Rude Guy Show 4
[The Rude Guy, The Leo Tolstoy of podcasting. The unreconstructed beatnik. Discusses Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, Impeach Bush, the fragile female ego, nagging, aggression, fashion, advertising, shame, guilt, ambition, the Iraq War, bin Laden, God, religion, minorities, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Native Americans, Gandhi, humility, the Russian Revolution, the Indian Revolution, power, corporate culture, righteousness, spiritual pride, and the Rich Zubaty Web Site: happyfool.org]
This is the Rude Guy. The Leo Tolstoy of podcasting. The unreconstructed beatnik. Inviting you to the Reality Cult. Pointing the way to life AFTER corporations. Presenting another oral essay on…the Idea of the Week.
This is the show with something to offend everybody.
The show that’s anti-branding, anti-advertising, anti-fashion, anti-everything big media stands for.
The show that’s about Ideas. Not issues. Not opinions. Ideas.
The show that dares to ask:
Why is Karl Rove’s head so big? Is he actually Smeagol, the Golum, escaped from the pages of the Lord of the Rings, crawling through the sewers of Washington DC, LUSTING after the ring of power? THAT would certainly explain something.
And…Why is Dick Cheney so mean? Did someone run over his pet turtle when he was a kid?…Were they trying to run HIM over?
And…isn’t it finally time to Impeach George Bush. I’ve been RANTING about that for three years, from Frankfurt Germany to Bangkok, Thailand…from San Francisco to Chicago to New York. Richard Nixon lied about a break-in at an office building…Bill Clinton lied about a blowjob. We hounded Nixon out of office for his lying, and neutered the Clinton presidency for HIS lying. Do Bush and Cheney deserve any less…for LYING about the reasons for going to war…and then LYING to conceal they were SPYING on those of us who opposed that war. I KNOW MY phone was tapped and my emails intercepted. Let’s trow da bums out.
The Idea of the Week THIS week is:
What IS it…with the fragile FEMALE ego?…The fragile FEMALE ego.
You can tell a guy he’s stupid and he will wince. Tell him he’s a slob and he’ll shrug. Tell him he has no common sense and he’ll stroke his chin and agree with you. Tell a woman she is stupid, slobby or ditzy and she’ll detonate a mushroom cloud in your ear…trying to SCREEEAM her way out of it.
[canned scream, you son of a bitch]
Guys egos get bruised when they cannot perform sexually. And that’s about the only time. Then again, women never really HAVE to “get it up” for sex. They can just lay there and groan.
And guys also feel crushed when they come home after a maddening day, at some stink-ass job, to a woman who is bitching and nagging about SOMEthing. It isn’t so much our ego that’s hurt. It’s our EAR DRUMS. Nagging is a form of violence and it MUST be acknowledged as such. No guy is allowed to clobber his wife when her nagging begins to feel like she’s screwing portable drills into both of his ears. So how is he supposed to call time-out on her unrestrained aggression? He has to rein himself in but she doesn’t? She can say any cruel, demeaning thing she wants, and he is just supposed to take it?…NO…we need cultural boundaries. If men can’t hit, women can’t nag. That’s fair. That’s equality. Both parties have to exercise some restraint. Without this type of cultural boundary, men are condemned to inhabit a menstrual house of horrors with no corner to hide in and no escape.
How did we EVER come to believe that MEN have the fragile egos? Didn’t we pay attention to the rest of the kids in school? Women are the ones who are always defending some private territory of their own invention. Women are the ones who jump on board for fads and trends and yes…that hideous drooling beast….FASHION. Half of the people in the world are getting by on one dollar a day, and women won’t wear a perfectly good outfit because it’s five years out of date?…Talk about waste…Fashion, and its Siamese twin, Advertising, are the most wasteful preoccupations ever foisted upon us. Tens of billions of dollars a year thrown away on what? Feeding poor people? NO…FEEDING the female ego. Shoveling money into the bottomless pit of Female insecurity.
