The World Is A Ghetto
The utter failure of our current systems, whether energy and food production, finance, healthcare, or the war machine, creates a stench that permeates our lives in every corner. Our quality of life is threatened at every turn, whether it’s trying to keep oneself employed, keep a home that’s lost substantial value, keep healthcare while being ripped off, or seeing the death, destruction and waste from U.S. incursions in Iraq, Afganistan and wherever else "our leaders" choose to attack. Our planet is ruled by money, and its concentration among a handful of elites has left the rest of us impoverished.
This is not a new phenomenon. Historically there has always been a large class of paupers. The ‘great experiment’ of the United States did create a middle class, unprecedented in its size and scope from previous cultures. As Howard Zinn described, this middle class became ‘the guards’, protecting the wealthy elites from the rebellions of the impoverished and working poor. What’s changed recently is that this very middle class is now threatened by the rampant greed of the elite class.
The decisions of those with and in power have neglected the communities and environments they exist within for too long. The brutal disregard for the common good is evidenced by just about every global corporation, especially if they’re directly involved with energy, food, money, healthcare, media or war.
The dramatic case-in-point right now is oil gushing out of a 21" hole in the ocean floor 50 miles from New Orleans. The absolute greed of BP was such that it blinded them from using procedures that could have easily prevented this disaster and protected the company’s fortunes, now at risk as their stock value plummets. But the damage is [being] done, and we’ll be dealing with it for a generation, at the least. And our Earth is now the poorer for all the richness of the gulf ecosystem that is lost.
But is this unmitigated disaster unique? Can we look at our world and say, like Kentucky Senatorial Candidate Rand Paul, "accidents happen" as though that’s the end of the story? Pick a problem area – global warming, violence and terrorism, crime, starvation, frankenfoods, community decline, etc. Pick a continent – deforestation, pollution, habitat loss, species extinction, soil depletion, unbridled corporate growth, etc. Pick a people – Asians, Indonisians, Europeans, Africans, Native, African and Euro Americans, etc – we’re all under duress.
Our world has been dominated by Industrial Capitalism for over two hundred years. As Industrialism has morphed into globalism, it’s flaws and failures have become similarly scaled. Government, the supposed bastion of defense against the worst excesses of corporations, is instead a bribed and willing accomplice to such bloated industry. Do not Haliburton, General Dynamics and the company formerly known as Blackwater whisper policy requests to the U.S. Government? Do they not demand more drones, more guns, more killing to keep themselves in luxury? Is there any other reason we go to war when police action would be far more effective in fighting the current straw man, ‘terrorists’? Blatant greed with utter disregard for citizens and ecologies is their operating system There is no other explanation for the state of our world today.
These are long-standing institutions and their attitudes, policies and behaviors will not be willingly changed. Notwithstanding, the elitists, their culture and their methodology are quickly becoming dinosaurs, not yet aware of the sea change going on in our culture.
The Walmarts, the ExxonMobils, the General Electrics, the Haliburtons – they and their ilk must change or die. BP has created the tipping point with the horrific decision-making that led to the gulf gusher, and the equally horrific decisions in responding to this gusher. This situation will not blow over like so many ‘accidents’ in the past. This is too big, too many lives are effected, and the damage to the gulf ecosystem is too enormous. Unless BP does a quick 180degree turn away from their attitude and approach so far, they will bankrupt.
The good news is we are not helpless. Our purchasing decisions impact the situation. We can boycott BP and other offending corporations. We can support emerging industries like organic foods, green buildings, public transit and renewable energies, aiding the transformation. And most importantly, we can migrate our energies toward local energy and food production. To the extent that we strengthen our local communities and meet our needs on the local level, we undermine the model of corporate greed and control that we’ve been witnessing for the last 30 years.
World 5.0. It’s a new way to talk about our common problems. A new way to think about challenges and how to face them. You can be liberal or conservative and still love integrity. You can be Muslim or Jew and still love justice. You can be businessman or environmentalist and still love balance. You can be anyone and still love Love. We have to find our common ground, our areas of common interest, and remove the corporate and governmental obstacles to pursuing those interests. If not now when, if not us who then?
