Writing Our New Story Together - From Divide-and-Conquer to Unite and Thrive
“Truth lives in our hearts. Beliefs lie in our heads.” – Swami Beyondananda Some years ago I wrote an article for a progressive publication about Fox News and their propensity for spreading outright lies. I called the article “Come On Baby, Fight My Liar,” and I ended it by saying that conservatives obviously like being lied to – whereas progressives prefer lying to themselves. Needless to say, I got some pushback on the piece – and also some knowing nods of “yes, I know exactly what you mean.” What did I mean? Well, I had just been with a group of people where someone brought up the idea that the 911 Twin Tower attacks might have been an inside job. In response, one woman said – with a completely straight face – “Oh, no. If it had been an inside job I would have heard about it on NPR.” I think back over the past couple of decades when I presented some inconvenient truth that was outside the comfort zone of some of the spiritually-inclined folks I knew. They would put up their hand and say, “I don’t want to go there.” And my response would be, “Too late. THERE has already come HERE.” For years, I have watched otherwise compassionate, intelligent people take comfort in the phrase, “conspiracy theory” – the all-purpose catch-all that takes folks off the hook from having to look the heart of darkness in the face. It’s still operative, although I take heart that there are people waking up. I’m also cognizant of the old Navajo saying, “You can’t awaken someone pretending to be asleep.” So I will give you an updated example. Shortly before Thanksgiving, I published a piece on “How the Right Got Right, and the Left Got Left” – surprisingly I got only one piece of negative feedback from a reader who voiced her opinion in one word: Goodbye. In other words, I was canceled, which seems to be the go-to strategy of those unwilling to face a bigger reality than the one they are habituated to. Speaking of “canceled”, I was a bit shocked – although not surprised – to get two very similar emails from two women in response to that same post. One woman wrote: “THANK YOU SO MUCH...It’s refreshing to hear you say what I also think myself but have not the courage to speak out and then have to endure the wrath of the progressives I know. I was fairly traumatized by the reactions I got from dear old friends during the ‘scamdemic’ for questioning and not getting jabbed.” And from the other woman: “I would be very afraid to tell any of my friends or family that I voted for Trump because I would probably be ostracized. Same as for my stance on the poison shot. My friends and family have all gotten COVID and are still getting it even with the shot and the boosters.” “It's nice to know that I'm not alone in my thinking which seems to coincide with your views. You are a very brave man to put those thoughts out there. I guess I am a coward keeping all those kinds of thoughts to myself. Keep on keeping on, you brave souls!!” Please allow this to sink in. Inside the corral of the party dedicated to “saving democracy,” the issue of free speech never comes up – because people have learned to self-censor, or else. Talk about irony deficiency! And that brings us to this week’s Front and Center podcast, where we address both the “awful truth” and the awesome opportunity. The opportunity – as I suggested in the “How the Right Got Right …” post – is to leave the safe harbor of inside-the-corral narratives and seek to create a new story together. In other words, step off the political battlefield, and onto a cooperative playing field. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ho5QfnhEIFs Please watch this video where Cenk Uygur – founder of the ultra-progressive podcast Young Turks – suggests that it’s time for left and right to come front and center to create a true populist movement (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WD4QVT8ws_8&t=3s). Uygur, who is not at all beholden to the Democratic Party apparatus speaks out about – well, about how difficult it is to speak out. This is surely a sign of the “upwising”, given the opportunity for collaboration around RFK, Jr.’s Make America Healthy Campaign, which largely reiterates progressive talking points from 20 years ago. Mainstream media, meanwhile, continues launching “dismissal attacks” on RFK, Jr. – anything to prevent the Democratic Party faithful from “trance-ending” the trance of separation – and from rallying around the functional aspects of his program. When I hear friends now referring to Bobby as a “sexual predator,” I know the media talking points they are parroting. Once we step up above the battlefield to see a broader view, we take another important step – seeking the whole truth together. This means, releasing our dependence on our side’s narrative and becoming