|
Appendix One REVOLUTION A friend of Martin Luther King, Jr., America's greatest son ONE There is only one Just Cause, that one and just cause is Human and Civil Rights. Related issues, such as aiding the sick, helping the poor, protecting the earth's environment, opposing discrimination in all of it's ugly personifications, striving for political and social justice and individual and collective freedom, advocating free public education for all individuals (including the poor and slow of learning) and promoting peace and goodwill are all branches of the singular trunk Just Cause of Human and Civil Rights. TWO This one just cause has one fundamental basis, most comprehensively stated (see FootNote IV below) by the Jewish political and social activist, Jesus of Nazareth: "Therefore, whatever you want people to do to you, do also to them, for this is the law and prophets" (i.e., intent and basis of all that matters towards the positive individual and collective good and positive political and social revolution). Positive individual action favors our species while negative individual action is against our species, other species and our entire planet as a whole. According to Jesus, negative individual action begins in the human "heart" and is the root cause of war, rumor of war, hunger, disease, pollution, lack of freedom, equality, peace and justice and all that ills We The People of Planet Earth. ¹ If we truly love our neighbor as ourselves, we will not murder, steal or enslave nor will we go to war with our neighbor within our local area or anywhere else on our mutually shared planetary home. If we love our neighbors as ourselves, we will help them when they are hungry and sick, help them to find adequate employment and help them to be educated toward a better way of existence. If we treat others as we ourselves wish to be treated, we will respect diversity of life, culture and opinion, neither will we encroach on the personal and/or collective freedom of others. People, who begin to respect the life and rights of other people by default, begin to appreciate the life and rights of other species and if we love our neighbor as ourselves, we will not destroy or otherwise ignore, the fragile habitat of our children's future. If we promote Human Rights from the true foundation up, we become part of the solution rather than remaining part of the problem. THREE Jesus of Nazareth---Hebrew/Aramaic Yeshua, Yeshuah, Yeshu, Jeshua, Jehoshua, Y'Shua, apparently deliberately given a very common Hebrew name otherwise translated in English as "Joshua" (meaning "he who helps", "God is salvation" or simply "salvation" in the case of the Aramaic "Yeshu", which some scholars believe is the actual name he was actually called), translated as "Jesus" in most English Bible translations from the Greek "Iesous" and Latin "Jesu"); it may be most historically accurate to call him "Joshua" when speaking in English, but it is not entirely clear if the name Joshua as it applies to Jesus is exactly the same name as the name of the Old Testament Joshua, son of Nun (which became the very common Hebrew name as noted), thus the name Jesus is used here, as he is now commonly known throughout most of the modern English-speaking world. Similar to a lot of pointless mental exercises in theological futility, it is probably unimportant to the true God what name one actually calls him by as long as they are referencing the proper 1st Century historical individual in their mind (what one simply means in their heart, according to Jesus, seems to carry more weight than all of the nauseating Christian and other 'scholarly' works on history's shelves, combined). Jesus was not the founder of Christianity or any other such twisted lie of mis-guided tradition. Jesus was not the founder of any religion, nor does it at all seem likely, based on the known evidence, that he ever intended to establish a religion. He went way out of his way to separate himself from the outwardly pious, eating and drinking with those of least societal reputation, repeatedly openly condemning religious conservative fundamentalists and breaking with the religious traditions of his society in a seemingly calculated and most deliberate manner. Unlike modern Christianity and modern intellectualism both ignorantly insist, Jesus of Nazareth does not at all fit in a category called "Religion". Rather, he may perhaps be best viewed historically as a political and social revolutionary activist, though there is no category that adequately represents him. Jesus is without historical peer, the absolute most politically radical individual in all of known recorded civilization. He seems to have deliberately bypassed the entire idea of written political theory and political structure, choosing instead to go directly to the root of the problem and the source of the solution. That being, the changing of major negative political and social conditions by changing the motivation of each individual, one heart at a time. * Jesus seems to have thought there is no innate difference among individual human beings, thus he appears to have viewed the common uneducated masses as having equal value as the intellectual and socially elite and wealthiest of kings and the greatest sinners as being no worse (and perhaps, not as bad) as conservative fundamental religionists. He seems to be historically unique (including on up to the present) in his insistence that changing individual motivation and centering on the intrinsic