Because when it comes down to it, that’s what it’s all about. Insecurity. Deep seated feelings of…SHAME…Of not measuring up…
Shame is the most destructive force on the planet. Shame is NOT guilt. Women are experts at avoiding feelings of guilt also, but for now let’s stick with shame. Guilt is when you did something wrong…and you know it…and you feel BAD about it. Shame is when you feel bad about yourself… and you don’t even know why. Maybe you were born with dark skin. Maybe you can’t do math. Maybe you got crippled in an accident. Maybe you were born with greeeen hair. Something makes you feel bad about yourself, but there’s NOTHING you can DO about it…That’s shame.
And here’s the catch. The most ambitious people in the world are the most DEEPLY SHAMED. They can never get enough attention. Or make enough money. Or garner enough applause. Yes, actors and performers come to mind. But so do presidents. Typically…ruthless, high achievers, who will say anything, and exploit anybody, to get to the top…and stay there…and STILL they don’t get enough adulation to satisfy them. Bill Clinton comes to mind. And so does George W Bush. Bush’s dad was the President. He grew UP in the White House. The only way he could beat out HIS dad was to become a BETTER president. So what does he do?… Invade Iraq to try and show up his dad. Go his dad one better…What a delusional fool. Tens of thousands of people have to die, so he can work off the SHAME, of feeling LESS THAN, his dad. His own mother said, “I never expected much of George. He was the stupid one.”…This is Shame.
Yes, I KNOW, there’s more to it than that. But not MUCH more. Dick Cheney was scheming on behalf of his oil buddies. The Neocon Jews were scheming to pull off a coup for Israel. And Georgie thought that by being a “WAR PRESIDENT” he could shine in the public eye…and thereby slip through, his Social Security privatization scheme, and other corporate give-aways.
What I’m SAYING is…we all have to be EXTREMELY CAUTIOUS around ambitious people…because they are deeply shamed…to the point of being numbed to normal human suffering…and they are capable of REALLY hurting other people behind some preposterous ideology like liberating Iraq, or capturing bin Laden…When, in fact, the WHOLE thing is ACTUALLY about something else…Their shame…Their craving for adulation. Their insufferable egos.
Shame is pride in reverse. Pride is all about ego…and SHAME is all about ego. Pride is feeling wonderful about yourself for no good reason…and shame is feeling awful about yourself for no good reason. And what is the solution to shame?…Get rid of ego..Get rid of ego…Pray, meditate, perform some selfless act for someone else…
I am a religious person. I take my cues from Leo Tolstoy. I believe the invisible parts of life are the most important parts of life…which is why I am such a big fan of ideas. Our ideas about God and Love and Money and Relationships matter much more, than anything we saw on TV today. The invisible parts of life silently steer us through every moment. And as I drone on and on over the coming year you will hear me return to my basic belief. That ALL religions are good because ALL religions eject us outside of our egos and invite us into a greater realm of existence. Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish Christian, Muslim, Native American and on and on. Religion serves a purpose. Religion conquers shame.
Time for a bird break.
[birds and ocean wave sounds]
It’s cold and wet up the mountain so I came down to the ocean to think. The waves are huge, high as a house, but it’s warmer and drier down here… Might snow on top of the volcano tonight…But I’m not done talking about shame. I’ve lived for decades in Polynesian culture, Hawaii and Tonga…where people are LOW on guilt and HIGH on shame. Here’s how that works. A Polynesian is not bothered by lying to you, tricking you or stealing from you. He is only bothered if…HIS MOM finds out. That, in a nutshell, is the difference between guilt and shame. And NO…it’s NOT just Polynesians. Shame is everywhere. Mostly in cultures that perceive themselves as MINORITIES. But believe me, it’s everywhere. Rich people are a minority too, and they are VERY BIG on shame. Catholics, Jews, Protestants, Buddhists. When you start looking for shame-based behavior you find it everywhere.
