quo Politicians Are Infinitely ‘Weirder’ Than Marianne Williamson”

Well, it seems that author and spiritual teacher Marianne Williamson has become a credible presidential candidate.

I say this because a month ago her presence in and contribution to the first Democratic presidential candidates' debate drew ridicule and derision from most mainstream media pundits. She was dismissed, in other words, as not being a credible candidate; as unthreatening. Yet now, after her success in the first night of the second debate (see the headlines at right), the knives have come out. She's clearly being viewed now as enough of a candidate to be a credible threat to business-as-usual politics and to the way the status quo insists things such as a presidential candidacy should look like and be conducted.

No longer considered merely a “kooky” or “joke” celebrity candidate, Marianne Williamson is being described in some quarters as the “dangerous” mirror image of Donald Trump. It's absurd, I know. But it goes to show just how far much of the corporate media and other gatekeepers of the political and economic status quo will go to undermine and discredit a genuinely progressive voice.

For her part, Williamson has responded to all of this by saying the following.

They’re no longer ignoring us. They’re still laughing but with some nervousness in their voices; and we are now moving into some serious resistance to the emergence of our campaign – lies about my stance on medicine and science, etc. Those who support the campaign need to get serious now; one of the themes has always been that we need to become as convicted in our love as some people are convicted in their fear.

I dare say I'll write more about this backlash against Williamson and her campaign in a later post. She is, after all, the candidate I'm most passionate and energized about supporting at this stage of the presidential race, for reasons that I outline here.

Tonight I share Caitlin Johnstone's recent op-ed in which she compellingly contends that it is not Marianne Williamson, "the lady talking about love and slavery reparations," whom should be consider a “freak,” but each and every "seasoned career politician.”

_________________________

Status Quo Politicians Are Infinitely
‘Weirder’ Than Marianne Williamson

By Caitlin Johnstone

The Mind Unleashed
July 31, 2019

Night one of the CNN Democratic debates has come and gone, and if you missed it you didn’t miss much. Basically the entire thing can be summed up as Jake Tapper asking the progressives on stage, “So explain why Americans would vote for your policies when we here at CNN have been telling them for years that they’re not allowed to support those policies?” Then for balance they ask one of the boring centrist candidates to explain why Bernie Sanders is crazy. Repeat for two and a half hours.

Disrupting the monotony was Marianne Williamson, who once again was the most-searched candidate following the debate. She raised eyebrows by using the phrase “dark psychic forces” to describe Trump’s demagoguery, prompting many ironically ironic tweets from ironically ironic people eager to make fun of how weird and ridiculous this self-help guru woman is. Which to me is a bit odd seeing as the people she’s being compared to are status quo politicians, who are some of the most freakishly insane creatures on this planet.

I am not a fan of Marianne Williamson, nor of anyone else in this primary race for that matter. But the candidates who push against the status quo in some way do tend to highlight various aspects of the oppression machine in ways I find interesting, and the reaction to Williamson is certainly no exception.

I mean, this same debate saw Mayor Pete Buttigieg saying that “assault weapons, things like what I carried overseas in uniform . . . have no business in American neighborhoods in peacetime, let alone anywhere near a school.” In other words, such weapons don’t belong in America, they belong overseas murdering foreigners for crude oil and Raytheon profit margins. This argument is becoming more and more common in America’s gun control debate, and the only reason people don’t shout and shudder in revulsion upon hearing it is because the propagandists of the political/media class have normalized military mass murder in mainstream American consciousness to such a severe extent.

This same debate also saw former Colorado governor John Hickenlooper argue that US troops should remain in Afghanistan for “humanitarian” reasons and to protect “the condition of women”, apparently in an attempt to court the key voting demographic of people who have been sealed in a soundproof time capsule since 2001. He literally said “Look at the progress that’s happened in that country.” With his literal face hole.

This same debate also saw Montana Governor Steve Bullock extolling the merits of keeping a nuclear first strike policy on the table for the United States. This man sincerely argued that it is good and right for the United States to be prepared to use nuclear weapons even when not attacked with nuclear force, and for other nuclear-armed nations to see this and know this. This is clearly an omnicidal, psychopathic position which threatens every organism on our planet, but today everyone’s talking about Marianne Williamson and energy crystals.

