right. from a book on feldenkrais. in the right hand photo, notice how tucking in the pelvis improves the entire posture.

1. there is no substitute for choosing kind, perky parents.
2. knowledge of the fantastic possibilities of life is essential, but must be combined with awareness of how brutal social programming can be.
3. true health has an amazing effect on the emotions, yet is almost unknown outside of professional sports. the difference between the average and possible is  incredible.   some factors are:
   • the number of calories expended coupled with proper diet. get tired and get your vitamins or its all useless. give it time - real change takes at least a  year. in addition, there is the essential idea of muscle tone, which is a combination of reactivity and a healthy tightness of muscles. the important points are that everything works better with proper muscle tone and that it is a quality that is easy to lose without periodic exercise. you can't take three weeks off and expect to be as efficient or have as much fun. even gross physical skills, such as strenth or endurance, can degenerate in as little as a SINGLE WEEK.
   • full deep breathing. exercise is great but a specific exercise for breathing is best - yogic four count breathing that separates the motion of the rib cage and diaphragm. simply put, a very slow deep breath, making sure to exhale completely. like riding a bike or any skill, practice makes a profound difference. muscles, tendons and ligaments of the rib cage both stretch and become stronger, while the motion becomes habitual. your capacity for a deep breath will  increase amazingly, improving energy level, sleep and relaxation. always sleep with a window open a crack. what is average is a hunched over intermitant panting.
   • proper posture. although it isn't exactly clear why, correct posture can have a fantastic effect on a person's energy level. also, it makes all movement easier. the lack of it can literally age you. the traditional view, exemplified by  military practice, is artificial and rigid. correct posture is dynamic, coming from muscles and bones that are used. if you get a sufficient amount of exercise proper posture will be almost automatic. central to this is the strength of the abdominal muscles. you don't have to look like the smirking airbrushed people in health magazines to know that lack of abs is what causes a bad back through the tilting of the pelvis, the number one serious health problem in "civilized" countries. poor posture the crusheslungs and heart, making them work twice as hard. these ideas were first described in the modern world by feldenkrais. 
   • proper sleep. it was proven long ago that for both mental and physical health naps are absolutely useless as a replacement for regular sleep. there is no "catching up" - that alone can ruin your health.
   • the  very real pleasure of learning a skill, any skill. it doesn't have to be competitive or even serious. try ping-pong, soft ball, kung fu, rock climbing or skipping!!! do something. develop both the upper and lower body. try to run, but above all else
                                                                         walk.

     runners – CLOSE YOUR MOUTH – your nose evolved to warm the air you breath and little hairs to filter dust and germs  for sensitive alveoli, the smallest air sacks in your lungs where oxygen exchange takes place.

   • "civilization" and aging.  medical professionals recommend "a minimum of a half hour walk a few times a week". how pathetic!! it takes an hour  just to stretch out and build up a bio-chemical heat - that's just to start. you'll find at first that you will walk quickly, then slow down as you feel muscles and tendons begin to stretch out, then speed up again as the fully stretched organs become more efficient. don't push your self, and put weight only on the heal, rolling onto and off of the feet. the human race evolved over millions of years to do just one thing, walk. sidewalks and paths are a poor second best to natural terrain with all its bumps, changes in firmness and grading and minor obstacles. walking elsewhwere will strengthen the ankles and loosen the hips remarkably, lessening the chance of injury. though it is not readily apparent, any extended exercise on pavement causes permanent joint and tendon damage, and causes the muscles to contract undully. ten years down the road you'll wonder why you are aging so soon. this is why "civilized" sidewalks are really, really dumb.                                                                                               the horrible feebleness the great majority of people experience in old age is not normal, but the result solely of lack of regular exercise.         
      the latest, best research says that THE ABILITY TO ADD NEW MUSCLE MASS DOES NOT DECREASE WITH AGE.     
   • dancing is one of the best exercises. and we don't mean "line dancing"!!
   
