The Fake War on Christmas and Silent Night

Happy Holidays mi gente,
Leave it to the Christian right and people in general to fuck up a good thing… There are two parts to today’s post. One illustrates how conservatives use religion to foster fear, the other illustrates how spirituality can be a powerful force, even in the midst of unbelievable violence and insanity.

The Fake War on Christmas

What we preserve in the larger human story determines what we believe is possible in the world.

The fake war on Christmas is not really about Christmas, but rather it is in reality code for religious intolerance, anti-Semitism, and bigotry. It’s the dog whistle to rile up the rabble.

The whole political correctness smear is bullshit anyway. People who bitch about political correctness remind me of a bunch of jerks whining because they can’t belittle and demean other people with impunity. Conservatives have been very successful at demonizing perfectly good words and concepts; in fact, it’s one of their most basic tactics. They have demonized the whole concept of politeness, of tolerance, of respect for other people. In their worldview, you’re either “us” or “them”; you’re either “with us” or “against us.”

From what I can tell, at the core of The Nazarene’s message is a powerful and sublime philosophy: that we love one another, and that we should treat one another with respect and tolerance. Of course, Christmas really isn’t about that at all. Shit, if there is a war on Christmas, it was won long ago by a consumer culture grounded in the mindset of mindlessly acquiring material possessions rather than self-actualization or compassion for one’s neighbor.

And that’s the tragedy here because this vital message of love is lost. And if you doubt the power of the true message of this spiritual teaching, then check out the following story… 

Silent Night

 The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce of 1914

On Christmas Eve in 1914, two lines of homesick soldiers, one British, one German, were dug into the trenches on the Western Front in the middle of World War I. Now, you have to understand that WWI was considered the “war to end all wars.” It was one of the most vicious wars because in those days, you had to look your enemy in the eye as you stabbed or shot him. You were more likely to die from starvation, exposure, and disease as you were at the hands of the enemy. So, there are these two front lines and between them was a fire zone called no-man’s land. On a moonlit, snowy night in a God-forsaken landscape, the Germans lifted army issued Christmas trees sparkling with tiny candles over the edge of their trenches and set them in plain sight.

The British shouted and cheered with delight. The Germans began to sing “Stille Nacht… ”and the British began to sing along with “Silent Night.” This encouraged the Germans and they set down their guns in the moonlight and heaved themselves from their trenches carrying candles, cake, and cigars toward their enemies. The British responded in kind, carrying steamed pudding and cigarettes.

These men met in the middle of the forbidden zone, exchanged gifts, sang carols, and played soccer. This seemingly spontaneous truce eventually extended for hundreds of miles among thousands of soldiers. The really funny thing was, having seen each other’s humanity, they could no longer shoot each other… 

The war essentially stopped.

Horrified, commanders on both sides had to transfer thousands of men to new positions until the enemy became faceless again, something killable, not a human being -- not a brother.

Almost a hundred years later, scholars are still studying this event, reading soldier’s journals and letters that refer to it, seeking to understand “the breakdown of the military mindset,” or attempting to understand how a spontaneous peace movement could spread even in the cold heart of war.

Today you will hear countless other stories. Stories of death and unspeakable cruelty. You will no doubt hear stories justifying, in the name of global economics or religion, the starvation and killing of innocent men, women, and children. You will see or read approximately 80,000 messages today bombarding you with the agenda to get you to buy something -- most of it will fly under the radar of your awareness. But if you remember anything, remember this story because it is true and it speaks to who we really are and the essence of what it means to be a human being.

Most of all, remember the contrasts between the two parts of this post today. The first part emphasizes difference and domination, the second part reinforces what is good in all of us, regardless of what or who we believe in.

My name is Eddie and I’m in recovery from civilization…

Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it, please consider helping me out by sharing it, liking me on Facebook, following me on Twitter, or even throwing me some money on GoFundMe HERE or via PayPal HERE so I can keep calling it like I see it.

The Rapture

Hola Everybody,
Seems like the rapture is upon us proving that conservatives were right all along. Now, don’t you feel like an idiot for not purchasing this RaptureSurvival Backpack© ($149.95 plus shipping & handling)? Ha! 

Jesus is Gonna Kick yo Ass

Quick! Look busy -- Jesus is coming.