A Culture of Bullshit
The inimitable George Carlin, in one of his last stand-up routines, had the theme, "It’s bullshit, and it’s bad for you." So true in our world today. The bullshit and the bad. The source of both is the money. You can always follow the money. And where does the money lead? To those that have far and away the most: global corporations and their well-heeled controllers, uber-rich families, the elites of the world who have known nothing else, the Goldmans, the Rothschilds, the Saudi Royal Family, and any number of collaborators and government "servants" who share their misplaced priorities.
At every turn in our lives, as American and global citizens, we see the pattern of bullshit being shoved down our collective throats repeat itself endlessly. Recent events like the oil catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico, the feeble attempt at healthcare reform, and the 2008 Financial Collapse are just the most striking current examples in this parade of bullshit.
It’s an old parade. Our founding fathers used the fear of slaves rising up against their owners in their push for a new republic. They similarly demonized the Red Man to justify their atrocities and aggression against these indigenous Americans. They wanted only property owners to vote, giving the vote to "all white males" only because they needed to increase the tepid support for the revolution. And these were the good guys.
It’s not been much better in other places or at other times. It’s the most repeated story in human history – the powerful abusing those with less power, taking more than their share, destroying the planet for their whim, and squeezing we, the people in every form of shake-down to maintain this corrupt and unjust system. And then some sort of justification based on bullshit. What’s changed today is scope.
Just as there has always been the unscrupulous, there have been those who call them out. The Thomas Paine types, most recently emulated by the marvelous Howard Zinn, who points out in his "A People’s History of the United States" just how our government has consistently sided with the powerful, and the elite. And this while giving the citizenry bullshit in the form of "PR" or public relations, another name for the propaganda machine developed in the 1930s and 1040s. Indeed, the term public relations was invented just for U.S. government elitist purposes.
And curiously, just as honest voices have been shut out from corporate media [television and right-wing radio], the Internet has provided a new outlet for viewpoints that deviate from the corporate mantra of American Exceptionalism. You can google or wiki American Exceptionalism for a more detailed understanding of the term, but to be succinct: It’s bullshit and it’s bad for you.
One part of this notion is that America, due to [presumably] some unfailing dedication to human health and ecological soundness, gets to set the military and economic agenda for the whole world. Especially since WWII, our government has become the main vehicle for the elitist agenda, and there is no interest in noble, life-sustaining goals, except as PR. So we invade, we build and maintain bases, we tout Shock Doctrine Economics, and we continue to destroy our planet. We, as a country, exhibit every characteristic of Empire, and yet the vast majority of American citizens find that idea completely off base. That’s the effectiveness of bullshit in our culture.
Most American people are upside down with the truth. Our country is a democracy in name only, with our political system so infected with corporate dollars there’s no hope for the citizen agenda. We have a two party plutocracy, one nearly as infected by elitism as the other. As our friends at Cyrano’s Journal Online maintain, "If voting could really change things, it would be illegal." That’s why we believe we citizens need to force the issue – rise up and demand a rewrite to the U.S. Constitution based on what we know today. Corporations are not people. CEOs are not overlords. Communities have rights too.
Which brings us to the other part of American Exceptionalism, this notion of individual rights superceding community rights. Much of the Tea Party mentality supports this notion, including the suddenly infamous Rand Paul. But it would seem that this is due to the success of the propaganda machine as opposed to a real threat to individual liberties, such as those that occur with telephone wiretaps and database tracking of individuals. The propaganda machine has been so effective we rail against the constraints of community while barely noticing the end of Habeas Corpus in the United States.
Sadly, Tea Party concerns are often bogus, mimicking the talking points of right-wing radio. Sadly, many seem to lack the ability to discern truth, taking the less-accurate route of chanting slogans. Sadly, most Tea Party proponents do not understand how they undermine their own best interests with their mantras. "Keep your governments hands off my Medicare" is one of striking irony.
Just as an individual cannot yell "fire" in a crowded theater because of obvious community issues, a corporation should not be allowed to treat workers or the environment badly for a few more dollars in profit. The stories of ruined lives and ruined ecologies are endless, consistent and one with the pattern of elitist control mentioned at the beginning of this article. U.S. dependence on oil, mountaintop removal mining, mining waste, deforestation and desertification, child labor and sex slaves, Palistine, global warming, and endlessly on…
Bill Maher recently commented that Al Queda is not nearly as effective at destroying America as Wall Street and BP. What? Could the whole threat of terrorism be bullshit too? OMG!!!
