You feel it, I know you do. It’s everywhere– a flatline, an uneasy feeling that something is wrong. It may even be a creeping feeling of despair. It’s watered down enough so that it’s not full blown panic, but it’s there, like a hum in the background that has been there so long we don’t even notice it anymore.
Something is wrong. We feel it. Something needs changing. We know it. But can we name it?
A wordsmith, I am always looking for words, for vocabulary, for words that behave like archetypes, or oracles or encyclopedias all by themselves. “Guerilla decontextualization” is one of those phrases that delights a true wordsmith even though it has a negative meaning. It’s a beautiful word because of its expansive meaning yet its compact precision. It is a precision that says what it says and says more without saying. As a poet, I look for those shimmering words that abbreviate and enrich like good poetry– stark and slicing and… exact. Aberjhani’s “guerrilla decontextualization” instructs the deliberate dismantling of “character.” That can mean the character of something… metaphorical, philosophical or biological.
When it comes to humans, the biology is the functioning of the body. The personality is the functioning of the ego. But the character is where the soul leaks through.
May things can be guerilla decontextualized. The character of an industry, of a corporation, of a politician, of a movement. So can the character of values– like generosity, charity, forgiveness, empathy, compassion…
But there is something exceptionally and cruelly inhumane about the guerilla decontextualization of a human being. It’s the moral equivalent of dismembering someone while still alive. There are a few things that do that and they all share the equivalency of human shadow and a murder… of mind, of spirit, of soul and an eventual dispatching of the body– slowly or otherwise. Torture, terrorism, warfare, genocide, prejudice, racism, gentrification, marginalization, caricature reduction, bullying, shaming, banishment, rejection…
Impaling people on the stake of opinion, lies, innuendo, gossip, suggestion, humiliation… is no less ugly and no less lethal than the ancient form of punishment– impaling someone on a stake or nailing the Christian lamb to a cross.
And another particularly offensively inhumane and ancient practice of dehumanization (guerilla decontextualization) is the mutilation of a person after death. It has happened with every one of the darkest practices in the darkest recesses of the human mind– the mutilation of bodies is particularly heinous. They did it in ancient Rome with lions; they did it with knives after lynchings; they did it with ropes by dragging bodies to pieces after death; they did it with dogs; they did it leaving crucified and impaled bodies to decompose and dry in the sun; they did it by burning bodies after death and dragging them naked through the streets. Remember Blackhawk down and Mogadishu?
Remember the disgust and rage?
What people do to the living is a mirror of their own souls and the darkness within. These things that they do with the deceased after death is a mirrored confession of their own soul-less and miserable existence.
People who love and respect themselves do not decontextualize or deconstruct the humanity of others. People with souls, who respect themselves, have character and who cherish humanity and their fellow humans have no need to impale, dismember, or drag bodies– metaphorically or otherwise through the streets for spectacle.
When they do that, it is a projection of their own absence of worth and evidence of their own belief in their un-loveability. They say more about themselves than they do about the deceased.
People who have a healthy respect and self care and love-ability do not feel the need to harm others. They value self and they value others equally. They do not tear down; they build. They do not gossip; they praise; they do not destroy; they create.
Those who employ tactics to showcase the misery of humanity do not make the world a better place. Those who encourage guerilla decontextualization in any form are confessing their own misery. What underlies that misery is the real question. What causes humans to devalue other humans is the real question. The emptiness begs to be filled. So what will quench? Or satisfy? Or fulfill? That is the real question that needs to be considered, pondered, examined and discussed.
But before we can get to that conversation, we have to look, really look at what consuming and extending and circulating hate and disgust is about. It comes from an emptiness. Fulfilled people don’t have an impulse to harm. Hurt people, shamed people, rejected people have that impulse to harm.
What do you think of people who deliberately incite violence? What do you think of people who poke into other people’s wounds? And what do you think of people who would mutilate lifeless bodies?
Not pretty, huh?
But there are those who would harvest that human depravity and sell it back to people on the streets. Yes, they do it with malice and they do it with forethought. Malice aforethought. That is harvesting human depravity in the service of destroying humanity. (Read that again) It is human depravity employed in the service of destroying humanity.
