Science, Scientism, Metaphysics and the Occult

I recently watched the series Fringe from the beginning on Netflix and also started re-watching the X Files. I have always loved science fiction and the paranormal but since the creation of my website, KetherMuse.Com I have discovered and learned so much more about these subjects.

I am certainly no scholar. Just a simple man who asks the questions that we all ask. Why are we here? Is there a purpose to it all? Are we alone in the universe? What is the nature of “god”. Is there a god? Is there life beyond death? Why when I think of someone, often I run into them or get a call? Or when I think, "I need a rubberband" and suddenly there is one on the ground in front of me. Magic? What is Our Place in the Cosmos?

In creating my site it quickly became obvious that all things are intricately connected. Religion and mythology differ but have so many overlapping aspects. And as Arthur C. Clarke noted in 1962 in Profiles Of The Future, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” This made for quite a challenge to sort all the subjects I wished to explore into independent pages. Like taking a bucket filled with a dozen differing colors of left over paint and trying to separate them into individual cans.

I have learned that there is science and then there is scientism. The debate goes on ( video –11:52 ) What did Einstein think about priest/physicist Georges Lemaître? Is there a “primeval atom” as Lemaître said? The channeled entity Bashar has a similar concept he calls the "prime radiant". Concepts the New Age folks embrace via Quantum Mysticism. And what of Buddhism and Quantum Physics? His Holiness the Dalai Lama loves science. Metaphysics and scientists are finding common ground with these people but the ones who embrace scientism are going nuts. Science has its limits and I think when they come upon some things, like the paranormal, they put their heads in the sand. Big one for me, what is consciousness  Mr. Scientist?

Many scientist even think Transhumanists are whacked. But they say “We May Look Crazy to Them, But They Look Like Zombies to Us” They will think the world has fallen apart if a Transhumanist gets selected to be president!

Are people like Graham Hancock too far out there or even Dr. Michio Kaku? The worlds of Heinlein,  Clarke and Asimov seem to be becoming reality. Cassandras of the times? Are the ideas of Aubrey de Grey to be treated as Galileo by mainstream scientists? Is SETI a waste of time and money? Blavatsky, Edgar Cayce clearly are a joke, right? From Shamanism to the new advances into the study of the psychedelic mind. The lines are getting fuzzy and it's getting wuzzier all the time. As Socrates (may have) said, “I know that I know nothing”. But I sure wish I did..

Please visit Kether Muse.

Better to be a dog than homeless in Boise

This weekend is an annual event in my town, Boise Idaho. "See Spot Walk" The story related in this meme (originally created for Facebook)  is true and always comes to mind for me when the before mentioned event happens. The plight of the homeless is one of my heart wrenching passions. I have been homeless myself due to life circumstance beyond my control. Just as in any city, the homeless in Boise have a very hard time. We can pay for wars so easily but why not a free education and a home for everyone in America? Hmmmm. Yes, Time to Create a "See The Homeless Walk" event...
Nino Kether-Kether Muse on Twitter
Kether Muse Website

Working For Peace In Boise Idaho

I am a proud founding member of the Idaho Peace Coallition in Boise Idaho.

More than 200 events will take place across the nation for the

2015 Campaign Nonviolence Week of Nonviolent Action.

Here in Idaho, the Idaho Peace Coalition and our friends have a full week of events planned.

Please note that the location for the Practicing Nonviolence Family Ceremony has been changed from Kathryn Albertson Park to Memorial Park at the corner of Fort and 6^thSt, adjacent to the Federal building.

Taking Action for a Culture of Peace

Campaign Nonviolence Week of Actions 2015

Organized by the Idaho Peace Coalition and friends
Events Hosted by Idaho Peace Coalition and Idaho Campaign Nonviolence:

 Silent Walking Meditation for Peace and to Abolish the Idaho Death Penalty – The silent walk is an appeal to Idaho citizens, the Governor and the Idaho Legislature to end the Idaho death penalty. This walk also celebrates the United Nations International Day of Peace. Members from several faith and peace traditions will lead the walk, circling the Capital nine times.  Everyone is welcome to join for all or a portion of the event.