These people are freaks. If someone came into our world from a parallel universe where humanity is healthy, the least of their concerns on that stage would be the lady talking about love and slavery reparations.

If people could really see what’s happening in their nation and their world with fresh eyes, they’d scream in horror. But that’s the exact status quo that all these sane, normal, serious politicians have dedicated their lives to upholding. One where people are deliberately kept poor by a plutocratic class which understands that money is power and power is relative. One where the most powerful military force in history circles the globe and wages endless wars upon disobedient populations. One where we rip apart the flesh of our planet and dump poison into our air and our water in facilitation of a new mass extinction event which will someday claim our own species if not reversed. One where we point weapons at each other that can wipe out cities, cover the earth’s surface in nuclear radiation, and fill the sky with black soot blocking out the sun for decades, and we play with escalations toward the deployment of such weapons like it’s a game.

The only reason any of this seems normal to anyone is because the propagandists have normalized it. The only reason the politicians who help support this system seem normal to anyone is because the propagandists have normalized them. Without the filter of propaganda warping our sense of reality, we’d see these depraved monsters for what they really are.

If all of humanity suddenly took sane pills today, we wouldn’t be mocking some long-shot Democratic candidate for saying things in a slightly different way than we’re used to hearing them. We’d be mocking the people who’ve been propping up this ridiculous, insane way of being, and we’d be throwing them all out on their asses. And we’d be enraged that it took us this long to do so.

Seasoned career politicians are infinitely more ridiculous, crazy, risible and undignified than Marianne Williamson, because the power structures and agendas they uphold are so transparently bat shit insane. That doesn’t mean Williamson is special, it means they are freaks. And if we ever get sane, we’ll immediately see them as such.

– Caitlin Johnstone
The Mind Unleashed
July 31, 2019

Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Daby Touré

Something special this evening at The Wild Reed . . .

. . . Senegalese musician Daby Touré performing his song “Woyoyoye” ("A Cry") live in the studios of the BBC in 2015.

“Woyoyoye” is the opening track of Daby's 2015 album Amonafi, a Wolof word for “Once upon a time.” Enjoy!

Writes music critic Séverine Baron about Amonafi:

As always with Touré, a champion melodist, his melodies are clear, beautiful, and sticky enough to become earworms. The harmonies are trance-inducing, definitely reminding of a pure and authentic form of African music. The lyrics are varied, from touching on political issues to observations on his states of mind.

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Presidential Candidate Marianne Williamson: “We’re Living at a Critical Moment in Our Democracy”

Part one of the second Democratic presidential debate takes place tonight in Detroit, Michigan. I'll be tuning-in mainly to hear what my top three candidates have to say. They are Marianne Williamson, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren. All three will be sharing the debate stage this evening, along with Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, Beto O’Rourke, Tim Ryan, John Hickenlooper, John Delaney, and Steve Bullock.

Of my top three candidates, the one I'm most passionate and energized about supporting is spiritual author and activist Marianne Williamson. Why? Well, she's a progressive in terms of her politics, and, in my mind that's what's needed to defeat both Trump and the rising tide of fascism we're witnessing today in the United States. This is because a genuine progressive mindset and platform recognizes that Trump isn't the problem but rather a symptom of the problem. Or, as Marianne put it in a recent interview with The Guardian, “Donald Trump did not create the problem. The problem created Donald Trump.”

Here's how Marianne identifies and describes this problem:

We have essentially moved from a democratic to an aristocratic situation where our government works more to advocate for short term profits for multi-national corporations than it does to advocate for the well-being of people and the planet. Our government works more to make it easier for those who already have a lot of money to make more of it and harder for those who do not have any money to even get by. This corruption, which has progressed over the last 40 years, has created an amoral economic system where economic values are placed before humanitarian values and the well-being of people and the planet. And our democracy itself can no longer be accurately described as a government of the people, by the people and for the people [but rather a government of the corporations by the corporations and for the corporations]. It’s only when we recognize the depth of this corruption that we can move into a path of genuine transformation. Because until then, all we’re doing is addressing the symptoms and no one is naming the cause. All we’re doing is making incremental changes seeking to diminish the pain that people are experiencing because of all this, but not challenging the underlying forces that make all of that pain inevitable. . . . I stand for an actual pattern disruption of the political and economic status quo.

