Jim Palmer's Blog, page 11

The idol of self prevents human liberation and societal transformation

Why do so many social revolutions stall out or don’t produce the outcome of a new world?

Oscar Romero wrote, “We must overturn so many idols, the idol of self first of all, so that we can be humble, and only from our humility can learn to be redeemers, can learn to work together in the way the world really needs.” The idol of self is often the impediment that hinders movements of human liberation and societal transformation.

This is why these days I am beating the drum of inner anarchy. Unless we root out or turn away from the false beliefs, mindsets, narratives and ideologies within ourselves – i.e. the idol of self – then the change we bring in the world will only be superficial. You have to deal with problems at the root, which is inside each of us.

The systems and structures of our world that perpetuate injustice and oppression against humankind and our planet are a manifestation of the false beliefs, mindsets, narratives and ideologies that are inside the people who create, maintain and benefit from these systems and structures. We are all complicit in this to the extent those falsehoods rule inside of us.

British sociologist Anthony Giddens is known for his theory of structuration. Giddens suggests that human agency and social structure are in a relationship with each other, and it is the repetition of the acts of individual agents which reproduces the structure. This means that there is a social structure – traditions, institutions, moral codes, and established ways of doing things; but it also means that these can be changed when people start to ignore them, replace them, or reproduce them differently.

Why are false beliefs, mindsets, narratives and ideologies holding humankind and our planet hostage?

It’s because people have false beliefs, mindsets, narratives and ideologies within themselves and then go into the world and create systems and structures based on them. And then in turn, those systems and structures indoctrinate more people into those false beliefs, mindsets, narratives and ideologies… and then those people go out and codify those systems and structures further. And the wheels on the bus go round and round.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that what must happen is that we root out those false beliefs, mindsets, narratives and ideologies within ourselves, and abolish those systems and structures that perpetuate them.

Am I missing something?

Inner anarchy naturally leads to the transformation of society because we find that those systems and structures that oppress humankind and the planet are the antithesis of what our higher awareness tells us is true, which is love, peace, harmony, oneness and the well-being of all. To be in-tune with our higher-awareness is to no longer support and participate in those false mindsets, narratives and ideologies or the systems and structures that operate upon them. Our higher awareness cannot turn a blind eye to them. We challenge, confront, subvert and undermine them, and lift up a new reality in their place.

Inner anarchy is also necessary to remove the idol of self so that people can join together in a real plan of action, as opposed to division and conflict based on personal agendas and ego. One of the reasons anarchist movements fail is division, conflict and fighting among themselves.

Unless people are willing to do their personal work and appeal to a different source than the ego and idol of self, we are going to keep spinning our wheels and not getting anywhere.

You might ask, then what? We have higher awareness; we use it to raise up a new reality and world in its place.

(Photo by Darla Winn)

Do we have the guts to change the world?

Notable anarchist Alexander Berkman wrote: “The social revolution means much more than the reorganization of conditions only: it means the establishment of new human values and social relationships, a changed attitude of human to human, as of one free and independent to his or her equal; it means a different spirit in individual and collective life, and that spirit cannot be born overnight. It is a spirit to be cultivated, to be nurtured and reared, as the most delicate flower it is, for indeed it is the flower of a new and beautiful existence.”

I want to break this down.

Berkman speaks of “social revolution.” Social revolution is a bottom-up revolution aiming to reorganize all of society. It’s an admission that the current order isn’t working. As things now stand, there are false beliefs, mindsets, narratives and ideologies that are governing our lives and world. We must first recognize that these are present inside each of us individually. They are poured into us from an early age through religion, education, government, media, and popular culture. These falsehoods have been programmed into our heads, and we have been socialized into systems and structures that operate upon them. The cycle is complete once we follow suit and perpetuate these false narratives, ideologies, and systems ourselves. The first step in social revolution is rooting out the falsehoods within ourselves, and accepting how we have been complicit in creating and perpetuating what Orwell called “the empire of lies.”