   
   •  two good reasons not to take showers. first, most people object to baths because they think they're sitting in dirty water, yet the water stream in a  shower is so meager that the dirt stays on you!! you just don't see it. second, and more important, people relish the feeling of a very hot shower,  not realizing that excessive heat damages the structure of the capillaries, the smallest blood vessels, which are the body's major mechanism for thermo-regulation. at the least you'll learn to take cooler showers. do what the japanese do: a quick soapy shower, then a clean bath. get off your feet. relax!! 
   • purely by accident, we ran across one of the foremost practitioners of tai chi chuan in the world. after some practice and research, and becoming acquainted with long time practitioners of advanced aged, we can say without a doubt that                                                                                                                                                        this is the best form of exercise in the world.                                              it is based on gentle, yet persistant practiced movement. it is not wimpy.                                                                                                                                     for a very easily learned routine, click:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           simplified tai chi                                        
   • • 
     • it was found that  one of the best indicators of long life is simply a good grip!!
     •  the rotten truth is, most adults are dead compared to children. their skin is pale and blotchy, face and voice are inexpressive, the body stiffer and heavier every year. worse, adults become "uncomfortable" around any kind of spontaneity.
       
      
4. spend time with little kids. no matter how kind you think you are, just leave them alone and be amazed. their curiosity is boundless, like an ocean basin waiting to be filled. their untrained physical skills are literally gymnastic. when you accept that they are non-rational they'll knock you out of your dull adult  world. best of all, despite being shy, little kids love everybody. its kind of catchy. besides, where would we be without little girls to say,                                                 "oooooooooooh  gross!!"
                                                        
5. read. reading is a very ambivalent. it can be the greatest escape from reality or the door to new worlds. so read like crazy but give it a break.
6. nature. most people never travel or see nature by itself, but it is your home. the term "natural wonders" is not a cliche. ghetto children during an electricity failure for the first time look up at the stars and are struck dumb. majestic mountains, immense prairies, fields of flowers, plains so flat you can see the very curve of the earth, amazing varieties of woodlands, rain forests, deserts and grasslands, the changeable, dangerous glories of seas and oceans, even simple weather away from the confines of "civilization" - these all can move the heart to awe.
   
   tourism is so prescribed these wonders are buried in commercialism - hotels, tours, "scenic views", watered down regional attitudes and cuisines, or the total predictability of camping and sports.
   
7. new people. people learn when very young to be cautious of others, yet meeting new kinds of people, or those from a different background, or of a different profession or having different skills can be enough to energize the spirit.
8. culture. this great invention of us monkeys  is usually kept at a distance from the world of daily survival and at best is the privilege of the wealthy, who still remain mere consumers. culture's amazing depth and variety the world over can prove an addiction. hence the very real myth of the "starving artist" - someone who gladly sacrifices all, even food and drink and comfort in pursuit of their passion. 

   from science we learn the astounding depth and breadth of reality, from mathematics we learn exquisitely beautiful precision and that everything we think is wrong, from art how “mere constructed objects” can profoundly affect the soul and that this has been going on for thousands of years.

9. tragedy. unfortunately only pain will open some peoples eyes, while some will succumb and go under. even worse, the sense of aloneness after a tragedy can itself be crippling. veteran police rarely watch "cop shows." emergency room doctors don't watch "ER" and often end up on government disability pay. victims of crime learn what little recourse they have. just a first taste of discrimination can leave a person wracked with frustrated anger. those thrust into poverty find themselves alone. the ill or simply old find themselves in a cold bureaucracy. the loss of a loved one will drain every joy a person previously felt. the key, the amazing thing, odd as it may seem, is to see how little friends will stand by a troubled person and how their standard of friendship and society in general changes. if a person can make it through these worst of trials, their standard of personal worth will rise tremendously.
10. any experience that jostles the mind, slowly or quickly. this is human experience on any level as educational theater. along with education, this is the core of the "green cheese" thesis. to be absolutely clear, shock or simply breaking down inhibitions is not the point and can be dangerous. gentleness and roundedness are key. it is equally amazing to see others knocked from their usual, daily mindset, usually by something unexpected.
    one example:
    
