Recent Posts

Silicon Valley Bank: GET WOKE, GO BROKE?

March 12, 2023

CNN: Bank Failure Second Largest in US History

Excerpt:

This bank, 16th largest in the U.S., was proudly woke, politically correct, with a website signaling endlessly its Diversity Inclusion Equity (DIE) credentials . . .

Turns out, this absurd ideological positioning is now correlated with cascading implications for ordinary people, who have never given a rat’s ass thought to academically inspired, so-called, racial, gender, and other continuously dividing “identities.”

Lulz from the SVB website

Excerpt:

They’ve already gotten ugly for one “woman of color” at the bank, who may be turning into the scapegoat.

When things get ugly, they do so fast.

Silicon Valley Bank’s Top Woman Executive LGBTQ+ activist gets blamed for bank’s failure

But hey, lady, you might live to thank the bank.

Now, let’s address virtue signalers on the home front. What might they learn from Friday’s SVB debacle, which, come Monday, we might learn has ignited the possibly cascading failure of the already fading fiat global financial system?

It may be that the entire woke edifice is about to get cancelled.

It may be that things are about to get very real, very fast.

Fake, divisive, ideological positioning is a luxury, easily discarded, when faced with the need to survive.

 

SATURN IN PISCES: Can Cognitive Dissonance Alchemize Unity?

March 11, 2023

 

Note: I changed the title of yesterday’s post to include the Saturn in Pisces moniker. Which makes this my third Saturn in Pisces contemplation.

 

I was consistently puzzled yesterday, watching Rep Jim Jordan’s House Subcommittee Hearing on Weaponization of Government, or, as journalist Shellenberger put it, the “Censorship Industrial Complex.” What blew my mind is that both Shellenberger and Taibbi are Democrats, called before a House Committee brought into action by Republicans! And that the Democrats on the Committee acted in nasty ways, accusing the journalists of ulterior motives, rudely and impatiently interrupting them over and over again, belittling them as “so-called journalists.” To which both responded in consistently patient, well-mannered ways. Jordan noted that both were brave men to come before his committee hearing, since both are Democrats! And yet, Jordan continued, he expected them not to serve that or any other agenda, but instead, to tell the truth!

Democrat and Republican — left wing and right wing of same bird, some say — and both corrupt to the bone. Others still maintain that they represent fundamentally divergent political positions, and that the increasing rancor in politics today is due to this stark, rigid, ideological division.

And yet, this committee hearing was dissolving the usual demarcations and creating new ones . . .

Then, last night, I saw where the House had voted 419 to 0 for the DNI to release all records regarding the origins of Covid 19. Question: will Buy-den sign the bill? Or will he veto it. Either way is interesting. That all the members of the House are utterly united in seeking truth here is, frankly, astonishing to me.

BioClandestine wonders what is really going on . . .

I’d prefer to think that no matter what people’s motives, likely many and varied, there is an energy in the atmosphere which is subtly moving us towards each other. Some kind of unconsciously felt drive to unity; whether it’s being blown to nuclear smithereens, all of us together, or by circumstances conspiring to throw “strange bedfellows” together politically, the overall atmosphere haas shifted. Saturn in Pisces: Corralling (Saturn) us all into the same mysterious psychic space (Pisces).

And of course, at whatever level, it’s all fractal. Here, in my own local world, I now have two political signs on my front lawn by two candidates for city council, both of whom are woke! One of them clearly specifies on her website, “I believe in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.” (DEI) (I prefer to reverse the words, so that it spells out DIE!)

I’m not surprised. This entire town is academic, home of Indiana University, therefore woke.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not adverse to diversity, equity, or inclusion. Of course all people are equal, and should be considered such. But equality of opportunity does not guarantee equality of results — or it shouldn’t. What counts, for me, is internal, not external, character, not “identity,” not some politically correct brand someone slaps on themselves or others to prove that they are of value and if you don’t believe it, (and refuse to use their pronouns), you are racist! or white supremacist! Or some other weaponized word that proves you’re bad, wrong, and should be cancelled. Period.

Both these city council candidates, as I said, are woke. I, however, consider myself awake. Big difference.

But because I’m awake I now choose to put their signs on my lawn, despite our ideological disagreement. Why? Because I judge both as of good character, who, if elected, will attempt to represent the people of our community and this neighborhood in the most honest and transparent manner possible.

So, whereas I experience some amount of cognitive dissonance internally, when I see their signs on my front lawn, I am also willing to open my mind and heart further, so as not to let my own biases close me down. And in doing that, I reach unity with  both of them, not ideological unity, but human unity. All of us doing our best. All of us willing to learn.

Might it be that this drive for unity is being experienced on all levels, even by those who can’t imagine wanting to unite with their “enemies”? Am I just being a hopium addict here?

Perhaps. This morning, on my walk with puppy Shadow, I saw two females in the distance, one white skin, the other black skin, with the first significantly smaller. At first I thought the smaller one, given her outrageous behavior, was a child having a temper tantrum, yelling and hitting her mother, or her caregiver! But no. As I got closer I realized that she was also adult, bashing her backpack against the body of the larger woman, out in the middle of the street, while yelling and holding a cigarette in her other hand. The black woman was not yelling back, just struggling to protect herself from the blows.

I seldom see such a public display of fury here in this town. I wonder how common it is. I wonder if, as Saturn continues through Pisces, it might start to wane.

And of course, I wonder about the life histories of both these women. What kind of painful experiences did each of them undergo as a child? And how does their co-dependent drama now reflect their dovetailing traumas? Will either or both of them be able to find a way to heal? To recognize their unity?

As I continued on my journey, looking back once to see her still bashing and yelling in the distance, I notice I reflect on how the smaller woman’s fury echoes the rancorous behavior in the sub-committee room. Hard to listen to, hard to watch. A part of me would rather live in Pisces la-la-land, where the life is always pleasant and harmonious. But Saturn is present, inserting a harsh reality into the dream. The contrast between the planet and the sign it has recently entered, strict, rule-bound Saturn into dreamy, unfocussed Pisces, could not be stronger. Cognitive dissonance again, inviting me to open to the larger presence that can absorb any jarring rancor, no matter how disconcerting, into the melting field of compassion.

I thank goodness for my own herstory, the suffering I too, endured, as a child, which left its deep wounds, and, when the time was ripe, when Saturn came due, subtly began to heal.