So how do you destroy humanity? You reduce its worth. You foster an indifference to common humanity. You engage in dark purposes. You begin a Machiavellian march toward an end goal that serves only one, a select few, or the privileged and benefits them at the expense of all others.
That, is the opposite of respect. It is opposite of love. It is the antithesis of compassion. It is an action motivated by greed alone that disengages human empathy, beneficence or compassion. It derails an impulse to include and service in the name of common good. It is non-love.
It nourishes the idea “I am not enough;” “you are not enough.” And “we have no worth” as humans. It gives permission to tear people limb from limb– metaphorically, virtually, anatomically, and reinforces all the “isms” that divide and separate humanity– racism, sexism, jingoism, separatism, white supremacism, egoism, hedonism, regalism, terrorism.
There is another kind of ism- Titanism which is defined as “revolt or defiance against social conventions.”
We need to change some current social conventions. Adopting social conventions that devalue life and dehumanize humans does not bring life; it peddles death. It reaffirms that we may have a shadow part to our ego but forgets we have a soul. It sees other people as pawns in selfish acquisition and consumerism and view them as consumers, sheep and expendable beings.
We need a more humane narrative on this planet.
So the world appears to be a little messy. Well, maybe more than a little. It’s in need of some change. Where have we heard this “make that change!” message before?
Oh yeah, it was that skinny little moonwalker guy.
So here is what he said: Take responsibility! He said it in more ways than you can count. What would happen if we decided to take full responsibility for the state of the world? For all of it! For the ugliness and the inhumanity? What if we made it personal? What if we decided “It’s my job to change it?”
After all, “We Are the World.”
Want to play “Titan” with me? Stay tuned. This is a series.
19 Comments
Barbara, I think its interesting that while some people go to the extreme with dehumanization of others, or even themselves (like those on reality shows who turn their lives into entertainment), there is also a huge movement to the other side. There are lots of people who feel the need to change their lifestyle to a kinder one, consume less, add more value to others, fight for our planet, spend less time with the media. Wherever I tune in, where are people talking about these things, or maybe its just the kind of people I follow, but still. Things Michael talked about in early ’90 that sounded quite hippie-like at best are now mainstream in many places.
People are also so much more aware of how the media and corporations operate compared to just 10 years ago. I remember having those discussions in the 90s about the media being only interested in whatever sells, and that a difficult point to bring along. Now, after numerous scandals, revelations and attempted cover-ups – its a given, its not even surprising.
There is definitely a shift in our consciousness and our behavior, not just for separate individuals (there were always people way ahead of their time) but for many societies. I actually wonder a lot about how Michael’s story would look from a future observer’s point of view, in the context of the time period he lived– when our time would be put in historical context and evaluated as well. I can imagine that if the narrative would be something like “Michael Jackson was around the time when corporate greed, media exploitation and focus of individual monetary gain regardless of consequences was at its peak” – that would provide an entire different context to what happened to Michael compared to the contemporary narrative. But then again, who would care about the contemporary narrative when it comes to a genius?
I can’t help but think of certain comedians who can’t help themselves while making a cruel MJ joke, even though its not true; they are ignorant and it’s not even funny… But then again people are still making Elvis jokes and before Michael died I never thought there was anything wrong with that.
Hello G; you indeed have described here part of the future narrative about this man. He will be seen much differently than he is now. (As will we.) These times will indeed be seen as an era of greed, exploitation, malignant bullying and BC (before the compassion) era.
So, you were sleeping and were awakened? That’s the whole point.
Welcome to the movement. Now spread that sparkle. And keep shining! ~B
Barbara, i think waking up is a life-long process, rather than a single moment 🙂 and our ability to feel compassion gets better the more we practice it, almost like training it. Of course some like Michael are born with an extremely developed sense of compassion, but most of us must learn it, or maybe unlearn all that stuff we learned about what divides us 🙂
Awakening is not a new subject here. For some, G, it is a lifelong process and sometimes people never awaken. But awakening can and does happen in an instant. Enlightenment can happen in an instant. Often awakening is precipitated by suffering and an event that produces panic, shock, trauma or grief. Those opportunities are coming faster and more frequently now. We are in a period of transition. And there is so much to awaken to!
