An Uneducated Electorate
Many of us are aware that the elitists currently pouring millions into this election cycle anonymously care little about education. Indeed, these elitists prefer ignorance and misinformation as the best tactic to maintain power and control. As such, the poor state of our elections and electorate is to be expected.
It’s clear that the information and education we the people receive through the corporate-controlled media is actually the opposite. Misinformation and propaganda. The litany of ridiculous ideas a substantial minority of our electorate holds deserves mention only for the absurdity of the positions. President Obama is Muslim, born in Africa. Global warming is a hoax. Science can’t be trusted, or is trumped by religion. Tax cuts for the rich create jobs. Wars are required for our national security. What’s good for Wall Street is good for Main Street. We require a Federal Reserve Bank for ‘federal reserves’. The litany is endless.
Propaganda, the dissemination of falsehoods for special interest gains, has been with us for centuries. Even the Revolutionary War had to be ‘sold’ to a reluctant populace. Wealthy landowners who wanted to reduce their tax burden to England were the instigators. The peasants had little interest, knowing their lot changed little regardless of who held power.
In the 1930s propaganda become “public relations”, and the mislabeling of bad ideas and misleading the populace became commonplace [see Edward Bernays]. And while the tactics became more sophisticated, the goal didn’t change. The elitists of the day believed benevolent control by elites was far superior to a democracy of the uneducated – all the while contributing to that lack of education. [Herman and Chomsky’s book, “Manufacturing Consent” was taken from Edward Bernays who famously said “the engineering of consent” is the very “essence of the democratic process.”]
Things got much worse in the 1070s as conservatives and moneyed interests organized. Conservative think tanks, right-wing radio, fundamentalist preachers and lots of cash began to create a political machine that has dominated honest efforts at democracy ever since. In 1970, there were 135 lobbyists. By the time Reagan was elected in 1980, there were over 1500. Today, there are hundreds of lobbyists for each member of congress, an industry worth 3.2 billion dollars.
A 1991 study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) uncovered just how porous was the Federal Regulation of Lobbying Act of 1946. The GAO found that about 10,000 of the 13,500 individuals and organizations listed as key influence peddlers on Capitol Hill in a book entitled, Directory of Washington Representatives, were not registered as lobbyists. No wonder real wages have been stagnant for forty years.
With this backdrop, it should be no surprise when Tea Party candidates win primaries for the job of senator or congressperson. We have been encouraged to vote against our best interests for generations. We have been goaded by ‘hot button issues’ like gay marriage instead of following the money. We’ve been discouraged, deluded and disillusioned by corporate media, losing our center and sense of power as we’re told what is ‘real’ and ‘possible’ by agenda-driven pundits. The not so anonymous pockets behind right-wing fundamentalism are deep.
This malaise would not be upon us if the Democratic Party were the champions of common sense and the common good. But here again nothing changes. No, they act as the quasi-sane yet horribly ineffective party because that is their role in this charade. Obama’s healthcare reform was a pathetic effort in light of his campaign promise. The ‘healthcare’ corporations remain in charge without even a public option.The same is true for the financial reform bill and every other piece of legislation. Corporate control is maintained. There is no integrity.
We have an uneducated electorate because of broad-spectrum corruption across the whole political and economic system. This core issue is reflected in everything from our educational system to the 24 hour news channels. It would be ugly enough if it were just greed, but there’s a certain malevolence in encouraging ignorance for personal gain at the expense of the common good. Trump comes to mind.
So how do we combat this onslaught of elitist cash that keeps us stupid? Education, knowledge and awareness. We fight for transparency at every turn. We educate ourselves and those close to us. We [calmly] refute hate-mongerers who would distract us. And we leverage the one small crumb allowed us as citizens still – we vote.
We can’t fix this mess alone. We can only do it together. Bernie keeps reminding us. We can only fix the system by replacing corruption with integrity. By living Here in Peace and Love. This is what World 5.0 is all about.
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.”
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.’
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.
A Spring that Can’t Wait
As the corruption in our system continues unabated and the interminable Republican Primary Season continues its buffoonery of ‘solutions’ for our failing state, there is some highly unusual behavior taking place independent of either. It’s the behavior of the weather for most of the country, an unprecedented string of warm days even before Spring officially began.
