“We were told things would run more smoothly – less crime, less disease, less unhappiness, less trouble – if everyone stuck to the same plan, pursued identical goals. What makes me want to run was the ease with which people gave in.”
Eric Rutterman – Resistance.
Sometimes I am puzzled over my disenfranchised state. By any accounting I am one of the “winners” of our society. As a young, married, adult I started out at the very center of US society – a Bible believing Evangelical Christian Fundamentalist working my way (somewhat unconsciously) up the economic ladder. What I lacked in a formal collage education I made up for with solid technical skills in aviation maintenance, piloting, and management. With a life long willingness to take risks and a bit of luck to survive those risks I “made” it…good income, nice house, fun toys. I should have settled in and enjoyed the ride. But it didn’t work quite like I expected.
Religion failed first. A simple description of what was a longish road was that I could no longer worship a god who needed a hell. It was a bit of a relief to discover that both were just myths. Though many of my non-religious friends still find joy or comfort in various forms of spirituality, all my mystical leanings faded with the god belief. For me the mystery (not mystical) and grandeur of an unimaginable cosmos, of which I am as much a natural part as any star or ocean, are more than adequate. In us at least part of the cosmos has evolved with a yearning for love and place, acceptance and humor, joy and adventure. We are born with all we need to find our way; we just need to quit confusing ourselves.
Next to crumble was my faith in industriousness. Work is one of my favorite things. I love work. I love to work. But our society has perverted work into something mean and burdensome. No longer a skill practiced for the benefit of family, friends, and neighbors; work has become an insatiable demand for service. Productivity is the new Holy Grail, producing the most while getting paid the least. Thus working no longer brings joy, just weariness and ache, and a paycheck meager when measured against the toil. (The Christian idea that work is somehow a punishment for sin has aided in this perversion, and is another reason to abandon the religion.) Now we work to earn profits for others; others who rule, and punish in ways both subtle and cruel those who demand a fair share for their efforts.
With religion rejected and my attitude towards work changed, there were clear fault lines showing between myself and the culture where I once felt at home. Still, I was a rampant consumer – a big fan of toys. Slowly though, I began to realize that the toys didn’t hold the value, it was what I did with them. Those that let me explore new places, experience new things, and face new challenges were also things I didn’t hold too tight. Invariably the toys I loved the most, airplanes, motorcycles and small, ocean-going sailboats, could get me killed. My view of consumerism took a shift similar to my understanding of work. It isn’t the toy, it isn’t possessing the toy, that matters. It is the experience and the mastering of a skill that holds value.
By now I had moved far from my starting place, and many years had passed. Religion, work, consumerism, my views clashed loudly with those of my culture. But I still clung to modernism – the drive to “make things better.”
“Make things better.” What things? Better how?
We certainly make things more efficient. We produce more food than ever in the past. Instead of reducing hunger we just flooded the world with babies and made more hungry people. Some of us live longer and healthier lives. Many of us don’t, and many of us who do basically just live longer in misery. Often we push the years of unhealthy living off to the end, finishing up in a long twilight of pain and fear. With our planes and our trains, our cars and our diesel powered ships, we travel much faster than we ever have before. But just a little further. A few have travel into orbit, fewer still to the moon. The rest of us can go no further than did Magellan.
We are making things better, but not much better, and not for many. Realizing this lead me to another serious rethink, and another degree of separation.
Democracy. That was a foundation stone that could never be moved. Democracy is the triumph of human social evolution. Shed of the tyranny of Kings, War Loads, Nobles, Barons, Popes and prophets…everyone longs for democracy and freedom.
True but…have we really found either democracy or freedom? Some of us have shed the Kings and War Lords and tyrants in other costumes. Yet Kings and War Lords flourish across the globe, mostly supported by us. If not for us most of them would have been overthrown long ago. But so long as they will strip the land and abuse the people they rule for the resources we demand, we will do all we can to see that they remain in power. The US has long proved we will not support democracy at the cost of whale blubber, grazing land, coal, diamonds, or oil. Are we really a democratic people if we survive by employing tyrants? Does that not make us the tyrant instead?
My last foundation stone wasn’t as stable as I imagined.
So in a religious, industrialized, consumer based democracy I discover I am not really any of those things. To put it another way; elected to any post in the Federal Government I would be a miserable failure. The US is not “#1,” we have no right to impose our definition of freedom, or our economic ideologies, on anyone. Freedom OF religion does not exist without freedom FROM religion. People should be masters of their skills not slaves to their work. The endless production of “things” need not, should not, be encouraged. Production should be coupled as directly as possible to raising the quality of life for humanity – medicine, healthy food, clean water, educational materials, quality clothing and material for homes. Tanks, guns, bullets and knick-knacks? No. And as long as democracy rests on tyranny, neither society is free. Uttering any of those thoughts from the floor of the House or the Office of Oval, would get one accused of treason, trashed by the talking heads of corporate media, and probably shot at.
As I see it humanity’s only hope for greatness lies in an allegiance, the worship if you will, of a single, shared morality whose basic tenet is simple, and which applies to every one of the six plus billion individuals sharing the planet. I will not force you – you will not force me – we are all actually responsible to each other.
