Postings
Perfect Victim
Troublous times such as we live in can be a clarifying experience because they reveal previously unknown deficiencies. Have we not, every one of us, bitten into an apparently healthy fruit and found it totally rotten on the inside? Biting into the apple revealed the unseen rot within. By the same token, COVID-19 produced stresses which exposed profound defects in our secular society. The root cause of our current multiple predicaments is not some microscopic virus; the underlying issue is our refusal to consider spiritual reality.
Secular society has created the perfect victim
Billions of them
Sunny Dooley, nearly the last traditional Diné (we call them Navajo) storyteller, has said: “We have every social ill you can think of, and COVID has made these vulnerabilities more apparent. I look at it as a monster that is feasting on us—because we have built the perfect human for it to invade.”[1]
Her people had a profound spiritual practice but white people destroyed it. Their spirituality was based on connection with the land; they were forcibly removed from their land, thus destroying their spiritual roots. Later it was based on a relationship with their only property, their sheep, which were then purposely slaughtered. Their spiritual foundation was repeatedly destroyed. Children were violently taken from their families and forced to speak only English. Their culture, their spirituality and their language were stripped away. Because of these deliberate actions they had no spiritual foundation.
She also said there is anxiety and panic because a lot of her people do not know how to be alone, they have no spiritual practice to anchor them. Because of this they have nothing giving their lives meaning, purpose, and value. Those in power have destroyed the spiritual foundation of the Diné people. Those performing these atrocities thought white culture was superior, but their actions declare otherwise; whatever the relative value levels may be, any cultural transformation must be accomplished gradually. The same can be said about the so-called Emancipation Proclamation, while it was the moral thing to do, it suddenly ripped slaves out of an immoral bondage and replaced it with—nothing at all; more than 150 years later we are still experiencing consequences of that spiritual disassociation.
Sunny Dooley is talking about her people, the Navajo, but the same process also applies to our American society and a large portion of global society. Everywhere we look we see obesity, ill health, and individuals cut off from society, disenfranchised. Indeed COVID seems to have effected American society more than others. “But the COVID‑19 debacle has also touched—and implicated—nearly every other facet of American society: its shortsighted leadership, its disregard for expertise, its racial inequities, its social-media culture, and its fealty to a dangerous strain of individualism.”[2] Our culture has created the perfect victims for this monster.
Moral foundation
Everywhere we look we perceive human beings without a spiritual foundation; their lives are built upon the shifting sands of materialism, selfishness, and greed. Every human, every nation, every enterprise of any kind absolutely needs to be built upon spiritual reality. Material things may come and go but spiritual reality, God, is unchanging.
This notion of having a moral foundation may seem like something ephemeral or of no consequence; something for the weak-minded to chuckle over. They would no longer be jolly if they discovered their house was built upon quicksand. If it is vital for their material abode to have a firm foundation, why is it their lives, their very existence, are without a firm moral foundation?
Our society has been largely secular for so long, hundreds of years, there appears to be no alternative. But consider: every physical object needs something substantial to rest upon. We have difficulty walking on the soft sands of the beach; if we park our car in muddy terrain we will not be able to get out without assistance. Why then do we not seek some sort of foundation for our existence? Why do we presume to dance through our mortal days in the flesh without anything of substance guiding us, motivating us, and upholding us? Why do we feel we do not need something substantial to lift us up? Why do we think we can ignore God?
Our Heavenly Father who created all things and beings, who upholds all creation, is the ultimate bedrock. God is the most unyielding foundation possible. When our total existence is based upon this crucial truth we cannot fail. There may be apparent setbacks, there will certainly be difficulties, but in the final analysis failure is not possible when we steadfastly stand on our moral foundation, our Heavenly Father.
Pandemic
How does this apply to our current situation, COVID? First we have to be secure about our own moral foundation. We can do nothing if we are floundering spiritually. We need to fully recognize God as our pilot and the basis of our existence; that He is certainly present within our being, a vital part of each one of us.
We then expand this to recognize each person we can become aware of also has this God presence and therefore has value. Mind numbing figures might overwhelm us when we recognize every one of these thousands of human beings who depart Earth every day around the world had God within; their mortal existence was terminated prematurely by this monster we name COVID.
