Bolivia Presents Revolutionary Socialist Program To Transform World
Bolivia’s President Luis Arce used his platform at the United Nations General Assembly to propose a revolutionary 14-point socialist program to transform the world.
“Today we find ourselves facing a wide-ranging, systemic capitalist crisis that increasingly endangers the life of humanity and the planet,” he warned.
Arce continued: “We should not only reflect on the economic, social, food, climate, energy, water, and trade crises, but also identify with clarity the origin, in order to change a system that reproduces domination, exploitation, and exclusion of the large majorities, that generates the concentration of wealth in a few hands, and that prioritizes the production and reproduction of capital over the production and reproduction of life.”
“Alongside the wide-ranging, systemic crisis of capitalism, we see the final gasp of the unipolar world,” the Bolivian leader added, warning of the dangers of war.
“But unfortunately we are seeing the gradual deterioration of the multilateral system, because of the whims of the capitalist powers that will not accept the existence of a multipolar world with a balance of power.”
Luis “Lucho” Arce represents Bolivia’s Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) party. A trained socialist economist, he served as economic minister under former President Evo Morales.
Morales was overthrown in a violent coup d’etat in 2019, which was sponsored by the US government and led by far-right extremists. But after nearly a year of popular rebellion, Bolivia’s social movements defeated the coup regime, and Arce won October 2020 presidential elections in a landslide.
At the UN, Arce delivered a comprehensive 4000-word speech outlining his ambitious vision for changing the global capitalist system, with 14 concrete proposals.
1. Declare the world to be a zone of peace
Many armed conflicts are “promoted by transnational war corporations, but also by the desire to impose a political and economic order that serves the interests of capitalism,” Arce said.
He called for a concerted campaign to ensure world peace. The Bolivian leader emphasized the importance of “reaching a cease-fire between Russia and Ukraine, making sure the historic rights of the state and people of Palestine are respected, and that NATO stops thinking about expansionist plans.”
2. Substitute the manufacturing of weapons of mass destruction with just compensation for the poor people of the world
Nuclear weapons threaten life on the planet, Arce warned.
He proposed to “substitute military spending on the manufacturing of weapons of mass destruction with a just economic compensation that the countries at the core of capitalism owe, morally and historically, to the countries of the periphery and the poor people of the world.”
3. Against the commercialization of health care, systems of universal health care
The Covid-19 pandemic “exposed the vulnerabilities and inequalities in the health systems of all of the world, as well as the global financial and economic system,” the Bolivian leader said.
He insisted that the state has an “obligation to protect and guarantee collective rights” and “reduce the effects of the world economic crisis on the most vulnerable sectors of the population.”
4. Global program of food sovereignty, in harmony with Mother Earth
World hunger is getting worse, not better, Arce warned.
In 2021, 828 million people suffered from hunger, representing 9.8% of the world population.
He proposed a program to strengthen food sovereignty by supporting small-scale agricultural producers, giving peasants and farmers all the seeds, fertilizers, technology, and financial support they need.
5. Rebuild the productive and economic capacities of the country of the periphery hurt by the logic of the unrestrained concentration of capital
The Bolivian president warned of the damage being done to the world by the inflation crisis and the rapid increase in the price of energy, fertilizers, and raw materials caused by the proxy war in Ukraine.
He called for debt relief for the Global South, maintaining, “The restructuring of the world financial architecture is vital for the relief of external debt on the global scale, so that we developing countries have the space to implement sovereign social policies from the perspective of integral and sustainable economic and social development.”
“And, as has always been a cry from the countries of the South, we must balance the trade relations that currently keep benefiting only the North,” he said.
Arce then explained how his government helped to stabilize Bolivia and recover its economy after the chaos of the US-backed far-right 2019 coup d’etat.
“Following the recovery of democracy in 2020,” he recalled, Bolivia returned to its “social, communitarian, productive economic model, a sovereign economic model in which we don’t accept and we will not accept impositions of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).”
Arce explained that this economic model “is based on the active role of the state in the economy, in the nationalization of our strategic natural resources, the articulation of all forms of economic organization, the strengthening of public investment, import substitution industrialization, the dynamization of the internal market, productive diversification, security with food sovereignty, redistribution of revenues, the struggle against poverty and inequalities.”
He added that this economic model is also influenced by Bolivia’s Indigenous communal traditions.
