The Fall of the U.S.A and Mr. Celente

From Russia Today - video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nJ7LM3iyNg

My thoughts on Celente's prediction of immanent doom for the U.S.

Sure, Mr. Super-Doom Celente could be right in his dire forecast of the “greatest depression” but don't forget, the US dollar is backed by the biggest freakin' military the world has ever known. The creditor-nations can't really call in our debt while they are paying the U.S. cop on the beat to guard their sources of energy, food and raw materials so they have no choice but to buy our Treasuries. In a short span of, let's say, 20 years, though, while the dollar is still worth something, China will continue to use the money they’ve accumulated to build up a military equal or better than our own and they could do it alone or in an alliance with other creditor-nations.

At some point in the future then, China, with its own dominant currency, will be able to do its own world policing and won't need our dollars anymore. This is precisely why I think the U.S. maintains such a strong military presence in the around the world, especially in the Middle East and Central Asia. It is to protect the resources that back the dollar. At some point in the future there could be a military impasse resulting in an 'O.K Corral' type shootout for dominance but I don't see nation-states choosing this option unless there's a devolvement into total insanity. They would look for another alternative other than the Big Fire.

So no, Celente, in my opinion is probably not on the mark in his forecast of a near term cascading super-depression and does not make a strong case for his fear mongering. We will continue to have a global downturn of significant magnitude resulting in untold misery for billions of people. If, however, things get so out of control that the world economy begins to slide over the edge of a cliff, the creditor nations and bank holding companies will come to some sort of agreement to form a semi-dictatorial world government with a common currency. The U.S. and other debtor nations will then go into survival mode and become vassal states to that World Union.

Celente is a smart guy but I don't agree with his ultra-alarmist, immanent, econo-catastrophic scenario. He does accurately explain that economics can't be separated from party politcs, geopolitics and social movements. I also like that he views himself as a "political atheist" and views the world from a 'logical' perspective but we'll have to see if his logic is rooted in solid ground. Time will tell. In the meantime, don't panic - yet and check out Peter Schiff, head of Euro-Pacific Capital. He's not quite as upsetting.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6vxM-YBlHw

Viagranomics and the Stimulus Package

Allowing the feds to goose the money supply to keep the economy from going over the edge is like playing Russian roulette, and this is what the bank holding companies have done with the consent of Congress and the other branches of the government they are in collusion with. It can be likened to a man who is sick from a lifetime of bad habits who can't get an erection but is so intent on getting himself and his partner satisfied that he takes the blue ovals even though he's well aware that he's also taking nitrates for heart failure. The interaction of these two medications is known to cause a dangerous drop in blood pressure but the man chooses to use a short-term fix anyway in order to hop up the sack action for a few moments at the risk of incurring a coronary event that could prevent him from working ever again. Of course, anyone at any time could suffer a heart attack from a variety of causes, even if one tries to stay healthy but the chances of living a long life are strongly in one’s favor if moderate lifestyle choices are made. Of course, one can be totally healthy and still need that extra push in bed that a Viagra sometimes makes happen but that is not really the issue here. (pun unintended)

Politicians have cried 'wolf' so many times, over the past eight years or so that no one on the street believes them anymore. They say that if taxpayers don't cough up another trillion in borrowed money that the economy is going to fall off a cliff and so they scare us into believing that without their indispensable help we are surely doomed to a repeat of the '30's with its bread lines and huddled masses of unemployed warming themselves by trash-can fires. Yes, there is reason to conclude that pouring vast amounts of money in the short term could revive American jobs and free up credit to businesses but what would be its effects in the long term?

Congress is debating how and where to spend those multi-billions so that they do the most good and is just now hammering out a compromise package that will assuredly have a combination of a good helping of swine fat along with a small helping of lean meat to please the more conservative and fiscally health-minded among us. We are used to putting up with those kinds of things from Washington. The problem is that we are not in a run-of-the-mill recession. We are really in a soft depression and the economy with all its dynamic energy can’t seem to ‘get it up’ this time despite all the rabbits Bernanke and Paulson (enter Geithner) through slight of hand have and are now pulling out of their top-hats. The process remains secretive with little accountablity as to where all the money is going that there is a palpable lack of confidence that there really is a light at the end of the tunnel. With the exception of good folks such as Peter Orszag from GAO, lying prophets abound who continue to confuse and confound the American people by telling them only what they want to hear. We oh so want to believe that government largesse can fix anything but when we look at what stares back at us, the loss of jobs, the decline in personal wealth, the mounting state and local deficits, etc. our hopes turn to fear and there is trepidation when we think back on how good many of us felt listening to Obama’s inspiring pre-election “Yes, we can” rallies. So, the American ‘heart’ is in crisis and is not so young and strong as it was in its youth. Too much rich food and a lack of an economic exercise program has drained us of strength and we seek short-term economic solutions so that we can “fire it up” one more time regardless of the long-term consequences.