Only after that should we look at the broader picture. When we have a firm moral foundation we will examine facts instead of hearsay and social media gossip. Having God as our foundation means we look at science to guide our actions, not some anonymous tweeter. Once we have done these things we can then formulate our individual response.
Since each one of us is a unique individual, our reactions to COVID must also be singular. But these reactions absolutely need to be based upon our moral foundation, science, and recognizing every mortal has value. Once we have done all this we take every reasonable precaution: wearing masks and gloves when out, social distancing, avoiding indoor restaurants, and avoiding indoor gatherings of any kind. With online meetings such as Zoom we can conduct some business and meet with friends. We reserve hugs for our family members.
COVID is only an illuminating warning flare. It has exposed the dangers of our secular materialistic society. We ignore it at our peril, individually, societally, and globally.
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https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/coronavirus-is-attacking-the-navajo-because-we-have-built-the-perfect-human-for-it-to-invade/ Retrieved 7/21/2020. Sunny Dooley as told to Scientific American. ↑
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https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/09/coronavirus-american-failure/614191/?utm_source=nextdraft&utm_medium=website, retrieved 8/4/2020. How the pandemic defeated America, by Ed Yong ↑
Inequality
“Patriotism is loyalty to the country always; loyalty to the government when it deserves it.”[1]
In these times of coronavirus, disrespect for science, economic instability, cases of police brutality, and poplar uprisings against bigotry, we need a functioning government worthy of respect and loyalty. The underlying causes of these events have been simmering largely unrecognized for decades. One way to approach a partial understanding of them is to briefly examine bigotry.
The Unites States is one of few governments on the face of Earth that has erected monuments celebrating traitors against the government. A traitor is “a person who betrays his or her country; one guilty of treason or treachery.”[2] Article III, Section 3 of the United States Constitution declares treason consists in levying war against the U. S.; every confederate General and soldier is a traitor guilty of treason; this is true regardless of how the war ended. Our soldiers in the American Revolution were traitors in England but that struggle was successful, as a result we are one separate and free country. Declaration of war by southern states against the national government was an act of treason; those participating in this treason are traitors. They did not declare war on the north because it was not a separate political entity; war could only be declared on the national government. Currently there are even military bases on American soil named after traitors; these bases house brave, loyal American soldiers; a travesty.
When I moved to South Carolina from Pennsylvania in the late 1960’s, I had no concept of southern history. I subsequently bought a house near Summerville and began my working life. Later I took walks through the subdivision where I lived and noticed the names of various streets. It was many years before I realized the significance of these names. Most of them were named after confederate generals. One general, Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard, was celebrated by four streets; I lived on Toutant Court. One street was named Longstreet; naively I assumed this was because it was a long street but General James Longstreet was General Lee’s principal subordinate. Another street I walked on was Ruffin; I remember at the time having a creepy feeling about that name but only now do I realize its significance, forty years later. Edmund Ruffin was a Virginia land owner and political activist advocating slavery and states’ rights; after the war he committed suicide so he would not have to endure Yankee rule. I would not want to live on a street celebrating such a cowardly individual.
This is only one small subdivision near one moderate sized town in one state in the south; however, this state was the first to secede from the United States in December 1860. It offers an idea of how deeply bigotry permeates southern life. White society is largely oblivious, while human beings subjected to bigotry have been powerless for more than three hundred years. Bigotry has been an integral part of southern society, even global society, for so long eradicating it will be difficult. The only way to accomplish this is to help our sisters and brothers become more aware of spiritual truths, revealed in teachings of The Urantia Book.
Among these is the truth every thinking human being on the face of Earth has within them a spark of God.[3] God is truly “no respecter of persons;”[4] He respects everyone equally, no exceptions. When will those who pretend to follow teachings in the Bible realize this?
Black lives matter; brown lives matter; LGBTQ lives matter. That is a truism. It is heartening to witness sisters and brothers of all colors and orientations marching in solidarity with this realization. These demonstrations are taking place in many lands.
Any nation cannot function efficiently if a portion of that nation is systematically marginalized, disenfranchised, put down. Each citizen of every nation must become empowered to become the best they can be and contribute to society; only then can society continue smoothly into the future. Our society is not even close to approaching this moral goal.
Other trends also contribute to current events; one is oppressive materialism which contributes to inequality. With materialism there is generally no consideration of the rights and needs of others, its goal is to increase one’s own wealth.
