A Bit of a Rant about Moral Values

Okay, I'm really peeved right now. I have been trying, nicely, for a couple of weeks, to unsubscribe from a stupid Internet email "hotsheet" that is supposed to entice me to buy more from a vendor I made the mistake of purchasing from several years ago. When you add to that recent violence in sports, movies, and books and the experience of driving in Massachusetts it gives me plenty to rant about. Let's get a few things straight:

1. My buying something from you doesn't mean I am giving my okay to be harassed ad infinitum, no matter how small the print is that you are using to justify it or how backhanded the "mining" of my information is. Here is a moral value: see your customers as more than a money dispensing piece of meat. Treat them with respect instead of gambling your relationship with them on the chance that they'll become your revenue stream. Luring someone to sign up for a drawing so you can then sell their information is not ethical, no matter how legal it is.
2. Spam, and advertising, are NOT free speech. You do not have the right to walk into my living room and spout your marketing spiel, why should you have the right to do it through email? Moral value: respect for others. Value humans above dollars.
3. When someone clicks a link that says 'unsubscribe me' it should do that. It should not validate the email address so that you can tell the people you sell it to that it is a validated address. Moral values: Honesty and Truthfulness. The Baha'i Writings say: "Truthfulness is the foundation of all human virtues." We learned in kindergarten that lying is bad. Were you absent that day?
4. Violence in sports outside the bounds of play is unacceptable. Football is a violent sport, but when played within the bounds of the rules it is a risk those who play it acknowledge and accept. Those who watch it know and accept the rules and what they will see. The spirit of the sport is shown in the reaction when a player is knocked unconscious or paralyzed. Everyone in the stadium, players and fans alike, hold their breath in hope for the health of the injured player. Respect for life and your competitor is acknowledged. When that violence and aggression turns into shoving matches, fights and bench-clearing brawls, it is unacceptable. Machismo is not a necessary part of sports or competition. Fighting among athletes is despicable. Fighting between fans is despicable. Fighting between fans and athletes is reprehensible. Ron Artest got suspended for the rest of the NBA season. The fans that were involved should be suspended for life. Moral Values: good sportsmanship and respect.
5. Alcohol at sporting events is ridiculous. If you are looking for an excuse to drink, stay home. If you want to see sports, enjoy it for the competition. Hey NBA, don't hide behind the fact that it is a major revenue stream to support a fan's right to get drunk. Hypocrisy doesn't become you. Why don't we just start selling alcohol at high school sporting events. At least they could really benefit from the revenue. Let's sell tobacco there, too.
6. Moving on to movies, I just watched The Incredibles this weekend. I was nearly in tears at the end of it, and they weren't tears of joy. They were tears of disgust and sadness as I watched dozens of children file past me on the way out of what was purportedly "family" entertainment. Admittedly, it was rated PG. Obviously the trailers for the movie wanted you to turn a blind eye to that and to take all the kiddies to it. All the trailers I saw before the movie were geared at children. The opening cartoon feature was geared at children. Why, then, were there scenes of torture? The most disturbing scene to me, if you'll pardon the spoiler, was Mr. Incredible grabbing Mirage by the throat and choking her. Once again, even in cartoon, we have normalized images of men being violent to women. Then we get upset when men beat their wives and wonder why they just can't control themselves. Because the normalizing images are everywhere! That's why! And this is in a cartoon being sold to children. Freaking brilliant, I say! Perhaps I am too sensitive to the issue having witnessed my own mother being subjected to domestic violence until I was five, but I think until we start pointing out this crap and how pervasive it is, it isn't going to go away.
7. I also read a book recently that was highly recommended. Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind. A relatively good book if you are looking for some fantasy escapism. I enjoyed most of it. Unfortunately the 75 page episode of torture rather turned me off. Moving on to a graphically described near rape was too much. I want my reading to be educational or entertaining. I don't want to read graphic descriptions of torture and rape. While deciding whether to read the second book, the dust jacket helped me make my decision. It said, "War, suffering, torture, and deceit lie in their paths, and nothing will save them from a destiny of violent death, unless..." Enough said. I'm on to another book. Maybe I'm getting prudish in my old age, but I don't watch movies that are advertised with sex and violence and blowing things up. I stay away from books that are like that too. Ever see the movie Children of Heaven? That's what I'm talking about.
8. Lastly, there are an enormous number of drivers in Massachusetts that have absolutely no concept of the drivers around them. They have no concept of space. The other day I was sitting in heavy traffic waiting to make a left hand turn when a car zoomed around me on the right, swerved to the left and dodged through a small hole in traffic to make a left turn 10 feet ahead of me. I shouldn't worry, they had at least 3 feet to spare. Today, someone did nearly the same thing. They saw me slowing down to make a left hand turn behind the car in front of me. The yanked the wheel to the right and went around the two cars only to make a left turn into where I was going. There is a culture of aggression here that is inexcusable. The cops, who regularly pull people over for having a license plate light out, should be arresting aggressive drivers who are running lights and cutting people off. Patience, people. You'll get there. It may be a minute later, and you may not have "beaten" the person in front of you, but the world will be a happier place.

