The Cincinnati Southern Railway

For those not local to the Cincinnati area, you likely aren’t aware that the city of Cincinnati owns a rail line. We’ve had it since 1880, and now our politicians want to sell it off to Norfolk Southern, that wonderful corporation that brought is the disaster in East Palestine last February.

In a surprising confluence, my friend Justin Jeffre asked me about filming former mayor Dwight Tillary for remarks again the sale about a month ago. A bit later that same day Justin asked if I could also record Alfred Nippert. Alfred had such knowledge that the next day I suggested to Justin we could probably make a documentary with all we got from Alfred. He said go for it.

As it happened I was also able to film former Cincinnati councilman Kevin Flynn who also happens to be a real estate attorney. The result is this 20 minute documentary that describes the reason it came to be, construction, its evolution and why it remains a valuable asset. Lots of cool old photos and moving pictures….

This Restorative Process

Healing happens here in the present.

When humans are in conflict, things need to be sorted out. It may be a simple quarrel, or it may be a horrid crime committed. Still, the process is the same. Restoration.

Restorative Justice is the term that came into being in in the early 1990s. “Restorative justice is a fast-growing state, national, and international social movement that seeks to bring together people to address the harm caused by crime,” write Mark Umbreit and Marilyn Peterson Armour. “Restorative justice views violence, community decline, and fear-based responses as indicators of broken relationships. It offers a different response, namely the use of restorative solutions to repair the harm related to conflict, crime, and victimization.” -from wiki

A similar phenomenon occurred in school systems eager to find a better methodology than punishing and expelling students for unacceptable behavior. In this case the same process is referred to as ‘Restorative Practices’. Both terms share the same key features.

As noted above in the quote, the old methods of demonizing a bad actor are recognized as the result of broken relationships. Indeed, it is these relationships which must be healed. Whether the result of a criminal act, or someone acting out in school, the process is the same. Restoring relationships.

Typically, the process begins with a cooling off period, where offender and victim or two or more acting out are removed from contact with others until emotions become settled. Then offender and victim, or those acting out, are brought together for a conversation. Ideally the setting is a ‘Restorative Circle’.

In a Restorative Circle, those involved and one or two mediators form a circle with chairs. This is in contrast to situations where, say in a classroom, where someone is ‘in charge’ at the front of the room. The circle becomes an equalizer. All participants share in the physical circle.

Then the task is to encourage everyone to be ‘present’. From the World5 perspective, we recognize that Life happens only Now, so it is but aligning with the truth of our reality. Regardless, the point is to see the humanity in everyone who is engaged in the process, and to approach the session with a clear mind and warm heart. No name calling, no speaking over one another, no blame. Openness is key.

Once the space for healing is established and everyone is present, meaningful conversations begin. And they begin with questions. The questions are not accusatory… “Billy why did you hit Bobby?” The questions are honest efforts to understand those involved. “Billy, what were the circumstances that led you to think hitting Bobby was the best option?” “How were you feeling when the encounter occurred?” How do you think Bobby felt during the encounter?” What do you thing we might do to minimize the damage done, to each of you and your classmates, and prevent such situations from reoccurring?”

Again referring to the quote above, these are not ‘fear-based questions’. This is an honest effort at healing. An honest effort toward restoration.

Clearly not everyone and every situation is going to be in the space to leverage This Restorative Process. In severe criminal cases, it might be months or years before the space to forgive and heal exists for a victim. Yet the value of This Restorative Process is not hampered by the time required to seek restoration.

It’s quite simple when we’re paying attention. De-escalate the situation. Make sure the folks involved are able to get past the emotions of the moment. Once such a settling has occurred, we get present with each other. Hence, THIS Restorative Process. And once we’re settled and clear minded, we ask Questions That Matter. These are key because there is no attempt to punish or blame, just to understand what happened with as much clarity as possible. And then all do what is needed to heal and make amends.

This process is ground-breaking. It has the potential to transform policing, the criminal justice system, school systems, families and our very lives. I leave you with a 20 minute film that highlights Restorative Practices in the Finneytown School System, a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio…

This Transformation We Require

So we’ve been taught, and grown up, in a culture that values money and its attendant power above all else. Why is this case instead of say, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness being our top priority? It’s actually quite simple. It’s because 600 years ago the British Crown made ‘The Corporation’ a viable business entity. Horrible idea.

Which makes on wonder about nation-states as well. There’s been the natural evolution over the ages, from small villages to cities, city-states and more recently nation-states. Not as horrible an idea as ‘The Corporation’, but one that has seemingly outgrown its usefulness. Some might argue that it’s usefulness was pretty seriously challenged by European colonialism, which so much reshaped the world to support Empire’s ruthless agenda.