September 21, 11:00 am – 2:00 pm, Idaho Statehouse

Walk to Protect Idaho from Nuclear Waste

September 22, 12 pm -1:00 pm, gather at 8^th and Bannock.  Co-hosted by the Snake River Alliance.

Walk for the Climate

September 24, 12 pm – 1:00 p.m. gather at 8^th and Bannock.  Co-hosted by Idaho 350.org

Walk to Add the Four Words

September 25, 12 pm – 1:00 pm, gather at 8^th and Bannock. Co-hosted by Add the Four Words.

Practicing  Nonviolence Family Ceremony

Join us for a family-friendly ceremony to celebrate the practice of nonviolence. Come enjoy music, art, sharing, centering and play.

September 26, 9:00 am – 10:00 am, Memorial Park, 900 N 6^th St, Boise

Music and singing with Shannon Commers!

Yoga and centering with Lisa Shultz, RYT-200!

Inspiration from Marc Schlegel!

Art, refreshments and sharing too.
Independent events we are promoting for 2015 Campaign Nonviolence Week of Action

Idaho Sierra Club "Reach for the Sun" Electric Vehicle show

September 20, 1:00 pm, MK Nature Center

Shadows of Liberty – This film reveals the extraordinary truth behind the news media: censorship, cover‐ups and corporate control. Idaho premiere co-sponsored by the Idaho Peace Coalition.

September 22, 7:00 pm, IBEW Local 291, 225 N 16^th St, Suite 110, Boise, free

Vigil to Abolish the Death Penalty

September 23, 12:00 pm -1:00 pm at 8^th and Bannock

Bloodsworth-An Innocent Man  - Come join Kirk Bloodsworth, the 1st death row inmate in the US exonerated by DNA, for a special preview screening of the new documentary about his life. This one-night-only engagement will feature a special preview screening of the full-length film before it is locked for film festivals and wider distribution, and will be followed by a Q&A with Kirk Bloodsworth, and the film's director, Gregory Bayne.

September 25, 7:00 pm, BSU Special Events Center
Idaho Peace Coalition or on Facebook  
Facebook Campaign Nonviolence

The Idaho Peace Coalition is a non-profit organization supported by
community donations. Please support our work by making a donation.
Mail your donation to PO Box 7804, Boise ID 83707.

Work For Peace
Please visit my website for Peace Resources 

ASCAP BMI SESAC: Musical Terrorists

This is a post long in the making and less extensive than it could be. Be that as it may let me start today's post with a quote from Wikipedia from it's Street Performer page.

“Benjamin Franklin, the American inventor and statesman, was a street performer. He composed songs, poetry and prose about the current events and went out in public and performed them. He would then sell printed copies of them to the public. He was dissuaded from busking by his father who convinced him it was not worth the stigmas that some people attach to it. It was this experience that helped form his beliefs in free speech, which he wrote about in his journals.”

Singing was most likely the first form of music. Some of the oldest known musical instruments in the world, flutes made of bird bone and mammoth ivory are said to be 42,000 to 43,000 years old. (some say 55,000 years old) There is evidence that with per-historic humans the noises created by pounding seed and roots is a likely source of rhythm and drumming. But my focus here today is not the history of music or the matrix of the issues of free speech but more focused on a disturbing aspect of the modern music industry. Specifically performance rights licensing agencies (PRO) and their over the top actions against small coffee shops and cafes.

If you Google "performance rights organizations close coffee shops cafes" you get "About 5,900,000 results (0.54 seconds)" Getting off the first page and start scrolling you will find headlines like:

BMI/ASCAP/SESAC  Legal Extortion Scam

Musical Terrorists.

