"Apathist": someone not particularly interested in the God issue. I do think this is the direction in which I'm headed. Much more of a conversation piece than atheist and agnostic. I learned of the word "apathist" while reading Frans de Waal's FB wall.
Excellent 6 min video by Lawrence Lessig illustrates that a tiny slice of Americans control our Congressional primaries, making general elections unimportant. Our Owners run our elections much like the Chinese elites are running Hong Kong's elections. What's different is that residents of Hong Kong are demonstrating in huge numbers to force change and we are generally complacent. That is in large part because our "news" ignores our huge problem. We have allowed democracy to die in America. Lessig challenges us - are we willing to fight for it? Quote by Boss Tweed near the beginning: "I don't care who does the electing, so long as I get to do the nominating." Private money primaries make elections almost irrelevant. Lawrence Lessig nails it here.
Jonathan Haidt explains why there are not any civilizations without temples, starting at minute 14 of this video. This is the 2013 Boyarsky Lecture at Duke University. About 10,000 years we went from an almost instantaneous transition from hunter-gathers to Babylon. A huge part of our evolutionary development is this newly learned ability of humans to circling around sacred objects (religious and political objects are two dominant examples) in order to form teams. As we circle around, we generate a social energy that knits the social fabric, but also encourages Manichean thinking--us versus them, blinding us to our own faults and faulty thinking. No shades of gray are allowed when we are intensely groupish. This kind of groupish thinking is radically incompatible with scientific thinking. Science is squeezed out, replaced by sacred objects, groupishness and authoritarian obeisance. At min 24, Haidt gets to the crux of his talk. Those of us who focus on the "care" (empathy) foundation of morality, often circle about it bonding with others like us, rejecting and denigrating the impulses and ideas that tend to drive those who are politically conservative.
A friend recently suggested Pema Chödrön as an insightful writer on issues of mindfulness and self-awareness. I was not disappointed. Here are some of my favorites: “The only reason we don't open our hearts and minds to other people is that they trigger confusion in us that we don't feel brave enough or sane enough to deal with. To the degree that we look clearly and compassionately at ourselves, we feel confident and fearless about looking into someone else's eyes. ” “If we learn to open our hearts, anyone, including the people who drive us crazy, can be our teacher.” “Fear is a natural reaction to moving closer to the truth” “To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest.” “Only to the extent that we expose ourselves over and over to annihilation can that which is indestructible in us be found.” “A further sign of health is that we don't become undone by fear and trembling, but we take it as a message that it's time to stop struggling and look directly at what's threatening us. ” “The difference between theism and nontheism is not whether one does or does not believe in God. . . Theism is a deep-seated conviction that there's some hand to hold: if we just do the right things, someone will appreciate us and take care of us. . . Nontheism is relaxing with the ambiguity and uncertainty of the present moment without reaching for anything to protect ourselves.” “Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It’s a relationship between equals. Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others. Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity.”
Lee Camp's latest. I really admire and enjoy his videos. Too bad so many of us have to reach for comedy to get real news, however.