More On Civil Disobedience Chapter 1 part 4 (of 5)

George Tuska? Sep 1952 © Respective copyright/trademark holders.

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Criminal Healing

Criminal industries include marijuana, cocaine and heroin, hallucinogens, street drugs, gambling, prostitution, intellectual piracy and sexual predation. In examination we find that the good is sometimes not so good and, while some things are always bad, still they seem to ease suffering. Next we will consider our means of criminal healing.

Gilbert Shelton/Dave Sheridan  May 1977 © Respective copyright/trademark holders.

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The Mighty Weed

Marijuana is a mighty weed. It induces an elevated mind without clouding it and induces compassion and good feelings in people who smoke it. It is beneficial to people who experience pain and nausea due to medical conditions. Although many become addicted, the effects of addiction are slight and primarily financial due to its criminal procurement. Few addicts are driven to steal to get it, and these few are invariably young and undeveloped personalities. Marijuana may cause some reduction in short-term memory, may nauseate some users, and of course smoking is always risky. The seeds and stalks of the marijuana (Hemp) plant can be used in the manufacture of valuable oil, fabric and paper, which cannot be exploited because of political reasons.

Marvin Bradley/Frank Edgington Apr 1952 © Respective copyright/trademark holders.

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Cocaine and Heroin

Cocaine and heroin are the two most powerful drugs that we commonly prescribe for ourselves. They are potent narcotics which simulate an elevated mind but with terrible mental and physical consequences. Beyond physical addiction these drugs induce perilous reductions in ethical concern and reason. People who use these drugs will steal from you, lie to you, cheat you and may conceiveably kill you. If you use these drugs and have continuous problems in your life, you will solve them substantially if you stop.

Jim Mitchell Summer 1970 © Respective copyright/trademark holders.

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Hallucinogens

Mushrooms, peyote and LSD are hallucinogens. Hallucinogens are drugs that bring the mind to a hyper-elevated state. Known throughout recorded history they have been used to collect, assimilate and to comprehend human experience in order to understand and express it. The effects of hallucinogens are the operation of one’s brain at a more advanced level than is maintained in life. Side effects include a state of well being, mental hallucinations, generally in the nature of projected lines, patterns and colors and never in my research in the form of pictures or communications. Also physical sensations, which I theorize, are the brain connecting with the body in ways we aren’t normally attuned to. Hallucinogens can also cause nausea and mental discomfort.

Jay Lynch August 1979 © Respective copyright/trademark holders.

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Street Drugs

Pills, inhalants and stimulants are usually products developed for one purpose which people find that they enjoy using to get high. They are always self prescribed for fun, usually by young people who can’t afford better drugs. These drugs are never beneficial and always dangerous for their users.

Jack Kirby Feb 1948 © Respective copyright/trademark holders.

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Gambling

Love of gambling is less about money than about gratification. The thrill of risk, the prospect of reward, the fun of play and the challenge of calculating the odds all play a role in addicting us to gambling. Life is a gamble, and we take chances every day. Gambling occasionally at low stakes may teach us valuable lessons of calculation, bluff and accepting the turns of fortune. Wagering amounts of money which are significant to your income and which interfere with your responsibilities on games of chance is foolish, and if continued will inevitably bring loss, hardship and distress to yourself and your family. The thrill of occasional windfalls blinds us to the costs of our gambling and blurs accounts of wins and losses. As detrimental as gambling may be it eases some people’s suffering and is a matter for free will to decide.

Matt Baker 1948 © Respective copyright/trademark holders.

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Prostitution

Sadly some human beings find themselves with no other commodity than their body and their favors. Some enter politics and others are consigned to prostitution. Each occupation is similar in many respects but in this section I will deal only with prostitution. A courtesan sells her whole person, or at least a product reflecting her personality. Johns engage a courtesan for her sexual favors of course but at root they are easing their suffering from infinite causes. A lively, intelligent and personable courtesan can inspire elevation of mind with her personality as well as with her physical favors. Such prostitutes are generally prosperous but are constantly in danger of disease and violence. As the circumstances of a prostitute are reduced to simple sex for hire her threat from disease and danger increases tremendously and her free will is compromised. She must seek protection and in doing so becomes, in effect, someone else’s property. A prostitute deserves compassion, fair compensation, educational opportunities and personality development, by which she may transcend or excel in her occupation.

Bernard Krigstein Sep 1954 © Respective copyright/trademark holders.

