Skip to content

The Power Of The People

Money

Money

MONEY! This is a topic that evokes a wide variety of thoughts and emotions. This site will contain a lot of information and discussion about money as time goes by. There is a lot to know and understand about it. A survey shows that most people are not very informed about money. There are many books available about it ranging from history to the future, and despite the immediacy of and the profound influence of money in the lives of the people, the vast majority of the people have invested little time in its study. We know what it looks like, in its many forms, and we know what we can do with it, but this is not enough. Something that has become the overwhelming driving force of the world warrants more. The people would help themselves greatly by taking the time to study the literature available about money. The information found there is indispensable, but there are some things about money that seem to be missing from the literature, vital things.

A fundamental fact about money that demands understanding seems obvious, but is mostly overlooked is the fact that money is what we use to access the products of society, and regardless of the form, money is a means to limit your access to the products of society. If there were no limits to your access, there would be no reason to have money at all. If you think this sounds like everything would be free in such a case, you are simply making a mistake, an understandable one, but still a profound mistake.

“Free,” like “freedom,“is something that has little or no meaning when analyzed deeply. There is no such thing as “free,” nor, as has already been written about on this site, “freedom.” These are just words that represent no physical object and as mental abstracts have only relative meaning within certain contexts. Nothing is all that is free. No object of human production is truly free since it must be “paid for” with time and energy/effort. The air you breathe in comes at the cost of time and effort inhaling. When the universe is considered, devoid of life, everything in it is a product of time and energy, and, therefore, not free. This train of thought has no end. The products of society that we currently buy with some form of money are certainly never free. They all require time and effort to produce. So, even if there were no limit to your access to the products, nothing would be free. The amount of time and energy required to produce the products and to gain unlimited access would be the cost, but money would have no place. You invest time and effort; in return you get access to all the products of society. You will not be given anything. You will have to purchase what you get by contributing to society. What makes this so desirable is the fact that your pay for your effort is everything you want as long as you live. That is pretty good pay, don’t you think?

Yes, your money will disappear. You will have to give up money entirely. There will be no money and there will be no need for money. There will be no savings, no stock market or stock, no banks, no financial institutions, no artificial value, and there will be virtually no need for lawyers. All these things exist only because we use money to conduct the operations of our society. Of course, such a system serves some, and very well.

In terms of everything that is produced in the USA, including services, the financial industry (a name it does not deserve) comprises nearly half. Things that are being done in the management and manipulation of money have become a huge portion of the total work people do. It also pays very well. In fact, it appears that the financial jobs are among the top paying in the country.

Banking is something that we all see. But do you realize that every penny that goes into the banking system is a needless expense for society. It is like paying someone to follow you around holding your money and taking care of your payments, but much worse. It is simply an unnecessary expense, and it is an expense that has taken the top tier in the pay scale. Can you see that if everyone worked in the financial sector there would be nothing to eat? Can you see that the more we spend dealing with the onerous burden of money the poorer we become? It is imperative that society use its time and effort wisely. Our work must help us as much as it possibly can, and the cost of money is too high and totally unnecessary.

Nothing we need and want requires money. We have just become so inured to it that we don’t understand what is happening. If you want to build a house or a factory, you can’t build it out of money. You build it out of tangible building materials. Money doesn’t fertilize crops. It doesn’t fix your leaky pipes. When you need building materials, go get them. In a society that pays you unlimited access to the products of society as compensation for your work, that is all you have to do; just go get the stuff you need. It seems insane to first have to convince someone that you are worthy of the money required to get the stuff you need. How did this happen? Open minded study easily answers that question, if you can get to that condition. It is not easy, perhaps even unlikely. Try it after reading this article. You may find it more likely.

There is a lot to fathom about money and how it has transformed the very essence of life in society. Consider crime. Money is the motive nearly every time. Show a hungry animal food and them put it out of reach. You will see the animal behave in ways similar to the way people behave after they become aware of what is available in the world that they are unable to obtain. Food is a prime example even amongst humans. Just look at the starvation statistics. The food is out there, but many cannot gain access to it; they don’t have the money. Who can be confused now about the frequency of crime? It is a natural occurrence in a society that limits access to it products.

It has already been suggested that there is not enough for unlimited access for everyone. This is an old response and it has no substance. It comes from the psychology created by the system that has dominated life on Earth as long as history is available. This system cannot abide abundance. This system requires for its very existence shortage, scarcity, and deprivation. We have been subjected to this so long we have unconsciously accepted it as a natural condition of life. Nothing could be further from the truth. The waste that goes on in the world today is essential to this inhumane inane system.

Here is the next fundamental fact about money that beats you down every day all the time and still goes unnoticed. Somehow, at some point in time, it became accepted by the people that their time and effort does not deserve as much as that of another. You get paid more or less than someone else. The people have accepted the judgments that value their contributions to society at different levels. These value judgments and their enforcement have become such that the most essential work of society are the least valued. The people who work to build and maintain everything are granted the least access to the products of the society they build, while those who contribute things that we could easily do without are granted the most access; movie stars, high end athletes, and those who deal in money and laws, though the list is longer still. Only a very few, percentage wise, have unlimited access and, guess what, those few have virtually unlimited access to you as well.

