If we’re to believe Glenn Beck, the timing of his speech today at the Lincoln Memorial was the result of ‘divine coincidence.’
The over-the-top, emotional, right-wing talk-show host at Fox News is leading a rally at the site of Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a Dream’ speech 47 years to the day of King’s famous speech.
“We picked August 28. It was open in my schedule. When I announced it, The New York Times blogged immediately that this is Martin Luther King Day, and I immediately said, ‘Oh my gosh!’ ”
No matter what you think of Beck and his politics, it sounds like an insidious lie on his part to suggest that synchronicity rather than calculated planning was at the heart of the timing and location of the speech.
Keep in mind that Beck has a history of playing hard and fast with civil rights issues. He has a habit of comparing historical figures, such as Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks, to himself and civil right rallies in which participants were beaten by police and attacked by dogs with his own middle-class, white-bread rallies. Of course, what Beck sees as ‘restoring honor’ by protesting against big government, is actually a reactionary event laced with racism, a fight against the inevitable change in the country’s racial complexion and political leanings.
Listen to Beck co-op the civil rights movement as he talks about his faithful Tea Party followers. “This is a moment, quite honestly, that I think we reclaim the civil rights movement. We are on the side of individual freedoms and liberties and, damn it, we will reclaim the civil rights movement … we will take that movement because we were the people who did it in the first place.” Huh?
Rather than a divine coincidence, Beck’s rally in Washington D.C. today is a great example of what Kurt Vonnegut called a Granfaloon in Cat’s Cradle. In that novel, Vonnegut describes the concept of a Karass, which is a group of people who are working together unknowingly as part of a greater cosmic plan. You learn that you’re part of a Karass when meaningful coincidences occur between you and other members of the Karass. However, in the cosmology of Cat’s Cradle, there’s the danger of finding yourself in a false Karass–which involve coincidences that aren’t meaningful, or that aren’t really coincidences. When that happens, you find yourself in a Granfaloon.
It appears that Beck and his avid followers are stuck inside of a Granfaloon,based on hatred, bigotry, and a desire to return to the past…when certain people knew their place.
There was one real synchronicity with Beck's show yesterday. I just saw on CNN a clip about the arrest of one of the members of the "church" group that goes around to the funerals of fallen veterans harassing the mourners spouting hatred. He used pepper spray on mourners at a graveside service while shouting that the war deaths were God's punishment for homosexuality. This weekend is also a remembrance of Katrina five years ago. Remember Falwell and Robertson claiming the devastation in New Orleans was God's punishment for this city full of sin.
I also worry about this increase in intolerance because I have two granddaughters and and a great granddaughter who are multiracial and a grandson in the Navy going to nuclear power school who had his security clearance delayed because his father, whom he has never met, was a member of the Saudi Air Force. He had to prove that he never met the man and has no idea where he is and that his mother has not had contact since the man returned to his home country before my grandson was born.
As to Beck, the only time I ever hear about him is when watching Keith Olbermann on MSNBC bring up how laughably dangerous he is. Any other network would put him on for comic relief. Fox chooses to take him seriously. I can hardly disagree with Olbermann on the days he calls Beck, "The Worst Person in the World."
People like Beck are one of the reasons I never hung around with groups of Americans when traveling abroad.
Ray
I believe that the general complacency and lack of involvement in issues of importance
in this country has finally caught up with us un a huge way, combined with greed and complete self-orientation in varying degrees. I can compare the complacency to a person who ignores a sore tooth, thinking it will simply go away on its own, and suddenly the tooth blows up into a pus-filled abcess and the infection spreads its deadly toxins and poisons systemically. Don't mean to be so graphic. It has taken sudden and intense damage to get the attention of the masses. I hope it isn't too late. I don't think it's ever too late to move towards recovery! cj
Von – I can't agree more. It's truly disturbing. The American psyche seems to be schizophrenic.
Here in Australia some of us have heard about Beck and what is going on.From the outside looking in it is hard to see what has changed right the way through your history.The balances change but underlying it all is something deeply disturbing.
Beck imitating MLK's 'I had a Dream' speech:
“Filthy Rich at last! Filthy Rich at last! Thank Gawd Almighty, I am Filthy Rich at last!”
