More Reader Replies

Paris, Feb. 18, 2005

Dear Friend and Reader:

Here are a few more replies to my query last night about how we've felt during Mars retrograde, and about the revelations that have come in the past six months.

e

Eric,

As to why people are pissed off or not regarding what's been happening here in the U.S., I have been outraged for so long now that it's become exhausting. What with the recent news that the Patriot Act will be re-upped and that Bush has gotten away with his domestic spying to the point that the toothless, ethics-free Senate will not be investigating after all, I'm ready to tune out on politics as an urgent move for self-preservation.

Why would any of your readers NOT be pissed off? How can people keep their denial going?

Alan

Hi Eric,

I have to admit I go through all emotions, shock, anger, sadness, hopelessness, and hopeful sometimes all in the same day. When I look at the state of the world...on the surface it appears that injustice occurs on a regular basis everywhere...I have realized recently how I grew up thinking how lucky I was to live in a "democracy" and how much I really didn't care about anything political...I just lived my own little life with its trials and tribulations...more recently I have become so aware of how responsible the collective West is for so many of the injustices in the World and how responsible we personally are who live here by our ways...the way some of us live shallow and arrogant lives purposefully or out of necessity, the cars we drive (not caring about the environment), the products we buy (not caring about where they are made and the huge profits being made), the lies we tell ourselves to perhaps numb ourselves to the reality of what is really going on in the world...Most of the time, I have to admit, I am not angry. I have angry outbursts when I see people defending the wars and atrocities and putting their spin on it, but I am mostly sad and frustrated, it truly hurts to see what is being done to human beings around the world and what we are doing to each other and our planet. Personally, I am thankful for people like yourself for and others for helping us to become aware. I think just by becoming more aware of who we are and what we can bring to our community around us, it will help to balance and shift the energy of what is going on. I also think that when you are working on yourself, you will gain the strength to be involved in things that may actually make a difference globally. I think the series of events from July to now have been actually shocking, maddening but a good sign...things are unraveling, people are finally, slowly clueing in to what the Bushco government is about and revelations are being made...but we still have a long way to go...

Hi Eric,

I've been furious about how a bunch of white men run the world from as long as I can think back and; it's making me unhappy. There seems to be little point in being angry all the time. True, anger is what gets the grassroots going, but it also clouds vision, makes you pay too little attention to what else is going on and most importantly, makes it extremely difficult to meet the world around you with love and compassion. I don't want to be angry all the time, and yet, goings-on in the public sphere and my personal life leave precious little room for other ways of responding appropriately.

I've been a feminist for almost as long as I can think back, and the most valuable lesson it taught me is that anger paired with a message for equality and gender justice doesn't reach the people that need to listen. More often then not, they will only feel the anger and react defensively.

So what is to be done?

Over the last half year, I think I learned how to refine my message is such a way as to make it impossible to know me and not know about the issues that I care about and that I think need changing. In short, I've become the 'message' and I think I changed more people's ideas, especially on gender issues, using the 'embodiment' approach, because it fosters conversation and discussion.

Another thing:
I've been learning a lot about how to survive without supermarkets and Top Shop, because I'm not so sure that the system underlying western civilisation is going to stand the test of time; so good idea to know how to survive being a 13th century peasant!

But I think the most important thing I learned over the past 6 months is that the only thing that I have that is really worth having are my relationships, everything else is secondary, everything.

Best, C