If you and I get stranded on a deserted tropical island and I quickly gather all the coconuts and put them where you cannot get them, I can get you to do things for me that you might not otherwise be willing to do in exchange for coconuts. I would have access to you. The hungrier you become the greater my power over you becomes. My behavior in that case would certainly be subject to criticism, but such things are going on every day all over the world while the people idly accept it. You see it all around you, but you may be unaware of it.

Society is overflowing with products and services. Production is a staggering abundance. Even food has become a commodity that is bought and sold, rather than something personally grown, hunted, or gathered. It is a product of society and to get access to it money must be obtained. Again, the person with the money has power over you. If you want something besides food, the same situation exists. In the world today, your desires for things other than food are being created by some of the greatest human effort ever done, which is another topic, but you will see what I mean by considering advertising, marketing, and invention, the last of which creates desires that previously did not exist, like laptop computers. Then there is medical care.

Medical care has become big business. You can get your heart replaced. Well, you can get it replaced if you have the money; otherwise you are likely to just perish. Medical services are not provided to those who have no money. Sure there are charities and some medical service provided to those who have no money, but people are suffering and dying all over the world, even in the USA, because they don’t have enough money to get available medical help. Now, how does this compare to the coconut story above? You might do many things for someone to relieve your hunger, but when you are in the grips of excruciating pain, or your body is badly broken, you are likely to be even more motivated. What a wonderful way to make money! Just refuse to grant access to a product of society known as “medical care” unless money is provided. In a system that bases price on the strength of demand, how could you ask for a better means to set prices high? “Does it hurt bad? We can fix it for the right price.” It sounds very much like the story of coconuts. All this is going on today, and worse, while the least amount of notice and effort reveals that medical care as we have it today is only because so many have contributed to society so long.

The cost of education is not just books and tuition. What university exists solely as an island in society? They all use the roads and every other system that society provides. Without the vast amounts of time and effort supplied by the people, there would be no hospital or medical equipment, and no university. People would not be able to devote their time to the study necessary to become medical professionals. No doctor acquired the requisite knowledge to be a doctor without vast help from society. What would a person eat while spending the necessary time in study if there were no people making food available? The more one goes to school, the more one owes society. Ah, but that is backwards. The more one goes to school the more one deserves more money. This current attitude is devoid of reason, and absolutely oozing the worst form of discrimination.

Somehow you have accepted that you are not worth as much as someone else. That is the cold hard fact of the matter. You have accepted this lie, this delusion. If this is not your attitude, why then do you accept the limited access you have to the products of society? Even the highest paid doctors are getting less than some. Even they have accepted that they are worth less than someone else, if not consciously then by behavior. We have, nearly every one of us, accepted the delusion that some are worth more than others. The proof is in your pay, your profit, your returns. While you work away, even contentedly, you accept that you are not going to get full access to the products of society when there is no physical organic reason for it. It is discrimination.

You are being judged. Your value is being determined. The quality of your life is being set upon you through the instrument of money. You contribute to society and your contribution is compensated with some amount of money, which is, again, simply your access to the products of society. You are granted some level of access, but limited access, as represented by your money. Your value is being set for you.

You live on a planet that has had humans working incredibly hard on it for centuries. Humans have been very busy. The amount of work that has been done is beyond comprehension. We see remnants from thousands of years ago in the form of pyramids and such of the work that has been going on continuously for all these thousands of years. Everyone alive has inherited the products of the work done by the ancestors. In the USA there are few roads left to build. Lakes have been created. The list goes on and on. Surely you can understand this. A lot has already been done. We have inherited a lot of stuff, and the new born even more. Yet the work must go on. We must be ever productive, more and more all the time. It gets harder and harder to do enough work to satisfy our survival needs. Many perish because they cannot keep up the pace, or they cannot get back into the pace after the system has let them fall out of sync. Where does it all go? When is it enough?

In the USA, and the world at large for the most part, the people are required to work all their lives to provide for themselves. You must have a job and work at it to get money to buy the things you want and need, because you are not going to get access to the products of society unless you have money. There is retirement, sure there is. For most of you it is after you are so old and worn out that you don’t even have long left to live, and your retirement is an austerity demonstration. The exceptions to this are too few to make the situation acceptable. The exceptions, of course, are the wealthy, and in truth they only have it a little better than the rest of the people. In fact, there are ample reasons to claim that they do not have it any better, but worse. They only have access to the products of society and to the people. They don’t have greater access to peace, happiness, fulfillment, or any of the products that humans can create in a better world. The wealthy also have the burden of responsibility for the prevention of the fulfillment of Life on Earth.

When I get all the coconuts and prevent you from gaining access to them on the desert island, I am holding you down, back, and out. Money is no different. If I get all the money and prevent you from accessing it, I hold you down in much the same way. One source stated that corporations in the USA are sitting on nearly two trillion dollars, the exact number being unnecessary, and the the exact form being equally unnecessary. This number is above and beyond what they call “illiquid assets,” like buildings, real estate, machinery, and such. It also does not include the inherited work already done by humans. Those corporations use the roads, the utilities, and everything else. They hold enough money to eliminate hunger here, to provide medical care to those without access, and so much more. But they have no intention of any such actions. They hold their money while they claim they need more confidence that any use they apply the money to will result in even more money coming back to them, a return. They are held in high esteem. They are successful. They are seen as paradigms of the hope we all have. There is no hint, other than from this writer that they are hording the coconuts.

