45 years apart

[solarbird]

Burning Draft Cards, February 24, 1966


Burning Credit Cards, October 15, 2011

Comments

Wait, try this...

[turil.livejournal.com]

I think I would have been better off saying:

So speculating about the not-so-healthy intentions of bankers is "a sign of a very unpleasant and unstable individual"?

Re: Wait, try this...

[st-rev.livejournal.com]

It's when you decide that the bankers are the real puppetmasters and nations rise and fall at their whim. From there it's usually a very short trip to blaming the Jews.

Bankers are one powerful faction among many.

Re: Wait, try this...

[turil.livejournal.com]

It's only a "short trip to blaming the Jews" if you're an idiot. :-)

The bankers might indeed be some of the puppet masters, and might even be the most influential ones when it comes to global politics. I don't know (and I don't really care, either, since my goal is to solve everyone's problems at once in one fell educational swoop, rather than attacking individual problems with band aids). But it's certainly reasonable to be aware enough to look for the personal intentions and actions that are negative in the world.

People who hoard anything, including money, are sick, and so bankers, pretty much by definition need help. And yes, so do many, many, many other people. In fact most of us need help, because most of us are suffering from some kind of illness that gets in the way of contributing the most awesome stuff to the world.

Re: Wait, try this...

[st-rev.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's fair to call bankers hoarders, since their entire business relies on handing money out to other people. At any given time, the amount of money and other liquid assets a bank is sitting on is dwarfed by the amount of money lent out to others.

The most problematic aspects of the finance industry seem to me to be grounded in how they employ the power they gain in the transactions.

Re: Wait, try this...

[st-rev.livejournal.com]

Interpenetration is one translation of pratītyasamutpāda (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pratītyasamutpāda), also translated as "dependent arising", related to the metaphor of Indra's Net. Roughly: all 'things' in reality are mutually entangled in a web of cause and effect; no one thing stands in a privileged position relative to everything else. In this context, it means there's no God, no governor, and no secret masters.

OK. Thanks.

[turil.livejournal.com]

I agree, everything does effect everything else. But there is a point to Buddhism, which is that positive change can happen (alleviation of suffering), and it can be done with a combination of Right awareness and Right actions. Yes?

Also, this doesn't seem to mean that there is "no God" only that the idea of "God" would have to include everything codependently. :-)

Re: OK. Thanks.

[st-rev.livejournal.com]

It means there's no God in the technical sense that there is no first cause or unmoved mover.