Archives for March 2015

LA County Jail Part 5: The Division Fiction

March 25, 2015 by costaricaguy 2 Comments

Jail is a bad place. LA County Jail is no exception.

What’s taking place behind those bars is a microcosm of what’s taking place on the streets.

Nevertheless, I was astonished at the racial division inside the jail. A division that is promoted by those in charge. A division that’s become, over the years, ingrained in the system. Everything is set up around it.

Inmates come into the system dripping with the gasoline of racial tension. A small spark can set off an explosion.

The history of the LA County Jail system is not unlike LA County itself. And the whole nation knows about the deadly riots that have taken place over the decades…like the Watts riots of the 60’s and the Rodney King riots of the 90’s.

So, I guess this systematically enforced racial division does help to maintain order. But it just seemed wrong. And many of my fellow inmates, of all races, expressed similar sentiments.

I spent the largest amount of time during my three weeks in the jail in Dorm 611 of Wayside, aka, Supermax. This dorm housed around 70 or so inmates of all races. About 10% were white. The rest were evenly divided between blacks and latinos.

The racial division was very much a part of day to day life in this dorm. Everything was divided racially, from the bunk areas, eating places, showers, toilets, phones, to cleaning duties, use of the exercise area, etc., etc.

You weren’t supposed to share food with other races, or make gifts of food, or other items to them. You could talk to them, but you weren’t to get too friendly.

These were the rules and it didn’t pay to disobey.

Sounds pretty ugly, doesn’t it? Like another world…

well, sort of.

But, even though all that was like an overlay on life in the dorm, underneath it, I witnessed a racial harmony that belied this division fiction.

I say division fiction, because, even though the rules were certainly a reality of your everyday experience, the unspoken truth that everyone realized was, hey, we’re really all in this boat, shit-hole, or however you might want to refer to it, together.

I saw tough guys who you probably wouldn’t want to come across in a dark street alley on the outside, being nice to one another.

Please, thank you, excuse me, were words spoken repeatedly throughout the day. That seemed kind of odd, considering the circumstances.

I never would’ve thought prison could be so, well, polite. Even to a greater degree than life on the outside.

I write in this blog about this concept of the Big US. That the reality of things is that even though society is divided along racial, ethnic, cultural, political, socio-economical, religious, and other such lines, we humans really are all in this boat together.

That’s the reality behind the overlay of the division fiction.

When things get bad, really bad, that sense of togetherness tends to rise to the surface…as it did on the tough streets of New York in the immediate aftermath of the 9-11 attacks.

And prison is definitely a place were things are bad for everyone, no exceptions. There’s no one, I repeat, no one, in there who wants to be in there.

So, despite the division fiction, there’s truly a sense of togetherness, of brotherhood, of unity.

The point of this post is that if the division is indeed a fiction on the inside…

I would surmise that it’s also one on the outside.

And if we could just step back and take notice of that fact…

maybe all the idiocy behind racial strife and tension would just melt away.

And those in charge of perpetuating systematic racial division in our society, and who even benefit from it, would lose much of their power to do so.

image credit: Ryan_Brady via Compfight cc

A Road Less Traveled

March 22, 2015 by costaricaguy 1 Comment

I was reminded this morning of a great book I’ve read many times over the years…one that has had an impact on my philosophy of life…The Road Less Traveled, by Dr. M. Scott Peck.

I’ve written a couple posts that were motivated, in part, by this book. Here’s one that I thought I’d resurrect from the ashes of my old Costa Rica Guy blog…

In Buddhism, the counterpart to christianity’s Satan is a dude called Mara.

Mara is the instigator, or the embodiment, of human suffering.

The Buddha, while seeking enlightenment under the bodhi tree, was tempted by Mara, much the same way that Christ was tempted in the desert by Satan. And, like Christ, Buddha was able to withstand these temptations.

There are many stories in Buddhist literature of encounters between Mara and Buddha. I came across one recently that tells how Mara one day came to visit Buddha.

Buddha’s most trusted disciple saw Mara approaching and was very distressed and wished to drive the demon away. However, when Buddha learned of Mara’s arrival he was overjoyed, as if he was seeing an old friend.

He told his disciple to ready some tea and he invited Mara to come, sit and talk. Mara confided to Buddha that things hadn’t been going so well lately. That he wished he could be something other than the great demon tempter.

This story, while humorous, has a really important meaning.

In Buddhism and indeed in my reality in general, life is suffering. Life is hard. Life hurts sometimes. Suffering is inevitable. It cannot be avoided.

But what is suffering?

If suffering is an integral part of life, then why fight it? Why resist it?

