I don’t have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It’s a depression. Everybody’s out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel’s worth, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street and there’s nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there’s no end to it.

We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TV’s while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that’s the way it’s supposed to be.

We know things are bad - worse than bad. They’re crazy. It’s like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don’t go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is: ‘Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won’t say anything. Just leave us alone.’

Well, I’m not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get MAD! I don’t want you to protest. I don’t want you to riot - I don’t want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn’t know what to tell you to write. I don’t know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first you’ve got to get mad. (shouting) You’ve got to say, ‘I’m a human being, god-dammit! My life has value!’

So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, ‘I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!’ I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell - ‘I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!’

Things have got to change. But first, you’ve gotta get mad!… Then we’ll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis. But first get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it: ‘I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!’

Howard Beale, Network, 1976

For an excellent review of recent history and why the world is where it’s at, see Zeitgeist, The Movie.

Wait, There's More!

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Ron Paul on the Federal Reserve, gold standard and money market manipulation.

Watch the video…

Sensible comments.

I don’t often post articles relating to politics, because politics is just a distraction from the real issues in life, but this one surprised me with it’s intensity and that it’s hosted by MSNBC, who are typically fairly supportive of the US government.

Nov. 5: Keith Olbermann comments on Pres. Bush and Michael Mukasey’s response to allegations of waterboarding in the Bush administration. Why was an Acting Assistant Attorney General forced out – just because he had the guts to do what Pres. Bush couldn’t?

Special Comment: On waterboarding and torture

The Secret was launched globally on March 26, 2006 and I am sure by now you’ve heard about it. Maybe you’ve seen it too.

The Secret is a feature length account of an age old secret, said to be 4000 years in the making, and known only to a fortunate few. The Secret promises to reveal this great knowledge to the world - The Secret to wealth, The Secret to health, The Secret to love, relationships, happiness, eternal youth… The Secret to life itself.

Of course, the information in The Secret is far from new. Earl Nightingale had the same message nearly 50 years ago when he released his program called “The Strangest Secret”, and Napoleon Hill wrote about it in his legendary book “Think And Grow Rich”.

The Secret is simply a dramatisation of The Law of Attraction, one of the Immutable Laws of Nature. My only criticism of this particular DVD is that it focusses too much on wealth creation, as if that were the only important thing in the world. The producers have also taken many liberties in their interpretation of the science behind wave and particle theory, so consider The Secret as your first foray into this fascinating subject. This is one of the most clearly spelled out principles of The Law of Attraction, and if this concept is new to you I’d highly recommend getting a copy.

If you’d like to take the concept a little further, try What the Bleep do We Know?

And finally, once you’ve seen The Secret, here is an analysis of where the producers have taken a little liberty in their interpretations of science: The Real Secret.

Have you seen The Secret? What did you think? Let’s hear your opinion below.

Few people have impacted Christianity in this regard as has Fr. Thomas Keating. A Cistercian monk from St. Benedict’s Monastery in Snowmass, Colorado, Fr. Thomas has spent a lifetime in deep Christian practice, and in sharing the fruits of this contemplation with countless others. In an interview with Fr. Thomas, Ken Wilber presents some of the foundational concepts of Integral Spirituality.

Part 1

Part 2