     much maligned by media and bigotry, the Hari Krishnas belong to a valid religious lineage. they preserve an old tradition called Festival of the Chariots, which is nothing more than pulling a huge colorful float through public streets by hand. people come from their homes and shops, expressions of dumbfoundment turning to  wonder then shocked realization that here is something different. jolted from their average, busy boredom, they at first seem duller of face and heavier of body, then a smile spreads over their face and you can see the urge to run and join the music and dancing. of course, most never do and the heavy boredom returns. you don't have to believe in hinduism to realize something genuine has just occurred.
    
    this one example is really just part of what many people would call, variously, art or religion or culture or life. its just a spark without a name.          

• in the funniest and saddest news item of the seventies a farmer in the mid-west of the u.s.a, an area known as the "bible belt", answered a survey on mideast  policy by saying, "why, those arabs don't even speak the language the Good Book was written in." he meant english.
• in africa, decades later, in an effort to prevent the spread of a.i.d.s., health organizations demonstrated the use of the condom, unfortunately with a banana. some  people decided it was a magical fetish and at home again put the condom on a banana, and ended up dead.
  

• a technophile of the 70s writes to the science adviser of a daily newspaper with this question: "if there is a nuclear war will the magnetic pulse from the nuclear  bombs erase my video tapes?"
• decades later, amid the controversy over the inefficiency, consumerism and ugliness of giant SUVs, again one man states in his local paper, "i'm just taking care of  my family. i know that if there is a crash with another car my family will survive." yes, but what about the family in the smaller car?
  

                           

"WHATEVER YOU DID UNTO ONE OF THE LEAST, YOU DID UNTO ME"

that is treating something alive as if it were garbage. the top reason for not having a pet altered is that owners had not bothered. an estimated 2 billion dollars is spent annually to round up, house, euthanize and dispose of pets. can this massive indifference not say something about our souls?

other small animals
then there are other "small animals". little girls  trying to live up to society's overwhelming propaganda to be thin  become anorexic or bulimic, torturing themselves and wasting away, and many, many die. big city ghetto children spend  every day being crushed by indifference, then, blessed by an electricity blackout stand dumbstruck in the street, heads turned up to the stars in awe.

this is how the whole world treats these other "small animals":


              busy little fingers in iran.                             brain damage from                   brick factory in south america.
                                                                              recycling batteries in india.

           miners in south america.                             baby sitting slave in china.                               a good ol' sweat shop.

             new sneakers, anyone?                         not just immagrants, but their children            good old american baseballs.
                                                                                                 in the fields.                                        oops, fell asleep on the job!!

   oh, those beautiful rugs.                  more clothes for you.                                       living on a trash dump.

institutions of spiritual death
the fashion industry has successfully promoted the idea that sophistication/sex is exemplified by a skinny body and blank face, this in a world were it is harder and harder just to walk down the street and look a person in the eye. we are not that advanced. at some point we have to recognize the connection between the ethereal and practical, without being bogged down by traditional religions.

here's that little man again!!
he wants to ask:

                                                                               
                                                                                   "is dis a system?"

consciousness raising - you are not alone
consciousness raising is not an idea that most people are familiar with, much less practice.

it requires both education and experience - either one alone will not suffice. most people survive with a very narrow view of life, and even when it is positive or sophisticated they are still incapable of truly understanding

we are not speaking, at least here, of religion or some subtle philosophy. in addition, long experience usually only makes a person smug and they actually fight any change.

rare
there is the slow change from child to adult. some are lucky enough to encounter an unusual experience that opens their eyes. many experience trauma that gives perspective to their earlier life. some claim a "religious awakening", but with little idea of the great range of human experience, this is usually fairly paltry. a formal education comes closest, but this is partially just the result of socialization, in effect, mere chance. contra wise, some people seem to have an inclination for understanding given very little information.

