Kōan Fragments of a Distorted World #19

with nods to Lawrence Ferlinghetti for the title riff and William Blum for his "The Anti-Empire Report" (2003-18)

(“The Sower” ~ Vincent van Gogh)

“Standing on the gallows with my head in a noose
Any minute now I’m expecting all hell to break loose”
~ Bob Dylan, from “Things Have Changed”

#1
March 2, 2007:
“And he said, ‘This is a memo [from the US Secretary of Defense’s office] that describes how we’re going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran.’”
~ from video interview with General Wesley Clark

#2
"A LETHAL THREAT TO THE WHOLE PLANET:
No political construction in modern history has amassed a toxic combination of messianic ethnic supremacism; supreme disregard for human life (everyone else, not “chosen”, is “amalek" anyway); supreme disregard for international law; and unlimited access to lethal firepower. What is to be done with such a death cult?"
~ Pepe Escobar [“amalek: described in the Hebrew Bible as the enemy of the nation of the Israelites”]

Trigger warning. Literally.

I'll preface this by saying that if one child in the US was brutally abused and if that incident was plastered across the news-feeds, people would talk and talk and emotional buttons would be pushed ranging from outrage to sympathy, yet in Gaza, not so much.

Trigger warning. Literally. IDF zionists shooting at "forcibly starved" Palestinians trying to get food; shooting Palestinian boys in the head.

The insane hypocrisy of the very same military-surveillance-zionist-industrial-complex’s justification for an attack, crying that Iran might make a nuclear weapon (when btw that ‘complex’ already has a bunch) is beyond stupidity of any analysis. To riff Hannah Arendt, it is the stupidity of evil... cheered on by the usual suspects, the powers that do too much because they have forgotten their last name, “being” . . . as in “human being.” And forgotten the way of tikkun olam.

“Of course, every country has the right to defend itself. But in this case, Israel launched an aggression – an attack against Iran – totally violating and breaching the UN Charter and international law… I cannot imagine how it can be framed as legitimate self-defense.” he said. ~ Dmitry Polyansky, Russia’s deputy envoy to the UN

Historical connect dots:

"... the IBM punch card and card sorting system-a precursor to the computer. IBM, primarily through its German subsidiary, made Hitler's program of Jewish destruction a technologic mission the company pursued with chilling success. IBM Germany, using its own staff and equipment, designed, executed, and supplied the indispensable technologic assistance Hitler's Third Reich needed to accomplish what had never been done before-the automation of human destruction. More than 2,000 such multi-machine sets were dispatched throughout Germany, and thousands more throughout German-dominated Europe. Card sorting operations were established in every major concentration camp. People were moved from place to place, systematically worked to death, and their remains cataloged with icy automation. ... IBM NY always understood-from the outset in 1933 - that it was courting and doing business with the upper echelon of the Nazi Party. The company leveraged its Nazi Party connections to continuously enhance its business relationship with Hitler's Reich, in Germany and throughout Nazi-dominated Europe." ~ Edwin Black

2024: "U.S. tech giant Palantir Technologies has announced that it has agreed [to] a strategic partnership with the Israel Ministry of Defense to ‘supply Palantir technology to help the country’s war effort.’”

“Palantir said that the agreement followed a Thursday meeting between Israeli defense officials and Palantir co-founders Peter Thiel and Alex Karp." (also, "AI-powered military and surveillance technology".)

Before the current so-called progress of technology compared with the primitive technology of punch cards, approximately 97% of the Native Peoples of the now so-called United States were genocided. I mention that dot in an attempt to accentuate that there is something at work in this pattern that is far more sinister and long-standing, far more ignored and squelched from consciousness, far more than to blame it on technology.

Presumably Israel would know that their attack would prompt further attacks, so i suspect something else going on behind the scenes. Meanwhile, in some sort of sociopathological geopolitical war-game arena it’s Israel’s “Operation Rising Lion” vs. “Iran’s Operation True Promise 3.”
[After posting, i saw this article by Pepe Escobar which gives a reason for the behind the scenes, “a pre-emptive attack on the BRICS energy core," as well as the source of the quote above.]

So i return to the geopolitical Zen kōan posited by Pepe Escobar, "What is to be done with such a death cult?"

#3
“What is the object of this circle of misery and violence and fear? It must have a purpose or the universe has no meaning and that is unthinkable. But what purpose? That is humanity’s great problem to which reason so far has no answer.”
~ Sherlock Holmes in "The Cardboard Box"

#4
Last week i watched online the film “the eternal song” along with which there was a week of panels with mostly Indigenous Peoples from around this Mother Earth discussing various topics related to ancestral teachings, healing modalities, and spiritual-holistic practices that can help guide people through these troubled times and help with living harmoniously with all beings, help re-balance.

i think it was a Maori who suggested laying face down onto the Earth; (i don't care if the proper verb is "lying" down, b/c that's "not telling the truth"). When doing so, one could let go of any troubled energies and receive what energies Mother Earth has to give. There was mention of that exercise bringing someone to tears, but that they were different tears than if one is standing up.

My first time on the lawn guided by the suggestion turned into having a visceral experience that my heartbeat is connected with or nurtured by or in harmony with the Earth.

That kind of awareness is beyond reason. Reason will never find an answer to Sherlock Holmes’ kōan.

The people of the cities of Tehran and the people of Tel Aviv will have a hard time doing that exercise, especially currently when missiles and drones are being hurled at each other. But if enough people could lay face down, something would shift.

#5
A friend at the house is babysitting a large tortoise. The friend’s husky knows me well. Yet after a day of getting adjusted to the presence of the tortoise, if the husky is sitting in the yard, every time i walk by he gets up and runs toward the tortoise even if i am not walking directly toward the tortoise rather to another area of the yard. The husky’s protection of the tortoise is heartwarming and charming (even though any protection from me is unnecessary). The husky didn’t read a book or watch a video about how-to get along with and protect a tortoise; somehow he got the memo and knows.

If enough human beings could have such caring for so-called others, something would shift.

shalom!

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Mankh (Walter E. Harris III) writes, publishes, gardens, travels a holistic mystic Kaballah-rooted pathway staying in touch with Turtle Island. To find out more about his writings, publishings, podcasts, presentations… Allbook Books