There are many at Inner Michael who experienced an awakening and existential crisis at Michael’s passing. It was a trigger event. Many came in a state of spiritual emergency. There is a lot of information about the waking up process and spiritual emergency in the archives here.
Actually, believe it or not, we are hard wired for empathy and compassion. So why aren’t we employing it more or all the time? Because we forget who we are. And the divisions arise in that forgetting. We forget to see not just the human in the other, but the creator.
I guess there are different paths for different people 🙂 i grew up with Michael, so he laid a thourough foundation for a lot of these ideas, and my values formed under his influence without me even realising it. When I was a kid I loved Michael and tolerated and even promoted his ideals because I loved him, but I did not really understand it at all. Understanding and awakening did not happen in an instant for me nor did it happen when Michael died. It happened slowly, through studying lots of different things, searching for whatever it was that could provide inner peace and meaning. Do you know that feeling when you did everything right, like you were told, to get what you wanted, only to find out you wanted all the wrong things? Maybe it sounds trivial, but that search brought me back to Michael and suddenly everything he had been saying made sense.
Maybe you are right and sometimes there are those bright instances, especially after life-changing events, but there are also lots and lots of small steps in the right direction that can be triggered by some inner longing for don’t-know-what. I don’t think we disagree in principle at all though 🙂
I hesitated to include the comment because it contains an indoctrination about what it takes to get there. “Wanting all the wrong things” wasn’t wrong; it was simply a path. It led you to where your soul longed to be. That wasn’t a mistake, just a path. Whatever path we are taking, we are all going to the same place. Michael Jackson was a master at subliminal messages and at empowering people. No matter that you didn’t consciously get it… you were getting it. I am glad your searching led you to your own meaning.
That longing is epidemic. And it is sparking a lot of anger and resentment because there is a feeling of being cheated. Many more people are now seeking and searching for answers whether consciously or not. Religious leaders and spiritual gurus have taught that it takes a long, long time and a convoluted path to awaken or to be deserving and this has caused great harm, division and has stalled human evolution. Major religions wanted the devoted to walk on their knees to a place of worship as penance for being too human instead of teaching the inherent beauty (and shadow) of humanity. What it takes, is understanding and embracing all. Much of it is the ego being susceptible to beliefs and indoctrinations that it then applies to create a reality. Most often the underlying reality becomes “I am not worthy” or “I am not worthy yet.”
“You can’t get there” or “it takes a lifetime or long time” are indoctrinated beliefs. And since we experience what we believe, many people adopted that “truth.” It comes from a basic belief in our unworthiness. And it’s not useful and can be harmful. Michael was heretical in that he claimed that everybody was inherently beautiful and worthy. He dared to say that children should be almost worshipped and left unspoiled. That wasn’t the popular message of the century in which he lived. His message was antithetical to the dominant cultural beliefs. Yes, we need to unlearn.
We are in a different time now; the waking up is urgent. The inner longing that you describe is a homesickness for home or the divine self, others and the world or “the urge to merge.” Small steps of the past have become big steps now and sometimes disruptive major events or major earth calamities. There is little time to waste. Humanity and the planet hangs in the balance. Everything now is saying “Awaken!” And yes, it’s a conspiracy.
Yes, I believe also that the “inner longing” described in these posts, is paramount and will not be denied. A sudden and total awakening is possible and the energies we reside in now make an accelerated path more usual than not.
What comes to mind about my own awakening is, that it was the equivalent of being hit over the head with a sledgehammer. Our own soul, I know, orchestrates a lot of our “experiences”, and mine was clamouring and demanding to be recognised. It was obviously what was needed in my journey. To be recommended? Maybe not. My life (and my body) bears no resemblance to what once was. I now lay claim to the title of “skinny little earth-walker”. My three sons are very bewildered and askance at their Mum’s future plans and proclivities.
But to Gennie, what I would say is, though different on the surface, our paths are exactly the same. We are heading in the same direction and will arrive. Perhaps you did not need to “get it” because you already “had it”?
