Last weekend my family and I saw an incredible staging of Arthur Miller’s play All My Sons at the Apollo theater in London. I’d seen the play before, but Miller’s themes especially resonated with me this time because they offer such a vital message in these uncertain times.
If you haven’t seen it, here are the basics of the plot: Joe Keller owns a company that manufactures airplane parts, which was under contract to the Army Air Force during World War II. The play takes place three years after the war is over. One son has returned home after being in command of a company that was mainly killed. The other, a pilot in the war, is still missing.
The play centers around the fact that, due to the relentless demands of wartime production, Keller’s company supplied the Army with a batch of cracked cylinder heads, which ultimately caused 21 planes to crash and their pilots to perish.
The faulty parts had placed Keller in a terrible dilemma: had Keller’s company withdrawn the cylinder heads, they would have lost the Army contract and he may have lost his business, which he wants to pass onto his sons.
In the court case that followed the discovery of the faulty cylinders, Keller denied involvement, committed perjury in court and allowed his neighbor and employee, Steve Deever, to assume all blame. Deever is convicted and imprisoned, his marriage falls apart and his children refuse to speak to him.
Yours and yours alone
For the sake of his own family, Keller is willing to sacrifice another family and of course the bigger family – ‘all the sons’ of the war who died through his actions. Nevertheless, it is precisely this action – looking after his own – that ultimately destroys Keller’s family, especially himself.
The play’s power comes from the fact that we can all identify with Keller. He is not an inherently bad man. He lives for his family and is simply looking out for them and their future, no matter what it takes. In fact, he believes, his actions are simply reflective of the morals of the society in which he lives.
When justifying his actions, he tells his son Chris, about the dog-eat-dog nature of the society in which they find themselves: “You got a process, the process don't work you're out of business…they close you up, they tear up your contracts, what the hell's it to them?
“Who worked for nothin’ in that war? When they work for nothin’, I’ll work for nothing’. Did they ship a gun or a truck outa Detroit before they got their price? Is that clean? It’s dollars and cents, nickels and dimes, war and peace, it’s nickels and dimes, what’s clean?”
Great web of meaning
When Miller wrote about the play himself, he said that it concerned the damage and evil of ‘unrelatedness’. Joe Keller’s crime is that he believes his responsibility ends with his property line. After living through the Great Depression, Keller will help his family to survive at all costs without regard for the consequences of any of his actions on the wider world.
“The concept behind it was that Joe Keller was both responsible for and a part of a great web of meaning, of being,” wrote Miller about his work. “He had torn that web; he had ripped apart the structure that supports life and society. . . . that web of meaning of existence. And a person who violates it in the way he did has done more than kill a few men. He has killed the possibility of a society having any future, any life. He has destroyed the life-force in that society.”
I thought of the play and its messages when I saw a photograph last week of the many ‘tent’ cities sprouting up in the US and heard the latest statistic that one in seven of all Americans are now homeless.
Unfairness rife
Two British epidemiologists named Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett spent more than thirty years painstakingly examining why certain human societies live longer and healthier than others, the results of which are contained in their remarkable book, Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Always Do Better.
After researching the social conditions of virtually every Western country, Wilkinson and Pickett discovered an astonishing statistic that ran through every country they’d examined: the more unfair any society — which is to say, economically unfair and hierarchical — the worse off everyone is — both rich and poor — in terms of virtually every social problem.
In countries with giant income disparity between the very rich and the very poor, both the most affluent and the very poorest suffer from higher rates of ill health, higher crime rates, mental illness, environmental problems and violence.
Western countries in the main are at their most unequal in history. Our sense of taking and giving has been replaced by taking whatever you can get for you and yours alone. All of us have turned into a Joe Keller.
As the surviving son, Chris Keller, says to his father: “This is the land of the great big dogs, you don’t love a man here, you eat him! That’s the principle; the only one we live by — it just happened to kill a few people this time, that’s all.”
Worse off
The UK, the US and many countries in Europe, with their vast difference between rich and poor, are among the worse off in virtually every social indicator than countries like Japan and Sweden, with less wealth disparity in the population.
Although one of the wealthiest countries in the world with half the world’s billionaires, Spirit Level names America as having far and away the highest level of all social problems — crime, lack of education, mental illness, suicide, disease of all varieties — of twenty countries, and the UK the third worse.