Since WWII the U.S. has taken over the mantle of Empire, trying to bend the world so that U.S. hegemony can continue forever. Ain’t going to happen. The trends that supported corporate and nation-state growth are no longer trends. And the supposed virtues of corporations have been seen for what they are. Bullshit, lies, corruption and falseness at every turn. We need a new way forward.

Even the ground rules of the old culture are busted. We assume, and Einstein even postulated, that there are an infinite number of points in time, just as there are an infinite number of points in space. He was wrong. There is only one point it time where Life, and hence we, exist. The point of Life is Now. Less punny, the totality of Now just aught to be the central tenant of any culture. In this one it’s a wildly foreign idea. Yet that makes it no less true.

Once we narrow the playing field of time to Now, we begin to see more clearly the power of our intent. Our collective lives are a mess, pollution is everywhere, if the nuclear war doesn’t kill us, the climate chaos will. Ugly times. And yet, locked into the reality of Now, we understand that we still have options on how we think, feel and act. A tremendous freedom awaits those of us who hold this truth tightly.

Oh yes, and learning Life is relegated to this tiny point in time where the future becomes the past offers another requirement. We are all Here together. Always. We are all always moving from here. Together. A pretty refreshing notion as well.

So we need to find our common ground first. Perhaps then we can begin moving together to solve our horrendous problems.

Our problems, from generations of abuse and corporate overreach all over our planet, are legion.

This Consumer Culture

I imagine that in ancient cultures the goal was water, food and getting basic needs met. Beyond that explore, play, learn, even as other animals do. Getting along was a given. The tribe shared the vibe.

From there we’ve found ourselves gobbling up plastic crap to no end, from our grocery bags to gadgets. We were taught that money is the road to happiness, and more is always better. He who dies with the most toys wins. It’s not only ruining our planet, it’s not making us happier. It was all a lie.

New phone. New car. New shit. We adore it. We’ve been well trained.

The tribe in that ancient culture had a greater sense of abundance than we do. No monthlies, credit cards and the fears of lack so many of us hold. It’s worth noting that they met their needs locally, water, food and wood for energy. We have the same needs now. We just have a corporate greed/corrupt government model today. It is this that must be transformed.

This War Machine

Living in nation-states that disagree sure seems like a great system if you’re in the war business. Recall that a whole slew of nation-states were drawn up by the British Empire. Fuck. And there are amalgamations like China, one political system reigning over a huge number of tribes. And places like the U.S., where we wiped out the indigenous people and brought a bunch of slaves along. Land of the free my ass.

It’s generally been like this since Medieval times, the greatest change being the equipment of war. Catapults hardly compare to the many death machines this war machine has come up with. And now AI and the robots are coming. And of course the frequency. In the Middle Ages we had breaks between our wars.

As many of us recognize, the war in Ukraine goes much deeper than Putin, no angel, wanting to claim Ukraine to remake the old USSR. It’s all part of the demented maniacs willing to destroy we humans out of their greed. The many unknown forces determined to keep us abused and confused, we cannot let them continue. It is this that must be transformed.

This Corrupt Political System

The corrupt political culture, here in the U.S. and on display across the globe, is so evident it needs no discussion. There are a few relative beacons, like the very northern European nations (Norway, Sweden, Finland) but there aren’t a lot of great examples.

At the same time we have a ton of dictators, authoritarians and fascists. This makes for terrible lives for millions and even billions of us as these ‘leaders’ care nothing for you and me. And it doesn’t look like it will fix itself. While it is my sense that most of us humans are pretty decent folk, our politicians and leaders clearly are not. It is this that must be transformed.

The Way Forward Is a New O/S

While healing and restoring are much needed ingredients, we start with a new yet ancient paradigm. We recognize that we exist within Life, and that Life happens only now. Ergo, we only happen Now. This necessitates that we are All Here Together as well. There is quite literally nowhere else in time we can be. All else is speculation or memory.

Once we grasp this great truth, we can focus our attention, our intent, on how we are playing this living moment. Our fears and pains are seen more truly, where they can be more easily released. And we must begin by healing ourselves. Otherwise whatever new system emerges will end up corrupt as well. Integrity is requisite, and is only found where we humans are able to heal and grow.

Once we have our own selves together, we can begin to remake this crazy world we find ourselves living in. We reject the legal status of ‘The Corporation’ and its effect of globalism, which is a terrible system for getting our needs met, but a great system if your own goal is making gobs of money.

