More musings for today

Having "free market" fundamentalist (unregulated) capitalism as our culture/society's primary (almost exclusive) value is like living in a suffocating society of competition and fear of death (the more I can acquire, the more immortal I'll become). It's 19th century, to put it kindly. It's also deeply reactionary - the planet's leading cultures/societies (or, at least the leaders of such)should be at green level now firmly there - some W. Europe ones are close, but here in the U.S. the dream has dampened since Reagan (and been fought against virulently by true blue imperial believers and red greedheads).

But enough blaming the conservatives - I do that plenty. I want to get back to considering the poverty of our lives spiritually in this culture now, and I want to say that a new modern/postmodern spirituality is desperately needed. Not a program for those who are ready for second-tier, but something to fill the gap between mythic and integral. New Age had elements; the pre-trans fallacy mucked it up, and Wilber would say part of that confusion was boomeritis narcissism which infected progress along the spiral.

I must find I.S. and read the chapter on the unfortunate (monumentally) void left when the European Enlightenment threw the baby of reglion/spirituality away with the bathwater of pre-rational dogma and orthodoxy.

But I want to get back to saying how alienated I think people are now, even the "Richistans" (the new rich class) with all their quality-of-life consolations.

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Just saw that Russia is becoming an imperialistic militaristic plutocracy (they did the "shock economic" medicine, and millions are impoverished now, with a small but very rich plutocratic elite) - just as we are (from highly different places) - of course our democracy, mixed economy was so much better than communism (that's a blue level system). But things are going backwards with the great powers.

Sigh.

Joel Osteen's new book is coming out - I'm getting ready to watch his interview on "60 Minutes" - I think he is a self-esteem therapist healer, which is the orange spiritual project, actually - or a good part of it. It's what we were trying to do in t-groups in the 70s; now people get it from mega-churches, if they're not fundamenalist. Fine with me.

I'll edit the above later - I'm sure I'll need to.

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