Current economic policy is built largely on “trickle down” economics where government assistance is donated to the wealthy in the hope they will trickle part of this upon those in need. Instead of “trickle down,” why not “growing up?” Instead of giving wealth to those who already have wealth, hoping some of this might be “trickled down” upon the rest of humanity, why not give assistance to those truly in need? Unlike the wealthy, those in need do not have the luxury of “options.” The wealthy have many options to place wealth they receive, and out of this multitude only one is to bestow, or trickle down, their largess upon those requiring assistance. “Growing up” would involve giving assistance to those in need (what a radical concept!) with the knowledge they have a very limited set of options. Most of these options are concerned with protection of life itself: feed the children, pay the rent, buy clothes for the children, pay for needed medication, transportation to work, child care expenses, and so much more. There might also be an occasional bottle of something to ease their pains and bring relaxation, good for them. The wealthy have options while those in poverty have very few. Most of the funds they receive will quickly be put into circulation. In this case, to receive funds, the wealthy would actually need to do something, such as provide services which needy persons could now afford; they would actually need to put forth effort to receive wealth the same as everybody else.
Seeking to remedy this situation, radical proposals have been made by politicians who care about assisting the disadvantaged. These proposals have not received wide-spread support because paying for them would be difficult. This funding would not be such a problem if welfare for the wealthy were replaced with “growing up,” assisting those in poverty. Politicians should also consider there are several orders of magnitude more needy individuals than there are wealthy welfare recipients, and they would certainly vote their thanksgiving, if given assistance.
How do we get from here to there?
There are proposals for doing this; one of them states: “White Supremacy, a political economy based on the disenfranchisement of people of color and concentrating wealth among the white population, is the foundation and on-going pre-existing condition that brings disproportionate harm to communities of color in crisis after crisis from Katrina to COVID.”[5] Institutionalized economic inequality and racism are intimately interconnected. This structure of society has been in place for so long there appears to be no hope in overthrowing it; however, with a strong motivating force these radical proposals could become reality. The vital element is a strong, faith based, desire to make a difference in the world; a desire to enlarge the concept of the brotherhood of all humans so it truly includes all humanity.
This proposal involves three phases; Phase one is Emergency Measures. This would start with improved data collection on racial inequality; changes cannot be made without proper data. Using this data, proposed recovery plans would be audited with respect to their effect on racial inequality. There would be income support that transitions into a guaranteed income. This report also suggests expanding the Postal System to include banking; this would allow the disadvantaged to gain access to financial products they currently cannot obtain.
Phase two is Emerging from Recession, the first element of which is Medicare for all. “The racial disparities in Covid-19 mortality dramatize the moral necessity to have a system that boosts overall health equity and wellness.”[6] The next proposal would promote equitable home ownership and housing. There would also be a federal jobs guarantee with a living wage; these may be public service jobs with the government being the employer of last resort. Finally there would be Baby Bonds given to every newborn, they would be managed by the government and be available for home purchasing and other investments when adulthood is reached.
Phase three is Interrupting Inequality, which has several tax reform proposals aimed at reducing inequality.
Proposals for making society more equitable for every mortal are out there waiting to be implemented; we must have the will to fully realize them. Each one of our sisters and brothers has within them a spark of God; society must act on this truth because its future is at risk.
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There are a few versions of this attributed to Mark Twain. ↑
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Third College Edition Webster’s New World Dictionary of American English, Victoria Neufeldt and David B. Guralnik eds., Webster’s New World, Cleveland and New York, 1988, p 1418. ↑
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Bible, I Corinthians 3:16 ↑
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Bible, Acts 10:34 ↑
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“White supremacy is the pre-existing condition: eight solutions to ensure economic recovery reduces the racial divide” by Darrick Hamilton, Preface, Co-authors Dedrick Asante-Muhammad, Chuck Collins and Omar Ocampo, downloaded 7/2/20 from https://ips-dc.org/white-supremacy-preexisting-condition-eight-solutions-economic-recovery-racial-wealth-divide/, p 2. ↑
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Hamilton et.al p 4. ↑
Sovereignty
Parliament
Click on photo for information about it.
