The World 5.0 Politician – Legislating From Truth, Integrity and Love
Legislating from truth, integrity and love. Wow. What a notion. These precepts hold for those of us supporting legislators of truth, integrity and love as well. This is the simple context for being a World Five Politician. We see that we are all here together, sharing life at this moment, and we side with truth and love. Which means we live in integrity.
Recognizing the near impossibility of a successful third party here in the US and the need to root out the corruption so rampant in our political system, there is a clear need for something new. I present the World Five Politician, the antithesis of most politicians who seek power and not to serve the citizens of this country.
The World 5.0 Democrat or Republican holds a few simple ideas and the clear commitment to the values of Truth, Integrity and Love. Truth because we know now, after the attack on our capital, that a common shared sense of truth is required for us to build a healthy government.
Two things in particular deserve our attention. ending the fear that controls our lives and ruins our communities. And ending the legal status of corporations that ruin our lives and our communities.
Love because we too long have disallowed love from our politics and culture, pushed by enslaving interests, when love is the greatest healing force on earth and a requirement for our happiness.
Integrity because we cannot find love if we do not keep our word, honor our commitments, or fail at our task of standing for the American people. With integrity alone brought into our political system, it would be transformative.
With World 5.0, we maintain the totality of Life Now, which requires that we are all here together. Now and always.
A central theme is recognizing that corporations make healthy cultures impossible (as we know from our lives in this corporate controlled culture). We seek to overturn this corporate control. Corporations control every major function of our lives – food, healthcare, media, energy and every major government on Earth, and ‘The Corporation’ has not served us.
For the first time in our country’s history, we did not have a peaceful transfer of power. We had a mixed crowd of insurrectionists and fools that overwhelmed our capital. This is not a sign of health. This is a sign of a broken system. And the fix is an educated electorate. World 5.0 helps in this education.
For the ever-repeated cycle, our choices for president, and so many state, county and city officials, have been lousy. It’s a long list. Another possibility exists.
We need a new construct for moving forward, and World 5.0 provides that construct. This context of Life, awakening to the totality of now, is a requirement for understanding reality. Yet agreeing on this simple truth opens the door to recognizing truth everywhere.
And truth everywhere is required. Our issues are legion, our times unprecedented. The World Five Politician has the potential to shift the ugly and deadly dynamics of a greedy corporate culture to one where all of us are thriving together, one where we remain — connected here in Life.
“The Corporation” Destroys Capitalism
There is an implicit notion in our culture that corporations equal capitalism. Nothing is more false.
Capitalism is the notion that folks make products or offer services, each with a relative value. The customers have the option of this pair of shoes or this house painter, and they base their choices on the perceived value each vendor offers.
It’s actually quite a good system. Honest competition, along with a bit of salesmanship, lets the customer decide the best value or the vendor who most suits them. We learned about it in high school.
Corporations, on the other hand, are a legal entity devised primarily in England about a thousand years ago. A cozy little legal trick to provide ‘limited liability’ and a methodology to keep the powerful powerful, passing corporate money down across the generations. Here in the states, when our forefathers were establishing our Constitution, they were quite aware of the work of the Hudson Bay Company and the East India Company, precursers to the corporate behemoths we have today.
Because these were wealthy landowners, even though they mistrusted the legal entity of the corporation, they didn’t disallow them as such. They placed strict restrictions on the corporations of their days, only allowable for certain purposes and with limited lifespans, but they didn’t embed forbidding corporations into the constitution. It’s up there with promoting slavery and generating a savage response to native Americans.
And looking at our global culture today, it is not capitalism that has given us endless war, GMOs, the propped up fossil fuel industry or so many other ills, it is the corporations.
There is a growing debate in this country about the virtues of two competing cultures – democratic socialism, or just socialism versus capitalism. Again, I find this a false choice. The decision we need to come to is whether we want a society dominated by corporate control, or a society where honest capitalism and a social base for our weakest citizens and elders is the norm.
It’s worth noting that social structures like social security have been with us for decades, and most countries today have some version of socialized health care. But the money our government spends on these social safety nets is dwarfed by the corporate socialism that exists for behemoths like Amazon, google, Facebook, Apple and a host of others who pay no taxes, have ‘limited liability’ for all the damage they have caused, and who payoff our politicians to give them their corporate socialism.
As we see every day, our politicians pay lip service to our needs, and pay corporations handsomely, with our tax dollars, for their political contributions. Quid pro quo. It’s beyond prevalent, it’s the way it is. This must change.
