Beware of Darkness

Beware of darkness by George Harrison has always held me since I heard a Concrete Blond version of it, and I traced it back to it's source. My stepfather might have had the George Harrison album but I didn't hear the original first. I'm open to different versions. I saw a Sheryl Crow and Brandi Carlile version this morning and the song continues to hold insights for me.

Maya in Buddhism is "pretense" or "deceit" that is identified as one of the twenty subsidiary unwholesome mental factors within the Mahayana Abhidharma teachings. Harrison was influenced by Hindu gurus but Buddhism is the universal religion that springs off of the ethnic religion of Hinduism. 

An ethnic religion is something you're born into: Hinduism and Judaism. A universal religion is something you can convert to: Buddhism and Christianity. Now the distinction isn't always clear cut. There's a Korean Christian church, and many vedanta teachers see it as universal. There are Jews for Jesus, combine Judaism and Christianity. Joyce can reject Christianity as an atheist, and write a book they teach in Catholic schools, because his whole mind couldn't just reject it. Religion is confusing and sneaky. The Abrahamic religions make you think god is at the center, but there are not theistic religions such as Buddhism and Taoism. There are even christian non-theistic versions. 

"Beware of greedy leaders. They take you where you should not go." I also think Trump is a "soft shoe shuffler" of sorts.

But my revelation today made me think about why I love this song. Fans of Ted Lasso will say a kind of relentless self help and optimism is essential to success, but I would argue that a dialectical approach is what is needed. Too much optimism misses out, is wasteful, but gets more done. Pessimism isn't sustainable either, doesn't get much done. What needs to get done?

We are facing a time when optimism and being positive can't erase insurrections and cult like behaviors. The Marjorie Taylor Greens continue even after suggesting Jews shoot lasers from outer space, and harass AOC. Maybe partisanship is over for the near future, and the ruthless victories of what used to be an essential conservatism, have become toxic. 

News viewership has gone down, Biden hasn't attracted our attention with lurid actions designed to distract. He is just quietly leading as best he can. Seventy three million people voted for Donald Trump, after all we know or should know if we have good epistemic character. Eighty million people didn't vote, essentially letting other's voices count more.

It's becoming more popular to be aware of the effects of robber barons manipulation of the system.

When do you stop dialectical thinking and when do you double down on one side?

I think conservatism is essential to America, even though I am progressive. I bet if the progressives took over for a while, like Reagan and his minions have since 1980, I might be conservative. There are a lot of conservatives that were born of the progressivism from Roosevelt to Lyndon Johnson, they felt things had swung too far left. Conservatism is too successful, they are grasping for too much, and the leaning on populism is the lasp gasp. Things are shifting. Younger people see the dark side of capitalism.

Capitalism and communism are two poles. In America the roads are owned by everyone. Garbage is taken away for the collective good. Police and fire services are seen as essential services. That is as communist as it gets. 

In China and Russia they realized they needed the dynamism of capitalism, even if a few people got disgustingly rich. 

The growth of the federal government is huge. My grandparents saw the creation of a federal income tax that they promised to do away with, but didn't after WW2.

It's obvious now that universal health care would save lives. Utilitarianism is the idea that you preserve the most good for the most people. 

There are often unintended consequences to government control, like the criminality of prohibition. Infact, we are moving away from criminalizing drugs, and that is decreasing crime and the costs of crime. I saw an article today about a for profit prison complaining about not having enough prisoners. Certain institutions should just not be for profit: schools, infrastructure, prisons. The Margaret Thatcher experiment failed. Injecting business into institutions of the public trust just doesn't work. Look at what's going on in Texas with power. It's just wrong.

The 5 precepts guide us to avoid easy extremes of negative unhelpful harmful behaviors. It's pretty broad actually. 

Dialectics are the idea Hegel has developed. It's why one teaching for one person can be right for them and another teaching for another can seem contradictory.

Lyrics:

Watch out now

Take care, beware of falling swingers

Dropping all around you

The pain that often mingles

In your fingertips

Beware of darkness

Watch out now

Take care, beware the thoughts that linger

Winding up inside your head

The hopelessness around you

In the dead of night

Beware of sadness

It can hit you

It can hurt you

Make you sore and what is more

That is not what you are here for

Watch out now

Take care, beware of soft shoe shufflers

Dancing down the sidewalks

As each unconscious sufferer

Wanders aimlessly

Beware of Maya

Watch out now

Take care, beware of greedy leaders

They'll take you where you should not go

While weeping Atlas Cedars

They just want to grow, grow and grow

Beware of darkness (beware of darkness)