Although one in every thirty-nine Americans is a millionaire, 39.1 million Americans live below the poverty line.
Responsibility to the whole
To begin to recover our western societies, we must understand Miller’s message, which was essentially, that all of us live as part of an organic whole.
As Chris responds, when his mother says, ‘What more can we be?”:
“You can be better! Once and for all you can know there’s a universe of people outside and you’re responsible to it and unless you know that, you threw away your son because that’s why he died.”
We ignore that message at our peril. Whenever we act purely for selfish reasons without regard for our social contract – the promises we keep to each other, to take our fair share, to wait our turn — we ourselves are destroyed, physically but more important, from the inside.
As one of the characters says of the kind of compromises that Keller made: “Every man does have a star. The star of one's honesty. And you spend your life groping for it, but once it's out it never lights again.”
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Yes I really believe that when we end world poverty we will all truly feel nourished and abundant.
I believe we have become even more cut off from society through cocooning ourselves indoors with electronic entertainment. We are afraid to let our children walk to school or play outside our eyesight. People are generally good, yet we can trust nobody because we don't know them. Our media and email circulate mostly scary tales of some tragedy that happened to one person, which makes us more afraid and more confined to our cocoons. My mother grew up in the Depression on a farm to immigrant parents. Almost everyone they knew was just as poor as they were, yet they gave what they could to people who had it worse. I think shared hardship can strengthen community.
Many years ago I began sharing with certain people that I predicted that one of the biggest issues for people in the future would be---discernment. Seems that it is so challenging to be discerning enough to figure out how to think, feel, move forward, let go, hang on, challenge, support, stand still, emanate----every moment of every day. Perhaps the thing I appreciate, yet anyway, is my ability to still be aware enough to make choices re. all those options, and mostly come out feeling like I've made life-enhancing decisions.
How do we discern the power of the individual decisions and the power of the collective emanations? Are we broken beyond all repair? Has time run out and if so, for what, actually? We still seem to be going on from day to day, I still have much joy in my life, a fair amount of stability yet. And I am profoundly grateful. I myself don't feel broken at all and am hoping that means that perhaps not all hope is really lost, because some of us still feel strong, joyful, grateful, without being completely asleep.
Blessings, Lynn, for all the clear-eyed observations and sharings you bring to the world.
This is by far the biggest problem in society today. There are very wealthy people who understand and are doing what they can, but there are a lot of others who think they are 'entitled'. Society ignores this situation at its peril! Two centuries ago in France, the frustration led to the French Revolution, and a bloodbath, followed by intercontinental wars.
The economic system driven by souless corporate policy, which is so unjust, needs to be re-thought. The recent Banking fiasco of 2008 was the writing on the wall. If this grossly unfair system is not changed it will collapse. The base of the building cannot support the weight above it.
If we don't cut down the birth rate we will all starve.
Again Lynn you bring to the surface the underlying truth we all know about but are afraid to speak aloud. Thank you for working hard in elevating the world's energy level.
After reading "Power VS. Force" by Dr David Hawkins I realized the "why" of what is happening in the world ad the reason that we are still allowed to live and not be totally destroyed by the horror we are surrounded by. The reason is because of people like Lynn that are working really hard at raising the level of consciousness, and amazingly it only take one to bring change to many.
Thank you
Bernard
The problem of wealth disparity is compounded by nationalism and the wealth and/or poverty of nations. Saying that both America and Ethiopia are nations will never make them equal. I like to imagine that we will eventually outlive the mythology of the nation state the same as we out grew through the mythology of aristocracy and the divine rights of kings. This was Carl Sagan's vision for earth, that we would one day be one people, one country, and this would be the real start of human history and the end of wealth disparity. Currently, we are living in the dark ages, before the earth was one.
The billions of American dollars being wasted away on countries not understanding democracy and not wanting too, while American’s are suffering from lack of healthcare and a growing number of uneducated people is demoralizing to its citizens.
President Obama needs to get up off his ass and make some hard choices concerning lowering healthcare cost and improving America’s education system. America needs another George Bush in office who can “override” his administrative staff who will not allow a better healthcare plan that serves millions of people who do not have insurance or the money for healthcare and do what is right for the people in America and give them excellent healthcare.
