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Sorry man, but that flag is not the least bit limber minded, in fact it represents everything that is wrong with uptight thinking. Yes, there is freedom of expression, yes you can buy and fly that flag if you wish, but as John Oliver noted, it just “helps the rest of us identify the worst people in the world.” You may fly it and try and claim it is for freedom, but it is not decent or limber minded at all. The Confederate flag is the symbol of racist hate and oppression, that is what it is, uptight thinking in flag form. Here at the Limber Mind, we do not abide by that flag.
Now, up until a couple of weeks ago a person could be forgiven for flying the Stars and Bars. It had taken on some ambiguous meaning about southern pride and heritage. But where are the northern pride flags, they won after all? There are no flags for the North’s crushing defeat of slavery and uptight thinking. Why is it that the South has to divide itself still to this day from the rest of the nation? Because so many there cannot limber up their thinking, maybe?
A limber mind is one that is free of intolerant or divisive ideas. A mind free from racist thinking, from the greed that perpetuates racism and oppression. A limber mind is a mind full of love for fellow humans, not ideas of how some are not worthy of that kind of love. A limber mind has no use for money gotten off the backs of the suffering, there is nothing limber about that.
Now is the time to put away such primitive ideas based in egoism and greed. Time to put away intolerance and racism. It is time that we as a species find common ground, to find empathy for one another. It is time to retire the Confederate flag, even as we forgive those that have flown it in the past. All is forgiven and forgotten, once we can put this symbol of hate and suffering behind us.
We want to be clear here, this is not about hating on anyone who has flown that flag, it is about evolution, it is about making the world a more limber minded place. However, at this point to fly the Confederate flag is to stand against everything a limber mind stands for. A limber mind cannot support something that has caused so much suffering, something that stands for racism fueled by greed and fear. We sincerely hope that all people can come together and evolve past such loathsome and uptight modes of thought. We hope many people can find the wisdom to put away this painful symbol of past uptightness. We hope all can learn to live by each other’s happiness in a world full of limber minds.
In what could be the world’s shortest Jihad, radicalized Dudeist cleric G-Money declares an end to religious Fatwah, seven minutes after announcing a Dudeist Jihad. While leaving the bowling alley, and a bit buzzed on oat-sodas, the Dudeist priest overheard a news report about religious groups being described as radicals engaged in Jihad. Witnesses report hearing G-Money respond with a slurred “far out!” Later that evening back at his bungalow, and sometimes church offices, Reverend G-Money got on Facebook to declare his radicalization and announce a Dudeist Jihad. However it was only a mere seven minutes until he went back to Facebook to declare an end to his holy war.
We caught up with Reverend G-Money at a local In-N-Out Burger to ask him why he launched his Jihad, and why it ended so quickly.
TLM: Why declare a Dudeist Jihad?
Rev. G-Money: The tv behind the bar had the news on, and the guy at the desk said that the Jihadists were radicalized, and I thought wow man, that’s tubular. I said shit, I’m fucking radical too, I’ve even done a 360 Olli an everything. So I thought, hell, why not have a fucking Dudeist Jihad. Other religions seem to be doing it.
TLM: Did you make any plans, how were you going to conduct your Jihad?
Rev. G-Money: Well the first thing I did was to limber up with a J, and google what a Jihad is. I mean the word starts with a J, so I figured maybe that’s where my Jihad should start too.
TLM: So you began a Jihad not knowing what that meant?
Rev. G-Money: Well, yeah man, but I was pretty drunk. Plus I am always looking for new ways to be a Dudeist cleric. I’ve heard, in passing, of other clerics declaring Jihad, so I thought maybe I should too.
TLM: You had no idea what a Jihad was?
Rev. G-Money: I thought it was a big party or something, like the Christians have Christmas, and that can be fun sometimes. So I thought religious folks are supposed to be fun and caring an shit, so it must be some sort of party or charity or something cool like that.
TLM: What happened once you had Googled Jihad?
Rev. G-Money: That’s when it became a serious bummer man. I was sitting there doing my J, making party plans, and the Google told me some horrid shit about Jihads. For a minute things were cool, but I misread the word bombs for bongs, once I realized they were not talking about bongs I started to get really bummed out.
TLM: Is that when you decide to announce an end to your Dudeist Jihad?
Rev. G-Money: Yeah man! That shit is whacked. C’mon, blowing people up because they don’t agree with you is some seriously uptight thinking. Not to mention I’m a fucking pacifist man, that kind of aggression will not stand! I was only looking for a few laughs, not to pee on anybody’s rug.
