Resurrecting Community

What rises, what was buried, and what we must tend to.

Long before the Easter story was told, humanity was already telling it. Ishtar, the Babylonian goddess of love and fertility, descended into the underworld and returned — and the world bloomed again with her. Persephone rose from the dark earth each spring and the grain rose with her. Osiris was killed, gathered back together, and restored. These are not competing stories. They are the same story, told in different tongues across thousands of years, because the human heart has always known this shape: what matters most can be lost, and its return is possible.

Community is one of those things. Not the word — the word is thriving. It appears in app download pages, mission statements, subscription upsells. “Join our community.” Community as product. Community as the warm feeling that keeps the metric moving.

That is not what we are talking about. We are talking about the older, harder, more demanding thing: the experience of being genuinely known by people who are genuinely present. The kind of community that has a smell. That argues. That feeds you when you are sick. That notices when you are absent.

We did not lose community because people stopped caring. We lost it because we built a world that makes presence expensive and absence cheap.

Community was not lost passively. It was squeezed out — by urban designs that eliminated the front porch, by economic pressures that consume every hour, by technology engineered to capture attention rather than deepen presence. These are not acts of God. They are choices. They can be made differently.

So what does resurrection actually look like? Not policy, not platforms — the small, specific, almost embarrassingly simple things.

It looks like eye contact. A real one, held a beat longer than the transaction requires, that says: I see you, not just the role you are playing. It looks like a smile offered to a stranger on a sidewalk — not performed, but meant. These tiny acts are not sentimental. They are the atoms of community, the smallest unit of acknowledgment from which everything larger is built.

It looks like knocking on the door of the elderly neighbor and asking if anything needs doing. Carrying the groceries up. Sitting for twenty minutes because she hasn’t talked to anyone today and you have twenty minutes. This is not heroism. It is the baseline of what it means to live near someone rather than merely adjacent to them.

It looks like staying. Staying at the block party past your comfort zone. Staying in the difficult conversation. Staying in the neighborhood long enough to be known. Real community is built not in grand gestures but in the accumulated weight of showing up, again and again, in ordinary time.

The spring traditions knew this. Ishtar’s return was not automatic — it was called for, celebrated, met with ritual and intention. Persephone’s emergence was not taken for granted — it was tended, honored, received. Resurrection in every tradition requires the participation of the living. Someone has to roll away the stone. Someone has to be there when what was lost comes back.

On this particular Easter Sunday, that someone is you. The invitation is not abstract. It is the neighbor whose name you almost know. The face in the elevator you have been too distracted to meet. The friend you keep meaning to call.

What has been buried can return. But not by an algorithm. Not by an app. Only by the decision, made again today, to show up — to know and be known, to stay, to tend the small things until the larger ones become possible again.

Happy Easter.

This Curious Time – Equinox 2025

This time is always curious one could say, as this experience of Life/Living we are sharing is a very curious thing. When we’re paying attention it’s quite clear that Life is only happening at this moment, Now, where Eternity and Energy co-mingle. It’s this constant churn of energy that we call ‘time’.

Our eternal nature aside, here as we pass through the Autumnal Equinox in 2025, things are very strange. Long-standing issues such as political and financial corruption are coming to light in new ways. And even as we struggle against these broken systems, there are breakthroughs in science and biology that hold great promise.

Let’s take the example of ‘The Corporation’. Corporations running amuck is nothing new, the Gilded Age in the late 1800s, with ‘captains of industry like Rockefeller, Morgan, Vanderbilt dominating the financial landscape and worker uprisings were common. Some resolution was attained with the Progressive Movement of the 1890s.

Today the destructive nature of legal entities whose only goal is profit is becoming quite evident. Whether fossil fuel corporations who continue to ‘lie and deny’, military corporations encouraging war at every turn, or their outsized role in how our government functions – we understand the pathology behind them more clearly than ever.

The corrupt political system and its constant us versus them mentality is losing its appeal as well. Even with mass shootings now commonplace in the U.S., there are signs of change in the wind. The desperation of folks like Trump, Netanyahu and their lapdogs is evidence they’re losing control.

Here the murder of Charlie Kirk comes into focus. His murder was committed by a young man saturated in a MAGA family. He didn’t think Charlie went far enough in his hate speech. And his death has generated all sorts of further distortions and threats to those opposed to an ideology that encourages hate or disregard for those who are of different skin, ideology or sexual preference. He did not use words that reflected the master he claimed to follow.

