How I Overcame My Addiction to Politics
I used to be a political junkie. I love to analyze and there is nothing so given to analysis like politics. Election years were the most absorbing to me and I spent my time flipping between 24 hour news programs and the C-Span channels to get my fix.
When I got back into A Course in Miracles after a few years away from it I lost much interest in politics. But when the U.S. went to war against Afghanistan – and then Iraq – I felt I “should” pay attention. It was simply that my ego had found a hook to draw me back. I spent a couple of years completely absorbed with politics again. It filled my mind and I was often in a tizzy over something in the news. I drove my life-partner crazy. I was not happy; I was addicted.
Finally I asked myself why I was watching this stuff. What was it for? Why was I making it real to me? It only fed my ego. I’ve heard that some say you have to watch this stuff to forgive it, but that doesn’t make any sense. When you forgive illusion you let it go. So I stopped cold turkey.
You think that what upsets you is a frightening world, or a sad world, or a violent world, or an insane world. All these attributes are given it by you. The world is meaningless in itself. (W-12.1)
Politics is about blaming an external person, group or situation for your pain. The idea that we are affected by external things is directly opposed to the way the mind really works. Real change comes from within. The projector, not the projection, is what needs to change. This idea is what I was really fighting against. When I fully accepted it I overcame my addiction. It suddenly seemed so ridiculous! The values and ideas I clung to during my addiction had nothing to do with Truth. What I was watching on the news was nothing. Only God is real.
To know reality must involve the willingness to judge unreality for what it is. To overlook nothingness is merely to judge it correctly, and because of your ability to evaluate it truly, to let it go. (T-19.IV.2)
Because I went cold turkey some who know me are baffled. I used to be so passionate they forget I don’t pay attention anymore and talk to me about people and issues I know nothing about. I have to remind them again and again. They ask what happened and I tell them I lost interest. I don’t watch the news or read the newspaper or magazines. Because 24 hour news is ubiquitous in many public places now I catch things now and again, but only the barest thread of a story. Sometimes I am tempted back – a presidential election is coming up! But there is nothing as exhausting as trying to make nothingness meaningful.
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Receive this bi-weekly blog directly in your email by contacting Liz@acimmentor.com.
Now available at www.acimmentor.com: Understanding A Course in Miracles: A Quick Reference for Students.
When I got back into A Course in Miracles after a few years away from it I lost much interest in politics. But when the U.S. went to war against Afghanistan – and then Iraq – I felt I “should” pay attention. It was simply that my ego had found a hook to draw me back. I spent a couple of years completely absorbed with politics again. It filled my mind and I was often in a tizzy over something in the news. I drove my life-partner crazy. I was not happy; I was addicted.
Finally I asked myself why I was watching this stuff. What was it for? Why was I making it real to me? It only fed my ego. I’ve heard that some say you have to watch this stuff to forgive it, but that doesn’t make any sense. When you forgive illusion you let it go. So I stopped cold turkey.
You think that what upsets you is a frightening world, or a sad world, or a violent world, or an insane world. All these attributes are given it by you. The world is meaningless in itself. (W-12.1)
Politics is about blaming an external person, group or situation for your pain. The idea that we are affected by external things is directly opposed to the way the mind really works. Real change comes from within. The projector, not the projection, is what needs to change. This idea is what I was really fighting against. When I fully accepted it I overcame my addiction. It suddenly seemed so ridiculous! The values and ideas I clung to during my addiction had nothing to do with Truth. What I was watching on the news was nothing. Only God is real.
To know reality must involve the willingness to judge unreality for what it is. To overlook nothingness is merely to judge it correctly, and because of your ability to evaluate it truly, to let it go. (T-19.IV.2)
Because I went cold turkey some who know me are baffled. I used to be so passionate they forget I don’t pay attention anymore and talk to me about people and issues I know nothing about. I have to remind them again and again. They ask what happened and I tell them I lost interest. I don’t watch the news or read the newspaper or magazines. Because 24 hour news is ubiquitous in many public places now I catch things now and again, but only the barest thread of a story. Sometimes I am tempted back – a presidential election is coming up! But there is nothing as exhausting as trying to make nothingness meaningful.
>>>>
Receive this bi-weekly blog directly in your email by contacting Liz@acimmentor.com.
Now available at www.acimmentor.com: Understanding A Course in Miracles: A Quick Reference for Students.
Comments
also, i'd appreciate it if you dropped by my new ACIM blog occasionally and gave me some feedback http://acourseinminefields.blogspot.com/ i swear i chose the template before i saw your blog :)
So I have to ask your opinion on this. Am I feeding the ego by desiring peace within the illusion? How do we as Course students make a difference in the illusion? I realize my purpose is to remember who I really am, One with God. But how does this purpose fit into the "Big Illusion"?