There is only so much money. If money is a “store of value,” as they put it, it must represent tangible products or services. People who have wealth are keeping you from getting better access to the products of society and they are using you to do their bidding, which is all the essential work and the work of increasing and protecting their wealth. They know that people desire better access to the products of society, so they must be ever vigilant against the people. You may have noticed the law enforcement and military expense in today’s world. If you think they are there to protect you, consider the nuclear bomb. The wealthy have plenty of protection against the nuclear threat. Do you? Do you think the military of another country would invade to get more people? In this densely populated world more people means more mouths to feed. Invaders are after land and wealth, usually. Furthermore, would you require a military if everyone had unlimited access to the products of society? A society that successful would be the inspiration of rapid duplication around the globe. The kicker is; such a society is not only possible, but great effort is being applied to prevent its inevitable manifestation by completely natural organic means.

There was a man named Thomas Robert Malthus who wrote some books in the late seventeen hundreds that spun a bit of sophistry about over-population and scarcity that have been invaluable tools in the suppression of the human spirit ever since. Today the world is in apoplexy over the growing population and the depleting resources. Malthus was a reverend in the Christian faith and a philosopher economist. He studied societies both present and past, and then postulated their extensions. He went against many well know persons who postulated quite the opposite of his views believing that humans could and would perfect society even unto utopia. The fact that Malthus worked solely within the parameters of society that operates in the usual manner was a great flaw in his thinking. His views assumed that there would always be money regulating access to the products of society. He saw how prosperity caused more births until there was less prosperity that slowed the birth rate. It was a fine bit of sophistry, ingenious. It was totally devoid of any true vision and comprehensive comprehension of society. It appears to be just a way to protect the wealth of the wealthy and to continue the perpetration of a terrible social system, the one that has a king at the top and peasants below.

People began to dislike the idea of Kings and Queens and the social system was modified so that those royals could have their positions without causing the people to revolt again. It was a clever move, and it has everything to do with your money. They merely stepped out of the spot light and temporarily increased the people’s access to the products of society while they devised ways to control the people. For the people was their only threat.

A person was no threat to the wealthy. Killing a person was easy. Killing or imprisoning a lot of people, though more difficult, was easy enough. The real threat has always been The People. Large numbers of people united in a cause stormed the palaces and executed the royals many times in history. This fact was not lost on the wealthy or the royals and they have been at great endeavors to use their wealth to get people to devise ways to prevent such things. Yes, they got the people they wanted to control to devise the means to do so.

Today the people are so outgunned it is ridiculous. The wealthy can bring to bear the unimaginable force of the world’s military might in defense of their wealth. Or maybe you think the military is not at the disposal of the wealthy, like they want you to think. Are those in power wealthy? I rest my case. If you are unable to see that the wealthy can bring to bear the might of the armed, just try to do anything against their wishes. You can end up in prison even if you have lots of money if you go against the greater wealth, or you can end up dead. It has happened many times, whether you are aware of it or not.

It stands as fact that money can get people to do things that a sentient being would find unimaginably horrible. We all know this. There is only one reason this condition exists; access to the products of society is limited. Discrimination is being done that shows the people that there are some who get more and this keeps a false hope alive in the hearts of the people, the hope to rise up to a similar level. The wealthy realized early that hope was essential to the maintenance of a strong and peaceful population of servants, though now they feel crowded by too many servants; yet another topic for later.

People who can get everything they want and need are difficult to manage into doing horrible things. Theft is a rare occurrence in a society that provides unlimited access to the products of society in return for a short term of service. The very character of the people in such a society is something altogether different than that of people in society as it is today, worldwide. When basic needs are met and access to the means of attaining personal fulfillment are readily available, beautiful people occur. In such a society the products of society become beautiful things, works of art, utility, and durability. People become productive in pursuit of their own personal dreams, health, well-being, and community/family desires. A society that is that successful generates generations of ever greater quality and beauty. Vistas become visible that have been shrouded in darkness, invisible to the minds that struggle for survival. The vastness of outer space becomes a beckoning frontier, and that frontier is likely limitless, as are its resources.

On Earth today, resources are being used to operate society. The world over societies, together comprising the super family of our species, operate in such a state of inefficiency that people like Reverend Malthus seem lucid. But the availability of resources and space are only a concern within the systems that operate society as it is today, and there is no reason to continue to operate society as it is today. There is, in fact, overwhelming evidence that the super family of man is headed to its own destruction if the current systems are allowed to continue. Now, do you think you might like to break your mind free of its limits and at least try to envision a better way? Perhaps you could just consider the one you are reading about right now with a mind free of brainwashing that life has done to you since you came into this life.

Note:

This article is testing the waters, so to speak. I have quite a bit of fear around presenting it to the world. Change frightens some. Some would like to see thing continue as they are. So, if I suddenly commit suicide, I really didn’t. Some things are worth dying for, as some things are worth living for. I fear those who oppose egalitarian altruism. I fear those who argue against utopia. The psychology of those people is hard to fathom. The “it can’t be done” crowd, don’t remember Edison and many others. That something doesn’t seem possible to you is not proof of your opinion. Opinions are limited to the scope of the consciousness of the opinion holder. They see reasons why something can’t be done instead of the obstacles that must be surmounted to reach the goal, or they have darker more sinister psychology. I fear there are those who have very sinister desires and who do such things. That is a subject for another time. I do fear that though. I do not fear to fear. Fear is a good thing. It helps me survive.

