RADICAL VOICES

EDWARD J CURTIN—The Russian President Vladimir Putin and its Foreign Secretary Sergei Lavrov have just warned the U.S. that such involvement has made nuclear war a “serious” and “real” risk, in Lavrov’s words “we must not underestimate it,” which is a mild form of diplomatic speech. Putin said that Russia has made all the preparations to respond if it senses a strategic threat to Russia and that response will be “instant, it will be quick.”  The U.S. response is to shrug these statements off, just as it has done so for many years with Putin’s complaints about NATO forces moving up to its border.  Incredibly, Biden has said, “For God’s sake, this man (Putin) cannot remain in power.”

The armed citizens, members of a group called The NFAC (The Not F#ckin’ Around Coalition), are led by Grand Master Jay, a former military man that has emerged out of a dissatisfaction with past movements. The NFAC marched “in formation” peacefully in Stone Mountain, GA where confederate leaders are etched in a mountain. Eventually, the mass convened at a Ku Klux Klan haven that has been allegedly threatening Black people. The Klan was “re-born” at this location, Jay said at the scene.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License ALL CAPTIONS…

DARWIN HOLMSTROM—Curiosity-based thinking presents a possible alternative to fear-based thinking. If we step back from the ego, if we don’t filter the experience of being alive through the artificial construct of fear, the world becomes a much-more interesting place, not a hell-scape filled with nothing but random terror, but a world that inspires and entertains. Fear-based thinking leads to what the Buddha called “misplaced desires,” desires that mostly fall under the categories of possession and control. When we engage in domineering or manipulative behavior, we’re succumbing to fear-based thinking. When looked at from outside the cage of ego, fear-based thinking doesn’t seem terribly appealing, yet it’s the predominant form of thinking in our world. The earliest organized hierarchical control systems imposed on humanity took the form of religion, which is the ultimate expression of fear-based thinking.

The Daily Shakespeare fter a fitful fever (1) of debates and round-tables, often packed with common…