ASCAP, BMI and SESAC Force Local Coffee Shop To Shut Down Live Music

ASCAP & BMI -- Protectors of Artists or Shadowy Thieves? © by Harvey Reid

A Day In The Life Of Legalized Extortion: How The BMI Shakedown Works

Restaurant Owner Ordered To Pay BMI $30,450 For 'Illegally Playing' Four Unlicensed Songs

More People Realizing That ASCAP And BMI Are Killing Local Music Scenes

Music Copyright Police Ruin Artists’ Gigs (and Coconut Curry)

BMI sues Bar Owner for 1.5 Million for Allowing Cover Tunes

Legalized extortion? DTM music venue owners sound off on licensing fees

ASCAP Targets Farmers' Markets and House Venues

How ASCAP Takes Money From Successful Indie Artists And Gives It To Giant Rock Stars

And the Wind Cries, ‘Pay Me!’The Story of ASCAP And Why Some Corvallisites Are Living in Fear

I think you get the picture. Theses Music-Copyright Enforcers have run amuck Although to run amuck mean to to "rush about in a murderous frenzy", it's not too harsh a term to me as they are murdering many small businesses and causing irreparable harm to peoples lives in my opinion and the opinion of many others. Like the Small Business Against BMI ASCAP Extortion group on Facebook They state the problem well on their About page Some artists have performed to support local cafes to pay their licensing fees as the cost is so excessive that the owners often have to choose to have no music performance at all. And it is just not just musical performers. I have friend who has a belly dance school who perform around my city all the time but they have to pay these PROs also as sometimes they dance to contemporary music as well as traditional.

Some of the affectionate terms used for ASCAP BMI and SESAC are: Royalty Racket ~ Bloodsuckers ~ Legalized Extortionists ~ Brutal Mob Thugs ~ Shakedown Artists ~ Music Mafia. I refer to them as Musical Terrorists. My biggest issue with this beyond the crippling costs for small venues is that the next generation of great artists are finding less and less locations where they can perform. Where would people like Bob Dylan be without places like the Gaslight Cafe when he was starting out? There are too many famous artists to list who began in small coffee shops and cafes. Another issue is the war on Buskers (Street Performers)

and the many who started that way also. But that is a slightly different issue I may explore in the future.

If you read about the History and Development of Music Performance Rights you realize the basic intention of these organizations were good ones and I do not disagree with that. But like so many things they have evolved (or devolved) beyond their original intent. In my conversations with venue owners and musicians on these issues I got much feed back of the pros and cons from many vantage points. Some I spoke with saw the issues clearly from both sides a they were owners as well as performers. But everyone I spoke with had two things in common. (mostly Facebook contacts) They believed that these folks should not even be going after small venues and they were all reluctant to discuss this on line and asked me to call them instead. That last point showed to me that even if they are playing by the rules they are still very frightened of these Music Terrorists.

I realize this is a brief post. So to conclude I ask two questions. Are these PROs really non-profit as they claim? Some firmly believe not. And that is why I believe the increased push against the little guy is happening. They see the writing on the wall in the future of how music is distributed and know their profits are going to decline. I can hear the echo of the screams of the coach builders when the automobile came on the scene, as they too knew they were a dying industry.

And secondly, is it time to push hard against these folks and demand they change the way they charge small venues if their intent is really to support the artists? I certainly think so.

So go out and hear some live music at a coffee shop or small cafe near you! Please visit my website Kether Muse

Nuclear Nuggets

I could not let this weekend go without a little acknowledgment that August 6th and 9th of 2015 mark the 70th anniversary of the U.S. dropping two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The bomb changed our lives on this planet in so many ways. The likelihood and magnitude of a Thermal Nuclear War is hard to fully grasp by most, if they even consider it at all. Even today the thought of the standard conservative estimate of deaths of 200,000 human lives from the bombing is a brain twister.

This post is not well thought out or even organized (or edited) but consists of random links to some basic information relating to nuclear weapons history. I could be so much more extensive but for today I am being a bit lazy.. I could write a huge post just on the issue of  Israel and the Non-Proliferation Treaty and how the issue was just BLOCKED again in May 2015. But not today Hey, let's start with a little music. Buchanan Brothers- Atomic Power 1946 Country Music Song “Atomic power was given by the mighty hand of God.”

Here are just a few images for quick viewing just for fun. Can anything having to do with nuclear war be fun? Some think so. So Duck And Cover as you continue reading. But don't worry if you live in The House InThe Middle (1954) for anxiety relief.

