What Do You Do When Armageddon Is Near? (satire)

'Mankind today is on the brink of a destruction, not because of the danger of complete annihilation, which is hanging over its head - this being just a symptom and not the real disease - but because humanity is devoid of those vital values which are necessary not only for its healthy development but also for its real progress.

'Even the Western world realises that the Western civilization is unable to present any healthy values for the guidance of mankind. It knows that it does not possess anything which will satisfy its own conscience and justify its existence.' -- Sayyid Qutb, Milestones

Recently, the activity at Jupiter Beach during summer break shows us the lack of healthy values for the guidance of mankind. Another example is mainstream media's reporting of crime to the point where one believes society is a fearsome place.

Ever wonder why the terrorists blew up Bali? It's because of drink and its overblown evils.

Yet we in the West are tolerant of such things. Those of us who seldom drink to excess do not confront the drunkards and the drug addicts because of our fear that things will get out of hand. This is why you won't see the "Moral Majority" picketing Jupiter Beach or even Ft Lauderdale anytime soon.

If you think 9-11 was just a terrorist attack against America, then you are sorely mistaken. It was a wake-up call to Americans enthralled by the decadent hedonism that passes for normal.

However, the average American then took to the Internet to show how racist they really are. One ignorant American even killed a Sikh in Arizona. More recently, a criminal shot up a Sikh temple. If this is the face of intelligence in America, then it is small wonder that a Christian preacher wanted to burn the Quran.

Would America change its ways? It appears that the GOP is willing to, though the result of that social experiment is the Tea Party and right-wing Militiamen.

Most of the Democrats endorse ObamaCare, despite the fact that the Republicans resisted it in vain. Although it still does not guarantee medications and medical procedures for free like it is in social health care in Canada and the UK, it has made various treatments for patients affordable.

In my opinion, the reason why this is the way it is with ObamaCare is because before ObamaCare, some patients might have died because their health insurance company wouldn't carry the medication or medical procedure any more. After ObamaCare, people's lives will be saved.

Overall though, Sayyid Qutb is right: America is destroying itself from the inside out. The rich elites of America are annihilating the poor, the immigrants, and especially the women.

America itself is in need of promoting the healthy development of its people and its progress in the world today. The war within the middle class results in more people among the poor collecting welfare, supposedly due to the poor economy but actually due to the fact that employees are expensive to maintain.

What do you do when Armageddon is near? Religion is not the answer here, and neither is politics.

Just carry on what you are doing, youth of America. I hear party music in the distance...

Medication Through Meditation

Marxist-Leninists have critqued religion often saying "Religion is the opium of the people".

If religion is the opium of the people, then recreational drugs are just another addiction.

For religion may be addictive to people who desire control over others to make up for their inability to control their own destiny.

Indeed, addiction is a symptom of that inability.

Yet the irony is that among the New Left recreational drugs is a part of their culture.

For me it is easy to see that the problem here is not drugs, but the ego delusion associated with addiction based on the inability to control one's destiny.

If you are a social activist, then you may be directing your destiny in encounters with the State (potential arrest for burning a police car and smashing windows of a bank).

This creates the inability to control your destiny due to the police state mentality that results from confronting authority (exceedingly long times for the right of free assembly).

I find the solution to be simple: develop a rehabilitative strategy rather than relying on your drug crutch. For drug addiction is not a symptom of your hate for the State. Rather, it's an excuse for merely getting high. Were you doing it for noble purposes, I could understand.

For addiction is a dysfunctional way of "handling stress" called self-medication. I assure you that the best medicine is found through meditation, not getting drunk as a skunk.

YMMV

Avoiding the Extremes Opens the Middle Way to Peace!

There are, friends, these two extremes, which not should be practiced by any, who has initiated purification: The hunt for sensual pleasures, which is low, vulgar, the common way of ordinary worldlings, ignoble, disadvantageous; and any practice of self-torture, which also is quite painful, ignoble, and rather disadvantageous! Without veering towards either of these extremes, the well-gone-beyond Buddha has awakened to the Middle Way, which leads to assured vision, to direct knowledge, which leads to ease, to peace, to certain understanding, to Enlightenment, to Nibbana. And what is that Middle Way, awakened to by the Buddha, which leads to assured vision, to direct knowledge, which leads to ease, to peace, to certain understanding, to Enlightenment, to Nibbana?

It is this very Noble Eightfold Path, which consists of:

• Right View
  
• Right Motivation
  
• Right Speech
  
• Right Action
  
• Right Livelihood
  
• Right Effort
  
• Right Awareness
  
• Right Concentration
  

It is based on the Buddhist Middle Way, awakened to by the Blessed Buddha. It leads to assured vision, and to direct knowledge which leads to ease of mind, and to certain understanding of the Buddhist sutras. With ease of mind and great understanding, peace of mind becomes bliss and joy, and eventually that pinnacle of enlightenment, Nirvana. Source: The Grouped Sayings of the Buddha. Samyutta Nikaya. Book IV [330-1] Section 42: On The 6 Senses. Rasiya: 12. http://www.pariyatti.com/book.cgi?prod_id=948507 http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/samyutta/index.html