The Way of the One-Eyed Man

[H2O Man]

I just got off the phone with my good friend Rubin Carter. I had helped coordinate a chapter he did a while back for a book, being published soon, by a friend who teaches at SUNY-Binghamton. The book is on the power of forgiveness.

Rubin recently finished yet another book, "The Way of the One-Eyed Man." It is being published in Canada, but will soon be available here in the United States. It is a description of his experiences, both in dealing with the suffering caused by spending 20 years in prison for a crime he did not commit .... and explaining how he really came to be released. And about the decades of work he has done since, for the wrongly accused, to fight the death penalty, to help the poor, and with a variety of other people, including Nelson Mandela to names most people would not recognize.

We talked about the current state of affairs with politics in Canada, in the Middle East, and with the Bush administration. We talked about how things have come to spin so far out of control in such a short time, and the steps that people need to take to bring a sense of sanity back to the world. We talked about Viktor Frankl and Piotr Demianovich Ouspensky, George W. Bush and Condi Rice. We talked about the need for people to "wake up."

"Theirs was a bleak view of human nature. They believed that people think they are 'awake' as moral beings, but in fact they are 'asleep,' oblivious of their own unconsciousness and unaware of the evil acts they commit. It is useless to blam them for their misdeeds because they are not even aware of what they are doing. The problem is not that the world is evil -- if that were so, what value has life? -- but that people do not realize that they are unconscious and that they are only a shell of what they could be. In 'The Fourth Way,' Ouspensky described a man who attaches two horses to an airplane and uses it as a carriage. Then he learns how to use the engine and turns the plane into a motor car. But the plane never takes flight. 'That is what we are doing with ourselves,' Ouspensky explained. 'We use ourselves as a carriage when we could fly.'" - "Hurricane: The Miraculous Journey of Rubin Carter"; James Hirsch; Houghton-Mifflin; 2000; page 172.

[acmejack]

1. Wow, I started devouring your post to see if it was that Rubin Carter!

I was already humming the Hurricane by Dylan (Does that mean I'm old?). Very cool, H2Oman, very cool!

[H2O Man]

2. From my perspective,

humming the Hurricane might make you young. And if you have Bob Dylan Live 1975 (The Rolling Thunder Revue) with the live version, you might be tapping your foot, too! Do you have that version of the song?

[acmejack]

5. No, I don't!

But I'm going to keep humming the song if I've got any chance at all of getting younger, I'm starting to get a little desperate here! Of course the more this gang screws things up, the more pleased I am by the prospect of my impending demise.

[H2O Man]

9. It's a 2 CD collection

of some pretty fine music. Sometimes it's good to turn the tv and computer off, and just listen to some good music.

[Hissyspit]

16. I have all the bootleg series. "George Jackson," his single predating

"Hurricane," musically and thematically similar, is very hard to find on CD. (I think you can only get it on one or two imports.)

I collected all of Dylan that's on CD. It took a couple of years, and some of it is shit, but I have it all.

[H2O Man]

18. George Jackson .....

I think I have a version on one of the old, old bootleg albums that I have in a remote corner of the house. I bought a cheap turn-table a while back, just to be able to hear some of those old albums. One of my sons thinks he can hook it into the computer, and make some CDs for me. Now you have me thinking about old songs like that .... which is good, because we need to take time to enjoy life.

[Hissyspit]

22. It doesn't take much to hook up the LP to CD.

Can get the connector at Radio Shack; need the software, too, but you may have that on your computer already, say, Roxio Creator. However, I've gotten to the point where I just order used CD's on half.com when I want something I originally had on vinyl.

Funny thing about "George Jackson." Because it came out as a single only, it was never on an album. On two occassions I ordered singles of it about ten years ago, and both times, the 45 broke in half. Apparently, in 1972, Columbia was using really cheap vinyl! Made me nuts. Oh, yeah, similar to the way they put both halves of "Hurricane" on either side of the 45, there were two versions of George Jackson on the A and B sides. I finally just downloaded them off Napster.