Berkman sees social revolution as something deeper than rearranging the same furniture into a different configuration, which is basically what government and politics does regardless of whatever party is in place. Instead, Berkman spoke of establishing “new human values and social relationships.” Did you read that? NEW! As in, something that does not currently exist. As in, birthing a new reality into our world that operates upon a whole new way of being human and in relationship with each other. What is the source of this transformed way of being and relating? Perhaps a better question is, WHERE is this source? Answer: inside you. There is a life, spirit, consciousness, tacit understanding, higher awareness [insert your word here] that runs through all of us. It’s what is most real in our deep feelings, and what we know is true in our gut. It’s the direct and unmediated experience of peace, liberation, love, harmony, oneness, joy, abundance and well-being. It knows nothing of fear, separation, division, greed, injustice, oppression, scarcity or lack.

One of the central tenets of the empire of lies is to mistrust what lies within us. We have been taught to externalize power and authority to people, systems, structures, and hierarchies outside ourselves. We learn to trust and obey the school teacher, minister, politician, doctor, and the countless number of “experts” who we allow to do our thinking and deciding for us. By the way, ours is a REPRESENTATIVE democracy, not a direct democracy; there is a difference.

So, let’s say we turned to the power and authority that is inherent within each of us in and tapped into that higher awareness that points us toward peace, harmony and liberation instead of fear, separation and greed. What if we reached down into what is real in our deep feelings and what we know to be true in our gut, and started speaking to one another and acting from that place? What would that actually look like? Berkman described it as “a different spirit in individual and collective life.” Makes sense. Operating from our higher awareness would transform what it meant and looked like to be human individually and collectively in our social relations with each other. Berkman is describing a new world being born and becoming real.

However, Berkman also pointed out that this reality and world cannot “be born overnight.” Instead, he said it is something “to be cultivated, to be nurtured and reared.” Social revolution and birthing a new world isn’t something that happens all at once. It’s not going to fall out of the sky or magically appear. We’re going to have to cultivate, nurture and rear it.” In other words, we are going to have to take direct action individually and collectively to make the empire of lies obsolete and birth a new world in its place.

This is why I have been speaking about the need for inner anarchy. Inner anarchy is the path of deprogramming ourselves from false beliefs, mindsets, narratives and ideologies, and turning toward the guidance and empowerment of our higher spiritual awareness. It’s divesting ourselves from the current order that operates upon those false beliefs, mindsets, narratives and ideologies, and creating a new reality in its place through direct action individually and collectively. Both the inner world and the outer expression are equally significant, and one without the other will not work. There are some who come at this equation more from the spiritual/inner side, and others who come more with an activist/outer focus. Think of this as the yin and yang – the two are integral to one another and form a whole. They both are equally necessary and cannot be separated from each other.

Berkman saw that the outcome of all this was “a new and beautiful existence.” Yes, another world is possible. The only question is if enough of us are truly willing to take the path of inner anarchy all the way. People are all gung-ho until they realize or experience how discomforting and destabilizing it is in the short-term. The old order isn’t going to go away quietly into the night, and we are not going to figure out how to sort out a new social order based on our higher awareness in a week. This is not fast-food revolution. Everyone wants a new world until they are confronted with the fact that many of our comfortable and prized ways of ordering ourselves do not line up with our higher awareness, such as hierarchal power structures, government and capitalism. Berkman’s “new and beautiful existence” would no longer necessitate these because the new world, as Berkman stated, would be “a changed attitude of human to human, as of one free and independent to his or her equal.”

We have the higher awareness to do this, but do we have the guts to do it?

(Graffiti by Baksy)

My top five posts that thinned the ranks

I’ve been part of the beta testing process of a new social media platform – Ideapod. The mission of Ideapod is to “… elevate the level of social discourse online, and offline, by allowing people to express their views and share ideas with others on matters of concern to them. Ideapod was created to enable the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and the world, for the better.”