inherently bad?
police, doctors scholars, psychologists, politicians, industrialists, the wealthy, priests, parents, bigots of all stripes - they're all in the same boat, but do they each have faults that are unique to their callings? no, of course not. they merely reflect the state of culture at large. are they even responsible for the errors of their ways? again, of course not. people who are hurtful usually have had pretty miserable lives. not that people should not be held responsible for the most egregious abuses - a line needs to be drawn. and being disadvantaged or abused affords only a slight broadening of perspective, and often turns a person totally against others.

we have attempted in this website, without a great deal of detail, to delineate the great  variety of experiences people have. that a great many of them are negative does not reflect on an inherent nature, but simply the lack of a rounded culture anywhere in the world.

how does it happen?
what actually happens and what qualities are essential for it to happen? this is extremely difficult to say with any clarity. 
abstract generalities are not the place to begin:

• a person must be willing. pounding on a door that will never open is pretty silly. an appearance of fairness is often only that. some people have had such hard or sheltered lives that new ideas are simply beyond them. but we can try.
• a capacity for elementary logic is useful. this is not a purely intellectual skill, set in a cold world of its own. to engage in even elementary logical thought it is essential that a person must first disengage from emotional patterns accumulated since childhood. to most people, “reasonable” means these patterns, while anything different is unreasonable. this is why enjoyment of games, puzzles and conundrums is not a trivial pastime. they sharpen the sense of the difference between what’s logical and what’s familiar.
• the term “willing suspension of disbelief” is famous expression common to both art and science, designating a capacity for listening long enough for new ideas to be presented. many people just "snort" in dismissal at anything not suiting their fancy.
• every person comes from a different background and even people from the same background have subtly different influences. this is the only place to begin. everyone begins with preconceptions.
• each subject requires its own approach. psychology is not ecology is not economy is not….  well, lots of stuff.
• as mentioned above, no amount of abstract information, no matter how great or precise, can convey the immediate impact of experience, or how a person’s situation affects their whole life. additionally and most important, “walking in another person’s moccasins” is more difficult than even witnessing their life. can you imagine not being able to go back to your own life? likewise, to witness another person's life without preparation can leave a person no wiser.
• attitude is a deceptively simple word that contains whole worlds. in truth, learning something essentially new is always a long road. many concepts are involved in just one aspect of a person’s life, each one requiring a fair amount of effort. what one person perceives as a pointless abstraction, to another is a daily experience. it is so amazingly easy to think that you understand another’s feelings, when only a few elementary questions will show the gulf that separates people.

for example: 
on a very personal level, perhaps the most important, a simple seeming situation can have many variations, with a myriad possible feelings involved, while yet another person will bring to an experience a totally different background. 
specifically:

• throughout the ages the well off have participated in marginally helpful “social programs”, not even perceiving the resentment of those who cannot, as their benefactors can, just walk away from the scene of their poverty. 
• again, a “polite distance” often separates people of different cultures, masking a condescension that can be brutal and obliviousness to a rich heritage. 
• childhood involves unique emotions and whole ranges of abilities, yet the overriding concern of most adults is “good behavior”.

• in the end, the most important task is to put all of the lessons together into one whole. this can be daunting to even a relaxed and talented person, yet it is what defines the essence of both adulthood and civilization. if a person goes only part of the distance, they will be wiser than average in a very real sense, but it is the whole distance that nurtures true compassion.

• the thesis of the green cheese manifesto is that:
• only by going the whole distance will a person perceive that there really is no “system”, or even the possibility of one, with brutality in myriad forms the necessary result. the only alternative to this illusion is kindness, moderated and strengthened by intelligence. 
• the difficulty here is that with progressive levels of abstraction it becomes more difficult to truly see another person’s viewpoint.

the breadth of experience
one man may learn to “respect” his wife, but everyone “knows” women are not as bright as men. when a child is unable to deal with adult idiocies it is taken as proof that children are “irrational.” for thousands of years religion has been the stalwart support of bigotry of all kinds, even though, “some of my best friends are…” why one individual cannot tolerate another is usually a problem of the former’s lack of education, yet even within the family people are often ridiculed as “just foolish.” when everyone tries to survive seperately, the paean of  "taking care of my family" justifies marching over others' families and destroying whole ecologies.

ghosts of the old gods - peace and history
after a point it is easy to see how someone might respond with, “oh, come now,” to a given idea, even if they are basically kind. fortunately, as we said, experience is a powerful teacher. the properties of:

• great pain,
• inherent nonsense, 
• and deadly absurdity.

