Do You Know how to Handle Police Encounters?

In more nostalgic times, “Peace Officer” was the commonly used term for Police. Not all uphold the peace; some were power hungry jerks who hassled others around, but most were good guys who protected citizens.

I have become increasingly concerned about the declining quality of police men and women. It seems to me that more and more cops are power hungry jerks, who just follow orders (and further the agenda of the New World Order). Far too many cops today treat American Citizens as subjects.

In ages past, all high school students in America had to take Civics class. This class informed them of their rights and duties as American Citizens. Aside from teaching young American citizens how the American legal and political systems work, the students were also informed of how to handle encounters with the police; what their rights and the officer’s were, how to protect themselves, and what legal remedies they could take in case their Peace Officer overstepped his boundaries.

As America becomes more and more fascist and our “leaders” show increasingly display the attributes of tyrants, one has to wonder why Civics class curriculums have changed to focus less on the rights of Citizens, and more on the way government makes decisions. Indeed, what were once termed Civics classes are now called Government classes. As someone who only a few years ago sat through government class and learned very little about my constitution, bill of rights, and the legal remedies available to me, I think there could be a conspiracy going on here. Let me put it like this: if you want to have a public easy to control which acquiesces to tyrants, then they need to be dummed down and ill-informed.

Unfortuanetly, most people want to give their power away. They either want others to make decisions for them so they can go and play, OR they say this is just the way the system works and they can do nothing about it. Naturally the idea of changing the system never crosses their minds, because they don’t want to stop giving their power away so they can make changes, nor do they want to engage in non-compliance, as that would also require them to make decisions and be in control.

I assume my readers don’t fall into that category- the Sheeple if you will. The active Citizenry (as opposed to the passive Sheepery) want to use their power. They want to be informed, make decisions in the system and change it if need be. They want to know their rights and duties and those of others, as well as the legal remedies available to them and others.

For those of you active Citizens, there are plenty of resources where you can go to learn your rights. You need to know your legal rights and how the legal system of this country worls. While I recommend everyone study the Constitution and pay particular attention to the Bill of Rights, that isn’t enough in America today. I highly recommend you take advantage of another source I only became aware of the other day, which will make you aware of your legal rights and available remedies, in regards to encounters with the cops. After viewing a film from the FlexYourRights.org Foundation and visiting their site, I became well aware of how, if I ever have an encounter with the police, I should best handle the situation.

Please don’t wait until you actually have to defend yourself against a Crooked Cop to figure out what you’ll do. There are MANY, MANY GOOD HEARTED police in our country, but some are ignorant and some are corrupt. You need to know how to handle BOTH kinds of law enforcement, else you might find yourself in a bad situation which could have quickly and easily been quelled, had you only been aware of both your rights and those of the officer, as well as what to say and do.

Please empower yourself by visiting the Flex Your Rights Foundation website at: www.flexyourrights.org. And for an excellent video from Flex Your Rights on what to do in the event of a police encounter, please visit: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1704731530217568970.

When you encounter a true Peace Officer, your encounter should go fine, as it will be based upon mutual respect and they will not hassle you. However, if a Crooked Cop happens to come upon you and you have to protect yourself against unnecessary searches and seizures, verbal and/or physical harassment, etc.- then you will have wished you checked out the simple and quickly digested information provided by FlexYourRights Foundation!

I hope that in any 'worst cases,' this information will prove to be the solution for you!

For Those Who Want to 'Fix' Everyone Else

I’ve been well aware of the whole mess in Darfur for approximately a couple years now. In fact, I’m quite well aware of many messes occurring throughout the world. Indeed, these problems are serious and ‘something should be done.’ But the answer to the question of who should do that something seems to be a dubious one right now. And moreover, these messes are really symptoms of underlying problems within some people’s psyches.

Tonight I watched a movie about Darfur which I felt was terribly heartbreaking, yet in a moral or functional sense, pointless. I felt that it made a simultaneous call of duty and ego stroking for those activists who want to clean up everyone else’s messes before they focus on their own. I would say one point which bothered me was that of urging people to go out and write letters to their state representatives to fix Darfur, when our own country needs such fixing! Our country has such serious problems (which I need not delve into), that we really aren’t in the position to tell other what to do.