Here are 5 controversial topics I recently weighed in on Ideapod.com:

The Legalization of marijuana

Being a transgender ally

Inner anarchy and gay marriage

Facing white privilege

Jesus the rabble-rouser

Graffiti by Banksy

When spirituality becomes navel-gazing

Individualism makes the individual its focus, and is based on the fundamental premise that the human individual is of primary importance in the struggle for liberation. Religion often conditions people to become very individualistic. For example, evangelicalism is about YOU “getting saved” so that YOU are right with God so YOU will go to heaven. This kind of Christianity emphasizes what is often referred to as a personal/individual relationship between YOU and God. Other religious and spiritual mindsets focus on what YOU are going to gain (inner peace, favorable personal circumstances, financial/material gain) as a result of YOU properly applying the right beliefs or formulas. There are some who become stuck in this hyper-inward/individualistic focus, which is sometimes referred to as “navel-gazing.” It seems at times that spirituality can be so individualistic – me and my peace, me and my freedom, me and my enlightenment, me and my… etc. Yes of course, taking individual ownership of our lives, doing our inner work, staying in-tune with our higher awareness, etc. are all necessary things. But sometimes I wonder if people make their bed there, and never extend past that to the equally significant aspect that is beyond ourselves. One of the downsides of the term “inner anarchy” is how it might imply that the “inner” part and the “anarchy”/outer part are two separate/different things in terms of thinking of one as necessarily becoming before the other. Spirituality is as much engagement in the world around us as it is attending to our own inner reality. I think the yin and the yang is a useful metaphor for, which describes how apparently opposite or contrary forces are actually complementary, interconnected, and interdependent, and how they give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another. Jesus spoke of oneness that we all belong to and make real together. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “No one is free until we are all free.”

[The Inner Anarchy Community on Facebook is about pressing into and conversing about subjects like this. You can join the group here]

WARNING: Starbucks Spirituality Rant

WARNING: RANT

I see so much talk and discussion involving all kinds of elaborate spiritual and philosophical verbiage, concepts, explanations, etc. It all lacks credibility in my mind if there is not an outward expression and manifestation of it in terms of active engagement in our world and the affairs of humankind. Otherwise, it all just starts to feel like Starbucks spirituality, which is a sort of class-privilege “spirituality” where people sit around all comfy drinking their gourmet coffee and pontificating all their nice-sounding spiritual platitudes and formulas, but never actively engaging the world and the affairs of humankind. Inner anarchy is turning away from the false beliefs, mindsets, narratives and ideologies that have been programmed into our heads, and turning toward, listening, following, speaking and acting from our higher spiritual awareness. Authentic spirituality cannot tolerate those systems and structures in our world that violate the truth of our higher awareness, and perpetuate greed, injustice, oppression, division, fear and scarcity. Jesus lived inner anarchy. Following the spirit for Jesus meant confronting, challenging, subverting and undermining the religious and worldly hierarchies of dominance, control, injustice and oppression. If Jesus came back today, I’m not sure what would anger him more – the lies of false religion, or the bankruptcy of Starbucks spirituality. This doesn’t have anything to do with one’s personality (introvert vs extrovert) or the “inner” work needing to come before the outward expression. The two should have never been divided, as if they are two different and unrelated things. There is no “process” of spiritual growth that doesn’t involve both… simultaneously… always. This doesn’t mean that one has to run out into the world and single-handedly achieve some great victory or epic change. What it does mean is that we take direct where we are as an expression of our higher awareness. We do not idly stand by or turn a blind eye to the false mindsets, beliefs, narratives and ideologies at work in our world that cause of human division, injustice, oppression and suffering. We take direct action to confront, challenge, subvert, and undermine those beliefs, mindsets, narratives and ideologies, and the systems and structures that perpetuate them. In there place, we lift up the alternative. We build and create new ways of operating in the world based on what we know is real and true through our higher awareness. This is going to require some real thinking, effort, and self-organization on our part. While I’m at it: thinking is not the antithesis of spirituality; action is not the antithesis of spirituality; effort is not the antithesis of spirituality; self-organization is not the antithesis of spirituality; confronting, challenging, subverting, and undermining the status quo is not the antithesis of spirituality. Authentic spirituality is not rainbows, ponies, and nice-sounding spirtiualese, or elaborate/heady and ego-gratifying pontifications. Of course, there is a deep and abiding reflective, contemplative, and inward aspect of our spiritual lives. But authentic spirituality is also powerful, authoritative, robust, vigorous, scrappy, and gritty. I hear people say how revolution has to happen inside a person first. But too often that all I see – one’s own individual change and revolution that never moves beyond me, myself and I.