Our priorities could be peace, good governance, localism, organic food and learning, without which we are at the mercy of corporate control. Of these objectives, localism most directly strikes at the heart of the corporate controllers. There are innumerable cases where sourcing needed materials comes from the other side of the world because it makes corporate financial sense, though it makes no sense at all for a healthy culture to be doing such things.

We Must Rise Up

As the great historian and intellectual Noam Chomsky has noted, there’s hardly a time in human history where substantive change occurred without the citizenry rising up. Politicians and demagogues are not inclined to give up power unless confronted by citizens that will no longer tolerate their corruption. We see that quite clearly here in the United States.

For Progressives, locked into the two party system, the lesser evil typically means voting for Democrats, in spite of their lust to appease their corporate owners. The Republicans are off the charts now, going to any lengths to make this country ‘white and christian’, which it has never been. Whether we consider the maybe 10 million indigenous people or the maybe three million slaves, non-whites have played a huge role in our country’s history. Sadly, it’s a very ugly history.

Yet we find ourselves now facing a great precipice. If we do not change our children and grandchildren face much more cruel lives. Our climate chaos continues to wreak havoc, and the permanent war paradigm destroys entire populations in the name of greed. We must rise up.

Now is the time we change or perish. Welcome to World 5.0…

Only the richest ancient Athenians paid taxes – and they bragged about it

In ancient Athens, only the very wealthiest people paid direct taxes, and these went to fund the city-state’s most important national expenses – the navy and honors for the gods. While today it might sound astonishing, most of these top taxpayers not only paid happily, but boasted about how much they paid.

Money was just as important to the ancient Athenians as it is to most people today, so what accounts for this enthusiastic reaction to a large tax bill? The Athenian financial elite felt this way because they earned an invaluable payback: public respect from the other citizens of their democracy.

Modern needs, modern finances

Athens in the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. had a population of free and enslaved people topping 300,000 individuals. The economy mostly focused on international trade, and Athens needed to spend large sums of money to keep things humming – from supporting national defense to the countless public fountains constantly pouring out drinking water all over the city.

Much of this income came from publicly owned farmland and silver mines that were leased to the highest bidders, but Athens also taxed imports and exports and collected fees from immigrants and prostitutes as well as fines imposed on losers in many court cases. In general, there were no direct taxes on income or wealth.

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As Athens grew into an international power, it developed a large and expensive navy of several hundred state-of-the-art wooden warships called triremes – literally meaning three-rowers. Triremes cost huge amounts of money to build, equip and crew, and the Athenian financial elites were the ones that paid to make it happen.

The top 1% of male property owners supported the saving or salvation of Athens –called “soteria” – by performing a special kind of public service called “leitourgia,” or liturgy. They served as a trireme commander, or “trierarch,” who personally funded the operating costs of a trireme for an entire year and even led the crew on missions. This public service was not cheap. To fund their liturgy as a trierarch, a rich taxpayer spent what a skilled worker earned in 10 to 20 years of steady pay, but instead of dodging this responsibility, most embraced it.

Running warships was not the only responsibility the rich had to national defense. When Athens was at war – which was most of the time – the wealthy had to pay contributions in cash called “eisphorai” to finance the citizen militia. These contributions were based on the value of their property, not their income, which made them in a sense a direct tax on wealth.

To please the gods

To the ancient Athenians, physical military might was only part of the equation. They also believed that the salvation of the state from outside threats depended on a less tangible but equally crucial and costly source of defense: the favor of the gods.

To keep these powerful but fickle divine protectors on their side, the Athenians built elaborate temples, performed large sacrifices and organized lively public religious festivals. These massive spectacles featured musical extravaganzas and theater performances that were attended by tens of thousands of people and were hugely expensive to throw.

Just as with trieremes, the richest Athenians paid for these festivals by fulfilling festival liturgies. Serving as a chorus leader, for example, meant paying for the training, costumes and living expenses for large groups of performers for months at a time.

Proud to be paying

In the U.S. today, an estimated one out of every six tax dollars is unpaid. Large corporations and rich citizens do everything they can to minimize their tax bill. The Athenians would have ridiculed such behavior.

None of the financial elite of ancient Athens prided themselves on scamming the Athenian equivalent of the IRS. Just the opposite was true: They paid, and even boasted in public – truthfully – that they often had paid more than required when serving as a trierarch or chorus leader.

Of course, not every member of the superrich at Athens behaved like a patriotic champion. Some Athenian shirkers tried to escape their liturgies by claiming other people with more property ought to shoulder the cost instead of themselves, but this attempted weaseling out of public service never became the norm.

[The Conversation’s science, health and technology editors pick their favorite stories. Weekly on Wednesdays.]