Namaste to All, Lynaire
I grew up with Michael’s music and I became a great fan. I was such a great fan that I read a lot of stories about him, which made me confused, but I always remained loyal. After his death, I now know that the media used his popularity to get ratings and gain profit. This is still happening today, even if the stories are untrue.
Now that I have awakened, I am more careful of what I read. I question everything and think outside the box now. Michael’s message of love and being a great parent has inspired me so much. Yes, I would say Michael’s passing awaked a lot of people and brought us to a higher consciousness. A consciousness that has affirmed who Michael was as a person, so we can never be persuaded into confusion or darkness.
The bible states that there will be a time when the truth will be revealed to the world. We are living in this time now. We are constantly being tested, but our mind is clear now and our hearts will remain full of love. Let’s spread this message of love to others so that their conscious can be awaked too.
I hope you are sharing your knowledge with others, P. It’s important to speak out. The world is catching on. The issue includes Michael Jackson and how he was used for profit but it is much bigger than that. The corruption is widespread. We are all harmed by selling ourselves out. We are better than that; we can do better.
There is a lot to wake up to and it’s not easy to stay vigilant. How to be fierce with an open heart? That is the kind of warrior needed! Corruption is everywhere. We are bigger than that. It is important to stay above it and not engage in that which we know to not be love and compassion. The old ways aren’t working anymore. There is work to be done. Division and separation will not serve change. There is a fierce kind of love that calls out corruption because it erodes the souls of those who participate and those who observe. What will serve change? Fierce love, an open heart and solidarity.
Yes, Michael Jackson in the song “Wanna Be Startin’ Something” inter-twined the syllables “Ma ma se, ma ma sa, ma ma coo sa” with a mixed track “I’ve been saved by the sound of Michael’s Song” Listen to the end of that song. I can sometimes hear other phares like I’m gonna say on side of a mountain top -or- I’m a slave on the top on a mountain top It just great everyone hears what’s meant for them, I believe. It’s positive.
I’ve listened to that song since I was 6 yrs. old subconiously I’ve always gotten that Yet, now, I get it both ways. He is Genuis still in almost 2014!
Also, that song is great because he says… “You’re A Vegetable, You’re A Vegetable Still They Hate You, You’re A Vegetable You’re Just A Buffet, You’re A Vegetable They Eat Off Of You, You’re A Vegetable…”
This part, makes me think of how certain people of the world ‘feed’ off the poor’ I always believe the poor make the trends and culture and then say, advertising companies take it from us.
The whole song I was ***Feeling** a few nights ago and I figure this out through feeling then consciously
This song relates to this post you made. Beautiful for that.
Bless this World & Humanity Open Your Mind**** & Hearts.
Blessing***
Aaaah, Michael and his music!! Souldreamer has found it and I know we have all had something similar at times. I am amazed, I never heard those words before.
“You’re just a buffet, you’re just a vegetable, they eat off of you”.
Having recently finished a book that stressed that very fact, that the shadow side needs our negativity to feed itself. I have to say it gave me a very uncomfortable feeling. Barbara, you have spoken about cannibalism many times but somehow it never really got through to me. Now all I can see is disembodied heads with big mouths full of sharp, ugly teeth, chomping away happily, OFF ME? Never more!!
I am taken back to a time, long ago, when all I knew of Michael was “Ben”, a beautiful, somewhat melancholy song. And then, there was “I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus”. At the time I was a grownup mother of three, but somehow the thought of a little boy being so naïve that he was tricked into believing his mother had “stolen a forbidden kiss”, filled me with glee. Even then, I believe, Michael had the power to urge us towards “our lost innocence”.
Who would ever have believed that many years later, his voice would still be ringing out such beautiful and urgent messages? But here we are, living proof of his majesty. Like Michael, we are fierce, we are system busters, rebellious and heretical, that is why he chose us. The trick is in believing it.
Each of us is an integral part of Michael’s Movement. Charged with something that is so momentous the fate of our Planet and Humanity depends upon it. Heavy? Very much so, but he is always ” our brother.”