END OF RANT

When anger is good

Another way religion has done a disservice to people it telling them anger is bad. People tend to think of anger as a wild, negative emotion, but research shows that anger has a positive side, and is a necessary and beneficial emotion. To deny, repress or judge the emotion of anger leads to all kinds of psychological dysfunction.

Anger is a legitimate and useful human emotion. Anger is an intense emotional response, and often indicates when ones basic boundaries are violated. Anger surfaces when we experience, witness, or become aware of injustice. Anger can be a motivating and energizing force to penetrate despair and apathy. Whereas sadness can often lead to passivity, anger often leads people to bring change. Anger is also an indicator of what you are passionate about, and a clue to why you are here and who you are for the world. Anger itself is not bad. How we respond to, express, or manage our anger determines whether our anger has a destructive or constructive impact. Jesus got angry… like, REALLY angry! In fact, you’d probably have to work at it to get as angry as Jesus did.

I wrote in Notes from (Over) the Edge:

“You need to get angry.

Let that anger fuel your resolve to be free.

People often envision Jesus as someone tiptoeing around in a flowing robe, speaking softly, and carrying a baby lamb in his arms. But the real Jesus of history was a lightning rod. He got angry. He was the greatest debunker of religious hierarchies and traditions, and the greatest desacralizer of holy places, times, people, rituals, priests and things, that this world has ever seen. The religious establishment hurriedly condemned him to death for blasphemy, while the secular powers executed him for sedition.

“Nice” is overrated. “Nice” is being “amiably pleasant, pleasing, and agreeable.” Not exactly the word I would use for Jesus when he was turning over tables in the temple. Jesus did not do this nicely. Jesus was a person of deep love and compassion, but the word “nice” doesn’t fit him. “Defiant” and “subversive” fit much better.

You’re too nice.

Religion taught you that you should be nice, considerate, polite, amiable, and selfless. An antonym for “nice” is “improper.” “Improper” is defined as: “not being in accord with acceptable behavior and procedures; not in keeping with conventional mores.” Yep, that was Jesus!

The road to Truth has improper written all over it. People traveling this road are a threat to all the nice people. Don’t expect them to be nice anymore, at least to you. Your world works because it hinges on you being nice. There will not be a crowd cheering you on. Knowing Truth is not a popularity contest, and the road to your freedom and end of suffering will be lined with people expressing disapproval.

Every step on the path of Truth is an act of non-conformity.

There will be resistance. There will be a lot of chances to turn back. Keep going! Be fearless!

How much suffering will you tolerate? How many things will you continue doing and believing that have not worked and never will? How long will you put on that fake happy face, be nice, go to church, and conform? How long will you listen to everyone else but yourself?

The board is set, the pieces are moving. You must come to it at last – this is your great moment to be free and to stand for the liberation of all humankind!”

– Jim Palmer, Notes from (Over) the Edge

Kicking down a door is a spiritual act

For a season I traveled abroad with an international human rights agency, based out of Washington, D.C. We posed as customers in the brothels, where 12-16 year-old girls had been abducted and forced into child prostitution. These girls were forced to provide sex to “customers” 4-5 times a day, 6 days a week. We also posed as investors in child slave-labor camps where boys of the same age were forced to roll cigarettes all day, and beaten with electrical cords or burned with a hot poker if they did not reach their daily quota.

Let me ask you a question.

Do you think Jesus would have walked past these brothels and slave camps and done nothing? Would he have gone to the top of a mountain and prayed or meditated that things would get better? Do I need to even answer these questions? If someone had approached the Buddha and asked him if this was all well and good and no action necessary, would the Buddha have said, “Don’t judge the rapists and abusers; if you look at this a little differently you’ll see everything is at it should be.”??? I won’t answer that question because the truth is self-evident. Of course Jesus and the Buddha would have not responded this way.