Girded by a dedication to this simple principle we can work together freely. It becomes a matter of the heart. What is my intention? Is it to labor with you, to pool our resources that we may finish some larger work or share in some accomplishment? Or is it to coerce, fool or force you to toil for my benefit without regard to yours? It is a subtle turn of intent, but the latter has led to most of the evil in the world.
So the breech is complete. Regardless of creed, religion, social status, citizenship, political party or stated intent, what do your actions say of the intent of your heart? Do you rely on trickery, lies, propaganda, subtle inducements, or outright force to get others to do your bidding? Do you guard the gates of some ideology that imagines it has all the answers to all the questions of every person breathing? Do you fancy yourself a “leader” and assume you know better than I what I need or want? To the extent that you do I will count you as a servant of evil. Your claims of wisdom, as a speaker for god, as a representative “of the people,” or as a protector of human rights, will not count. The same yardstick applies to my own life.
This is a new thing and will take a while to work out the details. I do hold toys with an even lighter touch, and hold fewer of them. They all take up space in a life, and each of us has only so much space to spare. And, to be honest, many of them are being built by people who are laboring, not working. Building my toys is not really doing them much good. That makes me guilty, though removed by some steps, of forcing my will on them.
Slowly, as wisdom and opportunity allow, I hope to reduce the amount of resources I think I need. Not always, but often, those resources appear to be stolen. My unlimited demand serves mostly to enrich the thieves while adding to the number of victims.
It is the way our world works and I am well aware I can’t change it…much. But I need add no more too it than I chose. And I chose to add less than I have.
And maybe I can off-set some of the evil simply by pointing it out, demanding an accounting (as ineffective as that currently seems to be) from those who engage in the most evil…the movers and shakers, the leaders who think they know. Religious, political, corporate, union, liberal, conservative…whenever they use force, where ever they use force, be it outright or by lies, be they Popes or illiterate religious fanatics hiding under some rock, Presidents or self proclaimed “movement leaders...” pass the story on to me and I will pass it on to the next person.
More importantly I will do as little as I can to help their cause. Whacked out religious sect? I won’t be joining, nor will I be putting any money in the collection plate. (And I will vote for the first politician who says he will work to eliminate tax exemptions for religious organizations.) Corrupt Union? I won’t be joining if I can avoid it. If I must join I will soon be looking for some other job some other place. Liberal, conservative, Democrat or Republican? I’m done voting for the “lesser of the evils.” If no one on the ballot measures up I will not give credibility to a failed “democratic system.” Boycotting can be an effective civil action. What would “democratic leaders” do if they threw an election and no one came? The old USSR held elections, Cuba, China; turnouts neared 100%. But it didn’t matter. Only those approved by those already in power ever made it too the ballot. It is the same in the USA today. Elections are a Hobson’s choice between two flavors of evil.
On the one hand it isn't much. On the other it is everything I have to offer.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Thursday, October 27, 2011
The T-party and me
My thoughts of the T-party are pretty simple, a pack of barely informed religious nut-cases being played for fools by the corporate world, often demonstrating against their own best interests, with the added twist of barely suppressing their racism. That's just a first impression of course, maybe they are all really good folks with bad P.R.
I did see a picture of one carrying a sign decrying being ruled by government bureaucracy. Therein lies a hint to both how badly informed the T-party types are, and just how badly they are being played.
The liberal democracy that was the original United States was born in a rebellion against the government bureaucracy of King George III. Liberalism is the very core of a people whose only desire is to rule themselves, free of the overburden of government, churches, kings, tyrants, popes and princes.
And now, some 230 odd year later, also free from the overburden of corporations, international bankers, and robber barons.
Something that sails right over the heads of T-party types who regard liberalism as the enemy in their world. Not surprising since they are in the service of corporations whose real desire is to expand their own power without restraint. Clearly, a liberal population would rebel against corporate tyranny just as it has political tyranny.
If the T-party types ever pull their heads out of their collective asses, they might discover that the liberals, people who seek to be free from anyone dictating the quality of their lives and whose only desire is to rule themselves among themselves, might actually be far down the road of democracy. A liberal democracy is far from a perfect type of government, (human beings be far to young as an intelligent species to have worked much of anything out to perfection yet). But living with a government which is, at least to some small degree, responsive to the demands of the governed, is a far better arrangement that suffering under corporate tyranny that cares only for maximizing the profits of the few at the expense of the many.
That would make a real democracy a bad place for most T-party types; who seem determined to free the corporations of any restraint as well as installing a social dictatorship that establishes the "proper" religion, the acceptable make-up of a family, which recreational drugs one is allowed to enjoy, (alcohol and tobacco good, marijuana bad) and ensure that any idiot should be able to carry a maximum amount of firepower anywhere at anytime; church, school, or campus, and therefore be able to threaten the lives of as many people as bullets that will fit in the clip.
Exactly how it is that the T-party types see themselves as "freedom loving" is a bit of a mystery.
I did see a picture of one carrying a sign decrying being ruled by government bureaucracy. Therein lies a hint to both how badly informed the T-party types are, and just how badly they are being played.
The liberal democracy that was the original United States was born in a rebellion against the government bureaucracy of King George III. Liberalism is the very core of a people whose only desire is to rule themselves, free of the overburden of government, churches, kings, tyrants, popes and princes.