The great experiment of imprudent banking practices has done much damage and if we continue to allow our ‘leaders’ to reach into that same old bag of quick fixes we are likely to see our worst fears realized as the real condition of the economy becomes nakedly apparent.

No one will admit to having a magic bullet that will extricate us from what is likely to befall us but there are pebbles on the road we’ve walked that can (and must) lead us back to a sounder, healthier condition. That road back will be painful and will require the fiscal common sense the Founders had as their guide. They had pebbles of their own to follow, a sense of conscience which moved them to spend, tax and govern judiciously and that which guided them kept the ship of the nation on an even keel. Back then they made their ships strong because they knew they would have to be solid enough to withstand the storms that would inevitably follow.

Obama, I believe is right when he asks everyone to be a part of the solution and that is the very challenge that John Kennedy asked us to take on and it is incumbent for all to pitch in to get the country back on its feet. What will not work, however, is the status quo where elected and appointed bureaucrats fashion legislation that only ends up enriching the political class. Be wary of them. They will be the ones who will create and run the new civilian service programs, mostly top-down affairs and bright gems of socialistic central planning to help those who supposedly can’t help themselves. When the initiative finally launches, they will tell us where to go to work, how the job will be done, when to wake up and when to sleep. We will, in essence be their servants since they have a vested interest in staying in power and we will have no choice but to trust them to get it right, just one more time. We must insist however that they serve us. We must gather up our energy and create some of our own solutions, not as loyal party members, but as patriots who care deeply about our families, neighbors and fellow citizens, not in knee-jerk fashion where we follow legislative dictates, but where we recognize that each individual has the ability to harness their unique abilities to get the country back up and running well.

Government programs run by Viagra-crats offer us only ad-hoc solutions and a temporary relief of symptoms. Only people can help people. Cure the underlying cause of our ills with heavy doses of healthy competition, personal responsibility, courage, and liberty, where people are free to develop their own solutions with minimal government interference and we will ramp up our productivity and begin to thrive as a nation again, working together to solve its many problems.

CIRCLES OF PERCEPTION

THE MEDIA

Without a valid and sensible starting point from which to deliver and communicate information relating to world affairs, the exercise of evaluating all media and especially popular media devolves into a journey into a black vortex from which little truth can enter or escape. The major outlets furnish the contextual framework so that what is disseminated coalesces into meaning for the reader, listener or viewer and creates a paradigm of what is real and unreal from thread woven in a machine that has as its power source a pureness of purpose from a gospel of wealth. It is what inhabits this paradigm that remains mostly secret, arcane and inaccessible to the typical consumer. Consumers of media must therefore maintain their own frame of reference for everything that is made known to them as news for without the correct context it is nearly impossible to accurately select and dissect the information that is delivered to us. The wealthy and powerful wield the tools of their trade in such an exacting way that unless one has begun an initiation into the rarefied atmosphere of cultic media, there can be no real understanding of the purposes that these illusionists aspire to.

I'm a habitual news viewer that unfortunately grants me no more access to truth aside from occasional novel factoids that are available to anyone else. The experience is somewhat like observing some bad-natured corner-sitting animal that requires my perfunctory ministrations to keep it in physical balance as it sends me back information. It morphs from one day to the next, changing little. I just passively let it do its dulling work on me and I feel worn from watching it. From one day to the next I consume these displays of want and fear that are generated and packaged to catch my attention like angry teeth set in a jaw whenever I approach them and all from confident, attractive faces and voices. At once there is the tensing of nerves and muscles from disquiet as things appear to evolve from terrible to horrible with the only saving grace possibly emanating from a new Leader who promises somehow to make things better for me and the other Mr. and Ms. Averages out there. The flow is from cold to hot, hopeful to hopeless and I experience a palpable feeling of being suckered into THE intended mindset – the Network’s.

