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.
A Disturbance in The Force
In the first Star Wars, “A New Hope”, Obi Wan Kenobi reacts to the destruction caused by the Imperial Death Star blowing up the planet Alderaan: “I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened.”
EMPIRE
Here on Planet Earth something terrible has happened. Here The Empire does not possess Death Stars, but it does possess the same misaligned priorities as any other empire. Simply, to maintain and grow The Empire. And that happens at our expense. It literally happens with our money. It is the opposite of government of, by and for the people.
The Empire on Planet Earth can be expressed as the ‘Corporate Nation-State’, where global corporations operate around and above the laws of any given nation-state, and that only when they’re not writing the laws themselves. They are the proverbial bull in a china shop, powerful, reckless and uncaring, unaware of the deep hurt they cause, as they ‘see’ only profits. Despoiled lands, factory farms, sweat shops, melting icecaps, broken lives – they see these things not-at-all, except as they potentially impinge on profits.
Since World War II, when the U.S. [and U.S. corporations] wrestled the mantle of Empire from the British, the United States Federal Government became the perfect ‘goon squad’ and enabler of corporate power. We get platitudes during election cycles, and we get raped by policies that reduce real wages, ruin our ecosystems and destroy our communities once these folks are in office. After the boondoggle that was healthcare reform, the financial crisis and the Gulf Gusher [and tepid response], not to mention our constant wars, no reasonable person can surmise otherwise.
We need only to hear those who come to the defense of Goldman Sachs against substantive financial reform, those who defend BP’s ‘accident’ as though there was no negligence, or the champions of endless war to appreciate our tenuous position as citizens. Tenuous indeed.
And yet Empire is even more insidious than this. The global weapons trade business is fantastic in more ways than one. At a trillion dollars per year, it’s the biggest single expenditure on the planet. And when we follow the money? We find some few profiting handsomely at our expense. Not surprisingly, the U.S. Government, true to form, continuously finds a bogeyman to justify the abhorrent behavior of violence. First the Russians and Cubans, then Serbs, Venezualans, and now ‘terrorists’, who, if the situation were reversed, we would call ‘freedom fighters’. We even went after the people of Granada when The War Machine needed a diversion from domestic policies during the Reagan presidency.
The U.S. is not only the largest purveyor of weapons, it is the largest buyer of weaponry as well. Therefore the huge corporations [Halliburton, Lockheed Martin, Bechtel, Aegis] who profit from the global paradigm of war, have as their prime objective the continued policies of war. Smells like Empire.
And, as Job One of Empire is to maintain control and grow more powerful, our options as a citizenry are decidedly small. Ideally, we vote for representatives who have the integrity to resist and reverse the inclination toward war. There are some few. But with the distracted and propagandized minds of our citizens vs. the money, power and influence of global corporations, our chances for success are not good. Democracy requires an educated citizenry – hardly likely where the corporations control the media.
As attested by Naomi Klein in “Shock Doctrine Economics”, the more recent technique of the ruling elites leverages disasters to “privatize the profits, socialize the losses”, the age old mantra of corporations and elites. There are dozens of examples showing how nation-state citizenry has been exploited in this way. New Orleans after Katrina comes to mind. A recent example was Goldman Sachs’ hiding of Greece’s debt, and then selling ‘shorts’ where they gambled that Greece would default on its debt, a very inside game. Or how they got out of the US housing market after its collapse and got into global food derivatives, causing the 2008 food spike that cause starvation for perhaps 200 million in poor nations. But under the rules of Empire, completely legal.
The financial duress of nearly every nation-state on earth these days is by design. More disasters, more “capitalism”. But it’s not truly capitalism, because the biggest players make and distort the rules. There is no level playing field. Honest competition, like in sports or games, requires clear and just rules. So it’s perfectly consistent that in every major area of commerce, there are but a few corporations in control. The healthcare system, the energy sector, the war machine, food production, the financial sector – all controlled by a handful of corporations. More privatizing profits and socializing costs – the antithesis of a healthy culture.
THE CHALLENGE
This, my friends, is what we, the people of Earth, are up against. It’s actually a very old system, reaching back to emperors and dictators and early corporations like the East India Trading Company. Any old excuse will do for war, conquest, resource extraction and human subjugation. Only the scale has changed, as global corporations continue to consolidate power, but it has changed to our detriment.
We cannot defeat this system by fighting it. They have all the money, guns, media and influence. We defeat this system by replacing it, one decision at a time.
But first let’s step back and consider ‘A Disturbance in the Force’ a bit more clearly. From the perspective of Eternal Awareness, there are no disturbances. In God, in This Moment, All is One and the dance and drama that are part and parcel of being Here in no way impinge on the Peace of Stillness inherent in Eternal Awareness.
And yet, as people attempt to live out their lives, and find, for example, that their livelihood and local ecosystem are ruined for years and possibly decades to come, there is clearly a disturbance in The Force. As our individual or collective health fails, or as we fall into financial ruin due to the excesses of the corporate nation-state, there is clearly a disturbance in The Force here on Planet Earth.