And now, some 230 odd year later, also free from the overburden of corporations, international bankers, and robber barons.
Something that sails right over the heads of T-party types who regard liberalism as the enemy in their world. Not surprising since they are in the service of corporations whose real desire is to expand their own power without restraint. Clearly, a liberal population would rebel against corporate tyranny just as it has political tyranny.
If the T-party types ever pull their heads out of their collective asses, they might discover that the liberals, people who seek to be free from anyone dictating the quality of their lives and whose only desire is to rule themselves among themselves, might actually be far down the road of democracy. A liberal democracy is far from a perfect type of government, (human beings be far to young as an intelligent species to have worked much of anything out to perfection yet). But living with a government which is, at least to some small degree, responsive to the demands of the governed, is a far better arrangement that suffering under corporate tyranny that cares only for maximizing the profits of the few at the expense of the many.
That would make a real democracy a bad place for most T-party types; who seem determined to free the corporations of any restraint as well as installing a social dictatorship that establishes the "proper" religion, the acceptable make-up of a family, which recreational drugs one is allowed to enjoy, (alcohol and tobacco good, marijuana bad) and ensure that any idiot should be able to carry a maximum amount of firepower anywhere at anytime; church, school, or campus, and therefore be able to threaten the lives of as many people as bullets that will fit in the clip.
Exactly how it is that the T-party types see themselves as "freedom loving" is a bit of a mystery.
Monday, October 24, 2011
Burning down the house
I am completely convinced that there is no hope of renewing democracy in America by working within a system of institutionalized corruption. Without a revolutionary change some new form of fascist tyranny is the only place the US can end up - the most heavily armed nation on the planet bucking the tide of humanity's desire for liberty.
That's going to be a mess. It may well precipitate a large decline in the human population of the world. Of course, the current dependence on exponential "growth" as the cure for our economic and social ills must, inevitably, result in the same.
This growing tyranny has a simple basis, the power structures of the country have become monolithic. The corporate / military / 2 party system of the US is now a single, all encompassing, entity. Every single political leader now claims that the government's role is to aid and cooperate with business and corporate interests. There is no mention of the people of the US or the world. The only hope for a future of liberty in the US in to break that power structure apart.
The only hope for that is through massive demonstrations. But it must be the generation coming up that finds the fires within itself to take to the streets in the required numbers. The generation in control, mine, will not see the need. The efforts of our entire working lives are invested in that same power structure. We have voted these people into power since Regan and have drunk deeply of the supply-side economic cool-aid. Wall Street and Social Security hold all of our retirement assets, our dwindling hope for a good winter to our time on this planet. We have been "educated" by corporate / media all of our lives. While young people have had access to a wild-west of the Internet, a flood of information barely contained and uncontrolled, for their entire lives, my generation grew up with 3 TV stations spoon feeding us a view of the world that worked for those in power. We are, perhaps, the most thoroughly propagandized "free" people in all of history. Look at the "leaders" we offer, Bush, Perry, Obama, Bachmann...outside of people numbed by relentless mis-information, who would imagine this group as anything but a collection of the insane?
No, the revolution must be waged by the next generation in an effort to salvage their future. If they are to avoid being slave laborers they will have to start the fires that burn down this corporate world and build anew. They will have to find the compassion for others that my generation scorns. They will have to build a respect for this planet's environment that my generations sees as only resources to be exploited for the benefit of the few. They will have to build a system where wisdom and generosity, not hate and greed, pave the road to leadership. They will have to destroy this monolithic power structure and build a world were the power is spread around to the many.
And they will have to do it without, indeed, in spite of, the parents and grand parents they love.
That's going to be a mess. It may well precipitate a large decline in the human population of the world. Of course, the current dependence on exponential "growth" as the cure for our economic and social ills must, inevitably, result in the same.
This growing tyranny has a simple basis, the power structures of the country have become monolithic. The corporate / military / 2 party system of the US is now a single, all encompassing, entity. Every single political leader now claims that the government's role is to aid and cooperate with business and corporate interests. There is no mention of the people of the US or the world. The only hope for a future of liberty in the US in to break that power structure apart.
The only hope for that is through massive demonstrations. But it must be the generation coming up that finds the fires within itself to take to the streets in the required numbers. The generation in control, mine, will not see the need. The efforts of our entire working lives are invested in that same power structure. We have voted these people into power since Regan and have drunk deeply of the supply-side economic cool-aid. Wall Street and Social Security hold all of our retirement assets, our dwindling hope for a good winter to our time on this planet. We have been "educated" by corporate / media all of our lives. While young people have had access to a wild-west of the Internet, a flood of information barely contained and uncontrolled, for their entire lives, my generation grew up with 3 TV stations spoon feeding us a view of the world that worked for those in power. We are, perhaps, the most thoroughly propagandized "free" people in all of history. Look at the "leaders" we offer, Bush, Perry, Obama, Bachmann...outside of people numbed by relentless mis-information, who would imagine this group as anything but a collection of the insane?
No, the revolution must be waged by the next generation in an effort to salvage their future. If they are to avoid being slave laborers they will have to start the fires that burn down this corporate world and build anew. They will have to find the compassion for others that my generation scorns. They will have to build a respect for this planet's environment that my generations sees as only resources to be exploited for the benefit of the few. They will have to build a system where wisdom and generosity, not hate and greed, pave the road to leadership. They will have to destroy this monolithic power structure and build a world were the power is spread around to the many.