Image 1 ~ Image 2 ~ Image 3 ~ Image 4 ~ Image 5 ~ Image 6

In the current climate of the nuclear weapons debate I find it ironic that the Mother of the Bomb was aJewish woman, Lise Meitner. But then there is so much ignorance withing the history of nukes. The propaganda of the cold war is still with us For a great overview this PBS film is so excellent and hard to beat in it's scope. "Hiroshima" By John Hersey an article in the New Yoker August 31,1946 Issue changed the way American thought about the use of nuclear weapons. Ultimately the only way to win is not to play.

So here are just a few links for a refresher.

Operation Crossroads the "worldsfirst nuclear disaster" ~ OperationSandstone

Hydrogen Bomb

Operation Ivy the first test of a thermal nuclear bomb At the time the largest explosion ever set off 600 times morepowerful than the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima Historical Footage~ Operation Ivy Wikipedia

 Until Soviet atomic bomb project set off  Tsar Bomba ("Emperor Bomb") the nickname for the AN602 hydrogen bomb, the most powerfulnuclear weapon ever detonated. It's October 30, 1961 test remains themost powerful artificial explosion in humanhistory (video).

Castle Bravo and Lucky Dragon NumberFive

 
Godzilla ~ Is it really science fiction?

President Dwight D. Eisenhower Atoms for Peace Speech video  > Wikipedia

Non-Proliferation Treaty

Doomsday Clock

Strategic Defense Initiative

Black Rain
Nuclear Shadows ~ Video
 Please visit my website for more resources on activism and peace.

Fathers Day, Goldstar Children and War

Disclaimer: As a founding member of the Idaho Peace Coalition I have on occasion written commentary on behalf of the organization. The following blog post is in no way the opinion of the membership of the organization and consists solely of my own thoughts.

This Sunday June 21^st individuals and families will be honoring and celebrating the fathers of America, the living and the dead. An activity that has it's roots in the peace-and-reconciliation campaigns of the post-Civil War era when the activist Julia Ward Howe issued her “Mother’s Day Proclamation” and eventually in 1972 Richard Nixon finally signed a proclamation making Father’s Day a federal holiday. My focus today is not the fathers but the children. Specifically the children left behind in the wake of the wars that took their fathers away.

The military has estimated 22,000 American children lost a parent in the Vietnam War and nearly 5,000 lost a mom or dad to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. These are termed Gold Star Kids. In her "Appeal to womanhood throughout the world" which later became known as the "Mother's Day Proclamation" Julia Ward Howe said, in part, " Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We, women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country, to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs." But via governmental sponsored indoctrination of patriotism the message of our mothers have be overridden and war is framed as a noble endeavor. Theodore Roosevelt said, “The pacifist is as surely a traitor to his country and to humanity as is the most brutal wrongdoer.” This mindset permeates our culture. Unfortunately not the words of President Kennedy: “"War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige.”

Since the event of 911 the drums of war have increasingly permeated and dominated the America psyche. Nearly 3,000 children under the age of 18 lost a parent on September 11. The average age was 9. A total of 108 were born in the months after their fathers died. The results of this warfooting continues on today. Sgt. Maj. Wardell Turner (buried January 6, 2015) was a recent soldier to die in our wars. He was a husband and father of 5 children. I am left wondering if the desire for revenge or the desire for the end of wars is the primary emotion of these fatherless children after the initial impact of their loss? Will they be compelled to serious contemplate war? Where will they seek their guidance and in what direction will those who offer it send them? My hope of course is that they enter the realms of peace and reconciliation.

Also it is well to remember that deaths of these fathers are not always the results of the wounds suffered in battle, but by the hidden wounds of war. In 2013, the United States Department of Veterans Affairs released a study that covered suicides from 1999 to 2010, which showed that roughly 22 veterans were committing suicide per day, or one every 65 minutes. The number of those who were fathers (and mothers) I do not know but I am sure their is a measurable number. Is this the “ultimate sacrifice” the war makers like to emphasize in their propaganda? I doubt it. Just as the 1991 blanket ban on photographs of the coffins of the returning dead soldiers put in place under President George Bush number one the powers that be also wish to hide this under that same blanket. It isn't good for the business of war.

The children of the dead. They are referred to as Gold Star Children. The challenges of these children are vast and complicated. Mitty Griffis Mirrer speaks of the ""silenceis a common thread for gold star children from the Vietnam era". Challenges that continue for them to this day. What of the future fatherless children of our Endless War on Terror? Besides the loss of their fathers there is also other suffering of War Children but that may be a subject of a future post.