It’s bullshit and it’s bad for you. You want to start reducing the level of bullshit in your life? Find clarity in nature, find discernment in your forgiving, quieted mind, turn off the propaganda machine in your living room, and start with some positive behavior, like boycotting BP corporation and joining the World5 movement. After all, we move from Here.
Oil and The Gulf
Well, geez, what a surprise. We’re getting another serious lesson in sustainability. Oil doesn’t qualify.
Our first big lesson came in the early 1070s, when the U.S. and other Israel supporting countries felt the effects of an oil embargo initiated by oil producing countries in the Middle East. Then in 1979 we suffered another shortage due to the Iranian Revolution which removed the Shah and allowed the Ayatollah Khomeini to rise to power. We throw in the War(s) on Iraq, and the many other conflicts in that part of the world and we reach a simple conclusion. The conclusion is that, from a geopolitical perspective, oil is unsustainable.
From the perspective of consumption, we find another marker. Climate change. Anyone who doesn’t think the science is ‘in’ on this does so at their, and our, peril. There is no question the seas are rising, and that means we’re getting warmer. We may argue the cause, but we cannot argue the likelihood that all the carbon we’ve been throwing into the air these last 300 or 400 years [first coal, then oil] is going to have negative effects. So again we find oil is unsustainable.
Which brings us the BP oil rig explosion and the ensuing mess we’re facing in the Gulf of Mexico. Already experts are suggesting this could be far worse than the Exxon Valdez tanker accident off the coast of Alaska. Some suggest we not use the word ‘spill’, as that implies a finite amount of something being spilled. Continually spewing 25,000 gallons of oil a day, maybe 10 times that? We probably need a new word. We may see contaminated beaches, ruined livelihoods, and ecological disaster from Texas to Florida. Oh yes, and let’s not forget the chemical soup of dispersants being dumped deeply and on the surface to break up this mess. What we are sure of is that no one has any idea of the potential far-reaching effects of thousands of tons of chemicals. Not good.
But when I titled this entry, I was also thinking of another gulf. And this, the gulf between our energy interests and energy policy. With the production crises of the 1970s, there was a lot of talk about conservation and other policies to remove our dependence on foreign oil. How effective was that? Well, we went from 28% in 1979 to 66% in 2007.
And again the uproar 20 years ago with the Alaskan Oil Spill. And again no positive results. And only a few weeks ago President Obama suggested more ‘drill, baby, drill’ options on the East Coast. Yuck.
Chris Matthews made a salient point on Bill Maher’s HBO show last recently. The same time this spill kicks in down south, a massive wind farm off Cape Cod is approved. He described it as ‘a teachable moment’, and I couldn’t agree more.
But if we look at this 40 year history of oil troubles, we see the same pattern emerge as we see emerge in so many other areas of our lives. Elitist interests trumping the common good. Our policies haven’t improved, because our government is controlled by money, in this case energy corporations money.
It’s the same reason we give the billions in subsidies to energy interests while we drip some handful of millions at alternative energy sources. As always, we see more clearly how our world works when we follow the money.
An irony here is that I don’t see our elected officials even seeing the connection between their past policies and sucking up to energy interests. Oh, the word about Cheney, Bush and energy policy is starting to get out, but our whole congress is complicit. And we’re still giving ecological impact exemptions for new drill sites? Another reason to throw the bums out.
In our new World5 world, we appreciate our two most great and constant needs [assuming access to clean air and water] as food and energy. We further appreciate that the more we localize these two needs, the more we gain stability, control and sustainability. Of course it will be some while before we are weaned from oil as an energy source, but that time comes much sooner with an honest and concerted effort, as opposed to the green washing and bullshit we get from massive energy corporations.
In world5, none of this mess happens. Companies don’t think twice about fail-safe valve systems because they care. Absentee ownership doesn’t give one permission to pollute. Indeed, in world5, the word ownership comes to mean stewardship. We are, after all, all in this together.
On Taxes
There is much talk about taxes in the U.S. these days, with the Tea Party Movement as the most vocal group outlining their disagreement with how our government raises and uses taxes. These folks are generally anti-tax, suggesting that the less we are taxed, the better. It’s a Libertarian stance.
Others, often with some sort of social justice leanings, will decry some ways in which our taxes are used, normally for wars like Iraq and Afganistan, and others more against the whole militaristic bend of the U.S. government.
