by Marty Coleman | Sep 6, 2012 | Noam Chomsky |
The Church and The Illusion
I used to be a youth leader in a number of churches. I led bible and topic discussions for many years for kids ages 12-18. I eventually left being a leader when it became apparent I really couldn’t be effective. The reason I couldn’t be effective is that I wanted to kids to really think about things and come to their own conclusions. The church leadership said they wanted the same thing but I came to understand they were actually not interested in that. What they were interested in was giving the kids the illusion they had thought about things and come to their own conclusions.
How did I know this? Because the goal of the church was to have them believe and adhere to a very specific set of beliefs. The kids were not free to go where their minds led them so they were given the illusion of freedom by allowing debate and questions within a very limited and constricted box of acceptable opinions, just as the napkin drawing above illustrates. It is still that way in most every church in America and most religions around the world. I don’t like it because it does a grave disservice to the kids and to the integrity of the church or other institution that is foisting that same illusion on its youth.
Politics of the Unacceptable
Politics in America and many other countries is pretty much the same. A perfect example in America right now is the accusation many reactionary right wing partisans through about that President Obama is a communist, a socialist and a Muslim. Why are those effective tactics to use in falsely portraying Obama? Because those who propagate those tactics know that those 3 identities are outside the acceptable arena of debate in America. It is not acceptable to consider communism and socialism in political debate, they are wrong, dead, bad, evil, atheist, murderous, failed, morally perverse, anti-american and treasonous to consider those ideas. And it certainly is not acceptable to many Americans at this point in time to contemplate a President being of the Muslim faith. The reactionaries know this and they know that if they paint the President with these brushes, they can bully people into thinking he is wholly unacceptable.
And guess what? Reactionaries on the far left of the Democratic party do the same thing to Romney. Paint him with the brush of big business, of capital, of investments, of wall street, of incredible wealth and you paint him to be unacceptable. Why? Because considering big business as acceptable is unacceptable. People are bullied by that faction to not consider business and corporations as being valuable or good in any way. Some evangelicals and atheists paint Romney with the Mormon brush, wholly unacceptable. Others paint him with the ‘he hates all women’ brush, wholly unacceptable.
Thinking About What We Can’t Think About
In many cases it’s good you don’t think about it. It’s good it’s off the table for debate. We don’t want to consider the idea of slavery. We don’t want to consider the idea of genocide. We don’t want to consider the idea of…of what? What else is off the table for good reasons?
Even more importantly for our future, what is off the table because we have been told it is unacceptable but perhaps it’s not?
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Drawing by Marty Coleman
Quote by Noam Chomsky, 1928 – not dead yet, American linguist and writer among many other things.
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by Marty Coleman | Sep 5, 2012 | Uncategorized |
True or False?
Here is another in my series of quotes I both believe and don’t believe. What do you believe is my question. Is this quote true? If so, how so? How would it benefit you to shrink in this way?
Is this quote not true? How so? What would be detrimental about shrinking in this way?
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Drawing by Marty Coleman
Quote by Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, 1694-1773
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by Marty Coleman | Sep 4, 2012 | Quote Authors |
Here is what happened yesterday on our way out for lunch. The newscast is at the end of the story.
Life is unpredictable, believe it!
We were on our way to an early lunch before Caitlin returned to Dallas later in the day. We came to a 4 way stop about a mile or so from our house with 4 empty fields at the corners. Turning west we saw a huge black plume of smoke in the backyard of a home in a subdivision beyond the big empty field. My first thought was it was a barbeque gone bad, maybe a propane tank had exploded or something. But in a split second we all knew it was more than that. That it was so big and so black it had to be the actual house on fire. Linda and I decided to go into the subdivision to see if we could help.
This is what we saw.
I had already checked out the house and had just moved our car out of the way when I took the first photo.
FIRE!
When we arrived there were 3 people in front, the couple who owned the house and were in it at the time and a 3rd person who I thought was a neighbor. There was another neighbor on the side of the house using a water hose to try to stop the flames that had started to burn the fence. After we ascertained from them that there were no other people or animals in the house Linda and Caitlin helped the wife of the couple, who seemed to be in traumatic shock, while I went with the husband back into the front hall of the house looking for keys and medicines. We had to go ask the wife where they were though and by the time we got back the smoke coming from the back of the house was funneling directly to the front door and was getting pretty thick. With no life to worry about we decided to not attempt to go in and search for anything. Within minutes the house was engulfed like this.
Just another lazy day
By this time the owners had told us what had happened. They had been sitting on their couch, looking at their laptops doing some online shopping when the husband got up to go get ready for the day. He was in the bathroom when the power went out and a split second later they hard a loud bang and then an even bigger bang that shook the house. They ran into the living room to find a car had smashed into the back of their house. A woman was sitting stunned in the driver’s seat. The wife said she saw the fence was down and the grass was on fire behind the car. They screamed for her to get out of the car and the husband screamed even louder for her to turn the car off. She took a few seconds but eventually did those things. He yelled to his wife to get dressed (she had been in her nightgown) and they were out the door in just a few seconds. They believe the driver went out the back of the house and came around the side towards the front. She turned out to be the woman I had seen in the front as soon as we arrived. She took off right as she heard the sirens coming.
