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The Strange Love that arises when, together, we say NO to the lies that separate us

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In Highway 61 Revisited, Dylan revisits the absurd faith Abraham's God demands of him:

" Oh God said to Abraham, "Kill me a son"
Abe says, "Man, you must be puttin' me on"
God say, "No." Abe say, "What ?"
God say, "You can do what you want Abe, but
The next time you see me comin' you better run"
Well Abe says, "Where do you want this killin' done ?"
God says. "Out on Highway 61".

]

In logic 101, we learn the fallacy of reductio ad absurdum. The lesson is simple: any idea, whether faith, reason, or loyalty, taken to the extreme, becomes absurd.

Blind faith, created by the Big Lie, is such an absurdity. Extremism, which demands a certainty that comes only from blind faith, is used today to justify the most brutal and irrational violence. It leads to

the most absurd conclusions: that killing innocent people will produce justice; that wars will create peace, that believing the lies of terrorists justifies attacking those who are fighting to destroy them. War itself is the u ltimate absurdity, granted a kind of justice by having "laws of war" and banning certain methods of murder (chemical) while accepting the brutality of "conventional weapons" as legal. It is legal to rip a woman's body apart with an explosive bomb but it is prohibited from killing her with chemicals. Thus the absurd asserts a kind of morality in the process of murder.

Camus, the philosopher of revolt, called the surrender to the Absurd "philosophical suicide." Camus states in The Myth of Sisyphus: "Thus I draw from the absurd three consequences, which are my revolt, my freedom, and my passion. By the mere activity of consciousness I transform into a rule of life what was an invitation to death, and I refuse suicide." To deny the power of the absurd (while recognizing its reality) is to affirm life, to affirm the love that stirs revolt and give birth to it as a bond among those united in defying the absurd beliefs we are told to accept. This is solidarity, the rebellion that begins deep in our souls but reaches out to bring us together in a force that can defeat even the most violent forces. As Dr. King often said: Love is the only force powerful enough to defeat hatred. And resistance to evil is the only method powerful enough to bring forth what Camus called "a strange love." He summarizes his insight thus: When I revolt, WE are.

In revolt, we say no, and this refusal to accept the consequence of the absurd, now understood as Big Lies, propaganda, defense of the indefensibleand the violence that they rationalize, brings us together and creates, as Camus wrote in the Rebel, an unfamiliar kind of love. It is the feeling of solidarity based on standing together, often with strangers, in common defiance of the absurd lies and actions of unjust rulers.

In the mass rallies throughout the country just after Trump was sworn in, we all said No together, and in my little town of Santa Cruz, California, I felt that "strange love," strange only become it is so uncommon: it is the love we feel for strangers, for those who dare to rise up and say NO, for all who defy the lies and, tho absurdly, move forward to create a world that is just and peaceful. It is the love that makes of strangers comrades, brothers and sisters. It is a joyful love, born of outrage, that brings us to tears.

The only other time I felt that "strange love" that comes with revolt was when I marched with black Baptists and radical students in Selma, Alabama to show defiance against the the power of the Police, the racist rednecks with their rifles on the rack in their pickups, and the entire culture of racism. Among these total strangers, who took us into their homes, I felt this strange love that perhaps, long ago, was the common feeling of communities that were just and peaceful.

Why do we revolt? For justice, and for love. It may be the the love we have for others, strangers, our comrades, can only today be felt when we defy the Order of Oppression, the Law and Order which stifles our freedom and defends injustice. The NO we say to hatred transforms into the love we feel for our brothers and sisters, from sea to shining sea. That is what I have learned, and that is what I have felt.

"You may say that I am a dreamer, but I'm not the only one."

From flickr.com: Mein Kampf, by Hitler (3t)
Copyrighted Image? DMCA

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Dale Ruff Social Media Pages: Facebook page url on login Profile not filled in       Twitter page url on login Profile not filled in       Linkedin page url on login Profile not filled in       Instagram page url on login Profile not filled in

retired, working radical egalitarian/libertarian socialist old school independent, vegan, survivor

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