OTHER CIRCLES WE LIVE IN

The Earth is, as so many other objects and concepts in the universe are circular or at least elliptical or cylindrical like so many other shapes that have their beginnings as end points. We have circles of friends that intersect other circles of other friends and associates. Materials are recycled or “recircled” as we go about disposing and re-accumulating the things we need or those we think we need. The grocer waits for the supplier's truck to stock his or her shelves and another truck lies in wait to dispose of things that are past date which are then re-boxed with the same cardboard that served the former supply function. Planets have revolved around their suns and those suns around galaxies and in their interstellar dance have created cosmic events that ultimately caused life to appear on earth. On the microcosmic level, energy makes a transfer to particles, then back to energy and that interplay gives weight and bulk to all that is and we are aware of these transactions only to the extent that our minds allow. Existence, therefore, can be understood as being dimensionally circular.

As we observe our world through the lens of corporate-controlled media, we are invited to make assumptions about social issues, the economy, politics and other ideas that exert their gravitational forces upon us. Primetime network news, for example, usually provides the barest essentials from which to make assessments about the events of the day and each time the earth makes another spin in its circle around the sun, an infinity of causes create another infinity of effects of which we are blissfully unaware (though the propagandists would have us think otherwise.) Unless we have alternative sources of information from books or other forms that remain on the outskirts of popular culture, there remains a scant amount of clay to form the pot and the mind dwells in inertia from a lack of salient input. Metaphorically, we live apart in infinitesimally small towns with mile-high walls that let in little sunlight or most any other kind of light for that matter. Outside the town walls, very far away, lie the institutional machines within huge cities that manufacture reality for us through technology and let it be said that there will probably be no shortage of technology at least for the foreseeable future. We have little if any opportunity to input anything critical back into the system in order to make any real changes to it and due to structural factors, we are forced to accept a scant role in influencing the goings-on in the smaller, highly insulated circles of power. In essence there exists an order of circles within circles. If viewed side-on, a cone-shaped structure can be seen with the smaller, more powerful circles moving upward to its apex. This model can also be compared to the pyramidal shape with the floating eye of providence that appears on the dollar bill. The eye on the detached capstone also emanates light-rays that allude to the power at the highest levels of the social structure. There are two inscriptions: Annuit Coeptis (Approve Our Undertakings) and Novus Ordo Seclorum (A New Order of the Ages). The question I ask is, what is supposed to be the nature of that providence? Is it God, Man or the Devil or some combination of the three? Anyway, it seems logical that the base of the structure, the supporting entity, should be formed from the Intent and Will of the People, rather than the opposite where the elites control the masses.

FINDING (AND FIGHTING) OUR WAY BACK

Without an understanding of just who is who in government, industry and banking, we are relegated to taking our places in whatever circle within the many existent rings within the paradigm that has been fashioned for us and thus we are disabled by default in changing our reality. Yes, we can vote or promote any candidate we want to but it has taken a long time for the elites to build up the power structure as it now is and defeating those in the innermost circles (or at the top of the pyramid) is an extremely daunting task without the emergence of efficient and focused coalition-building. One can move further inside the circle to effect change but the deeper one goes the more vulnerable one also becomes to the corrupting influences of power.

Things are rarely what they appear to be at first glance. People look to those in authority to help them improve their lives materially. Often however, those in power are exactly those we don’t want to depend on for making our lives better. Many of our so-called leaders and elites are ripe and ready to pour out bile upon the earth in buckets. We may end up electing them, but to our last breath we must avoid cowering and acquiescing before them. In fact, we must see with clarity through all the magical tricks employed to distort our perceptions and learn to become ever more critical of what is said and done in the media. It is therefore incumbent upon all to combine forces in order to win as many battles as possible in the war against a mind-bending oligarchy by electing only ethical leaders to public office.

I believe that God is with us when we try our very best both individually and collectively. When things seem most hopeless often the fires of the human spirit burn the hottest. Ordinary people move to accept the challenge and become inspired to accomplish remarkable things. They begin to check up on those they elected and call them to task.

