The Revolutionary Misfit site and the mindset of Impact Mindfulness is about recognizing the need for and implementing change.
Change in ourselves and in the world at large.
But there are serious barriers to the change we seek.
And those barriers have a lot to do with entrenched ways of thinking about the world and the U.S. role in it.
I am a frequent critic of Fox News.
That’s no secret as I have been vocal about it in my older blog, Costa Rica Guy.
a barrier to change…
and therefore a threat to humanity.
Wow…I realize those are some pretty strong words…
but nevertheless, I believe words that need to be spoken (or written).
I recently ran across a video from a few years back in which Bill O’Reilly was interviewing a young man who had lost his father in the 9-11 tragedy.
His name was Jeremy and O’Reilly had him on the show for the sole reason of attacking him for signing a petition against the war in Iraq.
Jeremy made the “outrageous” claim that perhaps the U.S. had been partly responsible for creating an environment in the middle east that would give rise to a group like Al-Qaeda.
And that invading Iraq would only exacerbate the situation.
O’Reilly, who is known for his sometimes violent on-air meltdowns directed at guests who dare to disagree with his world-view, had one of his worse (and scariest) moments.
O’Reilly claimed that Jeremy had a “warped view” of this world and of the U.S.
And that Jeremy’s father would certainly be ashamed…
even though O’Reilly didn’t have a clue about the geo-political views of Jeremy’s deceased dad.
Now, I’m pretty sure that O’Reilly has heard of a fellow named Kermit Roosevelt, Jr.
Kermit was the grandson of President Teddy Roosevelt. He was also a CIA agent who orchestrated a coup d’etat in Iran that overthrew the democratically elected Mohammad Mosaddegh (who nationalized the oil industry) and replaced him with the U.S. (and British) choice of Mohammad Rezâ Šâh Pahlavi, aka, the Shah of Iran.
And if you’re as old as I am, you’ll remember that this action didn’t sit too well with Iranian citizens, who ultimately deposed the Shah himself in a revolution that culminated in the taking of 52 American hostages for 444 days.
Now, I don’t think Jeremy was specifically referring to those incidences when he drew out O’Reilly’s rage…
but they are historic facts.
The U.S. has done things in the middle east that have pissed people off. It’s not that they “hate our way of life” as many on the right like to say…
It’s that we have screwed around in their affairs, usually for oil-related reasons, in ways that have made life difficult for some people…
generally the poorest some people (who also happen to be the majority).
In much the same way that the U.S. screwed around in the affairs of almost every single country in Latin American!
Yea, they’re pissed too. I know. I frequently hear about it from my neighbors.
But if you dare mention any of this on the O’Reilly show, you’ll be violently dismissed as a left-wing nut job…
and probably have your mic cut.
Why is that?
OK, here’s my point…
Change will only come when we can discard O’Reilly’s gospel of the status quo…
It’s a view imbued or infused with religious notions.
And O’Reilly is as intolerant with this quasi-religious notion of “the way things are” as is Al-Qaeda with it’s radical Islamic views.
Intolerance breeds intolerance.
Maybe O’Reilly would have done well to shut up himself and listened, really listened, to what Jeremy was trying to say?
American-style capitalism and consumption is NOT a right bestowed by god.
I’m afraid nothing is going to change until the majority can get that notion out of their collective (and extremely hard) heads.
Not holding out much hope for O’Reilly, however.
But for you…
yes I am.
To be the change starts with that muscle upstairs!
It’s not un-American to embrace truth…
and change.
Listen, it’s NOT the intent of this blog to convince anyone that “America” is bad…
really aren’t at all.
In impact mindfulness parlance, we call that removing impact blinders.
And unless and until the majority of folks in the biggest and richest country in the world can do just that…
the change this blog seeks just ain’t gonna happen.
image credit: khoory123 via Compfight cc
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