I read recently a friend's blog where he listed with remorse the activities of the current conservative government and how he felt ashamed to be a New Zealander.

http://207.210.219.115/blog/?p=850

This struck a chord with me, not because I agreed 100% with his disputes with the govt's activities, but because I also, particularly during the presidency of George Bush, felt ashamed to be an American.

Which suggests to me that we have a systems problem here that is larger than the govt of any one nation.

The pattern here is that in both cases the conservatives came to power because of the current game that is being run in the western industrial democracies. The governments never well serve the needs of the people, they serve much better "corporate" interests. So after one party is in power for a while the people naturally become dissatisfied with them and want change.

Unfortunately, the way these representative democracies are gamed is that change can only come in the form of what is essentially the other wing of the same corporate party, be it conservative or liberal.

You see this pattern as well in the European democracies. It's pretty much the pattern everywhere such a system of government exists, and why instances of these government systems want to see "democracy" spread to other parts of the world. Because it is a system that works well for transnational corporate interests.

This has been going on since before we were born, and it is a very big thing indeed.

There is no reason to allow this thing to push the buttons of national identity; there is very much no reason to feel personally bad about it.

A) because feeling bad is not good
B) because feeling bad is part of the system and helps perpetuate it
C) because it is a very big thing and while we can conceptualize into an idea that fits in our heads it is in fact too big (I think) for us as individuals to pick a fight with in the ways in which we are taught during our enculturation within the system to act; such actions leading to more bad feelings (see B).

I had the opportunity to again feel shame as I read recently about all the American senior citizens, who receive government subsidized medical care (Medicare), who are outspokenly opposed to "any form of socialized medicine."
mutateweb.com/archives/20...n-hall-mobs/

Fortunately, I have gotten some literal and figurative distance on these idiots, or hypocrites, or whatever you want to call them and really had a great big laugh at the giant hilarious drama.

Shame is, I think, the enemy, or one of the enemy's chief weapons. I am not even sure exactly what the enemy is, but I know the shame needs to be replaced with better personal feeling. With love of the self, and love of one's fellow humans. The way to fight the enemy is, I think, to stop running these programs of national identity and personal and government and corporate stupidity and malfeasance in our heads and instead learn to build and run programs of personal improvement, growth, and happiness. Of love of oneself and of others.

Thanks for listening to my morning lecture :-)