I've had some excellent conversations with @dflo regarding The Virtue Circle and I applaud her for approaching the issue with maturity, grace and peace. She raised an excellent point which I had not considered when choosing the name for "The Virtue Circle".
The word 'virtue' has been used for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years to justify violence against others in the name of righteousness. As a result, words like virtue and righteousness take on a negative connotation and portray violent meanings.
This brings up a core issue that I think we all must confront and George Orwell talked about it brilliantly in his book '1984' when he used terms like 'newspeak' and 'doublethink'. In that book he raised the issue where doublespeak can flip the meanings of words and he demonstrated that when he wrote; war is peace, freedom is slavery and ignorance is strength.
1949 original book cover
There are people on this planet that work hard to flip the meanings of words so that they can control and manipulate others. The feudal system has done the same when they tell us that their job is to maintain the peace. What kind of peace specifically? Freedom from civil commotion; public order and security OR are they talking about freedom from disturbances, perturbations, quiet, tranquility?
The state is interested in public order and they will use violence and coercion to obtain that order. THAT IS NOT PEACE!!! The church has engaged in murder, conquest and genocide, all in the name of righteousness and virtue. THEIR ACTIONS DO NOT REFLECT VIRTUE OR RIGHTEOUSNESS. We must stop accepting the doublespeak and use words that accurately describe their actions.
So why do people use positive words to mask evil acts? Is it possible that people need to do that to justify their evil actions? Perhaps it is an attempt to hoodwink others to get their support. I believe that people are fundamentally good and the only way to work around our inherent goodness is to engage in doublespeak and lie to ourselves and others in order to justify evil and violent actions. Otherwise, we must confront our own guilt and shame! What ever the reasons, we need to engage some critical thinking and not let those who engage in this doublespeak manipulate or control us through their words.
We witness people going to war to protect others or their interests. They justify it because it is righteous! Bull shit! This is not an act of virtue or righteousness, it is an act of war. There is no glory or virtue in that action! It is murder, theft and violence.
The feudal state actually interprets the word 'peace' as: to be silent, keep silence. After all, that is what people who were commanded to be obedient should be doing. Words in the English language has many meanings and it is up to us to ask questions to clarify what the author REALLY meant when they use specific words.
"When words lose their meaning, people lose their freedom." Confucius
We have a lot of work to do in order to erase all the trauma, misconceptions, lies and deceit that has been used over the last few thousand generations, especially through the colonization process. Our actions define what we are doing, not our words. It is up to us to find the correct words to describe our actions and not lie to ourselves by finding words to cover it all up. We need to be blunt and call a spade a spade!
War is war. Peace is peace. Slavery is slavery. Freedom is freedom. Ignorance is ignorance. Strength is Strength. George Orwell was trying to warn us in his book that he wrote in 1949.
By using the word 'virtue' in the 'The Virtue Circle', I am attempting to set a standard of behaviour and it is up to each individual to meet or exceed that standard of virtue if they want to participate with this movement. To be clear, virtue is defined as:
Virtue: 2. Conformity of life and conduct with the principles of morality; voluntary observance of the recognized moral laws or standards of right conduct. - Oxford Unabridged Dictionary (1958)
Moral: 1. Of or pertaining to character or disposition; of or pertaining to the distinction between right and wrong, or good and evil, in relation to actions volition, or character; ethical. - Oxford Unabridged Dictionary (1958)
While we may have impressions of what words mean, we cannot trust that others are using them in the proper way. As such, it is our duty to build a healthy relationship with our words so that we can express ourselves properly in our communication with other people. The state, violent offenders and even the church have been engaged in doublespeak for far too long. We cannot trust any words that they say. We must see their actions, not their words. Actions speak louder than words.
There are a lot of liars out there and it is our duty to call them on their lies. They love doublespeak and use it constantly. I bring these ideas to my blog as this is a critical component to freedom and prosperity. When dealing with the state and corporations, this is a constant battle trying to figure out what they are REALLY saying. Words are now a weapon as well and it is our duty to disarm them and hold them accountable to their actions. Doublespeak is a forked tongue language used to manipulate and control people. Time for that language to become extinct.
If you wonder why I use the words 'violence', 'coercion' and 'force' so often, it is because I don't fall for doublespeak any more. I don't want to lie to myself or others. Uncomfortable as it may be, it is what I see and only by being honest with ourselves will we turn the tide and find true peace and freedom, not the lies we have been sold.
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That rationalization and justification mechanism that we carry as humans. We can make ourselves believe the most vile and vicious behavior is acceptable. I see it on here of late. People doing things that are totally cruel and vicious to another, laughing about it, all the while believing they are "spiritual". I guess they are but doing the bidding of some kind of evil spirit. I imagine if one did the same thing about them, they would have a cow.
Ironic that turning something around like that shows how cruel an action can be. Do you want that done to you or your family? If the answer is yes, then go ahead and do it. If the answer is not, screw your justification, dont do it.
I like that you called a spade a spade and called bullshit. No matter what the justification, attacks on any level are still attacks. We live simultaneously on a physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual plane. Attacks can occur at any level. One does not need to physically be killing someone to commit murder. We can do it on the other levels too. As one of your posts pointed out, the spiritual level is the hardest to comprehend, but even basic insight tells us how easy it is to do.
