HEY EVERYONE, I THINK I MAY HAVE FOUND A POSSIBLE ANSWER TO LIFE’S DIFFICULT AND COMPLEX QUESTIONS!

If you are one of those folks (as I am) who want simple elegant answers to seemly complex and difficult questions, I have a possibility for you. It is to avoid certainty.

The very idea that anyone can possibly know enough about something to be absolutely certain that they have the “Truth” is the root of our difficulty. Even my certainty in stating this could be dangerous and misguiding. After all, perhaps someone, somewhere really does know for certain that the sun will rise tomorrow or that God is in his heaven and all is right with the world.

However, I would caution that person was certain of those things to remember that the earth is a planet revolving around the sun according to physical laws and its seemly fixed 24 hour day could easily be radically altered by a collision with an asteroid and that if God is all powerful and he decided at any given moment to leave his heaven or make things all wrong with the world, he could.

This is not to suggest that nothing can be planned or that no one can possibly make assumptions about the likely nature of anything. I can plan my day tomorrow based on the assumption that the sun will rise, in fact, I had better do that if I wish to get something specific accomplished. And I can say a prayer for an ailing friend or ask God to watch over someone who has just died, if I believe it will alleviate suffering, or even simply to give myself comfort in my grief. Nothing wrong with all that.

The difficult comes when I begin to behave with certainty of the sun. When I do that, I might quickly begin to take it for granted, to assume I am entitled to sunshine tomorrow. And I might get very angry and confused if the sun doesn’t rise. It is even worse when I assume to know God’s will and intention for us all. Now I might not only feel superior to my fellows, I might begin tell them where they are “wrong” and “sinful” and how they should behave. I could tell them what God’s plan is for them and expect them to follow me in it. I might tell them what God wants them to do and when. All because of my certainty that I know God, that I have the “right” God, the “right” message, the “right” way of living and worshipping.

When you think about it, it seems as if most of the problems in this world arise from someone being certain about something. Consider the following:

• Recently, most Americans seemed certain that Iraq was building WMDs.
• Most Islamic terrorists seem certain that God is leading them to blow themselves and others up. In fact, most fundamentalist seem quite certain that they are “good” and the others are “evil.”
• Most Zionists seem certain that this piece of land is theirs by God given right and that Palestinians belong somewhere else. Most Palestinians seem to believe that piece is theirs for the same reasons.
• Most politicians seem certain that they are helping citizens by helping corporations get rich.
• Most corporations seem certain that their form of unchecked capitalism is raising standards of living around the world, even as the poor get poorer, starvation spreads and they get richer. What is even more astonishing is that they seem certain that unlimited growth is possible forever.
• Most medical companies seem certain that their drugs will eventually cure man’s physical ills even as those ills (or new ones) seem to increase with the use of many of their drugs.
• Most artists and writers seem certain that their creations advance man’s aesthetic and spiritual nature even as ugly, violent and demeaning images grow rampant.
• Most adults seem certain that they are being good parents even as their children smother and grow fat and lazy under the massive assault of material products and distractions. heaped upon them.
• Most educators seem certain they are encouraging curiosity and self-directed learning even as they hand out an “F” to this one and an “A” to that one – judging each child’s understanding and skill by the same imperfect test.
• Most bankers seem certain that the purpose of a bank is to give credit and make a profit.
• Most western workers seem certain that a “good life” is measured by how many material things they can have and that it doesn't matter if they have them by borrowing from others.
• Most eastern workers seem certain that western materialism makes people happy.
• Most starving people seem certain that they are powerless to do anything about it. Most wealthy people seem certain of the same thing.

I suspect you can find your own examples.

Well, that is my simple answer to all those complex and overwhelming problems. Perhaps if we could all give up certainty, we just might find many problems disappear. Or if not, we might be able to see some new, even simpler answers. I don’t know this for certain, of course.