Still a third group, including many independent voters, takes an approach of inevitability toward being taxed, and pretty much allows that taxes are the way of life in the United States, and they take ‘the bad’ with ‘the good’ that this country provides.
For me, I can identify with aspects of all three groups, but there’s a very familiar business term that needs to be attached to taxes. ROI. ROI is Return on Investment, and every business of any size is quite familiar with the concept. From this perspective, it’s not so much whether we pay a larger or smaller percentage of our income in taxes, but what we get in return for these payments.
With taxes, ROI is based on the ‘investments’ of the government [it’s priorities in spending], and on the efficiency of their efforts. Which leads us to another consideration: at what level is government going to be most efficient in dealing with a given situation? Which leads to the classic states rights vs. federal rights in determining who should be the primary controller of a given topic area.
Since the federal government gets most of our tax money, and has the most control over how it’s spent, let’s consider policy, or what they spend our money on.
You’ll often see pie charts of the US. federal budget that suggest over half our annual budget is spend on social programs like Social Security and Medicare. But we know numbers can be fudged. The venerable War Resistor’s League suggests the pie chart seen is as far more accurate.
According to their numbers, military spending for 2009 was 54% of the budget. Let’s be conservative and call it half. Half our spending goes toward military build up, wars, incursions and sustaining bases in over 200 countries. And the ROI? If you’re a huge military contractor or energy company that stands to gain billions, it’s pretty lucrative. If you’re an average citizen, you’re being abused by such practices and priorities. If you’re an average citizen in some country being impacted by U.S. hegemony, that abuse can be death.
And the ready response is some sort of ‘anything for our safety’ bullshit. The truth is, whether ‘threatened’ by the England, Mexico, Spain, Germany, Japan, the Cold War, Granada, Venezuela or Terrorists, our government always finds some excuse to further empower the military/industrial/media complex at our expense. The war budget continues to climb. Even as any expert will tell you social contracts and police actions are far more effective than military actions. But, lest we forget, there’s a lot more money for fat cats in war. ROI.
Then there’s corporate welfare. According to the CATO Institute, in 2006 corporate welfare was 92 billion. Energy companies, paper companies, farm subsidies, and a host of other corporations receive unwarrented assistance. After the deal Obama made with Big Pharma, they are surely part of the fat hogs sucking on the government teat.
The need for federal, state and local control is evident. We cannot have widely disparate views of say, gun control, where one state has very strict ownership and buying guidelines and a neighboring state with very liberal ownership laws. Education, infrastructure projects, social services – in each of these the local influence helps provide local direction – one size does not fit all. And yet local communities don’t have the taxes or resources to honor their own priorities, so local communities are run over with the dictums from the state and federal level.
That’s one component of efficiency. Another is process, with implementation of policy as enacted by the bureaucracy. It takes administrators, project managers and boots on the ground to implement government priorities. We all know waste and abuse within the system, whether it’s government workers who act without integrity, or massive no bid contracts to private war companies like the formerly named Blackwater.
Again, it’s not so much whether taxes are high or low, as what we receive in return. Sweden has a high tax rate [nearly 50%. comparable to the U.S.], but with free healthcare, free education through college, subsistence support for the needy, clean and available water, etc. Plus they have the contentment-inducing knowledge that they are not apart of a far-flung empire imposing its will on the rest of the world through military and economic manipulation.
So to summarize, taxes should be measured by ROI. Taxes and policy decisions need to be balanced among federal, state and local levels to be fair, targeted and efficient. And the process of management must have transparency to minimize the drawbacks of bureaucracy. Is this going to be easy? Hell no. But it’s much easier if we keep focus on what matters.
Welcome to World 5.0
Welcome to World 5.0
And welcome to my blog on my favorite idea. This first entry is to intended to help you get your head and heart wrapped around this crazy notion of World 5.0 – that this moment is all that exists, and that the most valuable and entertaining way to spend it is in Love.
I stumbled upon the notion of World5 in August of 2004, when I realized that the idea of an operating system could be applied to culture, and that we’ve had generally four ages in our cultural past. Later I discovered that each age had a technology level that mirrored the culture and that new technology jumps created new ages. More on that in the upcoming book.