Along with her progressive politics, I greatly appreciate Marianne's authenticity and gravitas, qualities sorely missing from the U.S. political scene. For instance, when recently asked who she thinks is the person, or people, to beat in tonight's debate, Marianne said the following.

I don’t think that way at all. That’s not the way I see any of this. I’m not running against anyone, I’m running with a lot of good, smart people. In a way I hope that we all do well. I think that it’s the best thing that could happen for America. There’s a higher goal here. And my impression is that all of us are very aware of what that is. We’re living at a critical moment in our democracy and something is going on here so much bigger than who beats who in a debate.

In short, I totally agree with Greg Korn who, in a recent YouTube comment, notes that “Marianne Williamson should not be underestimated. She has a rare ability to articulate the ethics of the left in an approachable, graceful, confident, and wildly intelligent way. I truly believe that she's the most intellectually and philosophically sophisticated candidate I've seen in my lifetime.”

Left: With my friend Kathleen and wearing my Marianne 2020 t-shirt. We're at the June 30, 2019, rally and march in Minneapolis against the Trump administration's rhetoric and policies on immigration, especially as they relate to the inhumane practice of separating families seeking asylum at the southern border and the placing of migrant children in over-crowded and unsanitary "detention centers" that have been described as concentration camps. (For a description of Marianne's involvement in a similar protest at the notorious the Homestead detention center in Florida, see the end section of this previous Wild Reed post.)

_____________________________

Ahead of tonight's Democratic presidential debate, here are eight informative and insightful interviews with Marianne Williamson from the last two months (June-July 2019). Accompanying these videos are excerpts from Kaitlin Johnstone's recent Medium article in which she shares her thoughts on Marianne and her presidential bid. Enjoy!

On PBS's Newshour, June 6, 2019 (7 mins) . . .

• As mocked as she is, Marianne Williamson would still make a better president than almost any Democrat running

Granted, given the platoon of plutocratic palace eunuchs that is the 2020 Democratic primary race, this isn’t much of a compliment. But it’s still worth noting that her overall platform is more progressive than most of her primary opponents, and that she appears to be far less invested in coddling the oligarchs than Biden, Warren, Harris, O’Rourke, Buttigieg, Booker, or almost any of the other twenty-something candidates. Only Bernie Sanders and Tulsi Gabbard have more to offer in terms of challenging existing power structures, and of course Mike Gravel (who Williamson helped fundraise for) if you feel like counting his interesting campaign.

I tend to ignore any self-proclaimed “progressive” if they don’t express a determination to overhaul the status quo of the US-centralized empire’s forever war, but Williamson has been promoting significant changes on that front, including the creation of a Department of Peace. In a debate that was remarkably scant on any foreign policy questions, Williamson was the only candidate to point out during the immigration section that many immigrants are fleeing their countries because of disastrous US foreign policy.

Williamson also has unusually awake views on things like race, slavery reparations, and putting children first in a real and tangible way which could do a lot to heal America’s deep psychological woundedness, something she seems to prioritize in all her political thinking.

Marianne Williamson on CNN, June 18, 2019 (14 mins) . . .

• She has the ability to capture America’s attention

Because of her willingness to talk about love and say things you’re just not meant to say on a presidential debate stage, Williamson was the most-searched candidate on Google after the last Democratic debates, with interest surging nearly every time she opened her mouth. You can tell me that a lot of that was the undesirable kind of attention, but if Donald Trump’s election taught us anything it’s that undesirable attention isn’t necessarily a thing for presidential candidates.

Williamson’s challenge is using that attention in a way that wins people over and captures their imaginations. If she can find a way to put out concise, forceful, positive messages that really light people up while she has America’s attention, it’s technically possible for her to turn interest due to novelty into actual support, especially if she can get better at taking advantage of her massive social media following. Unlike Gravel, Williamson is actually sincerely in this race to win it, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she picks up a few tricks to help push toward that goal.

Williamson has a unique knack for getting herself into the bloodstream of the zeitgeist. There’s a very famous quote almost everyone has heard at some point that goes, “Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? Your playing small does not serve the world. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.”

That quote appears everywhere from memes to inspirational posters to graduation speeches, and it’s often misattributed to Nelson Mandela. It’s actually Williamson, from a book she published in 1989.