The solution? We start by making this November election a clear mandate that the old bullshit doesn’t fly. We elect politicians with integrity. We have a few already, but too few. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Sherrod Brown in the Senate, some progressives in the House of Representatives. We’re certainly making headway in local government.
But our president must be removed from office, and Mitch McConnell removed from his leadership role in ruining our country. Pelosi’s facing a strong challenger for her seat in the House. You will not see any of those names near the idea of integrity.
Once we have responsive elected officials, we begin reigning in the worst offenders by using existing antitrust laws and tax laws. We begin making them responsible for all the damage they have done, and remind tech companies that we, the citizens built the internet with our tax dollars. Do you imagine those tech companies are paying for the technology we built for them to leverage?
Let’s take a brief moment to consider our world without corporations. Large companies can be partnerships or coops. Without the overwhelming profit motive, the motivation for the permanent war paradigm ends. Coops are not interested in selling weapons. Our food becomes incredibly healthier and tastier, as shithead companies like Monsanto (now part of Bayer) are not trying to control global food. Fossil fuels are long gone.
With a new shared abundance, we heal our neighborhoods and communities. Restore farming and rural communities, urban centers and living conditions for all us citizens. Our forests and oceans are restored, and mitigating climate change becomes the great priority it must be. Corporations and healthy people and planet don’t work.
Back to our plan. Finally, we get to the point where we end the thousand years scourge that is the legal entity, ‘the Corporation’. It serves no human or earthly need. It’s only purpose is to further enrich the already rich. Capitalism doesn’t require ‘the corporation’. And neither do we…
Three Old Men
So it’s come down to one of this group of three leading our republic for the next four years, if they can keep breathing that long. Seems sad somehow. Not that we’ve ever been the Great Nation the government public relations people claim, but we seem to have reached a new low in our ‘democracy’.
Trump, Biden and Sanders. Clearly old, clearly white, clearly men. At least one is a sociopath, caring for nothing beyond himself, he’s clearly unable to see beyond his own interests, even in the midst of a pandemic.
Another has been a darling of the neoliberal establishment for his entire political life. He’s been there for Wall Street and the war machine time and time again. He’s been accused of unwanted physical contact, and now stories of rape. Many think he now suffers from cognitive decline.
The third old man is also flawed. He seeks the endorsement of a party he doesn’t belong to. He used to support guns freely. He’s sometimes adamant with his unwillingness to compromise. He doesn’t ‘play ball’. Still, he understands something the other two do not. We need a revolution.
The COVID-19 virus has altered our reality with a quickness. So much is suddenly gone. Freedom of movement, jobs, congregating, sports, and so much more that is just coming into focus. A reset. Even at this early stage of coronavirus, we implicitly know things will never be the same.
One of the things that’s been thrown into turmoil is the US nominating primaries. This year the biggie has been Bernie Sanders vs Joe Biden, but there are thousands of other primary battles. In this environment, some argue that Sanders should concede. Many of us argue that that is exactly backwards.
Let’s review. We had months with Joe Biden as the leading contender. Then the debates happened. And so last fall, as people started paying more attention, Elizabeth Warren had some momentum. When we finally got to the Iowa primary, it was a clusterfuck. Bad systems in place, failures in processing, results not matching exit polls, and it was a virtual tie with Sanders and Buttigieg. Some of us saw the clear shenanigans of the elite behind all this.
Then, for a brief moment in time, Bernie was the clear front runner. He’d won New Hampshire and Nevada. And those same elitists freaked out. A sudden swirl of events took place to revive the Biden campaign, who’s best placement to date had been a distant third. An impassioned speech by Jim Clyburn, the sudden dropping out and endorsement of Klobachar and Buttigieg.Then Super Tuesday, and an amazing result! The country had unified behind Biden – even with major voting irregularities and results not matching exit polls. The bastards did it again.
The next week, the Second Super Tuesday, Biden again scored big. And in the third, March 17, had primaries in Arizona, Florida and Illinois. Ohio’s primary was scheduled for the same date, but Republican Governor Mike Dewine cancelled the election due to coronavirus concerns.
Again, Joe Biden had a big day. And again, the results were suspect, for a number of reasons. Some polling places didn’t have staff, some didn’t have ballots, some had three hours or longer waits, often in crowded rooms. Coronavirus be damned, we’re having an election. There are already known cases as a result of those state’s decision to go ahead with their elections. Stinky.
Now, as of April the fool’s day, everything is in flux.
Old man #1 sees this whole pandemic and resulting depression as a photo opp. Great ratings as he moves from ‘this Chinese virus is under control’ to ‘if we only lose 100,000 people that’s a great job’. He has abused the office since day one. His work isn’t a great job. It’s a disaster as great as the virus itself.