Arce boasted that this model has been so successful that Bolivia had a rate of just 1.6% inflation in August. The country has the lowest inflation rate in all of Latin America, and one of the lowest in the entire world.
“We regret that, while the countries at the core of capitalism gamble on war with large sums of money, negligible contributions are made for integral and sustainable development, for decolonization and depatriarchalization, for the eradication of poverty and economic and social inequalities,” he said.
As an example of this irresponsible behavior, Arce pointed out that, in just a few months, 20 times more financial resources have been spent on the proxy war in Ukraine than have been invested in the Green Climate Fund in a decade.
6. The climate crisis requires responsibility, solidarity, and harmony between human beings and nature, not usury
Arce warned that the climate “crisis is passing into an ecological collapse.” But he lamented that “the countries that have the means to change their patterns of production and consumption do not have the political will to do it, and those of us who have proposed ambitious goals have not received the means of implementation pledged in the [Climate] Convention and the Paris Accords.”
The Bolivian leader also pointed out that the international climate agreements that do exist do not “take into account the historic responsibilities of the developed countries, or the capacities and limitations of developing countries.”
On a sarcastic note, he added, “Perhaps the historic climate debtors want us all to worry only about the future, to avoid discussing in the present the broken promises made to developing countries about financing, technology transfers, and strengthening capacities.”
The “centuries of bad capitalist development” have done a lot of damage, Arce lamented.
“We are convinced that a future low in emissions and resilient to the climate is not possible if we keep concentrating wealth and incomes in a few hands,” he asserted. “Therefore, to reverse the climate crisis we need to resolve the economic, social, and political contradictions caused by the capitalist model, as well as those that exist between human beings and nature.”
7. The industrialization of lithium, for the benefit of the peoples and a fundamental pillar for the energy transition
Noting that Bolivia has the largest reserves of lithium on the planet, Arce pledged to use those resources “with much responsibility,” “guaranteeing that its use is of benefit to humanity, as a fundamental pillar of the just global transition to a future low in emissions, respecting Mother Earth.”
“We want our lithium reserves not to follow the path of other natural resources that, on the conditions of colonialism and capitalist development, only serve to increase the wealth of a few and make the people hungry,” he said.
“In this sense, we affirm the sovereignty over our natural resources such as lithium, its industrialization, and the benefit oriented toward the well-being of the peoples, not of transnational corporations or a small privileged group, and the sovereign appropriation of the economic surplus to be redistributed, especially among the low-income population,” the Bolivian leader promised.
Citing a statement by the commander of the US military’s Southern Command (Southcom), Arce warned that South America’s “Lithium triangle,” made up of Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile, “is in the sights of the United States.”
8. From nationalization to regionalization of the struggle against drug trafficking
Early in the day on September 20, a few hours before Bolivian President Arce spoke at the United Nations, Colombia’s first ever left-wing President Gustavo Petro used the General Assembly to declare that “the war on drugs has failed.”
Petro criticized the US government’s violent approach and its militarization of Latin America, as well as its internal system of racist mass incarceration of Black Americans.
When Arce took to the podium at the UN, he made similar comments.
“It remains clear that the war on drugs, principally the one unleashed by the United States, has failed,” the Bolivian leader said. “Therefore there is an imperative need that this country [the US] does a deep analysis about changing its policy, with attention to the fact that it has become one of the main consuming countries, which has resulted in the lamentable death of more than 100,000 people by overdoses and drug addictions inside of its territory.”
“We must change the focus in the approach of the struggle against drug trafficking. To keep emphasizing supply and not demand has only served as a pretext for militarization and for the waging of the international war on drugs,” Arce added. “That has affected peasants in the South, and left absolute impunity for the large criminal groups, never publicly identified, in the countries whose populations largely consume all types of drugs.”
“The international war on drugs criminalizes and leads to unilateral sanctions against countries of the South, but it shields money laundering and facilitates drug trafficking and other crimes connected to the countries of the North. It can no longer continue this way.”
Arce proposed the “regionalization” of the struggle against drug trafficking, with an “integral focus that is less militarized and more socio-economic.”
9. Strengthen international mechanisms for preferential treatment for landlocked countries
In his UN address, Arce proposed the idea that countries have a “right to the sea.”