Some people would look at America and say that it's broken, taken into consideration on its own merit. Others would look at Darfur and compare it to America, saying we are so much the better off, so we should do something to 'help' them (and just about everyone else who needs our 'help,' once we get around to it). It is probably no surprise, but I fall into the former group.

What strikes me is that many people would rather go all the way to the other side of the world and fix “their” problems “over there” before putting ours into order “over here.” I used to be the kind of person who had lots of work to do on fixing my own problems. But I saw and wanted to fix everyone else’s, somehow managing to escape acknowledging the existence of and consequent necessity for healing my own. It was only after I worked through the bulk of my own ‘self-issues’ that I began to see how much my wanting to fix everyone else’s life reflected the desire to fix my own.

And so it is with those activists and countries who want to fix every other country’s problems before they fix their own. Please don’t get me wrong: yes Darfur needs fixing, but it doesn’t need it from an already broken country. The sick man is not in the position to heal. Or in other words, if we don’t stop trying to fix everyone else’s country, then eventually people from other countries will be arriving in America to fix us!

When you see something wrong happening ‘over there-‘be it with your family, friends, neighbors, you can only be of assistance if you are willing and welcomed to do so. But if you are not in the position to help- no matter how much you ant to- then you really cannot.

The fact is, when the leaders of a country are crooked and corrupt; when the people are mislead; when the country is in a 7 trillion dollar debt; when the military is overstretched as it is; when their power is dwindling; and when the international community thinks that country should learn to mind its business, then perhaps that particular country in question should sit back and consider how it got to be so broken and howit can be fixed, before they answer their own call of duty and march off to fix the other guy’s problems over there.

And one more point: I don’t see anyone else charging out to fix the world but America. It’s really a noble goal, but it isn’t attainable in our current state. It’s not our responsibility to fix everyone else’s problems- why doesn’t, for example, France do something to fix Darfur or whomever? Well, for one thing it’s not France’s job, and for another, they are spending their respires at home to fix their own problems, as they really don’t want to exhaust themselves only to wind up in a ‘fix France’ campaign.

So I’ll end it here by stating that I don’t believe broke accountants should offer financial advice. While it’s a noble desire to fix other people’s problems, doing so only becomes viable once he who offers has fixed his own. What we need to do is first fix what’s wrong with us ourselves, and only then can we begin to fix our relationships with others and improve our lives. At that state, it becomes viable to get involved with fixing our own countries problems. But I can say that for a bunch of people who haven’t solved their own psychological problems to go out ‘fixing’ the problems of others is a recipe for disaster.

Finally, the reason ‘it always happens again’ is because there are underlying problems in the world, the symptoms of which are ‘it,’ or genocide, war rimes, and crimes against humanity. The solutions to that symptom lie in treating the cause- ourselves. That’s right, us. For example, when we believe it’s OK to commit evil acts for “just causes;” or we let our leaders get away with lying, cheating, and stealing; or when we believe that such a world system in which 17% of the world’s people live in 1$ a day is OK- then we can be certain we have our own problems to deal with as individuals and families.

The world in which most people are psychologically healthy individuals is the world which functions correctly. It may be a bitter pill to swallow, but the solutions lie not in whether we have might, but rather whether we have right.

Are You an Independent Spirit?

When I look at most people, they seem to be in a rat race to me. It seems like so many of us live so emptily, and that’s really what the rat race comes down to- running around on the hamster wheel for things which have no real worth to you. The problem is that so many of us are living for a lifestyle which matches a pre-conceived image, which was created by picking and choosing from the material things shown to you by those who control your society- and these things aren’t necessarily offered to you for your own good (less you believe foods which ruin your health and drugs which do you in are for for benefit).

Today people live by conjuring up an image in their head of what they want, and then shopping for it. When they find something good which deviates from their preconceived ideas about what fits into their boxes, they tent to disregard it. Everything has to be done according to a certain process, match a certain standard or classification, and appear to deliver a certain benefit for them. If it doesn’t, they don’t want any part in it. So many people today strike me as consumers on almost every level; notonly shopping for stuff like houses, cars, and other toys- but also, for spouses, ethics, and religions! It’s really that- shopping for everything as if the material level provided the solutions we are seeking.