Here is a trailer for a film on these Goldstar Children'which can be seen in full on Netflix At the end of this post are some links to organizations associated with the issues of war and children. These links are not quite like the focus on peace the September Eleventh Families For Peaceful Tomorrows have. There are many organizations that deal with children and war with different focuses but for now I will keep it narrow.

In closing I wish to say my heart goes out to the children who do not have their fathers with them this Fathers Day because of the revenges of war. Not just American children but to all the children of the world. I wish to encourage mothers and fathers to teach your children the ways of peace and do your best to explain to them what wars is as best you can for their age group. Otherwise the propaganda of war will be fed to them by our government through school, the airwaves and the internet from the USA, ISIS or Israel.. I invite you to take a deep breath with thoughts of the dead while celebrating our fathers and then resolve to work in earnest for a peaceful world, one without war. For more resources to assist with this please visit my website and explore my Peace Resources Page. Blessings.

Gold Star Mothers and Families Day

Blue Star Mother

Gold Star Mothers

Gold Star Wives

Gold Star Fathers

Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS)

Sons and Daughters in Touch (SDIT)

Return of the Neocons and the Wisdom of Jon Stewart

 

Just a brief little blip today. I am sure more will be coming. A little heads up for us all.
 

The neocons are back, slithering out of the dark den they have secretly been breeding in since thousands died in Iraq and it fell into disarray. Paul Wolfowitz, John Bolton, Bill Kristol, Karl Rove, Paul Bremmer and the others.. Now Lindsey Graham wants to be president pulling out the good ol' playbook of fear mongering and the neocons want to help. John McCain is dusting off his Neocon Manifesto and is vying for position as Head of Snake, but it is a Hydra. They are counting on the short memory of Americans.  Remember the Project for the New American Century, the New Pearl Harbor and the birth of the Patriot Act? They hope not. The architects of the Endless War on Terror are coming to a TV, newspaper of Twitter feed near you.  Don’t be bitten and infected by their poisonous venom and rhetoric.  If their mouths are moving, they are lying.

America deposited it's democracy seed into Iraq’s fertile crescent.. Hmmm.. LOL Got to love Jon Stewart and Mess O'Potamiat and Middle Eastern Politics: A Love Story.

Strive to create a peaceful world. Visit my website for a plethora of Peace Resources.

Random Thoughts Memorial Day and Monsanto

Cue the background music here.

Plato said, "Only the dead have seen the end of war."

My thoughts today are a bit minimal and random but I felt the need to say a few words.

This Memorial Day the government is "celebrating" the official, authorized 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Vietnam War when 3,500 Marines arrived in DaNang in March of 1965. “Now the Pentagon is planning to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War by launching a $30 million program to rewrite and sanitize its history." ( Marjorie Cohn, Huffington Post 12/17/2014)

$30 million. A drop in the bucket of our tax dollars. Military propaganda isn't cheap. In 2009 the Defense Department ashed for $1 billion for it's overseas propaganda. Who knows what it asks for domestically.

In President George Herbert Walker Bush's Remarks to the American Legislative Exchange CouncilMarch1, 1991 just after his “victory” in the Persian Gulf War he said, "The specter of Vietnam has been buried forever in the desert sands of the Arabian Peninsula.... It’s a proud day for America. And, by God, we’ve kicked the Vietnam syndrome once and for all." It appears that this is one thing President Bush got right. Just a few years later in August of 1996, Osama bin Laden issued his first fatwa "Declaration of War Against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Places” spurred on by the fact that the U.S supplied weapons for Saudi Arabia to aim at Muslims in the 1979 attack on the Grand Mosque in Mecca. U.S tanks in the Shadow of Mecca was too much for him as killing even a bird in Mecca or Medina is strictly forbidden. Saudi Arabia military weapons from the U.S.purchases continue today.  

My thoughts today are not for the dead but for the living. The vets out there that too often seem forgotten. The homeless vets and most especially the vets suffering with PTSD because of the horrors of war. On Thursday, May 24, 2012 Democracy Now! aired a show titled "Honor the Dead, Heal the Wounded, Stop the Wars." My hope is someday we create no more veterans of war.

