Public opinion
byMieke Mosmuller
18-02-2015
5 comments
In European Mythology - and in other mythologies too - we find the germination of human freedom and the twilight of the Gods.
In our time we are free from the conscious influence of God. We don't recognize Him, for we don't see Him - maybe we believe that He is there in another world, in another awareness, but it is not a scientific sureness that God exists.
So we are free now. We can do whatever we want to do, think what we like to think, believe what seems to be true. There seems to be no force at all that compels us, except maybe the conscience, or the moral values that are taught. On the moment that you start to think this, you know that it is far from true that we are free. There is a mighty force coming from outward that compels us. We don't see this power, like we don't see God. A kind of new Wotan guides us, and the question is: How can we become a new Brünnhilde?
If you watch yourself when listening to the news, or reading the paper, you can perceive your primary reaction to the news. If you don't watch yourself, these reactions are also there of course, but you don't notice them. They are transformed to opinions in your mind and heart, and you are not aware of the process by which these opinions come into being. Afterwards these opinions determine the reactions you have on the news - and you don't even notice. Thus we become programmed beings. All our thinking and feeling is programmed without us perceiving it clearly, without questioning our opinions thoroughly.
The first action is: Ask the question: Is this information true? Whether I can answer it or not is not even so important. It stops the automatically unwinding of my former opinions and reactions. In fact we are slaves of the media ... till we stand up and ask ourselves this first question, again and again.
In the 6th century before Christ Gautama Buddha lived and had his enlightenment, which he gave in the eight-fold path to follow. The first step is to form the right opinion. For the opinion is the basis for the whole of our thoughts and judgments - and finally also for our deeds.
This becoming aware of forming the right opinion is a real challenge in modern times that we should not want to avoid...
The paper public opinionPublic opinion by Mieke Mosmuller
In our time we are free from the conscious influence of God. We don't recognize Him, for we don't see Him - maybe we believe that He is there in another world, in another awareness, but it is not a scientific sureness that God exists.
So we are free now. We can do whatever we want to do, think what we like to think, believe what seems to be true. There seems to be no force at all that compels us, except maybe the conscience, or the moral values that are taught. On the moment that you start to think this, you know that it is far from true that we are free. There is a mighty force coming from outward that compels us. We don't see this power, like we don't see God. A kind of new Wotan guides us, and the question is: How can we become a new Brünnhilde?
If you watch yourself when listening to the news, or reading the paper, you can perceive your primary reaction to the news. If you don't watch yourself, these reactions are also there of course, but you don't notice them. They are transformed to opinions in your mind and heart, and you are not aware of the process by which these opinions come into being. Afterwards these opinions determine the reactions you have on the news - and you don't even notice. Thus we become programmed beings. All our thinking and feeling is programmed without us perceiving it clearly, without questioning our opinions thoroughly.
When you hear the news about liquidations on religious motives for instance, you certainly have immediate feelings and thoughts. But the first reaction really should be: Is this news true? Are the interpretations true? Or am I programmed to certain feelings, opinions, judgments and thoughts about what should happen? I don't want to state here, that it is not true. I just want to reflect on the fact that there is an immediate judgment coming up that is completely overseeing the first question: Can I trust all information that is given by the media? Of course I can't! But that doesn't mean that all information is false. So I will have to develop a kind of new sense to make the difference.
The first action is: Ask the question: Is this information true? Whether I can answer it or not is not even so important. It stops the automatically unwinding of my former opinions and reactions. In fact we are slaves of the media ... till we stand up and ask ourselves this first question, again and again.
In the 6th century before Christ Gautama Buddha lived and had his enlightenment, which he gave in the eight-fold path to follow. The first step is to form the right opinion. For the opinion is the basis for the whole of our thoughts and judgments - and finally also for our deeds.
This becoming aware of forming the right opinion is a real challenge in modern times that we should not want to avoid...
The paper public opinionPublic opinion by Mieke Mosmuller
Comments
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From Otto Rohner @Liebe Frau Mosmuller
ich will Ihnen jetzt einmal ein Kränzchen winden, will heissen, ich schätze Ihre Gedanken, die Sie sporadisch auf diesem Kanal verbreiten sehr. Machen Sie weiter so und ich wünsche Ihen viel Kraft dazu. Ich selbst bin seit einiger Zeit am lesen Ihres Buches "Königsweg." Es ist keine einfache Kost, aber dieses Buch entführt mich oft abends vor dem Einschlafen in Ihre Gedankenwelt, was ich sehr geniesse, weil sie mir seelenverwandt erscheint. Herzlichen Dank.
Otto Rohner, Demeter-Weinbauer -
From Mieke Mosmuller @Vielen Dank für das Kränzchen, ich werde es aufbewahren, es wirkt ermutigend...... Liebe Grüsse, Mieke Mosmuller
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From Mimigoacher @Yes, I Agree. I find I have to listen, digest and observe what is going on around me with the media, with all the day brings before me. I can't deal with everything but most days I try to address what is important (?).
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From Michiel Suurmond @Een citaat (in het Duits) van de negentiende-eeuwse Deen S. Kierkegaard: 'Die Auesserungen werden so objektiv, ihr Umfang so allumfassend, dass es zuletzt ganz gleichgültig bleibt, wer sie macht, ein Verhältnis, das in Hinsicht auf menschlichen Reden ganz dem Handeln aus Prinzip entspricht. Und wie das Publikum eine reine Abstraktion ist, so wird es zuletzt die menschliche Rede auch, da gibt es keinen mehr, der redet, sondern eine objektiv gewordene Reflexion setzt allmählich eine Athmosphäre ab, erzeugt ein abstraktes Tönen, das die menschliche Rede überflüssig macht, wie die Maschine den Arbeiter. In Deutschland hat man sogar Handbücher für Liebende, so wird es wohl damit enden, dass ein Liebespaar da sitzen und anonym mit einander reden kann.'
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From Michiel Suurmond @En nog een citaat, nu in het Engels, van George Orwell, met reserves ten aanzien van '...but his brain is not involved as...': 'Orthodoxy, of whatever color, seems to demand a lifeless, imitative style. The political dialects to be found in pamphlets, leading articles, manifestoes, White papers and the speeches of undersecretaries do, of course, vary from party to party, but they are all alike in that one almost never finds in them a fresh, vivid, homemade turn of speech. When one watches some tired hack on the platform mechanically repeating the familiar phrases -- bestial atrocities, iron heel, bloodstained tyranny, free peoples of the world, stand shoulder to shoulder -- one often has a curious feeling that one is not watching a live human being but some kind of dummy: a feeling which suddenly becomes stronger at moments when the light catches the speaker's spectacles and turns them into blank discs which seem to have no eyes behind them. And this is not altogether fanciful. A speaker who uses that kind of phraseology has gone some distance toward turning himself into a machine. The appropriate noises are coming out of his larynx, but his brain is not involved as it would be if he were choosing his words for himself. If the speech he is making is one that he is accustomed to make over and over again, he may be almost unconscious of what he is saying, as one is when one utters the responses in church. And this reduced state of consciousness, if not indispensable, is at any rate favorable to political conformity.'