Post No. 807 - A few thoughts on …

… Star Wars

Now, keep in mind that I consider “Gandhi” to be an action movie, so my perspective is a little different on films anyway :)

However, having said that, from a real life spirituality perspective, if the Jedi were as advanced as the Star Wars movies make out, they would not be flaunting light sabres: rather, they would be “flaunting” their authentic presence – and would use that “authentic presence” to stop violence, much as is described in the book "The Only Planet of Choice", by Phyllis V. Schlemmer, where Tom says:

“Those of the civilisations that are in service to us will not attempt to destroy, nor harm in any manner, any physical being on Earth. We will have a way of preventing them from attempting to destroy us. But we would wish not to come without giving some prior knowledge, for otherwise people would begin to believe that we would seek to control them. We have not the desire nor the need to control, we come only to benefit. If an Altean were to appear at an entrance of his vehicle, and were stepping onto Planet Earth, and if there were a group that attempted to destroy that Altean, he has only to hold out his hand in an upright manner, and not in great extension, to bring calmness, and also to render them into a state in which they would not have the desire to harm, and would put down their weapons. Hoovids would operate in a different manner: if they were in the same situation, and they came out and raised their arms, those humans with weapons would become totally stationary for a period of time. So there are different methods. But none of these methods would harm a physical being.”

Having got all that out the way, I enjoyed the latest Star Wars movie – particularly seeing a female character having an action role. There are criticisms that can be made, but that applies to all films – well, to everything, really - It won’t stop me watching the film again :)

… Leadership

I recently started watching the Ken Burns series “The Roosevelts”, and had a few surprises. The main one was that, although Theodore Roosevelt was confirmed as being a violently macho, imperialistic thug, he also had a progressiveness in his politics (which I still view as having had flaws) when President that quite surprised me.

Is that perhaps a useful lesson that people can change in response to challenge of responsibility?

Although I have a few episodes left to watch, what I have seen has thoughtfully added a human element to all of them, confirmed how great Eleanor Roosevelt was, and showed that FDR was perhaps more interesting than I realised (I knew about the “New Deal”, of course, since it was such a Big Deal – but not the sort-of connection to Theodore Roosevelt’s “Square Deal”).

Mr Burns has done quite a few good series now.

… Technology

Has the latest in technology “ruined the world”?

First off, I want to point out that concerns over technology go back a long way – I recall the concerns about the effect of watching “too  much” television when I was young – particularly violence, and no doubt it goes back further.

Furthermore, some at least of the concerns are, often, valid or valid to some extent – for instance, the current loss of privacy, the controversial view that watching violence is desensitising (is there a difference between watching real life violence, realistic violence on TV, watching cartoon style violence, and the glorification violence in games? Is the reaction different for different people? [My view is that exposure is potentially desensitising or enabling, depending on the exposure and the person]), the increased pace of life (I know of people who left engineering after use of faxes became widespread for this reason), the legal problems around 3D printing (of guns) and social media (on witness protection schemes, for instance), pollution from the Industrial Revolution and cars and traffic congestion and the many problems of freeways, and so on.

These problems, however, are often challenges to be solved or issues to be resolved, and technology often has the potential to be used beneficially – for instance, see here, here (which, for those who complain about Dan Brown’s portrayal of Malthusian crises in “Inferno”, is why we  - or at least significant parts of the world - haven’t experienced that … yet), etc. The biggest issue about every new development of technology is that it shows an aspect of us – perhaps in a new way, or to greater extent, but it basically shows us, including all our flaws – including things like moral panic, technophilia to the extent of ignoring the precautionary principle (e.g., thalidomide, DDT) and technophobia, and so on. These flaws are not in the technology: they are in us.

The problems that come about with new technology, all the way back to the domestication of fire, often relate to how we use it (for instance, heating and fire prevention vs. execution, arson or weaponisation) – which is also showing us an aspect of ourselves, but also testing our ability to ensure that new things are reasonably used for the Greatest Good by minimising the capacity to misuse them and maximise the opportunity to use them well, whether by education, legislation, other measures, or a combination of these.

Thus, new developments in technology are – and ALWAYS have been - both an opportunity (to use the technology for the benefit of the world), and a test – of us.

 

[1] BPM = Balanced Positive (spiritually) Mature. See here and here for more on this.
[2] Please see here, here, here and my post "The Death of Wikipedia" for the reasons I now recommend caution when using Wikipedia. I'm also exploring use of h2g2, although that doesn't appear to be as extensive (h2g2 is intended - rather engagingly - to be the Earth edition of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy").

[3] I apologise for the formatting: it seems Blogger is no longer as WYSIWYG as it used to be, and there are a lot of unwanted changes to layout made upon publishing, so I often have to edit it immediately after publishing to get the format as close to what I want as possible.

Love, light, hugs and blessings

Gnwmythr, Pagan Energy Worker, Wéofodthegn

(pronounced "new-MYTH-ear"; ... aka Bellatrix Lux … aka Morinehtar … would-be drýicgan or maga ... )

My "blogiography" (list of all posts and guide as to how to best use this site) is here, and my glossary/index is here.

I started this blog to cover karmic regression-rescue (see here and here), and it grew ... See here for my group mind project, here and here for my "Pagans for Peace" project (and join me for a few minutes at some time between 8 and 11 PM on Sunday, wherever you are, to meditate-clear for peace), and here for my bindrune kit-bag. I also strongly recommend learning how to flame, ground and shield, do alternate nostril breathing, work with colour, and see also here and be flexible.

The real dividing line is not between Christianity and Islam, Sunni and Shia, East and West. It is between people who believe in coexistence, and those who don’t.

Tom Fletcher, Former UK Ambassador to Lebanon

• If your “gut” (your instinct/intuition) is telling you something is wrong, but logic and the available evidence is saying otherwise, the proper conclusion to draw is that you need better, more personally credible evidence. Your “gut” could be wrong, right, or missing the nuances / “shades of grey” . So could the available evidence.
• All of the above - and this blog - could be wrong, or subject to context, perspective, or state of spiritual evolution ...

Tags: challenge, defence, evolution, fear, irresponsibility, leadership, nonviolence, responsibility, science, spirituality, stupidity, technology, violence,

First published: Manadagr, 4^th January, 2016

Last edited (excluding fixing typo's and other minor matters): Monday, 4^th January, 2016