While the status of the Gulf Gusher is in question, and even long after, we on Planet Earth suffer from a disturbance in The Force that is fatal to millions of creatures in the area, cataclysmic to local residents, and laden with ecological effects that may take centuries to heal. We clearly need a new system, a new methodology and roadmap for restoring health and balance to our systems of government and commerce. A way to heal the disturbance in The Force.
WORLD 5.0
World 5.0 defines the emerging cultural paradigm, a name for the the new awareness and collaboration emerging spontaneously among many of us for healing ourselves and our Earth. A world view that stands in stark contrast to the old elitist corporate nation-state paradigm. A world view that supports life, health and happiness.
World 5.0 begins Here, with The Three Truths, and ends with us creating Heaven on Earth. Briefly, The Three Truths state that, contrary to what we’ve been taught, we do not live in past, present and future. We live Here. This Moment is the only point in time that exists. It is the singular junction where past becomes future. It is the only moment we experience. If this seems incorrect, try to leave. It’s impossible. Second, as we are all ‘stuck’ Here, what matters most is our intent, to be afraid or to Love. And third, only Love makes us happy. These truths merits consideration and contemplation.
Heaven on Earth? Such a lofty goal is not only an ideal, it’s a requirement considering our dying planet and the unholy state of our world. Leaving consideration of personal transformation aside, our social transformation occurs as our intent and our decisions align with the World5 worldview.
We start by throwing off the mantle of fear ingrained in the World4 mentality. We are far less susceptible to manipulation when we are unafraid, and learning to let go of fear is the key component of personal transformation. More of us are engaged in this healing activity than at any time in our history.
Outlandish as it seems in these corrosive times, anything is possible in the Eternity of This Moment. The global change we seek may not happen overnight, but it becomes inevitable as more and more of us make more and more conscious decisions that support local communities and distance ourselves from our corporate overlords. [Too strong a term? How else would you categorize BP with their arrogant response to their self-created disaster?]
Every decision to buy organic, locally-produced food undermines Monsanto’s goal of global control of our food production system. Every time we eat at a locally owned restaurant, or shop a locally owned business, we mitigate the effects of factory farming and Walmart’s sweat shops. Every time we choose to insulate our homes, walk or bike instead of drive, or adjust our thermostats for less energy use, we win a small battle against BP and other global energy interests. And every time we start some enterprise with the goal of integrity, balancing profit with community and other stakeholder interests, we are involved in redesigning our culture.
Just as the previous four ages in our civilization have all been driven by technological leaps, World5 is the age driven by the invention and development of The Internet. The remarkable level of communication now possible, along with the repository, research and collaboration it enables, do not just give us a new tool, but a whole array of new tools based on this platform. World 5.0 is the cultural transformation that accompanies the Internet’s technical transformation.
The InterWeb expedites the process of learning tremendously. Learning consists of finding facts or collecting raw data, ordering them into patterns to create information, researching the information to create knowledge, and working and playing with that knowledge to create wisdom. This is the methodology for design. This is the process for repairing and restoring. This is the hope for resolving conflict, and for transformation.
The world that brought us financial collapse, a permanent war paradigm and the Gulf Gusher is the threadbare culture of World4, The Industrial Age. While one can argue its benefits, the lust for power was the dominant social interest. In the last century, the biggest single cause of human death was other humans. In World5, our intent is to recognize our reality of being together Here, and moving forward in Love, as Love is a far wiser choice than fear.
A WORLD5 RESPONSE
So what might be the response to the Catastrophe in the Gulf if we lived in a World5 culture? For starters, we would not have allowed drilling regulations to be written by energy corporations. In Europe, no wells are drilled without substantially greater safeguards, including a relief well being drilled in tandem with the main well, just in case there are situations such as those that led to the Gulf Disaster.
But in the case of the Gulf Gusher, such measures are water under the bridge. No matter if the new cap effectively stops the flow, the damage is gigantic, irreversible and will take generations to mitigate. The loss of life, species and diversity will continue for years, and is indeed a great disturbance in The Force.
But back to the remedy. In a World5 culture, as soon as the oil rig exploded there would be an independent, government-supported analysis of the situation, soon followed by a Gulf Coast Reconstruction Authority, with the ability to garner research, apply resources and manage the various operations. Subpoena power would be granted, so that the offending corporations would have to come clean about the actions that led to the gusher, and so that everyone has free access to all information related to the disaster.
Universities and research institutions could bring a plethora of ideas for mitigating the worst effects, as opposed to BP’s intense use of chemical dispersants whose short-comings and toxicity are unknown. Not surprisingly, BP has an ownership stake in the corporation that produces the dispersant Corexit. The stench of Empire.
Microbes, soaps, separators, and whatever else we could come up with would all play their part in a balanced response. Skimmers and other oil removing equipment would be quickly deployed, and deployed with the knowledge of where they will be most effective. Local, state and federal governments would each provide guidance in areas where they are most effective. Small businesses and companies would be employed as fully as possible to mitigate the effects. And most importantly, people would be empowered to help in every way possible, whether directly in oil mitigation, or in support of those efforts through food, transportation, financial help and other services.
Compare and contrast that with BP and our federal government’s response. BP’s goal, sadly, is to reduce their liability and spreading their incurred costs over as long a time as possible. That’s why the dispersants. That’s why the bad information. Again, privatize the profits, socialize the costs. We’re seeing this happen in The Gulf in spades.