What if it was your daughter being raped five times a day? What if it was your son getting his eye scorched with a red-hot poker? Would you walk away? Would you allow it? Would you go off somewhere and meditate when it was in your power to stop it? Would you refuse to “judge” the situation and conclude it was okay for your daughter to be raped and son burned? I sure hope not.

The point is that IT IS IN OUR POWER TO STOP IT… and many other beliefs, mindsets, narratives, ideologies, systems, structures, and hierarchies that abuse, victimize and oppress people.

You might say, “Well , what can I possibly do about child prostitution in SE Asia?”

Here’s what you can do… challenge, confront, undermine, subvert any belief, mindset, narrative, ideology, system, structure, hierarchy, or message that promotes the objectification of women. This is a very significant way of dealing a blow against the conditions that result in Western sex tourism and the rape of young girls around the world.

Some of the most spiritual, sacred and holy deeds in our world is the scrappy, courageous and assertive actions of challenging, confronting, undermining, and subverting victimization, injustice, abuse and oppression. This sacred work in SE Asia involved a brothel raid in which the doors of the brothel were kicked down by force. The young girls were rushed and rescued out the back door and placed in aftercare NGO’s, and the brothel owners were arrested, prosecuted, held accountable, and began the process of rehabilitation toward wholeness.

Sometimes I think people get lulled into a type of spirituality that doesn’t even pass the test of common sense. Authentic spirituality is of course being aligned with our higher awareness. It acknowledges that we are ALL one, but that doesn’t mean we turn a blind eye to the ideologies, systems and actions of abuse, injustice and oppression in our world.

Inner anarchists confront the empire of lies

George Orwell said, “Truth is treason in the empire of lies.”

I started a conversation in the Inner Anarchy Community on Facebook where we are identifying false beliefs, mindsets, narratives and ideologies that goven our lives and world, and what the alternative would be if we intead lived and acted from our higher awareness.

Here are a few mentioned so far:

“Falsehood: You can’t trust the voice inside of you is the falsehood. Alternative: That voice inside of you is the Source from which all truth comes.”

“Falsehood: The poor and homeless or lesser lazy people who aren’t trying. Alternative: Instead of avoiding such people or just giving them a handout talk to them offer compassion understanding friendship. and don’t forget to listen.”

“Falsehood: Jesus died for your sin. Alternative: he came to tell people they were already sinless.. And was murdered for it.”

“Falsehood: Combatting situations is negative energy and disrupts society in a way there will never be progress. Higher Awareness: Making a stand for True Source is actually breaking down False Source oppressions and controls.”

“Falsehood: all humans are either male or female. Alternative: all humans sit somewhere on a scale of femaleness or maleness and where we sit is ever changing.”

“Falsehood: we are separate from each other and everything in the universe. Alternative: all things are connected.”

“Falsehood: Large scale monoculture is good agricultural practice
Alternative: Small scale local, organic farms growing a variety of foods in harmony with seasons are more efficient and environmentally friendly.”

“Falsehood: People who are addicted to drugs are bad and should spend their lives behind bars. Awareness: All people are fundamentally whole, and to whatever extent drugs are destrying a person’s well-being we should understand and address the conditions that are feeding into it.”

If you want to join in and be part of this conversation, you can join the Inner Anarchy Community here.

You signed up to be human. End of story.

“Your original Self existed before you assumed a mind and body, and will continue to exist when your body and mind are gone. You have a mind, body, and personhood in order to know and be the Truth in the context of human existence. You are here because your Self has chosen to occupy a human mind and body. You are here to be divine and human. This is the only place where this happens. If there was life on Mars, you could be divine and Martian. But you’re not on Mars, you are in the human world.

There is something you must know about your life. It was no accident. It was not the mere happenstance of your mother getting pregnant and giving birth. You chose this. You want to be a human being.

Adam and Eve were the Truth, and they assumed a mind and body so they could pick up the signal of human consciousness and become human. Jesus of Nazareth was the Truth, and he assumed a mind and body so he could pick up the signal of human consciousness and become human. You are the Truth, and you assumed a mind and body so you could pick up the signal of human consciousness and become human.