Old man #2 has gone quiet, just now coming out with a Trump ad, and remarks about not debating Bernie this month. He just doubled down on the ‘it’s not the time for Medicare for All’ a davastatng blow to millions of un and under insured – sadly. Joe Biden seems unqualified and unable and unup to this moment. The deadly secret is that neoliberal democrats know Joe is weak, but they would rather see four more years of Trump than our revolution. Joe’s enthusiasm level among voters ranks even lower that Hillary’s was in 2016.
Old man #3 is our only hope for this election cycle. Bernie begins with ‘Us, not me.” Sound ground. And he goes on to define the scope and scale of what is needed in this time of crisis. Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, infrastructure projects, wiping out student debt and reforming the prison system. There’s more…
Yet to me the most important thing Bernie brings is his integrity and consistency. They go together. I’m not suggesting impeccable, but highly credible, and this in the age of McConnell and Trump. Again connected, Bernie speaks of love and compassion, the need for help for a citizenry that’s been under siege for a generation.
We have 3 1/2 months until the Democratic Convention in Milwaukee. Who knows what kind of shape our collective healthy and our country will be in by then. Hopefully we have a clearer sense of which old man is our best hope.
We are moving forward into a new reality whether we like it or not. The question is, are we going to let corporations and nation states continue to rule our lives, or shall we rise up and restore ourselves and our planet, a healing such as this civilization has never known?
A new future awaits. Do we meet it ass on, old systems intact, or head first, into a bright new life.
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!
Kavanaugh Doesn’t Matter
While corporate media spent endless hours on the pending vote to make Brett Kavanaugh a Supreme Court judge, Mitch McConnell and the Republicans had this thing rigged from the start. No way his accusers of sexual misconduct were going to be truly heard at his ‘hearing’.
This circus is what we get from corporate media and corporate-owned politicians. It will not get any better until we, the people wrestle power from them starting this November.
Still, those of us who resist this obvious corruption recognize it is not the win Republicans imagine.
They see a thirty year hyper conservative Supreme Court that will bestow their 1% owners all they could ever want. We see a corrupt and broken system that won’t make it five years.
And while the corrupt politics of the past seem to have led us into apathy, that is surely no longer the case. The protests during his ‘hearing’ indicate we’re not going to take this crap lying down. Such abuse of power needs to be thwarted, and we do that by voting the bastards out.
Kavanaugh is surprisingly unfit to be a Supreme Court Justice. His sordid youth can be ignored, but not forgotten. It was clearly the life of an elitist, spoiled young man. Equally important, his decisions since then have been highly suspect, as demonstrated by thousand of pages of his work that were redacted, even from congress.
On top of all that we add his outbursts and displays from his testimony last week, and we get a clear picture of who the man is – which is why the Republicans were so desperate to seat him.
Do not mistake my title. Brett Kavanaugh will do damage as a Supreme Court Justice. But this court has already proven itself compromised. These folks have allowed voting irregularities, allowed unlimited corporate donations via Citizens United, removed the 1,000 year standing of Habeas Corpus with the Military Commissions Law of 2006 (even though Habeas Corpus is enshrined in our constitution). The court didn’t challenge Bush’s law. Maybe because they installed him as president in 2000, in spite of Gore having more votes. Victories for corporations instead of citizens has been a steady pattern in recent decades.
Oh yea. And the Supreme Court was suspiciously quiet for those 10 months when the Republicans held up President Obama’s nominee of Mr. Derrick Garland. Our court and our democracy was compromised long before Kavanaugh.
So they lied and cheated, as is their way, and won this farce of a battle. They hold all the levers of power. But do not think there will be no consequences. We are rising up. Among women the Democrats have a 30 point advantage, the largest disparity in history. Men favor Republicans by a mere 8 points.
Trump and the Republicans pretend they see a red wave coming, the Kavanaugh placement kick-starting their misguided base. We see differently and this year, we start taking our country back.
A Nice Turn of the Wheel
Even as we are all here together, events punctuate our lives and culture.There is a deep discontent in our world and lives here in the United States. The world is degrading as are our lives, while signs of emergent sustainability and political engagement abound. Curious times.
The 2017 election brought a host of firsts, and a clear repudiation of Trumpland.
From new governors in New Jersey and Virginia to lots of state and local races, there seems to be a real resistance to our corrupt federal government and corporations emerging. In Virginia, a transgender candidate, Danica Roem, defeated 14 term beat self declared ‘biggest homophobe in the state’ Bob Marshall. There were other ironies of a similar nature.