• in africa, it is islam and only islam that is conducting massive genocide.
• while in iraq they’re satisfied to perpetuate an “an eye for an eye” and even torture children.
• in the bosnian “ethnic cleansing” war mass rape was the tactic of the day.
• in russia and western europe anti-semitism is again rampant up to the highest levels of society.
• america’s illegal war in iraq is terrifying the entire planet while its mindless citizens can’t think past their flag decals, yellow ribbons and cheeseburgers. 
• china, the last vestige of communism, is doing a dandy job of terrifying its citizens with public executions and police torture while rapidly destroying their ecology and destroying all ethnic cultures. 

five lists:

 (1) evasion is easy, as long as authority insists on simple logic.

• tailhook - brutal chauvanist abuse is rampant in the military, yet even after a massive public display no one is held accountable besides a few scapegoats and the policy remains embedded. 

• the previous mentioned quote from "racism,”  which occurred in a corporate boardroom, but this telling expression could be used at any level.    

"isn't it funny how the black jelly beans always get stuck at the bottom of the bag?"                                                       

• corporate shenanigans - "deals" rotten and inhuman involving more money than most people can comprehend occur totally outside of public scrutiny. this is the norm.

• bullying - is totally common among children. the point being not that it is allowed but  how easy it is to deceive adults, totally masking the severity and how it destroys lives. there is a great body of work, in film and interviews, showing both  deceptive behavior and a capacity for dissimulation – “it wasn’t really that bad.”

• “the mask of authority” – is the most common mechanism of justification. priests rape children, parents beat their children, police beat “suspects”, psychologist viciously manipulate or sexually abuse patients, doctors force patient consent with the threat of dire consequences, civil authorities constantly insist someone must sacrifice for the greater good, industrialists employ “in house” scientists to justify raping nature, men in “traditional” roles constantly override a women’s feelings and desires, crushing their spirit “for their own good”. the list is endless.

(2) definitely "me" - a not so random constellation:

• serial killers - reflect on the basic tenets of society. when war, racism and poverty are so common should we be surprised at this? yet, in its modern form, it is almost unique to the united states. when it occurs elsewhere, the documented public reaction is, "that kind of thing only occurs in america."
• a worker in an "old age home" is caught twisting a needle in the arm of a helpless wheel chair bound woman. - this was reported by someone self described as "coming from a long line of yale alcoholics" on sabbatical. in other words neither stupid or a fool.
• just before the fall of the berlin wall there were massive escapes of people who had better haircuts than the average american. this is not trivial. these people came from an area where bread lines were common, torture and disappearances the norm, and all non-state approved culture was suppressed.
• movie hats - the oppressed are as unconscious as the oppressors. demonstrating that the trivial paraphernalia of mass media changes with the wind, afro-americans sported baseball caps with a huge X after the movie on "the autobiography of malcolm X", yet soon after wore caps sporting a bat logo after the movie "batman".
• a gay youth, barely out of high school and loved by his family and many friends, is brutally beaten, tied to a fence post, and left to die of exposure.
• a man with black skin is dragged behind a truck until his head is torn off.
• people  are packed in their cars three lanes wide at rush hour - most with cell phones, many with lap tops, all busy with being "civilized - and are furious at  delays - but when traffic speeds up again it turns out that there was no bottle neck, no disabled vehicle. what happened was that people had slowed down to see the sheet covered bodies from a horrible accident.
• in denmark a person can be fined thousands of dollars for littering, while in canada taxi drivers can lose their medallion, and hence their livelihood, for not respecting people crossing the street. these things are good, but why are they necessary? in america there is trash everywhere and you take your life in your hands crossing a street.
• how often do you see a person with a “thousand yard stare,” a term first used to describe mental trauma caused by war? now it can include poverty, racism, crime victims, the aged, or simply those totally alienated and helpless in society. but people just walk on by, it's not their problem.
• despite the impression given by “milk carton” notices and the insane “amerikkka’s most wanted”, most child sex abuse is done by relatives. 