The meek, I believe, will ultimately inherit the earth home. Greed and depravity cannot and will not be allowed to prevail. Within the great spheres of human effort, destiny may even have fore-ordained a return to the likeness of an Eden, a place that exists simultaneously both at the beginning and at the end in our circles of perception.

Luke 18:14 …For the proud will be humbled, but the humble will be honored."

Picture Credit: http://img160.imageshack.us/img160/3856/paradisosl6.jpg

Is the Middle East Ready to Explode?

With strife among Muslim militant factions increasing and the CIA in there to stir up the hornet's nest I believe we will witness an attack on Iran (and Syria possibly) very soon. High level administration officials will get the Sunni dictatorships to go along with it as it is their vested interests to do so and we may be seeing its start with the current military incursions into Shiite strongholds in Iraq targeting Muqtada Al Sadr and the Mahdi Army.
In the Palestinian Territories armed factions are in conflict despite the recent truce agreed to at Sharm El-Sheikh and it signals a gathering storm that may lead to a Shia-Sunni proxy war which the globalist puppeteers are carefully nurturing to bring about the "Clash of Civilizations." Right now in the territories Hamas and Fatah (The Palestinian Authority) are in a battle for control over Gaza which may spread to the West Bank and since the PA are recipients of U.S. money and arms there is likely to be a continuation and escalation of the internal conflicts there. Israel, recognizing the deep divisions among the competing organizations are taking advantage of the strife by conducting bombing raids over known Hamas rocket launching sites and capturing Hamas and Jihad Islami leaders.

In Lebanon there are several competing organizations among the Sunnis and most of them are funded by Syria. A new faction Fatah-Al-Islam is seeking to exploit the unstable situation there and is believed to be the perpetrators of the recent bombings in an upper-class Sunni district in Beirut and the Lebanese Army has been shelling their base of operations on their northern border with Syria. Hezbollah meanwhile, funded and trained by Iran is seeking to let these Sunni factions do the fighting for them while they re-arm and position themselves for political dominance in the Lebanese government for the coming September elections.

As far as Iraq goes, there are many groups who are vying for control of the provinces and though they are deeply divided, both the Sunni and Shia militants’ main goal is to get the coalition forces out so they can finish the battle as to how Iraq is to be governed. In this case too, the major players in the region are pulling the strings as to how to control Iraq’s future and how to divide up the country’s resources. With that, there are several major groups in Parliament who are not very willing to compromise to create a stable Iraq and are mainly there to push their own positions. Corruption is of course, rampant and much of the government’s largess is diverted to the politicians themselves and not directed to where it’s supposed to go, to those they are supposed to represent.

If there is a regional Sunni-Shia war, it will most likely be precipitated by an attack on Iran by coalition forces with the tacit support of repressive Sunni Arab states that have an interest in maintaining their power. This would forge an alliance among the fractious Muslim sub-groups who will side either with the oil sheikhs and Egypt or with Iran and Syria in a vastly wider conflict than we now see in the region. Any spark could set it ablaze with the possibility that WMD’s will be used by one side or the other, a very frightening proposition. Ron Paul, I believe is wise in advising that we disengage now from this possible scenario since it will tend to unite those militant groups now fighting amongst themselves throughout the Middle East. This is fundamentally a conflict between two rival Islamic sects and if we further inject ourselves into this fight there is no telling what we are in for. Certainly given our track record in occupying Iraq, we are likely to continue to lose more lives, treasure and respect which will pave the way for a global government and the ensuing diminution of our liberty here at home.