TLM: How would you describe your experience with Jihad?
Rev. G-Money: Totally fucked up. The more I read, the more uncool it became. In the end the idea of living with so much hate, and trying to pee on everyone else’s rug seemed, well, too exhausting man.
Reverend G-Money’s Jihad may have ended in the gutter, but we hope he throws strikes in his next league game.
There are two Dudeisms, two distinct ways of being Dude and they both share the same space. Both inhabit the same church but they have two different ideas about what Dudeism is all about. The great Schism has already begun, which is a good thing Dudes every major “religion” needs to have a schism to be taken seriously.
The Dude lets you know his philosophy is a private thang.
Over the years I have watched this fracture form, and spread across the community, as Dudeists start to gather into the two relative camps that cohabitate within the Dudeism bungalow. It seems to be an inevitability that we will end up with an internal dichotomy, two major Dudeist sects if you will. The question is, will we go the same route as other religious communities and turn on each other? Or will we be one of the few that can take that internal dichotomy and make something truly useful from it?
I’ll tell you what I’m blathering about. There are two types of Dudeist out there, the Lifestyle Dudeist and the Engaged Dudeist, they hold very different opinions about what the direction of Dudeism should be, and how to go about getting there.
The Lifestyle Dudeist is content to just be, to live as the Dude and abide individually. They resist any sort of structure within Dudeism, they may even see it as a threat to what is most important about being Dude. The Lifestyle Dudeist wants Dudeism to remain intensely individual and sees acquiring buildings and titles as the first steps out onto the slippery slope that leads to (gasp) organized religion.
The Engaged Dudeist is compelled to reach out into the world, to bring Dudeism into the conversations of politics and society, they are willing to tentatively embrace some church structure, they want to see brick and mortar churches with priests that wear titles. Not in a clinging way, but organized with the understanding that it is just labels to help communicate ideas, a sort of shorthand, not in any sense “real”.
Can these two opposing views share space within Dudeism? Yes they can and should, what may seem to be troublesome or even corrosive from a distance, is actually a source of potential strength for both schools of Dudeist thought.
This internal struggle is probably the best development, if not unavoidable, for Dudeism, this dichotomy will be a source of energy and dynamics for our beloved “church”. One should not view this as a terrible state of affairs, but as the give and take of the Yin Yang, the tension that breathes life and seeks abiding balance. It may be that if we all agreed about what Dudeism is then Dudeism might become irrelevant, and I don’t believe either side wants that. We should embrace the two Dudes, love the controversy and feed the dichotomy. The trick will be in how to allow a schism to propagate without letting it cut too deeply into the overall unity of Dudeism.
Essentially all religions have gone through splitting into distinctive sects, one only has to look to see how Christianity has split itself into many disparate forms of the theology. All the Biblical religions have divided, even the divisions have divided themselves to the point that there are tens of thousands of distinctive types of Christians. The Muslim schism is still drawing blood today, and even Judaism is far more fractured than most people realize. Not reserved to the tribes of Abraham, we see how Buddhism has two very distinct schools of thought, and beyond that there are many different “paths” for the Buddhist to follow, Zen, Shambhala and Tibetan just to name a few. Even Taoism has the mystical and the philosophical divide, the two barely resemble each other.
So Dudeism is far from unique when it comes to disagreement within its own ranks, but it may however be unique in its ability to maintain both schools with out turning them against each other. This may be the greatest challenge that Dudeism will face, to hold two seemingly opposing ideals in the same hand and not drop them. To nurture them both as siblings, sprung from the same mother, and live as brothers under the same roof. To do this will take a deep understanding of the two Dudes, how they are the same and how they are different from each other.
The Lifestyle Dudeist only wants his rug man. What I call the Lifestyle Dudeist here is the Dude that wants to just live life in accord with Dudeist wisdom, to find his path to abiding in simply being Dude.
Their idea of Dudeist community is informal forums and the occasional J circle, nothing resembling structured churches. They are cautious if not out right resistant to trying to define what Dudeism is or is not. Preferring to let the rest of the world carry on without using Dudeism to try and influence its direction. What the squares do is no concern of the lifestyle Dudeist, what’s important is his relation to Dudeism, not Dudeism’s relation to the world at large. I almost want to use the term Hermetic Dude, but it may carry a negative connotation that I would prefer to avoid.
This is not to say the lifestyle Dudeist is not concerned with the state of affairs humanity finds itself in, rather that their chosen course of action is to influence by example. Representing a purity of Dudeist thought, in that they look to what changes they can make to themselves to effect greater contentment within their environment.
