The Human Empire

2011-10-15T09:11:00.000-07:00

As the ongoing Occupy Wall Street Movement has been drawing attention, hopefully it has us all reflecting on our governments or whatever takes its place. There are always flaws, and we all have our grievances.

Some would call the United States the greatest nation on earth (though I wonder if that’s been said about its government), so what is at fault? Why the dissent now?

To simplify things, The United States has a capitalist economy. By nature that means the less able are left behind, neglected… you get the picture. The failings of this system are never more apparent than during a recession. In comes public outrage, and a revolt against the successful capitalists and, of course, the politicians they sponsor. A capitalist society requires a degree of socialism to balance itself out. This requires a bigger government, more taxes, all the stuff that brings a bout of public outrage (this time including the successful capitalists).
The United States of America is in an endless balancing act between capitalism and socialism, and we’re not satisfied with either. Add to that the tendency for corruption and greed, and it's hard to be satisfied.

Compared to many other governments, Americans have it pretty good, but it isn’t enough anymore. We are evolving. We want change. We want something that serves us better, something that suits our country(countries), something that we can be proud of. So with all the different forms of government (dictatorship, democracy, monarchy, communism, socialism, etc.)… Where does that lead us?

Still with democracy, of course. What society would implement a system that takes away their voice?

Ideally this would lead us to a form of democracy I think of as volunteerism, where no one is a politician, and all of us are the government. This, however, requires a more perfect, united society. This requires universal honesty, integrity, sharing, and responsibility… A place we have yet to go. After all, what do our governments’ failings amount to, but the failings of those who run it, and those who are run by it?

What we need is not the perfect government, as that requires the aforementioned perfect society. What we need is the perfect government for an imperfect society.

Suggestions?

Worldwide, we should all be reflecting on our governments (or anything that takes its place) and where they fail, we should be demanding better. Where they are corrupt we should be cleaning them out. We should be demanding a higher quality of humanity to represent us. The few who rule us cannot ignore when we are all joined together. We will not just take what we’re given, or what is shoved down our throats. We will not be deterred by scare tactics. We will tell the few what we expect them to do for us. We are the government. We will not be overrun. We will prevail.

Last thought: There are terrible things going on all over the world, where the innocent witness the very worst man has to offer. This cannot continue. It is innately wrong. We should forever be working for a better world, an evolved earth, where the only empire is the Human Empire, and we all stand united.

How to Live Free in the Land of the Free

2011-10-08T09:13:00.000-07:00

So many of our ancestors were brought here as slaves and indentured servants, even made captive in their own lands, but we call this the land of the free. Here a man cannot own another, cannot take what belongs to another… supposedly.

In generation after generation of free living together we have found ways to make up for our freedom. Is it our nature that makes us find ways to give it up? Is it our ignorance as a society? Some turn to substances: drugs (prescription and illicit), alcohol, coffee, cigarettes, food, etc; some turn to possessions. In our land of plenty, anything is to be had with the right amount of cash or credit. We find ourselves signing contracts of servitude before we’re twenty, indenturing our futures away for the here, the now, and hoping that later we’ll tread our way back to freedom, only to find that it may never end, that we’ll always have the sensation of drowning. We’re forever giving away everything we get into a system that doesn’t care if our legs get tired, doesn’t care if we start to sink.

It doesn’t help that our nation has come to be built on, not the people that’s its sworn to serve, but the companies and investments that keep it afloat, the same companies holding Americans captive.

To be fair, we were looking for a way to enslave ourselves, weren’t we? And they were looking to take advantage.

I confess to having a certain fondness for the movie Fight Club. Some days I wish we could bomb the credit card, mortgage, and student loan buildings, and have all our indentured agreements reset. Of course, that is too dangerous. I don’t condone putting others in harm’s way. But I relate to that sentiment. How many of us are tired of working so a faceless monster can gobble our money back down? We’re tired of signing away our lives. We’re tired of drowning in debt, so we can have the right to shelter, a vehicle to take us to work, an education so we can afford to feed the monster, afford to feed a government that rescues the monster when finally it becomes so bloated from overeating it might finally collapse…. Only to lose our jobs anyway, and all that other stuff we’ve worked so hard to deserve.

We’re tired of being slaves. It’s time to break the shackles. Let’s not be slaves to the American epidemic of greed. The fattest wallets have always sat on top the pile, but who are we to work for them?

The problem with the Occupy Wall Street Movement is that nobody can or will give us what we want. It’s something we have to take. If we do, the fat wallets and the monster are helpless to stop us. This isn’t about occupying Wall Street anymore. It’s about an American Rebirth, for the very humblest of us to be seen, and our needs met. That’s what we want, isn’t it? That’s what we’d be willing to stick together for, right? We need to become the people our government fears.
The first step to fix our very basic of problems, isn’t to blow up any buildings. The answer is much simpler:

Stop feeding the monster.

It preys on us, on our money, on our hard work. Stop feeding it. This is a well kept secret. We are the ones with the power, if we’re willing to use it. The next step is equally sensible:

Protect our own, protect each other.

Are we to idly sit by as our neighbors are gobbled by the monster? That’s not how they did it during the Great Depression. That’s not how we should do it now. Let’s take back what we signed away. Let’s reclaim our lives, and our rights.

There is one caveat: we need to want to be free. It doesn’t make sense to trade one previously mentioned method of slavery for another. We must ask ourselves if we are truly ready to be unshackled. It takes an enlightened society to transcend the boundaries that nature and circumstance have put in our way. It takes enlightenment to ignore a need to be indentured in some way. Let’s remind the land of the free of what really matters. We don’t care about the most money, the biggest credit score, the biggest number in the bank, or the most green paper.

Numbers don’t matter. Paper doesn’t matter.

People matter. Family matters. Community matters. These above all are worthy of defense. The land of the Free needs to remember who it really works for.