It would be nice to say we can still do this. To say a World5 response is still possible. But it is not. As long as BP runs the cleanup, we’re in trouble. As long as our government is more concerned with corporate welfare than citizen welfare, we’re in trouble. As long as information is withheld, as long as BP foot-drags paying the bills, as long as whole species are being decimated and going extinct, we’re in trouble.
We have to get out of trouble. We won’t get out of trouble with bogus efforts and misinformation. We have only one course. We have to recreate our systems and culture to end corporate dominance of our government. There is no other way. And moving beyond the corporate nation-state is core to the design and implementation of World 5.0.
Forty years ago a bunch of us young folks took to the streets to revolt against an unfair war, a lack of equality and systemic corruption. This time let’s get it right. Please join us.
A New Beginning | World 5.0
Greetings Friends and Citizens,
This is a time of awakening. Something new is in the air. To quote songwriter Joni Mitchell, “Maybe it’s the time of year, or maybe it’s the time of man…” I’ll go with the latter, in spite of the deficiencies in using the word ‘man’ when one means ‘humans.’
It’s no wonder that a protest song [Woodstock] from the 1960’s seem to resonate. Just as the awareness of so many injustices came to light then, awareness of the injustices caused by corporate elitism and corrupt government is now at an all-time high. Then it was the grievances of minorities who couldn’t vote and women not allowed to work outside the home. Of young men being drafted to fight an useless war [Vietnam]. The grievances of the poor, and those whose air or water were polluted by some uncaring corporate interest.
Now minorities can vote, though they are still intimidated and treated poorly. Women can work, just not for the same wage as a man. The U.S. Government now mostly relies on mercenaries, as young men drafted for stupid wars tend to have an attitude problem. And now, along with the host of pollutive practices and polluted places, our financial system has become utterly polluted as well. From the perspective of a citiizen, we’re having our wealth stolen through unfair taxes and unfair policies due to the kleptocracy we now live under. The uber-rich have stolen the wealth of the middle class, using the vehicle of corrupt government.
Okay, so that’s not the new beginning part.
The new beginning is World 5.0, our new operating system, based on the eternal values of Integrity, Justice and Balance. Our goal is restore community and ecology, which we can only do by reconstituting government to be the honest mediator between community and corporate interests. So long as our government is bought off by corporations we have no chance. We also require a healthy Return On Investment [ROI] for our tax dollars, the exact opposite of what we get today.
Ronald Reagan famously said ‘government is the problem,’ which became a conservative mantra. Except that Mr. Reagan omitted one critical word – bad. Bad government is indeed the problem, and it’s as bad today as it’s ever been. We intend to fix that.
Another flagrant abuse of truth is to insist that government is ‘too big’ – big brother trying to take over everything. First of all, the government is not taking over everything – the huge corporations are, using privatization schemes. Our bad government just enables it. Secondly, and more importantly, size is not the critical issue, ROI is. If taxes are relatively high but we have free healthcare, free education, free water and sewage, free Internet access and the like, that’s fine. The value is clear. If we have lower taxes and less social services, that’s fine too. Just so the value is evident. Money spent on wars and the manipulations of empire has a poor ROI for us citizens.
Along with restoring government to serve we, the people, we intent to rebuild communities everywhere. There are a number of strategies for this, but most important is our intent, our decision-making process. Do we eat at a local restaurant or McDonald’s? Do we shop the local hardware store or at Lowes? Where do we bank and keep our savings? Exactly what are we voting for with each dollar we spend? Are we spending our time engaged or lost in the served up distraction?
Non-human communities are in great need of restoration as well. Our trees, mountains and topsoil are all disappearing to feed the gluttonous beast of corporatism. Our land and water are mightily polluted from terrible industrial and agribusiness practices. Our oceans are in a sad state as well, with only ten percent of the large fish stocks we had in 1950. And of course the sea level is rising, proof that our planet is getting warmer.
We don’t have the financial resources to leverage the ‘Citizen’s United’ ruling that allows for unlimited spending on campaigns by corporations [yes, it’s on our list of things to be undone], but we have the potential power of a united and awakened citizenry. We have the power of a new, people-powered movement, based on the idea of World 5.0.
World 5.0 not only offers us a banner for solidarity, it offers us the banner of truth – Life is this Moment. Actually there are Three Truths to Happiness: Life is this Moment. It consists of Eternal Awareness and this constant flux of Energy. These two elemental forces comingle only in the present, which means this moment is all that exists. We don’t live in some one-third past, one-third present, one-third future reality. We live in this moment – we can’t leave! This is the First Truth.
The Second Truth is that Here, of prime concern is our intent: fear or Love. If this moment is our only reality, how we’re feeling and what we’re thinking right now is crucial. What exists emerges from past energy patterns. How we use our intent now creates future patterns. But this Moment is always the leverage point. This is where our intent operates.
And the Third Truth: Only Love makes us happy.
So, with World 5.0, we finally have a way to ground ourselves in present reality, we know where we are. By focusing on how we think and feel now, we learn who we are. And once we understand who and where we are, there seems a much greater likelihood of us getting off our behinds to take a stand against the corporate behemoths and the globalization that has wrecked so many lives and so much of our home planet.