For landlocked nations like Bolivia, “We face grave difficulties in accessing the sea and using its resources, keeping in mind that marine spaces make up zones of great potential for the development of countries, especially developing countries,” he explained.
“All countries have the right to access and utilize oceanic space and marine resources,” he argued. And to protect those habitats, “We should ensure the just distribution of rights and responsibilities with respect to marine wealth.”
10. Widen our restricted vision of human rights and democracy
“We need to widen our restricted concept of human rights and their relation with democracy,” Arce implored.
“Neither one of the two exists,” he argued, “when the preservation of the privileges of a few is done at the cost of the effective unfulfillment of the economic, social, and cultural rights of the majorities.”
As an example of how this can be done, Arce held up Bolivia’s plurinational model, which provides equal representation for the 36 Indigenous peoples that make up the country.
11. Intergenerational solidarity
The Bolivian leader also called to protect older populations who are sometimes forgotten by society.
“This vibrant and productive generation must show solidarity with those who built the first foundations of our houses,” he said.
“One cannot assure equity with future generations if we do not show equity between the present generations.”
12. Declare the decade of depatriarchalization to struggle against all forms of violence against women and girls
Arce condemned “the persistence of violence against women and girls, and in particular Indigenous women and girls who are in poverty.”
“The pandemic and the structural crises of capitalism are deteriorating the conditions of life, especially of women, of the countryside and the cities,” he said. “Those women continue confronting complex and intersectional forms of violence.”
The Bolivian government officially declared 2022 to be the “Year of the Cultural Revolution for Depatriarchalization: For a life free of violence against women,” Arce noted.
“We are advancing policies oriented not only at strengthening regulatory goalposts but also attacking the structural causes of violence, from education, strengthening economic autonomy of women, and also through cultural processes, to transform that lamentable reality, rooted in patriarchy, as the oldest system of oppression, that has a feedback loop with colonialism and capitalism.”
13. Reject unilateral sanctions
Condemning the imposition of sanctions, Arce declared, “It is inconceivable, in a world rocked by crises and the pandemic, that unilateral coercive measures are still applied with the goal of subduing governments, at the expense of people’s hunger and suffering.”
The Bolivian leader denounced the US government’s “inhuman and criminal commercial and financial blockade against Cuba, that puts at risk the lives of millions of citizens.”
“It is a crime against humanity to maintain that type of measure,” Arce said, blasting Washington for adding Cuba to its list of so-called sponsors of “terrorism.”
Every year, more than 95% of the 193 member states of the United Nations vote to oppose the unilateral US blockade on Cuba, yet Washington has maintained it for six decades.
The impunity that the United States enjoys despite these illegal forms of aggression show “how the decisions taken by the majority each year in this [General] Assembly are not fulfilled by certain countries,” Arce lamented.
14. Guarantee the full validity of the UN charter and the principle of multilateralism
“The multidirectional crisis that the planet is going through as a result of capitalist ambition, far from being overcome will get even worse if urgent measures are not taken,” Arce warned at the end of his speech.
“Only through a strengthened multilateralism will we be able to reach greater dialogue and cooperation in search of solutions to that crisis.”
The Bolivian leader affirmed that his country is waging a “revolution” that is dedicated “to overcome the current polarization of the world architecture, to overcome the capitalist order that has put us in dizzying, dangerous, and limitless race of consumerism that puts humanity and the planet at risk, and to instead build a more just, inclusive, and equitable world, for everyone.”
The Permanent War Paradigm
Now that we’re several months into our Ukraine Conflict, we begin to see things a bit more clearly. Putin remains an unstable threat, yet there are undertones and currents which suggest the US empire is exploiting this conflict, allowing Ukraine to be destroyed one bit at a time, when we could be using diplomacy and global pressure to bring an end to this conflict.
We won’t. We’ll continue to call out Russia as the bad guy and keep pretending we’re the good guy, as corporate media always does. In truth as NATO surrounds Russia tighter and tighter it’s kind of to be expected that Putin would react. Remember Cuba in the 1960s? We were having none of that.
“Terrorism” is the perfect term to highlight the permanent war paradigm at this time. After all “Communism” or the “The Cold War” don’t carry the weight they once did. And, once ‘Terrorism’ loses its convincing value, there will be other threats thrust in our face to ensure we allow a trillion dollars a year of our money to be used for U.S. Imperialism. And for those offended by such strong language I do not apologize. I ask that you open your eyes.
