{"id":545,"date":"2010-03-27T13:57:52","date_gmt":"2010-03-27T13:57:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/apagansblog\/2010\/03\/a-spiritual-take-on-the-rage-over-health-care-reform.html"},"modified":"2010-03-27T13:57:52","modified_gmt":"2010-03-27T13:57:52","slug":"a-spiritual-take-on-the-rage-over-health-care-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2010\/03\/a-spiritual-take-on-the-rage-over-health-care-reform.html","title":{"rendered":"A Spiritual Take on the Rage over Health Care Reform"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!--StartFragment--><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><b>UPDATE below<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">I think the outbursts of hatred and anger we have seen since<br \/>\npassage of the Health Care Reform bill indicate it may have been an <span style=\"font-family:Times\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/apagansblog\/2010\/03\/the-spiritual-side-of-last-nights-victory.htm\">even bigger deal than I thought<\/a>. &nbsp;I think something far deeper than a simple political battle may be going on. I&nbsp;<span class=\"Apple-style-span\">&nbsp;think we are really seeing a spiritual not a political phenomena, one both disturbing and hopeful.&nbsp;<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><!--EndFragment--><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><br \/>\n<!--StartFragment--><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family:Times\">The depths of hatred have<br \/>\nbecome surreal.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>I&#8217;ve <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/apagansblog\/2010\/03\/right-wing-violence-escalating.html\">discussed the<br \/>\nviolence<\/a> and threats of violence, &nbsp;but the mental degeneration and degradation now showing itself is even more<br \/>\nextraordinary.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>For example,<span>&nbsp; <\/span>soon after passage of the legislation<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailykos.com\/story\/2010\/3\/21\/848677\/-Freepers-go-ballistic\">the following gems appeared in right wing posts<\/a>, and they were hardly alone.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"webkit-indent-blockquote\"><p><span class=\"Apple-style-span\">I&#8217;ve said it would almost be worth it to miss the rapture just<br \/>\nto see the looks on these satan [sic] lovers when Jesus kicks his butt. The key<br \/>\nword being &#8220;almost&#8221;.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"webkit-indent-blockquote\"><p><span class=\"Apple-style-span\">I do pray it<br \/>\nhappens soon. If not then I pray for a nuke to hit D.C. and take them all out.<br \/>\nIn fact, I&#8217;m at the point of helping the muslims [sic] take it over. Let&#8217;s see<br \/>\nhow Nancy would lie having to wear a rag over her stretched face.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family:Times\">Or<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"webkit-indent-blockquote\"><p><span class=\"Apple-style-span\">I know that a<br \/>\nfew of their smoking carcasses hanging from a bridge maybe asking too much but<br \/>\nit would be nice.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family:Times;color:#1A1A1A\">Or<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"webkit-indent-blockquote\"><p><span class=\"Apple-style-span\">I spit on<br \/>\nthose young one who support this and that includes my own children.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"webkit-indent-blockquote\"><p><font color=\"#1A1A1A\" face=\"Times, helvetica, hirakakupro-w3, osaka, 'ms pgothic', sans-serif\"><br \/><\/font><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family:Times;color:#1A1A1A\">The point of<br \/>\nthese quotes is to suggest we are dealing with something that has taken flight<br \/>\nfrom &nbsp;humanity.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>Something strange is going<br \/>\non here.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>The rage is way way<br \/>\nbeyond the provocation &#8211; this after all is a health care plan very <a href=\"http:\/\/www.opinionjournal.com\/editorial\/feature.html?id=110008213\">similar to<br \/>\none Mitt Romney<\/a>, &nbsp;<span>&nbsp;<\/span>the current Republican<br \/>\nPresidential front runner supported in Massachusetts.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>It is one filled with <a href=\"http:\/\/krugman.blogs.nytimes.com\/2010\/03\/25\/david-frum-aei-heritage-and-health-care\/\">ideas from conservative think tanks<\/a>. <span>&nbsp;<\/span>Obamacare has much in common with<br \/>\na<a href=\"http:\/\/www.heritage.org\/Research\/Testimony\/Laying-the-Groundwork-for-Universal-Health-Care-Coverage\"> proposal <\/a>from the very conservative Heritage Foundation in 2003. &nbsp;(Back when American conservatism stood for conservatism and not madness.)<span>&nbsp;&nbsp;The bill&nbsp;<\/span>has <i>never<\/i><\/span><span style=\"font-family:Times;color:#1A1A1A\"> been popular with the Progressive wing of the Democratic Party.<span>&nbsp; <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family:Times;color:#1A1A1A\">So if we<br \/>\nsimply consider the issues involved the depth of this rage is strange.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family:Times;color:#1A1A1A\">The depth of<br \/>\nrage is also strange if we simply consider political maneuvering by self-interested partisans.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>Most Americans supported the major<br \/>\nspecific parts of the Democrats&#8217; bill, and a significant part of the national<br \/>\nopposition to it came from Americans who <a href=\"http:\/\/tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com\/2010\/03\/poll-americas-opinion-of-health-care-reform-is.php\">did not think it went far enough<\/a>.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>A clear and growing majority of<br \/>\nAmericans supports the bill or something going even farther, yet the right-wing continues its frenzied attacks.<br \/>\nHistorically appearing to be a bad loser and talking about violence has always<br \/>\nbackfired at the national polls. &nbsp;From a position of wanting to win in 2010,<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailykos.com\/storyonly\/2010\/3\/26\/851314\/-National-Tracking-Poll:-Hard-Choices-and-Political-Dividends\">this outburst is crazy<\/a>.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>Again we are left<br \/>\nto wonder what the heck is going on?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family:Times;color:#1A1A1A\">I think it<br \/>\nreally does demonstrate the power of the thought forms of Hatred and Rage have assumed in<br \/>\nthis country,<span>&nbsp; <\/span>Evil in the human<br \/>\nsense is a human creation, born I believe out of ignorance and fear, but once<br \/>\nexisting serving as a kind of psychic parasite, growing in strength to the<br \/>\ndegree it is fed, withering when it is not.