Across the nation minorities won a host of mayoral races, along with council seats, school boards and other local positions. And many of these folks were first time candidates, who have seemingly been coming out of the woodwork since Trump got elected.
Republicans in congress put on a ‘brave’ face, but it was clear from their reactions that this was an outcome unexpected and very disconcerting. Indeed, two republican congressmen announced they will not be seeking reelection on election night alone! Even with all the gerrymandered districts across this land, there are far less ‘safe seats’ it would seem, than there were before this election.
Do not consider this piece an endorsement of the Democratic Party. While Tom Perez, head of the DNC, was quick to rejoice at the night’s events, it was not the DNC who carried the day. It was folks rising up and showing we’re not going to take the old crap anymore. Our Revolution, Indivisible, Working Families Party and a host of local efforts to organize and get out the vote who deserve our thanks.
Let’s not forget the role women played in this election either. Both as candidates and voters, women played a substantial role in this turn around. The other notable demographic is college educated white males, suburbanites, who seem to have had enough of Trump and the Republicans.
Here in Cincinnati, the incumbent, establishment candidate, John Cranley easily defeated the more progressive candidate, Yvette Simpson, for mayor. But in city council, two of the three new members are clear progressives, and the last seat is being contested between Jeff Pastor, a first time candidate under the mayor’s wing, and another strong progressive Michelle Dillingham. We won’t know who wins that seat until absentee and provisional ballots are counted, along with a standard recount.
As we move toward the 2018 mid-term elections, one wonders how it will play out. Will we see Tea Party like tactics on the left, where more progressive challengers go after establishment democrats in the primaries? Will the energy of this election (some called it a Blue Wave) continue to build? Will the DNC continue to favor the wealthy donors over citizen interests?
Of course, such questions need time before we have answers. What is clear is that the November, 2017 election was a nice turn of the wheel.
A Black Swan Presidential Campaign
The Black Swan theory was developed by Nassim Nicholas Taleb to explain the disproportionate role of high-profile, hard-to-predict, and rare events that are beyond the realm of normal expectations in history, science, finance, and technology. The printing press is an example.
Some recent examples include:
- The Internet.
- The earthquake in Japan that created the Fukushima nuclear meltdown.
- The BP Gulf of Mexico disaster.
- 9/11.
- The financial collapse of 2008.
While there may have been a few insiders and visionaries who saw these events coming, they were all massive, culture-shifting events that were not predicted. And while the creation, development and encompassing nature of the Internet has taken 50 years to develop, it’s clearly a Black Swan ‘event’ that was not understood when DARPA started the project in the 1960s.
2016 Election Campaign Swans
In the 2016 presidential election campaigns, the Black Swans are flying in both political parties.
Donald Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee, and if you believe corporate media, Hillary Clinton is similarly poised.
Donald Trump is all about Donald Trump, to a point that makes his election seem catastrophic to most of us. His Black Swan overtaking of the Republican Party has astonished the right, and proven again the fits and starts of Life.
The other Black Swan is obviously Bernie Sanders. He is the other side of the Tao to Donald Trump. Bernie is bringing forth ideas for substantive change, and engaging the younger generation like no other candidate.
And the reason for his popularity is clear. It’s his authenticity, his integrity and his genuine love and compassion. His candidacy and agenda resonate with the reality of millions of us, who do not benefit like the .01%.
The future?
We have yet to learn what will happen at the conventions. But we already know change is afoot like we haven’t faced in a generation or longer. As data-driven historian Peter Turchin said, “In the United States, 50-year instability spikes occurred around 1870, 1920 and 1970, so another could be due around 2020,” he added. Or we could be witnessing such a Black Swan election cycle this year.
Standing here staring at presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, it’s clear there are forces at work well outside what establishment Republicans assumed and prefer. With a Trump standard bearer, Republican control of both congressional bodies is now in play.
Against this backdrop, establishment Dems [and corporate media] are doing all they can to bolster Hillary Clinton’s campaign. My impression is that they don’t know which they fear more – a Trump presidency or a victorious insurgency by Bernie Sanders. Either is inherently threatening to their power structure. Yet clearly Ms. Clinton is the more vulnerable candidate with her past policies and actions. She holds no moral ground on Mr. Trump. And she does not inspire as Trump and Sanders do.
The Democratic Establishment
What the democratic establishment ignores at its peril…According to writer Bill Boyarsky, “The Sanders team is now the Democratic Party’s activist base, and without its enthusiastic participation, Donald Trump may be elected president in November.” Here we go, folks. Game on!