Every once in a while (in the U.S. that means every day) a religious nut predicts the end times are upon us. Google “rapture” if you want the details. If you’re too lazy, I’ll explain … 

Pretend you’re a big time Hollywood executive and I tried to pitch you the following story:

“Okay, let me start with some context. It’s the 21^st century, but millions of people still believe in this invisible Super Ghost who lives somewhere way, way up in the sky somewhere. You see, he created everything, sees everything, knows everything, and knows everything that had ever happened or will happen. Think: a huge security camera in the sky.

The people who believe in him think of him as a magic helper who protects, punishes, and watches over them. It’s a take on the Santa Claus thingee: He sees you when you’re sleeping, He knows when you’re awake (and engaged in revolutionary activities), and so on.

Yet even though this ghost has, like, all the superpowers of all the superheroes rolled into one, he’s in actuality very insecure. He demands that you follow and pay tribute to him or else you get an eternity burning in a non-stop, super-duper fire, boiling in lava-like shit and being constantly stabbed by devils with pitchforks. Oh yeah! I almost forgot, two thousand years ago he sent his only son (which he conceived by fucking a married virgin) to earth in order to redeem humanity from their wickedness by getting him nailed to a cross (that whole Gospel According to Mel Gibson treatment).

Now, bear with me because this is where the story gets interesting: after two thousand years of watching humanity slaughter itself, getting really fucked up, and having wild orgies, and basically just slacking off, The Son plans to return to earth from outer space. But before he does, he’s going to beam up to Heaven all those people who have continued to have faith in him. Yup, levitate them right out of their clothes, wherever they are -- on an airplane, asleep, having sex, on the toilet, and (get this!) from the freaking grave! That’s right, corpses and cadavers blasting out of the ground! Think: Saw meets Night of the Living Dead, with some touches of Superman and Terminator thrown in.

Meanwhile, the people left behind are freaking out. I mean, imagine you’re on an airplane to Puerto Rico and suddenly the pilot fuckin’ disappears! Flies right by your window!

Dang!

Then you look and you see hundreds of naked people whooshing by (of course, we’ll make them up to be gorgeous-size zero-big-breasted-no ass-having-blonde-white-babes and maybe throw in an old dude just for laughs). And then the plane just nose dives, crashes smack into the side of a mountain. Families are broken up and companies have to close because, like, the entire sales department just flew through the AC vents out the window!

Meanwhile, the people left behind are in a mass panic and MSNBC-CNN-FOX is blaming it on the Muslims and the liberals. The president is pissed because he thinks it’s some secret pentagon weapon he wasn’t informed about. Cut to a religious secretary as she tells him, ‘Mr. President, it’s the Rapture.’ Since he’s secretly a Nigerian postcolonial Socialist Islamofascist, he’s never heard of the Rapture. The secret service sweeps him away to an undisclosed location where they fill him in on the details.

And this is just the first seven minutes! In the rest of the movie, the people left behind are going to suffer a seven-year nightmare of wars, plagues, attacks from supernatural creatures, asteroid collisions, and rivers of blood… ”

Would you buy a pitch like that? Well, considering the really inferior crap that gets produced these days, maybe a studio would produce such a story. Wait… you mean they made that movie?! Damn! LOL

Seriously, if I insisted that I actually believed the story to be true, most of you would have probably called security and have me kicked to the curb or shot by the cops, right? Right? Right?

As many as a hundred million Americans admit that they believe in this story, which is known as the Rapture, a scene lifted out of the last book of the Bible. Yeah, that part, the crazy, hallucinogenic part. The part with the Apocalypse and its Four Horsemen, the Whore of Babylon, a seven-headed dragon, and crap that looks straight out of a badly crafted segment of Lord of the Rings.

It’s hey-Zeus (!) on steroids come back to kick some major Muslim (and Jewish, Atheist, and Wiccan, and… etc.) ass!

If you’re a Christian and never heard of the Rapture, then shame on you, you didn’t read the Bible all the way through to the end. In any case, this book isn’t for believers of the rapture. It’s for you, Heathen! Unbeliever! Doubter! Satanist! Secular Humanist Socialist liberal! If you're curious about what 100 million people find so compelling about the Rapture, then this book will do the trick. If, on the other hand, you’re the kind of person who values reason rather than myth, then this book will literally make you laugh your ass off.

Quick! Look Busy!

My name is Eddie and I’m in recovery from civilization…

The Friday Sex Blog [Circumcision]

Hola everybody,
First, I want to send some love and big ups to our Boricua gold medalist, Laurie Hernandez. Let’s all shout out a big WEPA! for Ms. Hernandez. I think I can safely say we’re all proud of you.

Today: I’ve wanted to write about “circumcision” for some time.

