Caitlin Johnstone — True Revolution

Mirabile dictu! She gets it!

The problems humanity face are the result not of material conditions but rather the level of collective consciousness. Thus, the solution is not inherently material, but rather essentially spiritual, and the solution requires a "spiritual awakening." There are encouraging signs that this is happening.

This was the conclusion that many came to back in the countercultural revolution of the Sixties and Seventies. I know. I was there, and I wrote a masters thesis on it. Unfortunately, the steam ran out of it when the Vietnam War ended, Nixon resigned, and the pressure was off. 

Hopefully, millennials will pick up on it again and run with it.

In that time, it was expressed as turn on your crap detector, tune into reality, and drop out of the socially constructed illusion: Create your own future.

Caitlin Johnstone — Rogue Journalist
True Revolution
Caitlin Johnstone

David Fields — The Mission of Radical Political Economy

Heavy on the jargon of the Left, but an important point about "consciousness-raising" in socio-economic change through social and political activism.

Naked Keynesianism
The Mission of Radical Political Economy
David Fields

Mark Evans — Rethinking False Consciousness

Question: If capitalist economics is based on class exploitation and oppression, then why hasn’t the working class organized itself into a liberating revolutionary movement?

Answer: False consciousness!

The notion of false consciousness has been developed out of Marxist theory. The basic idea can be broken down into the following components. First, the dominant ideas in society are those of the ruling class or classes. Second, the interests of the dominant class or classes are not the same as those of the subordinate class or classes. Third, under such circumstances, the subordinate class(es) tend to adopt the interests of the dominant class and in-so-doing unknowingly takes on an ideological position that does not promote their interests.

Perhaps the most obvious and extreme example of false consciousness, to play-out in the real world, would be that of war. Here the use of nationalism, for example, as a means of getting the people of one country to fight against the people of another country, is employed by elites. Put simply, this results in working class people killing each other to protect and promote the existing power and privilege of the capitalist class.

Understanding that we can be socialized into adopting an ideological position that is detrimental to our own interests is an important step towards the development of revolutionary consciousness. The facilitation of such development also represents perhaps the greatest challenge to revolutionaries. Unfortunately however, the ways in which Marxists have tried to address false consciousness have led to a number of very problematic and undesirable outcomes. Here I would like to highlight two specific, and perhaps related, examples of this problem and present possible alternative solutions...

Interesting Marxian analysis that takes issue with Marxism.
    
teleSur
Rethinking False Consciousness
Mark Evans

Jürgen Habermas on Richard Rorty

One small autobiographical piece by Rorty bears the title 'Wild Orchids and Trotsky.' In it, Rorty describes how as a youth he ambled around the blooming hillside in north-west New Jersey, and breathed in the stunning odour of the orchids. Around the same time he discovered a fascinating book at the home of his leftist parents, defending Leon Trotsky against Stalin. This was the origin of the vision that the young Rorty took with him to college: philosophy is there to reconcile the celestial beauty of orchids with Trotsky's dream of justice on earth. Nothing is sacred to Rorty the ironist. Asked at the end of his life about the "holy", the strict atheist answered with words reminiscent of the young Hegel: "My sense of the holy is bound up with the hope that some day my remote descendants will live in a global civilization in which love is pretty much the only law."

Richard Rorty

quoted by Jürgen Habermas, in "Philosopher, poet and friend," Sound and Sight

http://www.signandsight.com/features/1386.html

The article originally appeared in German in the Süddeutsche Zeitung on June 11, 2007.

A true Lover doesn't follow any one religion,
be sure of that.
Since in the religion of Love,
there is no irreverence or faith.
When in Love,
body, mind, heart and soul don't even exist.
Become this,
fall in Love,
and you will not be separated again.

Jalaluddin Rumi
Rumi Odes & Quatrains translated by Shahram Shiva
http://www.rumi.net/rumi_poems_main.htm

“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

Matthew 22:36-40 (NRSV)

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.

Matthew 5:43-45 NRSV

I belong to no religion. My religion is Love.

Meher Baba
http://www.theawakenermagazine.org/avol08/av08n02/av08n02p05.htm

Love is the sum and substance of all religions, and the only essential of all creeds. Leave the rigmarole alone.

Meher Baba
in Bhau Kalahari, Lord Meher, revised online edition, p. 904
http://www.lordmeher.org/rev/index.jsp?pageBase=page.jsp&nextPage=904

"Many are the means described for the attainment of the highest good, such as love, performance of duty, self-control, truthfulness, sacrifices, gifts, austerity, charity, vows, observances of moral precepts. I could name more. But of all I could name, verily love is the highest: love and devotion that make one forgetful of everything, love that unites the lover with me. What indescribable joys does one find through love of me, the blissful Self!"

Krishna
Srimad Bhagavatam
Translated and edited by Swami Prabhavananda
Madras: Sri Ramakrishna Math, 1972, pp. 240-241

"Only if one knows the truth of love, which is the real nature of Self, will the strong entangled knot of life be untied. Only if one attains the height of love will liberation be attained. Such is the heart of all religions. The experience of Self is only love, which is seeing only love, hearing only love, feeling only love, tasting only love and smelling only love, which is bliss."

Sri Ramana Maharshi
in David Godman
Be As You Are: The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi

http://bhagavan-ramana.org/bhakti.html

"Once, as Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai was coming forth from Jerusalem, Rabbi Joshua followed after him and beheld the Temple in ruins. 'Woe unto us," Rabbi Joshua cried, "that this, the place where the iniquities of Israel were atoned for, is laid waste!'

"'My son,' Rabbi Yohanan said to him, 'be not grieved. We have another atonement as effective as this. And what is it? It is acts of loving-kindness, kindness, as it is said, For I desire mercy and not sacrifice [Hosea 6.6].'"

Talmud, Abot de Rabbi Nathan 6

"Basically, there is only one precept -- not being selfish.
If people are selfish, they will violate the precepts.
If people are not selfish, they will not violate the precepts."

Venerable Master Hsuan Hua
_Spring Sun, Lotus Flower:
Quotes form the teachings of Vernable Master Hsaun Hua_
Burlingame, CA: Buddhist test Translation Society, 2004, p. 10

"When loving devotion is at its highest, nothing remains of the individual self for it becomes universalized and all-pervading."

Kirpal Singh
_The Night is a Jungle_
Tilton: The Sant Bani Press, 1975, p. 259

Embracing Tao, you become embraced.
Supple, breathing gently, you become reborn.
Clearing your vision, you become clear.
Nurturing your beloved, you become impartial.
Opening your heart, you become accepted.
Accepting the World, you embrace Tao.

Bearing and nurturing,
Creating but not owning,
Giving without demanding,
Controlling without authority,
This is love.

Tao Te Ching 10
http://acc6.its.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~phalsall/texts/taote-v1.txt

“No other thing do I know, O monks, on account of which unarisen ill will does not arise and arisen ill will is abandoned so much as on account of this: the liberation of the heart by benevolence. For one who attends properly to the liberation of the heart by benevolence, unarisen ill will does not arise and arisen ill will is abandoned.”

Buddha

Anguttara Nikaya, 1.ii.7 (trans. Nyanaponika & Bodhi, 1999, p. 34


My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
As quoted in Tibet, a Guide to the Land of Fascination (1988) by Trilok Chandra Majupuria and Indra Majupuria
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tenzin_Gyatso,_14th_Dalai_Lama