All across the country cities are seeing record or near-record highs, a string lasting nearly two weeks. It’s as though Spring, 2012, can’t wait. Instead of the usual sequence of blooming flowers and trees, it’s as though everything is condensed and blooming at the same time. Very strange.
Many of us see this as another obvious example of aberrant weather due to global warming. Our use of fossil fuels continues almost unabated, as energy corporations leverage their stranglehold on our energy systems to push for more dirty oil and natural gas use. Their failure to value our planet, when it is so obviously stressed, is but one of their many crimes of corruption, legal or not.
This strange, early spring points to our federal government as well, and its failure in its basic duty to protect us from such undue corporate influence. Indeed, not only is the government hapless in the face of this climate crisis, it’s actually an accomplice to big oil in this process. Energy subsidies and tax abatements are still the norm. Our government is literally paying big oil to slowly kill us off.
But could there be more to wild weather than just global warming? More and more of us recognize that we do not inhabit a mechanical world. Life on Earth is more than a machine. It’s alive, and it’s our constant experience. We live here, in these bodies and in this experience of life. And we’re learning that life contains energies and awareness we have long ignored.
What of the emotional reprieve from this early bounty of warmth? What of the energy of so many of us able to be outside much earlier in the year than is typical? What about the cerebral curiosity from experiencing such out of whack weather? While still anecdotal data, this anomaly of record and near-record temperatures across so much of the country may portend a year of great abnormalities, and not all those related to weather.
We see a spring that can’t wait in the Occupy Movement. After a relatively quiet winter, Occupational activities are on the upswing, with the promise of a summer of political and activist actions like never before. Occupy is finding its focus and its grounding, and and the implications are yet to be understood. There are actions planned around the G8 and NATO Summits. Plans for May Day and July 4th. Plans to interject ourselves however we may into this corrupt system to clog it, and plans to extricate ourselves from this system to starve the beast.
But this fateful spring belongs to far more than Occupy and those uprising across the planet. It belongs to all of us, human and non-human members of Life on Earth. It belongs to us more than ever because we are recognizing that we belong to the Earth like never before. We are finding our connection to Earth and our kindredness to each other, even as the corporate media keep trying to pull our focus ‘off the ball’ of our Life here together in this moment.
The surge of energies being unleashed in these times is profound. It is seen in the negative energy that causes a ‘hater’ named George Zimmerman to cross the line and kill a young African American Trayvon Martin in Florida. It may be the delusional Staff Sergeant Robert Bales whose ‘too much war and too many tours’ past led him to murder 16 Afghani people. It may be the continued stridence of Israel in addressing their Palestinian neighbors, or the over-reaching of Wall Street executives even after it has become apparent that their behavior took down our economy and wrecked millions of lives. This negative energy has been at the heart of the global system for a generation.
But the greater portion of these emerging energies seem designed to heal. The local food movement, sustainable energy production, efforts to reverse the massive influence of corporations on legislators, and efforts to end the permanent war paradigm are all gaining strength. Millions of us our finding our voices like never before. We’re sharing our brotherhood and sisterhood with a new-found trust and endearing warmth. Energies of peace and love are emerging spontaneously, in spite of the resistance from the controlling powers. Energies that will no longer allow the Juggernaut of corporate power to destroy our lives and our Earth in the unholy lust for power.
Finally, there are other curiosities of our time – Spring, 2012. There is an alignment taking place this year between our sun and the galactic center. There is the Mayan prediction of the ‘end of the world’ coming before this year ends – which could mean the end of the corrupt culture we’ve all be subjected to. And there is the growing view within science that our reality is ‘holographic’ – amenable to our attention and reactive to consciousness.
This spring cannot wait because we cannot wait. Our broken system must be replaced by a system of ethics – principles like peace and love – because if we do not change, we die. This spring that cannot wait may be the very force of Life, conspiring with Sun and Earth, to bring about the end of globalization and to create a new narrative of peace and love.
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.
Hemp for the World
There’s a lot of energy in the air these days surrounding hemp, and with good reason. Hemp was removed from our culture back in the early 20th Century when a number of laws were established that demonized hemp and marijuana. Now, as we’re learning that so much once held as true is false, it should come as no surprise that our illusions about hemp are crumbling as well.