Debra – it seems that the bar was set so low under bush that all the wackos coming out of the woodwork actually get media coverage – i.e., palin and her ilk. It does seem like these people embody a dying paradigm.
Unfortunately, this paradigm just keeps on gasping, stirring hatred, racism, and divisiveness.
I've spoken with Ted on many occasions about the difference between the Christ-Consciousness and the man Jesus, who apparently did embody the Christ-Consciousness, but certainly has not been the only human who has expressed that frequency. And it IS a frequency, imho. There is a Satan frequency, an anti-Christ frequency, a Christ frequency, etc., and human beings resonate upon and within the influences of those, and other, frequencies. Hitler, as an example, having the same frequency as the man Jesus, chose to resonate on the negative, or Anti-Christ, frequency, while Jesus, the Nazarene, carrying that same frequency, chose to express the Christ frequency. So, too, did Buddha, Mother Therese, and others. But Christians will not accept this universal concept of a Christ-Consciousness. They are brainwashed and choose to believe there is only one who has expressed the Christ Consciousness and that there is no other. There's no talking to them about it. I have suggested to my husband, with some power, that if he continues on the path he is currently treading, his soul will very likely choose future incarnations that are less than desirable….that he may be among those against whom his prejudice rages. Like most who are on his path, he refuses to understand the implications. I must follow my own soul's directives and can no longer expend or waste precious energy trying to assist him towards a vestige of enlightenment. He is too entrenched in the old ways and is becoming more and more so. He does believe in reincarnation, but doesn't comprehend the simple concept that "what goes round, comes round". I've given up. cj
This discussion is one that close to my heart. I am in an interracial marriage, and deal with the consequences of the fear and ignorance of racism daily.(We've known each other for 22 years, been married 16). Seeing some Americans "backslide"– go backwards toward white elitism through fear mongering has been dismaying. I haven't felt safe enough to blog out right about it. I don't want to harm my husband or my daughter. I feel I am taking risk saying anything at all. My older daughter is 25, and she has had the fortune to be raised in a loving multicultural environment. Her stepfather has been a light and an inspiration to her and her friends (who are also multicultural). I do have hope in some of the younger generation through the actions of my daughter and her friends.
Even so, I find the rise of the tea party , "white power", and old ways as a marring of the fabric of American history. Hatred of the "other" can only weaken what American aspires to to be.
The Jesus vibe, it seems, is largely oriented toward young souls, many on a lower path. Christ consciousness, which is not associated with a personality, is another matter.
Connie, maybe if you suggest to hubby that racists end up in a low-vibration realm along with the suicides, rapists and ax murderers, he might think twice about his beliefs.
It's comforting to think that Beck's hate mongering isn't an international phenomenon, Mike.
Interesting post (and comments) though I've never heard of this 'gentleman' previously.
Nancy, you are right. My in-laws are evangelical Baptist Christians
who live in the Bible-belt. What I find most disturbing, as I listen to their conversations when they visit, is that they espouse hate and war and are pro-Bush. I find this so diabolically paradoxical. The Master Teacher Jesus was the personification of Love and Peace, yet accoding to authentic historians, more humans have been killed in the name of Christianity than all other religions combined. I'm not Christian, but I do revere those Master Teachers who have brought Light into the world, including Jesus, Buddha and many others. I can't wrap my mind around these hundreds of thousands of "Christians" who preach and practice hate. I simply can't. cj
I ordered some seeds the other day from a website. These seeds are actually able to produce their own seeds, unlike the barren Monsanto seeds that are the only ones available to buy. Anyway, after ordering them I began receiving a rash of information on how to survive off the grid. But along with it came a running political commentary blaming "Obama's socialist leanings". I finally emailed them last night stating I no longer wanted to be on their mailing list and was tired of their political commentary. Geeze – they're everywhere. I am so tired of the hate, fear and blame game. If there is going to be a catastrophe of epic proportions, and I think there might be – it won't be because of Obama. He's been in office less than two years, our problems have been in the making for much longer than that. But people like Beck, Limbaugh, Fox News, feed on the insecurity and innate desire of some to blame everyone and everything on others. Especially those the least able to defend themselves. What is truly amazing about these demigods is they are all for our troops – but absolutely none of them ever served in the armed forces. I find that same attitude with some members of my family, unfortunately.