(3) definitely "them":

• insanity in the water, air and earth. while being subsidized by "corporate welfare," industries pour massive amounts of complex chemicals, carcinogens, particulate pollution and brain damaging heavy metals into the environment.
• coal burning plants are the major, really the only, source of mercury in the environment, yet the federal government has successfully fought all attempts at regulation, even those from the highest levels of state governments.
• at love canal a toxic waste dump of complex chemicals was causing cancer and birth defects in NEW BORN CHILDREN, yet the government  denied for years that the problem even existed, then waged a vicious personal vendetta against those who were trying to educate people.
• the federal government is waging an endless, no holds barred battle to open up the LAST pristine areas of the country and even the planet to heavy industry. they are slowly succeeding, of course in the name of a “strong economy”, but really just for fantastic profits for a few. we are killing the planet, which the aliens must think is pretty funny, but your kids won’t be too happy about. for some reason most people can’t get this into their heads. duh!?!?
• whistle blowers are essential to the sane regulation of industry and government, yet the federal government is rescinding all laws giving them PROTECTION, without which a person must risk their livelihood, their career and the welfare of their family. even the nuclear power industry is not exempted, an industry with a long record of idiot mistakes and deception.                                                

click “DARK TIMES” for recent Supreme Court rulings that are as terrifying as the Patriot Act. george orwell had it all right. soon those in power will have NO LIMITS on their INSANITY, yet they can kick down your door.

• equally, government offices of BUDGET OVERSIGHT, or how tax money is being spent, are being GUTTED by being reduced, eliminated, greatly under funded, or having the legal powers of their chief executives totally eliminated. the head of budget oversight for the military just resigned in disgust. he still had his job, his title, his salary, his staff but absolutely no power
• approximately 16,000 new chemical are patented each year, most of which are TOTALLY UNREGULATED.
• in the 2000 KOCH industry farrago 91 TONS of the most CARCINOGENIC chemical, benzene, were KNOWINGLY dumped into the environment, then they LIED ABOUT IT. THE PRESIDENT PERSONALLY DIRECTED  ATTORNY GENERAL ASHCROFT TO DROP ALL CHARGES. your children will pay for this.
•  the federal government attempted to replace the Social Security system, which has been called “the greatest, most successful anti-poverty program ever created in the u.s.a.”, with a totally unstable, for-profit personal investment in the stock market. 

• absolutely phenomenal amounts of FOOD IS BEING THROWN AWAY, enough to feed WHOLE CITIES. farmers are paid NOT TO GROW FOOD in order to “stabilize prices”. businesses have “turn over quotas”, very poor projections of the amount of business they will transact, that requires stores to THROW AWAY FRESH FOOD. “sell by” and “good until” dates were originally enacted into law to prevent the unscrupulous selling of rotten food, yet have been so unrealistically formulated that PEOPLE ARE LEFT STARVING WHILE PERFECTLY GOOD FOOD MUST BE THROWN AWAY under penalty of law!!!! SINGLE FAMILIES because of affluence, negligence, habit or even mere fastidiousness throw away enough food to feed ANOTHER WHOLE FAMILY.
• in the FOOD INDUSTRY the testing for PRIONS, responsible for “mad cow disease,” which is incurable and eats away at the brain, is ALMOST NON-EXISTANT, while there is a MASSIVE DISINFORMATION CAMPAIGN to down play the small but growing number of cases which have appeared in SCATTERED LOCATIONS. many countries test a great percentage of animals. japan tests ALL animals. ONLY IN AMERICA in the name of profit are DISEASED ANIMALS, and those that have OBVIOUSE NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS, which in the industry are termed “falling cows”, allowed to be processed, sometimes directly as meat and some as feed for other animals. recently the ridiculously small step of disallowing the brains and spinal cords of such animals to be used as feed has been taken. if you SAW a severely sick animal would you eat it? MEAT INSPECTION even on a basic level is ridiculously rare and has been proven in court to be both HIGHLY INEPT and that among poorly paid inspectors BRIBERY IS RAMPANT. the government is controlled by the industry and NO ONE KNOWS HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE SICKENED BECAUSE OF THIS.
• even more so than in the last fake "recession" of the late eighties, oil prices for your home and car are going UP AND UP AND UP AND UP, while the rich laugh, and homes are lost and families destroyed by just this one thing.