And they will have to do it without, indeed, in spite of, the parents and grand parents they love.
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Protests and Movements
In spite of my pessimism the "Occupy Wall Street" folks are getting some attention; helped somewhat by the excesses of the NYPD. (One thing that can always be counted on in the US, when the violence starts it will be the police who deliver the first blows.) That is the good news.
That they will probably amount to nothing more than a few headlines for a couple of months is the bad. It isn't that they aren't trying, but they don't seem to know that they want to see happen. "End corruption" they say, without a slightest hint of what corruption is being referenced or what they would do to end it. There is not a single demand for any particular individual to be forced from power or to face a legal tribunal of any form. Bent on being a "peaceful protest" they can't even carry their protest to the Wall Street they hope to occupy. (The Police and their barriers are not going to move without being shoved.)
Still, the fact that there is any "movement" at all forces a little optimism. The media is noticing even if most of the coverage is misleading, critical or downright false. That isn't surprising, coverage of nearly everything is misleading, critical or downright false. (The people who gather, edit and deliver the news are rarely experts in anything. I notice it nearly every time there is news that involves aviation - something I am an expert in. My guess is experts in power systems, oil spill recovery, transportation systems, education, and nearly every other technical field in existence notice the same thing.) More to the point when it comes to the OWS protests, the protesters are directly challenging the very people who own and operate most media outlets; massive corporations and near monopolies who have every motivation to spin the “news” to their advantage. (You don’t really think they will tell the truth if it offends sponsors – who are mostly other massive corporations - and hurts the bottom line, do you?)
But I still don’t think it likely that this will turn into some kind of “American Autumn” and force any real change. I hope I am wrong, but I don’t think a system as badly corrupted as this one can be reformed or repaired. It is failing at nearly every level, overcome by greed and fueled by deliberate ignorance. Facts are ignored or misconstrued, history is revised to fit the narrative of those in power, public opinion does not matter in the least (not that the public bothers to learn much)and even “historic” elections don’t change the direction determined by corporate campaign money and special interest lobbying efforts. No system can survive an assault on so many fronts at once, and a democratic system is particularly sensitive to propaganda, false information, and the twisting of history.
This democratic system is failing. Hopefully a more robust one will rise in its place.
That they will probably amount to nothing more than a few headlines for a couple of months is the bad. It isn't that they aren't trying, but they don't seem to know that they want to see happen. "End corruption" they say, without a slightest hint of what corruption is being referenced or what they would do to end it. There is not a single demand for any particular individual to be forced from power or to face a legal tribunal of any form. Bent on being a "peaceful protest" they can't even carry their protest to the Wall Street they hope to occupy. (The Police and their barriers are not going to move without being shoved.)
Still, the fact that there is any "movement" at all forces a little optimism. The media is noticing even if most of the coverage is misleading, critical or downright false. That isn't surprising, coverage of nearly everything is misleading, critical or downright false. (The people who gather, edit and deliver the news are rarely experts in anything. I notice it nearly every time there is news that involves aviation - something I am an expert in. My guess is experts in power systems, oil spill recovery, transportation systems, education, and nearly every other technical field in existence notice the same thing.) More to the point when it comes to the OWS protests, the protesters are directly challenging the very people who own and operate most media outlets; massive corporations and near monopolies who have every motivation to spin the “news” to their advantage. (You don’t really think they will tell the truth if it offends sponsors – who are mostly other massive corporations - and hurts the bottom line, do you?)
But I still don’t think it likely that this will turn into some kind of “American Autumn” and force any real change. I hope I am wrong, but I don’t think a system as badly corrupted as this one can be reformed or repaired. It is failing at nearly every level, overcome by greed and fueled by deliberate ignorance. Facts are ignored or misconstrued, history is revised to fit the narrative of those in power, public opinion does not matter in the least (not that the public bothers to learn much)and even “historic” elections don’t change the direction determined by corporate campaign money and special interest lobbying efforts. No system can survive an assault on so many fronts at once, and a democratic system is particularly sensitive to propaganda, false information, and the twisting of history.
This democratic system is failing. Hopefully a more robust one will rise in its place.
Monday, October 10, 2011
Off the reservation
They say there is nothing new under the sun, but is that really true? Human kind seems a new thing, with a written history of just 10,000 years or so in a cosmos some 13,700,000,000 years old. Even if there are other intelligent civilizations in the cosmos, or the galaxy, humanity is certainly a new thing in this neighborhood. (I like to think there are others but, so far, the evidence for them is pretty thin.) Each person is a new thing as well, a unique collection of genes, an improbable entity in history, whose life will be an individual sojourn unlike any other.
Though we are prone to seeing ourselves as something central in the cosmos, the focus of attention, the apple in god's eye; that isn't anywhere near being true. In cosmic terms our family climbed down from the trees early in the week, transitioning from climbing to walking. We learned to talk just a few days ago. It was only yesterday that we started to write down our thoughts and the industrial revolution started a few hours ago. Within the last few minutes we have been astonished to discover some of the basics of the history of the universe and ourselves. We have just now discovered that we are a species of ape recently climbed down from the trees.