TV News Scoundrels

I have lots of time to kill so I watch more of my share of TV news: C-Span, PBS and 'The Big Three' for lack of getting the other cable offerings and even though I find them wanting at best, they're at least a notch better than the pap that passes for entertainment these days. Leno, of course gets a pass because he's always ready with a poignant monologue that pokes fun at the absurdity of mass culture and this usually morose Dave always cracks up, uncontrollably at times. Most network and cable news is neatly packaged and sanitized to smooth out the violent bumps for the stressed-out, snacking public so they don't lose their appetites and get up to change the channel. As for my tastes, I always go for a daily dose of ‘patriot’ internet talk shows that so often scare listeners into believing that the every day the world is at the brink of Armageddon. Alex Jones is a good example of 'over the top' commentary in that he seems to be often on the verge of a nervous breakdown at various points during the show, fretting over corporatist attempts to poison the food supply and ruin America’s health with genetically modified foods, aspartame, anti-depressants and fluoride in the water. I have no doubt about his passion and his sincerity, though. It’s just that a lot of people are wary of radio hosts that indulge in wild, way out theories and hyper-emotionalism and for good reason. After a few hours of listening many relegate them to the kook category. Still, you get a lot of good alternative information on Alex's show and on other netcasts that you definitely won't get anywhere on the radio or TV since those insipid mainline programs are hosted by highly-paid sycophantic scoundrels that seek to sell you on hating either the liberals' or neocons' well-entrenched ideological dogmas, both of which exist mainly to serve the interests of the moneyed elite. I just think it would be helpful if Alex would tamp down a little on his rants and concentrate more on issues that more disaffected listeners can relate to. Funny thing is, I really find some of those rants and information often quite entertaining, engaging and topically right on the money.

The other day I was watching Bill Moyers' excellent but maddening PBS show that dealt with media complicity in the lead-up to the Iraq War. It seems that back in '02 and early '03 all the major newspapers except those in the Knight-Ridder group, according to Moyers, felt it advantageous to parrot the disinformation the White House Iraq Group was plugging and were basically afraid to stand up and challenge them for fear of being labeled as ‘soft on terrorism,’ which their editors believed would result in a drop in ratings. There really wasn't much in the documentary most of us I think haven't heard already but it did do a good job in tying together examples where the TV media and the press continually caved in to the Bush administration due to the Prez's incredibly high approval ratings post 9/11. Sure, there was a lot of pressure to censor any stories that would go against the Rovian public relations juggernaut but it was clear that the major outlets such as the New York Times and the Washington Post defaulted in a big way as reputable bastions of veracity. The country was in desperate need of a big morale-boosting win after the horrible New York and D.C. attacks and in place of real reporting these papers just went along with the general mood which was to strike back at the evil Saddam Hussein since the military couldn’t for some reason find Osama Bin Laden. After watching Moyers' program, however, I was hit with the realization that there was nothing in the documentary about PBS’s own handling of the pre-war ‘intelligence,’ possibly because Moyers didn’t want to offend those globalist foundations that fund Public Broadcasting with anything remotely negative. Well, I guess we’re all supposed to pretend that PBS just hasn’t existed these past four years!

As far as TV coverage pre and post ‘Shock and Awe’ it was appalling and depressing to watch, especially the Sunday ‘talkies’ that have continually put out the red carpet for the worst examples of highly ranking public officials, so much so that I'm often unable to watch them anymore. The banter is so skewed and scripted toward the party line that it’s absolutely unbearable. No wonder so many people hate these shows with the constant parade of top administration officials, congressmen and women as well as neocon pundits like Bill Kristol from the Weekly Standard and David Brooks from Washington Post. Even the utterly disgraced Tom Delay gets to go on to spout his opinions on the state of the world – how’s that for media arrogance! All in all I’m really very content that I don't get Fox, CNN and MSNBC’s mind-numbing valium-laced drivel. I know I would be literally driven out of my mind and tearing my thinning hair out! CBS, ABC, PBS and NBC are quite enough, thank you. Network news does have uses though. You really get to see how the propagandists of the world spin their web to catch their prey. Probably couldn’t do much worse by watching ‘TV Land’ or the ‘Cartoon Channel’ to get your news fix. Well all kidding aside, you do get the basics and a starting point from which to venture out on your quest. As it says in the Good Book, “In the presence of many counselors there is wisdom” and the same holds true for news content so don’t get snookered into just watching those patronizing agenda-laden government sanctioned news programs. With that I say, on with the infowar and go Alex Jones!

The Virginia Tech Tragedy

The campus of Virginia Tech has been shaken to it's foundations with the murder of at least 33 of our best and brightest from among the school's students and faculty and we are left aghast at why another student would snap the way he did and how someone could be filled with so much hate and anger. Most people lead fairly normal lives with their share of personal heartache and tragedy but we don't often enounter violence to this degree in our personal experience. We reel in the thought of what the V.T. community is going through, feeling a little of what they are feeling because we know that it happens every hour of every day to someone somewhere, not only here in America but also in Africa, Asia and in the Middle East on a much larger scale. Do we also need to be reminded as well about the way animals are treated in our meat processing plants and in the wild?