But the truth (and don’t expect the Madison Avenue advertisers to tell you this) is that the solution to life’s problems is found on the spiritual level, whilst the problems arise from the material level. That doesn’t mean the material level doesn’t provide us with intricate, beautiful and esoteric things- it does. It’s just that when we get out of balance and focus on the material without the spiritual, we lose the ability to recognize and enjoy the best which the material level offers us. Moreover, we get caught up in the material level without having advanced to the proper spiritual level to balance ourselves.

The problem as I see it is that people do not realize themselves and their ideal lifestyle images by way of heart and intuition; but rather, thru social coaxing and a pre-designed form of ‘logic’, as if to say, “This fits here and that fits there, so I should attain them.” That’s another point I could go on about (but will save it for another time); so many of us have a socially constructed logic, which is not our own and which if we were to delve deeper into it, would find really isn’t too logical at all! But to continue on the original point, people are taught to chose an image for themselves (like some sort of advertisement) and design their lives to fit that image.

So what’s the solution here? Well, you are a spiritual being manifest in the material world, as opposed to a material being (that would be akin to an unconscious robot, actually). As such, when you look to the material world for guidance on who you should become and how you should design your life, you will never attain satisfaction in the spiritual sense. The only sense where one can truly attain satisfaction in is the spiritual sense, as the spiritual world is from where one’s consciousness is manifest through one’s emotions and thoughts. The one who has thoughts and emotions and consequently builds the spirit is the soul. The material world is unconscious, as material objects (like houses, cars, and computers) have neither thought nor emotion. The spiritual world is on a different and higher dimension than that of the material, and you as a spiritual being need to uplift yourself to that higher dimension.

Thus, you need to look into the spiritual world for guidance on how you should design your life. That way, you are looking to the dimension of consciousness; thought and emotion. If you look to the material world, then you simply look to a level far beneath your true nature- that of the unconscious- for guidance.

The way you get in touch with your higher self is very simple. You just ask yourself who you wish you be, what you wish to do, how you wish to live, what you think, etc. You leave your ego out of it, which means forgetting about what it or others will think of you and your choices. You forget about how things fit into a box, and you design yourself and life based upon the limitless. You learn all you can, living your life and experiencing it to the full. If you want spiritual wealth for your soul, then you’re going to have to create it- no one else can. God gave us all souls, but God expects us to build our own spirits; that’s essentially why we have consciousness and free will.

Some people will be unhappy with you becoming your own self, because they chose to become the “Mass-Man,” which is essentially a spiritless self pre-designed by society to fit into some little box. These people are only threatened by your powerful and beautiful independent spirit, because- frankly speaking- they don't have one. If you look at “Mass-Men,” they seem to be going through life almost haphazardly, or unconsciously. They just accept all the crap society dishes out to them, without even really considering it. Don’t do that; the true spiritual self is unique to every soul, as it is based upon every unique soul’s thoughts and emotions as recurrent form their experiences. I think the solution to not becoming a “Mass-Man” is to design oneself on the spiritual (conscious), rather than material (unconscious) level. That way, you will function harmoniously on both levels.