Most of us seem a bit stunned and more than a bit disappointed at this revelation. Instead of admitting to the now obvious, we cling to the fantasy of being important, of being central to creation, of having power. We cling to god beliefs that teach we were created just as we are about the same time as the stars started to shine. Some of us imagine that we actually talk with a god, and that he/she/it/them talk back – giving instructions on, say, running for the office of President of the US or qualifying some people’s love as acceptable while others as sin. Most of us seem to imagine that the earth belongs to our generation to be stripped bare if necessary, exploited without regard to possible consequences. We act as if there is a guarantee that our species can’t possibly become extinct, in spite of knowing that 99.99% of all the species that have ever existed on this little planet are.
Manifest childishness. The universe has evolved in a way that bits of star stuff have become self-aware and intelligent. This is a wondrous thing! There is no telling where that intelligence can lead, what it can evolve into, where it can go. But it will not go far if we continue to cling to the illusions of our early childhood.
We really should admit to how new we are at this. We are so new that we are still trying to figure out how to govern ourselves with any semblance of justice and compassion while protecting the individual liberty that most of us crave. Clearly we are not doing a very good job, though we are not doing as bad as it might seem at first. There is a growing realization of the uniqueness of each individual, and the need to protect the minority from the prejudices of the majority. The short hand label for this realization, at least here in the West, is "Civil Rights." The US started with the civil rights of Land Owning White Guys, then expanded to Non Land Owning White Guys, Non-White Guys, Woman, Children, and is starting to include people who are not just heterosexuals. We haven't gotten it perfect, but we are doing a much better job than we were 50, 100, or 500 years ago. Integral with that governing is designing and preserving an economic system that fairly rewards work and innovation while establishing and preserving the social fabric that makes us who we are. Once again there is far to go before we figure it out; with millions of individuals suffering while we work on it.
We are terrible at balancing power against power, and though 6+ billion of us crowd this little world, we do much better in small groups than we do in big ones. But we are new at this as well. Up until a few hundred years ago we didn't even know how big the earth was, or that there were other people living in those parts. The vast majority of us are still only vaguely aware of the parts of the earth outside of our local 20 miles or so, and even more vague about the people who live there. We imagine all kinds of things about them, things that make them different. Most of our imaginings are far from true, but then again, empathy is something we are new at as well.
In all of our efforts there are at least two bits of wisdom lacking. The first is admitting that we are just now discovering how much we have left to learn. We should be astonished at what we have learned and absolutely mesmerized by what we have not. Clearly a large part of our cooperative efforts should be in learning as much as we can as quickly as we can. We have a hint of how much there is we don’t know yet, we need to get after it.
And we have to remember that we are children still, prone to acting as such. We frighten easily. We can't see the consequences of our actions and we are terrible at looking very far into the future. We have a tendency to be utterly self-centered, and we often do things that can and do get us hurt. A sizable percentage of us are bullies.
Maybe we are reaching a turning point in history. We are just beginning to understand that the universe is nothing less than an engine of constant creativity, endlessly evolving, of which we are an integral (though not central) part. In spite of what we have learned, what we do know, most of us haven’t grasped our true place in the universe and cling to an archaic view. As mentioned we cling to religions that teach a fixed creation where we were made as we are, the same as we have always been and basically unchanging until some fixed point in a fixed future. Our political leaders are just as bad. We vote for people who claim they already know all the answers or worse, vote for those who claim the answers of the past were the right ones. They cling to nation-states, borders, war and exclusionary policies as if the mistakes of the past will be the good ideas of the future. They act as if limited oil reserves will always be the real source of energy, as if technology isn't changing the way we know our world and interact with each other.
Up until now we have been involved in the continuous creativity and evolution in spite of ourselves. We didn't know, but it didn't matter that we didn't know. Now I think it matters. Those in power have enough power at their command to kill most of us off. They can destroy our civilization and maybe even drive the species to extinction. Recent history has given us every reason to believe that some political, and certainly some religious leaders, would rather destroy human kind than see continuing creativity mark them as irrelevant. Their clinging to the old way of seeing our place in the cosmos is putting all of our futures at risk.
There are only two options. Political and religious leaders can figure it out for themselves, changing policy and re-interpreting ideologies to reflect this new understanding. They can ride the wave and be part of the rapidly accelerating creativity. Or most of the rest of us figure it out in spite of them and shove them out of power. Should it go that way those doing the shoving can be nothing but the most dire of enemies to those in power. I think some of what we have seen around the world these past months is a first wave of this growing realization.
So how far off the reservation am I? I think all of our political and economic systems are doomed to fail. Not because they are necessarily bad systems, but because they are still just prototypes, first efforts, systems created while we were basically deaf, dumb and blind. Those who rule cling to the old idea because therein lies their claim on being rulers. In doing so they abandon creativity and thus betray the very nature of human kind in the cosmos.
