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Noting a spiritually motivated political activism now emerging in America, the author claims that traditional political activists increasingly look to spiritual wisdom for inspiration while spiritual contemplatives are increasingly eager to extend their service to the world into political realms. The convergence of the two impulses forms what she calls a "holistic politics." She becomes a powerful voice for social conscience in American society. While citing the virtual abandonment of social justice as a dominant political theme since the 1960's, the author notes historian Arthur Schlesinger's contention that Americans express renewed political interest every thirty years. This is a time, according to this book, for Americans to return once again to our first principles, political and spiritual. In this work, the author draws plans for the transformation of American political consciousness and the reemergence of powerful citizen involvement in a genuine healing of American society.… (meer)
I found this book in the $1 pile at a bookstore in Taos, NM, and maybe made a joke about it to my sister, but an older lady overheard and highly recommended the book. I felt horrible because, I actually would have voted for Marianne Williamson if I could have, and I didn’t want this nice old lady to think I was making fun of her! Anyway, I ended up buying the book, and even if I didn’t really like it I definitely learned a few things.
Firstly, after reading this… Marianne should have been president. I sincerely believe that she could unite the people in a way that Biden tried and failed to do, because she’d actually be sincere about it. Of course, they’d never let her win the primaries because she was proposing actual real change as policy (for example reparations for black people… she discusses this in this book that came out 20 years before her presidential run, that’s a lot more consistency than most “real” politicians). But this book definitely accomplishes a progressive agenda using language (spirituality and patriotism) that more conservative people would potentially understand, and eventually come around to accepting more leftist views. It’s a smart tactic, but I detect a sincerity there; I know everyone made fun of Williamson for being a weewoo hippie weirdo but I appreciated the spiritual aspects of this book the most of all.
So there’s a lot to like about her as a person— why didn’t I like this book? Williamson makes a lot of bold claims that I’d say are more in line with my political views, like conceptualizing America as modern-day serfdom. She’s aware of the contradictions of America but doesn’t ascribe reason to them at all; her patriotism effectively misdiagnoses the symptoms. There’s a real, political reason to not want to disavow America, but it’s intellectually ingenuous to characterize slavery and genocide as negative blips in our history, or to glorify the Revolutionary War at all. It’s refreshing that the book is optimistic, though, in a world of politics based on pessimism. Ironically, this book was printed right before 9/11, which makes Williamson’s optimism bittersweet. Her assessments have only become more true, and her prediction of spiritual rebirth hasn’t happened yet because we’re more polarized than ever. I didn’t find this book unrealistic or fanciful, but I hope we can find it in ourselves to follow this type of guidance someday soon. ( )
Informatie afkomstig uit de Engelse Algemene Kennis.Bewerk om naar jouw taal over te brengen.
We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving peace, too proud to pray to the God that made us! It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness. -- PRESIDENT ABRAHAM LINCOLN, PROCLAIMING A DAY OF NATIONAL FASTING, MARCH 30, 1863
I was fifteen years old when Martin Luther King, Jr., was shot. I was watching television in my family's den while waiting for my father to come home from work, when a news bulletin reported that King had been killed. Shortly afterward, my father walked in the back door. I ran up to him crying, "Daddy, Daddy, Martin Luther King, Jr., was shot and killed!" I saw a look on my father's face that I had never seen before. His eyes seemed to focus on something impossibly far away, and with an intensely pained expression on his face, he spat out the words, "Those bastards." Confused, I thought, "What is he saying? How does he know? What does he mean, 'those' bastards?" In that instant, I lost my innocence. That day changed history and it certainly changed me. I have never forgotten my father's eyes. I took another road than my father took, but I am looking for the same perfect world.
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Informatie afkomstig uit de Engelse Algemene Kennis.Bewerk om naar jouw taal over te brengen.
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Informatie afkomstig uit de Engelse Algemene Kennis.Bewerk om naar jouw taal over te brengen.
[Preface] It is my deepest wish that that experience, in some small way, might come about for all who read this book.
Noting a spiritually motivated political activism now emerging in America, the author claims that traditional political activists increasingly look to spiritual wisdom for inspiration while spiritual contemplatives are increasingly eager to extend their service to the world into political realms. The convergence of the two impulses forms what she calls a "holistic politics." She becomes a powerful voice for social conscience in American society. While citing the virtual abandonment of social justice as a dominant political theme since the 1960's, the author notes historian Arthur Schlesinger's contention that Americans express renewed political interest every thirty years. This is a time, according to this book, for Americans to return once again to our first principles, political and spiritual. In this work, the author draws plans for the transformation of American political consciousness and the reemergence of powerful citizen involvement in a genuine healing of American society.
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(3.58)
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2
Firstly, after reading this… Marianne should have been president. I sincerely believe that she could unite the people in a way that Biden tried and failed to do, because she’d actually be sincere about it. Of course, they’d never let her win the primaries because she was proposing actual real change as policy (for example reparations for black people… she discusses this in this book that came out 20 years before her presidential run, that’s a lot more consistency than most “real” politicians). But this book definitely accomplishes a progressive agenda using language (spirituality and patriotism) that more conservative people would potentially understand, and eventually come around to accepting more leftist views. It’s a smart tactic, but I detect a sincerity there; I know everyone made fun of Williamson for being a weewoo hippie weirdo but I appreciated the spiritual aspects of this book the most of all.
So there’s a lot to like about her as a person— why didn’t I like this book? Williamson makes a lot of bold claims that I’d say are more in line with my political views, like conceptualizing America as modern-day serfdom. She’s aware of the contradictions of America but doesn’t ascribe reason to them at all; her patriotism effectively misdiagnoses the symptoms. There’s a real, political reason to not want to disavow America, but it’s intellectually ingenuous to characterize slavery and genocide as negative blips in our history, or to glorify the Revolutionary War at all. It’s refreshing that the book is optimistic, though, in a world of politics based on pessimism. Ironically, this book was printed right before 9/11, which makes Williamson’s optimism bittersweet. Her assessments have only become more true, and her prediction of spiritual rebirth hasn’t happened yet because we’re more polarized than ever. I didn’t find this book unrealistic or fanciful, but I hope we can find it in ourselves to follow this type of guidance someday soon. (