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Fellow Human Being:
I’m not sure what’s crazier: The fact that I’m sitting here trying to bring about Peace on Earth, or the fact that it seems I am the only one who even seems to think it is a good idea. If we are lemmings headed toward the cliff, then perhaps that’s what is meant to be. But why would we have been bestowed these many gifts and this paradise of a world if it weren’t for some nobler purpose than destroying ourselves and everything we touch?
If Peace on Earth was the question, then Congress has No Clothes is my attempt at an answer. I start with the assumption that we will change only if we change the ‘system’, thereby changing our motivations, our desires, our incentives, and our values. I also assume that change at this level will only succeed if it taps into something that beats within us all, big and small alike. It has to be something that we all want because we all see our lives, and those of our children, bettered by it.
Peace on Earth tried to stick to the facts. Admittedly, they were the facts as I see them but, for the most part, they were facts nonetheless: Our communal way of life is disappearing. Capitalism is an exponential force in a finite world. We are still willing to kill for our Gods. Wars keep getting deadlier. We are, for the first time in our history, messing with unprecedentedly dangerous stuff that could destroy civilization as we know it. Those are facts.
Congress has No Clothes attempts to examine those facts for the clues they provide as to what we ought to be doing about our future. Much of it is obvious: Harmony with each other and our world. Long term planning instead of short term. Not losing touch with each other as we drown ourselves in technology. Quit messing with the really, really dangerous stuff until we are worthy of such powers. Much of it is obvious. Getting from here to there is the hard part.
I, Bob Smith, have walked many miles, through many cultures, and met many people. Humanity sucks but pretty much every individual I ever met was pretty cool. We all seem to want pretty much the same things: A little love, some respect, some security, and an outlet for our curiosity and restlessness. We want purpose. We want to be acknowledged and know that our life has meaning.
Unfortunately, we are not very good at getting what we want. Combine that with the ‘system’ as it now stands and is it any wonder that we live in a world driven by greed, hatred, and war?
The following pages lay out some very specific proposals addressing, in one way or another, virtually every ill or danger threatening the future of mankind. Most of what is here is so obviously necessary that I don’t claim any special insight for having been the one who wrote it down.
If I am wrong I can live with that. I’m even open enough to change my mind if the facts can be aligned for me. If I’m wrong I can live with that. But if I’m right, right about the future that currently awaits us, then none of us are going to be living with it. Try to do your part. I’ll try to do mine. Until then…
Sincerely Yours,
Bob Smith
2011
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