So what was the reasoning behind this civic, taxpaying pride? Ancient Athenians weren’t only opening their wallets to promote the common good. They were counting on earning a high return in public esteem from the investments in their community that their taxes represented.

This social capital was so valuable because Athenian culture held civic duty in high regard. If a rich Athenian hoarded his wealth, he was mocked and labeled a “greedy man” who “borrows from guests staying his house” and “when he sells wine to a friend, he sells it watered!”

Social wealth, not monetary riches

The social rewards that tax payments earned the rich had long lives. A liturgist who financed the chorus of a prize-winning drama could build himself a spectacular monument in a conspicuous downtown location to announce his excellence to all comers for all time.

Above all, the Athenian rich paid their taxes because they craved the social success that came from their compatriots publicly identifying them as citizens who are good because they are useful. Earning the honorable title of a useful citizen might sound tame today, but in a letter to a Hebrew congregation in Rhode Island written in 1790, George Washington proclaimed that being “useful” was an invaluable part of the divine plan for the United States.

So, too, the Athenians infused that designation with immense power. To be a rich taxpayer who was good and useful to his fellow citizens counted even more than money in the bank. And this invaluable public service profited all Athenians by keeping their democracy alive century after century.

from The Conversation…
https://theconversation.com/only-the-richest-ancient-athenians-paid-taxes-and-they-bragged-about-it-147249

The Story of World 5.0 – Jim Prues

So it was August 8th, 2004 when, while walking my wolf-dog, I stopped in my tracks. World 5.0 had just popped into my head. World 5.0, I said to myself again. Wow. World 5.0. I had no idea what it meant but I knew it was a powerful idea. After 20 seconds or so, I started walking again.

A couple of years later I understood this idea well enough to put a quirky little video together, “Transmission One” which is still a favorite. Around the same time I published the first iteration of the World5.org website, a glimpse of which shows up in Transmission One.

In 2007 I began researching and outlining for a book on the topic. I was amazed at so many things coming together. Four previous cultures – Hunter/Gatherer, Agrarian, Medieval and Industrial. And each connected to emerging technologies of the day. Our primate ancestry coming from bonobos, not chimpanzees. So many ills of our culture are the result of the establishment of ‘The Corporation’, a very bad idea instituted by the British Monarchy in the 10th century.

And so it was that in 2011 I published the first iteration of the book, World 5.0 – Healing Ourselves, Our Earth and Our Life Together. We held an event at Fountain Square in Cincinnati on the Autumnal Equinox to commemorate the release, 11 years ago from the time of this writing.

And along the way a few more videos, the most important being ‘The Declaration of World 5.0’. Indeed, the book is prefaced with the same copy as the video. Other vintage vids are listed at the bottom of the home page at World5.org.

In 2017, with Donald Trump as president, I deemed a new edition of the book would be useful, and so I went to work on a new chapter. This new chapter made clear that Life is not what we were taught growing up, and that the character flaws that allow a Donald Trump presidency (his and ours) need to be healed for a healthy culture to exist.

And so during the Fall Equinox of 2018 I published the second edition of the book, this time entitled “World 5.0 – We Move From Here”, intending to make the Totality of Now clear by the subtitle. Ok, so I’m not sure that worked for the average person. Might be more confusing than anything as we’re so caught up in a corrupt consumer culture. You can download the book via the link.

I remember reminding myself that I could now rest, knowing I’d done my best with this book and being quite aware that the emergence of World 5.0 into popular culture was far beyond anything I might do. Besides, if I tried to force things I’d probably do more harm than good. Knowing we’re all Here in Life together allows a tremendous amount of trust as each moment passes.

Finally, I got notice early this year that for technical reasons World5.org needed to be migrated. I chose this opportunity to rebuild the site completely, and I feel like for the first time World 5.0 has a home on this InterWeb we’re constantly connecting with. I note that this InterWeb is the enabling technology of World 5.0.

Along the way I have found this journey one from fear into Love. The learning of “A Course in Miracles” started in my thirties, was key. Fear is the mind killer. We live in eternity. Bodies come and go.. So much living.

The real decision, always, is how we want to spend our time, and how we deal with the inevitable drama of this human biological experience. How we throw off the chains of the old world, and live and love now.How we use our intent.

Now I’m again feeling like ‘my work here is finished’. With the book and this new website anyone with an interest can glean the essence of this incredible idea rather easily, and step forward into their journey of healing and into their true self. I plant seeds and nurture as I’m led/inclined, but I now see my work as primarily holding this space of Peace and Love, this Totality of NowLife that we all share. Not a bad place to be… 🙂

And so now we have the tools to guide us into Life and Love, into World 5.0. How World5 emerges into public space and impacts our cultural transformation I cannot say. Yet it is coming. The old, industrial, corrupt, broke-ass system we grew up in no longer holds. The New Age of Earth Citizens is upon us. We live NowLife.