Anyway, I debated this article for some time. I wrote it quite a while back. The fact that you are reading it tells you what I finally decided. I want world peace, but I want even more. I want everyone to be fulfilled, provided their fulfillment doesn’t require sinister stuff. I want to live in a world of people who love everyone and everything, of happy people who are enjoying the adventure. I want to live in a world of people united in Truth. I am sick of the multitude of arguments on every subject of any importance. I want to live in a world of infinite diversity and possibilities. I do, actually. It just needs to be unfettered.

The Power Of The People

The Power Of The People

Saving the world and making it utopia at last

Twenty Twenty-Five

Designed with WordPress

Politics

Politics

Politics is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as the art and science of government. That definition well never be used in this article. Instead, politics will mean the activities of those seeking governmental positions or other positions that require voting. I think that is what most people think of when they think of politics. The art and science of government is the job of the people who get elected and appointed to positions in government.

To me and many others, the word politics has a bit of a ‘dirty’ connotation. People who want to get elected to the positions in government engage in activities that will get people to vote for them. Those activities are the politics. The people doing those things are the ‘politicians.’ Meaning no disrespect to the fine people and products at Merriam-Webster, mixing what the politicians do to get elected and what they do once they are elected is something I would rather not permit. So many politicians do things that warrant the contempt of the people politics has become a dirty word, and politicians a disreputable bunch. Exceptions exist, of course, for both disreputable politicians and those who think politicians are disreputable. To be thorough, there must be plenty of people who use the word ‘politics’ to mean the art and science of government. I am doing this writing and I will be taking my artistic license and defining terms as I see fit.

Politics is in dire need of reform. I intend to propose solution ideas in an article later. Here you will find reasons it needs reform as well as some of the history, art, and science of government. Critique will be laced throughout. Controversial aspects will be laid open for examination. My feelings about it all will no doubt creep in here and there. I have deep passion about it and don’t intend to deny it or to prevent its discovery. There is one primary reason for the effort I am applying, truth.

I think the truth is the hardest thing to find in politics. What is said by politicians, what they do, what they have done, who they really are, what they really think, and what they really feel is what we need. If we can’t get the truth there, we can’t vote intelligently. And that, my friend and fellow voter, is why politics is a dirty word. If you can’t get the logic here, let me spell it out. The politicians don’t want us to know who they really are, what they have done, what they think, or any of the other vital data we need to make intelligent choices.

We are looking for brilliant saints who care more for us than they do for themselves, and that is a very rare person. Now think, is it not how they all attempt to portray themselves? Is it possible that we are so lucky that we have had an unbroken line of brilliant and saintly politicians seeking to win elections so they can take care of us for over a hundred years? I will be very difficult to convince me that we have ever been lucky at all in that regard. I will remain open to input, though.

The importance of politics in this nation cannot be overstated. In this year, 2018, political divisions are sharp and energetic. President Trump is the subject of incredible controversy. Government policy is being hammered out by a congress divided along party lines with no chance of compromise. It is a battle. We the people, the electorate and the source of all power, are standing on opposing sides ready to charge into battle with ourselves. The controversies are raging. Solutions are nowhere in sight. The government of the people, by the people, and for the people is corrupted and divided, but that has not decreased the actions of our military, our agencies, our congress, or anything else. Our military is actively engaged all over the globe. We don’t dispatch it. We don’t know what is being done or what has been done. We have only some it, and we have a lot that is just simply not true that is being presented as true. All aspects of our society and personal lives is overwhelmed by the governments. They are at war and intrigue. They are regulating and controlling the people of a free country so much freedom is a myth popularly accepted as fact. Government has been subjected to the machinations of politicians and self-serving people so long our government has become a monster.

The most powerful incorporeal monster ever conceived is raging ahead in a gluttonous feasting on humanity and Earth. Political controversy could not demand resolution more urgently. “There are lives in the balance.” (Jackson Brown from Lives In The Balance, 1986) If people knew the truth about this nation’s history, there would be ‘weeping and gnashing of teeth’ like never before. They don’t know. That seems obvious. I am nearing seventy years of age and I spent most of my life in ignorance of what our true history. Oh, I got the dressed and sugar coated version. When the light finally began to shine, I felt angry, sad, and desperate. I am still grieving and cause for grief is constantly being generated, and in my name.

We are the people of the United States of America. Everything our governments do is done in our name. People around the world are holding us accountable. You and I are hated by billions. They blame us for the unquantifiable suffering and death they are being subjected to and that has been happening to them for many decades. I don’t blame them! We the people are so out of touch with our government we are guilty of negligence that has resulted in atrocities so horrible they are worse than “crimes against humanity.” The people don’t even know what has already been done and what is being done now is hidden so well lies are being taken as truth and divisions among us are being placed for evil purposes. Death and misery is being plowed into the fabric of reality. To check that statement, try to find out how many people, animals, and forests have been killed by violence in the past one hundred and fifty years. It is not done yet. Now, look into the total amount of things the humans have made and built that has been destroyed violently and add to that the amount of destructive things humans have had to build and deploy to accomplish that destruction. Still not done! I want you to try to conceive the amount of ecological damage that has been done by humans. If you can absorb those amounts without being thrown into fulminating rage, something is terribly wrong with you.