Shame is very feminized and very hierarchical. Who is higher or lower than whom, in the social pecking order. The fashion industry is shame-based. The advertising industry is shame-based…Buy this and you’ll feel good about yourself…And maybe that’s how I can bring Leo Tolstoy into this.
For starters you should know that a young Indian lawyer in South Africa, who came to be called Mahatma Gandhi, used to write letters to Leo Tolstoy. Gandhi became heavily influenced by Tolstoy’s philosophy of humility, vegetarianism, avoidance of alcohol, and NON-RESISTANCE to evil.
Tolstoy was born a rich Russian Count. But he despised Russian aristocratic society. He threw away his fashionable clothes and wore rough peasant shirts. He taught himself to become a cobbler, a shoemaker. There he was…a world famous writer…making shoes for his friends. Sound familiar? Gandhi started a vegetarian society when he was a student in England, threw away his British lawyers monkey suit, and spun the thread to make the homespun saris he wore.
In other words, they both sloughed off shame, embraced humility, were rewarded with deep spiritual insights, and freed their followers from the shackles of shame…And ultimately, they both transformed those spiritual insights into political movements. The Russian Revolution and the Indian Revolution.
TRUE…both revolutions were co-opted by opportunists waiting in the wings. From the Bolshevik coup d’etat in 1917, to the Hindu/Muslim conflicts of today, both visions were perverted beyond belief. But there is NO denying that both visions — which are really the SAME vision – were founded on the principle of UNSHAMING common people. Of returning dignity to regular people…Because shame is how, the powers-that-be, control us. Shame is how they get us to behave in ways that they can exploit. Young men are shamed into going to war. There must be something WRONG with them if they won’t fight. Young women are shamed into following career paths, instead of finding satisfaction…with being good mothers and good wives. Corporate culture thrives on shame. Everyone is insecure, and unsure of themselves. Everyone is hateful of people who threaten their illusory notions of success or righteousness. Everyone wants more. Everyone is shamed.
I asked a friend of mine named Roy Schenk how so many Americans could be SO WILLING…to kill…SO MANY Iraqis. His answer was… SHAME. Americans feel so miserable and powerless in their own lives, that, like abused dogs, they will lash out at anyone who challenges their emotional house of cards. That way there’s at least ONE thing they can feel powerful about in their diminished, frightened lives. Very feminized. Very oriental. Very much the result of living in an age defined by self-righteous secularism, on one hand, and feel-good fundamentalism, on the other.
The great comfort that fundamentalist religion offers a deeply shamed nation, is that it makes people feel good about themselves. That’s why fundamentalism has been so successful. Righteousness is what they call it…Righteousness…I call it SPIRITUAL PRIDE…Because just feeling good about oneself, is NOT the end game of any spiritual tradition. That’s feel-good, new-age, feminized crap. The TRUE spiritual end game is to risk, and suffer, and be ridiculed…and to hold your ethical standards HIGH UP into the clouds. Religion is NOT about feeling good. It’s about using spiritual tools to reach outside of everyday experience – short-circuiting shame – and reeling in new ideas, and putting those ideas into action. Like Gandhi…and Tolstoy. Both of them understood, that the spiritual is political. The spiritual is political.
[bird song]
So…you wanna help? Do you care enough about what’s going on to get YOUR hands dirty?
Go to therudeguy.com and click on the links…therudeguy.com
If you can afford to donate a dollar or two to the show, click on the Make a Donation button.
And check out Rich Zubaty’s books and oil paintings and his Corporate Vampires DVD. By helping him you’re helping me…check out his web site too…happyfool.org…happyfool.org
And email me…therudeguy@hotmail.com…EMAIL ME…so I know I’m not just talking to the birds…therudeguy@hotmail.com
[fade in bird calls and hold softly under the voice through the end]
This is the Rude Guy. I’ll be back next week.
Stay strong. Don’t let anybody intimidate you. Don’t let anybody shame you.
No more COWSHIT. That’s our motto. NO MORE COWSHIT!
Ahhhhhhh….feels a little better already.
[gulls and ocean waves]