This posting on sovereignty is a slightly condensed version of a new Talking Points page. This is an important topic in these times of unsettling events in many areas. We the people have the right to direct our government and how it functions; however, what is our recourse when government appears unable to deal with current events? How can we incorporate revelations about spiritual reality into our societal interactions, help everyone to become empowered, and participate in society?
While in England June 2015, we spent a few nights at Runnymede on the Themes, which is within walking distance of where the Magna Carta was signed that same month exactly 800 years previously. (When reservations were made we had no idea of the significance of its location.) In that unremarkable field, today a cow pasture, the concept of sovereignty of the people was given birth as a result of actions by a group of barons against King John. Growth of the idea of sovereignty of the people was gradual and marked by uneven progress, but this was an historic turning point in the history of government on Earth, when it started moving away from absolute monarchs, toward something more representative of the people’s will.
Representative government such as ours is the best form of government available to evolutionary beings.[1] Having government answerable to the people is the only way to govern because this allows citizens to elect their representatives at all levels of government. When voters are educated and involved in the process, this works quite well. However, there are potential dangers with this system; it may glorify mediocrity, ignorant rulers might be chosen, it may have a majority of uneducated and indolent citizens, and also become slavery to public opinion instead of well-informed reason.[2] Our government has certainly been influenced by these democracy destroying effects.
Our form of government has evolved over the years resulting in the American democracy which has been in place for over 230 years. While it functioned well in the past, it is now fraying around the edges. We need to discover and implement something better.
Mother Earth has inherited a patchwork system of nation-states each claiming absolute sovereignty over territory, even extending out into the surrounding ocean and sky above. Borders of each nation are sometimes arbitrary, subject to change; except for island nations, there is no obvious way to separate one from another. Photos of our beautiful blue orb from space show no national boundaries, only a blue marble apparently isolated in space.
Each nation claims the right to do whatever it wants to its citizens and environment. Various nations are constantly competing on many levels; the United Nations is able to deal with many issues but unable to prevent wars or persuade powerful nations to refrain from harming its own citizens or environment. This is because it has no sovereign authority; it must instead deal with each nation claiming total sovereignty. Environmental issues, especially groundwater and atmosphere, expand to affect other nations who generally can do nothing against pollution coming in by water and air.
Sovereignty is defined as the supreme political authority.[3] On Earth sovereignty resides in each nation, and its citizens. This patchwork system is unable to cope with problems arising from competing interests of the various nations.
As long as nations claim absolute sovereignty over their territory, it will be impossible to have peace on Earth. People of Earth must rise up and assert true sovereignty, that of all citizens of this planet, this beautiful blue sphere in space. As long as nations cling to the fiction of national sovereignty there will be no peace on planet Earth. People of our planet have to endure destructive wars which are the direct consequence of this false notion of national sovereignty. You cannot prevent nations going to war as long as they remain infected with the delusional virus of national sovereignty. (Urantia Book, 1489.1) While it may appear war is a disease on our planet, that is not the case; war is a symptom of the virus of national sovereignty.[4]
With scientific progress, wars are going to become more and more devastating until they become almost racially suicidal. (Urantia Book, 1490.3) Having atom bombs, missiles, chemical, and biological weapons of mass destruction, we have arrived at the point where wars are truly suicidal. It is imperative we find a way to end “the delusional virus of national sovereignty” before the next widespread war. Future of life on our planet is at stake.
Our planet is one complete heavenly body; arbitrary lines drawn on paper have no validity other than historical precedent. When one segment of society, one nation, claims to formulate laws and regulations without considering global reality, that nation is irresponsible. Currently one nation can pollute the air or water going into another and be restrained only by unenforceable regulations. “Democracy is a sham unless it is world democracy.”[5]
The only legitimate sovereignty is that of all people of Earth; anything else is fiction.[6] We are one Earth, one beautiful blue marble in space, one people; every thinking mortal is equally indwelt by a fragment of God. Arbitrarily selecting one group of humans and declaring they can decide for themselves how to construct their government while at the same time ignoring the rest of humanity is an insult to reason.