value of the “common people” is the key to true political and social revolution. FOUR Jesus is the founder of Human and Civil Rights, called "the way" or simply "way", by his early followers, who practiced extreme communism (not to be confused with either Christianity or Marxism), including the sharing of all economic resources, mutual help and support within the greater community, personal and collective freedom and particular concern for the sick and poor and least of society. ¹ Though the terms "Human Rights" and "Civil Rights" are relatively modern, all of what today is considered fundamental to the cause of Human and Civil Rights traces directly back to Jesus. It is a very serious mistake to confuse Jesus with Christianity and likewise, to confuse the superficial piety of religion with the necessary solution of Human Rights. Modern intellectual terminology such as "morality" and "ethics" are a step downwards and backwards from what terms such as "holiness" and "righteousness" meant to someone like Jesus, though all four of these terms are similar and should not be confused with religious orthodoxy. Other than basic simple concepts such as "love", "father" and "friend", Jesus taught virtually no theology, that is, definition and concepts of God. He made the greatest environmentally conscious statement in all of known history and the portrait of him in the historical record is of a person highly in tune with nature and the natural world. Jesus frequently used nature to physically parallel concepts of the “the kingdom of heaven” relating to human struggle, spirit and soul. Most of what Jesus said revolves around human relations, how people should treat each other. Much of the remainder deals with the negative influence and is extremely critical of, conservative fundamentalist religion and those who promote such. Jesus' teaching appears to lean more toward 'Eastern' than 'Western' idealism, although this largely unperceived fact, along with the truth of his central message, is entirely distorted, twisted and confused by the morally perverted doctrinal dogma of modern Christianity. Suffice it to say, if anything in recorded history were ever true, Jesus most assuredly remains the complete opposite of Christianity in general and conservative fundamentalism in particular; there is nothing particularly "Western" or remotely capitalistic or conservative about him. FIVE The known record of Jesus represents the most liberal personage in all of known history, although "freedom" is a better and more accurate perception than the often-confining dogma of modern liberalism (which tends to be rather narrow, inhibiting and conservative in its own way). Though many of his early followers were what today people may describe (however inaccurately) as "bisexual" or "homosexual", there is no record of him ever mentioning human sexual orientation; men, women and children of all social, cultural and other diversity found equal acceptance. Jesus defined human life as beginning at birth, not conception and, though the issue had been around for several thousand years before his birth, there is no known instance of him ever mentioning abortion, either pro or con. ** There is nothing Jesus promoted more than care for the sick and the poor; his personal daily example says more than his words, which also have a great deal to say about helping the poor, downtrodden, and "least" among us. Conversely, there is nothing he denounced more often than religious conservative fundamentalism, while there is no historical record of Jesus ever condemning a sinner or poor or common person at any time ever, for any reason. To "follow" someone by definition, is to ignore what he or she ignores, as well as to promote what he or she promotes. Those who oppose abortion and condemn people of seemingly different surface sexual orientation while ignoring the cause of Human and Civil Rights, the sick and the poor, are following the god of Babylon confusion. SIX To promote Jesus of Nazareth as the founder of Christianity or some other narrow and confining religion, is to oppose Human and Civil Rights, oppose We The People of Planet Earth ² and to confuse chidren and others regarding what is true concering Jesus and our Father in heaven who created us all. It is a lesser injustice to sell heroin or methamphetamine to children than to lie to them concerning the true God. Those who strive to help the sick and poor are friends of our Father in heaven and by extension, friends of Jesus, even if they don't believe in him at all or have never even heard of him. According to Jesus, the true God is not interested in whether or not we believe in the Bible and/or Christianity and/or so-called religious 'doctrines' promoted by various pharisaical hypocrites. Rather, according to Jesus, the true God cares about how we treat our fellow brothers and sisters, as our Creator it would seem, wants people to live free, peaceful and fulfilling lives of love, peace and freedom, free from the deceit and oppression of religious, cultural, political, social and intellectual hypocrisy. It is more than honest and fair, based on the overall slant of Jesus and the Biblical authors, to conclude that the true God utterly hates all religions, including especially Christianity, other narrow philosophies, proud and confining intellectualism and everything else that misrepresents the truth and otherwise, gets in the way of Human Rights and personal and collective freedom. To equate God with