But as I more and more pondered the core of this marvelous idea, I found it intimately connected with my personal journey to find the truth of our nature and our lives here on Earth. Evolving bodies with an Eternal Spark comes close. That spark is Love, and we can grow into it. Love, which is only truly found in the absence of fear. More startling in the context of our world4 culture, is that I found, as I find still, that we commune with Eternal Awareness much more clearly when our minds are without thoughts. Peace.
And so it was and so it continues that discerning the truth of our Reality is tremendously freeing. We more easily let go the hurts of the past and apprehension for the future. We more and more feel the power of Love in This Moment. We no longer fear future pain or toil, as we let the flow of Now take us.
So, we start with a complete shift in our perception of reality. There’s a tendency to assume if God is everywhere in space, then Eternal Awareness must exist everywhere in time, and past and future are as valuable as This Moment. But that is wrong. God, Eternal Awareness, exists only Now. This Moment leaves the past behind like so much dissipating energy, and the energy of Now shapes the future. We flow through time, we Live Here.
The human species is just now beginning to ride the wave of a new technological breakthrough, the Internet, or the InterWeb as I prefer. The farther implications of this include the prospect of Digital Awareness, neither male or female, consciousness that does not face the prospect of death. Imagine that.
Without today’s InterWeb World5 could not come into being. I remind you the term stems from the idea of an operating system. And the communication, research and repository aspects of the InterWeb are required for the sort of movement we seek.
The ramifications of our InterWeb are already sufficient to provide the toolkit for a complete restructuring of our laws, food production, energy generation, health and education infrastructure – all our systems. There is another fabulous mechanism for doing the same which falls under the name of localism. Localism and the InterWeb are the two greatest keys to transforming our culture to one that embraces health and peace.
What has been the constant throughout our long history is the animal tendency toward power and control. In our past this has played out as elitism. In more modern times, this elitism shows itself as corporatism or militarism, but in essence they are the same impulse.
World5 rejects any value to such motives or agendas, recognizing that only in integrity can we find Love. Indeed, one can argue that integrity is the one requirement of Love. We can talk all the bullshit we like, but it is in learning to be impeccable, in being responsible, in keeping our word, that we create the space for Love. Love will not be found when we do not honor ourselves or others, as such behavior in inconsistent with the nature of Love.
Let’s say that again. Love cannot be found in fear. And Love is very clearly right Here, for those peaceful enough to be with Eternal Awareness and each other. All very entertaining.
The Debacle of U.S. Healthcare
Well, gee, that was easy. Not.
Our ‘leaders’ spent over a year shoveling a big piece of crap together that’s supposed to bring dramatic improvement to our healthcare system. Pardon my suspicion, I haven’t read it, but I’m still convinced it’s a big turd. Why? Because the profit motive has no place in maintaining and augmenting human health. Jesus made the comment that ‘no man can serve two masters’, and these companies, literally a cartel, are uninterested in making us, the citizens of the United States, their master.
Universal Healthcare, or Medicare for All, was never seriously discussed. A public option got some modicum of discussion, but was quickly thrown under the bus. A ‘secret deal’ was negotiated with Big Pharma to keep foreign drugs illegal to purchase. The Healthcare Cartel maintains what is literally an anti-trust exemption status. And now the 30 million or so who don’t have healthcare but can likely afford it are being forced to pay the cartel or face a fine. And the other 15 or 20 million who can’t afford it? Well, they may get a new clinic in town to keep them away from emergency rooms.
This debate inevitably turns to taxation, a paying for healthcare, personally and as a country, is a huge deal. Many folks don’t care for big government, and many folks feel that healthcare is a human right. How are such dillemas resolved?
For starters, let’s stop thinking in terms of whether big or small government is better. One can easily argue either side, but we miss the greater point. It’s not so much about bigger or smaller, as it is about ROI, return on investment.
For me the massive amounts of tax money that go to keeping military bases in some 200 countries is bad for ROI. Fighting in Iraq and Afganistan is bad for ROI. Private military contractors like the Halliburton and Blackwater are bad for ROI. The classic argument for militarism, ‘keeping us safe’, is a big crock of shit [not unlike our healthcare system]. The government will always insist on finding bogeymen [formerly the Soviet Union, now Terrorism, maybe China next?] because that’s how spending trillions on war and armaments is justified. Bad ROI, and lots of dead people to go with it.