There are only two levels of genuine sovereignty; first, the individual who has spiritual free will to make personal decisions. The second level is that of all humanity, there are no intervening levels.[7]
It will require government of all mankind to solve problems of all mankind. Nothing short of this can possibly work.[8] We have seen this on a smaller scale; in America individual states gave up their sovereignty to the United States government. Also, England, Scotland and Wales fought many wars until they gave their sovereignty to the United Kingdom.[9]
The best political system cannot be enacted until we have intelligence, spiritual receptivity, discipline, and wisdom to properly implement it and persevere in its operation. Now is the time to seek God’s will in creating a better political system for our planet, assist global political evolution; we need Earth Federation.
Earth Federation is a systematic structure for a world government, complete with a ratified and amended constitution, and a procedure for implementation. Nations can only enter this Federation after a majority of its citizens have voted to request it; their entry will become final when the nation has disbanded its military, given Earth Federation half of the money thus saved, and destroyed all weapons of mass destruction.
Peace will not come to Urantia until every so-called sovereign nation surrenders its power to make war into the hands of a representative government of all mankind. Political sovereignty is innate with the peoples of the world. When all the peoples of Urantia create a world government, they have the right and the power to make such a government SOVEREIGN; and when such a representative or democratic world power controls the world’s land, air, and naval forces, peace on earth and good will among men can prevail — but not until then. (Urantia Book, 1489.3)
Government of All Mankind is the next logical step in political evolution. Only such a government with global sovereignty has any chance to bring warring nations together in peace and brotherhood. Sometime the supernational sovereignty of the planetary government of mankind will be similarly created by nations for their own benefit and for the benefit of all men. (Urantia Book, 1490.1) This will happen and we must work to realize Earth Federation; the only other option is to wait for another world war which would probably bring global annihilation of all life.
When government becomes unable to deal with current events people must become aware of the situation, examine various possibilities, then vote for responsible, able, and experienced public officials; the duty of citizenship means citizens must wisely exercise their sovereignty. It is also the duty, even the responsibility, of those given an advanced revelation such as The Urantia Book to live these teachings. This is especially true of the realization everyone equally has a spark of God within, we are all sisters and brothers; all of our interpersonal relationships need to be infused with this truth.
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The Urantia Book, 517.5, this refers to the page.paragraph of the one column edition. All references are to The Urantia Book unless otherwise noted. 517.5 ↑
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801.13 – 801.18 ↑
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Third College Edition Webster’s New World Dictionary of American English, Victoria Neufeldt and David B. Guralnik eds., Webster’s New World, Cleveland and New York, 1988, p 1283 ↑
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1491.1 ↑
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“World Revolution Through World Law, Basic Documents of the Emerging Earth Federation;” Edited with an introduction and other writings by Glen T. Martin, Institute for Economic Democracy Publisher, Sun City, AZ, 2006, p 181 ↑
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Martin, p 66 ↑
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1487.9 ↑
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1490.5 ↑
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1490.6 ↑
Agnotology
This posting is a condensed version of a new entry on the Talking Points page. The subject is Agnotology, the study of ignorance. We certainly have an abundance of ignorance and outright lying these days!
The study of ignorance, its origin and nature has been termed agnotology,[1] which was crafted from the same Greek word as agnostic. One way to study ignorance is to divide it into three basic types. The first of these is native state; these are things we have not yet discovered. The second is called lost realm, which are things we previously knew but have forgotten. The final type is the one we are interested in: strategic ploy, deliberately constructed ignorance by a group promoting a certain agenda.[2] “Ignorance can be an actively engineered part of a deliberate plan.”[3]
The deliberate spreading of falsehood is one of the tactics used by the followers of our fallen planetary prince; this activity is deliberate and they know exactly what they are doing. This deliberate spreading of lies is the way they operate. What they disseminate is misinformation, and they know it is false. Furthermore they actively promote and spread these statements they know to be lies; their motto might be: “we rule you if we can fool you.”[4]
This type of agnotology is spread by special interest groups having an ideology not generally accepted; they fully believe in their agenda, so much so they will do anything to bring it into a wider acceptance. Since they have such a firm belief in their tenets they feel justified in spreading lies to attain their goals. Indeed there is no limit to the techniques they will use to further their plans; for them the end does justify the means, there is no cultural or moral restraint to their activity.
In our society the spreading of deliberate lies has become simple due to our internet technology and social media; for these outlets there is little checking of facts, everything put out there is assumed to be absolute truth. There are even students of The Urantia Book who believe outrageous lies published on these media. Each of us needs to be critical of information we receive; we need to think for ourselves.