America’s education system lacks discipline and obedience and leadership. Why are kids given such long summer vacations? When they go back to school after summer break it takes a good 6 weeks to get them focused again on their school work. The teachers are stressed… the kids are stressed… the parents are stressed, no one is happy.
It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that the American government really is not all about the “people,” i.e., leaving over hundred thousand people stranded in a city hit by a hurricane for days, without food and water????
The American government belongs to the American’s. It has to do what the American’s tell it to do. Stand up people and let your voice be heard about the lack of leadership in our Government and do what is right for the future of our children!
"Selfishness - self-centeredness! That, we think, is the root of our troubles. Driven by a hundred forms of fear, self-delusion, self-seeking, and self-pity, we step on the toes of our fellows and they retaliate. Sometimes they hurt us, seemingly without provocation, but we invariably find that at some time in the past we have made decisions based on self which later place us in a position to be hurt.
"So our troubles, we think, are basically of own own making. They arise out of ourselves, an extreme example of self-will run riot, though we usually don't think so. Above everything, we must be rid of this selfishness. We must, or it kills us! God makes that possible. And there often seems no way of entirely getting rid of self without His aid. Many of us had moral and philosophical convictions galore, but we could not live up to them even though we would have liked to. Neither could we reduce our self-centeredness much by wishing or trying on our own power. We had to have God's help.
"This is the how and the why of it. First off, we had to QUIT PLAYING GOD. It didn't work. Next, we decided that hereafter in the drama of life, God was going to be our Director. He is the Principal; we are His agents. He is the Father, and we are His children. Most good ideas are simple, and this concept was the keystone of the new and triumphant arch through which we passed to freedom."
There were a few words I left out of this intentionally as I wonder who else in this forum may recognize its content.
Pride is the problem the divides and polarizes.
There are answers, there is a solution:
Honesty, Open-Mindedness, Willingness, Surrender, Confession, Action, Forgiveness, Prayer & Meditation, Humility, Unity, Service.
Peace be with you!
Am is
To Bernard Tritz,
If you look at Dr. Hawkin's Map of the Scale of Consciousness, you will see this at 540....
God-view = One
Life-view = Complete
Level = Joy
Emotion = Serenity
Process = Transfiguration
In "The Eye of the I" Hawkins suggests that Carl Jung calibrated at 540.
http://www.barefootsworld.net/jungletter.html
UK & US societies are addicts/alcoholics of EGO!
Lynne, now I am 'working' with you and for you. Please 'understand' I limit the work we do. My 'schedule' will change in order to connect with you at this time. Best intentions. Be Well.
There is another side to this story.
We have equal opportunity in the US. That does not insure equal success. That just can't be insured! There are way too many folks who do not take advantage of the opportunities presented to them in the US/West and would rather be taken care of than work to feed themselves. I saw this first hand in New Orleans before the hurricane. And Lisa, it was the corrrupt government officials in New Orleans and Louisiana that caused the majority of suffering after Katrina, not the U.S. Government. You are wrong about that!!!
No one ever got a job from a poor person. I am really weary of the wealthy being made out as the bad guys. Of course, there are corrupt among the large corporations. But most of them aren't, and they provide work for the rest of us. I am not wealthy; but I have been grateful for those wealthy folks who have given me employment in my life.
We can not legislate equality. It is our charitable natures that help lift those who have a difficult time. We must not ever attempt to legislate charity--which is what is happening in the US right now in the "distribution of wealth." I believe all the above expressions are well- intentioned. But misguided, if you actually believe that we can ever all be equal in the material things of life. When things are handed to people without earning them, they never appreciate those things and don't take care of them. Case in point: all the public housing all over the U.S. In many places, they have been so destroyed by the folks that live there that they have had to be abandoned or torn down, and new ones built. It begins the endless cycle for folks receiving "aid" for generations. Let our goal be equal oportunity to grow and prosper. I have seen the destruction of people that comes with providing everything, hoping to make things equal.
It is my belief that the horrible things attributed to wealth disparity in the west has more to do with intentional creation of class envy by leaders. The attempt to create a Socialist society and the removal of God from our society.
