Why Even Care?

I was asked about “Assassin’s Creed” and I’ve got bad news: the book isn’t going to be published. No, there was nothing wrong with it: Marco Palmieri at Pocket Books was perfectly happy with it. But it seems that the video company got visits from descendants of the ORIGINAL ASSASSINS, members of the Ismaeli sect currently led by the Agha Khan in India. They…suggested that Ubisoft, the game company, show more respect for their ancestors, and Ubisoft went all pitter-patter. Next thing we knew, they wanted to remove all religious references from the book. I guess the Crusades were about shoe size or something. Then they hired an expert to vet the book. Curious that they hadn’t thought about that before, eh? And finally, they wanted to send the book to the Agha Khan’s people for their suggestions. By this time, Marco was thoroughly disenchanted. The book was turning into puree of bat shit, and I was no longer amused. The whole three-book project died.

Wow. Strange. Still got paid for the first one, though…
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http://discovermagazine.com/2007/oct/how-not-to-be-racist

Here’s an article stating that EIGHTY PERCENT of white people harbor some subconscious distaste for black people. Generalize this to a statement about how people of group X feel about group Y, jigger the numbers a bit, and you have my feeling for why we have so much strife. Specifically, this should help you understand why black people feel so angry and threatened. Wouldn’t you, if outnumbered ten to one by people who don’t like you, and have vast and pervasive power over you?

Interesting to note that many of the ones in the 20% who AREN’T racist basically don’t form negative associations at all. Do 80% of black people have negative associations toward whites? They darned well should, but I simply don’t know. On the one hand you have 400 years of hideous history. On the other, the brainwashing of countless images of strong, brave, smart, holy, impossibly noble and heroic white folks, begun in infancy and repeated countless times a day every day since, for the rest of their lives.

There will be quite reasonable chicken-and-egg speculation, of course. Which came first, negative attitudes and actions, triggering loss of faith in the system, rage and pain, followed by negative behaviors in black people? Or: negative behaviors in black people, leading to negative reactions on the part of whites?

You know my belief: this stuff is hard-wired, unless you program and brainwash otherwise. I find it impossible to believe that the average white American in the 21st Century has a lower opinion of blacks than did 17th=18th Century whites. In terms of world history, it is impossible to figure out which group threw the first stone. But in terms of the American Experiment, it’s pretty clear that we got hosed, and no one ever made a serious attempt to compensate for that thorough, multi-generational, 360-degree hosing.

Fine. I don’t expect people to be fair enough to actually undo the damage done. But try being honest enough to grasp the enormity of it…
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I had a student ask why, if nothing ultimately matters, we should care about anything at all. Well, that’s why no world religion will take you all the way to clarity: there’s no social benefit. However, encoded within each major religion seems to be a hidden path to dis-assembling the ego walls without turning you into a bum, madman, or wandering Saint. It seems to be the inculcation of core values at a young age, such that the residual ego shell still functions appropriately even after you’ve shed the illusions. It’s tricky stuff.

My guess is that the gate of Adulthood—responsibility for the core values held by the culture (my version of this is body-mind-spirit) MUST be passed before deeper, more secret teachings are offered. Most will try to go straight for the goodies. But religions are what Buddhism refers to as the “large boat” while direct experience of the divine is the “small boat”, not for everyone. I don’t recommend it. I just speak about it because, as I realized yesterday, this blog is my version of Literary Autolysis.

But to more directly, try this: a baseball game doesn’t “matter”. But if you decide to play, you learn the rules and play hard, to the best of your ability. If you don’t want to play, you lose the right to complain about the results you get in this world.

The challenge is to be “in the world, but not of the world.” To play hard, to learn the rules, to clarify our understandings, and then to move on.

To say “it doesn’t matter” falls right back into dualistic thinking, and logic breaks down a bit. “It matters/it doesn’t matter.” They don’t exist separate from perception.

If you can’t play hard, work hard, care for your family, engage with your community, preserve your body, provide goods and services, and grasp the fact that we can know NOTHING other than the “I am”—then please, please, please don’t try this. Don’t use “nothing matters” as an excuse to ignore your worldly affairs.

Remember the chakras? Master the lower ones BEFORE you get to spirit. Otherwise, I promise you, rather than clarity, you will be lost in illusion, and feeling holy about it. Obese, broke, and lonely…and feeling smugly superior to all us idiots who act as if the world is real. And then secretly weeping at night, confused as hell: with all this wisdom, why am I so miserable?

Trust me: you don’t want to go down that road.