758 Trump? Whose fault is it?
As regards Donald Trump’s election, what can we learn about the processes that have lead
to this momentous outcome? How could it have come to this? Incidentally, is it true the
majority of Americans wanted this outcome? Well, it is not … more people voted
for Clinton than for Trump; but the American electoral system is weird and due to its undemocratic design, Trump got in.
In a previous blog I
made a joke about how this sort of thing can be avoided in future: Voters should
be grouped according to their IQ: Below average IQ voters get 1 vote; average
IQ voters get 2 votes; above average IQ voters get 3 votes.
Yeah, right!
Another point I made
in another blog is that people have a civic responsibility to inform
themselves. Without doing so … trumpism (or hansonism) can gain the upper hand,
which - of course - should be avoided. Actually one could probably argue people
should get either 1, 2 or 3 votes according to their level of education!
Heady
stuff, this … don’t worry, folks, we’re still in the realm of satire here.
Nevertheless, in my
blogs I often reference Krishnamurti ... K is very much my guide when it comes to questions like ... “OMG. Why Oh Why Is The World Such?” (Frankly, he is my guide, period.) In respect of our query ... he is unequivocal: Ultimately it’s our
own fault. Yes, yours and mine. We must accept responsibility.
In the context of responsibility I do not appreciate Hillary Clinton's turn after the event: It was the FBI's fault she lost the election, what with them publishing their renewed concerns about her email saga so close to the polls. It was yourself, Ms. Clinton, who gave them the ammunition to do so. Accept responsibility!
Krishnamurti has often referred to the need for each and everyone of us to raise our consciousness. Lower consciousness is the faculty required to deal with our every-day issues like making a living, which clothes to put on in the morning, what to have for lunch, whether to go to the gym today or not etc etc.
Whereas higher consciousness deals with issues beyond our immediate physical needs and concerns. Only on that level - K argues - are we able to address those "BIG Issues" where we gain enlightenment, i.e. the capacity to see the world as it really is. With all its trumpian and hansonite warts. And only from that higher consciousness vantage point can we effectively address those issues.
Why and How? Higher consciousness - the faculty to know the truth -
enables us to see through the petty machinations that stifle our capacity to
work for the common good ... where we act with ignorance, greed and disregard
for our fellow humans.
I have an essay on CONSCIOUSNESS in
my book with no title, instead three definitions for the term en.light.en.ment
... in fact I have two.
There is a profound aspect of the difference between Lower Consciousness and Higher Consciousness, as regards our learning: The books we read, the university courses & seminars we attend. These studies involve our Lower Consciousness ... that learning is considered Lower Learning. When we study the teachings of an enlightened individual like Jiddu Krishnamurti, we engage in Higher Learning.
Below are a few
musings from K, to help you along your path to your enlightenment; if they are not enough (or to prepare you for my way of dealing with Krishnamurti), visit these previous blogs (the first, 695, uses yet another angle, that of Michael Jackson's view into the mirror, where he sees the man who needs to change).
(Eversince I wrote this blog I listened to the song many times, which then spurred me on to writing blog 757 on just that song.)
695 Why and How
Why is the world the way it is; how can it be changed?
Responsibility
for these problems
"Is this vast problem of the world your problem and my problem,
or is it independent of us? Is trumpism (I replaced war with trumpism) independent of you? Is the national strife
independent of you, the communal strife independent of you? The corruption, the
degradation, the moral disintegration - are they independent of each one of us?
This disintegration is directly related to us, and therefore the responsibility
rests with each one of us. Surely, that is the main problem, isn’t it? That is,
to put it differently: Is the problem to be left to the few leaders, either of
the left or the right, to the party, to the discipline, to an ideology, to the
United Nations, to the expert, to the specialist? Or is it a problem that
directly involves us, which means: Are we directly responsible for these
problems, or are we not? Surely, that is the issue, is it not?"
Krishnamurti, The
Collected Works vol V, pp 182
Crisis
in consciousness
"We are facing a tremendous crisis; a crisis which the
politicians can never solve because they are programmed to think in a
particular way - nor can the scientists understand or solve the crisis; nor yet
the business world, the world of money. The turning point, the perceptive
decision, the challenge, is not in politics, in religion, in the scientific
world; it is in our consciousness. One has to understand the consciousness of
mankind, which has brought us to this point."
Krishnamurti, The Network of Thought, p 9
What
you are is the external world
"Most of us in this
confused and brutal world try to carve out a private life of our own, a life in
which we can be happy and peaceful and yet live with the things of this world.