The thing now is to make this idea a movement. And this is clearly our intent. Here’s the poster for the official coming out party for World5. It’s on the Autumnal Equinox [in the Northern Hemisphere]. It will be held in Cincinnati. If you can attend the event, you contribute to the statement we make. If you donate or pre-order the book, you contribute to the statement we make. If you can’t attend, tune into the live stream from World5.org. Then you still contribute to the statement we make.
This is indeed a new beginning. We live, we love, we move from here.
The time is always now. The answer is always love.
Welcome to World 5.0.
Occupy Life
These are curious times, to say the least. I doubt the handful of fed up citizens who decided to occupy Zuccotti Park in the NYC Financial District on September 17th, 2011 knew going in that within a month they’d have millions of supporters and thousands of occupations popping up across the Earth. They just knew the system was utterly broken, and felt compelled to take action. And here we are.
Indeed, Life Is This Moment. This idea of the totality of Now is the central tenant of World 5.0, the notion that civilization is emerging into a new cultural operating system, and one that contrasts sharply with our previous operating systems.
Consider: For nearly 200,000 years we were Neolithic, simple hunter-gatherers using simple blades to sustain themselves. Then maybe 10,000 years ago we became agrarian, developing new implements like the plow, seed funnel and and irrigation systems. A thousand years ago brought World3, The Medieval Age, where we learned to make machines like the gun and printing press. And then, with the development of the engine, we enabled the Industrial Age, World4. It is this industrial culture of globalism, based on the power of money, failing around us as we speak. We require a new operating system.
The enabling technology for World 5.0? Yes, the Internet, or InterWeb as I prefer.
But let’s get back to ‘Life Is This Moment.’ World4 has been utterly confused about the nature of reality. We have a vague sense that life/reality is ⅓ past, ⅓ present and ⅓ future. But such thinking is only ⅓ correct. Yesterday’s gone and tomorrow never comes. While events continue their never-ending dance, our consciousness, being of Eternal Awareness, stays Here. There is a sense of eternity to this moment, if we’re here to experience it.
One reason this obvious fact of life is so obscured is because the World4 culture places so little value on life. Understanding life, or health for that matter, has never been a serious goal for a system designed for profit.
Another reason? The steady stream of propaganda we’ve all grown up subjected to. Propaganda about the elite 1% being ‘job creators’ instead of the truth, that they control our government for their benefit. Propaganda that we must destroy our ecologies, our Earth, to create jobs, even while studies always show green jobs offering a better return than fossil fuel energy jobs.Propaganda about all these people who are different from us and hence must be feared, Muslims being the current favorite to attack. The elites who control World4 do this to keep us in fear, and to justify spending 75% of l2010’s total global expenditures on war and the war machine.
Finally, we’ve been so caught up in our thoughts and feelings that we rarely allow ourselves the simple experience of being alive, just like any other animal on this planet. We create a bubble of our thoughts and feelings and fears, losing touch with Life. Yet we are alive, we live and breathe here, and only here. We become far more integrated and whole as we use our intent to find ourselves connected to Life in this Moment.
We are literally creating our new cultural operating system right now, each occupation finding its own particular way to organize and each in solidarity with all. What all these occupations share is attention to Life, and a commitment to Peace. One can easily see how the old world, built on war, greed and fear, feels threatened. Which is why we see so much negative press about this movement. But this occupation is here to stay. Too many of us are awakening and impassioned about this effort. Too many of us have been hurt, ruined or killed by the plutocracy of corporations and government. Too many now know it doesn’t have to be that way.
And now, Bernie Sanders is bringing this radical change to our political system. As of March, 2016, we don’t yet know what the outcome will be of the upcomoing presidential election. But what we already know is that the old system cannot hold. The revolution is upon us.
Occupy – Finding Our Core
The Occupy Movement is an amazing phenomenon. In less than two months it’s has aggregated into a global movement, taking a strong stand again the financial forces that have taken over the U.S. and so many other governments. There are no indications of us going away.
Still, there are issues. The corporate media insists we don’t have a clear message, with good reason since we threaten their stranglehold on truth. The Wall Street robber barons insist we are anarchists and lazy hippies, whose only interests are avoiding work and causing trouble. Again it sounds like someone is feeling threatened. Politicians are holding their fingers up to the wind, trying to decide whether it helps or hurts them politically to support us. Such poor leadership.
Regardless of such opinions, those of us who are Occupiers know what is going on. We’ve had enough of a world of lies. We’ve had enough of a world where money rules the political system. We’ve had enough of a world torn by war and globalization. And so we choose a new way forward.
When those heroes decided to Occupy Wall Street on September 17th, they began something extraordinary. The began to create a new culture based on ethics instead of the power of money. They started a process of consensus, where 90% is the minimal threshold to establish principles, areas of focus and policy. They started a process that continues in this moment, a process we Occupiers all share in, though much of this process is not yet explicit.
Yet it is clear we operate by new rules. We accept everyone, regardless of the meager distinctions of looks, color, race, religion or sexual preference. We even accept those without a home, agitators and just-released felons presented to us, so long as they honor our process and principles. We choose peace and solidarity as keys to our process. We choose the power of Love over the power of money.
