I'm thinking of the cliché of the alcoholic's daughter who swears again and again she'll make a better life for herself when she grows up and moves out, she'll never marry an alcoholic. Then, completely unsuspecting, she marries one. The match has a fated quality. We intuitively sense that "it would only have happened to her;" for her disavowals, her darkest fears have actually determined her choice of a spouse.

This story may illustrate what the Buddhists call "karma," which I've also heard described as "habit energy."

Beyond individual karma, the Buddhists also recognize "collective karma," in the form of "family karma," or "national karma," for example.

What can you surmise about the darkest, unexamined fears and predilections of a nation that ends up with Bush running it? I've wondered this many times since last November. I wondered again today, when somebody sent me this link.

I can't vouch for the credibility of this site, but I will say similar reports have been confirmed in reputable venues, like Salon.com.

This kinds of stuff gives me a really creepy feeling, like when I was seven, during Watergate, and I picked up a Newsweek with the erased reel-to-reel tapes and the caption, "What Next?"
8:43:54 PM    comment []