We seem to think that the daily life we lead, the life of struggle, conflict,
pain and sorrow is something separate from the outer world of misery and
confusion. We seem to think the individual, the “you”, is different from the
rest of the world with all its atrocities, wars and riots, inequality and
injustice and that this is something entirely different from our particular
individual life. When you look a little more closely, not only at your own life
but also at the world, you will see that what you are - your daily life, what you
think, what you feel - is the external world, the world about you."
Krishnamurti, Talks
with American Students, p 8
A
radical change in society
"In bringing about a
radical change in the human being, in you, you are naturally bringing about a
radical change in the structure and the nature of society. I think it must be
very clearly understood that the human mind, with all its complexity, its
intricate network, is part of this external world. The “you” is the world, and
in bringing about a fundamental revolution - neither communist nor socialist, but
a totally different kind of revolution, within the very structure and nature of
the psyche, of yourself - you will bring about a social revolution. It must
begin, not outwardly but inwardly, because the outer is the result of our
private, inner life. When there is a radical revolution in the very nature of
thought, feeling and action, then obviously there will be a change in the
structure of society."
Krishnamurti, Talks
with American Students, p 8-9
You
and society
"What is the
relationship between yourself and the misery, the confusion, in and around you?
Surely this confusion, this misery, did not come into being by itself. You and
I have created it, not a capitalist or a communist or a fascist society, but
you and I have created it in our relationship with each other. What you are
within has been projected without, on to the world; what you are, what you
think and what you feel, what you do in your everyday existence is projected
outwardly, and that constitutes the world. If we are miserable, confused,
chaotic within, by projection that becomes the world, that becomes society,
because the relationship between yourself and myself, between myself and
another is society - society is the product of our relationship - and if our
relationship is confused, egocentric, narrow, limited, national, we project
that and bring chaos into the world."
Krishnamurti, The
First and Last Freedom, p 36
Man
has divided the earth
"It is our earth, not
yours or mine of his. We are meant to live on it, helping each other, not
destroying each other. This is not some romantic nonsense but the actual fact.
But man has divided the earth, hoping thereby that in the particular he is
going to find happiness, security, a sense of abiding comfort. Until a radical
change takes place and we wipe out all nationalities, all ideologies, all
religious divisions, and establish a global relationship - psychologically first,
inwardly, before organizing the outer - we shall go on with wars. If you harm
others, if you kill others, whether in anger or by organized murder which is
called war, you - who are the rest of humanity, not a separate human being
fighting the rest of mankind - are destroying yourself."
Krishnamurti,
Krishnamurti to Himself, p 60
You
are the world
"You are the world, you
are not separate from the world. You are not an American, Russian, Hindu, or
Muslim. You are apart from these labels and words, you are the rest of mankind
because your consciousness, your reactions are similar to the others. You may speak
a different language, have different customs, that is superficial culture—all
cultures apparently are superficial—but your consciousness, your reactions,
your faith, your beliefs, your ideologies, your fears, anxieties, loneliness,
sorrow, and pleasure are similar to the rest of mankind. If you change, it will
affect the whole of mankind."
Krishnamurti,
Krishnamurti to Himself, p 61
The
common ground
"This is the common ground on which all humanity stands. And
whatever happens in the field of this consciousness we are responsible. That
is: If I am violent, I am adding violence to that consciousness which is common
to all of us. If I am not violent, I am not adding to it, I am bringing a
totally new factor to that consciousness. So I am profoundly responsible either
to contribute to that violence, to that confusion, to the terrible division; or
as I recognize deeply in my heart, in my blood, in the depths of my being, that
I am the rest of the world, I am mankind, I am the world, the world is not separate
from me, then I become totally responsible."
Krishnamurti, Social Responsibility, pp 19-20
The
illusion of being different
"A human being psychologically is the whole of mankind. He not
only represents it but he is the whole of the human species. He is essentially
the whole psyche of mankind. On this actuality various cultures have imposed
the illusion that each human being is different. In this illusion mankind has
been caught for centuries, and this illusion has become a reality. If one
observes closely the whole psychological structure of oneself, one will find
that as one suffers, so all mankind suffers in various degrees. If you are
lonely, the whole humankind knows this loneliness. Agony, jealousy, envy, and
fear are known to all. So psychologically, inwardly, one is like another human
being. There may be differences physically, biologically. One is tall or short
and so on, but basically one is the representative of all mankind. So
psychologically you are the world; you are responsible for the whole of
mankind, not for yourself as a separate human being, which is a psychological
illusion… If one grasps the full significance of the fact that one is
psychologically the world, then responsibility becomes overpowering love."
Krishnamurti, Letters to the Schools vol I, p 20