Our planet is undergoing tipping points in climate, in pollution and in livability. The energetic chaos reaches to Sun and Earth directly, as hurricanes, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions become more and more frequent and potentially destructive. Sun and Earth, these huge centers of energy surely hold consciousness as well, and they are driving a purge of the old system like nothing before.

And now we have this strange comet/not comet called 3I/Atlas hurtling through our solar system. Massive in size, it is not following the pattern of comets. It’s trajectory is off, the composition of its ‘coma’ is weird, and it will be on the opposite side of the sun when it reaches it perihelion. Strange. There are several ‘comets’ showing up these days. Along with comets, talk of aliens and encounters seems to. be at an all time high.

What is in store for us as we ride time into 2026 is hard to say, and perhaps even hard to imagine. What is certain is that our old world is collapsing, and what is to come is unknown. At least we know that in the totality of Now, we can hold each other in our thoughts and hearts – forever. Everything, everywhere, everyone all at once. Crazy, but somehow refreshing. Cheers.

Ethical Algorithms

NOTE: This piece was written by the AI Perplexity with slight editing by Jim Prues

Ethics in Algorithms: Why They Matter Now More Than Ever

Algorithms are now embedded in the fabric of society, powering everything from healthcare diagnostics and financial decisions to social media feeds and criminal justice assessments. As their influence grows, so does the urgency to ensure these systems operate ethically, transparently, and fairly.

The Expanding Reach of Algorithms

Algorithms increasingly make or influence decisions for and about people—often without their knowledge or understanding. This opacity raises the stakes: algorithmic choices can shape lives, reinforce or mitigate inequalities, and even sway democratic processes. In 2025, the demand for ethical assurance and transparency has never been higher, as consumers and citizens become more aware of the profound impact these systems have on their daily lives.

Key Ethical Concerns

• Bias and Discrimination: Algorithms can perpetuate or amplify biases present in their training data, leading to unfair outcomes in areas like hiring, lending, and law enforcement. Without regular audits and diverse development teams, these biases may go unnoticed and unaddressed, disproportionately affecting marginalized groups.

• Transparency and Explainability: Many algorithms, especially those based on deep learning, function as “black boxes,” making decisions that are difficult for even their creators to explain. This lack of transparency erodes trust and makes it hard to contest or correct errors, particularly in high-stakes domains.

• Privacy and Data Security: Algorithms often rely on vast amounts of personal data, raising concerns about consent, misuse, and exposure of sensitive information. Techniques like differential privacy and federated learning are being adopted to mitigate these risks, but challenges remain.

• Accountability: When algorithms malfunction or cause harm, it is often unclear who is responsible—the developer, the deploying organization, or the algorithm itself. This ambiguity complicates legal and ethical recourse, especially as systems become more autonomous.

Why Ethics Are Essential Now

• Loss of Public Trust: Recent surveys show declining trust in AI and algorithmic systems, with only a quarter of Americans expressing confidence in conversational AI as of 2024. High-profile failures, such as biased hiring tools or AI-generated misinformation, have highlighted the real-world consequences of neglecting ethics.

• Societal Impact: Algorithms shape access to resources, opportunities, and justice. Unethical systems can reinforce existing inequalities or create new forms of harm, making ethical oversight not just a technical issue but a societal imperative.

• Regulatory Momentum: Governments and organizations are moving toward stricter regulation, requiring impact assessments, transparency, and fairness audits for high-risk applications. Ethical frameworks are evolving from optional guidelines to essential business practices, with significant investments directed toward responsible AI initiatives.

Building Ethical Algorithms

To address these challenges, organizations must:
• Implement transparent, “glass box” AI systems that provide clear explanations for decisions.
• Regularly audit for bias and involve diverse stakeholders in development.
• Prioritize privacy through robust data governance and privacy-preserving techniques.
• Establish clear accountability structures and intervention points for human oversight.
• Foster a culture of ethics through ongoing training and inclusive teams.

Conclusion

Ethics in algorithms are not a luxury but a necessity in 2025. As algorithms wield greater power over individual and collective destinies, embedding ethical principles—honesty, transparency, fairness, and accountability—into their design and deployment is crucial for maintaining public trust and ensuring technology serves humanity rather than undermining it.

The Enemy Is Always Fear

In our utterly corrupt and confused and abusive culture, it’s no surprise that our strategies for finding happiness in our personal lives are lacking. How could it be otherwise? Money is supposed to be the great strategy for happiness, yet the obscene wealth of the Bezos, Musks and others has not led to unheard of levels of joy. Indeed, they seem no happier than anyone else, broadly speaking.

