Lessons from the 2014 election

Random and opposing thoughts regarding the mid-term election:

Our political system will continue to be corrupted by and in the grip of those obsessed with money and power.

We will rely on the leadings of the spirit and the spiritual.

Gross inequality will continue.

We will distill our lives, or our lives will be distilled for us.

The militarism will continue.

We will learn by the riveting experience of suffering…and forgiveness.

Secrecy in government will increase. Our privacy will continue to be invaded and diminished.

We will be clearly shown that we are one, that we depend on each other, not as "The other" but as "The one.” We ARE the enemy and the enemy is us. (Pogo was right, sort of....)

Purveyors of fear (still the great motivator) will continue to shape our culture and attitudes toward our neighbors, be they on our street or in the rest of the world.

The Great Unraveling will teach us compassion and humility.

Global warming will continue. “Natural disasters” (Nature shaking off our toxic species) will grow more and more severe.

The manifestations of environmental disintegration and the power of nature will force themselves upon us. They will require us to change.

Ignorance will spread…thanks to fundamentalism, corporate media, distorted values, amplified media demagoguery and impoverished schools and families.

We will discover truth through experience.

The homeless, many of them veterans, the mentally ill or both, will continue to find homes only in the streets. They will continue to be neglected, even scorned. Children will suffer in growing numbers. Homeless, hungry and abandoned.

We will learn that change begins with us acting as individuals and as communities (including ‘communities of interest’). Change begins in “small places” within the "oneness."

Technology will grow with little or no consideration given to unintended consequences. Escapist sports, games, consumerist values and other fantasies will define our culture. We live in a drop-out, fabricated, media-manipulated world of distorted and corrupted values.

We will withdraw from corporate media, consumerism and their contrived values. There will be a growing suspicion of technological change masquerading as “progress."

Crime will increase, including that committed by our “system of justice.”

We will be forced to examine and re-examine deeply, and then reshape, our values and our actions. Restorative justice, compassionate listening and non-violent communication are manifestations.

The good (love) in religions will be muted; the bad (prejudice, anti-intellectualism, self-righteousness and judging) amplified. Religions will grow as a problem, not a solution.

We will turn to spiritual “leadings” and reject religious dogma and dictates.

Government and politics will grow as a source of our fear and despair.

We will focus on and do what is possible. We will live and act more closely to our communities and homes. We can not afford to be distracted by events (news?) we can do nothing about. We will govern ourselves.

Our infrastructure will continue to crumble. Private profit will reshape and then destroy “The Commons.”

We will be called upon to act together and independently in new, sustainable, cooperative, humane and creative ways.

We may not have “fallen far enough.”

We will evolve to new awareness and, then, a new consciousness.

Toying with Isolationism

I’ve never considered myself an isolationist but I confess I’m toying with the idea.

A search of “Isolation, recession” turned up this, which seems extreme, but well worth reading. Here’s a bit of it for those of you not visiting Hal Licino’s site.

The Canadian-USA border is erased. The Mexican border is turned into the Berlin Wall.

All Military and Homeland Security forces are turned towards defending the continental perimeter.

Immigration is stopped. All visitors and tourists must obtain a visa and place a $50,000 bond, returnable only on their departure.

Based on a retroactive date, all citizens within that border are granted full North American citizenship, no questions asked.

On that same retroactive date, all citizens have title deed to whatever housing unit they resided. The North American government will hold a 50% 30 year mortgage and will enforce monthly payments at a fixed 2.5% annual rate.

A 250 percent tariff is set on every single imported product with absolutely no exceptions.
The gold reserves of North America are fixed to the common currency. A constitutional amendment forbids any change to this policy for 50 years.

Private banks are closed. Lending centers are set up where investors can pool their available funds. Interest cannot exceed 5% annually for any reason or any purpose.

All current taxes are eliminated. There is a 20% V.A.T. on the purchase of every item, no exceptions.

Interestingly, Licino, in making this immodest proposal, fails to mention the huge saving that would accrue to us by no longer being the “world’s cop on the beat.” More about money later, but imagine being able to redirect our military resources to productive, not destructive, investments.