I remember hearing Rubin interviewed by Terry Groce several years ago on "Fresh Air" around the time "The Hurricane" came out.

[Hissyspit]

23. It was a 1991 interview. I must have heard a rerun.

That's why I couldn't find the transcript on the Fresh Air website. They only go back to 1996.

"As Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter said in his powerful April 12, 1991 interview on 'Fresh Air' with Terry: 'If you have a dark tan, you can’t trust the man.'"

[H2O Man]

24. I have a large stack

of 45rpms, but the cheap turn table I bought does not play them. I do not think I have the song on a 45 .... nor on an album, now that I read your post! I wonder what the heck I'm thinking of ..... being senile is confusing, sometimes. Because it seems like I have it, somewhere ....

[leftchick]

13. do you remember my tale of the ex-repuke "friend"

from last fall? Ironically he is a devout Dylan fan and has travelled the country to attend his concerts for years! Does he wear earplugs?? This boggles my mind!

Thank you for this post. :)

[H2O Man]

15. Oh, yes.

I certainly do remember that! You were rational, and dealing with an irrational person. And that is really along the ideas of a person who is awake, dealing with a person who is asleep, but doesn't realize it. Was it not?

[Octafish]

3. The Hurricane

Thanks for the kind reminder about how things truly are. Hurricane Carter's story is unforgettable. Thank you for adding the most important dimension to my memory -- Carter as a good human being.

Waking up is what it's all about. The Bodhisatvas supposedly return and walk among us to teach and enlighten and awaken us, as many as possible. They don't stop until all -- down to the last blade of grass -- are enlightened.

Imagine what the world would be like if every human being was valued for what they are -- the spirit of God? Nothing would be impossible for such a race. Nothing.

[Me.]

6. Damn Fine Post

lovely thought

[H2O Man]

7. I have some

amazing letters that he wrote from Rahway and Trenton and even the Vroom Building, often from solitary confinement in the years he was in prison. He's an amazing man. I think it would be understandable if he had just gone into "retirement" (so to speak) upon release. He continues to work at a pace that few 20-year olds could keep up with, for the good of the least in our society.

I remember years ago, he visited the Lakota Nation. Usually, things ceremonial are private. But they let Rubin sundance. Matthew King took to him; Matthew carried Red Cloud's pipe, and named Rubin "Badger Star." I always liked that!

[bleever]

21. Octafish, for the dozens and dozens of your posts that I've read

and appreciated, this is the one for which I must step up and thank you.

:toast:

[Just Me]

26. I feel that,...I KNOW it.

I KNOW what each of us holds within,...that choice, that potential.

It's what sustains me in spite of the "marketing" otherwise.

Awakening is a process, too. It's happening. :hug:

It's difficult, though. :cry:

We'll be all right. We will

[Me.]

4. 'We use ourselves as a carriage when we could fly.'

What a fantastic line. But the question is, and has been for the last 5, how do we help people wake up. There is a seeming reluctance to do so. It is in part what raises the blood pressure along with the crime of the BFEE. On another forum someone wrote that since WWII people have asked, how could the German people, accept Hitler and his polices so readily. They then asked, if it was still so much of a mystery now.

[H2O Man]

8. I just had

an 11th grader from another state call to ask me if she could interview me on the similarities between American involvement in Vietnam and Iraq. Good questions, this young lady asked. Valid questions. Young people are waking up!

(I was so pleased, I offered to send her a copy of "Rove's War" by our friend Symbolman! She was really surprised.

Young people can wake this country up.

[Me.]

10. I Believe They Are One Hope

But surely there's more, other possibilities? I worry that by the time they reach their majority, there won't be anything left. I am amazed at how many "scandals" Bushco has skated through. Is there never a straw that breaks the camel's back? Scooter is now causing problems at his trial, and I don't think FitzG. had better count on Judge Walton being fairly judicious.