How far off the reservation am I? I think the future lies in reorienting ourselves, recognizing that it isn’t the systems that work or don’t, it is the people, the engines of creation in those systems. No matter how good the system, if the people are corrupt the system can’t survive. Likewise, there are no really bad systems if the people involved are looking to the good of the many and striving for a better future of the whole. Dictatorships and kingdoms need not, necessarily, fail; it is dictators and kings who fail the societies they control. Democracy is not necessarily good, not if the democracy is corrupted by power and greed, where the only choice given for an election are those already bought and sold. Nor is democracy immune to a kind of collective failure. Hitler's National Socialist Party won 230 seats in the Reichstag in a free election. The result was political chaos and deadlock, (Sound familiar?) and the eventual rise of the Third Reich. (You should look it up; it is a fascinating and - sadly - contemporary story of duplicity, dishonesty, political corruption, violence and fear mongering.)
Socialism can work to a remarkable degree. The old U.S.S.R. was a Superpower for decades, and fell more due to greed, corruption and military adventurism than to anything having to do with its economic system. Capitalism can fail, all that need happen is that greed becomes the only driving factor with all other social needs abandoned or ignored.
We, creative bits in an ever creative cosmos, make the difference, no gods, no guarantees, nothing fixed. But we can't stop creating new politics, new economies, new ways. We can't stop creating for, the moment we do, we have no place in an endlessly creative universe.
Though we are prone to seeing ourselves as something central in the cosmos, the focus of attention, the apple in god's eye; that isn't anywhere near being true. In cosmic terms our family climbed down from the trees early in the week, transitioning from climbing to walking. We learned to talk just a few days ago. It was only yesterday that we started to write down our thoughts and the industrial revolution started a few hours ago. Within the last few minutes we have been astonished to discover some of the basics of the history of the universe and ourselves. We have just now discovered that we are a species of ape recently climbed down from the trees.
Most of us seem a bit stunned and more than a bit disappointed at this revelation. Instead of admitting to the now obvious, we cling to the fantasy of being important, of being central to creation, of having power. We cling to god beliefs that teach we were created just as we are about the same time as the stars started to shine. Some of us imagine that we actually talk with a god, and that he/she/it/them talk back – giving instructions on, say, running for the office of President of the US or qualifying some people’s love as acceptable while others as sin. Most of us seem to imagine that the earth belongs to our generation to be stripped bare if necessary, exploited without regard to possible consequences. We act as if there is a guarantee that our species can’t possibly become extinct, in spite of knowing that 99.99% of all the species that have ever existed on this little planet are.
Manifest childishness. The universe has evolved in a way that bits of star stuff have become self-aware and intelligent. This is a wondrous thing! There is no telling where that intelligence can lead, what it can evolve into, where it can go. But it will not go far if we continue to cling to the illusions of our early childhood.
We really should admit to how new we are at this. We are so new that we are still trying to figure out how to govern ourselves with any semblance of justice and compassion while protecting the individual liberty that most of us crave. Clearly we are not doing a very good job, though we are not doing as bad as it might seem at first. There is a growing realization of the uniqueness of each individual, and the need to protect the minority from the prejudices of the majority. The short hand label for this realization, at least here in the West, is "Civil Rights." The US started with the civil rights of Land Owning White Guys, then expanded to Non Land Owning White Guys, Non-White Guys, Woman, Children, and is starting to include people who are not just heterosexuals. We haven't gotten it perfect, but we are doing a much better job than we were 50, 100, or 500 years ago. Integral with that governing is designing and preserving an economic system that fairly rewards work and innovation while establishing and preserving the social fabric that makes us who we are. Once again there is far to go before we figure it out; with millions of individuals suffering while we work on it.
We are terrible at balancing power against power, and though 6+ billion of us crowd this little world, we do much better in small groups than we do in big ones. But we are new at this as well. Up until a few hundred years ago we didn't even know how big the earth was, or that there were other people living in those parts. The vast majority of us are still only vaguely aware of the parts of the earth outside of our local 20 miles or so, and even more vague about the people who live there. We imagine all kinds of things about them, things that make them different. Most of our imaginings are far from true, but then again, empathy is something we are new at as well.
In all of our efforts there are at least two bits of wisdom lacking. The first is admitting that we are just now discovering how much we have left to learn. We should be astonished at what we have learned and absolutely mesmerized by what we have not. Clearly a large part of our cooperative efforts should be in learning as much as we can as quickly as we can. We have a hint of how much there is we don’t know yet, we need to get after it.
And we have to remember that we are children still, prone to acting as such. We frighten easily. We can't see the consequences of our actions and we are terrible at looking very far into the future. We have a tendency to be utterly self-centered, and we often do things that can and do get us hurt. A sizable percentage of us are bullies.
Maybe we are reaching a turning point in history. We are just beginning to understand that the universe is nothing less than an engine of constant creativity, endlessly evolving, of which we are an integral (though not central) part. In spite of what we have learned, what we do know, most of us haven’t grasped our true place in the universe and cling to an archaic view. As mentioned we cling to religions that teach a fixed creation where we were made as we are, the same as we have always been and basically unchanging until some fixed point in a fixed future. Our political leaders are just as bad. We vote for people who claim they already know all the answers or worse, vote for those who claim the answers of the past were the right ones. They cling to nation-states, borders, war and exclusionary policies as if the mistakes of the past will be the good ideas of the future. They act as if limited oil reserves will always be the real source of energy, as if technology isn't changing the way we know our world and interact with each other.
