but seriously how do we find balance, prevent burnout and continue to fight the good fight.

Simplicity, compassion, mercy and just outrage are all needed. There are plenty of people encouraging us. Jan Phillips comes to mind, encouraging us to be moral agents, cultural critics, social justice promoters.
aside/
The sermon this weekend was great: we are not given faith for ourselves, but we are given faith to minister to others.

and some of your wordsmithing is tops, too! Thank you.

i think my art and all it's possibilities overwhelms my writing fictively, and artwise i may better serve by drawing for others' writing. as a person of conscience, i find it hard to ignore what's going on and simply write and draw silly trivial stories as i'd like. here, at the agonist, text is all i put up and that focuses the writing better.
thanks, i must say.

to finish reading that. but my question is, have you reached a resolution yourself? (I already know how the story ends)
you are here for a reason, have you found the way forward? or are we in trouble when we presume to know?

eom

want a crack at it? maybe you should read his book first. (maybe I should finish it, but I want it on paper dammit, maybe I should finance that? but Liz would kill me ;> )

oh, it's this link
http://gigabyte-jones.livejournal.com/14772.html?thread=44980#t44980

maybe someone could just reformat it so one doesn't have to keep flipping back. what do I know, maybe it's intentional.

hey stranger!

what's news?

and was engrossed, but it's sleep time downunder.

One page had an interesting footnote/phrase/comment Christ was no dom and I clicked it, and discovered a wonderful article looking at the western subtext of Jesus Christ as dictator. The Rev Jim makes some good points. Thanks Zuma for that.

It is obvious that we are many, and that we should be confident that change will come.

I am unsure of my role in it
sleep well my brotha

ps - that's a really good link you mention
pps- watch this one
http://youtube.com/watch?v=NjHgIl4UASA#

whew, that man's got the spirit

Most of the pages are sequentially contiguous. I did blur the storyline within the blog toward the end, I think by incidental posts sandwiched in, so that list of the links asserts which pages/links hold that singular project. You might still just begin at the beginning and and go through Livejournal's 'see next 20 posts' and see previous 20 posts' links at page bottoms and tops....

we are at a crossroads and need do something different i think.
http://agonist.org/zuma/20071002/to_form_a_more_perfect_union
burke's conciliation of empire struck me as a spur to new answers...
http://zuma.theprawn.com/concilationofempire-1.jpg
http://zuma.theprawn.com/concilationofempire-2.jpg
we need to assemble a formal voice of the citizenry if voting is truly compromised.
i believe revolution is not the answer, and unimaginative, but clearly something is called for. something new.
mass leadership may be coalescing beneath us even here.
history must be more closely studied by all....

to the actions of the Burmese monks? I don't mean the Myanmar junta's, I mean western obserevers and chinese observers in particular.

It's horrible, worse than we know. I know that much.

What I keep my eye on is in China, not Burma; the Falun Gong's oppression. I was interested in them before the oppression or before I learned of it. (Falun Gong is tres' cool.)

is he one of those Age of Reason guys?
what does he mean by this:

For to talk of the priveledges of a state, or a person, who has no superior, is hardly any better than speaking nonsense

is he speaking of a superior empire or a superior being? seeing as I'm only working w/ 2 pages here, I'm gonna pull it out of its probable context and say "being" in which case brings us to the thoughts of Islam in which the church and the state are one. but authority is still held by men. which brings us to page 2, where I presume the younger man is asking how does he trust his own judgement.
well, how does he?
(I know i could go read the book, but this is faster)
sorry, I gotta go to work now, this is why I must rely on the learnings of others, time is of the essence. in more ways than one, eh?

Burke's Speech - page one

Burke's Speech - page two (which holds the footnotes for both pages)

He is speaking of the notion of Priveleges, and how that suggests, or implys, [things granted by] a superior. Burke had established at that point a mutual recognition of sovereignty -personal vis a vis national, as necessary for the peaceful coexistence of each. That no one or thing can grant much from an inferior position as well, as that may well been induced by fear or coercion, the state of things we're in now as it is...

The idea that we each are sovereign beings of unique and accountable conscience that cannot be denied (inalienable rights) was propagated greatly by Burke. It was already a modern notion of the time, not original with him. (John Locke may well hold that laurel, I'm not sure.)

(My first site domain was named http://elcoronado.org for this idea of Every Man A King, Every Woman A Queen. The Coronated Ones: El Coronado. It can be found in the Wayback Machine archives of the web.)

Protestantism. -It must be remembered that Protestantism was about our right to rightly say we experience reality, God's Creation, as we do, not as any Pope or other high priest, dictates that we ought. To be recognized as a person of faith was to also recognize as well those who were not. Freedom of conscience goes hand in hand, literally, with Free Will, which we were ostensibly bestowed with by God Himself.

Islam. You can imagine what they think of our adherence to such a notion of freedom of conscience -to some muslims it may appear as a selfendowed freedom of choice, licentiously, and so base. And the idea of the 'sovereignty of the individual'..? That we recognise and respect their freedom may not be enough, for again, to be recognized as a person of faith was to also recognize as well those who were not.

Infidels.

So, we get to Judgement. Until 6 months ago, I lived next door to a Greek Orthodox priest who always counseled me on judgement thusly; to bear in mind we all must make discernments. Which, as freeacting agents of conscience we must do with the utmost care and trepidation. Which we do here on these lovely Internets, quite vociferously. Sound and fury, etc.... Burke was acknowledging this natural care. I think it speaks too of confidence and consensus, versus petty [subversive?] conspiracy, collusion and collaborations....

Transparency and accountability cannot be summarily dismissed. No free people can simultaneously conquer others. A democratic empire is a contradiction on terms.

thanks Zuma