These new rules are principles, that can generally be described as peace, love, integrity, justice and balance. A system of ethics. And these ethics create a space of peace, compassion and friendship unavailable to most of us in the old system.
What we’re seeing then, is the birth of a new consciousness among us, where our priorities are these principles of ethics, where we rely on truth instead of falseness, abundance instead of greed, and where we intend to get big money out of our political system. And this code of ethics brings us a sense of trust unavailable to the old world.
Curiously, there is a name for this new consciousness. A name for this new cultural operating system. A name for a culture based on principles instead of the power of money. The name is World 5.0.
The name is derived from applying the idea of an operating system to culture. We’ve previously been hunter/gatherers, agrarian, medieval and most recently industrial. Indeed, it is the Industrial Age, World4, collapsing around us from the weight of its own corruption.
The central tenant of World 5.0 is that Life Is This Moment, an idea that finds harmony among many of us. The past is gone and tomorrow never comes. We stay Here. Our process is Here. We move from Here.
I see this pretty clearly as I’m the founder of World 5.0. There is a book and a website on the topic. While the book was written before this movement sprang into being, it reminds of the same things the movement does. We must get money out of politics. We must put an end to war. We must rebuild our communities and ecologies. We must have honest government and a transparent financial system. We must create a culture where globalization, a system based on profit, is replaced by World 5.0, a system based on health and ecology.
In the coming days, week and months we are going to find each other far more easily. We’re building new coalitions with like-minded people and organizations each day. We’re learning process and more effective ways to create this new world. We’re learning that ethics, the power of Love, is bigger and better than the power of money. And we’re loving it.
In spite of the many situations where occupations are threatened by police action and unfriendly government, we stand, peaceful and strong. In spite of the many internal squabbles and difficult decisions, we are growing. In spite of wildly diverse backgrounds, ages and interests, we are Here together.
And now we’re finding our core. An operating system based on the power of Love instead of the power of money. An operating system that says armchair citizenry no longer cuts it. An operating system that focuses us on localism, organic food, sustainable energy and peace, regardless of the challenges to it. Along with the tremendous power and energy of the Occupy Movement, it is holding our core, living World 5.0, that assures us we can never be co-opted, usurped or otherwise turned into something we do not intend. Humanity is finally, through the Occupied Territories and its supporters, finding our home in Life.
Occupy World 5.0
We are in uncharted territory. This is like no time in our civilization’s history – global food shortages, climate crisis, unending war and violence, corporate domination, rampant systemic corruption, government collusion with corporations, abject poverty and homelessness, mass extinctions – it’s a long list barely begun here. It’s enough to leave one feeling hopeless in the face of such onslaughts. And yet there is hope.
The urgency of these issues has caused an unprecedented reaction – a global uprising. It was called The Arab Spring when initiated in Tunisia last December and quickly spreading to Egypt and beyond. It’s called Occupy in the US, Europe and much of Asia. There are protests and citizen repression in almost every nation-state on the planet at this time. And with good reason. Our governments have almost universally failed us in favor of colluding with corporations to form a kleptocracy. This arrangement not only funnels our money to the 1%, it destroys lives, communities and ecologies with impunity. It is this kleptocracy that we intend to dismantle.
As this energy of Global R-evolution has bubbled up over the last several years, so has the idea of World 5.0. I stumbled on the idea seven years ago, and have developed the idea in light of Life, the experience of being we have in this moment. Indeed, the central premise of World 5.0 is that ‘Life Is This Moment.’ The past is gone and tomorrow never comes. Our experience is always Here, unless we’re so caught up in our thoughts and feelings that we don’t recognize Life Here. Living in a bubble has that effect, and so was standard procedure in the World4 culture.
Prior to the failing Industrial Age we find ourselves in currently, we’ve had three previous ages: Neolithic, Agrarian and Medieval. We were hunter/gatherers for long centuries, maybe 150,000 years. 10,000 years ago we began farming with hemp and 1,000 years ago we learned to make machines. It was but 200 years ago that we developed engines, ushering in the Industrial Age. With World4 crumbling around us, the emerging global operating system is World 5.0.
Occupy begins to understand that we require not just a less corrupt world, but a new system entirely. We require a new level of integration, based on ethics and principles like peace and love. Indeed, we can say “we intend to replace the system of globalization built on the corruptive power of money with a system of ethics that supports Life based on the power of Love.” More simply, “we intend a world based on the power of Love instead of the power of money.” This is not so hard to understand, unless you hold allegiance to the Kleptocracy, like corporate media outlets. Their difficulty is not understanding, it lies in trying to spin something so powerful, honest and peaceful that it is difficult to undermine.
There is much we can do already. World 5.0 encourages localism, spending our money with local purveyors of goods and services instead of global behemoths like Walmart and McDonalds. We can make efforts to grow and buy local food, and encourage organic food production instead of the polluting agribiz model. We can take steps to increase our personal and local energy sustainability, foregoing fossil fuel use as much as possible. We can engage in local civic actions to improve our communities and begin the process of reconstructing government.