[H2O Man]

11. It may take

the influence of some of the elders to get the young generation's attention, and help them to focus their energies in a positive way. The younger generation can catch the attention of the parents' generation. Cycles contain everything necessary.

[Sydnie]

20. I hope for that everyday

My concern is my own children as well. My 18 year old son is tuned out. He isn't listening anymore. Perhaps he is overloaded and will be banking what he is hearing to draw from at a later date. My 13 year old daughter is interested but doesn't have enough understanding of history in general yet to apply what she is learning.

I pray everyday for them both to be forces to be reckoned with in the future.

[Beetwasher]

12. Beautiful Post, My Friend

Beautiful.

Ahhh, good Ol' SUNY B. Alumni here. And I spent much time up there working on my own awakening.

[H2O Man]

14. It's a nice school.

Rubin spoke there in 2001, I think. It was around the time the campus had been dealing with some ugly hate crimes. I had had dealings with some of the gang members, who were viciously attacking Asian-American students. I thought it was good that they had Rubin there in that general time period.

[H2O Man]

17. South Africa ....

[Gregorian]

19. Your thoughts are my thoughts.

They know not. However, the suffering feels the same. The trees are gone. The air is full of piston noise. Surely, if that man with the chainsaw knew what I know, he would put down his saw. I did.

Compassion is my passion. When I see someone who cares, I am filled with emotion. I can tell those who care. I can tell that you do. And most, if not everyone here.

Let's care. I care about you.

[Me.]

25. Geez Gregorian

What a quietly calming thing to say.

[H2O Man]

27. Indeed, it is.

It strikes me as one of the things our culture discourages: saying, much less meaning, that type of thing. A quote from the Hirsch book came to mind; it is from a letter Rubin wrote to a friend:

"We covered (ourselves) up with coldness, with intellectualism, with words, with excuses, with games, until we finally began to believe ourselves that we could not feel or love! So now when we want to feel and love, we have to dig ourselves out from under all the shit that we have piled up on ourselves throughout our lives, and in many cases in order to do it -- it takes a great deal of TNT to accomplish the job." (page 174)

[Gregorian]

36. I believe in simplicity.

Maybe I'm just simple. But I think I mean elegant. Like a flower. It is complex. But it's beauty is immediately apparent.

Your quote is quite revealing. I see the clutter in others. And it confuses me. Frustrates me. Who would want a drive to McDonald's when they could just sit and listen to the wind in the trees? Or the water in the creek. The comfort we have traded for quality will never pay off.

I always laugh when I think about the bumper sticker I saw one time. "Don't just do something. Sit there."

Hm. What was the original post about? I love going way off on tangents. Your posts spark ideas, and I can't help but posting them. So much common sense.

[H2O Man]

28. A question:

Are DUers familiar with Ouspensky? I know that a few are, and I'm curious if others are either familiar -- or interested -- in how the outlook, or way of life, that he described impacted Carter's journey. Rubin's case remains the single longest, most tried & appealed case in American legal history, and the "legal" case in and of itself is fascinating. But, as Rubin and I were discussing last night, it wasn't really just the legal documents that got him out of prison.

Here is a quote from Ouspensky's "A New Model of the Universe":

"Humanity is regarded as two concentric circles. All humanity which we know and to which we belong forms the outer circle. All the history of humanity that we know is the history of the outer circle. But within this circle there is another, of which men of the outer circle know nothing, and the existence of which they only sometimes dimly suspect .... The inner ... circle forms, as it were, a life within a life, a mystery, a secret in the life of humanity .... the members of the inner circle are civilised men living in a country of barbarians among savages."

[H2O Man]

29. For that matter,

do people know about Rubin "Hurricane" Carter's case?

[H2O Man]

30. ...and why there is

the reference to "a One-Eyed Man"?

[Me.]

31. Know Of The Case From The Movie

could make a guess on the one-eyed but, but it'd only be a guess.