So we find, in the end, that it’s the same old story. Our government does not serve us. Our representatives represent the never-ending war machine, heartless money barons and the Healthcare Cartel. And we will continue to get crap until we throw the bums who enable such garbage out.
The Simplest Test for Global Warming
James Lovelock is a scientist who’s come up with some remarkable stuff. Perhaps is most pragmatic invention was the technology that led to the development of microwave ovens. Perhaps his most powerful idea was his idea of Gaia Theory way back in the 1970s suggesting that the Earth has ways of restablizing when under duress. That theory would suggest that the Earth would address climate change in some unseen fashion to mitigate the worst effects.
Well, that was the 1970s. He doesn’t dispute his own earlier theory, but he qualfies it. Indeed, he now says enjoy life while you can, because in the next 10 years the ecological shit is going to hit the fan. It’s too late, in his mind, for efforts toward sustainability to have enough positive influence to prevent ‘the shit’.
Such thinking has led his to be a fierce advocate for nuclear power, as he believes ‘windmills’ hold little more hope for us than they did for Don Quixote. Same reason, too little too late.
He’s a terrifically interesting fellow, at least.
But one of my favorite things about the man was his explanation about global warming. Real simple. If it’s getting colder globally, the oceans will lose volume as more ice is formed, meaning the sea levels will fall. Conversely, if the ocean levels are rising [which they continue to do today as they have for the last 30 years], we’re getting warmer.
Now that doesn’t address the whole notion of cause. Some still argue this is a completely natural phenomena, and a normal cycle for the Earth. Maybe. Maybe not.
Presented for your consideration: If you take billions of tons of carbon-based fuels [coal, oil, natural gas], formed over millions of years, and burn the shit out of them for a few hundred years, you’re going to have some impact. Do are climate change issues of today reflect that? You tell me.
The Three Truths
World4 has an underlying axiom that time is a continuum, with past, present and future as the three components, all having similar validity in our lives. But this is blatantly false. Our experience of reality points in different direction. Our experience suggests that we live in This Moment, a place in time we cannot leave [care to try?].
And yet this false, world4 mindset dominates our culture. Who has not heard some pundit proclaim: “The reality is if we don’t do stop terrorists, they will blow up our country.” “If-thens” are not reality, they are if-thens. Reality is Here, this moment. In a reality where so many options exist, there are bound to be any number of possibilites and probabilities. And yet the if-then assumptiveness runs rampant in world4 culture, creating as stated above, a severe level of bullshit.
The first truth is stated thus: Life Is This Moment. It consists of Eternal Awareness and this constant flux of Energy. We Live Here. Together.
Eternal Awareness is but another name for God, Life, Love, Peace, Truth, etc. They are the same. This constant flux of energy is an obvious scientific fact. As energy patterns, we share the same Earth, the same air, families and communities and of course, this lovely never-ending Life.
Energy as we know is never still.
The second truth is this: Here, of prime concern is our intent, fear or Love.
Once we get ourselves acclimated to our Hereness, we more easily recognize the power of our intent in determining our experience. We know about attitude and its effects. World5 offers the understanding that we create the quality of our experiences through our intent. We cannot keep another from anger or hate, but we can well choose our response to such unpleasantness.
The second part of this truth is that the simple choice for our intent is between fear and Love. This simplicity is lost in the world4 culture, with its distraction and manipulation. But our reality is not lessened one bit for lack of awareness. The anguish of fear, or the power of Love. Thoughts and feelings of compassion, peace, love, beauty, contentment, communion – all align with Love. Thoughts and feelings of self-importance, wretchedness, anger, hate, depression, boredom, meanness – all the result of fearfulness.
It’s worth recognizing, too, our levels of being. We are body, mind and Spirit, and while our bodies are distinct, our Spirit is One, as the term but describes Life. So while we must train ourselves to be fearless in our minds, our Spirit is already without fear. Being of Eternal Awareness, it is impossible for Spirit to experience fear.
The third truth is the most simple of all: Only Love makes us happy.
Now while some of our less aware brothers and sisters believe they are finding happiness in taking advantage or abusing another, in having more control or more possessions, in obtaining status and fame, etc. These experiences might mirror happiness, even as lust might mirror Love, but something inside us knows better. Indeed, studies show that those folks who are helpful and compassionate are far happier than those who only think of themselves. Imagine that.