Male Genital Cutting

Not too long ago, I came upon this truck at New York City’s Union Square:

I found a lot people laughing at the truck and its ads. The truck is part of a campaign to bring awareness to and stopping the practice of circumcision. Circumcision is a euphemism for genital cutting. The word “circumcision” ignores the fact that a person’s genitals are actually being cut. Generally, Circumcision refers to the cutting and removal of healthy erogenous tissue from either males or females. In boys, circumcision refers to cutting away of the foreskin (prepuce) from the penis, an act typically done to infants. In girls, circumcision refers to the cutting away of the labia or clitoris. Circumcision can also be rightfully referred to as genital mutilation

Contrary to religious beliefs and pseudo-science, genital cutting is harmful. Genital cutting is the needless removal of an anatomically important structure from the penis of an infant. Cutting is extremely painful and traumatic to a newborn. In fact, studies show that genital cutting is so traumatic that the majority of boys circumcised as children and adolescents meet diagnostic criteria for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). It also removes highly sensitive and functional tissue which is eventually replaced with scar tissue. Evolutionary adaptation designed the penis to function with a foreskin and genital cutting disrupts that natural design.

People who dismiss genital cutting as simply a “snip” are either ignorant or in denial. The procedure actually involves strapping an infant to a restraint, scraping, cutting, crushing, and then cutting again in order to remove the entire foreskin. While all of this is happening, the child is completely aware of what is happening.

The practice of circumcision got started in the United Stated in the late 1800s by advocates whose radical ideas about sexuality included the prevention of masturbation. It also gained popularity as status of a hospital birth. And, of course, Abrahamic religions mandate that all young boys be cut.

Far from being disposable, the foreskin is an important area of erogenous tissue containing tens of thousands of specialized sensory nerve endings, the sensitive ridged band, and 15 square inches of gliding skin. Why would you want to cut that away? Contrary to myths, the procedure is not medically necessary. The American Academy of Pediatrics says there are no benefits that justify the procedure. Canada’s Pediatric Society doesn’t recommend it and all European medical groups denounce it.

Genital cutting is now advocated and perpetuated by over-stating benefits and the use of fear tactics. Promoters use false claims of increased risks of cancer, STDs, and infections. Doctors and advocates for cutting appeal to social conformity, or prey on new parents’ ignorance of the facts. Simply put. The vast majority of genital cutting is done is hospitals by doctors at parental request for social (i.e., religious) reasons or just plain ignorance.

Recently, promoters of genital cutting have latched on a few highly controversial studies conducted in some rural African areas. These studies claimed to find a slight reduction in HIV transmission in cut males. However, even these studies concede condoms must still be used. At this time, no studies in the US or Europe have found cutting to provide any risk reductions for HIV/ STD infections. Additionally, there is zero risk reduction for women and gay men. Globally, the vast majority of men are not cut -- according to studies 80% are intact. The primary geopolitical areas that still cut their infants are in the Middle East and parts of Africa. Fortunately, rates of genital cutting in the US have been dropping. In 2013, the CDC reported that there is a genital cutting rate of 57% and is decreasing every year.

Finally, genital cutting is not safe. Aside from the issues discussed above, it is reported that about 100 infants die every year from cutting (Google “circumcision death”). Many more suffer permanent damage and disfigurement such as the loss of the glans or, in some cases, the entire penis. Even greater numbers of men experience life-long complications that interfere with sexual performance.

Here’s an animation of the function of the foreskin. According to surveys, women find sex with an intact man more pleasurable. LOL And yes, I am intact (there’s no such thing as “uncircumcised). I also fought for my son to be intact as well. 

Now, knowing all of this, why would you subject your infant son to such an unnecessary and barbaric practice?

My name is Eddie and I’m in recovery from civilization…

Fundamentalism

Hola mi Gente,

In the wake more terrorist attacks in Brussels, the din calling for more blood and vengeance is hard to countenance.

* * *

Sculpture: "Fundamentalism" by Jens Galschiot

That Old Time Hand-Me-Down Religion

Man is the only animal that has the True Religion – several of them. He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself, and cuts his throat if his ideology isn’t straight.

 -- Mark Twain

What I find interesting about “holy rollers” is that it always comes down to this: I’m going to hell in a hand basket for daring to challenge their beliefs. Recently, someone actually commented that, for my sake, I had better be right, because (presumably) God is gonna have his vengeance on my blaspheming ass! It has been my experience that “true believers”(and I include radical atheists in this group) are more interested in defending dogma rather than actually living. If you’re a Christian and you find glee in the fact that your God will sentence me to a hereafter of eternal damnation, then what kind of person are you? 