religion or to not believe in God because of religion is a shallow and fundamental mistake. Based on the New Testament portrait of him, Jesus in particular hated conservative fundamentalism and, unlike many modern liberals who tend to consider it politically incorrect to criticize the (especially Eastern religious) pious, Jesus displayed no tolerance for the outwardly orthodox, who he consistently loudly denigrated as being "snakes", "hypocrites" "fools" and "blind leaders of the blind". SEVEN One does not create a revolution. One either joins the Revolution or one opposes the Revolution. The Revolution has been active since before the days of Noah, who the historical record very strongly indicates, was an actual human being who floated an actual boat filled with actual animals. We all must make our own choice whether we want to help or hurt the just cause of We The People of Planet Earth---neither our father nor mother nor brother nor sister nor priest nor rabbi nor preacher nor personal guru, nor self-help maharishi nor anyone else can choose for us, nor can wealth insulate us or hire someone else in our place. In the midst of police clubs, dogs and fire hoses being trained on non-violent demonstrators for Human and Civil Rights, *** his own home being fire-bombed and after having been carted off to jail several times, Martin Luther King, Jr. said: ". . .if a man has not discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live." Later, a modern Jewish poet, who marched with King on Washington D.C., sang regarding the individual struggle that we experience trying to find our place on the great battlefield of Human Rights and social justice: "Win or lose now, you must choose now. . . " And another modern Jewish thinker who sang at the same Civil Rights march, in trying to pierce through the generational darkness and confusion of the cumulated lies of human civilization, clearly and very correctly has concluded: "There's a lone soldier on the cross. . . you didn't know, you didn't think it could be done, in the final end he won the war. . ." **** ***** A friend of Martin Luther King, Jr., America's greatest son They laid down their lives for peace and the freedom of everyone "Most assuredly", We The People of Planet Earth shall overcome Least Reliable Source Somewhat Reliable Source Most Reliable Source DEDICATED TO: Mohandas K. Gandhi, who perhaps understood more of what it means to be a follower of Jesus than the entire Protestant church combined. 1. See The Way: A Theory of Root Cause and Solution for more information. It is interesting to note that the oft mis-quoted and more often completely mis-understood Paul (Saul of Tarsus), one of the primary New Testament authors (actually letter writers, they were not intending to write books which were later mis-leadingly divided into chapters leading to gross mis-interpretation of the often clear original intent), never used the term "Christian" in reference to himself but seemed to prefer calling himself a follower of "the way", which terminilogy he uses several times in various letters. Toward the end of the New Testament Acts 26, when King Agrippa uses the term "Christian", Paul seems to deliberately side-step the word and answers without using the term itself, perhaps indicating that even then, Paul suspected the simplicity of true Human Rights in applied communism as practiced by adherents of "the way" was being twisted into a religion it was never intended to be. 2. The terminology "We The People of Planet Earth", found here in this chapter and elsewhere throughout this book, should not be misunderstood as an attempt to "Americanize" or "Westernize" the diverse peoples of our planet. Rather, it is an attempt to wake up those in modern-day America who remain asleep as to the equal importance and even, to what should be the obvious fact that other people on our planet share the same feelings, fears, hopes and dreams that we often assume to be our unique right here in the "land of plenty". The more we begin to view each other as a single race called "People" rather than as races, Westerners, Americans, liberals, moderates, conservatives and with similar divisive and artificial classifications, the better off We The People of Planet Earth both individually and collectively will become. (See We The People (What a Concept!) for more details.) 3. From the anthem echoes of southern plantation cotton and tobacco fields, often sung during Civil Rights marches of the 1960's; "freedom" is perhaps the one word that expresses most what mattered to both the founder of Human and Civil Rights and to the soul of the African-American slave. The thought of granting freedom to the common masses, perhaps more than any other single idea, absolutely scares the hell out of kings, politicians and the wealthy elite, pontiffs, prelates and the fearful and unbelieving fundamentally self-righteous. Though the term "liberal" may be preferable to conservative especially religious ideas, FREEDOM is a far better concept than either conservative, moderate or liberal, for a truly free person can be as liberal, moderate or conservative as they choose to be for any given situation. To label our selves is to limit and confine our selves to group dilution and delusion and the common ignorance of accumulated tradition. *FootNote I: Unlike much modern political and social theory that portrays history as a economic class struggle, Jesus went deeper, placing the blame for war and rumor of war on the