As the much malined Ayn Rand wrote in ATLAS SHRUGGED a mans highest moral comitment is to the truth . Millers play and many other tragedies are based on the same moral problem IE what do I hold more precious my apparent rightiousness or the facts. Sonner or later the facts win. Science has shown us new facts that indeed we are our brothers keeper..and when we harm him we harm ourselves...that means that to be kind and generous, maybe for humans, the most selfish acts we as indiviuals can perform. And if god the universe or the great pumpkin wanted us not to be individuals with choices to make about how to go about correctly living as a HUMAN we would have evolved/been created with a hive mind...there is a simple way to end your addiction to ego/selfishness but god was not the one that gave it to us , and I don't know who invented it but its called a bullet...but many religious leaders have given us another way to acomplish the same goal , jesus put it simplest when he said " love your neighbor as yourself "
When we all truly feel nourished and abundant, world poverty willl end.
This is about spirit, not about stuff.
About soul, not body.
When the spiritual malady is healed, the mental and physical take care of themselves!
As human beings we have decided to create an experience of separateness and isolation because within it are the seeds of a new paradigm for us all.As a child growing up in post-war London I can remember my Mum giving the dinner she was cooking to a woman who lived up the road who's husband had returned from the war injured and she had several children to feed. We were shocked "what will we have" and she said we don't have a lot but she has less than us! My Mum was not a saint - she always said it as she saw it - being a Londoner that was sometimes a bit of a hair-standing on end event for me!! But she had within her a giving spirit for the ones who needed a helping hand. It's interesting that this woman did not knocked on any ones else's door but ours and we lived in government housing so everyone was economically around the same level locally - we have chosen to move away from this core value that Mum had and as a learning lesson lets hope it has been worth it!!!
The Intention Experiment has been about using our own personal intending to make changes in the world and finding out if this is really possible. The experiment is actually redundant since there is a multitude of evidence that supports this idea. If we are able to change the water in a lake a continent away or change the minds of warring peoples then our intentions have made everything that exists just the way it is.....and each one of us is just the way we intend to be, rich or poor, thin or fat and happy or miserable. The world we perceive is just the way we say it is. Our intentions are exactly what we believe and say, either aloud or to ourselves. There are no victims except through ignorance of the true nature of reality. There is at present in the world an awakening to this truth, a shift from personal weakness and helplessness to an understanding of the power of every human. Actually the word Hu means God. We ARE God. Everything is God. A wise man described Humans as Jackasses with the wings of Angels.
"Our true nationality is mankind" H. G. Wells said. I came across a badge that I wear that says it 🙂
Love the blog, love the discussion, love that the solution is happening in so many hearts and will happen on our Earth.
From birth we are brought up to believe that Dog eat Dog is the only way, that it's natural, in our genes like everything else these days - he he.
Inspired conscious individuals can pierce that sad false view and liberate those they meet through being living examples of a much greater truth.
I am really excited by the prospect of the end of 'dog eat dog corporate' oppression. Each human is born with a unique quota of intelligence and creativity. Freed from the toils of feeding the mindless and fruitless corporate machine, the era of realisation of our true human potential can begin.
Equality of opportunity does not exist in our world today. I live on an estate where people are born into not just economic poverty but multiple poverty. One boy who came to my house when I moved in had never seen a banana - didn't know how to eat it. Lack of money, nutrition, education become self perpetuating.
The mouth pieces of the interests of the dog eat dog corporates, ie sadly the great majority of the press because that's who pays their wages, encourage us to believe the 'poor' are to blame as this suits 'business as usual' and that rich people create wealth and jobs. But it is combined human effort that creates value - there can be no crop, no product, no construction, no 'wealth' without an 'average Joe' worker - and often those that labour hardest are lowest paid.
As has already been said - corporate dog eat dog is not a reflection of our true nature and leaves us feeling something is amiss. Often described as an empty hole inside - we commonly use drugs, alcohol, food, shopping to fill that hole. (Unless we are lucky enough to find a 12 step fellowship or some other philosophical or spiritual programme)
Thom Hartman in 'Last few hours of ancient sunlight' writes of how ancient people culture never allows anyone to go hungry. Like the post above describing war torn London where the child was fed by a neighbour, or Mongolia today, one of the poorest nations on earth, where you will be fed if you turn up at somebodies Yurt at meal time - it is documented that the ancient people's still around today would sooner die than allow another human to go hungry. That we are one is livingly understood.