Who has military bases in 200 countries? Who has initiated the most military conflicts in the last 50 years? [it’s not even close!] Who has replaced the most democratically elected leaders with U.S. friendly dictators? Think Chile, poor Haiti, Iraq, Lybia and a good handful of others. Yeah, that’s us.
The terrorism bogeyman card can be played, if not forever, well into the foreseeable future. And it’s a trump card, as we’re seeing so clearly in the bloated budget earmarked for the Department of Defense. No wonder they feel obliged to cut social programs.
In the permanent war paradigm, there’s no new money for states and cities, or local renewal. There’s no new money for alternate energy, education,or a host of other issues we face, but there’s 400 billion for Iraq. (That money goes to energy research, we don’t need their fucking oil.)
So ‘our leaders’ are creating a United States of America with rising illiteracy and poverty, less healthcare, no retirement funding and crumbling infrastructure. But BY GOD, THOSE TERRORISTS ARE NOT GOING TO GET US!
Ongoing support for the permanent war paradigm remains ridiculously high in Washington politics. This is the sordid group that’s codifying the Permanent War Paradigm – and believes they’ll be able to control the game for the indefinite future.
They may well be right. Democracy is tough. Corruption is easy if you’re in power. The Permanent War Paradigm guarantees conflict for decades ahead, meaning continued profits for profiteers, and insulation for corrupt politicians.
And if I have not stressed enough the connections between our shitty politicians and the corporations they are beholding to, rest assured they’re incredibly deep and wide. As of 2022, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, General Dynamics, and Raytheon Technologies win the top five spots. They own our politicians and so the endless wars continue.
The eventual success or failure of these outlandish plans depends on many things. One sign of hope is that events tend to outrun even the greatest strategists. [Even this idea of World 5.0] Another positive is burnout. Many Americans are getting tired of the “terrorism trumps everything” modality our federal government champions. And a third cause for hope – we, the People of the Blog. There is an undeniable progressive movement, typified by new editorial sites like David Sirota’s The Lever, that is shaking the fundamental assumptions of capitalism and cronyism.
Sometimes things have to fall apart so they can be reconstructed. “That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.” – from the Declaration of Independence.
Yeah, what he said.
We’re Waving Blue
November’s Midterm Election ushered in the beginning of a new era – mainstream progressive politics. Right here in the good ol’ USA. We haven’t seen this kind of energy since the 1960s, which gave us the Equal Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, the women’s liberation movement and the EPA, for starters. Resistance to war and meme’s like ‘Free Love’ filled the air.
Okay we haven’t reached such a point yet in this new wave, but the promise is finally here. In the House of Representatives, we have the youngest member ever, the first Muslim women, the first Native American, and almost 100 new female representatives. This with everything corrupt Republicans were doing to disenfranchise voters in their gerrymandered districts.
Beyond the House we elected six new Democratic governors and switched a number of state legislatures to the blue side. And we’ve just learned that Democrat Krysten Sinema won in the Arizona senate race and we’re still waiting on final tallies from Florida and Georgia. All to the good.
Short term, we need to hold Trump and the Republicans that serve him accountable. While the Senate is still under Republican control, which will limit the ability to create progressive legislation, the new House will have Democratic leadership which means investigations into things like Trump’s tax returns and abuse of the Emoluments Clause. Not to mention why the EPA and other federal agencies are not doing their job.
As Indivisible and others are pointing out, this cycle was about stopping the Republicans from unlimited political power, which they’ve held since the Trump election. We’ve done that. We were playing defense this cycle, trying to recover some bit of what we lost in 2016. Now, with fresh energy and a lot of new faces in our politics, we can start thinking and strategizing for 2020.
Already progressive house members are shaking up the establishment Democrats. Nancy Pelosi is at least being challenged for Speaker of the House by Ohio congresswoman Marcia Fudge. While centrist (read corporate-owned) Democrats point to the loss of senate candidate Beta O’Rourke as an indicator that centrism works best, we know better. Beto made a terrific showing in deep red Texas. Stacy Adams in Georgia is still in the hunt, though not so much for Andrew Gillum in Florida. One wonders how a Nancy Pelosi or Chuck Schumer would have fared in battles like these – they’d get hammered of course.