individual. It makes logical sense for example, that a localized revolution or a struggle of capitalistic owners against union organizers is made up of individuals who choose to participate, thus the struggle for wealth and power has its roots in individual motivation, need, greed and desire. According to Jesus, isolated skirmishes, sometimes escalating into group murder and war, begin in the human heart. While modern behavioral theory seeks to rationalize and excuse the motivations of the individual and modern warfare invariably is based on the 'us against them' mentality ("us" always somehow judging themselves intrinsically better than "them"), Jesus placed the blame squarely on us all, for we all at some time in our lives have treated our brothers and sisters in a negative fashion, which Jesus called "sin" and which ultimately leads to war and rumor of war, mass pollution, famine and death. Apparently the term “sin” originates from the ancient Mesopotamian trading post Haran, a town Abraham stopped by on his journey to Canaan. The inhabitants of Haran worshiped Sin, god of the moon and it appears that the term was assimilated into Hebrew culture (including the culture of Jesus) as meaning that which is against God and creation and harmful to the positive survival of the human species. Modern phrases such as “negative influences” and “anti-social” behavior are merely superficial constructs addressing the same fundamental problem. Dissecting our basic problem into clinical sounding erudition in no way changes or solves the root cause of murder, war, mass pollution and all that ills the modern 21st Century reality; it is clinically absurd to believe in social dysfunction but not to believe in sin. See also The Way.) **FootNote II: Unfortunately for religious hypocrites who center on anti-abortion and other issues having nothing in common with Jesus at the expense of helping the homeless, sick and poor and fighting for the rights of those already born, in John 3:5-6 Jesus clearly defines birth at time of physical entry into this world rather than at conception. If Jesus was the Messiah, he must by necessity have covered all of the issues that matter regarding the human condition---the fact that abortion was entirely ignored by him as far as we know, leaves abortion a non-issue in the great scheme of what matters, clearly in the way of the Human and Civil Rights of us all. Those who would claim to care about the rights of the unborn and at the same time, vote for those who screw all of us who are already born by promoting war and rumor of war, ignoring health care and the sick and poor and ignoring the social and physical security and environment of our children's future, are most clearly the hypocrites that Jesus correctly described as white-washed tombs full of dead people's bones, snakes, indolent thieves of widows and the poor and blind leaders of the blind. ***FootNote III: Interestingly enough, unlike modern science and modern universities, which continue to ignorantly insist on classifying people according to 'race', the Bible correctly divides humanity by family lineage, tribe, nation and tongue. Obviously, if we all come from a singular Eve, as both modern science and the Bible claim to be the case, then the concept of 'race' is artificial and should be discarded as being unwarranted and prejudicial. Modern anthropologists who may wish to argue due to so-called 'race' genes, clearly have a difficult time explaining why birds, fish and flowers are classified as being possessed of "variety" rather than by "race" within individual species. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, all of the traits that we often as unenlightened beings point to as being racial can be historically traced to climate, diet and circumstance (and similar) rather than by innate 'racial' differences. Modern biologists overwhelmingly agree that at the human gene level, there is no such thing as race. A possible exception to the Biblical absence of the idea of race is the disputed meaning of Zechariah 9:6, variously translated "mongrel people", "mixed race" or "bastard", depending on which translation one wishes to accept. Throughout the Old Testament, there are three strongly recurring themes as to what moves the true God to anger against individuals and/or nations: 1) If other gods are worshiped; 2) If people are not treated fairly and equitably (i.e., Human Rights are ignored); and 3) Especially offensive, if the sick and poor are ignored or otherwise, mistreated. These three themes recur repeatedly throughout the Old Testament in a great many instances. The prohibition in the Old Testament against the Hebrews marrying with people of other nations is clearly (in several places) instigated to prevent the introduction (and thus, worship) of foreign gods rather than to enforce prejudicial racial discrimination (cross-reference New Testament 2 Corinthians 6:14 and Galatians 3:28). The New Testament, as well as very strongly holding up these three themes, also clearly describes the ancestry of Jesus as being interbred with non-Hebrews. Thus the various translators of Zechariah must in fairness of consistency, label Jesus as being of "mongrel people", "mixed race" and/or "bastard". And as an interestingly enough sidebar, the baseless absurdity of the KKK strikes out entirely, as the attempt to legitimize their insidious history by cloaking themselves in Christian fundamentalism totally contradicts their hatred of Jews (Jesus was