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VI. TOMORROW, THE DAY AFTER, & OUR KIDS
BS ‘n’ About…
Bigshots, Fearless Leaders, & Muckety-Mucks
Mankind has risen to dominance on this planet by feeding on itself. The strong devour the weak. The smart manipulate the stupid. The rich steal off the poor. The ambitious march everybody off to war.
When history rode on horseback, the Earth was protected from our excesses. We were protected from our excesses. Humanity could afford to give free rein to its Best & Brightest, allow them to drive us into the future, and clean up their messes afterward. We got our Buddhas and Einsteins, but we also got our Hitlers.
Humanity can no longer afford to be driven by ambition, heredity, and self-interest. The stakes we play for are way too high to be proceeding without some kind of unifying, long term plan, some vision for the common good. Our next Madman will have chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons at his disposable. He’ll have our cell phone locations, our e-mail in-boxes, and even our DNA at his disposal. That is a scenario humanity will likely not survive. …at least not as we know it. Yet that is the scenario we are headed for unless we actively do something to avoid it. Our world is armed to the teeth and in political, spiritual, economic, lingual, and cultural chaos. That sounds a whole lot like the recipe for a Madman if history tells us anything.
We have to want to be better beings than that if we are to have any hope of achieving harmony with our world and with each other. …if we are to have any hope of ensuring the very survival of our species. In many ways, humanity is still innocent and idealistic. Should we lose that, we won’t find it again.
Humanity needs to start working together as partners, co-workers, and caretakers of this spaceship of a planet we call Earth before we evolve ourselves out of existence. We need to change our values, our desires, our motivations, and our gameplan. We need to start treating every individual human life as if it matters and nurture that life to be the best it can be. We need to evolve toward quality and away from quantity when it comes to the gift of life with which each of us has been entrusted.
This only works if those born to and aspiring to lead us rise above self-interest and learn to work for humanity as a whole. I’ve used up a lot of ink writing about how the American people need to find their Voice again. …get involved again. …get up off their sofas again. But I was really talking to you guys: The Bigshots, Fearless Leaders, & Muckety-Mucks. At present, We, the American People are weak, divided, and politically impotent. We will never again have a Voice if you don’t want us to have one. We will never again be part of the process unless you change the rules. But that would be a tragic mistake for you, for us, for America, and for humanity.
It is the recipe for an end to democracy. It is the recipe for a continuation of the economic, political, cultural, and ideological wars that have plagued mankind since The Beginning. It is a recipe for The End.
For America to have any hope of forging a future based on the lofty principles laid down by our Founding Fathers, our leaders need to WANT the people to be a part of the process again. They need to quit talking so much and listen a lot more. They need to quit using us to amass Gilded Age fortunes and support for agendas not in our best interests. They need to quit viewing us as demographics, constituencies, and power bases. They need to quit ‘downsizing’ us. They need to quit ‘offshoring’ our jobs. They need to quit taking advantage of our faith. They need to quit spin-doctoring us. They need to quit lying to us.
As long as money, power, and position are the yardsticks by which we judge success, the strong will continue feeding on the weak. We need to find a way of molding our Best & Brightest into better people than that. …into the types of political, business, and spiritual leaders that can work together for the common good. We need to change their motivations, rewards, and penalties. We need to change the rules of the game before we all end up losing it.
Our media-driven, capitalist economy is running roughshod over the democratic principles upon which we were founded, as well as the foundation of family upon which we were built. Democracy is too fragile a concept to withstand the forces and resources of capitalism. Democracy implies an equitable distribution of the wealth. Capitalism has resulted in the wealth of our nation concentrated in the hands of a few.
We live in an America where one rich guy can give another rich guy thirty billion dollars to give away, yet the average working man can’t afford to raise a family, keep them healthy, get them educated, or provide for his retirement. Not That Long Ago, that same working guy could raise four kids, send most of them to college, let Mom stay home, and still provide for his retirement. Not That Long Ago we had one billionaire. Not That Long Ago…
Congress has received $30,000 in raises since the last minimum wage increase. That’s just not right. Oil Companies are celebrating record profits while charging three bucks a gallon for gas. That’s just not right. Church leaders live off the fat of the land, pay no taxes, and lock their doors to the plight of the hungry and homeless. That’s just not right.