Why?

Why is the sunrise beautiful?

Does it matter? Do you have to know why the sunrise is beautiful in order to experience it as beautiful?

You can take your mind down this path only so far. It’s not so much that the questions can’t be answered, it’s that your Self has no need to answer them.

A running river does not stop to become embroiled in the question of why it is flowing. It just flows.”

– Jim Palmer, Notes from (Over) the Edge

Inner anarchists in Music City (What happens in Nashville, stays in Nashville)

Some time ago I started the Inner Anarchy Community on Facebook. It’s an intentional community of people who connect and converse about the path of deprogramming ourselves from false beliefs, mindsets, narratives and ideologies, and turning toward the guidance and empowerment of our higher spiritual awareness. The group supports one another in divesting ourselves from the current order that operates upon those false beliefs, mindsets, narratives and ideologies, and creating a new reality in its place out of that higher awareness and direct action.

The group is not for the faint of heart. The point of the community is to substantially explore both sides of inner anarchy – the inner work and the outer expression. There are some who come at this equation more from the spiritual/inner side, and others who come more with an activist/outer focus. In my view, it’s the yin and yang – the two cannot be separated from each other. Feel free to join the community. You can do so at this link.

Meanwhile, every Tuesday a group of inner anarchists in Nashville gather together for a roundtable discussion at an East Nashville coffee house, usually Bongo Java or Ugly Mugs Coffee & Tea House.

Here is a synopsis of today’s meeting.

We had a roundtable gathering/discussion of inner anarchists at the Ugly Mugs Coffee & Tea House in East Nashville today. I gained a lot from the interaction and connections that happened there.

I know it’s early in this movement, but it’s sometimes difficult to find people who have truly put the “inner” and the “anarchy” pieces together to form a whole. I tend to find two kinds of people. First there are those who are very activist/anarchy-oriented but have a mostly unexplored inner life. They are typically stuck in their head/ego, and largely unaware of their real Self and their higher spiritual awareness. They’re really not able to connect with you in that deep-feeling/transcendent place of love/oneness.

But then I also find those who seem to have a rather in-grown and individualistic spirituality that never seems to turn outward to the world in any kind of robust or vigorous way. It almost feels like a sort of privileged and passive spirituality that turns a blind eye to the injustice and oppression of our world.

What seems to be rare at this stage are those who have truly put the two together – a person who operates within that true Self, deep-feeling source, higher spiritual awareness, AND lives and expresses this reality by turning away from the false beliefs, mindsets, narratives and ideologies that have been programmed into their heads, AND divest themselves from and subvert those oppressive and unjust systems and structures in our world that operate on the basis of those false beliefs, mindsets, narratives and ideologies. AND not just being “against them,” but birthing a new reality in its place – living, taking direct action, self-organizing with others, lifting up and being the alternative to the oppressive systems and structures of the current order. We don’t need a privileged and passive spirituality that turns a blind eye to the injustice and oppression of our world. We need a real, vigorous and scrappy spirituality that is rooted in our true Self and higher spiritual awareness, AND brings it into the world through direct action, intervention, and revolution.

One of the things we discussed at the inner anarchists roundtable today is how people mostly relate to one another out of their heads, their ego, and the scripts they’ve been programmed with. A visual depiction of this would be a group of people talking and you see these lines drawn between all of them from one head to the other. Head talking to head, ego talking to ego, script talking to script. We can’t get what we’re really after this way. We have to shift sources… go deeper… access our true Self… be aware of our higher awareness… turn to what is real in our deep feelings and what we know to be true in our gut… and trust speak, connect and relate to one another from that place. We actually practiced this together today as a group by speaking and connecting openly and honestly with one another from our deep feelings and higher awareness through words, song, and human touch. We also spoke of the lies that hold our world hostage, especially fear and separation.

Something I also learned today is just how important it is for inner anarchists to meet and connect together face-to-face in groups. If you are reading this right now, what if you started a little coffee house roundtable get-together in your neck of the woods and converse about inner anarchy?