By the way. Never, ever, order anything from eCost.com if you value your privacy.

Rant over. I'm out.

God, Sports, and Racism

I have been considering a few topics to write about for this next entry in my great blog experiment. Thanks to Monday Night Football, the topic was kind of chosen for me.

After watching some football games this weekend, I was struck by the prevalence of God in sports. Probably second only to the now cliche "Hi Mom" is the ritual of thanking God after scoring a touchdown. We see inter-team prayers after a game. We see it when someone is injured severely, like when they are paralyzed and taken off the field on a cart. We see people praying for that last minute, game-winning field goal.

God isn't limited to football, either. Sammy Sosa and others give praise for home runs and pray for luck in batting. They even sing God Bless America during the seventh inning stretch.

It seems bizarre that at a professional level we say it is okay for athletes to invoke their Creator, but at the high school level it is taboo to open with a prayer. Isn't a prayer that nobody gets injured, for principles of fair play and sportsmanship, more important than a prayer to hit a home run or score a touchdown? Separation of church and state, a topic I'll be visiting frequently, is entirely too ubiquitous in its application. Call me a traitor, but I'd much rather sit through an opening prayer than to listen to the National Anthem one more time. (The only thing worse, in my opinion, than the national anthem, is the pledge of allegiance, whether God is in it or not.) If people are afraid of prayer at school advocating a state religion, then invite interfaith organizations to arrange the devotional aspect of sports events. That way a spectrum of faiths will be represented, and nobody will be favored. Of course then the atheists will complain that their children are being polluted by references to God. Separation of church and state doesn't require elimination of church from state, no matter what non-theists would have you believe.

The other sports-related thing of interest, and what inspired me to write on this topic, was the recent flap over the steamy intro to Monday Night Football, a blatant advertisement for one of the most disgusting ideas for a show I've heard of. It was an ad for Desperate Housewives. The thing that struck me was a line in Gail Shister's column for the Philadelphia Inquirer. She said:

Also, some objected to the racially stereotyped overtones of a white woman
seducing a powerful black man.

You can find the complete article at http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/entertainment/columnists/gail_shister/

This got me wondering what wouldn't have been a racial stereotype. Black woman, white man? Black woman, black man? White woman, white man? Is it the inter-racial aspect that automatically conjures up the image of stereotypes? Was it the "powerful" part? What if she was seducing Erkel? What if the powerful black man was seducing her? Would that be better? What if they were playing cards instead of insinuating sex? What if it was inferred that they were a married couple? Would that have been better or worse?

Basically, I think it points out the unquestioned aspect racism in this country. We have a racial history that is largely unacknowledged. We have issues that are taboo. Cornel West, in Race Matters, points out the mystique of fear around African American sensuality and sexuality.

Whoever thought up this whole ploy should be on a reality show called Desperate Advertisers which shows the lame things people think of to stick advertising in places it shouldn't be, to use sex to sell anything, and to demean themselves beyond any semblance of respect.

Ironically, the only reason they want you to watch Desperate Housewives is so that you'll be subjected to the advertising they broadcast during it. The show itself, like all others, is merely a delivery device for commercials, like candy-covered dog food.

Maybe someday soon there will be a TiVo with my name on it.

Emails from God

So you are sitting in your living room one day. It occurs to you that there has to be a better way. Everyone is arguing about separation of church and state, which religion is right, if God exists, who to vote for, how to save spotted owls, which charity they should donate to, and whether to shop at Wal-Mart. How is a sane person to figure it out?

Ask the one who knows.

Not me. I have an idea, but I certainly won't say I KNOW. Ask God. Whether you believe in God or not, you can ask Him to guide you to Him. Why would you? Well, it is sort of like Pascal's Wager. See http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pascal-wager/ for more information on that.