Thank you for your posts...I am learning a lot more about the slavery system around us. It is a powerful mechanism...something we have to be diligent if we are to break free from.
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Our freedom is grounded on each individual figuring this stuff out. I am grateful that you are working hard and it shows in your writings and posts. The influence is showing. :) <3
Bravo to you my friend. Now, if only we can influence those who engage in violence too. That will take more time. One day they will come around.
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Wow, powerful stuff! Even confucious knows it, I have read his books and they spout wisdom of sorts.
In ancient Irish society the poets and bards had as much power, if not more then the druids or intellectual class. I suppose they were the same class. Poets went to school for over 10 years to study and learn about words and how to use them (since they did not write, only memorized) and had the power to topple kings if they were treated unfairly. They used words and songs of power to create magical storms as well, and stuff like that. In hardly any other society that I know of were words known to be so powerful.
And as you said; "The feudal state actually interprets the word 'peace' as: to be silent, keep silence. After all, that is what people who were commanded to be obedient should be doing. "
THAT IS SO POWERFUL. it is just like, really? realllyyyy?? jeez, they have warped that!
I think it is definately time to take our words back, become like the bards and poets and realize our words and their meanings define our reality and are very important. They have the power to enslave people or topple kings! Thanks for writing so well on this subject!
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Yes, that is what they do now. Here is a clip from the Ontario legislature from last week. An MLA was silenced for speaking truth. Watch that guy to the left of the speaker. He is telling her what to say. The hidden hand silencing those who disagree. Freedom of speech in the feudal state is dead and I challenge anybody to rebuke that statement.
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I am very ashamed about what is going on in my native country of Canada.
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“The feudal state actually interprets the word 'peace' as: to be silent, keep silence”
This brings to memory the Simon and Garfunkel song: The Sound of Silence.
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Well said. I love that song and it is VERY fitting!
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While reading this post the first thought i had was 'can we create new and better words that can clearly be understood and used without any ambiguity?
The fact that one word can mean different things at different times is really contributing to violence in our present world.
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That would require people to learn what those words are. Most are not willing to learn the current ones. English is also a horrible language. It is a slave language and if we used others instead, it would be easier to find the freedom as they are not as confusing as English is. That is why the world standard for commerce, travel and trade is all English. They need the slave language to engage in slave activities and violence.
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I really see the truth in this. Most other languages are much more free free these ambiguities dominant in English language.
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I need to learn more languages! My spirit craves the ability to communicate dualities , and ambiguity .
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so true! that was great, a little off topic but I agree with George Orwell and I always thinking about revolution problems, like these days everywhere, but then just a new system will be installed on the old version and maybe even harder. to make it related I have to say : we scream for freedom and ... and groups and system creators come with smiles on their faces to help us have them then when they took the power they still use the words freedom and peace and ... but they rape people's brain and life in many different ways .... and making their life more worst than before and well the blame can be on people because they just don't know and they just tried to do the good thing but then in that process it will change to bad.
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I agree with you @davidfar. That is the what I am working hard to avoid. In order for people to not fall into that revolution trap, where we replace the old system with a newer model of the same system, we need to break that cycle.
I've proposed for years that we break that cycle by working hard to see our dependency on those systems and work hard to be independent to the point where we don't need system any longer. Self-governance, self-sufficiency, freedom and peace are all foundations of that idea. That is what I work hard to reflect within my blog, these core ideas. Steemit is a platform to help teach those protocols so that people can then duplicate it in their real life. Peace to you.
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Thanks brother @wwf , I also want to know what Independence group will do to have a shared of sources and lands that for example your government own them, like electricity can created in huge amount with new technologies and in big places which is under control of a government, what is your idea about those? letting them enjoy the sources and we just get back to our business? I mean just living our lives? this always came to my mind and I am thinking what is the idea for this part? how people can have the sources and using the places that government owned them and selling them to people (energy or anything) we just should create solar panels everyone on our roofs and that's enough or we need to have the big places to have more power to share with people.
conclusion : do we have to let governments own the big stuffs and we just going in each corner and enjoying our lives with the little that we can have?
another question I had : what is your idea about places for knowledge and technology and space? thinking if everyone leaving the modern cities and getting back to nature and stop working on new technologies and just living in nature.
(my idea is keeping a balance between independence life and technology and searching and improving and creating for future)
peace :)
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Bingo. This is a form of mind control. And it has been used for millennia.
Examples:
Thank you for your quote:
That is so true, and there are so many other wonderful sayings from this wise Chinese sage.
I also like how you included language aspects of 1984 such as 'newspeak' and 'doublethink'. Orwell was dead on, and we see this happening in bulk today - especially in the mainstream media and across social media.
I just finished teaching a course which on Orwell's 1984 novel for my senior 3 high school students here in China in which we focused on many of these aspects of language and mind control. We explore these aspects in great detail comparing them with what is happening today (both in China and in the USA/West).
So thank you for sharing your thoughts on the proper use of words and the importance of staying true and loyal to their original meanings, as words are, and always have been, more powerful than any weapon ever developed.
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If looking for the root of this modern doublespeak, I suggest watching The Century of the Self... https://topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-century-of-the-self/
I call it the Bernays effect...
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