primarily a Jew), idea of racial purity (Jesus was of mixed ‘race’) and African-Americans as being a “mongrel race” (Jesus was of “mongrel” heredity). ****FootNote IV: Biblical references to back up statements found in this chapter are in most cases deliberately not included. It continues to be utterly appalling to the author that our American 'education' system fails to adequately (actually, at all) represent the historical founder of Human and Civil Rights in our nation's classrooms. Likewise, it goes to their gross immorality and utter shame that modern priests and preachers find it necessary, for their own whatever twisted reasons, to distort the historical truth to fit whichever brand of religious absurdity they choose to promote. We should take the time to read what Jesus actually said and did for our own selves before coming to the rash and superficial shallow conclusions of modern religionists and equally blind educators. "You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free"---a quotation engraved on many American campus hall walls, whose author's life is rarely studied and even more rarely, are words attributed to him actually read. It is interesting to note that similar (howbeit, less comprehensive) ideas to what is often called "The Golden Rule", stated by Jesus as the foundation for all positive political and social action, are found in many diverse cultures, thus lending credence to the obvious, that human beings universally cry out for Human and Civil Rights, regardless of what their political and social reality may be. A brief list representing where such similar statements are found includes the Baha'i Faith, Hinduism, The Mahabharata, Judaism (Talmud), Zoroastrian Faith, Buddhism, Jainism, Islam, Hadith, Isocrates, Thales, as well as many other sources. The statement by Jesus is more encompassing than any of the others, as it is given added weight by the additional "for this is the law and the prophets", making it by far, the most important and comprehensive foundational concept among all known human political and social ideas. The fact that Jesus codified the Human Rights axiom of treating others as we ourselves wish to be treated in foundational stone as the sum of what matters, makes him hands down and head and shoulders above any other historical personage, the founder of Human and Civil Rights. The last quotations are by Peter Yarrow from the song, "The Great Mandella", performed also by Richie Havens and others and by Bob Dylan in perhaps one of his best songs, "The Idiot Wind", from Blood On The Tracks (both quotations more complete and properly footnoted elsewhere in this book). *****FootNote V: Jack Healey, a world-renowned Human Rights activist and pioneer, who was the head of Amnesty International for twelve years, has organized events for various causes involving entertainment and other personalities in Europe, the United States and other areas of the globe. According to Mr. Healey, "The Declaration of Human Rights [UDHR] states that everyone has the right to life, liberty, and the security of person. However, in this century alone, over 150 million people have been killed at the hands of governments". The "Mission" page of The Human Rights Action Center, which was founded and is now headed by Jack Healey, states the following: "Crime, poverty, war, lack of healthcare and education, and other injustices are all symptoms of society's deep-rooted lack of respect for basic human rights. The document which embodies the ideology of respect for individual human rights is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The UDHR was signed by the United Nations 50 years ago this December [2001] and, unfortunately, less than 1% of the world's population is aware that it exists. Now it is time to stop treating the symptoms and begin educating the masses. Now it is time to focus on the UDHR and empower the world's population to make changes." In a comprehensive study of both world and United States history, it is hard to argue with a conclusion for the necessity of focusing on Human and Civil Rights as the foundational solution to the various problems which plague the modern 21st Century world reality, the lessons of history being fairly obvious. It is clearly evident that effective individuals for positive political and social change such as Isaiah, Jesus, Mohandas Gandhi, Helen Keller, Martin Luther King, Jr., Cesar Chavez and others share a similar basic idea, whatever the differing terminology may be. The evidence of world and recent history clearly shows that to promote Human and Civil Rights as viewed from its broader platform of including sick and poor relief, environmental issues, striving for global, local and individual peace, individual and collective freedom, freedom from prejudice in every form, free equal public education for ALL, including those who do not score high on IQ tests, equitable rights for adequate food, shelter and employment and similar related issues, is the one true and just and viable solution. There is perhaps no greater lesson of history other than the unwanted lessons of depression, disillusionment and despair and likewise, until every last man, woman and child on our fragile planetary habitat is able to enjoy the reasonable safety and freedom of basic Human and Civil Rights, there is no other valid cause or reason for existence. "And you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free."  It may be reproduced and distributed as desired.
|
|