Only You Can Make the World Better

I feel it necessary to focus on solutions to the problems in our world and in my life, rather than the problems themselves. That’s because when I think of the crimes that have been committed and the apparent lack of worldly justice devolved to perpetrators, I really start to feel my blood pressure rise and feel a bit ill. After focusing on the force of evil and how it manifests itself in our world for long enough, I get real mad and start ranting to almost everyone I know about what the problems are and what must be done. On an emotional level, I’m one of those few who are affected to an extreme by the force of evil, and the lack of justice this world offers evil people. Why some people have such a strong sense of empathy, and the masses seem not to, I don’t know (but I could speculate on that). It just seems natural to me that we should be extremely concerned and emotionally affected when evil destroys lives. Maybe people are desensitized, confused, and feel helpless.
Perhaps what I consider to be the worst thing about evil is that the bulk of people just find ways to forget about or justify it, and sometimes even go along with it. They seem to care more about some silly TV shows and shopping then they do their fellow human beings.
However, I assume that you as a visitor to this blog are not only fed up with evil, but are looking for solutions to the problems of the world, and for your own life as well. You might have realized that too much empathy for others can drain the life right out of you. You can’t destroy your emotional and psychological health by worrying about the world, because then evil has defeated you too. You want to put out the forces of evil; not fight them, or become defeated thereby.
Trying to fight evil through the mechanisms it uses to manifest itself is like fighting fire with fire. With this method, you let everything burn by fire from both sides. Eventually, the fire gets put out, but only after everything is destroyed. To fight evil with fire would be more destructive than beneficial. For example, we all know the political scheme is a joke; we know violence begets more violence; and we know the Hegelian Dialectic is a set up. In short, we cannot beat “them” by paying “their” game according to “their” rules, because “they” made the game; the rules; and rigged it.
The other way to defeat evil is to fight it with good. That is akin to fighting fire with water; it’s not always easy, but eventually the objective will be achieved. For us, that means doing both the right thing, and going out of our way to do some good things in our everyday lives. For example, we can support small farmers by buying locally produced food and simultaneously put big factory farms (with their genetically modified synthetic “food”) out of business, or you could start a website offering information which helps people improve their lives. Either way, everything you do makes a difference- realize how much power you have in the way you live your life. Do the right thing at all times, and become a role model for others to follow. Once people see you doing the right thing, and making special efforts, they will realize the joy thins brings into ones life, and seek to follow in your footsteps.
In the end, we have to realize that no conspiracy of evil in this world can be fought by us using the methods evil forces have set up to maintain and increase their power grip (for example organized crime and violence, faulty law, and rigged political arenas). Only good can put evil. This is done by righteousness and good acts, which give our fellow human beings the respect and dignity we would ask for in return. Evil acts beget evil- if you don’t believe me, read a chapter out of any history book. Only when we refuse to participate in evil against ourselves and others can we defeat evil. Essentially, that means we beat it at its own game by refusing to play.

Personal and Collective Responsibility- That is SO Last Century!

"It's not my fault." "These things always seem to happen to me." "I can't help it- this is just the way I am!" And yada yada yada.

Here in the United States (and around much of the world, I might add), the concept of personal responsibility has gone out of fashion. Not only has individual personal responsibility gone out of fashion, but collective responsibility has as well.

I would like to discuss the topic of personal responsibility and how it relates to collective responsibility. The former is necessary for the latter, and unfortunately, we are suffering from a lack of both in our society.

The thing is, until the majority of a society's people exercise the concept of personal responsibility as a value, they will not demand that it be exercised by others. It is only when we as individuals in the American society regain the virtue of taking responsibility for our actions and their consequences, that we will demand our leaders- to include business, political, religious, etc.- do the same.

We as a society have two forms of crises on our shoulders; first, we have a myriad of problems; and second, no one seems to be responsible for them. Somehow, we find our country in trillions of dollars of debt; foreign entanglements; a state of social fragmentation; and etc (I could go on for hours...). But amazingly enough, these things just sort of "happened;" you know, like some great mysterious force called "change" brought them into existence.

And even if we could determine who the culprits were, they probably were just trying to do the best they could... it's just that things didn't always work out in reality like they do on paper- right? No conspiracy theories here ;)

So many 'conspiracy watchers' tell people, "While you were sleeping, those with power were busy implementing their plans. Therefore, you have to wake up and take control of things and steer them in the 'right' direction." Well, the problem is, even if we could all agree on the 'right' direction, average people are too busy going about their lives; making money, raising families, and trying to enjoy what little free time they have. The fact of the matter is, when it comes to politics, most people don't have time to do anything but get angry at the state of things!

So then if We the People don't have time to run the country, what could we do to make sure our interests are being served? Well, for starters we would want to implement a Constitution with a Bill of Rights (done). Then we would want to have a democratic government, where the people vote for leaders and laws which would take an oath to follow and be in keeping with that Constitution (we've slipped up there). And finally, we would want to force our leaders to be personally responsible for all their actions- especially for breaching their oaths to follow that constitution, and for enacting lousy policies and decisions (need I say anything about how we're doing on that?).

