24-02-2010, 11:07 AM
I can sympathize with you Ed on the IRS audit. I had the same situation with our tax authorities. It is not pleasant.
For my sins I spent a period of almost 20 years with no credit rating, no credit, no assets, no cards and no bank (but I did have a post office account) -- all pleasures which accrued after having my house repossessed. During that period I learned several important lessons, the first of which was that anything not absolutely essential to living, food, heating etc., is an unaffordable extravagance. The second lesson learned was that the system was designed to cause fear of loss and that this fear is used freely and liberally by collection agencies etc. Fear is a terribly dehumanizing strategy.
But having nothing, I found considerable strength in sending these agencies packing with laughter. I discovered how to fight the system -- because that's how I stayed sane in an insane world. I learned self respect because out of great difficulty a great spurt of growth takes root. And so losing can be also winning.
But it remains the case that the system as it now is, is foul and corrupt and has been designed to subjugate the human spirit. The system does not need to be the way it is. It could be so different. But it suits a very small group of elites who grow wealthy and powerful off the sweat of the backs of the rest of society. They feed on us.
One can only hope that an ever greater number of people will gradually wake up, and having awoken, face the fear and take back their own lives. But they will have to do it themselves.
For my sins I spent a period of almost 20 years with no credit rating, no credit, no assets, no cards and no bank (but I did have a post office account) -- all pleasures which accrued after having my house repossessed. During that period I learned several important lessons, the first of which was that anything not absolutely essential to living, food, heating etc., is an unaffordable extravagance. The second lesson learned was that the system was designed to cause fear of loss and that this fear is used freely and liberally by collection agencies etc. Fear is a terribly dehumanizing strategy.
But having nothing, I found considerable strength in sending these agencies packing with laughter. I discovered how to fight the system -- because that's how I stayed sane in an insane world. I learned self respect because out of great difficulty a great spurt of growth takes root. And so losing can be also winning.
But it remains the case that the system as it now is, is foul and corrupt and has been designed to subjugate the human spirit. The system does not need to be the way it is. It could be so different. But it suits a very small group of elites who grow wealthy and powerful off the sweat of the backs of the rest of society. They feed on us.
One can only hope that an ever greater number of people will gradually wake up, and having awoken, face the fear and take back their own lives. But they will have to do it themselves.
The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge.
Carl Jung - Aion (1951). CW 9, Part II: P.14