For me, I’m locked into who and where we are, and through many journeys, well know this Totality of Now. ‘There is no fear, I need do nothing.’ Such is my mantra. Life is our home. We’re always one.

Mississippi God Damn

The ongoing water crisis in capital city Jackson is torturous for those folks living there, and plenty hurtful to the rest of us who are paying attention.

It was a combination of a century of neglect, bad government and heavy rains.

The neglect stems for Mississippi being the racist, often hateful and corrupt state that it. Nina Simone said it best in her 1960s classic song. Jackson Mississippi is about 150,000 citizens, about a quarter of which live in the government’s definition of poverty. And it’s 82% black.

Their water system has been utterly neglected. They were already operating on backup pumps because of disrepair. Don’t drink the water warnings were regular, with so many pipes over a century old. And then a climate chaos fueled storm. So much neglect. And a state government who has fostered that neglect for a generation. A state government of white men.

As Natalia Marques points out… ““In order to fully repair the system the city needs more than a billion dollars in funding. On the state and federal level, the state has not received nearly that much.” “Meanwhile, the war on Ukraine has been bankrolled over the last 6 months to the tune of $54 billion. Biden’s newly announced ‘Safer America’ plan is giving $37 billion to bankroll 100,000 police officers. It is obvious what the United States values more than basic necessities for Jackson’s people: war abroad and policing at home.” Ouch.

So now is where I’m supposed to tell you about their woeful state government, but it could be any state, blue or red, yet especially in red states, the corruption is even more rampant and sickening. No doubt because of the added ideology of the religious right. But it’s everywhere. Pick a state. Pick a story.

So we need new stories. New stories that reflect our lives together here in Life. Stories about who will lead in our governments, because government needs to be the Great Balancer between commerce and community, and The Corporation has completely ruined that balance in our time. We need legislators of integrity.

The need for revolution is upon us, for transformation in how we live, work and play. How we choose to live and how we inevitably die. Will we choose to live grounded here in Life with everyone and everything, or succumb to old world goals of wealth, fame and power? One cannot be and do both. Will we die with grace or in terror of the unknown world that exists beyond and before biological life?

Now is when I’m supposed to recommend strategies and tactics that will actually impact and dismantle the old broke down, corrupt culture. That’s a tough one, but I know where it starts. UBU. Disengage from supporting war or any politician who supports it. Stop filling your brain with doom scrolling and distracting bull. Focus on a healthy mind and body. Focus on local issues and finding local solutions. Folks of integrity and authenticity are how we remake this ugly culture.

As the founder of World 5.0 I see a clearer way forward. It’s presented well enough on the site, world5.org. We currently have only a couple of thousand folks as subscribers, but one can imagine what we will be capable of if we have a couple of hundred thousand. And so we invite you to join us.

As we grow, and rise, we will indeed reshape our Earth to a home of health and happiness for us all.

Columbia Turns a Page

From Progressive International

Last Sunday, under the bright skies of Bogotá, thousands of Colombians gathered in Plaza Bolívar to inaugurate Francia Márquez and Gustavo Petro as the Vice President and President of the first progressive government in the history of Colombia.

“Today, the popular mandate for peace, for dignified life, for social and environmental justice has brought us to this square and to all the squares of Colombia,” said Roy Barreras, incoming President of the Colombian Senate, in the opening speech. “This is the rebirth of hope.”

Standing before the crowd, Afro-Colombian land defender Francia Márquez took her oath of office, swearing before God, the people of Colombia, and her ancestors to serve as Vice President “*hasta que la dignidad sea costumbre.*” Until dignity becomes custom.

Soldiers marched the sword of Simón Bolívar, a great liberator of the Patria Grande, onto the inauguration stage — the same sword that the M-19, the guerrilla movement to which Gustavo Petro once belonged, stole in 1974 in act of rebellion against Colombia’s corrupt regime.

As Gustavo Petro prepared to take the podium, the crowd in Plaza Bolívar roared in unison. “No más guerra! No más guerra!” No more war. Wearing the presidential sash bestowed to him by María José Pizarro — feminist, Senator, daughter of Carlos Pizarro, commander of the M-19 shot down on own his path to the presidency in 1990 — Gustavo Petro inaugurated the ‘Government of Life.’