An Ignorant Man Asks For Help

Time to demonstrate my ignorance. Put it all right out there. Lay it on the line and show what an absolutely uneducated, misguided, ignorant fool I am about matters financial.
I don’t understand.
I don’t understand why it is OK to give 700 billion dollars to banks, mortgage and credit card companies who have grown obscenely wealthy from providing credit to those who only needed it because there was no other way to buy a house, get groceries and medicine, send a child to college or pay their medical bills?
I don’t understand why they call it free market capitalism when the people who actually provide the goods and services benefit so little from their labor that they have had to rely on debt to maintain a fairly simple middle-class life, or in many cases, a life of obvious poverty - while those who supposedly use those services and sell those goods have lived lives of extraordinary luxury and have taken away obscene amounts of wealth?
I don’t understand how a bank can take the money I deposit and make billions from investing it and then charge me a fee. I don’t understand that when they loan me money I pay 12% interest plus fees but when I loan them money I get 2% minus fees.
I don’t understand why so many working people have believed that this form of capitalism has benefited them? Is it because they have a computer, car and house to live in that doesn’t really belong to them? Do people really think they own that SUV when they still owe $20,000 on it? And by the time they do own it, what do they think it will be worth?
I don’t understand why Americans, who work the longest hours in the world, have the highest debt and lowest savings in the world?
I don’t understand how our government can stand before us and tell us that their policies are designed help us by restoring this credit-based economy before the “real” economy suffers more? Hasn’t the “real” economy always suffered from the fact that the debt side of the credit-based economy has always been ours and the profit side always been theirs?
I don’t understand how they can keep a straight face and tell us that, for our own good, we must give these bankers more money so that we can borrow more for our homes, jobs and education?
I don’t understand why people listen to and follow the advice and philosophies of corporate CEOs, Bankers, Stock Brokers, Senators, and other Masters of the Universe who have always taken the results of our labors and turned them into gigantic profits for themselves and let trickle back down to the rest of us just enough to allow us to buy on credit whatever new fad they can conceive of?
I don’t understand how Joe the Plumber can think his small business will ever really be his when he needs to be in constant debt to these financiers just to stay afloat? Doesn’t he realize that the reason he needs to borrow to pay for basics to run his company is because he does not get a fair and equitable price for his labor? That for every dollar his company generates, 80 cents goes to someone else?
I don’t understand why my fellow citizens believe this system is either fair or, in the long run, good for anyone but the very wealthy? Where does he think the CEOs get their million dollars a week? Where does he think the hundreds of millions of dollars it takes to elect a bunch of senators and presidents come from? Where does he think the media sales empires, multinational corporations, drug companies, arms merchants and international financiers get their funds? Does he think that IAC CEO works so hard in one day that he personally creates $1,000,000 more in real value? I cannot comprehend that this guy who sells me cheap goods on TV makes $1,000,000 a day? How does he do that selling cameras that cost $19.95? And how much did he pay the guys who made that camera? Or the ones who worked in the mines digging up the raw materials?
I don’t understand how we can tell ourselves that we are good people who give our wealth (and our children) to bring freedom and prosperity to Iraq when we know that most of the Billions we are borrowing from China is going to benefit the Executives and stock-holders of banks who move the funds and corporations who supply the arms and sell the oil? And that none of that debt (in money or flesh) will ever be paid by those who reap the rewards?
I really don’t understand.
I don’t get it. Isn’t debt what you owe someone else? If I work hard and earn $500 a week and the cost of my home, food, clothes, transportation, insurance, education, taxes and so is $800 a week, aren’t I living beyond my means? And if my boss makes $180,000 a week and his costs come to $8,000 a week, isn’t he taking beyond his means?
I don’t understand why you call me a socialist or a communist when all I want is a fair deal? I don’t want to stop anyone from getting ahead; I simply want him not to get ahead by enslaving me with debt. I want fair value for my efforts. If you gave your child two dollars for mowing the lawn and the guy at the local stored took it all for a soda that cost him 15 cents and told your child to bring back another $1.25 tomorrow to pay what he still owed, wouldn’t you get angry? Or, would you say, “Hey, that’s free market economics. Good for all of us?” I don’t get it, it sounds like theft to me.
So, will someone please explain it to me?
Really.
I don’t understand!

Now this is an Ad!

The CEO and The Oil Man

(With sincere apologies to Lewis Carroll)












The Brokers were smiling on Wall Street,
Smiling with all their might:
They did their very best to make
The market seem smooth and bright--
And this was odd, because it was
The middle of the night.

The President was hiding sulkily,
Because he thought that Paulson
Had got no business to be there
After the trading day was done--
"It's very rude of him," he said,
"To come and spoil my fun!"

Banks were as cold as cold could be,
Their loans had all run dry.
You could not see a rising stock, because
No stock could rise:
No analysts were predicting crash
“There was no crash,” they lied.