With love,
Lynaire
The amazing part of this awakening, this “be here now”, this need to become engaged and to question everything is that for me it is always accompanied by the music. His music. The music that belongs to the ages now. The music that has been with me since I was a young child.
Even as I find myself sinking back into the trance of everyday living the music reinforces his message, time and time again. The beat, his beat, beckons…. And it always resonates with urgency. Stay awake. Don’t forget why you are here, and don’t forget that you are an ambassador of L.O.V.E. . It resounds in elevators, in supermarkets, and on radios, TV, and dance floors around the world. And yes, each time, it stops me dead in my tracks and brings me back to myself, recognizing my own “human nature” and I ask why? why? does he do me that way?
I have become kinder, gentler with myself and others as I recognize that compassion is really the only way forward. It starts with us I have also become a student of the child. Watching children, supporting children and relating to children has brought me back to my own inner child. It is one of my life’s joys to remember the magic of childhood and to try, as much as possible, to value and honor that which is magical in life. And all because of a “skinny little moon walker” who not only tried to change the world but did so in a way that was even more profound than he could ever have imagined. For what could change the world more than higher consciousness? We soldier on with the love, always with the love…..
Blessings Barbara and everyone at Inner Michael, you help to make the journey easier
Thank you, V. Thing is, I think he did imagine.
I really believe Michael imagined it too. It was intentional & non- intentional, yet, somehow, the non – intentional he ‘imagined’ Became. Is. was. and will Be. It’s yin & yang black & white etc. It’s whole. A circle… with all the colors.. even the grey. it’s We. It’s Us. It’s always.
Thanks Rev. B.
Thanks Everyone…..
Blessings All
It seems to me too that some was non-intentional and yet intentional. But more intentional than non and more than anybody realizes. And more inspired than anyone knows. Anyone but Michael. that is..
I really and truly agree Rev. B.
Thanks so much for your words & thanks to everyone here who posts. As Michael said often “We are One” Now what are we going to do with that…? Goodness, I hope, for me as well..as for you.. WE.
Wake-Up.
Blessings World.
I think more and more with raised consciousness are connecting with each other on the planet and I think it is affecting the collective unconscious – the malignant Stalinism that has been tightening its death-grip on humanity is finding its fingers starting to be pried apart. The Moon Walker’s shedding of the body and massive expansion into omni-present spirit is looking increasingly like the beginning of the end for said disease.
I wouldn’t call it Stalinism. It is too subtle, stealthy and too comprehensive for that. It goes far beyond…
And the “death grip” you speak of has far reaching fingers. We must WAKE UP to much! We won’t awaken if we don’t leave our petty ego pastimes behind. Petty fighting, name calling and bullying has no place in an army called “soldiers of love.” The captain of this army would NOT be proud. I wonder if you have noticed the newest game of “uproar?” Observe: Let’s have a game of “uproar” amongst ourselves to delight us and discharge our frustration and take our attention away from the fierce L.O.V.E. this humanity and this planet needs. We can be too busy petty fighting to be expected to ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING.
Here is a quote from my friend, Shannon. A call to awaken. Astute and impressive!
When successful, the dogs of war rarely stop at a single conquered foe. So now that the “War on Christmas” has officially expanded to the “War on Thanksgiving”, it should be obvious to all that the War on Christmas was never about saying “happy holidays” versus “merry Christmas”, flame-fanning from Fox News not withstanding.
Instead the real war is, and has always been, the war between the deeper meaning, spirit, and soul of the holidays versus our shallow commercialized culture. And unless we as a people raise our consciousness about how we utilize our precious money, the war is lost.
We can choose to buy stuff we don’t need, created from stolen resources in places of the world in which we’ll never have to live, built in hardship by oppressed peoples who we’ll never be able to thank, as we give our money to ultra wealthy corporate elite we don’t know, who use that money to buy politicians who don’t serve our needs.
Or, we can instead try some of the things on this list below and thereby in intentional, conscious ways, honor the intent and deeper meaning of our holidays.
http://act.newdream.org/page/s/simplify-holidays-pledge-2013
check!