“Many times in our history we Colombians have been condemned to the impossible, to the lack of opportunities, to a resounding ‘No’. I want to tell all Colombians who are listening to me in Plaza Bolivar, in the surrounding areas, throughout Colombia and abroad that our second chance begins today… We must end, once and for all, six decades of violence and armed conflict — in fact, I would say, two centuries of permanent war, of eternal war, of perpetual war in Colombia. It can be done.”

In a sweeping address, Petro called for a new internationalism in Latin America and around the world — not “discourse, mere rhetoric,” but robust institutions to bind together the sister nations of the South, from the Arab World to Africa. “Today, we must be more united than ever.”

Above all, Gustavo Petro called for peace. “I will work to achieve true and definitive peace: like no one else, like never before,” he said. “The Government of Life is the Government of Peace.”

The Progressive International is proud to accompany Council member Gustavo Petro on this journey toward a true and definitive peace — in Colombia, across Latin America, and around the world. 

Corporate Boat Versus Life Boat

In the muddle of these times, progressives ’embrace’ the democratic party because they have no alternative. We in the US live in a duopoly, where our votes are limited by the two party system.Democrats feign policies efforts that would improve our lives, but damn, they’re stymied again, and again, and again. The Republicans are now well adrift from reality, with many aligned with traitor Donald Trump, and nearly all of them given to ideology that does not befit us, and a lust for power that makes corporate interests ever the priority. It’s all too damn ugly.

We may begin to see another option if ranked voting, such as Maine and Alaska have recently initiated, takes hold. But for this election and the near future, the dems are all we have. Sad.

The Republicans began their trajectory in the 1980s with Ronald Reagan, the democratic party took a turn toward neoliberlism with the Clinton presidency in the early 1990s, and it has only gotten far worse with more recent ‘leaders’.

With this context, it’s clear we must make our voices heard more loudly than they have been, as the data shows are elected leaders pay almost no attention to our needs and interests, and all the attention they want to Corporate Overlords. Super Elites. Ideological Controllers. See, they’ve been so successful in keeping us duped that we don’t even have an accepted term for these bastards.

I needn’t remind that these bastards are destroying our planet’s biological life at a horrific pace, we humans included. That precious resources are used for yachts and rockets and endless bullshit because these bastards have almost all the money. The yacht is a nice metaphor for the corporate boat, which has controlled our culture for hundreds of years.

Warned again and again, even by our founding fathers, that corporations inevitably corrupt other institutions, we see now how far we are under their thumb. The recent decisions by the utterly bogus Supreme Court to overturn a woman’s right to her body, the regulation of guns and the EPA’s power to regulate can all be easily linked to these bastards.

There is a way out of this morass for each of us. We transform ourselves, away from mindless noise on the screens and toward our true selves. We each have on. Even these bastards. Yet they are so far from knowing themselves that that fat guy can way more easily fit through a needle. A few things for starting…

Turn off the screen. So much useless, time sinking, distracting horseshit  that whatever of value exists in that ream it’s not worth chasing. Far wiser to learn to sit with yourself, breathe, notice your body and what’s happening within the place you are in, knowing we are all here in Life together. So  we not only move the goalposts, we change our entire life’s game.

Ending our fear is the requirement behind finding our authentic selves. Because our authentic self is Love, which is antithetical to fear. Love is the Energy side of our eternal Tao. Yang. Just as Eternal Awareness is our Yin. We have much to release and let go.

And we must start with ourselves so that we bring authenticity, and its attendant integrity, into our lives. We change the framing of our lives and how we spend this preciousness of Life we share. So this is the Life Boat. So THIS experience of living we are sharing Now, is, quite literally, the Life Boat. Or the First Truth as I call it.

We give our attention to personal healing, which is what I describe above, because healing our lives together and our planet requires that we are healing ourselves already. Then we can begin our efforts to transform this corrupt and broken culture. Indeed, we must rise up.

And as we become more and more authentic we understand and appreciate the messaging we give ourselves on how we best participate, best let our voices be heard, within this transformation process we are undertaking. Our nearly fearless selves understand our place in All This.

And this is what World 5.0 is about. It’s yet another name for our Life Boat. Embracing ourselves, embracing each other, embracing our Earth, and above all, embracing This Life We Share Forever.

Our Civilization Sucks

Well, we don’t have to look very far, indeed, we don’t have to look at all. We feel it in our bones. We sense it on a regular. Our civilization sucks.

This mess in the Ukraine with Russian and US narratives going back and forth, and people dying, but ices our argument. Our civilization sucks. Want a deeper dive?

Want to look at our dying oceans, devastated ecosystems or environmental destruction?

Want to look at our shitty food systems, our fossil fuels use or our tepid response to the potential end of our species?