You live in the best and the greatest nation on Earth. You are minding your own business and trying to raise your children. You do your best to teach them the good things they need to know. You are not killing millions of people around the world. You are not killing anyone. Instead, you are sending people to fight and die for the good things that matter to you. You are protecting the people from the dreaded Communism and bringing democracy to the poor victims of communist brutality. How can anyone hate you? They don’t even know you and you have not done anything to hurt anyone. You are good, mostly. All you want to do is live in peace and try to help those who are suffering. You and I have created and supplied a monster that is ravaging the world. We didn’t mean to, and most of us are not even aware of it. The people are the best think about this nation, but they have neglected their duty. Let the controversy rage over my statements. I would rather fight you over the truth than face the consequences of the endless controversy that perpetuates and sustains the monster. Let the trance of self-serving denial be lifted. End the controversy! Stop the killing! Stop the destruction! Stop the endless labor! Stop being duped! Face the truth! Please!

It is past time for the truth to become the bedrock of the good people of the United States of America. We may be the last best hope for the world. It in not a matter of who is right or who is wrong. It is not a matter of who has the best idea or who gets the credit. It is a simple matter of truth. The truth is pushing against us constantly. It is champing at the bit. It is a bear that will not be denied. It wants to rage against the darkness. We are at the edge of a precipice. The truth wants to push you over it. But we are scared. The unknown is terrifying. We must take the plunge before we take the plunge from another precipice, the one that we should really fear. Let the truth come. Let’s examine some fundamental history and find the truth that has eluded us and that has been intentionally kept from us. Let’s end the controversy and unite in the truth.

How We Became Blamable

First, let’s consider government of the people, by the people, and for the people. It is a principle that is held dear by the people of the USA. It is also why billions of people hate us. They know we pride ourselves in the principle of governing ourselves. They don’t realize the truth. You probably don’t either. The truth is that the people are not operating our government, it is not being operated for us, either. It was a concept held dear by some of the men who fought the British in the eighteenth century and obtained the power to establish a new government, which they did.

Some of them were trying to create a new government designed to defend itself against the incessant tendency of all governments to become tyrannical, monarchical, and despotic. You can see this expressed in a quote from Thomas Jefferson in a letter to Benjamin Rush: “And they believe rightly: for I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility to every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”
For men like Jefferson, Madison, and some of the others involved in the Continental Congress, liberty was important enough to include its protection in the Constitution. Others involved were not so keen on the liberty of the people, as will be born out here later. That and other factors defeated the causes of those who wanted the new government to be of, by, and for the people.

When that principle was being fought for in the eighteenth century there were far fewer people than there are now. It was easier to ‘take the pulse’ of the people, but even then, there was controversy. It was deep and wide. The Continental Congress went on for quite a while because it was fraught with different opinions and desires. It is my opinion that it never achieved its mission.

We did not get born into a nation that has a government of, by, and for the people. Instead, we have inherited a government that lost the battle against tyranny shortly after its birth and enslaved the people without ever letting many people realize it even after more than two centuries of government actions that prove it. The people, for the most part, think they are a free people living in a nation that protects their liberty, lives, and property. They hold the ideals of the men like Thomas Jefferson and think they are manifest in the US government and all the subservient levels of government such as state and local. The truth is being kept from us. None of what we hold dear about our nation is real. In place of the truth we are being brainwashed to believe our ideals are being served. An incredible propaganda machine is shaping our minds and our actions to meet the demands of a monster. The truth is being kept from us. It is being kept hidden lest it finally become known and the despots lose their power and privilege. The monster serves them, not us, and they don’t actually know what they are doing, either. It is a total mess and it is time to straighten it out. Let’s examine the problem in more detail.

As setup in the Constitution of the United States, the government never became of, by, or for the people. Why, the exclusions of Native Americans, slaves, women, poor, and young written right in the Constitution is the very essence of NOT being of, by, and for the people. In the couple of centuries since its inception the very foundation of the Constitution has mutated into something ghastly. What was sold to and bought by the people as high ideals that were secured by the Constitution have never been established in the first place, and by now all resemblance to that ideal are nowhere to be found but in the false beliefs of the people. No one could be more sad about it than I am.

We the people supply the power and life of a veritable monster, and we give it power beyond comprehension. People don’t know what they have done or what they are doing. Our revered government has become something that takes its power now. We are not asked to supply it. We are forced at the point of a gun to supply it. The punishment for not supplying it is severe. The government has made laws that force us to supply it with power or be punished if we don’t. The people who make the nation’s laws and decide issues of justice have been for far too long self-serving corrupt individuals that few of us would allow to be there if knew even half of the truth about them and what they are doing. Don’t think this is true? Don’t make me laugh. Tell me what you think. Let’s get to the truth. Let’s determine why that is so difficult. That is the key. That is what is most important today. Why is the truth so elusive? Why do so many people believe strongly that they already have the truth and everyone else is just wrong?

