ARE YOU A HERO, WIMP or an INDIVIDUAL?

[LOJ]

ARE YOU A HERO, A WIMP or AN INDIVIDUAL?
LOJ-3/05



I find it utterly amazing lately at the lack of intellect, intelligence and all the other verbs that fit this category when it comes to people in general. I read once where it said that, "the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger". God what an awful truth!

In essence all that is saying is to appeal to the false pride of the citizens. Not all are this easy to brainwash, or to persuade. If this were so then we would unanimously vote for war and Bush would have won hands down. There would have been no "close calls".
But statistically the above formula works. Just like statistically Nike sells more size 91/2 tennis shoes; i.e. most people who buy Nike shoes fit categorically and statistically into that shoe size. Our world revolves around statistics and we count on things to fit into neat little categories for the most part.
For whatever reasons lately I've been thinking not necessarily deeper but just more. I don't set out to do this it just happens during moments in my life for whatever reasons. I don't care to make a difference with my thoughts or change the world with my writings, nor do I care to impress people. I learned a longgggg time ago if your goal in life is to impress people the best attitude to have is one where you act like you don't care if you impress people. But for whatever reason, I got out of bed tonight and just wanted to write my thoughts down, and like any other social human being (now that I vehemently deny being…i.e. sociableJ) was interested in some feedback on my nonsense that I now find myself typing.

People like to be involved whether they admit it or not they like the chance of just hanging out in case that whatever they are involved in happens to become the popular fad of the moment, and they have chosen wisely to pick the most statistically popular side of the coin for that moment in time.

Remember when peace was the slogan of the day, save the innocent people and just fight the institution (i.e. the government). The militia was big talk at one time and everyone needed a hero, so Ted Nugent became once more famous in his home state as a militia supporter. Anytime the govt. makes a mistake and is being portrayed as the evil one then organizations like the militia prosper and once more are heard for their reverence of being anti-govt. Then of course something like 911 happens, and we are all thrust out there to see whose patriotism meter is higher. Then all of a sudden peace becomes a word for "wimps", for "scaredy cats" or for just those that choose to keep their noses out of it. Once more we get beseeched for AMERICAN HEROES, a PRESIDENT WHO ISN'T AFRAID TO DECLARE WAR! And wah lah you have a blind nation following a president who hasn't had an eye-exam since kindergarten.

I don't understand people in general, and about the only time I even come close to possibly slightly understanding their motivations is when I write like this. This allows me a chance to go back over my writings and actually be able to see what I've thought in my mind all along and possibly make some headway…. so to speakJ.

I'm not here to persuade anyone that my way is the right way, hell I don't even have a WAY, nor am I out to just condone or criticize those that I personally have no strong feelings for, I'm simply here to put into words what my thoughts have been telling me all along only lately they've become stronger thoughts thus making me want to write in hopes of getting some intelligent feedback. Last time I was at the brink of doing this and making progress, YAHOO SHUT DOWN MY POLITICAL CLUB ALONG WITH A COUPLE OTHERS THAT I DEEMED DAMNED INTERESTING. Which is about all I can say positively right now about yahoo…. is that it introduced me to some very interesting clubs and people online.

Ok now back to that Hero or a Wimp thingy. In view of my experience in Iran albeit bad or good or a combo of both, I developed very different ideas on how I looked at people and issues.

No. 1, I learned more in my 4-5 years living in Iran than I ever thought I would, or would admit to. Matter of fact the learning process that took place in Iran didn't even start to hit home as true learning until I had been back for about 2-3 years. So while I did learn while I was there, it never processed until I was back in the states and had things to compare my experiences with. So in essence I don't believe that learning takes place until wayyyy after the fact and the experiences. I hope this makes sense.


One thing that I oddly find myself sticking up for is martyrs. Now a lot of ignorant closed-minded people will have a field day with this one, but allow me my reasoning.
It is not necessarily the fact that people in Jerusalem or Gaza or anywhere abroad commit atrocities for what they believe is an honor (that is dying for their God/Allah) but the fact that these people who do martyr themselves do it with the FULLEST belief in their heart that they are dying for their GOD/ALLAH. To me I find this amazing. In all religion there is a basic premise that a true believer should be willing to give his/her life for their God, especially when a war or battle that ensues is fought in the name of their God/Allah.

The reason I find this so fascinating, is that all the while growing up, I had my own belief in who my God was, I was not raised with religious parents, nor was I raised in an atheist household, but more like, don't ask, don't tell. But nonetheless I thought that I had turned out pretty faithful to my beliefs. And still to this day, I don't know if I could ever say that I would die for my God. Does that make me bad, mad or just confused, I don't know, probably all of the above. But the fact that there are people who truly do take their faith to that utmost level of being of the will to die for a God, draws respect from me in some form. I don't understand it, and who am I to say that what they are dying for is right or wrong, I can barely make a decision on what to wear for the day, so who am I to say if they are right or wrong.
But what I will say and here comes all the ANTI-AMERICAN remarks against me…….is that we have soldiers and civilians in this country who are not afraid to speak out and say that they will go to war and die if necessary for, NOT A GOD, BUT FOR A PRESIDENT…..call me eccentric, but this sounds a hell of a lot less to base a reason to die for than a GOD.