Want to back up that Ukraine thing with the permanent war paradigm? Haiti, Palestine, and a hundred other situations where human rights are abused and lives are ruined or ended?

Want to look at our media? Raving lunatics on left and right? All that matters to them is the corporate agenda.

How about civil rights or income inequality? Two very related topics where we’re failing miserably.

Or government, where one of the two main parties is officially the Party of Sedition? And the other a spineless tool of elites?

I could go on and on…

How is it that we find ourselves in such a bad place as a species, as a civilization? That’s not really a tough question if we’re paying attention.

It’s because all of the above and so much more stem from the corporate-owned, more money and power at all costs mentality that the elites – super wealthy families going back hundreds of years – have manipulated us and our culture so they always ‘win’. A sharp case in point is how the Rothschilds funded both sides of the war and lied and cheated ‘manipulated’ both sides, vastly improving their fortunes. Despicable, and a long standing tradition.

No wonder the founding fathers were very wary of ‘The Corporation’. And indeed, The Corporation is the ‘great’ financial entity that allows our corporate overlords to remain our corporate overlords. And it remains despicable.

The Rockefellers, Morgans and Vanderbilts were pulling similarly despicable behaviors in the U.S. a century later. Some of the richest men that ever lived, they offered platitudes to the common citizen, but saw wealth and poverty as both necessitated by capitalism. Their philanthropy was supposed to erase, or at least more tolerable, those great inequalities.

Democrat Grover Cleveland was not the first to complain that “corporations, which should be the carefully restrained creatures of the law and the servants of the people, are fast becoming the people’s masters.” (1888 State of the Union address). The only major shift since then is the addition of globalization to the corporate tool set. Indeed, our founding fathers had similar concerns, but time favors corporate power as we see today.

These days the rampant abuses of The Corporation are ruining our lives and communities and if that’s not enough, destroying our only home. The people behind the mega-corporations of today are so ingrained in elitist ideology that they’re incapable of recognizing the truth of what they are, at the least, contributing to.

We don’t need extravagant yachts and trips into outer space to see where these crazy folks are leading us. To our doom. We don’t need all the plethora of lawsuits trying to eek out some minor victory against these monsters to know corporations and healthy cultures cannot co-exist. While the recognitions of Occupy back in 2011, that financial systems are corrupt and ruining our lives, might not have seemed obvious then, by now it’s clear to anyone whose head is not buried in some ideological sand.

There is, in truth, only one remedy. Transforming our culture to one where The Corporation has no place. Transform our culture so big lie talking points like Trump really won in 2020 are unimaginable. Transform our culture so that we take the threats to our dear planet Earth with total regard. Where the permanent war paradigm is in the dustbin of history, like so much tremendous malfeasance wreaked on us by our elitist corporate controllers.

Our lives cry out for meaning. For something greater than a sports victory. For something more true than gated communities. For seeing each other in our essence, and not in our clothes, hair, skin or other useless gage of our humanness.

The two Biggies: Community and Commerce

Presuming access to decent air and water, food and energy are the great requirements for a civilization to survive and thrive. And how they do so is through community and commerce. Community because we share this Life Now, and being and doing with each other is a fundamental aspect of our existence. But let’s start with commerce.

Commerce in some form has been with us for tens of thousands of years. Especially with the Agrarian Age and the beginning of specialization in work, people bartered, bought and sold, and developed the system of capitalism. Two folks selling shoes. Who makes the best shoes? Who has the better deal? Whose further away? Such considerations are at the heart of true capitalism.

We don’t have that today. You may find a bit of it in your town or online somewhere, but in all our manifest global systems, we have corporatism. Mindless legal entities, designed and effectively enabling the ruination of our lives and the rape of our dear Earth. First enabled by England around 1600, they have been the scourge we have faced and died for all these long generations.

In any area of our lives, what was once a panoply of business entities is now dominated by one or a few companies. Amazon, Apple, Google, Intel, Walmart, Kroger, AT&T, Tyson, AMD – they covers most everything we buy, how we communicate, what shows up in our searches. And that’s just nine mega-corporations. It doesn’t include the massive financial ‘institutions’ or foreign-owned megaliths like Alibaba, China Petroleum and Chemical or Royal Dutch Shell. Mindless, driven by greed, they destroy lives and Earth with impunity to meet ‘quarterly targets’. There is no hope for a healthy planet where corporations rule.

Community comes in a million forms, but the content is similar everywhere. People working together, playing together and just being together. I like the old barn building phenom, where materials were lined up, a day was picked, and friends and neighbors put up a barn. Or built a school. Or a bridge. Coming together is the central aspect of community.

