Excerpts from Shantaram (or, The LOVE scam for the Xmasses)

[Guest guest]

Nisargadatta , " skywhilds " <skywords wrote:

>

> Nisargadatta , " anabebe57 " <kailashana@> wrote:

> >

> > I am reading a book by Gregory David Roberts: Shantaram

> > I can not speak of the clarity and beauty and truth in this book,

> > so I shall share a passage or two:

> >

> > " The world is run by one million evil men, ten million stupid men,

> > and a hundred million cowards.

> >

> > The evil men are the power--the rich men, and the politicians and

> > the fanatics of religion--whose decisions rule the world, and set it

> > on its course of greed and destruction.

> >

> > There are only one million of them, the truly evil men, in the whole

> > world. The very rich and the very powerful, whose decisions really

> > count--they are only one million. The stupid men, who number ten

> > million, are the soldiers and policemen who enforce the rule of the

> > evil men. They are the standing armies of twelve key countries, and

> > the police forces of those and twenty more. In total, there are

> > only ten million of them with any real power or consequence. they

> > are often brave, I'm sure, but they are stupid, too, because they

> > give their lives for governments and causes that use their flesh and

> > blood as mere chess pieces. Those governments always betray them or

> > let them down or abandon them, in the long run. Nations neglect no

> > men more shamefully then the heroes of their wars.

> >

> > 'And the hundred million cowards, Abdul Ghani continued, pinching

> > the handle of the teacup between his plum fingers, 'they are the

> > bureaucrats and paper shufflers and pen-pushers who permit the rule

> > of the evil men, and look the other way. They are the head of this

> > department, and the secretary of that committee, and the president

> > of the other association. They are managers, and officials, and

> > mayors and officers of the court They always defend themselves by

> > saying that they are just following orders, or just doing their job,

> > and it's nothing personal, and if they don't do it, somebody else

> > surely will. They are the hundred million cowards who know what is

> > going on, but say nothing, while they sign the paper that puts one

> > man before a firing squad, or condemns one million men to the slower

> > death of a famine.

> >

> > 'So that's it', he concluded. The world is run by one million evil

> > men, ten million stupid men, and a hundred million cowards. The

> > rest of us, all six billion of us do pretty much what we are told.'

> >

> > He laughed, and slapped at his thigh. It was a good laugh, the kind

> > of laugh that won't rest until it shares the joke, and I found

> > myself laughing with him.

> >

> > 'Do you know what this means, my boy' he asked, when his face was

> > serious enough to frame the question.

> >

> > 'This formula--the one million, the ten million,the hundred million--

> > this is the real truth of all politics. Marx was wrong. It is not a

> > question of classes, you see, because all the classes are in the

> > hands of this tiny few. This set of numbers is the cause of empire

> > and rebellion. This is the formula that has generated our

> > civilisations for the last ten thousand years. This built the

> > pyramids. This launched your Crusades. This put the word at war,

> > and this formula has the power to impose the peace.

> >

> > 'They're not my Crusades,' I corrected him, 'but I get your point.' "

> >

>

>

>

> yep.

>

> we may not be reading the same book, anna.

>

>

> but we're on the same page.

>

>

win k win k

>

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>

> )

>

(quoting dah pundit, " the hidden hand that guides the universe... is

> the universe. " dus, there IS no evo, stupit, no sheeepish and timid,

> kind o' coy and unassuming peopo. radder, we hab met de enemy and she

> am us. we is all o us pre-daters. fwom time im-me-moral.)

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go figger

>

 

 

 

actually, too, i believe that we are " born " intelligent,

 

brilliant, geniuses, so to speak.

 

 

but we LEARN how to be " evil, stupid or conformist. "

 

 

that is, we LEARN how to betray our own native intelligence

 

(remember: integrated + telling + presence = intelligence

 

[as if you would take MY word for it!]).

 

 

 

thus, we LEARN how to be fragmented + reticent + absent = stupid.

 

that is to say, we are traumatized into stupe-faction.

 

(we're taught that it's just a faction.

 

but, it is really a plurality.)

 

 

that is, we're taught that we're separate IN our private, personal,

 

individual stupe-faction.

 

 

but we're really all together in our collective fear of being

 

separate, alone, unloved.

 

 

but " LOVE " is the big scam!

 

 

" LOVE " is the biggest scam perpetrated on the human psyche.

 

 

it is declared both the highest good and blind:

 

thus, stupid AND divine!

 

and this stupidity, this passion, this absent mindedness is

 

packaged and sold and made into a REQUIREMENT!

 

 

whereas what we really " need, "

 

is to trust (not " love " )

 

our OWN native intelligence.

 

 

pure and simple.

 

 

and thus to go beyond the codependency

 

of peer, parent and authoritarian pressure.

 

and all of its infantilizing ideology of " love, "

 

duty, obligation, and co., ad nauseum.

 

 

 

 

 

anyone could get crucified for saying this.

 

but then, this isn't anything that

 

has been said before, in a different way,

 

with a different keyboard.

 

 

anyone can get crucified for saying anything whatsoever,

 

anyway.

 

 

and it's all

 

at the same time

 

beautiful:

 

 

part of the cosmic order

 

the universal intelligence

 

 

 

(just what i'll be believing for the next

 

16 minutes.)