The inevitable march of time will bring us the final candidates and a new president. The inevitable parroting of mainstream media will keep harping their talking points with little respect for history or truth. And the inevitable nature of change assures us that Black Swan events will continue to mark turning points in our culture.
The Fabricated and the Genuine
There is something very strange in the air these days. We’re learning the truth. After a long struggle where we’ve been fed bullshit our entire lives and long centuries, we’re starting to see the truth. Incredible. Astonishing.
There are a few reasons. The long arc of history is progress. Rulers and elites have been lying forever, but now we’re seeing through the veil. Progressive movements have given us glimmers, but this time feels different. We won’t be fooled again.
A second, very powerful reason is the Interweb. We don’t yet fully recognize its impact, but we have access to vast amounts of information and knowledge, and digital is forever. The lessons of history will not be forgotten.
But there’s a tertiary, and perhaps more powerful still force at work. Our awakening. It’s something in the air. We’re less suseptable to bullshit. Less interested in drama. More inclined to live and let go.
Throw on top of all this the Occupy Movement, Black Lives Matter, climate change et al, and you have recognition as never before. We’re learning the truth.
As we shine this light of truth on American politics – 2016, we see many who are fabricated – false, and one who is true. The republicans are a hot mess, and not worthy of discussion. But between Hillary and Bernie, the distinction is clear. Plenty of folks expressing on this, but it’s almost unneeded. There’s something in the air.
Bernie’s Vision for America
It’s clear that Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders is the only candidate who has a substantial grasp of the depth of Washington corruption, corporate malfeasance and the horrific inequality that is the United States today.
It’s equally clear that he’s the only candidate with the integrity to be trusted. Indeed, some argue that his is a “once in a lifetime” candidacy, as the moral compass of most politicians rivals that of used car salesmen. Yes, I thoroughly support Bernie Sanders and the millions of progressive voices that are joining in this effort to challenge our 1% System.
Now, after a 20 point victory and huge turnout in New Hampshire, we’re seeing a pattern emerge. This isn’t an election that favors the Establishment.
What I am looking toward, and have yet to see manifest, is the vision of our country should we elect Mr. Sanders with a swell of support that impacts our broken congress. Of course if the House and Senate change little, the amount of change he can bring will be severely restricted. But if Bernie is elected, we have to allow for the possibility of a markedly different congress based on a large turnout of progressive voters, and a bit of awakening among independents and democratic voters.
So let’s consider what our country might look like in four years if Bernie’s Revolution actually happens this fall.
His big three – getting the money out of elections, Healthcare for all and reining in Wall Street would have dramatic impact on our daily lives. Imagine a voting system with impeccable integrity (unlike states like Ohio), where the right and responsibility to vote is embraced by we citizens, and encouraged by our government. No more flaccid voter fraud arguments to restrict our voting rights. No more billionaires flooding our media with what is, in effect, bribery. No more legislators bought and paid for by energy, pharmaceutical, financial and other conglomerates. Already a glimmer of light through the clouds.
Healthcare for all is but common sense. So long as our healthcare system is run by for profit corporations, there will be inherent conflicts between our health and their profits. Hmmm. Who wins, who loses? And how many treatments and cures are ignored or intentionally buried because it’s more profitable to sell us more bullshit pills and/or to fill hospital beds. We’re sick, we’re depressed, we’re obese and little attention is given to lifestyle changes and holistic approaches. Bernie’s election changes this literally sick culture.
And what about the banksters and corporate heisters who’ve been robbing us for the last forty years? Median income for the average american would immediately rebound, reversing the 40 year trend of ‘trickle down economics’. Urban and rural communities would again begin to thrive. Infrastructure and education would see an immediate boost. The half of Americans who are continually stressed over finances would find solace. Hunger and poverty, very real and very common in today’s America, would be assauged. Where those who labor are taxed the same or less than those who make fortunes off their fortunes. It’s actually challenging just to imagine a fair system after generations of abuse.
These changes alone would be dramatic and highly beneficial. Yet with Bernie we have more. His integrity would help bring transparency to government and corporations, creating a more truthful system. He clearly understands that our Earth is imperiled by Industrial Age pillaging, and would help us move aggressively toward more sustainable energy. His focus on health and education would create a new wave of engaged citizens, which would in turn bring us politicians, legislators and administrators who actually care and work toward a better America.
Our lands, towns and cities being restored. Jobs abound. Public transit, healthy air and water, wholesome food and a system where we are cocreating a new Earth. Fanciful? Only if you find our current condition intractable. Can Bernie do this alone? No way. If revolution is to happen, we are the revolution.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/berniesanders/
Twitter: #notmeus
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.”