The Engaged Dudeist wants to expand his Dudeism beyond the personal into the outer spaces, seeks a definition of Dudeism that he can present to the world at large, and welcomes a structure to Dudeism, so long as it is not too rigid.
Both the Hermetic and Engaged Dude see that a true and binding definition of Dudeism is a fools errand, but the Engaged Dudeist is willing to take on a working definition as a means of explaining to non Dudeist what it is we are all about. Also to give some method for examining what may or may not be Dude.
Like the Yin and Yang, the two ends of the Dude spectrum are a potential source of dynamics that can energize both the Engaged Dude and the Lifestyle Dude. Through their debates and disagreements they seek the way of the Dude together, one informing the other’s Dudeism. This inner struggle to find out what it means to be Dude is of utmost importance to all Dudes. If any “religion” can manage a schism with tolerance and a take it easy attitude, it is Dudeism. Celebrate the the diversity of Dudeism, it is our hidden strength.
As pacifists one might ask, how can a Dudeist not let aggression stand? Most of the time a swift “fuck it” is enough, then a string or two of bowling and all is well again. But what about those times when a Dude has to stand up for what’s right and declare “this aggression will not stand”. Where is your pacifism now Dude, when the nihilists are coming, swinging their swords?
Crimea River Man,this is the situation the world finds its self in with the crisis in Crimea, Russia having set fire to the Dude’s car by invading, now demands they get the Crimea Lebowski! By comparing this situation to the classic scene from The Big Lebowski, the final confrontation between the Dude and the nihilists, we see that this is an almost identical situation.
Two of the actors in this real life drama are equatable to the nihilists, played in this instance by Russia and Putin, and Walter played by the international community in the west. These roles are clearly defined, one could suppose that the Donny in this case would be the innocent people of the region, those that would pay the highest price if things get bad and no one can diffuse this situation. But where are the Dude’s? Stuck between two assholes and a too soft place, that’s seems to be where he ends up in the movie, and we in this derned real life drama.
Is it really worth losing Donny and possibly our Johnsons over something we really do not need? Maybe Russia feels like it is their Johnson, in the way of Crimea, that is being bitten off by the NATO marmot? There is a lot of arguments for Crimea having and digging the Russian style. The rest of Ukraine is turning to the west, probably will turn Crimea that direction too given time, so the west can mark it eight, and call it good with that.
Using the movie as a guide, it is deducible that the Dude would just hand over Crimea and say fuck it. There will be other opportunities, other league games to play in, no need to let the Walters have their way on this one, no matter how noisy they are. Just like the nihilists Russia gambled a lot on their scheme, and are unlikely going to go away empty handed. After all they lost a toe in the form of Ukraine, in their minds they’ve invested too much to let this go. Better to let’em have our pocket change than to risk losing anything more our selves.
Former ambassador to Russia Jack Matlock Jr. makes a strong case for letting Russia have Crimea in his recent article for Time. Arguing that not only would we avoid an intractable situation that could lead to war, but that Ukraine and Crimea would be better off in the long run. Crimea is not really part of Ukraine in may ways, and holding on to the province wont do them any favors. Crimea was Russian until half a century ago, it still identifies as Russian, let them be Russian.
There are still plenty of ways to let them know what kind of human paraquats they are for scheming and plotting, sanctions that are tough enough to say “this aggression will not stand!”, but not so tough as to force them to throw a marmot in our tub. When the Dude figured out how the big Lebowski had scammed him, he was not afraid to confront him with that fact, but he was not there to harm him, in fact he still had empathy for the big Lebowski. The Dude teaches us that one can stand against aggression and still aim to do no harm.
Maine, the way life should be.
The old saying “as Maine goes, so goes the nation” may be put to the test over the next couple of years when it comes to legalizing marijuana. The state is primed to be one of the next states to legalize the popular recreational and medicinal drug cannabis. This past November Colorado and Washington states passed voter referendums to legalize cannabis in a manner similar to alcohol. Maine is in the running to be among the first states to pass a similar law through House legislation.
Representative Diane Russel announced that she would be submitting a bill to the Maine House of Representatives this session to legalize marijuana for adult recreational use. She is still working on the final language for her bill, however she is currently collecting signatures for a petition to back her upcoming proposed legislation. Russel even brought her case to reddit, discussing legalization with the cool kids at /r/trees.
Historically a “pot friendly” state, Maine READ MORE HERE DUDE