I am currently feeding 2 cats and sometimes a teenage boy whose parents can't. I am on a very low income but this brings me happiness. Back in my selfish days I would have never conceived of it - I am 'richer' now.
Great discussion. Thanx Lynn and love and light to all.
Hi Lynne, I have to point out a mistake in your blog. You write "I thought of the play and its messages when I saw a photograph last week of the many ‘tent’ cities sprouting up in the US and heard the latest statistic that one in seven of all Americans are now homeless."
I heard the statistics too, and it is 47 million americans - 1 in seven - who live in poverty. They make less than 22.000 dollars per year. They're not homelesss.
Thanks for the interest in making a difference.
Excellent blog Lynne. Kris Knight you rock!!! As a manger and a leader of my staff in my business, I can fully appreciate what Kris is saying. I see these issues playing out in personal and corporate drama every day. Discernment is a significant key for success in all relationships including business, in my position I walk a tightrope every day working with issues of 'best practice' and 'the higher good' and in the world and times we live in it has become an extraordinary feat. Brilliant article Lynne congratulations!
Phyllis, if the American national government is unable to save its citizens from its own state government mistakes, we are in a world of trouble, i.e. Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan!!!
I can sit here and say it is Presidents Obamas fault for not taking a stronger stand in creating a better healthcare plan and education system for American’s by overriding his administrative staff and just doing it. When I know in my heart that allowing any one persons ego to dictate what is right and wrong for me or anyone else- is stupid.
If blame is needing a home, why not blame Lynne McTaggart, Gregg Braden, Louise Hay, Michael Beckwith, Deepak Chopra, Joe Dispenza, Amit Goswami, and all those other new age thought movement celebrities for not doing what they know scientifically works to create a better society for all without anyone’s ego getting in the way.
How many more experiments are needing to take place that prove when you gather large groups of people together to intend a certain positive outcome from a negative situation, works for the whole of society??? I have seen this time and again work without any one person’s ego getting involved.
Humans need leaders to guide them into doing just about anything. And today’s humans think celebrities are Gods. The above group of new age thought movement celebrities are in the same category of celebrities as, Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, Brad Pitt, etc. They walk into a room and your heart skips a beat… you can’t help it. They speak and people listen.
Sure, I can continue meditating and intending for situations to turn around positive, and stay involved with small groups of people doing the same. But, to be able to grab the attention of tens of thousands of people to do the same at one time, it will take the involvement of new age thought movement celebrities to really help make the bigger changes needed in this world.
For some reason these folks can talk about what they know works and do nothing about it with no regrets.
Maybe Oprah has the courage to gather large online groups of meditators who intend for positive changes in our world for her new network show that starts in January 2011. Lets hope so...
okay, hello everyone, I am in such awe with everyone's blogs. I have been visiting different states here in United States of America, and all I'm saying is, I so respect the people I have met while visiting the different cities, from begger's to joe doe going to work, truck drivers, everyone I met ment something about this country to me ,so it is so possible to love , and just be a better person because of it. I guess I 'm saying that people like you , and others help me to see the world through all kinds of eyes. I too love this site. thanks Lynne and all. peace, love .
I loved your words because you do touch the essence of any problem you deal with..I am Italian, I went to the occupied territories of Palestine more than once and was a guest of many families there...they do have great problems in surviving, getting a job for young people, having the money to send children to university..but they are so full of love and solidarity between each other that living among them is heavens. I gave Reiki classes for free and received so much love in exchange that whenever I came back home in my home town I almost felt as if I was a stranger!
Thanks a lot for your work Lynn, you are great and I admire you so much! Lots of love,Gisella
I think that our Western economy has produced a pathological break from the reality of our interconnectivness with our environment. We are part of the ecosystem, therefore our eco-economy should be seen as a subset of the environment. With our economy destroying the natural world gifts around us, perhaps it is time to rethink present capitalism.
Peace, Greg
In rereading this blog and previous ones I see that the main reason for any disagreement and confusion is between writers that come from a position of materialist and those who understand the true immaterial existence of the universe. If you have not yet had an experience of the dreamlike quality of life you probably will. At that time you will be able see the correspondence between that version of reality and the writings of the quantum physicists. A materialist point of view dictates that physical action is necessary to change anything where a person understanding the evanescent nature of material knows that it isn't.