I'm not saying that these people who commit kamikaze missions are in the right, I'm just saying that they at least for themselves believe that what they are dying for is an honorable deed due to their acts being drawn on their full intentions of dying for their GOD.
I might be mistaken but I don't recall Bush ever stating that what we are doing in Iraq or any of the other countries we have been involved in with war was costing us dearly with human life due to a GOD KNOWN MOTIVATION.

If we truly were to sit down and look at issues with no pre-conceived notions, then we would see that what we are doing and those that are giving their lives in the military for this war then we would see that people are not dying for an immortal spiritual entity, but rather for a very mortal non-spiritual entity known as the POWER THAT IS!

One thing that I found myself thinking about quite a bit while in Iran and here, are the numerous things that we do as mortals to bide our time here on earth.
When I sit back and look at the big picture, I realize that no matter how popular you are, no matter how well known you are or even how famous or infamous you are during your time on earth, this earth will continue with or without you and no matter what your deeds are, they will NOT make your time here indispensable.

People live, people give birth, and people die….. And in the meantime we create controversy and confusion if not pure desperation in hopes of making a name for ourselves. People become philanthropists, ok now the fact that Webster had to come up with a title like philanthropist within itself should tell you the definition is not true. True "philanthropist" do not need that title to carry out their philanthropy. Yes there are people here that we judge to be better or worse for having lived at all, but then again who are we to be making that notation in the first place? No matter what your last name is, and no matter how many years you have done committing "good time" or "bad time" while your life was existing, does not make you anymore fit to judge another human being than Charlie Manson.

The one pet peeve that I truly do and have held onto is when people choose "mentors" to model their lives after, or they choose "intellectually astute" people to quote or paraphrase in order to make themselves appear heard or seen.

What happened to the sole of the soul of an individual? You can quote Einstein or Newton or Gandhi all day and those that statistically rever the same icons as you are your following. But what does that truly make you? Will they remember you for who you quoted, for who you admired? No, you will die and take up space at the local cemetery just like Joe Schmo will who was homeless. The only difference is, will be that you will have paid a much higher price to the Cemetery man who dug your grave, because you were a person of wealth, and poor Joe had to be buried by the state.
If anything this in my book makes you more idiotic for falling into the game of "I'm a more important person than Joe, since I held down a job for 30 years and am able to pay some greedy salesperson for the local moratorium a higher price to be buried in some silk-lined casket that shouldn't be promoted in the first place…. that is if we truly believe in that basic cliché of not being able to take it with you!

Now is this starting to make sense at all?
Life is a paradox. But we make it this way.

We have been trying to make life and the art of living and dying out to be some mysterious, unreachable treasure, that once solved we will be at the end of civilization as we know it. Life can surely not be nor should it be understood, nor should that vast abyss called the afterlife ever be solved. What fun would that be. Worse yet, what if we were to just say UNCLE, and take life on life's terms. No longer looking at it as some unattainable mystery that should not be discussed openly without the fear of being plagued as some type of anti-Christ committing heresy.

What if Life is just that LIFE?
We are born, we are here to live this life, and then we die without attachments.
I won't even delve into my theory of human nature and emotions right now since I'm sure after I send this out that their will be a lynch mob wandering nearbyJ.
But if life were simplistic, then what if andthis is a big one……what if WAR and PEACE were just that as well?People become mad, madness becomes an infection, so we create reasons to lash back at our insecurities…which in essence are just things we fail to understand or WANT TO UNDERSTAND.
People need hope, that is why the symbolism of good and evil have been the only prevailing enigmas that will still to this day dictate box office hits.J

I love to be a devils advocate, even if it means playing against the side that I personally root for. WHY??? Because I have never learned more than I have while playing devils advocate on an issue that I may support. By doing this it doesn't only allow me to see where my shortcomings might be, but it also shows me that there truly is always more to one side than that one side. This is my own personal way of opening up my mind which I know can be just as closed as the next persons, to another way of viewing lies and truths. I'm not claiming that it makes me a more forgiving or understanding person of others, but more importantly it makes me more forgiving and understanding of myself thus, individuals in whole.

I will close for now, but what brought this whole writing tangent out was my literary agent telling me that something was missing in my book about Iran, and for some reason the right publishers were rejecting it. People love to hear about pain and misery, and that patriotism thing that might fuel the sale of my book (i.e. Poor American girl winds up the Victor when she escaped the terrorists that took her and many other Americans hostage post 911 in Iran…….) well I guess my writing prose was not directed at soliciting those type of readers, rather the book was written in all the honesty that I could muster but also told in a way where I thought might help the American people and others as well understand why I didn't feel the predictable victimization that one should feel in a book like this. I think I played Devil's Advocate too well in this book which is exactly why it's not on the best seller list. I told it from the only point I knew which was my understanding of human motivation. You decide. Once more Ahreeman is still supporting the site of where the condensed version is :

http://hometown.aol.com/ahreemanxi/page37.html

And the only way to make this book a best seller would be to tell it in the fashion of what most PATRIOTS want to hear, you know those PRESIDENT FOLLOWERSJ
Thank you,
Lori Johnson-Foroozandeh


Addendum:
You see everything in life truly does boil down to JUST POLITICS, and I believe the true art of winning at anything is SALESMANSHIP!
And there the twains shall meetJ