Ronald Reagan promised the American people that if we let the wealth of the nation accumulate at the top, the results would “trickle-down” into our lives. Here it is, twenty-five years later, and the rich are still crying for more estate tax loopholes and caviar tax cuts.
How can America hope to be anything but fragile and divided when the average taxpayer sees those professing to lead him unwilling to shoulder their fair share? Their very wealth and influence see to it that they reap maximum benefit and reward, so shouldn’t they want to shoulder their fair share? If we truly had a system that worked for us and reflected our will, shouldn’t we all be happy to shoulder our fair share?
The greatest investment America can make is in its people. If we are strong as communities, as families, and as individuals, we will be strong as a nation. Right now we’re not. The American people need job security, healthcare, education, and retirement security to thrive. We need peace. Educate and nurture us and we become descendents of Athenian-style Town Council Democracy. Fail to do so and we become the mob at the Roman Games. America is at a crossroads.
We need to want to be better people than the people we are allowing ourselves become. We need some vision. We need a plan. We need something worth belonging to, something worth believing in. We need to feel united in common cause, doing Good Works.
But don’t mistake what’s here for some liberal, do-gooder, bleeding heart rant to share the wealth and feed the ‘great unwashed’. It just seems to make ‘King has no Clothes’ common sense as well as good business sense. Every dollar invested in the American people is a dollar that will reap dividends for generations.
In the long run, peace is more profitable than war. Education is more profitable than ignorance. Health is more profitable than sickness. Stability is more profitable than uncertainty. Preparedness is more profitable than disaster cleanup. Quality is more profitable than quantity. ‘In the long run…’ It all depends on how we look at things. …it all depends on how we add things up.
Nor is whats here meant as an indictment of those reaping the rewards of capitalism. We can only hope that our Best & Brightest would succeed at whatever game they played. What’s here is an indictment of the game. To our Best & Brightest it is a plea. Maybe even a challenge. Set your sights higher. Get some vision. Be honest with yourselves and with us. You’ve won this game. Now let us try something with some real challenge. If the first billion doesn’t do it for you, the second won’t either.
Humanity is the caretaker of a Paradise of a planet with plenty enough of everything to keep plenty enough of us alive to ride out eternity in the cosmic equivalent of Disneyland. America has what it takes, and is sitting in a prime position, to lead humanity into a Golden Age. We are the most dominant and far-reaching power on the planet since the Roman Empire. Invest in the American people, and we’ll build that Golden Age for you. Let us know in our hearts that we are working for something noble and good. The world will go where America takes it. And America will go where you, our leaders, take us.
It seems ‘King has no Clothes’ obvious that learning to live in harmony with our world, and with each other, is the single biggest challenge facing humanity today. Unfortunately, we don’t yet see it as a necessity. But, in the bigger picture, it is the only cause that makes any sense at all. It is the only cause that ensures a future for us all. Nothing we build will be safe until we figure out how to do so. Nothing we dream will be lasting until we find a way of living in peace and ensuring the very survival of our species. The Earth is the only life support we’ve got. Every human life is a miracle beyond our ability to comprehend. We’ve got to start showing both the respect they deserve. We’ve got to start pulling in the same direction. We’ve got to start working together.
But it all starts with you: the Bigshots, Fearless Leaders, & Muckety-Mucks. When a people rise up and demand a Voice without the support and assistance of its leaders, we call that Revolution. When a people rise up and demand a Voice with the support and assistance of its leaders, we call that Democracy. Nothing America stands for could possibly survive a Revolution, so Democracy is our only hope. You are our only hope.
Since you are the ones that got the most, you are the ones who are going to have to give the most, but We, the People will do all we can. You know we will. We’ve done it before. Lead us better and we’ll be better people. Set a better example and you know we’ll keep up. Respect us more and we’ll respect you more. Make us proud to be Americans again.
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