The innocent majority are also the passive majority

Brenna wrote:

OB1Shinobi wrote: if i take responsibility for combating all the evil in the world i wont have any time left for videogames or youtube

i dont have the influence to pick up the phone and have a conversation that will result in any kind of policy change or political initiative

i am, beyond a certain level, quite powerless

as jedi, is there a level of cultural influence/power that we should actively pursue?

Firstly.... lol

And second, you're right, you don't have the power to create vast political change.

But what CAN you do? You can educate yourself on the issues, you can educate others. You can do what you are able within your own sphere of influence to cultivate tolerance and peace and help people see the real enemy. You can support others who are taking initiative or also helping to foster peace and tolerance. And above all, action at whatever level you can. Its a war of both ideology and combat. Let those who can deal with combat do their thing, and everyone else contribute to a change in ideology.


The thing about the [strike]innocent[/strike] passive majority is that they wring their hands and say 'But i don't have the influence to do anything"

how do you articulate what "the real enemy" is?

i agree there is one

i dont think its simply "the terrorists", and certainly its not muslims, but i am having a difficult time finding a way to express my view

OB1Shinobi wrote:
how do you articulate what "the real enemy" is?

The ideology that one life is more or less valuable or worthy of living than another because of differing beliefs.

Brenna wrote: Does not participating in evil mean we are innocent of it if we do nothing about preventing it?

Of course not but it can depend on many things. The main reason that the terrorists of today do not consider these 'irrelevant people' to be innocent is because the people simply are the tax base for which all the money Western governments use to fund their foreign policy operations and war machines. These people also do not hold their governments accountable for the actions they take, or simply blindly support them without being told all of the facts.

This view however is not entirely true because in reality the people are forced to pay the taxes and in between going to school, going to work, taking loans, paying bills, taking care of family, taking care of self, there is no room for serious consideration about politics and history because the little time people get to themselves they try to do things that make them happy. Unfortunately most are fed by the same system that tells them how to live their lives with all the sports, sex, drugs, material competition, Hollywood media. A lot of people load themselves up with so much junk food, prescription drugs and have been systematically exposed to various heavy metals and toxins in their environment they barely have much cognitive function left and can't even think clearly.

Also it really seems as though politics are a joke, electronic voting opens the door for the entire process to be rigged. Besides that there is no real difference, sometimes we might get a real politician or social figure who might come out and expose some of the real fundamental issues or try to make changes but they're ignored, killed, or "debunked". The other thing is that with all the ideologies floating around, they're all blamed for being the source of the problem whether it be capitalism, socialism, communism, none of which we've ever really even experienced the true forms of these systems due to them just being sold to us as ideas for a small minority to use to consolidate their own wealth and power which is why the ideologies themselves become scapegoats that separate people even more.

“The choice is not between violence and nonviolence but between nonviolence and nonexistence.” -MLK

Not only that, when she talks about how Hitler, Stalin, Mao, ISIS and the like came about regardless of the peaceful population we also must consider which has already been metioned: the propaganda machines, herd mentality, basically winning the hearts and minds of the populations. But another major factor often overlooked is that specifically with Hitler, Mao, and Stalin the populations were basically disarmed and subjected to strict gun control so these people who were all exterminated had no methods to defend themselves or try to prevent what was happening. Then she also must be totally unaware of a much more interesting side to all of these problems having to do with how they came about. From how Hitler was bankrolled , how the Bolsheviks and communsts were bankrolled , who trained Mao's forces and supported them, and what's really messed up is the ties between the US and AQI/ISIL.

A major solution would be that the passive, irrelevant people to start consciously becoming aware of the history surrounding geopolitical events and dig deeper than what they've been told in school, on tv and by the government. The sleeping giant should awaken and realize the emperor wears no clothes and through mass non-compliance and non-participation across the board hold the leaders accountable for their actions. Then maybe foreign policy would change and the war machine could stop, the funding of various extremists would stop and governments could serve their citizens and land as they're suppose to. The problem is that many dirty tricks can be played from false flags to divide and conquer tactics because the Palpatine's of the world have unlimited money and resources to do whatever they want. So really only solution for us as individuals is to just learn, be aware of the various agendas at play and become prepared to face them in their many forms and outcomes.

"And second, you're right, you don't have the power to create vast political change.

But what CAN you do? [/quote]

You can be the first domino...

Rickie wrote:

"And second, you're right, you don't have the power to create vast political change.

But what CAN you do?

You can be the first domino...

This touches on an issue I've been meaning to raise, how does creating vast political change square away with the 14th Maxim of discretion? Thoughts?

Lightstrider wrote: A major solution would be that the passive, irrelevant people to start consciously becoming aware of the history surrounding geopolitical events and dig deeper than what they've been told in school, on tv and by the government.

Or the internet. LOL

I can link it to the TOTJO tenets nicely, such that the trick is working through all available information and looking for authentic representation (what the focus), accuracy of facts (its knowledge), timeliness of data (how it relates to reality ie wisdom).

Keeping that in mind might help us avoid different bias and agenda most importantly, as they can deliberately use complexity to mislead/misinform. Also of course checking sources of accuracy but also correct interpretation not only illuminates the quality of information but lets you get closer to the source of information - which itself is often the most useful piece of the puzzle - because each time someone interprets or translates something, its runs the real risk of being skewed a bit more each time. Things like who is author, why are they presenting this, how fairly is it supported and presented. It is interesting to look for fabrications, as how might they be designed to mislead is a sure sign of deliberate bias - which means the information becomes much more 'dirty' and takes longer to work through for the bits of gold. Another good thing to look out for is if any laws apply to the process of generating information from data, as ideally those processes should have tighter controls then Jedi Adder sitting in his bedroom cherry picking data to build a particular case....
:lol:

CryojenX wrote:

Rickie wrote:

"And second, you're right, you don't have the power to create vast political change.

But what CAN you do?

You can be the first domino...

This touches on an issue I've been meaning to raise, how does creating vast political change square away with the 14th Maxim of discretion? Thoughts?

The 3rd and 4th Teachings inform that Maxim for me.

Adder wrote:

Lightstrider wrote: A major solution would be that the passive, irrelevant people to start consciously becoming aware of the history surrounding geopolitical events and dig deeper than what they've been told in school, on tv and by the government.

Or the internet. LOL

I can link it to the TOTJO tenets nicely, such that the trick is working through all available information and looking for authentic representation (what the focus), accuracy of facts (its knowledge), timeliness of data (how it relates to reality ie wisdom)

Yup as you can see I get caught up in the internet just as bad as I and many others claim people are caught up elsewhere. But sometimes we all have to fall for things and be a tool used to further the understanding from all sides.