In The Road Less Traveled, Dr. M. Scott Peck makes the profound claim that all human mental illness is a direct result of trying to avoid suffering.

Is it not the wiser path then, rather than to resist suffering, invite it in for a tea? Tweet it Out!

Suffering, like all other events in the time span of our lives, is temporal. It will pass and be replaced by other, different, and perhaps more pleasurable experiences.

So why fight it?

If you believe that there’s an intelligent design to life, that things don’t really happen by accident, then maybe suffering is actually meant for our good. Of course, in the midst of it that’s a hard thing to accept.

But that’s only because we are so deathly afraid of it and will do anything to avoid it…

And most of those “things” that we do, those attempts at medicating our suffering away, only lead to more suffering.

I know because I’ve done my share of suffering and of medicating.

I believe that rather than resisting, maybe we should just relax, invite the experience of suffering in, feel it in its fullness, discover what we are supposed to during its endurance, and only then move on to the next level of our human experience.

That might be a road less traveled, but perhaps it’s the correct one…the way of Buddha, the way to enlightenment, spiritual growth and evolution.

Suffering, if responded to in the correct way, may just lead us a little closer to god, or, at least, to our true selves.

The High Price of a Free Market

March 21, 2015 by costaricaguy Leave a Comment

My last post made the point that we are living in a state of rising inequality and a root cause of that is a society that has become increasingly money-driven, and not people and planet driven.

Everything is done in the name of self-interest and very little in the public interest.

And the things proposed to be done in the public interest are decried as being too expensive, or, worse, socialistic.

I did not, however, mention a word that looms large in my argument…

capitalism,

or, better, capitalism run amok.

The reason that our system has become completely “money-driven” as opposed to driven by an interest in the betterment of people and planet, is partly because of our deeply entrenched notions of a “free market” society.

We regard the free market as an indispensable hallmark of our freedom.

But I am here to tell you that a free market, really isn’t free at all.

We all pay the high price of a free market. And the “freer” that market is, the higher the price we pay. Tweet it Out!

And that price is called greed.

Here’s the thing. We have so embraced the notion that capitalism and the free market are inherently sacred in our society that we shun any idea that might tend to regulate them, or apply brakes to their sometimes careless and wreck-less forward motion.

Oh no, that’s socialism, we gasp in unison!

This idea is ingrained into the culture of American thought, as if it was enshrined in the minds of our founders…

When the truth is that our founders were very anxious and worried about just the sort of situation that has now reared its ugly head…

The situation I like to call “capitalism run amok”,

or, a system that has become wholly and completely driven by economic self-interest.

That’s what is feeding this growing inequality that we’re witnessing rise to levels not seen since the roaring 1920’s…the decade just before the advent of two seminal events in our history…

The Great Depression, and

World War II.

History has a way of repeating itself.

Capitalism and the free market are simply economic ideas, and pretty good ones, I might add.

However, they are not religiously inspired notions, as many seem to believe.

They are not God-breathed expressions of how man should govern his affairs.

The sort of capitalism run amok we are now seeing unfold is largely based on the idea, espoused by Milton Friedman, that man is wholly governed by self-interest…

that his economic decisions will always be made in that light.

And that it’s best for government to get out of the way of his doing so…

That’s what will move society onward and upward to greater evolutionary levels.

It’s as if there’s an invisible hand guiding such unregulated self-interest, so that in the end, the common good of all will prevail.

Well, truths are only truthful when based on a solid foundation of observable facts…

And I believe what we have observed, especially as of late, is that a system that is purely subservient to self-interest, will be one in which greed grows to uncontrollable proportions.

So that money is the driving force behind most of what’s done.

We go to wars to make money.

We build jails and incarcerate our citizenry to make money.

We educate our children to make money.

We care for the health of our populace to make money.

We worship according to our faith to make money.

We run for office and exercise our duty as “public servants” to make money.

We basically, to put it harshly, become a system of capitalistic whores.

We sacrifice our national character on the alter of the “free” market.

I propose that it’s high time we dethrone the word capitalism from it’s lofty heights in our political and cultural lexicon.

That we begin to evaluate not only its virtues, but also its vices.

Because, in my humble opinion, when it comes to action that is public interested, rather than self-interested…

or impact over interest, as I am fond of saying…

the relentless pursuit of money in an unbridled free market becomes an imposing barrier, or impact blinder.

Our society becomes corrupt…we lose the capacity to govern ourselves in the name of the public good.

And that seems to be exactly what’s happening.

We pay the high price of a free market…greed…

and our society becomes increasingly vulnerable to ultimate collapse.