American Politics

Our governments are the arena of politics. Great battle costing great amounts of money are being fought in that arena. The battle has many fronts for there is not just one government. There are at least three; Federal, State, and Local, and our nation is not the only one conducting such battles. Our three have subdivisions and the total is probably beyond count. At all levels, politics are being engaged. I doubt there is a single USA citizen who is not certain that politics is a shady business. Why, positions in government being bought. Exceptions are rare, if there are any. Guess what, the money paid to buy a governmental position does not go to the general population. It goes to a monster, “a monster that will not obey.” (John Kay, Steppenwolf, from the song, Monster)

The political arena of the USA is dominated by the wealthy, by corporations, and by institutions. Those three things are all controlled by the powerful privileged few. So, the wealthy own the government. They run it and use it for their own purposes. They allow the illusion of government of, by, and for the people only to protect themselves from the true power; the power of the people. For as long as I can remember, the people who have taken the many offices of the governments have most often been lawyers. Who would be more likely to be able to manipulate the machinations of government? The pay and benefits they get today is profound evidence of this statement. The laws that have been enacted are further proof, but the people know little of such things.

Most of the people are not lawyers and they are too busy with survival and raising kids to become knowledgeable about the complex and innumerable laws. This is no accident. It is something that has been perpetrated and has been perpetuated upon the people for a very long time. You see, there are people today and people from the past who don’t think we are worth even what we eat. They think the people should not be allowed to determine their own future. To them the people are just a mob of stupid and violent rabble. I do not intend to site examples of this fact here. Check it our yourself. Seek the phrase, “Useless feeders.”

The Power of the People and the Monsters

All power ultimately is in the people. The people do the work and consume what that work produces, or that is how is should be. The work of the people has become so productive we can’t consume all we produce. It is being “consumed” though. It is being consumed by the monster we create. It is how governments have power. We are the source of the power and all we produce. Government is what consumes most of it. It is the excess beyond what we can consume that supplies the monster.

Now that the industrial revolution has been augmented by the technology revolution, production is so great the monster has reproduced. We are facing many monsters across the globe. They know how to protect themselves. They are non-corporeal monsters, but they are ravenously hungry for power. They are also devoid of love, heart, compassion, ethics, and all the other things that constitute a healthy human. How did this happen?

The loyalty to this nation and the pride many feel for it is due to the founding principles written into the Declaration of Independence. Our governments are supposed to be representative governments. They are supposed to represent the people in the use of the incredible power that organized societies create. Our government was supposed to have been established to use that power to serve and protect the people. The government was designed by the Constitution and flaws in that design coupled with intended causes designed into it caused the intentions of the idealists involved to never be realized.

Compromises were made by the members of the coalition of disparate individuals who were designing the new government. Early US history is a complex and difficult topic mostly unknown by most of the people. They would be hard pressed to supply even a rudimentary definition of the Federalists and the Anti-federalists of early American history. Knowledge of the Whig and Tory debate in the 1600s, upon which much of the philosophy of the designers of our government was descended, is in even shorter supply. That they were precursors to our two-party system is just not part of the average American’s data base.

Some who participated in designing our federal government were not so eager to let it be controlled by the people. Those were the men who still had some affinity for the monarchical control of the people. They believed the people are too crude and unfit to govern themselves. Though most of the Loyalists either did not join the Continental Congress or quickly left it, their beliefs were not altogether absent in those who did. You can read their writings if you care to. Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to William Johnson dated June 12, 1823 in which he lamented the compromises they had to make with that group. It is an astonishing revelation to the people today. You can also read about it and more by clicking here. It is an article titled, Did the Constitution Betray the Revolution?

Do you think the people who had such opinions died out leaving the world in the hands of the people to govern themselves? If so, we need to talk. Seriously talk. The best source of American pride and loyalty is not exactly what the people at- large think it is. We can’t blame them, for there is little time and motivation to become a scholar of the subject. Even if they wanted to become pedantic experts on the topic, there are innumerable barriers and derailings in the path.

The Leadership Concept and the Vote

There is a concept in the human consciousness we label with the word, “leadership.” It is founded in the principle that the best of the people can guide the rest of the people. It was simple logic and sound reasoning in some ways, stupid in others. If you don’t know which way to go and someone else does, you can let that person lead and you will get where you want to go without ever having to know the way. Great. But what if the leader doesn’t want you to get where you want to go? It is necessary to trust the leader if we are going to follow them, otherwise we are just foolish.

Getting from one point on Earth to another is a very simple example of useful leadership. So, what about the immense power of the people? Can we trust a leader or even a group of leaders to use it the way we want them to, and are we qualified to judge their leadership? Are we qualified to determine what is the best way to use the power? Despite the controversy among those gathered to design our government, and despite the ineffective manifestation of government of, by, and for the people, some of the people were granted the vote as way to select leaders.

It is amazing to me that many millions of people do not even bother to cast a vote and most of them never have. Aside from the manipulation of the vote by political wrangling, the vote is our only means of having any influence over who is in office and what they do in our name. It is not nearly enough power to influence it, but it could be used to get that influence. Imagine the people united in that cause.

We are engaged in what is called a “democratic” system of selecting leaders. “Democracy is a means for the people to choose their leaders and to hold their leaders accountable for their policies and their conduct in office.” (Lecture at Hilla University for Humanistic Studies January 21, 2004 from a site by Stanford University) Sounds pretty good doesn’t it? Select leaders and hold them accountable.

We are supposed to select those leaders by voting. So, what happens when there are over three hundred million people and less than sixty percent of those eligible to vote do vote? That is about how many voted in the 2016 presidential election, sixty percent, and that was a record voter turnout. In other elections the turnout is far less. When the people don’t involve themselves in the vote, the trustworthiness of the leaders is left unattended and they are not held accountable for anything. What happens then? What happens when politics becomes the largest factor involved in selecting the leaders? Are you starting to think? What happens when this condition, this situation, is allowed to continue for over a century? All you have to do is see the world as it really is today to get the true answer to that question.

