When I remember myself as a spiritual being

— Posted inSpirituality — 2 min read

When I remember myself as a spiritual being, it is clear that we are all suffering and trying to feel better. These moments deepen my compassion for myself and all other sentient beings. The magnitude of the suffering across the world is breathtaking and I feel enormous anger at people who harm others. I can forget myself and be filled with thoughts of rebellion and revolution. I can lose myself in thoughts about groups of people and then I remember that these are just thoughts in my head. Always, the person in front of me deserves compassion and understanding.

I should be clear here that “compassion and understanding” is not some gooey emotional belief that everyone can be healed if they’re given enough love. No, not that. Instead, I’m coming from a desire to not increase the suffering in the world and from an understanding that people do what they do because of “the sum total of their learned experiences” (to steal a phrase from Michael Singer).

I believe that non-violent political movements and actions are more effective agents of change than violent ones. They also align with my desire to reduce the suffering in the world.

And I am not a pacifist. Sometimes strong action is the most compassionate step to take, as when self-defense prevents an attacker from becoming a killer. Pacifism is a privilege purchased with the efforts of those who are not pacifists.

What is needed is the approach of muscular kindness: concern for the wellbeing of all sentient beings married to a capacity to take strong action in the service of that concern.

The work of remembering who I am is ongoing.

Money isn’t speech. Thinking so confuses thinking

— Posted inPower — 1 min read

The notion that money is speech seems obviously wrong. Money isn’t speech. It’s power. Money is literally a medium of exchange. The transfer of energy to get work done. The more money you have, the more you can do.

In free speech debates, conflating money and speech leads to the rather strange position of defending the speech rights of the powerful. It’s not that the powerful (people with money) should have less speech, necessarily. The real issue is how make sure that the less powerful are able to speak and have their ideas heard. This is one of the beautiful aspects of the internet…it increases access to the means of producing speech.

When we talk about the problem of money in politics, we’re talking about the problem of unelected people with power having influence (power) with elected representatives. So it’s the will of the powerful that gets done, not the will of the people.

This book about American surveillance impacted

— Posted inPrivacy, Technology — 1 min read

I found myself appalled by the scope of surveillance employed against American citizens and decided that this was a thing that needed to be resisted. I don’t imagine that anything I’m doing will have any significant impact on the larger world. I do believe that resistance matters if only to keep a spark of human spirit alive.

A shift in concern about power and privacy

— Posted inEconomics, Philosophy, Politics, Power, Privacy, Spirituality, Technology — 1 min read

I’m moving into a new phase of concern for the United States as a democracy that is a accompanied by a growing concern for our privacy as citizens of the country and globally.

Politics, government, economics, technology, and privacy issues are not my areas of expertise. Whatever writing occurs here will be coming from a place of curiosity and a desire to develop the thoughts that I’m having about these topics.

I’ll be addressing these topics from a particular set of beliefs about what it means to be human and from a care for people and the state of our world. I’ll articulate these ideas as well.