With all the craziness going on in the world I got to thinking about the evil genius of facism, white supremacy and religious fundamentalism. At a minimum, they're all systems of control and manipulation rooted in fear to achieve false power and all-to-real domination. I’ve got to hand it to these age old systems, they are quite effective and profoundly devastating.

We all, in one fashion or degree of another have been harmed by these systems. I grew up within a Protestant system, with layers of white supremacy, misogyny and a good dollop of WASP values on top. Modesty, shame, stoicism and silence are baked in and in my case the landscape made cloudy by a closeted alcoholic. Self realization is not encouraged within these systems. On the WASP end I was taught explicitly never to discuss money, politics or religion. It’s only now that I’ve learned the purpose of this silence, under the pretense of good breeding and manners, is designed to keep people who look like me in the ruling class. Ingenious really.

I recently learned an adage that I’m giving some thought to – that is, if you’re unwilling to manipulate you remain vulnerable to being manipulated. Hmm, very interesting. I can clearly see the edges of truth in this when I reflect on my own experiences.

Now, the next conceivable leap is to personally ask this question of yourself. Can you manipulate for the greater good? Can you manipulate and out create your enemies to elevate your righteous cause? Is the world waiting for you to cast off the burden of old conditioning, break the bonds of goodness and badness, rightness and wrongness and get down to business?

I hope so. I know the power of your light is needed in this world.