Faded glory

One sure sign of the waning of summer is the waning of the romantic ardor, not to mention feather supply, of Woodstock, our male peacock. In a week or so, he's gone from this...

To this. Sic transit gloria mundi.

There seems to be a lot of that (the whole faded glory thing) going round these days.

AUSTERITY is over-rated in times like these.

CORPORATE PERSONHOOD CAN BE FUN. Here's an amusing take on the whole corporations are people thing.

SOMETHING ELSE FOR WEST VIRGINIA'S RULING CLASS TO DENY. To wit, the whole Greenland ice melting thing.

MIXED REACTIONS. Ken Ward's Coal Tattoo blog does a great job of weighing responses to CNN's recent feature on mountaintop removal mining.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

That was then, this is now

The first social justice fight that I got really immersed in was the Pittston coal strike of 1989-90 in support of the United Mine Workers. The union worked without a contract for something like 14 months before walking out in April 1989. The main issues in the strike were health care and retirement benefits.

It was pretty hairy and lasted for almost a year. People worked really hard on that one and eventually the miners got a contract they could live with. It was a victory.

A few years later, however, and Pittston got rid of most of its holdings. People were either laid off or went to work for different, often non-union companies.

I'd do it all again. In a heartbeat. But it illustrates another of the Buddha's ideas that I think is relevant to working on social justice issues, to wit that everything is impermanent. We work very hard for things that just aren't going to last forever. We won't either, for that matter. That's just the way it is, although that's no reason not to do all we can.

I've worked hard on policy issues only to gain ground and then lose it again. On the positive side, impermanence is also a characteristic of the things we don't like too, which is always worth keeping in mind. I kept telling myself that several years ago when the misguided policies of the Bush administration seemed to be riding high.

The teaching of impermanence also reminds me that everything changes from moment to moment. In a world of flux, getting stuck in ruts or repetitive actions is a recipe for failure. What worked in the past may not work now. I've seen some activists who seem to be stuck in a time warp trying to recreate some past struggle and I've felt the urge as well, but life unrolls moment to moment.

The only way that I know to stay fresh in a world of impermanence is to pay attention and act in accordance with the demands of the moment. That doesn't mean forgetting the past or its useful lessons or not planning for the future. But you can only do either in the moment.

HELLO, PLUTOCRACY. The growing wealth gap and democracy for sale threatens America, according to Robert Reich.

MORE THAN ONE WAY. A Kansas group has made progress on energy conservation even amid climate change skepticism.

INTERESTING RUMORS are floating around about the possible sale of Massey Energy.

THE STONE AGE DIET PLAN included more than just meat.

IT'S NOT JUST US. Honey bees' memory fades as they age too.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Change we can't help believing in

Tibetan image of the wheel of life and death, courtesy of wikipedia.

The theme at Goat Rope is hard times and ways of dealing with them. My first choice is that they "come again no more," as the song says. My second choice is that people come together and make them get better ASAP. But sometimes they just come and stay a while. And whatever else people do about them, we just have to get through them.

One way of looking at the world which is all about dealing with hard times and suffering is Buddhism--and you don't have to be a card carrying Buddhist to get something out of it.

According to Buddhist teachings, everything--good, bad, or indifferent--is impermanent, coming into being and passing away depending on conditions. No matter what the situation is, it's going to change. It may not change for the better, but it will be different. The Buddha taught that "whatever is subject to origination is subject to cessation."

We often screw up royally by regarding a temporary situation as permanent and acting or believing accordingly.

The Diamond Sutra, a Mahayana Buddhist text puts it like this:

"So I say to you -
This is how to contemplate our conditioned existence in this fleeting world:

Like a tiny drop of dew, or a bubble floating in a stream;
Like a flash of lightning in a summer cloud,
Or a flickering lamp, an illusion, a phantom, or a dream.

So is all conditioned existence to be seen."

Thus spoke Buddha.

The universe, in other words, is kind of like the weather in El Cabrero's beloved state of West Virginia: if you don't like it, stick around. It'll change.

SPEAKING OF HARD TIMES, the Economic Policy Institute reports that unemployed workers outnumber job openings by more than 3 to 1.

GETTING IT RIGHT. Here's a take on what we need to do to fix the US economy.

DEATH SENTENCES AND EXECUTIONS continued to decline last year, reaching a 14 year low.

AIR HEADED DINOSAUR UPDATE here.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

This and that

According to Buddhist teachings, all things are impermanent (anicca) and insubstantial (anata) and come into being or pass away according to conditions.

The impermanence thing is probably easier to see for any thoughtful observer (although it's also easy to forget). The insubstantial thing may seem a little strange at first. The Buddha taught that all things--including us--are without self, i.e. that they are dependent on conditions and come into being and pass away as conditions change.

As the Buddha was reported to have said,

If this is, that comes to be;
From the arising of this, that arises;
If this is not, that does not come to be;
From the stopping of this, that is stopped.

That can be a good thing to keep in mind when confronted with problems or even with a sudden turn of good fortune. Whatever it is, it won't last forever and only exists now due to an temporary constellation of factors.

It can also be a useful insight to those interested in either changing things that need to be changed or preserving things that need to be preserved. What is possible at any given times depends on external conditions and how we respond to them. And the conditions change from moment to moment.

DEPRESSION? Maybe not (but maybe).

SPEAKING OF DEPRESSION, lots of Americans are dealing with their own.

SPEAKING OF BOTH KINDS OF DEPRESSION, here's one that brings up some old school sociology.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED