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Technology
and Spirituality
By
Marvin X
Technology will save us if it doesn't
wipe us out.—Pete
Seeger
This discussion of radical
spirituality suggests one must perform a great leap
forward in thinking to grasp the concept, for the
present and certainly the future. Some people are so
full of fear and doubt that rather than leap forward,
they leap backward in order to maintain their sense of
reality, even though reality is changing rapidly before
their eyes. Their resistance or reaction is evident in
religious fundamentalism, Islamic and Christian, for
rather than being antithetical, they are quite similar,
especially in holding onto traditional myth and ritual.
Muslim fundamentalists say return to
the prophet's practice of a thousand years ago. The
Christian fundamentalists believe in a literal
interpretation of the Bible. Both believers say there
will be pie in the sky after they die. The Muslim is
prepared to die and take others with him to achieve
paradise, and the Christian is ready to kill to hasten
the fulfillment of prophecy; at the very least to
prolong the suffering of Palestinians by supporting
Israeli intransigence, even as they are fully away Jews
do not believe in Jesus, but Jews welcome support from
dumb or deceitful Christians to perpetuate their
racist/Zionist state by keeping their boots on the necks
of Palestinians.
But as per Muslim fundamentalists, I
have written elsewhere (In the Crazy House Called
America, p. 156), "...For all his attempt to claim
allegiance to the Islamic past, Osama Bin Laden is the
most modern of men, using modern technology, modern
weapons, modern financial systems and modern media
techniques to the best of his ability."
And yes, Christian fundamentalists
use modern media, including Internet, to spread their
archaic theology and reactionary white supremacy version
of Jesus Christ.
All of these evil suggestions involve
the use of technology in spreading the message and
carrying out the deeds. Not only is this activity in the
political arena, but it is generated from the spiritual
arena, from the center of fundamental Christians and
Muslims.
How is it possible man can advance
forward and backward simultaneously? How is it possible
the best use he can make of modern technology is the
proliferation of negative messages, including the use or
threatened use of weapons of mass destruction?
Clearly, technology and spirituality
are on a collision course. Shall we be consumed by our
technology interfacing with our backward spirituality?
Or shall we advance to spiritual maturity. Thoughts are
things, thus it appears our very thoughts have the
potential to cause our demise, i.e., when our thoughts
connect with technology.
Because of reactionary spirituality,
we turn a good thing into a bad thing, we turn a
blessing into a curse. Like Frankenstein, we create the
monster who devours us. We are not satisfied with the
infinite possibility of spreading joy and happiness
throughout the world, we rather spread human misery in
the name of God and the cause of sham democracy, free
trade and neo-slavery.
Perhaps we shall see there are forces
greater than technology, greater even than the
projection of our minds, especially when such minds are
not poised to advance beyond tradition and the familiar.
Nature, the Creator, is the force with whom we are
determined to disconnect--thus we should see that Nature
is determined to disconnect from us, since we are indeed
the guilty party, Nature having done no wrong.
Man is determined to turn the
blessing of technology into a curse, unless he moves
toward a radical spirituality, enabling him to acquire
the consciousness that will permit him to see clearly
that all wars must end for the benefit of humanity. Only
the selfish and greedy desire the continuation of
barbarism and savagery. How much progress have we really
made from the stone age to the nuclear age, from the
wheel and drum to the Internet, if the end game is
annihilation of the human race, since this appears to be
the ultimate use of technology.
How much technology are we using to
advance human and/or spiritual consciousness? Video
games turn us into robots, television makes us dumber
than dumb, computer driven cars clog freeways and poison
the environment, digital music destroys our central
nervous system as we bounce to the beat that takes us
nowhere. Aside from pussy and dick games, there is no
message in the music--it does not take us higher.
The advance in medicine only makes us
sicker and poorer, while it enriches the pharmaceutical
industry. The petrochemical industry has made advances
in food production that only makes us sicker and
fatter, and hastens our death, especially among the poor
and ignorant who can't afford to shop at Whole Foods.
What is more savage, the suicide
bomber or the bomber with laser guided missiles from
thirty thousand feet? The spirit of the people is indeed
greater than technology, for we may talk more with cell
phones but surely we are saying less, or as James Brown
sang, "Talking loud but saying nothing."
posted 2 July 2006
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Super Rich: A Guide to Having it All
By Russell Simmons
Russell Simmons knows firsthand that
wealth is rooted in much more than the
stock
market. True wealth has more to do with
what's in your heart than what's in your
wallet. Using this knowledge, Simmons
became one of America's shrewdest
entrepreneurs, achieving a level of
success that most investors only dream
about. No matter how much material gain
he accumulated, he never stopped lending
a hand to those less fortunate. In
Super Rich, Simmons uses his rare
blend of spiritual savvy and
street-smart wisdom to offer a new
definition of wealth-and share timeless
principles for developing an unshakable
sense of self that can weather any
financial storm. As Simmons says, "Happy
can make you money, but money can't make
you happy." |
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The New Jim Crow
Mass Incarceration in the Age of
Colorblindness
By Michele Alexander
Contrary to the
rosy picture of race embodied in Barack
Obama's political success and Oprah
Winfrey's financial success, legal
scholar Alexander argues vigorously and
persuasively that [w]e have not ended
racial caste in America; we have merely
redesigned it. Jim Crow and legal racial
segregation has been replaced by mass
incarceration as a system of social
control (More African Americans are
under correctional control today... than
were enslaved in 1850). Alexander
reviews American racial history from the
colonies to the Clinton administration,
delineating its transformation into the
war on drugs. She offers an acute
analysis of the effect of this mass
incarceration upon former inmates who
will be discriminated against, legally,
for the rest of their lives, denied
employment, housing, education, and
public benefits. Most provocatively, she
reveals how both the move toward
colorblindness and affirmative action
may blur our vision of injustice: most
Americans know and don't know the truth
about mass incarceration—but her
carefully researched, deeply engaging,
and thoroughly readable book should
change that.—Publishers
Weekly |
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Blacks in Hispanic Literature: Critical Essays
Edited by
Miriam DeCosta-Willis
Blacks in Hispanic Literature is a
collection of fourteen essays by scholars and
creative writers from Africa and the Americas.
Called one of two significant critical works on
Afro-Hispanic literature to appear in the late
1970s, it includes the pioneering studies of
Carter G. Woodson and
Valaurez B. Spratlin, published in the 1930s, as
well as the essays of scholars whose interpretations
were shaped by the Black aesthetic. The early
essays, primarily of the Black-as-subject in Spanish
medieval and Golden Age literature, provide an
historical context for understanding 20th-century
creative works by African-descended, Hispanophone
writers, such as Cuban
Nicolás Guillén and Ecuadorean poet, novelist,
and scholar
Adalberto Ortiz, whose essay analyzes the
significance of Negritude in Latin America. This
collaborative text set the tone for later
conferences in which writers and scholars worked
together to promote, disseminate, and critique the
literature of Spanish-speaking people of African
descent. . . .
Cited by a
literary critic in 2004 as "the seminal study in the
field of Afro-Hispanic Literature . . . on which
most scholars in the field 'cut their teeth'."
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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If you like this page consider making a donation
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Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
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Enjoy!
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
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The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
/
Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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update 8 December 2011
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