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Intellectual Piracy

Intellectual piracy is the kind of problem they should all be, small and easily solvable. That it exists presupposes that many many people want to consume an artist’s product but are unable or unwilling to buy it legally. The key to reducing this piracy is to bring people an understanding of the concept of intellectual property and the reasons why its protection is important to everyone.

Bobby London 1971 © Respective copyright/trademark holders.

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You Can Too

The book or story or poem or research that you write, the music that you create, The pictures you paint, the movie you produce, the product you invent, the drug you develop and the software you design are all examples of intellectual property. You own all rights to them inherently, except those you choose to relinquish for purposes of creating, packaging and marketing them. This recognition of their status as private property, and our government’s duty to protect private property, gives incentive for the labor and devotion required to create intellectual property.

R.L. Crabb Dec 1978 © Respective copyright/trademark holders.

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Vendors Beware

Intellectual and artistic development is the path to prosperity for most people. Intellectual property is protected by copyrights, trademarks and patents that are legal means of recording and reserving your property rights. Ethical people who understand those rights do not buy bootlegs. Bootleg properties are usually marketed in obscure locations to random customers who are generally unaware that they are buying an inferior product. Bootlegs are most often purchases of opportunity because establishments that deal in them are subject to confiscation and civil penalties. Producers and vendors each make only small money really, although the totals can be enormous, and their lack of ethics prevent their business from expanding and growing.

C. Sprose/K. Story Dec 2003 © Respective copyright/trademark holders.

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Ethical Uses of Intellectual Property

What are the ethical uses of copyrighted property? Of course we may enjoy it and profit by its insights and practical qualities. For example we may take a copyrighted image, paint a picture of it, and even an indistinguishable painting. This painting becomes our intellectual property that we may sell for any purpose someone will buy it. Its publication and concerted marketing may be problematic, and bring legal action, but sufficient financial expenditure on legal defense may uphold this right. This demonstrates the reality of intellectual piracy. If you take a little bit of another artist’s work to learn from it it is entirely ethical and permissible. If you can make a little money from it it is a fine thing and you should be grateful to the artist who inspired you and acknowledge her. If you make a lot of money from another artist’s work you must acknowledge and compensate her.

Jack Kaman Nov 1954 © Respective copyright/trademark holders.

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Sexual Predation

Sexual predation is the crime most to be deplored because it carries the deepest and most damaging violation of personal liberty short of murder. Sexual predators suffer from obsession. Obsessions to dominate, control and degrade their victims. These people suprisingly are often individuals of elevated personality but their ethics are confused, confounded or overtaken by their obsession. Although compassion for the predator allows us to understand her, it must be directed toward her past and future victims. Sexual predators must be removed from society. Twenty years of incarceration at structured labor in a setting of simplicity and compassion may turn a predator into an enlightened human being.

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Civil Disobedience

More On Civil Disobedience Chapter I part III

 

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Legal Healing

Pain fuels industry. Let us examine the industries that service our pain. Pharmaceuticals, coffee, cola and tea, the lottery, tobacco, alcohol, entertainment, Art and pornography are examples of legal industries we turn to to ease our suffering.

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Prescription Drugs

The pharmaceutical industry produces countless drugs that in sum ease a great deal of physical suffering in people who can afford them and have them properly prescribed. Unfortunately many of these drugs carry side effects that only create new suffering in the very patients they are meant to help. Also these side effects can create a demand for certain drugs which people prescribe for themselves to catch a buzz.

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Caffeine

Coffee, cola and tea, the caffeine kids are fairly harmless to most people but many are dependent on them to wake up in the morning or to keep going through the day. Caffeine’s side effects can include the jitters and trouble sleeping, and it may interfere with the action of certain prescription drugs.

 

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The Lottery

The Lottery represents hope for many people in our society. Their one and only chance at wealth and transcendence in life. Sadly they have small chance of winning and even if they did it may bring only a tangle of possessions and obligations. Side effects of the Lottery are poverty and delusion.

 

 

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Tobacco

In defense of tobacco I will simply state that its effects are medicinally calming to a racing mind and can bring a momentary peace to many people who desperately need it. So it kills us painfully and horribly. Death is not the worst thing that will happen to us in our life and we must respect a person’s right to control her own destiny.

 

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Alcohol

Alcohol used in moderation can help us overcome inhibitions and bring us to an elevated state of mind. Sadly this state is only temporary and disappears entirely with one drink too many. Alcohol’s side effects include a deadly stream of ill-considered actions.

 

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The Entertainment Industry

The entertainment industry buys Art, converts it into a product and markets it. This is a fine thing in itself but unfortunately too many of us consume it exclusively and form our experience from it. The side effect of this is poor understanding and an unformed personality.