The CEO and Oil Man
Were walking hand in hand;
They wept like anything to see
Their unregulated market end:
"If this were only cleared away,"
They said, "it would still be grand!"

"If seven Democrats with seven votes
Taxed us for half a year.
Do you suppose," the Oil Man said,
"That they could get it clear?"
"I doubt it," said the CEO,
And shed a bitter tear.

"O Tax Payers, come and walk with us!"
The Oil Man did beseech.
"A pleasant walk, a pleasant talk,
Along your town’s main street:
We cannot employ you anymore,
Nor give Medicare to each."

The eldest worker looked at him,
But could only mouth a moan:
The eldest worker winked his eye,
And his head dropped in his palm
Because he knew he could not afford
To keep his mortgaged home.

But four young Workers hurried up,
Eagerly clapping hands;
Their ties were red, their buttons said,
“We love our fellow man.”
And this was odd, because, you know,
They voted Republican.

Four other Workers followed them,
And yet another four;
And thick and fast they came at last,
And more, and more, and more--
These were the ranks of Evangelists,
All born again for sure.

The CEO and Oil Man
Walked on a mile or so,
And then checked into a top hotel
A penthouse, don’t you know?
And all the little Republicans stood
On the street below.

"The time has come," the Oil Man said,
"To talk of our investments:
Of arms--and gas--and Swiss accounts--
Of yachts--and retirements--
And why the good old days are gone--
And how to get the last few cents."

"But wait a bit," the Workers cried,
"Before we have our chat;
For most of us are out of cash,
And all of us are fat!"
"No hurry!" said the CEO.
They thanked him much for that.

"A piece of cake," the Oil Man said,
"Is what you chiefly need:
Some salt and vinegar besides
Are very good indeed--
Now say, “Goodbye” Workers dear,
We’ll now take our leave."

"But not of us!" the Workers cried,
Turning a little blue.
"After fighting your wars, that would be
A greedy thing to do!"
"The night is fine," the Oil Man said.
"Do you admire the view?

"It was so kind of you to work for us!
So very hard and long!"
The CEO said nothing but
"I think I’ll fly to Bali, want to come along?”
I’ve bought a mansion on the beach,
I got it for a song!"

"It seems a shame," the Oilman said,
"To play them such a trick,
Tell them it was right to buy and buy,
And patriotic to be in debt!"
The CEO said nothing but
"Social programs make me sick!"

"I agree with you," the Oil Man said:
"I deeply sympathize."
With sobs and tears he sent a memo,
“Fire everyone in sight!”
Then held his pocket-handkerchief
Before his gleaming eyes.

"O Workers," said the CEO,
"You've had a pleasant run!
I don’t suppose you’d like to buy?'
One more Hummer, son?
But no one answered him, of course,
For they’d ruined every one.

Some things never change....

A copybook was a lined pad used in schools supposedly to practice penmanship. One made hand written copies of sayings or proverbs such as "A penny saved is a penny earned." In the following poem, Kipling captures perfectly how the "Gods of the Market Place" seem able to fool us all time and again. The Gods of the Copybook Headings by Rudyard Kipling AS I PASS through my incarnations in every age and race, I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place. Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall, And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all. We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn: But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind, So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind. We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace, Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place, But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome. With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch, They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch; They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings; So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things. When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace. They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease. But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe, And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "Stick to the Devil you know." On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life (Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife) Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith, And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "The Wages of Sin is Death." In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all, By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul; But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy, And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "If you don't work you die." Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more. As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man There are only four things certain since Social Progress began. That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire, And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire; And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins, As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn, The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!

A Liberal’s Letter to Sarah Palin (and Other Christian Fundamentalists)

Dear Sarah,

YOU are the apparatus of evil. Got that?

You, with your smug certainty that Jesus, a radical middle-eastern Semite who died 2000 years ago, is your personal white american savior and that your particular English version of a book originally written in a language you wouldn’t recognize the sound of, let alone be able to translate, contains the literal word of some anthropomorphic super being who created everything 6000 years ago and whose primary concern is with homosexuals getting married and with protecting the cesspool of your local parish from the evils of liberalism, art and humanist education; who almost certainly cannot follow the construction of this oratory because it contains multiple phrases, semicolons, dependent clauses, polysyllabic words and is longer than the mind numbing utterances of Rush Limbaugh; who sit in your church on Sunday listening to the sermons of often sexually deviant, witch-hunting pastors, pontificating the certainty of their particular brands of racism, prejudice, fear and loathing.
You are the tool of the evil that you believe is “out there.”