Decent people everywhere are impacted by those that hate. It's a darkness that settles like a shroud over all we do yet we go on with life doing our best to keep it from consciously impacting our lives. What we don't fully realize however, is that we are inundated and bombarded by images of murder whenever we turn on the television and thus have become mostly desensitized to it to the point of obsession. So why do we continue to feed on violence? After all, if people didn't tolerate these programs, they would get cancelled one after the other until there were but a few or none remaining. News coverage is another way we get an injection of numbing violence but instead of getting a two-hour tale we get it in small enough doses so that it becomes difficult to empathize with the victims or to question why governments are so quick to go to war. If we were able to spend two hours getting up and personal with war's impact on its victims, I believe we would respond in an altogether different manner and become truly sickened and revolted by the inhumanity of individuals, militant groups and armies toward innocents in the red zones of conflict. Unfortunately we only get the sanitized version in five minute increments and don't experience the horror of the many bombings and killings that occur while the horrifying shootings at Virginia Tech will be detailed and drawn out in the news for many months to come.

We are what we attend to and though our encounters with death are mostly felt vicariously, we continue to immerse our thoughts in negativity as entertainment and because of it are likely not to care too much about what happens to others in different regions of the world facing death on a routine basis. Seeking peace and the healing of the planet comes down to conscious individual choices we must make if we really want compassion and reconciliation to thrive. There are so many ways to make changes in how we spend our free time but we must first desire to understand just a little of what victims of violence have to endure and take part in some of the pain that they feel, that war is more than a passing headline or a TV drama. Thankfully we have the freedom to watch what we want, and are able to make choices in what we want to devote our leisure time to. I myself don't mind watching a war film or action movie once in awhile, but it's really hard to ignore how many really violent shows are on every day. Avoiding them may not be a cool thing to do in today's culture, but it is nevertheless necessary, I believe, if our kids are going to inherit a humane world. I think we're getting a loud and clear message from the Virginia campus shootings that things have gone very wrong and that tragedies such as this will continue to increase until we begin to internalize that 24/7 violence is not a culturally adaptive or acceptable form of diversion. I believe there's a need for an immediate awakening of the kind that turns us around 180 degrees and it needs to spread across the boundaries of nations and cultures like a great wave. It is possible for humanity to redirect its orientation from violence to peace because real satisfaction in life comes the pursuit of love and justice for others as well as in nurturing it in our own hearts which is the place where miracles are born and are multiplied.

Godliness and Guilt

Guilt is something we must live with in the human experience. Often it is justified and often it isn’t. We either carry it as a heavy burden in never-ending disconsolation or we can learn to deal with it in a logical, adaptive manner and go on with our lives. People who feel led to follow a spiritual path I think tend to be much harder on themselves with regard to guilt than those who do not emphasize it in their lives simply because they recognize the eternal significance of all they do, rather than just the earthly consequences of their actions. Different religious traditions emphasize different aspects of right and wrong in both thoughts and deeds. For example, In the Judeao-Christian system, individual and collective guilt is highlighted. In the Genesis account the first humans who were made conscious of personal responsibility were Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel but later in the chapter the concept of collective responsibility begins to take shape and thus the drama of Israel’s journey unfolds through time and space in the development of an ethical consciousness of duty to God. The rights and responsibilities of the nation to the individual and the individual to the collective are fleshed out as well and are contrasted with the beliefs and norms of other nations that were encountered on their journey into the Promised Land. In Eastern belief systems though, the emphasis is more toward the relationship of the individual to the spiritual world, that it is necessary to practice detachment from a deceptive, illusory world that causes those entranced by it to go astray in the acquisition of materiality, leading to misery and cynicism toward God and toward others.

So no matter what particular set of beliefs one adheres to there is always the injunction to change negative behaviors to positive ones in order to show that our faith in God is sincere but through the process of increasing one’s identification with God, our behaviors and attitudes can organically be changed as a result of that relationship. In that experience we don’t actually change ourselves. God changes us. Guilt assumes the role of a gauge to measure where we are on the path toward godliness and increases awareness of omissions and commissions that cause us to fall short of the standard set by the particular moral or ethical requirements of the belief system we follow. Guilt also highlights one’s internal motivations as well. When people of faith are aware of it they acknowledge a level of responsibility for their behavior and the amount of guilt experienced increases or decreases in proportion to the personal standards that they hold themselves to.