Do you know how big the world is? Silly question, isn’t it? No, it is not silly, not in light of the fact that nearly everyone lives in a relatively small part of this big world and never get involved in much of it personally. People don’t know how big the world is, and they know even less about what the seven billion humans are doing. It is not possible for everyone to go everywhere and monitor everything all the time. Our leaders are supposed to do that to the best of their ability and we provide them with plenty of money and things to use in fulfilling that function.

Do you think a leader can actually monitor the world? Do you think they can do it as a group? It’s a big planet and things are happening everywhere all the time. It is probably impossible. Even with modern communication systems and organized groups assigned to monitor the world, no one I have encountered or heard of claims to know it all. It is just too much. Even if it could be done, humans cannot be trusted to deal with it. Humans are to fallible.

What about psychology? Do you think anyone is able to gather truth and facts free of the psychological coloring and distortion? Don’t make me laugh! Humans are always human. You know what that means; mistakes. Mistakes will be made, but there is trustworthiness involved too. Do you trust anyone enough to give them immense power over your life and the lives of your loved ones? In this nation, spouses are not granted that much trust very often. So, how is that the immense power of the United States of America is being given to people we don’t even know personally?

Consider, please, that nearly everyone has no first-hand knowledge of our leaders or of what is going on around the world. It is not possible to be an informed electorate that was thought to be essential to the new government the Founding Fathers were creating. No one knows enough about everything to be considered well informed. To be well informed enough to run the gigantic federal government and the ancillary forms of government, the people would have to have a level of knowledge on all subjects and current events at levels like that of the specialists of academia and technology. For further thoughts on this subject click here.

An informed electorate was more likely during the time of the Founding Fathers, but even then, it was iffy at best. Today it is probably impossible for the electorate to be well informed and even less possible to be informed by the truth. The world is too big and there is too much going on. The power being wielded by the governments of the world, the institutions of the world, the corporations of the world, and the other organizations around the world is being used by humans, fallible humans. The men who believed the people could not be trusted to govern themselves when our government was being designed must have thought the few they believed should govern were not human. Did they think the monarchs could stay well informed about the world and the people? If they did, they probably didn’t envision seven billion people and the awesome power of societies today. You and I are not well informed. I don’t care one bit if you think you are. None of us are well informed enough to qualify for the term. Some are better informed than others, but that does not mean they are well informed. It is a relative term for which I think no one is qualified. We have to rely on second-hand information at best, and that is not good enough.

Who doesn’t know about the eye-witness accounts? We know from them that it is not likely that anyone directly involved or observing events comes away with facts and truth. How much less can we be knowledgeable about all the things we are not involved in directly? We are not qualified and no one is, but we are still creating an immense power that has become a monster. We are still selecting humans to attempt to steer it. Poorly informed and disinterested is what we are, and we don’t even bother to monitor the monster.

We the people are certainly not well-informed voters. To be well informed we must be directly involved. We must have true data. We must find the data free of the psychology that we all have. We are not qualified to select the leaders or hold them accountable. We are not qualified to approve or disapprove of what is being done with the immense power we create. We are not lacking in opinions. We are lacking in facts. We are lacking in rationality free of our subconscious. We still think we know about things around the world. We still have opinions about the affairs of other nations and peoples. We still think that what we think is right and good. We the people cannot wield the immense power that we are creating. How much less can we control those we allow to wield the power of the people? Yet many of us vote, and passionately in some cases.

We are endowing a group of people with an immense amount of power. Contrary to the design of the vote, the majority is not selecting the leaders. A politician needs only a majority of the votes cast. If only three people vote, we will elect someone with just two votes and that person will take power with noting being said and no hell being raised. In the 2016 election only about sixty percent of the eligible voter bother to vote. Since there was more than one candidate for President, the will of the majority was not voiced. Never mind that twenty percent or so of those qualified to vote ever even register. We must think it is okay to put incredible power into the hands of fallible human beings elected by a minority of the people. Don’t forget that all under the age of 18 have no vote. I was not surprised to find that the exact number of votes cast in the 2016 election is very difficult to find on the internet. At best I could have added the votes cast for each candidate to the the total, but it is so frustrating that the number is not easy to find, I just didn’t bother. I got the percentages. That will do for this article. A majority of the people do not select the leaders. That much is clear. We seem to think it is okay the way it is. I mean, we must. Otherwise, why would we allow it?

We are voting and exercising our power to select leaders and influence policy, some of us are. It doesn’t seem to matter that we are not qualified to make decisions regarding the affairs and lives of people in our own family and much less those of other nations. It doesn’t seem to matter that we are voting for people we don’t actually know. It doesn’t seem to matter that we are basing almost all our opinions about the leaders, the policy, the use of power, the accountability, and everything else on information that we get from sources we know even less about.

We are people, humans. We are only capable of so much. We don’t get first-hand information about much. Even what we do get first-hand is so often wrong it has left us with a shameful history and embarrassed after reporting our eyewitness accounts . We experience things constantly, but how much of what we experience yields to us accurate and true data? Not much, I think. We are too human to extract the truth all the time. So, what do we do? We invest ourselves in second-hand information, sometimes even worse.