Beliefs can be a ma’fucca sometimes… SMDH

As a matter of habit, I do a “belief spring cleaning” at least once a year. What I mean is that I regularly taken an inventory of my beliefs and dump the ones that have no real foundation. Now, this is no easy feat. Over the years, I have had to throw away some really cherished beliefs.

One such belief was my belief in me! I used to believe that “Eddie” existed, but when I sat down to look for “Eddie,” I couldn’t find him. What I found instead, when I looked closely while suspending my belief, was an on-going process – a series of beliefs –which I managed to cobble together to create this entity we’ve all agreed to call “Eddie” (and some other choice names). In fact, what I found was an amalgam of defense mechanisms, beliefs, fears, and personality quirks, that if you ran it really fast, looked like what I perceive as my personality -- or “Eddie.” It’s a lot like a film. A film gives the viewer the illusion of movement and substance because the individual frames move at a very fast rate through the projector.

But when I sat down and slowed down, suspended my belief system, what I saw wasn’t “Eddie,” but a bunch of different components that added up to what I call “Eddie.” At first that was a fucked up revelation. How could it be that I don’t exist?! I must be going insane, I thought to myself, so I began to do some research. After all, I was very much attached to the “Eddie” I had created.

But nowhere could I find the basis of Eddie. The brain/ mind has no specific function that creates “Eddie.” There’s no central processing area in the brain responsible for “Eddie.” It’s all made up! At first, this was a very scary revelation. I mean, how will “Eddie” go to heaven if there is no “Eddie”? But then, upon further reflection, I realized that this kinda/ sorta liberated me. I mean, if “Eddie” was something I made up as a way to cope with life, then that meant I didn’t have to defend myself as much. “Eddie” was a story I made up in order to explain shit, but it wasn’t really who I was. Sure, I use “Eddie” for stuff like paying the rent, crossing the street, and trying to get into your pants, but “Eddie” is still just a story, a movie I made up.

And that’s how I lost “Eddie.” Or my belief in it.

Another belief I lost early on was the hand-me-down belief in a patriarchal God that lived in the sky somewhere and who either punished or rewarded according to behavior. That one was a lot easier than losing “Eddie.” I realized very early on that belief in a Divine Hierarchy that needed to be prayed to in order to curry favor was pretty much juvenile. And that shit about the world being created in seven days? Yeah right! And why God gotta be a man?! What’s up with that? What I came to experience and realize was that we’re all partly composed of the stardust ( the Divine Spark?), that God isn’t somewhere out there, but here inside of me (and everyone else). And some day, even that belief will be discarded.

Any hand-me-down belief system is a subtle appeal to your deepest fears and longings. It’s like a parasite that wraps itself around your mind – almost like a demonic possession. And this is why fundamentalism is so dangerous. Facts or logic will only make true believers hold on tighter to their beliefs. Borrowed and deeply held belief systems came make you strap on a bomb and make the ultimate sacrifice.

Don’t get me wrong, most belief systems contain important truths, questions, and sometimes even answers. Yet, at a very deep level, they are not your truths, questions, or answers. An unquestioned belief system is like eating cotton candy, it only masks the real hunger we have for spiritual fulfillment. This basic human hunger can only be satisfied by our own efforts, by the planting and cultivation of our questions, by the harvesting of our own answers, and by coming to our own truths. Only then will you learn to live consciously, mindfully, and truly become alive. Blind faith, on the other hand, is, well, blind.

Hand-me-down beliefs are a lot like easy spiritual junk-food handouts offered to us by outdated belief systems and thought constellations that keep us spiritually dependent, rendering us incapable of fending for ourselves, incapable of becoming who we really are. If we, in our thirst for spirituality, agree to drink the Kool-Aid of guilt, shame, and fear, we will live as zombies – dead from the neck up.

The way I see it, most belief systems are the rotted remains of what one person did in deliberation and mindfulness for themselves. Will you be content to live on the rotted meat of their long-lost labors?

The unexamined life is a second-hand life. It is second hand because it is dependent on other things for meaning. Take away the hand-me-down beliefs and what do you have? A life lived consciously and with intention is meaningful because it is the examination and personal exploration that gives it meaning and grants dignity. Do you really believe in or want off-the-shelf, one-size fits-all truths, or are you going to find your own? The choice has always been ours. The crisis we face today is rooted in this very question.

My name is Eddie and I’m in recovery from civilization…