Understanding the right...

Like many other Americans, I have watched in horror the political landscape unfold in this country as we seek to elect a new president. How is it possible that Trump is polling as well as he is? How is it possible that so many millions of Americans could support a candidate whose entire platform is based on hate, intolerance, xenophobia, conspiracy theories, and anger? To make matters even more incomprehensible a vast majority of these people call themselves christians! These so called christians who are obsessed with guns, committing violence against their neighbors, and who want to evict millions upon millions of foreigners.

I read somewhere recently that the number one cause of atheism in the world today are christians. All it takes is a cursory glance at christian's behavior in the United States today and one can easily see that that is certainly a valid argument.

As a former christian, who left the faith because of the actions of so many christians in America today, I am appalled at what our country has descended into. I am appalled that christians can stand for such evil, and yet hide it under the guise of love, compassion, and whatever other bullshit morality they choose to mask their vileness with.

So, I have been pondering a lot lately what could possibly cause such a widespread descent into madness? What is possessing the right to want to destroy a democracy and replace it with a dictatorship rooted in violence, anger, hate, and intolerance? An answer came to me yesterday while I was walking in the park by our house. I was listening to a podcast series by Alan Watts titled Being In The Way.

Around the fifteen minute mark of Episode four he said this:

The Great Tao flows everywhere both to the left and to the right. It loves and cherishes all things but does not lord it over them. When meritorious consequences arises it lays no claim to them.

[on the other hand] The western god is always laying claim to things. [christians say]... any good that I have done is of you. All the evil I have done is of me. You god ought to be thanked - for you have given us this and that.

In Buddhism nature is a system that does not have a boss. Everything happens of its self.

I cannot understand for the life of me, how people can be members of the republic like the United States yet hold to a monarchical theory of the universe. If the universe is a monarchy, then that is obviously the best form of government. To be self governing you have to have a measure of anarchy. You have to trust other people. As a country we find it very difficult to trust other people, this is the most paranoid country on earth. We are always saying there should be a law against it - stop people from doing this, stop people from doing that, and so on and so on... We are terrified that our neighbor might run amok. But you have to take the risk, if you want to live in a democracy, that your neighbor might run amok. Democracy is simply based on trusting your neighbor. Otherwise you have to have a police state and you are back to a monarchy.

Trusting your fellow man is central to democracy.

Those on the right are terrified of their neighbor. They do not trust their fellow man. They believe that their neighbors are running amok. They want a police state. Since they believe in the view of a western god they therefore believe that a monarchy is the best way to govern a country. They no longer want a democracy. They need to rule, with violence, over those that they deem are running amok.

The behavior that many, and hopefully a majority of Americans, are appalled by that is being orchestrated by Trump, and the right wing ideologies is rooted solely in a western view of god, a preference towards a monarchy or a police state.

Whereas the left has an eastern view of god that lends itself to a hands off approach. This view posits that

According to Tao everything is let go. If god had said: "I created everything but now I am going to disappear. I am no longer here." [Then...] everything will happen according to its nature. The more you let go, the better things work.

So, we are currently in a battle between the east and the west. The ying and yang. Do you want to be a country ruled as a police state? Than vote for Trump. Do you want to be a country ruled as a democracy? Than vote for Kamala.