[H2O Man]

32. Rubin was

denied proper medical care in prison, and worse, was given substandard care. He went blind in one eye, and came very close to losing sight in the other. Prison can be a dangerous experience for a "famous" person, with jackals looking to make a reputation by taking the Hurricane in a fight. The loss of his sight was an ugly part of his experience in prison. I have tapes from when he was not able to see at all. I should note that proper medical care was available, but withheld.

I like the title of the book, because of the obvious symbolism.

[zippy890]

33. what I like about this is: evolving spiritually

without a God. without a 'sacred text' of rules & rituals that defines a person by religion, that thier God is the one & only true way to salvation. That you need to be compassionate because God said so, Jesus said so, the bible said so and you won't got to heaven unless you follow the scriptures of 2000 year old texts.

We can be kind, we are social beings, we have an infinite capacity for love & forgiveness, for choosing a different path, for all of what your posts speak to and more. We don't need a supreme being, we have each other and in each of us is that potential for a miraculous journey.

Thanks for the inspirational words.

[Swamp Rat]

34. peace to Rubin

and everyone else here

[im10ashus]

35. I LOVE the Ouspensky analogy.

I feel the same way. We are on a plane that won't take flight.

WAKE UP AMERICA!!!

K&R!

:kick:

[H2O Man]

37. Meeting Life

A talk on Finding Your Path Without Retreating from Society. (J. Krishnamurti)

Q: You say that if one individual changes he can transform the world. May I submit that in spite of your sincerity, love and truthful statements, and that power which cannot be desribed, the world has gone from bad to worse? Is there a such thing as destiny?

A: What is the world? What is the individual? What have individuals done in the world which has influenced the world? Hitler has influenced the world, Mao Tse-tung has influenced the world, Stalin has influenced the world, Lenin has, all the warmongers. That seems obvious. History is full of wars. History over the past 5000 years records war going on in one part of the world or another year by year. That has affected millions of people. And also good has influenced the world. You have the Buddha one one side; he has also affected the human mind, human brain, throughout the East. So when we talk about individual change and ask if individual change will bring about any transformation in society, I think that is a wrong question to put. Are we really actually concerned about the transformation of society -- society that is corrupt, which is immoral, which is based on competition, ruthlessness? That is the society in which we are living. Are you really, deeply interested in changing that, even as a single human being? If you are, then you have to inquire into what is society. Is society a word, an abstraction, or a reality? Is it reality or is it an abstraction of human relationship? It is human relationship that is society. That human relationship with all its complexities, its conditions, with its hates, can you alter that relationship? You can. You can stop being cruel and all that goes with it. What your relationship is, your environment is. If your relationship is possessive and self-centered, you are creating a thing around you which is equally destructive. So the individual is you, and you are the rest of mankind. I don't know if you realize it.

[H2O Man]

38. "Ja, aus der Welt

werden wir nicht fallen. Wir aind einmal darin." ("Indeed, we shall not fall out of this world. We are in it for once and for all.") -Christian Dietrich Grabbe, 1801-36, quoted by Sigmund Freud in "Civilization and Its Discontent."

"This, he says, consists in a peculiar feeling, which he himself is never without, which he finds confirmed by many others, and which he may suppose is present in millions of people. It is a feeling which he would like to call a sensation of 'eternity', a feeling as of something limitless, unbounded -- as it were, 'oceanic.' This feeling, he adds, is a purely subjective fact, not an article of faith; it brings with it no assurance of personal immortality ....One may, he thinks, rightly call oneself religious on the ground of this oceanic feeling alone, even if one rejects every belief and every illusion.

"The views expressed by the friend whom I so much honor, and who himself once praised the magic of illusion in a poem, caused me no small difficulty. I cannot discover this 'oceanic' feeling in myself. It is not easy to deal scientifically with feelings." -- Freud; "Civilization...", pages 10-11