Up until now we have been involved in the continuous creativity and evolution in spite of ourselves. We didn't know, but it didn't matter that we didn't know. Now I think it matters. Those in power have enough power at their command to kill most of us off. They can destroy our civilization and maybe even drive the species to extinction. Recent history has given us every reason to believe that some political, and certainly some religious leaders, would rather destroy human kind than see continuing creativity mark them as irrelevant. Their clinging to the old way of seeing our place in the cosmos is putting all of our futures at risk.
There are only two options. Political and religious leaders can figure it out for themselves, changing policy and re-interpreting ideologies to reflect this new understanding. They can ride the wave and be part of the rapidly accelerating creativity. Or most of the rest of us figure it out in spite of them and shove them out of power. Should it go that way those doing the shoving can be nothing but the most dire of enemies to those in power. I think some of what we have seen around the world these past months is a first wave of this growing realization.
So how far off the reservation am I? I think all of our political and economic systems are doomed to fail. Not because they are necessarily bad systems, but because they are still just prototypes, first efforts, systems created while we were basically deaf, dumb and blind. Those who rule cling to the old idea because therein lies their claim on being rulers. In doing so they abandon creativity and thus betray the very nature of human kind in the cosmos.
How far off the reservation am I? I think the future lies in reorienting ourselves, recognizing that it isn’t the systems that work or don’t, it is the people, the engines of creation in those systems. No matter how good the system, if the people are corrupt the system can’t survive. Likewise, there are no really bad systems if the people involved are looking to the good of the many and striving for a better future of the whole. Dictatorships and kingdoms need not, necessarily, fail; it is dictators and kings who fail the societies they control. Democracy is not necessarily good, not if the democracy is corrupted by power and greed, where the only choice given for an election are those already bought and sold. Nor is democracy immune to a kind of collective failure. Hitler's National Socialist Party won 230 seats in the Reichstag in a free election. The result was political chaos and deadlock, (Sound familiar?) and the eventual rise of the Third Reich. (You should look it up; it is a fascinating and - sadly - contemporary story of duplicity, dishonesty, political corruption, violence and fear mongering.)
Socialism can work to a remarkable degree. The old U.S.S.R. was a Superpower for decades, and fell more due to greed, corruption and military adventurism than to anything having to do with its economic system. Capitalism can fail, all that need happen is that greed becomes the only driving factor with all other social needs abandoned or ignored.
We, creative bits in an ever creative cosmos, make the difference, no gods, no guarantees, nothing fixed. But we can't stop creating new politics, new economies, new ways. We can't stop creating for, the moment we do, we have no place in an endlessly creative universe.
Christianity and politics
I have this tendency, based on my years as a Christian believer, to think that nothing could be more foreign to the teachings attributed to Jesus than the marriage of Christianity and American politics, with Supply Side Economics as best man. President Obama and all of those who want to take his place are openly, aggressively Christian. Admittedly they come from various sects, with the Protestants and the Catholics debating whether or not the Mormon among them is actually a Christian, and the Republicans debating the idea that any Black Democrat could be. Regardless, it is impossible to imagine the figure of Jesus actually approving of any of them. Imagine the same person who told the story recorded in Matthew 25: 31-46 standing on stage during a Republican primary debate. Even if your vision has him dressed in a proper suit and tie, clean shaven and hair all properly trimmed, just repeating those words would get him run off the stage.
Or how about the character described in the second half of John Chapter 2? “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” Are you serious? America worships markets. "Render unto Cesar..." Pay TAXES? Without complaint?
"The meek will inherit the earth..." "Blessed are the peacemakers..." "Judge not that you not be judged... but I tell you, don't swear at all (so much for the pledge not to raise taxes)... be careful that you don't do your charitable giving before men...Don’t lay up treasures for yourselves on the earth...Whoever receives one such little child in my name receives me (21% of children in the US live in poverty)...it is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God (What is the net worth of the candidates?)... You shall love your neighbor as yourself (no hint what religion, race, sex or nationality that neighbor might be)... for all those who take the sword will die by the sword (Cut defense spending anyone? Anyone?)
But then I remember. These are a few of the words attributed to Jesus, reflecting (in my opinion) some of the best of the main themes of the teachings. But there are other words, words that praise the violence of landowners while condemning the violence of laborers, words that reflect the Divine right of Kings, words that talk of plucking out eyes and cutting off hands. And of course all the words of Jesus are a minute fraction of the words of Christianity; words of interpretations, historical content, words of Peter and Paul and John and Luther and Augustine, words of countless unknown prophets set against the words of countless other unknown prophets...there are uncountable volumes of words...and every Christian who has ever lived picks and chooses the words they like the most.
I abandoned Christianity when I realized that truth, and when the American Christian church largely started to worship the words that I could not find room for in the heart of a supposedly loving and just god. Words that told of hell and eternal torment, words of judgment for divorced or ill or gay people, words that invoked money and riches as gifts from a god, and poverty as his punishment for the children of the lazy, words that ignored the discoveries of science and inquiry, words that praised ignorance and faith, words that worshiped war, words that rejoiced in the murder of others who emphasized different words, and words of the dominance of man over nature. (Those words, by the way, are being completely ignored by nature; much to man's surprise and leading possibly to mankind's extinction.)