The Politics of Divide and Conquer

March 19, 2015 by costaricaguy 1 Comment

What America now faces, if we do not want to change the fundamental structures of the relationship of money to legislative power, is neither mob rule nor democracy, but oligarchy.

Zephyr Teachout, Corruption in America: From Benjamin Franklin’s Snuff Box to Citizens United

I smell a rat.

Don’t you?

Well, if you can’t smell it, there are over the counter remedies.

I often get embroiled in Facebook debates on political issues. These are generally friendly, or at least they tend to end friendly…

but they can get downright ugly at times.

Often, it seems, that the participants are occupying diverse planets…at least in terms of their political viewpoints.

I can almost certainly guess that those of us participating in these discussions are components of that vast swath of Americana known as the middle class.

The one that politicians always claim, come election time, to be concerned about.

Now, it’s funny that the middle class consists primarily of folks who blame everyone, but themselves, for the problems that are befalling our nation.

We love to point fingers…usually at each other, or at those on that dreaded level below us…

the “dependency class”, as some derogatorily refer to them.

And we all love to point our bony fingers of indignation at government, as we are pretty much in agreement that “it” is failing us.

And even though we might have distinctly different reasons for doing so, there does exist that strong common ground amongst us.

Government is failing us.

Now let’s explore the real reason behind that mutually agreeable fact…

I’m currently reading a book by Zephyr Teachout, professor of law at Fordham University, on political corruption.

Teachout’s underlying premise is that the driving force behind rising inequality is corruption in politics. Not quid pro quo type corruption, also known as bribery…

but structural corruption.

Corruption that is “built-in” to the system itself.

Teachout claims that such corruption has always been around, but it accelerated in the 70’s and reached its zenith with the Supreme Court’s landmark 2010 decision in the Citizens United case.

That’s the case in which the court held that the First Amendment prohibits the government from restricting independent political expenditures by nonprofit corporations. The principles articulated by the Supreme Court in the case have now been extended to for-profit corporations, labor unions and other associations.

Basically, it paves the road for the uninhibited flow of “dark money” into campaign coffers.

Now, Teachout’s point, and one that I agree with, is that it’s utterly nuts to think that all this money doesn’t buy influence.

And influence is the sine qua non of corruption.

Government is supposed to act in the public interest, not in the interest of its wealthiest donors. Tweet it Out!

So, what we end up with is a system that’s money-driven, rather than people and planet driven.

And that’s perpetuating this growing inequality, as more and more wealth is being “driven” into the hands of fewer and fewer folks.

A phenomenon that is accelerating to alarming levels, as shown to us by Thomas Piketty, the celebrated French economist, in his now famous economic treatise, Capitalism in the 21st Century.

As long as the ones on the receiving end of this great wealth concentration are pulling the strings, nothing will be done about it…

Well, except for events that none of us really want to bear witness to. Events like wars, bloody revolutions, or severe economic depressions.

Yes, it has all happened before.

Therefore, I believe that we, the 99%, should stop pointing fingers anywhere but up.

The problem is not government spending on poverty and other social causes society actually benefits from…

It’s the fact that government action is by and large being manipulated by those at the top of the wealth pyramid…

And for middle class folks to argue and fight over spending that actually does “us” good is a red herring that won’t do anything, but make matters worse…

That’s exactly what “they” want us to do, point the fingers at each other, point them anywhere, except at them!

And as long as we’re fighting amongst each other…

they’re laughing all the way to the bank!

That really is the politics of divide and conquer and, at the moment, we’re letting them get away with it!

image credit: We the People – Needham via Compfight cc

An Exceptional Idea

March 17, 2015 by costaricaguy 1 Comment

I always get very concerned when I hear that term “American exceptionalism” being bandied about…

usually, these days, on Fox News.

Indeed, “America” (or, the part that encompasses the U.S.A.) is exceptional in many ways…

It was founded upon an exceptional ideal…

for a government of, by and for “the people.”

It’s funny these days that the folks who seem to have co-opted the phrase are the ones who want to do away with government altogether…even though it was our form of government that made us “exceptional” to begin with!

And throughout the years we have made good on the characterization…

We have, actually…acted exceptional…

by ending the institution of slavery…

in overcoming a Great Depression…

in defeating fascism…

in educating our people…

in giving equal rights to vote…

only just recently, in providing equal access to health care (one that was long overdue, by the way)…

and many other ways that have had as their impetus, government action.

Our hallowed military, which is the paramount example of our exceptionalism, in the eyes of many, is the largest government program in the history of the world!

Now, it seems, that this idea for exceptionalism gets twisted and warped in the minds of many…

Who think it means that we are somehow better than the rest of the world.