Some random stats. Cost to make a Marine is $44,000 (MSNBC) - Number of veterans registered with the Department of Veterans’ Affairs 22,234,000 (VA) - Amount spent on disability benefits per year $57 Billion for 633,000 veterans ($90,047 per veteran) (VA) - Number of veterans receiving government subsidized benefits education 293,384 (VA) The budget seeks $495.6 billion in funding for the Department of Defense (DoD) in FY 2015, an amount consistent with the current discretionary budget caps. In addition, the budget for FY 2015 includes a fully paid-for Opportunity, Growth, and Security Initiative that totals $56 billion government wide. Roughly 60,000 veterans will be cut from food stamps next year. Vets get paid too little and need food stamps?? Hmmmm...

Howard Zinn addressing an anti-war rally on the student center steps at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, April 12, 1967 has not lost it's relevance.: "Memorial Day should be a day for putting flowers on graves and planting trees. Also, for destroying the weapons of death that endanger us more than they protect us, that waste our resources and threaten our children and grandchildren." -- Howard Zinn in the Memorial Day article that led The Boston Globe to cancel his column in 1976. Read in full here: 

One May 23, 2015 the March Against Monsanto http://www.march-against-monsanto.com/ is planed two days before Memorial Day. Kelly L. Derricks, founder of the Children Of Vietnam Veterans Health Alliance | Agent Orange Survivors ( Website > Facebook  ) has said “If we fail to realize that March Against Monsanto is not about GMOs alone, then we have already lost the battle.”

Agent Orange was manufactured for the U.S. Department of Defense primarily by Monsanto Corporation and Dow Chemical and used in "Operation Ranch Hand" which ran from 1961 to 1971. Vietnam estimates 400,000 people were killed or maimed, and 500,000 children born with birth defects as a result of its use. Some of the 2.5 million US veterans who passed through Vietnam got dosed too. Will anyone from Monsanto or the U.S Government ever be held to account for war crimes for the use of Agent Orange in Vietnam? Doubtful.

"Honor the Dead, Heal the Wounded, Stop the Wars." Honor the dead, covered. Heal the wounded, marginal. Stop the wars. Unfortunately not to likely. 

Extra: Agent Orange remained: Unfinished Business

I found this image interesting. A screenshot I took of Vietnam war footage. In the video the young soldiers appear so desensitized to it all and never flinch as the bombs are exploding around them. And there amidst it all soldiers carry children as they leave, knowing their families and friends are being incinerated behind them. Even in war humanity lives. What happened to those children? Only the gods know.

 

Football, Cults, Religion And War

Recently I was praised and chastised on Facebook for saying football is a cult religion. When looking at football it is clear to me that it shares aspects from the checklist of what cults generally look like.

It astonishes me at the way many friends of mine who are activists for peace and justice, have deep spiritual roots or in general are just goodhearted, loving and giving people seem to have a blind spot in regard to the “cult of violence” when it comes to football (or other contact sports) and gleefully engage in its rituals.

Also I am astounded by the fact that statistics show one hundred eighty-seven million Americans describe themselves as fans of the NFL. That’s 60% of the country’s population. Interesting that this statistic is also closely reflected in the ones on religion. “A global 2012 poll reports 59% of the world's population as "religious" and 36% as not religious, including 13% who are atheists.”

Football in our culture is the greatest spectacle of violence next to war. It is our version of the gladiatorial games of ancient Rome where death became a form of entertainment or the ritualistic sacrifices of ancient Aztecs. It fosters a tolerance for violence, greed, racism, and homophobia... Steve Almond articulated this well.

Football also shares many of the qualities of most religions. It isn't hard to extract the similarities of Footballism to most religions. A religion is an organized collection of beliefs, narratives (countless news print and web content devoted to it), symbols (logos), and sacred histories (halls of fame) where people may find moral and ethical metaphors. They have organized behaviors, clergy (NFL commissioners), holy places (stadiums), scriptures (play books) and special clothing while participating in the services. Devotees practice rituals, have sermons (pep rallies), commemoration or veneration (trophies) of its its deities (1,696 active players (priests) in the NFL), festivals/feasts (tailgate parties), meditation/prayer (The National Anthem), music/art/dance (cheerleaders), public service. They even have a Eucharist.. The common one being beer but within the clergy itself it is drugs. In may of 2014 More than 600 players filed a class-action complaint in U.S. District Court in San Francisco alleging the league illegally supplied them with painkillers to conceal injuries and mask pain. 