The New Progressive Voice's analysis of Marianne Williamson's appearance on The View, June 20, 2019 (23 mins) . . .

• The “anti-science” smear is bullshit

Williamson has repeatedly denied that she is opposed to science, vaccinations and medical care, so the only way to continue to believe that she opposes those things is to decide that she’s a secret science-hater who is trying to get into the White House to wage a covert war on science. This would obviously be stupid. Williamson has said weird things in her weird guru-lady life to talk about the power of the mind, but if she’s saying in plain English that she supports modern medicine then there’s no reason to disbelieve her.

This is a common wedge issue against the political left in America that the establishment narrative managers are all too happy to use; they used it constantly on Jill Stein in the lead-up to the 2016 election, and she’s a bloody doctor. It works as a wedge issue because it turns the dreadlocks/patchouli lefties and the rationalism/atheism lefties against each other, thereby rendering them both impotent.

There’s no good reason to believe that Marianne Williamson is secretly plotting to become president so that she can steal your measles vaccines, though. Don’t be a doofy conspiracy theorist.

Marianne interviewed by CNN's Kate Bolduan, July 3, 2019 (6 mins) . . .

• Her underlying premise is absolutely correct

One of the things that sets Williamson apart from the other candidates is her insistence that the only thing which can really turn things around for America and for the world is a profound psychological change on a mass scale in the way human beings operate. Her stated goal is not just to change policies in a more progressive direction, but to help get people learning to relate to themselves in a more awake and truthful way.

Williamson is right to promote this goal. We’re never making it out of this mess if we keep operating and thinking in the way that we do. Only a profound shift in our relationship with thought will enable humanity to shake off the psychological chains of plutocratic propaganda and use the power of our numbers to force real change. Positive change isn’t coming by any other route, so it’s nice to see someone talking about the fundamental issue.

Whether Williamson is the person to facilitate such a shift is another matter. Generally if someone’s insights into the human condition have been sufficiently deep, they can talk about them like a normal human being without sounding all woo woo hippietastic. But maybe Williamson talks that way for her own reasons. In any case, it’s not like anyone else in US politics is speaking about inner work with any amount of profundity.

Marianne interviewed by CNN's Ana Cabrera, July 6, 2019 (10 mins) . . .

• She is a collaborator first, competitor second

When Williamson used her platform to send her supporters to help her opponent, the very naughty octogenarian Mike Gravel, reach his target fundraising numbers, I was infuriated. Infuriated because I had cancelled her in my mind because of her position on Julian Assange, and then she goes and does something awesome like that. In her policy reviews on her page she plugs another opponent Andrew Yang, even going so far to link to his on a Universal Basic Income. She also plugs two other books on economics for good measure [Yang’s The War on Normal People: The Truth About America’s Disappearing Jobs and Why Universal Basic Income is Our Future and Robert Friedman’s book about the Universal Savings Program, A Few Thousand Dollars: Sparking Prosperity for Everyone]. A strong feature of Williamson’s campaign is not just to take solid ideas and promise to implement them, but to bring the people who have been pushing those ideas along with her. She may have some blind spots when it comes to sovereignty and boundaries, but she sure knows how to collaborate in an effortlessly egoless way.

On Anderson Cooper 360, July 17, 2019 (7 mins) . . .

• She has self-reflection

[For some] she’s endlessly mockable, but Williamson knows how to laugh at herself, which is an astoundingly rare characteristic for someone with her reach, ambitions, and audience. Rather than react to the barbs with pursed-lips and aggression, she has a light way of dancing with the attention that ameliorates its effect.

She is a deep thinker that is humble enough to change her mind when presented with evidence, but she doesn’t back down easily either. In politics, where nobody ever says sorry and changing stances is seen as a weakness, modelling her brand of agility and self-reflection is a blast of much needed fresh air. Of course, manipulators will use any apologies as a weapon against you, so you need to only apologise for things you have actually done and wish to change. Most of us use only defense or use only submission. She seems comfortable with both.

On The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, July 22, 2019 (8 mins) . . .

• At least she’s interesting

Is she perfect? No. Do I think she’s got a chance of being president? Stranger things have happened. But I’m glad she’s up there, right up in the guts of the establishment politics making them all work a bit harder. I love that they feel like they need to attack her right now, but she could go further.