Clearly Licino’s isolationist scenario raises more questions than it answers.

Just for starters, why eliminate the border with Canada and put up “A Berlin Wall” along the Mexican border? There are all kinds of nasty answers to this one. But, hey, I’m just asking?

And then what about that 20 percent across-the-board value-added tax and the elimination of all other taxes. So the person struggling to get by on $20,000 (if that in this economy) pays at the same tax rate as some Wall Street rip-off artist. This is a perverse form of equity.

The list of questions grows.

Remember, we are talking about economic isolationism too, not just a military hunkering down. Before we close the ports we might ask what natural resources are essential to our economy and how many of them come from abroad. Could we manage without such “essentials”? We might be surprised by the answer. Then again, we might not . . . .

Would adversary nations, previously held in check by our military might, immediately leap at each other’s throats? Consider North and South Korea, Israel and Iran (and Syria etc.), Pakistan and India, mainland China and Taiwan. The line forms on the right.

Then there are the internal rivalries we have tried (mostly unsuccessfully) to influence. The Sunnis and the Shiites, the tribes of Rwanda and Burundi, the clans of Sudan, and religious fundamentalists and the secular everywhere,

Questions, questions.

One idea I'd throw into the mix is this: While we are isolating ourselves economically, politically and militarily, we should vigorously reach out socially and culturally. Consider this a variation of the distinction between economic capital and social capital. We need to invest in, and trade in, social and cultural capital. In so doing we might find that our failed fixation on amassing economic capital has blinded us to our own human potential.

The world-wide web, which grows stronger and more influential by the nano-second, makes investment in social capital magnificently simple.

In short, life here is about people, a planet and survival — not money.

Pause.

Consider the truth to that simple statement: “In short, life here is about people, a planet and survival — not money.” It has the whiff of cant.

Are we really in an either/or world? Can’t we pursue wealth AND still save our souls, ourselves and the planet.

Add the question to the list and see where the discussion takes us.

One thing is for sure. We need to break out of rigid, unquestioned assumptions about “national security,” “defending democracy,” “free trade” and “America’s role in the world.”

Some vested interests — the arms industry and Wall Street come to mind — want nothing to do with rethinking assumptions that have made them insanely rich at the expense others. But if you can overcome such greed (no small task, particularly because we are all infected with it to some degree), my guess is that the large majority of Americans, of every political stripe, would leap at the chance to explore where isolationism, in its considerable variations, might take us.

Europe to Gates (and Obama): Peace is the way

A.J. Muste’s familiar saying, “There’s no way to peace; peace is the way,” is being questioned by none other than America’s very own Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Last week he publicly bemoaned what he described as Europe’s “demilitarization,” saying that the coolness for fighting was jeopardizing the war in Afghanistan.

Jeopardizing war? That sounds like what Muste had in mind. The way to peace is — peace.

A New York Times story on Feb. 23 noted that polls in Europe show that the Afghanistan war “has grown increasingly unpopular in nearly every European country.”

As Gates noted, NATO members just aren’t putting enough money into guns. The story had Gates complaining that “only five of 28 countries have reached the defense spending target of 2 percent of gross domestic product. Here in the USA — where we still have underfunded schools, miserable health care and a crumbling infrastructure — we spend more than twice that percentage on fighting or preparing to fight.

Indeed we spend more on “defense” than all the other nations on the planet combined.

One nice thing about small democratic countries is that what the people want they get — health care, education etc. Here, we leave it to corporations and the defense industry to call the shots. Vis. the recent Supreme Court decision on corporate political contributions.

So Europe, a cluster of relatively small nations, which feel the impact of Islam’s presence far more than we do, is turning thumbs down on Mr. Gates’ (and President Obama’s) war.

The counter to Gates (and Obama), of course, is Muste (and Gandhi and King and Jesus).

If you want peace, don’t fight wars.

With regard to Afghanistan, there’s a long conversation that Mr. Gate should have with the Russians and the British of the 20th Century. The problem is this: that was then and this is now.

History is not on Mr. Gates’ side. Nor, it would seem, is Europe.