<span>&nbsp; <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family:Times;color:#1A1A1A\">The quotes I gave above, and many like them, are evidence of possession far more than of political<br \/>\ndisagreement.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family:Times;color:#1A1A1A\">Anything that<br \/>\nbenefits humanity as a whole, or even a large community as a whole, deprives<br \/>\nthese Powers of a fertile environment.<span>&nbsp;<br \/>\n<\/span>A community deeply at odds with itself is almost as good as one that has fallen<br \/>\ninto civil war.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>And there is<br \/>\nalways the possibility that it will do so.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>Rage and Hatred flourish in such environments, gradually<br \/>\nbringing ever larger numbers under their domination until the psychic infection<br \/>\nburns itself out. And so by having the most infected carriers amp up the rage<br \/>\nand hostility, they still hope Americans may ultimately start warring upon one<br \/>\nanother.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>These Powers are neither<br \/>\n&#8220;right&#8221; nor &#8220;left.&#8221;<span>&nbsp; <\/span>They only seek<br \/>\na psychic environment where they can flourish.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family:Times;color:#1A1A1A\">Demonstrating<br \/>\nthat a majority of Americans can support and achieve something for the good of<br \/>\nthe community as a whole, something that lessens the fear in peoples&#8217; lives,<br \/>\nexposes the Rage and Hatred as selfish, ignorant, and self-indulgent &#8211;<span>&nbsp; <\/span>as in fact it is.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>The bill is an initial national<br \/>\nvaccination against these parasites, and they know it.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>It is the first real push-back in<br \/>\nyears.<span>&nbsp; <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family:Times;color:#1A1A1A\">The people<br \/>\nmost seriously infected lash out in anger, frustration, and disappointment, for<br \/>\nthey are deprived of the feeling of invincible self-righteousness that is their<br \/>\npersonal pay off for generating such psychic poison. We are seeing a exposure<br \/>\nof a sickness that has penetrated to the core of the &#8216;conservative&#8217; soul,<br \/>\nexposing itself not as conservative, but as Rage and Hatred.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family:Times;color:#1A1A1A\">The Republican<br \/>\nParty and religious right need a good exorcism.<span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/templates\/story\/story.php?storyId=125165061&amp;ps=cprs\">There may be some hope for conservative Evangelicals<\/a><span>. &nbsp;We&#8217;ll have to wait and see.<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family:Times\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><font color=\"#1A1A1A\" face=\"Times, helvetica, hirakakupro-w3, osaka, 'ms pgothic', sans-serif\"><br \/><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><font color=\"#1A1A1A\" face=\"Times, helvetica, hirakakupro-w3, osaka, 'ms pgothic', sans-serif\"><b>UPDATE<\/b><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><font color=\"#1A1A1A\" face=\"Times, helvetica, hirakakupro-w3, osaka, 'ms pgothic', sans-serif\">Giving a purely secular analysis, albeit in harmony with this, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2010\/03\/28\/opinion\/28rich.html\">Frank Rich has a very good column<\/a> today.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><!--EndFragment--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UPDATE below I think the outbursts of hatred and anger we have seen since passage of the Health Care Reform bill indicate it may have been an even bigger deal than I thought. &nbsp;I think something far deeper than a simple political battle may be going on. I&nbsp;&nbsp;think we are really seeing a spiritual not&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[111,108],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-spirituality"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A Spiritual Take on the Rage over Health Care Reform - A Pagan&#039;s Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2010\/03\/a-spiritual-take-on-the-rage-over-health-care-reform.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Spiritual Take on the Rage over Health Care Reform - A Pagan&#039;s Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"UPDATE below I think the outbursts of hatred and anger we have seen since passage of the Health Care Reform bill indicate it may have been an even bigger deal than I thought. &nbsp;I think something far deeper than a simple political battle may be going on. 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I&nbsp;&nbsp;think we are really seeing a spiritual not&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2010\/03\/a-spiritual-take-on-the-rage-over-health-care-reform.html","og_site_name":"A Pagan&#039;s Blog","article_published_time":"2010-03-27T13:57:52+00:00","author":"Gus diZerega","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2010\/03\/a-spiritual-take-on-the-rage-over-health-care-reform.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2010\/03\/a-spiritual-take-on-the-rage-over-health-care-reform.html","name":"A Spiritual Take on the Rage over Health Care Reform - A Pagan&#039;s Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-03-27T13:57:52+00:00","dateModified":"2010-03-27T13:57:52+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/#\/schema\/person\/d94ab0155d2780a0526af373b5c543f2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2010\/03\/a-spiritual-take-on-the-rage-over-health-care-reform.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2010\/03\/a-spiritual-take-on-the-rage-over-health-care-reform.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2010\/03\/a-spiritual-take-on-the-rage-over-health-care-reform.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A Spiritual Take on the Rage over Health Care Reform"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/","name":"A Pagan&#039;s Blog","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Gus diZerega","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/#\/schema\/person\/d94ab0155d2780a0526af373b5c543f2","name":"Gus diZerega","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/4f6\/4f6b5a87d91376eaf8d126df301ab8cdx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/4f6\/4f6b5a87d91376eaf8d126df301ab8cdx96.jpg","caption":"Gus diZerega"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/author\/gdizerega"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}