Truth is diluted by an avalanche of lies in this process; the forces opposing truth can put out a blizzard of lies obscuring all truth and leading many astray. Thinking persons must be careful and attempt to discover where truth resides; we must consider the source of any information we receive before we make up our mind.
One of the most glaring examples of agnotology is the tobacco industry denying their product causes cancer; an executive of that industry “stated doubt is our product.”[5] The tobacco industry utilized countless agnotology schemes to create doubt concerning the scientific evidence about the cancer causing effect of tobacco. Among these are: advertising, funding questionable research, set up organizations acting as a mouthpiece for the industry, press releases containing falsehoods, compiling friendly research for publication in poplar outlets and many other such projects. They also had a vast amount of money to fund these efforts.[6] At every turn the industry denied, spread falsehoods and did everything to obfuscate reality, even though there was good scientific research linking tobacco with cancer.[7]
Willful dissemination of falsehood has become so commonplace it is hardly noticed, and this is a sad commentary on our society. It seems we cannot trust anyone to tell the truth; this is not a modern phenomenon; lie telling has been with us for a very long time indeed.
Deliberately spreading lies was one of the main techniques used by Hitler and the Nazis in their rise to power. There is a well-known quote by their propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels to this effect: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” And: “the truth is the greatest enemy of the state.”[8] The methods and results of the Nazis are well known.
The political arena is fertile ground for lie telling. It is too easy to make up a wild story defaming one’s opponent and publish it without any basis in fact whatsoever. Another tactic frequently used is cherry picking voting records; they pick a few votes bolstering the position they want to promote against their opponent while ignoring the vast number that do not. Lie telling has become prevalent in our society; a consequence of not having a strong moral foundation.
This prevalence of lie telling is what happens when any society ignores spiritual reality. Certainly if we ignore future eternity, if we ignore God, if we ignore true values, then we are free to do whatever we might want. Where will you be in a thousand years? What will be the spiritual harvest of your actions? The quality of our decisions during life in the flesh determines the nature of our service and adventure opportunities in eternity. We can ignore truth only so long; eventually it rises up and asserts itself. When reality rises up and bites you on the buttocks will you be on God’s side or on the side of those who cannot face spiritual reality?
We recognize a serious problem, what can each of us do about it? First is stick to the truth, not in any circumstances stoop to the level of truth deniers, because when we fall to their level we become one of them. It is imperative we stick to truth and emphasize reality. The moment we fall to their level we may be lost. Those working against truth have much experience; they absolutely know what they are doing. Therefore we must be patient, follow the internal guidance each of us has, and fearlessly confront the truth deniers.
They can be defeated by reason, patience and determination; we must not be caught up in the emotional displays they use to obscure their falsehoods. When we consistently stick to truth, we weaken their position. They have no real facts to bolster their position, they can only bring up half-truths or harangue about nothing until those upholding reality give up. As long as we, truth tellers, stick to our positions, and if we are strong, we will be able to withstand the sophistry of evil.
We must counteract lie tellers point by point, dealing with each false issue they concoct. One problem lie tellers have is keeping all their lies consistent; we who stick to truth have only one story making it easier for us. We must not be dismayed when liars publish wild and untrue stories about us, and we must be steadfast declaring truth even though nobody may believe it. Eventually truth will come out.
Tags: Agnotology, Ideologically Driven Processes, Moral Foundation
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“Agnotology: The making and Unmaking of Ignorance” Edited by Robert N. Proctor and Londa Schiebinger, Stanford University Press, Stanford California, 2008, p. vii ↑
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Proctor p.3 ↑
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Ibid p. 9 ↑
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Ibid p. 11 ↑
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Proctor p. 1 ↑
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Ibid p. 17 ↑
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During the first half of the twentieth century the author’s uncle, Dr. Leonell C. Strong, was one of these researchers and he remembers visiting Dr. Strong’s lab when young. Among other research Dr. Strong painted tobacco tars on mice and observed the tumors formed. A biography of Dr. Strong can be found at: https://acsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.3322/canjclin.29.1.54 ↑
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Thinkexist.com/quotation/-if_you_tell_a_lie_big_enough_and_keep_repeating/345877.html, retrieved 4/13/2020 ↑