Once free of belief and able to look at religion with a bit of detachment, I realized some other things. The Church has long served the powerful and the rich, set up Kings and supported aggression and war. The church revels in monuments and cathedrals, loves the metal gold (some of which can be found in every church building in the land) and the idea of gold (churches existing mostly to generate money for those who run the churches). American Christianity and American politics is actually a very good match. Though I might regard the current crop of Christian / Religious / Political leaders as worshiping nothing much more than themselves and power, they don't actually see themselves that way. There is no reason to assume they are not actually Christians if they claim to be so. Afer all, they are following in the footsteps of thousands of years of Christian Church leadership.
Unfortunately the realization makes it very hard to be optimistic about America's future. If I could rationalize these folks as being hypocrites, as deliberately misrepresenting their religion and their beliefs in order to bamboozle the public into voting for them, it would seem much more likely that they will fail. But I fear they are true believers, and truly believe the things they claim. Some truly think the universe was created around humanity, that the stars and mankind are roughly the same age. Some truly believe that god honors the rich and punishes the poor and righteously insist that imposing an American Christian Democracy on the world is the will of god. They believe in a hell for gay people, liberals, socialists, and a woman who terminates a pregnancy by choice. They think an anti-christ is really coming (if not already seated in the White House) that Israel is the focus point for an Armageddon, that a god is going to save us from ourselves. If they are wrong, (and they most certainly are) and there is no one to save us from ourselves OTHER THAN ourselves, then they are almost guaranteeing a harsh future for our children's children.
Seeing as most Americans share some basic parts of the religion, it seems likely we are committing a kind of mass, religious, social suicide. Worshiping the worst parts of Christian ideology, waiting for a god who is never going to show, and electing people with whom many share an honest delusion, the society will die pursuing a misplaced piety.
Or how about the character described in the second half of John Chapter 2? “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” Are you serious? America worships markets. "Render unto Cesar..." Pay TAXES? Without complaint?
"The meek will inherit the earth..." "Blessed are the peacemakers..." "Judge not that you not be judged... but I tell you, don't swear at all (so much for the pledge not to raise taxes)... be careful that you don't do your charitable giving before men...Don’t lay up treasures for yourselves on the earth...Whoever receives one such little child in my name receives me (21% of children in the US live in poverty)...it is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God (What is the net worth of the candidates?)... You shall love your neighbor as yourself (no hint what religion, race, sex or nationality that neighbor might be)... for all those who take the sword will die by the sword (Cut defense spending anyone? Anyone?)
But then I remember. These are a few of the words attributed to Jesus, reflecting (in my opinion) some of the best of the main themes of the teachings. But there are other words, words that praise the violence of landowners while condemning the violence of laborers, words that reflect the Divine right of Kings, words that talk of plucking out eyes and cutting off hands. And of course all the words of Jesus are a minute fraction of the words of Christianity; words of interpretations, historical content, words of Peter and Paul and John and Luther and Augustine, words of countless unknown prophets set against the words of countless other unknown prophets...there are uncountable volumes of words...and every Christian who has ever lived picks and chooses the words they like the most.
I abandoned Christianity when I realized that truth, and when the American Christian church largely started to worship the words that I could not find room for in the heart of a supposedly loving and just god. Words that told of hell and eternal torment, words of judgment for divorced or ill or gay people, words that invoked money and riches as gifts from a god, and poverty as his punishment for the children of the lazy, words that ignored the discoveries of science and inquiry, words that praised ignorance and faith, words that worshiped war, words that rejoiced in the murder of others who emphasized different words, and words of the dominance of man over nature. (Those words, by the way, are being completely ignored by nature; much to man's surprise and leading possibly to mankind's extinction.)
Once free of belief and able to look at religion with a bit of detachment, I realized some other things. The Church has long served the powerful and the rich, set up Kings and supported aggression and war. The church revels in monuments and cathedrals, loves the metal gold (some of which can be found in every church building in the land) and the idea of gold (churches existing mostly to generate money for those who run the churches). American Christianity and American politics is actually a very good match. Though I might regard the current crop of Christian / Religious / Political leaders as worshiping nothing much more than themselves and power, they don't actually see themselves that way. There is no reason to assume they are not actually Christians if they claim to be so. Afer all, they are following in the footsteps of thousands of years of Christian Church leadership.
Unfortunately the realization makes it very hard to be optimistic about America's future. If I could rationalize these folks as being hypocrites, as deliberately misrepresenting their religion and their beliefs in order to bamboozle the public into voting for them, it would seem much more likely that they will fail. But I fear they are true believers, and truly believe the things they claim. Some truly think the universe was created around humanity, that the stars and mankind are roughly the same age. Some truly believe that god honors the rich and punishes the poor and righteously insist that imposing an American Christian Democracy on the world is the will of god. They believe in a hell for gay people, liberals, socialists, and a woman who terminates a pregnancy by choice. They think an anti-christ is really coming (if not already seated in the White House) that Israel is the focus point for an Armageddon, that a god is going to save us from ourselves. If they are wrong, (and they most certainly are) and there is no one to save us from ourselves OTHER THAN ourselves, then they are almost guaranteeing a harsh future for our children's children.
Seeing as most Americans share some basic parts of the religion, it seems likely we are committing a kind of mass, religious, social suicide. Worshiping the worst parts of Christian ideology, waiting for a god who is never going to show, and electing people with whom many share an honest delusion, the society will die pursuing a misplaced piety.
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