Hemp is the common name for cannabis, the first plant cultivated by humanity as we crept from a Hunter/Gatherer culture to an Agrarian one. This were several reasons for this. First, hemp is an extremely versatile plant, with edible seeds, rich oil and strong, fibrous stalks. Second, it’s particularly easy to grow, needing little in the way of fertilizer or pest control. And finally, hemp is native to many parts of the world, so it was accessible to large segments of our ancestors.
Hemp has a strong historical influence on every continent, with varied cultural and religious traditions. It’s written about in China as early as the 5th Century BC. It was commonly breathed or smoked by various tribes in the Middle East. Many African spiritual practices involve consuming hemp smoke to enhance awareness and generate visions like the Dagga ‘cults’.
In the United States, as early as 1619 the first Virginia House of Burgesses passed an Act requiring all planters in Virginia to sow “both English and Indian” hemp on their plantations. In more modern times, hemp was a popular crop in antebellum Kentucky and other southern states. It was commonly used for a variety of products, most notably the paper on which the U.S. Constitution was written. Several of our founding fathers were hemp farmers.
All that changed when newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst decided to demonize the plant, his financial interests better served by printing his newspapers on wood pulp supplied by forests he owned in the early 20th century. Dupont’s new plastics were far more valuable in a hemp-free world as well. His nephew, Harry Anslinger, commissioned ‘Reefer Madness.’
Today, we can still follow the money. The lumber, textile and petro-chemical industries are the most influential in keeping hemp illegal. Then for pot there’s the pharmaceutical industry, the alcohol lobby and all those anti-drug agencies with self-preservation interests. We learn much from understanding these connections.
With this background, let’s consider how hemp might again play a pivotal role in our communities and culture.
With hemp, we have a low-impact, high-yield crop that can be used for a variety of purposes. The stalks and fiber can be used in composites as a wood substitute for an array of products. They can also be processed to create ethanol. This is a carbon-neutral resource, since the carbon released is but the carbon the plant ingested during its life. Durable, light-weight, and strong, it’s difficult to imagine all the uses for industrial hemp were we to focus on designing and building hemp-based products.
With hemp oil we have another energy-rich resource, which can be used in cooking, as lamp oil and as a medicinal, as its high concentration of essential fatty acids is great for the skin and overall health. Hemp seed can be used for food as well. They’re highly nutritious with a good deal of protein. Hemp has remediation properties too. It absorbs heavy metals in the soil, reducing their toxicity and harmful environmental effects. There are vast expanses of hemp in the area of the Chernobyl nuclear accident for just that reason.
Hemp can be grown successfully in nearly every state in these United States. One can imagine a culture where locally produced hemp provides a good portion of the energy, food and product needs for our communities. This approach would provide employment in both production and processing of the plant. It would also reduce the environmental damage caused by our pollutive, subsidized corn production. Re-integrating hemp into our culture is a key to the new localism.
And then there’s marijuana. The heathen devil-weed [a term coined by Hearst’s yellow press] was blamed for all sorts of bad behavior as part of the demonization process. Marijuana actually reduces aggressive behavior, unlike alcohol. The demonization and slander against the singular most influential plant in human history is but one example of the dysfunctionality of our culture.
Weed does indeed have psychotropic properties of note. Being stoned has a curious effect on the mind. Most say it tends to enhance whatever we feeling or experiencing at the time, offering a heightened experience of music or games or food [the proverbial munchies]. It is often used as a mind-quieting agent as well, as the stream of thoughts so constant to most of us becomes less pressing in a marijuana state of mind. In our fear-ridden, highly-stressed culture that alone could be of great value.
Medical marijuana is much in the news these days, being legal in a number of states, though often still prosecuted by the Feds. Its value in alleviating the worst effects of cancer treatments, chronic backache and other issues is well-documented. Imagine if our culture actually encouraged research on medical marijuana [sigh]. Not likely when the legal drug cartel called ‘the pharmaceutical industry’ has so much influence in government.
Finally, it’s worth noting that marijuana has not been placed as the medical cause in a single death in this country. Compare that with alcohol, tobacco, or the host of concoctions the pharmaceutical industry markets to us constantly. Mary Jane is decidedly benign.