Football has its own mythology and origin stories. It shares a hierarchy like the catholic church consisting of its bishops, priests and deacons who exercise authority within the “church”. Currently Roger Goodell serves as the Pope. The mythos of football has taken over much of society reflecting the term coined by sociologist Leo Lowenthal "idols of consumption" as the swing in culture from "idols of production" to having our heroes being those people who are derived from purely entertainment sources.(Musicians, actors, sports personalities)

I understand, in part, why people join this cult. The huge football stadiums of the 21st century are the pagan temples of today. I see how people get “pleasure from feeling they belong to something bigger than themselves. They gain pleasure and satisfaction from the rituals, unified chanting and walk away afterwards with a feeling that life has been enhanced in some mysterious way.” (sic) We take active part in these ceremonies of hero worship, sing the hymns and generally get a feeling of being one with our fellow humans. Not a bad thing at all when viewed in isolation. These needs seem to be built into our DNA. This is in part what religions are designed for, to somehow service these needs as well as others. But taking on the larger view and shining light on it we can also see the shadow side of Footballism if one cares to look.

It disturbs me that with all the social/environmental/political issues around us we choose to spend so much of our money/time/energy on this cult. “The National Football League takes in more than $9.5 billion per year and is exempt from Federal taxes. As a nonprofit, it earns more than the Y, the Red Cross, Goodwill, the Salvation Army or Catholic Charities – yet it stands as one of the greatest profit-generating commercial advertising, entertainment and media enterprises ever created.” And they have plans to bring that number to $25 billion in the next 10 years. And just to touch base on another issue much has been said in regard to public universities. Many wonder about and question new stadiums being built while classrooms, libraries, and laboratories deteriorate, tuition going up and student debt skyrockets beyond comprehension. I could write a whole other blog post on this matter but not today.

Now back to the point of Footballism being a “cult of violence”. Football is a war game and players are trained to use force. Without this violence there would be no football. In soccer this is even more pronounced and some have called it “hooliganism “.  Europeans seem to see this connection much more than Americans do. The connections of war are unmistakable in their shared language and rituals. All of these connections of football, war and religion are not new and sharing all the links and stories could become an exhaustive effort. Although the shared language is noted some still think this comparison is wrong.

Moving along, even though the idea that violence against women increases after the Superbowl has been discredited, it isn't hard to see why many people continue to believe it. There are still studies that make this point and others on contact sports and violence against women in general.  A Facebook friend noted this and posted the National Domestic Violence Hotline number on her wall. (NOTE: my spell check told me Superbowl should be capitalized... hmmm... Another sign of the elevation of football toward divinity?) In regard to men, studies have been done on the hormonal levels of a men participating in sports and the effect on levels of violence and aggression. 

Which brings me to a small step into the muddy pool of the effect of this “cult of violence” that men do to themselves. “A study commissioned by the National Football League reports that Alzheimer’s disease or similar memory-related diseases appear to have been diagnosed in the league’s former players vastly more often than in the national population —including a rate of 19 times the normal rate for men ages 30 through 49.” This too is a subject of much examination.

So in conclusion I stand firm in my original comments that war is a dangerous cult and a religion. At it's heart this is a post about war and violence as an undesirable archaic institution that must be eliminated in our societies if we are to survive the challenges before us and move us into a new evolution as humans. I encourage people to teach our children the ways of peace, not glorify war or violence in its many manifestations. There are so many wonderful things happening in the world. People working to create a sustainable future for all aspects of our life on this planet, our fellow creatures and the planet itself. Would not the redirection of money, time and energy be better spent on these endeavors? We all have choices to make. I do my best to choose mine wisely. I'm not perfect but I actively seek out these alternative choices. Teach Peace. Seek peace.

Image captured from Heroes of the Storm gaming site.