What is the Right Attitude?

I try to remain in the present. I realize the past is gone and the future is not promised. Only now is real. But still the past echoes into my consciousness and colors my feelings and perceptions of this very moment. This morning I am looking back at a lifetime of politicians and policies which have impacted me and everyone, whether we are aware of it or not.
I was a kid when John F. Kennedy was President. I admired him. I was devastated when he was assassinated. And again when Robert Kennedy was murdered in that hotel kitchen. And again by the life and death of Martin Luther King Jr., who was not a politician but a man with tremendous political impact. He seemed to have seen into the future when he said, "I may not get there with you..." speaking of the promised land, and was shot down a few days later.
I suffered through th Viet Nam war years, and protested in our capital in front of the Washington Monument. Fortunately I was not drafted.
I instinctively liked Carter and he has turned out to be maybe the greatest ex-President.  I didn't get Reagan. I've come to understand how he completely changed the course of this country by setting us against our own government. Ever since then the middle class has been shrinking and the wealthiest have grown richer and more powerful. Notice I didn't say the wealthier amongst us. They are not amongst us. And they are not for "us."
Clinton was a breath of fresh air and had great promise which he fell short of, thanks in part to his own foibles and because of a conservative cabal to move the country further and further right, fueled by unlimited amounts of money and influence, media and rightwing religion.
The Bush years found us embroiled in an invasion and occupation of Iraq and the collapse of our economy.
Now we have Obama and the hate machine is out in full force, impeding virtually everything this President tries to do and propping up the etch-a-sketch candidate Romney.
Obama, accused by the right as being the most socialist of Presidents, is to me right of center. I'm on the horns or a dilemma. I will vote for Obama because he is a far better choice than the other. But he is also far short of moving forward the kinds of change we need to reinvigorate a prosperous and free country.

Consider this quote:

“Is it hard?'
Not if you have the right attitudes. Its having the right attitudes that’s hard.” 
― Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values

Having the right attitude is  hard. I'm not sure what the right attitude is. 

I am opposed to nuclear weapons, and any other weapons of mass destruction. Unfortunately that cat is out of the bag. But many of the nations which have nuclear weapon capability have tried to prevent other countries from obtaining them. Currently that includes Iran.

What is the basis for denying Iran the right to develop and possess nuclear weapons?

“The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands, and then work outward from there.” 
― Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values

What if the US and other countries with nuclear weapons decided to unilaterally disarm? 

What Is All Zenful?

I just finished listening to the book, "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" by Robert Pirsig, a book I've read in the past and which has had a lasting impact on me. The purpose of this blog is to reflect on a quotation from the book as it may apply to current circumstances today.

For those of you who are not familiar with the book, here is a brief review:

Zen and the Art…

The book came out in the early 70s. It was rejected by over a hundred publishers. The editor who selected it for publication predicted it would not sell, but was worth publishing anyway. Surprise, at least five million copies have sold to date. It was popular with the young people I was going to college with. It presents a number of ideas. The simplest is the narrative about motorcycle maintenance as a metaphor for dealing with modern life. There are two kinds of people in the world. Those who either put off maintenance or have so called professional mechanics do it, and those who learn how to do it themselves. The first kind of person uses and relies on technology, but feels separated from it, and more or less at its mercy. The second kind of person makes themselves equal to technology and in cohesion with it.

On another level, there is a whole philosophy discussion happening, based on the question, “What is quality?” I have read or listened to this book a number of times and I still don’t get  it all. The terms are over my head, but it still raises my consciousness. For example, why do I think leather has superior qualities versus plastic? I feel it, but I can't say for sure why.

The author and his young son are taking a trip though out the west (Montana, Idaho, Oregon) so it is a bit of a travelogue. The author had suffered a mental breakdown and was involuntarily subjected to shock therapy. His kid appears to be on the brink of mental illness. There is some resolution at the end. But tragically, as we learn in the afterword, the son was murdered in a random mugging at the age of 23. The author, since re-married, learns his new wife is pregnant. Being in his fifties, he and his wife decided he was too old to go through parenting again. But he became convinced that his son would be embodied in the new child so they had the baby, a girl.

The first quotation:

“When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called a Religion.”
― Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values

As you read this post, human beings in different parts of the world are killing each other with the excuse that they are defending their god or religion from insults hurled by believers in some other religion. I heard it described as people fighting on behalf of their invisible wizard in the sky against another person's invisible sky wizard.

Fundamentalist's of all types are, in my opinion, suppressing progress worldwide. I am sick and tired of how religion continues to impact politics here in the US and everywhere. It is truly insanity!