Let's say God doesn't exist. All those billions of believers in some sort of higher power are just a result of natural selection where believing in God is a benefit to survival. Or maybe belief in God is hard-wired into our brain, which is pretty much the same thing. The afterlife doesn't exist, and this is all we have. Our life on earth. Birth to death. Altruism doesn't make sense to me if God doesn't exist. If the best way for me to spread my genes is my survival, then I am going to lie, cheat, steal, kill, sabotage, and do whatever else I need to do to survive and procreate. I'm not going to lay down my life for the "survival of the species" because then my gene pool dies out. Yet something prevents this from happening. We don't have this kind of survival of the fittest. It is more like "survival of the mostest" if you will. Something seems to transcend our individual need to survive. Something makes suicide, murder, and incest taboo across cultures. A cultural template from which all cultures start. I also have a hard time believing that the universe "just happened" and have read some very interesting "proofs of the existence of God."

Obviously there is more to the whole atheist argument than that, but let's look at the other side. One reason some find it easy to not believe in God is because trying to believe in God is very confusing. If most people in the world believe in some sort of higher power, whether it be the Goddess, Allah, Unknowable Creator, or whatever you call it, why doesn't anyone agree about what that power is and how to worship or acknowledge it? Many people do believe in some higher power, but don't have any specific form of religion to which they adhere. If you do believe in God, where do you go from there?

I see a few options. You can believe that each religion worships that higher power differently, and that whatever they want to do is okay. The "all paths lead to God" approach. Or you can believe that all other paths are wrong, and you have found the only correct one. You can believe that there are many different gods, and that Allah is different from God who is different from Brahma. Or you can believe that however you define your relationship with your creator is okay, that a specific religion isn't required. You can believe that God exists, but you don't need a relationship, thank you very much. How do you sort through these?

How can we decide that we don't need to adhere to a specific system of beliefs to worship God? I guess we could say that if God said it, but that would require determining what God said and getting His okay. Otherwise, you are making the decision, not God. I think we'd have to determine if God did have a specific system for us before choosing that path.

With so many religions to choose from, how do we choose? With many names for God or Goddess and many ways to worship, some of which are seemingly mutually exclusive, how is one to choose? And why is there so much confusion?

I believe it is because of a concept called "progressive revelation." There are two easy places to see this in action. One is the Bible and one is the Koran. How would God communicate to us? He doesn't send emails. He doesn't write books. He doesn't hold press conferences. He does, however, communicate with a chosen person, who then passes that message on to us.

Do we listen? Some do, some don't. People have a hard time hearing someone say that they've been talking with God and have a new message. So people choose to ridicule and persecute the person and cling to their cherished ways. The people who have the most to lose are the clerics and priests of the previous religion who are vested in holding to the old ways. Each messenger of God is persecuted for their teachings. It repeats throughout history.

Think about it. As a third-grade child, you listened to and loved your third-grade teacher. Then it was time to go to fourth-grade. It was painful, because it was new and you may have felt that by liking your new teacher you were disrespecting your old one. But that third-grade teacher wanted you to move on and progress. I believe that religion is the same way. God chooses a messenger who gives us a lesson for that particular time in human history and evolution. Then mankind evolves and matures and needs a new lesson. There is an eternal element of these religions, an element that is always the same. Moses gave us ten commandments. When Christ was asked which were the most important, he said to love God and love your neighbor. The Golden Rule is taught in all religions. Love God, love your neighbor. There are teachings that change as we change. The social teachings of each messenger of God change because they are what is needed at the time.

Anyone for using Occam's Razor here to shave away the extraneous confusion?

It becomes much easier when you can see that there is one God. That makes sense. Is it easier to believe that a pile of brick became a house spontaneously or that someone built it? Is it easier to believe that our universe just happened despite all the coincidences that would have to have occurred or is it easier to believe someone was behind it? Is it easier to believe that most of the world believes in a higher power because one exists or because they are all deluded the same way?

If there is one God, it is easy to explain the confusion by believing that He has one religion. It is one constantly updated religion and God doesn't leave us alone. The religions are more alike than different when you look at their core beliefs. When men get involved and add their interpretations and veils, it becomes confusing. That creates sects and schisms, each like the tributary of a river. God sends a messenger to renew His religion because it has become too distilled and needs to get back to the source.

So in a nutshell, I believe that there is one God, one religion, and one human race. What could be simpler?

One word about calling God Him. God transcends gender, and unfortunately English doesn't. Since common English usage refers to Him, that is what I use. I don't believe that God is a man, or that men are favored when we use the word "him" for God. We were all "created in God's image" which obviously doesn't mean we all look like God. We are created in His spiritual image. We all have virtues and a spiritual side which it is our responsibility to develop. We also have a material, human side. Our body. But that is a topic for another day.