What will be fun to watch is when these new progressive reps take on the corporate wing of the Democratic Party. There will be plenty of fireworks surrounding this. These new lawmakers are not shy and will make themselves heard. They stand on the ground of common good. Refreshing and long overdue.
There is finally hope that the long standing criticism of the Democratic Party – that they are nothing more than ‘Republican Light’ – may be changing. We have to give the new kids on the block a bit of time to see how this plays out.
Perhaps the greatest lesson from this midterm is that we must stay engaged. Voting is not enough. See what needs attention in your community. There are about a million groups that would love your time, energy and financial support. We must build on this new passion that so many regular folks in this country are feeling. We must recognize that democracy building is a huge job and dig in and get our hands dirty. And we must reach out, gently, to former Trump supporters and offer them a better way forward, as opposed to the hate and vitriol they get from the President.
And as Star Trek Captain Picard was so fond of the command, let’s end with it… Engage!
A Revolution of Love
After generations of abuse from the world’s controllers, the global elite are losing their grip. For those paying attention, there are a host if indicators that their iron fist of control is cracking.
New forms of banking are emerging to challenge the corruption of Wall Street. The fossil fuel industry is losing control as renewable resources come online, we the people rejecting their priority of profits over climate change and the Earth’s health. Organic food is growing by leaps and bound. We could go on and on.
But let’s focus on the new. What is replacing these obsolete systems?
New systems that reflect our human dignity and the Earth. Systems that contribute to our wholeness instead of ill health. Systems that demand equal rights, economic rights, and integrity and transparency.
These are signs of love emerging. But they’re just the tip of the iceberg.
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In sharp contrast to the devastation being visited on the Middle East by the Empire, on a more personal scale we’re seeing folks find alignment and getting along like never before. We’re seeing a greater sense of empathy, a reaching out to help and an engagement in neighborhoods and communities that is unmatched in generations.
Love is emerging.
And in this crazy election year, we’re seeing a commitment to progressive, human supporting ideas that hasn’t been seen since the New Deal in the 1930s.
Let’s be clear. Love is the deepest human emotion we are capable of. It wishes the best for everyone, without the motivation of personal benefit, like wanting to get laid. Love is the genuine expression of life once fear is removed from our lives. You see, it is Peace that engenders Love, because at are core we are Eternal Awareness – call it Life, God, Allah, The Force – the word is of little consequence. So regardless of the tumultuous nature of our lives, at our core is peace. And by touching that peace, love becomes our natural expression.
What many of us older folk struggle to learn, the younger folk have an intuitive understanding of who we are and what we are about. This is why they flock to Bernie. He’s authentic and holds integrity, rare traits in politicians.
We can thank the indomitable Bernie Sanders for lighting this fire. But it is not his flame. This is the flame of Truth emerging. This is the flame of millions taking action for a better way forward. This is the flame of recognition when we look into a stranger’s eyes and see a friend. This is the flame of revolution. And the revolution is Love.
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.”
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.
Birth of a Revolution
For centuries the vast majority of humanity has suffered under the thumb of elitism, the system where powerful political and commercial interests collude to take advantage of the rest of us. They start wars, they create globalism, they call us consumers. The classic name for this is plutocracy. It’s a clear sign of the failure of government, serving the interests of elites instead of citizens.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. Indeed, throughout the world we see insurrection and the rejection of nation-state colonialism and corporatism.
Here is the U.S., we have an election year of particular note and color. The republicans prostrate themselves for every hater vote, except of course for Trump who so well epitomizes hate. Democrats have a choice between another Clinton and a rare bird in American politics – a person of integrity.
This person claims #notmeus. This person claims money is the central corruptive force in our politics and culture. This person claims we need a revolution. Bernie Sanders has picked up the banner of progressive leaders throughout history, and intends a better day for we, the people.
This better day will not come through ‘negotiating’ with fundamentalists driven by ideology. Nor by those whose souls are owned by elites. The revolution is happening through common values of peace, love, integrity and justice.
We’ve had movements. In my time the sixties was a great movement, with Civil RIghts, the women’s and enviromental movements, we hippies – all told it was a near revolution. But the system was too strong, and we weren’t ready.
Since then we’ve had the Arab Spring, Occupy and Black Lives Matter, all evidence of a yearning we share. A yearing that not only is our system corrupt, but it’s foundations are corrupt as well.