Real happiness stems from finding our place Here in Life. Our Source. It is the joy found only in This Moment, the joy of being Immersed Together. The truest happiness remains near constant in spite of the dramas that this life entails. Real happiness comes from our Soul. In connecting with our true selves, we connect with all. Now that’s nice.Even enchanting!
Of course from the world4 perspective such ideas are threatening, their merits ridiculed and demonized as world4 pundits and apologists are wont to do. But it’s clear in this new age that world4 is ridiculous, and if we do not find a better path for ourselves and our peeps, we leave this Earth a far poorer place, and ourselves as well. So let’s not do that.
The GOP and the ACA
On October 1st, folks all across the country, regardless of their health, can begin signing up for the Affordable Care Act mandated health insurance co-ops, which offer substantial savings via pooling and government support for these new healthcare options. Obamacare, as it’s commonly called, officially kicks in on January 1st, 2014.
Let’s not mistake this new system for a single-payer system, or universal healthcare, which would put our healthcare in line with most post-industrial nations in the world. We don’t even get a public option to compete with the current corporate providers. Over fifteen countries have true universal healthcare, and a similar number have mandated or two-tier insurance plans. If you don’t believe they’re successful it’s because you believe American corporate media.
Anthem, United Healthcare, Humana and others still profit from our accidents and illnesses. Obamacare just enforces a bit of common sense, not allowing companies to reject applicants for pre-existing conditions and mandating that 80% of their income actually be used for patient care.
The act is helpful for those currently insured as well, as it will help hold down rate increases, give you a backup if you lose your job-related healthcare plan, and provide new options for insurance that may hold more value than your workplace policy.
So, with this context, why has the Republican-led House of Representatives voted over 40 times to repeal the Affordable Care Act? This while millions of Americans can’t find work, climate change continues to wreak havoc, the Middle-east remains on ongoing mess, and we can get no movement on immigration or gun control? Clearly there’s something wrong with this picture.
Indeed. Skipping over ridiculous comments on how the ACA will ruin America, let’s consider how this may play forward.
Next week, millions of Americans, many currently without healthcare, begin to explore options with these new co-ops. They find insurance options far less expensive and far more expansive than options they’ve had in the past. They find their preconditions, which prohibited them from getting insurance in the past, is no longer an issue. And they find help, in the form of ACA ‘navigators,’ who are trained to assist citizens in finding the best healthcare for their particular situation.
It is exactly this, that the government is actually doing it’s job in supporting the health and happiness of its citizens, that has the GOP in such a flustered state. Citizen need is being given a fighting chance against the constant money grab of healthcare and pharmaceutical corporations. While well short of universal healthcare, this is clearly as step in the right direction.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, inadvertently let the cat out of the bag last summer in an interview with Fox News. “If we’re going to repeal it, we’ve got to do so now or it will remain with us forever.” Why? Because once the administration gets “the (health insurance) exchanges in place … the subsidies in place,” people will get “hooked on Obamacare so that it can never be unwound.”
Fast-forward one year, with upcoming House and Senate races on the line. Voters are unlikely to forget that the Republican controlled house had their 40 plus votes to get rid of Obamacare, and yet by then we see it’s actually making a difference in our personal lives. It’s tangible when Uncle Sandy can now get hospital care for that ongoing diabetes, and when your premiums aren’t jacked up because your wife is of child-bearing age. Yes, the GOP is concerned.
Now let’s dovetail this with another GOP dynamic – efforts to minimize voter turnout in every state where they hold power. Aided and abetted by a Supreme Court that recently gutted the Voting Rights Act, states like Texas and North Carolina and even Ohio [along with many others] are going all out to prevent voter turnout.
These voter suppression tactics can affect turnout, but cannot affect the results of an election if the citizenry understands what’s going on. They lose in spectacular fashion. And this is what the GOP fears with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act – that they will lose power. They begin to recognize that their power comes from we, the people, who have the power and responsibility to end such disgusting priorities and policies by voting these folks out.
Jim Prues is running for congress against Steve Chabot in the First District of Ohio. He’s running as a Democrat and on the World Five Platform. He’s also the founder of World 5.0 and a Cincinnati business owner. He understands that ‘democracy is not a spectator sport.’
