100 Years Later

I stumbled upon this. A bit of serendipity I think as I am often inspired by what is right in my face. I have never been in want of the basics in life. I feel my experience of Dukka has not always related to my lack of accumulation of material possessions. Yet WD Wattles makes it a matter of seeking wealth to be some sort of divine purpose which parallels closely the interests of the bourgeoisie. Perhaps I will never be able to identify personal spirituality with the acquisition of power and prestige though I am quite sure it produces much of the same neuropeptide streams as the religious and sometimes self-righteous high. But to the Anglican(WASP) it is our divine right and glory to be sated in all our wants.
Sorry I do not have the source code for this citation of a 20th century philosopher.
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The Science of Getting Rich
by Wallace Delois Wattles, [1910]



CHAPTER 1
The Right To Be Rich

WHATEVER may be said in praise of poverty, the fact remains that it is not possible to live a really complete or successful life unless one is rich. No man can rise to his greatest possible height in talent or soul development unless he has plenty of money; for to unfold the soul and to develop talent he must have many things to use, and he cannot have these things unless he has money to buy them with.


A man develops in mind, soul, and body by making use of things, and society is so organized that man must have money in order to become the possessor of things; therefore, the basis of all advancement for man must be the science of getting rich.


The object of all life is development; and everything that lives has an inalienable right to all the development it is capable of attaining.


Man's right to life means his right to have the free and unrestricted use of all the things which may be necessary to his fullest mental, spiritual, and physical unfoldment; or, in other words, his right to be rich.


In this book, I shall not speak of riches in a figurative way; to be really rich does not mean to be satisfied or contented with a little. No man ought to be satisfied with a little if he is capable of using and enjoying more. The purpose of Nature is the advancement and unfoldment of life; and every man should have all that can contribute to the power; elegance, beauty, and richness of life; to be content with less is sinful.


The man who owns all he wants for the living of all the life he is capable of living is rich; and no man who has not plenty of money can have all he wants. Life has advanced so far, and become so complex, that even the most ordinary man or woman requires a great amount of wealth in order to live in a manner that even approaches completeness. Every person naturally wants to become all that they are capable of becoming; this desire to realize innate possibilities is inherent in human nature; we cannot help wanting to be all that we can be. Success in life is becoming what you want to be; you can become what you want to be only by making use of things, and you can have the free use of things only as you become rich enough to buy them. To understand the science of getting rich is therefore the most essential of all knowledge.


There is nothing wrong in wanting to get rich. The desire for riches is really the desire for a richer, fuller, and more abundant life; and that desire is praise worthy. The man who does not desire to live more abundantly is abnormal, and so the man who does not desire to have money enough to buy all he wants is abnormal.


There are three motives for which we live; we live for the body, we live for the mind, we live for the soul. No one of these is better or holier than the other; all are alike desirable, and no one of the three—body, mind, or soul—can live fully if either of the others is cut short of full life and expression. It is not right or noble to live only for the soul and deny mind or body; and it is wrong to live for the intellect and deny body or soul.


We are all acquainted with the loathsome consequences of living for the body and denying both mind and soul; and we see that real life means the complete expression of all that man can give forth through body, mind, and soul. Whatever he can say, no man can be really happy or satisfied unless his body is living fully in every function, and unless the same is true of his mind and his soul. Wherever there is unexpressed possibility, or function not performed, there is unsatisfied desire. Desire is possibility seeking expression, or function seeking performance.


Man cannot live fully in body without good food, comfortable clothing, and warm shelter; and without freedom from excessive toil. Rest and recreation are also necessary to his physical life .


He cannot live fully in mind without books and time to study them, without opportunity for travel and observation, or without intellectual companionship.


To live fully in mind he must have intellectual recreations, and must surround himself with all the objects of art and beauty he is capable of using and appreciating.


To live fully in soul, man must have love; and love is denied expression by poverty.


A man's highest happiness is found in the bestowal of benefits on those he loves; love finds its most natural and spontaneous expression in giving. The man who has nothing to give cannot fill his place as a husband or father, as a citizen, or as a man. It is in the use of material things that a man finds full life for his body, develops his mind, and unfolds his soul. It is therefore of supreme importance to him that he should be rich.


It is perfectly right that you should desire to be rich; if you are a normal man or woman you cannot help doing so. It is perfectly right that you should give your best attention to the Science of Getting Rich, for it is the noblest and most necessary of all studies. If you neglect this study, you are derelict in your duty to yourself, to God and humanity; for you can render to God and humanity no greater service than to make the most of yourself.

Nationalism

The term "patriot" has been used to create a false sense of pride in a nation which systematically and decisively neglects and abuses our most vulnerable citizens. First the economy puts us against each other by whatever makes it appear we are different(prejudice). Whether it is race gender age race or ethnicity we are turned against each other for resources and in some cases to survive. I have little hope for a change which will help as long as there are such lies told about us which serve the powers and principalities of a nation of idiots and bigots(sic).
I am happy my state is #1 in how badly we treat the homeless.
Yeah We're Number 1!!!

