– Marc Gafni’s friends, colleagues, and supporters speak out supporting Marc Gafni in order to restore integrity. This response by Rebecca G. was first posted as a comment to the Center for Integral Wisdom statement on centerforintegralwisdom.org. You can read the statement below or listen to the audio. –
Imbalance is not rectified by equal misalignment in the opposite direction.
Corollary: Justice is rarely dispensed by a blood-thirsty mob.
We all know that people genuinely, even routinely victimized were, & still are, silenced by systems arrayed in support of the status quo.
Yet we also know that history is replete with unfortunate denunciations, untrue & comparably harmful.
Enshrinement of the ostensible “victim”
(which no one I have met who actually is one wants to be)
alongside a presumption of guilt
relative to “the accused”
(which incidentally abrogates that which the framers of our constitution laid in place with considerable deliberateness)
is comparably problematic.
Back to history for a moment – to see if it instructs.
1232-1832 (roughly)
Want your neighbor’s property?
Denounce him to the inquisitors.
They will torture him or her.
No one will stand for them-
for fear of being implicated.
They might subject them to “tests”
-if they live,
it means they are guilty–
& will duly be put to death.
If they die, they are exonerated–
& may rest in peace.
Either way, you can acquire what your own capacities–
honestly employed–
could not bring you–
that which was not due you–
that which was your neighbor’s.
Jealous of the woman down the way-
-her beauty?
-her kindness?
Denounce her as a witch.
She’ll burn & you’ll be praised for your “goodness,” “piety,” “courage.”
You might even feel drunk with your new-found power.
Enjoy.
There’s no stopping you.
Simply bear false witness against anyone who denies you–anything you desire-
-their family, their associates, their pets.
After all, they deserve what they get for consorting with (not Satan, but) someone you wanted out of your way.
Collateral damage.
All the while, you can claim to be a servant of God.
Soon, you’ll believe it yourself.
Victimization through decreeing someone else “a perpetrator” in order to move against them is smart, in that it enlists the aid of those, sometimes very well meaning, who, if they knew the actual facts, would never throw in with the accusers.
And now, with trial by Internet, one need never leave the comfort of one’s living room – to annihilate another human being – to paint a picture of him so villainous, that even those who have never met him or her, will recoil in horror & join the crusade.
No one is beyond reach.
Now more to the matter at hand. As a Jew myself, I wonder the following.
How can it be, that a people, so beset by false accusations, for the entirety of their existence — so cautioned by their own God-given laws, never to slander, nor even humiliate an actual wrong-doer – if alternative, less damaging recourse is available – has leaders willing to orchestrate & others willing to collude w/, the execution of a premeditated campaign whose goal is – make no mistake – the utter destruction of a human being?
How many times have people said about the Jews as a rationalization for unconscionable acts: they have too much influence, they are not like us, they ruin our “purity,” they must be, restricted, exiled, eradicated. It seems eerily similar to the smear campaign being waged against Marc Gafni.
Likewise, it seems stunningly incongruous for those who claim to pursue a spiritual path to employ or be party to, tactics more suited to a dictatorship: propaganda + very thinly (if at all) veiled threats to destroy the livelihood and reputation of anyone not on the side of the “dominant regime?”
Really?
While claiming that Marc Gafni executes “reprisals” (which those of us who know him well find an odd characterization of someone who will not speak ill of others), self-appointed guardians of the purity of the spiritual have literally sought to impugn, silence & threaten those who would speak out on his behalf, or simply speak on behalf of the facts not in evidence. Facts intentionally omitted in this funded, planned & carefully executed attempted professional take-down.
I do not find any campaign that uses such tactics, or whose goal is ostracism or destruction, consonant with spiritual evolution.
So, what does Marc Gafni teach?
That we are all irreducibly unique, an essential expression of the love intelligence of the Universe.
I have never seen him ostracize, reject or shame anyone–not in all the years of my knowing him well–not in any moment.
How does one gain permission to carry out a murder, with public approval? Paint the target as dangerous, a monster, a threat, and anyone who would stand in the way of his or her destruction, a collaborator.
The God I believe in did not sanction McCarthyism either. And he/she doesn’t sanction this.
Those who are being carried along on this wave of hatred, I would hope might ask questions like: why, all of a sudden are claims being recycled from 30 yrs. ago? Why the proliferation of articles? What was the contemporary event that presumably precipitated?
Might there be ulterior motives being played out under the guise of “saving” those not in danger?
This move against Marc Gafni is not a battle being waged on behalf of good, for women’s rights or for spiritual integrity, no matter what it dresses itself up to resemble.
Noble ends are not achieved through corrupt means nor memes.
-Rebecca G.