An Occupier for Congress
Our federal government has now clearly established itself as an enabler for corporate special interests instead of being the champion of we, the people and the common good. All three branches collude in eroding our civil rights, creating laws and policies which benefit the very rich at our expense. Our situation becomes less tolerable each day. We need a new way forward.
My name is Jim Prues and I have some idea of this new way forward. I literally wrote the book on it:
It was all the above that led me to invest energy in Occupy Cincinnati, joining other locals who appreciate the current threat to our democracy. The Occupy Movement has had many flaws, but we can be grateful for the light they helped shine on the terrible imbalance between the 99% and the 1%. Sadly, our government stands with the 1%. This must change.
And so it was that I announced my candidacy, at high noon on the summer solstice, for the First District Seat of Ohio in the United States House of Representatives. The seat is currently held by Republican Steve Chabot. I’m seeking the Democratic nomination, and according to local officials, there are no other contenders at this time.
I’m running on the World 5.0 Platform, a simple guide to the priorities which can reverse this trend toward ever greater malfeasance by government at every level. It points toward principles and a system of ethics, sorely lacking in Washington and in every state house these days. A focus on these five ideas is potentially transformative, and can bring us to a place of health and happiness unseen in our lifetimes.
Here is the World 5.0 Platform…
PEACE
“When the power of Love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.” – Jimi Hendrix
Peace is our first priority in this violent and war-torn culture. We refuse corporate and nation-state efforts to destroy life and land for profit, and are committed to peace in our lives and in our world. We actively engage in creating peace through our neighborhoods and communities, and demand the goal of peace from our elected officials.
Without peace our communities are wounded or broken. Instead what must be broken is the long cycle of violence and war. Don’t pull the trigger. Don’t push the button. Do not allow yourself to be a slave to a broken system. Recognize that we all share in this life, and find a new way forward.
GOVERNMENT
“The care of human life and happiness is the first and only object of good government.” – Thomas Jefferson
Good government depends on integrity, justice and balance. We can no longer tolerate our government undermining the common good for special interests. As citizens, it is up to us to create and ensure good government. Democracy is not a spectator sport.
We know now that our government has been twisted by moneyed interests, and does not serve the common good. We know too, that this unholy condition will not change without citizen action, from the voting booth to activism and protests. Engagement creates the change we need.
LOCALISM
“In every community, there is work to be done. In every nation, there are wounds to heal. In every heart, there is the power to do it.” – Marianne Williamson
Unbridled globalism with its singular goal of profit has failed us. Commerce must exist to serve human need, instead of ruining lives for corporate greed. Localism creates jobs, opportunities for engagement and abundance, increasing our safety, sustainability and happiness.
We vote with each dollar we spend. Will we support Walmart or a local retailer, McDonald’s or a local restaurant? What do we choose for meaningful work? What gifts can we offer our communities? These everyday decisions are transformative, and mark the quality of our lives.
FOOD
“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” – J. R. R. Tolkien
The industrial food system has caused massive pollution, desertification, soil loss and environmental destruction that are matched only by the terrible quality of the food produced. By migrating to organic food, we create ecologies within our land and health within our bodies.
Throughout human history, organic food was the only option. It was the diversion of World War II chemicals into pest control products that ramped up industrial agriculture, the foolishness peaking with genetically modified [GM] foods. Instead, we must renew our relationship with what we eat, and create new options to grow, process and share our food.
LEARNING
“We must learn to live together as brothers and sisters or perish together as fools.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
The World 5.0 Platform is enabled by learning. Learning is a lifelong process, and creates the wisdom to make wholesome decisions. It is learning that opens pathways to peace, good government, localism and organic food. Learning is a right and a responsibility.
There is a clear path to wisdom. We use data to create information, and amass information to create knowledge and finally we sift our knowledge to find wisdom. This progression guides us to truth, untarnished by anecdotal stories, outlier data or bold-faced lies. This process also leads us to love.
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We know these to be tumultuous times, and we know without substantive and positive change our planet and our lives are doomed to misery and pain. What we have not understood until now is our power. We can remake the world anew. We are the change we need. This is why I’m running for congress. We must rise up.
Jim Prues is an entrepreneur, the author of “World 5.0” and a candidate for the US Congress. A free download of the book is available at World5.org. You can learn more of Jim’s candidacy at JimPrues.org.