That it means that we have somehow earned the right to impose our will on the rest of the world.

That we are possessed of a degree of wisdom that the rest of the world lacks.

That “they” are, to put it bluntly, lesser beings.

And that, my friends, is a dangerous way to think.

I believe that particular ideology of exceptionalism, which often almost rises to the degree of a “theology”, puts wind in the sails behind our impetus to intervene in the affairs of others…

to try to mold them in the image of us…regardless of how “they” might feel about it.

To try to mold the entire world in our image and likeness.

I believe that makes the world a more dangerous place…

because it causes others not to like us all that much…

even hate us to the extent of trying to do us harm.

It gets us into messes we ought not be in!

We’ve got better things to do. We’ve got important problems to solve right here at home…so that we can actually live up to the manner in which we seem fond of characterizing ourselves.

The truth is, even though our form of government is at its core tenets, exceptional, as compared to others that have been tried, it doesn’t mean “we” are!

We aren’t better than the rest…different maybe, but not better, nor different in a better way, which is what “exceptional” implies.

We’re all made of the same stuff, flesh and blood…and with the same basic desires…

to live a dignified, good life, free of exploitation and free to be the masters of our own destinies.

Everyone wants that. Everyone deserves that.

And we can’t impose our ideas of how that should be accomplished on others.

Let them try it their way. And let us get out of the way, whilst they’re doing it.

This old world is big enough for more than one idea of what constitutes exceptionalism. Tweet it Out!

Our hope should be that others out there can be exceptional in their own way.

That the entire world can be exceptional.

It may come as a surprise to many, but…

it’s not a contest!

How’s that for an exceptional idea?

image credit: FDR Presidential Library & Museum via Compfight cc

Impact Mindfulness: What Good is It?

March 14, 2015 by costaricaguy Leave a Comment

We live in a cynical world. A cynical world. And we work in a business of tough competitors.

Jerry Maguire

It’s a real jungle out there!

There are a million reasons to be cynical. To ask yourself…

What good is it?

I know, cuz I ask myself that at times.

But I try to be guided by this framework for a mindset that I describe in two simple words…

impact mindfulness.

You see, this great country of ours was actually founded in mindfulness, which is at heart an optimistic ideal.

It was founded on the optimistically mindful ideal that all men are created equal and endowed with rights to pursue happiness, dignity, a good life.

So, what happened with all that optimism?

Where, when and how did our world turn so cynical?

I mean, we did do a pretty good job of pursuing…

but we pursued something else…

We even changed the phrase from happiness…to property.

We replaced the idea of happiness, by some slight of hand, with stuff.

And we became world class property pursuers, didn’t we?

We created a structural success unlike anything the world had ever seen.

Here’s the thing…

Much of that structure, the foundation for our successful pursuit of property, was built on the backs of the unhappiness of others.

Now, I didn’t write that to criticize, but for you to realize…

that a lot of folks have suffered, indeed the entire planet has suffered, for you to have all that shiny success that you’re so rightfully proud of.

In fact, you couldn’t even have it if it weren’t for a whole lot of suffering…

Even that white powder you sprinkle into your coffee each morning, as well as the coffee itself, was brought to you by someone’s suffering…

I know that, since I’ve lived for the past 14 years at ground zero, where that shit comes from and the folks that bring it to you are poorer that you can even imagine.

And if you’re of the kind that likes to ingest white powder into other orifices, well then my point becomes even stronger.

All this is to say that our successful pursuit of property has an impact…

and a negative one, on people and planet.

So, my suggestion is that we be mindful of that…

impact mindful.

But what good is it?

What good is it for little ole me to be mindful and what does that even mean?

Well, first, it means being mindful of how the way you live your life is impacting people and planet…

down to the clothes you wear, the food you eat, the shit you accumulate, the way you make the money that allows for said accumulation, how you treat your fellow humans, as well as the planet we’re all passengers on, and, certainly, the way you participate in your government via voting and other means.

The concept of impact mindfulness is pretty wide ranging.

And if you’re mindful, perhaps, just perhaps, you can inspire others to be as well…

You can spread the idea like a virus and thus change the world…

leave it better than you found it.

How does that sound?

There are lots of really good reasons to be impact mindful and, really, we’re getting to the point where our planet, the universe, is demanding it.

So, I’d say, we start paying attention more towards mindfulness and less to property pursuit.

It’s about taking care to take care…of each other and our planet…

and there’s good in that, I think.

Here’s a funny little clip from one of my favorite shows, Portlandia…

it’s a parody of the mindfulness concept, but also shows how there are people out there who are at least trying…

image credit: tchab51 via Compfight cc

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