Too much guilt or too little can be a deal breaker between the seeker and God. When there is too much of it there is a feeling of always falling short of what is required. When there’s too little of it there is a tendency toward self-satisfaction, pride and arrogance. Now there are a lot of ‘suffering saints’ out there who can’t seem to stop beating themselves up for things they have done in the past or things they are still doing that they can’t seem to get a grip on and so every day becomes another opportunity for chest-pounding and regret for not being able to ‘cut it’ with God. In truth though, guilt should not be our primary motivator. Love should. Love is the hand of God in the world manifested by the Spirit through imperfect vessels. When folks dismiss themselves they dismiss the power of God as being inadequate to transform their lives. When going out for a walk or out in the car if you diverge from course and trail to the left or right of the lane or sidewalk you instinctively know to get back on the straight and narrow to avoid accidents. People don’t usually moan and grown about a slight turn that they made a mile back and don’t give themselves hell for it. They get back on track without even a thought and keep on going on toward their destination. Well then, why do people needlessly aggravate themselves when they sin and fall short? Not that people should never feel normal guilt since it’s an alarm system that’s hard-wired in to let us know when we’re veering off the path we want to be on, not in just moral choices, but in all the choices we make from moment to moment and from day to day. It seems wise then to chart a middle course with respect to self-judgement.
Often in the Old Testament (Tanach) God seems to alternate between doting devotion and thunderous rage against His people Israel but the silver thread within all of scripture is that the Hand of Mercy is eternally outstretched to all at all times. In Isaiah 40 the prophet speaks:

1.“Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins.”

In the New Testament (Covenant) we are presented with what I like to call the “ultimate metaphor of forgiveness.” It’s actually akin to a ‘come down from the sky’ visual aid so that the average, imperfect person is better able to understand God’s love in a way that’s easily recognizable. Jesus the crucified becomes the means by whom it is communicated to us that we are loved beyond measure so that we no longer have to worry about everything we think and do that might put us in divine disfavor. It is an object lesson that we should never ever give up on ourselves. If we are our own worst enemy then God is conversely our best friend, letting us know that it’s alright to be human and though we may fail many times each day, we are still open to blessing and forgiveness since we have been created sentient by divine volition with an assurance that we will always been viewed in the light of Love.

1 Peter 1:19-21

19. But with precious blood, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot, the blood of Christ;
20 Who was foreknown before the foundation of the world but has been manifested in the last of times for your sake
21 who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead, and gave him glory; so that your faith and hope might be in God.

So we have never really been under the lash of an oppressive God. Rather, we are seen through all time as being of unlimited value, protected by a benevolent Shepherd and not by a violent, brutal taskmaster. We have enough problems living happily in a material plane by virtue of the temporal nature of existence, so when we pile up emotional troubles through our own doing we only increase our sense of misery and guilt. So how do we tamp down guilt and move on? We do it by finding and following the “narrow way’ as the Sages taught and sticking to that path by fixedly focusing our thoughts and actions in the direction of the spiritual. If we do wrong to someone and we have the opportunity to make it right, then we should do so, for in making what was askew straight we can gain forgiveness from the person we have done wrong to and gain forgiveness for ourselves as well. If we can’t do anything to change what we have done, then its important to actively put it out of mind and get our thoughts back to where they should be, on the never ending abundance from that Well of forgiveness, so we can find our way back into Light of the Spirit. Think of the inexhaustible sufficiency that’s available to us in God and not of our human weaknesses and our lack of strength. Chanting, meditation and prayer can be invoked in almost any situation and even if short they can still bring us through the rough spots we encounter throughout the day. Whenever a guilty feeling or thought begins to intrude in on us it is very easy to call up a song or prayer to block them as they come and it only takes a little practice for it to become natural for us to do. In many ways we become what we think and say both consciously and unconsciously to ourselves. To stay close to the Spirit we need to think God’s thoughts and as we continue in them we discover that walking with God is not really all that hard to do. Images that have tripped us up in the past lose their power to entice us into negativity and guilt simply because we are thinking of them less often and thinking more about what does us good and it is toward the good that we are beckoned.

Have a joyful Easter and Passover, everybody!