I agree, Rob. Husband often mentions "the good ole days". It's been incredibly strange, and disheartening, almost frightening, to see a man who stops on the side of the road to change a tire for an elderly black woman, or who gives a homeless black fellow money for food, and who STILL does these acts of kindness, have his mind so impacted by the rampage of hatred infecting the entire world today like a malignant cancer spreading its blackness. My hope is for the children. Husband is old enough and intelligent enough to know the difference between right and wrong, (right and left???) and has been pulled into darkness. But the children? We have a responsibility to them to shed as much light as we can, to help them live in that higher vibration of light and love. The task is upon us to do that. cj
Vonnegut's dark humor is greatly missed. I agree completely with your comment above – we're very rapidly confronted with global crisis and a global civilization, and the need to evolve into that kind of thinking – sadly, a lot of regression and fundamentalism is inevitable as times become more frightening and difficult.
It is ironic to me that Jesus of Nazareth, a rebel teacher who went against the corruption of his day and was silenced for it………taught simplicity, non-materialism, non-violence, and tolerance as the path to love. I simply can't comprehend how teachings are turned into the kind of violence, bigotry, and hatred that has occurred throughout history.
IMO, it's a last ditch effort to return to the 'good ol' days.' We're in for a lot of change in the U.S. and elsewhere, and some of it won't be pretty. A lot of people won't be able to handle in and will be ready to leave the planet en mass. Politics is only a part of it. But there's no turning back.
However, at the 'Beckoning' there are whispers among the faithful, the ones carrying the Book. "Is he the one, is he really the one?"
NOOOOO!!!
But there is a nigher vibration coming. – R
Granfaloon or Buffoon?? I'm going to share something with my blog pals that I've not shared in the past. I am married (for more than four decades) to a husband who has become a devout follower of FOX, Beck, Limbaugh, etc. He listens to the awful radio talk shows while he's at work.(Independent renovation contraction who often works alone) I am continuously amazed and dismayed by my husband's new mindset. He wasn't always this way, and I have no idea when/why he suddenly became a white-supremicist racist and hard-nosed Republican and a vocal one. I am stunned almost daily by his intolerance and have learned to simply tune him out because he blows a fuse when I gently try to steer him in a different direction. I ultimately asked him to please not talk his talk with me, on those subjects. It's incomprehensible, because he is a gentle, caring person who will do anything for anyone in need, yet he has become someone I no longer know, in his racist attitudes. He does hang out for his meals at a local beach restaurant frequented by the same group of older men/peers who share his same ideas, and also plays poker and golf with them regularly. It's a challenge for me. I respect the rights of others to believe what they will, but I simply don't have a clue how a person who was so tolerant all his life can suddenly change his stripes in such a dramatic manner. I've told him, very quietly, that he has become one of the "hate-mongers", and his response was that he agrees with Beck, Limbaugh, etc. What to do? I have told him that I will not be spending our next life with him. When he wanted to know why, I told him. Now I simply leave the room, or if we are in the car, remain silent. He hates our president, people of different color and culture, etc etc etc, and is very antagonistic about it. He's definitely somehow gotten terribly off-track. Seems to have reverted to his N. GA mountain fundamental segregationist roots. I'm more and more befuddled by it. Here's my point: If an older adult can become so brainwashed and swayed by media and negative voices, what is going to happen to today's children who are being subjected to this? Are we on a road back to the 1950s? I lived in Montgomery, ALabama in the MLK days, and had the great fortune to have a balanced family and parents who were not in any way prejudiced against ANYONE. I see children who play with my grandkids today acting and expressing the same prejudices that were the norm in the South when I was a child. God forbid that today's kids are being turned back to such a Time! If it can happen to a good man like my husband, it can happen to the children. cj
What's really sad about this is that the man is taking his son to this rally – brainwash a new generation.
I just happen to be in Washington DC during this event and will have to deal with my flight home tomorrow probably being full due to this event, but there is NO WAY I believe this demagogue didn't know what he was doing with the date. I don't watch Fox News, I don't watch Glenn Beck, but on my flight I sat next to a man who was coming here with his adult son to attend this rally. He was reading Beck's book during the flight. When he found out that I didn't know about it, he was amazed, since it's the center of his universe.
It really scared me to learn that many people take this man seriously. Granfaloon, indeed.