Modern Media

We are the modern technology society. We are accessing many forms of influences. The many forms of media are ever-present. Huge amounts of human energy and time are being spent on many forms of media. That is where we get the information we rely on to form our opinions about world affairs. That fact just breaks my heart and, eventually, makes me angry. The media is the monster’s best friend.

There is no media that is not created by humans; alien beings aside for the moment. It is all going through filters. When someone goes into the war zone and reports back, the report is not going straight to you and me. It goes to news organizations. In all things other than what we experience ourselves, we are using information provided for us. Do you trust the providers? I don’t. Not one bit. You would have to have faith in them to take what they provide as fact. Judging by what I can see, there must be a lot of faith out there. I don’t get it, not the faith or the reasons others act as though they have it. It doesn’t take that much effort to discover a long history of unfaithfulness in the media.

Please, do the world a favor and read Crystallizing Public Opinion by Walter Lippmann, Propaganda by Edward S. Herman, and Manufacturing Consent by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky. Then follow the leads they provide. Find out what they had to say and verify it for yourself. Then talk to me. See if you can convince me to have faith in the press, the media, or the leaders. Prepare yourself before you read those books. They are illusion breakers, and the illusions of the people are deep. They are invested in them. Sudden truth can feel like a bear has pushed you over a ledge.

If we are to obtain our data from the media, shouldn’t we be doing something to hold the media accountable? Does freedom of the press include the freedom to report false information intentionally? Okay, how about freedom to lie and manipulate? Can we protect the freedom of the press even if it hypnotizes us? What if a reporter kills you? Is that freedom of the press? Don’t be stupid or think I am for asking a stupid question. I am attempting to reach through the illusions. The press, or the media of which the press is a part, must be held accountable and must be monitored constantly. If you think that is what is happening, we need to talk. Seriously! It is an illusion and you are clinging to it like a child to a stuffed bear. There is another representation of a bear pushing on you right now.

I will not relinquish my ability to determine for myself what the truth is. I will not submit to the press and relinquish my judgment to the press. I will not take what the media cranks out on faith. I will doubt. I will check what it says. I will be suspicious and distrustful. I think it is part of being a person of honor. Though a free and independent press can be a valuable resource for information, there is no guarantee that it is and will be free and independent. In fact, it is common knowledge among many that the press, otherwise known as the media these days, is owned and operated to make profit. I think it is also being use as a propaganda tool. I intend to develop that point in another article. The freedom of the press has to be won by every article, report, editorial, and everything else. It must then be constantly monitored for failures to report the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. When opinions are offered they must be clearly labeled as such. Maybe they should not be allowed at all. The power of the press is too great and too dangerous to allow total and irrevocable freedom.

The media is a product of society. It takes our time and resources. Then it influences us deeply and powerfully. Next to our education systems, the media stands as one of societies most powerful influences. Today the divisions of the people are mostly a product of media influences. The truth is the farthest thing from the intentions of the media. The media that society produces has been taken over by people and corporations that are using it for their own agendas. Only the people make media possible, and the organizations of society, and society’s infrastructure, built and maintained by the people, are the property of the people. The fact that ownership of the media has been concentrated into the hands of some wealthy people and corporations should be stirring the wrath of the people. The liberty we think we have was stolen when the slave masters realized that the best slaves believe they are free.

The old monarchy-reliant segment of the people has not died out. There are still kings and queens, and there are still people who believe the people are not capable of governing themselves. There are others who are the envy of kings and queens. I refer to them as the “powerful and privileged few.” You know what I mean. There is a lot of talk about the one percent. I contend that it is those few who are actually wielding the power of the people.

We are not really selecting people to wield the power of the people. Voting doesn’t select the people who will wield the power. The vote is an illusion of selecting. Long ago the power was stolen, and it has since been held and protected. The only reason the vote is being allowed is to keep the people docile. We are being duped, coned, fooled, and used. When the people finally realize that voting is theatrics, a revolution will erupt. So, it is vital to the powerful privileged few that the charade continues.

I intend to make the case for my claim that the elections are just theatrics in another article. A blog will be available for you to make your objections, affirmations, points, and whatever else you might want to do short of being idiots who post rude and derisive stuff. In the meantime, try to imagine what the monster would do if we the people elected someone it doesn’t want in office. I don’t know if you can. You try, though.

You and I were born into this world not long ago. When we got here, we found what was left behind by those who came before us and what those already and still here have done. Humans have been very busy, and they have been busy for a very long time. You and I didn’t create what was already here. We inherited it. It has been a long and winding road for all of us to get to the understanding of what was already here. The road to the truth about what is going on now is even longer and more tortured. I don’t think it is possible to take that road to all the places it leads. All we can do now is try to protect ourselves. But how?

That will be the question examined on this site. It will have to include many areas of thought. We need to know everything and be right in all we take as fact. Since that is not likely, we will have to do the best we can and hope it is enough. I intend to write about as many topics as I can. I have been around a while and I have some things to add to the discussion. Let’s get started. The controversy must be settled. We don’t have to agree about everything. We only need to agree about some very important things. If we don’t hurry, it is likely to become irrelevant, for we may not live long enough for it to matter.

Conclusion

I think we must stop creating the immense power of the people. It is killing us all. I think we can do far more than is possible right now; that we can all have much better lives and greater abundance with far less effort; that we can have what is still beyond belief right now. The potential is just astonishing. Let’s realize the potential.