familiar with unfamiliar ideas, so we can discover for ourselves how much of what is labeled “misinformation” is really “missing information” – intentionally withheld to support an otherwise unsupportable narrative. I’ve said this before and will continue to repeat until a critical mass of the heretofore uncritical masses get it. These are apocalyptic times – the veils are being lifted on toxic secrets and inconvenient truths, and mega-dosing on “Deniatol” will not prevent the truth from emerging. What we will need more than ever is love, compassion and yes, forgiveness to help us metabolize the poisons that are now coming to the surface. Neither side can do this alone. We need awakening individuals from all sides coming from a “sane and sacred center” to hold the space for healing and moving forward as a wiser, more functional body politic. I have previously cited a key year – 1965 -- when the first small minority began to oppose the Vietnam War. As I can personally attest, this was an unpopular stance … and yet, two years later the groundswell of anti-war sentiment caused President Lyndon Johnson to not seek another term. What caused the shift in public sentiment in those days, nearly 60 years ago, were “teach-ins” – an independent self-education project that brought perspective, nuance, and suppressed facts into the conversation. Today, those “teach-ins” are happening through alternative media sources, as people who are used to having their thinking done for them by authorities like the New York Times, are allowing themselves to look at what these narratives conveniently leave out. And – because even alternative narratives can be distorted or outright wrong – this requires a much higher level of discernment. That takes us to the second part of our podcast, as we go down an even darker rat-hole – starting with how the “preserve democracy” party did everything in its power to de-platform democracy through dirty tricks – like putting up phony websites for No Labels, an organization looking to support an independent candidate (add in Matt Taibbi and his document) and planting “advisors” whose covert mission was to discredit and destroy No Labels. I encourage you to read this article, verifiable truth you won’t find in mainstream legacy media. Next, we highlight a Joe Rogan interview with Mike Benz, expert on internet censorship, who points out how tactics used by the CIA to undermine governments abroad, are now being used domestically, against American citizens. We suggest you watch the entire interview here (https://youtu.be/rrJhQpvlkLA?si=tl_4K8DbWVd-ssHZ). By the way, this isn’t made up news. This too is provable fact, that indicates that the powers that be in power have identified the greatest threat to democracy – the people themselves. Not content to leave Orwell enough alone, we go deeper with excerpts from independent journalists James Corbett and Whitney Webb, who’ve both been subject to a new tactic from the anti-democracy forces campaigning to “save democracy.” It’s called “digital re-personing,” and it involves setting up phony websites using real footage of both Corbett and Webb and adding in distorted information. Imagine watching videos of yourself with a “documentary” voice over saying things you never said, all on some YouTube channel you have no access to. These two journalists don’t have to imagine it – they’ve seen it happen to them. And that brings us back to our Front & Center mission to “seek the whole truth together.” Beyond information, beyond facts, beyond the beliefs in our head – is the Truth that lives in our hearts. Whatever we need to do to connect with this Divine Love, it will become most important over the next years as we get to process, to metabolize the betrayals and breaches of trust that have occurred in our lifetime. I’ve been thinking about how to encourage the courage required to see what is too uncomfortable to look at and I had an idea. Maybe label that dark domain For Adults Only. Back in the day, censorship was about sex, and those seven words George Carlin said we were forbidden to say. Today, we can spout obscenities ad nauseum but have been prohibited from seeing what the “Disinformation Dozen” have to tell us. Until now, the American body politic has been stuck in two stages of immaturity – the obedient child, and the rebellious adolescent. Now, it’s time to evolve to wise adults, noticing how we’ve been “captured” by political narratives that have kept us divided and conquered. Now it is time to “unite and thrive” and to do that we need to bring left and right front and center to “face the music” and dance together. And the timing couldn’t be better. In less than two years, 2026 we will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. What a gift it would be to the Founders – and future generations – for us to become collectivel