Keith Olbermann

I heard last night that Keith Olbermann of MSNBC has been "suspended without pay" after it was disclosed he had not revealed political contributions as suggested in his contract with GE/NBC INC. It reveals that even though he has been an unrelenting voice against the policies of the right-wing dating back to the 2003 invasion of Iraq to the 2010 election he is the only one put out as being unethical and suspect as biased to the point of being unprofessional. It would also reveal that the right-wing (FOX) has no qualms about being a shill for the GOP and the Tea Party. Actual solicitation for contributions on-air by the likes of Hannity, Beck, and O'Reilly are just fine but Olbermann has to be silenced and punished for being on the left.
I am disheartened as I ask myself, "Who will be next?" Will it be Rachel Maddow? Chris Matthews? Will we reach a point where the media is right wing only(sic) with not a single dissenting voice allowed on the left? I hope not as this will only expedite the slow lurch into corporate fascism and a society devoid of dissenting voices except those who resist anything which takes away from the have mores and the multinationals. A full discourse and a free media is our only chance for justice to return to this great(once great?) nation. Justice requires a free press. If Keith Olbermann can no longer present a voice crying in the wilderness against the powers of money over ideals, how long can we expect other essentials of democracy to persist?

My Liberal Relations

This is my friend Nicole who was a professional musician for 37 years and until recently was a regular performer at Johnny Foley's Irish House in SF. I met her in 1999 about three months after moving to Oakland to attend Naropa's satellite campus. She had a personal ad which said,"If music rocks your world let's rock." We met on xmas day 1999 and played at the corner of Haight and Ashbury on the steps of Ben and Jerry's. It was unrehearsed and unchoreographed yet as the morning sun came out it was a mystical day which started our deep friendship. She always tried to keep me around with a place to play in East Bay playing at Beckett's Irish Pub for 7 years but health problems that have just been diagnosed as lymphoma left her little choice as to limited her hours to recover her strength and lead a long and full life. She gave me the diagnosis which gives adds a prognosis of less than one year to live. She has chosen not to do chemo nor radiation treatment. She worked all her life paying her own payroll and SSI taxes and will never retire. She believes education should be free. Liberal ideas get to the masses and then it becomes harder to manipulate and corral them. This is what I will miss the most is the reminders that Mr Greed will always try to get it all and we will always have to say no, nyet, nada.
Keep singing Nikki as long as you desire and breathe. In my heart I will always hear the wonderful harmony we made.

If You See These Men Together Someone Wants Your Money

The mail my mom gets from fringe-wing fright mongers preying on people on fixed incomes always has one or two themes; Obama is a ___________ or a ________. He is a friend of Usama bin Laden (who was much closer to the Bush Family Evil Empire BFEE) but if you voted for Mr Shoots Wolves From Helicopter, then you are feeling the wrong people are in control. Which is kind of how I feel now but not nearly as I did for 8 years with BFEE in control. The clock ran out and they had to bail out before they bailed out. The GOP solicitations for support to defeat the legal defense of Git'mo prisoners and to impeach the president for being a Muslim Marxist Socialist Kenyan and did you notice he is black? That's the bottom line. The dark skinned people are taking our country away from us. That's good for 20$ to 100$ Oh and the gay to the SCOTUS too. Too many horrible things to mention, just send us money and we will get Justice Roberts to save prayer and Justice (Fat Tony)Scalia will save the fetuses. Hallelujah send more money and bless you. Or you're with THEM.

human Experiments

The blog boingboing reports that the use of medical observers at CIA directed interrogation sites where at least 8 prisoners died during detention, indicates there are strong evidence that should be investigated by the USDoJ. Though no one was charged with war crimes, if the information obtained through public documents is true, it is looking like we have ourselves another Bush Cheney Obama moral dilemma. Should we pursue this or just "move forward"?
I am not telling.
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/06/06/scott-allen-md-lead.html#more

The Pie Wydens

This week I find out that Naomi Wolfe has endorsed the Tea-Bag party as an antidote for fascism. It supports the concept that at the fringes the two ends meet sort of like a moebius.It is a spiral as noted by the Buddha. We are born into a world and bring with us an inheritance of countless lives. Many were fascists in a previous life and are quite adept at it now as a cultural practice. Others lost in the Stalinist purges are anarchists and darn good at that. The present polarization is a reincarnation of the vacuum that occcured after the great depression. The right is afraid of the left and their bicycle throwing ways while quite content at the racism,anti-government demonstrations, and militia build-ups to the point of seeing the police as an extension of the federal over reach.
Quite content with abstinence only education which helps increase birth rates for white people and the limiting of a woman's access to abortion leads to a continuation of the anti-feminist rhetoric of the far right disguised as "pro-family" and "pro-life". The use of white male supremacy to achieve rule is slowly eroding and the reactionary Tea-Bag party blames what is a demographic shift as a move towards socialism. It is nothing of the sort. It is what is achieved through years of neglect of infrastructure that is our universities and our public schools. NCLB is a band-aid put on a festering and weak patient. The only beneficiaries of NCLB are the people who create distribute and administer the exams. The arts are not so easily quantifiable and so have no purpose in the post modern world. The right wing only wants religious teaching just like the Taliban. They want women to barefoot and pregnant and out of the workforce just like the Taliban. Are we fighting in Afghanistan for women or for just another recycled fascist reincarnation? Indeed we live in ironic times when someone like Naomi Wolfe thinks the TeaBaggers are a solution to an fascist upswing in western politics.