We the People need to take personal responsibility for how we allow our leaders to run our country. When we justify wrongs as "lesser evils," and let our leaders get away with dire mistakes, we unintentionally participate as a collective in bringing about the resulting negative consequences.

As Hanna Arendt says, "When everyone is guilty, no one is guilty." And she is right on, because how can a minority in a society take collective responsibility and try to bring about changes, when the majority won't budge?

If we would like to see positive changes made in our country, then we need to start with ourselves. The best gift we could ever give our country is to be the type of person we would like to have as leaders, parents, children, friends, etc. That doesn't mean being perfect, but it means being able to look at our selves holistically, and honestly feel that we are satisfied with that person we see. In order to do that, we have to admit our shortcomings to ourselves, and take the personal responsibility for their consequences, and eventually for overcoming and improving upon them.

Becoming the person you would like to be probably won't fix your country- at least few Americans could repay our trillions in debt that way... but take head in the (probable) fact that doing so will do for your life what trillions would do for your country! That's because those people who neglect their personal responsibility neglect their ability to make positive self and life improvements.

All consciously made improvements require solutions. In order that one may find solutions, one must admit to and take responsibility for the problem. If it's your personal problem, then only you can fix it. If it's your collective problem, then only the collective can fix it. But in order that the collective may function properly, its parts must first be in order!

Your Thrival Instincts

We're all considerably versed in what survival instincts are and how they function. But is there such a thing as thrival instincts- some sort of internal message telling us we are or aren't thriving?

I believe our emotions to be instincts of thriving. Emotions- positive and negative- are internal messages letting us know how our life situation is, in both good and bad contexts.

As painful as negative emotions are, if you never felt the need to scream, cry, become violent, taking revenge, etc.; then how would you know that something was wrong with the experiences of yourself and others? Likewise, without being able to feel positive emotions, you would never be excited at major life changes or pleased with the accomplishments of yourself and others.

The human spirit is blessed with an abundance in regards to its potential to feel myriads of differing emotions- both positive and negative. The stronger the spirit of one's soul, the stronger one will feel.

It's healthy to avoid negative emotions. But there are two ways of doing it. The first way is thorugh pacifying the negative emotion through distractions (i.e., TV, partying, drugs, etc.). On the other hand, the second way (and more healthier one) is by considering the emotion a side effect of a problem, and dealing with the problem. That way, one would treat the problem, rather than the symptom.

The truth is, negative and positive emotions are not causal phenomena, but rather, circumstantial ones. You don't feel feelings for no reason- something has to trigger them. So when your feelings of negativity are resultant of something gone wrong, why seek to pacify your thrival instincts? Better would be to accept the emotions you feel, and use them as a guide to help you deal properly with the problem at hand to find solutions.

Can you immagine if you didn't have negative emotions to guide you in the context of a major injustice or crisis? What a bereaved existence that would be- you couldn't even call such a life living.

People whom I simply cannot understand are those hell bent and high strung on ignore their emotions, for the red flags that they are. These thriving instincts tell us that either something has gone right (we're thriving) or something has gone wrong (we're not thriving). Those included in this group include 'Happy-Pill Poppers,' who drug themselves out of feeling anything very strongly (that's really to cease living); and 'Exotic-Philosophy Gurus,' who sell you lies like "nothing is real everything is an illusion" and so you must be "detached" in all circumstances.

If you pop 'happy-pills' or detach yourself from life- then you're missing the point of it! Life is about consciousness- about being aware, living, feeling, learning!

So in which spirit does a general state of happiness reside- the sacraficial, indulgent, indifferent or...? No one really knows accepet for those who figure out what happiness means to them, and attain it. But don't be supprised, if, when you ask yourself what happiness really is, you find it's more intricate, enigmatic, and quite different from what you've been told it is.

Whatever you feel, accept it. Just feel it until you are ready to let go of it. If you are feeling something negative, realize that's just a warning sign from your thrival instincts that something is wrong, and must be dealt with in some way. Few of us ever work through all the problems of our own life, let alone of the state of the world (without detaching from reality and abandoning human emotions, that is)- but that might just be part of this intricate, enigmatic, and beautiful thing we call conscious living.