Who's running this world?

OK, I lied. I said I would post on Monday, but Monday got away. I originally set out to solve the world's problems, so today seems as good a day as any to do that. That's why I'm here blogging my little fingers off, after all.

So we have this political election, you see. This guy gets elected, and everyone celebrates the fact that we don't have riots and rebellions after an election. That we have the most "peaceful and advanced" democracy on earth. Well, here is a question for those of you who came to my door asking me if I would vote for Kerry.

Why aren't YOU running for president?

That's right. Little Joe Campaigner, or Mary Votegetter. Why didn't you run? I have often thought about what I would do if I was elected president. I, being a Baha'i, cannot run for elected office. But if, for some strange reason, 32% of registered voters wrote my name in, I'd be The Man. (A little quick math, only 60% of eligible voters voted, so a majority that elected Bush was 31%. Therefore, I only needed 32%. Thanks, Anonymous!!)

Would I be the most just, most righteous, most reasonable, least kowtowing president ever? Probably. :-) But I'd probably be the most lame-duck one, too. Again, I refer to Mr. Sterling, a Sterling show if ever I saw one. To work it in Washington, you have to Play The Game. Wash someone's back so they'll wash yours. If principles prevented me from doing that, and I simply pushed those things I agreed with (like universal health care, a living wage, affordable guaranteed education, just for starts) and vetoed those I don't agree with (privatizing social security, missile defense, and other gimme's for rich corporations) I'd be a lonely guy in Washington.

Imagine this: When a bill came to Congress, all the Senators consulted to figure out if passing the bill was For The Greater Good. If it was, it should pass 100-0. If it wasn't, it should fail 0-100. Simple. Consensus. Principled. Not based on stealing from Peter to pay Paul, or who agreed to back it because they'll get return votes for their pet projects. After all, we are all in this together.

So why doesn't this system work?

Two reasons, really. The first is money. It is all based on the All Mighty Dollar. The dollar is the goal, the ultimate value in this world. A candidate promises to "bring jobs, protect our (material and capitalist) way of life, give a tax cut." A company in South Dakota that closes and sends its jobs to China is "good" for the economy, just like tax cuts to the rich will "trickle down" through more investment. Unfortunately, that investment isn't in the infrastructure of the economy, it is in a second (or third) vacation home. Or island. (Did you know one person owns the whole island of Lanai? One whole Hawaiian island!)

The second reason is that we don't acknowledge the real power behind it all. I'm not talking about the ultra-rich folks who bankroll candidates and collect corporations like beanie babies. I'm talking about God. Creator. Jehovah. Allah. Great Spirit. Whatever you call Him. As long as we insist on trying to use man-made institutions, we will get man-made results. Where did our code of laws come from? From God. Every religion has taught the Golden Rule. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Man teaches the other golden rule. He who has the gold makes the rules.

This period of time we are in is both the worst of times and the best of times. The infrastructure of the world is crumbling. Men are scrambling to hold on to every last vestige of power, struggling to claim every piece of capital, land, and market. Governments are failing, wars are raging, people are dying, and you can't guarantee that you will live to see your grandchildren. On the other hand, we can see our brothers and sisters all over the world. We can see their plight and how we are affected by genocide in Rwanda and SARS in China. Look at how fast the reaction to SARS was. We truly are a global neighborhood. If you can watch the news outside the US, you see a non-American-centric view of the world, where the passage of the global landmine treaty is celebrated. We see it about once every two years, when we see the Opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. We saw it as we watched Y2K come and go around the world. Most people believe in the equality of women and men, the elimination of racism, that we are all equal, and most people in the world believe in God. Amazingly, the issue that seemed to tip the election was belief in values. Let's hear it for values!!

So where do we get a blueprint for the world that will work? From God, of course. You didn't get the email? :-) Tomorrow, I'll tell you how we figure it out.

When Hell Freezes Over

hehehe

That's what you get when hell freezes over. The Red Sox win the World Series and Bush gets re-elected. They are skating on ice in the underworld.

I haven't posted in a few days, and I'm just about to head out of town to visit family in Maine. I wanted to just say hello to my adoring fans (which I think is me right now) and say that I'll have a weighty topic when I get back. Monday morning I'll talk about how politics is unable to solve the world's problems and why. I'll even offer a hint as to what can make this earth a kinder, gentler place.

Well, I'm off. Let's see if we see the first snow of the year this weekend. Go Pats!!