I do not believe we have any disagreements about desired results. We are all aiming for the same place here.
Lynn, you are doing a beautiful service to humanity here and I thank you for all that you do.
How synchronistic it is, that you would write about this subject this week. I had a sudden epiphany earlier this week, out of the blue, so to speak - when it hit me that morals / ethics are influenced by environmental influences. That is to say that we all know that we are ONE, together we are just subsets of the greater whole. We know from a very early age what is right and what is wrong (usually) and for instance, it is wrong to steal from another.... but once one feels he has been used or abused by the 'system' for long enough, they will eventually ignore or even condone when someone says they 'got one over on the government'... that they were successful in stealing in a sense (whether that is in taxes or obtaining the help they need by lying on an application, etc). What we once 'KNEW' was wrong, now becomes okay.
My point is that here, within this community, we can help change that. Here we are of the same mind, that we are ALL part of the ONE and together we can make the world a better place. When one of us shows kindness, compassion, tolerance, patience (and so on) to others around us, we bring them back into the ONE and allow them to feel connected again. As an environmental influence ourselves, we can help bring the majority of minds back to healing the community, caring for each other, finding compassion for those around us, back to the unity that keeps the WHOLE healthy and intact.
Thank you for all that you do. I am here to help in anyway that I can.
When is anyone going to start talking about this aspect of intention?..............
While a group of people is "powering-up" consciously, they are also powering up what's in their subconscious. If you don't have a clean slate in your subconscious, guess what, your positve intention will be diminished, you'll negate yourself, or by using the Power amiss you will manifest conditions and demonstrations that are actually consciously undesired from your subconscious guilt and fear.
That's why Jesus taught not to make alms if you still had a dispute to settle with your brother.
It's also why he taught that if you have the faith of a mustard seed you could move a tree rooted in the ground to the sea with only your thoughts.
We opened Pandora's box by teaching "the Secret" and the Law of Attraction to societies rooted in materialism, and were already on a fairly headstrong course of forgetting God.
Pride is the problem, humility is the answer.
We are NOT God! We were made in His image and likeness....wonderfully!
After reading/watching Miller, try reading Listen Little Man, Wilheim Reich.
Where responsibility lies is easily evident to those who seek.
All I 'need' now, is your permission Lynne? Are you ready?
This is always been one of my favorite plays since I saw it on American Playhouse in the 80s - I have seen versions of it continually and even on the West End - it never ages - its themes are timeless - it's fantastic and telling- and I was so glad to see it highlighted here including its many powerful lines of dialogue that continually resonate through time. Like the ancient Greeks knew - playwrights are our prophets.
What if...every moment, every thing, every thought, every feeling, every emotion, every condition or trend dissolved. What if...in each new moment, only the thoughts feelings forms conditions and so on that we wanted to arise, did so, only to be followed by another dissolution and so on. In the gaps creating the flicker in a film with fewer frames, we may notice the tendency to do an instant replay. We might decide that we should have done a better previous moment or that we were justified since everyone else seems to be what...cheating or lying or lording it over or berating or betraying or whatever. Then it starts up again. and again. Just as on Lynne's blog we are getting a chance to review how we're doing, with our intentions conscious or unconscious and with the evaluation of our effectiveness and how it feels and are we proud or ashamed, content or frantic, kind or cruel , bright and clever or clumsy and confused, we might also sense that all the rest of the human family, moment to moment, is resonating with us and against us telepathically in this utopian debate. Thanks to Dr. Winslow (above) I read into "Listen, Little Man!" in an excerpt at http://www.listenlittleman.com. Then, this evening, in an extension from an email suggestion, I found and watched "Mindfulness with Jon Kabat-Zinn" on youtube. This video was offered to employees at Google and might help in working with the material in Lynne's recent blog entrees. May it go well.
Google "TibetanLounge-The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying." An excellent series of 40 YouTube teachings (with wonderful visuals) offering the brilliant essence of Buddhist Psychology.
What is revealed is the root causes of suffering and the root causes of happiness.
May all beings be freed from suffering. May all beings be freed from fear.
One for all, all for one!