Linda takes action
Linda is always great in a crisis. She had been out of the car and helping the wife of the homeowner couple immediately. The woman was very shaky, obviously in shock at the turn of events. We reassured her, comforted her and held her up in case she got weak in the knees. Linda noticed right away she had no shoes on and ran back to the car to get her an extra pair she had. She then escorted the wife away a bit and a neighbor found a chair for her to sit in. Neighbors were out supplying water, lending cell phones, telling who lived where and how to contact them. We eventually had her go into the home across the street to get cool and not have to watch her home being destroyed. Linda and Caitlin stayed with her for the rest of the time until her daughter arrived. They both calmed her, found her a specific med she needed and listened to her talk about her loss.
Life, interrupted
The rest of the afternoon was spent helping and watching. It is a harsh reminder that zero is guaranteed in life. And when I say zero. I mean zero. Nothing. Most lives reflect the idea that all will go according to at least statistical norms. But then, on a lazy last day of summer, a car plows through your house and you are almost killed and your house and all your physical possessions are destroyed. It happened in a flash and their lives are changed forever. I have thought about this sort of randomness many times over the decades since I was in an accident early in my life. And now a prime example of it was happening right in front of me.
I probably wasn’t suppose to go around back, but I really wanted to see what had caused the damage. I wasn’t stopped so I just kept walking until I was in the back yard.
The Long Off Road
If you look close you can see the weaving tracks her car made. She made a direct hit on the electrical transformer box, blew out power, started the fire, then slammed into a house. She was later found hiding out in a church parking lot about 1/2 a mile away or so. She was brought back for the home owner to ID her and then led off to jail, charged with at least leaving the scene of an accident. It appeared later that she had been huffing some substance when she veered off the road. What it was is not known yet, but when I saw her in the police car getting ID’d she had a very hollow empty look. She was scared and stunned. I kept thinking how she must have going over all the steps that led her to make such a terrible mistake in her life. I expect her depression to be great.
Story Telling
Almost immediately after I posted the pics I had heard from Michelle Lowry at KJRH Ch. 2 asking if they could use the pics and telling me that a reporter would be there in about 10 minutes. I went to the husband and asked if wanted to be interviewed on camera and then asked if he was ok with me telling the story to whatever reporter showed up. Liz Bryant showed up shortly thereafter and proceeded to interview the police and fire department spokespeople. She briefly interviewed me so I could tell the homeowners’ story.
http://media2.kjrh.com/video/criticalmedia/2012/09/03/Jenks_woman_crashes_inb1568de8-1503-4b01-988c-13c3335174f5.mp4
Strangers no more
We stayed until the homeowner’s children and other family members arrived. It was as if we were now leaving dear friends. We wished them well and went on our way to what was now a late, not an early, lunch. We drove back to see what was happening about 2 hours later and the last fire truck was just packing up to go home.
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Drawing and story by Marty Coleman
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by Marty Coleman | Sep 3, 2012 | Uncategorized |
It’s a different kind of labor day in my mind today.
Illusions of Your Self
Have you ever had a moment when you realized you weren’t who you thought you were? Maybe you thought you were a paragon of moral virtue then found yourself having an affair. Maybe you thought you were heroic and brave only to find out when something dangerous happened you became a coward. Maybe you thought you were dowdy and prudish but later realized you were sexy and alluring.
How did these revelations come about? Sometimes they were forced upon you by circumstances. Other times it was someone who said something that allowed that new way of seeing yourself to come about. Maybe it was a book or a movie or the death of someone you loved. Whatever it was, it led you to believe you had a new identity. It was good perhaps, or maybe it was depressing to find this new you inhabiting your body.
The Real You, Distorted
But at least now you know the real you, right? Maybe our goal shouldn’t be to know the ‘real’ self. Maybe it should be to realize we have always been our real self, only slightly distorted, like in a fun house mirror. Maybe our goal should be to collect all those mirrors and look at all the multiple distortions honestly and clearly. Perhaps then we will see ourselves most accurately.
How do we do this? I like the idea of making a list of all my identities. Going all the way back to when you were young, who have you seen yourself as? I bet we would discover a lot, don’t you think?
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Drawing and quote by Marty Coleman
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by Marty Coleman | Aug 31, 2012 | Social Media - 2013 |
I, Sloth
I do this too much. One of my biggest struggles is distracting myself from the task at hand with busy work, or pseudo work. In March I had a breakthrough in what I focused on and pay attention to and where my mind and heart are at as I go about my daily workday. And I have kept with that breakthrough so far. But I have found I still get busy wasting time and I believe it hinders a number of efforts I am making in my life and career. So, I am making progress, but wish I was making it faster.
Stephen Covey, in his book ‘Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’ has what he calls the ‘Time Management Matrix’. Here it is. It’s helped me in the past. I still have a card with it on it, that sits on my workdesk.
If you haven’t ever read Covey’s book, I highly recommend it. You can find it at any bookstore, library and probably most of your friends’ houses. Ask, I bet they will let you borrow it. Quadrant II is where I need to spend more time. I am relatively good at the relationship building and learning/developing but I tend to get excited about new things and forget about the things already in the pipeline. I also tend to procrastinate when it comes to planning.
What I am committing myself to is be more diligent and focused on that quadrant. What quadrant causes you issues and what are you doing about it?
In the meanwhile, you should go to Sid Savara’s blog posting that discusses this same thing. It’s funny with cartoon illustrations but still gets the seriousness of the ideas across.
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Cole…oh look, a sloth!
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