You make me sick to my very soul and here is why specifically:

You send your son off to fight against the “Satan of Islamic Fundamentalism” without the slightest awareness that what you believe is precisely what they believe, that the face of your religion is perfectly mirrored in the face of theirs.

You support a neo-conservative, republican platform on the grounds that it somehow embodies the important values of your christian faith; accepting without question that unrelenting greed, materialism, war-mongering, dishonesty, racism and fake patriotism are all minor sins compared to not electing judges who will legislate your particular brand of certainty that aborting a collection of fetal cells is a greater sin than bombing a Middle-eastern country full of living, breathing, thinking, loving children who have the same hunger for food, knowledge and respect as your own. And for believing that selling gas and oil has nothing to do with it.

You indoctrinate your own children with the belief that any form of sexual love other than that expressed between a Christian married man and woman is dirty and evil; that humanistic values and the appreciation of the finest poetry, art and literature produced by mankind is misguided and full of sinful temptations; that the honest struggle of science to comprehend the shape, size, origin and fate of the universe and our place in it is misguided nonsense compared to your local pastor’s particular interpretation of a single book composed by a handful of tribal Jews and arrogant Latin potentates in grand cathedrals who believed the earth was flat and the sun revolved around it and that God, in his heaven just above the clouds, approved of their (and your) tribal or feudalistic religious world view.

You effectively shut the door on the curiosity, open-mindedness and love of the self-discovered truth that is genuine education and willfully imprisoned your children’s intelligence in a cage of fundamentalist ignorance and certainty.

You call yourself “conservative” but snowmobile or fly around the Alaskan wilderness shooting animals for “sport.” You support businesses who misuse the workers of the poorest parts of the world and use massive quantities of fossil fuels to produce and distribute cheap goods to the USA and Europe, seemingly unaware of increasingly limited resources and the polluting effects this has on earth's magnificent self-healing nature. You deny global warming is man-made and is increasing at a rate that will lead to a devastation that matches the biblical account of the great flood and will insure the eventual death of most of the species your fairytale story had Noah save in his ark.


You deride liberals as weaklings and intellectually effete, as if they had not fought in every truly good cause this country has ever led and had not given their lives and wealth to bring about a better existence for those less fortunate; had not stood their ground against every form of fascism (right and left) and the unrelenting greed of the empire builders; had not sacrificed for equality of life, liberty and happiness for those of different color, sex and cultural origin here and around the world. (And yes, while some of them have occasionally been as dishonest, greedy and prejudiced as you are, I would suggest that history shows them to be a tad less hypocritical about it and a lot less certain of their god-given right to racial, spiritual and cultural superiority.)

You speak of America as the “shining beacon on the hill” and claim the traditions and values of the founding fathers without any awareness that Jefferson and Franklin were humanists who tried their best to write into our constitution protections against the very form of religious zealotry you practice.

Your (and John McCain’s) campaign rhetoric is a model of lies, disinformation, slander and not so subtle racial and cultural prejudice. For example, suggesting Barrack Obama is a Muslim by emphasizing his middle name and suggesting that he is aligned with terrorists.

Finally, and perhaps most to the point of this personal oratory, you have been woefully ignorant of the very real evils facing all of us. And you revel in your ignorance. You have been and continue to be the willing tool of the actual “evil forces” walking this earth: the CEOs who rape the coffers of their companies while their workers are left bereft of the compensations they rightfully earned with their life long labors; the movers and shakers of the multinational arms, drug and oil corporations who promote world-wide violence, intolerance, addiction, poverty and rampant materialism in order to add to their “bottom line” and for whom many of you work; and the fawning politicians, corrupt intelligence agencies and distracting media moguls who have pulled the extraordinary card trick of getting you to believe that unregulated capitalism, torture and the attempted abrogation of inalienable human rights is somehow equivalent to democracy, freedom and the American Dream.

Yes, you are the willing tools of the evil you profess to hate. Your hypocrisies and certainty of belief in earthly absurdities in the name of heavenly fairytales is breathtaking in its ignorance and devastating in its consequence for all of us on this paradise we call earth.

I can only pray you find the light of true humility before your darkness of certainty and arrogance destroys us all.

Ted Guhl