 

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Art

Art as an industry eases the suffering of practicing human beings, and confounds those of lessor understanding. A crusading politician in New York once attempted to close a museum because he couldn’t appreciate that even if you throw elephant dung on a picture of the Virgin Mary she loses none of her dignity and is still to be revered. Art’s side effects are happiness understanding, and acceptance.

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Pornography

Some people like pornography. Pornography is not inherently evil. If the actors are engaged voluntarily and fairly compensated it does no harm. Sadly many persons are forced into the industry unwillingly and are exploited by it. This is the terrible side effect of pornography and is a violation of liberty of the highest order. As for children viewing it, a well-adjusted child will be upset or revolted by pornography, while a confused and impressionable one may become traumatized or obsessed by it.

 MORE On.

Civil                          

   Disobedience

 

More On Civil Disobedience Chapter I part II

 



Ethics

 

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Personal Laws

A broad regard for the Ten Commandments is the foundation of a serviceable set of ethics. Your ethics are the laws you set for yourself to govern your thoughts and actions. Most of us set fairly high ethics to live up to but the trick is to practice them, in thought, in speech and in deed. We are free to uphold or disregard our ethics, but regard for them leads to prosperity while forsaking them invites disgrace. If in my dealings I encounter a person of lessor station or abilities I will not take advantage of this fact in my dealings with her, nor regard myself as her superior. Nor will I exert myself to help her except to treat her with the dignity all people deserve. These are examples of my personal ethics, and I practice them to my best ability. Other personal ethics I practice include: I will not steal (except ideas), I will not harm others, I will not eat meat from a cow or a pig, I will work every day, I will do each job to the best of my ability and I will not complain except to someone who can solve my problem.

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The Value of 0

Ethics help us to sort out which problems are caused by others and which are our own. Independence demands that we solve our own problems. Most problems may be considered as equations. Write down the elements of your problem. Consider your own relationship to each element. Factor yourself out of the equation and you are left with the essence of what must be changed to solve the problem. In applying this method we often find ourselves as the prime element in our problem equations. Happiness comes when I=0 within our problems.

 

Religion

 

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Earth is Church

Most of us mine our religion for our ethics. Life is my religion, and the Earth is my church. Although I do not subscribe to any religion I respect every church and fervently hope that every devout person will find favor in God’s eyes. To become dogmatic I should describe myself as a Presbyterian/Buddhist. In my heart I believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and that he died for my sins. Unfortunately most churches deify his death and forget the lessons of his life: Loving all people, accepting them without judgement, easing their suffering, encouraging them to expand their minds and believe in his message of a better life to come. Jesus kicked the moneylenders out of the church, and I would too if I wuz you.

Churches too often tailor their rhetoric to what they perceive as their members needs and ability to comprehend. My research indicates to me that the same is true of all religions, and that bureaucratic churches are merely holdovers from a time when you were lucky if your government could protect you from invasion and enslavement, let alone provide you with social services.

 

 

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Reconcile With the Unknown

The purpose of religion is to reconcile us with the unknown. The questions outside of birth and death are beyond our kin. They have no answers on our entire planet. There is no authority we can turn to, but still we ask, If I’m good will I go to heaven? If I sin will I go to hell? Did I live before? Will I be born again? Will my actions in life affect my life after death? These questions arise when our ethics are based on commandments rather than on understandings. Religions have given us models to study in education and medicine and do untold quantities of good works in this world to ease suffering in all levels of our society.

It was genius to separate church and state for the governance of our nation. Better if we are all free to choose which path to take in our lives’ journey.

 

 

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Self Realization

Religion helps us conquer our fears and can promote self-realization and participation in the improvement of society. It helps us realize that everything we have comes from a higher power that is beyond supplication or comprehension. As we repay God’s bounty by giving to a church we repay personkind, our community, our family and most of all ourselves. The Buddhists call this Kharma, a Christian might express it “As ye sow, so shall ye reap.” It’s the same thing and simply means that hard work is rewarding while slacking off sets you back. Elevations of mind, proper exercise of freedom, work and planning and right livelihood all combines to provide a sort of heaven here on earth.

Beliefs and Experience

 

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Listen Politely

Belief is uncertain by nature. Beliefs are the sum of our knowledge and experience and we must test them routinely in the course of our practice. Incorrect beliefs are the basis of all misfortune. Testing our beliefs leads to greater knowledge and understanding. When you have tested your beliefs and gained understanding you must trust (believe) what you have learned. This is not to say you should quit testing. Even when we have settled on a fact we should listen politely to another expressing it or its opposite because she may have a different slant we hadn’t considered. Dismissing another persons story with “been there, done that” certainly can save us time but doesn’t leave us any the wiser.