It’s true. In the dominant culture the very premise of human life is that we’re born alone, die alone and need to spend our lives trying to get ahead of the rest of humanity. And so our thoughts race, constantly flooded with the requisite fear, hate, dread mixed with the flush of triumph and domination. Such a poor existence.
The foundation that is true is that we are all here together in Life. This truth ever stares at us as we course through our lives. We call it World 5.0.
Millions of us realize this – especially the young. Millenials are stirring to this new recognition of who and where we are. Millions of us are recognizing that the way out of drama and fear is integrity and love, which open the door to peace.
And now we have a leader. Revolutionaries, Occupiers, BLMers, and activists – we now have a leader. As this most auspicious year plays out, lets not forget who and where we are.
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.
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.
Oil and The Gulf
Well, geez, what a surprise. We’re getting another serious lesson in sustainability. Oil doesn’t qualify.
Our first big lesson came in the early 1070s, when the U.S. and other Israel supporting countries felt the effects of an oil embargo initiated by oil producing countries in the Middle East. Then in 1979 we suffered another shortage due to the Iranian Revolution which removed the Shah and allowed the Ayatollah Khomeini to rise to power. We throw in the War(s) on Iraq, and the many other conflicts in that part of the world and we reach a simple conclusion. The conclusion is that, from a geopolitical perspective, oil is unsustainable.
From the perspective of consumption, we find another marker. Climate change. Anyone who doesn’t think the science is ‘in’ on this does so at their, and our, peril. There is no question the seas are rising, and that means we’re getting warmer. We may argue the cause, but we cannot argue the likelihood that all the carbon we’ve been throwing into the air these last 300 or 400 years [first coal, then oil] is going to have negative effects. So again we find oil is unsustainable.
Which brings us the BP oil rig explosion and the ensuing mess we’re facing in the Gulf of Mexico. Already experts are suggesting this could be far worse than the Exxon Valdez tanker accident off the coast of Alaska. Some suggest we not use the word ‘spill’, as that implies a finite amount of something being spilled. Continually spewing 25,000 gallons of oil a day, maybe 10 times that? We probably need a new word. We may see contaminated beaches, ruined livelihoods, and ecological disaster from Texas to Florida. Oh yes, and let’s not forget the chemical soup of dispersants being dumped deeply and on the surface to break up this mess. What we are sure of is that no one has any idea of the potential far-reaching effects of thousands of tons of chemicals. Not good.
But when I titled this entry, I was also thinking of another gulf. And this, the gulf between our energy interests and energy policy. With the production crises of the 1970s, there was a lot of talk about conservation and other policies to remove our dependence on foreign oil. How effective was that? Well, we went from 28% in 1979 to 66% in 2007.
And again the uproar 20 years ago with the Alaskan Oil Spill. And again no positive results. And only a few weeks ago President Obama suggested more ‘drill, baby, drill’ options on the East Coast. Yuck.
Chris Matthews made a salient point on Bill Maher’s HBO show last recently. The same time this spill kicks in down south, a massive wind farm off Cape Cod is approved. He described it as ‘a teachable moment’, and I couldn’t agree more.
But if we look at this 40 year history of oil troubles, we see the same pattern emerge as we see emerge in so many other areas of our lives. Elitist interests trumping the common good. Our policies haven’t improved, because our government is controlled by money, in this case energy corporations money.
It’s the same reason we give the billions in subsidies to energy interests while we drip some handful of millions at alternative energy sources. As always, we see more clearly how our world works when we follow the money.
An irony here is that I don’t see our elected officials even seeing the connection between their past policies and sucking up to energy interests. Oh, the word about Cheney, Bush and energy policy is starting to get out, but our whole congress is complicit. And we’re still giving ecological impact exemptions for new drill sites? Another reason to throw the bums out.
In our new World5 world, we appreciate our two most great and constant needs [assuming access to clean air and water] as food and energy. We further appreciate that the more we localize these two needs, the more we gain stability, control and sustainability. Of course it will be some while before we are weaned from oil as an energy source, but that time comes much sooner with an honest and concerted effort, as opposed to the green washing and bullshit we get from massive energy corporations.
In world5, none of this mess happens. Companies don’t think twice about fail-safe valve systems because they care. Absentee ownership doesn’t give one permission to pollute. Indeed, in world5, the word ownership comes to mean stewardship. We are, after all, all in this together.