Just say no to politicians and pundits who espouse the evils of hemp. They are uneducated, disingenuous or both [surprise, surprise]. Let’s say yes to re-introducing hemp into our culture, and to creating local jobs, products and health.
The Diminishing Power of Money
This notion of the diminishing power of money is powerful in itself, reversing a pattern that has been in effect for thousands of years. Especially with globalization, it’s difficult to live without the ‘almighty dollar.’ There are a number of lenses which can be invoked, but let’s start with the current election cycle.
The guy spending the most money is losing. That should be impossible in a world where money rules, impossible in our consumer culture where we are told what to think and do, rich only in propaganda. We can discuss Mitt Romney’s weaknesses as a candidate [or Obama’s as a president], but that supposedly doesn’t matter when ‘consumers’ can be sold anything. Yet what we’re seeing, in spite of massive amounts of campaign dollars, is that there is a saturation point, whereafter more money doesn’t translate to better poll numbers. Even the most rabid consumer has a bit of citizen within themselves, waiting to emerge.
Of course in the case of our government, there is not yet a diminishing of the power of money. If there was, we would see some effort toward governing. Instead we see fierce obstructionism and the constant nod and wink to corporate behemoths. Barring a fresh wind in the upcoming election, the federal government will be the last place we see the diminishing power of money. And corporate-owned media will be the last to talk about it.
Yet on the local level we’re seeing all sort of examples of folks working together to reduce the primacy of money. We’re seeing urban farming and community gardens explode. [Beyond air and water our biggest need is food. Duh!] We’re seeing activism and social awareness burgeoning all over the place even now. We’re seeing new groups and new projects emerge. And we’re seeing a host of new groups, like Cleveland’s GreenCity BlueLake, Cincinnati’s CoreChange or Agraria in Yellow Springs – and this just a taste from Ohio.
One of the silver linings of the 2008 Financial Meltdown [don’t get me started] was that as cities, counties and states became forced to cut programs and people, passionate folks started to look for and find work-arounds. If there are less police we better get to know each other better. If there’s no public assistance for housing we better get creative in considering homelessness. If there are no jobs in the classical sense, we better find new ways to support ourselves.
This in no way justifies the Disaster Capitalism inflicted on us by psychopathic elites, but it does show how, still today, necessity is the mother of invention. And these bastards and this corrupt system, failing mightily in anything life-supporting, have created the necessity of a new cultural paradigm.
Studies conclude that the presumed relationship between happiness and money, beyond the basic level of having needs met, is false. Indeed, wealthier folks often give up quality of life moments like socializing for long hours or long commutes, which are not so fun and tend to create stress [just like food or safety insecurities]. Mitt Romney’s recent comments about some 47% that don’t pay taxes and feel like victims is false in so many ways it deserves scrutiny only for its foolishness.
Perhaps the most important aspect of the diminishing power of money is within each of us. We widely understand now that the so-called American Dream is a nightmare. That buying the latest and greatest to be happy is a false idea, and one that wreaks havoc on our ecosystems. That some McMansion far removed from neighbors and community is desirable. That in trying to get ahead we but alienate ourselves from our sisters and brothers. [It’s tough to focus on ‘winning’ and being together at the same time.]
Busted. That dream is over, except for the few who refuse to open their eyes, the few that hold onto what they were taught by this failed culture until they lose their fingers, and then wonder how they lost them. Cognitive dissonance is a poor strategy for happiness.
We, as in people across the planet, are waking up to our citizenship and rejecting the consumer identity. This is ultimately what Occupy Wall Street and the Arab Spring and so much else going on these days is about. One can argue that this outcome was inevitable, given the recent and now constant overreaching of the corporate overlords. One can also argue that things will get worse before they get better, given the now-consistent fundamental of a shrinking middle class.
What is certain, and far more easily appreciated in these times, is that our happiness comes from within – the decisions we make about what we think and we how we feel as we course through the moment. And from without – our relationships and interactions with family, friends, coworkers and community. This is the stuff of our lives. This is what is worthy of our attention. ‘Cause money can’t buy me love.’ And only love makes us happy.