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Use it or Lose it

The difference between the wisest and the most foolish of us is only one of degree. Understanding is the foundation of wisdom and the greatest fool may grasp the deepest wisdom if it is expressed to her clearly. Sadly understanding can be fleeting and it can be said of understanding and knowledge, “use it or lose it.” Understanding can save us from making or repeating mistakes and is surely the key to prosperity.

Understanding

 

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Inventory

So let us take stock of our intellect. Our education, deportment, hygiene, ethics, religion, beliefs and experience have brought us our understanding which we in turn manifest as our personality. Let us determine how well our personality serves us in our quest for happiness, security, employment and prosperity. My method for doing so is this: list your requirements for each category, subtract those elements you have already achieved, the remainder is what you must consider deeply to have whatever you want whenever you want it. How much of your deficit is self inflicted? How much could be achieved by more work and more training, education or opportunity? What can you give up to achieve your goals? These are only a few of the questions we must ask ourselves continuously if we are to have prosperity. We cannot do it perfectly, so we practice.

Practice

 

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Labor of the Mind

The practice brings us peace, even while we are still far from prosperity. Peace is essential to freedom. Freedom is the only thing worth fighting and dying for. The demands of war constrain and suffocate freedom and the affairs of bankers and politicians are no justification for it. Understanding any complex question is not difficult if we consider it completely, without pre conceived beliefs to blind us to its solution. It is merely labor of the mind. You may begin practicing immediately and apply my method to any topic of interest to you. It will bring rewards and soon you will find opportunities for practice in every aspect of your life. Practice understanding, practice compassion, practice medicine or practice the bongo drums. Whatever it is that you desire, analyze it and seek a path to its fulfillment.



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Anything You Want

Do you wish to live in another locale? Do you want to find a more fulfilling career or relationship with your spouse or to find the person of your dreams? Do you want education or medical attention, or simply to be left alone in peace? All of these and anything else you may name may be achieved by practicing the method I have described.

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Yearning of the Heart

Be aware that practice is work. This labor of the mind to fulfill the yearning of the heart can take a toll upon the body. In working our brain we may even forget to breathe. When your thinking becomes cloudy and answers do not come, return to your breath. Be aware that you are breathing in and recognize that you are breathing out. Repeat this simple exercise and make it the foundation of your practice. Your body will respond to it and give you strength and endurance. It will bring you in touch with your body and allow you to recognize the subtle signals it sends us. If we perceive them, read them and respond to them, these signals are invaluable in maintaining both our physical and mental health.

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Fire of the Spirit

The strength to pursue our practice is fueled by the fire of our spirit. Our absolute confidence and unbridled determination to do God’s will constitute the spirit. Spirit is an invisible, intangible force that may be felt in any individual and is what drives us to overcome hardships, ease suffering and create Art.

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Purity of the Soul

Finally we arrive at the soul. The soul is that intangible part of us which is akin to God. It is the ultimate reason for our practice. The Earth is my church and life is my prayer. Every word I speak, every action I take I perform for God’s consideration in hope that it will please her. This is the key to purity of the soul. To grasp this concept is to grasp wisdom. To practice is to practice wisdom.

Drugs

 

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Medicine for Healing

This realization is medicine for our ailing planet. The damage that we do to it we do for good reason. Good reason at least to people who do not practice or are constrained by false beliefs, insufficient education or unformed personalities. Medicine has effects and side effects. The effects of practice are happiness and security; its side effects are employment and prosperity. Slash and burn agriculture is medicine for impoverished peasants in developing countries. Its effects are employment and happiness for the peasants and produce to feed a hungry nation. Its side effects are its temporary nature, the diminution of our rain forests and the extinction of species of life on this planet who were also made by God and who must have the same right to exist that we maintain.

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Healing the Spirit

The horrible nature of the activities of humanity is taxing to the spirit. Although they seem insolvable as individual issues, when each is placed in perspective their solutions are evident.

We need more practice. Our collective actions create enormous suffering among people at all levels of society. Rich and poor, young and old, because we suffer we seek to ease our pain with distractions that impede our practice. The more distracted we become the less able we are to ease our own suffering. It is a spiral that infects the spirit and leaves us depressed and ineffective. To heal the spirit we must examine how we deal with our suffering.