The farther reaches of World 5.0 call for a World 5.0 Certification Process, whereas small businesses and organization are easily certified unless they act out of alignment with ethics and our principles. Corporations will typically find certification more challenging. This simple process takes us from a ‘buyer beware’ culture to one of trust in our spending decisions.
World 5.0 seeks to establish a ‘Constitution for the Earth,’ creating a document that enshrines protections for Earth’s ecologies and requires a system of ‘Natural Capital’ so that harvesters of the Earth’s resources, whether mineral, plant or animal, must pay for their extraction and for any negative effects on the system due to that extraction. Indeed, with World 5.0 we seek to replace the extractive nature of the Industrial Age with the generative energy of Occupy and World5.
With the understanding that World 5.0 provides a ‘core idea’ to Occupy, we further our efforts at positive change tremendously. First, we clarify by an order of magnitude what Occupy is about. Indeed, World 5.0 provides the context of us living as evolutionary creatures finding our shared identity for the first time in our history.
Second, we codify what Occupy already knows – that corporations are the central problem in our culture today, especially in using their vast wealth to undermine government’s inherent responsibility to meet the needs of their citizens. In the book, “World 5.0 – Healing Ourselves, Our Earth and Our Life Together,” I explore the roots of the Limited Liability Corporation, and the long history of collusion with governmental entities, and how that process has lead to Disaster Capitalism and the general disaster we face today.
Third, we find areas of focus that can be personally implemented at once. These same areas of focus can be used to take on our largest challenges, like an end to war and corporate personhood.
Fourth, we find a new awareness in living in this moment, awakened from the bubble of personal thoughts and feelings that cannot be shared. We connect with all we come into contact with, and honor and respect each other. This allows us to get past long-standing hatreds, controversies and problems based on false ideas of reality and relationship. We are all here together, and the more quickly we understand this, the happier we find ourselves.
Fifth and finally, we create a path forward for the peaceful and agile transition from the Industrial World4 to our new home in World 5.0. We design and build systems that are life-affirming. We create infrastructure, buildings, homes and gardens where artistry is ingrained in the process. We nurture Life as best we are able, and in doing so nurture and restore the Earth. And we find each other as citizens, beloved sisters and brothers who understand our place, and are passionate about healing ourselves and our Earth.
And so it is indeed Here we find ourselves. Our civilization is broken, and this global uprising creates an incredibly powerful force for change. Which begs the question, “What sort of change do we want?” Which begs the answer, “World 5.0.”
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.
* * * * *
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.
The Trouble With Occupy
The Occupy Movement is inspiring to many of us who have long awaited a new dynamic into our dysfunctional political system. It is a powerful cultural force, engaging citizen activists to promote substantive change to an unfair system. It has already reshaped political conversations with its focus on the corporate elitism and government collusion that has led to a system that profits the 1%. The Occupy Movement has also shown us that we don’t need to be perfectly organized or to have perfect messaging to have an effect. We just need to be active citizens, to raise our voices and to stand for our principles. Democracy is not a spectator sport.
Of course ‘The Trouble With Occupy’ depends on the context. A police officer with orders to pepper spray or remove peaceful protesters may find such orders troublesome. Politicians are finding trouble in having to address the financial imbalance of the 1% vs. the 99%. Financial institutions like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo are certain finding trouble with Occupy as the movement applies pressure to the status quo through any number of actions. But that’s not what this article is about.
This article is about ‘The Trouble with Occupy’ from the perspective of someone thoroughly inspired by The Occupy Movement, and active with Occupy Cincinnati.
To begin, Occupy starts with an us versus them mindset, the 99% against the 1%. This is curious in that we clearly want a cultural system based on inclusiveness, diversity and an appreciation of the reality that we are all here together in this moment. The core problem is not the 1%, as they are our brothers and sisters, the problem is they represent the corruption rampant in the current cultural system. I do not imagine even the 1% waking each day thinking on how they can destroy human rights, wreck the planet and further undermine prosperity and democracy for the rest of us. They are ingrained with elitism, and hence need to learn the truth of our common humanity. Occupy fails to make this clear.
Second, The Occupy Movement makes a great deal of noise about what it is against, understandable when its very existence was a response to a broken system. And yet again there is a lack of clarity. We generate any number of actions, but many are futile in the larger scheme. Marches, protests and similar disruptions to the existing structure are limited in their ability to create substantive change.
Implicit in OWS is that we want honestly and integrity, stronger local communities and a healthier ecosystem for Planet Earth. We want abundance and prosperity. We want an end to war, to be treated like the citizens we are instead of being identified as ‘consumers’ by business and government. We want a cultural operating system based on peace and love, not the corruptive power of money. And yet Occupy has not defined any of this in a cohesive manner.
Another trouble with Occupy is its finicky relationship with words. Terms like ‘leader’ are eschewed, as an early document described the movement as ‘leaderless.’ Let’s be clear, leaders are not inherently bad, it’s just that bad leaders are prolific in a broken system such as we have today. And of course Occupy is anything but leaderless, yet resistance to the idea like leadership has hampered our organizational efforts. Let’s not confuse leadership with the unnecessary concentration of power.