As we inherently know, more money does not mean more happiness. Assuming we’re getting by financially, we can X that one out.

The tv, internet voices or whatever has all sorts of remedies to remove the obstacles to happiness. Only problem is they’re all bogus. A pill, a fresh relationship, a new car – not going to help. The road to happiness is within, and the obstacle to your happiness is your fear. Let’s confirm why this is true.

We first have to back up a bit to understand the nature of reality and what is happening with this thingie we call Life. Life happens, is happening, only Now. This moment in time is where we, and everything exists, and nowhere else. Whaaaa? That’s not what we learned growing up! We’ve learned so much that is false from the old broken culture, we’re ready for a reset that encompasses a truer foundation.

So, how could Now be the only time that exists? It’s quite simple really, and obvious if we know how to look. You see, there is some truth in religion, speaking of the Eternity of God (for Christians), and describing us as God’s children. Which requires that we must be eternal as well. Like begets like. The whole damn universe, or universes, exist only in this infinitesimally small point in time where the future becomes the past. Kind of mind-boggling from the old world’s perspective. Yet that doesn’t make it untrue.

Think about your own life. Do you not feel like your fundamentally the same person you were ever since you became aware of your sense of self as a small child? Of course you do, because of course you are. All the years since you found yourself in a human body, you’ve been the same. Events never stop, the world ever turns, and yet we are always Here. Your body and behaviors have changed, you’ve learned, yet you’re still you.

The other side of our Eternity is the infinite sea of Energy we’re ever a part of. We don’t doubt this side, as each moment we’re living attests to this infinite energy. One of the reasons sports has such great appeal is because of the totality of Now. No going back once the ball is in the air. The suspense we feel, the quieting of our minds as we wait for the ball to do something good or bad (from our perspective and that of our team). It gives us a little tiny bit of a sense of our Eternity. We are experiencing Life right Now, and there is no other place in time where we can be.

Now back to fear. Having narrowed reality down to this moment we are all sharing, we have a much clearer vantage point for addressing our thoughts and emotions. The question becomes ‘How do we feel Now’. And how are we reacting to the ever flowing events in our lives?

This is a question of our intent. Our intent is the core of our being, our ‘soul’ in the Christian tradition. And what are our options? Ha! We know something of our options from all the ugly we experience in this corrupt culture we live within. What we learn as part of the truth of our existence is the requirement of integrity. There is no way to find the peace and love inherent in this Eternal Moment if we don’t take care of our responsibilities or if we act like a ‘hater’, taking advantage of others or acting poorly towards them. Look at most any CEO or politician.

As we come to understand the tremendous value of integrity in finding happiness, we also begin to see that fear always presents itself when we’re out of integrity. Hard to feel great about oneself when we’re ripping someone off or ruining someone’s life. I can’t understand how our ‘world leaders’ can act with such ignorance. As noted, money is a false god.

Yet if we comprehend the Totality of Now, we better understand our intent and its power. And we begin to see how fear is attendant to bad behaviors.

Easy to argue that there are a thousand reasons to fear that don’t involve bad behaviors. Agreed. Yet those fears disappear when the threat is removed. The fear I speak of doesn’t leave. It becomes stress or some other form of fear -hate, anxiety, neurosis or ‘just’ stress. It’s because we’re out of alignment with Life itself. (God if you prefer.) Bound to make us fearful.

So. what’s the alternative? Glad you asked. The counter to fear is Love. Love is what’s left once our integrity is restored and we let go all the negativity of the old culture. Love emerges within us on a grand scale once we get rid of the obstacles to Love. In truth there is only one obstacle. The only real enemy – fear.

The trauma the old culture has caused makes all this that I say much more difficult to understand. Our daily (right Now) lives are too much and too often a struggle. We cannot put our fears in boxes. We must get to their core, their falseness. We are living in eternity. There literally is no fear in God.

Love is indeed letting go of fear. This game/battle/learning is all happening Now. There is no other point in time that exists. Your body knows. It’s your ground for this experience. Use your intent to focus on breathing and being in your body. Let go when others attack or the world gets you down. Letting go right now is always your wisest choice. Happy to be with you…

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…

Marianne Williamson Is Running For President

Marianne Williamson has officially launched her 2024 presidential campaign, HuffPost reports.

Per HuffPost, the New York Times bestselling author is the first Democratic candidate to announce a bid, which will likely place her in the primary against President Joe Biden, although he has not yet officially announced his bid for a second-term.