peace is the way.

peace is not the absence of war.

• "why is there war? perhaps because i and my neighbor and everyone else do not have enough love. yet we could fight against war and all its excrescences by releasing each day the love that is shackled within us, and giving it a chance to live."

• a close reading of the illiad and odyssey, supposed to be the greatest literature in western civilization, in any college course reveals that the basic tenet of greek philosophy to be exclusivity. if you are not greek you are not civilized and not really a person. there was no law or custom against killing someone who was not greek. there was no fear of punishment and no remorse and the suggestion of same would be greeted with outraged bafflement.

do you really think this is what a thief looks like? yet until very recently this was the stereotype. no "respectable" person in a suit with a big job could do any wrong.

the unbelieving farmer
on top of normal hypocrisy, if this is how they speak, how much else is untold? this debased and twisted language has literally replaced government, which consists not in what you do but in what you can get people to believe. stalin and hitler were honest in comparison to this hideous caricature of the human spirit. people in ancient times or today's third world simply would not believe the absurd convoluted semantics of social/political dialog and its simple minded arrogance. it is a massive weight on the entire culture yet is devoid of substance. there is no simple kindness or love of nature.

   

g

g      g

“flying the flag should be mandatory.”
                                   - letter to editor 

an older, gray haired father and son are removed from a plaza in new york state and arrested for “causing a disturbance,” because they are wearing shirts, bought there, that said “give peace a chance” and “peace on earth.” 

a state senator proposes a bill making protest a “terrorist act.” 

“violence is o.k.”   
                - bumper sticker on a truck in front of a Veteran’s Administration hospital. now that's a sick one.

there is a wave of dangerously foolish with-us-or-against-us philosophy being promoted, where freedom of speech or any differing opinion is derided. this most innocent example is still a low point: in reaction to france not supporting the u.s.a. in the second iraq war, the name “french fries” on the menu at the congressional cafeteria was changed to “freedom fries.” they should thank their lucky stars for julia child or americans would still think cheese balls was haute cuisine. it was the inedible english that invented french fries, which the french abhor.   

"the question is not, why don't we support america in iraq, but, why is bush still president?"
                                         - spanish reporter

think global, act local  
this one’s been around way too long and look where we are.

destroy fascism    
“you better free your mind instead.”  -from a song by john lennon.

blame the leaders, not the troops 
hey, they didn’t really blow that little girl’s legs off.

this is from indymedia; we assume they or the original photographer don't mind. the original caption was: "an iraqi girl liberated from her legs." a right wing message to indymedia said this was "unfortunate," the sender being unable to see the parallel with the statement  of the bomber of the oklahoma federal building, that the children who died in the day care section were just "collateral damage." this picture has appeared everywhere except the mainstream media.

• "you take care of you and i'll take care of me - that's the american way."

• the mother of a three year old complains to the mother of a twelve year old that her son just tried to molest her child. the second mother casually turns to her son and says,

• "so you were raped as a child. so what. get over it."          - a catholic
  

• "2,000 soldiers killed in iraq? why, in the war i was in that many were killed in a day."  - a man who is incensed at the success of michael moore's films                                                 

• "before christianity women were treated poorly. things are much better now."

• "those shoes cost me money and he's going to wear them."

• "who do you expect to read this when it's written without capitals?"