This innate predilection within us has been totally subverted by ‘The Corporation’. Just as simple truths like the totality of Now, the only place where Life happens, and hence where we happen, has been subverted with BS like ‘He who dies with the most toys wins.’ Nonsense, and our civilization is full of it, because that’s what our corporate overlords want filling our heads. Ideally fearful nonsense, because the terrified do not act to change things.

Oh, and Nation States

Hand in hand with a long history of corporate malfeasance is the nation state. Small communities became cities, cities fought other cities to become city-states, and city-states the fought each other to become nation-states. Do you note a common theme? Fought. And the winners designated the borders and rights and everything else. [See British Empire.]

It’s not a pleasant history to come to grips with. The most aggressive families became the elites, and then monarchies and then those crazy people came up with all sorts of delusions of grandeur. They’re just like you and me but with aggressive ancestors. This pattern still plays out today with politicians.

The Corporation is like the Hydra. It’s many heads can be severed to no end, but it will not die until we stab its heart.

The Answer

Clearly we need transformation. We need a new ground to stand on, and it is Life, already here with us. Already us. Life, and we, only exist in the vast ‘Nowness’ that encompasses everything that is, and is going on. Almost unimaginable in our current civilization, it, this, is none the less everything that exists, and everything that is true.

In temporal affairs, the truth often changes. What happens in our lives or on the world stage is always in transition. Yet in our hearts and souls we remain here in Life, here where everything happens.

World 5.0 offers the clear way forward. We are all together here in Life. It cannot be helped. The second truth is the power of our intent. We choose between fear and Love. The third truth? Only Love makes us happy. This simple formula takes us far.

When applied to our systems, we need the same integrity in government and finance that we have with buildings and bridges, or the Internet. Without integrity they don’t function. Such is not currently the case in our politics.

It’s striking that we of good will are so ignored and the vile imbeciles run rampant in Washington DC. The Democrats are terrible tools dedicated to their corporate overlords and the Republicans are worse with their big lie and utter lack of respect for we, the people. We will never achieve health or happiness until the corporate scourge is ended. World 5.0 offers a clear alternative.

The Five Biggest Corporate Lies About Unions

Wealthy corporations and their enablers have spread 5 big lies about unions in order to stop workers from organizing and to protect their own bottom lines. Know the truth and spread the truth.

Lie #1: Labor unions are bad for workers. Wrong. Unions are good for all workers—even those who are not unionized. In the mid-1950s, when a third of all workers in the United States were unionized, wages grew in tandem with the economy. That’s because workers across America—even those who were not unionized—had significant power to demand and get better wages, hours, benefits, and working conditions. Since then, as union membership has declined, the middle class has shrunk as well.

Lie #2: Unions hurt the economy. Wrong again. When workers are unionized they can negotiate better wages, which in turn spreads the economic gains more evenly and strengthens the middle class. This creates a virtuous cycle: Wages increase, workers have more to spend in their communities, businesses thrive, and the economy grows. Since the 1970s, the decline in unionization accounts for one-third of the increase in income inequality. Without unions, wealth becomes concentrated at the top and the gains don’t trickle down to workers.

Lie #3: Labor unions are as powerful as big business. No way. Labor union membership in 2018 accounted for 10.5 percent of the American workforce, while large corporations account for almost three-quarters of the entire American economy. And when it comes to political power, it’s big business and small labor. In the 2018 midterms, labor unions contributed less than $70 million to parties and candidates, while big corporations and their political action committees contributed $1.6 billion. This enormous gulf between business and labor is a huge problem. It explains why most economic gains have been going to executives and shareholders rather than workers. But this doesn’t have to be the case.

Lie #4: Most unionized workers are in industries like steel and auto manufacturing. Untrue. Although industrial unions are still vitally important to workers, the largest part of the unionized workforce is workers in the professional and service sectors—retail, restaurant, hotel, hospital, teachers—which comprise 59 percent of all workers represented by a union. And these workers benefit from being in a union. In 2018, unionized service workers earned a median wage of $802 a week. Non-unionized service workers made, on average, $261 less. That’s almost a third less.

Lie #5: Most unionized workers are white, male, and middle-aged. Some unionized workers are, of course, but most newly unionized workers are not. They’re women, they’re young, and a growing portion are black and brown. In fact, it’s through the power of unions that people who had been historically marginalized in the American economy because of their race, ethnicity, or gender are now gaining economic ground. In 2018, women who were in unions earned 21 percent more than non-unionized women. And African Americans who were unionized earned nearly 20 percent more than African Americans who were non-unionized.

Don’t believe the corporate lies. Today’s unions are growing, expanding, and boosting the wages and economic prospects of those who need them most. They’re good for workers and good for America.