A great irony, of course, is that while terms like ‘leader’ may be scorned within the movement, the term ‘Occupy’ itself is loaded with negative connotations. If one resides in Palestine, Afghanistan or Iraq, I do not imagine ‘Occupy Palestine’ sounds very promising. Being ‘Occupied’ is not considered a good thing in nation-state dynamics, especially if it’s been your reality for any number of years.
Occupy has other troubles as well. People lose energy, burn out and step back. General Assemblies can be tedious and unproductive. Infiltrators make efforts to sabotage us. Our organization is minimal and diffuse. These issues, however, are more easily addressed if we find our footing, so to speak, with the troubles mentioned above.
Now here’s something interesting. There’s a term that exists that describes this new cultural operating system that we seek. A term that acknowledges our inherent unity and the imperative to heal our broken system. A term that supports community and the need for a just and fair system. A term that stands for abundance over greed. A term that demands an end to war and suggests the template for creating a cultural system based on peace and love.
This term is World 5.0. I’m well familiar with it as founder of the idea and author of the book, “World 5.0 – Healing Ourselves, Our Earth and Our Life Together.” For seven years I’ve been noodling, gnawing and meditating on this idea, and it aligns with Occupy and the host of other progressive movements and interests that abound these days. As someone remarked at the CoreChange Summit [held in Cincinnati] last weekend, “It’s the Convergence!” a term that means ‘the act of everything coming together.’
Curious. On the one hand, we see blatant corporatism, the clueless Republican presidential field, the instability of our financial underpinnings, Global Warming, the great disparities between rich and poor, and on and on – very depressing stuff. At the same time, however, we see unprecedented efforts toward building community, restoring the Earth and unprecedented growth in non-profits and charities. We see a burgeoning movement toward organic, local food production and sustainable energy systems. We see a great effort to restore our democracy, spearheaded by The Occupy Movement.
The old system is crumbling under the weight of its own corruption, as Occupy, The Arab Spring, the ongoing financial crisis and a host of other factors and influences come to a head here, in 2012. We must admit these are no ordinary times. Calling it ‘The Convergence” seems an appropriate term, in light of all these wild goings on. And The Convergence has a name – World 5.0.
The Drums of War: Iran Edition
We Americans are not the best at history. Because of the spin of corporate-controlled media, we are not reminded of the consistent pattern of deception exhibited by our government when the ‘power behind the wheel’ wants a new conflict. Nor are we reminded of the tremendous profitability of war for the corporations who count on such conflicts to inflate their bottom line. It’s a disturbing and disgusting business.
Let’s review a bit. The United States has initiated over 50 wars and conflicts since World War II, far more than any other nation and likely more than all other nations combined. Whether Vietnam, Panama, Kosovo/Serbia, or even the tiny island of Grenada, the U.S. government uses war to further the goals of empire [read enriching corporations] and to distract us from other, often more urgent, issues. And this at a phenomenal cost – in terms of money, ecology and most importantly human life.
Of course the more recent focus has been on the Middle-east, part of the U.S.plutocracy’s plan to dominate the arena of energy. Since that’s where the oil is, massive energy companies like Exxon, BP, Royal Shell, Total and Chevron have gamed the system to keep us enmeshed in Iraq, Afghanistan and now potentially Iran. In Iraq, these corporations have now secured new oil contracts after getting the boot by Saddam Hussien 30 year ago, thanks to the role our government played in this ongoing debacle.
Let’s not forget that, while we’re ‘officially’ troop-free in Iraq, there are still thousands of U.S. paid mercenaries in that foreign country, and that we left that country with estimates ranging from 200,000 to a million dead Iraqi citizens. From a human perspective, it’s unfathomable that we, as in the U.S. government, not only allowed but actually lead such actions. And let’s not forget all the lies and media manipulation that were part of the drumbeat to attack Iraq.
The story is similar in Afghanistan. Not as oil rich, Afghanistan has a wealth of minerals and more importantly is strategically located for pipelines to transport oil and natural gas. There are those who suggest that plans for attacking Afghanistan were laid well before 911 and the idea of removing Osama Bin Ladin, the presumed justification for an attack of that war-torn country.
And now, it’s apparently time for the Iran Edition of war. With Iran the dynamics are a little more complex due to the long-standing animosity between Iran and Israel, America’s favorite client state. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad seems to enjoy tweaking the Israeli establishment, proclaiming that the Holocaust was fabricated. And yet the ever-over-reactive Israeli government now feels it has little choice but to ‘defend’ itself by attacking Iran. This even though Iran is still years away from a nuclear weapon, if that is even its intent. [Iran claims its nuclear ambitions are strictly energy-related.] And of course, Israel will not act without at least implicit support from the U.S.
So, what can we, the people do to prevent such nefarious behavior by our government? This is a challenge. The millions that protested globally back in the spring of 2003 did not prevent the U.S. from attacking Iraq. Even the hundreds of thousands of protesters that marched on Washington in September of the same year were almost completely ignored by politicians and corporate-owned media.
But there is hope. First, let’s recognize that the dynamics have changed. There was no Occupy Movement when we attacked Iraq. While the Occupy Movement is in a bit of disarray right now as it finds its grounding, I do not doubt that an attack on Iran would be a wildly cohesive event for Occupy. We Occupiers understand the sharp connection between war and profit.