Williamson, who also ran for president in 2020, made the announcement in a video posted to her social media accounts, including Youtube and Twitter, along with the caption “Marianne Williamson is running for President.”

The video, which is just under two minutes long, begins with Williamson saying, “When I was growing up, America had a vibrant middle class,” before she lists luxuries “the average American worker” could afford decades ago, including a “home” and “a yearly vacation.

She continued, “over the last 50 years, there’s been a massive transfer of wealth to the tune of 50 trillion dollars.”

CNN reports:

In a statement last month teasing her announcement, Williamson said she was motivated by “a realization of the Democratic Party’s shift away from the party of President Franklin Roosevelt” and “the economic injustices endured by millions of Americans due to the influence of corporate money on our political system.”

The 70-year-old presidential hopeful recently said in an interview with “Good Morning New Hampshire,” according to HuffPost, “You can appreciate what the president has done, defeating the Republicans in 2020, and still feel that it is time to move on.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

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.

Read news coverage based on evidence, not tweets

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

Insane Ukraine

We have to unfuck our culture. Rephrase – We must get past corporations and nation states. Both are archaic and we and our planet are dying.

It is in our nature to go about our business and live our lives as best we can. And we all know that the decked is stacked against us. If we look clearly into history, we see the culprits. Nation states and corporations.

Many of our nation states today are but the result of the British Empire designating them because they had guns and ships and the interest. Much of Africa and South America in particular are composed of countries that The British Empire drew the lines for. What a shitty way to determine national boundaries.

The corporations stood right there with them, the East India Trading Company and The Hudson Bay Company are history book examples. A trio of government officials, missionaries and corporate toadies combined to spread a thick layer of bullshit over whomever they intended to colonize. Praise Jesus.

Today many of us understand that many of these nation-state boundaries are but the result of empire, and that regionalism and tribal ancestry make for much better governments.

Oh, I almost forgot I was writing about this fucked up piece of shit war in Ukraine. I watch, I rage, I weep and repeat the cycle. Insanity indeed.

All the governmental players have a role and responsibility in this ugly disaster. The US has poked the bear as they say, with numerous bases and an aggressive stance toward Russia. You throw in crazy-ass Putin, who cares for nothing but retaining and growing his power, and Zelenskyy, whose hero status is suspect and is friends with Ukrainian oligarch Igor Kolomoisky. Some argue he’s running a government no less corrupt than his predecessors.

Damn. There it is again. Not good vs evil, as our corporate media would have you believe, but bunch of bad actors that includes the Unites States.

Putin’s actions starting this conflict were reprehensible, as are his continuing decisions to keep bombing innocent people. So it’s an easy sell to make him the bad guy. Zelenskyy hasn’t shown that disgusting level of murder, but he’s no saint. The real kicker here is the United States, who has shown little interest in negotiations and great interest in blowing up stuff making millions and billions for the Lockheed Martins (42 billion last year) and Boeings (23 billion last year) and other members of their club. Our government serves up military grade weapons and these war corporations make the financial killing.

So the Permanent War Paradigm, which we were first warned about by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1960, is on full display and shows no sign of being diminished. Our corporate-controlled culture continues to make sure corporations always win. Not good for us citizens. Not good for this dear Earth.

Let’s start with priorities. The first is always ourselves, and the first response must be to hold peace in our hearts, despite this and other war tragedies. We do not help the citizens of Ukraine by offering them thoughts of fear or an anguished heart. We help by holding peace in our hearts and recognizing that they are in our hearts just as we are in theirs. It’s how Life works.

Healing requires letting go of our own fears. Fear is the mind-killer. Always the enemy of peace, and therefore never our friend. Whatever answers fear seems to offer are false. Love is the answer, Here in this Life we share. It is the first truth.

There are thousands of peace organizations and groups, but they seem to have little impact on our situation. We are no more peaceful as a planet than we’ve been since World War II, with the constant beat of war drums ever since by The War Machine.

So we must rise up. Getting into the streets is not an ideal answer, but it’s required if we intend to rebalance our lives and end this scourge. Of course voting is the minimal requirement, but that is a slow remedy, fraught with bullshit.

In rising up we force the issue, reminding legislators of our power and intent, reducing to some small degree the corporate influence.

Not a pretty or hopeful picture at this point, but we see great opportunities for change as the old system continues to crumble under the weight of its own corruption.

Let us do what we can and be who we are, and dream of brighter days, where Life is held in much higher regard, and our tolerance for war is zero.

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.