If I ever got her attention, there’s a bunch of tweaks I think Williamson could make. For example, her Twitter game is sub-optimal for what it could be with the follower size she has, because she doesn’t make the kind of large, bold statements that could blow out a giant hole in the Overton window. With the following she has she could easily get people talking, but she has to give them something to talk about.

Williamson talks about “fear versus love” a lot, presumably a hangover from her A Course In Miracles days, when I think “life versus death” is a much more useful dichotomy for what we’re actually looking at today. When the status quo’s only solution to every problem is to apply the salve of death, in my view she wants to strongly put the case for applying healing and applying life in terms that people can understand. Whether it be the homeless crisis, healthcare, foreign policy etc, the only solutions we are being offered right now are predicated on lots of people dying so they’re not a problem anymore. It’s okay to fear that, and loving that isn’t going to fix it. Put the case for life, Marianne. That’s what I’d say.

But whatever, in any case, I’m glad she’s a thing. The presidential race is much healthier because of her.

– Caitlin Johnstone
Medium
July 24, 2019

Sunday, July 28, 2019

Interiors

Images: Michael J. Bayly.

Friday, July 26, 2019

An Insightful Takeaway from the Mueller Hearing

“We are all, everyone of us, headed in the
direction of a slower version of ourselves.”

I appreciate Rabbi Aaron Brusso’s thoughts on aging and our “culture of high speed media,” thoughts that were prompted by media coverage of former special counsel Robert Mueller’s recent testimony before Congress and, in particular, the July 24, 2019 New York Times article entitled, “Mueller’s Labored Performance Was a Departure From His Once-Fabled Stamina.”

Here’s what Rabbi Brusso has to say . . .

Look at Robert Mueller and internalize this: we are all, everyone of us, headed in the direction of a slower version of ourselves. There isn't enough Viagra or skin cream, there aren't enough candy apple red convertibles in the world to stop it.

What is not inevitable is that when we get there we will have lived a life of service to people and higher principles. What is not a forgone conclusion is whether at 74-years-old we could testify for seven hours and not once be triggered by personal attacks or bought by fawning praise.

[This New York Times article on Mueller] is a red flag that our culture of high speed media is privileging pouncing predators and sleek soundbites over slow, methodical, careful and reasoned thinking that increases everyone's responsibility without the satisfaction of a triumphant moment.

You will strain to find it in the hundreds of clips but Mueller genuinely thanks people for corrections. Apologizes for inaccuracies in his answers. Listens patiently without interrupting. Never once lets his face show disgust or irritation or bruised ego.

His center of gravity is simply located elsewhere. Outside of the hearing room. Possibly in the National Archives amidst founding documents. Possibly with his family and those with whom he served in the military.

One thing is for sure, in that congressional hearing room amidst politicians and the media, he was a foreign object.

And the proof of that is this New York Times headline that belongs amidst pop up ads for hair loss and ab crunching devices.

A. J. Heschel once said, “When I was young I admired people who were clever, now that I am old I admire people who are kind.”

– Rabbi Aaron Brusso
via Facebook
July 25, 2019

Related Off-site Links:
Actually, Robert Mueller Was Awesome – Renato Mariotti (Politico, July 25, 2019).
Stephen Colbert Names and Shames the Press for Panning Robert Mueller – Lee Moran (The Huffington Post, July 26, 2019)
10 Key Takewawys From Robert Mueller's Testimony – Cris Cillizza (CNN, July 25, 2019).
What the Mueller Investigation Was Always About – Dahlia Lithwick (Slate, July 25, 2019).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Quote of the Day – July 24, 2019
• Thomas Moore on the “Ageless Soul”
• Turning 50
• Soul Deep

The Wild Reed

Monday, August 12, 2019

Photo of the Day

Sunday, August 11, 2019

Marianne Williamson on What It Will Take to Defeat Donald Trump

Sunday, August 04, 2019

Dad

Thursday, August 01, 2019

Caitlin Johnstone: “Status Quo Politicians Are Infinitely ‘Weirder’ Than Marianne Williamson”

Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Daby Touré

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Presidential Candidate Marianne Williamson: “We’re Living at a Critical Moment in Our Democracy”

Sunday, July 28, 2019

Interiors

Friday, July 26, 2019

An Insightful Takeaway from the Mueller Hearing

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