Also, there are more voices than ever reminding us of the U.S. government’s predilection toward war. Peace groups are coalescing, building coalitions and gaining members and strength. The new lies about the ‘Iran Nuclear Threat’ [always there is the threat to justify the despicable behavior called war] are less believable after the lies of Iraq and Afghanistan.
And finally, there is little taste among the vast majority of Americans for another war. We’re broke and we’re wounded and we’re burnt out from these recent fiascoes, and it seems likely that those elected representatives that encourage and/or vote for war with Iran will pay a price come this November’s election.
I do not expect ‘wiser heads will prevail’ to be the sentiment in Washington. There are few wise heads left in that desert of integrity. And being in middle of this circus we call an election cycle, the rhetoric is even worse. But the politicians will see the writing on the wall if we make the effort to raise our voices condemning this idea of war on Iran. They are self-preservation minded.
Raising our voices. This is what we require in these uncertain times and stuck within this broken system. Today’s lesson? Democracy is not a spectator sport.
Healing Racism: Trayvon and the Broken System
We Americans are prone to allowing our view of reality to be fed to us by mainstream [corporate-owned] media. We are quickly entranced by the talking heads who tell us what is going well and what is going poorly in our world, with the emphasis on what is going poorly. Yet there is no honest effort to get to the real reasons why things are going so poorly. That would be educational. Our lamestream media has no interest in educating us.
The case in point is the death of Trayvon Martin, the teenager killed with a gun by a vigilante posing as a ‘citizen patrol’ in a gated community in Florida. The event has triggered a firestorm of protests, as well it should.
We tend to think we have no responsibility for the George Zimmermans of the world – broken humans who feel their hatred is justified and grants them the right to all sorts of abominable behavior. We know that it’s crazy. But do we see how every time we allow ‘little’ racist remarks to go unchecked, whether from a friend or co-worker, a TV show or article, we contribute to horrific situations such as Trayvon must have faced in that Florida gated ‘community’.
George Zimmerman typifies many emotionally-wounded Americans who are off-kilter, over-influenced by Fox News, the NRA and even our government(s), which creates laws like ‘Stand Your Ground’ at the behest of the gun lobby and other extremists. I suspect that Mr. Zimmerman also has trouble with a black president, social services and evolution. The pattern is pretty common among hard-line fundamentalists, even as they name themselves Christians..
It’s worth noting that in spite of a past assault charge on a police officer, Mr. Zimmerman seems extra cozy with his local law enforcement officials. Without that coziness, he likely doesn’t commit this egregious crime. Their little hater’s club allowed his racism to be considered okay, maybe even cool. We know there was some level of tolerance for his actions, as he was not charged with a crime at the scene. [And as of this writing has not been charged yet.]
But how many of us find ourselves in similar, if not so obviously racist, situations at times? Most all of us. And how do we react to such comments and behaviors? Sadly, most of us have been too afraid of confrontation or too disinterested in civil society to take action. If this were not the case, racism would have been long since abandoned by even the most raging haters. We’ve not stood up to it in the past. Now that we’re awakening, it’s time for a change.
We do not need to be aggressive or hostile to racists – they have plenty of that already. Our methodology needs to be one of gentleness, of peace and of love. “Wow, George, it kind of surprises me to hear you say that. He seems like a fine/pretty average/typical kid to me.” or perhaps “You know George, except for an accident of birth you could be him and he could be you. Funny.” or again “George, remarks like that are unacceptable. We are all children under God’s light, and such talk is not at all Christian.” This last version is a little more challenging, but cast in the context of Christianity we can perhaps be a bit more firm.
No matter how peacefully we approach our ‘George,’ the possibility exists that they will react against you. It may be abusive, perhaps even violent. That potential outcome doesn’t relieve us of our personal responsibility to end racism. If the situation is too flammable, we may not be able to express ourselves fully. But most of all, we cannot let such situations continue due to our indifference. We owe it to each other as brothers and sisters, here together in Life on Earth to take a stand against racism.
As we know, racism and the hater mentality are not aimed solely toward those of African descent. Such vindictiveness can be hurled at other races and other creed-holders as well. Other minority communities have felt the unjustified wrath, the violence and the bullets. Muslims and the LGBT community know the feeling. The citizens of Haiti, Darfur and Palestine – they know that feeling. We must be vigilant for them as well.
The simple truth is that Mr. Zimmerman and those of a similar ilk, in a healthy society, are controlled by ethical systems and the vast majority of citizens who are healthy. Of course, in a healthy society, we do not have endless war, food and energy systems controlled by corporations, too big to fail banks, or an utterly dysfunctional federal government.
Nor do we have a gun lobby with no respect for human life. A justice system with no respect for justice. A police system in Florida where a violent attacker is not tested for drugs or placed in jail to await trial. There might be another hoodie who suffers the ultimate injustice.
In this broken and dysfunctional society of America, 2012 – we clearly need substantial change. We need a new cultural operating system based on ethics – principles like peace and love – instead of this broken system of globalization built by and for the 1%. Fortunately, such an idea already exists. It’s called World 5.0. It reminds us how a new, ethical system is critical. But like any other system, it will only be as effective as the people who are engaged within it.